We the (Black) People

I'm done making We the (Black) People because my heart hasn't been in it for a minute, which makes the show quality decline. Follow me on Instagram, though.Music CreditPeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)

A look into how magic and religion coexist in Black history with Professor Yvonne Chireau, author of Black Magic: Religion and the African American Conjuring Tradition.Music CreditPeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)

Generally, I like to talk about labor sometime around May Day. This year, we're talking about a place that has employed a lot of Black people over the last 150 years or so but has not always shown us a lot of love: the post office. For decades, Black people were not even legally allowed to work at the post office, then Black people had to fight in the workplace and inside unions for equality. This episode, we're going to look at the struggle all the way up to the largest illegal (also called wildcat) strike in American history in 1970. I'll talk through that history with Professor Philip Rubio, author of There's Always Work at the Post Office: African American Postal Workers and the Fight for Jobs Justice and Equity. Happy belated May Day!Music CreditPeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)

Turns out, negative views towards disability in American culture and society have a history linked to racism and slavery. So, we're going to talk about that history because ableism is not the default, it is a construct that can be challenged. I have this conversation with Professor Jenifer Barclay, author of The Mark of Slavery: Disability, Race, and Gender in Antebellum America.Music CreditPeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)

Most of the students who challenged white schools to take Black students and then volunteered to be the first to desegregate those white schools were girls and young women. Dr. Rachel Devlin, author of A Girl Stands at the Door, seeks to explain why school desegregation was championed by girls and young women and to tell their stories.Music CreditPeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)

This episode, we're talking about one of my favorite TV shows of all time: Sanford & Son! We'll also get into Good Times and a little into The Jeffersons. All 3 of these shows are 1970s Black sitcoms under Tandem Productions. These shows were a window into the reality of Black life like nothing before them. Yet, what often gets overlooked in discussing these shows is the work that Black actors and writers did behind the scenes to demand respect for themselves and authentic depictions of Black people on screen. Enter my guest Dr. Adrian Sebro, author of Scratchin' and Survivin' Hustle Economics and the Black Sitcoms of Tandem Productions, to tell us some of these behind the scenes stories.Music CreditPeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)

We are once again doing something a little different on We the (Black) People. Boulder, Colorado just opened a Black history exhibit called Proclaiming Colorado's Black History and I have the lead curator - Colorado native and soul food scholar Adrian Miller - and the oral history liaison - Minister Glenda Strong Robinson, an NAACP and church historian in Boulder - on my show to talk about it. Boulder (and Colorado overall) is a small Black community with a mighty contribution to American history. We get into the story of how this exhibit came to be, how other Black communities can activate their history, and some of the stories they collected as they brought the exhibit to life.Want to learn more about the exhibit and listen to some oral history? Here's the website: https://museumofboulder.org/exhibit/proclaiming-colorados-black-history/Music CreditPeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)

Just a quick little clip show because We the (Black) People has been out a whole 3 years and that's wild.

This episode traces the changes in racism, antiracism, and racial awareness over the last 90 years that allow We the (Black) People to exist. Today, racism is illegal and talking about race is taboo, yet the internet makes racism and the fight against it much more visible. Professor Rob Eschmann, author of When the Hood Comes Off: Racism and Resistance in the Digital Age, explains the contradictions and activist possibilities the internet opens up for us. Music CreditPeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)

While fast food is now associated with poorer, Black communities and all kinds of health disparities in Black people, McDonald's wasn't originally interested in expanding franchises into Black neighborhoods. Professor Marcia Chatelain, author of Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America, talks about how fast food became Black. It is a story that involves McDonald's as an ally of Black America, an enemy of Black America, but always a powerful institution that evoked a lot of reactions as it allowed Black people to open franchises and became increasing tied to its Black customer base.

We've talked about how important Haiti and Liberia were as symbols for Black Americans whether or not they ever went to either of the two Black countries. This episode is about those who went to Ghana - some by choice and some on the run. Ghanaian independence was a huge moment of Pan-African hope for a free Africa, and many Black Americans were fascinated by that prospect. Professor Kevin Gaines, author of American Africans in Ghana: Black Expatriates and the Civil Rights Era, is here to talk about the small group of Black Americans who visited or migrated to Ghana - figures like Maya Angelou, Pauli Murray, Julian Mayfield, and Malcolm X.And, similar to Liberia, the legacy of that era is a continued open invitation from Ghana to Black America.

I'm doing Black oral history work now, y'all. I got into a program that is training oral historians to collect community stories and it's super exciting. I want to share some of this exciting journey with you. So, I talked with my instructor Alissa Rae Funderburk (an oral historian at the Margaret Walker Center of Jackson State University) about how to get started collecting family oral history. She definitely makes me feel more equipped to do the work. And this won't be the last you hear about my oral history journey.Music CreditPeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)

It's a pretty short one this time around. Black Americans didn't write a lot of recipes and cookbooks in the 19th and 20th centuries, but what they did write tells a lot about Black identity. Professor Rafia Zafar gets into some of the interesting things she discovered while writing Recipes for Respect: African American Meals and Meaning.Music CreditPeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)

We're spending this May Day episode with Black women in St. Louis from the 1930s to the 1960s. Their fight for economic justice was about more than hours or wages, it was about dignity and quality of life overall. And they were marginalized in the workplace and in their communities. Maybe, they have something to teach us today. Professor Keona Ervin, author of Gateway to Equality: Black Women and the Struggle for Economic Justice in St. Louis, thinks so.Music CreditPeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)

This episode, we're going to discuss who and what makes hip-hop authentic with Professor Jeffrey Ogbar, author of Hip-hop Revolution. It's not an easy answer as hip-hop has evolved a lot in its short lifetime and has fans with strong, clashing opinions.Music CreditPeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)

We talk about religion and Christianity a lot in studying Black history. It's almost assumed that God and religion are at the center of all Black stories. Not only have Black people held a variety of religious beliefs in America, many leaders questioned or even rejected God and religion altogether. This episode is some of their stories. Tune in as we unpack the assumption of Black religiosity and the stories of several Black skeptics. My guest is Dr. Christopher Cameron, author of Black Freethinkers: A History of African American Secularism.Music CreditPeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)

For a man that historians know very little about, Crispus Attucks gets a lot of attention. In this episode, instead of just rehashing the life of Crispus Attucks, we're going to follow his memory. Some remember him as a hero, others as a troublemaker, and some ignore him altogether, and these conflicting narratives of Attuck's place in American history tell us a lot about Black people's place (and hopes to carve a place) in the American story. My guest is Professor Mitch Kachun, author of First Martyr of Liberty: Crispus Attucks in American Memory.Music CreditPeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)

Throughout the 20th century, Black people across the country took on the experiment of pooling their resources together to provide for each other. These experiments were called cooperatives. They remain, often, understudied and discussed because they were not one, long, sustained movement. Yet, when you focus on how much each one was able to accomplish in its time, they are incredible. Discussing two of those cooperatives with me is Professor Irvin Hunt, author of Dreaming the Present: Time, Aesthetics, and the Black Cooperative Movement.The first cooperative we discuss is Fannie Lou Hamer's Freedom Farm and its pluripresence (it's a new word for me too, don't worry, Dr. Hunt defines it).Then, we discuss Ella Baker, George Schulyer, the Young Negroes’ Cooperative League, and the idea of it being a planned failure rather than a failure to plan.In a time where mutual aid is growing in popularity when the state cannot provide, 20th-century Black cooperatives have a lot to teach us.Music CreditPeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)

Before the era of the episode, Black Vaudeville Performers Wore Blackface?, Black entertainers were often found on stage singing spirituals or in minstrel shows. In both cases, white people paid to see 'authentic' depictions of Black life, which, for them, had to trace back to slavery. This episode's guest is Professor Sandra Jean Graham, author of Spirituals and the Birth of a Black Entertainment Industry. The legacy of spirituals on stage and even their minstrel parodies is that spirituals are still a part of American culture. They may not look or sound the same as folk spirituals during slavery, but they are what have lasted through 3 centuries.Music CreditPeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)

Celebrating two years of We the (Black) People, I bought a set of custom stickers that I want to share with y'all. Email me at wetheblackpeoplepod@gmail.com with 3 things you've learned from this show by 11/30 for a chance to win one.Music CreditPeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)