Reimagining Black Relations

Dr. Marketus Presswood is an Historian with specialization in the socio-cultural interactions of the Chinese, Africans, and Africans in Diaspora. Dr. Presswood juxtaposed China and the U.S. on the subject of racism. He discussed: the role of China and the U.S. on the global order for Africa and Black Diaspora and emphasized the urgency of establishing the "United African States".

"At the same time, I saw friends, and friends of friends, who didn't have the same support system, and they fell by the wayside.  For me now, when I think about some of my classmates who were brilliant students - I had one classmate who was a great mathematician - much smarter than me in that regard. I remember a few years back when I was in Chicago, I ran into him on the street. You can tell that he was homeless. And I just thought - what a waste of so much talent and genius. This is the problem - my critique of America is that, how much do we lose because we fail to nurture every segment ..." - Dr. Marketus Presswood

Dr. Irène Y. Kilubi, an Expert Advisor to the European Commission on Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Digitalization, spoke to us from Germany. Irene shared her experiences as one of the first Black families to relocate to Germany from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and how she transitioned from the status quo to her current trajectory.

"Many were also jealous, other immigrants like people from Russia, from Poland, and from Turkey. So I faced more racism from non-German people than from German people. It's like minorities humiliating other minorities." - Dr. Irène Y. Kilubi

Four speakers from the Inaugural Pan-African Youth (PAY) Summit.

Prof. Babacar Kante - President of the National Political Dialogue  Commission in Senegal, former Vice-President of the Constitutional Council/Court of Senegal, and an expert in Constitutional law and political science, will speak on Ethics and Power. 

 Prof. Ivelaw Lloyd Griffith, Senior Associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana, President of Fort Valley State University in Georgia, Provost of universities in Virginia and New York and Dean at Florida International University spoke on Security, Political Economy of Drugs, Crime, and its impact on the Sovereignty of a Nation. 

 Darcy Bourne, a 20-year-old Sophomore with a joint major in Sociology and French at Duke University in North Carolina, spoke on the Perspectives of Youth in Diaspora. 

 Dr. Alexandria Williams , an Internal Medicine Physician at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, spoke on Ethics. 

Four of the speakers from the Inaugural Pan-African Youth (PAY) Summit.

Dr. Jasmine L. Blanks-Jones, a dynamic theatre nonprofit leader, award-wining educator, who holds a dual PhD in Education and Africana Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, speaking on Pan-Africanism.

Paulinarh Bolatito Ogunleye is 21 years old. The first female President of the Faculty of Arts Student Union at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, and the longest seating president of the same body. She will speak on the Perspectives of Youth in Africa.

Prof. Seth N. Asumah, the State University of New York Distinguished Teaching Professor, Chair, and Professor of Africana Studies, and Professor of Political Science, speaking on Effective Mobilization for Political Success.

Hon. Allyson Maynard-Gibson QC, former Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs of The Commonwealth of Bahamas, an advocate for people centered justice, diversity, and the rights of women and children and an expert in governance, restructuring and rebranding of organizations, speaking on Ethics and Leadership. 

Rev. Dr. Sharpton, founder and President of the National Action Network (NAN), a not-for-profit civil rights organization formed in 1991 with over 100 chapters nationwide, including a Washington, DC Bureau and regional offices across the US, was our Keynote Speaker for the Inaugural Pan African Youth (PAY) Summit, held on November 13th, 2021.

As one of the nation’s most-renowned civil rights leaders, Rev. Al Sharpton has been praised by President Barack Obama as "the voice of the voiceless and a champion for the downtrodden”. Rev. Al Sharpton also hosts a daily radio show “Keepin’ it Real w/ Rev. Al Sharpton”, a national cable news television show titled “Politics Nation” and he is an established author. 

This is the Keynote Address.

Cheryl Contee, Chief Innovation Officer at The Impact Seat expressed the reality that your ideal career might not exist today. While she described how you can create the vision of the "new you", she provided scores of investors with interests in minority founders.

"They found that they were able to really get people all the way through their systems except when it comes to writing the check. They told me that it takes them on average, seven introductions to angel investors to get a white female founder funded. It takes 50 on average, five zero, introductions to get a Black female founder funded." - Cheryl Contee

Percy Hintzen Ph.D., Professor Emeritus at UC Berkeley and currently Professor of Global and Sociocultural Studies in the School of International and Public Affairs at Florida International University shared his experiences and expertise of White and Black relations from the Caribbeans to Africa, Asia, Europe, and the rest of Americas. He highlighted the problems faced by indigenous Black countries, the advent of Europeanized Africans,  correlation between language and power, and the solution to the global colonized world.

"We consider them as foreigners, but at the same time, they were the ones who exercised control over every aspect of our lives. And it was very violent. They had the privilege of power and they exercised authority over us in a very violent way" - Percy Hintzen Ph.D.,

Ja'Net Adams, CEO of EMACK understood the power of financial freedom as a means of bridging the wealth gap. She believes you can have whatever you want, as long as you are still breathing, emphasizing the power of money, the power of social media, and the power of saying "no".

"I see... what would I have like to have done differently? Probably would have learned more about my culture, even more than I did growing up because I was just all over the place... you need to know where you've come from...."  - Ja'Net Adams

Roger Griffith, a Black British Social Entrepreneur and faculty member at the University of West England spoke to us from Britain. He shared the dichotomy of being Black and being called "British Boy". Roger expressed frustration about the unhealthy obsession towards Black men, yet he conveyed his optimism as he salutes the Windrush generation with a well articulated poem.

"I've always knew there is good and bad in every race, and that's pretty much how I've judged my life. One of the books that changed my life was the work of Malcolm X, and he referred to white people as devils and the like. I had to go through some kind of reckoning because I just couldn't see that as possible. My friends weren't devils...." - Roger Griffith

Russell Davis, Chief of Human Resources, Equity, and Engagement at the Hammer Museum of UCLA discussed his approach to combat emotional shutdown, and how he developed the appropriate emotional responses when his physical, emotional, and spiritual skin fell off. He proposed strategies for individuals, human resources and employees, and leaders of organizations.

"When we moved out of Philadelphia to the suburbs, we were the only people of color, we were the only African American family, the only Black family in this community - Bryn Mawr in Radnor Pennsylvania. And it was a very interesting discovery because they had never , literally they would say they had never seen Black people in real life before. And they were 20 minutes outside the city of Philadelphia." - Russell Davis