Nurah Speaks

There is no biblical commandment directing us to SPEND-SPEND-SPEND to honor the birth of sweet baby Jesus.

However, year after year, the season has become less religious and more commercial.

Clever advertisers know the perfect strategies to persuade us to buy.  So then what should we do in this season of spending?  This episode I share tips that will benefit your wallet and your community.

If you enjoy Nurah Speaks, please share the podcast with friends, family, and colleagues. Every time you share, you help the show’s growth.

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

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!

We are celebrating the Sixth Year Anniversary of the podcast and there has been so much shared and so much learned in this journey.  

I am grateful to all who has joined me on this journey, the incredible guests, the faithful listeners and the loyal supporters.  

This podcast was borne from a suggestion by a dear Brother who has since passed away but whose legacy continues to inspire, Brother Munir Muhammad.  I received additional encouragement by my own minister, Brother Minister Wasim Muhammad who co-signed the suggestion and established a foundation locally for intelligent and thoughtful conversation.  

However, the greatest support I have had is from my own husband who gives me the freedom to be myself and fulfill my own purpose of service.

I am forever grateful for the kindness and dedication to all who champion the podcast.

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

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!

Social Media is a recurrent topic on Nurah Speaks because of the frequent misuse of the medium and the opportunity it provides us to publicize our most private moments or thoughts, regardless if appropriate for public consumption.

We see the pictures folks post of themselves in their beds and bedrooms and even their hospital beds.  Folks post information compromising of themselves, their relationships and even their safety.  

We post indiscriminately when we should exercise discernment with what we share on these platforms.  We should be encouraging our friends, family, children and anyone we care about to do the same.  

Unfortunately, social media became a mechanism that allows us to disclose our low self esteem, attention seeking behavior or worst thoughts and behaviors.

It can absolutely be an amazing tool, but it can be a weapon of sure disgrace and degradation in the hands of a fool.

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

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!

Overcoming negative messages that we are not ‘enough’ is a very necessary thing for our women.  We have long been inundated with messages that challenge our worthiness and esteem as Black Women. However, once we have accepted that we are indeed valuable and worthy, we should also know that we are still accountable to growth, learning, correction and guidance. 

Being ‘enough’ is just not enough.  It does not absolve us from receiving correction and critique in areas that we fall short. We are still responsible to be well learned, well trained, well cultured and strong in character and devotion. 

Being enough is not ‘enough’.  

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

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!

I do not believe women should dim their light.  I believe women should know how to use their light.  

We are in a time wherein the light of our men has been all but snuffed out totally.  This is evidenced in the current state of the Black Community and our men specifically.  The natural leadership, creativity, character and dependability of our men is not present.  They are yet to show us and themselves their potential and many are frustrated. And we are frustrated.  The scriptural representation of ‘kill the male, spare the female’ is manifest today and without understanding the implications, we misunderstand the dynamics at play.

But Sister, you do not need to dumb it down.  Just understand their condition and act accordingly.  Use your intelligence, your knowledge to be a help, not hinderance to our Brothers and our society.  

Do not dim your light, USE your light.  But first, we must understand.

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

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!

A parent striving to ingrain character, family values, morality and justice in children have a hard job in modern America as cultural norms ebb and flow.  In media, legislation and even education, the parental role is being minimized, challenged and threatened.  

Active parenting is needed more now than ever.  That would include having our children in a community with likeminded individuals.  That could be a church or religious community, a friend community, an ethnic or cultural association, etc wherein your children are exposed to others who share your values.  We should also be constantly talking and listening to our children.  Explain what is happening in the world around them, how it impacts them and what your opinions are.  Ask them questions and listen to their perspectives, challenge them, encourage them to be critically aware.  Lastly, gain their trust by showing how much we value their insights and how important they are to the family and community and demonstrate this to them. 

If you enjoy Nurah Speaks, please share the podcast with friends, family, and colleagues. Every time you share, you help the show’s growth.

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

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!

Not having a healthy self awareness can frustrate us and others and lead to unproductive interactions and prohibiting our success.  

We may have all met someone who has a problem or negative run in in nearly every environment they enter.  We may have experienced being in a board room where that one person or leader blurts something that is offensive to the group, something off topic or of no real value to the issue at hand.  

And we can tell that the person in question has no idea how they are being perceived or how their comments impact others.  This is often a result of low EQ (emotional intelligence) and self awareness.

To help us increase self awareness it is helpful to try two things.  

When we find ourselves missing the mark in communication, getting results or inspiring our team, ask can ourselves ‘what' questions.  The default is often to ask ‘why’ however 'why' questions tend to lead to negative thinking or landing on answers that may feel right but not be right.  

'What' questions push us to be more aware by promoting exploratory thinking.  For example, instead of asking “Why do I keep hitting roadblocks with this person” try asking “What can I do to help us make progress?”  'Why' may inspire pointing out blame whereas 'what' inspires creative thinking and problem solving.

The second tip to help increase our self awareness is to ask a trusted person about ourselves.  It is important that we receive this criticism from one of our ‘champions’ meaning someone who wants us to win, rather than someone who may have jealousy or want our place.  A trusted person will be honest in their remarks because they want us to improve and achieve our potential.  Once receiving honest criticism we should sit with it and determine what steps may be necessary to get to the next level.  

The more self aware we are the better our interpersonal and business relationships and ultimately the greater our chances at achieving success.

If you enjoy Nurah Speaks, please share the podcast with friends, family, and colleagues. Every time you share, you help the show’s growth.

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

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!

“Independent Black Woman”

I believe this is a phrase, perhaps not coined by us, but one repeated by us as a salve to ease the distress of being unloved, unprotected and unprovided for.

Let’s define our term:

Independent -not needing another, not reliant on another

How is this a healthy means to live?  More to the point, is it even possible to exist without relying on others?  I should say it is not.

We take WIC (Women Infants and Children) a federal program giving us food for our babies.

We use our state’s Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to obtain healthcare.

We use food banks and take advantage of school nutrition programs.

We take federal student loans to get educated.

We take bank loans for cars and homes.

We take subsidized housing to offset rental costs.

Where all the independence that we are so proud of?

If we are honest, we will admit that we use the term independent pretty much in relation to black men and and relationships.  Because it is too painful to say, “I am lonely” or “I want companionship” or “I want love”  we boast of our independence because we can pay our own bills.

While that may be true, our education cannot protect us, our corner office won’t love us and our boss babe hustle will not nurture our children.

I think this is part of the conditioning we have had to manage our disappoints and hurts as it relates to not having our fathers and the fathers of our children present.  I also believe we have to break the shackles of this conditioning that puts us against ourselves and against our men.

We and our Black men are in fact two halves of a whole.

If you enjoy Nurah Speaks, please share the podcast with friends, family, and colleagues. Every time you share, you help the show’s growth.

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

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!

Some identify slavery as the destruction of the black family.  During this atrocity in American history, were not permitted formal marriages and the sacredness of our ties (and our bodies) were broken anytime the slave master wanted to have his way with the woman, girl or even our boys.  Yet we still tried…though how difficult it must have been to be a man and endure the abuse of his woman and girls.  How difficult it must have been to be a woman or a girl and live without the safety of a father’s, brothers husbands protection.  Besides this, the selling and buying of black children during slavery further broke the bonds of familial ties.

Some suggest that feminism played a role in increasing single mother led households by suggesting that marriage or the nuclear family was male domination or patriarchy.

We have witnessed the intrusive policies of social welfare systems  that promoted the  single woman led homes.  Additionally, poverty by way of jobs moving away from black dominated communities contributed to the deterioration of families as did criminal justice policies leading to mass incarceration.

There seems to be more systemic strategies that foster broken families within the black community than promote two parent households.  While we can point out all the various attacks to the Black family, we as a community, yet do not promote marriage and family amongst ourselves although it is the single basic unit to all civilizations. 

Therefore our children are beginning their lives with a broken foundation.  They exit their front doors into broken communities and join up with other children with broken foundations.

We should want more and we should want better.  There is no social program or policy that can contend with the benefit of a two parent household.  

If you enjoy Nurah Speaks, please share the podcast with friends, family, and colleagues. Every time you share, you help the show’s growth.

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

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!

A wise teacher once said that we, black descendants of American slavery, have been made ‘a degree below nothing.’  Harsh as it is to say and hear this, the truth yet resonates in the statement and relevant to us in our community and especially to us, Black women.

As a modern collective of women, we find ourselves loudly and proudly celebrating our savage behavior including parading nearly nude in public, using foul and vulgar language, costuming ourselves in wigs, weaves and makeup and not to mention the free and liberal way in which we engage in sexual relations.

And not only do we heap generous praise on our sisters in doing so, but we also viciously attack any who dare encourage us to be virtuous.  

We think being humble is weak, being modest is repressive and we misidentify our value in sex or 'hustle.'

We have been made to be a degree below nothing because we do not know ourselves so we misappropriate behaviors, thoughts and attitudes that do not align with the great intrinsic value of a black woman.

This present condition was planned and is the result of intentional actions taken by our former slave masters.  Take for example Henry Berry’s statement while speaking in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1832 when he said,

“We have as far as possible, closed every avenue by which light may enter the slaves’ mind. If we could extinguish the capacity to see the light, our work would be complete; they would then be on a level with the beast of the field and we should be safe.”

In other words, should they destroy all civility, all refinement, all integrity within our people, they, our slave masters would be safe.  As it stands today, they are safe indeed.

If you enjoy Nurah Speaks, please share the podcast with friends, family, and colleagues. Every time you share, you help the show’s growth.

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

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

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