Transcription completed: August 19, 2021 Completed by: Brenda Alexander
DCP EP 77: “Go Back to Africa” ––A Joyous Return to Pan Africanism
Gerren Keith Gaynor [00:00:03] Welcome to Dear Culture, the podcast that gives you news you can trust for the culture. I’m
your co-host, Gerren Keith Gaynor, managing editor at theGrio.
Shana Pinnock [00:00:10] And I’m your co-host Shana Pinnock, social media director at theGrio. And this week, we’re asking Dear Culture: how can we get more in touch with our diasporic groups?
Shana Pinnock [00:00:27] Before we get started, I just want to say my topic for this week of what’s been on my mind, it does talk about sexual assault. It does talk about rape. So this is a trigger warning for our audience. We want you to know that we love you. We send you all that love and support. But if this is a topic that is triggering to you, please fast forward.
Gerren Keith Gaynor [00:00:51] So, Shana, I can’t wait to dive into this amazing episode that we have for our listeners this week. But first, as always, please tell me what’s on your mind this week.
Shana Pinnock [00:01:03] What is on my mind this week is Really rabid gross stan culture, as well as how the media and I recognize that we are the media, Gerren, but, you know, we we can call it we can call everybody to the table. that’s fine, including ourselves and just how the media plays into that as well as really just the unfairness of celebrity culture in general now, and I recognize that this is possibly putting myself on the front lines, I don’t know if any Nicki Minaj stans listen, the barbs if they listen to this show and perhaps I might have to be careful of being boxed or something like that. But when I tell you…Those barbs are nutty, and I say this as a member of the beyhive, OK, y’all have problems. This past week, a story was was released, ironically, not on certain sites like the Shade Room, but we’ll get back to that. But a story was released that basically the victim, Kenneth Petty’s, victim, Nicki Minaj’s husband, who he was, he pled guilty in the 90s to attempted rape. If I’m not mistaken, the facts of the case is that he actually did rape this young lady, but took a plea deal and pled guilty to attempted rape. And a couple of years ago, when Nicki first got with this bum, she she definitely faced some backlash because everyone was like why would you be marrying someone who is on the sex offender registry? Why would you be married having a kid with someone who is a violent sexual predator? Nicki, if we all remember, took to her queen radio and there were several interviews and things that she did and she said, oh, well, you know, the girl they were dating at the time and the girl actually, like, lied. She took her story back, et cetera, et cetera. None of that is true. But those that was the information that Nicki put out there into the stratosphere of celebrity gossip. That young woman or not that young. And that woman went and decided that she was going to sue Nicki and Kenneth because she says ever since that time, ever since that time, that she has been subject to harassment, bribery and just a lot of just gross behavior, not just from Nicki Minaj herself, but like other people who are affiliated with the two of them. There are a lot of people who like to say, oh, well, you know, old girl, the candidate recording, you got to go listen to it. One fool said that in our Instagram comments on this story to which I responded, No, she never said that. If you actually like, let’s let’s not just go off of what Nicki said. Actually, listen to what she said. She said, a childhood friend by the name of black, according to the the paperwork that the paperwork that was filed in this suit offered her twenty thousand dollars and then slid her a green folder that had a pre written recanting of the events that happened to her, the violent rape that happened to her that she also had to do was sign. She said, no, thank you. She took the cash. She put it on the seat of the of the floor. She put it on the floor of the car and was like, you’re like, again, you’re a childhood friend. I can’t believe that you would even do this. She says since then, she had Nicki approach her and say things like, you know, I can help make your situation a little easier financially, a bribe. And oh, I can also what I could throw on top of there is I know your daughter’s birthday is coming up. I can send her, like, birthday wishes or something like that. So which I’m like. So like Nicki is a villain, bro, she’s a villain because so now you’re sitting here saying that I should recant. I should say that I lied about something violent that happened to me as a teenager for me, a few measly shekels and a cameo from you girl who was who raised you? I am I am baffled by it. But actually I’m not that baffled because Nicki Minaj and I say this is someone who at the onset of Nicki career, I loved Nicki. I was never a Barb but loved Nicki. Thought she was. Yes. New and fresh and everything to the industry and to the culture. I loved her until she went on her pop rampage when she decided that she needed white fans. Cool, whatever. As a native New Yorker, I was here for itty bitty piggy like all of that stuff. But Nicki Minaj has a history of being problematic. She is not for women. She is not for women’s empowerment. I don’t care what she says. I don’t care who she is, is trying to pretend that she’s bringing along or that she’s trying to lift as they climb. No, she doesn’t. She does not. And the fact that she has a history of supporting violent predators is a problem for me. And it’s not even on some oh cancel Nicki Minaj stuff. It’s just it’s gross. And we should all take a moment and not get so lost and entrenched in fandom that that behavior is OK with you. She sat here and was paying for
and supporting the case against her convicted pedophile brother. She sat here and was still making music with that little white belt of white Spanish boy with the skittle-colored hair. And given all of his stuff. Like what? I’m surprised she didn’t have a song when XXX Tentacion or whatever that little boy’s name was before he passed. I don’t know. She probably does. I thought listening to Nicki’s stuff a long time ago, but it’s just it’s gross. It’s really gross. And then these fans, she sicks her rabid fans onto people. I did not forget, Nicki, that you went and had just because a young lady put out a tweet that basically said, hey, maybe perhaps not because you’re you’re getting a little older, perhaps make music that’s a little bit more attuned to your age instead of this pop type of stuff. And you set up there and had that girl doxed. It’s crazy and the shade room, y’all not slick. you report on any of the body’s messiness, any of the bodies and every other body is nonsense and trash. But conveniently, y’all have nothing to say about this, about Nicki. I see y’all. I know what y’all are on. And it’s Is. Cool. I get it. You know, can’t can’t rock the boat on certain things, but just know it it delegitimize, well you weren’t that legitimate, but it delegitimizes a lot of what y’all say that y’all are about.
Gerren Keith Gaynor [00:08:17] you know Shana this whole Nicki Minaj situation is very, very, very messy. And but also on a serious note, as a victim of sexual assault, molestation as a child, I do not take this lightly. And I think that is very irresponsible for Nicki Minaj to insert herself in this way. Like, listen, you are a public figure. If you want to marry a man who was convicted for attempted rape, that’s your business. But you don’t have the right to try to influence people about how they feel about said husband. You chose to marry him. People have the right to have public opinions about this man because you are a public figure. It also doesn’t just it doesn’t really bode well for someone like Nicki Minaj. And to your point, Shana, that I would also agree that Nicki Minaj has not demonstrated that she is a proponent for women, even though the beef with her and Lil Kim, the beef with her and Cardi B, so much of that seems like it was rooted in this this desire to hold on to her place in hip hop. The idea that there can only be one woman I think is ironic that that Nicki Minaj for almost a decade kind of carried women in hip hop and kind of opened the door for more women to succeed in hip hop, for her to be to now have this reputation for being somebody who is anti woman. I can’t think of many songs with her and other female rappers. I think of the Cardi B feature. But that’s what led to the Cardi B – Nicki Minaj beef and how she interacts with her contemporaries and even the women that came before her in hip hop or we’re talking about her actions or alleged actions involving her husband’s past is really unfortunate because she proclaims to be for women. But when you are trying to use your power and your influence and your your your your your superstardom to silence another black woman who is a victim, regardless of what you might feel about your husband, whether you think that I don’t know what she thinks, I don’t even want to even presume to assume what she thinks. But we to not create space and hold space for women to be believed, for women to be, to be heard is the reason why we’re having the problem that we’re having when it comes to sexual assault and sexual abuse as it relates to women especially, but not just women. All there are men who are also victims. And I speak for them as well. And it’s hurtful when you see people try to to silence people in this way. It’s it’s it’s honestly disgusting. There’s just no excuse for it. And I salute this woman for coming out publicly because it’s she is putting herself in the fire, is not she can potentially put herself in harm’s way. You know, you mentioned being docked. I mean, that’s a real thing. We’re in that that climate right now in social media where people are having their personal business being exposed, having having their safety be in jeopardy for speaking their truth. And that’s just not cool.
Shana Pinnock [00:11:37] And let’s remember, like, she’s had to move her and her family has had to move several times since then. And also something else that really just it just clicked in my mind because I feel like Nicki stans forget these days. But the North remembers I remember Nicki pretending to support Remy when she was in prison and free Remy this and that lot. And then Remi gets out and, oh, like you’re you’re you’re actually a mean girl. And so now Remy has to go to go out here and put out this whole, like, ether beat, you know, diss track for you. And you went silent. I remember your response, but it wasn’t that. I remember that you responded eventually, but it wasn’t that memorable. Let’s also like let’s also not forget, because a lot of people are like, oh, well, these are just rumors and allegations that she tried to bribe this woman or this woman’s family. But let’s not forget, when her brother was facing charges that were also allegations that Nicki and Nicki’s people were trying to bribe that young girl’s family, because if I’m if I’m not mistaken, the brother was convicted of molesting his girlfriend’s child. And so it was it’s gross, it’s gross, dude, like that’s that’s pretty much I got.
Gerren Keith Gaynor [00:12:59] I hate to go from one heavy topic to an even heavier topic, but I would be remiss if I also did not talk about the crises that are happening across the globe in Haiti and in Afghanistan, as we know. I’ll start with Haiti. Over the last week, they had seven point two magnitude earthquake that has so far killed at least 14 hundred Haitians. This is after the 2010 earthquake that killed over two hundred thousand Haitians. And this also comes just a month after their president,GiovannelliMoise,wasassassinated.AndsoHaitiisgoingthroughalot.AndthenalsoAfghanistan. President Biden has chosen to withdraw out of Afghanistan. This is a promise that he’s made. Many presidents have made this promise. So this is not necessarily surprising. But what was surprising, at least to the Biden administration, was the way in which the Taliban would start to occupy and take over Afghanistan and the Afghan soldiers that were trained by American soldiers to fight back and to secure their country. They chose they have they basically have chosen to not fight back. It’s not
quite clear why their own president left and fled. And it’s if you seen the videos of of Afghan people running, clinging on to a US military plane, trying to desperately not be left behind. But they were that desperate. So much so that unfortunately, there were reportedly two people who fell from that plane who were holding onto the plane while it was in the air. And there’s still like some not clear reporting about what was happening there. But I believe that there were at least two Afghan people who fell from the plane and perished. And what connects these two crises for me is one that involves black and brown people and also the the role of America. And so I personally have very complicated feelings around the ways in which America inserts itself in geopolitics. I understand that there are just some things that we that America feels that it has to do to protect its interests, to protect democracy. And I am not a proponent for war. And but the mission for going into Afghanistan was to destabilize the Taliban, to find and find, capture and or kill Osama bin Laden, who was killed by US military in 2011 under the Obama administration. And so the mission, according to Biden, is that the missions over that nation building is not what the point of this war was supposed to be, although that is what America did. They helped the Afghans try to beef up their military to to fight back. But the Taliban is now back in control, it seems, or will be in full control once the US is completely out. And it’s a mess. It’s really a mess and is really but more importantly, I just really empathize again with these black and brown people because they’re in Afghanistan. There are women who are who are who are heartbroken by what is happening because Taliban, they they follow a very strict following of their interpretation of Islam. And my heart goes out to Haiti because America occupied Haiti. Let’s not forget that while Haiti gained their independence and had to pay back debt to France, who who colonized them in America tried to get gave the money to. But it was like it paled in comparison to what they owed to France. And so America has a role in Haiti as well and in the in the instability that’s going on in Haiti. And I my my message to black America is to is to pay attention to the role of America in the role of European nations. And it start to really read up on what’s happening in Afghanistan and Haiti, because this is not by happenstance. This is history repeating itself. And I’m closely watching and I just really feel for these people because these are people’s real lives. And I could not imagine being in Haiti and Afghanistan right now.
Shana Pinnock [00:17:32] Yes, the United States continues to be a great big villain, throw stones and ties their hands. But let’s get into this week’s episode. The desire to return to the motherland has been around since the advent of the first African into America during the transatlantic slave trade throughout the 16th century. But it wasn’t until the late eighteen hundreds that the Movement really took root. Once the Berlin conference partitioned Africa into smaller states, causing European imperialists to divide the territories among themselves, many in the black community began to rally together under the Pan Africanism movement. Today, the desire to experience a sense of belonging has pushed many African descendants, American or otherwise, towards returning to the African continent. This is taking shape via Ghana’s 2019 year of return initiative, marking the fourth centennial of the first enslaved Africans being brought to America, further investments being made into African tourism and in some cases, a complete relocation to the motherland. This week we’ll be discussing what this movement looks like today, how you can be a part of it, and what the future holds for us all. Let’s get into it.
Gerren Keith Gaynor [00:18:45] So, Shana, I’m sure you growing up in New York especially, and you’ve heard the term go back to Africa and so on, one end there are unfortunately in our own communities where black Americans will say that to Africans or people of African descent who are more closely to the motherland or their parents immigrated from Africa. And then you hear from white people who just say it just to any black person. We’ve heard that a lot during the Trump administration. We continue to hear that phrase go back to Africa. But, you know, there’s nothing wrong with going back to Africa, if you ask me, especially now in 2021 because America, as you would say Shana is the ghetto. But Pan Africanism, which is what the movement is really about, the movement is about this collective understanding that people who are from Africa, whether you are part of the diaspora in the West Indies, in the United States, or whether you are on the continent, that we all have a collective struggle against European colonization and imperialism and that we are stronger together. Now, there are many different interpretations or opinions or stances, I should say, or ideologies along the Pan African movement. But I just want to shout out some of the leaders, the thought leaders in the Pan African movement, Martin Delaney and Alexander Cromwell, as well as Edward Blyton. The three of them are known as the some of the ones who spearheaded Pan Africanism. And they believe that black people could not prosper alongside white people and that the best thing that we can do is to not only return to Africa, but create our own our own nation. And then it was more popularized by most people know WEB Dubois, who is famously known for coining the double consciousness term. He was he is a leading scholar in the early nineteen hundreds. And so he also advocated for not only for Pan Africanism, but more specifically, he advocated for the studying of African heritage and culture and knowing your history, because as we know, for those of us who are part of the African slave trade, so much of our history was lost. You know, that oral history was lost. Black slaves were enslaved People were not allowed to read. They were not allowed to congregate together in large numbers. And so there are so many efforts to not only oppress us, but so many efforts to erase our history and our culture. And I think Marcus Garvey is most famously known for his Pan Africanism, because he went a step further with the black star line, which was an attempt to ship black people back to Africa. And I remember learning about Marcus Garvey, but I have to say, I went to Catholic school and the education and the and the the the dioceses that Catholicism was very light. And so I think that many African-Americans I
can speak for African-Americans, many of us might know loosely this history, but many of us also just don’t really know about the history of Pan Africanism, which is why I think when I was growing up in school, why you heard so many kids saying go back to Africa and they teased students who are African not knowing that they come from the very same place that you’re you come from. And so this conversation is really important. And I’m glad we’re having it, because in 2021 we are seeing white supremacy continue to rear its ugly head. And I think this is now this is a time more than ever for black people across the diaspora to unite. And maybe that does look like us leaving America. Maybe. But I would say more realistically, it starts with us having conversations together and understanding that our plights are similar, that we are stronger together, and that is important for black business owners to do business in Africa. I was having a conversation recently with someone from the Biden administration, a part of Africa Prosper, which essentially is is a government agency intended to bolster US African trade. And this this person was telling me that a lot of the people who do business a business in Africa are not black and they just black business owners just don’t know the resources that are available for them to to be able to export their goods and products to Africa. And so I really think that this is a perfect time for us to reset to, one, learn our history, but then also take it a step further and decide what that looks like for black America, what that looks like for people of African descent across the globe, because white supremacy is is continuing to not only persist, but in my opinion, is beginning to really take take a new ugly forms and get stronger in some ways and in our politics, in our economic structure, not just in America, but throughout the globe. And so Pan Africanism is, I think, got lost because it had a resurgence during the the the the seventies and the sixties through the civil rights movement, the Black Panther Party movement. But I think that in black in America, black people focus on assimilating and trying to get more access, economic and social access, and kind of did away with the idea of us returning to Africa and becoming just got lost in that. But Shana what are your thoughts about Pan Africanism and do you think that there is momentum for this movement to to resurge?
Shana Pinnock [00:24:34] So it’s crazy because I definitely remember an especially growing up in New York. You always heard the term African booty scratcher when I really like kids were terrible. Kids are really awful. But I remember, like, that was a a constant insult. We had one white girl at my high school and she said something along those same lines of like go back to Africa. So in a school of like 90 percent black people, she said this to one the black folks like it, like the rest were like Latinos, that she’s the one white girl. And she said it. And we’re like, girl, what? Like, what are you even what are you even talking about? Like it as a matter of fact, we’d like to go back. Y’all thought we were so poppin you brought us here. Like, what are you talking about? I think I’m so glad that you mentioned there is an opportunity in terms of businesses and rather entrepreneurship and black folks, especially here in the United States who don’t know what’s happening or that they have so that they can have access to certain things in Africa. I believe right now some of the the largest demographic that’s doing business in Africa, as far as I know, are Asians. I know China is very, very interested in the motherland right now. That’s that’s a conversation for another episode. I you know, we had a member of our team, a former member of our team. He started to do business in Rwanda for a time. And he was like, you know, it’s it’s it’s booming out here. Like, we we should be out here. Here’s the thing. I think there is a movement for Pan Africanism. I think there is an ability to have and see a boost in that idea of collective unity and hell possibly even relocating to relocating back to the motherland. We saw that especially this is going to sound crazy, but we saw that especially with when Black Panther came out. Do you know how excited Negroes were? And it’s and it wasn’t even because here’s this film with ninety eight percent black folks, but it was the idea of, yo, imagine a nation of just us that was never colonized, that was never influenced by white supremacy. Like how excellent could we have been, how much more excellent could we have been, how limitless could we have been had it not been for white supremacy? Herein lies my problem and why I think Pan Africanism might be dead in the water, and that is because we as a collective, as black folks, as a culture tend to. We divide ourselves in really gross ways, and when I say that this is where I am talking about like the hoeteps, right? This is where we’re talking about the doctor Umars and the Boyce Watkins and the reconceived, because I understand if we’re seeing us as a collective, we can be great together and stronger together. Do recognize that that includes our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters. Please understand that includes our LGBT brothers and sisters. Please understand that that includes our disabled brothers and sisters like it’s everybody. If it’s not all of us, it’s none of us, period. And you I mean, we’ve talked on this show endlessly about just how disgusting and vile that we could be to one another, always in an effort to separate ourselves. I don’t know if it’s possible for Pan Africanism and capitalism to survive in the same breath. Like it, you know what I mean, because just the idea of Kate, I’ll give a perfect example. We’ve seen all last week Dr. Dre’s daughter is like thirty eight year old daughter. She’s like living out our car, all of these things, et cetera, et cetera. And I’m like just seeing some of the comments on Twitter alone from people who were, oh, well, Dre isn’t responsible for her. She’s a grown woman and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and all of these things. And she he’s not. What is it? I think someone said that he’s not. Her or she’s not he’s not beholden to her or something to that effect that I’m like, but isn’t that the very concept of being a parent? Number one. Number two, how are you sitting on here talking about generational wealth if you’re not doing something to help and this I think that is very much still a difference, that people who just want to, you know, suck the money from your from your your wealthy parents and, you know, all of the hard work that they’ve done. And if you’re not willing to do the same, I think there’s a difference between that and just being like, well, I don’t bang with your mother. And so our relationship fell apart. So because of that, I’m not going to help you, my child. It’s it’s
weird to me and it’s gross. I would love I would love to see it. I would love to see and feel that kind of collective movement and love and and Ability to fight this terrible, terrible, insidious notion of white supremacy and colonialism in general. But I think we are so busy trying to be like white people that we can never really learn how to love just black people, you know, like if that makes sense. It’s it. And it’s something that in all honesty, it hurts my heart. And for me, it’s and I guess this is a question for you, just like who do you think exactly is a part of this movement? Who should be a part of this movement and why is that so important?
Gerren Keith Gaynor [00:30:37] You know, I struggle with that because I think as I identify the leaders of the Pan African movement decades ago today, there is no it seems like there’s no central place where we can pinpoint this is the movement. And what is that movement? What is it called today? You know, we have the Black Lives Matter movement here in the United States. And we saw that go global last year during the George Floyd protests. And so social justice was the thing that kind of gave us a new opening into this conversation around global the global awareness around the plight of people across the diaspora. And I had a conversation with someone from South Africa, a reporter who is working with the Grio. And I found so many similarities in the the struggles that she that she expressed about what’s happening in South Africa and the history of South Africa and the United States. And I think that there’s so many similarities in what we all have experienced, both presently and in the past. Because to your point, you know, when you said that, you know, capitalism, you don’t think that capitalism can co-exist with Pan Africanism, because the reality is that we’re talking about Pan Africanism because of the history of white European people, white people feeling the need to assert their power over black and brown people to get what they want, whether it was resources, commodities or actual people, and using people as commodities. And because that is the foundation by which we as a global society operate through capitalism. To a point to your point, I don’t think that we can ever have this utopian world where where black people come together and we are all prospering. We’re all we’re all free. We all have liberation. That’s difficult to have when so much of how geopolitics works, whether we’re talking about colonialism and the impact of colonialism in Africa, the United States, I was talking about earlier on the show, talking about Afghanistan and Haiti, all these things come down to economics and power and capitalism. And, you know, I just always I often think about what the world will look like if we never if we never created capitalism. Like, what if instead of trading goods, we shared it and we as a global society just allow everyone to just be free. Some people might call me a communist for for a speaking in this way. But, you know, to some degree, I would say what we have to have a more intellectual and more loving conversations around what communism is and what it is not and how we behave and treat each other in a society. So I don’t know who is a part of the movement, but I do think that we can start to create some type of movement toward whatever that looks like in in in a realistic way. I know someone his name is Joseph Tolton and he created this organization called Interconnected Justice. And the very mission of the organization is trying to connect Africans with people across the diaspora and through a sort of like Black Lives Matter on a global stage. And but he is he’s just one man in one organization. And it really hasn’t found any national or global rise or attention. But I do think the year of return with Ghana, I think that with that and even in my social circles, I’m starting to see more of a blending, more of a accepting African culture in our social circles. Those things are promising. It says to me that there’s an appetite for African-Americans. At least I can speak for African-Americans. I think there’s an appetite to know more about our history of what I was watching the Netflix show High on the Hog. And even though that show is about food, this was a black African-American man returning to his roots. And there was a scene where he just broke down in tears because he was so he’s like he was spiritually connected to the land and the culture and the history. And for me, I think for us to really have liberation, we have to have some type of return to Africa, whether it is whether that’s through tourism or whether that’s through immigration, through just leaving America altogether. But I do think that that there is a way to have a new movement for a Pan Africanism, even if it’s not in the way that our forefathers had envisioned.
Shana Pinnock [00:35:11] You know, what’s crazy is because I have yet to be on the African continent, it is on the bucket list. I was supposed to go 2019 for my sister’s wedding, but it was either the wedding or do a solo trip to Thailand. And I wanted to be by myself. So but it’s crazy because I remember there have been a number of my friends and close acquaintances who have moved to Africa. So there’s one friend who is in Zambia right now. There’s several who’ve to Ghana, several who’ve gone to Nigeria. And it’s is beautiful. So it’s beautiful to see them decide to say, I’m out there like the United States. Is this this this is not where I want to live my life, raise my children, you know, and and thrive. I can’t thrive here in the United States. And I completely understand that type of sentiment. I myself have thought that I’m eventually going to move to Africa. I know my uncle and his wife are pretty much planning it right now, like they’re at retirement age and they’re like, now we’re out like we can’t do this. There was also it wasn’t Ghana, I believe it was Nigeria, but there was a video of it was like a collective group of people who were going back to some country in Africa. I cannot remember which I’ll I’ll I’ll have to look it up again. But they arrived and there were people from that country who were singing a song to them in their native tongue. And basically this song is saying, like, welcome home. And I remember watching that and like tears welling up in my eyes of being like, yo, can you imagine just being in a place where you don’t have to feel like I have to watch my back, like, is this racist? Like I don’t. I’ve never really experienced that. Even the idea of go of traveling abroad, I have to look up, you know,
other people’s experiences of what kind of racism have you experienced, like what kind of what kind of effort goes on in that country. And then but again, it kind of just brings me to I I think that you’re right in that there has been a kind of reawakening for Pan Africanism. One big idea for me is afro beats. I you know, all of a sudden music has taken over, you know, how Beyonce had a whole black is king, like 95% album is are people from the people from the continent who are making this beautiful music. And it’s it’s one of those things that it’s. It’s it is spiritual to say to witness and to experience, because there’s some there’s some Afrobeat songs that I’m listening to and like my hips are moving. And it’s not just because I got rhythm. Like, I feel like. Yes, like this is this is touching a piece of me. This is touching. This is touching a piece of my ancestors. And I love it, you know, and I think collectively we as black people and this is not just American black people. We as black people need to figure out how do we stop being so awful to one another. There’s a video right now on Twitter that is going pretty viral. And it’s a it’s a scene from Grand Theft Auto five. And it’s like towards the end of the game, I’m a gamer. This is towards the end of the game. And it’s basically like it’s it’s the main character, Michael, and like an FBI agent, a CIA agent and a local policeman. And they all have like guns on one another. And then there’s like and someone put like American blacks, Caribbean blacks like a UK blacks like they it’s everybody has their own identity and everyone has these like guns and stuff out. And then there is like the like the military comes the military like like OK, Nigerians or something like that. And then here comes this helicopter and they all it’s a shootout. They all just start shooting one another. And I’m like, yeah, this is funny, but this is also really sad because it’s actually it’s pretty accurate. And not to say that Twitter is at all a measure of, you know, of it’s not the barometer of, oh, like this is how black people treat each other or anything like that. But it is a segment of watching our people interact. And I do understand, too, that there are some there are some white folks who are posing like some of us. They are bunch who are black phising. But we’ll get into that later who would like to cause division and stuff. But it is very troubling to see that that is actually the case. I can’t tell you how many stupid conversations I have to mute about well, why do Africans think that they’re better than American blacks or even in my own family, I’ve had to tell my Caribbean family members, like I have to remind them, like, hey, you know, I was born here in the United States like. Yes. And, you know, descendants of Guyanese people, Jamaican people. But I am still born in the United States. I still qualify myself as an African American and perhaps we should stop just acting a fool like like like, I don’t know, black people, I love you all, but some people make me sad.
Gerren Keith Gaynor [00:40:53] Yeah, I will just quickly add that, you know, at the end of the day, I just really challenge us to us as black people across the diaspora to to reconnect with our roots, to understand that we are all in this together. And I just really just want to imagine a different, better world for not just the world at large, but specifically for us, because I think we were robbed of the opportunity to truly be free and to truly love each other in harmony. And I’m always on the optimistic side and I really believe that we can get there. But I also think it’s about time that we stop looking to America for the
solutions to the problems we’re perpetually facing. This country has proven time and time again that they do not have our interests at heart. It’s possible that something as simple as power consolidation in Africa could reimagine the allocation of global resources, as well as unleashing fiercer psychological and political assertion that would unsettle social and political power structures in the Americas. I hope to see some of you in the motherland as soon as we make our way out of this nasty pandemic.
Shana Pinnock [00:42:07] We want to remind our listeners to support your local black businesses and donate to your local organizations and religious institutions. The business that we will highlight this week is African ancestry. African ancestry is the world leader in tracing family lineage of African origin. Having helped more than seven hundred and fifty thousand people reconnect with the roots of their family tree, African ancestry relies on the industry’s largest and most complete database of over thirty thousand native African DNA samples, African family history, and is even able to determine specific countries and ethnic groups of origin with accuracy and confidence. For more information, visit their website at African Ancestry.com.That’safrican ancestydotcom.
Gerren Keith Gaynor [00:42:53] Thank you for listening to Dear culture. If you like what you heard, please give us a five star review. Subscribe to the show wherever listen to your podcast and share it with everyone you know.
Shana Pinnock [00:43:02] And of course, please email all questions, suggestions and compliments, We love those to podcasts@thegrio.com The Dear Culture Podcast is brought to you by the Grio and executive produced by Blue Telusma and co-produced by Taji Senior, Brenda Alexander, and Abdul Quddus.