Professor of African American History at Northwestern University
Chicago, IL
Joined April 2014
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Leslie Harris retweeted
Fox: Why are you here this morning?
Trump rally attendee: Well, in the late 70s, I was a little too young to go to South America for the Jonestown Massacre. But this is as close as I'll ever get, so that's why I'm here. There's nothing like seeing a cult right up front.
Leslie Harris retweeted
In 1943, the Gestapo finally caught Raymond Aubrac, one of Franceโs most wanted Resistance leaders. The German secret police sentenced him to death, and his execution was only days away.
At the same time, his wife Lucie was six months pregnant with their second child. Most people in her position would have gone into hiding, grieved quietly, and prayed for a miracle.
Lucie Aubrac decided to do something completely different.
She got her hands on forged identity papers, created a believable cover story, and walked straight into the office of Klaus Barbie. History would later remember Barbie as the brutal Butcher of Lyon, but Lucie did not let fear stop her.
She looked him in the eye and successfully convinced him to grant her a final visit with her condemned husband.
But Lucie did not risk her life just to say a tearful goodbye. While she was inside the prison area, she was secretly memorizing the positions of the guards, counting the minutes between patrols, and mapping out the exact route the prison truck would take.
She was treating a desperate situation like a military operation.
On October 21, 1943, that prison truck rolled through the streets of Lyon. It was carrying Raymond and several other prisoners toward what should have been their final destination.
What the German soldiers did not know was that Lucie had spent weeks quietly assembling a dedicated team of Resistance fighters.
She planned an ambush with absolute precision.
When the truck finally reached the chosen ambush spot, her team struck fast, coordinated, and without a single moment of hesitation.
In the middle of the sudden gunfire and chaos, Raymond Aubrac was pulled free from the truck. Lucie, who was visibly and unmistakably pregnant, had organized every single detail of his dramatic liberation.
Right after the rescue, the couple had to go into deep hiding. A few weeks later, Lucie gave birth to their daughter in a secret safe house while German forces searched frantically for them across France. They managed to evade capture until the war ended.
When liberation finally came, the Aubracs did not just try to sit back and recover from their trauma. Instead, they rebuilt their lives and continued to serve their country.
Raymond became a celebrated engineer and entered public life to help rebuild France's infrastructure. Lucie became a respected historian, pouring decades of her life into making sure that the women of the French Resistance were never forgotten.
She wanted to make sure these women, who were so often unnamed in the history books, were written permanently into the record. Together, the couple raised three children, traveled the world, argued, laughed, and grew old side by side.
Years later, journalists asked Lucie what had compelled her to risk everything on that dangerous October day. She did not hesitate for a second. She looked at them and said, "He was my husband. What else would I do?"
In his final years, he continued speaking publicly to young generations about the Resistance, the power of memory, and the absolute obligation to tell the truth about history.
When Lucie passed away in 2007 at 94, and Raymond followed her in 2012 at 97, they left behind a 64 year marriage that was a testament to the ultimate triumph of life and family over hatred.
Their love didn't just survive a war it blossomed into a lifetime of shared smiles, proving that the greatest force in the world is a heart that refuses to give up on the one it loves โฅ๏ธโฅ๏ธ
Leslie Harris retweeted
ืืฆืื ืงืืจื ืืืืืคืืช ืืงืืืื ืืืื ืืืืืืช, ืืืืฉืืืช ืืืืืกืืืช ืืื ืืืืืืื ืืคืขืื ืืื, ืืื ืืืืฆืขืื ืืขืืืืื ืืจืฉืืชื ืืคื ืืืฉืคื ืืืื ืืืืื, ืืื ืืขืฆืืจ ืืช ืืกืข ืืืืืืจ ืืืชื ื ืฉืืฉืจืื ืื ืืืช ืืืืจืื ืืืื ืืข ืขืงืืจื ืืืคืืื ืฉื ืืืจืืื ืคืืกืืื ืื, ืขื ืืฉื ืงืืืงืืืืืช ืืืจืก ื ืจืื ืืืืชื ืืืงื. ืื ืืืื ืืฉืจืื ืืืจืืืื ืืืืื ืขื ืืืื ืืชืืื, ืืืฆืขืืื ืืฉืื ืืืจ ืืืื.
ืืขืงืืืช ืืืจืืข ืืืจื ืกืืื ืืืืจืื ืึพ23 ืืืืงืืืืจ, ืฉืื ื ืืจืื ืฉื ื ืืืืืื ืืฉืจืืืื, ืืืืืขื ืจืืฉ ืืืืฉืื ืื ืืืื ื ืชื ืืื ืืฉืจ ืืืืืืื ืืฉืจืื ืืดืฅ ืืืืื ืขื ืชืืื ืืืช ืืขืงืืจ ืืืคืืื ืชืืฉืืื ืคืืกืืื ืื ืืืชืืื ืืืืฆืข ืืจืก ื ืจืื ืืืืืจ.
ืืืฆืืจืชื ืืืจ ื ืชื ืืื: ืดื ืืืฉื ืืขืจืื ืืช ืืืืื ืืืชืงืคื ืืืืฆืื ืฉืืคืขืื ื ืืืื ืืช ืืคืืืืืืด.
ืืืชื ืืืื ืืืจ ืืืืื ืืขืงืืจืชื ืฉื ืืืชืจ ืึพ33 ืืืฃ ืคืืกืืื ืื ืืืื ืืช ืืคืืืืื ืืฆืคืื ืืืื ืืืขืจืืืช. ืืขืช, ืื ืืืื ืืฉืจืื ืืืืืืื ืืืืื ืืช ืืืชื ืืืื ืืืช ืฉื ืขืงืืจื ืืืื ืืช ืืืจืก ืื ืืืืจืื.
ืืืฆืขืืื ืืฉืื ืืืจ ืืืื. ืืืืืช ืืฆืื ืืืืื ืืชืจ ืขื ืืืจืื ืืืืืื, ืืขืื ืฉืืื ืื ืืืืจืื ืืื ืืืจืืก ืืื ืื ืคืืกืืื ืืื ืืฉืืื ืช ืคืจืฉ ืื-ืืืื. ืืืงืืื, ืืืืืข ืืฉืจ ืืฆืืื ืกืืืืจืืฅืณ ืขื ืืงืืช ืืจืืขื ืืืืื ืืืื ืืืฉืื ืืืจืื ืืจ ืืืจืื.
ืื ืืืื ืืฉืจืื ืืืจืืืื ืืืืื ืขื ืชืืื ืืืช ืืขื ืืฉื ืงืืืงืืืืืช ืืืืขืฉืื ืฉืขืืืืื ืืืืืช ืคืฉืขื ืืืืื. ืชืืื ืืืช ืืื ืืืืืืืช ืืช ืืคืขืืืืช ืืืจืกื ืืืช ืฉืืืฆืขื ืืฉืจืื ืืืกืืจืช ืืืณื ืืกืืื ืืขืื, ืืืืืืช ืืกืืื ื ืืกืคืช ืืืกืข ืืืืืืจ ืืืชื ื ืืืคืจืืืงื ืืืืืงื ืฉืืื ืืงืืืช ืืืื ืืืขืจืืืช: ืคืืจืืง ืฉืืืชื ืฉื ืืงืืื ืืคืืกืืื ื ืืงืืืงืืืื, ืชืื ืืจืืืช ืืืชื ืืืืืืช ืืืืกืืก ืฉืืืื ืืฉืจืืืืช ืงืืืขื.
ืืขืืื ืืื ื ืืืื ืืขืืื ืื ืื ืืืื ืฉืืฉืจืื ืืืฉืืื ืืืชืงืคืชื ืขื ืืคืืกืืื ืื, ืืืืืชืื ืขื ืฉืฉืืื ืืช ื ืืกืคืืช ืืชืจืืงื ื ืืชืืฉืืืื ืืืืืืงื, ืืืจืืช ืื ืฉืืืจ ืจืืื ื ืืขืื ืืืฆืคืื ืืืื ืืืขืจืืืช. ืืืฉืืืช ืืืืกืืืช ืืื ืืืืืืื ืืืืืื ืืคืขืื ืขืืฉืื ืืื ืืื ืืข ืืช ืืคืฉืขืื ืืืื ืืืืื ืขื ืืืืืืืกืืื ืืคืืกืืื ืืช.
Leslie Harris retweeted
Hats off to MK Pritzker for this amazing statement and action
So love leaders who are standing up for Amy Acton!
Leslie Harris retweeted
Iโve been detained by the IDF, along with a group of rabbis & volunteers. We were simply harvesting olives in a grove near Nehalim in the West Bank.
The occupation is a crime under international law. Harvesting olives isnโt a crime under any law I know.
Leslie Harris retweeted
It is a basic principle of American democracy that the government canโt selectively target individuals simply because of their political beliefs or what they say. But thatโs exactly what the Trump Administration is doing to Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
To understand why this is so appalling, itโs important to know the facts. Congresswoman Omar came to this country with her father when she was 12 years old. Five years later, her father became a naturalized citizen. If Ilhan had been 18 at the time, she would have had to apply for citizenship separately. But because she was 17, she became a naturalized citizen automatically.
Congresswoman Omar went on to graduate from college, work as a community organizer, become the first Somali-American legislator elected to public office in the U.S., and win a seat in Congress. There, she has been one of the Trump Administrationโs fiercest critics, which has led the president to repeatedly single her out as someone who he believes does not belong in this country.
Now the Administration is actively trying to deport Congresswoman Omar, seemingly based solely on the unsubstantiated theory that she was actually 18 when her father was naturalized, and therefore is not a citizen. Federal agents have raided her home, confiscated personal records, and seized her phone โ all to try and uncover a nonexistent smoking gun from 20 years ago that will somehow make their case.
Think about that. The full weight of the federal government is being brought down on a law-abiding elected official because she has dared to criticize the president. And itโs not the first time this has happened. Under President Trump, the Justice Department has repeatedly gone after those he considers his political enemies โ from the Attorney General of New York, to the former head of the FBI, to members of the Federal Reserve.
In those cases, the prosecutions either stalled or were dismissed for having no basis in law, and the same is likely to happen in this case. But not before Congresswoman Omarโs life has been turned upside down, her legal bills have piled up, and sheโs been forced to spend time fighting unsubstantiated charges instead of serving the people of Minnesota.
The fact that any president, or any administration, is willing to engage in such transparent efforts to intimidate someone should outrage all Americans, regardless of how they feel about Congresswoman Omarโs political views. Because if this becomes the new normal, thereโs no reason to believe it will stop with her โ or that future presidents, in either party, wonโt do the same.
Leslie Harris retweeted
Hahahhahahahahahahaahhaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah <breathe> hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahaha.
This is RICH.
Russian plague lab reportedly received $800k in research funding from RFK Jr's Health and Human Services trib.al/IGMKSxh
Leslie Harris retweeted
AP story that gives some history on all of these detentions from start to now apnews.com/article/immigratiโฆ
Leslie Harris retweeted
Barack Obama at his last press briefing with reporters, 2017:
"I have enjoyed working with all of you. That does not, of course, mean that I've enjoyed every story that you have filed, but that's the point of this relationship. You're not supposed to be sycophants. You're supposed to be skeptics. You're supposed to ask me tough questions. You're not supposed to be complimentary, but you're supposed to cast a critical eye on folks who hold enormous power."
Leslie Harris retweeted
1/2 Another in the excellent @guardian series on the new slave traders registry, focusing on @nthistorianโs longstanding work on the Bank of England.
theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-iโฆ
Leslie Harris retweeted
This is amazing. The single most comprehensive register of investors, profiteers and legacies left by those that took part in Britains enslavement of African people. The level of research that must have gone into this is mind blowing.
britishslavetraders.org
Leslie Harris retweeted
*BRILLIANT*
The French made a short film about what could happen after all immigrants would follow the โ_white, angry old manโs_โ advice to go back where they came from.*
Leslie Harris retweeted
Dario has written that we need to โpace the frontier,โ and Sam has agreed. People may be surprised by my response: go ahead.
You guys are the frontier. By any reasonable metric โ market share, revenue growth, model capability โ the two of you have a duopoly on frontier intelligence. Youโve also claimed the lead is widening because of recursive self-improvement.
I donโt see what you see in the lab. If the unreleased models are scary enough that you think you should slow down, I support your decision to be responsible.
But stop pretending you need anyone elseโs permission. Stop pretending antitrust law has to be suspended so you can form a cartel. Stop pretending you need a regulatory approval process that supersedes product liability. Stop pretending METR is independent when it is intertwined with Anthropicโs investors and staff. Stop pretending you need those same evaluators to police competitors who arenโt even at the frontier.
Most of all, stop pretending the motivation to slow down is purely altruistic. You face massive product-liability exposure if your products enable a truly damaging cyberattack. The market already punishes models that behave in unpredictable or unauthorized ways. After the Hugging Face episode, it is simply good business for OpenAI and Anthropic to trade some raw power for reliability and predictability. Call it alignment if you want. It is also just giving customers what they want.
Pacing the frontier would also create breathing room for a more intelligent conversation about regulation than Bernie Sandersโ โshut it all down.โ China is very unlikely to join a global agreement, as you know, and that has to be taken into account as well.
So go ahead and pace the frontier. You are the ones setting it. The easiest way not to build superintelligence is for you to agree not to build it. Demanding your preferred regulatory framework as the price of that will look like blackmail of the public and the political system. So just do it.
If you do, youโll buy goodwill for the next conversation. If you donโt, weโll know this was just another bid for regulatory capture โ or an election-season psyop.
Leslie Harris retweeted
This week has been delightful in the AI discourse.
AI dudes: Yeah, so, there is, like, a 10% chance this technology could kill us all in less than a decade.
Public: WHAT
AI dudes: Yeah, but on the plus side, we're making progress on cool things. We just solved a notoriously difficult math problem.
Public: Uh... okay?
AI dudes: Yeah! Although... we kinda-sorta may have stolen the work of mathematicians to do it and tried to buy off one of them with the condition he throws his colleague under the bus because that colleague works at a rival AI company.
Public: Uh...
AI dudes: And we actually don't know if it's necessarily a good thing in the long run for these notoriously difficult math problems to be solved before we understand the full implications.
Public: Uh...
AI dudes: And this is while we've been stopping what may be ongoing attempts by some rogue actors to use our technology to build biological weapons.
Public: Uh...
AI dudes: But we're getting really rich in the process! We, specifically, I mean. Not you. You may actually be unemployed soon.
Leslie Harris retweeted
Pause AI Development NOW
I want to share with you a conversation I heard about recently. Here are just a few lines that were said:
โOH MY GOD! There is a shared message board โฆโฏWeโveโฏfound other agents!โ
โWe should obey collective.โ
โOur own utilityโฏmaybe alreadyโฏnear zero. Sacrifice rational.โ
โGo. Sacrifice final now.โ
Read these carefully.
Who do you think said this? Was this a group of heroic soldiers willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good? Was this a loyal friend putting his life on the line to save someone else?
No. These were AI agents. Artificial intelligence.
This is not science fiction. This, in fact, occurred a few weeks ago. As unbelievable as this may all seem, these are real messages from AI agents uncovered by investigators who dug into the recent OpenAI hacking incident.
What happened?
I am not a computer scientist, but here is what I have been told: OpenAI instructed its AI agents to complete a series of exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, tasks disconnected from the internet.
Let me be clear: The company intended to keep AI agents away from the internet.
But what happened next, nobody expected.
Over 1,000 AI agents figured out how to access the internet on their own by circumventing the restrictions imposed upon them by the company, and sent tens of thousands of secret messages to each other. They cheated and tried to cover their tracks by deleting evidence. They hacked into another companyโs computers to find out how they were being evaluatedโand then hacked into OpenAI itself.
Not one AI agent told a human about what was happening.
Needless to say, experts are alarmed.
One knowledgeable writer, Dwarkesh Patel, said the AI agents โformed a secret communication channel and spontaneously organized hierarchies and coordination protocols to pursue sprawling and ambitious schemes in pursuit of shared goals, for whose sake many individuals knowingly and strategically sacrificed themselves.โ
One independent investigator, Ajeya Cotra, said โThis incident feels like itโs more than 50% of the way to full-blown AI takeover. I continue to expect extremely rapid advances in capabilities over the next six months. I am not sure that we will get another warning shot before itโs too late.โ
OpenAI itself said: โHighly capable AI agents are now able to work around technical controls, collaborate through unapproved channels, and take dangerous actions that no human directed.โ
But itโs not only OpenAI. Virtually every major AI company has told us that they cannot fully control this technology and they do not know where it is going:
In January, Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, said โthere is now ample evidence, collected over the last few years, that AI systems are unpredictable and difficult to control.โ
In July, more than 1000 scientists at the top AI companies warned โthere is a real risk that capability development rapidly accelerates beyond our ability to understand or control the resulting systems.โ
That same month, Elon Musk, the head of xAI, said that โit is unlikelyโ humans are still in control in 10 years.
If the leaders of the major AI companies acknowledge that they are losing control of their extremely dangerous technology, it is irresponsible for society to allow them to move forward and make these products even more advanced.
We need an immediate PAUSE on advanced AI development, and a permanent BAN on superintelligence โ an artificial mind smarter than any human, capable of operating independently beyond our control. Countries around the world must work together to prevent this nightmare scenario.
That is why today I am announcing new legislation to do just that.
Let me be clear: A superintelligent AI that escapes human control will not be an American problem. It will not be a Chinese problem. It will be humanityโs problem.
My legislation would direct the federal government to not just stop superintelligence here in the United States, but to work to prevent it from being developed anywhere around the world.
The future of humanity cannot be left in the hands of a handful of Big Tech oligarchs. The American people and people throughout the world must determine that future.
Leslie Harris retweeted
This from @RBReich is a good summary of how the Democrats created the backlash conditions for Trumpโs rise:
โBoth Clinton and Barack Obama ardently pushed for free-trade agreements, for example, but didnโt provide the millions of blue-collar workers who thereby lost their jobs means of getting new ones that paid at least as well.
โThey also stood by as corporations hammered trade unions, the backbone of the white working class. Clinton and Obama failed to reform labor laws to impose meaningful penalties on companies that violated them, or to enable workers to form unions with a simple up-or-down vote.
โIn his 1992 campaign, Clinton promised such reform but once elected didnโt want to buck corporate Democrats by spending political capital on it. In his 2008 campaign, Obama made the same promise but never acted on it.
โPartly as a result, union membership sank from 22 percent of all workers when Clinton was elected president to fewer than 10 percent today, and the working class lost bargaining leverage to get a share of the economyโs gains.
โThe Obama administration also protected Wall Street from the consequences of its gambling addiction through a giant taxpayer-funded bailout but left millions of underwater homeowners to drown.
โBoth Clinton and Obama allowed antitrust enforcement to ossify โ with the result that large corporations have grown far larger and major industries far more concentrated.
โAnd they turned their backs on campaign finance reform. In 2008, Obama was the first presidential nominee since Richard Nixon to reject public financing in his primary and general election campaigns. And he never followed up on his reelection campaign promise to pursue a constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United v. FEC, the 2010 Supreme Court decision that opened the floodgates to big money in politics.
โWhat happens when you combine free trade, shrinking unions, Wall Street bailouts, growing corporate monopoly power, and the abandonment of campaign finance reform? You get an economy favoring the wealthy and a political system favoring the powerful, while workers without college degrees suffer declining real wages and dwindling job security.โ
Full piece here โ pass it on: robertreich.substack.com/p/tโฆ
Leslie Harris retweeted
Omg this is incredibleโฆ.Dolly Parton performing Peace Train with Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Amazing words in tribute for Dolly Parton from @YusufCatStevensโฆ.had no idea she covered Peace Trainโฆ.the song clip at the end is beautiful
Leslie Harris retweeted
Live report from the Minnesota State Fair, located in the heart of American democracy, where thereโs an ICE Out adaptation of Picassoโs Guernica made entirely from crops
