Speaker 1: Positively gam is sponsored by Vasiline. See how they are
Speaker 1: working towards equitable skin care for all at vasiline dot com.
Speaker 1: Some way, dark women have really been made to feel
Speaker 1: unworthy and unloved, unprotected, and the women we are supposed
Speaker 1: to be the nurturers, I think we have damn near
Speaker 1: destroyed the two things to give us life, the planet
Speaker 1: and women. And until women are healed, we will not
Speaker 1: be healed. As man. What's up, everybody? I'm Gammy and
Speaker 1: this is positively gam. Every week I have raw, in
Speaker 1: depth conversations with inspirational people pushing for change on everything
Speaker 1: from aging, relationships, politics, wellness, to the current issues facing
Speaker 1: the black community. Today, I'm talking with my good friend
Speaker 1: d Chants and Barry on colorism. And Jan is a
Speaker 1: producer and director known for his documentaries Dark Girls and
Speaker 1: Dark Girls Too. Both films document colorism within the African
Speaker 1: American community, a subject that many African Americans are still
Speaker 1: affected by today. Let's start with a definition of what
Speaker 1: colorism is. And the reason why I want to do
Speaker 1: that is because I in this conversation and I think
Speaker 1: it will happen. There's such a thin line to me
Speaker 1: between colorism and racism. So tell me what your definition
Speaker 1: of colorism is. I think it's discrimination within people of
Speaker 1: color against themselves. You know, the different hues light skin,
Speaker 1: the verse dark skin, dark skin versus light skin, but
Speaker 1: at all starts with the rape of the slave. Well,
Speaker 1: the definition that that I have in front of me
Speaker 1: is a discrimination within a racial group that favorites people
Speaker 1: with lighter skin over those over darker skin. But I
Speaker 1: think we do need to understand that that discrimination goes
Speaker 1: both ways. What was it about colorism that made you
Speaker 1: decide that you needed to make a film about it?
Speaker 1: Growing up in Eastars, New Jersey, and to build Duke,
Speaker 1: who was my partner on the first one, grew up
Speaker 1: in Poughkeepsie, New York, and both of us being too
Speaker 1: dark skinned little boys for me, I was told, and
Speaker 1: I was too dark, too ugly. That left some scars
Speaker 1: I was. I was never the first choice or the
Speaker 1: second choice for the girls. So it was painful. So
Speaker 1: that did a little bit of a job on my psyche.
Speaker 1: And myself was was quite low until I became a
Speaker 1: senior in high school. And maybe because what I was
Speaker 1: what I saw myself becoming, and that was already a
Speaker 1: personality since my father kind of shut me down in
Speaker 1: terms of speaking and having an opinion. So I was
Speaker 1: very shy and quiet, and I didn't have a voice.
Speaker 1: So I thought that radio might be the thing for
Speaker 1: me because I could speak and nobody could see me,
Speaker 1: so I could hide. But fast forward, you know, when
Speaker 1: Bill and I came together and decided to do Dark
Speaker 1: Girls one, we totally understood what it meant to be
Speaker 1: looked upon in a negative way because of your skin complexion,
Speaker 1: your hum But somewhere in these seventies eighties, it became
Speaker 1: okay to be dark. People like Richard Rowntree and Wesley
Speaker 1: Snipes and Eddie Murphy who hit the big screen and
Speaker 1: made it cool and sexy to be dark. Sydney Portier
Speaker 1: made it cool and sexy to be dark. But that
Speaker 1: didn't happen with dark skinned living. That was gonna be
Speaker 1: my question because because you're a man, but you focused
Speaker 1: on the experience from a woman's perspective, and and that
Speaker 1: was the catalyst for that, because you felt like men
Speaker 1: were accepted the dark skinned men. Yeah, we became you
Speaker 1: know in the vogues, so to speak. You know, we
Speaker 1: were we were cool, we were sexy, we we wanted,
Speaker 1: you know, we were wanted, but for the duck skin female.
Speaker 1: The tragedy kept going on, the trauma kept going on,
Speaker 1: the drama kept going on, the name calling kept going on.
Speaker 1: What was that movie that Spike Lee did? School Days?
Speaker 1: And and think about all the different like the pencil test,
Speaker 1: the snow and blow like that was snow and blow
Speaker 1: was a new description to be like light, light enough
Speaker 1: where you be compared to snow, and then if your
Speaker 1: hair can blow in the wind. I think when I
Speaker 1: saw Dark Girls, the first one, the thing that was
Speaker 1: really so painful was when the little girl was picking
Speaker 1: out who was the smart girl and who was the
Speaker 1: dumb girl, and who was the pretty girl and who
Speaker 1: was the ugly girl. She was so young, she couldn't
Speaker 1: have been more than four or five years old, and
Speaker 1: that was ingrained in her already, So you know, what,
Speaker 1: what chance did she have? And where does that all
Speaker 1: come from? When I think about it, Adrian is so
Speaker 1: sad that children are hit with this, and I think
Speaker 1: a lot of it begins at home, and then the
Speaker 1: other it begins with the media and what these children
Speaker 1: and what people are seeing on magazine covers. When you
Speaker 1: don't see yourself on a magazine cover, right, I think
Speaker 1: we have to even go back further than that, chan
Speaker 1: because it was all part of the plan, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. We we we have been totally decimated
Speaker 1: as a culture, as a people. We were brought over here,
Speaker 1: robbed and stripped of everything everything everything we are, history,
Speaker 1: our language, our families, our religion. We had nothing, and
Speaker 1: we were made to believe that. So you talk about colonization,
Speaker 1: it's not just physical colonization, it was cultural colonization because
Speaker 1: we were meant to and taught to believe that in
Speaker 1: order to elevate ourselves we had to be like the colonizer.
Speaker 1: We were taught to accept their language, their their way
Speaker 1: of dress, their belief systems, all of that. And in
Speaker 1: all of that, we were just made to feel like nothing. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Beat into submission, lynched into submission, raped into submission, which
Speaker 1: is how we got all those different hues in the
Speaker 1: in the first place. I took a trip to Ghana
Speaker 1: to visit the slave castles and we shot there for
Speaker 1: Dark Girls too, And that's probably one of the deepest
Speaker 1: trips I've ever taken in my life, was to go
Speaker 1: to a slave gem where they held women and be
Speaker 1: able to feel spirit in that place. Adrian just wore
Speaker 1: me out and to doctor Sheryl Grills, who was my
Speaker 1: consultant at the time, Yes, I love her. We had
Speaker 1: this amazing voyage into the past. We got to the
Speaker 1: door of no return when we left the Woman's dungeon
Speaker 1: and I I fell out. I couldn't reach the door,
Speaker 1: and my crew was around me and they were emotionally moved.
Speaker 1: I was weeping uncontrollably, but they picked me up, Adrian
Speaker 1: and brought me to the door of no return. There
Speaker 1: was a sick they would Shell was doing the ceremony
Speaker 1: over me. And it was the first time that I've
Speaker 1: experienced my birth and my death at the same time.
Speaker 1: And it happened to be four hundred years last year.
Speaker 1: That marked the slave trade from there to the rest
Speaker 1: of the world, and I was back where I started from.
Speaker 1: So it was really deep. So I had to bring
Speaker 1: that to the film, and it changed the whole film
Speaker 1: of Dark Girls too. And when going through the other
Speaker 1: parts of the dungeon and hearing the stories of the
Speaker 1: rape of the African women and knowing that they would
Speaker 1: take the women from the dungeons into this court in
Speaker 1: the middle court. They had a something that you would
Speaker 1: lift up and at the bottom was the ocean. So
Speaker 1: they would take the women who were chained and dunk
Speaker 1: them in the ocean. In that little opening. Duncan cleaned
Speaker 1: them off. These were Dutch, Portuguese, French and British traders.
Speaker 1: And then the babies that were born under that we're
Speaker 1: left there and to be raised by people there on
Speaker 1: the shores and started a whole another community of light
Speaker 1: skin next people. And that's how it started. We started
Speaker 1: to start because of rape. Colorism started because they're right,
Speaker 1: and we haven't gotten over that since because we never
Speaker 1: got professional help for it. So we have division. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, like we all know the stories of the
Speaker 1: you know, the house slaves and then and the field slaves.
Speaker 1: We we we all know that. And again that was
Speaker 1: their way to keep us separated and fighting against each other.
Speaker 1: We talked about colorism on Red Table as well. And
Speaker 1: the reason why I wanted to talk about it again
Speaker 1: is just because I just feel like there's not enough
Speaker 1: hours in the day. You can't have too many conversations
Speaker 1: about this. The last thing that we want to do
Speaker 1: is to find things that once again separate us and
Speaker 1: divide us as a culture. So that's certainly not what
Speaker 1: we what we're trying to do here. Actually it's just
Speaker 1: the opposite, because I feel like if we keep shoving
Speaker 1: this to the back, because it all, it all reflects
Speaker 1: on how we communicate and how we treat one another
Speaker 1: within our own race, and we we can't keep denying
Speaker 1: that colorism exists. And I know in my family particularly,
Speaker 1: you know, and I've shared this before with my with
Speaker 1: my grandmother, she was light and we had neighbors that
Speaker 1: were very, very dark, and she did not want us
Speaker 1: to play with those children, knowing what you knew now
Speaker 1: about colorism and you being a lighter in complexion at
Speaker 1: this age that we are, do you do you have
Speaker 1: issues with being lighter in complexion? Has never come up? Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I definitely did. I definitely did. Growing up. I felt
Speaker 1: like during that time there there were like you would
Speaker 1: you would get beat up just for being light, scared
Speaker 1: with long hair, you know. I remember getting teased about
Speaker 1: having white people in my family because our you know,
Speaker 1: our background is Portuguese. I guess that's where my nose
Speaker 1: comes from. I have a huge nose to me, And yeah,
Speaker 1: I remember getting teased about that and really really feeling
Speaker 1: some kind of way about it, like really arguing like,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not white, you know, it's it's no
Speaker 1: white people in my family, all of that, and just
Speaker 1: really really being upset about it. And I even when
Speaker 1: I talked to Jada, Jada mentioned that, you know, back
Speaker 1: in the day when when we used to everybody, would
Speaker 1: we be talking about, well, I got Indian in me
Speaker 1: a Cherokee and all of that, as if just being
Speaker 1: black was not good enough, like everybody. First of all,
Speaker 1: let's be clear, everybody is mixed with something. If you've
Speaker 1: been in here more than how mixed with something? That's right,
Speaker 1: you're mixed with something. Okay, don't give a damn how
Speaker 1: dark you are, how you are with something, thank you,
Speaker 1: you know, but we've been brain wash to believe that
Speaker 1: we're not good enough and being mixed having another bloodline
Speaker 1: validates your worthiness. Wow. That that's a sad state of
Speaker 1: affairs right there. You know what I always thought, how
Speaker 1: can I and how could black people be racists? No
Speaker 1: one who looks like me ever stopped a white person
Speaker 1: from getting a job. Now, listen, when I when I
Speaker 1: talk about white and black, I'm not talking about all
Speaker 1: white people, and I'm not talking about all black people.
Speaker 1: So let's get that straight. People like me have never
Speaker 1: stopped a person who is white from getting a job,
Speaker 1: being denied housing, medical care. Just it just wasn't us.
Speaker 1: We we didn't do that to people. It was done
Speaker 1: to us. So what does it make one feel like
Speaker 1: after years, hundreds of years of being denied? What would
Speaker 1: you feel like? And isn't it interesting that as damn
Speaker 1: as as we are as a people, there's such a
Speaker 1: stigma on seeking professional help for that, and we're probably
Speaker 1: the ones that needed the most because we are so
Speaker 1: psychologically and emotionally damaged. I agree with you. I think
Speaker 1: that everybody on the planet is on this on spectrum
Speaker 1: of some type of mental illness, but especially African Americans.
Speaker 1: That's one of the the things I'm tackling in my
Speaker 1: next documentary called The Covered Mind, Mental health and the
Speaker 1: Black community. I'd like to focus on on depression and anxiety,
Speaker 1: especially right now. I think all of us are on
Speaker 1: the edge and we don't know what that means because
Speaker 1: you don't know what's going to trigger you you losing
Speaker 1: or going off that edge? You know, is that the
Speaker 1: incident into the word, is that another murder? You know,
Speaker 1: we just don't know, Adrian. I don't give a damn
Speaker 1: how much money you make don't make, or what kind
Speaker 1: of car you drive, or kind of how you live
Speaker 1: in Kine you live in a black man is a
Speaker 1: stop sign of woman being killed. Absolutely, and that's been
Speaker 1: proven over and over again. I got a lot of questions,
Speaker 1: you know, like how do we get here? And why
Speaker 1: do you hate me so much? I've never done anything
Speaker 1: to you, and it's and it seems shallow, like just
Speaker 1: the color of your skin, because you know what, that's
Speaker 1: something behind behind, because of fear and guilt, because you
Speaker 1: know what you've done. You know, all folks used to
Speaker 1: say how you start, it's how you end. And I
Speaker 1: think about that when I think about the history of America.
Speaker 1: If America started with the dregs of society coming from
Speaker 1: Europe and the Native Americans were already here here, and
Speaker 1: you could say you come in and you discovered America
Speaker 1: when they were people already here before. That's the first lie,
Speaker 1: isn't it. But then when you have those kinds of
Speaker 1: people coming over with that kind of mentality who don't
Speaker 1: fit in over there, but they're trying to start a
Speaker 1: new life over here. But they're the poorest of the poor.
Speaker 1: They're criminals some of them, and they're you know, not
Speaker 1: well to do people. That's the base of America. And
Speaker 1: then and then you so you've got stolen land, and
Speaker 1: then you bring in stolen people from Africa and you
Speaker 1: tell them and you teach them what you want them
Speaker 1: to know and what you want them to do exactly.
Speaker 1: And there you go. Let's let's talk about that for
Speaker 1: a minute. Because Dr Grills, you you spoke about Dr
Speaker 1: Sheryl Ells, who was one of your consultants on both films,
Speaker 1: I believe, and one of her statements that I remembered
Speaker 1: so much is an African proverb. Until the lion has
Speaker 1: a historian, the hunter will always be the hero. And
Speaker 1: that really, really really stuck with me because we have
Speaker 1: got to take responsibility for our history, for teaching and
Speaker 1: learning our own history. We can't expect them to. You
Speaker 1: see what they've taught us. Black children don't know African history.
Speaker 1: They know African American history, which starts with slavery, right,
Speaker 1: because our history doesn't start with slavery. No, that's what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. African history does not start with slavery. That's
Speaker 1: one of the things, one of the most important things
Speaker 1: that I think our children are missing. So we have
Speaker 1: no sense of pride, no sense of self self worth. Well, Adrian,
Speaker 1: when you have when you have people who have been
Speaker 1: called been identified five or six different identities over the
Speaker 1: last four years, you have a problem. When you when
Speaker 1: you've been colored, black, Negro, African American, African American, and
Speaker 1: Nigga and and most of those things. Most of these
Speaker 1: identities were not given to you. We're given to you
Speaker 1: by people who don't look like you. There's a problem.
Speaker 1: So we're always having people identify us, and we have
Speaker 1: to take that power back to we identified. We say
Speaker 1: what we are, we say what we want, we asked
Speaker 1: and demand the things that we want for us. There
Speaker 1: needs to be a black and black agenda. Oh say
Speaker 1: it again, say it again, only louder. There needs to
Speaker 1: be a black agenda, and we need to hold these
Speaker 1: politicians from the ground up to the White House and
Speaker 1: giving us and making that and demanding this happens. Because
Speaker 1: we've never had one. We've had civil rights, but civil
Speaker 1: rights for everybody, but we forgot to ask for black
Speaker 1: rights as far as I'm concerned, and this is the time.
Speaker 1: This is a crossroads right now in America and in
Speaker 1: the world, and if we don't get this right, there's
Speaker 1: gonna be some serious issues. We need to have a
Speaker 1: black agenda, find out, find out exactly what we want
Speaker 1: and how we wanted and when we wanted. Gather ourselves,
Speaker 1: gather our minds, gather our spirits, gather our souls, gather
Speaker 1: our people, come to a decision about that, and then
Speaker 1: push the ejenta forward. I know, I so agree with you.
Speaker 1: How do we get there? Who? Who are the decision
Speaker 1: makers that would bring that agenda forward? I mean, how
Speaker 1: do we even get to an agenda? How do we
Speaker 1: How do we come up with what the agenda is?
Speaker 1: Who are the people that are going to come together
Speaker 1: to do that. We don't have any leaders like we
Speaker 1: had in the fifties, sixties, in part of the seventies.
Speaker 1: And the reason why is that nobody wants to die
Speaker 1: for that. I want to get back because we we
Speaker 1: are supposed to be talking about colorism, and so I
Speaker 1: want to get back to the women because some way,
Speaker 1: dark women have really been made to feel unworthy and unloved, unprotected,
Speaker 1: and the women we are supposed to be the nurturers.
Speaker 1: We are the ones that are going to nurture and
Speaker 1: raise the children in the community. How can we teach
Speaker 1: our children to love themselves and love one another if
Speaker 1: we don't feel love for ourselves. I say this all
Speaker 1: the time. I think we men have damn near destroyed
Speaker 1: the two things that give us life, the planet and women.
Speaker 1: And until women are healed, we will not be healed
Speaker 1: as man. You know, women have always been by our
Speaker 1: sides as black as black men. They've always been here.
Speaker 1: They've never you guys, have never gone anywhere, because if
Speaker 1: you had, we wouldn't be here. You have been our
Speaker 1: secret weapons. I don't want to deny the experience that
Speaker 1: dark women have by generalizing and making it all women,
Speaker 1: because I really, I really feel, really really strongly about
Speaker 1: this and how colorism has affected us, and like even
Speaker 1: in you see it more in the Third world countries
Speaker 1: than you do here in the United States, but just
Speaker 1: just the use of like the bleaching creams in media
Speaker 1: in Hollywood, strongly strongly in hip hop, where when you
Speaker 1: look at the videos, all you see are the light
Speaker 1: skinned women with long hair, you know, as the fly women,
Speaker 1: as the love interest as the lead. My grandson did
Speaker 1: a video recently and he used a young lady who
Speaker 1: had the afro as his lead. I was so excited.
Speaker 1: I was so excited and proud about that it should
Speaker 1: not be that that should be the norm. But it
Speaker 1: was not the norm, and it stood out that's a problem.
Speaker 1: If light skin and long hair blowing in the wind
Speaker 1: is the only thing that you identify as beautiful, we
Speaker 1: are so brainwashed with the European standards of beauty and
Speaker 1: this then just start. I mean, like this has been
Speaker 1: going on for years, and we do seem to right
Speaker 1: now be in a position where black is beautiful and
Speaker 1: natural hair and darker skin tone are coming to the
Speaker 1: forefront and being looked upon more positively. But the thing
Speaker 1: is that these moments and time just kind of come
Speaker 1: and go. It seems like they don't stick and stay,
Speaker 1: Like we went through that back in the sixties with
Speaker 1: black you know, James Brown, I'm black, and I'm proud,
Speaker 1: but but it didn't stay. It didn't stick and stay,
Speaker 1: and and that's my concern about this. When I looked
Speaker 1: at dark girls too, when I watched that, I was
Speaker 1: blessed enough to be able to come to that and
Speaker 1: it was powerful. But it's saddened me that the scene
Speaker 1: with the girls from E c R. El Camino Real,
Speaker 1: which is right down the street from me, those young
Speaker 1: ladies were in their crying. That's the scene that still
Speaker 1: gets to me today. Absolutely pain for to watch, pain
Speaker 1: for to watch. We set the cameras up, the girls
Speaker 1: came in all shades between ages of fourteen and seventeen
Speaker 1: years of age. But what came out of that conversation
Speaker 1: with these young girls was life changing for me. Some
Speaker 1: of the emotions that were brought up by these young
Speaker 1: girls about colorism and being dark skinned, and being late
Speaker 1: skin and being not accepted and thinking of committing suicide,
Speaker 1: and it just broke my heart. I have a hard
Speaker 1: time watching that scene in the movie today, but it
Speaker 1: moved me. It moved me, and that the fact that
Speaker 1: these babies are still going through this today, it's unthinkable.
Speaker 1: And they were crying about their experience, particularly the dark
Speaker 1: skinned girls were crying about the experiences that they were
Speaker 1: having with their classmates and and the way they were
Speaker 1: treated and discriminated against, not be popular just based on
Speaker 1: pair skin color. And how is it that companies are
Speaker 1: able to market these bleaching creams that are so detrimented,
Speaker 1: that are carcinogenic. Quite frankly, in these third world countries,
Speaker 1: how are they because they don't even offer that ship
Speaker 1: here they cut to the point where they offered in
Speaker 1: the Congo in other places, also also in India and
Speaker 1: also in China, right, because that that's another thing that
Speaker 1: we can't we cannot forget this is we're making it
Speaker 1: sound like it is just African American issue, a black issue.
Speaker 1: Colorism is a global issue. Globally around the world, Darker skin,
Speaker 1: darker hues are looked upon as negatively. So one of
Speaker 1: the questions I asked what I was in Ghana of
Speaker 1: one of the sisters who I interviewed, who had been
Speaker 1: bleaching her skin and her skin had turned dark blotches
Speaker 1: all over her body. I asked her she did she
Speaker 1: believe in God? She said, of course I do. And
Speaker 1: I said, well, if you believe in God, do you
Speaker 1: think God made a mistake when he when he made you?
Speaker 1: And she could completely silent and then she said no.
Speaker 1: So I said, well, so why are you trying to
Speaker 1: change God's beauty and gift? You have that melanie in
Speaker 1: your skin to protect you. My dear, You're beautiful, so
Speaker 1: why would you want to take that away. Let's talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about how we can heal as a community.
Speaker 1: And one of the things that we talked about that
Speaker 1: I feel extremely strong about is educating our children. What
Speaker 1: are some of the things that that stand out for
Speaker 1: you chan as as a way towards healing. Recognize and
Speaker 1: that you have an issue. It's the first thing talking
Speaker 1: about it with someone and then talking about it with
Speaker 1: someone who's a professional who can possibly helped you out
Speaker 1: to get through this situation. All kinds of frapies available,
Speaker 1: But you know, we've given so much away of ourselves
Speaker 1: aching for many, many, many many years. What do you
Speaker 1: mean by that? Sometimes it feels like that black people
Speaker 1: create and white people conquer. Yeah, we create and they take,
Speaker 1: they monetize. Yeah, And we could say that with jazz,
Speaker 1: we could say that with fashion, We can say that
Speaker 1: with a whole bunch of things that we that black
Speaker 1: people have invented that some white people have taken for
Speaker 1: themselves as a creator. Given the current climate and discussions
Speaker 1: playing out about race, specifically black lives, how is colorism
Speaker 1: playing a part in all of this? Like studies show
Speaker 1: that Darker people are more likely to get arrested or
Speaker 1: be incarcerated. Darker women are more likely to serve longer
Speaker 1: prison terms and sentences, women are paid less and so
Speaker 1: and and that's for me where it gets a little
Speaker 1: gray for me because is this colorism or is this racism? Well,
Speaker 1: that's a very good question. Or is it a little
Speaker 1: bit where is it a little bit of both? I
Speaker 1: guess I don't know. I keep thinking about what will
Speaker 1: it take for some white men to have a conversation
Speaker 1: about racism and colors in this country. I was getting
Speaker 1: ready to say, Jim, because we're we're talking about having
Speaker 1: the conversation should amongst ourselves, But are we the ones
Speaker 1: that need to be having a conversation with We don't
Speaker 1: need to talk to each other. We know what da
Speaker 1: all is going on. It's it's it's white white folks
Speaker 1: that need to have a conversation about racism colorism in
Speaker 1: this country because they've never had it, especially white men.
Speaker 1: They're in they're really in denial because because the first
Speaker 1: thing that that I will hear from the man of
Speaker 1: means who is in corporate America. That's something I don't
Speaker 1: want to talk about. That I don't want to do
Speaker 1: I don't want to deal with that. They say they
Speaker 1: have that privilege to say that and to do that,
Speaker 1: and to be that, to become that when I what
Speaker 1: people like me don't have that street to travel down.
Speaker 1: So the conversation about racism and colorism and sexism should
Speaker 1: be had and started with white America. But if people
Speaker 1: who looked like you and I close your mouth and
Speaker 1: close your pocketbook, it would tear this country up. But
Speaker 1: the other thing is this money is one thing. Yes.
Speaker 1: The other thing is that if I don't know what
Speaker 1: you're thinking and how you're thinking, that disturbs the apple cart.
Speaker 1: Also because I can't figure it out, shut your mouth
Speaker 1: and shut your pocketbook. That's how you get America's attention.
Speaker 1: Oh oh ta, you just said a word. So but
Speaker 1: the thing about it is that it's been proven to
Speaker 1: us by white men. They don't invest in you and
Speaker 1: they don't talk to you, so why would they work
Speaker 1: for us? People are not connecting the dots. The too
Speaker 1: busy thing about Democrat, Republican dadada, dada, color dadada, it's
Speaker 1: deeper than that. All you gotta do is just listen
Speaker 1: and watch and pick out all the places that you're not.
Speaker 1: Are you on Wall Street? Are you in the boardrooms
Speaker 1: on Wall Street? Or you in the wardrooms of the
Speaker 1: fourtune companies? Where are you in decision making? But it
Speaker 1: comes to people like us nowhere to be found. But
Speaker 1: this is where the turning point is, right now, the crossroads.
Speaker 1: You can do that. We can do that. You have
Speaker 1: to elect people who have your best interest at heart.
Speaker 1: But first you gotta have to have an agenda to
Speaker 1: know that left wing, right wing, same bird, which goes
Speaker 1: back to we need a block agenda. We talked about reparations.
Speaker 1: What does that look like? So maybe it looks like
Speaker 1: a tax break. We're not paying taxes when you're over sixty,
Speaker 1: sixty years old anymore, and maybe everybody under sixty of
Speaker 1: free education, in free medicare, free medical, free education, anywhere
Speaker 1: you want to go, anything that happens to you, you're
Speaker 1: covered in. Over sixty, you pay no taxes. It's definitely
Speaker 1: like the idea of free education because college tuition is ridiculous,
Speaker 1: but it only makes it only makes America better. We're Americans.
Speaker 1: We're Americans. We are Americans. Let's get that straight. We
Speaker 1: are Americans. We're not going anywhere. We're forty million strong
Speaker 1: and we're not going anywhere. Well said, Chance, Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for this conversation. Thank you, my dear. So
Speaker 1: it's a pleasure to see and talk to you. But
Speaker 1: we haven't talked like this before. So this is a
Speaker 1: good thing. This is another good thing. It's another good
Speaker 1: A few takeaways from the conversation. People need to see
Speaker 1: color to begin to recognize that colorism is an issue,
Speaker 1: and the healing conversations. Remember that listening and acknowledging the
Speaker 1: experiences of others is paramount. Beauty has no skin tone.
Speaker 1: There needs to be a black agenda so we can
Speaker 1: take back the power. However, we never had the power
Speaker 1: to begin with. Think on that education seems like such
Speaker 1: an expansive idea, but teaching our children the history we
Speaker 1: need them to know and believe starts at home. Remember
Speaker 1: the little Boy, the video of the little boy walking
Speaker 1: to school saying affirmations that his mama had taught him.
Speaker 1: I am smart, I am blessed. I can do anything
Speaker 1: that puts such a mile on all of our faces.
Speaker 1: But something as small as teaching your children small affirmations
Speaker 1: and words of encouragement to believe in themselves and to
Speaker 1: believe in us as a people. That's a way to
Speaker 1: begin and last, but never least, remember to love yourself first. Tonight,
Speaker 1: go rent Dark Girls and Dark Girls to an Amazon.
Speaker 1: If you're listening on Apple Podcasts, be sure to rate
Speaker 1: and review the episode. Follow me on my Instagram at
Speaker 1: Gammy nars to share with me your thoughts on the episode.
Speaker 1: I'm here, I'm talking, and I'm listening and as always, folks,
Speaker 1: stay grateful. Positively GAM is produced by Westbrook Audio. Executive
Speaker 1: producers Adrian Vanfield Narris, Jada Pinkett Smith, Amanda Brown, and
Speaker 1: Valin Jethro Co executive producer sim Hoti, editor and mixer
Speaker 1: Calvin Bailiff. Positively GAM is in partnership with Art nineteen
Speaker 1: m