February 27, 2019 • 20 mins
Bridget and Yves are back to give us a special Black History Month 2019 recap full of the misadventures of the shortest month of the year. Featuring celebrations and motivations for better Black futures.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
You're listening to Afro Punk Solution Sessions. I'm your host
Brigittad and I'm your co host, Eve def Cookee. Acropunk
is a safe place, a blank space to freak out in,
to construct a new reality, to live our lives as
we see fit while making sense of the world around us.
Here at afro Punk, we have the conversations that matter
to us, conversations that lead to solutions. So it is February,
(00:32):
and here in America that means it is Black History Month.
And it's been a while since we've been in your earbuds.
But being as it it's Black History Month, you wanted
to recap what is really I think turned out to
be a kind of action packed Black History Month. Yeah,
and I too just wanted to, you know, remind everybody
that we make history every day and even though it's
(00:55):
Black History Month, we're talking about history and things that
happened in the past, we're still doing things that are
groundbreaking and that are making changes and you know, making
waves today and every day. It's true, I grew up
really not liking Black History Month. I don't I still
don't really enjoy it. When I was in school, this
was the month where my teachers would always say things like, oh,
(01:16):
it's a Black History Month, like get ready, you know,
like I was supposed to be, Like I wasn't paying
attention for the other twelve months of school. This was
the one month that that I was supposed to be
really interested in, and so I didn't. I didn't love that.
I also don't love the idea that we tend to
spotlight your Malcolm X is your George Washington Carver's your
(01:40):
you know, important figures, a lot of whom happened to
be male, a lot of whom happened to be straight.
And I think that that often can obscure the labor
and the contributions of people that you don't hear about. Right,
So for every Martin Luther King, what about the women
who were there, you know, taking care of children, cooking,
do domestic work that allowed for people to be in
(02:03):
the spotlight, and that that would allow that that kind
of labor would allow for these figures to go on
to be people that we, you know, see on Black
History themed posters in school, like one month out of
the year. I guess for me, it's not that I
didn't like Black History Month growing up it's just that
it never felt like it never felt really significant, or
it never felt like much of an event. I guess
(02:24):
I just remember very fondly, maybe not findly, but very
specifically in my mind about these white pieces of paper
with very simple line drawings that you were supposed to color,
and they would put them up on the wall. And
like my kindergarten classroom, and there were people, like you said,
like Martin Luther King, Rose Parks, I remember Garrett Morrigan
always being on the list. Um, yeah, and and we
(02:47):
would like color their faces and that was like, you know,
pretty much it and we learned about the same people
every year. So I guess it never it never felt
like an event that should have been marked. Um thing
that I would say today. And the way that I
like to think about it is of it being a
celebration because I don't know, I guess we we need
(03:09):
to make room for that celebration. We need to delineate
a specific time for that, because I think that a
lot of the time we get so caught up and
what's wrong and what needs to be fixed. And sure
we do celebrate, like we do celebrate people all the
time and all throughout the year, but it's really nice
to have a specific time carved out to say, Hey,
(03:29):
we acknowledge ourselves, we recognize ourselves. I see you, you
see me, and we can all celebrate that together. And
I think that's really cool. Like putting emphasis on the
games and the achievements and the heroes that are a
part of our community. That's right. Unfortunately, this Black History
Months kind of got off to a rocky start with
(03:51):
a lot of white people showing their assets via black space.
Unless you were living under a rack, you probably saw that.
Virginia Governor Ralph Northum. I guess he went to black
face medical school because his yearbook had a pretty ridiculous
picture of him in black face, or supposedly it was him.
At first, it was unclear if it was him or not.
(04:11):
He's standing next to somebody who's dressed in a as
a klansman. At first it wasn't clear which person he was.
He quickly apologized for this image and then later said
while that specific image of black face wasn't him, he
has done black face before, just not that specific time.
And black face has such deep roots in our country
(04:33):
and to see something like this this come out now,
and especially during during Black History Month. You know, it
feels like a flight. But um, that's something that He's
not the only person who's done that. Even Virginia's Attorney
general admitted to dressing up in black face in the
eighties as part of a Curtis blow Halloween costume. And
(04:53):
it sounds ridiculous. But when Northam, you know, admitted to
doing black face, his was part of a Michael He said,
he is part of a Michael Jackson Halloween costume. This
press this press conference was the most surreal thing I
think I've ever seen. At one point, he offered, he says, oh,
it was really good at doing the moonwalk. He offers
to demonstrate the moonwalk at one point, and it wasn't
(05:15):
until his wife suggested he not to do that because
it would be ridiculous. That honestly, was such a strange display.
To me, I was rubbing my eyes, thinking, and I
is what I'm watching real? I was so confused. So
that wasn't a great That wasn't a great start to
Black History Months, I don't think. And I think it's
worth like pointing out his reaction to or you know,
(05:38):
the tour afterwards and saying that we need to talk
about this where it's I feel like it's a thing
that happened so often, you know, then it's always a
call for dialogue, when this dialogue could have been happening
already and they expect to be taught. I in theory
could be okay with the idea of doing a listening
tour to educate yourself, perhaps if it had come twenty
(06:00):
years ago. I think that once you are a governor
of a big state, you know, like he he talked
about how he was reading books like Alex Haley's Roots
to educate himself, and I was thinking, how did you
get through high school, college, medical school and not read
these books? You know? I think it's hey, it's never
too late to educate yourself. But once you are a
grown adult who is leading an entire state, if you
(06:23):
still need to be educated, what are you doing? You know?
I think it's never it's never too late to learn
what you don't already know. But maybe that's a sign
that you don't have the have the emotional literacy or
cultural literacy to lead an entire state, especially a state
like Virginia that is very diverse, right right, Like my
thing is the fact that you know people like him
(06:46):
are so okay and want people to say, wow, you're
doing that. You get thing like this is the thing
you're supposed to be doing, and they want to be
praised for doing something that's so bare me exactly a
son of your note. One thing that I've often disliked
about Black History Month that I said earlier is that
the people that we tend to remember tend to be
black straight men in my opinion. You know, there are
(07:08):
women that we talk about, we talk about your Rosa
parks Is and your you know, sojourn or truth, but specifically,
I feel like it can be a little bit male
and a little bit heteronormative. And this year I was
so stoked to see that we had so many great
black LGBTQ trailblazers really showing out this Black History Month.
You know, I don't know if you watched the Grammys,
(07:28):
but Janelle Money performed and it was quote free as fuck.
As promised earlier. Last year, Money came out as pan sexual.
She's had this great display of diversity and inclusion and
sort of the beauty and celebration that is black queer identity.
And I think if I had been a little black
(07:48):
queer kid watching the Grammys, watching her perform, that would
have blown my mind, right. I think the thing about
performances like that is that they're so like we were
not hiding it like we we're we're expressing it to
the fullest. And I think that, you know, growing up,
(08:10):
we may have same things we were like, Oh that
that kind of feels like me, like, I understand the
queerness in this. I see the queerness in this, and
I identify with it. But now it's just like I
can say yes and I can say it out loud,
and I can I can really see that, and I
know it's being spoken to me. For so long, I
think we have felt like you know, that expression, I'm
(08:30):
rooting for everybody black, unless they're gay, or unless they're
gay in a way that that feels that makes me
feel uncomfortable. I think that we've I want to feel
like we reached a point where we're no longer saying that,
But unfortunately I don't know if that's actually the case,
because I do feel like every time we get someplace,
particularly when it comes to affirming black LGBT Hugh folks,
(08:51):
there is gonna always be someone who was holding us back.
And I'm thinking about Pose. The a CP Image Awards
completely snubbed to Pose and this is one of the
most influential, interesting, dynamic shows that came out in the
last couple of years and got no love. And I
just think about that expression, you know, it be your
own people. The fact that we cannot expect awards that
(09:13):
are designed to affirm and celebrate an uplift us, that
we cannot expect them to include queer like black queer
identity is really sad. Yeah, I think that snop suppose
just shows that we've gotten so far, but we really
still have a longer way to go when it comes
to including all different people and being intersectional. When we
(09:36):
think about refun and people, who are we thinking about
who are we leaving out? And I think that, you know,
disability is also something that that's left out a lot
of the time when we're talking about black people, when
we're talking about the black lgbt Q experience. Definitely, I
was super super happy to see that the first black
trans disabled model was signed to one of the biggest
(09:58):
agencies in the world. This is a in Phillips signed
to one of the most famous modeling ageties in the world,
and you know, got her own cover. Iran identifies as
a non byinary trans woman, and she was born with
cerebral palsy. I think that obviously the fashion industry especially
does not tend to affirm and celebrate black bodies. It's
even easier for those bodies to be erased when they
(10:20):
are also trans, when they are also non buyinary, when
they are also disabled. And it is good to see
that blackness is beautiful in all of its forms. And
it's one of those things. On the one hand, you're like, oh,
I'm happy this is happening. On the other hand, you're thinking,
this is the first time it happens. What gives I
totally know what you mean. Um, I was just thinking
(10:42):
about First like that, and how conflicted I am about
First because on one hand, I feel like, Wow, this
is what we're capable of, this is what we've always
been capable of. Though that these are things that we've
always been doing and too to that we've just gotten
to these first is it kind of like is mind boggling.
(11:04):
Sometimes we have had a big year of Black First,
even just to February. Stacy Abrams, you know, we would
be remissed to not mention her. She has really been
knocking down barriers for a while. You may remember that
in ten she was the first black woman to be
nominated by a major party for governor. Had she won
her race in Georgia, she would have been America's first
(11:25):
black female governor, which would have been huge. I would
say she she maybe did win that race, but that's
a whole other story. But she also just this year
became the first black woman to deliver the response to
the State of the Union, and that was really interesting
because typically the person the party that is not in
power they give this response, and usually it's somebody who
(11:46):
holds elected office. Like I can't think I thinking back,
I can't think of the last time that it was
not a congress person, a senator, somebody who was currently
holding public office. But that is just how it is
with Abrams. I mean, I think we'll see her as
this rising star who was capable of really amazing groundbreaking stuff.
(12:09):
And so not only was she the first black woman
to ever be the person to deliver this official response,
she also was one of the only people who was
picked who is not currently holding public office, which I
think just goes to show how much she is capable of. Yeah. Well,
I think in addition to it showing you know, how
people feel like she's this rising stars, I think it's
also acknowledgement of all the work that she's done so far,
(12:31):
Like she's couldn't so much work already, and she was
already in the spotlight before you know, the governor's race,
And that's not stopping. She's not stopping. She's going to
continue to be in the spotlight and she's going to
continue to put in the work. And I think having
people like that, like us, being able to continue to
see people like Stacy Abrams doing what she's doing is
(12:52):
it is very encouraging. It is very motivating and just
a constant reminder of all the people around us who
are tinuing to support I said, uplift us. We would
be remiss to talk about black first without mentioning Cardi B.
Cardi B became the first solo female rapper to win
the Best Rap Album at the Grammys, which I was
(13:13):
pretty excited about. I like Cardi B. Yeah, I think
that a lot of people were surprised by it. Maybe
um I know a lot of people were happy about
it as well, and Cardi V was definitely happy about it.
And it's it's the first that I don't think I
knew was coming. You know, it wasn't one that I
was expecting, but um, it's it's just step for and
(13:35):
I think, what do you think? It's one of those
firsts where it makes you kind of scratch your head
where you think, oh, that's never happened before. Interesting. Um,
I'm I'm dating myself here, but I still remember. It
wasn't that long ago that rappers like Will Smith and
Salt and Pepper were boycotting the Grammys because they refused
to acknowledge rap as a as an art form. You know.
(13:55):
It wasn't that long ago that David Bowie was having
to boycott MTV because they refused to play Michael Jackson record.
It's one of those things that reminds us that black
creative talent and black creative potential just has not We've
always faced challenges, We've always had an uphill battle just
to express ourselves and have that expression be regarded as art,
as important, as influential. But what what this one also
(14:17):
makes me think about is the fact that hip hop
and wrap our popular culture right now that what everybody
dances to the way everybody makes videos to you know,
but I think about how everybody loves blackness, but there
are still issues when it comes to blackness. You know,
everybody likes to devour our culture, but there are still
(14:38):
really really important issues that we're facing. And it kind
of makes me feel, you know, loved, but I also
feel unloved in so many ways in this country. It's
this is such an easy country to feel black and unloved.
Like it's very easy to feel that way in this country,
(14:58):
especially right now, but really all ways, you know, I
don't I think that it's easy to feel like we
were living in a different time and just in the
last couple of years, but I think it's important to
recognize the ways that this is. It's always been that way.
We've always struggled to be affirmed, to be celebrated, to
be heard, to be seen, to be value, to be loved.
And I think this year, I'm I'm so happy for
(15:20):
these gains and I'm happy to talk to you about
all of the ways that we've been table shaking and
groundbreaking and redefining. But it is a reminder that we
do have so so long ago, and that leaves me
with my kind of concluding question to you, which is,
what do you want from our our black futures? You know,
where do we go from here? Oh that's a that's
(15:41):
a good question. That's also a big question, because you know,
I always want so many things, and I feel like
the things that I say that I want are consistent
a lot of the time. Obviously, I always want us
to continue to make games when it comes to the
rights that we have, when it comes to the ways
we're affirmed, and when it comes to the ways that
(16:01):
we are acknowledged in this country and worldwide. Also speaking
of worldwide, also would love for black communities to connect
and realize how things that are happening on the other
side of the world and other black communities that we
may not know as much about. Um. And for us
to continue to affirm each other or waiting for acceptance
(16:24):
from our oppressors. Um. Yeah, that's those are some of
the things. I'm sure I could go on, but I
love to hear what you have to say too. I
want black creatives and black artists and black musicians. I
want us to have the freedom to be weird and
dark and all of those things. I've been thinking a
lot about this lately that one of the ways I
see black expression really exploding right now is the freedom
(16:48):
to be fucking weird. Look at movies like Get Out,
look at the resurgence of black horror, look at the
resurgence of afro futurism, look at some of the weirdness
that goes on in some of those earlier episodes of
Atlanta where you have Justin Bieber played by a black actor,
hitting people with an invisible car. I want us to
have expression, to be weird and gross and dark, and
(17:10):
not always have to be making things that are inspirational.
You know. I'm so sick of I'm so sick of
the green books of the world. You know. Um, I
want us. I mean, I want us to have the
same freedom that a white man who walks into a
studio and says, I want to make this weird thing
that nobody is going to get and everyone green lights it.
(17:30):
I want us to have that same expression, that that
same freedom of expression. I don't want to feel like
any story that we tell has to be inspirational, has
to be about people who are smart and hard working
in this and that maybe people just maybe young black
folks just want to smoke weed on their couch and
watch weird TV and that's okay too. Maybe they're maybe
they're humanity isn't any less because that's who they are.
(17:52):
And I want to get to a place where we
can acknowledge that and feel okay about it, because I
sometimes feel very trapped in this need to have all
of all of our stories be really uplifting and inspirational.
And we have a lot of inspiration, but we have
a lot of other stuff too, and I'm I'm excited
(18:12):
to see that some of that is sort of it
be peeking through and I want to I want to
tug at that threat. I want us all to tug
at that thread more. Yeah, I totally agree with you,
and I'll feel you on a deep level of wanting
to see more weird stuff as a person who build
weird a lot of the time and has been called so, so,
I see a lot more creators um and people who
are making art do things that make me feel more
(18:35):
comfortable and expressing myself and creating my own art and
being comfortable with putting it out into the world and
not feeling like it has to conform to a certain
standard to be accepted to be liked and to be loved. Um.
We we don't have to stay in any lane. We
have just as much right and just as much license
(18:56):
to create work that we feel is good and to
share that with the world. So yeah, I'm on the
same plane as you are. So We'll have to check
in Black History month to see if if I actually
all came to frunishman. Um. I hope it does. That's
my that's my hope for the for the years ahead.
I believe in it. I believe in us always. So
(19:19):
let's just close this out. When it is our duty
come fight for Friday, our duty to win. We must
flow each other and support each other. We've got nothing
to lose with our change, y'all. Let's go. Afro Punk
(19:46):
Solution Sessions is a co production between Afro Punk and
How Stuff Works. Your hosts are Bridget Todd and Eve's
Jeff Cope. Executive co producers are Julie Douglas, Jocelyn Cooper
and quand Latif Hill. The Underside of Power is performed
by Algiers. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
at AFRI part
You're listening to Afro Punk Solution Sessions. I'm your host
Brigittad and I'm your co host, Eve def Cookee. Acropunk
is a safe place, a blank space to freak out in,
to construct a new reality, to live our lives as
we see fit while making sense of the world around us.
Here at afro Punk, we have the conversations that matter
to us, conversations that lead to solutions. So it is February,
(00:32):
and here in America that means it is Black History Month.
And it's been a while since we've been in your earbuds.
But being as it it's Black History Month, you wanted
to recap what is really I think turned out to
be a kind of action packed Black History Month. Yeah,
and I too just wanted to, you know, remind everybody
that we make history every day and even though it's
(00:55):
Black History Month, we're talking about history and things that
happened in the past, we're still doing things that are
groundbreaking and that are making changes and you know, making
waves today and every day. It's true, I grew up
really not liking Black History Month. I don't I still
don't really enjoy it. When I was in school, this
was the month where my teachers would always say things like, oh,
(01:16):
it's a Black History Month, like get ready, you know,
like I was supposed to be, Like I wasn't paying
attention for the other twelve months of school. This was
the one month that that I was supposed to be
really interested in, and so I didn't. I didn't love that.
I also don't love the idea that we tend to
spotlight your Malcolm X is your George Washington Carver's your
(01:40):
you know, important figures, a lot of whom happened to
be male, a lot of whom happened to be straight.
And I think that that often can obscure the labor
and the contributions of people that you don't hear about. Right,
So for every Martin Luther King, what about the women
who were there, you know, taking care of children, cooking,
do domestic work that allowed for people to be in
(02:03):
the spotlight, and that that would allow that that kind
of labor would allow for these figures to go on
to be people that we, you know, see on Black
History themed posters in school, like one month out of
the year. I guess for me, it's not that I
didn't like Black History Month growing up it's just that
it never felt like it never felt really significant, or
it never felt like much of an event. I guess
(02:24):
I just remember very fondly, maybe not findly, but very
specifically in my mind about these white pieces of paper
with very simple line drawings that you were supposed to color,
and they would put them up on the wall. And
like my kindergarten classroom, and there were people, like you said,
like Martin Luther King, Rose Parks, I remember Garrett Morrigan
always being on the list. Um, yeah, and and we
(02:47):
would like color their faces and that was like, you know,
pretty much it and we learned about the same people
every year. So I guess it never it never felt
like an event that should have been marked. Um thing
that I would say today. And the way that I
like to think about it is of it being a
celebration because I don't know, I guess we we need
(03:09):
to make room for that celebration. We need to delineate
a specific time for that, because I think that a
lot of the time we get so caught up and
what's wrong and what needs to be fixed. And sure
we do celebrate, like we do celebrate people all the
time and all throughout the year, but it's really nice
to have a specific time carved out to say, Hey,
(03:29):
we acknowledge ourselves, we recognize ourselves. I see you, you
see me, and we can all celebrate that together. And
I think that's really cool. Like putting emphasis on the
games and the achievements and the heroes that are a
part of our community. That's right. Unfortunately, this Black History
Months kind of got off to a rocky start with
(03:51):
a lot of white people showing their assets via black space.
Unless you were living under a rack, you probably saw that.
Virginia Governor Ralph Northum. I guess he went to black
face medical school because his yearbook had a pretty ridiculous
picture of him in black face, or supposedly it was him.
At first, it was unclear if it was him or not.
(04:11):
He's standing next to somebody who's dressed in a as
a klansman. At first it wasn't clear which person he was.
He quickly apologized for this image and then later said
while that specific image of black face wasn't him, he
has done black face before, just not that specific time.
And black face has such deep roots in our country
(04:33):
and to see something like this this come out now,
and especially during during Black History Month. You know, it
feels like a flight. But um, that's something that He's
not the only person who's done that. Even Virginia's Attorney
general admitted to dressing up in black face in the
eighties as part of a Curtis blow Halloween costume. And
(04:53):
it sounds ridiculous. But when Northam, you know, admitted to
doing black face, his was part of a Michael He said,
he is part of a Michael Jackson Halloween costume. This
press this press conference was the most surreal thing I
think I've ever seen. At one point, he offered, he says, oh,
it was really good at doing the moonwalk. He offers
to demonstrate the moonwalk at one point, and it wasn't
(05:15):
until his wife suggested he not to do that because
it would be ridiculous. That honestly, was such a strange display.
To me, I was rubbing my eyes, thinking, and I
is what I'm watching real? I was so confused. So
that wasn't a great That wasn't a great start to
Black History Months, I don't think. And I think it's
worth like pointing out his reaction to or you know,
(05:38):
the tour afterwards and saying that we need to talk
about this where it's I feel like it's a thing
that happened so often, you know, then it's always a
call for dialogue, when this dialogue could have been happening
already and they expect to be taught. I in theory
could be okay with the idea of doing a listening
tour to educate yourself, perhaps if it had come twenty
(06:00):
years ago. I think that once you are a governor
of a big state, you know, like he he talked
about how he was reading books like Alex Haley's Roots
to educate himself, and I was thinking, how did you
get through high school, college, medical school and not read
these books? You know? I think it's hey, it's never
too late to educate yourself. But once you are a
grown adult who is leading an entire state, if you
(06:23):
still need to be educated, what are you doing? You know?
I think it's never it's never too late to learn
what you don't already know. But maybe that's a sign
that you don't have the have the emotional literacy or
cultural literacy to lead an entire state, especially a state
like Virginia that is very diverse, right right, Like my
thing is the fact that you know people like him
(06:46):
are so okay and want people to say, wow, you're
doing that. You get thing like this is the thing
you're supposed to be doing, and they want to be
praised for doing something that's so bare me exactly a
son of your note. One thing that I've often disliked
about Black History Month that I said earlier is that
the people that we tend to remember tend to be
black straight men in my opinion. You know, there are
(07:08):
women that we talk about, we talk about your Rosa
parks Is and your you know, sojourn or truth, but specifically,
I feel like it can be a little bit male
and a little bit heteronormative. And this year I was
so stoked to see that we had so many great
black LGBTQ trailblazers really showing out this Black History Month.
You know, I don't know if you watched the Grammys,
(07:28):
but Janelle Money performed and it was quote free as fuck.
As promised earlier. Last year, Money came out as pan sexual.
She's had this great display of diversity and inclusion and
sort of the beauty and celebration that is black queer identity.
And I think if I had been a little black
(07:48):
queer kid watching the Grammys, watching her perform, that would
have blown my mind, right. I think the thing about
performances like that is that they're so like we were
not hiding it like we we're we're expressing it to
the fullest. And I think that, you know, growing up,
(08:10):
we may have same things we were like, Oh that
that kind of feels like me, like, I understand the
queerness in this. I see the queerness in this, and
I identify with it. But now it's just like I
can say yes and I can say it out loud,
and I can I can really see that, and I
know it's being spoken to me. For so long, I
think we have felt like you know, that expression, I'm
(08:30):
rooting for everybody black, unless they're gay, or unless they're
gay in a way that that feels that makes me
feel uncomfortable. I think that we've I want to feel
like we reached a point where we're no longer saying that,
But unfortunately I don't know if that's actually the case,
because I do feel like every time we get someplace,
particularly when it comes to affirming black LGBT Hugh folks,
(08:51):
there is gonna always be someone who was holding us back.
And I'm thinking about Pose. The a CP Image Awards
completely snubbed to Pose and this is one of the
most influential, interesting, dynamic shows that came out in the
last couple of years and got no love. And I
just think about that expression, you know, it be your
own people. The fact that we cannot expect awards that
(09:13):
are designed to affirm and celebrate an uplift us, that
we cannot expect them to include queer like black queer
identity is really sad. Yeah, I think that snop suppose
just shows that we've gotten so far, but we really
still have a longer way to go when it comes
to including all different people and being intersectional. When we
(09:36):
think about refun and people, who are we thinking about
who are we leaving out? And I think that, you know,
disability is also something that that's left out a lot
of the time when we're talking about black people, when
we're talking about the black lgbt Q experience. Definitely, I
was super super happy to see that the first black
trans disabled model was signed to one of the biggest
(09:58):
agencies in the world. This is a in Phillips signed
to one of the most famous modeling ageties in the world,
and you know, got her own cover. Iran identifies as
a non byinary trans woman, and she was born with
cerebral palsy. I think that obviously the fashion industry especially
does not tend to affirm and celebrate black bodies. It's
even easier for those bodies to be erased when they
(10:20):
are also trans, when they are also non buyinary, when
they are also disabled. And it is good to see
that blackness is beautiful in all of its forms. And
it's one of those things. On the one hand, you're like, oh,
I'm happy this is happening. On the other hand, you're thinking,
this is the first time it happens. What gives I
totally know what you mean. Um, I was just thinking
(10:42):
about First like that, and how conflicted I am about
First because on one hand, I feel like, Wow, this
is what we're capable of, this is what we've always
been capable of. Though that these are things that we've
always been doing and too to that we've just gotten
to these first is it kind of like is mind boggling.
(11:04):
Sometimes we have had a big year of Black First,
even just to February. Stacy Abrams, you know, we would
be remissed to not mention her. She has really been
knocking down barriers for a while. You may remember that
in ten she was the first black woman to be
nominated by a major party for governor. Had she won
her race in Georgia, she would have been America's first
(11:25):
black female governor, which would have been huge. I would
say she she maybe did win that race, but that's
a whole other story. But she also just this year
became the first black woman to deliver the response to
the State of the Union, and that was really interesting
because typically the person the party that is not in
power they give this response, and usually it's somebody who
(11:46):
holds elected office. Like I can't think I thinking back,
I can't think of the last time that it was
not a congress person, a senator, somebody who was currently
holding public office. But that is just how it is
with Abrams. I mean, I think we'll see her as
this rising star who was capable of really amazing groundbreaking stuff.
(12:09):
And so not only was she the first black woman
to ever be the person to deliver this official response,
she also was one of the only people who was
picked who is not currently holding public office, which I
think just goes to show how much she is capable of. Yeah. Well,
I think in addition to it showing you know, how
people feel like she's this rising stars, I think it's
also acknowledgement of all the work that she's done so far,
(12:31):
Like she's couldn't so much work already, and she was
already in the spotlight before you know, the governor's race,
And that's not stopping. She's not stopping. She's going to
continue to be in the spotlight and she's going to
continue to put in the work. And I think having
people like that, like us, being able to continue to
see people like Stacy Abrams doing what she's doing is
(12:52):
it is very encouraging. It is very motivating and just
a constant reminder of all the people around us who
are tinuing to support I said, uplift us. We would
be remiss to talk about black first without mentioning Cardi B.
Cardi B became the first solo female rapper to win
the Best Rap Album at the Grammys, which I was
(13:13):
pretty excited about. I like Cardi B. Yeah, I think
that a lot of people were surprised by it. Maybe
um I know a lot of people were happy about
it as well, and Cardi V was definitely happy about it.
And it's it's the first that I don't think I
knew was coming. You know, it wasn't one that I
was expecting, but um, it's it's just step for and
(13:35):
I think, what do you think? It's one of those
firsts where it makes you kind of scratch your head
where you think, oh, that's never happened before. Interesting. Um,
I'm I'm dating myself here, but I still remember. It
wasn't that long ago that rappers like Will Smith and
Salt and Pepper were boycotting the Grammys because they refused
to acknowledge rap as a as an art form. You know.
(13:55):
It wasn't that long ago that David Bowie was having
to boycott MTV because they refused to play Michael Jackson record.
It's one of those things that reminds us that black
creative talent and black creative potential just has not We've
always faced challenges, We've always had an uphill battle just
to express ourselves and have that expression be regarded as art,
as important, as influential. But what what this one also
(14:17):
makes me think about is the fact that hip hop
and wrap our popular culture right now that what everybody
dances to the way everybody makes videos to you know,
but I think about how everybody loves blackness, but there
are still issues when it comes to blackness. You know,
everybody likes to devour our culture, but there are still
(14:38):
really really important issues that we're facing. And it kind
of makes me feel, you know, loved, but I also
feel unloved in so many ways in this country. It's
this is such an easy country to feel black and unloved.
Like it's very easy to feel that way in this country,
(14:58):
especially right now, but really all ways, you know, I
don't I think that it's easy to feel like we
were living in a different time and just in the
last couple of years, but I think it's important to
recognize the ways that this is. It's always been that way.
We've always struggled to be affirmed, to be celebrated, to
be heard, to be seen, to be value, to be loved.
And I think this year, I'm I'm so happy for
(15:20):
these gains and I'm happy to talk to you about
all of the ways that we've been table shaking and
groundbreaking and redefining. But it is a reminder that we
do have so so long ago, and that leaves me
with my kind of concluding question to you, which is,
what do you want from our our black futures? You know,
where do we go from here? Oh that's a that's
(15:41):
a good question. That's also a big question, because you know,
I always want so many things, and I feel like
the things that I say that I want are consistent
a lot of the time. Obviously, I always want us
to continue to make games when it comes to the
rights that we have, when it comes to the ways
we're affirmed, and when it comes to the ways that
(16:01):
we are acknowledged in this country and worldwide. Also speaking
of worldwide, also would love for black communities to connect
and realize how things that are happening on the other
side of the world and other black communities that we
may not know as much about. Um. And for us
to continue to affirm each other or waiting for acceptance
(16:24):
from our oppressors. Um. Yeah, that's those are some of
the things. I'm sure I could go on, but I
love to hear what you have to say too. I
want black creatives and black artists and black musicians. I
want us to have the freedom to be weird and
dark and all of those things. I've been thinking a
lot about this lately that one of the ways I
see black expression really exploding right now is the freedom
(16:48):
to be fucking weird. Look at movies like Get Out,
look at the resurgence of black horror, look at the
resurgence of afro futurism, look at some of the weirdness
that goes on in some of those earlier episodes of
Atlanta where you have Justin Bieber played by a black actor,
hitting people with an invisible car. I want us to
have expression, to be weird and gross and dark, and
(17:10):
not always have to be making things that are inspirational.
You know. I'm so sick of I'm so sick of
the green books of the world. You know. Um, I
want us. I mean, I want us to have the
same freedom that a white man who walks into a
studio and says, I want to make this weird thing
that nobody is going to get and everyone green lights it.
(17:30):
I want us to have that same expression, that that
same freedom of expression. I don't want to feel like
any story that we tell has to be inspirational, has
to be about people who are smart and hard working
in this and that maybe people just maybe young black
folks just want to smoke weed on their couch and
watch weird TV and that's okay too. Maybe they're maybe
they're humanity isn't any less because that's who they are.
(17:52):
And I want to get to a place where we
can acknowledge that and feel okay about it, because I
sometimes feel very trapped in this need to have all
of all of our stories be really uplifting and inspirational.
And we have a lot of inspiration, but we have
a lot of other stuff too, and I'm I'm excited
(18:12):
to see that some of that is sort of it
be peeking through and I want to I want to
tug at that threat. I want us all to tug
at that thread more. Yeah, I totally agree with you,
and I'll feel you on a deep level of wanting
to see more weird stuff as a person who build
weird a lot of the time and has been called so, so,
I see a lot more creators um and people who
are making art do things that make me feel more
(18:35):
comfortable and expressing myself and creating my own art and
being comfortable with putting it out into the world and
not feeling like it has to conform to a certain
standard to be accepted to be liked and to be loved. Um.
We we don't have to stay in any lane. We
have just as much right and just as much license
(18:56):
to create work that we feel is good and to
share that with the world. So yeah, I'm on the
same plane as you are. So We'll have to check
in Black History month to see if if I actually
all came to frunishman. Um. I hope it does. That's
my that's my hope for the for the years ahead.
I believe in it. I believe in us always. So
(19:19):
let's just close this out. When it is our duty
come fight for Friday, our duty to win. We must
flow each other and support each other. We've got nothing
to lose with our change, y'all. Let's go. Afro Punk
(19:46):
Solution Sessions is a co production between Afro Punk and
How Stuff Works. Your hosts are Bridget Todd and Eve's
Jeff Cope. Executive co producers are Julie Douglas, Jocelyn Cooper
and quand Latif Hill. The Underside of Power is performed
by Algiers. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
at AFRI part
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