Thread by @GoAstroMo

This Friday is #JUNETEENTH2020

(learn more here: juneteenth.com/history.htm)

Some people like to say that 246 years of slavery wasn’t that long, so last year I gave a talk that put the history of slavery into an astronomical context

Here’s that talk

1/n

Quick aside to remind you that slavery wasn’t over just because Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation

Slaveowners resisted. And lied

There were enslaved Black people who weren’t told of their freedom until well into the 1960s

google.com/amp/s/www.vice…

#Juneteenth

2/n

I started the talk with a brief history of the universe and the US

Look at how tiny that green slice of “freedom” is

Don’t you dare tell me that’s it’s been long enough for Black people to be “over” slavery

#JuneteenthDay

3/n

During the 246 years of slavery, a photon could have traveled 1.4 quadrillion miles

#Juneteenth

4/n

During the 246 years of government-sanctioned human rights violations, the Milky Way galaxy travelled 540 billion miles towards Andromeda

#Juneteenth

5/n

During the 246 years of violence and systematic dehumanization of Black people, about 1200 new stars were born in our galaxy

#Juneteenth

6/n

During the 246 years of ripping Black families apart, Halley’s Comet passed Earth 3 times

#Juneteenth

7/n

During the 246 years that white people tried AND FAILED to crush the spirits of Black people, the Earth lost about 12 billion kg in mass because of molecules escaping our atmosphere

#Juneteenth

8/n

Since that day in 1865, maybe 500 black people have earned physics PhDs in the US

To compare, more than 1000 white dudes get physics PhDs every year

#Juneteenth

9/n

Fewer than 100 black women have PhDs in ANY PHYSICS RELATED FIELD

I will be the first black woman ever to get a PhD from my department. That’s unacceptable

aawip.com

#Juneteenth

10/n

Those 246 years of slavery followed by 100 years of Jim Crow segregation created MASSIVE inequalities in
- wealth
- health
- housing
- voting power
- education
- trans-generational psychological trauma

So no, I’m not over slavery

Have a happy #Juneteenth

11/11