TED Community » Wilton Jackson

About Me

Son of an immigrant Afro-Caribbean from Jamaica and an African American from Detroit. Both parents are Educators. I have 3 siblings and my familial experience has been marked by a pretty international background. As a child I was not allowed to eat a lot of candy, watch too much TV, go out on my own two much, and I was raised in a household where children were children and adults were adults and that was that. However, as a kid I was free to read any book in the house, watch any news program, practice to piano ad infinitum, go to church as much as we wanted, and go almost anywhere with my parents. My siblings and I were raised by two traditional parents and by God indirectly. Still in my parents and in our upbringing we were surrounded by an urban flair, Motown, the Jamaican heritage, the racial world, and my parents freely and seamlessly took us around the country and even around the world to visit family, to watch cricket, and to pursue our own individual passions. This is what I learned from my Parents more than Biblical tenets of living or than the strict order of discipline and diligence; no amount of rules, order, discipline etc. can stifle your passions... if anything they can only set them more ablaze and perhaps even equip you to more successfully pursue them, at the right times, in the right way. Now I'm a student at Northwestern University studying political science/ political theory and African studies and my passion is always put to use. Whether my focus is development theory, moral philosophy, government, or critical race theory, my background and my life define my pursuit of a better world for me and all others. No matter how much or how little there was in my household at any given time, whether resources or freedom, I was raised with 3 other people, awesome people. I have one brother and two sisters and we carried each other through good and bad. At the core, people and one's own person are always indivisible, unbreakable, undeniable and eternally essential. Whether I'm looking at political landscapes in Sub-Saharan Africa in the context of post-colonial development, working at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management teaching Business and Entrepreneurship to high school students, organizing activities or groups on campus, it's about the people - group or individual. What can this do for the person? Through this, what can the person do for the other? How would this impact me? I often tell my students at the LEAD Program at Kellogg, "make the best of time, beat time, transcend time, make moments that you can take anywhere". But then I stopped at one summer program and thought, "What am I really telling these kids? How do they make the best of time?" And I realized: Business is not just about money and currency. I can teach about investing money in business opportunities or I can talk about investing one's self and one's time in others and getting great returns on that investment. It was then that I realized that the only thing that matters in this life and all that mattered in making my life and my world what it is are the people. My family, my friends, my teachers, my 'enemies', people show you who to be, who not to be, what could be possible, and how things can be made newly possible. Investing in people, considering the person-aspect in anything, and trying to consider the importance of your personal impact on the world make this life and your place in life far more special. I've graduated High School, traveled to a couple countries, participated in a few service projects, been accepted to universities in the Ivy League, Big Ten, and more, I've worked for the City of Detroit - Dept. of Elections, Kellogg School of Management and LEAD Business Institute, I have completed a sponsored research project on capitalist and marxist post colonial development, and one on the connection of racism and post-colonial international development, I've been in classes in almost every subject area but the only thing that has mattered has been the people. An article hinges greatly on the person who wrote it, a class hinges on the professor and students, a dorm hinges on its occupants etc etc. The success of any endeavor, project, or dream hinges on the people or the person. In a world increasingly ruled by machinery, technology, and mechanism; our most meaningful reality and our valuable experience can and must never ever lose its essentially personal touch.

Location:
United States, Detroit, MI
Current organization:
Northwestern University
Past organizations:
Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management, LEAD Business Progran
Current role:
LEAD Business Program Student Counselor
Gender:
Male
Areas of expertise:
Political Theory, Moral Philosophy, Theology & Ethics, Critical Race Theory, African Political & Economic Affairs, Entrepreneurship & Business, Counter-Cultural Studies, Entrepeneurship, Market & Brand Strategy
I am:
Artist, Athlete, Blogger, Brainstormer, Business leader, Concerned citizen, Idea generator, Journalist, Social entrepreneur, Writer/Editor
Associations:
English
Languages:
French
My website links:
substanceslashstyle, theH
Universities:
Northwestern IL University
Member Picture Member Picture

More About Me

I'm passionate about

I'm passionate about life and about this existential race against time in which we are all engaged. I'm passionate about living tomorrow now and letting yesterday be exactly what it is. I'm passionate

An idea worth spreading

http://thehooddotcom.wordpress.com/ What is this world and the way we see it can be changed through new thinking and new ideas. What has been given to us may not always be what it seems or as it is. We are the fabric of this world, we make it what it is. What you say is what you think, what you think is what you say and do and that makes your world what it is. Make it work, make your world. I have a fascination and an acquired familiarity with marketing, branding, and especially those things on the medium of social networking. In this, and in combination with my focus on political theory I want to being a research project about the impact of marketing campaigns on our political landscapes worldwide, (i.e. Levi's 'Go Forth', Coke's 'I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing [in perfect harmony]', Apple's 'Think Different', etc.). Does a particular political lanscape determine the type of marketing that is done? Or, does marketing determine the inner-workings of a political landscape? Hmm.

Talk to me about

Talk to me about the things that make you happy, angry, and about the things that make you you. Talk to me about your passions an about the things which might get you up in the morning. Talk to me.

People don't know that I'm good at

People don't know that I'm good at painting, drawing, sculpting, singing, acting, soccer, lacrosse, etc. People also don't know that I am good at learning new things and engaging interesting concepts.

My TED Story

Hi, I’m W.S. Paul Jackson. I am currently a student at Northwestern University, enrolled in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. I am a political science major, studying Political Theory, African Studies, Humanitarian and International Development, Moral Philosophy, and Critical Race Theory. My learning experience has extended far outside of the classroom as well, as I have grown a lot as a member of the Varsity Wrestling Team at Northwestern University and as President of CaribNation (Northwestern's Caribbean Student Alliance),

At present, I'm interested in working in social marketing, social enterprise (domestic and international), political consulting, law school, or an academic career path within university research and teaching. I want to contribute to organizations that are helping to rebuild society where it is broken, preserve society where it is pure, and stimulate growth in the places of untapped potential. I also am a front man in an awesome band. I love music.

Comments

  • TEDCred score: +0.60 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

  • +1

    A reply on Talk: Aaron Huey: America's native prisoners of war

    Mar 21 2012: Your comment is well-taken, but I must make a slight correction - it is the oppressor who is broken and oppressed, not they who are targeted. We are enslaved to the role of oppressor. These people aren't broken, 'we' are.

  • A comment on Conversation: Conversation with Simon Lewis: How do we make the most of our Consciousness?

    Sep 29 2011: Consciousness is also a gradient thing, with people being basically consciousness or very consciousness. We all experience some form of "Darwinian" survival consciousness in our nature....

  • A comment on Conversation: Conversation with Simon Lewis: How do we make the most of our Consciousness?

    Sep 29 2011: There's no evidence that the human race as a whole has ever done anything except sleep, eat, breathe, etc. There have been great and incredible displays of consciousness to which the rest of us can aspire. But I don't see the point of your comment. Maybe you could explain it a little more?

  • A reply on Conversation: Conversation with Simon Lewis: How do we make the most of our Consciousness?

    Sep 28 2011: By awareness of one's position in a structure of power, I mean being aware of how privileged we are, socially, economically, politically, knowing how we are treated or viewed in society and how we treat and view others in society. Marx talks of a class-consciousness wherein the poor should be aware of their subjugation and work against it and where the rich should be aware of their privileges and be inspired to share it. Consciousness is a keen self-awareness that stimulates humility and inspires courage all at once.

  • A reply on Conversation: Conversation with Simon Lewis: How do we make the most of our Consciousness?

    Sep 27 2011: Bridging the gap between consciousness and unconsciousness has to be a sort of instantaneous epiphany in some regards, but also must be a moment long in the making. True consciousness is the awareness of ones position in or debt to a structure of power and the knowledge of what it takes to act on it.

  • A comment on Conversation: Conversation with Simon Lewis: How do we make the most of our Consciousness?

    Sep 27 2011: As to the critiques of social media as well, this is actually becoming the age of information. Focus is becoming reduced but regardless of one's capabilities to pay attention, WHAT one chooses to pay attention to has to do with the things that one value's and those things which inspire the individual. In North Africa and throughout the Middle East, during the recent wave of democratization known as the "Arab Uprisings", Twitter, a fast paced social media space, aided the diffusion of political ideas in a quick and digestible fashion. Social media can serve the same functions as "pamphleting" in those social and cultural revolutions that predate the internet. Social media also has the power to make a local problem into a concern of the international communities. Media-centric society is not necessarily the problem, it is the things that we want to see and communicate which have drowned out matters of importance. The renewal of consciousness will most importantly rely on the realization that unconsciousness is dangerous and deadly to society and that society is most important to our survival.
  • +2

    A comment on Conversation: Conversation with Simon Lewis: How do we make the most of our Consciousness?

    Sep 27 2011: I truly believe, and I think Karl Marx, Franz Fanon, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Hobbes, and Adam Smith would agree, that collective consciousness is instigated, inspired, and ignited by a common struggle, hardship, or purpose. When the poor class in France were subjected to absolute poverty, their class consciousness was powerful enough to inspire a revolution. When man's self-interest overwhelms his need of others to survive, he will sacrifice his trivial self-interests for the sake of his most essential asset - social relationships. When you place the individual in such a desperate situation when his or her own hands and feet cannot solve the problem, the human with outstretched arms will admit defeat before the world and accept collectivity as the foundation of a surviving humanity.

    In our current conditions of complacency in the West, we function at a high level of political life, enjoying the fruits of one of the most complex political economies in the world and yet voter turn-out is at its all times lowest, except for those countries with incentive programs. It took a great amount of collective consciousness to bring about a highly functioning democracy and to continually include those who were excluded, but once we feel as though we've arrive, we cease to be engaged. In this way 2 things must take place: 1) the subjugation and poverty which takes place in our own country and around the world must be magnified and publicized to heighten awareness about the ails of the other and the imperfection of our system in connection to those troubling situations should not go unnoticed. 2) there needs to be a renewal in the importance of civil society which is the foundation of political life - religion, culture, moral community. The power of collectives, organizations, and movements unites ordinary individuals and gives them extraordinary potential. The same collective consciousness which brought us to this point in history will allow our progress to go undone.
  • +3

    A comment on Talk: Rory Sutherland: Life lessons from an ad man

    Sep 27 2011: One of the most valuable lessons that underlies Rory's humorous and extremely insightful talk is that through the power of witty, analysis-based, and yet intuitive advertising can communicate the importance of anything, to anyone, for any purpose. Perceived value and the ability to create it can create something within the product that was not there before and can illuminate within the person receiving the message something about which they were never keenly aware. Even in his anecdotes - the use of re-positioning and re-framing by the Ottoman government to make hijabs obsolete, to make the potato a more widely sought out crop in Germany - the idea of rebranding can be used very well in politics to impact people's understanding of a movement, a reality, revive passions. See Coca-Cola's Ad Campaigns in the early 70s, Apple's Think Different Ads, Levi's Go Forth Ad, The Obama Campaign, TOMs Shoes, Dove's Natural Beauty Campaign, etc. These are Ad Campaigns which play on shifts in consciousness at a place and time, but they also work to sustain those shifts and consciousness. The idea that Coca Cola's brand can be one associated with democracy and equality is a significant amount of power over the market and shows how much the political environment which shaped Coca-Cola's modern advertising M.O. in the Early 1970's following the height of the Civil Rights Era. The very idea of re-position and re-branding itself can be central in the idea of reforming the status quo where advertising up until that point really very much upon being on the edge of that status quo in order to reach the largest possible market.
    His hinting at Social Media's power in advertising has an added pertinence in politics as we see the impact of Twitter and other social media in the democratization uprisings around the world.
    Imagine the power to make new things feel familiar and familiar things feel new in politics. It could be the power to inspire change and to refuel fundamental passions.

  • A comment on Talk: Alexis Ohanian: How to make a splash in social media

    Aug 2 2011: I think this talk was very funny and insightful. I especially like the point about social media giving users a level playing field as a sort of egalitarian face. This points to the incredible potential of social media to make an immense impact on our world as one can contribute thought, insight, and inspiration in a space which is entirely meritocratic and even more so democratic. If it's cool, it can make a splash. The dreary social norms, biases, and hegemony can't overwhelm the importance of plain and simple "coolness" on the internet. That excites me.

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