Change The Narrative with JD Fuller

You’re not supposed to be so blined with patriotism that you can't face reality.  Wrong is wrong no matter who says it.” -Malcolm X.  Glenn Block has this quote at the top of his LinkedIn page.  Glenn has a wonderfully complex set of accomplishments, and just as importantly, goals that he is committing his life to achieving.  He holds and MBA from Seatlle University Leadership Executive program and is and expert in technology   he is an entrepreneur and mentor, an advocate and an accomplice for change.  He has a 25 year history of leading teams in technology from conception to fruition.  He is actively trying to bring diversity and inclusion into the tech world.  “It’s not about equality, it's about equity.”  Institutionalized racism, social and racial justice as well as access are just a few of the missions that he is passionate about challenging.  He is here to talk with JD about all of this and more.

What You Will Hear:

• Alliedship vs Allies
• Title vs. Doing the work
• Glenn’s background and how he learned about racial injustice
• Learned racism
• Becoming muslim and lifechanging events
• Equity vs. Equality
• Privilege
• Law Enforcement 
• The impact words
• Intention, action, accountability and unlearning
• Mentoring black women and sustainability
• Policy and accountability

Quotes:

“What can I do as a white, cis gender male to better support people that come from marginalized backgrounds.”

“I always knew there were inequities, but not realizing how much the system is stacked against black people and how deep those institutions run.”

“Change is not gonna happen if people are comfortable”

“Whether you have good intent or not, harm is harm.”

“The only way you're going to stop the harm is by having policies and accountability.”

Mentioned:

Denise Branch

New Jim Crow

TechBridgeGirls

Future For Us

Black Women Talk Tech

BOLD

The Memo

ERG - Employee Resource Group

LinkedIn

Nakeya T Fields is a USC graduate and a licensed social worker who has made play part of her career.  The first generation college graduate in her family, Nakeya is a registered play therapist as well as founder and chair of the board for Therapeutic Play Foundation, a non-profit that seeks to build a healthier and a more resilient world for under-resourced communities.  She is also a trauma informed restorative yoga teacher and is all about building space for mini yogis too.  Nakeya is not only a mental health entrepreneur, she is also an author, a team leader for the black mental health task force and host of the Beyond Expectations podcast where she talks about everything from parenting to tarot card reading.

What You Will Hear:

• Nakeya’s last 10 years
• How Nakeya developed her focus and career
• Expanding the lense to see all of the possibilities in one's career
• The importance and impact of opportunity and relationships.
• How Nakeya’s built her first business
• Successful integration of yoga into her therapeutic practice
• Mindfulness
• The Black Mental Health Task Force and advocacy
• The black mindset. Choosing health and wellness and rest.
• How Nakeya stays grounded

Quotes:

“I need to be stimulated by learning things.”

“Whatever stimulates your mind, you can go create it, especially with a license.”

“Everything is in who you know.”

“I wanted to share the difference it makes when you have a mindful practice.”

“When you need help and you need to gain power, you have the ability to build it for yourself.”

“Mindset is mental health.”

“Let’s change the narrative to be “I AM Powerful”.”

Mentioned:

The Black Mental Health Task Force

DCFS

Learn Grow Lead

Therapeutic Play Foundation

Durham City Council member Pierce Freelon is an accomplished Hip Hop/soul/electronic musician and Emmy-award winning producer, director and professor from Durham, NC whose work has been featured on the TODAY Show and at NPR, Parents Magazine and more. He is the co-founder of the Emmy Award winning PBS web-series Beat Making Lab- an and has taught in the departments of Music and African American Studies at the University of NC at Chapel Hill.  Pierce is the writer, composer and co-director of an animated series called History of White People in America, an official selection of the Tribeca Film Festival. As the founder of Blackspace, a digital maker space, he has mentored dozens of youth, teaching digital storytelling through music and film. Pierce is the frontman of critically acclaimed Jazz/Hip Hop quartet The Beast and has toured internationally and released a series of albums, EPs, and mixtapes. His debut children's book, Daddy Daughter Day is set for release in 2022. He is the son of famed Grammy-nominated jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon, and the late preeminent architect of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Phil Freelon. Pierce lives in Durham with his wife and their two young children. More at piercefreelon.com

What You Will Hear:

• Pierce’s early childhood environment, influences and lessons
• What happens when you merge the world of art with activism
• Ancestry, spirituality and community
• Nurturing mental health in the black community
• White supremacy 
• Navigating through movement work, politics and activism
• Tools of the oppressor
• Musical and creative inspirations
• Blackspace
• White institutions vs black institutions
• Racial caste system and the creation of the black and white divide
• Changing the narrative

Quotes:

“‘Lift as you climb”

“No is a love word”

“We don’t just carry ancestral trauma, we also carry our ancestral resilience” -Omisade Burney-Scott

“There is no check that you can cut that is worth me devaluing my soul.”

“I wanted that university caliber of resource to be available and accessible to black children at all times…..that’s what they deserve, that’s what we deserve.”

“Everything you touch you change, everything you change, changes you.” - Octavia Butler

“God is change.”

Mentioned:

Social Media @PierceFreelon

Omisade Burney-Scott 

Black Girls Guide to Menopause

Black to the Future

Blackspace

Octavia Butler

Battling White Supremacy

Description

Jolly Good Ginger was born in the mountains of North Carolina, Jolly was raised, not just around racists, but by them.   At age 15 he became an advocate taking his learnings from his upbringing into unlearning, relearning and being an advocate for social justice, civil justice and racism.  He has become an internet sensation who speaks his truth.  One of the things he says, “People are dying everyday, if you’re not part of the solution, get out of my way, good day.”  

What You Will Hear:

• No safe spaces for racists.
• Calling out racism and challenging the belief systems.
• LBGTQ+ parents and causing change.
• Cognitive dissonance and white people owning racism.
• Recognizing and associating the results of history and systems.
• Collective mental health and marginalized community trauma.
• Poor white america, generational trauma and dissonance.
• The dehumanization of black communities built into the american systems.
• Compromising with white america.
• Creating an army of unapologetic white people who aren’t going to have a safe space for people to operate in their own bigotry.
• White america perceiving they are under attack.
• Projecting who we are on other groups.
• Being activist.
• Changing the narrative

Quotes:

“I don’t need to know what it’s like to be black in America, I just need to believe it exists.”

“Change happens in relationships more than it does from the outside in.”

“We systematically dehumanized black america.”

“White supremacy is this a blanket of protection around white america.”

“Compromised white america has given every problem we have in history.”

Mentioned:

IG and Twitter @jolly_good_ginger

Malcolm X

Martin Luther King

El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz

JD and Suzy unpack the truth about racism and white America with advocate and influencerJolly Good Ginger.  Jolly was born in the mountains of North Carolina.  He was raised, not just around racists, but by them.  At age 15 he became an advocate, taking his learnings from his upbringing into unlearning, relearning and being an advocate for social justice, civil justice and racism.  He has become an internet sensation who speaks his truth.  One of the things he says, “People are dying everyday, if you’re not part of the solution, get out of my way, good day.”

What You Will Hear:

• Early messages Jolly learned 
• The exception fallacy of being raised by racists.
• Jolly’s early experience and knowledge of interracial relationships.
• Spending time in a black neighborhood around his mixed siblings.
• Questioning what he was told vs what he was seeing and experiencing.
• Winning the moral and mental fight.
• Calling out family.
• Joining the military, bigotry, homophobia, stereotypes and change.
• Helping others from racist communities find courage to stand up.
• The CEO of no safe spaces for racists. If you see something say something.
• Racist systems in the hands of white supremacists.
• Racists vs white supremacist.
• Understanding racism, anti-racism and the word ally.

Quotes:

“The transition, if you want to be part of the solution, comes when you realized you wasn’t raised around racists, you were raised by them.”

“Your empathy is not solving anything.  Save your empathy and fix your cousins.”

“Do I cognitively disassociate myself from reality to accept what i was taught or do simply accept what’s right in front of my face.”

“If you want to sink a boat you have to put holes in the bottom.”

“I want white people to be scared to be racist.”

“White people across the board care more about being called a racist than they do about actual racism.”

“White people subconsciously see racism as a light switch.”

Mentioned:

IG and Twitter @jolly_good_ginger

Debrah and Max Hyman's story is one of truth, adoption, addiction, pain, sadness, despair, anger, forgiveness and ultimately redemption, recovery and love.  Debrah is an esteemed psychotherapist who has been practicing for over 40 years, specializing in substance abuse treatment, prevention and intervention.  Her 32 year old son Max is an artist, performer, nature enthusiast, adventurer and dreamer.  Max has been through a lifetime of a chronic and debilitating relationship with alcoholism.  Together this mother and son have climbed the mountain of recovery.  It felt impossible at times, but they have arrived up here where the air is a little bit thinner and filled with the accomplishment of finding and recovering a life, love and a new and profound connection.

What You Will Hear:

• Debrah and Jeff’s story of multiple miscarriages and the opportunity to adopt Max.
• Max’s first understanding of adoption.
• Starting to act out in 7th and 8th grade and signs that there was trouble ahead.
• Drawing boundaries.
• Alcoholism and witnessing Max getting arrested. 
• Hospitalization, nursing home, finding hope and recovery.
• Debrah choosing to not have contact with Max through his recovery.
• Max’s understanding Debrah’s choice.
• What they have learned about one another.
• Most common pitfalls when addicts are trying to figure out the road to recovery.
• What to know about recovery.

Quotes    

“I really felt in my heart, if Max was ever going to make it for himself, he had to do it independently of me, his mother.”

“I’m learning that I know very little about my mom.”

“Recovery takes time.  Time takes time.”

“It’s important for me to understand and to recognize that I can’t believe everything I think.”

“Recovery is a very doable, uncomfortable process.”

“Gratitude is essential.”

Sharda Coleman met her soulmate and husband during the pandemic.  Her husband has been serving time in an Alabama prison for a crime he claims he didn’t commit.   She has never been able to meet, touch or see him.  She has committed her life to getting his story out by using her voice everywhere to free Leonard Coleman.  In addition to being committed to finding justice for her husband, she is committed to motherhood, her career and her spirituality.. 

What You Will Hear:

• Who is Sharda Coleman.
• What qualities attracted her to Leonard Coleman.
• Wrongful conviction and evidence of wrongful convictions.
• Issues with the justice system.
• Qualities that Sharda attributes to being able to be in a relationship with Leonard.
• Challenges of being married to someone who has been convicted.
• Prison relationships.
• Living a double life of sorts.
• Managing her own mental health.
• What motivated Sharda to advocate for Leonard.
• How can you help

Quotes    

“I believe when you do the right thing, good things follow you.”

“I draw a lot of strength from my relationship with God.”

“Not everyone sitting in prison is there because they actually committed a crime.”

Mentioned:

Change.org/freeleonardcoleman

Named one of NYC ‘s 25 most influential women in Brooklyn, Zakiyah Ansari is a parent of 8, an education rights leader and a civil and social justice activist who is passionate about changing education for all bodies.  She is the advocacy director and New York City’s director of Alliance For Quality Education (AQI) dedicated to ending systemic racism and economic oppression in New York City’s public schools that has impacted generations of black, brown, low income and immigrant students who have been robbed of what they deserve, high quality education.  Zakiyah is also a founding member of the Resistance Revival Chorus, an incredible group of huas who sing songs of resistance and uplift.  Born in the heinous months following the election of Donald Trump.  

What You Will Hear:

• Defining moments throughout Zakiyah’s journey.
• Empowering students around educational equity.
• Being inspired by young people.
• Parent participation, PTA, organizing and growing a movement.
• Resistance Revival chorus and how it informs Zakiyah’s work.
• Art and activism.  Joy in the resistance.
• What activism looks like at home with children.  Being honest and providing a space to share.
• Dehumanization of the black man.  Dignity and respect.
• How to accept and process praise.
• Politics and education.  The struggle of motivating and inspiring people to get involved and vote. The critical race theory pawn.
• Integrating spiritual beliefs into activism.
• Walking into a space as yourself with dignity and poise.  
• Combatting low self esteem.  Positive self talk.
• Organizing, bringing people together and being a bridge.
• Self love and empowerment.
• Changing the Narrative.  

Quotes

“Young people are inspiring me all the time.  This work coupled with their fearlessness has helped motivate me to move forward and be in this struggle in a way that honors them.”

“Doing the work to improve all of their  circumstance is really a goal and a mission of mine.”

“When you know there an absolute for black, brown and poor children in this country it is physically painful as well as psychologically and mentally exhausting.”

“Resilience is overrated.” 

“By us not taking care of folks who are mentally ill or  housing folks who are unhoused it allows too many people to accept that folks, children and babies in cages is acceptable too.”

“It is really important to be and informed and educated voter.”

“Remember to allow yourself to be held the way that you hold.”

“I believe in the power of we.”

“This organizing thing is a marathon, it is not a sprint.”

Mentioned:

Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity (BOLD)