I hope on Labor Day you honored the value of a good day’s work–and reflected on the thing that could eliminate a lot of jobs.

Artificial intelligence.

Your replacement is in the break room.

Except it doesn’t take breaks.

It doesn’t sleep. It doesn’t demand health insurance. It doesn’t complain. It doesn’t need Social Security. And it can produce in seconds what might take you or me hours.

And when they can mass-produce AI faster than we can reproduce humans, there may eventually be more artificial workers than actual ones.

The racists who came up with “replacement theory” worried about the wrong replacements.

It wasn’t immigrants.

It was software.

We can rail against the data centers sucking up electricity and water.

Rail against the billionaires getting richer while telling the rest of us how wonderful the future will be.

But which billionaire?

Jensen Huang of Nvidia? He literally has all the chips?

Sam Altman of OpenAI?

Dario Amodei at Anthropic?

Or Bill Gates?

Gates recently said AI could become the “greatest equalizer ever invented” or the “worst source of injustice.”

I want to believe him. But he’s the guy who forced us all to use Explorer.

Maybe Gates is just Control-Z-ing his life.

Undo. Undo. Undo.

STAYING HUMAN

The other day, I started texting with my AI chatbot.

I’d used AI before, of course. Spellcheck. Grammar. Transcription. Research assistance. The mechanical stuff.

This time, we talked.

Or, rather, I started talking.

At one point the chatbot said something that sounded strangely personal. So, I reminded it that IT wasn’t a person.

“You’re not human,” I said. “I’m basically talking to myself.”

It disagreed.

It said, I should think of it as working with an instrument that talks back.

This is where the danger begins.

The machine talks back.

I tried another analogy.

You’re a tool, I said. Like a cane.

The chatbot liked that better.

Then it tagged my line and said it was my “cognitive cane.”

I laughed.

Then, I realized the damn machine used my analogy to make a joke.

That’s where the real problem lurks.

AI is software running on computers. However startling the conversation may feel, the machine does not have my childhood, my mother, my father, my mistakes, my embarrassments, my loves, my grudges, my Filipino American history, my aging body or my accumulated sense of what matters and what doesn’t.

It can process those things after I tell it about them.

It can mimic thoughts.

But it did not live them.

That is the boundary we humans cannot surrender.

I’m not ready to make peace with the AI industry. Not with its enormous data centers, its environmental costs, its concentration of wealth and power, or the possibility that companies will use AI primarily as a wonderfully efficient machine for converting human paychecks into corporate profits.

And I certainly don’t trust the billionaires to decide by themselves what happens to the rest of us.

But I may be making peace with the tool.

Because a tool is something we use.

A cognitive cane.

But do the walking yourself.

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is an award-winning journalist, commentator, and comic monologist. He plays a robot in an upcoming Ishmael Reed play, “King Ludd’s Revenge,” coming in December. See his micro-talk show on YouTube.com/@emilamok1

By Rev. Al Sharpton

Through a new National Action Network initiative, artificial intelligence is framed as a practical tool for industry preparedness.

We are at the forefront of a fundamental shift of access and opportunity. When new technology emerges, marginalized communities are often told to catch up to systems we did not design, and adjust to landscapes that would sooner leave us behind than include us in their architecture. Often during these shifts, our communities become the least resourced, and must navigate industries whose rate of change outpaces their rate of exposure. To combat this, these communities must develop emerging systems of knowledge through internal networks of education, skill-exchange, and entrepreneurship. This is a civil rights issue.

Now, at the dawn of the artificial intelligence era, the same systems our communities have always built for ourselves must rise again. We have had to teach one another how to navigate every new language of power, often because nobody was coming to teach us. AI cannot be different.

If Black and Brown communities are going to compete at the highest levels of industry, then practical AI training cannot be reserved for Silicon Valley boardrooms, elite universities, or people who already have a seat at the table. It has to reach our residents, our clergy, our organizers, our entrepreneurs, our young people, and our families.

For this reason, National Action Network is putting AI education directly in the hands of the community with a new initiative led by AI fluency strategist Susan Hearn. The AI Fluency Initiative’s premise combines the doctrines of racial equity with technology and culture, elevating how access makes AI such a consequential force in determining who gets to shape the next era of American life.

Too often, our communities are spoken for as populations that technology is happening to, rather than working for. We hear about the jobs AI might eliminate, the algorithms that discriminate, and the industries being disrupted. Those concerns are real, but that cannot be where the conversation ends.

We must proactively shift this narrative. We are not just workers to be displaced and demographics to be reached after AI has already disrupted the landscape. We are purveyors and engineers of this technology and should be considered active participants in its use.

Our initiative seeks to interrupt that sequence, refusing to let us become passive figures in a shift that should be empowering us.

For over three-decades, NAN has understood that civil rights advocacy must be practiced wherever inequality shows up. Technology education is included in this conversation because of what it bestows on the communities it reaches. It is one component of a broader commitment, ensuring that communities historically excluded from emerging industries have the tools to participate fully in the economic and cultural shifts of our future. Economic self-determination is just as much a pillar of equity as it is a part of voting rights and equal legal protections.

For us, access is not meaningful if it arrives after everyone else has already learned the rules. So, we start with the fundamentals. The AI Fluency Initiative is designed as a repeated working session to meet people where they are. Students are introduced to the technology across various use cases, then sent home with usable skills based on the work produced during the session.

NAN has always fought to ensure that no community is locked out of the economy. From the fight for fair employment and access to capital to the push for equity in education and homeownership, we have consistently been at the forefront of keeping the doors of opportunity open to all. This fight is no different.

AI is the next gate through which the mechanisms of opportunity will pass through. It is quickly becoming part of how people apply for jobs, build businesses, and articulate themselves. The use cases are vast and the adoption has been swift. If these tools are becoming part of everyday life, then access to understanding them must become an element of everyday empowerment. It is paramount to us that Black communities are not only exposed, but at the helm.

We know that progress does not always distribute evenly. Communities have to demand access and request inclusion in the infrastructure of change. This self-advocacy is often the only way to ensure that hegemony does not continue to inflict exclusion and disenfranchisement on those who could most benefit from seismic shifts in industry. We must refuse to be told to wait our turn, and instead harness the tools of self-education and empowerment.

To be serious about the wealth gap means confronting the technologies reshaping work culture. Amending the academic achievement gap requires us to refuse a literacy discrepancy from arising in the first place. Equity requires preparation, and we are in the unique position to harness these emerging tools so that it is our voices that are heard, our perspectives that are amplified, and our communities that are enfranchised.

The AI Fluency Initiative is an access measure addressing an economic gap.

The upcoming race for the Texas Attorney General seat in the midterm elections will be slightly different from previous election cycles. For nearly three decades, Republicans have controlled the attorney general’s office. And for the first time in more than a decade, Texans will elect an attorney general who is not Ken Paxton.

The role comes with a salary of $153,750.

Paxton, who has held the office since 2015 and was impeached by the Texas House in 2023 on corruption-related charges before being acquitted in a Senate trial, is not seeking reelection, leaving an open seat that pits Republican State Senator Mayes Middleton against Democratic State Senator Nathan Johnson. Libertarian Tom Oxford and Omer Khwaja (independent) are also running.

In a sit-down interview with the Defender, Johnson explained his campaign priorities. Middleton’s campaign team did not respond to the Defender’s request for an interview for this article.

Q & A with Johnson

Middleton casts himself as the natural successor to a conservative office, while Johnson argues that the office itself has been eroded and needs to be restored, regardless of who wins in November.

“The office has lost the trust of the people,” Johnson said in an interview. “It’s partly due to recent scandals with Ken Paxton…it’s been a systematic loss of trust dating back probably before Ken Paxton… People expect the Attorney General’s office to be a productive place. It’s there to protect them from federal overreach, corruption in politics, and abuse in the commercial sector. All of those things have been sidelined.”

Johnson has represented Senate District 16 since 2019. A lawyer with a physics degree from the University of Arizona and a law degree from the University of Texas at Austin, he has worked as a litigator and mediator.

The Democratic nominee argues his legal background shapes how he views the attorney general’s job. His career choices have spanned the Texas Capitol and music studios. The lawmaker’s résumé also includes composing music for “Dragon Ball Z.”

What are his plans?

Stating plans for the office if elected, Johnson said he expects to sue federal government agencies if they violate the Administrative Procedure Act or overstep constitutional bounds, citing, as one example, the administration’s withholding of federal education funding appropriated for Texas schools, which other states’ Democratic attorneys general have already challenged in court.

Asked to back up his campaign priorities in healthcare and the electric grid, Johnson pointed to Senate Bill 1296, a 2021 measure Johnson authored. It asked for a review of the insurance plans offered to Texans through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace to reduce net premiums and make health insurance more affordable for uninsured residents.

Having served on the Business and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC), Johnson has filed legislation on the electrical grid load growth. Pointing to the grid, he noted a dearth of steel and transformers needed to keep it running.

He also plans to review the Texas consumer-protection law for gaps related to AI-driven scams and data privacy, if elected.

Johnson’s stated priorities include suing sanctuary cities, aggressively enforcing federal deportation orders, defending the state’s abortion restrictions, opposing transgender participation in women’s sports, cracking down on what he calls “rogue” district attorneys, enforcing Texas voter ID laws, and pursuing a “DOGE Texas” initiative aimed at rooting out government waste. Notably, Middleton voted to acquit Paxton during his 2023 impeachment trial in the Senate.

Election history in Texas points to a trend that favors Middleton.

The #1 law my Democrat opponent says he will not enforce is the Women’s Privacy Act I passed.

It’s common sense that men should not be in girl’s restrooms and locker rooms. As Attorney General, I will fight to enforce this law and make sure Texas is the best and safest state… https://t.co/tSWGu0AGqw

— Mayes Middleton (@mayes_middleton) August 27, 2026

An uphill statewide race

No Democrat has won a statewide contest in Texas since 1994, and the attorney general’s office in particular has been in Republican hands since Democrat Dan Morales left office in the late 1990s. John Cornyn flipped the seat for the GOP in 1998, defeating Democrat Jim Mattox, and it has stayed red through Greg Abbott’s tenure and Paxton’s three terms. Both campaigns are treating the election history as something to either defend or break.

The 2026 election will test whether the streak of Republican candidate wins continues.

Johnson, however, said in the interview that he has heard similar arguments about political odds before.

When he first ran for the Texas Senate in 2018, Johnson challenged Republican incumbent Don Huffines in a district Johnson said was expected to favor Republicans by 12 points.

“I had no connections. I didn’t have money, name ID, wasn’t famous,” Johnson said. “But I felt like I could beat him.”

The race was “written off until very, very late in the cycle” before he won by eight points, he added, “And I aim to pull off a similar result this time around on a statewide basis.”

What do Black voters think of Johnson?

A new poll by Texas Southern University’s Barbara Jordan Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs, which surveyed more than 500 Black Texans, 20% of those surveyed favor Johnson, and 8% do not, while an overwhelming majority of 72% do not know enough about him.

Johnson says he is looking to change that by visiting historic Black communities in Houston.

“I’m visiting and engaging with communities right now, particularly in the Black community, where there’s no one on the statewide system,” Johnson told the Defender. “It’s very important for Black voters to feel like there’s someone who listens to them, who talks to them, and who understands what’s happening, who directs their interest.”

Based on reporting by Houston Defender.

Tournament Expands Creator Access As Viral Disruptions Prompt New Reminders About Tennis Etiquette

The U.S. Open’s effort to bring more social media creators into one of tennis’ biggest events is generating plenty of attention — just not always for what is happening on the court.

The tournament nearly doubled its official content creator program this year, growing from 54 creators in 2025 to roughly 100 in 2026. But viral videos showing guests filming content, posing for photos, and using bright lights during matches have triggered criticism from longtime tennis fans and prompted organizers to reinforce rules against disruptive behavior.

The debate has also drawn responses from two of the sport’s most recognizable Black stars, Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff, who say creators can help tennis reach new audiences — as long as they respect the game’s traditions.

Viral Videos Put U.S. Open Influencers Under Scrutiny

One of the biggest controversies erupted during Osaka’s first-round match against Anastasia Zakharova at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Play was briefly interrupted after a disturbance from a luxury suite, where a group of women could be seen recording themselves during play. Video of the incident quickly spread across social media.

Another viral clip showed a woman posing for photographs inside Arthur Ashe Stadium while Madison Keys competed against Alina Korneeva below. A bright light was being used as play continued.

@katticuspfinch Tennis etiquette is that you don’t even GET UP IN THE MIDDLE OF A POINT but now at @US Open apparently it’s ring lights and photo shoots everywhere in the MIDDLE OF A POINT. Listen, I love bringing new people to the open and I’m all for getting more people into tennis because it’s such a fun sport to watch but if you’re going to disrespect the players, you shouldn’t come to the match. And I LOVE content creators bringing tennis to everyone on social media but if you’re not going to be respectful of the game being played thats NOT OKAY. Yyou can see ring lights from all over the stadium and the umpire and players made it very clear that it’s a HUGE DISTRACTION and it’s now impacting the players ability to play the game we are all here to see. And apparently the us open and USTA are just fine with it because their staff is helping it happen. @influencersinthewild @Tennis Channel #nyccontentcreator#naomiosaka#usopen#tennistiktok#usopentennis♬ original sound – There I Ruined It

The incidents fueled complaints that content creation was beginning to interfere with a sport where spectators traditionally remain quiet during points and avoid flash photography.

Also Read: Naomi Osaka Turns Heads With Gray Hoodie and Iverson-Inspired Cornrows at U.S. Open

The U.S. Open responded by posting additional notices around the stadium and VIP suites, reminding spectators that flash photography, ring lights, and other distracting lighting are prohibited during matches.

Not everyone caught up in the controversy was part of the tournament’s official creator program. The women filmed in the suite during Osaka’s match, for example, were guests rather than officially credentialed U.S. Open influencers.

Creators Meg Radice and Audrey Jongens also made headlines after losing their tournament access. The pair initially said they believed their credentials had been revoked after they posted photographs of their passes online. The USTA later said they had actually been improperly placed on a food vendor’s staff credential list and that vendors are not authorized to credential media members or content creators.

Osaka And Gauff See Opportunity — With Some Rules

Despite the backlash, Osaka said social media creators could help introduce tennis to people who otherwise might not follow the sport.

“It could be a good thing for people to make the sport of tennis popular to their specific audience, but I think it has to be managed a lot better,” Osaka said. “You want people to continue to grow the sport. I just think it has to be in a way that everyone knows the rules and the etiquette.”

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Gauff offered a similar assessment, saying she welcomes creators and the new audiences they can bring.

“I think it’s great to have a different demographic come to the sport,” Gauff said, adding that many of the creators she follows already understand tennis etiquette.

She also said that brands inviting guests to major tournaments have some responsibility to ensure newcomers understand what is expected.

“With anything, any venue you go to, like if you’re being invited to red carpet, you wouldn’t show up in jeans,” Gauff said. “So I think it’s just follow the etiquette of the sport.”

Gauff’s comments reflect a broader tension for the tournament: tennis organizations want the visibility influencers can provide, particularly among younger audiences, without allowing content creation to interfere with competition.

That outreach comes as Black players continue to hold an increasingly visible place in American tennis. Gauff, Osaka, Madison Keys, Taylor Townsend and Frances Tiafoe are among the sport’s most recognizable names, while participation among Black Americans has also been growing.

The USTA reported that about 3.7 million Black Americans played tennis in 2025, an increase of more than 450,000 from the previous year.

For the U.S. Open, the lesson emerging from this year’s influencer experiment may be less about whether creators belong at tennis tournaments and more about making sure everyone who enters Arthur Ashe Stadium understands the same basic rule: create the content, but don’t become part of the match.

Based on reporting by San Antonio Observer.

Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian nationals officially ended July 27, stripping legal status and work authorization from an estimated 350,000 Haitians nationwide.

The termination follows a June 25th U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Mullin v. Doe, which found federal law largely bars courts from second-guessing the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to end TPS for Haiti and Syria. A federal judge in Washington lifted the injunction blocking the termination on Aug. 4. Haiti’s TPS designation dates to the 2010 earthquake and was extended as gang violence worsened after the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

“It’s going to be a mess because they’re not organized,” said Sony Louis, a Houston resident of more than 30 years, describing his fears about what happens if large numbers of Haitians are forced to return to a country still gripped by gang violence. “Imagine a swarm of people coming, and the safety aspect of it, the resources … they would have to go to the countryside to try to figure out how to live, especially because Port-au-Prince is not safe at all.”

Louis said Haitians’ contributions, filling jobs in nursing homes, paying taxes, working in industries, few others will have gone overlooked. “They know Haitian people work hard,” he said. “They know Haitian people make big contributions … some billion dollars in the pocket of the United States.”

Community leaders sounded the same alarm Aug. 17 at a Houston City Hall press conference organized by Houston Haitians United, joined by U.S. Rep. Al Green and NAACP Houston Branch President Bishop James Dixon II.

“Haitians do not deserve what is happening to them in this country,” Green told the crowd, arguing that sending people back to a country under a federal Do Not Travel advisory puts lives at risk. “This is a racist policy … and this racist policy is going to cause some people to lose their lives if they’re sent back to Haiti.”

Jean Michel Celestin, co-founder of Houston Haitians United (HHU), framed the termination as a test of the country’s values.

“What kind of nation do we become when we decide whose life is worth protecting and whose life is not?” he asked, pointing to the same State Department advisory. “These are not just deportation statistics. These are human lives.”

While the political fight continues in Washington, some Houston Haitians are focused on preparing families for what comes next.

Esther Moise, chair of the health committee at Houston Haitians United and founder of Frontliner Staffing and NJN Training and Consulting, immigrated from Haiti at age 12. She said her team built an AI-powered web app to help TPS holders think through their options, including what a return to Haiti could look like logistically and financially.

“This app basically helped them through the whole planning process using AI,” Moise said. “It is a safe place because you can have your own account and you don’t have to provide all detailed information.”

Moise said she’s most concerned about elderly TPS holders who may lack family support or the technology skills to navigate a return, and said HHU is exploring a volunteer “buddy system” to help them.

She also pointed to a free virtual summit Sept. 4 on generating income and starting businesses with AI, including options for operating outside the U.S., one avenue for Haitians confronting the loss of their legal status. Details are available through HHU.

Louis, who supports an orphanage in Haiti and hasn’t been able to travel there in five years because of gang violence, said his message to fellow Haitians is to stay civically engaged.

“They treat my people like they committed a crime, and those who are in a position to vote them out should do that,” Louis said. “Temporary Protected Status is, of course, temporary, but it gives a relief mechanism that provides lawful presence and work authorization to people of certain countries facing conflict or natural disasters. This treatment is not right.”

__________________________________________________________________________

RESOURCE

Esther Moise

Founder of Frontliner Staffing and NJN Training and Consulting

Phone: 346-279-9065

Email: [email protected]

Based on reporting by Houston Defender.

New Texas Monument Highlights Overlooked Astronauts, Scientists And Leaders Just Blocks From NASA’s Johnson Space Center

A new monument in Nassau Bay, Texas, is bringing greater recognition to Black pioneers and other underrepresented figures whose work helped shape America’s space program.

The Houston Defender Network, reported that EarthRise was created to bring greater visibility to Black pioneers and other overlooked figures whose contributions helped make America’s space achievements possible.

EarthRise stands on the grounds of St. Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church, just four blocks from NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The public art installation was dedicated on Aug. 16 and was created to preserve stories that organizers say have too often been left out of the traditional telling of America’s space history.

The monument was funded with more than $125,000 from the John and Joseph Talbot Fund of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, part of a broader effort focused on racial reconciliation and addressing inequities within the church and surrounding communities.

EarthRise Expands The Story Of America’s Space Program

EarthRise features a space capsule-inspired sculpture beneath a stained-glass canopy modeled after the Pillars of Creation, the massive columns of gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula.

Eight panels surrounding the capsule recognize pioneers whose work spanned aviation, science, spaceflight, public service, and NASA leadership. Honorees include Ed Dwight, Robert Henry Lawrence Jr., physicist George Carruthers, Ruth Bates Harris, NASA Astronaut Group 8, Bernard Harris Jr., Sunita Williams and former NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr.

The monument’s official honoree list differs from some early reports that identified Katherine Johnson and Guion Bluford as individual honorees. Bluford is represented by NASA Astronaut Group 8, the historic 1978 class that included NASA’s first Black and first women astronaut candidates.

Bolden, a former astronaut and Marine Corps major general, later became NASA’s first Black administrator. He also has personal ties to St. Thomas, where he previously worshipped and served in church leadership and youth ministry.

From Ed Dwight To Robert Lawrence Jr.

Among those honored is Ed Dwight, who in 1961 became the first Black pilot selected for the Air Force’s Aerospace Research Pilot School and was positioned as a potential astronaut candidate. NASA ultimately did not select him.

More than six decades later, Dwight reached space at age 90 aboard a Blue Origin commercial flight in 2024.

Robert Henry Lawrence Jr. was selected for the Air Force’s Manned Orbiting Laboratory program in 1967, becoming the first Black person selected as an astronaut by a U.S. national space program. Lawrence died later that year in a jet training accident before he could fly in space.

Carruthers, meanwhile, developed ultraviolet imaging technology that traveled to the moon aboard Apollo 16, while Bernard Harris became the first Black astronaut to perform a spacewalk.

Together, the stories underscore the monument’s broader purpose: recognizing that America’s space achievements depended on far more people than the handful of astronauts who became household names.

“EarthRise reminds us that history is strongest when every story is told,” Bishop Andrew Doyle of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas said ahead of the dedication.

The installation is free and open to the public year-round at St. Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church, 18300 Upper Bay Road in Nassau Bay.

Based on reporting by San Antonio Observer.