So I'm here at the Ishtahan Resort talking with "Sparky" a friendly local. Asking about the Garifuna.

Sparky shares: The Garifuna migrated from Honduras, which is one of our neighboring countries.

They came here and from there they started to migrate over in Plasencia, down that side. And then from there, we have them all over in Belize now. And then our main ancestors come from the Maya.

I was reading that Belize is one of the most mixed places in the world, over 52%. We have Garifunas, Mestizos, Mayans, people from all over, Chinese, Lebanese, Philippines, Canadians. So we have people from all over.

We're a little mixed country. Not everybody gets along with everybody, but we try to. Yeah.

If somebody is mixed, like obviously mixed, you know, like maybe part Mayan, part black, part something else.

Do people give them the hassle or does it matter?

Not really anymore. It used to be, I would say, maybe when people came from Guatemala.

Back then in 2010, 2015, it was a big hassle, but not anymore. It's something that we try to live with each other. Yeah.

That's not a lot of time. What changed?

I mean, Belizeans get mixed with Guatemalan people. Yeah.

My wife, her parents were Guatemalan. Her dad was Belizean. I don't know if you noticed, but when we go to the grocery stores, like if you go to a Lebanese store, the younger ones, you'll hear them speak perfectly English or Creole.

Reasons why? Because they go to school here like anybody else.

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With everything that's been going on with ICE, I have friends that I actively worry about, not because they're not legitimate citizens, but just because of how they look. And if there's ever a time to talk about the difference between having white privilege and not having white privilege, this is one of those times.

Similarly, a group that I've worked with, Wash Masks, a friend of mine started this. It was just artists who were unemployed, you know, actors, because we couldn't do theater in 2020, providing PPE for seasonal farm workers out in Eastern Washington. And then, as needs were perceived, that grew, and that grew to include clothing, that grew to include books, especially for children, that grew to include art supplies, again, especially for children.

And so, I, by extension, always have them in the back of my mind. I am really, really grateful for the intelligence and creativity behind the app, ICEblock.

Big props to Joshua Aaron, inventor of the app, ICEblock. I get the impression he's a genius. I think he invented some kind of an online card game or something back in the day when he was 13. So, I think that has to do with why this is the app that's being used. And he's not using it as a tool to interfere with ICE. It's just to keep the communication open.

I have fear, and I think about the brown shirts a lot. You know, it's kind of like the Kristallnachts are coming, and they're getting bigger and bigger in this country. And so, we have, what is it, alligator Alcatraz.

It makes me think of the Warsaw ghetto and other places like that. You know, it's just, it's ridiculously parallel. And yeah, we're in a perilous time.

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The kids that I'm going to be around now are all in or heading into high school, and so I'd like to recommend the book The Emotional Lives of Teenagers by Lisa Damore, PhD, and there were some things in there that I've been using.

For example, my son and I didn't text much before, but we're texting more now, and different ideas, thoughts, feelings sometimes come through a text more than they will in a face-to-face conversation, and related to that, you're going to get a lot more out of your kid in terms of listening if you're both facing the same direction, like in a car, within five minutes of arriving in the driveway when they know that they can escape, right?

So those tactics, those techniques have been helpful, and I recently talked to a dad who's read—it's amazing that this guy read the book Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski, who's a sex therapist, and so he wants his—it's geared towards women, and he wants his daughter to be aware of the amazing things in this book, and I've since read the book, and it's fantastic.

Seminal idea, all the same parts, different configuration, thank you, Emily Nagoski, which also relates in a way to being mixed, but yeah, so he said, so what I'm going to do is I took the book, and I just put it in her bookcase, and I'm just kind of hoping she'll go, where'd this come from, and just like get into the book, you know, because there's a lot of amazing information, sensitive information, graphic information, useful information, so highly recommend, and especially, think, if you're a dad, and you want to reinforce the idea of consent, consent, consent, consent with your daughter, this is a great book that way, but it's also very sex positive, so you have to be ready for that as well, so if that's you, then that's your book.

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Hidden Figures, Black Nerds & the Power of Community: Why These Stories Still Matter

It's been a while since I looked at the individual stories of the principal characters and the real people, who they were, but I love that Hidden Figures has brought attention to them and continues to, right?

I still see things pop up and one of the things that I love about it the most is that it's one of these stories where you see people, these black women, who are clearly underappreciated, soaring despite everything and having to work twice as hard and it's not just themselves but it can be their community as well and showing what the power of community can do too and it's a funny thing with religion these days, you know, who is a part of it, who's not, but I do love the W. Kamau Bell's thing about it's such a white thing to be an atheist, right?

No, I'm good. I don't need community. I don't need support. I don't need any spiritual boosters.

But yeah, seeing how all of that comes together to sustain these women through things that would make most people quit right away, right?

Especially because they're seeing the bigger picture, the bigger impact, and they're recognizing and feeling their own worth too.

I think that's another exciting thing about the film that everybody can relate to, right?

What is it when you feel your worth and you keep fighting to have that recognized properly, not just, hey, look at me, but recognized properly.

And yeah, black scientists. It's just cool.

Can I tell you how much I love black nerds and how excited I am that there are more and more events for black nerds.

Even things that I'm not interested in, I just love that there has been a safe space created, and it's taken a lot of time.

And a lot of my favorite friends happen to be black nerds, and it just feels so free and understood in this environment.

And that's something that I'm seeking to do with Living IncogNegro.

Just create safe spaces.

Who knows? Maybe we'll have national events one day. That'd be cool.

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I have a favorite summer cocktail, and that cocktail is the Aperol Spritz.

It's Aperol liqueur and Prosecco with a dash of soda water, usually served with a wedge of orange,and it's always served in this sort of pear-shaped glass, and so the bottom part of it sort of magnifies whatever light is traveling through it, and the color of it, it's like a sunset, but a sunset when it's warm, like in the summer

So you see a beach full of people, I'm thinking about the beach in the Netherlands or when I was in Italy, you just see all these people with Aperol Spritzes that seem to be capturing the light, capturing the essence of the moment, and it's delicious.

Except you have to be careful. Sort of like a Long Island iced tea, it doesn't hit you hard, but it'll hit you.

I love those.

As far as what to eat with it, you can go savory, you can go sweet, you can do the olives or charcuterie, anything. It goes with everything.

I’m Gin Hammond and I’m Living IncogNegro. I’m glad you’re here and we’re on this journey together.

Learn more at LivingIncogNegro.com

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The benefits of being white-skinned and speaking with what's called a Gen m accent, which is another way of saying a non-regional standardized way of speaking.

It couldn't be more clear and it just seems to be getting more palpable day by day in the most awful way. You know, I'm thinking about loved ones getting snatched away, the possibility, the very real possibility of that happening.

Both, family members and one person who is almost going to be a family member, as well as friends, as well as, gosh, I've been trying to help somebody, put it to you this way, maybe I've been trying to help somebody from a non-sanctioned country, or should I say a sanctioned country, who is an artist, a student, trying to see if there's any way that she can come here, and now I'm not advising her the same way I was before.

And we're looking at maybe some other places because despite her disappointment, what if she came here and ended up at Guantanamo, you know?

It's terrifying.

And trying to balance so many things, right? Trying to balance the fight and the flight.

So, I want to continue to retain my own humanity and have compassion for the people who would like to see me dead and people that I'm kind of afraid of, but also it's a war.

So, it's the same thing.

I want to do what I can here, but I'm also looking at history and thinking about situations where people did leave their country for a time.

And also instances where people tried to.

There was a ship that left Germany during World War II. It was filled with mostly middle-class Jewish people or just other people who the Nazis didn't like. So, that list is long.

Kind of like some other lists we're getting more and more acquainted with here in 2025.

And there were no ports, including any U.S. ports, that would let this ship dock.

So, the ship with all these people, with their families and their hopes and their belongings and their abilities and skills.

– Because that was an instance of brain drain. And that's happening in this country –

The ship got turned around and sent back to Germany. And you can imagine what happened to the people who were on the ship, right?

So many things going through the brain at the same time.

It's going to start with loved ones, not wanting them to get snatched off the street or have their

homes broken into.

Yeah, it's a lot.

I’m Gin Hammond and I’m Living IncogNegro. I’m glad you’re here and we’re on this journey together.

Learn more at LivingIncogNegro.com

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If I could be in a movie with just other mixed actors, that'd be amazing.

So it doesn't even matter. I think, what if we all got together?

That's still my big question.

Like, would a rift form in the vortex or would something crazy happen?

That's almost the way it feels to me, at the idea of getting together with a whole bunch of mixed people.

So, gosh, I mean, if I was going to say somebody in particular, why don't we go back to Keanu?

I don't know. There's just so many people I admire. As a writer, there are two people who come to mind.

One is Deb Kahn. We graduated from the ART together, the American Repertory Theatre for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University slash Moscow Art Theatre School. And she went on to write for the West Wing, Grey's Anatomy, I think it's called The Diplomat, all these things.

And it's funny, when things started to take off for her, I didn't know what to do. My sense of self wasn't nearly what it is now. And I just got sort of too nervous to hang out with her, even though she was my friend.

It was very silly.

Funny side story, at the showcase for the ART, we did our little scenes and everything. And there were people talking to the actors and somebody talked to somebody else.

And that person wanted to speak to the mixed person. And then that person was brought over to me. And the person was just befuddled, because they actually wanted to speak to Deb, who's Sephardic Jewish.

And they thought that she was mixed. So it was just kind of a funny mix up happening there.

Also, there's this Harvard Writers Group.

I was taking some classes because you never stop taking classes. And there's a young Harvard writer named Monique Hall. And what she wrote captured me.

So funny, so heartfelt, all of those things. And I'm already a fan. I know that she is going to go places.

So I would want to write with this absolute hardcore veteran, and this shining newbie and just see what we could come up with.

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There's a lot of different stars I'd like to work with and when it comes to the movie, it's use the right tool for the job situation.

Right when you're casting somebody, you're like, "I love this actor, but this is the person who fits the best for whatever reason."

But two people come to mind. I don't know if he was ever in any movies. He must have been.

Ron Cephas Jones, may he rest in peace. He played William on This Is Us. I think he and his daughter got an Emmy the same year, which had never happened before in the history of the Emmys.

But he and I did a show called Noonday Sun together, which was about a person who was passing. And I was nervous around him.

I had an actor crush on him because it's one of these situations where, and he couldn't have been kinder, but you know the real deal when you see it.

This person is not just an artist, he's an Artiste. E at the end, capital A. And he couldn't be any other thing if he tried.

To see how he was always so pure about the work, it inspired and intimidated me at the time. But I wanted to grow up and be like him.

Another person I adore is Keanu Reeves, one of my mixed idols. He's just such a cool person. So I love him, and I'll see him in anything.

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Other cultural shifts that I'm seeing are how the government is making it harder and harder for artists to do their jobs, right, especially if our work is collaborative.

And the less we're in touch with each other, the more our ability to express things and express them well and profoundly and in a unified way, the more that's weakened, you know.

So many people, we have our echo chambers, right?

But instead of shifting the narrative, we need to look at the framework, the world in which the narrative is happening, right?

And I feel like one difficulty that a lot of artists and a lot of, you know, political artists too especially have is in finding where are these places where it's worth it to give a little for the greater good. I am a person who believes in the greater good.

I don't associate the word compromise only with negativity, right?

The first time I ever came across somebody who thought the word compromise was a negative thing, it took me a while. I always thought it was a positive thing, it's the way, you know, we find a way. But yeah, it's a lot of, I was talking with my agent, a lot of actors seem to be regarding acting or treating it more as a hobby because they're juggling so many other survival jobs.

And what does that do? That impairs their work. I mean, you know, there's commercial stuff, but there's also other things, right? So it's interesting to see the direct impact that what's going on now in our country is having. That said, these things can be like a grit in an oyster shell, right? There's so many Soviet artists, you know, I studied in Russia for a bit.

There's so many artists who, once the wall fell and perestroika started to take place and all of that, they're like, I don't know what to write about anymore.

There's a great play at Seattle Rep. Mother Russia, where there was a singing star because she was singing against the government and oppression and the regime.

And then come perestroika, she's like, now I'm just a school teacher because all this stuff that I was singing about is moot. So it could be one of these never waste a good crisis moments, but we just have to get our brains there faster, I think, for our own survival.

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So it’s summertime and things happen.

One of the main things that happens is humidity. If you have curly hair, I would say, give into it. You know, we spend so much time, money trying to fight what is natural during the summertime.

Especially if it's hair, you can find something where you can let your hair be your hair and tell other people just to back off if they're going to give you a hassle about it, right?

But if you want some more options, then I do love the Ouidad product. Climate control, anti-humidity.

Something that a lot of us with what I call ‘potential melanin’ struggle with is that we can change color and get all kinds of different spots real fast.

Now, part of me loves that. I wish we all had like stripes and spots and stuff. I would like to look like a jaguar.

But, you know, things come and go and whatever.

But for you youngins out there, note all the freckles and sunspots and things that usually go away during the winter and come back. After a while, they stick around, especially on your chest.

So, if that is not something that you want, use that sunscreen, you know, 50, 70 + sunscreen. There are UV protection shirts out there, especially if you like to go swimming in lakes or in the ocean. It's so much better for the environment than putting on sunscreen.

And if you got the spots and you wear stripes and you want your tiger to change its stripes and even out, there is a thing called Skin Better, Even Tone that slows down the spots and can even them out with a lot of patience and applications.

It's spendy, but it does actually work.

I know with my face, too. I always have to wear glasses when I'm driving and the places where the glasses come in contact with my nose, I get two spots right here and here.

If I rub it there, then the spots go away. But I get a cluster of dark spots. Aquaphor, even Vaseline goes a long way.

Just slather it on before you go to sleep. It's non-commodogenic, it doesn't clog your pores and you will wake up with softer skin.

And that's a lovely thing, right?

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