Carla D. Martin
@carladmartin.bsky.social
1.8K followers 2.1K following 100 posts
Lecturer, Harvard Department of African and African American Studies; Board President, Institute for Cacao and Chocolate Research. she/her
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Reposted by Carla D. Martin
lizcovart.bsky.social
Today is @bfworld.bsky.social’s 11th Podversary. The first 4 episodes debuted 11 years ago.
So it’s fitting we have a great new episode to celebrate!

How did Northern manufacturers support Southern slavery?

Seth Rockman joins us to talk about “plantation goods” and slavery’s hidden supply chain.
Episode 422: Seth Rockman, Plantation Goods: How Northern Factories Fueled the Plantation Economy
Discover how hoes, shoes, and cloth linked New England factories to Southern slavery in early America with historian Seth Rockman.
benfranklinsworld.com
Reposted by Carla D. Martin
gbrockell.bsky.social
Claim: 10 cars rammed ICE
Truth: No cars rammed ICE

Claim: She boxed ICE in
Truth: ICE boxed her in

Claim: She shot a rifle at ICE
Truth: She did not have a rifle

Claim: ICE returned fire
Truth: Only ICE fired

Claim: She drove herself to the hospital
Truth: Paramedics found her
carladmartin.bsky.social
"Starbucks holds nearly $2 billion of customers’ money in its rewards program. That’s more than the total deposits managed by 85 percent of chartered banks, making the coffee chain one of the biggest financial institutions in the country."
jacobin.com/2025/10/bank...
Everything Is Becoming a Bank
Most major corporations — from airlines to social media platforms — now aspire to become unregulated banks. Bankification today accounts for the highest profit margins in the US economy, crippling pro...
jacobin.com
Reposted by Carla D. Martin
publichealthguy1.bsky.social
a lot of pandemic histories omit or speed past the massive, right wing billionaire-financed disinformation campaign waged against public health policies and officials. jonathan is doing critical work here. looking forward to reading it.
joho.bsky.social
The sequel to We Want Them Infected is done!

COVID killed 1.2 million Americans while vaccines saved millions.

Yet, disinformation superspreaders were empowered, where they are taking a wrecking ball to science & medicine.

How did that happen?🧵

sciencebasedmedicine.org/everyone-els...
Everyone Else is Lying to You: My Book is Done!
The pandemic’s biggest disinformation superspreaders are now in charge. How did this happen?
sciencebasedmedicine.org
Reposted by Carla D. Martin
kidadaewilliams.com
A new book, “A Trail of Trials and Triumphs: Unveiling Black History in Hampton Roads,” showcases sites across the VA region by suggesting tours of historical sites and organizing stops in the best order for the day.
www.whro.org/news/local-n...
A new book encourages visiting where Black history was made in Hampton Roads
“A Trail of Trials and Triumphs: Unveiling Black History in Hampton Roads” showcases sites across the region.
www.whro.org
Reposted by Carla D. Martin
npr.org
NPR @npr.org · 11d
Today marks the first day in public media’s history without federal funding. And we’re not going anywhere.

Listeners like you keep our mission alive. Protect one of the last places where America comes together to hear itself.

Stand with us today. Donate at this link: n.pr/46wamAj
carladmartin.bsky.social
This is *chef's kiss* Somerville representation!
Reposted by Carla D. Martin
burritojustice.bsky.social
quick while the government is shut down let’s all switch to metric
Reposted by Carla D. Martin
gogogomalley.bsky.social
Finishing a Ph.D. on slavery in early American or Atlantic history this year? Consider applying for the University of California's President's Postdoc program. I'd love to sponsor at applicant if working with me @ucsantacruz.bsky.social might be a good fit!
ppfp.ucop.edu/info/how-to-...
How to apply
ppfp.ucop.edu
Reposted by Carla D. Martin
gauthamrao.bsky.social
Took about 20 years. And I never thought a book about enslavers using deputization to give themselves policing power would be relevant to our times. But we are where we are.

My book, White Power: Policing American Slavery, is now available for preorder.

a.co/d/29c7EIP
carladmartin.bsky.social
The Crimson covers our team's report on Black History at the Vassall Estate, emphasizing our focus on co-designing the research with the descendant community.

Read the report: doi.org/10.36967/231...

Watch a virtual presentation: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZyv...

@caitlindeangelis.bsky.social
Reposted by Carla D. Martin
Reposted by Carla D. Martin
nkalamb.bsky.social
Cornell is cancelling a distinguished professor's classes on Gaza and suspending him because of the complaints of a student who previously served in Israel's military surveillance agency and was literally recording the comments of other students in class and deliberately derailing discussion.
Early last semester, Droubi said, students began approaching Cheyfitz with complaints that a graduate student in the “Gaza, Indigeneity, Resistance” class appeared to be recording them, possibly to “gather their names and comments” and intimidate them. “We believe that a student came to the course for the sole reason of surveilling and potentially harming students in the class,” Droubi said. “That ended up proving itself to be true because multiple students came forward and shared their concerns with Professor Cheyfitz.” Cheyfitz said one Palestinian student quit the class after telling him she felt upset and frightened.

Current Issue
Cover of October 2025 Issue
October 2025 Issue
According to Cheyfitz, the graduate student often steered conversations away from the assigned readings—which at that point mostly focused on definitions of genocide and international law on Indigenous rights—to defend Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza and argue with others in the class. “He clearly had not done the readings,” Cheyfitz said. “It was disruptive.”

Cheyfitz said he met with the graduate student in late January and spoke to him about concerns from his classmates. During the conversation, he asked the graduate student to drop the course, and by the next class, he did, Cheyfitz said. The graduate student, Oren Renard, a PhD candidate in computer science whose identity was confirmed by other students in the class, previously served in Israel’s elite military surveillance agency, Unit 8200, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Reposted by Carla D. Martin
olivia.science
Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia:
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n
Abstract: Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or
even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in
the 21st with social media. For these collective blunders, we now regret our involvement or
apathy as scientists, and society struggles to put the genie back in the bottle. Currently, we
are similarly entangled with artificial intelligence (AI) technology. For example, software updates are rolled out seamlessly and non-consensually, Microsoft Office is bundled with chatbots, and we, our students, and our employers have had no say, as it is not
considered a valid position to reject AI technologies in our teaching and research. This
is why in June 2025, we co-authored an Open Letter calling on our employers to reverse
and rethink their stance on uncritically adopting AI technologies. In this position piece,
we expound on why universities must take their role seriously toa) counter the technology
industry’s marketing, hype, and harm; and to b) safeguard higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, and scientific integrity. We include pointers to
relevant work to further inform our colleagues. Figure 1. A cartoon set theoretic view on various terms (see Table 1) used when discussing the superset AI
(black outline, hatched background): LLMs are in orange; ANNs are in magenta; generative models are
in blue; and finally, chatbots are in green. Where these intersect, the colours reflect that, e.g. generative adversarial network (GAN) and Boltzmann machine (BM) models are in the purple subset because they are
both generative and ANNs. In the case of proprietary closed source models, e.g. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and
Apple’s Siri, we cannot verify their implementation and so academics can only make educated guesses (cf.
Dingemanse 2025). Undefined terms used above: BERT (Devlin et al. 2019); AlexNet (Krizhevsky et al.
2017); A.L.I.C.E. (Wallace 2009); ELIZA (Weizenbaum 1966); Jabberwacky (Twist 2003); linear discriminant analysis (LDA); quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA). Table 1. Below some of the typical terminological disarray is untangled. Importantly, none of these terms
are orthogonal nor do they exclusively pick out the types of products we may wish to critique or proscribe. Protecting the Ecosystem of Human Knowledge: Five Principles
Reposted by Carla D. Martin
baddestmamajama.bsky.social
I can’t tell you how much good could be done right now by average citizens socially cold-shouldering anyone tangentially working for ICE.
Reposted by Carla D. Martin
Reposted by Carla D. Martin
erininthemorning.com
Excellent reporting from Heated and Atmos.

It looks like some of the biggest investors in the anti-trans movement are fossil fuel billionaires who are trying to use trans issues to ensure that Republicans pass policies favorable to their industry.

heated.world/p/fossil-fue...
Fossil fuel billionaires are bankrolling the anti-trans movement
An investigation shared exclusively with Atmos and HEATED finds that 80% of anti-trans organizations receive fossil fuel funding.
heated.world
Reposted by Carla D. Martin
Reposted by Carla D. Martin
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Returning to a subject I was discussing this morning on X, I think a single video like this does more to radicalize people against ICE than any loaded rhetoric any politician has ever used, and DHS should think very hard about the consequences of supporting this kind of behavior from its agents.
bradlander.bsky.social
I was back at 26 Federal Plaza today, where an ICE agent violently threw this bereft woman to the ground in front of her kids. She had not touched him. She did not pose any threat. She had to be taken to the hospital. (🎥: Elias Eliahu)
carladmartin.bsky.social
Yes, it will! It will go up on the Longfellow House YouTube channel
Reposted by Carla D. Martin
caitlindeangelis.bsky.social
In one hour! Join us!
carladmartin.bsky.social
📢 An Invitation: Black History at the Vassall Estate Virtual Presentation

Thurs, Sept 25, 6–7pm ET. Register here: harvard.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

ft @caitlindeangelis.bsky.social, me, and a village of researchers & descendant community members who contributed to our forthcoming 200+ page report!
Cover page of the report Black History at the Vassall Estate, featuring several signatures of the Black Vassall family.
Reposted by Carla D. Martin
julialurie.bsky.social
This summer, I wrote about Paul Dama, a Boko Haram survivor and award-winning restaurant manager who had been detained by ICE.

Yesterday, after 3+ months in custody, Paul was granted asylum (!!) He's still in detention - DHS has until Oct 23 to appeal.
Reposted by Carla D. Martin
uolpress.bsky.social
Stephen Mullen's excellent book on this topic, The Glasgow Sugar Aristocracy: Scotland and Caribbean Slavery, 1775–1838 is available to read for free from our website:

uolpress.co.uk/book/the-gla...

#OpenAccess #History #Slavery #Scotland