Free-ish

Intro: 00:00:01

I'm Shannon and I'm Lisa and you're listening to Blacktivities,

Intro: 00:00:05

a celebration of all things, black, black culture, black history, black

Intro: 00:00:09

perspectives, and black panache.

Intro: 00:00:12

Celebrating our blackness doesn't mean exclusion.

Intro: 00:00:15

Everybody's invited, but you gotta come in and have a seat.

Intro: 00:00:18

So let the blacktivities begin.

Shannon: 00:00:27

Welcome again to our very first episode of Blacktivities.

Shannon: 00:00:32

I'm Shannon and I am Mona Lisa, and we are the talented duo who will be serving

Shannon: 00:00:39

y'all a whole lot of black girl magic.

Lisa: 00:00:43

I have to say one.

Lisa: 00:00:44

I wanna say this to you.

Lisa: 00:00:45

Yes.

Lisa: 00:00:45

It's Juneteeth.

Lisa: 00:00:46

I wanna say this really quick guys.

Lisa: 00:00:47

I wanna get this out the way I want to first applaud you for this awesome idea.

Lisa: 00:00:52

And then also thank you for allowing this opportunity to come and, you

Lisa: 00:00:56

know, be on this with you, because this is gonna be such a treat.

Lisa: 00:00:59

The things that you have planned and the things that I have come together

Lisa: 00:01:03

and we planned is gonna be amazing.

Lisa: 00:01:04

I'm telling you it's gonna be an awesome.

Shannon: 00:01:06

We got a lot planned...

Shannon: 00:01:09

yes.

Shannon: 00:01:10

So it's Juneteenth 2022.

Shannon: 00:01:14

And we intentionally named this episode freeish because freedom

Shannon: 00:01:21

is what this holiday celebrates.

Shannon: 00:01:24

So, Lisa, I don't know if you've done this before, but my husband and I noticed this.

Shannon: 00:01:29

When we went for a walk one day in our neighborhood, we live in a

Shannon: 00:01:33

pretty diverse neighborhood in a historically not so diverse city.

Lisa: 00:01:40

Mm, okay.

Shannon: 00:01:42

Some white people came walking in the other direction

Shannon: 00:01:45

from the way we were walking.

Shannon: 00:01:47

And when we got to where they were, we stepped off the sidewalk

Shannon: 00:01:52

to move out of their way.

Shannon: 00:01:54

And my husband was like, why do we do that?

Shannon: 00:01:57

Cause those white people, they didn't act like they were gonna

Shannon: 00:01:59

step to the side and move out the way they just kept on walking.

Shannon: 00:02:03

Like, that's just what was supposed to happen.

Lisa: 00:02:06

I think more or less when it comes down to stuff like that, it's just, I

Lisa: 00:02:10

don't wanna say it's embedded in our DNA.

Lisa: 00:02:12

It's just like, I don't know.

Lisa: 00:02:13

It's just like an automatic thing that we have grasped.

Lisa: 00:02:17

And when we do run into terms on, you know, what, I'm not gonna

Lisa: 00:02:21

step, I gon' try them up cause who, who they think they messing with.

Lisa: 00:02:25

This look as if, you know, we're the challenging ones.

Lisa: 00:02:27

Like we got the attitude problems.

Lisa: 00:02:29

So I think it's just something that is just, it's taught to us.

Shannon: 00:02:34

Well, I think we are free-ish...

Shannon: 00:02:38

Which brings us to SAC's facts.

Shannon: 00:02:47

So Abraham Lincoln, right?

Shannon: 00:02:50

He issued the emancipation proclamation in 1863, saying that

Shannon: 00:02:56

slaves in states controlled by the Confederates should be free.

Shannon: 00:03:00

But.

Shannon: 00:03:01

That didn't apply to the entire us to be.

Shannon: 00:03:05

And good old Texas was like, huh.

Shannon: 00:03:10

Oh, you talking about us?

Shannon: 00:03:12

Uh, carry on.

Shannon: 00:03:13

so then two and a half years later.

Shannon: 00:03:17

They sent them boys, the federal troops to Galveston, who said bruh,

Shannon: 00:03:24

and they freed everybody else.

Shannon: 00:03:27

And that's why we celebrate Juneteenth.

Shannon: 00:03:30

So slavery...

Lisa: 00:03:31

Imagine this, imagine this, sorry to cut you off, but imagine this

Lisa: 00:03:34

though, the job you have right now.

Lisa: 00:03:37

Okay.

Lisa: 00:03:38

Now, you know, okay.

Lisa: 00:03:40

Yes.

Lisa: 00:03:40

It, you pay your bills.

Lisa: 00:03:42

This is something that you do like, okay.

Lisa: 00:03:44

You may have a little love, but when it's time to go, it's time to go.

Lisa: 00:03:48

Imagine somebody come and say, why you still here?

Lisa: 00:03:50

And you like, what you mean?

Lisa: 00:03:51

Like, oh yeah.

Lisa: 00:03:52

They left like three hours ago.

Shannon: 00:03:53

Right.

Lisa: 00:03:54

You gon' be mad.

Shannon: 00:03:56

Right.

Shannon: 00:03:58

So a slavery ended on paper in December of 1865 with the 13th amendment,

Shannon: 00:04:05

which sounds like a long time ago, but that dog on Jim Crow think about this

Shannon: 00:04:12

segregation only ended in 1964 with the passing of the civil rights act.

Shannon: 00:04:18

That's only 58 years ago, right?

Shannon: 00:04:21

Like our grandparents and some of our parents experienced that.

Shannon: 00:04:25

So we are not that far removed.

Shannon: 00:04:27

From all this racism and stuff, and that is SAC's facts.

Lisa: 00:04:34

That's crazy.

Lisa: 00:04:37

That is really crazy.

Shannon: 00:04:38

So let's talk about that.

Shannon: 00:04:40

What are some ways that you think we're freeish, Talisa?

Lisa: 00:04:43

Free ish.

Lisa: 00:04:45

Well, coming from where I come from, and I don't wanna throw out the field where

Lisa: 00:04:50

I work, but when it comes to finances, when it comes to opportunities, I feel

Lisa: 00:04:57

like, yes, we are giving the leeway.

Lisa: 00:04:59

When we start our own businesses before it's getting that jump start or getting

Lisa: 00:05:03

that, you know, That little loan or money or whatever, but sometimes, mm.

Lisa: 00:05:08

It just doesn't work out that way.

Lisa: 00:05:10

So yeah, we have we're freeish when it comes to certain things and being

Lisa: 00:05:13

entrepreneurs and all of that, but when it comes to certain resources mm.

Lisa: 00:05:18

They kind of like, nah, get, get in your line, stay in your lane.

Lisa: 00:05:22

So I think with that, we kind of free-ish.

Shannon: 00:05:26

Yeah.

Shannon: 00:05:26

Cuz it's like, they're like, okay, you know, you have technically on paper,

Shannon: 00:05:33

all the rights as everybody else.

Shannon: 00:05:35

Mm-hmm . But when you start getting to a certain level or you start mm-hmm

Shannon: 00:05:41

to step into their territory, it's like, okay, now we got a problem.

Shannon: 00:05:46

We gotta make some kind of rule that doesn't look like it's going backward.

Shannon: 00:05:52

Mm-hmm but we gotta stop you from exercising all the rights that you have.

Lisa: 00:05:59

Right.

Lisa: 00:06:00

And then another thing with us is whenever we're like, even though

Lisa: 00:06:04

we're doing it the right way, um, we're trying to go by these laws.

Lisa: 00:06:09

And like you said before, they'll figure out some type

Lisa: 00:06:11

of way to kind of push us back.

Lisa: 00:06:13

Anytime that we are combative, then we're the problem.

Shannon: 00:06:18

Hmm.

Shannon: 00:06:19

Say that again?

Lisa: 00:06:21

Anytime we're combative, then we're the problem.

Shannon: 00:06:24

The angry black woman.

Lisa: 00:06:27

Yes.

Lisa: 00:06:28

And don't get me wrong.

Lisa: 00:06:29

I love, I love, you know, being, you know, the strong

Lisa: 00:06:32

woman, you know what I'm saying?

Lisa: 00:06:33

But there are certain situations where I'm like, yo, like that ain't right.

Lisa: 00:06:38

Like, this is what we're gonna do.

Lisa: 00:06:40

This is the laws.

Lisa: 00:06:41

This is, you know, section three of this and this and this.

Lisa: 00:06:45

And because I'm bringing it up, they're like, well, why do you wanna

Lisa: 00:06:48

come over here and cause a problem.

Lisa: 00:06:50

Right?

Lisa: 00:06:50

What you so mad for?

Lisa: 00:06:51

That's my that's that's oh, lemme tell you.

Lisa: 00:06:54

If I had a penny for every time I heard what you so mad for.

Lisa: 00:06:57

What you mad for?

Lisa: 00:06:59

You sit there dumbfounded like are, you kidding?

Lisa: 00:07:03

Like seriously?

Lisa: 00:07:04

What I'm mad for?

Lisa: 00:07:06

I'll tear all this up over here.

Lisa: 00:07:09

I'll slang all this up over here!

Lisa: 00:07:10

I'll show you mad!

Lisa: 00:07:12

But we, but that's something else that we have taught that we have to

Lisa: 00:07:17

figure out a way, respectively, figure out a way to not be the angry person,

Lisa: 00:07:23

even though they portray us to be.

Lisa: 00:07:25

And that's something else that's embedded in our DNA is turning the other cheek.

Shannon: 00:07:29

Right.

Shannon: 00:07:31

I'm thinking about someone that I work with, who, you know, we have

Shannon: 00:07:36

certain things we're supposed to do and this person never does what we

Shannon: 00:07:43

have been told we're supposed to do.

Lisa: 00:07:45

Alright be careful now.

Shannon: 00:07:46

So this person is of the Caucasian persuasion [mm-hmm]

Shannon: 00:07:53

and it's like, everything that authority tells us we're supposed

Shannon: 00:07:58

to do this person does not do it.

Shannon: 00:08:00

They do the opposite.

Shannon: 00:08:02

Right.

Shannon: 00:08:03

But let me do that.

Shannon: 00:08:05

Would I have a job?

Shannon: 00:08:06

I really don't think so.

Lisa: 00:08:09

No.

Lisa: 00:08:09

Cause I say, if you did go up, we break snitch code.

Lisa: 00:08:13

I'm like, yo, why so and so, so, so ain't gotta do this.

Lisa: 00:08:15

They gon' look at you like, what's your problem?

Lisa: 00:08:19

Why you so mad?

Lisa: 00:08:20

What you worried about it for?

Lisa: 00:08:22

And then hence, we get told to stay in our lane, so [right].

Lisa: 00:08:27

That's why I choose my battles wisely nowadays.

Lisa: 00:08:32

Yes, I grasp the whole freeish concept, but I choose my battles wisely.

Shannon: 00:08:37

Well, think too, about the NFL.

Shannon: 00:08:40

[Mm.] The whole thing with Brian Flores, the coach.

Shannon: 00:08:45

[Ooh mm-hmm.] When you think about the structure of the NFL,

Shannon: 00:08:50

to me, that's like, you know, this, the rich white slave owners.

Shannon: 00:08:57

Right who own these teams?

Shannon: 00:08:59

[Mm-hmm] but then mostly on the teams are black people.

Lisa: 00:09:04

What they said 70% of the NFL players are black.

Lisa: 00:09:07

Is that, is that the right one?

Shannon: 00:09:09

I don't have a specific stat for that, but...

Lisa: 00:09:11

I think so 70% of the NFL players are black.

Lisa: 00:09:17

If I'm not mistaken.

Shannon: 00:09:18

And it's like, you know, when you start saying things about not

Shannon: 00:09:22

having black coaches and not having black owners, [mm-hmm] , it's like,

Shannon: 00:09:26

okay, y'all stay in y'all's lane.

Shannon: 00:09:29

[Mm-hmm] you you're getting some money, but [right] how much money

Shannon: 00:09:34

are they making off of these players?

Lisa: 00:09:37

Exactly, exactly.

Lisa: 00:09:40

Okay.

Lisa: 00:09:41

The way that Brian Flores, the way he found out that he didn't get that job.

Lisa: 00:09:46

Three days before his actual interview, he got a congratulatory

Lisa: 00:09:53

text message, the wonderful infamous text message about how awesome and

Lisa: 00:09:57

amazing this this contract is gonna be.

Lisa: 00:10:00

And he's like, wait a minute.

Lisa: 00:10:02

I haven't interviewed for that yet, but wasn't the other guy named Brian,

Lisa: 00:10:06

the guy, the guy that got it mixed up.

Lisa: 00:10:08

[Yep.] I'm gonna be honest with you.

Lisa: 00:10:10

I kind of dealt with something like that.

Lisa: 00:10:13

Where I was applying for a job.

Lisa: 00:10:14

I did get to interview for it, but it was told to me that they

Lisa: 00:10:21

were having a congratulatory, like party for the other person.

Lisa: 00:10:25

And I didn't even get notification.

Lisa: 00:10:26

I didn't get it yet.

Lisa: 00:10:28

So I'm like, oh, but they wanna know why I'm mad [right].

Lisa: 00:10:35

With the NFL.

Lisa: 00:10:36

I really feel like if they really want to have it to where it's freeish or give

Lisa: 00:10:43

the same opportunities across the board.

Lisa: 00:10:45

They, they would've did it by.

Lisa: 00:10:47

It doesn't make any sense.

Lisa: 00:10:48

As long as you know, we have been freeish for companies to still come up with these.

Lisa: 00:10:55

What's the word I'm looking for?

Lisa: 00:10:57

I don't wanna say offers [excuses].

Lisa: 00:10:59

Well, excuse no, no.

Lisa: 00:11:00

I'm, I'm going in a direction of they coming into where they, they

Lisa: 00:11:03

make a goal of by 2040, we're going to hire, you know, more minority.

Lisa: 00:11:09

Like why is it that you have to go that route when you just be fair?

Shannon: 00:11:13

Right.

Shannon: 00:11:14

And then they'd be like, oh, well we can't find enough qualified candidates.

Lisa: 00:11:19

Ooh.

Lisa: 00:11:19

That sounded like a company.

Lisa: 00:11:21

I ain't even gonna say.

Lisa: 00:11:23

I, and then too, it's like, it's hard when.

Lisa: 00:11:26

Let's say to be fair.

Lisa: 00:11:28

Okay.

Lisa: 00:11:28

These companies do come up with these plans or these goals, uh,

Lisa: 00:11:32

you know, of how many people they wanna hire by a certain amount.

Lisa: 00:11:35

Then that person who isn't white is gonna feel discriminated against

Lisa: 00:11:39

because it's like, yo, they got this pledge or this vow of how this many

Lisa: 00:11:43

people over this certain amount of time that I'm gonna get overlooked.

Lisa: 00:11:46

And then what about their education?

Lisa: 00:11:48

Which I know, you know, but it's all about being fairness.

Lisa: 00:11:50

It's, it's all about that.

Lisa: 00:11:52

So I feel like if everybody just go normal, just look at the qualifications,

Lisa: 00:11:57

look, you know what I'm saying?

Lisa: 00:11:58

Stop looking at who the actual person is.

Lisa: 00:12:01

Then we wouldn't run into that issue.

Lisa: 00:12:03

But is that possible though?

Lisa: 00:12:05

Will that, do you think that'll backfire on you though, if you're actually looking

Lisa: 00:12:09

at the qualifications of the person.

Lisa: 00:12:12

Their resume and hire them based off of that and not actually looking at them.

Shannon: 00:12:17

Now, here's the thing though.

Shannon: 00:12:19

Shamika, ain't gonna get hired over Julie, some, some kinda way they're gonna

Shannon: 00:12:28

figure out, but also part of what I feel like is post- traumatic slave syndrome.

Shannon: 00:12:35

[mm-hmm] like, we always tell our kids that we have to be twice as good and

Shannon: 00:12:42

more qualified than everybody else.

Shannon: 00:12:45

[Mm-hmm] and we do [mm-hmm] so I don't know that it would backfire because I

Shannon: 00:12:51

feel like we are already overqualified.

Shannon: 00:12:55

[Right.] There's a lot of things that we do because of post-traumatic slave

Shannon: 00:13:01

syndrome from the food we eat...

Shannon: 00:13:05

you like chitlins?

Lisa: 00:13:06

No.

Shannon: 00:13:06

Ugh.

Lisa: 00:13:08

I did when I was little, don't get me wrong because I didn't

Lisa: 00:13:10

know what the hell I was eating.

Lisa: 00:13:13

Look, you probably take, like, take my black card some of the stuff I don't eat.

Lisa: 00:13:17

Like I don't, I don't buy Kool-Aid we don't do Kool-Aid at my house.

Shannon: 00:13:20

Oh, well we're on a health kick, so...

Lisa: 00:13:23

Oh, okay.

Shannon: 00:13:23

We don't, I drank that when I was younger, before I got health conscious.

Lisa: 00:13:29

Yeah.

Lisa: 00:13:29

I don't buy Hawaiian punch.

Lisa: 00:13:31

That's a no-no.

Shannon: 00:13:32

But even looking at that, like our food, the things that are quote

Shannon: 00:13:38

unquote, like black culture foods, like the Kool-Aid like the Hawaiian punch...

Lisa: 00:13:43

it's cheap stuff that we could afford because we wasn't

Lisa: 00:13:46

making that money or how the same opportunities as other people.

Shannon: 00:13:49

Right.

Shannon: 00:13:50

But.

Shannon: 00:13:51

It's also killing us.

Shannon: 00:13:53

[Yes.] Because of all the stuff that they put in it.

Lisa: 00:13:56

Right.

Lisa: 00:13:57

When last time you fried some chicken?

Shannon: 00:13:59

I don't eat fried chicken.

Lisa: 00:14:01

See the look, Shannon.

Lisa: 00:14:03

They gonna take our goddamn card.

Lisa: 00:14:05

We be doing this.

Lisa: 00:14:06

They ain't gonna let us have this podcast, but guys, we still black.

Lisa: 00:14:10

Yes.

Lisa: 00:14:10

We still black.

Lisa: 00:14:12

We're just trying to break generational curses and eat healthy.

Shannon: 00:14:15

Right.

Shannon: 00:14:16

We have to free ourselves from these things that we do as black people.

Lisa: 00:14:23

Right.

Lisa: 00:14:24

Cause I'll be damn if I get on high blood pressure meds.

Shannon: 00:14:27

Oh, I'm already there.

Lisa: 00:14:28

Oh see.

Lisa: 00:14:30

I can't man.

Lisa: 00:14:32

It's close.

Shannon: 00:14:33

That's the thing like from the food we eat to our health

Shannon: 00:14:37

issues, [mm-hmm] even healthcare.

Shannon: 00:14:40

You know, cuz they used to say that we didn't feel any pain [mm-hmm]

Shannon: 00:14:45

but we have the highest rate of mothers who die during childbirth.

Lisa: 00:14:51

Still to this day.

Lisa: 00:14:52

[Yeah.] Another thing too, what kind of sparks me is right now people buying

Lisa: 00:14:58

houses and I was talking about how small business owners, they have a hard time

Lisa: 00:15:02

getting loans, but what about getting assistance on purchasing a house?

Lisa: 00:15:07

Well, there was a certain financial company in the news here recently because

Lisa: 00:15:12

that number, they pledged to help a significant amount of African Americans

Lisa: 00:15:18

with purchasing their first home.

Lisa: 00:15:22

But when they went back and looked at the numbers, that wasn't a really big change.

Shannon: 00:15:26

I think after George Floyd's death, a lot of companies pledged

Shannon: 00:15:31

a lot of things, but I don't see a lot of those things happening.

Lisa: 00:15:35

Right.

Lisa: 00:15:36

When you do the questionnaire, when you're purchasing a house and

Lisa: 00:15:38

that's the first day at the top, they ask you what's your race.

Lisa: 00:15:41

And they say back then it was because they wanted to make sure

Lisa: 00:15:45

you were staying in the area where if, if you're African American, you

Lisa: 00:15:48

weren't African American up there.

Lisa: 00:15:49

They wanna make sure you stayed in that African American suburb or community

Lisa: 00:15:53

or wherever you were, and that you didn't, you wasn't shown houses,

Lisa: 00:15:57

you know, in the Caucasian area.

Shannon: 00:15:58

Redlining.

Lisa: 00:15:59

Yeah, there we go.

Lisa: 00:16:01

But now I remember being in, I was in a training class and I was like,

Lisa: 00:16:06

okay, well, if that was like that back, then why do we still do this now?

Lisa: 00:16:09

They say, oh, we just wanna make sure that we're keeping record of it being fair.

Lisa: 00:16:13

And I'm like, why does it matter if they have, you know, money or if they

Lisa: 00:16:17

have a program they qualified for to help them with their down payment

Lisa: 00:16:21

or, you know, they have the credit the back then why does it matter?

Lisa: 00:16:25

Again, regardless on what people say and the pledges it's it's there.

Lisa: 00:16:31

It's it's it is there and I don't see it going away anytime soon.

Shannon: 00:16:35

I had to take my blood pressure medicine.

Lisa: 00:16:37

Oh, okay.

Lisa: 00:16:38

I got to give you that.

Shannon: 00:16:47

So I got a game for you.

Lisa: 00:16:50

Okay.

Lisa: 00:16:50

Let's get it.

Shannon: 00:16:51

This game.

Shannon: 00:16:52

It's called freeish.

Shannon: 00:16:54

So I'm gonna read a right that we, as black folk gained after slavery ended.

Shannon: 00:17:02

And you tell me when you think we got that right.

Lisa: 00:17:07

So it, am I giving you like an exact date or like...

Shannon: 00:17:11

Give me a year.

Lisa: 00:17:13

Okay.

Lisa: 00:17:14

Okay.

Shannon: 00:17:15

The right to have a government or a national defense job.

Shannon: 00:17:21

When did we get that right?

Lisa: 00:17:23

A national or government defense job?

Lisa: 00:17:28

Hmm.

Lisa: 00:17:30

I have to say, cuz I think about the black sisters that worked for NASA.

Lisa: 00:17:34

So was that in the forties?

Lisa: 00:17:36

Yeah, like 1943.

Shannon: 00:17:39

Ooh.

Shannon: 00:17:40

Yeah, 1941.

Lisa: 00:17:43

Oh, okay.

Lisa: 00:17:44

I was close.

Shannon: 00:17:45

We got the right in 1941.

Lisa: 00:17:48

Okay.

Lisa: 00:17:48

Okay.

Lisa: 00:17:49

Yes.

Lisa: 00:17:49

Okay.

Shannon: 00:17:51

The right to sit wherever we want on the bus.

Lisa: 00:18:03

Ah, hell um, sixties, 1960.

Lisa: 00:18:03

I'm not sure on that one.

Shannon: 00:18:04

You're close.

Shannon: 00:18:05

It was actually 1956.

Lisa: 00:18:07

56.

Lisa: 00:18:08

Okay.

Lisa: 00:18:09

[Mm-hmm now] I was thinking about Rosa and her shit and then all other stuff.

Shannon: 00:18:14

Yep.

Shannon: 00:18:15

When did we get the right to go to a bus terminal where white people were present?

Lisa: 00:18:20

Was that after?

Shannon: 00:18:22

It was.

Lisa: 00:18:23

So would that be 63?

Shannon: 00:18:27

That's close.

Shannon: 00:18:28

It was 1961.

Lisa: 00:18:30

61.

Lisa: 00:18:32

Okay.

Shannon: 00:18:33

Right.

Shannon: 00:18:33

So we could sit where we wanted to on the bus in 1956 [mm-hmm] but we still

Shannon: 00:18:39

couldn't be in the same bus terminal.

Shannon: 00:18:40

[Ah, okay.] So that didn't happen till 1961.

Shannon: 00:18:46

Okay.

Shannon: 00:18:47

When did we get the right to attend school with white people?

Lisa: 00:18:53

Oh, little Ruby bridges.

Lisa: 00:18:55

What was that?

Lisa: 00:18:57

Uh, hold on, hold on, hold on.

Lisa: 00:18:58

Ruby bridge.

Lisa: 00:18:59

Is that the same time?

Lisa: 00:19:00

Like 1960 ish.

Shannon: 00:19:02

It's around, it's around the same time.

Shannon: 00:19:05

1957.

Lisa: 00:19:08

Okay.

Lisa: 00:19:09

All right.

Shannon: 00:19:09

When did we get the right to vote without having to take a test?

Lisa: 00:19:15

Ooh, I'm not sure on that one.

Lisa: 00:19:19

You gotta help me out with that.

Shannon: 00:19:20

1964.

Lisa: 00:19:22

Okay.

Lisa: 00:19:23

Okay.

Shannon: 00:19:24

When did we get the chance to vote without having to pay?

Lisa: 00:19:30

All of that had to be the same time.

Lisa: 00:19:31

Cause that was going pretty hard then.

Lisa: 00:19:34

So I'll say 63.

Shannon: 00:19:37

Ooh, that's close 66.

Lisa: 00:19:40

66.

Lisa: 00:19:43

Okay.

Shannon: 00:19:43

Yep.

Lisa: 00:19:43

Okay.

Shannon: 00:19:44

You're doing pretty good.

Shannon: 00:19:45

[Okay.] When did we get the right to buy a house wherever we want?

Shannon: 00:19:51

Now this is on paper because we all know that we still really technically

Shannon: 00:19:57

can't buy a house wherever we want.

Lisa: 00:19:59

Right, right.

Lisa: 00:20:01

I'm not sure.

Lisa: 00:20:01

Help me with that one.

Shannon: 00:20:03

How about 1968?

Shannon: 00:20:06

That is not that long ago.

Lisa: 00:20:08

No, it's not.

Lisa: 00:20:09

That's that's, that's really sad.

Shannon: 00:20:12

When did we get the right to read?

Lisa: 00:20:15

Right to read.

Lisa: 00:20:16

Oh Lord.

Lisa: 00:20:16

You know, it's some black folks that still can't read.

Shannon: 00:20:19

We have the right to now, before it was illegal.

Lisa: 00:20:25

Now that had to be earlier on.

Lisa: 00:20:27

[Yeah.] Um, so we are looking at like, was it still in like the 18

Lisa: 00:20:32

hundreds, like mid 18 hundreds, like 1850 or something like that?

Shannon: 00:20:38

Ooh, 1861.

Shannon: 00:20:40

I was trying to research that actually, and I couldn't find an exact date,

Shannon: 00:20:45

like a law that was put into place.

Shannon: 00:20:48

[Mm-hmm] I think it was just that the...

Lisa: 00:20:50

well, I think it was just spread it out throughout different like states

Lisa: 00:20:55

or with sections or regions at the time.

Lisa: 00:20:57

I don't think it went for everyone so...

Shannon: 00:20:59

well, it looked like after the civil war ended, it was

Shannon: 00:21:03

just kind of like, okay, then they started opening black schools.

Shannon: 00:21:09

So.

Shannon: 00:21:10

Then the literacy rate jumped up a lot.

Shannon: 00:21:13

All right.

Shannon: 00:21:13

So you did pretty good.

Lisa: 00:21:14

Yay.

Lisa: 00:21:17

I mean I only got like technically one right, but...

Shannon: 00:21:20

You did better than I probably would.

Shannon: 00:21:31

All right.

Shannon: 00:21:33

So the last thing we would do is your spoken word segment.

Lisa: 00:21:38

Oh yes.

Lisa: 00:21:40

So guys, what I would like to do is share something with you guys.

Lisa: 00:21:45

Yes, I am Talisa by day by, but by night, I do go by Mona Lisa.

Lisa: 00:21:50

I am a poet.

Lisa: 00:21:51

I have been practicing and writing and doing spoken word for about

Lisa: 00:21:55

three or four years now and it is the dopest outlet there is.

Lisa: 00:22:00

This one here is untitled, but just bear with me, cuz it is very dope.

Lisa: 00:22:06

The problem today is this generation doesn't respect

Lisa: 00:22:09

the rules of the streetlights.

Lisa: 00:22:11

Represent what's black, right?

Lisa: 00:22:14

Fist high out strong like a statue.

Lisa: 00:22:17

So accept this repetition till we get it right.

Lisa: 00:22:20

Seasoned cast iron skillets, hand me downs or queen brown sugar

Lisa: 00:22:25

shear stockings on a Sunday.

Lisa: 00:22:27

Mama's chili and granny's collards.

Lisa: 00:22:29

And for some daddy's love.

Lisa: 00:22:31

That laugh that he had.

Lisa: 00:22:33

The vibrations of his pride.

Lisa: 00:22:35

We usually say it ain't like it used to be unfortunately well, and that's just

Lisa: 00:22:40

how it is or words and phrases we use.

Lisa: 00:22:43

Danez said there aren't no Amber alerts for amber- skinned girls.

Lisa: 00:22:48

Think about it.

Lisa: 00:22:49

Girls who are insulted and injected and may feel like their cellulite is is

Lisa: 00:22:53

far, far more than the cottage cheese.

Lisa: 00:22:56

Her melanin, mocked by faces who look similar to hers, similar to his.

Lisa: 00:23:01

Eulogy.

Lisa: 00:23:02

Hater.

Lisa: 00:23:03

And we must protest our words and phrases embedded in our DNA.

Lisa: 00:23:07

I'm tired.

Lisa: 00:23:08

I'm fucking tired.

Lisa: 00:23:10

Tired of reminiscing of false pasts where we ignored uncle Robert's rubbing

Lisa: 00:23:15

of the little girl's lace bloomers.

Lisa: 00:23:17

Tired of beef between your granny and your great aunt Mary.

Lisa: 00:23:21

The beef that has been seasoned and marinated for years and was spoon fed

Lisa: 00:23:26

to us for two and three generations.

Lisa: 00:23:28

Think about it.

Lisa: 00:23:29

Tired of having to reference our messed up dust swept up under granny's

Lisa: 00:23:33

rugs, tired of performance, black folks, discrepancies to be noticed

Lisa: 00:23:37

as a poet, praying to God above that.

Lisa: 00:23:40

We have nothing, but we do.

Lisa: 00:23:43

We keep reminiscing about our false hopes.

Lisa: 00:23:46

Now I don't wanna take away from some of the greatest back in the day.

Lisa: 00:23:49

I mean, black in the day.

Lisa: 00:23:51

I mean, back in the day, Uncle Phil was the greatest, but he wasn't daddy.

Lisa: 00:23:55

I smile and I smirk happy because music still gets me through it.

Lisa: 00:23:59

Ain't nothing that you can say about my tardiness, like the way the

Lisa: 00:24:03

refugees and Lauryn Hill's riffs.

Lisa: 00:24:06

Love and happiness brought pure green pastures, admire the present, the

Lisa: 00:24:11

present of how we are more than business owners and people who think outside

Lisa: 00:24:15

the box instead of a box holding 10 of us, that was only meant for two.

Lisa: 00:24:20

We refuse to wait until the well runs dry.

Lisa: 00:24:23

Taught to believe that we are the problem when in reality, we are the future.

Lisa: 00:24:27

See, I have an idea.

Lisa: 00:24:29

This idea of our childhood happy memories being taught down in the field

Lisa: 00:24:34

of flowers left only to reminiscing.

Lisa: 00:24:36

When cousins was dropped off for play dates, taught to obtain

Lisa: 00:24:39

knowledge and share it freely, but it's like bold and graffiti.

Lisa: 00:24:44

Imagine what we will be if we had a really rainbow, but just

Lisa: 00:24:48

don't take my word for it.

Lisa: 00:24:50

Thank you.

Shannon: 00:24:51

Yes.

Lisa: 00:24:57

All righty.

Lisa: 00:24:58

Well, this has been a treat!.

Shannon: 00:25:00

Yes, yes, yes.

Shannon: 00:25:01

Yes.

Shannon: 00:25:01

If you want to continue today's discussion, join us at the cookout

Shannon: 00:25:07

in our Patreon community at www.Patreon.com/blacktivitiespod.

Lisa: 00:25:18

Yes.

Lisa: 00:25:20

And we will be sharing this on our Instagram page, that way you

Lisa: 00:25:23

can always go in and check it out and tell your friends about it.

Shannon: 00:25:27

Yes, ma'am.

Shannon: 00:25:28

Thank you again for being part of our first official episode of Blacktivities.

Shannon: 00:25:32

We hope that you'll join us again for episode two, where we'll

Shannon: 00:25:36

be talking about black hair.

Lisa: 00:25:38

Oh, yes, I can't wait!

Shannon: 00:25:40

But until then, Kings and Queens, keep doing big things.