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In Search of the Promised Land

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2005

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Home > ETD > DISSERTATIONS > AAI3591246

In search of the Promised Land: Tracing the evolution of the Exodus narrative in African American rhetoric

Theon Edward Hill , Purdue University

Throughout American history, the Exodus has served as a discursive site for crucial issues of identity, ideology, and purpose to be articulated, negotiated, and disrupted. The narrative has been utilized by a wide variety of groups including English settlers, the Founding Fathers, Hollywood movie producers, comic book writers, and African slaves. Within the African American community, the Exodus functioned as shorthand for the prophetic tradition, a form of political engagement rooted in stories of Old Testament prophets speaking truth to power. During his 2008 campaign for president, Obama deployed the Exodus metaphorically to situate himself discursively as an extension of the prophetic legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. During the Civil Rights Movement, King drew on the Exodus and prophetic tradition to inspire radical stances against injustice, inequality, and oppression in society. In this project, I engage in a comparative analysis of King's and Obama's metaphoric uses of Exodus. Specifically, I argue that Obama's uses of the Exodus suggest an ideological solidarity with King that is not reflected in his policies. In this project, I trace the history of American, and specifically, African American uses of the Exodus as a means of understanding the relationship between the Exodus and the prophetic tradition. During slavery, Blacks deployed the Exodus as crucial source of identity, ideology, and purpose in the midst of a nation that denied them humanity, freedom, and a future. Discursive uses of the Exodus developed into the prophetic tradition. This tradition is a Theo-political ideology that operates from the premise that God is on the side of the oppressed. Therefore, it is the responsibility of prophetic voices to speak truth to power, to call society to repent of pervasive forms of oppression, and to endure persecution in defense of the values. The prophetic tradition functions as the counterpart of political strategy in that it seeks to hold political powers accountable to sacred values of freedom, justice, and equality. King drew on the Exodus to articulate a dialectical perspective of history. That is, he argued that the past placed responsibility on the present to transform the future. In addition, King's uses of the Exodus reveal his prophetic concern for all people, not just African Americans, and his commitment to forms of political activism that evolved with an ever-changing sociopolitical sphere. Obama's uses of the Exodus drastically differed from King's. While King utilized the Exodus to speak out against forms of oppression, Obama utilized the Exodus to defend his African American identity and to present himself as a deliverer when he spoke at a Selma March memorial. He positioned himself as a contemporary Joshua or bureaucratic prophetic to King's established identity as the Moses of the Civil Rights Movement. This identification served to legitimize differences between King and Obama that threatened the candidate's support in the African American community. At King's former church, Obama offered a postmodern interpretation of the Exodus free of the more controversial elements of the narrative so as not to disrupt the broad-based coalition that he had established throughout his campaign. That is, he rearticulated the Exodus as a non-threatening narrative that did not call people to repent of social sin. Unlike King, who called people to unite on the basis of shared sacred values, Obama's version of the Exodus positioned unity as the sacred value of singular importance. While Obama's identity as deliverer was affirmed by many African Americans who believed that he would lead them into the Promised Land, completing the work left undone during the Civil Rights Movement. Not everyone in the Black community hailed the new president as a contemporary deliverer. During his first term in office, several African American leaders challenged the notion that Obama was a deliverer in the prophetic sense. His identity as a prophetic deliverer, in their opinion, silenced other prophetic voices responsible to hold him accountable to the values of the prophetic tradition. Having examined the differences between King's and Obama's uses of the Exodus, I conclude this project by examining the rhetorical (in)adequacy of the Exodus narrative as an interpretive framework in various sociopolitical contexts. While scholars acknowledge its pervasive influence on American social life, I question the utility of the narrative in providing people with a pathway to closure within its interpretive framework.

Boyd, Purdue University.

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Communication|Rhetoric

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In Search of the Promised Land: A Slave Family in the Old South

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The matriarch of a remarkable African American family, Sally Thomas went from being a slave on a tobacco plantation, to a "virtually free" slave who ran her own business and purchased one of her sons out of bondage. In Search of the Promised Land offers a vivid portrait of the extended Thomas-Rapier family and of the life of slaves before the Civil War. Based on family letters as well as an autobiography by one of Thomas's sons, this remarkable piece of detective work follows a singular group as they walk the boundary between slave and free, traveling across the country in search of a "promised land" where African Americans would be treated with respect. Their record of these journeys provides a vivid picture of antebellum America, stretching from New Orleans to St. Louis, from the Overland Trail to the California Gold Rush, and from Civil War battles to steamboat adventures. John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger weave a compelling narrative that illuminates the larger themes of slavery and freedom. To a remarkable degree, this small family experienced the full gamut of slavery, witnessing everything from the breakup of slave families, brutal punishment, and runaways, to miscegenation, insurrection panics, and slave patrols. They also illuminate the hidden lives of " virtually free" slaves, who maintained close relationships with whites, maneuvered within the system, and gained a large measure of autonomy. The Thomas-Rapiers were keen observers of the human condition. Through the eyes of this exceptional family and the indomitable black woman who held them together, we witness aspects of human bondage otherwise hidden from view.

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• Sally Thomas : a life in bondage. Virtual freedom ; Sally's children ; Sally's son James ; Sally's grandchildren: the Rapier boys
• From slavery to freedom. The domestic slave trade ; James Thomas: the boyhood years ; Barbershop
• Travels in the north and west. Nashville's Black community ; The changing attitudes of whites ; A fugitive slave in the north ; The California gold rush ; The epidemic's shadow
• In search of Canaan. Bound for Nicaragua ; The dilemma of John Rapier Sr. ; The Minnesota territory ; Canada West and James Thomas Rapier
• The Midwest, Haiti, and Jamaica. Into "Bleeding Kansas" ; Steamboating on the Mississippi ; John Rapier Jr. in the Caribbean
• This mighty scourge of war. James Thomas in St. Louis ; John Rapier Jr.'s continuing odyssey ; The war's end
• Afterword : through the prism of a black family
• Appendix 1. Petitions of Ephraim Foster and James Thomas to the Davidson County Court
• John Rapier Sr. to Richard Rapier, April 8, 1845
• Appendix 3. John Rapier Jr. to James Thomas, July 28, 1861.

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In search of the promised land: The travels of Emilia Pardo Bazan.

The object of this thesis is to explore Pardo Bazan's approach to travel as an aesthetically rewarding experience and also as a soul-searching exercise in which she voices her opinions and concerns with regard to the state of late nineteenth-century Spain and compares it to some other European countries. Indeed, in the Galician author's chronicles, which reveal her versatility and multifaceted interests as a travel writer, the journey itself takes second place to cultural, social, political, artistic, religious, and intellectual considerations. Another aspect of Pardo Bazan's travel works that this study will develop is her uneasy stance with regard to progress, technological advancement, and modern civilization, as illustrated, principally, in her foreign chronicles. For it is her apprehension and at times aversion to modern technology that place her in an anachronistic position in relation to some of the events and places covered in her travel accounts. Pardo Bazan's obsessive longing for the past, as well as her generalized rejection of the aesthetic canons and artistic achievements of the nineteenth century (a period she regarded as lacking in spiritual and religious values), will also be revealed as playing a significant part in her approach to travel writing. In addition, the author's ambivalent attitude to France will be considered, together with her internationalism (which was never at odds with her Spanishness), and the progressive and painful realization that, in the social, industrial, and cultural spheres, her country lagged well behind most of its European neighbours. Overall, this thesis will trace Pardo Bazan's journeys through her homeland and elsewhere in Europe as she attempts to identify the ills that beset turn-of-the-century Spain, suggest some possible solutions, and ultimately seek out among the advanced European nations she visited a role model worthy of emulation by her own country.

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In Search of The Promised Land: Birth and Mental Health Outcomes among African Americans of The Great Migration

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In Search of the Promised Land

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• Death in a Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921

In this Book

• Scott Ellsworth
• Published by: Louisiana State University Press

Widely believed to be the most extreme incident of white racial violence against African Americans in modern United States history, the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre resulted in the destruction of over one thousand black-owned businesses and homes as well as the murder of between fifty and three hundred black residents. Exhaustively researched and critically acclaimed, Scott Ellsworth’s Death in a Promised Land is the definitive account of the Tulsa race riot and its aftermath, in which much of the history of the destruction and violence was covered up. It is the compelling story of racial ideologies, southwestern politics, and incendiary journalism, and of an embattled black community’s struggle to hold onto its land and freedom. More than just the chronicle of one of the nation’s most devastating racial pogroms, this critically acclaimed study of American race relations is, above all, a gripping story of terror and lawlessness, and of courage, heroism, and human perseverance.

Table of Contents

• Cover, Title Page, Copyright

• Contents, List of Illustrations
• pp. ix-xiii
• pp. xv-xvii
• Prelude: In the Promised Land
• 1. Boom Cities
• 2. Race Relations and Local Violence
• 3. Race Riot
• 4. Law, Order, and the Politics of Relief
• 5. The Segregation of Memory
• Epilogue: Notes on the Subsequent History of "Deep Greenwood"
• pp. 108-111
• pp. 113-114
• Appendix II
• pp. 115-117
• pp. 119-137
• Essay on Sources
• pp. 139-150
• Acknowledgments
• pp. 151-153
• pp. 155-159

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In Search of the Promised Land: A Slave Family in the Old South (New Narratives in American History) Paperback – February 23, 2006

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• Part of series New Narratives in American History
• Print length 286 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Oxford University Press
• Publication date February 23, 2006
• Dimensions 6.8 x 4.98 x 0.55 inches
• ISBN-10 0195160886
• ISBN-13 978-0195160888
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; 1st edition (February 23, 2006)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 286 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0195160886
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0195160888
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.6 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.8 x 4.98 x 0.55 inches
• #4,418 in Discrimination & Racism
• #4,799 in African American Demographic Studies (Books)
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“When the Elder prayed, the buffalo appeared to listen in” – Janna Black organizes Indigenous youth camp as thesis project

Published May 03, 2024 By DeeDee DuPlessis, photos: London Bernier/GYC

In September 2023, the Indigenous Youth Culture and Climate Day camps started with a memorable moment: An elder was saying a prayer in Shoshone. She paused, looked up and said a buffalo had joined to listen and recognized the Shoshone language. Indeed, a buffalo was perched up on the hillside. When the prayer was finished the buffalo came down toward the camp and to the river. The 41 fifth graders from Wyoming Indian Elementary School, who had assembled for a day at the Shoshone Buffalo herd within the Wind River Indian Reservation, were impressed and couldn’t stop talking about it. Hearing this story from camp organizer Janna Black during her thesis defense is enough to give anyone goosebumps.

More Than One Way of Knowing

As part of her Master of Science in Environment, Natural Resources & Society degree on the Plan B track, Black planned and organized three-day camps at the Shoshone buffalo herd pasture for grades 5, 8 and 11-12, respectively. Plan B studies replace a traditional thesis with a more flexible project.

Black, who spent several years as an organic farmer and homeschooling mother in Washington state before she came to University of Wyoming in 2022, says her perspective is shaped by a holistic view of ecology where everything is interconnected. She seeks to combine, or as she expresses it, “braid together,” Indigenous, local, and scientific knowledge systems to generate new insights and innovations.

This approach of knowledge co-production is also at the heart of UWyo’s WyACT five-year project on the effects of the changing climate on Wyoming’s waters. Black’s graduate advisor Corinne Knapp, professor at the Haub School of ENR, is also a co-PI of WyACT. She feels that projects like this complement climate-change research seamlessly: “The Wind River that gave today’s Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho reservation its name, is one of the headwaters rivers of the project, and the Tribes of Wyoming will feel the effect of environmental changes intensely due to their close connection with the land.”

The core planning team for the Indigenous Youth Camps (from left): Wes Martel, Janna Black, Colleen Friday, and Signa McAdams

Janna Black wanted to help strengthen sense of place rooted in culture through intergenerational land-based learning. Wes Martel, Senior Wind River Conservation Associate with the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, was a key member of her planning team. He agrees: “I always talk about strengthening our families and our communities, and this camp was a good start for that.”

A day in the outside classroom

So, how did the day camp go about achieving this? Near Kinnear, where the buffalo heard roams, a teepee and nine booths were set up. Student groups took turns attending the stations for 20-minute hands-on “lessons”. They learned new Arapaho and Shoshone words, got to see and touch many cultural objects, furs and bones, and learned Arapaho hand games. Plants like the landscape-defining sagebrush played a large role in the lessons, as did animals, first and foremost the buffalo, whose many uses and cultural significance was stressed at several stations. At the camp itself, the buffalo provided nourishment: In the form of buffalo burgers that the students helped prepare!

Not all activities were stationary – students walked around the landscape identifying plants and climbed a vantage point to spot signs of drought across the river. Immersed in the beauty and sacredness of the land, the next generation of leaders got some impulses to think about their future.

Youth camp participants were able to interact with a variety of animal furs, bones, and skulls

There were only four months to plan the camps with a core team of four people. Black cooperated with the High Plains American Indian Research Institute (HPAIRI) at UWyo, which is working out a process for the University and the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone people to work together. Having a process is helpful, but: “Building relationships is very important” stresses Black. “It is important to have reciprocal relationships based on trust, sense of belonging, and accountability”.

Building relationships and trust takes time and effort. But the results were well worth it. Students expressed increased knowledge about the land and their culture and came up with many actions to conserve water and protect the environment.

Blueprint for Land-Based Learning

The success of the camp can also be measured by the fact that the second edition is slated for June. And the concept does not have to be confined to the Wind River Indian Reservation. Black: “While there were many elements specific to the location, the planning process could be a blueprint for other Tribes and regions.” She describes the steps for planning and holding the camp in great detail in an illustrated brochure available as PDF and a limited number of printed copies.

Now that she has graduated, what is next for Janna Black? “I am the new Tribal Climate Resilience Liaison working for the Great Plains Tribal Water Alliance and closely with the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center. She will be Working to connect resources to Tribal Nations in climate adaptation efforts in the north central region which consists of 32 federally recognized Tribes from Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas. “I am looking forward to helping Tribal Nations build climate resiliency and sustainability for many years to come.”

Camps were funded through a Western Water Assessment (a NOAA-funded CAP RISA) small grants opportunity and Janna's time was funded through a Kemmerer Fellowship and the WyACT Project.

* High Plains American Indian Research Institute (HPAIRI)

* What is a Plan B thesis?

* To obtain a copy of the planning booklet, please contact Janna Black

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How do governments fit into the AI brew? An Australian-French perspective

Insights from a panel discussion titled BYTE-SIZED AI

Written by: ANU School of Cybernetics 23 May 2024

Essays Events

In the ever-evolving landscape of technological innovation, Artificial Intelligence (AI) stands as a beacon of both promise and concern. At a recent panel event titled “Byte-sized AI: How do governments fit into the AI brew,” experts gathered to discuss the intricate dance between harnessing AI’s potential while mitigating its risks.

Here are the key takeaways from the insightful discussion featuring Dr. Zena Assaad, Sarah Vallee, Dr. Ahmed Imran, and Dr. Emma Burns, and moderated by Dr. Rim El Kadi.

Prepared by Lorenn Ruster , PhD Candidate, with the assistance of ChatGPT.

The event was organised by the Australian-French Association for Research and Innovation (AFRAN) and the Alliance française Canberra.

AI Ethics and AI Governance #

Dr. Zena Assaad, Senior Lecturer at the Australian National University’s School of Engineering emphasized that despite the seemingly critical need for ethical considerations in AI governance, she is yet to really see clarity around what ethical AI is and dared to add that she has never seen ethics within the governance of any organization. While AI’s rise has sparked excitement, defining ethical boundaries remains murky. Even in the most recent interim response on safe and responsible AI from the Australian Government, ethics is only mentioned three times.

Zena highlighted the challenges in connecting AI to human traits like hallucinations. She believes that this is really problematic and detracts from the fact that humans are the ones that are making the decisions. She believes that the ethics conversations need to be focused on the humans and the systems that it sits within, not on the technology in isolation.

She pointed out that while ethical frameworks exist, practical implementation is often lacking and without being able to describe some benchmarks of what it really looks like, then governments and practitioners will continue to “suffocate under the avalanche of frameworks”.

For more information on Zena’s contribution to the panel, see her blogpost.

The EU Perspective: Balancing Innovation and Regulation #

Sarah Vallee , AFRAN AI Community Lead and Secondee to the ANU School of Cybernetics, shed light on the European Union’s approach to AI, particularly the EU AI Act adopted in March 2024. She gave an overview of the legislative environment in the EU, noting that AI systems were already regulated before the AI Act through other instruments such as consumer protection laws and the GDPR, but these were deemed insufficient for dealing with the complexity of AI systems.

The EU AI Act legislation classifies AI systems based on risk, aiming to protect fundamental rights while promoting innovation. There are four levels of risk:

• unacceptable risk – e.g. emotion recognition or social score systems.
• high risk – e.g. systems that impact on health, safety or fundamental rights such as medical systems or recruitment systems. These systems are the main focus of the EU AI Act.
• limited risks – e.g. systems involving chatbots. It needs to be made transparent that you are interacting with technology and not a human.
• Minimal risks – e.g. systems like spam filters or Netflix recommender algorithm

By incorporating ethical guidelines into binding legislation, the EU seeks to strike a delicate balance between fostering AI uptake and safeguarding against potential harm. Sarah clarified that the EU AI Act mostly regulates high risk systems, and today most systems are currently considered limited and minimal risk. However, this might change with the development of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT.

Sarah shares that Member States like France or Germany are concerned that regulating too heavily will hinder European innovation and make it challenging for their AI champions (like French start-up Mistral AI) to raise capital.

She also highlighted that Europe is a leading voice on global AI governance. For example, France will host the next global “Summit on Artificial Intelligence” and is advocating for the creation of a World AI Organization that would evaluate and supervise AI systems worldwide.

Addressing Digital Inequality: A Global Concern #

Dr. Ahmed Imran, Associate Professor at University of Canberra and Founder of the Research Cluster of Digital Inequality and Social Change delved into the pressing issue of digital inequality , stressing its implications for societal well-being.

With nearly three billion people lacking internet access, bridging this divide is paramount. But Digital Inclusion is important in all societies, even in Australia, as the latest Australian Digital Inclusion Index report highlights. Digital inclusion impacts identity, status, dignity, rights, empowerment, power imbalance, opportunities, health, income and wellbeing.

Ahmed challenged the audience to think carefully about who the beneficiaries of AI really are and whether everything digital really is good. He discussed how the world is becoming captive to a handful of giant tech companies, creating new forms of techno feudalism and data colonisation.

He highlighted the need for a philosophical shift towards a people-first approach, advocating for inclusive tech solutions and policy reforms to address digital inequities. This shift would mean a research and innovation approach that:

• Is holistic (a departure from silo-based approaches of today).
• Has an adequate focus on contextual and cultural issues.
• Involves the collaboration of multiple cross-disciplinary lenses.
• Is Inclusive and accepts diversity.
• Is based on social justice and taking a beneficiary perspective.
• Preferences solutions and outcomes that are a combination of social and technical.

To read Ahmed’s research:

• Imran, A. (2022). Why addressing digital inequality should be a priority. The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, e12255.
• Imran, A, Quimno, V. & Gregor, S (2022). Factors Influencing Digital Inequality: A Scoping Review. Association for Information Systems Special Interest Group on ICT and Global Development’s (SIG GlobDev’s), Fourteenth Annual Pre-ICIS Workshop, Copenhagen.

Industry’s Role in Ethical AI Implementation #

Dr. Emma Burns, Data and AI Specialist at Microsoft Australia and New Zealand, provided insights from an industry perspective, emphasizing the importance of responsible AI deployment. She spoke about how she is working with government and the education sector on how they can understand and access Microsoft Data and AI technologies, with a view that you cannot use it ethically or responsibly if you don’t understand it.

She reflected on how in her role she’s often approached about the technology first. Her approach is always the same – “what’s the problem you’re trying to solve”.

She described how it really takes diving deep into a problem together to understand the opportunities and implications of using technology in a particular context. Although there are repeatable patterns to impactful and responsible adoption of technology, it is never simple and easy. Every use case requires careful thought.

Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI since 2019 has driven technological leaps in AI as evidence by the release of ChatGPT in November 2022. But Emma was keen to emphasize that there are many forms of AI, outside of generative AI, with some AI solutions applied to drive positive change in for example environmental monitoring and management .

No matter which form of AI used, Emma highlighted the necessity of trusted partnerships to enable effective and responsible use: “if Microsoft is going to bring a technology to the market, they should also be present in partnerships deeply enough to ensure it’s applied in the right context”.

Emma discussed how AI use is already pervasive but how there has been a lot of fear and confusion since the release of ChatGPT. She emphasized we need to be careful not to stifle all AI innovation and positive use whilst the world seeks ways to regulate generative AI.She was very clear that despite the hype, AI is not sentient, it is not magic, it is math. Humans need to be in the loop and that’s where the responsibility lies, with the human. In this context, critical thinking and supervision skills have become more important than ever.

The panel concluded with some Q&A from the audience who were interested in the role of AI in education and the implications of AI regulation in the Australian context.

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