Thank you for tuning into healing race in this video we discuss the all black majorette dance team started at USC that received criticism from people who think that majorette dancing which has its roots and plays an important part at historically black colleges and universities shouldn’t be represented at
A predominantly white college we talk about the tension that can exist between cultural sharing and cultural appropriation where people from One culture inappropriately or in an unacknowledged way adopt parts of another culture on one hand there is a natural tendency for culture to spread which is important because it can bring people
Together across cultural divides and it shares the inspiring diversity of human cultures on the other hand when a part of a group’s culture is strongly tied to their identity to their historical Traditions or perhaps to some painful parts of their history others adopting it can feel disrespectful or even
Exploitative particularly for groups who have historically been exploited how do we navigate that tension let’s get to that conversation now Enjoy for you you felt like her starting this this majorette dance group at USC even if it wasn’t in an HBCU it felt appropriate to you it felt it felt like but I’m also not an Alum of an HC HBCU and my friends are not alums
As well so I do understand how there could be a cherishing of tradition and especially I mean you go people are so I don’t think I I think this University we attended doesn’t have as much of an emotional experience as in other universities especially given that probably a lot of African-American
Students were the first to go to college and there’s even a double Pride to go to an HBCU right yeah and what I I say all of that to say that the events and the Traditions are are cherished and they’re personal and they’re and you you’ve paid for this education so you definitely
Feel a sense of personal connection and to see that sort of like taken up at a school that’s not a part of the tradition and the Legacy I could see how some people would find that offensive uhuh I personally didn’t find it offensive but I’m just looking at it
Naively from the perspective of just a dance troop like oh and you’re trying to spread that awareness especially when it comes to Stepping and step contests right things that grew out of African-American sororities and fraternities yeah that’s what Beyonce’s homecoming was all about yeah well I
Guess I guess this this brings up larger question of the spread of culture to me that’s like Co you can’t stop it yeah and and so well and at the same time I’m interested in your in your thoughts on it um this whole this whole conversation around appropriation um
And I mean let me ask you a question would you consider it offensive for people to appropriate traditions and non-jewish schools for I mean there are I mean I know I know about Kuts but there are also Jewish educational institutions where you have your rights and traditions for example when certain
Pop stars want to start studying cabala and make that trending I’m g go ahead and say just sue me Madonna girl you know I love you I was watching Madonna the documentary last night so first of all Marin and I have Madonna tickets I’m so excited and I’m excited because she’s
Getting older and this may be one of the last times she tours in her life and this is going to be like a big big tour I remember when Tina did this Tina did that last tour and she like I’m going away and then you never saw her again so
Madonna may do something similar because Madonna will turn 65 this year and they part in the documentary they covered her interest in cabala and surrounding herself with rabbis and teachers and I was like okay she’s always been critiqued for culturally appropriating things but like you just said cuz we
Need to turn the tables ask you some more questions but like you just say you can’t stop culture so how does that feel to see a person taking an interest in something that’s mystical and so personal and I don’t know if kabala is Central to Jewish tenant but it’s
Definitely in the family right and how does that feel yeah I mean listen I can understand people so for me it doesn’t feel I I’m I sit in the same place I think that use it which is I don’t have any deep sense of feeling of of protection
Of of Jewish Heritage like you didn’t feel like Madonna was like appropriating something or making it Trend no I mean so many people started doing it and wearing the red string right I think there’s I think there’s valid critique of her and or even what she was learning
I mean there there will be people there have been people who you know spend their lives studying cabala who critiqued where she even got that from right because it was there’s a center in Los Angeles I think there’s also on Robertson Boulevard I’ve been by that Center yep
Exactly um and and there’s some people who think that’s it’s it’s maybe watered down I don’t know about the level of accuracy but at the very least watered down or or you know not seen in its fullest you know the cabala is not seen in its fullest
Um you know uh truth um so and and I think that’s all good I think critique of critique of expressions of wisdom or cultural expressions I think is is is okay I’m just not one to feel like like I almost think the spread of a culture
Is is a is a positive thing right and that’s what I felt about the dance TR I’m like she’s just highlighting this wonderful tradition in HBCU I don’t really find this offensive yeah I mean well I mean but there would be things that you would I think maybe find offensive um I mean
This almost brings us back to you know conversations around when I asked you when I you know our conversation back when we were in college around cornrow right and I saved him from a horrible fashion choice for the shape of his head and also vitri all from black people
Wondering what in the world is he doing around with cornrow I was trying to protect you yeah so what so what so what what is so so I can understand parts of the impulse okay so I can understand the impulse of we were slave labor we were owned and there
Being an instinctive reaction about the taking of things and then the the commercialization of it right um so the the benefiting from The Taking of culture when so like even in that article around the majorette you know one of the points that one of the HBCU
Alums made was well look at all the look at all the the um the notoriety they’re getting the news that they’re getting there at USC like where has that been for majorettes at HBCU all of this time right yes and um that that that comes from a real place because not all but
Many notable uh HBCU have small and endowments and so that kind of notoriety is what brings donations corporate sponsors Etc whatever the university needs to bridge the financing Gap and that largely hasn’t happened now there’s some debate as to why I’m not getting into that you
Need to talk to Marin for that because she knows all about that yeah well I mean if you think so if you think about the difference between Judaism and Christianity right Judaism is not a prelati religion um Christianity is and there’s a sense of kind of closed you
Know Clos ranks you know in Judaism especially in some of you know there are there are sects of of of Orthodox Judaism that don’t even think that you know converts can be Jews or certain kinds of converts can be Jews um or that certain expressions of Judaism right
There’s a purity test in the sense right and there’s a there’s a fear of the watering down of Judaism as it should be right according to you know the sex of Judaism um and so there’s kind of a closed ranks around it and whereas for Christianity there’s
Kind of more of a spreading let’s spread the word right and I tend to be more on that latter side right I’m not Church yes right like like it’s it’s it’s okay you don’t want to you on one hand want to guard the tradition but on the other hand you’d
Like notoriety about the tradition right um like if you want it to be out there then it’s going to be taken up by people is my basic thing right people are gonna find intellectual interest in what you’re doing exactly and they’ll want to emulate they’ll say oh that looks cool I
Want to emulate and that’s really where I was coming from with the cornrow was like I think it’s cool I mean listen I I bleached my hair for soccer um I shaved my head one year for soccer I had did all sorts of different things when I was
In high school as a way of expressing myself in different ways this but see as black people you’re taking something that it almost feels as you taking something that’s demode for you so fashion and for us that symbolizes so many other things and and and that’s why
I can see both sides of the dance troop sort of controversy if you will because you know what’s fashioned for you is our lives right and it almost just seems as though that if you’re not doing things that are done in certain ways have a lack of regard for respect for the institution
Getting to the question of motivation yeah like why would someone want to join a dance team I think for black people we have always been to to say what Mr Roland frier said on Coleman show he said you know black dignity is important and black dignity is important it’s
Paramount and there have been so many instances in which things were appropriated without a regard for our dignity I mean blackace right sort of so blackace was an attempt for white audiences white Hollywood producers to to to bring black people into a space but on the terms of
The audience who really didn’t want to have them around anyway so they were turned into tropes water millon eating you know uh all these different things you know we’re don’t swim we’re afraid of this we’re afraid of that all these different things that have been portrayed you know and Al jolon became
Famous for it right yeah so when it comes to people wanting to engage even in within our own Community we’re very skeptical of okay what is the real motivation is the real motivation to take away to to draw attention away or from the dignity because to those people
The HBCU the dance teams and all of that even the sororities and and fraternities those are important because we created our I mean they’re almost not even almost I would venture to say they’re kind of cultural to White culture because we weren’t allowed and so and
That’s a part of Counter Culture that we very much want to preserve because so much um great so many great things came out of that I mean you have personal relationships you have people who you know had a real how would you say like a real sense of belonging at a university
Where you had many many many many people look like them you know and it’s almost as though when someone is is outside of that world and trying to mimic that world it’s almost a disregard for it I’ll tell you another example because uh Marin is an AKA and
There was I don’t know where this is now but a sority yeah it’s in AKA it’s a sorority uh but there was a period in uh the culture probably in the mid 2000s where gay black men were starting analogous organizations to black female sororis right and I think there was one
Started where they and they started to adopt VAR of you know various calls colors Etc and the women in many of those sororities I’m thinking principally the AKA and the Deltas found that deeply insulting uh and many I mean many black gay men were on the fence about it many
Of them didn’t see what was wrong with it I saw what was wrong with it right especially when you know and we’ll get in The Sisterhood in the broader show but when the Notions of Sisterhood and belonging and accept right even if those have conditions around it because the AKA were famous
For not accepting um women who were darker than a brown paper bag that’s sort kind of a notable thing with them that’s not the case any longer but it was deep deep deep in their history and so their level of their level of insult was really high because they’re like
You’re you’re basically disrespecting our traditions and the origins and and where we come from you know it’s different if you want to start an organization that is foundational but you have you develop your own ways and means and things like that you don’t copy what you see and I think it’s the
The feeling of copying is what feels disrespectful you know I don’t I don’t have anything in my life that is analogous that that is analogous to that probably because I don’t feel any I’ll give you another example yeah like black people just been exploited so there was a period in the culture about
Seven to 10 years ago when white gay men were going around saying I’m a strong black woman and I’ve had white gay men because I was partying back then in the bars say this to me like I’m a strong black woman and and a gay men black gay
Men and Latino gay men of other cultures were giving them feedback that’s offensive to black people and black I mean you you were this white gay man saying you’re a strong black woman and I remember having a conversation with um man my best friend Marin about it and
And and I remember Marin saying something so poignant so elegant she said many people want our outward characteristics that define us and that sort of Define strength to us but they don’t want our struggle and I remember one white gay man you know he said I’m a
Strong black woman why were they saying this by the way why what was the Genesis of of saying this like what were they trying to communicate what were they trying to express in saying this survivorship and strength I see okay much it’s in a very very different
Context and I said do you know what it means to be a black woman since I was raised by one and to be a black woman and I started shouting off all these statistics I said first of all do you know that only about 30% of black women
Will ever be married in their life yeah you know which mean what that means is there’s a lot of man sharing going on in our community and do you know and I started just telling all these things about black women and the white guy just kind of shut up I’m like because
Essentially when you’re a strong black woman you’re saying you are a black person and many of them had no regard as to what it meant to be black like in the broader conversation said do you know that the data has proven that black people for example Mr what Mr frier said
Black people are more likely to experience uh non-lethal Force by the police than any other race now he said very educational I really like that interview he said now when you go to the lethal use of force there really is no statistical difference between the races but when you look at non-lethal Force
It’s happening in a much more pervasive way and black people are 53% higher to to experience non-lethal Force even when nothing went wrong in the engagement with the officer you were compliant or whatever there’s just that thing that needs to be for whatever reason people need to be aggressive toward us right
And when I start talking about what it means to be a black person we pay more and Bank fees we are less likely to get approved for mortgages if we do get approved for mortgages which is a gateway to wealth unfort you know in this country it’s at a higher interest
Rates etc etc etc and it’s like so when you start saying these things where you think you’re where you believe you’re behaving as an ally you’re actually behaving in an insulting manner right because you’re saying something or blly without any reverence for what that person has actually been through or
Currently going through I’m keen on this being a self-identified gay man well I do I am gay I like dudes and I’m marrying one but you know I’m like I I’m fine for allyship but there’s just a whole other and I was kind of something I wanted to
Bring up with you I was like there may be people who not want to deal with us because I’m gay and so like just because a person is advocating for social justice in one Arena doesn’t mean they advocate for social justice in all arenas girl yeah yeah um listen I can so
So in this particular example with the strong black woman I can actually in in that case understand that I mean that’s that’s at the core of like that’s an identity a black woman a strong black woman is an identity right and that that as you say
Comes with a a kind of History Time Magazine wrote an article strong black woman is in reference to a kind of struggle that those strong black women had to endure and be resilient in the face of right and yes and to say that you are that identity without fully understanding
It um from a white even with fully understanding it and then saying that somehow it was equivalent I I can understand hurt feelings around that that is that is something I can understand because probably a little bit because people do that all the time with the Holocaust right right people people do
That all they say this you know this is like the Holocaust or that’s like the Holocaust it’s like the qu it’s the quintessential thing to say you know to to emblemized you know um persecution on the on the deepest levels right you know killing the wiping out of of a people
And so um and they say it in ways that just are just nowhere near anything like that right um so that I can understand now do I get do I take offense to that when they say that even though my grandparents were Holocaust Survivors I actually I don’t
Take offense to it but I understand the hurt feelings behind it when people do have hurt would your grandparents take offense to it as survivors would they um I mean I would have to imagine yes now they weren’t they weren’t people who look to the outside world for validation
Of the struggle that they you know they never yeah they knew what they endured they they you know I was lucky to get the stories that I did there’s so many more stories I didn’t get and they weren’t the ones who were like signing up to go you know do interviews with
Step Spielberg to capture their stories right maybe they would have I really wish they would have I wish I knew more of um even more of the stories than than I do but they weren’t shouting from the rooftops as anything was painful to to talk about right they did I think in
Moments when they felt comfortable it was usually had a Shabbat dinner where the three of us were talking about things and then it would lead to something that they would share more so my grandfather than my grandmother because my grandmother really kept things deep inside and it
Was only in very rare moments that she would open up to tell me something that had occurred but um but so that’s probably a little bit why but yeah I mean I think I think it would be natural human behavior to if they saw anyone comparing what they endured to something so much
More I don’t want to take away from people’s hurts and we shouldn’t get in this this shouting match of like this this this competition of who hurt more but you know issues you know I talk to I talk to India all the time she goes you
Know she has you know gets really upset about small things right and then I have to tell her okay let me show you stories let me show you stories of people who who struggle and it’s not that I want to take away from her sense of hurt in the
Moment and I want to know what what frustrated you what upset you and I want to honor her feeling but I also want her to have a sense of context of there are small small things in life there are smaller things and there are bigger things and bigger and there are really
Tough things in life um and you know most of the time the people who are experiencing the really tough things are not the ones complaining because they had to endure it my grandparents did not complain about their past never once did I he did they express emotion
Of course they did but did they ever like complain about the life they were given never not once in all of our conversations did they say anything so you know I try to give her context so in the same vein someone who is comparing whatever whatever you know difficulties they’re experiencing socially for
Whoever they are or whatever may have H event may have happened to the Holocaust um I think they probably if they ever heard that would have been hurt which is why I can understand in in this in this example um of the strong black woman why
That would be hurtful um for for black women I’m wondering what the connection is to something like a like a cultural expression like cornrow that’s what I I really that’s what I really don’t understand because if I were to if I were to have gotten cornrow it would have
Been I mean it wouldn’t have been a blackace it wouldn’t have been I’m trying to be derogatory to black people and make fun of them by wearing this um yeah but how is a person supposed to know that so my question to you is what would what would
Be the motivation why would you even want cuz there are other ways to be an ally for lack of a better term in my mind right now than adopting a hairstyle right so what would be and I’m not saying I’m not advocating you should or shouldn’t well at the time I was
Advocating you were advocating not to right for whatever the motivation but what what would what would be that motivation because keep in mind the people on the street don’t know you and so to keep you from getting jumped you look run around here as this white child with these cornrows and like
Okay how am I supposed to take that milk well well yeah I don’t I well I I would ask the question a little bit back to you of why it it would be taken negatively but let me just just to be fair why would it not given the history
In this country well I don’t maybe I don’t know enough about cornrow but let me let me just let me just share a little bit and then hear and then hear what you have to say about corn Rose um Indie comes home on a regular basis having seen someone’s either clothes or something
They did with their hair some kind of expression and wants to emulate it right she wants to experience having that kind of braid or ponytail or dress or whatever it may be and I’ve experienced it as a natural response to see some way of expressing some oneself visually and and wanting to
Emulate it um and it’s not for the purpose you know maybe you know of being an ally even it’s not to say I want to be I want to have solidarity with black people it’s it’s really like that’s a cool way to do your hair like I never
Even thought of that um I would just want to experiment and see what it would look like um so it’s it’s just a basic kind of instinct of learning cultural learning that that I just think happens all all the time in a variety of different ways that’s what the motivation is that’s
That’s where the instinct to do that is um now I can understand that sometimes that might happen with certain things that are particularly cherished or have an emotional H with Indian people yeah could be so my my thought in all of this is that because we all don’t have a
World uh history book in the in our mind you know you have to be you have to have a care with those things and there’s a certain way I respect that a person may just have an interest in something because they thinks it’s aesthetically pleasing I totally get that but you
Still have to have a care when you’re dealing with something that’s of a culture that you’re not right in doing it in such in a way that’s responsible I Circle but kind of like back to mad cuz for the ray of light album she was running around with that
H I like she challenges me too I like people that challenge me and and she got Flack for that they’re like first of all that’s D I don’t I’m not fully uh versed in it but it’s done for wedding ceremonies and it’s a cherished thing that symbolize a bride getting married
It’s not done for fashion and so for people especially when you’re dealing with colonized people right you know uh and people who have been you know basically chatt in the country you’re living in it is very very important to ask yourself over and over again am I
Doing this in a responsible way I don’t have a motivation of malevolence and but number one the people on the street are not going to know that so how can I do this in such a way that’s responsible so I don’t want to say well you just things
Are just off limits because that’s just shutting people down but it definitely has to be done in a responsible way that honors the tradition right to speak of cornrow I don’t know the entire history of cornrow I can’t stand hair on my head this is why I have this haircut right
Now but what I do know is that cornrows are a symbol of africanness right and we so you have to understand something we were brought here most of us are the descendants of slaves so we don’t know our ancestral history I only find found out my bloodline by going to
Ancestry.com and it gives me some maybe tribes that I may be a part of so we’re completely disconnected from uh a huge part of our africanness and more so concentrated in the americanness of that African-American identity right and so what that means is but I kind of the trend I’ve seen among African-American
People in the in the US is to cling to any any learning they have about their authentic africanness for example I’m 68% Nigerian and I was like finally I have something to like to cling on to like yes I am part Nigerian I can say that that’s been proven through a DNA
Test that gives me a people I can tie myself to just just saying I’m black you know what what is that and so my point is that what for you maybe fashion for other people is a symbol of an identity an identity there quite frankly for many African-Americans black people in the
United States that there’s you they’re searching for the complete picture of you know listening to Coleman’s interview with Roland frier was wonderful and it reminded me of a painting and I was like there’s so many aspects of being black and african-amer the United States where the painting
Isn’t filled in quite yet and it’s usually those African Parts we’re trying to get that Clarity of like what is the complete history or and my Evolution as it in in this country it isn’t completely filled in and so for some people those cornrows May symbolize a part that’s still patchy where we’re
Still filling in like I said I just learn that I’m part Nigerian now that stands to reason be given where you know it captured people where taken from and enslaved persons were sold it stands the reason probably many African-Americans black people in the United States are part Nigerian but before that DNA test
Just to give me a makeup of my ancestry all of that was completely patchy to me so what is the feeling so understanding that and understanding that so so understanding that feeling of disconnection and desire for greater connection to one’s ancestry and and then the idea that for some
People cornrow for instance as a specific way of presenting yourself might be connected to that identity what what is the feeling and what is behind the feeling with all of that if someone sees someone of another race of a black person sees a person of another race with cornrows
What what is obs about that given what you just described what’s the I can’t speak for other people but I can speak for me and for me what’s upsetting wholeheartedly is that you’ve reduced something of significance to black people to a fashion statement and that’s insulting and you want to know why
That’s in so I think because I I I really really really really really I always take things back to slavery and as a cook you know like I said um and it because it you know you hear about about slave times and picking cotton picking
Cotton and then just in the study of the history and then all of that coales one day do you know what that cotton was supporting it was supporting the European fashion industry that’s what that’s what all that picking cotton was doing so you were you were sporting around in all
These you know lat in these garments of those times off the bats of slave labor so when I see you and I’m only speaking for me I’m not speaking for the whole black people of all the world I’m speaking for me so when I see you reduce something that is obviously emblematic of
Africanness to what I feel is something that’s fashion where we were exploited in the name of fashion and in the name of food what do you think them those those plantations in the Caribbean were sugar plantations that was for European Confections in Rome and so when I see that I think
Number one that’s a white person who’s disconnected to the fullness of history and number two you did something without really thinking about it and also what’s even what’s doubly insulting is you did it without the regard of the emotional impact it could have on others in this
World Community because I don’t I mean I do have a star of David but I don’t go around wearing that it publicly because I don’t because I’m not Jewish and I don’t want anyone to think that I’m blly taking the struggles of Jewish people or even the exploitation and the isolation
That was felt in all of these in all of the centuries your people have been on the planet for granted yeah I do that with a for thinking of being sensitive to your people and the history I wear the Star of David beneath my clothing out of alignment with your
God but not because I want to do anything to disrespect you or your people so so I think I’m getting a better sense of where it comes from there can be two Motivations behind some physical presentation or expression of who we are there can be one that defines an identity and people have done this throughout time meaning tribes in in back in the day they would have a certain ear pierce or a certain painting they would do or they would do there was
Something they would do so that you would know who’s part of the group and who’s not part of the group yeah and those things that were part of the group came to have some kind of symbolic meaning for that group for people in that group it binded them
Together in some way in in in a in their own Community yes and then there are sometimes where we present ourselves to just express ourselves IND individually let’s say um it could also be cultural but but not with any regard to an identity right and that’s what we call
What you call fashion right um and the purpose of fashion or I wouldn’t say the purpose of fashion Fashion’s a form of expression but one of the motives often behind fashion is spread like no one produces fashion you know very few people in in the actual fashion industry
Produce it to not to not be taken up you want it spread you want people bu you know you know a lot of people have talked about American culture itself like spreading around like you know people want American culture to spread around whether some people like it or
Not right and so the purpose of of you know identity-based expression is is to guard it right and to have it be pure to those people who for whom it who who identify with that and then the purpose of fashion is to spread it and and I think there’s I think that’s important
When you’re dealing in circumstances where people have suffered in the name of the identity there’s a reason that there’s a law being put forth to not discriminate against people based on their hairstyles because people were being discriminated against based on their hairstyles yeah well I mean yeah and that
Yes and that is somewhat an expression of certain people’s hairstyles one are either things that have been passed down I mean they’re both of these things at the same time and two are based on the kind of hair that they have right like people learn to do things with their hair based on
The kind of hair that they have and so to tell a black woman or man you can’t do this thing with your hair which is the thing culturally you’ve done with your hair and two that fits the kind of hair that you have is is a way of excluding people right
Um in in in in this case of appropriation it’s the idea of not just being able to express it but it’s also the idea of being able to control it uh in some ways um and you know I don’t always I will admit I don’t always I I I understand
Better now that you’ve explained it as as kind of a marker of identity where the feelings would come from I do understand it a lot better when you share it that way and the disconnect between what’s a what’s a fashion choice and what might feel like an identity to somebody
Um maybe it’s just not the way maybe I just don’t have those things for myself um that I or if I run around looking like a hidic rabbi yeah I mean but I’m not a hiic I’m not a hiic rabbi right so I don’t I don’t I personally as an as an
Individual if I saw someone with pis P are the curly C sideburns right um if I saw someone pay us I just would be like okay you want to do that that’s fine like I I don’t I don’t have I don’t have a feeling
Of I mean orth the dog Jews are going to continue being Orthodox Jews with pis like they’re just going to continue to do that um and whether someone else wants to do it where where I understand more is when someone is unequally represented so I don’t really know the
History but when what was it Bo Derek had was she had did she have corn yeah when she wore cornrow and the idea that she invented that hairstyle well no not that she invented it but that she was portra like that she got represented with those cornrows in
Ways that maybe you know black women were not being represented that to me feels and like I could understand I I can understand the hurt behind that it’s like we’ve been wearing cornrow forever you don’t represent us but then a white woman wears cornrow and now she’s I
Don’t know she was on some cover or whatever it was right um gets gets a claim in notoriety or or or at least attention because of it that I could understand more but the fact that she had cornrow um or the the kind of guarding of some s kind of cultural expression is
Harder for me to understand and I see but and I see both actually I identified with the I identifi with the latter more than the former because you have to wonder because you have to wonder why are you trying to adopt something from a people who’ve been so globally
Persecuted what is it like I always hearken back what is the motivation so we if we’re all this this that and the other the N word and what not whatnot so why are you so eager to adopt that are you is this some sort of inside joke against africanness that
You’re just publicly that publicly you know stating right or is there some sort of true appreciation you have to understand milk folks on the street don’t know that they don’t know you so think there’s an inct responsibility so you think there’s an instinct so there could be different motivations there
Could be the motivation to kind of ridicule in some way there could be the motivation to I don’t know steal feel like you’re stealing there could be the motivation of just um interest curiosity and um even appreciation right and what you’re essentially saying is FKS don’t know all that you’re saying there’s
Because of the history there’s skepticism of the motivation so that when you see it for some people in the black community there’s an instinct to go to are they making fun of me because of this is this some way and I’m one of those people with that instinct I see I
See so there is okay you wanted the show Todd you ask me to be myself I’m gonna be myself I really want this to to get out there because I think a lot of people think like you and it’s not it’s not malevolent but you’re like if I wanted
Cornrows or whatever why couldn’t I why would that would would that be offensive and I’m only here having the conversation because like I said it’s a legitimate question and from me in my perspective I want to clear it up on as to why some would be offended now you
May have your little black friend in whatever City you live in that says okay you know you know you know uh Karen go for your cornrows that’s that person in their opinion and they support you and I applaud that but you need to know that
When you step out of your house of the world not everybody is your friend and not everybody thinks is going to give you that support yeah yeah and you felt I mean I guess what was your reaction back in the day I mean you said looking back my eyes let
Say you last you said it was protection did you actually feel protective of me or did you feel upset that I even brought it up like how did you feel when I brought up the idea of corn Rose back in the day well Pro well protection and
Then also so okay a few things that a few things I know that you are your own person so you may or you may not listen to me and number two protection because you were bring you were you were inviting a reaction that I don’t think
You were fully aware of and I think you could have been communicating a message to people that may not have been your intent and that was that was the motivation behind my counsel because I was like even for healing race and I that’s why I was saying not necessarily
Watch what you say but there’s a certain sort of respect that you need to bring to these very heartbreaking topics ICS that we’re about to talk about I mean I guess at the end of the day so let’s say okay there’s there’s this issue of of identity there’s this issue of also
Wondering about the motivations whether it’s appreciation or making fun and ridiculing um at the end of the day let’s say you as an individual saw someone in your network a white person with cornrow and you had some sort of reaction to it if at the end of the day through conversation
White person in my network would dare come around me looking like that no but listen so so would if the issue is one of skepticism of motivation you may still counsel them Hey listen out there in the world you’re going to get blowback from some people
Right you may still counsel them in that way but let’s say someone knows what they’re motivation is and they know their motivation is appreciation they saw some sort of form of expression with hair and they’re like I really like that and I I want to try it right and
You took them at their word you knew you knew this person or you talked it through and you understood they really are coming from that place how would you then feel about it if you knew and felt confident of their motivation how would you then feel about
It what’s that the same you’d still feel the same why would you still like I I appreciate your motivation but your motivation is severely lacking the weight of History I would feel the same you I mean you’re lacking especially in the case of cornrows you’re I mean it’s almost as
Though to me it almost feels like you’re mocking that like I said the way the ways in which africanness and even identifying with African identity have been put down like I admire that this you’re not coming from malevolent motivation but I mean why would it feel mocking to you I’m very I struggle
Because I I strugg sometimes I struggle in the United States I really really do because there’s a certain thing called Good Taste and just in Good Taste why would you do some like that so I understand that you have a you have a good motivation but just in Good Taste
Given the history maybe you don’t maybe you put your personal needs aside and air on the side of being sensitive to a people who may or may not be offended thank you for watching this episode of healing race and stay with us for a scene from our next video if you
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Race I don’t think you’re saying Todd you can’t wear cornrow because you are biased against me I don’t take you as being biased against me as a white person I take you as saying this is my identity um um and and that being your motivation and I just I’ve never grown
Up around any kind of white people that have any forms of expression that they Define that Define their whiteness um in that same way putting aside a bias itself right like a ballerina couldn’t like couldn’t be a ballerina and look like be black right um which I know was part of people
Did that I know tons of people did that that’s what I’m saying there’s bias and then there’s like the like like holding on to Identity and I just haven’t been around that from the white perspective I say you have I think you have and maybe
It just was not called out in the ways in which I’m calling out and I say that because the Super Bowl is next weekend and for some black history this is the first time that two black quarterbacks have ever started the Super Bowl and I remember uh a comedian once saying when
Backman Obama’s president name was it’s a black comedian but I forget his last name and he was saying I remember when people question whether a black man could even lead a football team let alone be the head of this nation you know what I mean and I think I think I
Think white men really do Define leader as whiteness as as you know like like that’s something that white men when you think leadership you think white to watch the rest of that episode go ahead and click the video below me to see a different compelling healing Race
Episode you can click the video below me we look forward to seeing you in the next video
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