The African Diaspora w/ Dr. Greg Carr

This week OOD speaks with renowned scholar of Africana studies, Dr. Greg Carr. In electrifying prose, Dr. Carr breaks down Pan-Africanism and the African Diaspora, and lays out a vision for a more Afro-centric future. The girls share their feelings towards their own African heritage and the idea of “The Year of Return,” the physical and psychological unification of Black people the world over. 

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to You down a production of Shondaland Audio and
partnership with I Heart Radio. Black people people are back
and descent are the most creative people in the world. Yes,
if somebody was to hear this conversation and say, well,
how can you say quote on, we came up with
the blueprint for everything to would ever be done. Yeah,

(00:23):
we came up with singing, we came up with language,
came up we're writing. These are the original creations. So
everything's gonna happen after that is a remix. Hello Everybody,
and Welcome back to you a podcast were for Funny
Honey has come together to talk about what's going on

(00:44):
in the culture. I'm yasmin Monde Watkins, I'm Ashley Holston,
I'm and I'm Mammiya a forum, but collectively we are
known as Obama's other Daughters. And today we're wondering are
you down with the diaspora. Two thousand nineteen marked the

(01:12):
four anniversary of the start of the transatlantic trading of
enslaved people from West Africa. The year was coined the
Year of Return to Ghana, calling the survivors of the
descendants to return home, and now the phrase has become
a movement. This week, we want to discuss what the
concept of home means to us and our connections to

(01:33):
the African diaspora and joining us to dive into this
is Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Chair of the
Department of Afro American Studies at Howard University, Dr Greg Carr.
But first, let's check in with each other. Ladies. What
are you loving what you hate in this week? This week,

(01:55):
I am loving learning things on the internet. I found
this guy who's re having his knee or he rehabbed
his knee from like, y'all know, I got bad knees,
and he offered a bunch of tips. But he was like,
the most basic thing you can do is just start
to walk backwards. So I was like, oh, I can
do that. Fifteen minutes a day walk backwards and I'm

(02:15):
out of breakfast. I was just doing it, and it's
been so dope for a number of reasons. One, my
ny does feel stronger, like I just feel way more powerful.
It's also a butt workout, and y'all know, I'm trying
to get a juicy booty. That is really nice. But
also people look at you crazy when you do something
that's not normal, and I know people are clowning me.

(02:39):
I'm pretty sure this girl was recording me the other day,
like when I walked past and people are like they
always got something to say. You know, you're doing it wrong,
like what people just like to talk. But so for
anyone out there who's trying to do something for themselves
and it looks a little unusual, go for it. Just
doing Okay, I feel like you do that, like walking
backwards is something I did it practice? Yeah, or your athletes,

(03:02):
you understand. Why would people be stupid about that? I
definitely feel like maybe there should be a shirt or
a hat that's like doing this for my physical therapy.
But you know what, No, I'm like, just stop looking
at people weird. Okay, you don't understand it, maybe you
should try. I bet you people try to be like,
oh this is hard. You know what shirt I do
want though, a shirt that says vaccinated right, like some

(03:25):
of those things. We just need to be clear. That's
because some people will get the shirt instead of the vaccine.
Out here most people probably, I was about the printer
shirt that said fiser doses wanted to one check to
check with the laminate of the date that you got
it done and wear and which one. Yeah, I guess

(03:49):
I'll go with something though it's a hate. And you know,
here's the thing. I haven't even done it yet, but
y'all know, I took my twist out and now I'm
happen to do my own hair. And I don't want
to wash it. I don't want to do it. I
hate the idea of it. Every time I think about it,
I'm just like, I'm gonna do it tomorrow. Like the

(04:12):
detangling the wash day is no joke. It takes like
five hours and a lot of upper body string yeah,
arm holding and like, yeah, So that's what I hate.
I love this week. It's so dumb. It's something my dad.

(04:33):
My dad literally knows nothing about any pop culture stuff,
like very random things that I'll be like, how do
you like? He's really fascinated by Pink because he saw
a sixty minutes interview of her like years ago, and
I don't know she stuck in his heart. But the
other day he was referencing something and he said Dion

(04:56):
Saloon and I was like, Dion Salon. The hell this
man meant Selene Dion? No? Can you say the name.
He said, one more time, Dion Saloon. Just a little
dyslexia there, That's all that was. But you know what,

(05:18):
that's so funny too, because I'm like, Selene Dion isn't
even like new pop culture, thank you. I listened to
Sleep Dion as a child with my mom, so it's like, right,
she's been around for a minute. But just the fact that, like, sir,
can you at least do a little research before you
open your mouth? He's doing his best. He's funny. Hey, Alexa,

(05:39):
can you play Dion Saloon? Do you mean? See? Now
I'm confused? And what the real David? If she even
said did you mean? I would be really impressed. This
week I really love. I discovered how to do a
turn on one foot on my roller skates. Is that

(06:02):
like a figure skating one? Like with your like how
I can roll on one foot with my foot raised
like a skater in that way, Mammia. But in terms
of turning, no, not yet yet, yes, not yet. So
that's my thing that I love. This week. I was
like going through I'm like, there are some things I
could really hate, but like the rain in l A,

(06:25):
I can't wear my birken stocks anymore. They go with anything. Yeah,
you want to wear them with a dress, Okay, some slacks.
You know, black people make anything, go with stuff because
you know, black people have been making it work. It's
a universal I was trying to do a seg I

(06:45):
was with you, I was with you, we were all there.
We're still with you right now. Okay, So let's get
into a little bit of what we're going to talk
about this week. Then, since you brought it up, So,
the African diaspora has been defined by the noted historian
Joseph Harris as a voluntary and involuntary dispersion of Africans

(07:10):
globally throughout history, also the emergence of a cultural identity
based on origin and social condition, and also the psychological
and physical return of those in the diaspora to Africa.
M Yeah, Basically, it's the study of how black folk
got here, there and everywhere on the planet. From Cardi

(07:32):
b to Conan O'Brien. People are starting to tune into
the vibrant life and culture that exists in the place
where most of the descendants of slaves came from and
have roots, West Africa. But the question comes up, do
those of us living outside of the continent have a
connection to this place, and what are the implications of

(07:52):
our generation choosing to return to Africa for life, business,
or leisure. So joining us today to give us historical
context and answer a few of our buzzing questions is
Professor of Africana Studies at Howard University, Dr Greg Carr,
and we'll jump into that right after a quick break.

(08:23):
Welcome back. Dr Greg Carr is a j d, pH
d and lauded voice in the African American community. He
led the team that designed the curriculum for the School
District of Philadelphia's mandatory high school African American History course
and co founded Philadelphia Freedom schools okay Now. His writing
has appeared in books, academic and popular journals, and he

(08:47):
serves as a contributor to and commentator and a wide
range of media. He is a weekly panelist on the
daily digital news show Roland Martin Unfiltered and co host
Karen Hunter's weekly Saturday YouTube series In Class with Car
and Doctor Cars. Chapter Reliteracy and African Power in the
Trump Era appears and not Our President. Third World presses

(09:11):
book length commentary on the Trump presidency. We are so
excited to speak to you today. Thanks for joining us,
Dr car The pleasure is my ansists. It's always good
to be in community. So I think it's known that
any Howard grad if you mentioned Dr Carr's name, starts
salivating and either wishes that they took your class or

(09:35):
has had an experience with you that was amazing. So
we were really lucky to sit down with you. The
luck is mine. As I tell young people all the time,
our job is to make sure that you all are
farther ahead than we were, just like the elders may share.
We were where we needed to be. So you know,
a teacher about their students always be suspicious of teachers
who don't have any students. So so I'm very thank

(09:59):
you so much for that. That's the highest tribute of all.
I love that. And for people who don't know, can
you give us a deeper understanding of what the African
diaspora is? Very simply put, we are those of us
who are not born and raised on the continent of
Africa are the children of the largest forced migration in

(10:19):
human history, not the voluntary migration. Because every human being
who will ever walk on this ball came from Africa.
No matter where you're from in the world, if you're
listening to this, you have way back an African mother,
So just deal with it. But at any rate, over

(10:40):
the last several centuries, however, the diaspora, as we think
about it, was created because of greed avarice, the largest
crime against humanity. Well I won't say that because it's
not a competition, but part of a series of crimes
against humanity that includes settler colonialism trying to erase tens,

(11:02):
ultimately hundreds of millions of human beings who were in
what we would call the Western hemisphere and trying to
replace them with a labor force that was drawn from
Africa over the arc of several centuries. So when we
think of the diaspora, finally, the word diaspora, which goes
back to a Greek root word which could notes the

(11:23):
residue that comes from a fire smoke. In other words,
the African diaspora is basically that which could not be
consumed after having gone through the traumas of separation, going
literally through the fires. So when you see us, you
see what couldn't be killed. Oh my god. So anyway,

(11:44):
with the diaspora, were family So Dr Carl, why do
you feel the idea of returning to Africa has become
popular or has it always been a thing? You know what, Wow,
that's a great question. First of all, it has always
been a thing. The sense of wanting to return began
with the first abduction. I want to go home. The

(12:06):
return begins with the trauma of separation, and so you
trace that through the shipboard rebellions. There are many hundreds
of shipboard rebellions were trying to turn this boat around.
The hell we're doing here? We gotta go back home.
As a sense of return, they continue with the rebellions
in the destinations in the Caribbean and Latin America, Central American,

(12:28):
North America. There's been a lot of talk recently about
the sixteen nineteen project. I reject that. Well, this The
New York Times did this series of the sixteen nineteen project.
But they said, well, you know, we're talking about seventeen
SENTI six and the United States of America. We should
go back to the sixteen nineteen because that's when the
first ships arrived in Port Comfort, Virginia, not too far
where you are, Astley, And they said, well, this is

(12:50):
where America just starting saying, if you're gonna start with
the abductions, that you got to go back another hundred
years back and back into the sixteenth century when the
first Africans came into what we would now call Florida
and then the girls turned up on the Spanish so
bad and ran off with the Native Americans that the
Spanish just left. Said, I'm saying the sense that if

(13:11):
we couldn't return physically to where we came from, we
were certainly not gonna stay with y'all. Also, can I say, like,
can that be in a movie, like I want to
see that movie? Yeah, black folks turning up or y'all
tried it, tried it right, and then the Spanish folks
being like, oh all right, let them live. You have
to make that movie, that movie you're talking about secure, yea,

(13:33):
that movie would have to have some kind of random
white person that also ran away so that you could have,
you know, and it's your love interest, because they need
a point of entry. They can't just see a black
turn off that we win. So anyway that that notion
of returned, then that return is in two parts. If
you can't make a physical return to Africa, you at

(13:54):
least want to return to the thing that made you
human before these people interrupted you. And that looked like
runaway communities, that look like Fort Mosa and Florida, and
like the Negro fort out there in Louisiana. Haiti, Oh,
Haiti was the ultimate turn up. No U, I'm so
glad you shout at them out because Haiti is still
paying for what it did from That's what some people

(14:17):
call sovereign manage. There are several types of marinage or Spanish,
but say see my own Maron simply means wow. It
means like runaway. That was the name of Spanish gay
for those Africans who refused. You know, I'm going to
the Blue Mountains in Jamaica. I'm going to the great
job with swamp in Virginia. I'm not staying here. So

(14:37):
that there are three forms. There's petite Mariinage. That's when
you're on the plantation and you like leave at night
and you come back before they know you're gone, because
you went to visit your husband or your wife. They
got husbands and wives. Yeah, y'all don't even know nothing
about that. It was three o'clock in the morning and
I went to go see my man on the other plantation.
Now I'm back before you. That's like small runaway. I

(14:59):
think about that the way it's of us go to
our jobs. We engaged in fatigue for we'll sneak off
on the break, or we just said, you know what,
Then you have what they called grand marinage. Grandmerinage is
when you build a whole village, like your Brazilians did
and Palmer's they had a whole like city out in
the bush, that kind of thing. And then there's the

(15:20):
Haitian Revolution, Sovereign Marinaj. You know what, let's just take
the whole country. They just took the whole country. So
they didn't return to Africa, but the Africa that came
over on the ships was reblended into a new concept here.
Even though we call them Haitians, they were farmed, they

(15:41):
were the homie, they were Congo people, and so they
made something new, but it was based on something old.
So the last stage then of return was the slow emergence,
and really the eighteenth nineteenth century the slow emergence of
a concept, uh, can we go back to Africa? But

(16:04):
that concept was coming from people who had never been
to Africa. But they look at Africa as the place
from where their ancestors were taken, and they make a
decision that this place we're in now will never ever
allow us to be fully human in the world. Let
us at least go back to the land of our
mothers and fathers and try there. And so that's the

(16:24):
conversation that starts really in the eighteenth century and continues
in one form another to today. Yeah, I feel like
that moment of looking back for me, I wasn't. I
had gone to Brazil my junior year of college for
the first time, and I went to this afric Brazil
Letter Museum and there is this huge map of like

(16:44):
the slave tray, and I think, like, you know, what
would have happened if my great great great great great
grandmother had gotten on a different ship and I wind
up in Brazil as opposed to so, like, is there
a way that you could break down the idea of
pan Africanism? Like, of course, someone listening to this didn't
know what what's the crash, course, doctor car Pan Africanism

(17:06):
in ten seconds, Pan simply means all Africanism, means Africans.
So Pan Africa is all Africans. You got Beyonce, you
got missed it easy, you gotta boom, but Africans don't.
Don't overthink it. So we'll get into debates and as
female breaks down into badtest this cultural appropriation which I

(17:28):
didn't get this right. But we'll get into conversations. But
ultimately the very fights we're getting over, we're fighting over
stuff that all Africans have or do. I mean? I
hear y'all talking about these uh rewards Joel of wars
and people. Rice is better the Senegal Leese to come
to your name, isn't car Come on. I'm sitting back

(17:52):
and loving it because all the Joel rice is spicy,
which means none of the British are in this conversation.
It's got spices, guy, hot sauce, I don't care what
you call it. And it's rice, which means what why
are y'all Puerto Ricans? The Dominicans saying y'are not black
and we all eating rice? It's all Africans, it's all

(18:15):
pan Afriganism is now ideologically they're gonna be battles. My
friend Hakim I d A d I. Hakim has written
a book very good entry point Primmer to the concept
is simply called pan Africanism, and he gives a history
of people who have tried to organize this concept. He

(18:35):
starts by saying, it's no one definition of how to
organize it, this cultural pan Africanism. Do we do we
try to wear African clothes? Do we look at African languages?
There were three thousand languages spoken on the kind of
of Africa. Back in the sixties. They had this huge debate,
could we select one or two languages that wherever you
are in the diasporate, wherever you are in Africa, you

(18:56):
should speak so you keep you keep the Eurobo, you
keep the Tree, you keep you know, the Congo. But
in addition to those languages, can we come up with
some Pan African language and the other form of Pan
African language that we have it's in the diaspora. This
is when they met in the early nineteen seventies. St.
Louis is actually what they coined this term, the Association

(19:18):
of Black Psychologists do named Robert Williams and some other folks.
They said, what are the elements of black speech that
we kept from all those hundreds and then thousands of
languages that got brought on those boats. Are there elements
that are Pan African. We should not call it black
English or black Spanish or black Portuguese. Let's call it

(19:41):
ebony for black phonics for sounds. So when you say ebonics,
that doesn't mean black English. That literally means Pan African language.
So I'll give you an examples. And I don't care
whether you're from Jamaica, where you're from Brazil, whether you're
from Ghana, whether you're from London, where you're from Buffalo,
New York. This needs the same thing, yea or or

(20:07):
the tooth suck, which YA wouldn't even try to do
you suck your teeth? Ebodic speakers you meet right immediately. No,
And if the longer it is means the less you
believe whatever somebody saying. People say, oh that's that's not slang.
Do you know the genius of Pan African language? That
means these Africans have a language they can speak in
your face. If you don't speak ebodics, you don't know

(20:28):
what somebody said. You go the feeling you say, yo, man,
men's join was talking. So we took the joint right
then we went over to the other join and we
said h. After that, I was like man, I can't
miss with y'all because this joining right here is not
gonna be the join you understand, No, I don't understand
why because I don't speak ebonics. You took one word
that didn't exists in that language and made a whole

(20:51):
language out of one word. Just the genius of black people.
So where have I been in the in the world
among African people? If I didn't speak Arabic in Egypt,
if I didn't speak Zulu or Cossa or Swana in
South Africa, I didn't speak Tree in Ghana, but I
didn't speak Portuguese. In Brazil, I could speak ebondix. It's

(21:14):
a look, it's a stance, it's a in fact. He
hasn't Where was that museum in Brazil? Polo? Oh, you
were in Salpolo. I've never been to Salthpolo. Of course,
won't go all over the country because you know, Brazil,
of course the largest number of Africans anywhere outside of
the continent. And when we went, we went for an
educator conference. This is like two thousand, maybe five or six.

(21:36):
So we opened up this conference and about maybe twenty
what we call elementary school students come to the front
they addressed in African cluce and they started singing Cosi
si getting everya ma lu pagani sup pondo. They singing

(22:00):
God bless Africa. You sing that song pan Africans all
over the world. No, that's our global national anthwer. The
song came out of South Africa. It's being sung by
Brazilian children whose Portuguese is a first language. The song
is in cosa. But you know that song. Later that
the young people showed us the work they had been due.
And they we saw some of those maps like you saw, yesmin,
but I suspect these maps weren't the same for this reason.

(22:22):
They had Brazil, they had Latin America, they had the Caribbean,
and they had those arrows that you probably probably had
a new one that you saw going back to Africa,
the triangle, so to speak. And John her mc clark
and another of my teachers used to say, but for
the point of a finger, any one of us will
be speaking Spanish instead of English, Portuguese instead of Spanish French.
It was the point of a finger. So yes, you

(22:44):
could have easily been speaking Portuguese instead of English. But
what they didn't have on their maps, these children their
maps stopped with the Caribbean. In other words, here in Brazil,
our triangle really is Latin America to Africa. They didn't
know about us, us those of us who and what
we were call now the United States or Canada. And

(23:05):
so it's striking that the more we know about each other,
the easier it is for us to see, even as
we are different, there are some things that we're the
same one. And then we start asking this question, why
didn't anybody tell us? And that's when you start getting
into the politics, because the more we know about each other,
the harder it is to keep us separate from each other.

(23:27):
So I even get into these beef conversations. Now, of
course we're different. You're different from people in your family.
Can we at least and we're different from ourselves depending
on the time of the day, so we know difference.
But can we talk a little bit about the thing
that has been kept from us, which is the similarities?
And then the why? Because the why will then let
you know, Oh, this is the thing that everybody fears

(23:50):
because it's more of us than it is of them.
We're not a minority. We're only minority if you stay
at home. Yeah, because anytime anybody wants to invade Africa,
or do you stabilize Haiti again or to overthrow a
government events, whether what do they do? They form like voltron?
They call it the international community? What is that? What
that's uh? England and France and United States in Germany. Okay,

(24:13):
So when I want to get with my people, hold on, now,
y'all are not the same. Yeah, but y'all the same.
Anytime you want to roll on somebody, you meet up
in New York, you've got some college security council, y'all
decide who y'all gonna roll on, and then you roll
it out as the international community. The world is nine
tenths nine white. So how did y'all get to be
the international community? And only one out of every ten

(24:34):
human beings on the planet that like you and the
standard of beauty you dealt with that? If that it's
bad enough to get into colorism when it's them putting
that in our mind. The tragedy is when we take
it and say it's Mari d that's the miseducation. Yeah.

(24:54):
But bringing that back to our topic today about you know,
the year of returning that concept of us young people
starting to think should we go back, when should we
go back, or just feel some sort of connection to
the continent. What do you think are the implications of
US Diosporians starting to return, either incrementally or in large numbers.

(25:18):
That's a great question. I would say this, We've never
been out of contact. But one of the challenges is class.
There are very few people in the world who have
the material resources to travel. True, most of the people
and so Apollo and the favelas most of the people

(25:39):
and by it will never leave those places, just like
most people in North Philly and y'all noticed, it's people
in l A that they've never been into the museum.
It's people in North Philly, South Philly, West Philly who
had never been the Independence Hall, and they don't leave
their neighborhoods. So the idea of return has always been
a war that has been ways to reconnect by those

(26:00):
who had the means the idea of return. When I'm
looking at young people particular, but also no celebrities of
all ages partying on the beach in Ghana, I'm happy,
but I'm also mindful because that can very easily turn
into a worldwide celebration by the petty bourgeoise Chicagro. The

(26:26):
arcle in Black World magazine called notes on Returning Home
and he's in tanzani Yor by that time. And what
Charlie Cobbs says. One of the things he says is
there's always going to be a small group of Black
people who have money, who will travel, who will connect,
but they won't connect first with poor people or working

(26:47):
class people. They're gonna connect with other rich people. And
every time I've been to Africa, I'm in the first
time we went to Ghana, I'm saying, you know, the
American negroes, because they're gonna come go to the hotel
and complain about air conditions because these are the same
rows if they were at home, we're complaining about the
hood cats and always their class mentality. So they're paying

(27:09):
Africa this, but they paying Africas because they enjoy the
benefits of having money. And so I think our challenge
in terms of the year of return, in terms of
the concept of return with now the technology allows us
to do this, Our challenge is too, even if you
can't materially go somewhere yet, is to use this technology

(27:30):
so that people listening can say you know what. Now
I want to go to gun Now I want to
go to Brazil for real. And yeah, Brad, I'm telling
you looks this, I'm telling you the Senegal Let me
show you this. Yeah, I'm going to the hotel. All right,
we can stay at the hotel. But when can we
go to the village? Because I've seen these cats over here?
What is this game right here? It's not dominoes, but

(27:50):
they laugh at the same Okay, now, once that happens,
everything changed. Love that with that, what opportunities exist in
Africa that people may not be aware of? Every You know,
it's interesting to say that, um, black people people are
back and descent are the most creative people in the world.

(28:14):
If somebody was to hear this conversation and say, well,
how can you say? Quote on, we came up with
the blueprint for everything to will ever be done. We
came up with singing, we came up with language, We
came up we're writing. These are the original creations. So
everything that's gonna happen after that is a remix. Interplanetary travel. Yes,
we came up with engineering. So whatever y'all do next

(28:38):
is great, but do it when there's nothing there except
you nature and your mind. So the opportunities in Africa.
Every time I've been to the conton, you go to
South Africa, they say, okay, the tourists are coming. We're
gonna sell y'all something. These neck rose and took bottle caps,
wire hangers and little colorful bits of whatever. They plastic

(28:58):
bottles and then it made most statuettes and they sell
them to you for fifteen rand apiece. What's the overhead?
There is no overhead. We went to the dunk and say,
look at the genius of these black people to make
something from nothing, something from nothing, which is how we've
been taught to think about it. But you realize that
is commodity. That's how you create a commodity. The thing

(29:21):
that you had was the thing that gave the world
everything will ever have, which is what your mind. Now,
where does opportunity come in. I think the technology is wonderful.
And I see these uh no older than me African
people from the United States. They moved to the Gambia.
They got a YouTube channel and they called themselves bag

(29:44):
the Black Acres of the Gambia. They said, this is
what we did. We maxed out all our credit cards.
We got as much money as we could get together.
We transfer to all to the Gambia. We bought some
land and now we are with the Gambians. We're gonna
build some independent black institutions. Stick rolls massed out all
the credit cards transferred Gorboddy and Broke Camp And I'm saying,

(30:05):
in terms of opportunities, Africa is nothing but opportunities. You
just gotta have to creative Massett and I'll end with this.
This is what There's a book out called The Scramble
for Europe. That's what they called it. This guy just
wrote this book about a year ago. This is what
he says. He says, when you look at what we
call Europe, when you look at the birth rates in Europe,

(30:25):
when you look at the projections term in demographics, he said,
by the third quarter of the twenty one century, we're
in the first quarter. Now. He says, maybe there may
be around four dred and forty million people in Europe,
and the majority to them, we're gonna be non white.

(30:47):
He said, They're gonna be more people than Nigeria than
there are in Europe. And of the people in Europe,
so many of them are gonna be Africans that Europe
is gonna be colonized. So what you have to understand
the reason they're turning up in Europe right now in France,
with Lepine in England, with Brexit in Germany, the reason

(31:07):
these fashions are coming out. This black wave is coming baby,
and it's nothing you can do. Yeah. I feel like
it's like a generational thing too, because I think about
my grandmother leaving the South and like all the folks
who are leaving with the Great Migration and making those
connections of like, this is what we do as black people. Yes,

(31:28):
that should be the thesis of any conversation we're having.
This is what we do. Migration is the central theme
in human history. People move, That's what we do. That
Great Migration literally africanized what we call the United States
of America. It gave America it's only original culture, whether
it be the Nick Rose from Alabama who went to

(31:49):
Detroit and created Motown, whether the Americans from Mississippi went
to Chicago and create everybody from Halling Wolf and Muddy
Waters to Electric Blues and eventually Jimmy Hendrison then Prince
and what you call Rock and Old, which is really
them Negroes out the Mississippi Delta who had them strained
instruments that came from my league, electrified them and gave
you everybody from Queen and Elton John. All that stuff

(32:10):
is our stuff, rolling Stone, all that stuff we move.
But now in America, as Europe is going increasingly non white,
Arab and African and everybody else, this country is becoming
increasingly indigenous. Meaning what, yeah, y'all punched us in the
mouth from fourteen nine two, but the home team is
coming back, come back at one hundred. It's almost like

(32:33):
this is a worldwide struggle. The little bad kids in
the human family out of Western Eurasian who a tantrum?
You know what I'm saying, The real baby kid who
a tantrum? Around fifteen hundred, and it took us about
six years to course correct. Anybody trying to continue to
keep this thing like a race for the top and
whiteness at the top, you gotta put them in time out,

(32:55):
as Malcolm was saved by any means necessary, because if
you're not careful, the ball the earth we're on is
going to say, you know what, we liked that we
started with the human beings, but then a group of
them when they started wilding. It's time to get rid
of them, and so the ball will reset. The Earth
is gonna be fine, it will get rid of the species.

(33:17):
That's what we're facing now, warming us we'll have to
migrate to space that god, well, no, they're already planning
make our own black plants and they gonna leave us. No, no, no, no,
that same thing. It's gonna be very expensive to get
those tickets, and who can afford that. First of all,
you're absolutely right if we continue to live and operate

(33:37):
with the idea that somehow Europe should lead in Europeans
and Western ideas should frame everything. There's nothing that Africa
needs that it doesn't have, So we want to do
space travel. There are no more brilliant scientists than the
scientists of Africa, and the African aspect. How we're gonna
build a ship food? Don't you know that most of

(33:59):
the iron and the world is literally in the ground
in Africa. We don't need uranium. Everybody fighting over is
in Central Africa. The cold team that makes everything work
from the cell phones that that's in Congo, don't leave home.
But it starts with realizing we gotta weight on them.
There's a lot of metal in the ground under So

(34:21):
if you're gonna have a launch site, he said, Well,
we launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Do you now you
heard that Global Warman is gonna take your joining out right?
We're launching from the Drakensburg Plateau in South Africa. Who
is we? Oh? The Africans? Yeah, you see Charles over there? Yeah,
Charles from Chicago. Yeah, but Charles got one of them
passports that the a you finally came up with it.

(34:42):
Lets him come. So yeah, Charles from Chicago, but he
got two passports and that second one is an African
continent wide passport, so he'll be back when we get
cold in Chicago. Charles is working in the lab in
Congo with his friends. And so yeah, America, how's that
working out for you? Y'all? Still? Yeah, okay, leave that alone,
let it go, Let it go. Oh gosh, Dr car

(35:07):
you literally I have given us a crash. I'm like,
we could talk to Oh yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. I
know we're going on a lot, but I should say
this is about and I should say this's about passports.
So yes, if you have more than one passport, if
you can get one, get as many as you can.
For the Africans and the diaspora like me, whose ancestors
came through enslavement, I can't get another passport unless an

(35:31):
African country says we're gonna make it possible for him
to have one. The Canaians are working on it. They've
been talking about this for a long time. The African
Union has gotten to the point now where they have
the passports, but they're diplomatic passports. They just enacted that
a little while ago. So, in other words, the countries
of Africa, in addition to stay in countries, they also
function like states. You can go from Nigeria to South Africa,

(35:53):
to conggo to times of air. You can do with
these diplomatic passports. The next step is to make word
everybody can get one. And while that's happening in Africa,
the step alongside that is to say, what about the Haitians,
what about the Brazilians, what about the Jamaicans. We are close.
I think it's gonna be y'all's generation. And then the

(36:15):
Negros born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, who are not Somali, just
born and raised in North Minneapolis can say I got
a US passport and I got money is paying African passports.
So y'all keep talking. Yeah, I know my life matters.
I'm gonna tell you how much it matters by making
your life. Hell, you're gonna get no more trade, you're saying,

(36:37):
and we're gonna make a song about you that starts
in Africa, goes through the world, and you're all, y'all
gonna be clowns. In other words, when you put pressure
from outside, that's when they start acting right at home,
right that collective power. Yeah, you know, Dr Carr, what
you were saying about language. I wrote this poem called
Borrowed Tongue, and it's like just thinking about like how

(36:59):
the language isn't even ours, you know what I mean?
Like I speak with a borrowed tongue in the language
of an oppressor. English does not feel like a place
to call home. The religion, the language, these things that
were forced on us that we've adapted and made our
own somehow. But like, what could it have been? What
could be? What would it have looked like if it

(37:20):
had never been interrupted? You can dream about what content,
but it did happen. M So when you write, when
you write that poem. When you when you capture that sentiment,
you're part of that unbroken geneality. David your the poet
from Martinique who says, Africa, my Africa. Though I've never
seen you, my face is full of your blood. They

(37:42):
couldn't stop you. Yes, it's not our language, but you
made it your language. And in making it your language,
they started eavesdropping and it changed all their cultures. So
the power of our culture transformed everything. So now, yeah,
we didn't come up with English. It's a silly language.
It's a car crash, which mean the Latin based languages
it is. It's German versus the Romance languages, and it

(38:05):
crashed and it's English like euribi. Europe doesn't have a
gender to clinch in the same way as to see,
y'all's languages got he and sheet and you know what
it does. It confuses everybody who has a more humane
language because you need he and she because you had
a heat that you want to put over a sheet.
So we start talking about feminism, it's like, yeah, we

(38:26):
got gender problems in our society, but y'all put the
gender problems in your language just means finding the hell
what we started talking about trying to solve the gender
problems using your framework. What about sexuality, Because if you
go and look at many of the the traditional actor societies,
you will see women with women, you will see men
with men, but you don't have to call it l B, G,

(38:47):
t Q. And you have to come up with a
label because your original blueprint didn't have these concepts. And
then you want me to take your language, which means
all I'm doing is extending to beef. Rape is not
a woman's shoe to her brother. So how did this
become a woman's issue. It's not a woman's issue until
you have language that forces you separate. So I'm just

(39:11):
saying I say that, Yeah, yes, man, it's it's not
our language when it when it doesn't allow us to
be human in the world. But we made it enough
of our language, you know. Yeah, it tickles me when
I hear what people saying. Yes, it's next. See they've
been listening to y'all. There's so much doctor Car. Thank

(39:33):
you for spending time with us and sharing your brilliance.
Thank you, Dr Car. Where can where can people find
you on the internet? The easiest thing is Twitter. I
don't have no other social media because I'm too old
in my mind can't hold it all. So on Twitter.
On Twitter, it's at a f R. I see a
in a c A r R at Africana Cark. He's

(39:56):
a great follow by the way, I enjoy. I enjoy.
And if y'all just do email whatever is g c
A r R at Howard EU and we are family.
Now it's the under one. Oh, it's time for a break.
But when we return O D is getting into our
own personal connections to the African diaspora. Welcome back. You know.

(40:32):
Being in conversation with Dr Greg Carr really highlighted for
me how important it is to know your roots and
feel that sense of connection or community. I definitely agree. Honestly,
when you go to Africa, it feels like uh huh,
like the sun kisses your skin, and like every billboard
for the most part is a black person. Like that

(40:52):
doesn't really exist most places on the planet. So like
knowing and like understanding your culture. That doesn't mean you
need to, you know, wear a dashiki every day or anything,
but I do think it gives some sort of like
kind of closure to like knowing that, okay, the things
that have been done to us, like Dr Carr said,

(41:15):
despite we made it through the fire yea. And I
just think that like at an HBC, you are in
any community, and a sorority at UCB when we would
do our cookout shows like there's just this like sense
of love that happens when we get together. And I
love like what Dr Carr was saying about, like even

(41:35):
as having a sort of language amongst ourselves, that moment
of connection or understanding is so important, so critical, and
you have to know your past in order to know
what the future can look like. To it seems to
me like just I mean, being African growing up, I
have relatives who would rather say they were Jamaican than

(41:56):
from Ghana, just because it's eat more digestible to anybody
from the West to say here from Jamaica. But I
feel like that being embarrassed aspect of it is kind
of shifting, with of course, like people getting to see
that it's not all homeless people with flies, you know

(42:16):
what I mean, Like that was the image of what
Africa was. But did you guys, what was the like
understanding you had of Africa growing up? Like obviously my
parents are from there, but I didn't go there until
I was in elementary school, but I heard, you know,
African booty scratcher like that kind of Thankfully I didn't.

(42:37):
I wasn't teased that way, but like my cousins from
Maryland definitely were m for um representation for what I
saw in Africa. It was like all national geographic type
of long naked titties, like dirt desert hoods, And for
a long time I thought that's what Africa was like.

(42:58):
Like I was surprised to hear like, yeah, there are
cities and giant buildings and business and I save a
child commercial that they always always all I saw was
like some white woman in Africa saving little black kids.
All right, that's what Africa is. I feel like white

(43:19):
people have used Africa for so long as a like
I'm not racist, check, I am a philanthropist. Check. Like
look at this picture of me with all these malnourished
kids doing a dance. Yeah for me, Like when I
think about like, I definitely didn't think much about Africa

(43:39):
growing up, like outside of what you know, she Karen asked.
She was sharing about to Save the children commercials and
all of that. It wasn't something that like I engaged
with often. Um, but are you guys able to like
trace your African ancestry? Like how far back can you
trace your family? I mean, I've done twenty three in me,

(44:00):
you have, yeah, I'm mostly West African. Um, I think
I said twentysothing percent European white mixed in there. You know,
I hope it was consensual and you too. What else?
Just a bunch of little, tiny, random areas in Africa

(44:22):
that I'm a mixed with. But they weren't specific, so
I don't have any you know, connect further than my
great grandmother. They're supposed to be, um, like a black registry,
like if you're a black person, twenty three and me
doesn't really have a lot of blood samples from black people.
So they're like black platforms that you can go on
that will give you more in depth of like what

(44:45):
region you're from in Africa. I did African ancestry. I
don't know if that's one of them that you're thinking
of actually, um, but the one that I did traced
my African ancestry on the like my matrilineal side, and
it was actually sort of embarrassing. The Africa Channel was like, Oh,

(45:07):
we're gonna do like we're gonna document you and like
your journey. So I had my mom and my aunt
and my uncle on the line. I'm like, y'all, we're
about to find out like we're in Africa, we're from
but my grandmother on my mom's side is from Shreveport, Louisiana.
We were talking about consensual like who knows what happened,

(45:29):
but she was very light and yeah, they were like, uh,
there is no African ancestry here, because I guess it's
like traced and trace and trace and traced, but it
all isn't written down. That's what also like, well, obviously
back before the slave trade, people weren't writing a ton

(45:50):
of stuff down. That everything was by board of mouth.
And then here at a certain point they changed our
names to whatever a slave master's name was. Yeah, so
that I've heard from a few people that it's hard
or like a person I was talking to said they
could see the slave ledger, so it was it didn't

(46:10):
have names, but it was like a six foot whatever
guy like, which is fucked up in itself. It's impossible
to trace it and you want to find it. But
I honestly think, like when Shakira you said you could
trace to great grandma or like yasmine your family members
that you know that is richer than some of US

(46:31):
Africans who aren't. Like I know that where my parents
came from, but I'm not connected like I would be
if I grew up in the same neighborhood to my
cousins and aunts. You know, like African Americans have had
a chance to create culture in America in a way
that is amazing. All that to say, I think it's important,
like wherever we know, we started to reconnect with it. Yeah. No,

(46:58):
but what you said, mommy, Like the first time I
went to South Africa, like what you said about it
feeling like a hug, warm hug, Like I was just like,
this is beautiful, Like they're just black people everywhere. Yeah,
I've never seen that before. There's a whole continent where
that's the norm. Mm hmm. I don't know my African heritage.

(47:22):
I said that. Some guy asked me at a party
one time if I knew, and he really berated me
for you were there, mom Ya. That was like one
of the first times that I was like, I guess
that's something that we're doing. Was he African, but I
I guess I never really felt a pull to do it,
like my aunt and uncles are really like, you know,

(47:47):
they started an African soda company, which you think about
it now, it's like soda, that's what y'all did, but
it was called African Pride, like they were very much
like we don't do Santa Claus as Black people only.
So I like I got at it, but I just
never felt like I was missing apart or like I
didn't know a part of myself because I wasn't connected

(48:07):
to Africa, or I didn't know my you know, my tribe.
And I wonder if there are other people like that,
because I feel like I always hear people who are
like really want to get back to Africa, But I
wonder if some people feel connected not having gone, because
I don't feel disconnected. I think that's like kind of
exactly what I was saying about being okay with where

(48:31):
you do know your family starts. And like I think
a lot of that debate, if you will, of like
African versions whatever is like everybody just wants to belong,
so like when we try to divide up, it just
like creates that same thing they tried to do on
this plantation and pit us against each other for no
reason when why, Like Dr Carr was saying, Pan African, like,

(48:55):
we're all a part of it, whether we want to
or not. You shouldn't feel empty just because you don't
know something you didn't have control of, Like Ashley's like,
that doesn't make her feel less because she doesn't know
exactly the village that her family has roots, which I
think is super important to say. I also think too,

(49:15):
like just with what you said, actually how your family
created a great foundation here, you know, really made sure
like we got a black Santa Claus. We're doing this,
and now we were very aware that we were black,
that we were having black cooks, but it wasn't let's
go back to African talk. Yeah see, I don't feel
like we were havn't necessarily black talks. We knew we

(49:36):
were black. There was never any doubts, but it wasn't
ever in intellectual conversation. You know, Um, which other cultures
do you guys identify with? If any? I feel like
I am three cultures, like I'm an amalgamation of all
of them. Obviously Ganyan culture because that's what I was

(49:57):
raised in, but in Minneso Sodan culture, which is also
a very specific white Christian conservative culture. I'm not a
Republican for the record, um, but I did grow up
around there's Trump flags next door, like point blank. But
then also I went to Spellman because I did feel

(50:18):
like I was missing something by not having a direct
connection to African American culture, and I've sort of adopted
that on as as a choice to do that. I mean,
I definitely feel that and what you were saying about
being an amalgamation, Like I'm part Lahoia Beachside for parts
of my childhood growing up around a bunch of white people,

(50:41):
but like even it's the same in the valley being
I guess a valley girl, but also very much from
like three to three, like the first years of my
life were in Inglewood, l a. Is home. Um. I
think that's part of like the searching or the wanting
to connect I felt other than almost every space I've

(51:03):
been in. You know, there are so many cultures that
like we're not even like talking about. You know, there's
like comedy culture, identify with that tall people culture. I feel,
y'all paying our needs. The world wasn't made for us,
but we're thinking of like nationality, identities, it's just just black. Well,
I feel like just based off of race and the

(51:26):
politics around that race is black. If your skin is black,
you black. If your skin is white, you why whether
you like it or not. Yep, look at Megan Marco.
I was gonna say, even with the one drop, even
with the one drop, you still like. That's just how
the culture sees you with your ethnicity and your nationality.
They can all be different. But culture wise, which tribes

(51:51):
do you know we put ourselves in? It just depends
on how you define your culture your tribe, but it's
usually a lot of time based off for your interest.
So I have a few that I'll be like, oh
I'm a part of this today. Do you think you're
a West Coast culture girl or East Coast culture girl?
Oh I'm East Coast. Yes, it's West Coast. I couldn't.

(52:15):
I couldn't even pretend to say that I was West Coast,
like I thought you might be like kind of in
between because sometimes you like, I've been in l A
for ten years eleven baby, But the way she just
responded that that was so East Coast. At my core,
I'm East Coast, but I've been like if I go

(52:35):
to the East Coast and be like, why you talk
like that, right, tall mesh, And I'm like, no, no,
I'm just the same Shakira from the block, right, don't
be food by the rocks that I don't got yet.
I'm from the black What about you come on East Coast?

(52:57):
Did dip out here for a little bit? So No,
I love l a weatherwise, but culture wise, a little
a little more rough, less sensitive than I think. Let's PC. Yeah,
let's PC by far when I go home and be like, oh,
y'all still say that none. Buddy's interesting because my mom's

(53:18):
from Berkeley, California, and she grew up around the time
like build Power had posted this free Hue song and
she was like, yeah, you know that. Like I was
asking her about it, She's like, I just you know,
we grew up at a time when it was normal
that the Black Panthers would come to your elementary school
and speak and like, I thought, this is how the

(53:38):
rest of the country was living. I think that's how
everyone in California thinks. And then as as I leave,
I'm like, oh, the rest of the world is not
always a whole. Not even one stayed out as soon
as you get to the airport, thinking of like when
Trump won and like the tears, all the crying, like
have And I was like, because we even in California,

(54:00):
ain't nobody believe it? I feel like on the East
Coast they were like, damn all right, he knew what
was gonna happen. Short he couldn't told son son my Temberland.
I watched that reality show. Shoot, um, would you guys
feel welcome returning to Africa? I mean a visit. I'm

(54:24):
down to live. I don't know. I mean, I'm also
very picky about where I would live, Like right now,
if I were to pick another state to live in,
it would be Hawaii. Solid choice. La. Do I see
a trend? You know? Yes? So I haven't been to Africa,
so I'm sure there are parts that are lovely and

(54:47):
beach front that I could enjoy. But also I don't
know if my wife I would be good enough to
record these episodes of this podcast. No WiFi would be expensive.
I do remember experiencing the rolling blackout when I went
to South Africa, and I was like, wait, you mean
there's just like a period of time where the power

(55:08):
just goes out and there's nothing you can do about
it that'll humbly or when it's like, oh there's gonna
be lights off at this time, like make sure you
charge everything, and yeah, you know, I definitely agree. I
feel like a beachfront area would be ideal, but I
do worry about the homophobia aspect of it. I don't

(55:32):
know if i'd feel completely comfortable or safe for And
it's something I thought about, you know, with Haiti too,
like could I bring like a partner of the same
gender with me? And I don't know if I could,
So I don't know. Yeah, it's definitely behind in terms
of acceptance of other people or basically anything outside of

(55:57):
like what the Christian a or the Muslim way would be,
which that's actually right now is in Ghana, I know,
is becoming a very huge movement of gay rights in Africa.
Like when I studied abroad, they're actually one of the
people in my documentary class did a dock on the

(56:18):
underground gay culture and it was so interesting because it's
been there forever, but like they just can't be on
their boo in public, you know, like just like having
to filter your life that way. I can totally see
where you're coming from. I mean, just also to point
out something else, like some states in America are like

(56:39):
do I feel safe as a black person? Would you
feel safe as a queer person? I saw that a
bill was being proposed in Texas to kill women death
penalty allowed if you get an abortion, and so this
is a pro life h right, That's why I'm thinking
about things like the Green Book for example, right of
like these are places you can travel that are what

(57:00):
about the you know, especially growing up, there was the
i'll call it a rumor that African people did not
want black people coming back to Africa, and you grew
up in the culture, mommy, it was that like, like,
you know, there's black people in African people I feel

(57:20):
like are pitted against each other often and so the
idea of being welcome is like, I don't know, I
don't know how true that stereotype comes from or what
I feel like it's partially true and partially not true.
Almost in the same way that we have class levels here,
the richest people want to keep their wealth and keep

(57:42):
their everything and their power in a certain way. I
would apply the same concept to any African nations, like
the bourgeoisie if you will. Of people who are educated
and have traveled and can't even afford to travel are
the snobby type who probabably would be like people are
coming here and like you know, taking land and building

(58:05):
houses and stuff. But then a majority of people are like, yes,
come back, this is your home. I think it's just
like here. Like do we as a black person feel
welcome everywhere? No, we're not safe in America. There's not
all safe in Africa then, I mean, I think that

(58:25):
for anywhere in the world. The thing about Africa, the
poverty level is so high, like that isn't Yeah, we
don't want to see the flies anymore, but that is true.
Like the wealth disparity is ridiculous. So there are a
lot of people who want to hoard their wealth and
they think that if the West starts coming and populating,

(58:48):
they might get like drowned out, because everybody wants to
be the West. Even the richest gunions who might be
a snob like that, are still not teaching their local
language to their kids and teaching them English. You know
what I mean. That's like a self hatred cycle in itself.
I mean polonizing affected everywhere. Yeah, I mean even when

(59:09):
you think of King Leopold and what he did in
the Congo in Africa genocide, and we don't even talk
about the stuff that has happened. Well and still are
like the benefits of that rape pillage, Steel is like
still reverberating. That's why when people were shocked and you

(59:29):
know what people were shocked about the British royal family
and the rumor that they discussed the color of the
baby skin. These are the same people who literally poisoned
the world into devaluing or and a hierarchy of who

(59:51):
is who in which life matters? More like they were
the ones pointing the finger and Mega Marco is not
me a dark skinned You have to use a magnifying glasses,
you know, literally or figuratively to know that she has
African heritage. And I'm sure that's something she deals with.
Two But like she clearly is very proud of that

(01:00:12):
she's black. Also, could you imagine if she wasn't she
ripped apart. I don't know if she would have made
it that far. I don't feel like Harry's he was
raised in it, so but like he was like, my
family will be okay with this, and then they weren't.
He was like, well, I see, you know what I mean,

(01:00:33):
what do you guys consider to be home my mom's house.
I don't know. Home is where the heart is. I
agree with that. At home is where my wherever we are,
like with my family, that really just feels like love
and home. It's safe. Yeah. I was gonna say the
same thing, but I am trying to get to a

(01:00:55):
point where, uh, everywhere is home. Yeah. I think living
out of my car showed me that home is literally
wherever I want to make it and it doesn't have
to be for walls, so it doesn't have to be
walls at all. It could be I'm home in my body.
So that's what I'm trying to get to you. But

(01:01:17):
family is definitely like when I feel I need comfort
and grounding, it's family wherever they're That's something an area
that I struggle with. I guess like I don't feel
like Baltimore is my home anymore. I love Baltimore. I
feel like my family is there. I love them, but
I never am like I could stay here and be
here forever. And then I feel like Callie is great.

(01:01:38):
I love Callie, but it's not like I have a
family here. I have great friends who become family. But
that like when I'm in this one spot, oh lord,
I'm at home, and I do feel like, yeah, it
can be anywhere, I guess, Like I actually just said,
I feel like that's why you're traveling all the time.

(01:01:58):
Care You're searching for where's that place? Where's that place?
Right now? And I think Balley is it? And I
haven't been. As soon as I get maybe I'll be like, well,
maybe it's Greece. It is a tough thing though, like
thinking about because my parents were divorced, you know, so
like being back and forth, like home was l A
and Lajoia the valley, and like it's like where is

(01:02:21):
it if not yourself, if not me? If I were
to pick my favorite home, I would pick when we
had a house and it was on Hazel What Avenue,
And for those years I felt like this is home.
And that's we moved when I was eight, so that
was the last time a home a house felt like
a home. It seems like we all kind of feel

(01:02:47):
like it is in the heart, not chicken soup for
the soul version of it, but it truly is your
peace of mind and like being able to be at peace.
Then if it happens to be with loved ones, all
the better. But you're here. Home is what you make it. Oh,

(01:03:15):
that was such a good time. Can't wait to go back.
But right now it's time for us to give some advice.
Today's advice letter from a listener who isn't feeling buried
at home in the workplace, Ashley, What you got for us?
Today's letter reads, Dear O D I have had my

(01:03:36):
dream job at the top tech company for about two years.
It had everything I've wanted, benefits, a great team, and
good vibes all around. But last month a woman joined
my project and that all changed. She started ordering me around,
demanding things, and treating everyone like we were her slaves.
She said. If she was a guy, she would have

(01:03:59):
already even fired for her me to violations. Damn, But
she plays nice and sweet most of the time, and
when higher ups are around. It was all somewhat tolerable
until she asked me if one of our medical partners,
who is an attractive doctor, could give her a PAP
smear under her breath. I don't know how much longer

(01:04:21):
I can deal with this lady, but I also don't
want her craziness to push me out of my dream job.
Any advice on how to deal signed cringing at work?
Cringing at work? Yeah, we're cringing right now. Girl. That
makes me think of the question of, like there are
inappropriate women, and like when is it like everybody who's

(01:04:45):
inappropriate needs to get in trouble that? I mean, so
many men are and liked what's her name? The woman
who married her Mexican seventh grade student, a teacher, Mary
Kay Laturno is her name. Did she go to jail?
She went to jail for years, got out of jail,
married the boy. They got married, and divorced after she

(01:05:09):
got out of jail. But I just meant that to say,
like women's transgressions sexually in a work or like professional
or illegal in that case environment, this lady should not
be talking about pap smears at or like, you know,
sexualizing her male coworker. Yeah. I mean, I understand the
dilemma of not wanting to lose your dream job, but

(01:05:31):
then you run into a situation where you're tolerating untolerable
behavior for a job. And I think of like Ellen,
how everyone was like Ellen was horrible, She wasn't you know.
She called herself an introvert, but she was a bit
and she treated me badly for twenty years. Twenty years,
you know, for as long as she's been on air.

(01:05:53):
That's too long. So you gotta speak up. And sometimes
there's risk to that, especially if this is sexual assault.
It seems yeah, I don't know what me too violations means,
but it feels sexual. I had a situation where I
had a female higher up who it wasn't sexual, but

(01:06:13):
she was problematic. I had something happened with one of
the male manager and I told her because we didn't
have HR set up yet, and she called me in
the room and asked me what I told her to
say in front of him, and I remember I was like,
I said that Jose called us bitches and slammed the

(01:06:35):
door in my face. And I remember when I got
let go of that job. She threw you under the bus, basically,
threw me under the bus basically. And she was also
very problematic. She was hot and cold, she was dealing
with a lot mental health ship that she wasn't working
on and projecting and who if I hadn't been fired,
I would have quit because it wasn't a dream job

(01:06:58):
because the dream was no longer there. It was a
lot of problems. If anything, I recommend going to HR
or if you quit, don't feel like you can't get
another position, Like is this the only company? I get
that it is a dream job, but it's not right now.
It seems like a nightmaire. Yeah, you're talking about feeling
like you're a slave or like demanding things and treating

(01:07:19):
everyone with disrespect. Those are things that you can document
and take note of and bring to higher ups. The
comment is inappropriate for sure. One of the issues is
will she be believed because it seems like this girl
is playing sweet face when everyone else is around and
then being nasty behind people's backs. And you know those

(01:07:40):
people exist in workplaces and it's toxic to work with. So,
like Kia said that, this is not a dream, so
I would talk to HR like people are recommending, and
then protect yourself and you when you're emotional and probably
nervous in that conversation, you're not going to be able
to remember everything. So just keeping try of what actually

(01:08:01):
happened could help you to keep taps, write dates times too.
If you're gonna record on the low record on the loan.
But yeah, yeah, that sucks. I'm sorry, um, and look
for another job. Sometimes, when you're stuck in a situation
because you think you need to be grateful for whatever,

(01:08:25):
you're missing out on other opportunities that could actually be
your drinking job. All such great advice. Well, cringing at
work on, clench those face muscles and be on your
way to happiness because you deserve better. Hallelujah. Amen. All right,

(01:08:47):
that was a fun episode. Guys. I know learned so much.
I hope you guys learned something at home and appreciate y'all.
Tune in and please remember to share review this podcast.
It helps us out and we want to know what
you think. Also, come kiki with us on our social
media at Obama's Other Daughters on Instagram, O D Improv
on Twitter and on Facebook at Obama's Other Daughters. And

(01:09:11):
if you need some advice like cringing at work, make
sure you write us and you can send us your
letters at O O D Podcast at gmail dot com.
You can't wait to hang with you all next week.
Until then, take care of yourself. Bye bye, Audios. You
Down is the production of Shonda Land Audio and partnership

(01:09:34):
with I heart Radio. For more podcasts from Shonda land Audio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.