Juneteenth is a holiday that celebrates our freedom from slavery. In this day and age, black folks have all the same rights as everyone else on paper, but are we really free? What does that freedom look like? Hear Shannon and Lisa's perspective on this topic in episode 1 of Blacktivities Pod.

Free-ish

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I'm Shannon and I'm Lisa and you're listening to Blacktivities,

a celebration of all things, black, black culture, black history, black

perspectives, and black panache.

Celebrating our blackness doesn't mean exclusion.

Everybody's invited, but you gotta come in and have a seat.

So let the blacktivities begin.

Welcome again to our very first episode of Blacktivities.

I'm Shannon and I am Mona Lisa, and we are the talented duo who will be serving

y'all a whole lot of black girl magic.

I have to say one.

I wanna say this to you.

Yes.

It's Juneteeth.

I wanna say this really quick guys.

I wanna get this out the way I want to first applaud you for this awesome idea.

And then also thank you for allowing this opportunity to come and, you

know, be on this with you, because this is gonna be such a treat.

The things that you have planned and the things that I have come together

and we planned is gonna be amazing.

I'm telling you it's gonna be an awesome.

We got a lot planned...

yes.

So it's Juneteenth 2022.

And we intentionally named this episode freeish because freedom

is what this holiday celebrates.

So, Lisa, I don't know if you've done this before, but my husband and I noticed this.

When we went for a walk one day in our neighborhood, we live in a

pretty diverse neighborhood in a historically not so diverse city.

Mm, okay.

Some white people came walking in the other direction

from the way we were walking.

And when we got to where they were, we stepped off the sidewalk

to move out of their way.

And my husband was like, why do we do that?

Cause those white people, they didn't act like they were gonna

step to the side and move out the way they just kept on walking.

Like, that's just what was supposed to happen.

I think more or less when it comes down to stuff like that, it's just, I

don't wanna say it's embedded in our DNA.

It's just like, I don't know.

It's just like an automatic thing that we have grasped.

And when we do run into terms on, you know, what, I'm not gonna

step, I gon' try them up cause who, who they think they messing with.

This look as if, you know, we're the challenging ones.

Like we got the attitude problems.

So I think it's just something that is just, it's taught to us.

Well, I think we are free-ish...

Which brings us to SAC's facts.

So Abraham Lincoln, right?

He issued the emancipation proclamation in 1863, saying that

slaves in states controlled by the Confederates should be free.

But.

That didn't apply to the entire us to be.

And good old Texas was like, huh.

Oh, you talking about us?

Uh, carry on.

so then two and a half years later.

They sent them boys, the federal troops to Galveston, who said bruh,

and they freed everybody else.

And that's why we celebrate Juneteenth.

So slavery...

Imagine this, imagine this, sorry to cut you off, but imagine this

though, the job you have right now.

Okay.

Now, you know, okay.

Yes.

It, you pay your bills.

This is something that you do like, okay.

You may have a little love, but when it's time to go, it's time to go.

Imagine somebody come and say, why you still here?

And you like, what you mean?

Like, oh yeah.

They left like three hours ago.

Right.

You gon' be mad.

Right.

So a slavery ended on paper in December of 1865 with the 13th amendment,

which sounds like a long time ago, but that dog on Jim Crow think about this

segregation only ended in 1964 with the passing of the civil rights act.

That's only 58 years ago, right?

Like our grandparents and some of our parents experienced that.

So we are not that far removed.

From all this racism and stuff, and that is SAC's facts.

That's crazy.

That is really crazy.

So let's talk about that.

What are some ways that you think we're freeish, Talisa?

Free ish.

Well, coming from where I come from, and I don't wanna throw out the field where

I work, but when it comes to finances, when it comes to opportunities, I feel

like, yes, we are giving the leeway.

When we start our own businesses before it's getting that jump start or getting

that, you know, That little loan or money or whatever, but sometimes, mm.

It just doesn't work out that way.

So yeah, we have we're freeish when it comes to certain things and being

entrepreneurs and all of that, but when it comes to certain resources mm.

They kind of like, nah, get, get in your line, stay in your lane.

So I think with that, we kind of free-ish.

Yeah.

Cuz it's like, they're like, okay, you know, you have technically on paper,

all the rights as everybody else.

Mm-hmm . But when you start getting to a certain level or you start mm-hmm

to step into their territory, it's like, okay, now we got a problem.

We gotta make some kind of rule that doesn't look like it's going backward.

Mm-hmm but we gotta stop you from exercising all the rights that you have.

Right.

And then another thing with us is whenever we're like, even though

we're doing it the right way, um, we're trying to go by these laws.

And like you said before, they'll figure out some type

of way to kind of push us back.

Anytime that we are combative, then we're the problem.

Hmm.

Say that again?

Anytime we're combative, then we're the problem.

The angry black woman.

Yes.

And don't get me wrong.

I love, I love, you know, being, you know, the strong

woman, you know what I'm saying?

But there are certain situations where I'm like, yo, like that ain't right.

Like, this is what we're gonna do.

This is the laws.

This is, you know, section three of this and this and this.

And because I'm bringing it up, they're like, well, why do you wanna

come over here and cause a problem.

Right?

What you so mad for?

That's my that's that's oh, lemme tell you.

If I had a penny for every time I heard what you so mad for.

What you mad for?

You sit there dumbfounded like are, you kidding?

Like seriously?

What I'm mad for?

I'll tear all this up over here.

I'll slang all this up over here!

I'll show you mad!

But we, but that's something else that we have taught that we have to

figure out a way, respectively, figure out a way to not be the angry person,

even though they portray us to be.

And that's something else that's embedded in our DNA is turning the other cheek.

Right.

I'm thinking about someone that I work with, who, you know, we have

certain things we're supposed to do and this person never does what we

have been told we're supposed to do.

Alright be careful now.

So this person is of the Caucasian persuasion [mm-hmm]

and it's like, everything that authority tells us we're supposed

to do this person does not do it.

They do the opposite.

Right.

But let me do that.

Would I have a job?

I really don't think so.

No.

Cause I say, if you did go up, we break snitch code.

I'm like, yo, why so and so, so, so ain't gotta do this.

They gon' look at you like, what's your problem?

Why you so mad?

What you worried about it for?

And then hence, we get told to stay in our lane, so [right].

That's why I choose my battles wisely nowadays.

Yes, I grasp the whole freeish concept, but I choose my battles wisely.

Well, think too, about the NFL.

[Mm.] The whole thing with Brian Flores, the coach.

[Ooh mm-hmm.] When you think about the structure of the NFL,

to me, that's like, you know, this, the rich white slave owners.

Right who own these teams?

[Mm-hmm] but then mostly on the teams are black people.

What they said 70% of the NFL players are black.

Is that, is that the right one?

I don't have a specific stat for that, but...

I think so 70% of the NFL players are black.

If I'm not mistaken.

And it's like, you know, when you start saying things about not

having black coaches and not having black owners, [mm-hmm] , it's like,

okay, y'all stay in y'all's lane.

[Mm-hmm] you you're getting some money, but [right] how much money

are they making off of these players?

Exactly, exactly.

Okay.

The way that Brian Flores, the way he found out that he didn't get that job.

Three days before his actual interview, he got a congratulatory

text message, the wonderful infamous text message about how awesome and

amazing this this contract is gonna be.

And he's like, wait a minute.

I haven't interviewed for that yet, but wasn't the other guy named Brian,

the guy, the guy that got it mixed up.

[Yep.] I'm gonna be honest with you.

I kind of dealt with something like that.

Where I was applying for a job.

I did get to interview for it, but it was told to me that they

were having a congratulatory, like party for the other person.

And I didn't even get notification.

I didn't get it yet.

So I'm like, oh, but they wanna know why I'm mad [right].

With the NFL.

I really feel like if they really want to have it to where it's freeish or give

the same opportunities across the board.

They, they would've did it by.

It doesn't make any sense.

As long as you know, we have been freeish for companies to still come up with these.

What's the word I'm looking for?

I don't wanna say offers [excuses].

Well, excuse no, no.

I'm, I'm going in a direction of they coming into where they, they

make a goal of by 2040, we're going to hire, you know, more minority.

Like why is it that you have to go that route when you just be fair?

Right.

And then they'd be like, oh, well we can't find enough qualified candidates.

Ooh.

That sounded like a company.

I ain't even gonna say.

I, and then too, it's like, it's hard when.

Let's say to be fair.

Okay.

These companies do come up with these plans or these goals, uh,

you know, of how many people they wanna hire by a certain amount.

Then that person who isn't white is gonna feel discriminated against

because it's like, yo, they got this pledge or this vow of how this many

people over this certain amount of time that I'm gonna get overlooked.

And then what about their education?

Which I know, you know, but it's all about being fairness.

It's, it's all about that.

So I feel like if everybody just go normal, just look at the qualifications,

look, you know what I'm saying?

Stop looking at who the actual person is.

Then we wouldn't run into that issue.

But is that possible though?

Will that, do you think that'll backfire on you though, if you're actually looking

at the qualifications of the person.

Their resume and hire them based off of that and not actually looking at them.

Now, here's the thing though.

Shamika, ain't gonna get hired over Julie, some, some kinda way they're gonna

figure out, but also part of what I feel like is post- traumatic slave syndrome.

[mm-hmm] like, we always tell our kids that we have to be twice as good and

more qualified than everybody else.

[Mm-hmm] and we do [mm-hmm] so I don't know that it would backfire because I

feel like we are already overqualified.

[Right.] There's a lot of things that we do because of post-traumatic slave

syndrome from the food we eat...

you like chitlins?

No.

Ugh.

I did when I was little, don't get me wrong because I didn't

know what the hell I was eating.

Look, you probably take, like, take my black card some of the stuff I don't eat.

Like I don't, I don't buy Kool-Aid we don't do Kool-Aid at my house.

Oh, well we're on a health kick, so...

Oh, okay.

We don't, I drank that when I was younger, before I got health conscious.

Yeah.

I don't buy Hawaiian punch.

That's a no-no.

But even looking at that, like our food, the things that are quote

unquote, like black culture foods, like the Kool-Aid like the Hawaiian punch...

it's cheap stuff that we could afford because we wasn't

making that money or how the same opportunities as other people.

Right.

But.

It's also killing us.

[Yes.] Because of all the stuff that they put in it.

Right.

When last time you fried some chicken?

I don't eat fried chicken.

See the look, Shannon.

They gonna take our goddamn card.

We be doing this.

They ain't gonna let us have this podcast, but guys, we still black.

Yes.

We still black.

We're just trying to break generational curses and eat healthy.

Right.

We have to free ourselves from these things that we do as black people.

Right.

Cause I'll be damn if I get on high blood pressure meds.

Oh, I'm already there.

Oh see.

I can't man.

It's close.

That's the thing like from the food we eat to our health

issues, [mm-hmm] even healthcare.

You know, cuz they used to say that we didn't feel any pain [mm-hmm]

but we have the highest rate of mothers who die during childbirth.

Still to this day.

[Yeah.] Another thing too, what kind of sparks me is right now people buying

houses and I was talking about how small business owners, they have a hard time

getting loans, but what about getting assistance on purchasing a house?

Well, there was a certain financial company in the news here recently because

that number, they pledged to help a significant amount of African Americans

with purchasing their first home.

But when they went back and looked at the numbers, that wasn't a really big change.

I think after George Floyd's death, a lot of companies pledged

a lot of things, but I don't see a lot of those things happening.

Right.

When you do the questionnaire, when you're purchasing a house and

that's the first day at the top, they ask you what's your race.

And they say back then it was because they wanted to make sure

you were staying in the area where if, if you're African American, you

weren't African American up there.

They wanna make sure you stayed in that African American suburb or community

or wherever you were, and that you didn't, you wasn't shown houses,

you know, in the Caucasian area.

Redlining.

Yeah, there we go.

But now I remember being in, I was in a training class and I was like,

okay, well, if that was like that back, then why do we still do this now?

They say, oh, we just wanna make sure that we're keeping record of it being fair.

And I'm like, why does it matter if they have, you know, money or if they

have a program they qualified for to help them with their down payment

or, you know, they have the credit the back then why does it matter?

Again, regardless on what people say and the pledges it's it's there.

It's it's it is there and I don't see it going away anytime soon.

I had to take my blood pressure medicine.

Oh, okay.

I got to give you that.

So I got a game for you.

Okay.

Let's get it.

This game.

It's called freeish.

So I'm gonna read a right that we, as black folk gained after slavery ended.

And you tell me when you think we got that right.

So it, am I giving you like an exact date or like...

Give me a year.

Okay.

Okay.

The right to have a government or a national defense job.

When did we get that right?

A national or government defense job?

Hmm.

I have to say, cuz I think about the black sisters that worked for NASA.

So was that in the forties?

Yeah, like 1943.

Ooh.

Yeah, 1941.

Oh, okay.

I was close.

We got the right in 1941.

Okay.

Okay.

Yes.

Okay.

The right to sit wherever we want on the bus.

Ah, hell um, sixties, 1960.

I'm not sure on that one.

You're close.

It was actually 1956.

56.

Okay.

[Mm-hmm now] I was thinking about Rosa and her shit and then all other stuff.

Yep.

When did we get the right to go to a bus terminal where white people were present?

Was that after?

It was.

So would that be 63?

That's close.

It was 1961.

61.

Okay.

Right.

So we could sit where we wanted to on the bus in 1956 [mm-hmm] but we still

couldn't be in the same bus terminal.

[Ah, okay.] So that didn't happen till 1961.

Okay.

When did we get the right to attend school with white people?

Oh, little Ruby bridges.

What was that?

Uh, hold on, hold on, hold on.

Ruby bridge.

Is that the same time?

Like 1960 ish.

It's around, it's around the same time.

1957.

Okay.

All right.

When did we get the right to vote without having to take a test?

Ooh, I'm not sure on that one.

You gotta help me out with that.

1964.

Okay.

Okay.

When did we get the chance to vote without having to pay?

All of that had to be the same time.

Cause that was going pretty hard then.

So I'll say 63.

Ooh, that's close 66.

66.

Okay.

Yep.

Okay.

You're doing pretty good.

[Okay.] When did we get the right to buy a house wherever we want?

Now this is on paper because we all know that we still really technically

can't buy a house wherever we want.

Right, right.

I'm not sure.

Help me with that one.

How about 1968?

That is not that long ago.

No, it's not.

That's that's, that's really sad.

When did we get the right to read?

Right to read.

Oh Lord.

You know, it's some black folks that still can't read.

We have the right to now, before it was illegal.

Now that had to be earlier on.

[Yeah.] Um, so we are looking at like, was it still in like the 18

hundreds, like mid 18 hundreds, like 1850 or something like that?

Ooh, 1861.

I was trying to research that actually, and I couldn't find an exact date,

like a law that was put into place.

[Mm-hmm] I think it was just that the...

well, I think it was just spread it out throughout different like states

or with sections or regions at the time.

I don't think it went for everyone so...

well, it looked like after the civil war ended, it was

just kind of like, okay, then they started opening black schools.

So.

Then the literacy rate jumped up a lot.

All right.

So you did pretty good.

Yay.

I mean I only got like technically one right, but...

You did better than I probably would.

All right.

So the last thing we would do is your spoken word segment.

Oh yes.

So guys, what I would like to do is share something with you guys.

Yes, I am Talisa by day by, but by night, I do go by Mona Lisa.

I am a poet.

I have been practicing and writing and doing spoken word for about

three or four years now and it is the dopest outlet there is.

This one here is untitled, but just bear with me, cuz it is very dope.

The problem today is this generation doesn't respect

the rules of the streetlights.

Represent what's black, right?

Fist high out strong like a statue.

So accept this repetition till we get it right.

Seasoned cast iron skillets, hand me downs or queen brown sugar

shear stockings on a Sunday.

Mama's chili and granny's collards.

And for some daddy's love.

That laugh that he had.

The vibrations of his pride.

We usually say it ain't like it used to be unfortunately well, and that's just

how it is or words and phrases we use.

Danez said there aren't no Amber alerts for amber- skinned girls.

Think about it.

Girls who are insulted and injected and may feel like their cellulite is is

far, far more than the cottage cheese.

Her melanin, mocked by faces who look similar to hers, similar to his.

Eulogy.

Hater.

And we must protest our words and phrases embedded in our DNA.

I'm tired.

I'm fucking tired.

Tired of reminiscing of false pasts where we ignored uncle Robert's rubbing

of the little girl's lace bloomers.

Tired of beef between your granny and your great aunt Mary.

The beef that has been seasoned and marinated for years and was spoon fed

to us for two and three generations.

Think about it.

Tired of having to reference our messed up dust swept up under granny's

rugs, tired of performance, black folks, discrepancies to be noticed

as a poet, praying to God above that.

We have nothing, but we do.

We keep reminiscing about our false hopes.

Now I don't wanna take away from some of the greatest back in the day.

I mean, black in the day.

I mean, back in the day, Uncle Phil was the greatest, but he wasn't daddy.

I smile and I smirk happy because music still gets me through it.

Ain't nothing that you can say about my tardiness, like the way the

refugees and Lauryn Hill's riffs.

Love and happiness brought pure green pastures, admire the present, the

present of how we are more than business owners and people who think outside

the box instead of a box holding 10 of us, that was only meant for two.

We refuse to wait until the well runs dry.

Taught to believe that we are the problem when in reality, we are the future.

See, I have an idea.

This idea of our childhood happy memories being taught down in the field

of flowers left only to reminiscing.

When cousins was dropped off for play dates, taught to obtain

knowledge and share it freely, but it's like bold and graffiti.

Imagine what we will be if we had a really rainbow, but just

don't take my word for it.

Thank you.

Yes.

All righty.

Well, this has been a treat!.

Yes, yes, yes.

Yes.

If you want to continue today's discussion, join us at the cookout

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Yes, ma'am.

Thank you again for being part of our first official episode of Blacktivities.

We hope that you'll join us again for episode two, where we'll

be talking about black hair.

Oh, yes, I can't wait!

But until then, Kings and Queens, keep doing big things.