Speaker 1: My league has how the knowledge you want, My league,
Speaker 1: but has how a knowledge you need?
Speaker 2: Lead.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they have out the books that the whole wild
Speaker 1: world one up read My League.
Speaker 2: But welcome, welcome, Welcome.
Speaker 1: To Malie's Bookshow, Bringing a World Together with Books, Culture
Speaker 1: and community.
Speaker 2: Whoa, it's twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: This is season three, episode one. Come on now, come on,
Speaker 1: I gotta get back into it. I gotta get my
Speaker 1: mind right. This episode that I'm going to be doing
Speaker 1: today is what's been in the airwaves. Plus it's Black
Speaker 1: History Month, and so this is called black history is
Speaker 1: American history.
Speaker 2: So I hope you enjoyed this episode. But hey, I'm back.
Speaker 1: I'm back, and I'm back Malak's Book Show, Bringing a
Speaker 1: World Together with Books, Culture and community.
Speaker 2: One more, more, more, more thing.
Speaker 1: I also have an episode I'm going to feature that
Speaker 1: I interview Katie Mitchell, who wrote the book Prose to
Speaker 1: the People. I interviewed her because that book is coming
Speaker 1: up in April. And guess what Malik Books is in there.
Speaker 1: Because it's a book about black bookstores and their impact
Speaker 1: all across this nation America, and so I'm excited.
Speaker 2: It's a picture book, it's beautiful pictures.
Speaker 1: It talks about Eliite books in all the decades that
Speaker 1: we've been doing this work as a black bookstore, but
Speaker 1: it's we just one amongst others that are featured in there.
Speaker 2: I called it the Black book Revolution.
Speaker 1: This story has never been told and so I'm glad
Speaker 1: that we're featured in.
Speaker 2: It because we have put into work and there's a.
Speaker 1: Lot of body of work. So pros to the people
Speaker 1: by Katie Mitchell. That interview is going to be on
Speaker 1: here along with my talk about Black history is American history.
Speaker 1: And I'm woven indeed, I because that's what has been
Speaker 1: rolled back, So I'm woven all this in together. All right,
Speaker 1: peace enjoyed the episode. It's twenty twenty five and we're
Speaker 1: starting our third season of Malak's booksh Up bringing a
Speaker 1: world together with books, culture.
Speaker 2: And community. It's twenty twenty five. This is our third season.
Speaker 1: We hadn done over one hundred episodes in the last
Speaker 1: two seasons. This particular episode is what's been in the
Speaker 1: streets on in the airwaves. We're talking about black history
Speaker 1: is American history because of this DEI this been all
Speaker 1: in the media talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Speaker 2: We've been.
Speaker 1: Listen, the father and founder of Black History Month, it
Speaker 1: started off Black History Week.
Speaker 2: It's Carter G.
Speaker 1: Whisson who wrote a book called mis Education of the Negro.
Speaker 1: And let me tell you, that's a powerful book. He
Speaker 1: wrote it decades and decades and decades ago. He's an educator,
Speaker 1: and the book is relevant to this day, this Education
Speaker 1: of the Negro. The thing that stood out the most
Speaker 1: about that book is the fact that he said, if
Speaker 1: you control a person's education, you don't have to worry
Speaker 1: about their actions. If you put a barrier in front
Speaker 1: of them, they will carve out a path through the
Speaker 1: barrier or door. That right there stuck out in my
Speaker 1: mind because.
Speaker 2: Black people in America don't control their education all right.
Speaker 1: We go to public schools primarily, and even when we
Speaker 1: go to most of the private schools, they are usually
Speaker 1: funded by other cultures, other races.
Speaker 2: So we don't control our.
Speaker 1: True education in America. And one of the most dangerous
Speaker 1: things in the country is a person who's uneducated.
Speaker 2: Listen.
Speaker 1: It costs more on this system in this country to house,
Speaker 1: to do social reform, do all these different projects in programs.
Speaker 2: When someone's educated. So it is a benefit to this
Speaker 2: nation to this country.
Speaker 1: If a person is educated, y as can read and
Speaker 1: write and arithmetic, because it's a burden on society if
Speaker 1: you're not educated. So it's a system in place. Everyone
Speaker 1: is required to go to school, everyone is required to
Speaker 1: take stating tests to assess the effectiveness of.
Speaker 2: A school or where you at as a person.
Speaker 1: Okay, and the American is not doing too well in
Speaker 1: terms of that on these standardized tests. All right, considering
Speaker 1: it's the mightiest nation on the planet, it's the major superpower,
Speaker 1: and it's the leading nation of innovation, but yet these
Speaker 1: test scores are horrible compared to other nations who have
Speaker 1: far less resources and so forth. Well, anyway, DII Diversity
Speaker 1: Equity and concludion, Diversity, equity and inclusion. Black history is
Speaker 1: American history, and we don't need permission to celebrate our
Speaker 1: culture and our achievements because.
Speaker 2: We made a contribution blood and sweat in this nation.
Speaker 1: And one of the reasons why this nation is mighty
Speaker 1: as powerful is because of black culture, black people and
Speaker 1: the achievements that we made many inventions. I don't need
Speaker 1: to go through that because black history is world, not
Speaker 1: just American, but it's wild history because black people taught
Speaker 1: the world. Math, science, we educated. We wasn't jungle bunnies
Speaker 1: running in the jungle when they came to Africa to
Speaker 1: en slave maybe some black people, but black folks built pyramids.
Speaker 1: Black people had high science and math. Black people was
Speaker 1: culturally civilized, and they're taught this as secret societies and
Speaker 1: certain books. You go read doctor Ben Jackman's book, Black
Speaker 1: Men of the Now. You can read Mother of Civilization
Speaker 1: by doctor Joseph bin Jackman.
Speaker 2: Hey, you can read J. A.
Speaker 1: Rogers and a Black American who wrote a book in
Speaker 1: nineteen twenties.
Speaker 2: World's Great Men of Color.
Speaker 1: All Right, you can read his book that he wrote,
Speaker 1: Africa's Gift to America.
Speaker 2: Black history is American history.
Speaker 1: Black people contributions to this nation have helped this nation
Speaker 1: to become.
Speaker 2: Mighty powerful and proud. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: When people watch us in sports, watch US win Olympic medals.
Speaker 2: World championships, they are excited.
Speaker 1: And it has united this nation under a lot of areas,
Speaker 1: particularly sports, and he'll integrate us in a lot of ways.
Speaker 2: But there's this national pride.
Speaker 1: A lot of it has to do with black success
Speaker 1: in sports and entertainment.
Speaker 2: Okay, Now, in business, come on now.
Speaker 1: In business, we were the top mathematicians before we became slaves.
Speaker 1: So we were builders, just like we built that white house.
Speaker 1: We wasn't just jungle bunnies uneducated coming over here. We
Speaker 1: had knowledge where wisdom it was stripped from us. That's
Speaker 1: another story. But I'm just here to talk about Black
Speaker 1: history is American history, and we don't need DEI to
Speaker 1: celebrate our culture. We didn't have it back when Jay
Speaker 1: Rogers wrote Miseducation of the Negro and started Black History Month.
Speaker 1: We don't need permission from no president or.
Speaker 2: No leader or no school board.
Speaker 1: We're gonna celebrate our culture because it is our culture
Speaker 1: and is our responsibility to pass it on to.
Speaker 2: The next generation.
Speaker 1: We have achieved the Norman success in this nation, despite racism,
Speaker 1: despite slavery, despite listen, I know some of you don't
Speaker 1: like to hear all of that. I know some of
Speaker 1: y'all don't want to be reminded of your past, but hey,
Speaker 1: it's part of American history. I'm not for counsel culture.
Speaker 1: Let's just tell the truth. Let's just be honest, all right.
Speaker 1: So right now, it's twenty twenty five, we got a
Speaker 1: new president and all this d I.
Speaker 2: Talk about diversity, equity, inclusion.
Speaker 1: A lot of companies are eliminating, the federal government is eliminating.
Speaker 2: So and so the question is do we need to
Speaker 2: be successful in America? So I personally listen. I got
Speaker 2: a bookstore. Believe books, all right, I've read a lot
Speaker 2: of books.
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of gut it, okay, And do
Speaker 1: we need social programs and to be successful? I don't believe.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 1: Now it's nice to have. Then it's a benefit to heaven.
Speaker 1: I'm not against having these social programs, you know, to
Speaker 1: level up, all right, I'm not against that at all.
Speaker 1: But I don't want us thinking that if we don't
Speaker 1: have them social programs like d I, that we can't win. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm here to tell you can win. No more excuses.
Speaker 1: You can win without d I. We crawed up about
Speaker 1: a slavery didn't have no social program and look.
Speaker 2: Where we're at.
Speaker 1: We don't have to have these programs to win and
Speaker 1: be great and successful. We been able to achieve and
Speaker 1: no missuccess in this country, regardless of discrimination, regardless of racism.
Speaker 2: So it is d I gonna stop black folks from winning. No,
Speaker 2: it can only stop you if you believe that, and
Speaker 2: I don't believe that.
Speaker 1: I believe black people are one of the most resourceful, resilient,
Speaker 1: and strongest people on this planet. And if they don't
Speaker 1: want to give us. I live through affirmative action, I
Speaker 1: lived through multiculturalism. I've lived through d I it just listen.
Speaker 1: History peats itself.
Speaker 2: When you don't get it right. So we always keep
Speaker 2: going back to the same thing.
Speaker 1: And then another generation say, oh, as reverse racism.
Speaker 2: Oh you're not hiring the best people for the job. No,
Speaker 2: and you getting favoritism because of your skin color. I
Speaker 2: didn't been through that. Do affirmative action. I didn't been
Speaker 2: through that through marketing called and multiculturalists.
Speaker 1: Now I'm living through d They give it, they take
Speaker 1: it away, they give it, they take it away, they
Speaker 1: give it, they take it away. It's a lot of
Speaker 1: blacks to think that we have to have these programs,
Speaker 1: and I'm not against it. If we have it, I'm
Speaker 1: not against it. But you're not gonna tell me that
Speaker 1: that's gonna stop someone like jay Z from being successful
Speaker 1: or Beyonce, they being theirs. Okay, we have people do this.
Speaker 1: Dude invented I forgot his name. He invented the water gun.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, made millions from it.
Speaker 2: Oh right, So man, I can go on and on
Speaker 2: about modern day inventions.
Speaker 1: I believe Robin his name is Robert Hope Bryant. All right,
Speaker 1: he's a billionaire.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: Now, I ain't got to speak for him, but this
Speaker 1: brother said Deis did.
Speaker 2: All right, all right, I'm not looking at we got sick.
Speaker 2: Look we in nineteen sixties, we had civil rights movement.
Speaker 1: We are what eighty something years up from or sixty
Speaker 1: something day? Okay, from nineteen sixty four civil rights moving
Speaker 1: to today.
Speaker 2: We got data to study. The best way to learn
Speaker 2: from the past is study the past. Study history. If
Speaker 2: rewards you for your research, look at the data. Look
Speaker 2: at the data. Okay.
Speaker 1: We can keep getting all these social reforms and handouts, right,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, another generation come boom every
Speaker 1: twenty years and we're back to square one.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: If we want permanent change, permanent salute, we got to
Speaker 1: learn from the past in order to gain what we
Speaker 1: need in the future.
Speaker 2: All right, History rewards you for your research. We got
Speaker 2: the data.
Speaker 1: We got the data when integration took place, we got
Speaker 1: the data.
Speaker 2: How a lot of our black business in the South
Speaker 2: folded up because we didn't recycle the black dollar no more.
Speaker 1: We was forced to do dough segregation, black bus companies,
Speaker 1: black restaurants, black this, black.
Speaker 2: Dad, and you was forced to support these companies.
Speaker 1: Now you have a choice to go to other companies
Speaker 1: because it's you know, they got rid of the Jim Crow,
Speaker 1: they got rid of all that. But guess what we're
Speaker 1: choosing as a people to not recycle the black dollar
Speaker 1: within our own community. So we have a lot of problems,
Speaker 1: you know, that are coming up and arison because of
Speaker 1: the lot of unity. And really, look, I'll watch these
Speaker 1: old movies and I read some of these books. When
Speaker 1: you become an owner of business owner, you become a
Speaker 1: problem solving all right. America in order to grow it
Speaker 1: had to solve his problems, all right. Imagine living in
Speaker 1: the wild, wild West, all right. People came from all
Speaker 1: over America and hit it West to get a plot
Speaker 1: of and freedom.
Speaker 2: They knew that there was no loss, it was lawless.
Speaker 1: They knew there was war with the Indians, they knew
Speaker 1: that it was all these unlawful.
Speaker 2: Murders taking place.
Speaker 1: Yet they still came and sacrifice to come and build
Speaker 1: the West, all right. So they didn't have DEI, they
Speaker 1: didn't have social reform, they didn't have nothing. They had
Speaker 1: unity and a belief and the idea. All I'm saying
Speaker 1: is sometimes you just you know, they had they got land,
Speaker 1: and they believed in unity, all right, and they solved
Speaker 1: the problem.
Speaker 2: Listen.
Speaker 1: If unite the black dollar induced for self, we can
Speaker 1: have more of what it's in America Americans for sale,
Speaker 1: and we need to buy them like everybody.
Speaker 2: Else, all right.
Speaker 1: But if you need unity, we have to work together.
Speaker 1: And that's not taking nothing away from other people. It's
Speaker 1: yet because other cultures of the racists, that's what they do.
Speaker 1: They support their own and they also read the wealth
Speaker 1: to other people. But they start at home. Charity starts
Speaker 1: at home. Black history is American history. We don't need
Speaker 1: social programs to be successful.
Speaker 2: That's the trick, all right. Listen. I'm not against it,
Speaker 2: but you can't tell me if we don't have.
Speaker 1: It, that you're not gonna be educated, you're not gonna win,
Speaker 1: and you're not gonna be successful.
Speaker 2: All Right. It's nice to have it.
Speaker 1: All right, but the reality that you might not have
Speaker 1: it and it might go away and then what you're
Speaker 1: gonna do.
Speaker 2: You're gonna not be resilient.
Speaker 1: You're gonna you're not gonna keep continue the path, you know, charge.
Speaker 2: Forward, make changes may make you got to win, all right.
Speaker 2: The bottom line is you got to win.
Speaker 1: I use books to help my community to win, all right.
Speaker 1: Anything you want to find, you can find a book.
Speaker 1: Nips Unso didn't have an education, but he was a
Speaker 1: mellion there, right. Nipsey Hustle didn't graduate from high school
Speaker 1: or college, but yet he was a million there, right, So.
Speaker 2: It DEI wasn't social programs.
Speaker 1: Listen, you can win without this if listen, you can't
Speaker 1: force a people to change that don't want to be changed,
Speaker 1: all right. But the reality is that we have to
Speaker 1: believe in ourselves that we can still win regardless of
Speaker 1: these social programs, because they keep playing.
Speaker 2: They dangle it, then they take it away. They dangle
Speaker 2: it and then take it away, and then we.
Speaker 1: Start matching them down the street, wanting and shouting and pouting.
Speaker 2: Because they take it away. That's what they always do.
Speaker 2: That's the history of murder. I'm just telling you the history.
Speaker 2: I live through it.
Speaker 1: Affirmative fact, give it, take it away, multiculturalism, give it,
Speaker 1: they take it away. Di they give it, they take it.
Speaker 2: Away, same thing. But it don't change the fact.
Speaker 1: Black history is American history, and Black people we don't
Speaker 1: need no one, no permission to celebrate our culture, our history,
Speaker 1: and our achievements in this country. We're gonna celebrate whether
Speaker 1: we got DEI, whether we got affirmed or that, whether
Speaker 1: we got multiculturalism, we're gonna celebrate it. And if people
Speaker 1: don't think you visible leaks books lead books dot com.
Speaker 1: If you want to see greatest yr world's great men
Speaker 1: of color, I forgots give to America.
Speaker 2: J A. Rock. He didn't live to see how powerful
Speaker 2: his books have become. But let me tell you something.
Speaker 2: Black people is part of America and we not going nowhere.
Speaker 2: We're part of why this.
Speaker 1: Nation is great, and we not going nowhere because Black
Speaker 1: history is American history and we're gonna.
Speaker 2: Celebrate it from the top to the bottom.
Speaker 1: And Wenna, we don't need nobody's permission to celebrate what
Speaker 1: is true and what is great about this nation. Yet
Speaker 1: we're not trying to dwell in the past. But you
Speaker 1: know what, Yes, we got to go forward. And there's
Speaker 1: been a lot of changes that have happened for the good, okay,
Speaker 1: And people have stood up, they have marched, they have protested,
Speaker 1: or what have you.
Speaker 2: And there have been a lot of changes in this conation.
Speaker 2: All right, we can.
Speaker 1: Go to any college as long as you got to
Speaker 1: do you know, the.
Speaker 2: SAT scores and the grades.
Speaker 1: You know, you can go to pretty much any Harvard, Yale,
Speaker 1: whatever whatever school.
Speaker 2: I went to USC. But all I'm telling you is,
Speaker 2: regardless of these program.
Speaker 1: D I, it ain't gonna change the fact that Black
Speaker 1: history is American history, and we're part of the success
Speaker 1: of this nation. And we're not going nowhere, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna keep forging ford to make this country as best
Speaker 1: as it can can possibly. It got a lot of problems, yeah,
Speaker 1: but it also got a lot of things that we
Speaker 1: can be proud about.
Speaker 2: And so we're gonna move forward. We're gonna march forward.
Speaker 1: And I'm not gonna sit here and keep trying to
Speaker 1: bag of people to do for us. Well, we must
Speaker 1: do for ourselves, all right. No one can make the
Speaker 1: change but us. No amount of money is gonna change
Speaker 1: the fact that we got to unite and do for
Speaker 1: self or we're gonna suffer the consequences so hey, that's mine.
Speaker 1: First episode, Season three, Malik's Bookshelf, bringing a world together
Speaker 1: with books, culture and community peace.
Speaker 2: Hope you enjoyed this episode.
Speaker 1: Black History is American History. Look April twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: The new book Pros to the People, the author Katie Midcher.
Speaker 1: I'm sitting right here at the ABA convention out here
Speaker 1: in Denver, Conlorado. Before I leave, I got to get
Speaker 1: some information about this wonderful book. We are featured in it,
Speaker 1: Elik Books. Like I said, it was a story that
Speaker 1: never been told. Now people are writing, and she wrote
Speaker 1: on Prose to the people, Katie, how you doing.
Speaker 3: I'm doing really good. Thanks for hanging out with me
Speaker 3: here in Denver. Good to see y'all again.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, yeah, Now break it down.
Speaker 1: Tell us why what motivated you to write this story
Speaker 1: about black bookstores, your black bookstore owner as well.
Speaker 4: So tell us about the book, why you wrote the.
Speaker 1: Book, and what readers can take away from the book.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I knew that this history was so important, getting
Speaker 3: to know all the black bookstores around the United States.
Speaker 3: I said, people need to know this history. And it
Speaker 3: wasn't compiled in one volume like you said, It was
Speaker 3: all in a news article here, you know, somebody's basement there.
Speaker 3: But I wanted it to be our history, to be
Speaker 3: more accessible. So in the book you can expect to
Speaker 3: find profiles of all sorts of different bookstores from the
Speaker 3: past and the present. I'm going back all the way
Speaker 3: to the eighteen thirties, which a lot of people don't
Speaker 3: think there would be black bookstores in the eighteen thirties
Speaker 3: because slavery was going on, but there was a black
Speaker 3: book store then all the way to the twenty twenties,
Speaker 3: all around the country, all different types of bookstores. Because
Speaker 3: you know, we all are not a monolith as they
Speaker 3: like to put us as. So everybody's politics is different,
Speaker 3: their interest, their inventory and getting those stories. But then
Speaker 3: also seeing how connected we are in that same vein.
Speaker 3: So I'm super excited. You know Eliite Books with the jingle,
Speaker 3: you know, we pop in with that and everything. So
Speaker 3: super excited.
Speaker 4: Who we excited.
Speaker 1: Look, this is a photographic got information about different bookstore,
Speaker 1: black bookstores, but it's lots of pictures, lots of history
Speaker 1: is in this book. Did you get any of the
Speaker 1: photos back from eighteen thirties?
Speaker 3: You say, we do have some old photos in there.
Speaker 3: I went to the archives and really dug to get
Speaker 3: that information and was so lucky and blessed to get
Speaker 3: a four by and Miss Nikki Giovanni before she passed
Speaker 3: last year, So you'll see that in there, and also
Speaker 3: pictures of her at the Black bookstores, because everybody I
Speaker 3: talked to had a Nikki Giovanni story, so I wanted
Speaker 3: to make sure she had the first word in that book.
Speaker 4: Wonderful. I mean, that's an excellent author.
Speaker 1: She's a wonderful, award winning writer, and she is definite
Speaker 1: impacted future generations of writers and thinkers.
Speaker 4: And so we excited about pros to the people.
Speaker 1: Hey, listen, you know gonna go hard on this book.
Speaker 1: We in it, and I'm very thankful that the years
Speaker 1: of work since nineteen ninety we've been doing in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles found.
Speaker 4: This way in a book because we all collectedly.
Speaker 1: I always call it the Black Book Revolution, the impact
Speaker 1: that we made nationwide throughout this country. It's a story
Speaker 1: and ain't been told, but now it's being told in
Speaker 1: Katie Mitchell.
Speaker 4: Book is the first off the print.
Speaker 1: What do you want readers to take away when they
Speaker 1: read this wonderful, colorful, picture oriented illustrations out there.
Speaker 4: I mean, just incredible and all information in the book.
Speaker 3: I want them to take away that we've been here before.
Speaker 3: There's a lot going on now, and I think a
Speaker 3: lot of times people get discouraged, but when you read
Speaker 3: the book, you'll see how our ancestors and our elders
Speaker 3: navigated it and know that you know, we got this,
Speaker 3: we got each other, and we will survive this, and
Speaker 3: we're going to keep going and we're going to keep
Speaker 3: making black history and specifically black bookstore history.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we are resilient. Thank you, Katie.
Speaker 1: Any takeaways, anything extra than we talk about you want
Speaker 1: to add, thank you.
Speaker 3: I just want to say I'm so appreciative to all
Speaker 3: the black bookstores that spoke with me. I was telling
Speaker 3: your beautiful wife, Miss April, that I feel the weight
Speaker 3: of all these stories and I don't take for granted
Speaker 3: that people trusted me with telling them and getting them
Speaker 3: out here. So I'm just excited for everyone to see
Speaker 3: it and fall in love with the black bookstores like
Speaker 3: I have, Katie.
Speaker 1: Real quick, before we conclude this conversation, tell them where
Speaker 1: they can find you. I know where they can find
Speaker 1: this book at Malik Books and all bookstores nationwide yes.
Speaker 3: If you want more information about me or the book,
Speaker 3: you can go to a pros toothpeople dot com. And
Speaker 3: if you would like to follow me on Instagram, I'm
Speaker 3: at good booksatl dot com. So looking forward to connecting
Speaker 3: with y'all.
Speaker 1: Tell us the title of your bookstore in Atlanta and
Speaker 1: how they can reach you there.
Speaker 3: The title of my bookstore is good Books. We're in
Speaker 3: Atlanta and we're at good Books atl dot com.
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: Think I know my audience on Malise's bookshelf bringing a
Speaker 1: world together with books, culture and community. It's gonna love
Speaker 1: this book. It's gonna love this talk that we just had.
Speaker 1: So thank you, thank you, thank you. Thanks for listening
Speaker 1: to Malik's Bookshelf, where topics on the shelf are books, culture,
Speaker 1: and community.
Speaker 2: Be sure to subscribe and leave me a review.
Speaker 4: Check out my Instagram at malak Books. See you next time.