Empowering Parents: Navigating Education and Cultural Resilience in Challenging Times

Send us a text

Discover the power of parents as the primary educators in today's shifting landscape with our insightful guest, Akil Parker. We'll uncover how the evolving societal and governmental climate calls parents to adapt and innovate, stepping up as key players in their children's education and well-being. Akil brings a wealth of knowledge and challenges us to see the current strains on educational resources as opportunities for community-driven growth and empowerment. Together, we explore the necessity for parents to seek alternative resources within their communities, highlighting both the challenges and the opportunities that arise when government support dwindles.

Our conversation takes a critical look at the intersection of education, history, and systemic issues affecting the Black community. Stereotypes and the misallocation of taxpayer dollars are placed under a microscope, questioning the effectiveness of current integration and DEI initiatives. We ask tough questions about whether these efforts truly dismantle systemic power imbalances or if they merely offer superficial solutions. By drawing parallels to historical patterns, we invite listeners to rethink strategies for genuine empowerment and community resilience, emphasizing the importance of cultural grounding and education choices that resonate with Black and minority families.

Empowerment through self-awareness and education forms the backbone of our episode. We discuss the transformative potential of positive narratives, reshaping personal identities and community perspectives. Akil shares rich insights on overcoming math anxiety, urging parents to equip their children with essential skills for the future. Wrapping up, we highlight ways to stay connected with Parents With A Purpose and utilize practical resources for fostering children's success. Our mission is clear: to encourage parents to invest in their communities, drawing inspiration from historically prosperous Black communities and learning from diverse cultural experiences to navigate today's challenges with strength and unity.

Parents are the Bows and Children are the Arrows they will land wherever we aim them eventually!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to Parenting with a Purpose.
I am your host, donna Janelle.
Well, you know, my job here isto bring back the responsibility
, nobility and beauty back intoparenting.
Parents are the bows and ourchildren are arrows, so they
will land wherever we aim them,as long as we give them the
proper tools to be successful.
Right?
And with that being said, weknow that it takes a village to

(00:21):
raise children, but parents needa village too, right?
So, here at parenting with apurpose, our job here is to give
you the tools and hopefullygive you some exposure and some
stories and some just differentthings that's happened to
parents in all levels.
Right, because, remember,parenting the purpose is not
just about you know yourbiological children.
It's about your adoptedchildren, your stepchildren,

(00:41):
your nieces and your nephews.
You know my story I'm raisingtwo of my nieces, so it's not
just who you birth.
If you're responsible for theupbringing and raising of a
child, you are a parent.
Okay, period, I don't care howyou slice it, you are a parent.
So that's what we're going tobe talking about today, with
Parents of the Purpose.
So, you know, lately we've beentalking about there's been a lot
of different changes right now,especially, particularly in the

(01:06):
government, right?
And how does that look like inparenting?
And I just believe we're at atime where there's really a
mandate on parenting, right?
We really need to step up ourgame in parenting, however
necessary, however we deem seemto fit whatever appropriate
situations, right?
I think for a long time thegovernment has been stepping
into our parenting and kind oftelling us what we should and
should not do and how we raiseour children.
Just point, for example, evenabout, um, just different ideas

(01:30):
about what being taught to ourkids in school, or even when we
talk about even identity, right,the government has stepped into
those areas.
So I feel like right now,especially with what's going on
in the government right now,that it is a time for parents to
really step up, right.
Not saying that you know thegovernment.
You have the right to tell ourkids what and how they should
live.
We, as parents, we should beable to.

(01:51):
We're their first teachers,right?
We're their first lovers, we'retheir first doctors, we're
their first lawyers, we're theircheerleaders right?
We know our children more thanwhat anybody else know our
children, right.
So I think right now is a timefor us, it's an opportunity for
us to really step up and reallydictate and lead in this whole
parenting thing right now, sothat we don't have to wait for

(02:12):
somebody to tell us how weshould parent.
So again we have our.
I have a guest here, akil.
Everybody you guys know Akil,right, he's been here a couple
of times.
Mr Parker has been here acouple of times couple times now
, you know, giving us someinsight on several different
topics.
And relates to parenting.
We talked about the education,we talked about math, we talked
about parenting as a father.

(02:33):
So today, akil just want to tapinto the conversation about,
like, what we really thinkparenting is going right now and
where it should be going andthe things that we should be
doing, given that it seems as ifthe government is almost kind
of almost taking our hands off alot of situations regarding our
youth now, when we talk abouteven just financial support in

(02:53):
regards to them and families,and even the educational system
is shifting right.
So I wanted to bring Akil in tothis conversation because you
know he's always enlightened uswith his deep self, so we want
to hear what you got to say.
Welcome back, akil.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Thanks for having me back.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
All right, so let's get right into it.
Akil, so you know, when youthink about the title, that I
have the mandate on parentingright, and how does that look
like, or how does it how itshould begin to look like, like,
what does it look like now?
Right, parenting right, and howit should look like for the
best success for all of us, thissociety, our children, our

(03:30):
community, our country.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
So I think there've been a lot of safety nets for
that affect parenting that aregoing to be removed because a
lot of the funding is going tobe removed.
So it's going to force many ofus to start operating
differently and start, you know,taking things more seriously
and trying to find resourceswithin the community and you
know, and a lot of things thatwe need.

(03:53):
We already have access to them,but we just may not recognize
them.
Like we have access to, likeeducational opportunities, the
different things that we can doas parents to try to enrich and
to develop our childreneducationally and also just in
terms of other things, like youknow, diet and you know, just
just different things.
But you know it's going to be Ilook at it like it's the best

(04:17):
of times and it's also the worstof times because it's going.
It's like we're in a sink orswim type of situation, so we're
going to be forced to make somechanges.
So it's kind of like when youmay know that you needed to make
some changes but you may nothave been as motivated to make
changes because there's not thatsense of urgency, but once the

(04:37):
resources are actually taken orthey're no longer being given
out, now you have that actualsense of urgency.
So now you have to do something.
Now I also recognize thateveryone in the community is not
prepared to make those changes.
So it's going to be rough for alot of people, and I really
should say it's going to berough for all of us, because
even those of us that may bemore prepared, we're all going

(04:58):
to experience the harm that someof us experience is going to be
indirectly, it's going toindirectly affect others.
You know, and not just in theimmediate future, but in the
long-term future, and you know,maybe five years from now, 10
years from now, because thesehave these situations have
long-term effects.
You know, not just short-term.
They have some short-termeffects, but they have the

(05:18):
long-term effects which are muchmore significant and much more
substantial.
And I think that that's anotherthing that we have to start
doing is start to think morelong-term.
And sometimes we have to do thedifficult work of sometimes
deciding if we're going tosacrifice present comfort for
long-term comfort, which is adifficult thing to do at times,
when you think about people thatwere anti-colonial, you know,

(05:42):
and you know governmentalleaders, and you know on the
continent of Africa and theCaribbean, and you know, they
were revolutionary, but theyalso realized that they wanted
freedom for their people right,and for the people to be able to
live up to and, you know,experience their full humanity.
But that might've meant thatpeople would have to starve
today.
You know, men, women andchildren have to starve today in

(06:03):
order to take a stand and like,stand on business, as they say,
and, you know, say no to thecolonizers.
So those are difficultdecisions that have to be made
and they're not, they're noteasy choices to make.
You know, it might seem easywhen we, you know, hear about
these situations or we readabout them in a history book,
but those are not easy decisionsbecause we're dealing with
actual people, dealing withactual children, and you know,

(06:26):
people have needs and I thinkthis is so.
I think that's the, that's thecomplicated critical thinking
that needs to take place tofigure out how to achieve both,
how to be able to provide foryour current needs of today
while without sacrificingcompletely your welfare in the
future, your well-being in thefuture, a year from now, five

(06:47):
years from now, 10, 20 yearsfrom now.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
You know, I was thinking about, as I look at the
country right now, the world asa whole, I guess particularly
more in the country, becausewe're really dealing with a lot
of effects of what's going on inthe government.
It just kind of remind me ofback in the day where, when a
government really didn't have awhole lot to do in our parents
and or even really in ourcommunities, right, besides
dropping stuff off in ourcommunities and affecting our

(07:11):
communities in such a negativeway, how we as a people came
together, like when you thinkabout even you know, the
schoolhouses Right, they were,we had schoolhouses and we were
determined to get education.
Parents was determined fortheir children to be educated.
Um, and it was just like somuch um, fight for what's right,
and not only just fightingtowards the government, but even

(07:34):
in the meantime of fightingtowards the government but
really just making it your own.
I even think about one of theother things that came to my
mind was like the wick program,like the women's infant and
children program was the blackpanthers did right and now it's
a governmental, it's now it'sthrough the government, but it
all started with that, like theBlack Panthers in the community,
like that we didn't have theproper nutrition and and formula

(07:56):
and things like that for ourkids in the community.
So they stepped up and said,okay, this is what's needed.
And then, honestly, when youthe stats, the most people who
are using even the WIC programare Caucasians.
It's not even theAfrican-American population.
So I'm just thinking likethere's things that we as a
people can do without thegovernment assistance, right,

(08:17):
and then also not only dowithout the government
assistance.
Do it like a community-based,like if we need better schools,
right.
We keep blaming.
I keep hearing you know thegovernment is not putting
funding in our schools.
But I'm just thinking also,like back in the day they didn't
put funding in the schools,right, and we were educated.
We figured out a way to beeducated or how to educate our
children.
So I think right now, witheverything that's going on in

(08:41):
the government, where certainservices are being snatched away
from the schools, like the fundis like.
So how do we navigate now?
Like, do we, do we just say, dowe just keep saying, oh, the
government needs to do this orthe government needs to do that,
or do we as a people stand upas a whole to say, nah, like
they're going to do their thing.
We're going to fight them, butin the meantime we don't want
our children to suffer.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
Right.
So I think that I think thegovernment should be held
accountable to a degree, becausethe tax dollars that the
government has, that's not theirmoney.
I think oftentimes, when peoplehave conversations about the
government or when people haveconversations about so-called
handouts, a lot of that isdisingenuous, because the
government functions off of taxtaxation.

(09:24):
That's our actual money.
No, so we don't often look atit like that.
We don't look at it like it'sactual, actually taxpayer money,
and you know so.
You know.
The other thing is is that?
So we have to, we have to startto look at like what the
government is actually doing,but we also have to have, I
think, develop low expectations,and I think our expectations

(09:45):
are too high and we have toalmost assume that they're not
going to do or it is not goingto do what we would like for it
to do.
And when we act that way, thenwe'll be again forced into
action and we'll be in asituation, like you brought up
the past and I'm thinking about,you know, philadelphia like in
the 18th century, like the 1700s, when it was the Free African

(10:09):
Society, which these were, like,you know, mutual aid.
There were mutual aid societiesfor black people that freed,
that free blacks, you know,would run People like Richard
Allen that was, you know, whowas the first bishop of the
African Methodist EpiscopalChurch and Mother Bethel, which
is still in South Philly inexistence to this day, and

(10:29):
there's, you know, many schoolsand other institutions named
after Richard Allen all aroundand throughout Philadelphia and
other parts of the country, I'msure.
And so that was what we did,because that's what we had to do
to survive.
We did because that's what wehad to do to survive.
And you know, when I thinkabout, in terms of education,
like we've always hadindependent educational spaces
and there are a lot ofindependent educational spaces

(10:51):
now.
So, when they speak ofdefunding the Department of
Education, which may cause forthere being less funding to you
know different, you know publicschools, you know around the
country.
Well, and again, this is not aneasy task, but it's something
that has been done and this iswhy studying history is so
important.
People often say well, you knowwhat's the point of doing that,

(11:12):
how's it going to help me?
Why is reading this book goingto help me?
Well, reading the book is goingto help you because when the
environment or the circumstancesthat the book describes, when
they represent themselves, andyou never know when they're
going to represent themselves.
Well, you could know.
We can forecast things becausewe can start to.
This is where mathematics comesinto play, because it helps you
to forecast what's going tohappen in the future by paying

(11:34):
attention to certain trends,doing certain types of analysis,
right.
So when we see, ok, well, thiswas the situation in 1940 and
black people started independentschools and this was the
situation in 1960.
Like, you mentioned the BlackPanther Party, like how they had
their free breakfast program,right, which was essentially an
educational program where theywould get cultural education,

(11:55):
political education.
They get some good food firstthing in the morning before
going to the state sanctionedschools, right, so these are
things that we did.
These were things that werehappening all over the country,
like independent education,right.
So we have to learn about thesestories.
You know, and there are a lot ofbooks.
You know, even in the South,you know, there are a lot of,
you know, black people even onplantations, like you know,

(12:16):
frederick Douglass talks aboutin his third autobiography how
he had, like the reading group.
You know, he was teaching,teaching brothers how to read,
using the Bible.
You know, but you know, we'vealways educated ourselves.
We've always been a very likeeducated people.
We've always taken pride ineducation and we still do, even
though there's a lot of negativepropaganda to the contrary that

(12:38):
makes it seem as though we're,overall, not as concerned about
education.
We are concerned abouteducation but it just doesn't
get the proper amount and theproportionate I would say
proportionate amount ofrecognition, the proportionate
amount of publicity that itshould.
So a person with the untrainedeye will look at it and say look

(13:00):
see, black people don't evencare about education.
So what are y'all complainingabout?
For that means you have anuntrained eye.
You don't really know what'sreally happening in the
community, what's reallyhappening in the streets.
You know, even.
You know to the point where thenews media might show.
You know a fight at a schooland you know, you think about
well, it might've been fivepeople involved in that fight,

(13:25):
but the school has 1,500 peoplein it and if you do the math on
that, that's like whatpercentage is that?
That's less than let me see,five people out of 1,500.
Let's see, 10% would be 150.
1% would be 15.
So five people, that's a thirdof 1% of the population involved
in that fight.
But the way the news media willpromote it to get their clicks

(13:45):
and views, and everything theymake it seem like see, look,
that's all they do in school isfight.
All these black kids just befighting in school.
It's just not true.
And even if it was like a youknow I don't want to get too
much off topic, but this isstill related Even if it was a
free fall, let's say it was ahundred people involved.
Again, when you think about thisin terms of the laws, the rules
of mathematics, the laws ofphysics, it's always like, okay,

(14:07):
it's easy for something toescalate After it started.
Usually it's a dispute betweentwo people and then somebody
comes to defend somebody,somebody comes to defend
somebody, somebody else comes,the extra people.
It's kind of like a war.
This country declares war onthe other country and then they
bring their military in.
The soldiers don't know theseother people that they're

(14:30):
killing, that they're shootingat.
They don't know them, they'rejust following their orders.
So oftentimes peopleinstinctively react, not even
out of necessarily hatredsometimes, but often it's out of
love.
That's something that I learnedfrom studying Che Guevara.
That's one of his quotes.
He said he was talking aboutrevolutionaries.
He said the revolutionary isnot motivated by as much by
hatred for the enemy as he is bylove for his people.

(14:50):
So you get, you jump into thefight.
You see somebody you care aboutthat's fighting.
You jump in the fight notbecause you hate the person
that's fighting them.
It's because you love thatperson that you know and you
want to protect them.
So a lot of these things have togo into our thought process
when we look at these situations.
But oftentimes they don't,because we don't believe in the

(15:10):
humanity of black people.
And if we dismiss the humanityof black people, then everything
that I just said becomesirrelevant, like the laws of
math, the laws of physics becomeirrelevant because you say well
, we're not dealing with humanbeings anyway.
So why would mathematics andphysics have anything to do with
any of this?
Or statistics?
Why would they have to do it?
Why would they have to do itfor any of this?

(15:31):
But you know, we have to lookpast that.

Speaker 1 (15:35):
You said something very significant.
I think you know, we do.
You know understanding that itis our taxpayer dollars, right,
who the government, who governthe government, really that the
government's supposed to use tobenefit the people?
Right, and you know, we knowthat it's not being done
effectively.
I'm not saying they're notusing our tax money because
they're using it for something,right, but is it effective of

(15:57):
what they're doing?
It's like we're doing the samething over and over again and
like, even now, like when I keepseeing I again, and like even
now, like when I keep seeing I'mnot a news person, but you
can't help what you say and youcan't unsee some things right,
and you can't unhear some thingslike the stuff just be out
there.
You know, even when I, when Ihear of, like, defunding
education and in a lot of otherimportant societal um funding,

(16:20):
right, things that help thecommunity, and and I get how
they're looking like Iunderstand that concept of
looking at and I get how they'relooking like I understand a
concept of looking at things andsee if we're spending money
effectively, right, there's onething where it says okay, listen
, there's a lot of money beinggoing, a lot of money being
spent, but is it being expectedspent effectively?
Like, every person should beevaluating their money and see
how it's being used, right, butI think you know, right now most

(16:45):
parents are concerned isbecause it's like everything is
being cut at the same time.
Plan to make sure that themoney that we they do get or
they do use is effective, right,it's just like somebody just
came and snatched in everythingthat you knew about life, like

(17:06):
your whole feet has beensnatched away.
Right, the carpet under yourfeet has been snatched away.
You're kind of floating in theair and you don't know where to
go.
So I've been talking to a lot ofparents and, you know, just
even talking about justeducation.
I was talking to this mom theother day and we were talking
about, you know, the books thatare being allowed and not
allowed in school anymore, likethe history books, it's like.
It's like they certain part ofhistory they want to erase and

(17:29):
then a certain part of historythat that doesn't make sense
they want to keep right.
So we were talking about, forexample, amanda Gorman's poem.
Right, like her poem.
Remember she was?
It was at the inauguration.
Was it Clinton or Obama?

Speaker 2 (17:47):
I vaguely remember that that name sounds familiar,
but I don't remember the poem.

Speaker 1 (17:52):
And I think it was actually maybe Obama's Matter of
fact, obama's firstinauguration.
She had a poem and her poem wasamazing.
It was in all the libraries,and that's history, right.
And her poem was not evenallowed to be used at any
schools anymore, like most werenot all schools, but most
schools have been.

(18:12):
Well, you know, when they startbanning different books and
things like that, her poem waseven just banned and that's part
of history, right.
This was at inauguration, andnow that this, they can't even
share this information.
So the mom concerned to me.
What her concern that shebrought to me was what, what,
what actually is my?
She said I'll put her exactword.
She said I feel like my childis being brain whitewashed,

(18:36):
brainwashed in the educationsystem now, even though I'm
paying for the education likeI'm sending, I'm paying my tax
money.
I moved into a great communityso it could be a great school,
but yet now the school is noteven being diverse.
It's not even like diversity isno longer in the school, it's
all literally.
She feels like everything isjust whitewashed and the whole

(18:59):
black history, indian history,jewish history, everything is
being erased except for thewhite man's history.
But the white man history hasbeen so distorted as if it was a
great thing versus everythingelse.
And so she said to me she waslike my concern is that I'm
raising my child to be you know,to be in a world that's diverse
.

(19:19):
But it's almost like the worldis shifting from diversity to
more isolation and seclusion andI'm teaching my daughter that
it seems like she needs.
But back in the day you saidyou know, you need to be twice
as better because they're theydon't even consider you as a
whole person.
So you need to be twice asbetter and I'm raising her to,
to figure this out.
And it's like even now with D,I just been you know ousted what

(19:44):
.
What am I raising my child todo?
And I said you know what?
I think this is interestingconversation because I think I
wasn't back in the day withMartin Luther King and Rosa
Parks and all those other people, but it almost seemed as if
it's an error.
That's going back to like, whatam I supposed to do to my and
as far as raising my child?
So when she said it to me, whenwe were talking about it, it

(20:05):
really just reminded me of thefight that they had back in the
day.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
So there's a lot to be said about that conversation
and I'm glad the parent wasthinking this way.
But I want us to think aboutagain history.
There's a quote that Malcolm Xused to always, and this is the
100th year anniversary ofMalcolm X's birth, by the way.
So I want everybody to makesure they know that May 19th

(20:29):
2025.
He turns 100 years old.
Not in physical, physical sense, because he was assassinated in
1960.
In the spiritual sense, we cansay.
But one of his famous quotesthat he learned from the
ladyijah muhammad was that, ofall of our studies, history is
most qualified to reward ourresearch.
So the conversation reminds meof like a something that kwame

(20:52):
torre said.
So if anybody's not familiarwith kwame torre, make sure you
get familiar.
Get familiar with kwame torre.
Originally his name was he wentby stokely carmichael,
trinidadian brother, grew up inthe bronx, went to howard.
He's a human rights activistjust for the vast majority of
his life, involved in theStudent Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee, also SNCC.
Sncc did a lot of work inMississippi with the people,

(21:14):
voting rights, votingregistration drives and freedom
schools down there, and with alot of other people, a lot of
other college students andwhatnot.
H Rat Brown was one of them,currently known as Jamil Alamein
, who was still alive, but apolitical prisoner to this day,
and one of the things Kwame Turesaid in the early 60s was that
integration.
Well, they had a critique ofintegration.

(21:35):
You know the integration as apolitical movement, as a
political tactic, I guess by thewhite power structure, and you
know they said that integrationwas a subterfuge for the
maintenance of white supremacy.
So basically, meaning it wasjust a it's like a hustle, it's
a subterfuge, it's a distraction.
They really just want tomaintain white supremacy.
But they say, okay, we're goingto integrate you, because
integration was not a two-waystreet, it wasn't by direction.

(21:56):
It's like, okay, you know, youcan come to our schools, but we,
we not come to y'all schools,so we're going to shut y'all
schools down and then some of us, some of y'all, can come to our
schools.
So what that indicates even ifyou look at the Brown versus
Board of Education case withChief Justice Earl Warren, what
he said is essentially what hewas saying in his opinion was
that in order for black kids toget a good education, they got
to go be with white kids.

(22:16):
So, even if you don't come outand say it in so many words.
That's the idea, right, and alot of us have eternalized that
without realizing it and neverchallenging it.
You know, you got to be, and alot of times we were getting
better education before theschools were integrated by, like
, black teachers and blackadministrators that were solid,
very solid.
You know highly educated,serious scholars, you know more

(22:39):
scholarly than myself.
You know, and a lot of otheryou know, black teachers of
today, of modern times.
Integration was a subterfuge forthe mainstream white supremacy.
So one day I'm thinking, andI'm like, when DEI becomes
popular as a term diversity,equity and inclusion I'm
thinking to myself well, how isdiversity any different from,
you know, from integration?
Again, it's like when you do amathematical analysis, you just

(23:02):
replace.
You go back to Kwame Ture'squote from the 1960s, replace
the word integration with DEI.
Right, dei is a subterfuge forthe maintenance of white
supremacy, because and it iswhite supremacy because look at
what's happening Like whitepeople, if white people can give
it to you, white people cantake it away from you.
So that means you're in control, right?
So it's not about power, right?
Something else Kwame Ture talkedabout a lot.

(23:22):
Like you know, oftentimes weget caught up in conversations
about racism, but we don'taddress power Right, because,
you know, white people couldcollectively decide one day have
a big meeting to say, ok, we'renot going to be racist anymore,
but if they still have powerover us, then you know, we're
still in trouble.
You know, because that's theissue.
It's like you know somethingelse Kwame Ture said you know,

(23:45):
in the 60s he said if a whiteman wants to lynch me, that's
his problem, but if he has thepower to lynch me, that's my
problem.
You know, because that means hecan actually do it.
If he don't got the power to doit, then I don't got nothing to
worry about you can want tothink about.
I mean, there are, of course,going to be benefits to the

(24:06):
people who have jobs because ofit.
A lot of it, though, again, butwe have to look at where it came
from and what was the purposeof it.
Was it a concession?
I believe it was in large part.
Interestingly enough, a lot ofthe people that were complaining
about Black kids looting andrioting after George Floyd got

(24:28):
murdered, the same Black folksended up benefiting and getting
jobs because of DEI, and soreally they should be thanking
them Black kids for rioting andlooting, for getting them those
jobs that helped them securethemselves financially for the
last few years, or whatnot.
But so these are just things tothink about, like when you do
real analysis and when you lookat, like, the situation.

(24:49):
And again, there's nothing newabout that neither, because even
in the 60s the same thing wasgoing on and as a result, to or
in an effort to stop black youthfrom, you know, rioting and you
know which they had every rightto do because of the conditions
you know, you know a lot of,you know they would give.
I guess they would start withwhat is Lyndon Johnson calling
poverty programs.

(25:09):
They would start povertyprograms.
It would give young people jobs, you know, because, like, well,
if I just give you a job, put acouple of dollars in your
pocket, you might not be tooworried about the political
climate and the fact that yourpeople are being oppressed, you
might not be too worried aboutit because you got a job, you
get a couple of dollars, youknow, got some money in your
pocket.
And the same thing happened, youknow, back then.
So every time the youth wouldrise up or the youth would be,

(25:32):
you know, motivated to, you know, be more aggressive and during
the civil rights movement orlater in you know, when the
black power movement, so tospeak, I guess, starts I don't
know if there's an actual starttime for it for that the
government would give out morepoverty program money.
So the same black people thatare complaint would be
complaining in the sixties aboutthese youth.

(25:54):
These youth are doing this anddoing that or whatever they're
benefiting from, these youthdoing that, the same, the exact
thing they're complaining about.
Because you're getting povertyprograms, so you're getting
money.
You're getting government money.
So the same things happenedrecently, but now the
government's taking away the DEImoney.
So it's an actual I think we gotto look at it like it's a
delicate balance because thegovernment has to be careful.

(26:14):
Also, right, the conservatives,the Republicans, they got to be
careful also because they'rebanking on money.
You know black people notresponding in ways that we've
responded in the past, becauseyou know us being given
concessions is a result of youknow us rising up and saying,
becoming more militant.
So the goal is not is for us tonever become militant.

(26:37):
We have to be comfortable, wehave to be as comfortable as
possible and we have to be, youknow, politically impotent and
not be aggressive and not buckagainst the system.
But if you're too, what is itdraconian you could say if the
government and the corporationsare working together?
Because that's what fascism isbasically the government is the
corporation, the corporation isthe government.

(26:58):
So you look at, like you gotElon and hanging out with Trump,
and Elon's a corporation, herepresents a corporation, but
he's calling a lot of shots, sothe government and corporations
become one of the same.
So this is like it's like NaziGermany, you know, and and and
Italy back in the day, withMussolini and them, you know,
and Hitler and all them, right.

(27:18):
So it's kind of it's a similarsituation, right.
So but if you get too draconianand the people rise up and then
you got to bring back the DEIprograms, you know, so it's like
it's a, it's not, it's notsweet for them.
I say all that to say like it'snot sweet for them either, like
, but I think they're, they'rebeing very analytical and
they're watching.

(27:39):
And again, like, when I come on,I always talk about mathematics
.
There's math that's involved inbeing able to forecast and
predict human behavior andknowing, okay, how hard can I
push somebody, or how much can Ideny people.
How many resources, how muchmoney can I extract, take out of
somebody's community beforethey actually snap, before they

(28:00):
actually crash out right?
There's mathematical formulaswe can use to figure that out
that are being used right andagain.
So this is why we need tounderstand as much math as
possible, because the math isthe key.
And speaking of that like, so,like to the parent, like if they
take, you know, like one of thethings I say kind of jokingly,
but maybe it's not a joke likeif Trump decided to sign an

(28:20):
executive order to say we're notgoing to teach, they're not
going to allow math in publicschools, in public schools where
black people attend, I'm like,okay, that's a horrible thing,
but come to all this math, aslong as YouTube is up, you can
come learn it for me, you know.
So we got to make the best.
That's part of making the bestof a bad situation.

(28:41):
You know and there are otherpeople in the community that the
children can learn mathematicsfrom that.
Children can learn chemistryfrom, biology from, physics from
, can learn English languagearts from, can learn other
foreign languages from, and Ithink that's how we have to
start thinking.
We have to think okay, well, ifthey take this away, we should
push back because, again, ourtax dollars are paying for this.

(29:01):
So, if they're not giving usthese resources and these
opportunities, that means you'restealing our money, because
then what is our money payingfor this?
So that means, if they're notgiving us these resources and
these opportunities, that meansyou're stealing our money,
because then what is our moneypaying for?
Right?

Speaker 1 (29:10):
But at the same time, I believe that we should be
more optimistic about findingalternatives but if we sit

(29:33):
around and wait for them to dosomething for us and it's based
on our own money, right thatwe're still going to be missing
a mark because we're not doingit for ourselves, we're not
figuring this out of how to, whyto, where to and when to do
something.
You know, it's one thing to say, like, for example, like you
know, when my kids were going toone particular school district,

(29:55):
I was paying tax in that schooldistrict and I just didn't like
the way that they were usingmoney because they weren't
educating my child, they weren'tdoing the resources right,
using the resources.
So I was one of those parentsto say, okay, this is what the
school district has, but they'renot offering it and they're not
using it effectively.
So now I have to take my child,and I too, probably, was
brainwashed that my child needsto go to a white institution for

(30:19):
a better result.
Right, I took my daughter outof the regular public school
because they you know they triedto say she was reading at like
a first kindergarten level orsomething under grade.
But when she went to theprivate school, she actually
tested, gifted, right.
So I knew, I mean, the girl wasreading like chapter books and
she was three.

(30:39):
But when she went to thisparticular school district where
she came out of privatepreschool that I paid for, right
, so she was already above andgifted then I put her in a
public school and the way thatthey were treating her, putting
her in a less reading group, Ithink that they they never even
tested, they assumed that shedidn't know how to read because
she was a black girl, right.
So I didn't like that, knewthat that was false.

(31:00):
I took her out of school andsent her to wilmington friend
school, sent her to her friendfriend's school, which was
predominantly white, right.
But I knew that at that time Iknew like that I felt like
between that school and it wasanother private school I was
going to send her to.
The reason why I chose thefriend's school it was because
they were building a wholeperson versus the other private
school who were literally justbuilding intellectual people,

(31:22):
like just like smart kids whodon't have any character, who
didn't didn't have like aholistic life.
So I chose this private school.
But I was thinking in my head Ineed to send her to a white
school so that she can get thebest of her education.
Right, send her there and shedid get great education.
But then when I decided to moveto another like area, move to

(31:46):
Middletown, delaware, right,which is you know it's a, it's
diverse and it's not justdiverse and I would say you know
just black and white, but it'svery diverse, it's Asian
populations, it's a lot, and theschool district was very good.
So I was like, okay, I'm gonnatake her from paying $22,000 a
year to this white privateschool, bring her in the public
school system.

(32:06):
Which was scary, I would admit,taking my kid from private
school and bring her to thepublic school because I was like
, are they going to be able tomeet the standards that she's
already had?
And they were surprisingly tome and it was crazy.
I think it's just because I'veseen so much in public schools
and I've come from public school, so in my head it's like I need

(32:27):
her to be for getting the besteducation in a private school.
But when I brought her over tothis public school they were
able to meet the standard,actually above, and I was paying
my taxpayer money and she wasgetting exactly what she needs.
But then I have other friendswho live in the city who pay tax
money Right, they pay state andcity taxes, right, paying all

(32:47):
this money and our kids aregetting like less of the
education.
So it's like it's it's like doyou take your?
A lot of us, a lot of parents,are feeling like do you take
your kids, put them in a privateinstitution, right, so that
they can get what they need?
But then when we take them outof the public institution, it's
almost like we're not fightingfor them to get what they need,

(33:08):
we're just going to snatch themout.
You know what I mean?
It's like it's almost like athin line.
It's like but do you make yourchild to sacrifice to keep them
in the public school who are notgetting all the resources Right
?
So it's like I know, as a mom,I struggle with that for years
to try to figure out OK, okay, Iwant her to be different, but I
also want her to have theeducation she needs, but she

(33:29):
still needs to be around herpeople too, right.
So it's like it was such astruggle and I look at it now
that you know I have other kidswho are after her, but that was
a really struggling.
A lot of, a lot of black parents, a lot of um, even minorities
are feeling the same way as whatshould we do?
Should we invest our kids intothese private schools, which are

(33:51):
now, you're, mostly whiteinstitutions?
Because there's not really.
You know, you have, like thequaker schools, you have the
jewish schools, but like isthere?
Like?
You have the catholic schools,but like is there like a black
school?
Right, because then it's likeif you decide to build a school
full of just black people, thenyou're segregating things again,
right?

(34:11):
So then they they talk about,is that reverse segregation?
So it's so hard to figure outwhat you're supposed to do with
your child as far as likeeducation, and then society and
community so I mentioned malcolmx earlier.

Speaker 2 (34:24):
As I said it, this 2025 is a 100-year anniversary
of his birth, so another one ofhis quotes comes to mind.
Well, not just a quote, but akind of an explanation to your
point.
So people will try to say thatreverse segregation is a thing,
just like they'll say reverseracism is a thing, but it's
actually not a thing.
Mathematically we can provethat it can't exist.
What you're referring to isactually separatism right being

(34:45):
separate, and a lot of peopleare separate.
As human beings, we should havethe right to convene and
educate our children in spacesthat we choose.
Chinese people should have thatright.
Other Asian people should havethat right.
Different types of Europeansshould have that right.
The Catholic church has thatright to start Catholic schools
and allow admission to whoeverthey want.
Black people should have thatright too.

(35:08):
People of African descentshould have that right as well.
That's the difference betweenseparatism and segregation.
With segregation, the personthat's being segregated doesn't
have power over what they do.
It's kind of like a classroomright.
When I'm a classroom teacher,I'm responsible for the
classroom, so I make the seatingchart so I can segregate the
children.
I can move the childrenwherever I want them to go.
They don't have any power tosay, to decide where they want

(35:30):
to sit.
But in separatism, if I can say, you know, come in, pick a seat
where you want.
If some girls say, you know, Idon't like that boy or I don't
like that girl, I'm not sittingby them.
I'm about toism she has thepower to move on her own without
somebody else imposing that onher.
But I think that we should haveschools like that, like in

(35:54):
Philadelphia there was a schoolcalled Ivy Leaf.
I know a lot of solid people.
When I moved to Philly I met alot of solid people that
matriculated through Ivy LeafSchool.
It was a black private schooland, uh, like they say, you
judge it, judge a tree by thefruit that it bears.
And, as I said, I've met a lotof people you know from philly
that went through thatinstitution and you know, uh,

(36:16):
you know productive members ofsociety and progressive thinkers
.
You know a lot of them and youknow.
And then there's another one,um, the lotus academy.
Lotus is hanging on.
I don't think it has the schoolstudent population that it once
did, but it's still standing,still in existence, you know.
So we have them, but a lot oftimes in some of the schools.

(36:41):
This is something that I'veheard.
A complaint that I've heard frommembers of our community that
have sent their children to youknow some independent black
schools is that you know some insome of them the rigor was not
there, and that could beunderstandable, because
oftentimes the schools don'thave the financial support, so
the schools don't have thefinancial support.

(37:02):
Then you can't afford torecruit and retain the most
effective teachers.
So it's not just that, it's notthat Black people are not
qualified, don't have qualifiedteachers.
Among our ranks we do have manyqualified Black teachers, but
at the same time people havefamilies.
They need food, clothing andshelter they have to be able to
provide.
So maybe the white man or thepublic school system because we

(37:24):
think about it, every publicschool system is an independent
white school system.
That's what it is.
It's controlled by the whitecommunity, so it's an
independent white school system.
They may pay better, get betterbenefits.
So it's difficult for theindependent black school to
compete without the financialsupport and this is something
that we're still trying tofigure out so that we can have

(37:46):
that.
But I would say that if you dosend your child to one of the
other private schools.
I think the key is just to makesure they're culturally
grounded, because oftentimeswhat ends up happening is, you
know, we end up, our childrenend up in these spaces and end
up being, you know, kind ofmotivated or encouraged to try
to assimilate into the cultureof the institution, right.

(38:07):
But if your child is culturallygrounded and meaning like
they're getting culturaleducation from outside that
building because I, like, likemy daughter, went to a Catholic
school from kindergarten throughsixth grade, right, and now she
goes to a public school andthat was a decision that her
mother made.
So you know, in terms ofco-parenting, I choose my
battles.
So I chose not to fight thatbattle because I know I'm her

(38:32):
primary educator anyway.
So she's being culturallygrounded by me.
So when she goes into thatspace she's been exposed to a
lot of things that I might nototherwise have her exposed to,
but she understands it becauseshe's essentially been guarded
and defended against it by whatI'm educating her about when
she's at home with me.
So I think that's the key.
So that way, when you go intothose spaces and you get the

(38:56):
mathematics education, you getthe ELA education, you get the
foreign language education, youget the different types of
education and a differentsubject matter.
You're just going there to getwhat you can get and you keep it
moving.
You're not trying to, you know.
And then when you look at likehow a lot, of, a lot of ethnic
groups, how they operate like Itaught at Central High School
for a year here in Philadelphiaand Central is a very there's

(39:19):
like cultural pluralism atCentral because there's a lot of
different races and ethnicitiesthere.
You know, and that's whatthat's one of the things that
Central boasts of.
It's one of their positiveattributes.
You know, one of their sellingpoints right, there's a lot of
diversity.
You know, that's just, that'sjust the way it is.
And you notice like a lot ofthe, a lot of the youth there

(39:40):
they just come to get their, youknow, get their math and keep
it moving.
They're not trying toassimilate into a European
culture or anybody else'sculture necessarily.
They're trying to get what theycan get because they come from
a strong community backgroundwhere culturally they're already
grounded.
So look, I'm just coming hereto just learn this literature,

(40:01):
learn this calculus, learn someother foreign languages that
nobody speaks in my community.
So I'm coming here to learn itcome here to learn the social
studies you know, get the goodgrades, get the high gpa, apply
for college scholarships, takethe standardized tests and then
go on about my business.
But if we can do that with ourchildren, make sure they're
culturally grounded andpolitically aware, and that's

(40:21):
the work that we have to do andthat's the work that other
groups do too.
I remember I was speaking to anelder some years ago.
I was at a meeting for theAssociation for the Study of
African American Life andHistory.
If any of y'all watching,that's the organization founded
by Carter G Woodson, who alsofounded Negro History Week back
in 1926.

(40:43):
I think it was 1926.
I always get that confusedbetween when he started the
organization and when he when hestarted Negro history week.
Well anyway, negro history week, of course, later became black
history month, which werecognize this month in February
.
Um, I lost my train of thought.
I was talking about Carter GWilson and he was talking about.

(41:06):
I said why did I bring that up?
I can't remember why I broughtthat up.

Speaker 1 (41:09):
But I like what you said because I think when we
talk about the mandated planternow, like what is our role and
what is it looking like for now,in the future, really educating
our kids at home?
Like really taking that role asbeing a primary educator right,
because everything first happenswith us, and I think for so
long that we trusted a system toeducate our children and it

(41:32):
almost kind of made us more lazy, or last two days ago in that
sense, right, it's like okay,they're going to school eight
hours a day.
They should be learningsomething, right.
So me, as a mom, what I'm goingto do is make sure my household
is straight, which is, you know, making sure that I'm providing
for my kids.
They're eating, they haveclothes and things like that.
And now that we see is like,even though we're sending them

(41:54):
to institutions where they'resupposed to be getting certain
things right, they're not likethey're being fumbled in some
way or the other.
But I think if we get back toreally what you said earlier is
really being a primary educator,we can really see a difference
in our, in our, in our society.

Speaker 2 (42:11):
Definitely, definitely.
And I recall what I wasthinking of.
I had to retrace my thoughtsRight.
So I started talking about thatmeeting.
I was at an ASALH meeting inPhilly some years back.
I was talking to an elder andthe elder was talking about how,
when she was a young girl, thiswoman was probably like in her,
maybe her 80s she's talkingabout as a young girl growing up
in philadelphia.
She lived in a community wherethere were blacks and jews and

(42:34):
she remembered that, like everywednesday, that the jewish kids
in the neighborhood they couldnever come outside because they
would have to.
Well, after school theycouldn't come outside, or either
they couldn't come outside orthey didn't stay outside that
long because they had to go toyou know Hebrew school, right?
So every Wednesday they wouldgo and be educated about Jewish
culture, about Hebrew culture,and it was every Wednesday and

(42:58):
it wasn't something that youknow.
So they wasn't waiting to go toschool to learn that If they
went to a public school, theywasn't expecting the school to
teach that.
They probably didn't even wantthe school to teach that.
And that's another thing Ithink of too.
Sometimes, if you wantsomething done, right, you got
to do it yourself.
So it's some things that Ithink I have an unpopular
opinion in terms of this, somethings that a lot of people that

(43:18):
I respect that fight for to betaught in public schools or
charter schools.
I actually don't want theschools to teach it because I
know they're going to mess it up, they're not going to do an
appropriate job, they're notgoing to do a good job at it,
they're not going to train theteachers appropriately, they're
not going to tell the storyproperly, and if you want
something done right, you got todo it yourself.
So I don't even want them tomess with it.
And also, like it's an issue ofwhat is it you know, I don't

(43:41):
want to share.
I don't want to expose too muchinformation to the wrong people
anyway, because some thingsthat just like those Jewish kids
that the elder was telling meabout, that wasn't for everybody
.
They didn't invite the blackkids to that so they could learn
about it.
They didn't invite nobody else.
And that was just for theJewish kids, right?
That was just for them to know.
Like this is, this is ourinformation.

(44:02):
They coveted that.
Like this is for us, this ain'tfor nobody else.
We about to go over here and dothis Like y'all y'all, can I
come?
No, you can't come.
No, it's not.
Why not?
It's not for you.
That's why and I think whathappens is another issue with
the emphasis on inclusion, itputs us into the mindset of
always wanting to be included.
When you're always trying to beincluded, you can't

(44:31):
simultaneously go and createyour own space because you see
inclusion as the goal.
And as long as you seeinclusion as the goal, the
person who controls the spacethat you're trying to be
included within will always havepower over you, because they
know you're always trying to getin.
So all they have to do is say,well, no, you can't get in, and
they'll just make you.
And then, if you ever stop andexamine that, you'll always just
fight harder to get in insteadof saying, well, let me just
stop fighting and just go createmy.

(44:52):
I can take the same energy andgo create my own, and I think
that's what we have to do.
So I think, like them, theRepublicans or the conservatives
are like playing in our faceand they're kind of like daring
us to get us to go start our own, because they're like behind
closed doors.
I'm sure they're saying like,and been saying for years.
They're not going to go starttheir own.
So what difference do it makeif we take this away?
They're just going to fightharder to get it back.
They're going to fight harderto get back into our space that

(45:14):
we control.
Mm-hmm, you know, and it was.

(45:36):
I mean, both sides.
Both sides of it made validpoints and I think that, like I
said, I think DEI has some value, but I don't think it should be
our end, all be all.
I do also want to recognize thatthe way the programs are being
taken away, the manner in whichthe programs are being taken
away by this administration, isvicious.
It's very vicious.

(45:56):
It's the way it's being doneand also the way it's being
marketed.
Harm is being caused.
I think that, while we try tochallenge the administration
that's doing this, I think wealso have to be spending energy
creating space and institutionbuilding and building
infrastructure that can't betaken away.
At least we're not without afight, you know, but yeah, but I
think that you know, in termsof education, like you know, I

(46:19):
mean, yeah, your child going toa private school that you know
is not of its own community canbe fine.
If you go in there.
You're trying to stick and move.
Go in there.
Look, I'm trying to learn whatI'm trying to learn.
I'm trying to.
I'm going back home because Imean that's what happens.
I mean people.
I mean even on a global scale,geopolitically, like people,
like you know, the ruling classof certain countries will send
their children to go study.

(46:41):
Like you might be, I don't know, from Japan, and they might,
you know some wealthy peoplefrom Japan, japanese, may send
their children to go study inFrance, but they don't send them
for the purpose of we want youto go become French.
I mean, this might happen, butthe goal is not for you to
become assimilated into Frenchculture.
Become French, you know.
Marry a French woman, marry aFrench man, and never come back

(47:04):
to Japan.
No, if they have resources thatwe need and things that we can
learn from, go over there andlearn all you can and then bring
it back to us so that we canbenefit from it.
Not go over there and learn youknow what you can, and then get
caught up and sucked into.
Now, but I'm french now.
I'm not japanese, no more now.

(47:24):
Now you know, I'm not evenspeaking japanese, no more now.
I'm speaking french now.
Now, I'm just.
You know, I'm trying to betrying to party with the french
women and then the french menand all that, and I'm I'm just
hanging out in paris now.
I'm an honorary french person.
Nah, you're there for a purpose.
So that's what it should be forus.
We have to look at it the sameway, but we have to culturally

(47:47):
ground our children.
And that still goes back towhat you said parents being
primary educators.
If you're the primary educatorand you don't have educating
them properly, you don't have asmuch to worry about, because
they're there for a good time,not a long time I think I think
also like parents knowing thatthey are the primary educated
and that they can do this, likeyou can do this.

Speaker 1 (48:08):
I think that there's some lack of like confidence in
it as well, and I think that ifwe really as as and that's where
the community comes in, I feellike that's where the community
comes in.
It's like helping, helping eachother understand like we got
this, we can do this and we canbe this like community.
That's how community issupposed to be like helping one
another, reaching a common goal.
You know, I even think aboutyou know we talk about the Black

(48:31):
Wall Street and other Blackcommunities who their community
was thriving, right, and even ifwe step outside of just the
Black community, when I look atany other community, it's like
their communities are thrivingand it's like can we get
together and get our communitiesto thrive as they did before,
even though, even if ourcommunities will be threatened
to be shut down, burned up fire,however, you know they decided

(48:54):
they want to do it drop a bunchof dope in it, whatever, some
fentanyl in it, it like can westill figure out a way how to
fight and get our communitywhere it needs to be?
Because even when you look atany other community, like their
communities are just thriving,even if they're being threatened
by the government I don't thinkit may be at the same level as
a black community or even adifferent, like a hispanic

(49:17):
community, like mexican americancommunity, because they're
being down on too.
But even like I think about theAsian community, the Jewish
community, like all that moneyis spent in that community and
they're helping one another,they're owning their land in
that community.
They're not written, but ifthey do allow you to come in, if
they allow you to come in,they're written to you.
You're not owning nothing intheir community.

Speaker 2 (49:38):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I mean, I think it goesback to the education you know,
because education is supposed toinstill value.
You know in who you are, and Ithink that's another reason we
have to educate our own, becauseyou know, the history that we
learn really teaches us.
You know who we are and a lotof the history that we learn, we
get stories about ourselves andabout our ancestry that a lot

(50:00):
of people would be ashamed of.
When I talk about chattelslavery and I think our children
should learn about chattelslavery but the way chattel
slavery is taught, it's taughtin a way that I might be ashamed
of if I was a child.
My idea for teaching aboutchattel slavery is I only want
to talk about and teach about.
Well, at least primarily, notonly, but I primarily want to

(50:20):
ground a curriculum on slaveryand slave rebellions Because I
want to talk about when blackpeople fought back.
I want to talk about theongoing war Because the way it's
framed, as you know, these bigbad, you know superhuman white
people they just came to Africaone day and said okay, we're
taking all of them right, put uson boats, took us across the

(50:42):
Atlantic Ocean, startedplantations, these elaborate
plantations and whatnot, andbeat us, killed us, raped us,
and those are the stories thatwe hear, never hear about.
The slave rebellions, neverhear about.
And there was so many of themand they're well-documented,
even beyond just Nat it was themovie made about nat turner and
his, his rebellion, but so manymore.
You know denmark, vc stonorebellion.

(51:05):
You got queen nanny in themaroons and her brother cujo
down in jamaica.
You got the uh, christmasrebellion in jamaica.
You got gabriel prosser,richmond, virginia.
You got charles day long anddown in new orleans.
And I was teaching some people,some young people, about that
last month because I wanted themto think about that when they
watched the Super Bowl, sincethe Super Bowl was in New
Orleans.
So when you think of NewOrleans, think about black

(51:26):
people fighting back againstslavery, right Revolting and
rebelling, and these rebellionsled to the Civil War.
So you know.
And then what happens is itchanges your mindset, because
then you're not thinking likesome great emancipator, some
white man, came to free us.
You're like nah, we wereapplying pressure on a
consistent and regular basis, sothey made it politically
expedient to end slavery, theymade it more economically

(51:48):
feasible to end slavery becausewe was fighting back constantly.
We was always fighting back.
We never wasn't fighting back.
But the way they tell the storyit'll make you feel like it does
a lot to your self-esteem.
It does a lot to yourself-image, so you wouldn't want
to learn about that.
But when you learn the storiesabout you, know you winning and
you know sustaining then youstart to feel differently about
yourself.
You start to feel differentlyabout yourself.

(52:09):
Then you start to feeldifferently about somebody that
look like you and you start tofeel differently about somebody
that look like you.
Then you want to spend moneywith that person, then you want
to trust that person.
Then you want to have a familywith that person.
You don't want to.
What Dr Umar say black queensforever, snow bunnies never.
You might not want to go get asnow bunny because you, because
you, you, you love, you love.
You love the sisters right,because of the way you've been

(52:33):
educated right.
So you know.
And then you may want to wantto pool your resources and you
may want to spend money in thecommunity and have it recycled.
You may want to build schoolsand create schools, right.
You might want to make musicthat's more uplifting, that
doesn't always cost every otherword.
You talk about shooting blackpeople and killing black people
and selling drugs to blackpeople and exploiting women and
doing that right, and killingblack men.

(52:53):
You may not want to make musiclike that because that might not
make sense to you, no more,because that's how you've been
educated and you're not worriedabout the fact that some white
man is going to pay me a largeamount of money and I can
finally get my mom out the hood.
If I tell these types of storiesover a beat, that's really what
happens, right?
But it all goes back to, youknow, the education.

(53:13):
You know who's doing theeducating, who's telling the
stories, what are you know?
But as long as we don't controlthat and we're not taking
control of that, things willcontinue to be the way they are
and, like you said, like youwere saying, based on these
government movements from thisadministration, things are going
to get worse because there'sgoing to be less resources and

(53:36):
I'm really curious to see whatthe streets are going to look
like, because when money driesup, people get desperate.
You know people get desperate.
There's like a trickle downeffect.
Everybody feels it.
We just feel it at differenttimes and in different ways, and
there's a trickle down type,domino type effect and no, we're
headed for some lean times, butwe've been here before.

(53:58):
We've been here before.
There's been Republicanleadership.
There's been Republicanleadership for the majority of
my life.
I want to say, yeah, I was bornin 1980.
Reagan was president for eightyears, then his vice president,
who led the CIA before that andhelped to bring crack cocaine
into the hoods all across thecountry, george Bush Sr.
He was president for anotherfour years.

(54:20):
So that was the first 12 yearsof my life.
I was living under Republicanleadership.
And then what was it?
Clinton?
Clinton was in for eight yearsand then George Bush Jr came in
for eight years.
So that was 20.
And then, you know, and afterthat, what was it?
Obama?
Obama came in for eight yearsand then Trump came for Fordd

(54:47):
and biden and back to trump.
So so, akil, that's what?
28, 28 years yeah, that's themajority of my life.
So we, we survived.
We still here.
Things are going to be rough,but you know we can.
We can survive from.

Speaker 1 (54:53):
It's not the end of the world, you know so, akil, as
we start to close this upbecause we've been on the hour,
we know you can go much longerthan that.
So, as we think about themandate and parenting right now,
and given the climate thatwe're in, what can you?
You know we've been talking alot about education Can you give
us some direction right now,what we can do right now to help

(55:17):
prepare for the drop?
Right, yeah, right.
What can we do as parents?

Speaker 2 (55:23):
Let me think about that for a brief moment, trying
to come up with like somethingconcise and something that you
could do immediately, right now.
So there's something you couldbegin to do and I'm going to
tell you.
I'm going to say this and thenI'm going to tell you why I'm
saying this.
If you're a parent that is andI probably said this before on
your platform if you're a parentthat's intimidated by math,

(55:45):
stand up to your fear and gostart learning math today.
Start today, don't put it offtill tomorrow, don't do like we
do, but with the gym or with ourdiet or whatever.
Start today, start today, andI'm going to tell you why.
There's probably nothing better, no greater gift you can give
to your child than mathproficiency, and you don't want
to wait for the school to do it.
And with funds being taken awayfrom government funded

(56:09):
institutions such as publicschools or charter schools and
some private schools getgovernment funding as well quiet
as it's kept, but you don'twant to leave that up to them
and with the funding being takenaway, it's going to be less of
a likelihood, it's going to beeven more difficult, I should
say, for your children to gainmath proficiency in those
institutions.
So the best thing you can dofor you, one of the best things

(56:29):
you can do for your child, is tolearn the math that might have
bullied you when you were achild and you hate it when you
were a child.
Stand up to it.
Finally, go learn it so thatyou can help your child
understand it when y'all are athome or wherever y'all at, when
y'all are driving in the car,whether y'all at the grocery
store or whatever store y'all at, because with math skills your
child will be able to compete ina world that is uncertain, that

(56:52):
has an uncertain future.
Because your child is going tobe up against a lot and with the
changes that are going to bemade, like I said, like we said
earlier in the program, thereare long-term effects.
A lot of decisions are going tobe made in these next four
years in this presidency thatwill have lasting effects, that
will be affecting people for thenext 10, 20, 30, 40 years that
we may not even really be ableto fully see right now in a

(57:15):
concrete way.
Prepare your child mentally,give them that skill of math
proficiency and with that theycan leverage that into a lot of
opportunities and also that'sjust job-wise in terms of
entrepreneurial pursuits, butalso, when they develop their
math skills, they'll be able tobe better problem solvers and

(57:37):
critical thinkers.
So that's what I'm saying to doright now, to do today.
Start learning math now.
And if you're not a parent thatwas not afraid of math and
aren't afraid of math, then morepower to you.
Start helping your child withthe math homework, if you're not
already, and if you are, goahead.
Go ahead to the content fromthe subsequent year.
So if your child's in thirdgrade, start looking at some

(57:59):
fourth grade content, yourchild's in eighth grade, start
looking at some ninth gradecontent, and you can do online
searches for a lot of thiscontent.
Or you can go to my YouTubechannel.
Go to my YouTube channel.
Also, if you want to, you know,have a resource for you.
If you want to, you know, getsome ideas about how you can

(58:23):
leverage everyday activity andmake math lessons out of that.
My book, how to Use All thisMath, volume 1,.
That's available, you know.
You can find that on Amazon,you know.
So that's what I say you coulddo right now Start learning math
today.
Don't wait till tomorrow.
Do it today.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
Thank you, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
Thank you, silence.
Yeah, yeah, if you go toYouTube, just type in all this
math, my page will pop up.
You probably see one of myvideos pop up.
I'm either with me by myself,or maybe me with my daughter.
She might be, it might be oneof the videos I did with her
more recently.
And yeah, subscribe.

Speaker 1 (01:01:46):
You know like a video , drop some comments, share,
tell everybody about it and ifalso you guys, we want to join
you, this man, I encourage youto go to all this man so they
can follow akil.
Also remember to tap into, panup to Parents With A Purpose.
We are on actually there's awebsite, donnajonellecom with
Parents With A Purpose, whereyou can actually find all the

(01:02:07):
resources of Parents With APurpose.
You can find the YouTube page,you'll find the Facebook page,
you'll find Instagram, you'llfind all the podcasts for the
last season, which is, I think Iprobably have about 50 episodes
of the podcast a differenttopic that maybe you know, if
you're unsure in certain areasor even if you just want to
listen, and so, again, it's allabout proving our parenthood

(01:02:28):
right, because we want ourchildren to be successful.
So, tap into underdonajanellecom and make sure you
go to YouTube.
All this math and there's justhear more from us.
We will be coming again everyevery week, we're going to jump
on with a podcast to see how wecan help educate our people not
even just our people, I feel,like just people in a whole.

(01:02:48):
Our goal is to make sure that weknow the information, because
you need to be educated right,but I also think that it does
benefit other people to hearwhat we talk about so they can
better figure out how they canhelp as well.
Because, you know, one of thethings that I constantly look at
and hear stories about are eventhe even white people or even

(01:03:10):
Jewish people, other othercultures that really help, even
in the Civil Rights Act movement, and different things like that
.
So, even though it may seem likeeverything is separate, but
there are still some people thatare good-hearted people, right,
some real authentic people thatdo want to push the vision and
mission of making sure that wedo get the rights that we
deserve and that we're educatedthe way we need to be educated.

(01:03:32):
So there's people who really doso into our community, who
listen to our podcasts and readbooks and stuff like that to
better understand us.
And I think that's important,because one of the things that
I've been reading lately been alot of been a lot about the
holocaust, right, um, just tounderstand some things that was
going on.
I think what triggered it kindof was, um, I feel like this,
this trump era is almost like amodern day hitler.

(01:03:55):
So I wanted to, I wanted toread and get understanding of,
like, the thought of Hitler andwhat was going on and then
really what the people wasdealing with, so I could better
figure out.
Maybe you take some parts ofthat and figure out what's going
on now, you know, but I thinkreading is very important in
educating ourselves.
So again, again, again, again.
Akil, we know you'll be back onagain, but I just love.

(01:04:16):
I love you, I love your insight, I love how you just continue
to teach us how to be betterpeople.

Speaker 2 (01:04:28):
I appreciate that, appreciate the opportunity A lot
of people have taught me,taught me a lot of things.
I just want to pass them on.
Yeah, I appreciate y'allsharing your platform with me
and you know I'm thinking,thinking highly of my opinions
and my thoughts and giving me anopportunity to you know, have
these conversations with you,you and your audience.