have been told us, they've seen people murdered and killed. they said when this happened, their parents ran in different directions and that even they were afraid. and they didn't follow their mothers and ran a different way. the children who weren't able to escape face abduction and rape at least 51 children, most of them girls have been abducted in the past 12 months. caseworkers check on these children to help in whatever ways they can. and at just 9 years old milton is the only man in this tented house with burdens far too heavy to carry on his own flee harding al jazeera. ah, this is all very, these are the top stories to grand rebels. say if you open troops for forced to withdraw from the regional capital mckellar degree people's liberation funds says the government's explanation that the retreat was strategic is ally catherine. so i has more from nairobi. prime minister b ahmed,

spoke to journalists not too long ago and re, to re, to the government position, saying, giving reasons why appeal to this new from some parts of the grant, including mecolas saying that this was a strategic decision that the soldiers need to deal with more with a more national external threat, he did not say what this threat was or which the external forces were. but in that statement, as in that statement by the government aaliyah, it said that to the to grand, defend forces are not a priority, not a threat anymore. police in western canada reporting an increase in sudden death softer, a heat wave at east $65.00. people have died in the vancouver area. north korea's leader has replaced several of his top officials after what he called the grave laps and corona virus prevention. qindzhong accused them of incompetence. rob brian

is following developments from so it comes of course, is north korea claims. famously, it hasn't had a single case of covey 19. it has virtually sealed itself off from the outside world since the beginning of the pandemic, that in turn has had huge economic consequences. we know that combined with storms definitely devastated the harvest last year. the country is facing food shortages in the coming months, and of course it remains extremely vulnerable to the a corona virus. to farmer. 7 secret police chiefs have been sentenced to 12 years in jail after being found guilty of war crimes in yugoslavia and the 1990 s. the us into national criminal tribunal convicted jo each astonish and frankly, similar torch, but their role in financing and equipping sub militias. that was the headlines. the news continues here on odyssey there in about 25 minutes after the stream by china will mark the 100 anniversary of the founding of the communist party with president

susan king leading celebration. but it comes at a time when relations with the west under present strain. and the g 7 countries looking to countess china is growing in humans around the world. follow over detailed analysis on algebra. ah. hi, emmy. ok. you're watching the stream in today's episode, we are going to be joined by clint smith. he is a writer, a poet, and the author of this new book. how the word is passed, a reckoning with a history of slavery across america. clean, it is so good to see you. welcome to the stream. it was a journey through black history. i wanted to go visit every single chapter in real life when you sat down to write this book, what is your mission? yes, so thank you so much for having me. the origin of the book

a originated in my hometown world and i was watching several confederate that you the monuments come down. and pg beauregard, the confederate, general jefferson davis, confederate, president, bobby lee confederate general, and thinking about what it meant that i grew up in a majority blast city, in which there were more o modules to labor, then there were 20 people. and what does that mean? what does it mean to get to school? i had to go to a property we boulevard to get to the grocery store. i had to go down jefferson davis parkway, to get to my middle school was name dr. a lead, a better se that my the street my parents live on is named after somebody who owned a 115 slave people. and what are the implications of that? because we know that symbols and maggie and names are not just symbols, they are reflective of the story that people and the stories people tell. the narrative communities carry those narrative, see public policy and public policy shapes material conditions of people's lives. which isn't to say that taking down that you wouldn't labor is going to erase the racial wealth gap in contemporary united states. but it is to say that all these things are part of the same ecosystem of stories that help us make sense of what

has happened to community. and that's what must be done for community in order to move forward. and so i was thinking about that in my home town in orland and i wanted to sort of brian it out and explore how different places across the country and even across the ocean wracking with deal directly with their own relationship to you. how story you tell, i don't want to quit black history. i'm going to call it american history. you tell american history with such ease and comfort, and an ability to draw people in whether they are white or they're not white. you help share those stories. that is, all history is sharing stories. so why in the united states it's so difficult to share the stories of every body, not just the stories of the ancestors of white europeans. i think because he calls into question so much of the narrative that shapes a contemporary american america is predicated on the miss talk. was the predicated

on the idea that the reason one community was one way in another community looks another way is because of people in those communities what they have or haven't done and not as not because of what has been done to certain generation after generation after generation and so if we take an honest account of what has happened to people and, and different groups of people over the course of american history. and we account for the harm that has been done, and how recent that harm is ready by part of what i write about in this book are not only our physical proximity to this period of time. but i tend to think all the time about how they are 250 years in this country. there's only not $150.00. so you have this institution had existed for a 100 years longer than as you have the woman who open the national museum of african american history and culture, which is based miss sonia and museum documenting african american life that open here in the united states in 2016. the woman who opened that museum along 5, the obama family in 2016 with the daughter of an sleepers. not the granddaughter or

the great granddaughter. she's the daughter in 2016 of someone born into intergenerational chattels. my grandfather's grandfather was his place. i think about my 4 year old son thing on my grandfather's lap, and i imagined him sitting on his grandfather's back. and i'm reminded again that we tell ourselves was a long time ago, wasn't that long ago at all. and when you realize our proximity to this period of history, then it makes clear that all temporary social, economic and political infrastructure is fundamentally tied to that and calls into question. so many of the ideas that people have around you know, whether, why certain communities do or don't have to paint. you know, what i'm going to do, i'm going to ask you, chief audience who are watching right now. if you have a question or comment about american history, you want to ask cleans about and he comes through the lens of remembering that so many of black americans have a history of chattel slavery. then you can be in youtube comment section right away,

and i'll try and bring those conversations that comments into our show. but i have a question. this is a question from hope she's on video, have a listen and then respond that. i wanted to ask mister smith, what did you find most difficult in writing and researching this book, what did you find the most rewarding and inspiring in the writing and reading and researching of this book? thank you so much for the question. i the most difficult thing was my trip to angola. i worked in prisons and taught in prisons and jails for the past 7 years. the teacher and i thought i was, i was familiar with the landscape of incarceration in the country. and so i went to and goal at the context in goal prison, its largest maximum security. prison in the country is 800000 acres. why bigger than the island of manhattan to be its place where 75 percent of the people held.

there are black men, 70 percent, are serving life senses, and it is built on top of a former slave plantation. and what i tell folks is that if you were to go to germany and you have the largest maximum security prison insurance, and it was built on top of form, a concentration was the people held, there were proportionately jewels that place with rightfully be a global emblem. of anti semitic it will be a horn we'll be discussing. we will never allow a place like that to exist in that sort of content. and yet, here in the united states, we have the largest maximum security prison in the country with a vast majority of people who blackman's licenses work in the field of what we once a plantation, someone watches, i'm on horseback with a gun over there where they work for virtually no pe. and so what does it mean that that police exist in that context? in that moment? what does it mean? how does white supremacy normally it acts physical violence against people's bodies, but also number collectively to certain types of violence. it doesn't mean that that place has a gift shop. right? there's a, there's a gift shop at the largest maximum security prison in the country where they sell shot glasses and coffee mugs and stuffed animals and the sweatshirt and baseball

cap. there was a prison mode, or they were the a coffee mode that had a silhouette of a washed house on it. and it said in gold community, i'm looking at your twitter feed right now. you look at that, you like, what the, what's right. it is, it's not only that this place is not interested in any sort of interrogation of its relationship which is bad, but that it is making a mockery and seemingly belittling the reality of the condition that thousands of people in that prison continue to live in. it, it was a long way of saying that that was the most unsettling and haunting piece of what i experience i want to talk about monte ciello, which is the 1st chapter of your book, wanted shallow as the homeless thomas jefferson. and he was part, he was responsible for the declaration of independence, he's really ro, now historical figure, even for americans who may not know the history in too much detail. let me just

tell you a little click from the website because this is often how thomas jefferson is remembered. having this and have a look the, we hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. the claim that is historic, it is an epic, missing out big details from what a lot of americans learn about their own history. so you went to mont cello and what did you find out? want to show the top of my list of places that i wanted to go. because i think that jefferson embodied so many of the contradictions in the policy and the complexity of the american project in the sense that america, the places provided unparalleled and manageable opportunities for upward mobility

and simulation for millions and millions of people across generations. and ways that they are never imagined. and it is often done so as a direct expense of millions, millions of other people who have been in a generation the subjugated and oppressed to create that nobility. and jefferson, someone within himself wrote in one book and one document that all men agree with the one vote and other documents that black people are inferior to lights and both and dominate a body and mind. a role. one of the most important documents and needs to be the western world. and also we linked over $600.00 people over the course of my time, including for the children that have binding plantations, valley coming. and so i wanted to go to manage hello to see how does an institution that is responsible for, for capturing conveying the legacy of this person. tell an honest whole mystic full story of who this person was and what he represented in the contradiction embodied within his life. and not only that, but how does it tell the story of being late. people who lived at mama chapel,

hundreds of people across the regions, and lived in a home and bill community and fell in love and got married. and i have had and built live at this place that in many ways was belong to them more than it belonged . to jeff and jackson was away in parents in philadelphia and new york in washington dc for extended periods of time. and it was these and laid people off the granger's who made the life and who cultivated and made that land possible and who also made everything jefferson did in his life possible. we cannot understand thomas jefferson, one of the most important founding fathers of our country and all that he contributed to the be the american experiment. without understanding that all of the time that he had all the ideas he was able to wrestle with with him right about where possible. because of the labor that he had working for him on his transition said it's hard to believe that in 2021. there are people who do not know that

thomas jefferson of slaves. as a former teacher, what do you think about that or in slave people? i mean, i encountered some of those folks when i was at manage. hello, ironically enough women done in grace who i met when i went to monitor hello and i went up to them after i went on slavery at monticello, which is a tour manager let it focuses specifically on the legacy of slavery and its relationship to jefferson and i went up to them after and they said it really took a shine off the guy. i had no idea jefferson knows i know idea the monitor was what they say, stay clean when you when they said what, how to, how do you handle that? i think you try to extend whatever grace and generosity you can to people, especially in this context because you are asking strangers questions that are in many ways deeply personal and reveal themselves to be deeply shameful. and so i'm

not attempting to, in this book, to present myself in any way that is sort of antagonistic. i'm not attempting to do . i sort of gotcha. like, i can't believe you don't reflect me. is a profound failure of our public consciousness. profound failure in the way to teach the history of american please follow. yeah, i don't it's, it's not shocking because we know that the education system in america could be better, but this is like america one. 0 one. and the reality is that for so many people, they have no idea. they have no idea. and it is a reminder, i think for us, for so many of us, we can, it can be easy to forget that there are many people who, who aren't thinking about where engaging with or are ever presented with is history . and so when i was speaking to diamond, great, it was clear that they were there, their foundation was being seeking like the, the idea that the founding father, the person whose home they had come to a sort of

a pilgrimage. and if they got on planes, they rented cars, they got hotel room to the thomas jefferson and had no idea, but he owned human being. and again, what does that reflect for me with an important reminder of the way, how so much so many 1000000 people in america, in no way understand slavery in any way that is commensurate with the actual impact that it had on this country. and how, how much different, what our understanding of what america look like to be if we had a collective understanding of what has happened. if we had a collective understanding of what founding fathers actually were. if we had a collective understanding of all that has been done in the countries names and who would have been done at the expense of one of my favorite places you visited, that made me want to go that because you, you tell your story as a novel it's history, it's fact you really met these people, but you write it as if we're going on a journey with youth and the rater. and it's like a story. have

a look here. this is a thread that i really like one because the self is a fun. see because the storytelling that you leave into the thread, it is really important. i travel to whitney plantation, the plantation, louisiana. one of the in the country that is dedicated to telling the story of slavery from the perspective of the enslaved. and i love this place just from the book, from the pages because it felt like i was fair, and one of the guides explained it almost like it was like a history book. but if you could be in the book, what was your friend about this plantation? yet when the plantation is a remarkable face, it is, as i say, one of the only plantations in the country that tell the story of slavery through the perspective of enslaved people. and in the thing, but that shouldn't be remarkable. but, but it is, it is a place that is surrounded by a constellation of plantations where people continue to whole wedding,

where people, you know, i talked to waiting planners who talked about how sometimes people use the former slave cabin at these other plantations as bridal suite. so what does it mean that someone would want to celebrate the most joyous day of their life, arguably on the side of intergenerational torture? and so the whitney plantation is sort of 6 waiting in the midst of that, a historic and fundamentally reject the idea that we can understand slavery or understand a plantation and anything other than intergenerational kind of torture. and also that at the same time, while we are understanding the system as one of torture, we are also understand the people. it's fully human as fully embodied person. and part of what they do is make sure that you are confronting the names and the word and to whatever extent possible the faces of people who had been laid on and off and doing it through the perspective of women and children who in our public again our public consciousness to the extent that there is one about slavery in

a very gendered one that sort of renders maybe as a, as a very masculine product phenomena when it is actually something that impacted women and children. and really specific, insidious ways that the whitney has has made a, made an effort to it's interesting that sherry has a question for you. i'm going to bring that question in in a moment. but the parts of the book, what i really felt you as a man, as a person, was when you were talking about children. when they were in these, or 4 situations. as in slave people and the children, most children didn't make it past the age of 5 years old mothers sometimes would kill their kids because they didn't want them to end up. as in slave, young girls, young women were, were assaulted rate year off the year of the year after year the families were separated, goes on and on and on and on. sherry has this question for you about his the

question dr. smith. thank you so much for how the word is passed. we cannot read this book and remain detached. we go through thinking about how we are connected to these events and also how our families are connected to these legacies. and so my question for you is, how has this project changed you or your outlook as an educator? and as a parent and you so much for that question sherry. one thing that it is done for, for whatever reason. so much of my understanding of slavery, which i think is the effective of how so many people understand the institution with centered on the spectacle of court, which is to say the whipping and the beating the county and the,

and the work and the torture. that the torture that one experience working in the fields were being subject to sort of i'm the present dominion of the weapon mulash. i think what working on this book did was give me a more shoot understanding the thing that i can have one of the role that family separation played and psychological and emotional terror that is embodied within that. and i think part of that is because i, i was writing it my wife and i had 2 children of our own. so now i have a 4 year old and a 2 year old. and when you just take a moment to sort of think about like if i'm to think about what if, if i were asleep at night and then i woke up and my children were gone, just disappeared in the middle of the night. i cannot even bring myself to imagine how even even thing i'm coming for how how

profoundly horrific that would be. right. the idea that at any moment i'd be separated from my children. we never see them again. and this is something that millions and lay people live to across generation. at any moment you could be separated from your children, your parents or community. and you might never see them again and i for some reason, i never really. i knew family separation was a part of it clearly, but i never really sat down to reflect on the sort of emotional and psychological implications the back. and i think going to play with me that focuses so much on the lives of children really made it much more intimate and sort of visceral sort of exercise to imagine what that must have been marked for, for people to know that that could happen at any moment when you talk about african

americans in history always feels relevant. there's no time where it doesn't so relevant. so your book, your book is very timely, but he's always going to be timely. because african americans are so woven into the history of america. june teams is one example of that. i always was amazed by the story of june 18th, which was that it took a while for all americans and all african americans to realize the slavery has actually ended. and when that word came to galveston in texas, that day was known as june 10th. this is a very brief history. i know clean can do better. but the reason i want to explain that is because we have a commenter who want to ask you about jean. tv, and the whole idea of what you teeth means. so this is rashawn. yeah, this is rashawn skiwski me if you could, my brain cell thinking that rashawn who sang june, 13th is

a very special holiday. it is now an official federal holiday in the united states . this is what he has to say about june 10th grade having june teeth becoming a federal holiday is a big deal in all americans should embrace it as celebrated as june 10th becomes our 11th federal holiday. but make no mistake. june teeth becoming a holiday is simply symbolic in nature. it does nothing to address the bodily economic, an emotional wounds that slavery put on to black americans. only reparations can help to deal with it. imagine if 156 years after the holocaust, the only thing that germany deal was create a federal holiday. that is the current status of what is happening to black americans in the united states. june 18th can help to continue to educate us to change some of these outcomes. yeah, i absolutely. we will rashawn who we should not mistake the holiday

of june t or a material resources that deserve to be intervene deserve to be given to and repair in order to repair on that has been done to certain community. what i'll say about it is, i think of it as a sort of both and there's a boat, and in this it is absolutely true that june teeth in and of itself is not enough. i would not go as far to say, and i don't think which i'm saying is that it doesn't matter because it doesn't that it does matter that there is now holiday that in its own way, celebrate the end of one of the worst thing that this country i've ever done and it matters because black activists and specifically black activists in texas have been fighting for recognition of june teeth and had been fighting for june to become a federal holiday for decades and decades and decades. and so if i were to sit here and say it doesn't matter, then i think i would be doing a disservice to the work that somebody like one of decades. but with that said to

a shawn point in and of itself is not enough. and i think what we're experience now is experiencing now is the sort of marathon of cognitive dissonance that is reflective of the way that american black americans experienced countries since we were lucky. which is to say that you have june teams because becoming a federal holiday at the same time that there is a state sanctioned effort across state legislatures throughout the country. that is specifically intending to prevent teachers from teaching. the very thing from which the context of june teen emerge. and so you have those things, the legislatures were attempting to prevent black people from having the same access to the franchise as at their counterpart. and so there is a sort of tension that exist there, but, but june teeth matters of the holiday, but in and of itself is not enough most certainly as a holiday. and so i think we have to whole both of those realities. i have one last

question for you comes from you to how can the usa prove that he has dealt with slave owning past? wow, that's fine. oh, many of us show what would you say current? how long do we have? oh man, no pressure. we have to account for what have been done. one thing that i, you know, we've invoke germany a couple times in the show and asked me, has something called stumbling stone. and there tens of thousands of these in germany. whereas if you go up to a nike store or mcdonalds or a kfc, her youngest in front of some of these places will be a brick and is slightly elevated off the ground. a brass brick that has named inscribed in them who were taken from these homes. and so i think they did something similar to that like they do during the holocaust, the contractors believe it might go a long way and helping the author of how the world is part the reckoning with the

history of slavery across america. clint smith, thank you for being on the screen today. take everybody the next time. ah . in the next episode of science in a golden age, i'm exploring the contributions made by scholars during the medieval period in the field of medicine. science tend to be a good subject to bring different people from all over the world together. office such as like a magic open. the more i learned about that, the more i respected science and the golden age with professor jimmy kelly on a jazz, eager to start to cheerfully in front of the next museum in amsterdam. hundreds of protesters scattered to demand. the government is locked down restrictions and lift the curfew. the 1st in the country since world war 2. the

threat is that we lose our freedoms. the protesters who are not following social distances rules are repeatedly ordered to disperse by police. the police is trying very hard friends. the scenario that happened last week when thousands were rioting and sitting across the latter, after some protest started throwing stones. and that's enough for your work. police on horseback moved in to clear the area the canon image represent a truth or merely mimic the perception of the beholder behind the camera. preconceptions, one sided imagery, reclaiming narrative, and the trauma of colonialism ation. and it lingering legacy, delicately addressed as a weapon to make a scene in the democratic republic of congo, film, and a witness documentary on out to me. ah,

o l g 0. when ever you ah, all the this is al jazeera. ah hello, this is and use our on al jazeera. i'm fully back to life from our world headquarters in coming up in the next 60 minutes. record breaking temperatures in western canada and parts of the u. s. lead to dozens of dies. experts say climate change is to blade, ethiopia is army warns of a huge respond to great.