December 21, 2022 • 54 mins
Today’s episode is a replay from season one. We’ll be back next week with a fresh new episode!
Holidays can be joyful times of celebration and fellowship. But sometimes we end up participating in holidays that we have no practical or spiritual connection to. And in the U.S., some holidays have been commercialized and divorced from their historical roots. Laiya, Aja, and Jill shout out some Black holidays (like Juneteenth) as well as some of the traditions they've created and observe in their own homes.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Happy Holidays listeners. It's Amber here. The ladies are taking
a week off for some much needed rest, but we
wanted to share last season's episode about making the holidays
your own. In this throwback, Jill, Asia and Laia share
their favorite traditions. We know that this is not the
easiest time of year for folks, but remember to take
(00:22):
care of you. There's power and peace and your divine no.
I hope you all get some rest, whatever that may
look like before the start of Infuse your days with
a little audio, soul food, and catch up on any
episode you missed of j dot Ill. We'll be back
next week with a special episode to end out Welcome
(00:48):
to j dot do a production of What's Up? Everybody?
How are you? I hope that you're so good? Thank
(01:11):
you so much for checking in with us. Um. This
is j do Ill the podcast, and I'm here with
my sister friends, my strong powerful woman, Liah Sinclair, strong
and Powerful, Damn Straight and Age of Graydon Danceler Booty,
whoa I like when I say dance dance That's a
(01:34):
nice name. I wish I had more syllables. I didn't
get enough syllables. And I'm gonna tell you that my
mother put an exclamation point on my birth certificate. You
mention that to you, You told me, Yes, So my
name is really Jill Scott. That's amazing. It really is, though,
(02:00):
Like it really is. I I enjoyed that choice. Your
son King, that's a nice name. It is a nice name. Yeah.
My nephew's name is King. It's short for Kingston, but
we call him King. I saw you had a pretty
baby on the Instagram. A that's your knee. She's so beautiful.
(02:22):
First of all, my sister in law, my sister in love. Yeah,
I really do believe that she was brought here to
the earth to make pretty babies because she literally has
five little girls and they are all adorable. Like she's
a little pretty black girl baby making machine. And she
(02:46):
her latest one is ah, it's the icing on the cake,
her latest one, her latest one. Listen, I'm like Jill,
the dam women like them babies, honey is point. Okay,
they take the socks off when they're handling them. They
(03:07):
take the socks off. Yes, girl, Yeah, you have a
really really big family, huh, I do. But the teen
my husband is the oldest of six children, and this
is his sister who also now has six children, as
we have six children. But yes, so they are a
lot of cooking. Oh yeah, girl, you know I've cooked
(03:31):
every day for bazilion years, but now I don't do
it anymore. I'm gonna tell you what broke me, this
here pandemic. I cooked every day for about three and
finally I just was like, I can't do it anymore.
So I implemented finn for yourself night. Oh and I
also I also look hashtag like the kids. Okay, give
(03:55):
it to um fit for yourself. I'm just shaking my head, yes, sir.
And then was also just my older children had to
take a certain night to cook. So yeah, a lot
a lot of cooking. Can you come from a big
family like you? No, it's you know, it's just me
up and here. But my mother and my father are
(04:17):
both the youngest of their bruise Like, my mom's the
youngest of five, my dad's youngest of nine. And yeah,
this is it for me. So I adopt people. I
got a lot of god brothers and sisters and whatnot.
So the holiday times is kind of uh, it's it's
more relaxed for you because how many people are showing
up friends and family or it depends. Last year we
(04:39):
did the whole. A lot of New York folks from
my dad's side came down and we had dinner at
my mom's house. So that was really nice. But to
be honest, shoot, as far as the Christmas holidays and
then only child, we cut that out about twenty five
years ago after the presidents and we just decided to travel.
We do our own things on the holiday. That's delicious.
(05:00):
My mama likes so jealous. Yeah, that's nice, So let's
go somewhere instead. So now that we started that little tradition,
I'm trying to hopefully maybe this year and maybe well
don't I don't win. When do you start preparing for
the travel? Well, Jill, as a daughter of a flight attendant,
do right, I'm like that can vary from mommy, we're
(05:23):
gonna we're going this year. We're we're going. Okay, so
come three a week before, we're gonna start packing and
then and then a couple of days for that, we're
gonna pick the flight to see what the low look like. Oh,
this fight attended life is real. Yeah yeah, so you Angel,
you you gotta you know, cook for a lot of people.
(05:44):
Let me tell you something. Thanksgiving was all I mean
for years and turkeys, isn't it? Well? No, not, well,
it is if we go to family's house, if we
go over, we went up. We've gone over to my
mother in law's house many times. And then because also too,
I have a mother, we have bounced from my husband's
mother's house to my mom's house, until finally I had
(06:06):
so many kids, I was like, listen, y'all, I don't
feel like dressing all these kids, cart and all these
kids to go over to somebody else's houses and eat,
And then like, what is the leftover situation gonna be? Like?
By the time I pack up food from your house,
I'd then packed up leftovers that looked like a whole
like I cooked. So I was like, no, I'm gonna
cook at home. I sit there and feed my children.
(06:29):
I said, if y'all want to see these kids, I
bring them over for a dessert or something like that.
My mother with my mother and my family and my
in laws are like a family. They're close to. So
my my siblings and my mom are all close to
my husband's sibling and mother. So we have a bit
of a really good mixture. So we tend to spend
time together. And we also have two different religions in
(06:52):
our family. That's how I was about because my mother
we don't celebrate Christmas because we're Muslims. My mother and
please don't get mad at me for cussing and carrying
on in this show, like look, y'all can just save
(07:12):
the emails now, I cuss um so uh. And my
mother's side is Christian, and so typically Thanksgiving over the
years would be the time that we would end up altogether,
but on on the on the Islamic side, on the
Muslim side, we would do eat dinners and that would
(07:33):
be that's the time. Add there's two eads a year
and a calendar Islamic year, and so we would get
together and cook and eat for eat, And then I
just thought about that, Asia, you've got a lot of
holidays in your bigs, like you got not a hot
but traditions. You got a lot of traditions. And that's
a lot of traditions. But it's not that you know,
it's actually I think really good for the kids because
(07:54):
the kids get to just understand about diversity within family
and that you know, blood of ties are stronger than
cultural ties and that you can still really believe and
do what you do and still be able to be
respectful of your family and things like that. So I've
I've loved over the years that my kids have got
an opportunity to do that, and the little extra work
(08:16):
is just that, Hey, you know, you gotta have an
extra conversation. You gotta keep family on point, make sure
everybody is aware, you know, that kind of thing. And
even with Christmas, though my children don't celebrate Christmas, they
have family members who do so in the past they
may have, like you know, sent the kids a couple
of dollars or this that of the dog. You're about
(08:39):
to say, you the hold you hold Jehovah. So that's
I mean, not not now, but you were raised that right.
So the first off, first, sorry what I do. I'm sorry, sorry,
I'm I'm They're called Jehovah's witness. I'm sorry, I shortened everything.
(09:02):
I'm sorry to be called Jehovah and be like me
calling aja Allah. Okay, and y'all not a five percent
of witness. I got it. Jehovah Witnesshovah, Jehovah. That's a
black thing, and it is it is what it is.
But they're Jehovah's witnesses, and um, yeah, I grew up
(09:25):
as a Jehovah's witness, not because I was baptized as
Tehovah's witness, but because that's the house I lived in.
And as you know, you know, when you grow up
in the house, that's what you do. You do whatever
your parents are doing. So I grew up my my
mom and my grandmam, and we definitely missed. I feel
like I missed out on a lot of stuff like
(09:46):
holidays and things until I got old enough to catch
the transportation by myself. Once. Once I got old enough
to hop on that fifty four and catch the subway
and then gone, and I forgot what other bus I
cold I don't remember now to to get to Mount
Airy where I would go to my aunt's house and
she would have Christmas there. So that meant I got
(10:08):
to eat the good Christmas food. I got to play
oh No all night long and laugh out loud, and
my aunt would always get me something God blessed. There
was never anything that I wanted, but the fact that
she thought of me meant a lot to me. And
until I got older and was like Hey, listen, I'm
gonna just want you to keep that, like, keep that
(10:30):
money in your pocket. You don't have to buy me anything,
you know. Um, but the holidays were really, really fun.
I thought from not celebrating them to celebrating I was like,
this is cool. And then I got older and I
was like, wait a minute, wait one minute talking work
(10:56):
conversation after the break. So Christmas is I don't know
the exact numbers right now, but when I was reading
(11:17):
about it, it was like Christmas was seventy of America's
economy three and that was a long time ago. That
was a long time I don't I don't know, you
know what it was then, but that was enough to
shake my world up and asked myself, like what am
I exactly getting into and why am I doing this? Um,
(11:40):
there's the stories, clearly, you know, we've all heard the
stories about uh Jesus and Christmas. Um how number one,
Jesus wasn't born in December, So who made up December
twenty five as his birthdate? And why do we give
gifts and all of that? Jack and well it wasn't
(12:03):
attempt Okay, So the historical implication of is that, um
it was an attempt. I know she would. I was
setting it up. We know this answer already, so I
(12:23):
don't appreciate y'all set me up as almighty. It wasn't
attempt for the king at the time. I want to say.
It's probably like Constantine or somebody who was trying to
spread Christianity but knew that the cultural and uh, the
cultural beliefs of the people where he was we're not
(12:45):
right in line with Christianity at the time. They were
celebrating winter Solstice and uh something else I want to say,
called christ Mass or something like that. And so what
he decided to do was allow them to keep elements
of their cultural celebrations and mesh it together with Christian
(13:06):
tradition so that he could ease the people into celebrating
or practicing Christianity. So, um, that's how you get Christmas
in December. That's my understanding of it. Nick comes into
the conversation. That's not how sat Nick comes into the conversation,
but that is how stuff like uh you'le tie greetings
(13:28):
and things like that come into play. And um, the
like I said, the time period and things of that nature.
So yeah, and trees like a Christmas tree. That's when
the that's how the Christmas tree comes into play, and
garland and um mistletoe and things like that. So yeah,
(13:48):
so that's where you have some Christians who over time
have actually stopped doing those types of traditions because they
understand it it's not necessarily a quote unquote Christian tradition.
Ship it's an American at this point in American, but
now it's very American because you do find people, like
she says, like a part of part of the economy.
So people come here from other places and part of
(14:10):
their um embracing American culture is to celebrate Christmas. The
music is nice, and I have always loved the lights,
my children, my little Muslim children. I've always loved the lights.
I've always loved the lights, and I've I've always enjoyed
the music and the getting together and the smells of
(14:30):
it all. I always thought that was so nice. Um,
But when I had my son, I think we had
Christmas maybe twice, and I just felt wrong. I just
I just didn't sit right for me, because you know,
we have all of these things, all of these holidays
that make money. Really, you know, think about it, I wrote,
(14:52):
I wrote cards for Hallmark Father's Day, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day.
You know there's as the cards by the way, the
you know, I'm just saying every Mother's Day, Father's Day.
I was looking at something so Christmas didn't feel right
(15:17):
one because I didn't grow up celebrating it. I got
a chance to participate in it with my Aunt Shirley.
Shout out to Aunt Shirley, who was so beautiful and
kind and loving to me. Miss you so much, um um.
So I got a chance to experience that. But when
I had my own child, I was like, do I
really am I really setting him up? You know? Do
(15:40):
I want to do? I want to tell him lies? Right?
I always wonder how I handled this a parent. I'm sorry,
go ahead, you yeah, like you know, it's it's not real,
Like do you want to tell a lie? And and
not for nothing? The thing that you know, I went
around with my mom when she find decided not to
do it. I started to think too about how I
would have these amazing chris is this become the New Year.
(16:02):
My mom was trying to figure out how to rob
Rob Peter to pay Paul, and I was like, that's
not it's not fair. No. So when I was little,
what my mom used to do is she would wait
until Christmas was over and then we would go shopping
because it was all of the Christmas holiday stuff. And
I had gone back to school without doing the then
(16:23):
going shopping part. And I came back to school, I
had on the same clothes I had on the week,
you know, a couple of weeks before that, and all
the kids had new clothes. Just was it messed with me? Like, oh,
you know, I felt jealous and I felt like I
was getting left out of something that I wanted to
So I didn't want to do that to Jet. But
(16:44):
I also did not want to lie to the kid
about these holidays. So I invented it famists fam us
fam yeah, faminess. You know. I was like, okay, Christmas,
but I was like, faminist family is family is what
(17:08):
are the things that I love about holidays or traditional
holidays in America? Um? Well, you know, you get together
with your family, you you cook with your family, y'all,
listen to music, your dance, you play games. You know
somebody's gonna you know, play spades or something like we're
going to enjoy each other. And I was like that's
(17:28):
what this that's what people really are, you know, inclined,
that's what they really love to do. It's it's it's
the family portion. So it's like, okay, I'm going to
create a holiday that is about family. Family. Is the
only difference between Christmas and Faminists is it is? Well,
it's there's two differences. Instead of putting up uh garland,
(17:53):
and we put up the colors of our of our culture.
So there's a lot of African flags around the house,
and we put up pictures of people we respect and
admire all around the house during the during Faminists. Um, um,
we we have a tree, but our tree is black.
(18:15):
What the hell do you get that from the home goods? Wow? Yeah,
we have a black tree and um we put we
put pretty much anything we want on the thing thing.
Sometimes it's pictures of us, sometimes it's a cante cloth,
or sometimes it's African flags depend you know, all over
(18:37):
the continent. Um. So there's pictures of people we admire
and respect and then there's this black ash tree and
that we do do presents, but you have to earn them.
And how you earn a gift on Faminists is you
have to write a one page essay. It can be longer,
(18:57):
but it's a one page essay about whatever you want
to talk about, whatever you want to talk about, and
then we all sit after dinner. We all sit and
listen to one another speak out loud and think out loud.
So you know, one year, Jets was about raccoons because
we had raccoons in our you know, trash sometimes, and
(19:20):
what we found out from his essay was that raccoons
have sensories in their hands. You know, they have five
digits like we do, so, but they have sensories. So
when they touch a trash can, they're like, that is jelly?
What else is that? Some onions? And yeah, right, and
(19:44):
then he's he's okay. So the essays have to be handwritten,
or I mean, they don't have to be handwritten, but
it's nice. I prefer them to be handwritten. Once you
read your essay, then you get your gift or gifts
depending because everybody in Abody can give anybody a gift.
But if you don't um, if you don't read your essay,
(20:04):
you ain't get nothing. And that's just the way it works.
You don't get without giving, and that's just the way
it is, so we go from listening to our elders
to listening to the children and everybody in between. So
we get to our family gets to hear us thinking
about whatever we want to talk about. It could be anything,
(20:25):
and that is the gist of families. It doesn't have
any religious implications. So my mother comes, she's a Jehovah's
witness and she's like, you know, she doesn't celebrate holidays, um,
but this doesn't have any religious implications. So it's more
of a family gathering. It's family is families. So I
(20:45):
think it works for any culture, whether you're uh Indian,
whether you're Italian. You know, to have pictures of Italian
people that you're respecting, to admire all around the house,
to have your true red, white and green um. To
to sit and listen to your family, you know. Think.
(21:07):
So that's pretty much what familis is, and that's what
we've been celebrating for the last five years. So last
thing is because it's the essays are on paper, I
collect them and um keep them in a little famous box.
What's not little anymore, but keep him in a famis
box and it becomes a family treasure. So I can
(21:29):
look back and say okay. In you know, uh, two
thousand and and you know twelve, you wrote an art,
you wrote an essay about why you don't want to
do homework or why you think homework is unfair. You
know what I mean? And you get to also see
your own hand right here, particularly you know, particularly for
(21:49):
the kids that how long does it take to develop
a holiday? Jill? Um, I guess overnight if that's what
you wanna do. I mean you fai is, how how
long did it take you to figure all those elements out? Well?
It didn't take long because I've been thinking about it
for years, Like what is it that that bothers me?
(22:10):
What is it that that doesn't sit well with me?
That one? This is such a big economic holiday that
bothers me? Um too, it doesn't have any basis in history?
And why not praise the Lord all year round? Praise
Lord's praise Lord all year round. Whomever you decided you
call God based on information that you know, or based
(22:35):
on your family and how they've taught you. Praise the
Lord all year round. Be grateful for for your creator
and creation all year round. But at this time, celebrate
family and celebrate family and ask of them to do something,
to get something. What I mean, I'm gonna tell you,
(23:05):
I know that the being with family part, particularly for
black folks, is the pool for all of these holidays,
you know, because obviously even the question around whether or
not black people should even be celebrating Thanksgiving has come
up in my family in the past five years, as
we talked about that should we even be celebrating this,
especially since I have friends who are who are Indigenous,
(23:26):
and they just feel so deeply disrespected by that holiday.
And so for us, you know, as we all should
feel deeply disrespected by it. Um. But I think also
to you know, the idea of being with family for us,
that's what resonates it says, Okay, well, I just wanna
I'm not even I'm not keyed into all of it.
I just want to be able to play bid with
(23:46):
and eat some good food and you know, and be around,
you know, my extended family. So I can really appreciate
being intentional about that, because you know, these are things
that keep us together, These are the things that keep
us going, and you know, all over the diaspora, but
particularly here in America, where it's like what is for us?
But I love the fact that in some states and
(24:08):
here in Pennsylvania, Juneteenth is now considered a holiday, an
official holiday here in the state of Pennsylvania. And for
Tina and I rode in the Juneteenth Parade last year,
and um, we were the Grand Marshall's dolling yes and
c ys and it. And it got me to thinking,
I known about Juneteenth a long time, but I had
(24:28):
never really been really intentional about celebrating it. Um and
uh and again, Um, Black History Month in my household
is a very big deal. And I am the only
person I know who decorates for Black History. More so,
I actually decorate for Black History Month. So when you
(24:51):
were saying the thing about putting up the pictures and stuff,
I was like, oh girl, this is me a Black
History mouth, Like this is how I am. Man. I
love the fact that, um, you kind of kind of
came with your own family traditions. I think that's super
important that even though there's some things cross culturally that
we that we should continue to honor, one of the
real things that I feel like it's important to honor
(25:12):
is those things that become important to your individual family
and that um, those are the things you get to
pass on from generation to generation, you know, which is
why stuff like family reunions are such a big deal
in our community and um, you know things like that.
(25:38):
Here's one thing I know I made up that my
kids and I did UM on Juneteenth, I want to say,
two years ago, was I decided that I bought a
very large piece of um, handmade and hand printed UM
mud cloth that has some cante woven into it as well. UM.
(25:58):
And this was what I played over top of my
mother's casket, m Um. And this is you know how
she was there when when during her service we I
took that and out laid it out on the table
it was and and what I was telling the kids
was that, you know, during slavery, obviously we weren't allowed
(26:19):
to learn how to read, but we used to do
these things called pit schools where people would escape in
the middle of the night and dig a ditch in
the into the ground and get inside the ditch and
cover it with leaves, and that they would learn how
to read at night in these pits schools and these ditches.
And one of the ways they learned was by writing
into stuff like flour and salt. M And so what
(26:41):
I did was. I told the kids, I said, okay, here,
we're gonna cover our table. This is a um something
to honor our particular ancestors. And you know, my mother
is an ancestor now. And I sat out a little
tray and I said, okay, guys, I put the flower out.
I said, this is our way of honoring how our
ancestors learned before they were free, to learn how to
(27:04):
read and to learn how to have their own self determination.
And so I was like, you can write anything in
a flower that you want. You can write the name
of an ancestor, you can write a shape my heart
or whatever your own name, whatever. But this is our
way that we honor the ways that they learned. And
so my kids and I did that, and you know,
and that was our That was part of our June
taking celebration. Yeah. Yeah, we're free. We're free in a lot,
(27:32):
not every way, but we're not enslaved. Were not enslaved.
So you have the capacity to come up with whatever
it is that you want to come up and make
that a thing for your family. Hey, listen, I think
in this moment's funny jail, as you were talking about,
I want to say, right that's about I was about
to say, that'stivist. I'm sorry, that's that's time field. Oh,
(27:59):
that's and that we have festivals the day before, families,
festives for the rest of this, festivals for the rest,
so that you have that the day before. So y'all
do festive that y'all do families. And it is interesting
because I thought it was a nice tie into quanda too,
because while you're celebrating your family for one, then you
start celebrating your culture in your community in the next. Right. Yeah,
but I tapped out by then. I ain't gonna I'm
(28:21):
not I'm not even gonna hold you up like comment.
I will say, it's a lot to me. I tried.
I didn't grow up selling it, celebrating holidays or birthdays
for that matter. So I'm gonna apologize now. I'm probably
not going to remember your birthday unless you tell me
and I put it in my phone because I I
I don't remember. I just already told you all. We
(28:42):
got nine thousand people in our families, so I forget
my own damn birthday. If the radio didn't tell me
or the Instagram, they're like, it's just guy's birthday. I'd
be like, oh it is, I'm two under nine again.
I hesitated to bring up Quansa because I was like,
I don't you know, people feel different ways about Mr
(29:05):
Karna Karina, but at the same time, at the fundamentals
of what it asked of you, of what it really
boils down to is fucking amazing. And shouts out to
m two May and all the rest of the elders
who actually helped make that holiday happen as well, like,
I mean, you can't deny it, right, yeah, actually don't
have an issue with the actual principles of And I
(29:27):
mean I know that people, you know, so many things
have come out about about um you said about Karina.
But for me, for me, I do think people who
continue to celebrate Kawanza, I know what their intentions are
and I and I think it's actually a beautiful time
for a lot of families and really gives, you know,
African Americans in particular, an opportunity to connect in a
(29:49):
way that speaks to who we are here but also
honors our culture in Africa where we and what we
brought with us. And I don't think there's anything wrong
with that. There's nothing wrong with saying Okay, yes that
I am connected to an absolutely a product of the continent,
but here we had a specific kind and not just
(30:11):
here but in other places of the diaspora. Experience is
you know, chattel slavery, which is you know, it's an experience.
It's it's something that you can't forget. It's something that
did happen and did affect our ability to be connected
the ways that in the ways that we were before that.
So I think it's nothing wrong with you know, as
a community saying hey, let's let's figure out a way
(30:35):
to reconnect. But then also um acknowledge that we are
a new thing, you know, And I so no problem
at all with that. I love it. I wish we
could have more holidays like that, Like we don't really
have a lot of holidays African American culture wise, do
or do we am I tripping? I'm like Kwanza Black History,
(30:56):
Black History June Team, June Team Team. What happens in
New Orleans and Louisiana? What is it? Um Marti Gras
Mardi Gras. Okay, it's funny. You know, some things are
taken from us and built in the something else. So
I totally forget about Mardi Grad that way, because you
are so right? Uh ok, MRTI grad Junete Kwanza, all right,
(31:16):
I could use it, just a couple other ones around
in UM, in Chicago and the Midwest, they have Sweeter's Day.
What's that Sweetest Day? Is um black people's version of
Valentine's Day? Black Love Day? Or I'll take it all,
I'll take or a single celebration whatever, Yeah, why not?
(31:40):
And then of course in in in New York and
Miami you got Carnival, you got mm hmmm yeah, yeah,
you know, yeah, I forget weekend day parade single to Mayo.
For other cultures is that who well, don't say this.
(32:01):
This is this is where we get lost because we create,
we create holidan. We didn't create holidays, but we celebrate holidays,
which is just fine. Um. And creating your own holiday
for your family and making a tradition for your own
for your family is beautiful. And I think so um
as someone who participates in it. But here we are, here,
(32:24):
we are what's up? So she's about to get it.
It does frustrate the life. Oh it drains my my,
my life when I see so many of us going
into debt for Christmas, going into debt for Christmas for
(32:49):
people who do not deserve this amount of gifting. It's
shocking to me that we still celebrate the holiday that
we kind of know there's not really truthful of what
it is, and we just definitely know that it's a
big money making day. But we are so in the
line of this tradition for generations and generations that we
just couldnot let it go. It's amazing to me, very
(33:11):
much like Jesus Listen already in Trouble Less about it.
We said we were going to talk about things, and
we are here to spark conversation. I asked my grandmother
about that. Listen. I had the same conversation with my
(33:33):
mother and my grandmother. My question is always this, what
exactly have um white people that were enslaving folks giving
them for their benefit. They don't want you to read,
they want you to speak your language. They didn't want
you to pray to how you pray, so they've given
(33:55):
you and the fact that we continue to hold on
to this. Yes, you know I I do don't I don't.
I don't know what you're gonna do with this. I
know this, I know that I love God. I do.
I do. There's no there's no ifs, ands or buts
about that. I am so appreciative. I am so grateful
(34:19):
that I've learned my relationship with you, whope, God. And
there are so many names, and that's that's your business,
how you want to deal. I have Uh John three
(34:46):
on my neck and it is because, um, it says
for those who don't know, for God so love the
world that he gave his only begotten son, so that
whomever shall um believe shall not perish but have everlasting life.
I'm paraphrasing a little bit, um, but nonetheless, most of
(35:08):
you know what that is. And I just think that
we've gotten that confused. For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son so that whom
ever shall believe in him. Now, let me tell you
like this, if I was if somebody asked me to
(35:29):
save the world by giving my only begotten son, y'all
will be some dead mother. She'd be dead, she could dead.
We all be dead, and we're going together my only
begotten son. I always think, man, that level of love,
(35:50):
to to love human being so much to give your
only child for them is massive, and that should be
respected and appreciated and honored and cherished, if we're going
with the stories to be true. I really feel that way,
and it bothers me when people don't give our creator
(36:14):
the credit deserved. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son, so that whomever shall
believe in him, the Creator himself, so whomever shall believe
in him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Well,
I mean, I think it's about to unpack. Yeah, it's
(36:38):
a lot of time, it's plenty. There's a lot to
unpack there on one of the things that I will
say this about black folks and there and they're um
forced or perceived forced because well, after slavery, they were
forced to embrace Christianity, but a form of Christianity that
(36:58):
was obviously um twisted and intended to keep them, intended
to keep them enslaved, you know. But obviously there it
was that same Bible and that same teachings, those same
teachings that also spoke to so many enslaved people that
incited them to riot and rebel, you know, because Nat
(37:19):
Turner actually believed that God had spoken to him. Harriet
Tubman said God spoke to me, these are not people
who read a book or were intellectuals. These were hardcore
spiritual people. But they also came from very similar backgrounds
in their africanness. Oh yeah know that they did. They
(37:42):
actually did so, I mean so, and they had certain
spiritual beliefs that were passed out. So the reason why
I say all this is because African Americans have successfully,
in many ways, many many many ways, merged together what
they brought on the ships with Christianity in such a
way that empowers the spiritually that has been at the
(38:03):
core of their resistance. So if you start to peel
back the layers of Black resistance over several years, you're
gonna find a lot of that is what what changes it.
And not just Christianity, but also with Islam, because when
you look back at some of the other you know,
leaders of different rebellions, they had some backgrounds and beliefs
(38:23):
that were Islamic. And then also to the big Haitian
Revolution was started with a religious ceremony based in Vodoon,
which is based in Yaruba. So it's like all of
this is who we are. We take who we are
everywhere that we go, we take who we are where
we go. And so when you talk about just from
(38:43):
our own background, right, sometimes we don't always know, we
don't always know that that's what it is. But believe
you me, that is what it is. And when you
start talking about holidays, that is where we start to
get into Okay, well what does this mean or what
is the mean behind this? So that I'm sure that
it's not contradictory to what I believe, because you know,
(39:06):
I hear your voice in the back of my head
when it comes to these holidays, right, it's it's all
because of white supremacy. That's not all of them, not
all of most of the American ones that we celebrate. Well, yeah,
I mean because it's about capitalism. It's like Jill said,
this is about people making money and being able to
make money off of us as as individuals. It's not
(39:27):
about making life better you know what I'm saying, or
making you more spiritually connected. You know that whenever capitalism
embraces a thing, but racial capitalism embrace Christianity from the gate,
there's no way to separate the two. You've got to
have the conversation, not be afraid to have that conversation.
It doesn't it doesn't diminish any one person's belief because
(39:50):
you can find Christianity and Ethiopia way before they ever
came here. So you can because is everywhere. That's what
I'll be scared. That's that's why I was scared, always scared.
That's scared because I did as my grandmother. But it
was always an interesting point for me because I was
like as black as my grandmother. What it was I
always wondered, like the story of Christianity and what I
knew of it and how it came to Black Americans.
(40:11):
I was like, oh, that's interesting that we get it
when we have a habit of taking things and making
in our own and switching it from a negative to
a positive. But man, this is a doozy. This is
a real juzy. I always start. I mean, it would
be a really good idea to say that Ethiopia was
never called used. That's true, but the me came down,
it everywhere, came everywhere, everywhere. Well, you know, the end
(40:50):
of the day is that I don't know a lot
of folks who when they hear the world holiday, they're
thinking a holy day. M hmmm. So and holy day
can be two different things, and particularly People who are
very religious are more likely to focus on a holy
(41:10):
day than a tradition. Traditions for them can come and
go because the tradition can be started by someone who,
you know, whatever, but something that's tied into your actual
belief system. You know, people I know. But then you're like,
it's not his birthday. It's not a day. It's not
a birthday. He's not a day. That's different. And then
you tell us a story about how we all came
(41:31):
to this day, and it's like, okay, of things. We
believe a lot of things just because they tell us
to believe it. And it's a tradition of believing. It's
not just telling but forcing people got their teeth pulled out,
um with with pliers and such, people got their feet
(41:52):
cut off, you know, forcing them to be Christians another
reason which makes it hard, always made it hard for
a rebellious me to go. So we're just gonna roll
with this is the truth, even though we was. What
I would need though for me, UM, what I would
need is for Christianity to actually do it's its job.
(42:16):
I needed to do its work. I need UM churches
to be smaller and black people to be more Um, affluent.
I see a lot of a lot of big churches,
and I cannot front with you like it. It bothers me.
I know, people, Um, you know there's a I've visit
a lot of different places, you know when it comes
(42:37):
to religion. So you know, I'll check out a Buddhist
temple for a while, and I'll go to a Catholic
church for a while, and you know, just pay attention
and look around and listen and see what I'm getting. Um.
And sometimes I say one place longer than others. Um,
there's a church that I was going to here in Tennessee.
(42:58):
And I have a friend who was going through some
hard times, particularly with this COVID and she's worked for
the church and she's benefited and been there to help
in so many areas and she needed some help. So UM,
myself and some others we joined together to to help her.
And then after that we were like, okay, so you
(43:21):
know we're in a good a better space, a good space.
Let's go to the church. And they told her they
would pray for her, and I was like, wait, ha,
I'm having a hard time with that. When the pastor
has you know, a dumb ridiculous, big gass house. Like
(43:41):
I'm having a hard time. My mom used to call
her counselment about it, Like that church, you bid, Yeah,
I just I don't understand why there isn't more um
like like similar to the Black Panthers where you're supplying
supplying food and shelter for people, like I don't understand,
and somebody like, oh my church. I'm just talking about
(44:04):
as a whole because this is such a part of UM,
a part of Black people and what we pour ourselves
into and were pouring ourselves into, not just our faith
absolutely without question, but we're also pouring ourselves into these
um these edifices, were pouring ourselves into these these places
(44:26):
that don't seem to benefit the people as they should.
There should be more universities, you um, um HBCU should
not be struggling with the amount of money that comes
through you know, um churches. The churches are getting bigger,
but and the the you know, the pool is getting bigger.
They've got lights like you know, uh, like a show
(44:48):
like Vega shows that basket comes around. I don't know
three phone times, you know, I just need it whatever
it is to actually be a benefit or Yeah, it
needs to be a benefit to the people and love
to the churches that are because we know there's not everybody.
I wanted shot out to the Alphad Street Baptists over
there in Virginia that's trying to keep their church as
(45:09):
small as possible with their thirty thousand members and still
given to their hbc U s and all, but thank you.
They just added, they just added services throughout the day.
I had a church once that with the pastor was
actually a carpenter. That's what he worked. And I love
(45:31):
that because he could understand it wasn't just a you know,
an offering, you know that he was living off offerings
that he was actually working. I just don't think you
should get without girls, please, Yeah, I think I think
what happens is that, Um, obviously, you have had many
(45:55):
conversations over the over the you know, several hundred years
that we've been in this country in the West, where
we've we've tackled this idea that black wealth and access
to money helps us as a community and that's going
to push us forward. And one of the main places
where that wealth can be distributed, like you know, is
(46:17):
typically in church. And so it was especially for black folks,
you know, and or in their religious institutions period, because
we've seen this kind of thing happen, you know, across faiths,
you know what I mean. And I think it's a
good thing to a degree to have a church be
a base for you know, social um supports and and
(46:38):
and community supports. But the thing is that the community
itself isn't just Christian people. So until we have a
situation where as a community we can have like diverse
spaces for everybody to come together, you know, and under
the guise of strengthening the community and giving resources, uh um,
(47:00):
we'll just be empowering these entities to just get into
the race of who can raise the most money, who
can bring in the most membership, who can do X,
y and z. Until we start really working into coalitions
and stuff like that. And not that we don't have them,
because every idea that we could come up with during
this this podcast, it's been tried. So the thing is
(47:21):
that I think re re shifting our focus back into
coalitions is important. I mean, I hate to pull out
my little history lesson on this one, but we love
this part. But you know, Denmark VC, who's really famous
(47:53):
revolutionary and man who planned a revolt, uh slave revolt
that actually was not successful, but it was used as
a way to I mean, it sparked a lot of
change in America moving toward emancipation. So the idea here
is that when he planned this revolt, he was a
(48:14):
very devout Christian, but one of his main conspirators was
a man named Golla Jack and he he um practiced
African spiritual traditions. And hey, you had a man who
was a devout Christian who planned a slavery vote with
a man who was strictly in the practice of African spirituality.
(48:37):
And I think that this is really really profound because
what it says is that Black people, no matter what
we believe, no matter how we celebrate, no matter what
we how we worship, that we have a combined and
a unified struggle, and that struggle is against the oppressor.
And so I think that's really important when we think
about these kinds of things, that if churches, we can't
(48:59):
put all the way on just the one church or
just the churches, the churches have to be not be
afraid to work with the moss. The moss has to
not be afraid to work with the church. The church
had the Moss, can't be afraid to work with the
with the African spiritualists, you can all of this is
all this has to come together so that we can
serve one another, so that we can celebrate family and
(49:22):
and and and building up community, you know what I mean.
And that's just my personal little two sense belief. Right,
if we don't toss, if we don't toss these things,
we'll always have some sort of critique. We will have
a critique, and that that will that will maintain that
there will be a hierarchy and a and ah, you know,
monopoly within each of these spaces. Somebody will come up
(49:45):
on it. It just is what it is. I am
looking to see us bloom and prosper and grow from
our efforts. And anything that you're pouring into that does
not blossom is futile. It's dead Earth word word. I'd
(50:06):
like you to check out how to make a Negro Christian.
Oh shit, yes, ma'am. Don't get me wrong. You're and
I'm pretty sure that you know some of you are offended,
and you're probably going to get me wrong. Well that happens.
I can't do anything about somebody getting me wrong. But
(50:27):
I do know this that God has been in every
single instant of my life, every single bit of it.
He knows me better then I know myself and has
been a beautiful, beautiful guide and even my foolishness, and
(50:48):
I am grateful for all of it. How do you
eat an elephant one by it kind it's produced, or
eaves back with another resource? Today, Jill brought up the
book How to Make a Negro Christian by Kamal mckazy
to Hootie. In eighteen forty two, Thomas Purse published the
(51:10):
book The Religious Instruction of the Negroes in the United States,
written by Charles Colclock Jones. Jones owned plantations in Liberty County, Georgia,
and wasn't enslavor and a Presbyterian minister. He encouraged other
ministers and enslavers to provide religious instruction to black people.
In this book, Jones advocated for evangelizing enslaved people, which
(51:34):
he thought would make them more obedient, intellectual, morally upstanding
and pliable, Leaving them without Christianity and in ignorance he
believed would make them susceptible to rebellion. Mcazy to Hootie's
book How to Make a Negro Christian contains a reprint
of Jones's works, along with commentary and context around how
(51:55):
and why Black Americans have come to embrace Christianity on
such a large scale. The history of black folks in
Christianity is deep and intricate, but you can start with
How to Make a Negro Christian. I'll drop a link
in the episode description and that my children, my sisters,
(52:17):
my brothers, my friends. That is that. Thank you for
listening to Jay dot Il, always hoping to spark conversation peace.
Thank you for listening to Jill Scott Presents j dot
Il the Podcast. This podcast is hosted by Jill Scotty
(52:53):
st Clair and Age Graden Danceler. It's executive producers are
Jill Scott, Seawan g and Brian Calhoun. It's produced by
Las Think Claire and me Eve Steph Coke. The editing
and sound design for this episode we're done by Taylor Tacoma.
Hey y'all, y'all, can we pause for one second? One second?
(53:14):
Hold a couple of years. Hey, hey y'all, you're walking
too hard on the floor. Sorry, I thought something mouth
is about to go down I enjoy it every time.
Now and listen, you know, agea Um. She gott to
(53:35):
yell at the people that live in there, the people
she made, and the one she didn't, yelling at them
every now and then. They told him to shut up.
They're walking too hard. I don't know what it's like,
cubment in the heel of their foot. When you figured out,
let me know what I can tell my upstairs neighbor,
God Damn. J dot Ill is a production of I
(53:56):
Heart Radio. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit
the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows. M
Happy Holidays listeners. It's Amber here. The ladies are taking
a week off for some much needed rest, but we
wanted to share last season's episode about making the holidays
your own. In this throwback, Jill, Asia and Laia share
their favorite traditions. We know that this is not the
easiest time of year for folks, but remember to take
(00:22):
care of you. There's power and peace and your divine no.
I hope you all get some rest, whatever that may
look like before the start of Infuse your days with
a little audio, soul food, and catch up on any
episode you missed of j dot Ill. We'll be back
next week with a special episode to end out Welcome
(00:48):
to j dot do a production of What's Up? Everybody?
How are you? I hope that you're so good? Thank
(01:11):
you so much for checking in with us. Um. This
is j do Ill the podcast, and I'm here with
my sister friends, my strong powerful woman, Liah Sinclair, strong
and Powerful, Damn Straight and Age of Graydon Danceler Booty,
whoa I like when I say dance dance That's a
(01:34):
nice name. I wish I had more syllables. I didn't
get enough syllables. And I'm gonna tell you that my
mother put an exclamation point on my birth certificate. You
mention that to you, You told me, Yes, So my
name is really Jill Scott. That's amazing. It really is, though,
(02:00):
Like it really is. I I enjoyed that choice. Your
son King, that's a nice name. It is a nice name. Yeah.
My nephew's name is King. It's short for Kingston, but
we call him King. I saw you had a pretty
baby on the Instagram. A that's your knee. She's so beautiful.
(02:22):
First of all, my sister in law, my sister in love. Yeah,
I really do believe that she was brought here to
the earth to make pretty babies because she literally has
five little girls and they are all adorable. Like she's
a little pretty black girl baby making machine. And she
(02:46):
her latest one is ah, it's the icing on the cake,
her latest one, her latest one. Listen, I'm like Jill,
the dam women like them babies, honey is point. Okay,
they take the socks off when they're handling them. They
(03:07):
take the socks off. Yes, girl, Yeah, you have a
really really big family, huh, I do. But the teen
my husband is the oldest of six children, and this
is his sister who also now has six children, as
we have six children. But yes, so they are a
lot of cooking. Oh yeah, girl, you know I've cooked
(03:31):
every day for bazilion years, but now I don't do
it anymore. I'm gonna tell you what broke me, this
here pandemic. I cooked every day for about three and
finally I just was like, I can't do it anymore.
So I implemented finn for yourself night. Oh and I
also I also look hashtag like the kids. Okay, give
(03:55):
it to um fit for yourself. I'm just shaking my head, yes, sir.
And then was also just my older children had to
take a certain night to cook. So yeah, a lot
a lot of cooking. Can you come from a big
family like you? No, it's you know, it's just me
up and here. But my mother and my father are
(04:17):
both the youngest of their bruise Like, my mom's the
youngest of five, my dad's youngest of nine. And yeah,
this is it for me. So I adopt people. I
got a lot of god brothers and sisters and whatnot.
So the holiday times is kind of uh, it's it's
more relaxed for you because how many people are showing
up friends and family or it depends. Last year we
(04:39):
did the whole. A lot of New York folks from
my dad's side came down and we had dinner at
my mom's house. So that was really nice. But to
be honest, shoot, as far as the Christmas holidays and
then only child, we cut that out about twenty five
years ago after the presidents and we just decided to travel.
We do our own things on the holiday. That's delicious.
(05:00):
My mama likes so jealous. Yeah, that's nice, So let's
go somewhere instead. So now that we started that little tradition,
I'm trying to hopefully maybe this year and maybe well
don't I don't win. When do you start preparing for
the travel? Well, Jill, as a daughter of a flight attendant,
do right, I'm like that can vary from mommy, we're
(05:23):
gonna we're going this year. We're we're going. Okay, so
come three a week before, we're gonna start packing and
then and then a couple of days for that, we're
gonna pick the flight to see what the low look like. Oh,
this fight attended life is real. Yeah yeah, so you Angel,
you you gotta you know, cook for a lot of people.
(05:44):
Let me tell you something. Thanksgiving was all I mean
for years and turkeys, isn't it? Well? No, not, well,
it is if we go to family's house, if we
go over, we went up. We've gone over to my
mother in law's house many times. And then because also too,
I have a mother, we have bounced from my husband's
mother's house to my mom's house, until finally I had
(06:06):
so many kids, I was like, listen, y'all, I don't
feel like dressing all these kids, cart and all these
kids to go over to somebody else's houses and eat,
And then like, what is the leftover situation gonna be? Like?
By the time I pack up food from your house,
I'd then packed up leftovers that looked like a whole
like I cooked. So I was like, no, I'm gonna
cook at home. I sit there and feed my children.
(06:29):
I said, if y'all want to see these kids, I
bring them over for a dessert or something like that.
My mother with my mother and my family and my
in laws are like a family. They're close to. So
my my siblings and my mom are all close to
my husband's sibling and mother. So we have a bit
of a really good mixture. So we tend to spend
time together. And we also have two different religions in
(06:52):
our family. That's how I was about because my mother
we don't celebrate Christmas because we're Muslims. My mother and
please don't get mad at me for cussing and carrying
on in this show, like look, y'all can just save
(07:12):
the emails now, I cuss um so uh. And my
mother's side is Christian, and so typically Thanksgiving over the
years would be the time that we would end up altogether,
but on on the on the Islamic side, on the
Muslim side, we would do eat dinners and that would
(07:33):
be that's the time. Add there's two eads a year
and a calendar Islamic year, and so we would get
together and cook and eat for eat, And then I
just thought about that, Asia, you've got a lot of
holidays in your bigs, like you got not a hot
but traditions. You got a lot of traditions. And that's
a lot of traditions. But it's not that you know,
it's actually I think really good for the kids because
(07:54):
the kids get to just understand about diversity within family
and that you know, blood of ties are stronger than
cultural ties and that you can still really believe and
do what you do and still be able to be
respectful of your family and things like that. So I've
I've loved over the years that my kids have got
an opportunity to do that, and the little extra work
(08:16):
is just that, Hey, you know, you gotta have an
extra conversation. You gotta keep family on point, make sure
everybody is aware, you know, that kind of thing. And
even with Christmas, though my children don't celebrate Christmas, they
have family members who do so in the past they
may have, like you know, sent the kids a couple
of dollars or this that of the dog. You're about
(08:39):
to say, you the hold you hold Jehovah. So that's
I mean, not not now, but you were raised that right.
So the first off, first, sorry what I do. I'm sorry, sorry,
I'm I'm They're called Jehovah's witness. I'm sorry, I shortened everything.
(09:02):
I'm sorry to be called Jehovah and be like me
calling aja Allah. Okay, and y'all not a five percent
of witness. I got it. Jehovah Witnesshovah, Jehovah. That's a
black thing, and it is it is what it is.
But they're Jehovah's witnesses, and um, yeah, I grew up
(09:25):
as a Jehovah's witness, not because I was baptized as
Tehovah's witness, but because that's the house I lived in.
And as you know, you know, when you grow up
in the house, that's what you do. You do whatever
your parents are doing. So I grew up my my
mom and my grandmam, and we definitely missed. I feel
like I missed out on a lot of stuff like
(09:46):
holidays and things until I got old enough to catch
the transportation by myself. Once. Once I got old enough
to hop on that fifty four and catch the subway
and then gone, and I forgot what other bus I
cold I don't remember now to to get to Mount
Airy where I would go to my aunt's house and
she would have Christmas there. So that meant I got
(10:08):
to eat the good Christmas food. I got to play
oh No all night long and laugh out loud, and
my aunt would always get me something God blessed. There
was never anything that I wanted, but the fact that
she thought of me meant a lot to me. And
until I got older and was like Hey, listen, I'm
gonna just want you to keep that, like, keep that
(10:30):
money in your pocket. You don't have to buy me anything,
you know. Um, but the holidays were really, really fun.
I thought from not celebrating them to celebrating I was like,
this is cool. And then I got older and I
was like, wait a minute, wait one minute talking work
(10:56):
conversation after the break. So Christmas is I don't know
the exact numbers right now, but when I was reading
(11:17):
about it, it was like Christmas was seventy of America's
economy three and that was a long time ago. That
was a long time I don't I don't know, you
know what it was then, but that was enough to
shake my world up and asked myself, like what am
I exactly getting into and why am I doing this? Um,
(11:40):
there's the stories, clearly, you know, we've all heard the
stories about uh Jesus and Christmas. Um how number one,
Jesus wasn't born in December, So who made up December
twenty five as his birthdate? And why do we give
gifts and all of that? Jack and well it wasn't
(12:03):
attempt Okay, So the historical implication of is that, um
it was an attempt. I know she would. I was
setting it up. We know this answer already, so I
(12:23):
don't appreciate y'all set me up as almighty. It wasn't
attempt for the king at the time. I want to say.
It's probably like Constantine or somebody who was trying to
spread Christianity but knew that the cultural and uh, the
cultural beliefs of the people where he was we're not
(12:45):
right in line with Christianity at the time. They were
celebrating winter Solstice and uh something else I want to say,
called christ Mass or something like that. And so what
he decided to do was allow them to keep elements
of their cultural celebrations and mesh it together with Christian
(13:06):
tradition so that he could ease the people into celebrating
or practicing Christianity. So, um, that's how you get Christmas
in December. That's my understanding of it. Nick comes into
the conversation. That's not how sat Nick comes into the conversation,
but that is how stuff like uh you'le tie greetings
(13:28):
and things like that come into play. And um, the
like I said, the time period and things of that nature.
So yeah, and trees like a Christmas tree. That's when
the that's how the Christmas tree comes into play, and
garland and um mistletoe and things like that. So yeah,
(13:48):
so that's where you have some Christians who over time
have actually stopped doing those types of traditions because they
understand it it's not necessarily a quote unquote Christian tradition.
Ship it's an American at this point in American, but
now it's very American because you do find people, like
she says, like a part of part of the economy.
So people come here from other places and part of
(14:10):
their um embracing American culture is to celebrate Christmas. The
music is nice, and I have always loved the lights,
my children, my little Muslim children. I've always loved the lights.
I've always loved the lights, and I've I've always enjoyed
the music and the getting together and the smells of
(14:30):
it all. I always thought that was so nice. Um,
But when I had my son, I think we had
Christmas maybe twice, and I just felt wrong. I just
I just didn't sit right for me, because you know,
we have all of these things, all of these holidays
that make money. Really, you know, think about it, I wrote,
(14:52):
I wrote cards for Hallmark Father's Day, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day.
You know there's as the cards by the way, the
you know, I'm just saying every Mother's Day, Father's Day.
I was looking at something so Christmas didn't feel right
(15:17):
one because I didn't grow up celebrating it. I got
a chance to participate in it with my Aunt Shirley.
Shout out to Aunt Shirley, who was so beautiful and
kind and loving to me. Miss you so much, um um.
So I got a chance to experience that. But when
I had my own child, I was like, do I
really am I really setting him up? You know? Do
(15:40):
I want to do? I want to tell him lies? Right?
I always wonder how I handled this a parent. I'm sorry,
go ahead, you yeah, like you know, it's it's not real,
Like do you want to tell a lie? And and
not for nothing? The thing that you know, I went
around with my mom when she find decided not to
do it. I started to think too about how I
would have these amazing chris is this become the New Year.
(16:02):
My mom was trying to figure out how to rob
Rob Peter to pay Paul, and I was like, that's
not it's not fair. No. So when I was little,
what my mom used to do is she would wait
until Christmas was over and then we would go shopping
because it was all of the Christmas holiday stuff. And
I had gone back to school without doing the then
(16:23):
going shopping part. And I came back to school, I
had on the same clothes I had on the week,
you know, a couple of weeks before that, and all
the kids had new clothes. Just was it messed with me? Like, oh,
you know, I felt jealous and I felt like I
was getting left out of something that I wanted to
So I didn't want to do that to Jet. But
(16:44):
I also did not want to lie to the kid
about these holidays. So I invented it famists fam us
fam yeah, faminess. You know. I was like, okay, Christmas,
but I was like, faminist family is family is what
(17:08):
are the things that I love about holidays or traditional
holidays in America? Um? Well, you know, you get together
with your family, you you cook with your family, y'all,
listen to music, your dance, you play games. You know
somebody's gonna you know, play spades or something like we're
going to enjoy each other. And I was like that's
(17:28):
what this that's what people really are, you know, inclined,
that's what they really love to do. It's it's it's
the family portion. So it's like, okay, I'm going to
create a holiday that is about family. Family. Is the
only difference between Christmas and Faminists is it is? Well,
it's there's two differences. Instead of putting up uh garland,
(17:53):
and we put up the colors of our of our culture.
So there's a lot of African flags around the house,
and we put up pictures of people we respect and
admire all around the house during the during Faminists. Um, um,
we we have a tree, but our tree is black.
(18:15):
What the hell do you get that from the home goods? Wow? Yeah,
we have a black tree and um we put we
put pretty much anything we want on the thing thing.
Sometimes it's pictures of us, sometimes it's a cante cloth,
or sometimes it's African flags depend you know, all over
(18:37):
the continent. Um. So there's pictures of people we admire
and respect and then there's this black ash tree and
that we do do presents, but you have to earn them.
And how you earn a gift on Faminists is you
have to write a one page essay. It can be longer,
(18:57):
but it's a one page essay about whatever you want
to talk about, whatever you want to talk about, and
then we all sit after dinner. We all sit and
listen to one another speak out loud and think out loud.
So you know, one year, Jets was about raccoons because
we had raccoons in our you know, trash sometimes, and
(19:20):
what we found out from his essay was that raccoons
have sensories in their hands. You know, they have five
digits like we do, so, but they have sensories. So
when they touch a trash can, they're like, that is jelly?
What else is that? Some onions? And yeah, right, and
(19:44):
then he's he's okay. So the essays have to be handwritten,
or I mean, they don't have to be handwritten, but
it's nice. I prefer them to be handwritten. Once you
read your essay, then you get your gift or gifts
depending because everybody in Abody can give anybody a gift.
But if you don't um, if you don't read your essay,
(20:04):
you ain't get nothing. And that's just the way it works.
You don't get without giving, and that's just the way
it is, so we go from listening to our elders
to listening to the children and everybody in between. So
we get to our family gets to hear us thinking
about whatever we want to talk about. It could be anything,
(20:25):
and that is the gist of families. It doesn't have
any religious implications. So my mother comes, she's a Jehovah's
witness and she's like, you know, she doesn't celebrate holidays, um,
but this doesn't have any religious implications. So it's more
of a family gathering. It's family is families. So I
(20:45):
think it works for any culture, whether you're uh Indian,
whether you're Italian. You know, to have pictures of Italian
people that you're respecting, to admire all around the house,
to have your true red, white and green um. To
to sit and listen to your family, you know. Think.
(21:07):
So that's pretty much what familis is, and that's what
we've been celebrating for the last five years. So last
thing is because it's the essays are on paper, I
collect them and um keep them in a little famous box.
What's not little anymore, but keep him in a famis
box and it becomes a family treasure. So I can
(21:29):
look back and say okay. In you know, uh, two
thousand and and you know twelve, you wrote an art,
you wrote an essay about why you don't want to
do homework or why you think homework is unfair. You
know what I mean? And you get to also see
your own hand right here, particularly you know, particularly for
(21:49):
the kids that how long does it take to develop
a holiday? Jill? Um, I guess overnight if that's what
you wanna do. I mean you fai is, how how
long did it take you to figure all those elements out? Well?
It didn't take long because I've been thinking about it
for years, Like what is it that that bothers me?
(22:10):
What is it that that doesn't sit well with me?
That one? This is such a big economic holiday that
bothers me? Um too, it doesn't have any basis in history?
And why not praise the Lord all year round? Praise
Lord's praise Lord all year round. Whomever you decided you
call God based on information that you know, or based
(22:35):
on your family and how they've taught you. Praise the
Lord all year round. Be grateful for for your creator
and creation all year round. But at this time, celebrate
family and celebrate family and ask of them to do something,
to get something. What I mean, I'm gonna tell you,
(23:05):
I know that the being with family part, particularly for
black folks, is the pool for all of these holidays,
you know, because obviously even the question around whether or
not black people should even be celebrating Thanksgiving has come
up in my family in the past five years, as
we talked about that should we even be celebrating this,
especially since I have friends who are who are Indigenous,
(23:26):
and they just feel so deeply disrespected by that holiday.
And so for us, you know, as we all should
feel deeply disrespected by it. Um. But I think also
to you know, the idea of being with family for us,
that's what resonates it says, Okay, well, I just wanna
I'm not even I'm not keyed into all of it.
I just want to be able to play bid with
(23:46):
and eat some good food and you know, and be around,
you know, my extended family. So I can really appreciate
being intentional about that, because you know, these are things
that keep us together, These are the things that keep
us going, and you know, all over the diaspora, but
particularly here in America, where it's like what is for us?
But I love the fact that in some states and
(24:08):
here in Pennsylvania, Juneteenth is now considered a holiday, an
official holiday here in the state of Pennsylvania. And for
Tina and I rode in the Juneteenth Parade last year,
and um, we were the Grand Marshall's dolling yes and
c ys and it. And it got me to thinking,
I known about Juneteenth a long time, but I had
(24:28):
never really been really intentional about celebrating it. Um and
uh and again, Um, Black History Month in my household
is a very big deal. And I am the only
person I know who decorates for Black History. More so,
I actually decorate for Black History Month. So when you
(24:51):
were saying the thing about putting up the pictures and stuff,
I was like, oh girl, this is me a Black
History mouth, Like this is how I am. Man. I
love the fact that, um, you kind of kind of
came with your own family traditions. I think that's super
important that even though there's some things cross culturally that
we that we should continue to honor, one of the
real things that I feel like it's important to honor
(25:12):
is those things that become important to your individual family
and that um, those are the things you get to
pass on from generation to generation, you know, which is
why stuff like family reunions are such a big deal
in our community and um, you know things like that.
(25:38):
Here's one thing I know I made up that my
kids and I did UM on Juneteenth, I want to say,
two years ago, was I decided that I bought a
very large piece of um, handmade and hand printed UM
mud cloth that has some cante woven into it as well. UM.
(25:58):
And this was what I played over top of my
mother's casket, m Um. And this is you know how
she was there when when during her service we I
took that and out laid it out on the table
it was and and what I was telling the kids
was that, you know, during slavery, obviously we weren't allowed
(26:19):
to learn how to read, but we used to do
these things called pit schools where people would escape in
the middle of the night and dig a ditch in
the into the ground and get inside the ditch and
cover it with leaves, and that they would learn how
to read at night in these pits schools and these ditches.
And one of the ways they learned was by writing
into stuff like flour and salt. M And so what
(26:41):
I did was. I told the kids, I said, okay, here,
we're gonna cover our table. This is a um something
to honor our particular ancestors. And you know, my mother
is an ancestor now. And I sat out a little
tray and I said, okay, guys, I put the flower out.
I said, this is our way of honoring how our
ancestors learned before they were free, to learn how to
(27:04):
read and to learn how to have their own self determination.
And so I was like, you can write anything in
a flower that you want. You can write the name
of an ancestor, you can write a shape my heart
or whatever your own name, whatever. But this is our
way that we honor the ways that they learned. And
so my kids and I did that, and you know,
and that was our That was part of our June
taking celebration. Yeah. Yeah, we're free. We're free in a lot,
(27:32):
not every way, but we're not enslaved. Were not enslaved.
So you have the capacity to come up with whatever
it is that you want to come up and make
that a thing for your family. Hey, listen, I think
in this moment's funny jail, as you were talking about,
I want to say, right that's about I was about
to say, that'stivist. I'm sorry, that's that's time field. Oh,
(27:59):
that's and that we have festivals the day before, families,
festives for the rest of this, festivals for the rest,
so that you have that the day before. So y'all
do festive that y'all do families. And it is interesting
because I thought it was a nice tie into quanda too,
because while you're celebrating your family for one, then you
start celebrating your culture in your community in the next. Right. Yeah,
but I tapped out by then. I ain't gonna I'm
(28:21):
not I'm not even gonna hold you up like comment.
I will say, it's a lot to me. I tried.
I didn't grow up selling it, celebrating holidays or birthdays
for that matter. So I'm gonna apologize now. I'm probably
not going to remember your birthday unless you tell me
and I put it in my phone because I I
I don't remember. I just already told you all. We
(28:42):
got nine thousand people in our families, so I forget
my own damn birthday. If the radio didn't tell me
or the Instagram, they're like, it's just guy's birthday. I'd
be like, oh it is, I'm two under nine again.
I hesitated to bring up Quansa because I was like,
I don't you know, people feel different ways about Mr
(29:05):
Karna Karina, but at the same time, at the fundamentals
of what it asked of you, of what it really
boils down to is fucking amazing. And shouts out to
m two May and all the rest of the elders
who actually helped make that holiday happen as well, like,
I mean, you can't deny it, right, yeah, actually don't
have an issue with the actual principles of And I
(29:27):
mean I know that people, you know, so many things
have come out about about um you said about Karina.
But for me, for me, I do think people who
continue to celebrate Kawanza, I know what their intentions are
and I and I think it's actually a beautiful time
for a lot of families and really gives, you know,
African Americans in particular, an opportunity to connect in a
(29:49):
way that speaks to who we are here but also
honors our culture in Africa where we and what we
brought with us. And I don't think there's anything wrong
with that. There's nothing wrong with saying Okay, yes that
I am connected to an absolutely a product of the continent,
but here we had a specific kind and not just
(30:11):
here but in other places of the diaspora. Experience is
you know, chattel slavery, which is you know, it's an experience.
It's it's something that you can't forget. It's something that
did happen and did affect our ability to be connected
the ways that in the ways that we were before that.
So I think it's nothing wrong with you know, as
a community saying hey, let's let's figure out a way
(30:35):
to reconnect. But then also um acknowledge that we are
a new thing, you know, And I so no problem
at all with that. I love it. I wish we
could have more holidays like that, Like we don't really
have a lot of holidays African American culture wise, do
or do we am I tripping? I'm like Kwanza Black History,
(30:56):
Black History June Team, June Team Team. What happens in
New Orleans and Louisiana? What is it? Um Marti Gras
Mardi Gras. Okay, it's funny. You know, some things are
taken from us and built in the something else. So
I totally forget about Mardi Grad that way, because you
are so right? Uh ok, MRTI grad Junete Kwanza, all right,
(31:16):
I could use it, just a couple other ones around
in UM, in Chicago and the Midwest, they have Sweeter's Day.
What's that Sweetest Day? Is um black people's version of
Valentine's Day? Black Love Day? Or I'll take it all,
I'll take or a single celebration whatever, Yeah, why not?
(31:40):
And then of course in in in New York and
Miami you got Carnival, you got mm hmmm yeah, yeah,
you know, yeah, I forget weekend day parade single to Mayo.
For other cultures is that who well, don't say this.
(32:01):
This is this is where we get lost because we create,
we create holidan. We didn't create holidays, but we celebrate holidays,
which is just fine. Um. And creating your own holiday
for your family and making a tradition for your own
for your family is beautiful. And I think so um
as someone who participates in it. But here we are, here,
(32:24):
we are what's up? So she's about to get it.
It does frustrate the life. Oh it drains my my,
my life when I see so many of us going
into debt for Christmas, going into debt for Christmas for
(32:49):
people who do not deserve this amount of gifting. It's
shocking to me that we still celebrate the holiday that
we kind of know there's not really truthful of what
it is, and we just definitely know that it's a
big money making day. But we are so in the
line of this tradition for generations and generations that we
just couldnot let it go. It's amazing to me, very
(33:11):
much like Jesus Listen already in Trouble Less about it.
We said we were going to talk about things, and
we are here to spark conversation. I asked my grandmother
about that. Listen. I had the same conversation with my
(33:33):
mother and my grandmother. My question is always this, what
exactly have um white people that were enslaving folks giving
them for their benefit. They don't want you to read,
they want you to speak your language. They didn't want
you to pray to how you pray, so they've given
(33:55):
you and the fact that we continue to hold on
to this. Yes, you know I I do don't I don't.
I don't know what you're gonna do with this. I
know this, I know that I love God. I do.
I do. There's no there's no ifs, ands or buts
about that. I am so appreciative. I am so grateful
(34:19):
that I've learned my relationship with you, whope, God. And
there are so many names, and that's that's your business,
how you want to deal. I have Uh John three
(34:46):
on my neck and it is because, um, it says
for those who don't know, for God so love the
world that he gave his only begotten son, so that
whomever shall um believe shall not perish but have everlasting life.
I'm paraphrasing a little bit, um, but nonetheless, most of
(35:08):
you know what that is. And I just think that
we've gotten that confused. For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son so that whom
ever shall believe in him. Now, let me tell you
like this, if I was if somebody asked me to
(35:29):
save the world by giving my only begotten son, y'all
will be some dead mother. She'd be dead, she could dead.
We all be dead, and we're going together my only
begotten son. I always think, man, that level of love,
(35:50):
to to love human being so much to give your
only child for them is massive, and that should be
respected and appreciated and honored and cherished, if we're going
with the stories to be true. I really feel that way,
and it bothers me when people don't give our creator
(36:14):
the credit deserved. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son, so that whomever shall
believe in him, the Creator himself, so whomever shall believe
in him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Well,
I mean, I think it's about to unpack. Yeah, it's
(36:38):
a lot of time, it's plenty. There's a lot to
unpack there on one of the things that I will
say this about black folks and there and they're um
forced or perceived forced because well, after slavery, they were
forced to embrace Christianity, but a form of Christianity that
(36:58):
was obviously um twisted and intended to keep them, intended
to keep them enslaved, you know. But obviously there it
was that same Bible and that same teachings, those same
teachings that also spoke to so many enslaved people that
incited them to riot and rebel, you know, because Nat
(37:19):
Turner actually believed that God had spoken to him. Harriet
Tubman said God spoke to me, these are not people
who read a book or were intellectuals. These were hardcore
spiritual people. But they also came from very similar backgrounds
in their africanness. Oh yeah know that they did. They
(37:42):
actually did so, I mean so, and they had certain
spiritual beliefs that were passed out. So the reason why
I say all this is because African Americans have successfully,
in many ways, many many many ways, merged together what
they brought on the ships with Christianity in such a
way that empowers the spiritually that has been at the
(38:03):
core of their resistance. So if you start to peel
back the layers of Black resistance over several years, you're
gonna find a lot of that is what what changes it.
And not just Christianity, but also with Islam, because when
you look back at some of the other you know,
leaders of different rebellions, they had some backgrounds and beliefs
(38:23):
that were Islamic. And then also to the big Haitian
Revolution was started with a religious ceremony based in Vodoon,
which is based in Yaruba. So it's like all of
this is who we are. We take who we are
everywhere that we go, we take who we are where
we go. And so when you talk about just from
(38:43):
our own background, right, sometimes we don't always know, we
don't always know that that's what it is. But believe
you me, that is what it is. And when you
start talking about holidays, that is where we start to
get into Okay, well what does this mean or what
is the mean behind this? So that I'm sure that
it's not contradictory to what I believe, because you know,
(39:06):
I hear your voice in the back of my head
when it comes to these holidays, right, it's it's all
because of white supremacy. That's not all of them, not
all of most of the American ones that we celebrate. Well, yeah,
I mean because it's about capitalism. It's like Jill said,
this is about people making money and being able to
make money off of us as as individuals. It's not
(39:27):
about making life better you know what I'm saying, or
making you more spiritually connected. You know that whenever capitalism
embraces a thing, but racial capitalism embrace Christianity from the gate,
there's no way to separate the two. You've got to
have the conversation, not be afraid to have that conversation.
It doesn't it doesn't diminish any one person's belief because
(39:50):
you can find Christianity and Ethiopia way before they ever
came here. So you can because is everywhere. That's what
I'll be scared. That's that's why I was scared, always scared.
That's scared because I did as my grandmother. But it
was always an interesting point for me because I was
like as black as my grandmother. What it was I
always wondered, like the story of Christianity and what I
knew of it and how it came to Black Americans.
(40:11):
I was like, oh, that's interesting that we get it
when we have a habit of taking things and making
in our own and switching it from a negative to
a positive. But man, this is a doozy. This is
a real juzy. I always start. I mean, it would
be a really good idea to say that Ethiopia was
never called used. That's true, but the me came down,
it everywhere, came everywhere, everywhere. Well, you know, the end
(40:50):
of the day is that I don't know a lot
of folks who when they hear the world holiday, they're
thinking a holy day. M hmmm. So and holy day
can be two different things, and particularly People who are
very religious are more likely to focus on a holy
(41:10):
day than a tradition. Traditions for them can come and
go because the tradition can be started by someone who,
you know, whatever, but something that's tied into your actual
belief system. You know, people I know. But then you're like,
it's not his birthday. It's not a day. It's not
a birthday. He's not a day. That's different. And then
you tell us a story about how we all came
(41:31):
to this day, and it's like, okay, of things. We
believe a lot of things just because they tell us
to believe it. And it's a tradition of believing. It's
not just telling but forcing people got their teeth pulled out,
um with with pliers and such, people got their feet
(41:52):
cut off, you know, forcing them to be Christians another
reason which makes it hard, always made it hard for
a rebellious me to go. So we're just gonna roll
with this is the truth, even though we was. What
I would need though for me, UM, what I would
need is for Christianity to actually do it's its job.
(42:16):
I needed to do its work. I need UM churches
to be smaller and black people to be more Um, affluent.
I see a lot of a lot of big churches,
and I cannot front with you like it. It bothers me.
I know, people, Um, you know there's a I've visit
a lot of different places, you know when it comes
(42:37):
to religion. So you know, I'll check out a Buddhist
temple for a while, and I'll go to a Catholic
church for a while, and you know, just pay attention
and look around and listen and see what I'm getting. Um.
And sometimes I say one place longer than others. Um,
there's a church that I was going to here in Tennessee.
(42:58):
And I have a friend who was going through some
hard times, particularly with this COVID and she's worked for
the church and she's benefited and been there to help
in so many areas and she needed some help. So UM,
myself and some others we joined together to to help her.
And then after that we were like, okay, so you
(43:21):
know we're in a good a better space, a good space.
Let's go to the church. And they told her they
would pray for her, and I was like, wait, ha,
I'm having a hard time with that. When the pastor
has you know, a dumb ridiculous, big gass house. Like
(43:41):
I'm having a hard time. My mom used to call
her counselment about it, Like that church, you bid, Yeah,
I just I don't understand why there isn't more um
like like similar to the Black Panthers where you're supplying
supplying food and shelter for people, like I don't understand,
and somebody like, oh my church. I'm just talking about
(44:04):
as a whole because this is such a part of UM,
a part of Black people and what we pour ourselves
into and were pouring ourselves into, not just our faith
absolutely without question, but we're also pouring ourselves into these
um these edifices, were pouring ourselves into these these places
(44:26):
that don't seem to benefit the people as they should.
There should be more universities, you um, um HBCU should
not be struggling with the amount of money that comes
through you know, um churches. The churches are getting bigger,
but and the the you know, the pool is getting bigger.
They've got lights like you know, uh, like a show
(44:48):
like Vega shows that basket comes around. I don't know
three phone times, you know, I just need it whatever
it is to actually be a benefit or Yeah, it
needs to be a benefit to the people and love
to the churches that are because we know there's not everybody.
I wanted shot out to the Alphad Street Baptists over
there in Virginia that's trying to keep their church as
(45:09):
small as possible with their thirty thousand members and still
given to their hbc U s and all, but thank you.
They just added, they just added services throughout the day.
I had a church once that with the pastor was
actually a carpenter. That's what he worked. And I love
(45:31):
that because he could understand it wasn't just a you know,
an offering, you know that he was living off offerings
that he was actually working. I just don't think you
should get without girls, please, Yeah, I think I think
what happens is that, Um, obviously, you have had many
(45:55):
conversations over the over the you know, several hundred years
that we've been in this country in the West, where
we've we've tackled this idea that black wealth and access
to money helps us as a community and that's going
to push us forward. And one of the main places
where that wealth can be distributed, like you know, is
(46:17):
typically in church. And so it was especially for black folks,
you know, and or in their religious institutions period, because
we've seen this kind of thing happen, you know, across faiths,
you know what I mean. And I think it's a
good thing to a degree to have a church be
a base for you know, social um supports and and
(46:38):
and community supports. But the thing is that the community
itself isn't just Christian people. So until we have a
situation where as a community we can have like diverse
spaces for everybody to come together, you know, and under
the guise of strengthening the community and giving resources, uh um,
(47:00):
we'll just be empowering these entities to just get into
the race of who can raise the most money, who
can bring in the most membership, who can do X,
y and z. Until we start really working into coalitions
and stuff like that. And not that we don't have them,
because every idea that we could come up with during
this this podcast, it's been tried. So the thing is
(47:21):
that I think re re shifting our focus back into
coalitions is important. I mean, I hate to pull out
my little history lesson on this one, but we love
this part. But you know, Denmark VC, who's really famous
(47:53):
revolutionary and man who planned a revolt, uh slave revolt
that actually was not successful, but it was used as
a way to I mean, it sparked a lot of
change in America moving toward emancipation. So the idea here
is that when he planned this revolt, he was a
(48:14):
very devout Christian, but one of his main conspirators was
a man named Golla Jack and he he um practiced
African spiritual traditions. And hey, you had a man who
was a devout Christian who planned a slavery vote with
a man who was strictly in the practice of African spirituality.
(48:37):
And I think that this is really really profound because
what it says is that Black people, no matter what
we believe, no matter how we celebrate, no matter what
we how we worship, that we have a combined and
a unified struggle, and that struggle is against the oppressor.
And so I think that's really important when we think
about these kinds of things, that if churches, we can't
(48:59):
put all the way on just the one church or
just the churches, the churches have to be not be
afraid to work with the moss. The moss has to
not be afraid to work with the church. The church
had the Moss, can't be afraid to work with the
with the African spiritualists, you can all of this is
all this has to come together so that we can
serve one another, so that we can celebrate family and
(49:22):
and and and building up community, you know what I mean.
And that's just my personal little two sense belief. Right,
if we don't toss, if we don't toss these things,
we'll always have some sort of critique. We will have
a critique, and that that will that will maintain that
there will be a hierarchy and a and ah, you know,
monopoly within each of these spaces. Somebody will come up
(49:45):
on it. It just is what it is. I am
looking to see us bloom and prosper and grow from
our efforts. And anything that you're pouring into that does
not blossom is futile. It's dead Earth word word. I'd
(50:06):
like you to check out how to make a Negro Christian.
Oh shit, yes, ma'am. Don't get me wrong. You're and
I'm pretty sure that you know some of you are offended,
and you're probably going to get me wrong. Well that happens.
I can't do anything about somebody getting me wrong. But
(50:27):
I do know this that God has been in every
single instant of my life, every single bit of it.
He knows me better then I know myself and has
been a beautiful, beautiful guide and even my foolishness, and
(50:48):
I am grateful for all of it. How do you
eat an elephant one by it kind it's produced, or
eaves back with another resource? Today, Jill brought up the
book How to Make a Negro Christian by Kamal mckazy
to Hootie. In eighteen forty two, Thomas Purse published the
(51:10):
book The Religious Instruction of the Negroes in the United States,
written by Charles Colclock Jones. Jones owned plantations in Liberty County, Georgia,
and wasn't enslavor and a Presbyterian minister. He encouraged other
ministers and enslavers to provide religious instruction to black people.
In this book, Jones advocated for evangelizing enslaved people, which
(51:34):
he thought would make them more obedient, intellectual, morally upstanding
and pliable, Leaving them without Christianity and in ignorance he
believed would make them susceptible to rebellion. Mcazy to Hootie's
book How to Make a Negro Christian contains a reprint
of Jones's works, along with commentary and context around how
(51:55):
and why Black Americans have come to embrace Christianity on
such a large scale. The history of black folks in
Christianity is deep and intricate, but you can start with
How to Make a Negro Christian. I'll drop a link
in the episode description and that my children, my sisters,
(52:17):
my brothers, my friends. That is that. Thank you for
listening to Jay dot Il, always hoping to spark conversation peace.
Thank you for listening to Jill Scott Presents j dot
Il the Podcast. This podcast is hosted by Jill Scotty
(52:53):
st Clair and Age Graden Danceler. It's executive producers are
Jill Scott, Seawan g and Brian Calhoun. It's produced by
Las Think Claire and me Eve Steph Coke. The editing
and sound design for this episode we're done by Taylor Tacoma.
Hey y'all, y'all, can we pause for one second? One second?
(53:14):
Hold a couple of years. Hey, hey y'all, you're walking
too hard on the floor. Sorry, I thought something mouth
is about to go down I enjoy it every time.
Now and listen, you know, agea Um. She gott to
(53:35):
yell at the people that live in there, the people
she made, and the one she didn't, yelling at them
every now and then. They told him to shut up.
They're walking too hard. I don't know what it's like,
cubment in the heel of their foot. When you figured out,
let me know what I can tell my upstairs neighbor,
God Damn. J dot Ill is a production of I
(53:56):
Heart Radio. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit
the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows. M
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