Nurah Speaks

Is urban media representing a culture that values the worth of black women?   Is it time yet in our 'cancel culture' that we pull the plug on the degradation of our women?  Or will we continue to go along to get along supporting entertainers who imprint degenerate standards in the minds of our youth?

If we do not put in the work to counter the barbaric narratives targeting our young people, we really should be more concerned than we already are  for our future.

If you would like to engage with the Nurah Speaks podcast, submit your listener questions to [email protected].  Listeners can also learn more about Nurah by visiting her website: NurahSpeaks.com or reading her blog by clicking this link.

Follow Nurah Speaks @NurahSpeaksPodcast on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

To bring Nurah as a speaker at your next event, email [email protected]

Remember, don’t just Join the Movement, Be the Movement!

“Let every Leader be Swift to hear, Slow to speak.”  

Our community needs our leaders to be wise and guided by truth and not their (or others’) emotions.  When the People want our immediate reactions, Leaders must always be discerning and responsible-swift to hear and slow to speak.

If you would like to engage with the Nurah Speaks podcast, submit your listener questions to [email protected].  Listeners can also learn more about Nurah by visiting her website:  NurahSpeaks.com or reading her blog by clicking this link.

Follow Nurah Speaks @NurahSpeaksPodcast on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

To bring Nurah as a speaker at your next event, email [email protected]

Remember, don’t just Join the Movement, Be the Movement!

Organizing is incremental and organizing with any group of people has its challenges. 

However organizing Black people has its very specific and unique challenges due in large part to the trauma of the Black American experience.

If we do not understand the psychology of our people, we are easily frustrated, overly critical and very quickly burned out. 

If one is not willing to lead with love, one cannot lead Black people.

If you would like to engage with the Nurah Speaks podcast, submit your listener questions to [email protected].  Listeners can also learn more about Nurah by visiting her website: NurahSpeaks.com or reading her blog by clicking this link.

Follow Nurah Speaks @NurahSpeaksPodcast on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

To bring Nurah as a speaker at your next event, email [email protected].

Remember, don’t just Join the Movement, Be the Movement!

There is so much we can do to make our communities great and decent places to live. BUT decent communities do not only require accountability of the mayor or city council.   It also requires that we be good neighbors to each other!

If you would like to engage with the Nurah Speaks podcast, submit your listener questions to [email protected].  Listeners can also learn more about Nurah by visiting her website: NurahSpeaks.com or reading her blog by clicking this link.

Follow Nurah Speaks @NurahSpeaksPodcast on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

To bring Nurah as a speaker at your next event, email [email protected].

Remember, don’t just Join the Movement, Be the Movement!

EVERYONE COUNTS!

Every 10 years the U.S. Census Bureau counts the population in the United States and five U.S. territories.

The results of this count will impact school breakfast programs, highway planning, special education grants, low income home energy assistance programs, SNAP (supplemental nutrition assistance program), Head Start and so much more.

You Count.

Complete and return your census questionnaire so that federal funds, YOUR TAX DOLLARS, can serve the community where you live.

You won’t get another chance for 10 years!

To learn more about the 2020 Census and what it means to you, listen to Episode 128 of the Nurah Speaks Podcast.

If you would like to engage with the Nurah Speaks podcast, submit your listener questions to [email protected].  Listeners can also learn more about Nurah by visiting her website: NurahSpeaks.com or reading her blog by clicking this link.

Follow Nurah Speaks @NurahSpeaksPodcast on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

To bring Nurah as a speaker at your next event, email [email protected]

Remember, don’t just Join the Movement, Be the Movement!

This is not an “either or” scenario.  We can and must address community violence and police brutality at the same time as both are issues of great importance.

We should not be persuaded that we have to quiet down about police brutality because we have an ongoing issue with so-called 'Black on Black' crime.  The presence of one issue does not disqualify us addressing the severity of the other.

Let’s also be careful with the alarmist narrative about community violence as if Black people are the only ones killing their own kind.  Violence is generally committed against someone by someone of the same racial class.

For example, in 2018 of 3,315 white murder victims, 2,677 white perpetrators were identified, roughly 81%.  In the same year, of 2,925 Black murder victims, 2,6000 perpetrators were black, roughly 89%.  https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-2018/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-6.xls.

This does not mean that we give our own community violence a pass-it is never acceptable.  But we do need perspective on the issue.

Regarding police interactions,  statistics show that Black people have more fatal interactions with law enforcement, although accounting for only 13% of the population.

“The rate of fatal police shootings in the United States shows large differences based on ethnicity. Among Black Americans, the rate of fatal police shootings between 2015 and June 2020 stood at 31 per million of the population, while for White Americans, the rate stood at 13 fatal police shootings per million of the population.”   https://www.statista.com/statistics/1123070/police-shootings-rate-ethnicity-us/

There is a general devaluing of Black life conceived at the genesis of this great nation.   We do not have to choose which issue to address.  Both are of such urgency that they must be confronted now!

If you would like to engage with the Nurah Speaks podcast, submit your listener questions to [email protected].  Listeners can also learn more about Nurah by visiting her website: NurahSpeaks.com or reading her blog by clicking this link.

Follow Nurah Speaks @NurahSpeaksPodcast on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

To bring Nurah as a speaker at your next event, email [email protected].

Remember, don’t just Join the Movement, Be the Movement!

In the rise of entrepreneurship within the Black community, we have neglected the most important businesses that makes communities successful.

•Family

•Education

•Remembrance of God (Church, Mosque, Temple)

We cannot be about the business of business while neglecting that which anchors our community most.

If you would like to engage with the Nurah Speaks podcast, submit your listener questions to [email protected].  Listeners can also learn more about Nurah by visiting her website: NurahSpeaks.com or reading her blog by clicking this link.

Follow Nurah Speaks @NurahSpeaksPodcast on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

To bring Nurah as a speaker at your next event, email [email protected]

Remember, don’t just Join the Movement, Be the Movement!

Our language and choice of words matters a great deal when discussing the history of this nation.   This week’s episode is an examination of common language usage and how our words influence that on which we focus.

Episode 125 gives the listener a grammar lesson reminiscent of that which we received in elementary school. 

For example:  “Teachers teach.”

Here you are presented with a subject and verb.  In this sentence, teachers are the actors.

“Teachers teach students.”

This example shows us the object of the teacher’ actions.  The object in this sentence is ‘students’.  The students are being acted upon by the teachers.

Often in review of American history, specifically that deemed “Black History,” we are presented with something like the following:

“Blacks were enslaved.”  “Blacks were lynched.” “Blacks were killed.”

The subject in each of the sentences is “Blacks.” The sentences informs us that Blacks had something occur to them.  But, the picture is incomplete without naming an actor.

However the sentence, “Whites enslaved Blacks,” gives us a fuller picture.  “Whites lynched Blacks” does as well.

These sentences not only inform us that blacks were enslaved and lynched but it also informs us WHO the enslavers and lynchers were. Here we are presented with the subject (Whites) who are the actors and the object (Blacks) of their actions.

This brings us from a narrow focus to a broader focus.   (Imagine looking a picture that is all but concealed except for a small area.) 

By excluding the actor in these discussions, our attention naturally shifts to the object of the actor.  However, including the actor permits us to analyze much more than the object-we are now able to analyze the actor and his actions.  (Now the whole picture visible!)

Therefore, as we are having socially conscious conversations wherein Blacks are deputized in explaining the part of American history designated as ‘Black History’, we should refrain from putting the emphasis on ourselves. 

Rather, we should put emphasis on the actors who were the deniers of liberty, the actors who constructed systems of ongoing oppression, the actors who were practitioners of death.

That context is important.

Wherein, historically, we have highlighted our own experiences and the effect systemic abuses had on our own people - we were limited to only a self examination.  Redirecting or at least sharing emphasis with the actor allows us to analyze the character and nature of those who would enact such atrocities upon us.  

Language matters.

If you would like to engage with the Nurah Speaks podcast, submit your listener questions to [email protected].  Listeners can also learn more about Nurah by visiting her website: NurahSpeaks.com or reading her blog by clicking this link.

Follow Nurah Speaks @NurahSpeaksPodcast on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

To bring Nurah as a speaker at your next event, email [email protected]

Remember, don’t just Join the Movement, Be the Movement!

They removed the statues.  They’ve rename the streets. Even NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said, “Black Lives Matter.” So now what?

How do these symbolic gestures measure up in the absence of broad reaching meaningful change?

Do not count your chickens before they hatch Brothers and Sisters! And do not make more of these gestures than the real consequential changes that must be made.

If you would like to engage with the Nurah Speaks podcast, submit your listener questions to [email protected].  Listeners can also learn more about Nurah by visiting her website: NurahSpeaks.com or reading her blog by clicking this link.

Follow Nurah Speaks @NurahSpeaksPodcast on Facebook,Twitter and Instagram.

To bring Nurah as a speaker at your next event, email [email protected]

Remember, don’t just Join the Movement, Be the Movement!

It is no secret that Black fathers and Black men, in general, are undervalued and unappreciated in this country.  Because of that, and in celebration of Father's Day, I am sharing excerpts from previous interviews with Haidar and Qahhar Muhammad, my own sons.  

In this episode, not only do they share lessons they've learned from their father, but also the value that fathers play in the lives of their children.

Despite media promoting single parenting in the Black community, the souls of our children are crying for the stability that families create.  Our children need fathers or key male figures in the absence of their fathers.

We are imbalanced without them.

If you would like to engage with the Nurah Speaks podcast, submit your listener questions to [email protected].  Listeners can also learn more about Nurah by visiting her website: NurahSpeaks.com or reading her blog by clicking this link.

Follow Nurah Speaks @NurahSpeaksPodcast on Facebook,Twitter and Instagram.

To bring Nurah as a speaker at your next event, email [email protected].

Remember, don’t just Join the Movement, Be the Movement!