Oh good everything hello hello every everyone wherever you are in the world hi Dr car good morning Professor Hunter how are you my dear let me take my ear so I was listening to Malad s before um I came in I was doing some straightening up I was telling you I was unpacking
Some books and boxes and things and so that’s my you know we used to Listen to Soul music cleaning up um I’m listening to malao Su and um it got me thinking first of all thank you for this thank you everyone who’s joining us wherever you’re joining us uh from because you
Yes you you make the work you know we you are you are the work you are the reason you know um if people did not show up every Saturday and you know Sunday and Monday and Tuesday to be in community around knowledge then uh we wouldn’t be doing it so uh fortunately
We’re both made for this so it also yes we are what a blessing what a blessing it is to find that absolutely but saying you were thinking about you listen thinking you know thinking about today um today’s lesson around what we celebrate when we come together to
Celebrate I’m also you know how we move and and Mala so is going through this writs of passage in his 20s which usually happens when you’re 12 or 13 because he had to be reintroduced into the village after being in the wilderness with those colonizers and having those colonizers uh mind put into
His you know and there was a question and a debate on whether these two things could exist inside of him could he keep the knowledge gain through from France and the learning of French and the learning of the French ways of knowing and also be part of the village and
Learn the ways of knowing and it was and he struggled he struggled and it and it raised a question for me somebody asked um on the show uh and actually vet Co Brown was on yesterday and she was talking about her uh she just got engaged and
She’s so happy and I’m so happy for her um she raised a a question she said you know people who don’t know who are dumb and she said I you know if I if you’re offended then you probably should be people who are dumb don’t know that
They’re dumb so we’re in a world full of people who don’t know that they don’t know and it and they think they know so then there’s this boldness around the ignorance you know and I thought about that as it related even to being grown to being a grown-up to being an adult to
Being um a mature human being like Malad has to go through this process and many of us don’t put ourselves through the process because it’s painful it’s painful being being grown being grown meaning making adult decisions decisions that bring uh Jo not Joy but nurturing and and cohesion not harm and division
Right that kind of maturity and has nothing to do with age and I was thinking about it this morning in reference to even you know how we you know engage in Folly and joy and you know how we talk about the different topics and how people get offended and
They want to you know speak out but that’s because there’s a lack of like mature there’s no room for the discussion because you haven’t Braden yourself so I was just wondering like when do you know is it like that thing where you’re dumb and don’t know you’re
Dumb I think probably right I me I think in terms of just being human beings when you know better the impulse is to do better if you think you can do it like if you don’t know to do a thing that you really want to do and you’re around
People who can do it and you watch them and you realize how you’ve been doing is incorrect you make the adjustment if you think you can do it I mean I give you a very quick example last night we were at the uh band of the Year competition at
The mercedesbenz Dome North Carolina ENT Jackson State Florida Memorial and Virginia state did their thing this like monthl long ranking of who who’s the best HBCU band those were the final 40 small schools Virginia state wait a minute wait a minute I’m like I’m having fomo right now that sounds like oh yeah
Oh it was it was amazing we’re talking about but anyway but what you’re raising though very directly at the beginning it was this brother beautiful saxophone player he they they introduced him and said will you all please rise and of course I’m not getting out of my seat
Ever again in my life for the star spangle Banner well never have I mean years ago even from time I was in undergrad so he starts with I’m like okay these gonna do it right so we stood up and then he went into so we sat back down now around the
Stadium the American Negro is standing up with and many of them with their hands over their hearts so we’re looking beused like have you forgotten Colin Kaepernick have you forgotten yesterday forget a 100 years ago forget 50 and they stand up then he went into lift every voice and sing clearly what the
Brother had done is enveloped this war song song with lifted voice and sing but when he went into lifted voice and sing we stood up the people sat down and then wait black folks sat down yeah of course because this is the point you’re raising in terms of this idea of
Not thinking kind of an immaturity you’ve been trained to stand for something that has sent you to die that that brought you into a criminal Enterprise but you over here trying to prove but when he went into lift a voice and sing we stood up they said now but
Here’s the point as we stood there singing other people were like they stood back up my point is this because they want in other words what you’re raising is very important when you see it and you say oh oh right right but if we hadn’t stood up everybody
Would have sat down and listen this man play this beautiful rendition so I think you’re raising a very important point it’s not that we don’t want to do but if we’re not in a context if we’re not in a place if we don’t see it then we then we
Can’t we can’t act on that desire and if we don’t believe we can do it it’s the simplest thing in the world for people have the ability to stand to stand they could do that now if it had been we got to do a somersault during one of these
Things well I can’t do that I mean I wish I could but so you’re raising a very important lesson without context how would we know how would we know you know and even that I mean there’s some that would say oh you’re so well if you
Don’t like this country get out I mean LeBron went to see his son play at USC walked in and sat down during the national anthem and of course oh you we gave you a billion dollars and if you don’t like this country go back to where you came from and it’s like
A yes yes but maybe I will go back and take all these brothers and sisters who dribble this ball with you you can watch uh uh this is I am him or whoever the the latest white Fascination is play uh I don’t know ly sanity I don’t know
Maybe I will go back why don’t you go back right I don’t think it’s a thing anymore but I I raise that because I I feel like you know even that somebody was probably offended that you sat down during the national anthem oh I hope they were in fact I encourage their
Offense but I’m isn’t being offended is isn’t being offended when you don’t know the why immature I don’t know necessarily that it is I mean you know I got to the point in my life maybe about 10 years ago where I started thinking particularly when you start talking about Black Folk
Over certain economic or self self kind of self-conceived social class you don’t think we can win so you make a deal I think a lot of times when people communicate offense now I’m not talking about uh white people because I think that you know America and white is
Coterminous it’s the same thing so of course you should be offended because I’m offended by the concept of the United States of America and how it’s been executed um we’re having this conversation in English I will never not be offended by the fact that we can’t have this conversation in the languages
Our ancestors spoke which is why I think somay is such a fascinating figure in some ways because Som lived a contradiction that can’t be resolved he was just honest about it and I think when people when people take him as some type of Guru or some type of babala or
Something no that’s not what he is this is a man who is showing you the limits of trying to mix these things so you can’t take that and turn that into a new theology don’t overburden Som by saying well Som teaches us no Som showing you what confusion and things that can’t be
Reconciled look like he never he never claimed oh well let me not go too far because again what has happened now particularly since it’s become kind of Vogue for people to be initiated and think about African spirituality that includes a whole lot of white folk and guess what the idea of hustling people
Is not limited to the American Negro you know how many continental Africans who have now embraced religions that they wouldn’t be called dead in their household with but because white people now want to pay a million dollars to get initiated Len we not gonna do that
But it’s okay it’s fine I mean it’s popular now and I’m always for connecting is good thing but what you’re raising to be offended I think is a proxy for something else some people said tell LeBron if you don’t like it here okay why are you offended what’s underneath
The offense what’s underneath the offense is that you you’re concerned that what you’re propping up is the only thing that gives your life value you know so so when somebody doesn’t respected you feel threatened you know I mean you you know here in Atlanta and you know going on
Just yesterday’s newspaper the AJC land joural Constitution the jury was urged to send a message you know in DC by these two sisters who are here in Atlanta in Atlanta area who tell people tell the people Dr Carter the how much 140 what million how many well this this
Of course is this morning’s verdict now Julie so you you know as the young people say it hit different here in Atlanta it hit different in Georgia because this where these sisters are from Giuliani is ordered are they going to see $148 million no are they going to
See $148 maybe I don’t know I saw him getting out of the the truck yesterday with a Starbucks coffee and I’m not sure that he didn’t have to buy it I mean somebody didn’t have to buy it for him but the point is that you know Giuliani trying to ignore
What he did to Shay Mouse and her mother is the equivalent of trying to say that I don’t have to deal with you because I don’t respect the world you live in and you have to respect the world I live in so when somebody shows well there two
Things that happens when somebody shows that they don’t have to play by your rules the first impulse to to you know kind of satiate your own insecurity is to impose those rules that’s when people say law enforcement or Law and Order what they’re saying is I’m going to make
You do what I want you to do but the other thing is when they don’t have that capacity that’s when they act out you know that’s January 6th 2021 where I don’t have a capacity why because the rule of law as I call it didn’t work for
Me in the way I wanted to work for me in juliani’s case and we were talking about this the other night you know R we were talking about this professor hun you not only because you know you you you are intellectual pler craft in one blade in journalism
But because you were in the area and you lived it and you worked in those Publications and you worked in that media Market you remember something that very few young I don’t know that many young people and I don’t many people who are older remember and that is who rudol
Giuliani is oh they don’t remember Crown Heights and denin they don’t remember Patrick Doris M they don’t remember Abner liima they don’t remember in other words so so he’s now a punchline no no no no no no no don’t forget who this guy is Professor could you remind us of who
This man is telling people it’s it’s Rudy Washington Rudy Washington not Rudy Giuliani that got people through 911 Rudy Giuliani was in a bunker scared shivering Rudy J Giuliani was on his way out when 9911 happened there The Daily News the post every paper were hammering
Him on a regular basis he had the nerve to bring a mistress into Gracie Mansion he was a disgrace he was a bumbling idiot nobody liked him it was really really palpable and then 911 happened happens and I remember sitting there in The Newsroom like America’s mayor and you
Know and I’m glad you brought that up because it was in that moment Dr Carter that I realized that um we don’t have the capacity to tell the truth you know it yes yes we’re in a thing it’s horrible America was attacked I sat there in horror as those two buildings
Came down never imagined it it was scary it was all of the things we were absolutely Under Siege it was a terrorist attack but to then watch The Narrative spin around George Bush and around both of them by the way both of both of them and I was like did y’all
Like yesterday did something change in these in the characters of these men in the last 24 hours okay yes we were attacked when did they get to become deputized as great in that moment when one was a coward hiding out who actually was credited with having more deaths
Because he upgrade the system for people to communicate so firefighters were losing their lives because they couldn’t communicate people running into place they didn’t know where they were going it was Rudy Washington that got people off the island had a strategy to get people off the island he was a deputy
Mayor at the time black man who died probably because he was out in them streets inhaling all the the human waste from the dust and all so I I feel like we keep doing this over and over again we’re doing it right now too by the way you of course
Reexamination of a person in in real time they’re still horrible still horrible still horrible no you it’s so funny time plays it out right because we we’re seeing juliani he was what he what he always was this ain’t nothing new like this is who he is no by the way same with Trump
By the way I was like what y’alls like really that’s New Yorkers ask New Yorkers ask anybody paying attention I mean you you raise it’s so funny your friend Immortal Technique I remember you know a song that he did and then remixed it with most de and uh Chuck D and
Ks1 uh um it was what it’s called he said you know Ben Laden didn’t blow up the projects it was you tell the truth Bush knocked down the towers but people think bush bush knocked down the Twin Towers no he’s not talking about that what he’s saying and then they go on to
Talk about you know if uh what he say uh if another Army invaded the hood tonight it would be Warfare from Harlem to Washington Heights I wouldn’t be fighting for white America’s dream I’d be fighting for my people’s self-esteem in other words you all mistake what you
Do what we do and guess what this thing that happened on 911 2001 was a human tragedy M like you said George Bush stand out there with some boots and and a rugged jacket on with a bullhorn on top of rubble underneath those r at Rubble is business people and bankers
And also people whose names we don’t know because they were down there asking for spare change and also vendors and also and you standing on top of their bodies trying to redeem your funky reputation because your presidency like like you said like Julian’s morality was a punchline but but the point they’re
Raising in that song is that you know all these things can be true at the same time your propaganda you like Muhammad Ali say in the 60s ain’t no Viet Kong ever come over here and attack me but you every day do it so don’t try to
Cover your domestic crime by telling us all to Rally together bin Len didn’t blow up the projects in other words bin L didn’t emplo Martin King projects in North Philly he didn’t knocked down ID Wells and Cabrini Green in Chicago after not after underfunding them and never
You did that so don’t act just because we got something we got to attack it reminds me of the Native Americans the indigenous people like I like I always say on on Thanksgiving so-called Thanksgiving go down to Museum of American Indi said why did y’all serve
In the military and the brother is like well if they attack the United States I live here and I was here before y’all so therefore give me a gun but the only re only way I get a gun is put this damn flag on my shoulder so I’m not even
Going to argue about the flag I need a gun because see y’all invad my territory it was mine before it was yours all these things can be true at the same time so I think you’re raising something very important Giuliani is not our friend he attacked these two black women
I mean Professor Hunter I tell you right now anytime you are calling This Woman’s grandbaby on his cell phone and and disrupting his education to the point we almost flunk out of school and this is a little boy anytime y’all threatening to kill them and Lynch them and you want to
Hear their their next snap you Giuliani yes he’s the trigger but if every one of y’all paper cowards who were calling these two sisters if if we got you see y’all mistake us for your friends this is why I say this is not a nation we do
Not no no all we want is you to leave us alone you know what I’m saying and if we pay taxes we want the buses to work so our kids get to school we want to pay the teachers and have good teachers in there we want Healthcare with our money
We’re not asking for anything that you are giving us we gave you the money fact we paying your salary but don’t mistake that with we believe what you believe these things are very different so Giuliani is a symptom as you say Trump is a symptom of a much deeper malaise
And that’s the kind of spiritual malays that that’s would lead the elders to have a debate over the whether we can let so may come back in here because he been around them people and anytime be around them people and the way they think about things this could destroy us
We love you but you can’t come in here with that brother and and are we doing it every day you know yes I think about it because you know you know I’ve been I’ve been going through through not through anything you know deep or uh harmful but yeah I’ve been thinking I’m
I’m like at a at a point of like Reckoning with myself on a lot of issues and I’m you know I watch uh folk navigate power that’s not really power but we’ve been conditioned to believe that it’s power the power is in us always always has been they know it
Which is why they suppress it right I watch Negroes negotiate their own power way at the expense of other people’s power yes and and maybe they tell themselves the lie that they’re doing it for the greater good but it’s really I I always tell people watch how many people benefit
From the the the deals that other people make yes yes what Chang besides them maybe getting a billion dollars or $100 million do or a network or or a TV show or besides them winning how many people benefited from their negotiations yes all organizations that have taken millions millions tens of millions
Hundreds of millions of dollars what changed in those neighborhoods that they have branches in we’ve had enough time now because you know it does take time I I’m not somebody that believes in snapping a finger this not Thanos things don’t happen overnight it take time Dr car but we’ve had enough
Time we’ve seen 10 20 30 years out hundred million dollars you’ve gotten over the last 10 20 what has happened what’s changed where’s where’s the blueprint for change my my dear beloved friend comrade colleague this is the work you’ve been doing for a long time this is the work
That I’ve been trying to do for a long time this is the work that so many of us have been trying to do which is again what makes nub such an important space and what makes narrative such an important platform and which makes every everything you doing with Urban uh radio
Network I’m Urban radio network Urban voices and doing serious Urban view Urban View and let me tell you as you struggled through the urbans um you know I had yeah because I actually I did get stuck on the urban it’s so funny you said it because that’s what Urban was
The label that Jacob KS and them used because they didn’t want to say black when the Black studies Revolution happened in the 60s and in Chicago to get the program through they had to change the name from black to Urban so that’s why I I know Urban view I’m
Subscriber I’m listen to Urban but but Urban always sticks in my head because I know the history of why we we we were forced to take Urban by the social struction I’m sorry but go ahead you debate had to have a fight with somebody over you know wanting to change the name
And I was like well the name you know has been crafted into something it was that’s right was not a thing before that’s right because of a vision for how to bring something together I don’t care what you call it at some point you know no that’s not a perfect name calling us
Black is not perfect African-American is not perfect it’s not it’s not all it’s not what what what they call you is what you answer to but more importantly what you what you produce out of the thing whatever the name is these are all words made up words at that like that’s right
Not my language not your language what is our objective I mean what is we talked about that like show make it make it make sense whatever we call it right is it producing something that is actually producing something the things that doing is that our objective I mean what
What what what is our objective you laid it out and the reason why I was about to say it was that um and again we we study when we studied the miseducation of the Negro and Nubia when we read the appendix to the book Carter Woodson’s
Essay on what’s in the name and he says what you call a thing is much less important than what it is he’s making the point you’re making but what I was about to to say as you rais this you know is the question of what are our objectives you raised something very
Important you know is the objective to get more people who are making a million dollars a piece or more people who have a home and can take care of their family and is the object and that’s not to say any of those objectives are bad objectives fundamentally but it is to
Ask or are there other objectives that should be combined with those objectives or chosen instead of those objectives because people are making deals every day right if the objective is to achieve and certainly claudian gay is at the Pinnacle of achievement her cousin roxan gay the author who works for New York
Times that’s crazy they are and yeah right is it interesting now these are these are these are Africans whose people came from Haiti by way of Haiti who come to the United States of America who maximize their individual potential because of their intellect their talent who get some breaks in the social
Structure and who seize that opportunity and rise to the Pinnacle of their chosen craft and in a split second if anybody thinks that that hearing that Stefan Z andm had in Congress and the Fallout was aimed at the president of the University of Pennsylvania yeah that was no they
Was after Claud gay you know I’m saying and after gay they could notice the president of MIT they ain’t say a whole lot why because see MIT is tied to the milit industrial complex to the research of it yes it’s all fun and games we talking about the humanities and social
Sciences we the ones who develop the killing technology so you going to leave The massachusett Institute technology out of this conversation but the whole war was on the question of elite higher education this woman got a degree from Harvest to fansy but why are you attacking her well Lawrence Summers
Attacked her before but the point I’m trying to make is this is the objective to get Hella smart hella talented people of African descent into individual achievement as proxy and then they turn around and get two or three more okay but is it not I mean it could be some
People to argum that it is okay well I’m G tell you what my my objective was just to to shine light on things so that that’s I came I entered it as a journalist so the journalism shows up newspapers and books and and and when I got to the radio though something
Shifted because the first week on the air Mike Brown was killed and I realized in that moment and and then it was the Eric Garner tape and then it was teren Stan B and then it was to rice and it was like this Alton Sterling I mean I
Could go on and then at some point nine people got killed in a church praying on a Wednesday which Wednesday Church y’all know hits different somebody coming in on a Wednesday and Ma massacring people and at that moment um in after writing that petition and then having 577 th000
People sign it in two days I realized that uh just shining a light is not enough I have to encourage and push because we can change things it was in that moment I realized things can change that flag did come down in South Carolina it was a it was Bri Newsome it
Was a bunch it was a lot of things but something happened as a result of us deciding then I remembered we’ve always kind of made things happen whether we’re talking about bus boycotts in several places not just Montgomery if it’s if it’s about building Community we’ve done that many
Many times over from Wilmington to Rosewood to Greenwood to you know we can keep going too and then I was like well what would happen if we remembered the things that we did so then it became how do we build how do we build how do we
Build so that became my my kind of Guiding Light what’s the blueprints when I have people on how do we do this which is why I don’t give you prequests you’re not coming on for an agenda you’re coming on for us to extract information and knowledge so that we can
Build the worlds that we want to live in and I also realize we’re all individuals so everybody has their own kind of thing that they’re bringing to the table their little piece of God right so how can I help you magn magnify that how can I
Give you the inspiration to do that so that became that’s my dor and then I met you then I met you we met each other thanks a was finishing up that PhD too she she’s on the verge of defending her disertation but she already gotd she
Already got it as far she does she does she just likes having that paper to walk around with too but you’re right that that that Veterans Day we came up there and that was just I mean that moment it certainly changed the course of of my
Life and just in the couple of days I’ve been here in Atlanta running into people in the streets people at the at the the competition last night we went over to vegan after and sat there yeah we vegan just to hang out at the
Original oh my God I can’t look half that stuff I can’t say here because you that’s just in terms of my culture meting making I’m like but and I don’t know that I will ever get uh used to somebody saying hello when you come in the room I’m like okay we just this
Is that’s again in our framework just between cultural meaning making and movement and memory all culture meaning making is valid because it’s it’s it’s being made by the people in the moment Jermaine Dupri was DJing last night in between the band sets I mean and and
Some of the stuff I’m looking at all these people like wow this isra I mean but but the point is this movement and memory of course is what you’re talking about how do you have this momentum of memory but I didn’t bring it up for that
I just wanted to say you know we we were standing there and I had a a West Lake High School uh hoodie on which is why you know we was all fired up about the game last night because we went over to West Lake High School my friend’s son’s there and
As a student so she went to get all these hoodies and I want a West Lake hoodie because yeah I didn’t realize for lat she told me that’s where Cam new went school yeah I’m wait right we saw all these buses in front of the school
And we like oh yeah what and these band people are getting off we said who are they this not Westlake I looked at the license place and you said oh that’s no oh that’s entt here come to agies they were practicing over it again this idea of getting these college band people
With these young people who apparently westle has a great marching band too so I mean you know with a female drum major which is even better you know see but my point is this as we were doing that you know I just kept the hoodie on so we
Were so we were at vegan last night and the brother is like oh West Lake and he but that’s not how he start his daughter went to West Lake she was there with him and she’s at Howard but the brother recognized me so di the car
And started talking about us my point is that this is so he was saying and then he was like we started talking this kind of thing Marcus Marcus re he went to Jackson State undergrad Jackson State competed last night he went to how for grad school he’s an engineer Howard is
Playing fam today we going over to the game in a few and we started talking about the importance of Education institution building but it was not in the context of Jackson State Howard West Lake it was in the context of what we’re doing right here Saturday after s and so
I’m saying that objective that meeting us coming together in that form this what the Muslims say Christians too God plans human beings playing but God is the highest what I want to lean in on though the Su total of the things that I’ve been doing in my life and the sum total
Of the things you’ve been doing in your life because we came together not transactionally I didn’t say hey no let’s form a business let me figure out how to you know let’s let’s do this let’s do let’s go make this money that it was never about that was can I hit
Record because everyone needs to hear what you’re saying let’s go let’s go and every week and then it was like okay y’all want YouTube be acting y’all be doing too much can we have a space that’s safe now I’m grateful that some of y’all done figured it out how to act
Like a human being and these yes you know it was it was we were getting inundated with some off energy and I a have time to focus on you and and get people in the chat gathered it’s it’s a full-time job but now I don’t have to do
That it’s Pleasant now you know this is this was the Genesis and then is there a place that we can reposit can we put this stuff deposited someplace that people can learn at their own pace come in whenever they come in and go through all of these lessons and now we’re
Figuring out how to make them in the biz Mor so the work that Urus is doing like there’s so much that’s that’s why I’m saying things don’t happen overnight but Lord have mercy the way in which we’re extracting these lessons and making them really easy to just because you you know
You teach you teach in a way that sit with it for a minute but it couldn’t have happened if you weren’t doing your thing and I wasn’t doing the thing thing that I was doing and then the magic happens when we cut magic only happens together together right it’s no
Way that’s right it can only happen together it can only happen together and and there are moments I mean you know as we are we’re learning we’re learning and as we experienced the last last Monday night in office hours um as we know we’re reading uh Dr D voice is the
Education of black people um this is the project we undertook after you know came back from Philly uh several weeks ago from Black educators conference brother Sharie mecky and and his uh Collective there and you know the conversation around what we need as a people for
Education really just sat in a way that it hit me in a way and said you know what let’s read do voices messages to Black audiences with one exception which we’re going to talk about in in a minute today just in in a kind of moment since
We’re here in Atlanta and that’s why I’m repping always Atlanta University the Au now Clark Atlanta University but this is where D Boyce worked in 19 when he gave the talk that I’m talk about in a moment as we think about asking this question you know what do we celebrate when we
Come together to celebrate but Monday night we read and we were discussing the speech he gave in 1908 at Fisk University uh his first commencement speech at Fisk of several that are in the book The 1988 speech Galileo galile where he talks about what happens when
You know the truth and don’t speak the truth and he’s telling he he’s talking talking with these young people who are being graduated from FIS and at their commencement he he’s he’s asking them whether they are willing to be watch women and watch men watch people on the
Wall to be able to speak truth to power and it’s going to be very difficult now that was 1908 not not 2023 you can imagine what he would say today but in that process of talking about it you I made a few put a few images up to kind
Of spark conversation and one of the things that D voice asked is when you talk about genius what does it mean to be a genius and he gives the example of Galileo he said Galileo saw and and taught and discovered in his mind most the rest of the world knew it the
Africans knew it the Asians knew it but at any rate Galo discovered that the Earth moves around the Sun and so that became heresy to the Catholic Church as we talked about so they they drugging before the church and then they asked him does the sun move around the earth
And earth move around the Sun and he lied because it was convenient he lived almost another decade but he lived in many ways after having compromised his values and that was really the deeper lesson but in that process what du boy says is you don’t measure genius by individual achievement you put
It in the context of the age in which this alleged genius emerges it wasn’t that Galileo was so brilliant it was that the rest of people was so ignorant and so to underscore that point I just raised the question of celebrity in the process of Monday night’s conversation and one the images that
Just came to mind for me to use in the wake of having had this conversation many times with young people particularly college students high school students was the image of R Kelly I heard many young people call Robert Kelly a genius and then what are you measuring him against that but that
Brought uh our friend and Sister Kim Delaney who’s out in Chicago Dr Delaney at the D Museum in because she’s written a book on her friend roberie Kelly and that sparked a conversation about and and and what saying is to to Really underscore what you’ve raised that’s a
Conversation that had it been one of these countless people on YouTube and or been in in these chat rooms but in Nubia it was a difficult conversation it was raw it was what but because it was in Nubia and because our objective isn’t to agree to disagree but as Marie M Kel
Would say Agree to Agree we were able to leverage it not perfectly because it’s going to resonate for a while it’s left some marks you came in that But ultimately we know because of how we feel about what that space is and what we mean to each other that even that we
Can figure out a way to weather it you know I don’t know if that conversation could be had or should have been had let me just say that too I don’t know if that conversation can be had any place else and on Sunday Dr naresa Williams
Will be dealing with some of the Fallout from that conversation because there a lot of folk that were triggered and injured and felt away and it was a conversation that I don’t think we could have had any place else there would have been no space made so you know I’m at
Least grateful for that but I just want to bring in if y’all are newb tomorrow you know you please come in with Dr narissa uh is why we offer things like yoga and uh mental health through an Africana lens of course Dr senat always with Mar room’s Medicine Chest and she
Can bring some some light to some things a lot of things because she’s brilliant um but we have a lot of safe places in in Nubia as well for people so I want to you know it was it was not where I thought it was going to go Dr Carr Nei
Me neither I just makeing an example I just I just like I told Kim I’m just making an example this guy but it really underscored the point which for me is among other things why do we use celebrities as proxies for things that we have to Grapple with and that’s
Really you know again this theme this week what do we celebrate when we come together to celebrate you know what are we trying to what are we raising again thinking about our Africana studies lens the social structure valorizes holds up its own icons shrines rituals and totems we look
On often in mute disbelief we don’t engage it but we know what we’re thinking it’s like when a child is running up and down tearing up terrorizing A Bank lobby or going up and down pulling all stuff out the grocery shells and two black people don’t say just look at each other
Like like we already know what we’re thinking in terms of that kind of ways of knowing but this social structure valorizes folks Rudolph juliani has been a human joke for decades and yet and yet he was on the verge of becoming the United States Senator he became the mayor of
New York City all by reinforcing this ability to hide in his mess and his whiteness and in projecting this kind of provid Black Folk don’t get that in the governance conversations we’re going to have different conversations right now and this is without taking a side or making any commentary on it except to
State the actual fact that a jury in New York is deliberating be continuing next week over a case a misdemeanor case involving a movie star named Jonathan maor now whatever you say or don’t say please understand with the Africana framework there’s going to be a governance conversation who we are to
Each other it’s going to be very different than the social structure conversation you can’t watch white Mass entertainment news media on that case and think that you’re sitting there having the same conversation that you’ll be having in a governance formation whether we are disagree agree debate discuss it’s going to be a different
Conversation now I say all that to say that the underlying question perhaps not the essential question but question deeper than arguing over these things a question underneath that is why are we using these people as proxy for these other conversations we want to have why would you bring up Robert Kelly
Why would you bring up uh Jonathan Maes why would you bring up Nicki Minaj why would you bring up anyone my point is this it’s because they’re visible celebrity become but guess at the root of celebrity is the same root for the word celebration celebration to celebrate
What does it mean to extol what does it mean to elevate what does it mean to say that this is something where we want to Mark what we’ve done to this date as something of social significance Beyond me as an individual but as a community and of course you know being here in
Atlanta for the 12th uh celebration Bowl you know caused me you know we were here last year this time this that was the last game that Deion Sanders coach for Jackson State University uh you know brother Marcus and I had an interesting conversation last night about Jackson
State his aler and Deon Sanders you know I mean why do we overb burden these individuals and project onto them the hopes of community it’s because we live in a society where celebrities have been elevated it is one of the reasons now of course she is a Howard University Alum class of
1986 I think it is but uh the vice president of the United States will be here today you know KLA Harris is coming to the game and she announced that a couple of days ago and she and she extended it as part of her HBC U tour she’s been on
Well maybe she would have been here if Howard wasn’t in there but I didn’t see any plans announced to be in the celebration at the celebration Bowl three four five six months ago when she was trying around HBCU all of a sudden I’m wondering if that’s not the mummy
You know Joe Biden is like look man I’m messing up these black people I need you or at least my message isn’t getting out so I need you to go but anyway I’m saying all that to to come to this point when we put celebrity at the center of our cultural meaning making
And we’ve certainly done it over the years those celebrities I think are less it’s less about who that individual is and more about what’s going on in our governance formations our conversations we’re having internally and how the social structures are shaping those conversations influencing those conversations is a better word that lead
Us into these using these celebrities as proxies and so last night you know thinking about this as we sat there watching these Exquisite marching bands I mean the type of precision that you have to master not only play your instrument while executing Precision drills and dancing and moving and that forth some singing
Involved but you know in the case of the the auxiliary to the to the Musicians on the field whether it be the drum Majors whether it be the flag uh women or the dance aners whether it be the baton twirlers we saw some baton twirlers you know it’s very interesting just to watch
You know Virginia state and wait are those baton tossing batons now R you don’t see a lot of batons workers in the bands anymore including one young brother who was you know mastered his craft I’m like okay I see you I see you but anyway my point is this in the
Process of that this whole thing is surrounded by celebrity and after every band a bank went out Professor Hunter to underscore something that you raised well I’ll get to the bank in a minute because talk about this in Du Boyce in the context of du Boyce and the essay
We’re reading this Monday night in Nubia on the college bread Community this is the one speech in the book The education of black people that WB voice gives to a white audience he is still at Atlanta University he’s on the faculty there he’s shortly to leave for the first time
To join the nbcp and then he comes back many years later for a second stent at Atlanta University but this is during his first stent at Atlanta University and he has asked to go out and help Atlanta University raise money because it is struggling financially and he’s
Asked to speak to a white audience in Massachusetts his home state of Massachusetts shout out by the way was on the plane coming down here Thursday and uh I’m sitting next to a a lady who is a nurse uh who deals with addiction who actually was working in New York
During uh Co and who had some terrifying stories about the type of things the healthcare providers that we all know and many of us those of you who are Healthcare Providers experienced but she experienc she was a white woman so we were talking and uh we talked about that
And you know what addiction is and then fascinating conversation and since she asked me where I was from I told her I asked where she was from she says oh you probably would know where I’m from I’m from Massachusetts I said oh you from Boston you from Western Massachusetts
She said oh yeah Western Massachusetts I said oh you know where great bton is she said yeah I actually live right next to great barington how do you know great barington I said well that’s where web do is this from and she was like oh say
You in the houst tonic Valley you up there in the shadow is it the bir start talking it’s always fascinating when people connect based on some shared knowledge again it makes us human to each other we’re having this conversation so anyway shout out to her so anyway getting here du Boyce is in
Atlanta he’s at University he’s speaking to these this white audience about the college bread community and he talks about the value of supporting black education in the south in the first decade of the 20th century and how that will translate into value for the country and we’ll talk
More about that in a minute again we’re g to talk about this extensively Monday night if you’re not in Nubia you’re really missing out because this group now we were over 2,000 uh Monday night going through each of Duo’s speeches to these black audiences with the exception
Of the one we’re going to talk about Monday night and but I think everything is timed in divine order in many ways because this speech this week in the wake of what we’re witnessing here at this celebration bowl is particularly fortuitous and this is where I’m going
And ask the question what do we celebrate when we come together to celebrate so we come together to celebrate achievement when we EXO celebrities in the context of Celebration what are the objectives that we are elevating for discussion in the case last night a brother Reed you know we’re standing there his daughter
Standing there we’re all having four of us having this conversation and it’s fascinating because my friend Rea Rea Kelsey she’s a medical doctor and they having a conversation about she and do this daughter’s having this conversation about medicine and careers and you know alternate careers what you want to
Really do with your life me and brother Reed said they have conversation about HBCU the new president of Jackson State what does he think about the D stand situation what did we just witness which I’m going to talk about in a second at this celebration Bowl pre- celebration
Bowl event the which they’ve turned into something called the band of the Year all of this in a social structure context pushed up against a governance con conversation one that I think should be separate and I’ll tell you why in a minute it’s so interesting again we
Didn’t we don’t rehearse we had these conversations president H and I now approaching 200 and top of the year and we have these as we know very organically and in the context because of that people think oh no y’all must have planed this no we didn’t so the
Lead with Malad maluma s Malad s is very pituitous in this sense because sitting in the the uh sorry called the Georgia Dome sitting in the Mercedes Benz dome last night you know we kept thinking this is a black event but it’s curated by a social structure and there are some beautiful things
Happening and there are some things that should have happened and there’s some things that can’t happen because of the co mingling because there are different objectives involved here so when we come together to celebrate we have to of course talk about who we are what are our objectives and what are we holding
Up as examples of our objectives and that’s a difficult conversation like I said Monday night last Monday night I mean in the context of that very difficult conversation around R Kelly if I had a penny for every time I’ve attended or even spoke at a high school graduation a middle
School move up ceremony where the young people marched in to world’s greatest where the young people somebody’s saying I Believe I Can Fly And I’m not saying that those things ceased after being our Kelly or ceased after trials and convictions finally because we all remember that episode of
The Boondocks where Aaron McGruder is making the very point that yes this is a celebrity that should be scrutinized marginalized treated and every victim brought in when you bring in one victim where are the rest of the people who should have been surrounding that victim or who surrounded that victim and
Enabled the abuse these are very difficult conversations but in the wake of those things this music continues to be played and the question becomes what are we doing when at a moment of Celebration you’re graduating from high school you come walking into a song by somebody who’s in jail for unspeakable crimes
That had to be confed it well that’s when it gets very difficult and then the only thing carries us through that is some form of compassion and love for each other because the simple fact of the matter is celebrities become proxies for things we don’t want to deal with
Ourselves and for for various reasons including some very personal very real very legitimate reasons but anyway I want to get to deep into that the question again is what do we celebrate when we come together to celebrate what do we celebrate sometimes we’re celebrating how we got over sometimes we are celebrating
Achieve a Ms in the context of community sometimes we are reinforcing icons and shrines sometimes we are reinforcing moments that can never be replayed but that must always be remembered I was watching the funeral ceremonies of uh Charles Gilchrist Adams Reverend Dr Charles Gilchrist Adams and I was watching it for one
Specific reason well two specific reasons one is one is Charles Adams shout out to Detroit shout out to Cass Tech High School of course where Dr Adams went Reverend Adams went uh of course then he talks about Gordon blae Hancock the great scholar um who told
Him you had to go to Harvard but he didn’t go to Har he went to fist his grandmother began to you know find face her physical decline so he went back home to Detroit which means he transferred from fist which he absolutely loved and says was in every
Way the match of maybe even exceeded the University of Michigan where he transferred to got scholarship graduated and then eventually did go to Harvard in fact there’s a named chair for him at Harvard University they ended up calling him the Harvard Hooper his his his preaching skills are legendary if you
Want to watch something watch you know anytime you can get a clip of him preaching you you will see but but so so obviously I wanted to watch the funeral which took place yesterday uh almost four hour funeral there uh and his son of course at um Harford Memorial Baptist
Church in Detroit preached the eulogy but I was watching in particular because our friend and brother uh gave remarks who was very close very close I mean as close as two men can be two human beings can be in many ways of course re Dr Jeremiah W Baba J uh gave
Remarks and you know he has to conserve the voice that he has now so of course uh mamama his wife gave the written remarks he had prepared written remarks and he had said earlier this week that he was going so I didn’t want to miss it
And so just watch if you you can go on the Harford Memorial Baptist Church site and see this you get a chance to see it but I’m raising it because this was a celebration it was a celebration of Dr Adams and so he wasn’t obviously the
Only one who spoke actually I think the first Speaker the first after of course they opened it up was the governor of Michigan uh Gretchen Wilmer so uh it’s very interesting to hear her remarks about Dr Adams and and it’s very interesting as well because and by the
Way shout out to the state of Michigan saw the lieutenant governor good brother uh being interviewed on the fact that they’ve just passed legislation in Michigan so that once you have been released from incarceration your voting rights are automatically restored in Michigan that’s the way it should be
Done um in a state where that’s not the case you know everybody don’t want everybody to vote but the point is this when she spoke about that Adams followed by the Mayor Mike Dugen of Detroit another white man but then just listening to these Elders speak so okay
Mama of course reading the words of her husband her partner Jeremiah Wright which is a very poignant just a beautiful praise celebration of and and memory of their walk together their their five decade plus walk together uh ois Moss Jr so or M the third who of
Course is your friend and and and kind of presence now on on radio with you Professor Hunter his father spoke just to bring talking about how they known each other how he met him when Adams was working uh helping out Benjamin Ma at morous and
How they you know because ad was on the Board of Trustees at morous for many years um you know listening to the conversations that were had there was so many others who spoke and and just uh Lawrence Carter the dean of The Chapel at morehous the founding demon and the
King Chapel talking about it but that’s a celebration coming together to reinforce as as somebody passes a celebrity really in many ways in the preaching world and the world of black institution building because Harford Memorial is done a lot in terms of uh affordable housing in terms of financing
Uh Black Folk economic projects in terms of the anti-art movement so when somebody like that makes transition you hold them up it is just a funeral we talk about celebration what do we celebrate when we come together to celebrate what you’re doing is reinforcing values and particularly for
Younger people who don’t remember that walk and don’t remember those days I mean sitting there listening to Jer my rights words and listening to um to Lawrence Carter and Dean Carter that is and listening to Moss Jr you are reminded of the Towering Heights of our achievements and instructed on how to
Replicate them for new generations if you’ve not seen it it would be very difficult to imagine how to do it so anyway that that haven’t been said that’s a form of Celebration again that was yesterday but you know thinking about that in the context you know the
Governor of Michigan has to come to pay respects because this this is an instit institution that is part of a network of Institutions where black folk funded ourselves supported ourselves leveraged that self-determination self-determining power to access other networks and resources didn’t go there first came and did it ourselves first and then created
Space it’s so funny they played at the end the clip that Adam sayen and when Gordon blae Hancock was like you should go to Harvard I said yeah Harvard no he said I decided that wasn’t go to Har I went to Fisk well of course you WB boys
Want to go to Harvard cuz he from great barington Massachusetts but the white boys in the social structure in his little town was like no you can’t go to the white school we s to the bless black school and it was Fisk and Dy said that
Changed the trajectory of my life I got the FIS and was like wow this is where I should have been all along he eventually went to Harvard twice got his PhD there but F was first and like Dr Adam said f was every bit the institution was and is
Every bit the institutions any other school in the world I’m saying all that to say that that self-determination allows you then to network and create greater meaning in the world but it begins with you saying I can do this I will do this for myself well you know of course and I’ll
Come back to this in a second when du Boyce gives this talk to these white folk he’s in brookly Massachusetts in 1910 the college bread Community he’s trying to make the case for white people who have some money to support black colleges and why they should want to do that again echoing as
We think about this sister claudian gay the president of Harvard University a woman of African descent who has been widely now excoriated by racists by saying she’s not qualified when she’s one of the most imminently qualified College presidents in the world to say well she was a diversity hire well she
Was a diversity hire sure she was cuz diversity hires aren’t about qualifications because if it was about qualifications we wouldn’t know the name r jiani or Donald Trump we would not know the name uh of most of the people in the in United States Federal legislature we certainly wouldn’t know
The name most of the governors in the uh United States of America the ones down here in the South we wouldn’t know who Brian km was we wouldn’t know certainly who the hillbilly uh governor of Mississippi is tap Reeves with that bad Dollar General store to pay we would not
Know any of them if it was based on uh Talent ability and achievement so but when I say it’s a diversity hire I’m saying that Harve is trying to send a message har trying to celebrate Itself by elevating a woman who is emly qualified to any academic position at
The University but that sends a message her presence sends a message and that’s what of course pissed off all these white nationalists who wanted her scalp and who are still mad who will probably try again but tying that to what du Boyce is saiding in Brookland Massachusetts in 1910 he’s going out to
Ask for money because as he begins the college bread Community the essay uh in the book The education of black people that started out as a speech he said you know uh we had begun at Atlanta University the first systematic study of uh the Negro anywhere in the world and
Yet um Atlanta University was starving to death it didn’t have the resources that’s not the University of Pennsylvania where du boy worked for a year and couldn’t stay on campus before he moved to Atlanta he and his wife Nina and a baby burgard it’s not the University of Pennsylvania but guess
What at the University of Pennsylvania the donors in the Wharton School had a rebellion one of them said I’m taking my $100 million back after another one said I’m taking my $20 million back that was uh John Huntsman of course y’all remember Huntsman a politician then Ambassador I’m taking my money back and
So they were able to get the president of the University of Pennsylvania to resign then they turned their eyes to Harvard and here’s this one guy this billionaire banging on her sending all these funky emails out banging on her and she damn near lost her job but the
Faculty rally behind her alumni some other alumni rally behind her but guess what money talks and yes Colleen gay was spared the guillotine for now but if you think these people are finished you don’t know where you live my point is this du Boyce is asking people from that same economic
Class for money 113 years ago for a Negro College in the place where I am right now Atlanta B to help train people of African descent for what exactly what is your objective these why we got to be convinced to fund for some of them they think we funding
Our own demise or are funding our own destruction no we’re funding a strengthened society because these people are going to help other people who are going to help other people ultimately is going to help us all yeah I’m not sure about that and as D Boyce always said he wasn’t good at raising
Money fast forward to where we are today we’re at a celebration Bowl we’re gonna go in a minute to go see it all and y’all know y’all know me I love I love being around black people in Celebration mode oh Professor Hunter oh Professor hter oh my goodness we sitting
There last night and this elder comes walking up and I’m kidding re because she’s a medical doctor and I said you know you might have to help one of these old negro this one included coming up these steep steps in Mercedes Benz don’t walking up there this other comes he got
A pinky ring on stingy brim Straw Hat got his pinky ring on got a little simple uh bracelet when them Link gold chain you know see oh y’all people now call that the drip but for old head it ain’t too much it’s just it’s like if you know you know I
Told I was laughing because thinking about our our our friend the Elder now ancestor the great Jacob Hudson KS who had a pinky ring he from Texas but his pinky ring was a met uh Shin new cou with just the je the snake and the D the
Hand together uh no I’m sorry not the snake not the hand but the uh the the basket which is the C sound so the snake is the J this the basket is the C together Jake so his first name Jake cor it’s always Pinky though man Jake where you got that pinky
Right hey man I’m from Texas these Southern Negroes got just got a little swag I love got the children are running up and down they having a good time every soroity fraternity including the music fraternities of course you see Kappa Kappa side old headst out there in
The circle um you know see Alabama A&M jackets and and shirts and hoodies and Southern University and nor State behold the green and gold to see you my band Tennessee State Aristocrat of band young person comes in with Aristocrats on her back I see you Alabama State the you see
All all everybody converging and then you know yesterday apparently a book at T Washington High School writing next to the campus of the University Center uh the Royal Court Mr Miss Howard and some others came because one of the folk in the roal court at Howard right now is a
Graduate of Booker T Washington High School here in Atlanta so to have them talking with the high school students all this convergence of of beautiful black people today while the game is going on there’s a day long beginning I think at 10 o’clock in in the next to
The stadium in the convention center is a dayong cheer camp apparently where high school students from around wherever who want to register whove come going to be with about two dozen HBCU cheer squads and so all these HBCU cheer squads these women and men who on these cheer squads and they recruiting you
Want to come cheer for us you want to come recruit for gramling or fam you want to come Tennessee State you want to come to North wow and then they gonna have a showcase I think 3 o’clock this afternoon so all this is going on but
All this going on at the beest of ESPN ESPN sports who has called this the HBCU national championship and of course it’s not in some ways because all HBCU are not in the Mak and not in the swack Tennesse State my Al Mo isn’t entt isn’t Hampton isn’t
But but but but we get their point but I’m saying last night we watching this we’re watching these squads and thinking about this you know Rafael warno who was a graduate of Morehouse class in 91 he’s going to be here of course he got to come I mean
Obviously but thinking about this in the context 113 years after Dr du boy gives this speech to this white audience trying to raise money understanding that money is the lifeblood of universities of colleges which is why you can threaten to take your money back because you have a political objective
And take a presidency away at University Pennsylvania and try to take one away from Harvard the idea then that when we come together to celebrate Black institutions we should ask the question what are we coming together to celebrate because we’re looking at the M messages in the governance formation it’s clear
What we’re celebrating it’s very clear what we’re celebrating watching all these people repping their schools repping their fraternities and sororities repping and it’s not just a certain class because again one of the things they should have done and this is a this is a note for ESPN and for the
Organizers of the celebration Bowl it’s only 12th annual and this is only the second uh band of the Year competition this is a note tell every young person in the country country black young person at this point I’m really you know too old to be let’s tell
Everybody if they happen to be black no I’m not that guy tell these black children and give them tickets to come to this to the the band the band competition give them tickets let them come that Stadium had a lot of people there but it should have
Been full to the rafters with children every marching band in the region Atlanta Burmingham Nashville wherever blessy Mississippi certainly the places that competed these kids came from Florida Memorial this only their fourth year of their Marching Band program their sound was good they were a tight performance they were a small band but
They were exquisitly executed Virginia State University my friend mle Abdul was the president there graduated H University very good brother but get them bands from Virginia because when I was in the band Tennessee State we had a drum major his nickname was pencil head he’s from Portsmouth Virginia there’s a
Big deep connection there but bring all those young people Jackson State traveled but bring them kids from Jackson and buuy bring those kids from Greenport bring them kids from Sunflower County bring bring those young people in those bands and let them pack in there and see what it looks like cuz what do
We come together what do we celebrate when we coming together to celebrate we’re celebrating black Excellence a word that I don’t use typically because I think that it is now become so uh connected to social structure interests which are contraventions of our interests and let me give you an
Example last night we’re sitting in on the the big Jumbotron Circle Jumbotron screen they kept playing these commercials of course because the objectives of the social structure is profit one of them was for Cricket you know the the the phone company and they were these spongy you
Know how these figures like a Teletubby colored but like there’s different sh triangles and ovals they’re standing in sale hall now you all remember saale hall because this summer when I was here uh we talked about in the wake of the affirmative action uh decision actually was right before the decision came out
It was just just coming down I was in sale Hall at morehous you know we had we had a sess our session there and uh but now this this this this commercial this Cricket commercial is there and the female character is speaking to this audience of black people about you know cricket and
Connecting and HBCU blah blah so then I guess another one of the figures speaks and the female figure says to this male fig figure Dante this a a and conversation see way out of it first of all this purple sponge is named Dante second of all what you know
About an conversation this is aamb and conversation a governance conversation CEO social structure profit driven ass way out of it but they’re sponsor of the celebration bow and the uh band of the Year competition as is well Sparkle bank with its terrible track record as are other institutions and after every band
Performs they run out with the ceremonial check $20,000 $20,000 $20,000 $20,000 then another donor gives $225,000 so we trying to do the math as we going on and we and we figured okay so it must be at a minimum each one of these schools got 20 got $20,000 from
This conglomerate of Banks and financial institutions car sales and all this and $25,000 from the so they got at least $45,000 a piece what is the objective and it was this kind of they they announced this kind of Speare change initiative where you pay you round up the money and so all that
Collected together apparently amounted to this and I’m saying well that ain’t gonna even pay for the gas for the buses if they came from Jackson or the gas for the buses they came from Virginia the gas for the buses certainly if they came from South Florida Florida mmor is the
Only HBCU in South Florida you know did it pay for the buses from grebo Aggie pride and they they did it come on now now they supposed to pick a winner and I don’t even know we don’t know what the formula is they gave rankings every month apparently on musicianship on the drum
Majors on the dance routines on the skills and the uh the formations of how they March so I guess then they say they gonna announce the announce they gonna announce the winner today at halftime at the game but anyway what do we celebrate when we come together to celebrate I’m very clear on
What the government formation is celebrating that was the beauty last night I am also clear on what the social structure interest is they want to capitalize apparently this was broadcast on ESPN 3 it was you know whatever the rights were they they negotiated that it’s being broadcast and they got
Content so everybody who wasn’t there can see it but at the end we’re sitting there waiting for the fifth quarter now if you know anything about governance formations among African people and HB use in the south in fact it’s a great book that doesn’t talk about band culture but I’ve been rereading it
Because I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to do in the spring around one of the classes I’m teaching is James Smith’s book Behold the land the black artist movement in the South he talks about hbcus one of the reasons the Black Arts Movement was so powerful in the
South is because it was tied to institutions differently because we have these HBCU and you see the music programs the art programs you go back to the 1960s and70s in the US South and you see these we’ve talked about many of these things many times so I won’t get
Into it right now particularly you know um going kind of begin to wind this up in a minute but the I not very clear about what we’re celebrating there we’re celebrating the culture the camaraderie by the culture I mean the music I mean everything going on like I said Jer to
Pre MC during the break between the the small bands and the big bands because the competition was set up so that Florida Memorial went against Virginia state and then they had a pause and then here come aent and Jackson State the big bands and then so after the competition
We F get the Italian to score whatever we didn’t know they were going to announce it today at halftime but we’re sitting there waiting on the fifth quarter now the fifth quarter those of everybody who knows anything about historic black colleges in the United States The Fifth Quarter is when the
Football teams have played the game is over the football game and now the Bands Battle one band play a song another band play a song One band play a song the other play a song sometime they play the same song to see who does it better then the sections can fight meaning the
Trumpets get up and play a fan Fair their trumpets get up and fair a fan Fair maybe the saxophones or the Trum Bones come up do their Fan Fair they gonna do their Fan Fair back and forth back and forth then the drums come out drum line there’s a kind of gloss of
That in the film drum line which just celebrated its anniversary when the two drum lines come out to fight they will do that as well sometimes it’ be a fight but that back in the old days we G to talk about that if you know you know my
Point is this the fifth quarters when that happens and it goes on on it wants to go on y’all probably saw in this High School thing where these uh these these fascist minded folk that got get out of the stadium fought against this brother who was a band director it might have
Been in Georgia where he was having the band was playing at after the game and this he got be quiet y’all gotta go because we gotta get people out of stat well last night they callau themselves having a Fifth Quarter that was announced by the MC’s the brother and the sister who were
Mcing so each band played a song and then they said good night that ain’t to have the fifth quarter work Jackson State start playing another song yeah cuz this is where the government structure ran up against the social structure because guess what if you think ESPN and cricket and
The rest of these funders have anything to do and shout out to whoever black was working for them that came up with this idea or pushed it and who did the best they could to get as much of us in as you could but we in this mercedesbenz
Dome first of all mercedesbenz Dome shout out to gentrifying Atlanta story for another day we talked about this before we’ll talk about it again but a Fifth Quarter goes on till it’s over but as soon as that last song was played in a in a one song
A piece which means there ain’t no Fifth Quarter for real Professor Hunter if I’m lying I am literally levitating right here as we speak do you know at the mercedesbenz dome in downtown Atlanta Georgia these people had the nerve to Blink the lights they blink the lights on black
People last night in the Mercedes Benz dwn I told him make you famous today what they blink the lights Professor Hunter other words you don’t know nothing about it HBCU band The Fifth Quarter goes on till it don’t go on no more but you literally blink the lights
And then the MC and I’m not gonna name him because I said I ain’t gonna make him you know this brother y’all got to go you gotta get out of here they gotta get ready for a game tomorrow let me tell you something if you can change a
Basketball court to a hockey Court in an hour if you can switch out to clippers for the Lakers in 15 minutes if you could take the turf up and put a national championship game in the middle of spot a minute after people they don’t need no all night bro I know somebody
Whispered in your ear and told them told you to tell these nigg to get out of here but they was just warming up Jackson State played they song they blinking the lights we like then Jackson now you know prop if the sonic boom G to Su something the blue and gold marching
Machine for damn sure ain’t going to just let them get away with they an came out what they saw you can see Virginia state and Flor moal kind of sitting there because I know they want to thenn this brother says okay y’all Virginia state you gotta leave you gotta get on
Your buses get on your buses now I said I was Furious this is where thinking about D boy my man Tony mon remember time we conference at University of Pennsylvania and it was all white panel except for Tony and they kept talking about du Boyce and they were critiquing du Boyce’s classes and
And Tony mon who’s a divor scholar when he spoke he said before I get my remarks I just want to say something I’m from North Philly and the way y talk about the divor today I take offense he said if the north Phil me come out I will whip
One of y’all ass in here right now and you can see now we’re all academics but now it ain’t academics now you got a little peek at the governance structure y’all gonna put some respect on new Bo’s name because I’m from North Philly and I can’t believe y’all say first white
People too y’all talking like yall know something about it now that doesn’t mean there isn’t a class of critique as J Cruz used to say man if the boys had come in my bar trying to ask me some kind of survey question for the Philadelphia negro we’d probably beat
Him up and throwing them outside with them white gloves on and that can but that’s a governance conf you don’t get to come in here and they blinked the lights last night and then they on the microphone telling the bands to come out the stands Jackson didn’t budge entt
Didn’t budge Florida Memorial which was sitting next to Jackson they didn’t budge and Virginia state didn’t budge for the longest sitting next to ENT so they start streaming down so we walking out and we ask the people who work there who are of course black people the
Ushers and the people the vendors we ask Sis how long it take for them to turn thing around for tomor doesn’t take long you been working here i’ work here a long time okay so how long it take she said I’ve seen them do it we leave and
Boom it’s ready okay so it wasn’t even about that but what it is is the celebration bowl is created as a prophet Venture it ain’t an act of Charity ESPN not dealing with charity got all this intellectual capity all this content as you call it in the digital world now
From these brilliant cultural performance and today if y’all don’t think it’s gonna be a show you think last year when Deion Sanders was determined to leave Jackson State with a victory and the ancestors backed up North Carolina Central was like no he ain’t leaving here with a victory the
Point is the Howard versus fam today the halftime show now it’s go it’s they they they adverti The Fifth Quarter today we’re going to see how long the fifth quarter last today at the mercedesbenz Dome because these Negroes today look different than the crowd last night last
Night the crowd was a little light ESPN invest some money in bringing these young people and let them see these bands invest some money in bringing these elders and communities in to see these bands you gave out money that you made back on overdraft fees of black people probably yesterday between 9 in
The morning and noon in the city of Atlanta that wasn’t no money that wasn’t any money you are a predator do Boyce is speaking to these white folk in brookly Massachusetts on the College Community and as he talks about it kind of begin to wind to close he’s
He’s really telling them and I just want to read something very quickly because at the time he talked about it he said Atlanta University at the time he was working there his primary at College he says we got some high school level students we got some students who are
Just beginning to learn he said but it’s really the promise of black people that we are extoling here and he says you have to measure our achieve ments based on what had happened to us and when he says here there are many of us who are still surprised not to say indignant
That it took 10 years of reconstruction even to begin the settlement of the problem raised by slavery and War such people strongly suspect that the only incompetence and rascality of the Reconstruction politicians only that can explain such an extraordinary fact and yet when we come to consider the matter
How few of us realize what slavery meant in the South to kidnap a race I’m sorry to kidnap a nation to transplant it to new land to new language new climate new economic organization a new religion and new moral Customs to do this is a tremendous wrenching of social
Adjustments and when Society is wrenched and torn and revolutionized then whether the group be white or black or this or that race the results are bound to be far-reaching and then he goes on and traces it out of enslavement into Jim Crow and into this moment he said what
We are literally trying to do is reignite the imagination of a people who have been harmed for three centuries and here we are a century after du Boyce gives this speech and we’re sitting there last night and I’m looking at two things number one the power of our governance
Formations the ones that were on display at Charles ad uh Charles Adams Funeral in Detroit the power of our governance formations that were in the Horn of that brother as he played lift up your voice and sing and then ran through the N so-called national anthem and came back
To LIF voice and saying looking at the genius the intricacy of the dance routines and the and the musicianship just the power of our people looking at the celebratory mood of these young people and these elders and these old heads with pinky rings and these women
Who coming in there with they I mean head to toe in that forgive me Gish orange and green of Florida Agricultural mechanical State University I’m just kidding it’s not geish I’m just kidding because today I had a debate what I’m going to wear because you know I wear
Whole lot of Howard stuff because General Howard I’m not ever going to reconcile that but you know I’m not going wear my Tennessee State stuff so I put my Howard cap on and I’ll put on for turny hoodie or something you know what I’m saying because but my point is to
See all of that that’s what we’re there we’re cele these are proxies for our group achievement not individuals not a president of a Harvard not a negro that want a statue or Grammy or oscar but us this us you know what I’m saying this us packed up in vegan eating and the
Brothers and sisters coming through this is a beautiful thing so I’m clear about that I’m also clear about the social structure this is pred these are predators they got a few Dei hires they got some diversity hires that are pushing them and saying this is a great opportunity but ultimately Well Fargo
And ESPN ain’t in this for charity they see part of the value of what’s coming out of the governance formation and our cultural Mei making and our ways of knowing ain’t no fights break out last night ain’t gonna be no fights today it’s celebration it’s celebratory but you’re calling it the
Celebration Bowl the 12th celebration Bowl cuz now you’re realizing that in a social structure where we have constantly been under assault and are now under renewed assault you’re this is a chance in a city that is overwhelmingly black in a event that is overwhelmingly black to extract some
Value on the cheap with little funky $20,000 cardboard checks and they saying thank you well far thank them that should be a $5 million check a piece if you trying to do something hey McKenzie Scott Prof McKenzie Scott just dropped another $122 million on high University School of Medicine and total of almost
$100 million to more HBCU and nonwhite institutions tribal colleges Hispanic serving institutions it’s one woman one woman one woman who got 5% so speak on It come on back come on back list come on back come on back BR I because you know we’re gonna build out
Mana Musa money and I was like she got 5% in a divorce settlement of Amazon 5% and she can’t get rid of enough money because the money keeps coming in because of the compounding of that stock that the shares of that 5 per can’t ever go away and I think she’s just trying
She trying to get rid of all of it she trying to get rid of all of it and making more money while we talking right now somebody purchased behold the land on Amazon while we talking right now you making her rich and it’s not that we’re you know
Don’t you know boycott Amazon because of this because what I’m saying is build Amazon where’s our you know what I’m saying where is hours like I’m not I’m not drudging anybody the system works what’s the system can we build it so that it it flows through our community
More than six hours like she can’t give away enough money and y’all shouldn’t be dependent on McKenzie Scott to come and rescue you our money I just feel like it’s our money that made these things we over index and spending we do yes yes well let’s let’s end let’s end where we began
I was reading something the other day and and and it bothers me because I can’t pull at this moment where I was reading this or hearing it somebody was giving the metaphor of saying you have a poor family living next to this family of opulent wealth let’s say that
McKinley Scott got a mansion and then next door to it is a little tiny one bedroom efficiency or something or one one room efficiency the family in the little place Cooks this Sumptuous meal they borrow money they get the ingredients they have all the talent in
The world they do that and then every night they take this meal that gets them deeper in Deb they are they haven’t eaten they take this Sumptuous meal over to McKenzie Scott’s house and leave it at the front door they open the door take it and then tell them get off the
Porun okay and then one night the children at the little place say to the parents why are we taking our food we haven’t eaten it and the parents response ISS well it smells better over there and it tastes better over there and the child says okay but but we don’t
Get to smell it I watched you I’m sitting there last night at this band having been in a band having been a drum major at high school whose dream was to be a Tennessee States band and I’m watching us give our genius to these rich you cooking your meal and they gave
You a nickel and then they flashed the lights on y’all and told you to get out at the moment when the real fight starts not a physical fight but a competition of skill if you want to see a HBC B the halftime show is part one The Fifth
Quarter is part two that’s when you see the thing and they flash the lights my point is what you’re saying is so true and we have to ask ourselves what do we celebrate when we come together to celebrate if we’re just celebrating our cultural genius well guess what these other people are
Celebrating the money they gonna make off that genius what what we are building is so important because that’s when people going to respect you that’s why the governor of Michigan came to Charles Adam he didn’t come to his funeral because he was preaching at a white church although he’s got a name
Chair at Harvard that wasn’t the reason because he came back to Detroit and said we must end the party we got to have old folks housing we got to have a bank that we own we got to have and Jeremiah wri understood that Otis Moss understood that uh uh Katie Cannon understood that
Rita Williams understand that I mean institution building you don’t give away your culture so prop I just you don’t want to say as we go over here and we G to enjoy this but but I tell you man anyway I mean but this is the work right
I mean this is the work because we need to feel good let’s just be real you know there’s a lot going on community en Joy all of the the you know the cookouts the hamburgers and hot dogs that are being had in the parking lots and all you know
The pregame Shenanigans and the music in between brings us closer together it’s why we have family reunions is why we you know celebrate the way we do in the summertimes and throughout but at some point the work of building has to be in us like because this is and it’s not
Building because tomorrow it won’t the edifice will not be erect tomorrow took 20 years took 20 years to pild that build that pyramid that y’all most of you a lot of y’all went to in Nubia this summer it took 20 years to build that pyramid that’s right how many years did
It take to plan for it that’s right that’s where we are right now the planning you know it’s like how long did it take the plan for a that took 20 years to build how how many years let me let let me just inject this very quickly
Because what you just raised just remind me at the end they talked about the first HBCU the first band director period in the United States of America to introduce a dance routine in marching bands he was the legendary William Foster who was the longtime band director at Florida A&M when he was
Studying his getting his PhD at Colombia his professors told them that there’s no black band in the country that could compare to a white being he went to Florida A&M and introduced this Innovation that now everybody is doing his son was there last night to accept
An award and he talked about his father in that context it reminded me of Otis Moss Jr yesterday and Jeremiah Wright talking about this generation of black institution Builders I’m raising it for this reason what you said at the very beginning about Som and about these Elders having to determine whether
Bringing him in with disrupt the momentum of memory allows us to determine what we can use and can’t use from the social structure we had these institutions have never been perfect but even when I was in school in the 80s you know black colleges used cultural capital in ways
Perhaps because they were shut out of white spaces to be sure but when we went to the Bayou Classic when we went to the Southern Heritage Classic we went these are spaces that we control you come on our campus we go on your campus we go to
Gramlin they come here you go to Jackson you come here but now that these PL these other people have figured out that they can profit from it we are so quick to run over there with our meal that we because we’ve lost the momentum of memory it’s not like we you’re not don’t
Reinvent the wheel remember what you did I don’t that’s something we have to do we’ve done it before this is what you tell us over and over again look at what you did and continue and we have to kill the appetite um I mean money’s beautiful money’s you
Know but money you know the money that you get what are you giving for that like there’s an exchange we we don’t live in the exchange we just oh they’re giving us money as if we don’t value ourselves enough to know if they’re giving you five million you’re worth 50 million
Today come on if they’re giving they giving you 10 million you’re worth a 100 million to them they’re not giving you the money because they they like you or you’re patting you on the head there’s an exchange that they’re making money off of so why aren’t we making the money
Off of the thing do we not value it do we not it do we not value ourselves so to your point you know with the Africana studies framework you know who are we to them but who are we to each other do we value do we value the the
Genius that we put out and that’s right and do we hold ourselves accountable to not letting it be sold to the highest aren’t we tired of being on an auction block well some people trying to get up on that block because they feel like they if if if getting up on the Block
Translates into a nice place for you a little money in the bank for you and then then you’re fine and then our like you said our challenge is when that happens do we then extract that person and celebrate that what are you celebrating you every you you so I mean
Again you you you you made the point and there’s no need to make it again I mean in terms of we and but but I love the way you frame it because you always do this and it’s very important for us to always Center this I don’t use black Joy
Either I don’t like putting this adjective on things that we have always done because it makes the assumption that somehow our trauma shapes our experiences this is the thing though when we come together to celebrate it’s not because we are being figments of other people’s imagination everything we
Saw yesterday everything we gonna see today everything we it’s the genius of our people watch that old head come up them step in fact one brother was coming up I said look look look at his face he’s like he stopped paused at us he paused us and I said hey man you all
Right he said man I feel like I just fought the first sorty at Fort Suter then we started that that’s a black joke in other words wa Fort Suter what does that mean this brother compared walking up their steps at the Mercedes bone fighting in the Civil War and only black
People I mean this is the genius of our people our joking our laughter we want to embrace all that and empty it into the institutions so that our children will live that’s what the Egyptians said your job is to build institutions so that your children will live that’s
That’s what we got gotta do so yes yes let’s get busy and I I love I love how much fun you’re having every always every time I see you with the curtain behind you without without the books I know something triggered but that means that you in them streets doing what
Brings you Joy and I I’m getting to know you differently because I only knew you during a pandemic where that’s right it was just you with the books but you like to out there with the people so uh watching I love watching Love listen all
The love that I heard last night for you from the people it is I’m telling you I just makes every time I think to myself I know we different in that regard like you said you but I swear I wish you could hear it firsthand instead telling
You you know I’m not I love I love the all of that I just love it differently than you and that’s okay how we are built differently which is what makes this thing so perfect you know everybody ain’t supposed to be the same you’re supposed to be your own unique self so
That we can all see see God in this in God’s wholeness that’s what Dr Black is teaching me so I’m learning no question D black no question no question in fact I guess I hope I get to see Dan I mean listen I ain’t mad at they calling
Floram versus Howard de bougie bowl and I’m like see only only black people could call it that and I’m sure there some fan people that are thinking how we get how we catch a straight cuz I’m tell you you bie this is what I’m saying this
Is what well among the public HBCU I think there might be a case to be made this is the genius of our people though within our conversations that’s one but what you not gonna do is have this creature that you made from a a commercial for a clone company come in a
Black college call one of each other Dante and say it’s an AB conversation see your way out no all y’all see y way out only us can have that critique perod yes period enjoy enjoy yourself the day thank you so much and give everyone a hug because you will hug people I
Appreciate you hug them on my behalf be my hug proxy no question I got you all right Monday love you too Monday night don’t forget y’all the college bre Community we’re gonna finish that d boy essay because we just peaked at it and you said now the the convenient Nubia
Around the conversation we have Monday is tomorrow Sunday yeah Dr Nissa is gonna so I’m inviting everyone in Nubia you know those of you who want to work through it we have you know board certified you know all of it all of the skills excellent um and I just want to
Say something about Dr narissa she was on my show she’s NYU um psychologist came on because I was doing this whole mental health series and when she came in talking about the Africana framing of how she deals with mental health I was like we invited her in because we had a
Couple of Nubians that had some issues so I actually sessions me personally because I want us to I’m I’m just telling you this to say that she came into Nubia differently already serving you know you know what I’m saying she didn’t come in look to to extract or
Whatever to be a part of a she came in already serving Nubian behind the scenes and this is how you know whether a person is supposed to be here you know you know a tree by the fruit that it Bears so I’m grateful that um you I
Reached out was like will you come in and like deal with this tomorrow if people want to have a safe place to have the conversation uh can you help navigate it because I’m not equipped to do it so no no me neither and thank you
All I mean that was and I I would say I apologize I just want to make sure that yeah what that emerged organically so me we apologize for what is because I I felt like it needed to happen you know when things happen they need to happen
And again I’m grateful that there’s such a such a commitment to each other that we know that there’s no purpose for harm so int intent has to be taken into account with everything that we do no question includ including from Dr Delaney because again she as we talked
About Monday night has grappled very long and hard over this because you know Prof and again hopefully this is something that’ll be brought up tomorrow well however it goes how it goes no individual is by themselves when you see a somebody you’re also looking at communities so you know with all due
Respect to all of the commentary on Celebrity and the Nexus there between the question becomes how does this happen in our communities not just to individuals but somebody knew about this somebody was with you somebody enabled it some this is the ah We’re Not Gonna yeah we we’re looking in a mirror
On so many we’re looking in a mirror that’s right you know because that’s a symptom of that happening in too many families silent yes yes we’re all carrying around that trauma and in the in the Betrayal of having people who say they love us uh allow for us to be
Harmed this happens way too often yes and so that’s why you know for those people who say I’m harsh I’m zero tolerant you know I’m not leaving space for it um as as we she as all as we should all be no question yeah that’s
What love looks like to me you know no question well I love you I love you too all right be in them streets y’all be safe be safe uh we’ll see y’all next week uh as we approach 200 we’ll talk more about that Dr no question all right bye
Bye right let me do this and then let me say goodbye to y’all too have a wonderful week weekend love you
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