#BlackMastodon#BlackTwitter#Abolition@blackmastodon I didn’t throw up a post last week because I didn’t want it to be lost among the clown show theatrics. This week’s thread is a little different but definitely on point and related. Many POCs born and raised here in the US don’t normally pay a great deal of attention to what is happening to our people in other parts of the world (my apologies if you do, I am not talking about YOU), unless we have family there. 1/8
#BlackMastodon#BlackTwitter#Abolition@blackmastodon When things are bad here (OK, when are they not bad?) we can feel isolated and unsupported. But it may help you to know there are international treaties and bodies at the United Nations that specifically deal with our situation here. I mentioned one previously, CERD, when I was talking about the violent and corrupt police chief in Chicago named, John Burge. 2/8
#BlackMastodon#BlackTwitter#Abolition@blackmastodon CERD stands for the Convention for the Elimination All Forms of Racial Discrimination. It was the CERD review committee that demanded the US do something about Burge and the racist and violent Chicago police. That was why Burge finally got prosecuted. The UN directed the Justice Department to report back on what they were doing about him. The UN also has a treaty on discrimination. against women, CEDAW. 3/8
#BlackMastodon#BlackTwitter#Abolition@blackmastodon Today I attended a meeting entitled “ Rebuilding A Pan African Global Policy Agenda” sponsored by AdNA (Advocacy Network for Africa) where the first part of findings and conclusions from of Forums’ meetings were discussed. There will be two more sessions, one in October and one in November. Many of the issues I discuss in the abolition thread were discussed as part of the Forum’s preliminary research. 5/8
#BlackMastodon#BlackTwitter#Abolition@blackmastodon The speakers stressed that these are truly global issues caused by colonialism and predatory capitalistic systems. We are not in this fight by ourselves although it may seem so at times. Here’s the link for AdNA is you want to check out their work or learn how you can become part of a Pan African movement. https://adnaubuntu.com/ On Guyana :https://adnaubuntu.com/ 7/8
#BlackMastodon#BlackTwitter#Abolition@blackmastodon State terror against People of African descent, lack of resources devoted to health and safety of our communities, reparations and the GLOBAL movement supporting them. You may have seen recently Guyana, and Barbados said they were due reparations. And the situation of Haiti was discussed in the context of reparations. The need for mental health services to address generational trauma was also raised. 6/8
@FinalOverdrive@StillIRise1963 Definitely could have taken a different turn, but if you follow the legal history, at every step where choices were debated, the choice was always consciously made to oppress. After a tragic racist event in modern times you hear legislators and other politicians say "this is not who we are. We have to do better." But, it is absolutely who we are. That's why the radical right doesn't want history taught. They don't want you to know who you are.
@Balkingpoints It is not a bad take at all. It's exactly what we see across many communities throughout the country. This plays out in school cases everywhere, especially in places like NYC where openly liberal white parents wring their hands about sending their kids to public schools with predominately black kids. Its not about what liberals say they support. It's about what privileges are they willing to give up. And we've learned they won't give up almost anything.
#Abolition#BlackMastodon#BlackTwitter#AI@BlackMastodon Much like some of the BIG institutional problems, dealing with racism in AI, algorithms machine based decision making systems or whatever else you want to call it, takes skilled warriors. Thankfully we have some warriors out there fighting to make sure the development of technology aids all of us, reflects all of us and doesn’t exacerbate systems of oppression already in place. So, here’s a few people to look for: 1/8
@BlackMastodon#Abolition#BlackMastodon#BlackTwitter#AI@BlackMastodon We can start with a super warrior who is right here on Mastodon. That would be @timnitGebru. She’s the woman Google hired to make sure their AI development was ethical and not racist. When she told them it was, they fired her. So typical. Our gain though. She founded Distributed AI Research Institute, Check out their website and make sure you actually click on the tabs for research and papers. https://www.dair-institute.org/ 2/8
@BlackMastodon#Abolition#BlackMastodon#BlackTwitter#AI@BlackMastodon And then there’s Prof. Safiya Umoja Noble author of ALGORITHMS OF OPPRESION. She’s the one who discovered Google’s software pulled up derogatory and sexualized images when you searched for “black women.” Prof. Noble runs the UCLA Center on Race & Digital Justice https://digitaljustice.ucla.edu/ From my own searches I know that using “professional women” on Google only used to return images of white women. 4/8