In today’s podcast, we will take a look back at Juneteenth! Juneteenth has been a nationally federally recognized holiday for a year now, and here in Connecticut, it will become a state holiday on June 19th, 2023. We thought it would be a good idea to check back in and identify what has changed, what that means for Black people both tangible and metaphorically, and how this has shaped and/or affected us and our greater community.

Today we will embark on this journey by reclaiming the knowledge of the GREAT India.Arie. We talk how her music contributes to the Black Feminist Cannon, how her music has had power in our lives and much more!

In today’s podcast,  we will be discussing why student debt cancellation is important, and why it is not only an economic issue but a RACIAL JUSTICE issue.

References

https://heller.brandeis.edu/iere/pdfs/racial-wealth-equity/racial-wealth-gap/stallingdreams-how-student-debt-is-disrupting-lifechances.pdf

Education Trust  2020, in partnership with Jalil B. Mustaffa, Ph.D., we launched the National Black Student Loan Debt Study

https://edtrust.org/resource/jim-crow-debt/

‘That’s The Point’: Why student loan debt cancellation is about racial justice

https://thegrio.com/2022/04/21/thats-the-point-why-student-loan-debt-cancellation-is-about-racial-justice/

Student Debt is a Racial Justice Issue. Here’s What President Biden Can Do to Help.

https://www.aclu.org/news/racial-justice/student-debt-is-a-racial-justice-issue-heres-what-president-biden-can-do-to-help

https://heller.brandeis.edu/news/items/releases/2021/impact-report-iere-student-debt.html

https://www.vox.com/23059038/student-loan-debt-forgiveness-cancellation-scenarios

https://thegrio.com/2022/05/04/student-loan-forgiveness-is-a-step-towards-racial-justice/

https://tcf.org/content/report/bridging-progressive-policy-debates-student-debt-racial-wealth-gap-reinforce/?session=1

https://educationdata.org/student-loan-debt-statistics

https://equitablegrowth.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/hamilton-zwede.pdf

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/09/why-is-college-so-expensive-in-america/569884/

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/5-things-to-know-about-debt-cancellation/

https://www.businessinsider.com/student-loan-debt-forgiveness-expected-from-biden-august-education-2022-8

This is the first installment in our Black Women Voices IG Live Series, previously recorded 3/14/22 . I hope you enjoy. We apologize for any audio issues in advance!

“ ‘People do not throw their geniuses away’ and that ‘if they are thrown away, it is our duty as artists, scholars, and witnesses for the future to collect them again for the sake of our children… if necessary, bone by bone’” (Walker 1983,92) in Collins 2009,5) Black Feminist Thought

The Black Women Voices:

Reclaiming our Knowledge Series was sparked by this Alice Walker quote cited in Patricia Hill Collins’ Black Feminist Thought. In this section of the book Collins details how the suppression of Black women’s knowledge production is another tool of oppression.

The act of suppression via:

Exploitation of Black women’s labor essential to US capitalism

Political dimension of oppression has denied African American women the rights and privileges routinely extended to White males citizens

Controlling images applied to Black women’s

She also details how the identity of being a Black woman creates an intersectional identity where the realities of sexism and racism are inextricably linked, which provides Black women with a very unique and powerful lens on the world, humanity and social injustice.

In an act to counter the suppression of Black women voices, Black Women Voices: Reclaiming Our Knowledge is a series TNBC is starting to reclaim the knowledge of Black Women throughout time to both decolonize history and begin to curate our own collective history.

Self, community, society

Today we will embark on this journey by reclaiming the knowledge of Ms. Lauryn Hill.

Previously recorded 2-17-22

Today we are continuing our discussion about radical rest, finding your identity and protecting your peace. In this episode we are tackling how the internet, technology and social media plays a role in our ability to rest, shape our identity and protect our peace. In the last episode we meditated on how divesting from the capitalist structure is vital to achieving rest. We plan to build on that by identifying how capitalism and productivity have shaped the social media environment. According to the Pew Research Center, 69% of adults and 81% of teens in the U.S. use social media. Social media’s designed to be addictive as it activates the brain’s reward center by releasing dopamine, a “feel-good chemical” linked to pleasurable activities. The use of social media, especially heavy use, has been linked to depression, anxiety, and feelings of isolation, according to Medical News Today. So today in this podcast we are tackling… 

How do we disengage? 

Electronic unwinding

 Collective Power, 

Collective History, 

Interconnectedness 

 Community Racism-related trauma or intersectional oppression related trauma Stress 

and Freedom & Wholeness

Previously recorded on 1/17/22.

Today we are talking about all things radical rest, finding your identity and protecting your peace. In the wake of the “Great Resignation” or more like the “Great Realization” people are leaving their jobs in droves.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that 4.3 million Americans, or 2.9% of the entire workforce, quit their jobs in August 2021.

So it begs the question why?

For many of us the answer is clear. After two years of sustaining and surviving in a pandemic people have had the time to be reflective and introspective about life and what that means to them. In doing that internal work people are realizing that they do not want to keep feeding into a capitalist system that never feeds back into them. 

When we are living in a world where every time you step outside your door death is a real risk because of a deadly virus mutating and looming in the wake, it seems people have started to ask themselves, “is this as good as life can get for me”?

 And if the numbers I cited above are any indication, the realization is NO!

It's evident that people, by and large, are done with just merely surviving, and that if they are going to live, they want to live a flourishing  and fulfilling life. One they have taken agency over.

So today in this podcast we are tackling…

Capitalism

Radical Rest

Social Media

Productivity

Finding Oneself

Collective Power

Resources: 

Undistracted: A Historic Day and Why the ‘Nap Bishop” Believes Rest is Radical

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4mXYn8pvd4Fp3E1I4opk6C?si=2b1bfb2c2c8042e9

Into America: A Word from the Nap Bishop

https://open.spotify.com/episode/49K5uJBfsJV7bUfWVAt4D6?si=1b169ff493764624

Meet the Congressman pushing a 4-day work week law: 'I care about making capitalism sustainable and more humane'

https://www.businessinsider.com/4-day-work-week-law-california-congressman-mark-takano-author-2022-1

Small Doses

https://open.spotify.com/episode/59P87DwUfEF2GIzTkpi66b?si=4650503d12d74579

BLS

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20211018&utm_term=5879628&utm_campaign=money&utm_id=4858467&orgid=&utm_att1=money

NPR

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2021/10/19/1047032996/why-are-so-many-americans-quitting-their-jobs#:~:text=Last%20week%2C%20the%20U.S.%20Bureau,seen%20across%20virtually%20all%20industries.

previously recorded Nov 10,2021

Today we will be beginning a new series called Joe Biden and down ballot accountability. Seeing that Black and Brown people are a major reason for Joe Biden’s presidency and the Democrat wave in 2020, we believe that it is time to check back in and assess what they have been able to achieve and the things that we are still owed.

Disclaimer: Do not fear, even as we begin to focus on political accountability  we will still continue to cover a variety of topics that center the Black experience from Black joy, current topics, music, sports, and academia, with the ground lens of health justice. But as the weeks and months progress, we will occasionally take the time to highlight specific promises/issues we believe our elected officials need to act on or already have and have a discourse on what that means for justice. By continuing our ethos of visualizing justice via a health justice lens, we will interrogate how we can achieve a more just and humane society than the one we live in.

Previously recorded July 20, 2021.

In today's episode, we discuss the intersections of race, gender, sports and journalism. Particularly we talk about the 2021 Summer Olympics, NBA Finals an much more.

TNBC we be starting a To Be Black series on our podcast, where we will highlight how existing as a Black person shapes the way you are treated, navigate and are perceived in the world and the potentially affects that has on Black folk both socially, psychologically and biologically. We will interrogate the systems and structure that perpetrate this harm and allow is to persist. We will also discuss how Black people resist, fight and thrive amongst that adversity. Lastly, we will meditate on the magic that is Blackness and that even though Black people always find a way to grow roses in concrete, they should not be expected to be resilient but be given the fertile soil to grow.

Authors and Books Mentioned:

Patricia Hill Collins - Black Feminist Thought

Octavia E. Butler

Kimberle Crenshaw 

Dana-Ain Davis

June 19 1865 commemorates the day the last enslaved people were notified by union troops in Galveston Texas that they had been emancipated 2.5 years earlier. In this podcast, that was recorded June 22, 2021, we talk about the historical significance of this day, key figures that fought to make Juneteenth a federal holiday and ponder on questions like:

Is it gaslighting making Juneteenth a federal holiday?

What does the celebration of Juneteenth mean to you?

How should white people engage in this holiday?

How do you want vs expect Juneteenth being a federal holiday to help to shift and/or transform culture? What does it do for the movement?

We hope you enjoy the episode and feel free to join our community and engage in future discussions about race, equity, and justice! Also we will be posting Saige and Adriana's speeches from the Town of Windsor Juneteenth Celebration of Freedom Event.

IG: @the.national.black.cooperative FB: @TheNationalBLACKCoop Website: https://thenationalblackco.wixsite.com/nationalblackcoop

In today's episode, on our one year anniversary, we reflect on our evolution as an organization over the year with just a few of our E-board members Adriana, Castella, Jacai, Zach, Nic and Saige. We discuss how TNBC was formed, major challenges and successes, what we have learned and what we hope to do in the future. We hope you enjoy our first episode that has been launched on our one year anniversary of The National B.L.A.C.K Cooperative (TNBC)! Please follow us on Instagram @the.national.black.cooperative, on facebook @TheNationalBLACKCoop, and on our website https://thenationalblackco.wixsite.com/nationalblackcoop.

There are some minor audio issues toward the middle of the podcast, sorry for the inconvenience in advance.