“Colonizing is not just asking or suggesting people change things, it’s changing things to benefit yourself.” Michael Harriot helps you understand just how deep America’s colonizing roots really go.
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TGD_You might be a colonizer_ FINAL.mp4
[00:00:00] You are now listening to theGrio’s Black Podcast Network. Black Culture Amplified.
Michael Harriot [00:00:05] Hello. Have you ever been to someone’s house and say, man, I can’t believe how they decorated this place” or how this place smells. Or have you ever been in a neighborhood and said, Man, we need to do things different around here? Have you ever been into a class war and wanted to change the way the teacher taught history? If so, I want to welcome you to theGrio Daily, the only podcast that will tell you if you might be a colonizer. So we like to think of colonization as, you know, taking over a country or region. You know, you can colonized anything. If you have been worried about whether or not you’re a colonizer, then like we want to help you out because, you know, there are certain people who are colonizers who have no idea that they were colonized. So, like, for instance, once I received this e-mail and the person was white and she had moved into this neighborhood and she wanted to know if she was wrong or right about this specific thing. So she moved into this neighborhood right under her was a bar or a, I don’t know if it was a bar or restaurant, but wherever it was, they had a lot of people or customers who drove motorcycles. I guess they sold, you know, I guess it was just a motorcycle riders hangout spot. And she said that. They would be out there late at night. So sometimes she couldn’t sleep. And so she was wondering if it would be right or wrong for her to call the police.
Michael Harriot [00:02:03] Now. Here is what I see. Here’s my. If you live in a place and people start hanging out there and they infringe upon your sleeping habits or you know they make you uncomfortable, then you have a right to say something. Unless, that thing existed before you got there. So if it was the motorcycle spot when you got there, then you chose to live at a motorcycle spot. Right. So everybody who visits the motorcycle spot is doing the things the people at the motorcycle spot do. And if you choose to live at the motorcycle spot, but don’t what the people at the motorcycle spot to act like people who visit the motorcycle spot, then you are colonizing the motorcycle spot. That’s how you colonize things. It’s not just going to a place. It is expecting everything in that place to change because of who you are, because of how you feel. Right. So how was it that white people came to America, that means they colonized this country. It’s because they slaughtered, killed and genocide the natives who were here that made them colonizers. It’s because they said, Hey, you are savages. Like that really is in the charter, the 1609 Charter of Virginia. To civilize the savages, teach them about the true nature of God. That made them colonizers because those Native Americans they had a religion. They had a government. They had a society that was already set up. And when you don’t just ask them to change it, introduce them to a new idea. But when you kill them, insist on them adhering to your principles, you’re colonizing.
[00:04:12] And the same is true for a bunch of other things. Colonizing is not just asking or suggesting people change things. It’s changing things to benefit yourself. How do you colonize things? First, you got to take it right, like colonizers take things. But, you know, people will take things that thieves or colonizers on things that or thieves are colonizers. The thing. That makes you a colonizer is if you want to change the definition of the theft. What are some things that have been colonized besides lands. Well, here’s a great example. The patent system, the idea of inventing things was colonized. There was a time when when you invented something or was the first person who created something, it was yours. And then we changed it, right? We colonized the invention, the invention system. So it wasn’t that we said Black people can invent things, but we created a system that was called the Patent Office. And what the patent office said was, we’re going to register inventions, which was a good idea, except the person who registered that invention. It didn’t have to be the inventor. They colonized the theft of invention.
Michael Harriot [00:05:52] Here’s a great example. There was a guy named Ned, and in the 1850s, Ned was still enslaved. A Black guy. He was enslaved. And. He invented a machine. The double plow scraper is what Ned invented. And what did it did. This is not important to the story. But now, because of what Ned invented, you could go down the road of cotton and pick the cotton on both sides, instead of one side. Like you didn’t have to go down one row, then go down the same row on the other side. Ned invented, Ned’s owner said. Well, yeah, they had invented it, but I should get the patent on it and I should get the patent on it because. Black people aren’t citizens. I owned it. I am responsible. Black. And this is what he said, actually, in the lyrics. Black people don’t have the competence to invite things. So Ned was able to invent a cotton scraper that made a big pot. He colonized this invention, and not only did he colonize near the invention. The attorney general of the United States of America. Heard about this dispute and he wrote an opinion that says, well, he can’t write right like Black people, like citizens, because we colonized this country and invented a way to determine what a citizen is. They colonized citizenship. The Native Americans weren’t citizens until the 1940s. People got it right even though they lived it. And Black people weren’t citizens. Even though they lived in America and built this country, they worked as citizens until the passage of the 14th Amendment. As a matter of fact. And definition of owned. Colonized took right before white people came. The people who owned the land was the people who lived on. Right. They were the caretakers of the man. There wasn’t even a concept of land ownership.
Michael Harriot [00:08:03] Like when we talk about like people bought in New York for $24 worth of beads, it’s kind of a myth because the Native Americans who, quote unquote, sold the island of Manhattan, thought they were scamming white people. They were like these stupid people believing that they could own land. But they didn’t know that before white people had colonized Manhattan, they had colonized the definition of own. If you said you owned it, you owned it. And that’s how you colonized things. It’s not just the theft. It’s by taking the definition and making it benefit you. It’s by taking the weight of life and making it and benefiting you. That’s how the education system was colonized. Educating someone used to mean just teaching them things. An education used to mean the things that you’ve learned. And then white people colonized it by saying it, but you didn’t really learn it unless I give you this piece of paper or you take this test written in our language to prove that you know these things and I will be the one to certify you as educated.
Michael Harriot [00:09:28] Education was colonized by the College Board, still. History was colonized because it didn’t now just mean the things that have happened in the past. It means the things that we acknowledge have happened. Everything else is fake history. And that’s how you colonized. And you know what? If you’ve done any of those things. There’s a way that you can stop. You can subscribe to this podcast. You can download theGrio app. You can tell a friend about it. And you don’t have to because you can just listen. I don’t want to colonize podcasts and I don’t want to colonize how we leave this program. But I do want to give you our traditional Black saying. And today’s Black saying is “You might be a colonizer if you have to ask someone if you’re colonizer.” We’ll see you next time on theGrio Daily. If you like what you heard, please give us a five star review. Download theGrio app, Subscribe to the show and to share it with everyone you know. Please email all questions, suggestions and compliments to podcasts at theGrio dot com.
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Public Enemy [00:11:06] All the special situations unreal. I got a raw deal. Being Black in the Eighties is a podcast docu series hosted by Me, Toure, looking at the most important issues of the eighties through the lens of the decade’s songs.
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Toure [00:11:46] This is the funkiest history class you’ll ever take. Join me, Tory, for being Black in the eighties on theGrio Black Podcast Network or wherever you listen to podcasts. Available June 1st.
