Everybody everybody I got a smooth dude on the channel today oh my God check it out you should look at his backdrop he left his backdrop so much that he got it in his video now he lived this backdrop every day and I think some of
What he’s doing is rubbing it in on us that might be what his motivation is because I don’t have a backdrop like that even though uh y’all know I’m in Detroit we got a riverfront we ain’t got no mountains we ain’t got no ocean but
We got a lot of lakes we got a lake that’s divide Us in Canada and we got an island you know I’m gonna boost up my city now we got a little island there’s a recreation park so it ain’t like uh where he is and and no way is it close
To the weather but nonetheless you know I see what my man going with it that’s good looking and everything you know he all professional and whatnot oh man we we we jamming he is strong Inspirations y’all know I’m Anthony Brogden and I’m not playing with you I’m coming
Across everywhere I can find somebody to come and share some black history with you you’re gonna love this story you’re gonna love this because you we don’t talk about it much when you’ll see what I’m saying in a minute I I don’t know nothing about it from a black
History perspective you’ll see what I’m saying in a minute and so I know my man is good he gonna blow mine and you’re mine away you know what I like to say he going to intoxicate us with good black history straight no chasing how about that and
We’re going to talk a little bit about that too so hit the Subscribe button the strong Inspirations uh new videos are coming up weekly hit the like button on this video because you don’t know nothing about what he talking about you just know it’s got a beautiful backdrop
Hit the notifications Bell for when the videos come up you get a ding a shot you get something to say I got to watch another one it’s time and and check it out everybody look at this you ain’t got to look at it you can just hear it
Because I ain’t singing and dancing even though I’m a good dancer so to speak you know what I mean you can just listen to it you can move the cursor where you want watch it more than once because they’re gonna be points in these videos that you’re gonna have to share with somebody
So that they can get this information and I’m getting I’m getting good comments too I mean this you know people tweet me and you can follow me at a strong dream this thing the train has left the station and is not coming back or having too much fun uh everybody did you see
The video I did with and I’m giving you a little bit of something that’s unique like my man the one I did with the people out of New Mexico I got two of them up on the channel they gave black people land in New Mexico called Homestead but told them
You got five gears you got to make some improvements well you know I mean you know I ain’t had no money what you want me to do and then at the end of the five years we done did the improvements now we got to go through the hoops that
Ain’t all this and ain’t all that watch that video there’s two of them how about the one I did out of Omaha Nebraska yeah man it’s black history in Omaha and one of our leaders come out of there that Malcolm X come out of Omaha watch that video what about Boise Idaho
I got the guy who run the museum in Boise Idaho on the channel I got the lady who runs the Black History Museum in Oklahoma City not Tulsa Oklahoma City watch that video uh I got the one with the with with the lady out of Ireland I’m going to International on you now
Out of Ireland watch that video so you know just check you know it’s all going very well a couple more things I want y’all if you can please watch my movie it’s good not just because I said I had two three four five six seven other people say they enjoyed it
On the rise of black business in America slaves who went to college and if you didn’t know now you know we was jamming and they could not hold us back no matter what the conditions was some of us broke through that’s what you learned on the channel that’s what you
Learned in my movie which is streaming on Amazon and that’s what you learned in my book I got over 20 30 of them I think slave owned businesses some of them was very wealthy too and in many instances they use the money to buy their freedom
When I saw that fat guy I said mine that that inspires me unbelievably and so I put it in the book form for you and every 10th book I sell I donate one to a school I want people to have this information I got Lefty goals Hefty goals of
Donations every 10th book so do that go to my website everybody businessintheblack.net that’s the website businessintheblack.net now you hear me use this term stronger life strong is my favorite word I’m gonna keep using it from now on this brother he’s strong everybody out of this community they admire this man
They remind him for the dedication that he has volunteering for others strangers and their rights and even to this day on that beautiful backdrop and so strong stands for strength tenacity resilience and a sense of Oneness nobility and Grace and that is my introduction to the smooth dude
So that I think it’s the 50th state the 50th yes that’s what I’m talking about y’all know y’all get geography Hawaii uh come on introduce yourself tell us a little bit about yourself oh uh my name is Alfonso Braggs and I’m humbled uh to present to you today I’m originally from Wilmington North
Carolina uh after graduating high school I spent about 26 years in the Navy I am a submarine sailor and uh I have lived in this beautiful Tropical Paradise since 1992. I serve in a number of local state and National capacities uh probably most notably as the uh National
Assistant secretary for the board of directors of the NAACP I also hold a presidential appointment uh to the U.S Commission on civil rights state advisory committee and I am so so deeply honored to be a member of that August fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated and esteemed to hold
Leadership as a Prince Hall Mason and Schreiner I gotta ask a couple questions about you my friend because we’re in that same illustrious organization we talked about that that’s my colors black and gold uh but that’s another sidebar right everybody so um you grew up in Wilmington did you did
You know some uh some racial stuff in Wilmington of course uh obviously but and if you haven’t done a segment on it I would urge you to do a segment on the Wilmington 10 or the Wilmington race riot uh at the turn of the century where uh Wilmington was partially burned and
All the uh story in The Saga of the Wilmington 10 uh and uh also the history it’s it’s really really deep uh in its history and it has championed uh how it is that we as a people can overcome our adversities and move forward I love it
So so did you grow up in a black neighborhood white neighborhood in Wilmington I grew up truly in the projects I’m a proud proud kid of Jersey all right and if you know if you know Wilmington you know gervae and let me give it up for Jersey projects and I’m
One of those kids that was not defined by my circumstance I am defined by the choices that I made to overcome those circumstances and that’s why I believe God’s grace and mercy has me where I’m at today yes okay now we rolling here my friend okay growing up in them projects
You saw stuff of course as do most inner city kids coming up where you’re facing socio and economic situations family dysfunctions uh episodes of mental uh illnesses which we in the black community don’t want to address or even identify stigmas barriers uh all of those kinds of situations Lifestyles atrocities uh sex
Drugs violence all of that is a part of growing up in the inner city and we make choices yeah okay let’s stay on this and maybe I I want to put a black history slant on that just a second is there a uh some black historyness that you could
Say tied into some of the people and the actions that they made of course there is and I will I I will say first of all I feel that I’m a product of black history uh because individuals poured into me and I believe that I have set certain uh milestones
And been benchmarks that had not been met uh across my six plus decades uh and I will say that those who poured into me also made history uh we are known for a number of distinguished and uh historic individuals to come out of Wilmington and again I don’t want to go deep into
That because I I really would like to urge you to do a series on that I will okay the short answer to your question is yes okay you know you know the plantation in your family do I know where we came from Yes uh it’s
Included in in my book uh that I wrote on the legacy of my Blackberry seed unfinished conversations with my father and I want to briefly tell you my father died when I was a child so as a young black man growing up I did not have the opportunity to have those conversations
That in a traditional family a father would have with its Sons I think part of what we owe is to tell our history and we need to do it from a researched perspective I love it so that that uh it is credentialed and then it can’t be
Denied to Future Generations let me ask you this is there something that somebody other than your immediate family one of these Elders or somebody else you know Mom Dad some but somebody else that pulled you to decide that you can say made a difference oh absolutely yeah
Yeah absolutely I can give you a historic individual of Bishop the bishop Herbert Bell Shaw senior who was the Poseidon prelate of the AME Zion Church uh Reverend Robert W uh Johnson who happened to have been my uh Pastor uh Miss Margaret Simmons who was a cousin
Of mine Miss Margaret Matt baham a teacher you know what the commonality that I later learned in my adult life is that these individuals who were unconditionally committed to my success were also professional Community leaders and organizers and champions of social justice and human causes and because what they poured into me was
Unconditional commitment and dedication to Future Generations I now get to pay them back I got you with a lifelong service I got you continuing that contribution let me answer this then as a result of that uh did you do something in high school in college or something
Like that that put you on this track oh absolutely because those individuals poured into me at an early age uh I did even as a troubled youth I I saw the the pathway that they had laid for me and lit up for me and I became a member of
City council as a youth council member I got involved in uh politics I got involved in social justice I got involved in legal issues uh I became the editor of my school newspaper you know I was a member of the Honor Society I refused to be defined by my
Circumstances rather the goals and opportunities that had been set before me yes I love it and so um uh where did you go to college I went to uh to uh Phoenix and Cornell uh my most recent is Cornell where I studied diversity equity and inclusion
And uh I hold a masters of Business Administration and a Bachelor’s of of Science and business management is your mom alive is she is she able to see how great you’re doing oh my mother passed a few she had a chance to see what this young
Man is doing yes yes and and and and and and so on and so forth so um you this is a deep question and you can play with it as you want I got people on the channel who found out that their father was lynched and the the white man did that without
Any trepidation but the kids suffer a lot from that mm-hmm yeah I’m not saying your dad’s scenario but without a person that’s the scenario of them being so let me let me tell you that uh I think that for any child to reach a certain point in their life
Where they have not had the full breadth and experience of a healthy because there are some that are alive but the the relationship is dead yeah so uh that’s that’s equally as troubling and it’s painful and tumultuous and I see a lot of that and I dedicate myself as a
Life skills coach to addressing it with young people so I will say that it is a very very heavy uh burden to carry for individuals men and women I see that it is it is just for me I believe it’s more impactful though on black and brown men
Yeah just because of the images that we are to portray and the stigmas and barriers that Society has imposed that we are not supposed to have emotions and feelings we’re not supposed to to respond to the lack of Love or the failure of relationship or the dysfunction of our society or our
Network yes that’s right yeah now you’re on point with that one and and so as a result when did you start liking black history I I love the black history from a child only because it was nurtured in me by my grandmother when she would sit us around
On the weekends and she would say you know let me tell you about so and so your great uncle or your aunt or your grandfather or she would say this is you know the story about this person and those stories as in the African tradition you know they weren’t read out
Of a book they were they were told in storytelling which even enhances the beauty The Pride the richness of our heritage and it instills in us a desire to move it forward and I felt the need in writing my book that it was important for me to carry some of that Legacy
Forward in written form just because I didn’t want it to be lost that’s right you know on future Generations trust me we’re plugging in the bucket when we get towards the end we want that to be the last thing in the website and
How to get it let me ask you this uh you live in Hawaii yes how long you been there you said since 1992 30 years plus when you first got there what was the biggest surprise from a black person’s perspective of Hawaii I think the biggest shocker for me came
I knew that it was tropical and beautiful and everything I think just learning a culture of people who were also indigenous who had also been tremendously marginalized and stripped of a lot of the history Heritage and hope uh to see that assimulation and to also as a black person come to a point
Of respect genuine human respect for others who had gone through what my people had gone through yet say that just because of that I will not try and deny you the feeling the emotion the experience of what you’ve gone through just because I may have gone through the
Similar and then to realize that there’s such a small populace of uh people of African descent here the latest census has us at around 3.2 percent out of about a 1.45 million population so that is that is really eye-opening to also understand that as one of the top uh
Most expensive places to live in America to for the majority of the African-Americans here you know their middle upper class when you first got there uh three percent out of a million is what thirty thousand about that it’s it’s a little it’s just under 40 000. yeah yeah so and
The big populace of that has to do with the fact that uh there is a large military contingent here a large federal government contingent here so you know that that really bolsters that 3.2 percent when you take that away and you go with people like you enough
Are there native black people there that have grown up and got Generations on that true there are individuals who um uh are kind of Aina if we would say the word which means that you are truly born and raised here and uh part of the local community so
There are kids that were born here married here raised their children here and will be laid to rest here what what what what how what’s the as you might know this what’s the beginning of black people in Hawaii so blacks came to Hawaii uh once ships started sailing uh across the Pacific a
Lot of blacks came here to get away from slavery uh when they had the opportunity some came all the way around uh but predominantly however the predominance and some of the most traced and authenticated history shows that they came men came here on ships uh seeking new opportunities for work and others uh
Opportunities and so what we we have a history that is documented uh from the 1700s and so is uh that we became uh land owners businessmen we established part of the government and we have touched on every aspect of human life in existence since then now that that is uh
I don’t know if you know the name but there’s a a couple black guys that were explorers that are considered the first to get there is that the case well uh not necessarily I’m not aware of it uh seven uh historical icons okay so let me uh let me give you uh one
Of those uh I’ll start with a young lady by the name of Betsy Stockton uh Betsy uh family came from uh Princeton New Jersey in uh 1798 and uh she she was born in uh New Jersey in 1798 and uh she was born a slave and she was given as a
Gift to the president of Princeton College and because of who she was connected with she was taught to read and write and such uh she later gained her Freedom when she became part of the missionaries and I wanted to interject that because part of the framing away
From the original Hawaii construct is is the influence and impact that the missionaries had when they came to the islands and invoked a different ideology on religion culture behaviors all of that okay so in 1823 she came here as part of that and what she is best known
For is she established what is known as one of the first public schools in the state and she taught native Hawaiians to this day we celebrate on the island of Hope of Lahaina at a high school there the first known school that we’ve had here in the islands in the state and
That is attributed to a black woman who fought native Hawaiians you know algebra English all of that okay you know that’s that’s uh one uh let’s let’s go on a different area let’s go uh to Anthony Allen uh Anthony Allen as Honolulu which is the capital Island uh was was being
You know kind of framed structured and everything um he as a businessman came uh he helped to found a hospital uh that was critical because as we had a lot of sailing ships coming through here uh it was important that they had a place to to be treated
So even the black people had a place or people in general uh as as Sailors who were on the ships moving through from through the Pacific right would come here and they would have sick Mariners on the ship yeah sure sure he founded one of the hospitals
That was set up to treat those okay he um he set up a lot of our road systems uh a lot of the streets and things he helped lay out he had a large six acre property where now one of the uh middle schools is at and uh he he was one of
The blacks during that period the 19th century who entertained the Kings and the royalties and dignitaries when they came to uh Hawaii so we have not been without you know in our contribution now for those who have studied the history of Hawaii you also know that we had a
Very very uh trouble bubbling disease leprosy and so leprosy uh at one point in time was kind of uh relegated to a specific Island the difference being made though in that healing and recovery process is way back in 1915 a young female came to the island to study and she went on to
Become the first woman as well as the first black to earn a masters in science degree from our University of Hawaii here she didn’t just just get that education and go back uh as a student and a teacher she began to study and develop a cure or treatment for leprosy
Called Hansen’s Disease at that time and uh developed what is now regarded as the Ball Method uh this young lady who died at the age of 24 shortly after uh matriculating her degree and everything is considered to have had the the greatest impact on the treatment and
Recovery of leprosy and not a lot of people give that recognition on a world stage her contributions yeah let me let me uh say also that uh we have been significant not only in education we’ve also been significant in law and so the stewards and it was a
Whole family uh the father was a lawyer the um the daughter was a teacher and uh so we think about in 1893 was the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom however as all of this was happening and we didn’t become a state till 1959 as a matter of
Fact this past Friday we just uh celebrated statehood um so part of that was trying to have some settlement legal settlement with respect to other countries uh individuals feeling that they had certain rights uh Thomas McCants Stewart was that particular lawyer who worked with the uh kalakawa’s cabinet to help draft up
The acts uh that established the territory of Hawaii and also aided in the Hawaiians securing lands that had been taken as a part of the overthrow yes when we say this and I do this as something that they used to do on a radio station in uh Washington DC they
Used to say Thomas McCants Stewart a black man who made a difference and so we give honor today on individuals who’ve made a difference when we look at the integration of music and entertainment and King Kamehameha you know we wonder why if you listen to the kamehameha’s uh the Royal Hawaiian band
Now you say wow those individuals that sound like jazz or something well remember I told you people were leaving the United States and they were moving to Hawaii to get away from those atrocities right and let me tell you that when they came in they had Talent
The kings were putting them into his van and so oh man let me stop you the king’s band who was it was the king the King Kamehameha and that’s who the black command mayor was was one of the uh what the the first was the one who organized all of the
Islands and established the uh Hawaii and the second third and fourth okay so as as they got down it was King Kamehameha the third uh who in 1834 had the first uh blacks to lead the Royal Hawaiian band remember the 1830s yeah blacks were at the head of the
Hawaiian Royal band Yes I got you I got you okay so we could continue I will leave you with this here one yeah we often recognize the great uh Jackie Robinson and we say you know Jackie Robinson is so famous because he you know he broke the barrier in uh baseball
You know if we really look at Jackie Robinson’s story you know we see that this is a kid who had to drop out of school for economic reasons you know and when he dropped out of school what happened is he got picked up by a semi-pro football team
That’s semi-pro football team was a team that was from Hawaii and that team brought Jackie Robinson to Hawaii because of racism and this goes back to your earlier question right because of racism he could not stay in the hotels with the regular players so the Hawaiian folks put him up down at
Their at one of their uh facilities and Jackie Robinson played on this team until the outbreak of World War II at which time he joined the uh military served uh and stood up fought for justice and uh equality yeah he did some situations and went on uh yes and NAACP
Served on our board of directors yeah uh for a number of years right and um and you know we know what he did do what we’re here and when we talk about history is to talk about the Monumental contributions that aren’t often spoken of yes yeah I mean that’s that’s phenomenal and
The names because you know we don’t know him is there um is there a black neighborhood in Hawaii no sir no sir there isn’t um and and I will tell you to be quite honest Hawaii is so diverse that it is you know it’s kind of hard to say that
This is a specific culture neighborhood anywhere that there is outside of what may be traditionally a uh Hawaiian populace just because of homestead land oh so when when individuals come you know you basically you integrate into you know whatever community that you know you’re comfortable uh integrating into
It can can can black people I’m not saying can’t do black people walk around with I’m Black and I’m Proud t-shirts and dashikis uh is there is there a community like that so there isn’t a community we celebrate obviously Juneteenth MLK all of the divine nine uh
I will tell you we have all of those entities fully functional here in Hawaii uh so we have the Black nurses the black doctors the black lawyers the black teachers you know the black military organizations the NAACP the links you know uh all of those uh blacks and
Government all of those are very very much functional parts of the state of Hawaii as well as other lesser-known organizations and I think I would attribute that to individuals who came to Hawaii as part of those professional organizations saw other entities you know such as some of the first ones here
Well obviously Prince Hall Mason even a win of you know things not long in the early 1900s you know Prince Hall Masons were marching in the parades you know uh downtown through Honolulu at uh major holidays and I think that as other organizations members came to Hawaii
Like the akas and the alphas and all of them we began to organize into our own um chapters clubs and such and make a difference one of those first to organize obviously was uh the NAACP headquarters receive complaints of racism and discrimination by military soldiers during World War II and so our
National president national uh executive at that time uh came to Hawaii surveyed the situation and saw the need in the 1940s to organize a branch of the NAACP then let me stop you there what was the complaints that they might have complaints that they were having is that
They as blacks were not allowed to go into certain establishments similar to what was being experienced on the mainland by blacks in the South now here is the interesting piece uh all too often we relegate discrimination history to a white and a black discrimination knows no barrier when it
Comes to racism to hate it doesn’t get involved in color it is a concept and a behavior that should not be tolerated by any individual towards another person and so this was being done uh you know to discriminate against blacks by uh some by other cultures by other races and so okay but
You’re not saying just white races well whites at that time remember whites is a very very small minority here in Hawaii oh so one of the things one of the things that uh the NAACP uh amazingly has received complaints from we received complaints from white people who complain that they are being
Discriminated against by uh people who are Pacific Islanders or Asians or even blacks right because at the end of the day we are a civil rights organization responsible for responding to such and so if you were being discriminated against you go to the organizational agency responsible for that you know
It’s just ironic and for a lot of people I’m sure it is is it has ever been a race riot or a riot of any sort in a white that you know so the the um the issues that have risen here have been more towards uh the native
Hawaiians and the overthrow of the monarchy and the uh call uh to attention of the fact that the indigenous folks need to our desire to you know reassemble and retrieve and reconnect that which was taken from them with respect to you know the the concept that we experience on them on the continental
U.S uh that isn’t the case and I’ll say in part because there is a mindset here uh of Aloha you’ll hear that word often and it simply is a desire to live in harmony and in peace uh not only with each other also with the Aina which is
The land you know that which the creator has given us that we have a moral and an ethical responsibility to preserve and protect it and to keep our beaches beautiful and free our country live and green and you know everybody and future Generations should have an opportunity
To enjoy that okay if you can go with this one let’s go back just a second of what you just said there was a revolt against the the king the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy yes by the U.S what’s that all about because I don’t know that what was that
All about okay so in 1893 uh armed uh armed individuals uh went into the palace the Monarch at that time was Queen Lili okalani and uh the U.S Marines placed her on the guard and declared that Hawaii was now a territory of the United States and no longer a monarch
She was Asian right she was Hawaiian the queen Hawaii and somehow her family said we’re going to own all this well I mean at the end of the day everything was Hawaiian right yeah and so uh as either sold acquired leased or whatever uh you know
It it went into others hands oh I got through marriage through whatever you know okay so they go through the regular regular uh and a lot I will tell you that the obviously the largest stakeholder truly is uh still uh the the Monarch uh the Hawaiian native Hawaiians they own most everything
No no no no no uh they just have the uh I won’t say if if there were a hundred quote unquote businesses I’m not going to say that they have uh you know the majority of them what I’m gonna say is that just based on the fact that they
Have lease whole they have property that they have uh endowments foundations that that is the largest Capital uh that exists I got you do do um do black people um but but y’all congregate I know what the fraternities oh yes oh yes oh yeah is there any kind of uh celebration of
Some sort of course many of you do come together oh yes yes we do we I mean if I was to run down uh throughout the calendar year in January obviously uh we have this huge coming together for Martin Luther King weekend not just the
Day but uh yes uh that whole weekend so some of the things that in the past that has happened on on that Friday weekend that holiday weekend we may uh have a golf tournament that Saturday is the NAACP Awards Gala so everybody dresses up Sunday we do a religious service and
Sunday evening the uh D9 has a uh step off uh then on Monday we do a big old parade it’s one of the largest parades in the state and following the parade that afternoon there is a a rally in the park where you know like concert entertainment dancing all of that so
That’s how Martin Luther King weekend we go into multiple events that we will have in uh February for Black History Month uh there’s a week long where we do the black Film Festival there is there are numerous celebrations throughout churches and such and we just continue
That all the way through June and yeah throughout the year doing different things do I have a black newspaper black radio we no longer have we no longer have a black um printed anything that was a gentleman out of San Francisco who for about 30 some years uh we we had a uh
A journal that he would put out on a regular basis okay and uh you know that kind of faded along with the printed press yeah sure sure you know we do have uh now in this age of social media you know uh several websites and uh entities dedicated to the preservation of uh
Black history and we have like the popolo project I would recommend some of your audience go check that out um the polo project uh the African-American culture diversity Center of Hawaii all the Obama uh Center uh those are just two that come to immediate uh recognition and then
Obviously a lot of little small groups uh on Facebook and uh other social media being on an island you’re you’re on what island uh I am on the capitol island of Oahu where the city of the main city here is Honolulu so the biggest island is you
Said Oahu no no no we we have the largest population uh almost around a million the land the biggest uh is is it’s not it’s called Hawaii just as the state is called Hawaii really okay now uh we’re almost coming to a close so you got all these
Islands is it easy people want to get from one Island to a next to you go to the to you do you go to another Island on a daily basis just to hang out or people do we’ve got got clients over there whatever whatever right people do I will tell you moving
Around the state uh now the way you get back and forth is you have to fly at one point in time we had a ferry that took you back and forth uh however the the the predominant means by now really the only way unless you own a yacht or
Something is that you’ll get on a plane and you’ll travel between the two uh uh but they are like but what about them other little smaller islands are there black people are scattered everywhere I suspect yes so the the uh state is broken up into four counties
And we live on all four counties and we we flourish on all four counties um there are some small Islands here uh a couple of which are just private land masses um that you know you may have heard about in the news for the most part though the uh prevalent Islands uh we
Are there and we do Thrive uh I will also say that you know we have our challenges as do all uh it does not compare with the issues that we may see in the mainland however uh we do have uh instances of of racial uh issues and such brutality systems jobs uh
Neighborhoods housing all of those things and in part because racism is something that is taught and something that moves forward uh that people do because in part one they don’t know or two they choose to be hateful and uh bigoted and biased and so uh we are not without because those
Individuals came here and imparted and imposed their ideas and Concepts on others yeah that’s right is there for the work that you do is there a black person that you can go to like in the city council and government or something like that to say hey man you know they
Having some problems over there we’re bringing it to your attention can you bring it to the floor of the the local government let’s see if we can get this straight down so at various times in the history of Hawaii we have had individuals to serve uh the first woman superintendent of our
School system was a black sister and um so we have had uh members to serve in city council throughout the state legislature and as cabinet members uh in the governor’s Administration and so there are people in neighborhood boards and such and we currently uh have two individuals that are serving in the
Hawaii state legislature okay uh is there uh is there uh a person that everybody knows the name of as a black person who speaks up I mean besides yourself let’s say who speaks up everybody that that’s the go-to guy in in a in a different area I would say
Probably so I think that the the uniqueness here for Hawaii is that uh no one black person is trying to to be the singular spokesperson or icon that we recognize the need to share the wealth and to ensure that we all have a seat at
The table and we we are I will tell you that we we unify in the context that you know our commitment is to let’s just say uh young military couple comes here and their children are 11 and 12. you know our commitment is to ensure that those
Three years that those kids have a sense of what black normality is and culture pride and get that integration while they’re there so you know while we honor and celebrate All of Us for elevating to certain statues we we are comfortable sharing the stage is there um is there a black person
Like do y’all wish I had more black businesses more black restaurants you know where you can get soul food and that kind of thing and party stores grocery stores is there a black guy who owns a car dealership anything like that well I will tell you that most of the
Businesses actually probably the predominance of business is going to be in the restaurant industry and there’s just a handful of those less than one handful and the other business are small entrepreneurs that may be either in Consulting in law and uh teaching private or those kinds of bills of
Nothing to the level of a black uh dealership uh we we have at times had uh black clubs and such oh really okay yes yeah okay is there uh um how does it feel to be on the island every day I mean like what are you doing
I know you got a lot to do because you busy man and stuff but you wake up at seven o’clock and the sun is shining how does it feel to be on that island what do you see every day I will tell you that if you are a person
Of faith that you cannot be helped but reminded that there is a creator that there is an entity far greater than yourself who has formed all of this existence into this beautiful mass and on top of that you have some of the most beautiful individuals that were ever formed to
Walk in your midst you get the Beauty and the smell of the crisp Fresh Ocean breezes the luxiousness of our flowing valleys and you get to say that wow all of this and a paycheck is truly what I appreciate about living in Hawaii and I mean you’re constantly reminded whether
It’s the rainbows the nice Trade Winds the tropical breezes our evening spring uh showers whatever it is and yes we work hard we play hard there’s not a day that you will not find individuals laying on the beach surfing swimming one of the most beautiful things about it is that newborn babies
Are immediately introduced to the massive tropical ocean and it is becoming one with what you have been given to be a steward over okay I got you there but the water is salty isn’t it the water the ocean well you know salt salty yes that that big Pacific Ocean
Comes right up to your doorstep oh really is it cold is the water always cold the water is always beautiful and at a perfect temperature oh really man I love it I love it so you you uh you you just happen to stumble upon this and
Said here I am and now you know you know the military sent me here and uh like I said the military sent me here in 1992 May and uh I didn’t know that I was going to stay when I finished and retired in 2004 however you know I
Weighed my options this is where I had lived the longest of any time that I’ve been in the military and I was comfortable with the diversity I was comfortable with you know everything about Hawaii and I was Far Enough from things that I didn’t want to endure and convenient and resourceful enough
That I could go when I needed to go yeah you uh you wear you know you wear suits or the weather oh yes so here’s the thing as African-Americans uh you can it’s not it’s not irregular for you to dress up if you want to dress up you
Know when you want to go to church or to an event or something and we love to do so however in Paradise you can put on like just a collared shirt here and you can go to a formal meeting you know with a head of state you know so it is
Acceptable and I think that what what this message says is that it it should not be the material things that define you and your commitment it should be the internal things that define you as a person as a person of substance and as an individual who is committed to a greater cause
I came I just came up with a question for you this is this let’s say this might be my last one what would you like to see black people do more of on the island the thing that I probably would like to see us do more of is uh continuing to
Come together and I guess if there was something that is centered around that is to ultimately have a facility or an establishment whereby we could truly put all of our history in and have it archived for future Generations it’s like a museum like a form a large Museum
Where all of our organizations could just pour in and uh you know we could have a facility where we could meet we could have events and activities all of that yeah yeah I got one other one other for you yeah okay before we go yeah I want to
Make sure that we honor and celebrate among these great historians of very very humble but iconic Alpha Man and that is in the person of Dr Ernest J Harris uh Dr Harris came up out of the Deep South uh as a young kid and uh pledged back in the 50s in into our
Beloved fraternity yeah he is uh us a research scientist and his claim to fame which we take for granted I’d lift him and asked this question do you like fruit yeah I’m sure all right do you know that way back in about the 90s that we almost had an eradication of
Group because of the fruit flies well I will tell you that Dr Harris is the scientist that developed a response for that and he did it in a Humane manner where he was able to sterilize these fruit flies so that they would not produce to the degree that they were
Producing and they were eradicating Fruit Products which the in South America and all those tropical countries fruits were almost eradicated because of the fruit fly pest oh man and it was his it was his design and patent and uh creation that resulted in now we’re able to enjoy
All right that’s our Alpha brother where do black people work there are they most of them working like in the hotel lobbies and in the stores now they work you know are they climbing up the ladder there that kind of thing the corporate ladder so black people
Work in all levels of employment in Hawaii whether it is the hotel industry and as a worker a housekeeper a manager a chef a staff whether it is in the automobile industry either in repair uh maintenance admin or dealership in education as principals okay so it’s all over colleges I got you yeah
Man because yeah you know I’m loving this if if I if I’m working there and I’m on that let’s say lower rung for a lack of a better word how do I survive with the city being so the place being so expensive you don’t so let me let me just cut
Straight to the chase yes uh hopefully you got at least about two others that you are sharing with so that you all can keep food on the table and a roof over your head and clothes on your back and you still have what one would consider a sense of normality which is right
Rent on average here probably 17 1800 a month the median cost is a house is roughly a little over a million dollars for a regular home okay and and that’s that’s a two-bedroom home not the other one that’s the traditional home that’s a traditional house but if you
Got lucky and got in on it when you were younger your parents had one you live in it now and you kept living in it you could have a house that’d be a million dollars that at one point y’all paid nominal amount for let’s say so I would
Say that if I had bought a house when I came here in the early 90s the price at that time was uh somewhere between 175 and 250. however understand that the income at that time also made it expensive so the fact that it has been expensive you know has continued
Inflation and such the Gap is widened the cost though has always been on the higher end are there a lot of homelessness homelessness is probably one of our biggest issues that we deal with on the island black people homeless or no we do have and it is very very disheartening to see
Uh your own people it’s it’s it’s something that ticks at your heart when you see it uh in general when you see your own black and brown people all right that not only is suffering homelessness uh it is also very much associated with uh substance abuse and
Mental illnesses yeah sure sure do you have that book with you this is my book a Blackberry seed Legacy that’s it unfinished conversations with my father and so anyone that uh looks up my name um will be able to you can go to Amazon it’s on Amazon okay and you know and
Check it out you got a website uh no website a website okay um um well hey man thank you so very much uh let me tell you something everybody I like it when guys got no ponytails I think that’s true let me let me just say this to you I’m
Gonna tell you tell you what that’s about yeah okay I didn’t even know I had turned around then yeah man I can tell you that uh as all of this right here uh Samson called it his strength my brother yes Samson had it as his strength yeah and I will tell you
That I am African-American Native American and actually Caucasian and one of the reasons why I let my hair grow is uh I uh I honor the Cherokee side of me which you know um you would most times want the image of an Indian really is a long hair yeah
Sure and so uh that that’s really uh what that’s all about and you the first individual that I think I actually outside of some maybe some private conversations actually share that well you know what happens the other thing is you got the hair to do it I I never did
Have enough hair that I could bro so you with your ponytail you could almost blend in could you blend in as as a darker lion or something like that with your that’s so I I think uh statue-wise it’s enough of a oh an awareness of cultures here that people are able
Because you’re constantly having to distinguish between and I’ll just give you some examples is this person a Japanese a Korean a Samoan a uh chamorin uh micronesian is this person of Vietnamese uh uh you know one of the other uh Asian countries that you don’t think are Indian uh country Indian and
Then you got blacks whites Italian Hispanic uh Alaskan you know you got so many here that you see on a regular basis that actually I think it’s they become wiser in identifying cultural uh nuances okay that allow you to say I presume there’s a predominance of African-American here
And I will respect you and not insult you and consider you to be a New Zealander or a black Australian or a black from Holland okay all from France are Jamaica because you got them on the island too we have every we have students from Africa and listen I think this this is
Another historic uh piece when we say we talk about our brother Paul Robinson Paul Robeson was one of the blacks who decided to do something about the education of people in Africa that wanted to come to America and get an education but were unenabled so Paul Robeson and a couple other people got
Together issued scholarships when they gave those scholarships to the colleges and universities in the continental United States they were not accepted because they were students coming from Africa however when they gave those over to the students uh to to people in Hawaii it was accepted so I will tell you that
President Barack Obama’s father was one of those students that happened to get a scholarship to come to school here in America and his school was Hawaii oh that’s so listen brother there’s a lot of history there’s a lot and you see how all that ties back to the unsung
Heroes yes who have made the difference yes I love it well hey man uh thank you so very much for coming on the show oh my God because I know I wanted to get I wanted to touch upon this because you know we don’t know him and we have enlightened us tremendously
And I just wanted to try to do it you did do it you did it easily with rock and roll here uh thank you so very much everybody you know that’s what we do here strong Inspirations but we give it to you straight no chases then I
Got a couple more questions what do you eat every day do you eat a lot of something every day because it’s plentiful there a lot of fruit maybe or well I tell you that almost anything that you want you can have here be it uh
Even if you’re a vegan uh or if you know you’re not uh there’s a lot of foods here but if you want steak uh listen they grow cattle here yeah no raised cattle here chickens goats Curry all kinds of uh local Asian Italian uh French whatever it is your taste for and
You can get it Seafood all the time so that’s why I’m gonna answer so it’s a lot of seafood that y’all eat a lot of people don’t eat it as much and and also eat a lot of native Hawaiian cultural dishes yeah and I think this is
One of the rare places and I’ve lived all around the globe where I have really appreciated saying today I want to eat uh if I want to eat Jamaican if I want to eat uh French if I want to eat Italian you know if I want Chinese you
Know it’s all over the place yeah but now but I guess or is there that’s not like a particular fruit that grows in a way that most people don’t know of or something sure I I would say uh people eat breadfruit here uh a lot of the
Fruits that that that are uh indigenous or certain mangoes oh my God the house uh kiwi you eat kiwi you eat mangoes you eat bananas papaya I mean you know those are things things that you kind of grow in your backyard people have avocado trees
Oh my goodness and the list just goes on I got you everybody I’m trying to give you a complete picture hey again thanks man for coming on the show everybody like I said hit that subscribe button it’s free and don’t ask no information don’t cost you nothing and you don’t do
Nothing but hit the button and then you are part of the family even more I’m gonna do that hit that like button on this video because I know you like it ain’t no nothing what he was talking about because I didn’t either hit that notifications Bell for when the videos
Come up you get a ding shot smoke signal your lights flicker on and off and out the house I don’t know you the horn on your car blows it whatever but you know you got some good information that right on your hand your fingertips and tell somebody about strong
Inspirations uh check out his book kick out of this book because okay he grew up like that it did not Define him he said that very well somebody told him something and he he acted upon it and then he he left that scenario and now he’s a big man on a big island
As a result of what he uh has endured and how he prepared himself how he studied how he worked and and so get that book you I know it’s I know it’s good um and and go to uh Amazon and get it and we’ll put all that in the
Description and and again quite possibly I want to come down there on one of them dinners or something you know when I go places to do something happening you know I don’t just go off the cuff all you got to do is just let us know you
Hear my brother yeah yeah yeah I want to do that and maybe when I get big y’all invite me down and I want you to stay strong stay safe stay on your grind I love what you’re doing and with that said as you are from that
Uh the part of the the the the the US is there uh uh words that y’all use to say goodbye or something like that you know that kind of thing yes so I will give us a quick Hawaii lesson yeah I’m gonna say aloha aloha is
An initial greeting it is also a final greeting and I will say Mahalo Nuit Loa Mahalo Nui Loa which means thank you very much so my brother I will say aloha yes and I will say ahui ho and a Hui ho means until we meet again yes
Is that what you just said is that Hawaiian language that is the Hawaiian language isn’t it beautiful yeah but so is there a lot of words to Hawaiian language yes and they don’t have all the alphabets uh that uh the regular English alphabet is 26 letters right and the
Hawaiian is a few letters missing so when you hear us say if I enunciated Hawaii that’s how everyone else says it right the proper enunciation is because the W is not part of the Hawaiian language oh really so yeah if they were to spell it why would they spell it without a w
It was written by the English but that’s not when it when it’s written in Hawaiian it’s written correctly again I want you to think about something right think about how we when we were brought to the Americas and throughout that entire uh continental shift there right we were forced to
Transform to a different culture of things sure religion and everything sure in our cradle of civilization the motherland we did differently sure sure sure so in Rome so to speak right in Hawaii it is if we use the Hawaii language I got you all right spell different okay hey everybody with that
I’ll say bye-bye we out you didn’t got a lesson on Hawaii Hawaii and aloha yes America thank you my man thank you brother all right
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