Speaker 1: My League Books has all the knowledge you want. My
Speaker 1: League Books has all the knowledge you need. League Books, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they have all the books that the whole wild world
Speaker 1: want to read. League Books. Wait. Welcome to Malague Bookshop
Speaker 1: bringing a world together with books, culture and community. This
Speaker 1: is going to be a fiery sixty of episode. We
Speaker 1: had a wonderful week. We hosted several events last week
Speaker 1: at Malague Books in the ball and Hills Chris shaw More.
Speaker 1: We hosted First Black Hollywood, and I think I touched
Speaker 1: on the last episode about black history about these events,
Speaker 1: but the one block bet Oh Black, that's right, bet
Speaker 1: on Black. That was an explosive event. And that's my
Speaker 1: episode for the sixty of each You know when you're fifth,
Speaker 1: the sixth, here seventy and when I hit one d
Speaker 1: I got to do a milestone episode. But this it's
Speaker 1: the sixtieth episode and it was lit at the event.
Speaker 1: So that's gonna be my sixty episode because it's called
Speaker 1: back on Black, The Good News about Being Black in
Speaker 1: America Today. That was the subject matter because that's the
Speaker 1: title of the book by Ebony Kate Williams, and that
Speaker 1: is the event that I hosted this last Wednesday on
Speaker 1: a Wednesday night. People came out. It was a beautiful
Speaker 1: discussion on book signing. We had a moderator by the
Speaker 1: name of Devin Bakewell, who's author, who's the Rights novels
Speaker 1: and also a managing editor of the Los Angeles sinal
Speaker 1: in Los Angele West Time watch time, so hey, we
Speaker 1: put on in a wonder When I do events like
Speaker 1: this and if and and the people come out, I
Speaker 1: really feel high. I feel good. I feel on top
Speaker 1: of the world because you know, Malik's bookshelf, Malik's books
Speaker 1: and everything that we do, it's all about community. And
Speaker 1: my goal is always to bring people together, even in
Speaker 1: difficult times, on different and different subject matters. This event
Speaker 1: was bet on Black, the Good News about being Black
Speaker 1: in America. My episode is gonna be called just the
Speaker 1: short version better on Black, you know, And like I said,
Speaker 1: I was born black, I'm gonna die black, and I'm
Speaker 1: unapologetically black. And events like this is why Emlik Books exists.
Speaker 1: You know, it's certain things in this in this world,
Speaker 1: then you gotta bet on and not yourself. And that's
Speaker 1: when I read the book and when I hosted the event,
Speaker 1: back on yourself. If you're a black person. You got
Speaker 1: to bet on yourself. You got to stop man looking
Speaker 1: at other directions. And you know, it's okay to collaborate
Speaker 1: with others, it's okay to work with others, but when
Speaker 1: it comes down to it, it's you gotta it gotta
Speaker 1: be from within and whatever you are and whoever you are,
Speaker 1: you got to bet on yourself. You understand and in
Speaker 1: whatever group you're part of, you got to bet on
Speaker 1: that group. You know, I'm a black man. And what's
Speaker 1: what I'm saying is we as black people gotta stick
Speaker 1: together and do for self. It's the differences that make
Speaker 1: us great. So hey, we gotta come together as black people,
Speaker 1: build together, love each other, do for self. We gotta
Speaker 1: do all that. So this episode number sixty is beat
Speaker 1: Ol Black with guests Ebony K. Williams. Yeah, I was
Speaker 1: born black. I'm gonna black, but I'm unapologetically black. That's
Speaker 1: what boys, Boys, We've been signed for too long. We
Speaker 1: gotta step up of our course. We are America. We
Speaker 1: make this country great. And milk scores like leek books
Speaker 1: tell the story because we have a wealth of books.
Speaker 1: Then talk about so many subjects from history into now
Speaker 1: and the day we're gonna talk about that black man.
Speaker 1: I con said talking for this, you bit thatck owned black.
Speaker 1: Welcome everybody. We're excited today. This is the county event
Speaker 1: I love to do because this is social, is cultural,
Speaker 1: is education, and its most importantly, it brings a generation
Speaker 1: of changes. So hey, thank you for coming out on
Speaker 1: a Wednesday night. My name is Malik Mohammed Maybe. I'm
Speaker 1: the founder and co owner of Malik Books women Circling
Speaker 1: Community since nineteen ninety Give it a black boys. We
Speaker 1: have two locations. We have one right here if you
Speaker 1: turn around, Malie Books is right there and it's boss
Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety four. Ninons mall and me open up
Speaker 1: my second location at the Westville Coast anymore a k
Speaker 1: K Fox Hills all if we don't do any nativity.
Speaker 1: So when you visit Milli Books, it's the total African
Speaker 1: American experience of Pride of Jordan where we give voice
Speaker 1: to the voices. So I invite you to follow us
Speaker 1: on our social media in post today as well as
Speaker 1: our Instagram with Milague Books. And also I want to
Speaker 1: give a round of applause for the Pan African field
Speaker 1: festas because making this mastabat, I mean they've been on
Speaker 1: Hounson for thirty points ago. When they started. They see anything,
Speaker 1: we turn it up. Thursday night Chaz at Molique Books
Speaker 1: in West vild Mall. So come on through six to nine.
Speaker 1: All right, we have an incredible Rory uh In a
Speaker 1: graphic novelist. Uh Rodney van Barns coming up in February
Speaker 1: seven pm. He got a graphic novel call for Lack
Speaker 1: of Love. So that's at the Westfield Wall. Let me
Speaker 1: introduce you to the moderator for this evening. He's managing
Speaker 1: editor of the Los Angeles Sentinel as well as the
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Watch Times, and she's graduating from Howard University.
Speaker 1: I have about expect right, so I thought him know,
Speaker 1: no other person I thought was a good fit to
Speaker 1: moderate every Will to Day. Then Devin Bathwell, now she's
Speaker 1: a knowledge. She got some books out to Greater Love
Speaker 1: and Greater Life. They both out and you normally books
Speaker 1: got it. You know you didn't sign him with devil,
Speaker 1: so hey support the support her. She's a young author
Speaker 1: of young journalist and she likes to work with children
Speaker 1: and women and so she gets forwards. Uh, it didn't
Speaker 1: doing that, and so she's got my rank to day.
Speaker 1: So I want you to give a round of the
Speaker 1: club for Devin bite Willy. How you do it? Are
Speaker 1: you gonna introduce your store? Yes? Okay, you just checking
Speaker 1: the link. That's you, guys. I don't know. Yes, well
Speaker 1: as you guys know, this is ms Ebony K. Williams
Speaker 1: on Someone's to Much. She can bet. She was a
Speaker 1: reality TV. She was a game her woman. She's a
Speaker 1: little news, she's a little radio. And did I listen
Speaker 1: to me? Anced you have a bunch of a compidence.
Speaker 1: It's coming soon to a syndicated network. Hear you? Equal
Speaker 1: justice the judge of Okay, willis to stay talk about
Speaker 1: the great job. Well, thank you. Well, first, let me
Speaker 1: tell you I love this book. I loved it, and
Speaker 1: I you know, I'm a fiction author and I don't
Speaker 1: read a lot of nonfiction. I'm gonna be honest with you.
Speaker 1: So I was a little nervous, but I read this
Speaker 1: book in a day. Yeah, I absorbed it. I loved it.
Speaker 1: And so I just wanna for say congratulations. I'm proud
Speaker 1: that you're really this message out and I'm happy to
Speaker 1: be here. Thank you, Denner. And at the interest of time,
Speaker 1: and I really wanted first and foremost thank for the
Speaker 1: the leak uh and everybody at the League Books because
Speaker 1: a little bit it's a family event. I'm in a
Speaker 1: beautiful white into this lovely children, my publishers goblists with
Speaker 1: their hearts. Uh. They originally scheduled this event to me
Speaker 1: at another bookstore in Los Angeles, um, but it wasn't
Speaker 1: black home, so it wasn't the right place for this event.
Speaker 1: Um So I reached out to brother be League and
Speaker 1: he graciously offered this opportunity, So thank you. I also
Speaker 1: want to thank the Pay African Film Festival. Thank you
Speaker 1: very very much for supporting this book. And it's it's
Speaker 1: a little odd to celebrate this moment with all of you.
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna think I'm for coming down on a
Speaker 1: Wednesday night because not enough that we could all be
Speaker 1: home right now watching Mary at First Sight. And that's
Speaker 1: exactly where I'm will be, but for this event. Um
Speaker 1: So I want to thank you. I can be anywhere
Speaker 1: in the world would you do with me? And I
Speaker 1: appreciate that. Um So with that, that's what we're gonna do.
Speaker 1: Death and you're gonna ask, and we'll let you ask
Speaker 1: five questions. Uh. Then I'm gonna open it up to
Speaker 1: Q and A. We're gonna do that, you're not, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna produce it next time you're do I'm anna producer that.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna Then I'm gonna let you all ask six.
Speaker 1: That's a nice round number. And then we're gonna sive someone.
Speaker 1: We're gonna take some photos and they're not going to eat. Okay,
Speaker 1: thank you, all right, Or we're gonna get started with first.
Speaker 1: Can you tell the audio why you signs right the foot? Absolutely? So,
Speaker 1: what do I know for sure? It's through my live
Speaker 1: experience and my academic experiences. As I told about or Florida.
Speaker 1: I do have a degree actually my studies. And then
Speaker 1: is that the single most misunderstood experience in America is
Speaker 1: that a blackness. People talk about black people a lot,
Speaker 1: even black people talk about black people a lot, but
Speaker 1: most everybody really does not have an innate understanding of
Speaker 1: the actuality of blackness. So I started this both chapter
Speaker 1: one called actuality. You have to understand the actualness of blackness.
Speaker 1: Part of that is, as Baldwin says, he had to
Speaker 1: spend most of his life throwing up everything that he
Speaker 1: was told and talked about. Being a black man in
Speaker 1: America and a black queer man, and that in his case,
Speaker 1: this book is a tool to help regurgitate all the lives,
Speaker 1: all the filth, all the malarkey, all the mythology that
Speaker 1: we have all been culturally fed, some of us even
Speaker 1: within our own homes. I'm gonna say that part again,
Speaker 1: some of us even within our own homes about who
Speaker 1: we are. Blackness is a treasure. For blackness is canage.
Speaker 1: Blackness is obviously beauty, but blackness is my superpower. And
Speaker 1: I wrote this book, Devin, because I invited to be
Speaker 1: yours as well. Yes, And in the book you discussed
Speaker 1: that if you use the term black and not African
Speaker 1: American over but African American, can you talk about why
Speaker 1: you're holding back to be important? I want to be
Speaker 1: clear on this. I am not the black terminology police.
Speaker 1: I feel the way about blackness frankly, as I do
Speaker 1: around the N word. I choose not to use it,
Speaker 1: but I will who am I to police other black
Speaker 1: people's usage of a term may name or may not
Speaker 1: identified with. That said, for me, African American doesn't cut
Speaker 1: it because I know the history of which it evolved.
Speaker 1: So we've been called a lot of things m globally
Speaker 1: and here in this land called a bear cut, as
Speaker 1: asvlidated people. We've been Negro, we have been colored, we
Speaker 1: have been of color, we have been black, and we
Speaker 1: have been African American. And I would say we are
Speaker 1: somewhere between African American and black again today. How we
Speaker 1: have all historically from African American to black hat about
Speaker 1: in roughly seventies, nineteen eighties, early nineties. And I submit
Speaker 1: it was a response to a white discomfort with the
Speaker 1: potency of the full throttle usage of the term black,
Speaker 1: because black when it was in its hating of colloquial usage,
Speaker 1: it was really a derivative of the black power movement.
Speaker 1: A black is beautiful, say it loud. I'm black in
Speaker 1: my pro I am proud energy right, those vibes felt
Speaker 1: discomforted to some some of us even so African American
Speaker 1: feels a little diluted for me. I also think it
Speaker 1: does not fully capture the odor African diaspa, which I
Speaker 1: think is very important, which is why I can shout
Speaker 1: out to pay African Film Festival here. Well, I defined
Speaker 1: blackness very intentionally because it's very important that I addressed
Speaker 1: what blackness is to be Blackness is simply the Africa
Speaker 1: in you. That's what it is. So however you choose
Speaker 1: to shape and identify your relationship with the Africa and
Speaker 1: you there in Lajah blackness and when did you think
Speaker 1: you came to these ideas about you know, we're using
Speaker 1: your term black or African America. A lot of this
Speaker 1: evolution for me dead into the place. And I'm so
Speaker 1: happy to see some of my classmates and the audience
Speaker 1: tonight during my blessed tenure at the University of North
Speaker 1: Carolina at Chapel Hill, where I'm matriculated as an undergraduate,
Speaker 1: my studied Black Studies. Actually the school still to this
Speaker 1: day my degree says African American and African diaspha Studies.
Speaker 1: Um I pointed, a Black Studies degree and a lot
Speaker 1: of my evolution that you will read in this world
Speaker 1: from my uh toy with back to Africa, movements of
Speaker 1: Garvey and the light. Um I talk about Perry Hall,
Speaker 1: I talk about Dr Madison, I talk about my introduction
Speaker 1: to black feminist power allah Alain Brown shout out to
Speaker 1: the West Coast. So absolutely so my introduction to the
Speaker 1: death of blackness and my relationship with mine and the
Speaker 1: cultures broadly really takes a deep dive during my collegic experience,
Speaker 1: which if to affect it real personal when the scantists
Speaker 1: had the audacity to suggest that it is anything other
Speaker 1: than the most elite of academic pursuit to know from
Speaker 1: which you come from and which so much of this
Speaker 1: nation derives. I don't think I could have studied anything.
Speaker 1: I could not have studied anything get U n C.
Speaker 1: That would have been prepared me for the work of
Speaker 1: my life. Then that blacks used to break. It's awesome
Speaker 1: and you're talking. You've got two more questions that come on?
Speaker 1: All right, you're talking about to people that's inspired to
Speaker 1: um in college, and you mentioned a lot of different writers.
Speaker 1: You mentioned a lot of inspirations who you went to,
Speaker 1: Malcolm X, the boys who are some leaders in the
Speaker 1: black community that inspired you. You mentioned settled them two
Speaker 1: boys of course of Malcolm accident unless to have had
Speaker 1: one of his daughters. So Yansa read this book previous
Speaker 1: to its publication, and she she really to meet maybe
Speaker 1: the highest compliment when she talked about how she feels
Speaker 1: that her father and Malcolm would have wouldn't put his
Speaker 1: hand in blessing on this on this work. Um, that's
Speaker 1: the compliment of my career so far, others that I'm
Speaker 1: in deep relationship with James Baldo. I don't exist without
Speaker 1: brother Baldwood. And that's another reason I gotta speak on us,
Speaker 1: especially to our community. I will not allow a moment
Speaker 1: that it is looking to eradicate no and act in
Speaker 1: erature of black queer identity uh in an effort to
Speaker 1: so called advance uh the isolation of blackness. See. I
Speaker 1: will not participate in the extraction of black queerness from
Speaker 1: blackness because as long as they've been black people, that
Speaker 1: have been black queer people, Okay. And I don't want
Speaker 1: to hear anybody open their mouth to talk about their
Speaker 1: black studies if it doesn't center Baldwin Linkston, Hughes Sorrow,
Speaker 1: mal Perston by r Ruston, how how can you teach it?
Speaker 1: How can you even pretend to care about it if
Speaker 1: you don't include the inextricably linked experience of our black
Speaker 1: queer kinfolks. So that is very important to me. Probably
Speaker 1: my greatest mentor of them all is Douglas. Frederick Douglas
Speaker 1: and the Genius of Douglas Open Chapter two, which is
Speaker 1: entitled Optics with with my example of how Douglass is
Speaker 1: my greatest teacher on the power of optics. So most
Speaker 1: of you know, started my career practicing law, started in
Speaker 1: the criminal space, and uh did some litigation work, but
Speaker 1: ultimately I took a career charting and broadcast journalism. And
Speaker 1: I actually started my juglast career right down the street
Speaker 1: at p F I am six forty uh and enganngerally
Speaker 1: Ne matriculated to cable news and reality and you know
Speaker 1: the rest is history. But why while I've been such
Speaker 1: a brilliant legal mind like mine cheese, You've never thinking
Speaker 1: about these little subs choose to leave the courtroom for television,
Speaker 1: right or migrapher. It is because of douglass teaching that
Speaker 1: the power of optics is a unique and powerful form
Speaker 1: of protests. Frederick Douglas is the single most photographed individual
Speaker 1: of the nineteenth century. He's not the most photographed black person,
Speaker 1: and he's not the most photographed band. He's the most
Speaker 1: photographed individual of the entire nineteenth century. There's more pictures
Speaker 1: of Friendwick Douglas than Abraham Lincoln. Why is that? It's
Speaker 1: because Douglass understood better than most even at that time
Speaker 1: done it that it is the power of visibility. You
Speaker 1: could say and think, the best ship ever if no
Speaker 1: one sees it, if no one hears it, it is
Speaker 1: for not So I understood that I can have all
Speaker 1: these great teachings that have been poured into me and
Speaker 1: thoughts and intellectualisms and and and and and hoodsbok right,
Speaker 1: But if I am not platformed and broadcast globally, I've
Speaker 1: missed an opportunity. Um and and Douglas also understood optics.
Speaker 1: To be very specific, we saw Douglas in a very
Speaker 1: particular format. Douglas was always in type of addressed Douglas
Speaker 1: is the original pretty power. Actually, Douglas always had you
Speaker 1: know that that figure a situation quiet, okay, Douglas. Douglas
Speaker 1: is a beautiful black man. Douglas wasn't ever smiling during
Speaker 1: his photos because wasn't ship funny? Okay. And he's bathing
Speaker 1: the American consciousness of that time to say, who are
Speaker 1: you too shallow? A beautiful human spirit like me. That
Speaker 1: is the power of optics, and that is the power
Speaker 1: of Douglas A talking the last question, both work no pressure.
Speaker 1: I got you talked about your platform and you know
Speaker 1: you have this new book where you're calling people. I
Speaker 1: actually so you know, I find what people want people
Speaker 1: to do after reading this book. Great perfect to Saint.
Speaker 1: This is a very audacious book to write in a
Speaker 1: climate where brilliant black minds, uh and I'm black minds
Speaker 1: are writing really powerful pieces about hipstad America. So I
Speaker 1: take this work and this show French very seriously. I
Speaker 1: want people to do one thing and one thing only.
Speaker 1: I want my people to stand ti toes down in
Speaker 1: your blackness everywhere you choose to bring it. Now, that
Speaker 1: doesn't mean you have to be as black as rather
Speaker 1: malig hey and bred belie. You're real black. Where are
Speaker 1: you gonnas? Now, that's a black blackness. I with it, um,
Speaker 1: I say that it just but you don't necessarily have
Speaker 1: to do it like a league or like me right,
Speaker 1: or like whoever you see on television. But whatever it
Speaker 1: is for you, whatever your authentic spirit moves you to
Speaker 1: show up in in all the spaces that you occupy.
Speaker 1: My invitation through this book, Devon is to not shrink
Speaker 1: from it. Don't accommodate like comfort, don't even accommodate the
Speaker 1: very tempting collective black approval. Yes, there would be something
Speaker 1: look just like you and I who do not approve
Speaker 1: of your methodil lergy, of the way in which you
Speaker 1: show up and choose to bring all of who you
Speaker 1: are to everything you do. I am asking that in
Speaker 1: this moment today we get to do it different because
Speaker 1: of what they've all gone through for us. And I
Speaker 1: am simply submitting if this is a fine opportunity for
Speaker 1: us to stand tinktotes down in our blackness, however we
Speaker 1: so choose to do no more psychick energy, nor more accommodating,
Speaker 1: nor more shrinking for white days or combination. Okay, it's
Speaker 1: made character energy over period. And if you can't get
Speaker 1: with it, I think what today is showing you is
Speaker 1: that you will actually be the one displaced. I think
Speaker 1: y'all all got a subtext. So I'm leaving right there,
Speaker 1: but you better make space for blackness in America today
Speaker 1: or you will find yourself displaced. There. You got to
Speaker 1: y'all owner, and so thank you all right? Can the beating, brotherly?
Speaker 1: How are we going to do the mic situation? I
Speaker 1: do want to ask six people to be able to
Speaker 1: share from the audience their questions with black people want
Speaker 1: to invest the camp of the own this country. You
Speaker 1: know what you're taking reparations and if you support it,
Speaker 1: there what avenue you think would be the best. I'll
Speaker 1: come to repair which obfuscation. So I speak directly to
Speaker 1: what Justin is is leading us to here. In chapter
Speaker 1: I think it's odd, it's hard left fag and I
Speaker 1: opened that chapter with a very basic reality. It's very
Speaker 1: hard to be free when you don't own anything. It's
Speaker 1: really hard to be free to all when you don't
Speaker 1: own anything. So I make a very specific prescription around
Speaker 1: black ownership, whether it's black entrepreneurship, like whether the leak here,
Speaker 1: whether it is black real estate holding. Now, one of
Speaker 1: the said shoots South America today for black folks is
Speaker 1: that we actually hope less real estate all in America
Speaker 1: today than we did pre the Anti Discrimination Housing Act
Speaker 1: of n We hovered it around forty two percent, then
Speaker 1: we hovered right around the same today. It's a tragedy.
Speaker 1: We actually can't afford it. So I'm talking in this
Speaker 1: book specifically about black home ownership. I know some of
Speaker 1: us live in UH these elite spaces like Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: d C, l A, San Diego, UH, San Francisco, Chicago.
Speaker 1: That make it far. We gotta start talking about what
Speaker 1: co op situations look like. We gotta start talking about
Speaker 1: what it is to buy property someone you don't live,
Speaker 1: because at least the asset is appreciated and you have
Speaker 1: access to that equity so that you can do a
Speaker 1: small business loan or set your next generation of school
Speaker 1: or whatever you choose to invest that equity in it.
Speaker 1: So I speak very prescriptively and specific and just said
Speaker 1: over I need well build an asset portion of black deliberation.
Speaker 1: We cannot be serious about meeting free of this country
Speaker 1: if we are not talking about ownership and asset though. Well,
Speaker 1: I gotta give my question because I'm hosting this second
Speaker 1: I said, I'm gonna first, wouldn't it need right right
Speaker 1: right right where you've been dropping bombs all day now?
Speaker 1: Historically we've been calling a lot of names. Yes, behind
Speaker 1: they roll so called they roll after American, Afro American Black?
Speaker 1: Why is black so more important? Because I personally think
Speaker 1: that it has a different political, social, cultural media than
Speaker 1: it does. I forget American because in the sixties James
Speaker 1: Brown said I'm black, you know I'm proper right sixty
Speaker 1: seventies and didn't it move to African America. Now we
Speaker 1: get back to the word black. So can you speak
Speaker 1: on why there's word black in the difference between you
Speaker 1: identifying as a black bird, Because I personally think everybody
Speaker 1: can be called any nony, but not everybody can call
Speaker 1: on black. I love that a man. If not everybody
Speaker 1: gets to be black, not everybody gets to be black.
Speaker 1: We've been if you if you have a spiritual belief
Speaker 1: system like I do, I know I was chosen to
Speaker 1: be black, and I know I was chosen to me
Speaker 1: black in my teen andy three to take my spiritual
Speaker 1: gifts and and and apply that to this particular moment
Speaker 1: in American trajectory. Blackness for me is about the potency
Speaker 1: mo week. It's a it's a particularly potent capture. And
Speaker 1: again I was I'll reiterate the point of its broadness
Speaker 1: of scope. I think when you start talking about African American,
Speaker 1: you started talking about people of color. I think it's
Speaker 1: started to limit the power of who gets to be black. Um. Specifically,
Speaker 1: I'll say that my experience living in New York City
Speaker 1: has where the talk being educated beyond this term. But
Speaker 1: you go to New York of you don't just get
Speaker 1: to be black. You've got to be a specific of
Speaker 1: a you Caribbean black and a Gerian black fatures of
Speaker 1: cynical East. Well, you know it's very specific like that,
Speaker 1: and that's I get it. But but I I I
Speaker 1: challenge my New York community to never forget and and
Speaker 1: Safel Wilkerson speaks to this very powerfully in her boodcast.
Speaker 1: Sometimes white proximity and aligning oneselves to white proximity and
Speaker 1: approval will have those of us who are black over
Speaker 1: emphasized categorizations where we want to say, well, I'm black
Speaker 1: and not that compla and we think that we are
Speaker 1: doing that in some kind of virtue signaling to white presumptions,
Speaker 1: incorrect presumptions. By the way, in Blackness again started beginning
Speaker 1: a bat I'm black because the news about being black
Speaker 1: in America, and you'll learn the actuality of being black.
Speaker 1: And now you're not proactified with the stinguishing yourself foam
Speaker 1: your black pim folk. So it's black for me. It
Speaker 1: will always be black for me because I'll understand the
Speaker 1: power in the poet scene of blackness. Amen, give it up.
Speaker 1: I went that very next. Okay, thank you so much,
Speaker 1: for being here today. You sha' you? Um my question
Speaker 1: about the Real Housewives of New York. I'm sorry, Uma,
Speaker 1: that was one of the one of this one show
Speaker 1: that I never did watch, but when I saw you,
Speaker 1: I began to watch. And what I would like to
Speaker 1: know is white lesson. What was the longest, most important
Speaker 1: lesson that she learned from being on that show that
Speaker 1: you've taken away with you that you can go ahead
Speaker 1: and share with us. Love it? So I speak specifically
Speaker 1: about the Real Housewives of New York or the romi
Speaker 1: of it all in chapter three entitled Disruption. I took
Speaker 1: a lot of lessons, but the biggest one I took
Speaker 1: was I'm saying it's ultimately you watch the ship's fall,
Speaker 1: play the long game. So I went to Rony unclear
Speaker 1: as to the landscape of reality from an outsider perspective, Um,
Speaker 1: you know only knew it as a as a warrior. Now.
Speaker 1: I came on the show with a black college degree,
Speaker 1: with a low degree, with a career that it centered blackness,
Speaker 1: and a very black name of any key on a
Speaker 1: week it's got to be when in the blackness as
Speaker 1: in television, And for some reason, my cast fades even
Speaker 1: probably the executives to some level. We're startled and confused
Speaker 1: when I chose to continue the work of centering blackness. Um,
Speaker 1: I think if anything, I was probably and I know
Speaker 1: that someone even my folks, felt I was doing too much.
Speaker 1: It was too strong, it was too potent. IM tell
Speaker 1: you true, sis. The only thing I would do differently
Speaker 1: is the seat of that fabulous, laborous Harlan langdon oh
Speaker 1: it took them be just a Brooklyn game and what's
Speaker 1: spice to be? Or it totally kissed my black ass.
Speaker 1: That's the only thing I would have gonna get to
Speaker 1: kill my line because they should have appreciate a beaut
Speaker 1: your blackness. Thank you for me and here appreciated thank you.
Speaker 1: I just want to ask this question. I'm gonna tech
Speaker 1: them a little bit earlier, UM, but what is your
Speaker 1: advice for black women specifically that are showing up in
Speaker 1: spaces where they are the only black person. You talk
Speaker 1: about it a little bit. You've been doing throughout your career.
Speaker 1: You have you shown up in spaces where you have
Speaker 1: no black person. So what is your advice, UM, for
Speaker 1: black women who are intrigulated through their career? Um, and
Speaker 1: specifically for young girls who are in college, who are
Speaker 1: at HBCUs, who are about to step out of those
Speaker 1: spaces they move into. I'm you're very glad you mentioned
Speaker 1: that last part, So um sore, I'm just gonna answer.
Speaker 1: Portia is my sorority sister in Alpha Kappa Alpha Solarty Incorporated. UM.
Speaker 1: She is also one of my dearest friends at the
Speaker 1: world and we uh for over two years now have
Speaker 1: shared in bonding over experiences of us sending in professional
Speaker 1: spaces as educated black women. And what's interesting is sometimes
Speaker 1: we compare and can trust our experiences. I went to
Speaker 1: a renominatly white institution at NUNC chaper Hill, and Pusha
Speaker 1: had the great privilege of attending Clark Atlanta University. And
Speaker 1: I started this book tour in Baltimore, and I had
Speaker 1: a lot of students courtship from Morgan State University show
Speaker 1: up and they asked a similar question. I said, my
Speaker 1: advice to you is to bottle up the truth and
Speaker 1: actuality of blackness that you are receiving on this elite
Speaker 1: college campus. Because once students that come out of HBCUs
Speaker 1: and there is some truth to the fact that you
Speaker 1: will been to confront the reality of white gaze and
Speaker 1: white expectation differently because you're not matriculating in that at
Speaker 1: the undergraduate level. But I still think there is a swag,
Speaker 1: There is a nate confidence, There is anate sense of
Speaker 1: knowing one's qualification and one's earnestness when you come from
Speaker 1: a black school and or however else that is instilled
Speaker 1: in you. Whether for me it was Lauria, for me,
Speaker 1: it was the books. For me, it was knowing a
Speaker 1: Baldwin and Phillis Wheetley and Eldrid's Clever and all of
Speaker 1: that stuff before I even got to college. But if
Speaker 1: if not that, I think those HBCU kids for should
Speaker 1: need to bottle it up. The normalization of Dr So
Speaker 1: and sol Dr So and sold Professor so and so
Speaker 1: all looking like you, because when you get out of
Speaker 1: that Petri dish of black academic excellence, you will be
Speaker 1: hard pressed to find anything in the outside world that
Speaker 1: amplifies that. But that is who we are, that isn't
Speaker 1: not look black awesomeness because I'm over black excellence. Excellence
Speaker 1: is innately black, so that it's repetitive to me, um,
Speaker 1: But that actual awesomeness of who we are is not
Speaker 1: isolated to the academic black HBC you experienced, and people
Speaker 1: would have me believe that. So I'll just think bottled up.
Speaker 1: Soak it up, put that battery in your back, because
Speaker 1: you're going to need it when you get into these
Speaker 1: workplaces that these board rooms, these classrooms that are not
Speaker 1: HBC used, these hospitals, these finance institutions, these newsrooms, and
Speaker 1: they will try to tell you everything you are, but
Speaker 1: then you are not. So I think just trying to
Speaker 1: feed off of that as much as you can and
Speaker 1: trust that once you experienced those four years on that
Speaker 1: campus is who you are. All right, Welcome to l A,
Speaker 1: I think all right. So I watched Deaf and Devour
Speaker 1: your book within twenty four hours, and it brought up
Speaker 1: the conversation of nationalism, white nationalism, black nationalists, yes, um,
Speaker 1: and so when we think of white nationalism we think
Speaker 1: of racism. But reading the book, it came up then
Speaker 1: you were you could possibly a black nationalists. Do you
Speaker 1: consider yourself one? And if so? Was the difference? At
Speaker 1: one time? I absolutely was a black nationalist. Um. I
Speaker 1: write about this in the book as well. There's a
Speaker 1: chapter where I talk about again my toy with the
Speaker 1: guard me of it all and saying you know what,
Speaker 1: and then I'll frame it before you the web during
Speaker 1: the book. Let's start with some basic facts. The basic
Speaker 1: factist there was never a plan for melonated people of
Speaker 1: African descent to be fully liberated free people on this
Speaker 1: particular stone wand that's a fact. So even um a
Speaker 1: leading originally and it was a common theory at the
Speaker 1: time that we should really just put these up black
Speaker 1: people back on Dent's and then back to Africa. That
Speaker 1: was an old rottle faith ship didn't work out, so
Speaker 1: hearing which we've remained and so I had a real tension.
Speaker 1: This has talked about, y'all in the title that I
Speaker 1: am called entitled where I talk about what ultimately becomes
Speaker 1: an arc of progression. Where I find myself today, which
Speaker 1: is that I think similar to what Paul Robeson suggests,
Speaker 1: which is, yeah, we we we could go back to Africa.
Speaker 1: That's fine, be like legitimately, that's that's an opportunity now
Speaker 1: in an in a choice, but by no means when
Speaker 1: we be ran off our land essentially right, he says,
Speaker 1: we have good it in too much, we have put
Speaker 1: too much blood and tears and breast milk into the
Speaker 1: soil of this here land stolen from our indigenous kinfolks,
Speaker 1: that we must boldly proclaim our inmate entitled right to
Speaker 1: be here if we so choose, and we don't have
Speaker 1: to concede to being here in a secondary, subsidiary way.
Speaker 1: That's what the whole book is about. So it's not
Speaker 1: so much about black nationalism, is that it as much
Speaker 1: as it is about a seismic shift in position of
Speaker 1: what it is to be black in America. We will
Speaker 1: I will love lover, and I want to hold our
Speaker 1: folks to come with me. Be a second position, I
Speaker 1: will only be in the first. Physician must leading to
Speaker 1: the brow repol in returning brow up. I gotta give
Speaker 1: a real more question. Then okay, well more question and
Speaker 1: then we read. I love it, thinking, um, and you
Speaker 1: what you did say that black people are wants misunderstood
Speaker 1: people in America. I want to know what do you
Speaker 1: want non black people to understand? First of all, I
Speaker 1: wanna I want non black people to know when I
Speaker 1: know this is truely because I have living witnesses in
Speaker 1: my life. Belovedly, you don't even have to be black
Speaker 1: to bound black. You don't even have to be black
Speaker 1: to bed online. That's some vidius a man man. I
Speaker 1: want them to know that we are not as tethered
Speaker 1: to their grueful as they made think or have been
Speaker 1: led to believe. I want, I want them to understand
Speaker 1: that the centeredness of likeness, it's not necessarily their fault
Speaker 1: as white people matriculating on this today, right, but it
Speaker 1: is a by product of a global system of colonialism
Speaker 1: and white supremacy that is rooted in a notion of scarcity.
Speaker 1: It's rooted in a notion that says there's not enough
Speaker 1: filling the blank food seats at good schools, jobs, men.
Speaker 1: And if you replace it with the actuality, at least,
Speaker 1: my God tells me there's plinty. My God tells me
Speaker 1: there is abundance. And if you believe in the abundance,
Speaker 1: you do not have to be tethered to the white
Speaker 1: methodology of scarcity, which is the root cause of all
Speaker 1: the annihilation, of all the colonialism, of all the blood
Speaker 1: shed around white supremacy, on all the years, of all
Speaker 1: the places. So I want non black people to not
Speaker 1: be afraid to compete. None if you buck, but no,
Speaker 1: because the most beautiful and successful white people I know
Speaker 1: are not tethered to their innate whiteness as their superpower.
Speaker 1: The don't white people I know happen to be white.
Speaker 1: They don't need to be white, and that's a difference. Um.
Speaker 1: So I just want us to all relish in that actuality.
Speaker 1: And that's a part of the reframing that the book
Speaker 1: is rooted in. Thank you, Thank You. I wanted to.
Speaker 1: I don't want to be a one person question regiquation.
Speaker 1: You were up Hi Hi a sorceerraise. Do you missus
Speaker 1: here in l An I do. I don't miss much else,
Speaker 1: but I miss y'all definitely. My question. My question, Um,
Speaker 1: there is a reperation movement in California. I'm aware, and uh,
Speaker 1: my question is what would be your call to action?
Speaker 1: Where are the residents and the allies if you were
Speaker 1: still here in the gray stand California. So it's a
Speaker 1: great question, sorceriies. She's also a fellow attorney. I covered
Speaker 1: this on my INTOLACP Image Award nominated podcast, Holding Court
Speaker 1: when she Drops Everywhere, And I and I actually use
Speaker 1: y'all's governor Gavin Newsom as an example. Perfect. He is not,
Speaker 1: but on this issue, he is a great opportunity for
Speaker 1: those of us who don't believe reparations is the right
Speaker 1: thing to do, is the just and moral thing to do. Okay,
Speaker 1: when you talk about reparations, you're not talking at least
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about the Ultimately my legal lens is
Speaker 1: a period which I see this story right, I'm not
Speaker 1: talking about being on the right side of history. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about paying your bills. I'm talking about settling your debts.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about the restoration of it all, the restitution
Speaker 1: of it all, making one hope from which you've already drive.
Speaker 1: So Gavin Newsom and what he's doing on reparations, now
Speaker 1: folk can get to me distracted in the why he's
Speaker 1: doing it. He wants to learn cool. They'm a politician
Speaker 1: that y'all know, black, white, or other who is not
Speaker 1: setting policy with the overall admission of their career tragetory.
Speaker 1: I don't really give a damn about that. What I
Speaker 1: do know is the guy that Newsom in the state
Speaker 1: of California is modeling at at the biggest level that
Speaker 1: you've got pockets, You've got St. Louis doing a task
Speaker 1: for us. You've got play Vingston. I think Illinois has
Speaker 1: done some things sometimes. And that's all very important too,
Speaker 1: because we know that this is to be successful, y'all nationally,
Speaker 1: the black folks to get rescue. I would said, well
Speaker 1: it is. I would start calling restitution and reparations. It
Speaker 1: has had a critical mass component. So I'll tell you
Speaker 1: when I'm doing in New York, I'm saying, yo, Eric Adders,
Speaker 1: you lay you laying at and chump you like that?
Speaker 1: Play no, but seriously, right like you, you have got
Speaker 1: to look at those in national conversations around Paul, let's
Speaker 1: see as it relates to this issue. And you have
Speaker 1: to start using the advances of one to point out
Speaker 1: the deficiencies of another. Why Why in what world is
Speaker 1: New York City, in New York State not at the
Speaker 1: vanguard of this issue. You let the West coast play
Speaker 1: you like that? You know, So that's kind of part
Speaker 1: of what I'm doing. And I would say for those
Speaker 1: and you here in Los Angeles and in broader California,
Speaker 1: push harder. It's gonna be the young parents call a
Speaker 1: positive reinforcement. Seriously acknowledge the celebration of what And you know,
Speaker 1: the only thing I'll say too, closeries is the the
Speaker 1: thing about politics, It's a negotiation. You were negotiating our
Speaker 1: vote on behalf of you your job security. What we
Speaker 1: have got to stop doing, which we're getting better, but
Speaker 1: we've still got a long ways to go, is negotiating
Speaker 1: on the back end. Right, any anybody in business, and
Speaker 1: certainly any more, you will tell you the time to
Speaker 1: negotiate the terms of your conditioning is not after the
Speaker 1: paperwork is okay, that's that's that's not We have got
Speaker 1: to start negotiating and demand. I say this in the book,
Speaker 1: is like to say a great place to close this
Speaker 1: and go onto pictures and signing. One of the things
Speaker 1: Douglass Is taught me. Power concedes nothing without a demand.
Speaker 1: It never did and it never will. Black folks, we
Speaker 1: have got to be more demanding, not asking, not permissive,
Speaker 1: not waiting, not even on this one negotiating. We got
Speaker 1: to be more demanding than all My book The Last
Speaker 1: posa okay got you up to me? Yep off um
Speaker 1: for the people. I be in a thirty eight years,
Speaker 1: one month in five days, recently released my ten months ago.
Speaker 1: I was riding down the stream and I saw two
Speaker 1: suster to sit here, and I protass I need to
Speaker 1: be an energy and so I got your kind of
Speaker 1: land yesterday. But mass incarceration, I don't know if that
Speaker 1: topic came up. But a voice as powerful as yours,
Speaker 1: it's even more powerful because I've listened to you over
Speaker 1: the years, I didn't know what was the strongest said
Speaker 1: up I've seen tonight policy, But what would we do
Speaker 1: a voice it's a potent or powerful and that's strong
Speaker 1: or whatever. Well, how would you address of mass in
Speaker 1: carceerracing and keeping it in the face of somebody like
Speaker 1: Kathie Newton who has such control over he had as
Speaker 1: in carceerraction in their lives. So many people such as myself,
Speaker 1: thank you to that question, But so you probably not
Speaker 1: like used to practice from the defense work that was
Speaker 1: my grand mother for many years. So when I sat
Speaker 1: mass and conserration again, y'all proteins issues very differently than
Speaker 1: most public intellectual or activist types. You will see I
Speaker 1: don't comment these issues from the motion, and I don't
Speaker 1: comment them from a place of field good. I don't
Speaker 1: even really care about doing the quote right thing. I
Speaker 1: have to dissect the issue to get to the nucleus
Speaker 1: and why it's an issue to begin with Black mass incarceration,
Speaker 1: it is predominantly blacks that are being mass incarcerated. Of
Speaker 1: course it's anti blackness, but we have got to d
Speaker 1: incentivize the prison complex system on its face. As long
Speaker 1: as goods and services are really coming through the door
Speaker 1: of multimillions sometimes billion dollar corporations known as prisons, there's
Speaker 1: literally products and goods and services coming out of these institutions.
Speaker 1: So there is a little incentive for judges on a
Speaker 1: bench to not only wrongfully convict that's one problem, but
Speaker 1: it overly sentence that's another problem. So you've got a
Speaker 1: bifurcated dub and sentence to fuel a financial industry. So
Speaker 1: until there's you know, more statutory regulation, more restrictions, more
Speaker 1: regulations or prohibitions that say we're actually not going to
Speaker 1: allow for a profit machine to exist inside of a
Speaker 1: penitentiary that supposedly is designed for rehabilitation. Around and around
Speaker 1: we go, thank you, thank you for your question. You
Speaker 1: were gonna put it happy? What he really paying over
Speaker 1: pile talking to you? Happy? What? Thank you? Thank Heaven
Speaker 1: right where We're gonna take a pull while right here
Speaker 1: with Ali book. Thanks for listening to Malik's bookshelf where
Speaker 1: topics on the shelf, our books, culture and communities. Be
Speaker 1: sure to subscribe and leave me a read you check
Speaker 1: out my Instagram at Malik Books. See you next time.