We the (Black) People

A look into how magic and religion coexist in Black history with Professor Yvonne Chireau, author of Black Magic: Religion and the African American Conjuring Tradition.

Music Credit

PeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)

Generally, I like to talk about labor sometime around May Day. This year, we're talking about a place that has employed a lot of Black people over the last 150 years or so but has not always shown us a lot of love: the post office. For decades, Black people were not even legally allowed to work at the post office, then Black people had to fight in the workplace and inside unions for equality. This episode, we're going to look at the struggle all the way up to the largest illegal (also called wildcat) strike in American history in 1970. I'll talk through that history with Professor Philip Rubio, author of There's Always Work at the Post Office: African American Postal Workers and the Fight for Jobs Justice and Equity. Happy belated May Day!

Music Credit

PeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)

Turns out, negative views towards disability in American culture and society have a history linked to racism and slavery. So, we're going to talk about that history because ableism is not the default, it is a construct that can be challenged. I have this conversation with Professor Jenifer Barclay, author of The Mark of Slavery: Disability, Race, and Gender in Antebellum America.

Music Credit

PeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)

Most of the students who challenged white schools to take Black students and then volunteered to be the first to desegregate those white schools were girls and young women. Dr. Rachel Devlin, author of A Girl Stands at the Door, seeks to explain why school desegregation was championed by girls and young women and to tell their stories.

Music Credit

PeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)

This episode, we're talking about one of my favorite TV shows of all time: Sanford & Son! We'll also get into Good Times and a little into The Jeffersons. All 3 of these shows are 1970s Black sitcoms under Tandem Productions. These shows were a window into the reality of Black life like nothing before them. Yet, what often gets overlooked in discussing these shows is the work that Black actors and writers did behind the scenes to demand respect for themselves and authentic depictions of Black people on screen. Enter my guest Dr. Adrian Sebro, author of Scratchin' and Survivin' Hustle Economics and the Black Sitcoms of Tandem Productions, to tell us some of these behind the scenes stories.

Music Credit

PeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)

We are once again doing something a little different on We the (Black) People.

Boulder, Colorado just opened a Black history exhibit called Proclaiming Colorado's Black History and I have the lead curator - Colorado native and soul food scholar Adrian Miller - and the oral history liaison - Minister Glenda Strong Robinson, an NAACP and church historian in Boulder - on my show to talk about it. Boulder (and Colorado overall) is a small Black community with a mighty contribution to American history. We get into the story of how this exhibit came to be, how other Black communities can activate their history, and some of the stories they collected as they brought the exhibit to life.

Want to learn more about the exhibit and listen to some oral history? Here's the website: https://museumofboulder.org/exhibit/proclaiming-colorados-black-history/

Music Credit

PeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)

Just a quick little clip show because We the (Black) People has been out a whole 3 years and that's wild.

This episode traces the changes in racism, antiracism, and racial awareness over the last 90 years that allow We the (Black) People to exist. Today, racism is illegal and talking about race is taboo, yet the internet makes racism and the fight against it much more visible. Professor Rob Eschmann, author of When the Hood Comes Off: Racism and Resistance in the Digital Age, explains the contradictions and activist possibilities the internet opens up for us.

Music Credit

PeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)

While fast food is now associated with poorer, Black communities and all kinds of health disparities in Black people, McDonald's wasn't originally interested in expanding franchises into Black neighborhoods. Professor Marcia Chatelain, author of Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America, talks about how fast food became Black. It is a story that involves McDonald's as an ally of Black America, an enemy of Black America, but always a powerful institution that evoked a lot of reactions as it allowed Black people to open franchises and became increasing tied to its Black customer base.

We've talked about how important Haiti and Liberia were as symbols for Black Americans whether or not they ever went to either of the two Black countries. This episode is about those who went to Ghana - some by choice and some on the run.

Ghanaian independence was a huge moment of Pan-African hope for a free Africa, and many Black Americans were fascinated by that prospect. Professor Kevin Gaines, author of American Africans in Ghana: Black Expatriates and the Civil Rights Era, is here to talk about the small group of Black Americans who visited or migrated to Ghana - figures like Maya Angelou, Pauli Murray, Julian Mayfield, and Malcolm X.

And, similar to Liberia, the legacy of that era is a continued open invitation from Ghana to Black America.