The Dissidents

Welcome to our the first episode of our monthly series of the Dissidents Podcast on the legacies of black pioneers, brought to you by the Black Institute of Liberal Values (a joint project of Free Black Thought and the Institute for Liberal Values). In this inaugural episode, Winkfield Twyman, Jr & Jennifer Richmond, speak with Bill Paine and Tom Miller, two descendants of the first ordained black minister, Lemuel Haynes. Jen & Wink talk about what it means for people to come together across the color line in celebration of pioneering ancestors and in community as “Old Americans”. Lemuel Haynes Resources: Sketches of the Life and Character of the Rev. Lemuel Haynes, for Many Years Pastor of a Church in Rutland, and Late in Granville, New York.  Timothy Mather Cooley. Publisher: John S. Taylor, NY. 1839 Black Puritan, Black Republican The Life and Thought of Lemuel Haynes, 1753-1833. John Saillant. Oxford University Press, 2003 Lemuel Haynes, a bio-bibliography.  Richard Newman. Lambeth, Press, NY. 1984 Black preacher to white America : the collected writings of Lemuel Haynes, 1774-1833 / edited by Richard Newman; introduction by Helen MacLam ; preface by Mechal Sobel. Haynes, Lemuel, 1753-1833. Brooklyn, N.Y. : Carlson Pub., 1989 Liberty Further Extended-https://www.jstor.org/stable/1919529 John Saillant SEA Scholar of the Month June, 2023 https://www.societyofearlyamericanists.org/whats-new-announcements/sea-scholar-of-the-month-june-2023-john-saillant   https://www.jstor.org/stable/365942 "Not Only Extreme Poverty, but the Worst Kind of Orphanage": Lemuel Haynes and the Boundaries of Racial Tolerance on the Yankee Frontier, 1770-1820 Author(s): Richard D. Brown Source: The New England Quarterly , Dec., 1988, Vol. 61, No. 4 (Dec., 1988), pp. 502-518 Published by: The New England Quarterly, Inc. https://we-ha.com/memorial-to-lemuel-haynes-dedicated-in-west-hartford/ https://granbydrummer.com/2020/08/lemuel-haynes-an-eloquent-man-of-god/ https://granbydrummer.com/2020/09/lemuel-haynes-an-eloquent-man-of-god-2/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AaYsRYojDc  *The Lemuel Haynes part starts at 32:28 And another small segment from West Rutland a couple years ago https://vermonthistory.org/lemuel-haynes https://jwhamil.com/Hamil/Family.htm  (Family website)   Other related resources: Discovering Black Vermont, African American Farmers in Hinesburgh, 1790-1890. Elise A. Guyette. Vermont Historical Society. 2020 The Little Professor of Piney Woods, The Story of Professor Laurence Jones. Beth Day. Julian Messner, Inc. NY. 1956 Benjamin Banneker and Us, Eleven Generations of an American Family. Rachel Jamison Webster. Henry Holt and Company. NY. 2023 Vermont African American Heritage Trail: https://www.vermontvacation.com/~/media/files/pdfs/itineraries/vermont-african-american-heritage-trail-2015.ashx?la=en

This week, Mike and Elizabeth ask whether illiberalism is unethical (spoiler alert: we think so)  A couple of brave psychologists recently suggested the same when they advocated for adding the protection and defense of free speech to the American Psychological Association's ethics codes.  We find their premise regarding illiberalism sound, even if their arguments are somewhat weak, and make strong arguments of our own that illiberal behaviors are difficult to reconcile with ethical standards. Podcast notes: O’Donohue, W., & Fisher, J. E. (2022). Are illiberal acts unethical? APA’s Ethics Code and the protection of free speech. American Psychologist, 77(8), 875–886.

In this week's episode Mike and Elizabeth talk about personal and institutional neutrality with academic librarian Pam Hayes-Bohanan.  While many of us think about free speech and academic freedom in the abstract, they are concrete and routine considerations for libraries and librarians.  Institutions release statements and professional organizations issue ethical guidelines, but no one knows better than librarians the often conflicting impracticalities these can pose.  We discuss the challenges of book bans, collection policies, socio-political culture, and what they mean for community and academic libraries and staff.   Institute for Liberal Values

In this week's episode we challenge liberal communicators to make better use of emotional language and imagery to boost their logical arguments.  Mike refers to philosophical and historical references to the conflict between reason and sentimentality.  Elizabeth describes what research in psychology has to say about the the important contributions of the brain's emotional system to everyday functioning. Reason and emotion are not in conflict; they work in concert. Institute for Liberal Values ________ Register for our Liberalism in Practice Panel Discussion: Lessons from Harvard and the Claudine Gay Affair. Register To see our calendar of events, and to join our discussions, we invite you to join us on Circle. Circle

This week's focus is on research suggesting a link between anti-semitism and a culture of competitive victimhood. Elizabeth and Mike briefly describe research designed to test the hypothesis that the Holocaust serves as a standard for comparing victim status. We consider how the research might help us understand outgroup bias, including anti-semetism, and seemingly inexplicable endorsements of terroristic activities past and present. Podcast Notes: Antoniou, G., Dinas, E., & Kosmidis, S. (2020). Collective victimhood and social prejudice: A post‐Holocaust theory of Anti‐Semitism. Political Psychology, 41(5), 861–886.

n this week's episode, Mike and Elizabeth discuss diversity training, specifically an "Anti-Racist Fight Club" pamphlet, forwarded to us anonymously.  We go through the materials, click on embedded links, and fact check where appropriate. This is a long episode, but it could have easily been longer still. For example, we focused on aspects presented as objective information, but did not linger over portions that were clearly presented as the author's opinion.  We hope this episode may be helpful to listeners who are facing their own workplace DEI seminars.   Podcast Notes Watch Coleman Hughes Colorblindness Ted Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/coleman_hughes_a_case_for_color_blindness   Watch Doyin Richards Tedx Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/doyin_richards_racism_from_the_perspective_of_a_non_threatening_black_man   Listen to Our Podcast with Wilfred Reily: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-017-talking-taboo-data-racism-wilfred-reilly/id1537516628?i=1000622605770   Listen to Glenn Lowery and John McWhorter talk about Ibram X Kendi: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/john-mcwhorter-dan-subotnik-the-ibram-x-kendi-scandal/id505824976?i=1000630478139   See Barack Obama reconnect with the boy (now a young adult) who wanted to touch the former president's hair: https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2022/05/27/obama-hair-like-mine-photo-kid-orig-kj.cnn  

Recent editorial headlines and social media posts suggest the resignation of Harvard's president, combined with shifting public sentiment, are signals that DEI initiatives are losing their grip on education and government. In this week's episode, Mike and Elizabeth discuss why a few small cracks in the DEI facade are unlikely to turn the tide. We are very skeptical that the overall strength and vastness of DEI influences have been diminished and see more evidence of continued vulnerability to a belief system that is baked into the consciousness of so many. Policies, procedures, and commitments have been made that will require institutional compliance with DEI initiatives for many years to come, and DEI administrators, true believers or not, are unlikely to abandon their posts. Mike wonders if shifts in public sentiment will further fuel the skepticism and distrust already reflected in public sentiments about elite institutions. Podcast Notes: Our podcast with Helen Pluckrose and Rio Veradonir: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-033-slippery-slopes-helen-pluckrose-rio-veradonir/id1537516628?i=1000638524042 From the Chronicle of Higher Education: https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-decade-of-ideological-transformation-comes-undone?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_8675282_nl_Academe-Today_date_20240103&cid=at&source=&sourceid=&sra=true Lee Jussim's Substack https://unsafescience.substack.com/p/2023-academic-self-delegitimization https://unsafescience.substack.com/p/victory-lap From the Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/05/dei-training-initiatives-consultants-companies-skepticism/674237/ From the Boston Globe: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/01/04/opinion/dei-college-woke-universities-harvard/ An example of long term commitments to DEI: https://www.michigandaily.com/news/umich-to-invest-79m-toward-hiring-30-professors-as-part-of-dei-program-with-nih/

This week, Mike and Elizabeth talk about research linking ideology to our habits of attention and memory, including our interpretation of cues related to social status and behaviors.  The episode was recorded before Harvard’s president resigned, but our discussion is relevant to the ongoing controversy about her path to leadership and short lived tenure as president.  The conversation was inspired by a popular online opinion piece proposing that “pathological kindness” (the author’s term, not ours!) leads individuals to act in ways that are ultimately unproductive or socially harmful.   Institute for Liberal Values Podcast notes: Waldfogel, H. B., Sheehy-Skeffington, J., Hauser, O. P., Ho, A. K., & Kteily, N. S. (2021). Ideology selectively shapes attention to inequality. PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 118(14). https://doi-org.libserv-prd.bridgew.edu/10.1073/pnas.2023985118 https://unherd.com/2023/10/the-tyranny-of-pathological-kindness/

Winkfield Twyman Jr., former law school professor, writer, and Harvard Law School graduate, joins Elizabeth Spievak for a discussion about Claudine Gay.  Wink questions the moral courage of Harvard's president and has called for her resignation.  Gay's recent congressional testimony is discussed as an example of what is a larger problem on college campuses and beyond.  We talk about what it means to have a moral compass, historical and contemporary examples of moral courage, and what can and should be expected of leaders. Throughout, the issues and challenges are framed in the context of liberal values. Institute for Liberal Values Podcast Notes: Wink's Substack on this topic:  https://twyman.substack.com/p/please-resign-harvard-university https://twyman.substack.com/p/what-does-moral-competence-look-likehttps://twyman.substack.com/p/toby-ziegler-and-a-moral-momenthttps://twyman.substack.com/p/can-you-help-a-sister-outBari Weiss Free Press Articles:  https://www.thefp.com/archive?gclid=CjwKCAiA1fqrBhA1EiwAMU5m_wJQhpNBLyx_TMgEC2p8eJyaacI7qCLA-hZXadnZkEmoQluoeR6ZIxoCaykQAvD_BwE

This week we talk culture, ideological politics, philosophy, and law with the celebrated author of Cynical Theories (Helen Pluckrose) and the Assistant Director at the Bi Foundation and editor-in-chief of Queer Majority (Rio Veradonir).  Helen and Rio speak with Mike and Elizabeth about challenges to liberalism, past, present, and future. They also share their reasons to celebrate and be hopeful.  Podcast Notes: Queer Majority: https://www.queermajority.com/ Bi Foundation: https://bi.org/en/about Bailey, Allison (2014). The Unlevelled Knowing Field: An Engagement with Dotson's Third-Order Epistemic Oppression. Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective. The Unlevel Knowing Field: An Engagement with Dotson’s Third-Order Epistemic Oppression, Alison Bailey - Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective (social-epistemology.com) Burke, Edmund (1790). Reflections on the Revolution in France. The Project Gutenberg eBook of Burke's Writings and Speeches, Volume the Third, by Edmund Burke. Dotson, Kristie (2011). Tracking Epistemic Violence: Tracking Practices of Silencing. Hypatia. Tracking Epistemic Violence, Tracking Practices of Silencing on JSTOR  Mills, Charles (2005). "Ideal Theory" as Ideology. Hypatia. Wiley.  "Ideal Theory" as Ideology on JSTOR Paine, Thomas (1791). The Rights of Man. Project Gutenberg. The Writings of Thomas Paine, Complete by Thomas Paine | Project Gutenberg Pluckrose, Helen & James Lindsay (2005). Cynical Theories. Pitchstone Publishing. Amazon.com: Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender, and Identity - and Why This Harms Everybody (Audible Audio Edition): Helen Pluckrose, James Lindsay, Helen Pluckrose, Pitchstone Publishing: Books Pluckrose, Helen (2023). The Perilous Pendulum Swing Threatening LGBT Rights. Queer Majority. The Perilous Pendulum Swing Threatening LGBT Rights — Queer Majority Stenner, Karen (2012). The Authoritarian Dynamic. Cambridge University Press. Authoritarian Dynamic (05) by Stenner, Karen [Paperback (2005)]: Stener: Amazon.com: Books