Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Lord Of The Flies With Withered Arm Companionship Essay Example For Students

Master Of The Flies With Withered Arm Companionship Essay I have picked The Lord of the Flies and The Withered Arm since they are comparable despite the fact that they were written in various timeframes. Master of the Flies was written in the twentieth century and the Withered arm was written in the nineteenth century. Ruler of the flies by William Golding The title connotes Death, demon (Beelzebub). The Withered arm by Thomas Hardy The title implies rot or decay. Settings:The wilted arm is set in the nineteenth century on a homestead. This is in Anglebury .The story starts of on Mr Lodges ranch and completes on the homestead. Gertrude stop lives in a mud constructed house. The master of the flies is determined to an invented remote island in the twentieth century. The story starts of in the wilderness. They later move onto the sea shores. They at that point move to different areas on the island, for example, the stronghold and the mountain. Contrasts and likenesses between settingsBoth of the settings are detached. Ruler of the Flies, is on an island so they cannot get off yet in the Withered Arm there isn't a lot of transport so any place you went you would need to walk or get a pony. The settings are distinctive in light of the fact that they are set in various periods. Themes:Lord of the flies:Good and malevolent, great and malice is a genuinely enormous subject in the story. Right off the bat in the novel great is spoken to by the conch this is an image of tolerability and request. The two clans Represent great and abhorrence in the most ideal manner. Be that as it may, there are different things, for example, the mammoth and the boat. The brute terrifies them since they think it is an insidious sign. The boat is a decent sign however they don't figure out how to wave to it, since Jack had not cared for the fire. This springs a nearly quality of disdain among Ralph and Jack. Lawfulness, assumes a major job in the story. It becomes possibly the most important factor at the earliest reference point with the conch. Ralph and Piggy discover the shell and Ralph blows it, this draws all the kids onto the beech. The conch later turns into a component of lawfulness, in light of the fact that the young men are possibly out loud to talk during gatherings on the off chance that they have the conch. Dread, dread is most likely the greatest subject in the story there is a major rundown of components of dread, for example, the dread of the monster, the disconnection of the island, the war outside of the island, the dread of not being safeguarded, the dread of Jacks gathering (savages) and the dread of dread itself. The Withered arm:The wilted arm has similar topics of the master of the flies Good and shrewdness, this is represented when Gertrude hold up goes up to Rhoda creek and says about her awful arm. This is related to when Rhoda has a fantasy about Gertrude and her having a terrible arm. Request, request has a significant impact in The Withered Arm, there is structure between the social classes. Rancher cabin won't recognize anybody he sees out and about or wherever else. He shows this when the kid is strolling past the carriage of Farmer Lodge. Characters:Lord of the Flies:Ralph, he is depicted as a normal British kid, he has driven a real existence that shows an ideal British childhood. Ralphs father is an officer in the Royal Navy. This may underwrite his picture of peace when he is casted a ballot head. Ralph exhibits a peaceful power which the young men acknowledge and favor contrasted with jacks progressively brutal and forceful methodology. .u35ce987109ea39c28dbe2767ba8461c5 , .u35ce987109ea39c28dbe2767ba8461c5 .postImageUrl , .u35ce987109ea39c28dbe2767ba8461c5 .focused content region { min-stature: 80px; position: relative; } .u35ce987109ea39c28dbe2767ba8461c5 , .u35ce987109ea39c28dbe2767ba8461c5:hover , .u35ce987109ea39c28dbe2767ba8461c5:visited , .u35ce987109ea39c28dbe2767ba8461c5:active { border:0!important; } .u35ce987109ea39c28dbe2767ba8461c5 .clearfix:after { content: ; show: table; clear: both; } .u35ce987109ea39c28dbe2767ba8461c5 { show: square; change: foundation shading 250ms; webkit-progress: foundation shading 250ms; width: 100%; murkiness: 1; progress: haziness 250ms; webkit-progress: obscurity 250ms; foundation shading: #95A5A6; } .u35ce987109ea39c28dbe2767ba8461c5:active , .u35ce987109ea39c28dbe2767ba8461c5:hover { darkness: 1; progress: mistiness 250ms; webkit-change: darkness 250ms; foundation shading: #2C3E50; } .u35ce987109ea39c28dbe2767ba8461c5 .focused content zone { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u35ce987109ea39c28dbe2767ba8461c5 .ctaText { outskirt base: 0 strong #fff; shading: #2980B9; text dimension: 16px; textual style weight: striking; edge: 0; cushioning: 0; text-beautification: underline; } .u35ce987109ea39c28dbe2767ba8461c5 .postTitle { shading: #FFFFFF; text dimension: 16px; textual style weight: 600; edge: 0; cushioning: 0; width: 100%; } .u35ce987109ea39c28dbe2767ba8461c5 .ctaButton { foundation shading: #7F8C8D!important; shading: #2980B9; fringe: none; fringe span: 3px; box-shadow: none; text dimension: 14px; text style weight: intense; line-tallness: 26px; moz-fringe range: 3px; text-adjust: focus; text-embellishment: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-stature: 80px; foundation: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/modules/intelly-related-posts/resources/pictures/basic arrow.png)no-rehash; position: supreme; right: 0; top: 0; } .u35ce987109ea39c28dbe2767ba8461c5:hover .ctaButton { foundation shading: #34495E!important; } .u35ce987109ea39c28dbe276 7ba8461c5 .focused content { show: table; stature: 80px; cushioning left: 18px; top: 0; } .u35ce987109ea39c28dbe2767ba8461c5-content { show: table-cell; edge: 0; cushioning: 0; cushioning right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-adjust: center; width: 100%; } .u35ce987109ea39c28dbe2767ba8461c5:after { content: ; show: square; clear: both; } READ: The History of White-Tailed Deer in Kentucky EssayHe is handy, solid disapproved, athletic, kind and a working class kid. Piggy, his ugly appearance and remoteness from the gathering keep him from making an inclusion to life on the island. He is the most smart kid on the island. He groans a great deal and is put to physical work by different young men. He is Intelligent, asthmatic, overweight and his dad is dead. Jack Merridew, Jack is the character in the story that you should scorn. He puts together his remain with respect to him being pioneer by, I can sing C sharp. His key contribution to the endurance of the young men is the way that he drives the savages (trackers) They give the meat by following the pigs. The entire experience of the island to Jack, is one major game. He is pioneer of the ensemble, red hair, forceful and predominant, presumptuous, desirous, head of savages. Simon, he is portrayed on a few events as entertaining, strange, wacky and saltines He is fearless on the grounds that he ascended the mountain to confront the brute. He has an alternate understanding to all the going ons around the island. Simon is the main kid who attempts to clarify the thought of wickedness. He is fearless, bashful, kind, astute, delicate, bizarre, canny and attentive. Sam and Eric, these are twins that are known as one individual Sam n Eric. In the same way as other twins, they have their own private language and finish every others sentences. Sam additionally raises another subject of, good and abhorrence he says I got stirred up with myself meaning he had great and underhandedness battling inside him. They go about as one personThe kid with the skin coloration, all through the novel, the minor characters stay obscure, yet this minor character is intentionally given a physical trademark, which makes him important. Thusly, when he is absent after the fire clearly he has vanished and the young men are made unequivocally mindful of the outcomes of their activities. He has a conscious physical component so he can be recalled. The parachutist, having requested a sign from the outside world, the dead pilot is the thing that they get. They consider him to be a portrayal of death, rot and decay. He is the young men most noticeably terrible dread as the monster. The Withered arm:Rhoda Brooke, she lives in a bungalow with mud dividers, she is common laborers. She deals with Mr Lodges ranch as a milkmaid. Rhoda has a child whose name isn't given in the story. Rhoda is extremely calm and hushes up about herself. She had an affection illicit relationship with Mr Lodge yet it is finished and, nobody knows. Gertrude hold up, Gertrude is Mr Lodges new woman, she is extremely beautiful Her face excessively new in shading, however it was of very surprising quality delicate and transient, similar to the light under a pile of flower petals She is youthful her hair is lightish, and her face as attractive as a live dolls. Rancher Lodge, Farmer Lodge is the farther of Rhodas child. He possesses the homestead that Rhoda works onBoy is the child of Rhoda he adores his mum and would do anything for her. Rhoda sends her child out to keep an eye on Farmer Lodges new woman (Gertrude).

Saturday, August 22, 2020

Naxal Movement Free Essays

string(163) over how an equipped battle ought to be progressed and this prompted the avoidance of an area of activists from Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, drove separately by T. SEPTEMBER 2008 IPCS Research Papers Naxal Movement in India: A Profile Rajat Kujur Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies 1 New Delhi, INDIA  © 2008, Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS) The Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies isn't answerable for the realities, perspectives or supposition communicated by the creator. The Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS), set up in August 1996, is an autonomous research organization dedicated to explore on harmony and security from a South Asian point of view. Its point is to build up a thorough and elective system for harmony and security in the area taking into account the changing requests of national, provincial and worldwide security. We will compose a custom paper test on Naxal Movement or on the other hand any comparative theme just for you Request Now Address: B 7/3 Lower Ground Floor Safdarjung Enclave New Delhi 110029 INDIA Tel: 91-11-4100 1900, 4165 2556, 4165 2557, 4165 2558, 4165 2559 Fax: (91-11) 4165 2560 Email: officemail@ipcs. organization Web: www. ipcs. organization CONTENTS Executive Summary†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. A Short History †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 2 Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 6 People’s War Group (PW G)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 7 Maoist Communist Center (MCC) Communist Party of India (Maoist) †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 11 About the Author †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 4 Recent IPCS Publications †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 14 Executive Summary In request to comprehend the present period of Naxalism, we have to comprehend various parts of hierarchical change that have happened inside the Naxal development, since the beginning and current period of the development is an impression of coherence and change. To comprehend its congruity throughout the decade, one needs to comprehend its elements of progress, similarly as to comprehend the changing idea of the Naxal development, one needs to comprehend the components answerable for its coherence. Furthermore, this restores the dynamic character of the development. The trademark highlight of the Naxal development is its disordered character which prompted some fascinating details, very remarkable throughout the entire existence of Movement Organizations (MO)1. The divided character of the development offered ascend to a plenty of potential patterns and groupings and in this way, prepared for new roads of hierarchical clash. Because of its divided character, the development Historically socio-political developments whether fanatic, progressive or quiet, work through associations which are known as Movement Organizations. The development associations are generally portrayed as inexactly organized, decentralized and inclined to political difficulties and counter social practices. 1 saw the rebound of numerous past pioneers and units from blankness. This part of Naxal hierarchical governmental issues is imperative to comprehend, as it empowered the reappearance of an entire scope of inquiries that were accepted to have been settled unequivocally. A Short History To comprehend the beginning of the Naxal development, one needs to find it inside the structure of the Communist development in India. To be progressively explicit, any investigation on the Naxal development can't disregard the significance of the ascent and fall of the Telangana Movement (1946-51), since Telangana will consistently remain the sublime section throughout the entire existence of worker battles for Indian socialists. Truth be told, it was the principal genuine exertion by areas of the socialist party authority to gain from the encounters of the Chinese upset and to build up a far reaching line for India’s popularity based unrest. Then again, the involvement with Telangana additionally encouraged the development of three particular lines inside the Indian socialist development. The line advanced by Ranadive and his adherents, dismissed the criticalness of the Chinese upset, and pushed the concurrent achievement of the vote based and the communist transformations, in light of city-based average workers revolts. The gathering drew motivation from Stalin and wildly assaulted Mao as another Tito. The subsequent line for the most part proclaimed and engendered by the Andhra Secretariat, drew intensely on the Chinese encounters and the lessons of Mao, in working up the battle of Telangana. The Andhra authority, while effectively figuring out how to initiate the development against the Nizam, neglected to handle the perplexing inquiry of meeting the test of the Government of India. The Nehru government set out headed straight toward parliamentary majority rules system, molding it with changes like the ‘abolition of the Zamindari system’. All these target conditions encouraged the strength of an anti-extremist line, set forward by Ajay Ghosh and Dange. This line distinctively called attention to the contrasts between Chinese 2 and Indian conditions and pushed the gathering along the way to parliamentary majority rules system. In 1957, the Communists prevailing with regards to shaping a legislature in Kerala, which be that as it may, was soon ousted. Furthermore, following the India-China war, the gathering split into two during 1964 †Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI [M]). While the CPI lectured the hypothesis of ‘peaceful street to non-industrialist development’, the CPI (M) received the moderate line. Despite the fact that there were not kidding contrasts on ideological and strategic grounds, both the gatherings proceeded with their parliamentary activities and shaped the United Front government in West Bengal. In the setting of such hierarchical changes inside the Indian Communist development, an occurrence in a remote region changed the historical backdrop of left-wing fanaticism in India. In a remote town called Naxalbari in West Bengal, an innate youth named Bimal Kissan, having acquired a legal request, went to furrow his property on 2 March 1967. The neighborhood proprietors assaulted him with the assistance of their goons. Innate individuals of the zone fought back and began compellingly recovering their territories. What followed was a defiance, which left one police sub monitor and nine tribals dead. Inside a limited ability to focus around two months, this episode procured extraordinary perceivability and huge help from cross segments of Communist progressives having a place with the state units of the CPI (M) in West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. In spite of the fact that the United Front Government of West Bengal, headed by the CPI (M) had the option to contain the resistance inside 72 days sing every single harsh measure conceivable, these units had a conventional gathering in November 1967, because of which the All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (AICCCR) was shaped in May 1968. ‘Allegiance to the furnished battle and non-investment in the elections’ were the two cardinal rules that the AICCR embraced for its tasks. Be that as it may, contrasts sprung up over how an outfitted battle oug ht to be progressed and this prompted the rejection of a segment of activists from Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, drove separately by T. You read Naxal Movement in classification Papers Nagi Reddy and Kanhai Chatterjee. On the subject of the ‘annihilation of the class enemy’, the Kanhai Chatterjee bunch had genuine complaints, as they were of the view that the destruction of the class adversary should just be embraced in the wake of working up mass fomentations. Notwithstanding, a dominant part in the AICCCR dismissed this and the AICCCR proceeded with the arrangement of the Communist Party of India (MarxistLeninist) in May 1969. This drove Chatterjee to join the Maoist Communist Center (MCC). The CPI (M-L) held its first congress in 1970 in Kolkata and Charu Mazumdar was officially chosen its general secretary. From that point forward, both the CPI (M-L) and the MCC proceeded with their individual types of outfitted battle for the following couple of years. During this period, Charu Majumdar turned into the undisputed Naxalite master and with the authoritative aptitudes of Kanu Sanyal and Jaghal Santhal, the development spread to various corners of the nation. The nation saw the happiness of a Maoist upset. Notwithstanding, it was unquestionably more shortlived than anticipated. What was commonly seen by Indian just as Chinese Communist progressives as the last establishment of the upheaval, in all actuality, end up being close to a dress practice. As many CPI (ML) units lost their lives, and thousands were put in jail, the development saw disarray, parts and crumbling. Charu Majumdar’s overwhelming picture additionally had its negative effect, for after his passing in 1972, th

Sunday, August 2, 2020

DATA FOR BLACK LIVES

DATA FOR BLACK LIVES THE DATA FOR BLACK LIVES MANIFESTO: woke up this morning, layered on two sweaters and a jacket, and went across the street to the media lab, where the DATA FOR BLACK LIVES conference is happening all weekend. check out the livestream at  https://www.facebook.com/data4blacklives * * * im sad i wont be able to attend most of the panels. but i made it to the opening panel. here are some very incomplete notes i jotted down about what everyone said KAMALA HARRIS,  my senator from california, recorded a video message to kick off the morning. she talked about the the power of technology and data science to bring change to the criminal justice system. CATHY ONEIL, author of Weapons of Math Destruction, talked about how algorithms and data are never neutral; they reflect decisions made by people in power about what and how information should be used. she cites examples of data bias in predictive policing  and criminal risk assessment. theres a critical need for ethics and accountability in data science, and a bill of rights for data so that everyday citizens can understand how their data is being used. MALIKA SAADA SAAR, googles senior counsel on civil and human rights, spoke about the power of documentation. smartphones, cameras, microphones, VR, give us new ways to bear witness to human rights abuses and give voice to people who have historically been marginalized. smartphones and social media were critical for the BlackLivesMatter movement, by making police brutality visible and visceral. human rights abuses happen in silence; technology can help us break that silence. DR. ATYIA MARTIN, chief resilience officer for the city of boston, talked about her work on bostons first ever resilience strategy. she also talked about how racism is complex and systematic; its not a binary of racists and nonracists. its a system thats collectively, regularly reinforced, and that we all participate in. that broader context is important where do data and technology fit into that system? how can we use data and technology to change it? If were not managing our bias, then our bias is managing us. PURVI SHAH  talked about her work co-founding the LAW FOR BLACK LIVES  network. Law, like data, is often framed as neutral, objective, emotionless, and this means that it makes systems of discrimination seem normal and fair. she talked about how she went to law school expecting to learn about justice, and found instead that our legal system was rife with legalized oppression. she cites the case of johnson v. mintosh, which involved white people laying claim to native land, and which became the foundation for all modern property law. she also talked about her experience in the BlackLivesMatter movement; how the media portrayed protestors as thugs and looters, but what she saw were teachers, families, disabled people, babies. she talked about getting teargassed. and she talked about how hundreds of people needed lawyers, but there was a deficit of lawyers willing to represent these so-called thugs and looters. that led to the creation of LAW FOR BLACK LIVES, centered on the concept of MOVEMENT LAWYERING. movement lawyering holds that law is not neutral; that law must primarily be a tool for empowering people. movement lawyering also means starting with partnership and trust. there are no rogue agents; there are no savior complexes. decenter yourselves and center Black leadership. in that spirit, she asks us to consider what might MOVEMENT DATA SCIENCE look like? THE DATA FOR BLACK LIVES MANIFESTO: DATA AS PROTEST There were 144 protests in 26 cities across the country on the day the cop who killed Eric Garner got away with murder.  For those of us who protested in Miami, we did not know Eric Garner personally, but that did not matter. What brought us together was the common experience of grief that came with the loss of an innocent life, particularly when the theft of that life was authorized by the law. We did not know Oscar Grant, or Sandra Bland, or Mike Brown. But we knew our ownevery single one of us who took over the I-95 highway had attended funerals, comforted grieving family members, and cried for those who were slain. All of us knew what it meant to live with our backs against the wall. All of us had worn black before we held the Black Lives Matter signs. The danger and the urgency of being on the highway was not new to us. Three years earlier, we drove 7 hours to the Florida state capitol the day after Trayvon Martins murderer was acquitted. Within days, young people mobilized by the hundreds from all over the US to join us as we occupied governor Rick Scotts office. Many were barely over the age of 18. We slept on the cold marble floor of the state capitol, surrounded by federal agents and undercover law enforcement. We missed class and were fired from our jobs because we could not leave. To go home meant to face a new reality, one that we were unwilling to accept with a single verdict it had now become legal in Florida to kill a Black child. For the silenced, the internet is a megaphone. For the powerless, technology is power. A movement was growing all over the country, and the internet became the rallying point a place where we could leave our individual silent struggles and take part in something greater. Where we were no longer afraid. Social media became press, and a forum for the voiceless. It became a street corner on which to congregate, free of police cars. But it was also a dining room table, a living room sofa where we could cry, mourn and strategize. Where laughter could birth resilience. It became a way for people who once felt isolated in their experiences to find connection and collective purpose. In his seminal speech, The Other America, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. defines riot as the language of the unheard. He urges people to condemn the conditions that create riots as forcefully as they condemn the riots. He asks, What has America failed to hear today? Riots were necessary to change the status quo, to expose and disrupt a system where racism was not only encouraged, but in which the dispossession of entire peoples was seen as necessary to maintaining the American way of life. We are once again living in an era of the unhread. The police dogs and fire hoses of our foreparents were replaced with crack cocaine, police brutality, and a new system of social control ossified in the legal apparatus known as the criminal justice system. Today, oppression takes on new and different forms. Risk assessment algorithms with the veneer of objectivity reinforce historical oppression in the courtroom. New forms of redlining, enabled by big data and machine learning, have taken root in Black communities across the country. And with detailed polling data, state legislatures have disenfranchised millions of Black voters through gerrymandering and targeted voter suppression. New forms of racism demand new forms of activism and resistance. We took to the streets because all other channels of communication were gridlocked. We blocked the busiest highway on the East Coast because like moving traffic the onslaught of policies, practices and systems that had become the bedrock of our society could only be disrupted by protest. We protested because like the ones that came before us, and the ones who came before them, we were unwavering in the principle that our lives were worth fighting for. Data, like protest, is a form of advocacy when all other channels are blocked. No one marches against moving traffic unless the highways are safer than their own homes. No one puts their bodies on the line unless their voices alone are not enough. But some narratives created by data can only be disrupted by data. And when the stories and experiences of individuals fall on deaf ears, there is power in a number. DATA AS ACCOUNTABILITY Since the advent of computing, data systems have penetrated virtually every aspect of our social and economic lives. These new data regimes have the power to fight bias and racism, but as we are witnessing, this potential is limited by the choices and assumptions of human beings. If we are not careful, the anti-Black racism we seek to resist will become further embedded into the systems that govern our society. Algorithmic racism is not new; its logic is inherent in our countrys founding. In 1787, the frameres of the constitution reached an agreement now known as the three-fifths compromise. In a single phrase three fifths of all other persons the degradation of Black livelihood in America was encoded in mathematical terms. But 3/5 was not just a fraction, but a coefficient in an algorithm known as the electoral college, a process devised to elect representation that has persisted to this day. This was not a compromise between Black Americans and white Americans but a compromise between Northern whites, who coveted political dominance, and Southern whites, who sought to inflate the population of slaveholding states to increase their political influence as slavery made them rich. As an algorithmic process, the electoral college did not define success as democratic representation (one person, one vote as we define it today). Within this perverse logic, Black people were relegated to property rather than personhood, fully present in the everyday violence and humiliation that was chattel slavery, but denied any semblance of citizenship. With the electoral college, the only way slavery could have been abolished in the early days of the union was if Black people were counted as zero, giving more power to whites in the North to whom slavery was more of an economic threat than a moral calamity. What was incentivized in this algorithm is a reality we have yet to confront the brutal, enduring and deeply ingrained impulse to deny Black peoples political power at all costs. The basic algorithm that resulted in the election of Thomas Jefferson as the first President-elect of the United States and ensured that a Southern slave owner won 12 of the first 16 elections, is an early iteration of the same electoral college algorithm that has upheld anti-Black racism in the highest office of this country today. Two hundred and thirty years later, the moral depravity that was sent into motion by this algorithm has succeeded. Two hundred and thirty years later, this algorithm is still working. It is with this history in mind that we hold these truths to be self-evident, that the future of this nation depends on our collective ability to denounce the brutal logic on which our country was formed. Our call to action is simple: we must apply the same critical lens to the algorithms and technologies of the present that we apply in retrospect to the past. For we know that this oppressive mathematics has not disappeared, but as evolved and transmuted over time, resurfacing under the guise of progress. At this very moment, police departments across the country are using sophisticated predictive algorithms to target and intimidate entire communities of people. Acclaimed as groundbreaking advances in scientific policing, these technologies continue the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow, reinforcing the inherent impulse of racism to deny Black people the freedom of citizenship and personhood. These technologies do not work in isolation In the 2016 election, 2.2 million Black people were denied their fundamental right of citizenship, stripped of the right to vote because of prior criminal convictions and denied a voice in the decisions that impact their lives. This is the modern legacy of slavery and the mathematical racism that was the three-fifths compromise. But we dream of a new world. One where data and analytics are used in novel ways to build progressive movements and promote civic engagement. A world where the reclamation of the very methods that have been weaponized against Black communities will be used to reject and overcome unconscious bias in decision-making and to detect and expose racism in housing, education, and public health. We conceive of a world where the data and modeling that led to decades of redlining and housing discrimination are used to build wealth in Black communities. Where the troves of election data that has been used to disenfranchise Black voters are leveraged instead to modernize voter registration and ensure that every single eligible Black voter makes it to the polls. Our panelists and presenters have used data and technology in innovative ways to mobilize formerly incarcerated people in Louisiana, the state with the highest rate of incarceration in the country and therefore in the world. They have developed new mathematical models of reverse racist gerrymandering practices. They have fought racism and bias in machine learning and artificial intelligence. Our panelists have courageously advocated for a new future for Black creative production, one where Black artists and entertainers own their work as well as the immense value created by their data. With the past as their compass, they have built community-led maker-spaces and digital fabrication labs in Detroit, their hometown and a city whose resilience in the face of automation and state-sanctioned violence must be a blueprint for us all. Accountability means the power to influence the decisions that impact your life. It means the ability to hold those in power liable for their actions, but most importantly, to be represented in the first place. In the absence of true democracy, data has the unique ability to amplify the voices of those who have been silenced and to make them impossible to ignore. With data whether community-lead surveys or machine learning algorithms decision-makers are forced to reckon with the decisions that have made the survival of so many impossible. DATA AS COLLECTIVE ACTION Enter the people. Out of hiding they come. From out of dimly lit laboratories, amongst stacks and library cubicles. From narrow roads in rural towns lined with shotgun houses, from the isolation of tall buildings and offices housed within cities built by the sweat of their brow. Can you see them walking in unison? They are here to gather. See them coming off of the highways, moving through cars and traffic, off of bridges and intersections. Out of prison gates they come, rejoicing for the coming of a time where neither bars nor borders can limit possibility. See them coming, chanting and singing. A new way of life, a new country is upon us. Enter the people. From the depths of the holds of the slaving ship as it surges over the Atlantic. They are holding on to each other as firmly as they hold onto their languages, their traditions. In song, in memory, they will instruct the ones who come after them. For them, rhythm is a way of knowing. Let us all listen. A powerful assembly of voices ascending above the cotton, sugarcane and tobacco fields. They sing because the slave holders have long banned talking drums. For even they know their power as an ancient precursor to the world wide web, used to relay messages to enslaved people across plantations, as far as a hundred miles away. Piercing through rows of dirt and the thickness of the forest, the correspondence is subversive, a loud percussion, yet hidden in plain sight. This language, syncopation, was a rhythm that was foreign to the ears of their oppressors, a sound that resonated resilience, penetrating the enduring forces of persecution. They sang, music is a Black secret, a technology of resistance birthed as their lives were under siege. Songs that were highly sophisticated compositions, complex beats and sounds that transmitted crucial information across space and time. Information to organize, to gather, to plot. Data in service of escape. Our ancestors imagined freedom while living in chains. They proclaimed a future without slavery in the midst of an institution that asserted its permanence. They refused to be limited by the conditions of the present, even when those conditions made survival impossible. For the future of humanity depended on it. This weekend we impore you to ask yourselves, how do data and technology function in society? Are they forces for justice or are they instruments of oppression? And what role do we all play in shaping their impact? The arc of the universe may bend towards justice, but only if we bend it so. We are the leaders weve been waiting for, and today we gather. Welcome to Data for Black Lives. Yeshimabeit Milner, Executive Director of Data for Black Lives Post Tagged #MIT Media Lab