Harvard Professor and leading Astrophysicist, Avi Loeb joined the show from Cambridge, MA. In addition to being a Harvard Professor and Best-Selling Author, Dr. Loeb is leading The Galileo Project: In Search of Technological Interstellar Object, a $2.2 million dollar expedition to retrieve a possible Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon or UAP called Oumuamua that crashed near Papua New Guinea nearly a decade ago. Oumuamua could be a product of extraterrestrial technology. Dr. Loeb also writes about Artificial Intelligence (AI) Systems. His recent piece on Medium dives into future risks of AI and the legal ramifications of its use and place in society.
“Extraterrestrials could be out there and the only way to find out is by searching for their relics through our telescopes, is the approach taken by the Galileo Project.” – Dr. Loeb
Dr. Loeb, is director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Dr. Loeb answers the question of the day:
A conversation about the future risks and benefits of AI with Harvard Professor and leading Astrophysicist, Avi Loeb:
We call on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.
PUBLISHED
March 22, 2023
AI systems with human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity, as shown by extensive research[1]and acknowledged by top AI labs.[2]As stated in the widely-endorsedAsilomar AI Principles,Advanced AI could represent a profound change in the history of life on Earth, and should be planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources. Unfortunately, this level of planning and management is not happening, even though recent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict, or reliably control.
Contemporary AI systems are now becoming human-competitive at general tasks,[3]and we must ask ourselves:Shouldwe let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth? Shouldwe automate away all the jobs, including the fulfilling ones?Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us?Shouldwe risk loss of control of our civilization? Such decisions must not be delegated to unelected tech leaders. Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable.This confidence must be well justified and increase with the magnitude of a system’s potential effects. OpenAI’srecent statement regarding artificial general intelligence, states that“At some point, it may be important to get independent review before starting to train future systems, and for the most advanced efforts to agree to limit the rate of growth of compute used for creating new models.”We agree. That point is now.
Therefore,we call on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4. This pause should be public and verifiable, and include all key actors. If such a pause cannot be enacted quickly, governments should step in and institute a moratorium.
AI labs and independent experts should use this pause to jointly develop and implement a set of shared safety protocols for advanced AI design and development that are rigorously audited and overseen by independent outside experts. These protocols should ensure that systems adhering to them are safe beyond a reasonable doubt.[4]This doesnotmean a pause on AI development in general, merely a stepping back from the dangerous race to ever-larger unpredictable black-box models with emergent capabilities.
AI research and development should be refocused on making today’s powerful, state-of-the-art systems more accurate, safe, interpretable, transparent, robust, aligned, trustworthy, and loyal.
In parallel, AI developers must work with policymakers to dramatically accelerate development of robust AI governance systems. These should at a minimum include: new and capable regulatory authorities dedicated to AI; oversight and tracking of highly capable AI systems and large pools of computational capability; provenance and watermarking systems to help distinguish real from synthetic and to track model leaks; a robust auditing and certification ecosystem; liability for AI-caused harm; robust public funding for technical AI safety research; and well-resourced institutions for coping with the dramatic economic and political disruptions (especially to democracy) that AI will cause.
Humanity can enjoy a flourishing future with AI. Having succeeded in creating powerful AI systems, we can now enjoy an “AI summer” in which we reap the rewards, engineer these systems for the clear benefit of all, and give society a chance to adapt. Society has hit pause on other technologies with potentially catastrophic effects on society.[5] We can do so here. Let’s enjoy a long AI summer, not rush unprepared into a fall.
We have prepared some FAQs in response to questions and discussion in the media and elsewhere. You can find themhere.
📢 Eastern Market turns 150 in November and there’s a year-long celebration underway.
Eastern Market is the oldest continually operating public market in the nation. The celebrations kicked-off with Eastern Market Main Street’s transformation of the North Hall during cherry blossom season. Throughout the year the public will have more opportunities to celebrate the history of the Market, its future, and the role it plays in our community. This weekend is the last weekend for Blossoms at the Market — it’ll be open both Saturday and Sunday. Be sure to check it out. The 150th celebrations have more exciting events and opportunities coming soon.
Black West Point Cadet Brutally Beaten by White Students Days Before Graduation
In the early hours of the morning on April 5, 1880, Cadet Johnson Whittaker, one of the first Black students in the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, was brutally beaten by white cadets while sleeping in his barracks. Three white cadets ambushed Cadet Whittaker, slashed his head and ears, burned his Bible, threatened his life, and then left him in his underwear, tied to the bed and bleeding profusely.
Born enslaved in South Carolina in 1858, Cadet Whittaker received a congressional appointment to the U.S. Military Academy in 1876. For most of his time at West Point, Cadet Whittaker was the only Black cadet at the institution; he endured social exclusion and racial terrorism perpetrated at the hands of white cadets and faculty alike. Twenty-three Black cadets attended West Point between 1870 and 1890, but due to the violent discrimination that they faced, only three graduated. Cadet Whittaker would later testify that he had “read and heard about the treatment that [Black] cadets received there, and expected to be ostracized.”
After Cadet Whittaker reported to West Point administrators that he had been attacked, the institution opened an investigation into him and declined to hold his white attackers accountable. Administrators instead claimed that Cadet Whittaker had staged the attack to get out of his final exams, and in May, a West Point court of inquiry found Cadet Whittaker guilty of that charge. He was forced to take his final exams while incarcerated and withstand court-martial proceedings in New York City where the army prosecutor repeatedly referred to Black people as an “inferior race” known to “feign and sham.”
In January 1881, Brigadier General N.A. Miles affirmed Cadet Whittaker’s conviction and authorized him to be expelled from West Point, dishonorably discharged from the military, and held for continued imprisonment. Cadet Whittaker’s case was ultimately forwarded to President Chester A. Arthur for approval, and, a year later, President Arthur issued an executive order overturning the conviction based on a finding that military prosecutors had relied on improperly admitted evidence. By the time of President Arthur’s intervention, Cadet Whittaker had been incarcerated for nearly two years; even after his conviction was overturned, West Point reinstated Cadet Whittaker’s expulsion, claiming he had failed an exam.
Johnson Whittaker went on to work in several professional fields and raise a family, including several generations of descendants who served in the U.S. military. In 1995, more than 60 years after his death, Mr. Whittaker’s heirs accepted the commission he would have received upon graduating West Point. At the ceremony, President Bill Clinton remarked: “We cannot undo history. But today, finally, we can pay tribute to a great American and we can acknowledge a great injustice.”
To learn more the racial discrimination and violence Black service members and veterans have faced in the U.S. military, explore EJI’s report, Lynching in America: Targeting Black Veterans.
Portrait of Cadet Whittaker at the court-martial proceedings. (Library of Congress)
Reparations is the making of amends for what a wrong one has done, by paying money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged. The act of repairing something. Reparations for Slavery: The application of the concept of reparations to the victims of chattel slavery and their descendants.
When did you first realize that your life was marginalized? For me it began in September 1985 when I entered the school St. Pius X in Bowie, MD. At 8 just before my 9th birthday in the 4th grade my classmates would not pass me anything the teachers handed out to be passed out to the class. At recess I sat by myself receiving endless amounts of stares and fingers pointed my way. I couldn’t understand what I did to be treated this way except for the fact that I looked different. The difference being the kinkiness of my hair, the highly melanated skin I possessed and the NWDC dialect I spoke. This was my 1st experience of what hate felt like. This was just the beginning of 4 years of being called a Nigger and being told to go back to Africa almost every day. It really trips people up when I say I was witness to a cross being burned in a neighbor’s yard off Mitchellville Road. I never really understood why these individuals who looked differently from me were filled with so much hate and anger. At that age I didn’t understand the violent nature of chattel slavery or have the knowledge I have now of the truth about my ancestor’s enslavement.
Now in high school I’ve had the opportunity to do many projects and write plenty essays dealing with American history. I was intrigued by the actions of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Rosa Parks because that’s who we learned about during Black History Month every February. I did wonder who the other leaders for the plight of our culture were because how is their only 2. This curiosity had me pulling out our Britannica Encyclopedia sets and search for all the black people I could find. It was like my summer project every Summer. I read about Bob Marley which led me to learn about the Rastafarians. I learned about the Black Panther Party of Self Defense and the first mention of reparations. I was very intrigued by Huey Newton, Fred Hampton, Eldridge Cleaver, Assata Shakur, Bobby Seale and their willingness to uplift our community. Because I attended private school and lived in a nicer home with a pool in the back yard, I didn’t see the inequalities, inequities or being marginalized until I became homeless at 17 years old. Having to repeat a 2nd year of 12th grade I signed up to take the elective African American Studies at Largo High School. This is the course that helped shape the Freedom Fighter I am today. I learned about Kemet, more detailed facts about chattel slavery and the activist that fought hard for the little bit of freedoms we currently lived with. From 18 years old to now at 46 I’ve been requesting and demanding reparations.
In 2011 I began the journey via Ancestry.com to trace my roots. I come from a broken family, broken home, no relationship with either of my grandfathers, barely saw my Paternal Grandmother, I remember seeing my Maternal Grandmother once, saw my mother 2 times before I turned 18 and didn’t know much about anyone from her side of the family. It all came crashing down reading through the microfilm to see my ancestors amounted to an age, sex and skin tone- black or mulatto. I then began to ask myself why we have to pay for this service. This information was stolen from us by the individuals who stole, enslaved and imprisoned us. The demand for Reparations was spewing out at every turn. Still falling upon deaf ears.
In August 2019 The New York Times released a series of articles called the 1619 Project. It was intriguing to read about real stories of the past that have lead us to how we are living today. In 2020 after George Floyd and Breyanna Taylor were murdered I can feel a shift in the environment that I hoped would cause our residents to pause and really see what is going on here in America. We are still living marginalized, enslaved, not respected and suffering emotionally, mentally, educationally and financially from the effects of Chattel Slavery. Nikole Hannah Jones I thank you whole heartedly for the work you put in on this project full of factual stories of our people that has been washed away by our enslavers.
The case of Reparations:
Have you heard of Henrietta Wood? Henrietta Wood was born into slavery in Northern Tennessee approximately 1819. After 30 years of enslavement the wife of her enslaver Jane Cirode, registered Henrietta as a freed slave in 1848. After 9 years living free, the daughter and son in law of her former enslaver wanted to recapture her for profit. They hired Deputy Sheriff Zebulon Ward from Covington, Kentucky to kidnap Henrietta and sell her. Wood was captured by Ward conspiring with Wood’s employer to bring her on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River. Henrietta spent 1 year imprisoned at slave pen in Lexington, Kentucky. Due to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 Woods could not defend herself by trial or by testimony on her behalf. An innkeeper who felt empathy for Henrietta filed on her behalf. After 2 years her claim was unsuccessful due to her freedom paperwork being burned in a fire on Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1855 Woods was sold to the son of the former Governor of Mississippi Gerard Brandon.
Henrietta Wood, won the first reparations lawsuit.
When the Union Army Arrived to free the slaves after the Civil War, Brandon took his slaves to Texas to escape. Henrietta remained enslaved to Gerard until she signed an employment contract with the Brandon family in 1869. Not too long after Henrietta returned to Ohio with her son Arthur. In 1870 Henrietta began the process to sue the Brandon Wood family. After 8 years Wood vs Ward was litigated, and Wood was awarded $2,500 of the $20,000 restitution requested by her attorney Harvey Myers in 1879. This is the largest award given for slavery reparations. Henrietta moved to Chicago to be with her son Arthur Simms and used the restitution money to help afford his enrollment to Union College of Law, now Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. Arthur practiced law for approximately 62 years in Chicago.
Belinda | Slavery and Remembrance
Have you heard of Belinda (Royal) Sutton? I hadn’t either until the 1619 Project introduced me to her. Belinda Royal was born in Ghana, Africa in 1712. She recalls smelling spice and seeing mountains living a joyful life full of love with her parents prior to her captivity and enslavement. At 63 years old after being abandoned by her enslaver she filed a petition with the help of her attorney to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts requesting an income from the estate of her former enslaver in 1783. Her testimony describing the happy times with family back home in Africa contradicted the assumption that slaves were happy in their captivity. With that realization she won her claim and was awarded 15 pounds and 12 shillings annually ~$17.98. Through further research it was found that she had to fight continuously for that award to be honored and paid. After a decade of missed inconsistent payments and further petitions here is her petition in 1793:
The Petition of Belinda an Affrican, humbly shews: that seventy years have rolled away, since she on the banks of the Rio de Valta, received her existence – the mountains Covered with spicy forests, the valleys loaded with the richest fruits, spontaneously produced; joined to that happy temperature of air to exclude excess; would have yielded her the most compleat felicity, had not her mind received early impressions of the cruelty of men, whose faces were like the moon, and whose Bows and Arrows were like the thunder and lightning of the Clouds. – The idea of these, the most dreadful of all Enemeies, filled her infant slumbers with horror, and her noontide moments with evil apprehensions! – But her affrighted imagination, in its most alarming extension, never represented the distress equal to what she hath since really experienced – for before she had Twelve years enjoyed the fragrance of her native groves, and e’er she realized, that Europeans placed their happiness in the yellow dust which she carelessly marked with her infant footsteps. – even when she, in a sacred grove, with each hand in that of a tender Parent, was paying her devotions to the great Orisa who made all things – an armed band of white men, driving many of her Countrymen in Chains, ran into the hallowed shade! – could the Tears, the sighs and supplications, bursting from Tortured Parental affliction, have blunted the keen edge of Avarice, she might have been rescued from Agony, which many of her Country’s Children have felt, but which none hath ever described, – in vain she lifted her supplicating voice to an insulted father, and her guiltless hands to a dishonored Deity! She was ravished from the bosom of her Country, from the arms of her friends – while the advanced age of her Parents, rendering them unfit for servitude, cruelly separated her from them forever!
Scenes which her imagination never conceived of, – a floating World – the sporting Monsters of the deep – and the familiar meetings of the Billows and the clouds, stove, but in vain to divert her melancholly attention, from three hundred Affricans in chains, suffering the most excruciating torments; and some of them rejoicing, that the pangs of death came like a balm to their wounds. Once more her eyes were blest with a Continent – but alas! How unlike the Land where she received her being! Here all things appeared unpropitious – she learned to catch the Ideas, marked by the sounds of language only to know that her doom was Slavery, from which death alone was to emancipate her – What did it avail her, that the walls of her Lord were hung with Splendor, and that the dust troden underfoot in her native Country, crowded his Gates with sordid worshipers – the Laws had rendered her incapable of receiving property – and though she was a free moral agent, accountable for her own actions, yet she never had a moment at her own disposal!
Fifty years her faithful hands have been compelled to ignoble servitude for the benefit of an Isaac Royall, until!, as if Nations must be agitated, and the world convulsed for the preservation of the freedom which the Almighty Father intended for all the human Race, the present war was Commenced – The terror of men armed in the Cause of freedom, complelled her master to fly – and to breathe away his Life in a Land, where, Lawlless domination sits enthroned – pouring bloody outrage and cruelty on all who dare to be free.
The face of your Petitioner, is now marked with the furrows of time, and her frame bending under the oppression of years, while she, by the Laws of the Land, is denied the employment of one morsel of that immense wealth, apart whereof hath been accumilated by her own industry, and the whole ugmented by her servitude.
WHEREFORE, casting herself at your feet if your honours, as to a body of men, formed for the extirpation of vassalage, for the reward of Virtue, and the just return of honest industry – she prays, that such allowance may be made her out of the Estate of Colonel Royall, as will prevent her, and her more infirm daughter, from misery in the greatest extreme, and scatter comfort over the short and downward path of their lives.
Two parts of Belinda’s account need to be interpreted rather than read literally. First, she wrote that she was captured as a twelve-year-old girl by “an armed band of white men.” In fact, although Europeans sometimes kidnapped Africans on the coast, they were unable to go inland to capture slaves. It was African raiders and warriors from other areas that captured slaves and sold them to European slave traders on the coast in exchange for weapons, ammunition, rum (including New England and Medford rum), and other commodities. By substituting white men as her captors, Belinda (or Prince Hall, the abolitionist who is thought to have helped her) may have been arguing a case by placing moral responsibility where it ultimately belonged: on white Europeans and North Americans who initiated the Atlantic slave trade and profited most from it.
The second part of Belinda’s account of her childhood home that requires interpretation is her statement that she was captured in the sacred grove of “the great Orisa who made all things.” “Orisa” is the term for “deity” among Yoruba speakers far to the east, in present-day Nigeria. Although some Yoruba deities were adopted by people further west, including Ewe- speaking peoples, these people gave deities the name “vodun.” Other Ewe deities are known as “tro” or “trowo.” The term “orisa” did not travel with them, and is unknown in the Volta region. The origin of the name “orisa” is a mystery. It may be that either Belinda or Prince Hall knew people who had been taken from a Yoruba-speaking area. By describing a god “who made all things,” Belinda or Prince Hall may have wished to emphasize that Africans have civilizations and religious ideas that are worthy of white Christian Americans’ respect.
This petition to the court was a reminder to the Northern Colonies that slavery existed during the American Revolution. It challenged the stereotype of the submissive slave and represented a new strategy to end slavery.
Callie House was a leader of the National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty and Pension Association, one of the first organizations to campaign for reparations for slavery in the United States.
How about Callie House? I honor Callie House who was born a slave in Ruthersford County, in 1812. At 36 years old she founded the National Ex-Slave Mutual Bounty and Pension Association in 1897. She along with Isiah Dickerson traveled to former slave states to encourage joining the organization. With many participants throughout the states the organization was eager to petition Congress for a bill that would grant payments (reparations), mutual aid for burial expenses. Their grass roots advocacy grew a membership to the hundreds of thousands formerly enslaved residents all over the country. This growth was unwanted by the government, and they used 3 agencies to find a way to stop this movement. The Federal Bureau of Pensions, The Department of Justice and the Post Office Department worked together to spy on the organization looking for anything they could find to end this uprising. On September 1899, The Post Office Department issued a fraud order, without evidence, making it illegal to send mail, cash or money orders. Callie resisted by invoking the 1st, 14th and 15th amendment as well as hiring an attorney. Congress rejected the petition as if it were to not be taken seriously and postponed it indefinitely. House heard of the rejection and reminded the Commissioner that the Constitution granted residents the right to file grievances of redress.
When Dickerson passed in 1909 Callie became the leader of the MRB&PA and organizer. The restrictions from the Post Office Department placed constraints on the organization in the coming years. In 1915 House decided to take her petition to the courts. Johnson vs McAdoo was a class action lawsuit filed in US Federal Court requesting reparations for slavery in the amount of 68 million dollars. This amount was cotton tax money collected from 1862 to 1868 and held by the U.S. Treasury Department. A former slave H. N. Johnson led the charge as the Plaintiff against U.S. Secretary of the Treasury William G. McAdoo. The United States Supreme Court denied the claim agreeing with the decision of the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia. To date this was the 1st litigation hearing regarding reparations for American Chattel Slavery in US federal court documented.
Honoring a local champion in Maryland fighting to create a Reparations Commission is County Council Member Wanika B. Fisher esq. In 2020 Delegate Wanika Fisher along with 45 other Delegates sponsored House Bill 1201 the Harriet Tubman Community Investment Act to establish a Reparations Commission for African Descendants of Chattel Slavery in Maryland. The bill was referred to committee after 1st reading along with HB0121 the previous year. In 2022 Delegate Fisher along with 27 other Delegates sponsored House Bill 0594, this bill was also referred to committee after 1st reading. On Wednesday March 1st, 2023 House Bill 0875 sponsored by Delegates McCaskill, Ruth, Addison, Charkoudian, Crutchfield, Kaiser, Lopez, Phillips, and White will be presented at 1pm. House Bill 0409 sponsored by Delegate Acevero will also be heard. These bills, again, will establish a State of Maryland Reparations Commission. I will submit this as my testimony on my family’s behalf as a Descendant of Chattel Slavery in Maryland.
I am LaWann Stribling, born LaWann Pendleton to parents Warren Pendleton and Narvest Thomas Pendleton. I’ve been on an 11-year journey to trace my family heritage via Ancestry.com. Tracing my paternal side, I learn that my Grandmother Eleanora Pendleton Bailey, born in Washington DC, parents are Henry Pendleton born in Washington DC 1910 and Eleanor E. Taylor Pendleton born in New Jersey approximately 1910. My Great Grandfather Henry’s parents are James Pendleton born in Accomack County Virginia 1869 and Great Great Grandmother Ida Smallwood Pendleton born in Maryland 1885. Her parents my Great Great Great Grandparents Sarah Garner Smallwood born in Calvert Maryland 1867 and Henson Smallwood born in Maryland 1864. The 1870 census has Harris Lot Charles Maryland listed for the residence. By 1890 they were living in Petersville MD, moved to Washington DC in 1894 and back to Petersville MD in 1900. By 1937 they were living in Frederick MD. Henson’s parents Hanson Smallwood born 1839 and Eliza Sinkfield 1844, my Great Great Great Great Grandparents were born in Maryland. My ancestors were farm hands, laborers, oystermen and servants enslaved in Charles County MD, Petersville, Frederick MD, Accomack County, Va, Madison Orange, Va, North Carolina and Florida. We deserve everything our ancestors built. The ability to have this service free of charge to search for your ancestors should be included with reparations!
Searching through Slavery files in Maryland I find a relationship between 2 families that owned slaves who were also law makers. According to Branson Cook Geneology, “Robert Hanson and Bayne Smallwood were among the General Assembly delegates who considered Acts involving impositions on negroes, imported liquor and Irish servants. One of the goals was to see to it that a minimal number of Irish papists (Catholics) were allowed to live in Maryland. This illustrates that some of our forefathers were quite prejudice against certain races and religions, even though the Constitution, the Federalist Papers and other founding documents argued for equality of both. Of course, these Acts in Maryland were taking place about 30-35 years before the Revolutionary War, and the delegation was still loyal to the British Crown. It is also possible that they were simply following the desires of the British Crown and may not have believed in this sort of lawmaking. At least one thing is certain – general public opinion began to change before the ratification of the Constitution, with the exception of attitudes toward slaves. Slavery was still alive and well for more than a century after these Acts were considered. Census records in 1790 and 1800 show that both the Hansons and Smallwood’s had quite a few slaves. One such person, Hoskins Hanson, had 32 slaves recorded in the 1790 Charles County census. (Hoskins was the probable first cousin of Mary).
1790 CENSUS (semi-alphabetical)
Henry M Hanson Not Stated, Charles, MD 1790 (1-0-0) 7 slaves – Image 13
In closing it is my opinion that every Descendant of Chattel Slavery is owed reparations. Addressing the foundations of why I am still living paycheck to paycheck after over 30 years of being employed is essential for reparative justice. I come from generations of brokenness and found myself homeless and alone on my 17th birthday. I had my 1st child at 18 years old, raised him in a single parent household with no community or family support. He is 27 now and asked me why didn’t I set him up for his future? He is comparing his life to the lives of some of his peers who grew up in a nurturing, supportive and financially stable home environment. The effects of Chattel Slavery, Post Reconstruction, Jim Crow Laws, Redlining Communities, Marginalized Banking and Education and The War on Drugs have created generations of poverty, generational trauma, curses, ptsd and lost hope. Reparations will begin to repair the effects of over 400 years of unimaginable living conditions. Reparations would provide a way for families living in disenfranchised environments to afford a way to provide a better education, better living arrangements, better choices in food and health care as well as freedom in the class hungry society.
“Now the old men are folding their arms and going to sleep and the young men are Wide Awake.” – William H. Seward (1860)
The term “Woke” may be wearing new clothes and taking on different meanings today, depending on which side of the political isle you’re claiming, but being “Woke” or “Wide-Awake” isn’t a new term or ideology. As a matter of fact, “Woke” has traveled a long way to meet the social media degenerates, I mean, generation intent on spinning the term to fit whatever cultural and political warfare they’re fighting from their keyboards and computer screens.
Historian and Curator Jon Grinspan captured some of the early movements of the Wide-Awakes in his piece for the Journal of American History titled, “Young Men for War”: The Wide Awakes and Lincolns 1860 Presidential Campaign:
The Wide Awakes were against slavery when they marched with torches to galvanize Lincolns presidential campaign long before the Neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klansmen and other white supremacists marched through Charlottesville over 5 years ago bearing torches and terrorizing folks with chants of “Blood and soil” and “Jews will not replace us.”
Staying “Woke” has also been part of African American discourse, similar to how the Green Book was used as a guide for Black people to travel safely across America, the term was used to encourage vigilance against the onslaught of white oppression and domestic terrorism.
The Scottsboro Boys were nine African American young men accused of raping two white women aboard a southern railroad freight train in northern Alabama in 1931. The case, which lasted more than 80 years, helped to spur the Civil Rights Movement and helped to inspire several prominent activists and organizers, including being the inspiration behind To Kill a Mockingbird, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee.
The landmark legal cases begotten from the Scottsboro Boys incident didn’t just deal with racism but the right to a fair trial. If you’re “anti-Woke” like the Chloroformers, whose opposing aim was to put the Wide Awakens asleep, you should consider this piece of America history before you rally behind the likes of a misguided and ill-informed Florida governor intent on killing truth simply because it goes against the blatant lies that feed his hate for the awaken ones who refuse to be silenced in the face of oppression, gender dysphoria and, or white supremacy.
The Scottsboro Boys collectively served more than 100 years in prison. This historical fact cannot be taken lightly. Black folks in America must be Woke in order to survive the permeating racism and discrimination that maintains its choke-hold on our nation.
When Lead Belly sang about the incident in his song titled “Scottsboro Boys” he encouraged Black folks to “Stay Woke” in the aftermath of the injustice.
It’s never too late to become a proud member of the Wide Awake Club because all people deserve to feel good in the world.
Are you proficient in English? How confident are you with the stress patterns and pronunciation of words? If you are learning to speak American English, there are several rules of stress and intonation that will help you be better understood. If you have spoken American English since birth, you may not even be aware of these rules! Perhaps you can assist your team members (if they are asking for help) to pronounce these so they are better understood.
These practical tips can make a significant difference in communication. How do we say Proper Nouns?
First, let’s define proper nouns. They are nouns for specific names of people, places, monuments, teams, streets and roadways, magazines, holidays, etc. We capitalize the first letter of each word (unless it is a preposition or conjunction). For example, United States of America. If there is more than one word in the proper noun, we need to emphasize the correct part to be understood easily.
This is particularly noted when saying our names. Depending on our first language, we have a stress pattern and rhythm for first and last names. In American English, we stress the last part. If we use the stress pattern of our native language, people may have difficulty differentiating the first from the last name. Our name is our identity, and we want people to understand it and be able to use it.
My name is Lynda Katz Wilner. When I say it, I stress the last word, Wilner. I live in Baltimore, Maryland. I read the article in the Wall Street Journal.
What is the rule? We stress the last word of proper nouns with a HIGHER PITCH, LOUDER VOLUME, and LONGER VOWEL. For example, Johns Hopkins, Baltimore Ravens, The New York Times, Washington Monument, New Jersey Turnpike, Easter Sunday, to name a few.
I’ll highlight more rules in future Tuesday Tips emails.
Check out the online training platform “Master the American Accent” and to watch video tutorials, receive tip sheets and learn more practical rules click HERE.
Reach out to me about accents, public speaking, or communication skills at LKWilner@Successfully-Speaking.com.
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Contact us to discuss bringing a training session to your team.
This Saturday we heard from Professor Joseph Mbele on the recent uptick in Black folks returning to Africa. He discussed the benefits and the delusions of African Americans seeking autonomy and happiness in the Motherland.
Prof. Mbele teaches at St. Olaf, specializing in folklore and the connection between folklore and literature. He has done folklore fieldwork in Kenya, Tanzania, and the USA, and given lectures and conference papers on folklore in Canada, Finland, India, Israel, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and USA. After earning a Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin and before coming to St. Olaf in 1990 to teach post-colonial and third-world literature, he taught in the Literature Department of the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Over the years, he has taught courses such as Swahili Literature, Theory of Literature, African Literature, Sociology of Literature, Post-Colonial and Third World Literature, The Epic, and African-American Literature.
Barbados Prime Minister, The Honorable Mia Amor Mottley To Deliver Major Address On Reparations
Don Rojas, Director of Communications and International Relations for the Institute of the Black World 21stCentury (IBW) received confirmation today that the Honorable Mia Amor Mottley has confirmed to attendState of the Black World Conference Vas a Special Guest to deliver a Keynote Address on reparations. She will join His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of Ghana in addressing the Conference which is organized around the theme:Global Africans Rising, Empowerment Reparations and Healing.
Prime Minister Mottley has emerged as a major figure in the Caribbean advocating for stronger ties with the African Union and a global emphasis on reparatory justice with Africa playing a more active role. She has called for a global summit on reparations in collaboration with the CARICOM Reparations Commission, the African Union, National African American Reparations Commission and reparations commissions from various regions of the Global Black Diaspora.
“We are honored and delighted that Prime Minister Mia Mottley has accepted our invitation to play a major role in State of the Black World Conference V,” Dr. Ron Daniels, President of IBW stated. “She has shown an eagerness to work with President Addo of Ghana in expanding and strengthening the global reparations movement. Once Vice-President Francia Marquez from Colombia confirms, we will have a formidable trio of leaders embracing the cause of reparatory justice as the ‘human rights issue of the 21stCentury’ as proclaimed by Professor Hilary Beckles.”
Mia Mottley will be presented the IBW Legacy Award at the Global Women’s Leadership Summit at the Conference for her historic role as the first woman Prime Minister of Barbados. Firsts are no stranger to this woman of distinction as noted in her bio. “Mia Amor Mottley has lived a public life of firsts – first female leader of the Barbados Labour Party and the Opposition; first female Attorney General, a post she held for five years; and youngest ever Queen’s Counsel in Barbados. On 25 May 2018, Mottley became the eighth Prime Minister of Barbados and the first woman to hold the post.
According to The New York Times, The Guggenheim recently recruited the first Black deputy director and head curator in the museum’s 60-year history. The first Black woman to hold the position, Naomi Beckwith was recently chosen deputy director and top curator at the storied Guggenheim Museum.
Beckwith began her career as an associate curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem and earned a master’s degree from the esteemed Courtauld Institute of Art in London. She has held curatorial positions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago since 2011, and in 2018 she was promoted to senior curator. Beckwith will now take Nancy Spector’s place as the Guggenheim’s new director and curator.
Beckwith’s former work includes multidisciplinary offerings exploring issues of identify and innovative exhibitions showcasing the work of avant-garde artist Howardena Pindell, in “The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now” and “Homebodies.” She also worked to spearhead a project with British-Nigerian sculptor Yinka Shonibare, exploring race, colonialism and cultural identity.
