Change The Narrative with JD Fuller

JD and Suzy welcome back Jolly Good Ginger to talk about the recent killings committed by cops and the lack of accountability in the justice system. Jolly Good Ginger has millions of followers who listen to his words and rants about racism.  Born in the mountains of North Carolina, Jolly was raised not just around racists, but by them.  He talks to white people about owning racism and what they can do about it.  He has become a huge internet sensation.  Since we’ve seen him last he has had his own TED talk and lots more in the works. 

What You Will Hear:

• Update on Jolly’s life since he was last on the show
• TED Talk
• AFTP (Always For The People) and The Families United
• Defensive barriers and speaking the truth
• Melissa Lucio death row
• Jimmy Atchison
• Patrick Lyoya
• Police training and reactions
• The trauma and aftermath
• Systemic propaganda: the crack epidemic
• Creating change and activism
• How Jolly wants to change the narrative in the next 5 years.
• Debating solutions not debating problems.

Quotes:

“I really felt like they knew it was a problem but it was too much to fix.”

“There’s no time out when the color of your skin is seen as a weapon.”

“Cops are reacting thinking that everything is a threat to their life and so they think they’re saving their own life, no, you’re just killing people.”

“As long as we’re training cops across the country that they’re always in danger, then this will always be the result.”

“In this country if you call yourself a patriot and you are ok with extra judicial killings when cops murder civilians, then you’re not a constitutionalist, your not a patriot, you’re a fascist.”

“The fact is, drug sentencing was created to target black people.”

“Without revolutionary change nothing changes.”

“If everyobody was debating solutions and nobody was debating problems we’d solve them all.”

Mentioned:

Valentina Orellana-Peralta

Daniel Lopez

Melissa Lucio

Jimmy Atchinson

Tik tok and IG @jolly_good_ginger 

Twitter @jollygoodginger

JDand Suzy welcome back Victor Gabriel.  His new short film Hallelujah made its premiere at Sundance 2022.  “To Know that my skin makes me royal, has been a journey.” Victor says.  JD, Victor and Suzy are all connected in a special way.  Vic and Suzy are colleagues, they went to Antioch together where they both got their masters in clinical psychology.  JD was their favorite professor.  Victor went a step further, going to AFI to finish the MFA program.  Victor is just getting started, listen to this episode to hear what Victor’s new film and what he is up to next.

“The scenes of the collection shine bright as the author tells us of the sensual, bold and unforgiving experience of growing up black in America!” shouts Madcreek Books, an imprint of the Ohio State University Press, about our esteemed guest’s latest collection of work, A More Perfect Union. Teri Ellen Cross Davis works her experience, music, identity, sexuality and vulnerability into the power of poetry.  Teri is unafraid to change the narrative and swim under the sea of truth.  She is a distinguished scholar and author with her multi award winning collections of movements through her revolutionary thought.  Teri is a mother of 2 , a wife and an artist.  As a bonus track, she is also a huge fan of Donna Summer and Prince.  Tune in to listen to the beauty of her colorful worlds and she shares her story with JD today.

What You Will Hear:

• The influences that led Teri to start writing poetry.
• Imbedding the importance of language.
• When Teri finally proclaimed herself a poet.
• Children and poetry.
• How being a mother has informed her journey.
• Having balance and the influence of the news cycle.
• Knucklehead, poem reading.
• Code switching.
• Introducing and the beauty of the black vernacular.
• Furious Flower Poetry Center
• The Goddess of Cleaning, poem reading.
• The Goddess of Scars, poem reading.
• When I Am the Only One in the Room
• The secret to Teri and her husband’s bond.

Quotes:

“Poetry is where my heart and my soul is and that’s where my people are.”

“We have to let lose the constrictions that society presses upon us to navigate our souls in such a way to make us more consumable.”

“The real poets are the children because they haven't learned to constrict themselves and their thought process yet.”

“What you get in a giddy up is what you get in a round up.”

“You ain’t got a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of.”

Mentioned:

Bookshop.org

GivalPress

Cave Canem

Knucklehead

Furious Flower Poetry Center 

Solid State Books

Twitter @cross_davis

IG @haint_poet

poetsandparents.com

Nikki Giovanni

Toi Derricotte

Cornelius Eady

Lucille Clifton

Sonia Sanchez

Micheal Harper

Elizabeth Alexander

Harriett Mullen

JD and Suzy are welcomed by multi hyphenate Avery Kidd Waddell.  He has appeared in over 50 tv shows, over 40 commercials and he isn’t stopping anytime soon. Avery is a writer, producer, actor, father and creator, writer and actor of the multi-award winning movie and HBO’s pick for best feature film, Questions.  Avery says that after watching movies all his life, he rarely saw portraits of people who look like him.  He wanted to shine a light and bring forward everything as a black man and artist that he wanted to see.  

What You Will Hear:

• Avery’s background and upbringing.
• Deciding that he wanted to write, produce and act.
• Mentors, experiences, challenges and black parenting.
• 5 years ago and 5 years from now.
• Inspiration for Questions.
• Black love and American blackness
• Focusing on production.  Representation behind the camera.
• Humanizing the black body
• Changing the narrative.  Meaningful conversations, portrayal and humanization.

Quotes:

“Once I got started in acting I never really felt uncomfortable.”

“I can’t think of anything more loving than preparing your child to face the world and be able to succeed.”

“Life will always be stranger than art.”

“American blackness is not a monolith.”

Mentioned:

Fb @averywaddell

IG @averykiddwaddell

Questions

Tempest Eye

Odilakachi W Hezekiah-Onwukwe, aka Master Odi, became fascinated with the idea on how human behavior could be modified simply through conversation and suggestion.  He is a force of honesty. Odi specializes in afrocentric theory, racial identity, mental health wellness and financial behavioral issues.  If you are a black man or woman and want to meet up with some truth, wellness, spiritual connection, and self actualization through mind, body, and spirit, in this episode, we have your man.

What You Will Hear:

• Odilakachi’s background 
• The influence of being bi-cultural
• Responsibility,accountability, marginalization and legacy
• Understanding the systemic issue and perception of oppression and oppressors
• Kanye West and Kim Kardashian
• Bipolar disorder
• Financial Therapy. Combining mental health and financial wealth
• Odi’s experience of being fired for taking a mental health day.
• Stigma about mental health and community
• Doing the work

Quotes:

“As a black man the name of the game is accountability.”

“There is no price for peace of mind.”

“Accepting my shit is one thing, but doing the work to fix my shit is another.”

Mentioned:

www.blkwlth.com

All social media @mynamesuperlong

The Group Sessions

The Mindful Finance Course

Dr. Allycin Powell Hicks, aka Dr. Ally, has her PhD in clinical psychology.  She is the host of Discovery Plus and OWN’s tv show that she hosts with her mother, Dr. Cynthia, aptly named Like Mother Like Daughter.  From self worth, to anxiety, to self doubt, Dr. Ally has the solution.  She is an entrepreneur, a media personality and the creator of one of the coolest card decks called  Doux.  As a consultant, a coach, a mental health expert and brand strategist she helps others and shifts their perspective aligning with their true purpose and building confidence.

What You Will Hear:

• Dr. Allycin’s history.  Who she was before becoming Dr. Ally
• Past generation’s struggles, hard work and successes.
• Understanding self and Allycin’s goal.
• The distinction of individual healing and becoming the best version of yourself vs collective healing.
• Intergenerational trauma
• Cultural competency and decolonizing mental health.
• Diagnosing a sick system.
• American Psychiatric Association and American Psychological Association apologizing for racism and the structure of pathologizing certain groups.  Association of Black Psychologists rebuttal.
• Cultural competency.
• Like Mother Like Daughter tv show.
• Doux You card deck.
• How Dr. Ally stays grounded in the multicultural focus and how she adjusts the multicultural lens.

Quotes:

“She conquers who conquers herself.”

“I’m always geared to improving a person's understanding of who they are and how they function.”

“Are we truly diagnosing something that is wrong that we can actually heal in a person or is it that we are in a way penalizing a person for not fitting a sick system and we don’t want to diagnose the system?”

“There are so many conversations that we could be having  to really understand everyone's true intersection.”

Mentioned:

Dr. Allycin Powell-Hicks website

Association of Black Psychologists

American Psychiatric Association

American Psychological Association

Like Mother Like Daughter

My Mother Myself

Doux You Deck

Yvonne Victor is a certified life and business coach who transforms life through discovery, vision, strategy, action and accountability.  She is the founder of Yvonne Victor Life Coach Life Design.  She believes that we don't have to dream of the life we want, we can live it.  She is an author, a dreamer, a life teacher, a speaker and mother and an entrepreneur.  If you want the prize run the race.  Listen in as she share her secrets and tools with JD on this episode.

Attention white women!  White women unite!  Pam Ditto declares all of this, not because white women are smarter, but because they use that historical narrative to not stand up for justice, injustice and racism.  Pam says that the road to success is not the one paved by the white man.  She stands up to patriarchy, white people and white women.   She is sick and tired of “white is right” and white women in particular who cannot tolerate the discomfort of change.  She is honest, real and uses her voice to share not only her experience from everything  from her dental procedures to her adoption to her feelings on interracial adoption.  She says, “Don’t even get me started.” but in this episode JD and Suzy can’t wait to get her started.

What You Will Hear:

• The impact of her realization and acknowledgement of her privilege growing up.
• What refined Pam’s activism.
• Voter registration and voter suppression.
• Pam’s views on adoption.
• Interracial adoption.
• White women and patriarchy.
• Greatest lesson learned about parenting.
• TikTok and white activism.
• Avoiding the white savior syndrome.

Quotes:

“Pay attention to the journey…..consider that you don’t know everything.”

“White is a construct that was meant to keep people down.”

“Representation and inclusion matter so much more to white people than we realize.”

“You have to be vulnerable enough and emotionally available enough, for your children, to be wrong.”

Mentioned:

Tiktok: @PamIam1313

I AM Music Group

Mac Stanley is a licensed psychotherapist and the founder, creator and CEO of Therapy is for Everyone in New York and New Jersey, specializing in serving black men and women.  Mac specializes in couples therapy where he processes everything from improving communication skills to healing from trauma and affairs to dating or recovering from a narcissist.  Mac is passionate about changing the narrative in the black community and removing the stigma attached to therapy.  His professional goal is teaching the black community how to obtain, sustain and enhance all aspects of black love.  Mac is also extremely creative and clever.  He developed a cool project during the pandemic that he tells us more about in this episode.

therapyisforeveryone.org

In this episode JD invites Suzy’s mother Barbara Rose to discuss aging and motherhood. Listen in on a candid, heartfelt and honest conversation about motherhood and aging.  Barbara Rose is an age activist, a teacher, a painter ,a poet, an author and Suzy’s mother.  She has published over 13 books and won a national library award for her poetry.  She has appeared on the Today Show, The Talk, E.T and Andy Cohen’s, “What what happens Live.”.  She founded the first age march in history to celebrate age pride.  She happens to be 85 and is just starting her career.

What You Will Hear:

• What Barbara takes most pride in and what she would change
• The role of motherhood
• The art of aging well
• Age March and ageism
• Biggest regret
• Future plans at 85 and people’s perceptions of age
• Painting
• Changing the aging narrative
• Age March

Quotes:

“To age well is to have insight into yourself and compassion for others.”

“If you want something and you feel it, you can have it if you pursue it.”

“I feel we have a future everyday we breathe and purpose is the key to longevity.”

Mentioned:

Agemarch.org

I AM Music Group