Resistance is as American as Apple Pie + Would You Leave America for Costa Rica?

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KBLA Talk fifteen eighty.
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Happy birthday to President Barack Obama from Maham. Today is
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his big Leo birthday and we are going Oultra Black. Indeed,
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she's the author of the book We've Been Here, How
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rebellion and activism have always sustained America. It's kind of
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a could be a theme song for our for our
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radio station. She is a journalist and an author, and
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happy to welcome her in. Angela Dodson, Good morning.
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Hi, good morning to you.
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Welcome, welcome, welcome, and congratulations. I know writing a book
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is more than a notion.
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Yes, yes, indeed so.
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And I also know that you co wrote this one
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with Michael Days, both of you guys seasoned journalist and
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do your co author is not able to join us
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because he made his transition, So condolences to you on that.
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Thank you.
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Yeah, So talk to me about this book. It's something
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that you decided you wanted to do in honor of
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America's two hundred and fiftieth birthday. And a lot of
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the things that we've seen in honor of America's two
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hundred and fiftieth birthday have been pretty toxic. I think
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you kind of took another approach. Tell me you know
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how you came to this project.
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Actually, we were asked to write something in conjunction with
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the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Decoration and
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the Independence, and we had to come up with a concept.
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And I'm not sure exactly how we arrived at this,
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but we chose to write about rebellions resistance in America
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throughout its history. Work a country that was born of
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rebellion and have been pushed forward by various rebellions and
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movements in America since the Declaration of Independence. And we
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chose to focus on some of those moments in American history,
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and that helped to shape the project.
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So, yeah, it feels like a moment when I mean,
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and maybe it's always this moment, you know, it feels
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like a moment when we need to remember this history
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of rebellion, you know, our tradition of revolution in this
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country and that resistance and you know, pushback, especially for
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black folks, is the story of America. That is the
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story of America.
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It's not a.
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Sidebar exactly exactly.
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Yeah, So I'll talk let's talk about some some of
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these folks. I mean, certainly I think you guys have
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done something. I remember one time I saw the Reverend
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Jesse Jackson speaking in Compton for Black History Month, and
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he remarked about how often we have Black History Month
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without the history.
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And I think we're at a.
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Point in in American history where we were we're being
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pushed American history without the history. What I love is
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that you seem to have focused on some folks that
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don't usually get our attention in this in this book.
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And I love that because I just feel like that
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deepens our understanding and our commitments. So let's talk about
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David Walker's the name you don't hear a lot.
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David Walker was a black abolitionist in Boston who issued
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what's now known as as the Even Walker's Appeal, and
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it's an appeal for militant action against slavery, and it
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was widely distributed throughout the country.
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And it's and that seems to point to another sort
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of ongoing debate or ongoing division even within the African
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American community black communities. Do we do we go to
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a militant approach or do we try to do respectable
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ability politics, try to play within the system to get
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our liberation or to make progress. I feel like in it.
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There's a micro version of that happening in in the
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UH in the primary elections right where where people are
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choosing between do we go centrist because it's safer and
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we might be able to win, or do we go
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with this more bold agenda because we're tired of incrementalism.
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Well we we've had this debate before, from the early
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days of slavery to when people often rebelled violently during
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the Civil rights movement. We have this debate of whether
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whether to be nonviolent or whether to use violence, and
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we're having it again. I guess where some people are
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are choosing violent resistance and other people are are choosing
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to be non violent in this moment. So it's a
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debate that rises from time to time and sometimes we
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have to try it out.
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So David Walker was born free.
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He was not.
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Enslaved, right, that is my understanding it.
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Yeah, So it's interesting that this free black man would
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then become a leading abolitionist and that he would be
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the one making this appeal for a more militant approach
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to ending enslavement. You know, what, what was it that
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drew you to him? What was it about his story?
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That you thought was important.
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Because he was a writer. For one, he had had
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a new newspaper. He was in the north, he was
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in Boston where a lot of the abolitionists activity took place.
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And he did not live much longer after the appeal.
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He died after that, but he had a following.
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So m hm, he was How did he die? What
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happened to him?
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I can't, I can't remember exactly. He just died. I
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believe of natural causes. He wasn't wasn't killed or anything
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like that.
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So he was but he was like an influencer back then, yes,
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which yes, which is which is quite interesting. And while that,
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you know, again, I always wonder Angela Dodson if some
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of these figures who are more rebellious and more more aggressive,
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I'll say in their approach to ending injustice are actually
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purposely written out or not emphasized in our schools and
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in our celebrations of black history, because that is not
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the approach that the mainstream of America wants us to take.
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I mean, I think about Ida b Wells, who happens
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to be one of my heroes. She rose, who was
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very clear that she would fight back. You know, she
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she carried a rifle. She fought back against racists, and
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she did such an amazing job of documenting the terror
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of lynching.
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But she's not.
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As widely celebrated as many other figures in Black history.
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And I always wonder if it's because she advocated self defense.
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It's because she advocated fighting back.
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Right.
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Angela Dodson is my guest, and she's got a brand
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new book. You can check it out. It certainly makes
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sense for us to tap in with our history of rebellion.
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It's called We've Been Here, How rebellion and activism have
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always sustained America. We'll continue the conversation when we come forward.
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On KBLA Talk fifteen eighty. She was the first African
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American woman promoted to be a senior editor at the
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New York Times. She has contributed articles and served as
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an editor for various publications, including Essence, Black Issues Book Review,
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was executive editor of that book Review for four years.
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A freelance editor, she is an accomplished journalist and now
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of course has her book out and available now. The
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book is We've Been Here, How Rebellion and activism have
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always sustained America. Angela Dodson. How can we find you,
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how can we follow your current work? And where do
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we find the book?
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The book, which as We've been here before, How Rebellion
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and Activism have Always Sustained America is available on most
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places where you can buy books, but bookstores, but also
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on Amazon dot com and from directly from the publisher,
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which is Broadly Books dot Com, probably Barnes and Noble
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and other places like that.
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Okay, I'm sorry about that. Uh.
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The publicist told me we've been here before, and I
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have not yet told me we've been here, right, So
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we didn't get the before and they unfortunately weren't able
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to provide me with a book. But I'm definitely going
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to check it out. We've been here before, How Rebellion
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and activism have always sustained America.
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What was the website that you.
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Gave Broadleaf Books dot com.
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Okay, great, well, congratulations on this. This is a huge,
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huge accomplishment, and you know, I'd love if you, uh,
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if you are interested in just talking about some of
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the other folks that.
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Get a little less less note in.
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You know, in our conversations about black history, one of
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the areas that you focus on is black women who
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were advocating for the vote.
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The suffragists.
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Yes, black women advocates for suffrage included Harriet Forton Purvis
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and her sister Margaretta Forton, who were based basically in Philadelphia,
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Sarah Rimonde who was in the New England, Mary Shad
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Carrie from basically d C. Francis Harper, and Mary Church
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Terrell who were also around Washington. Those are some of
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the standouts in the women's movement. You also mentioned Ida B. Wells,
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who was very active in the suffrage movement. So there
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are lots of black women who came to the movement.
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We don't think of black women necessarily as having been
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leaders in that movement that they were. There were a
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large content engines of black women who participated in the
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Suffrage Parade in nineteen thirteen, notably the Delta Sigma Theta sorority,
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which was brand new then it was only a few
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weeks old. They marched in the parade and I have
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been photographed there.
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I to be.
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Wells was photographed in the parade as well. So black
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women's voices were heard throughout the women's suffrage movement, and
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people like Sojourner Truth were active in the movement, and
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to some extent, I believe Harriet Tubman was known to
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the movement at any rate. So black women have had
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a role in that movement.
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Yeah, that is interesting because we always hear about the
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you know, the white women who are advocating for suffrage,
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and you really don't hears so much about black women
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fighting for the vote. We hear about us fighting for
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better wages, fighting against racism, and of course we didn't
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get the vote until much later than white women did,
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so that is de emphasized. What would what did you
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discover and doing your research for the book that was
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if anything that was inspiring or you know, unknown of
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regarding these these black women suffragists.
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Well, one of the sort of Io B Wells is
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interesting because she apparently was asked to not march with
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her UH contingents from Chicago and to lead that that
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delegation and go to the rear of the parade, and
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she pretended to do so. She let left her delegation,
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two of them the sidelines until they passed her in
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the parade and she got back into the delegation and
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in step with her fellow people from Illinois, and she
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was photographed and appeared in a newspaper the day after
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the parade.
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That's wild.
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Why didn't they want her to march? I remember this
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story vaguely. Why didn't they want her to march with them?
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With the delegation?
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There was a lot of prejudice I guess, you'd have
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to say surrounding the march. The leaders were afraid that
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white Southern women would not march if black women were
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among the major delegations. So they were in some ways
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trying to hide the black women, I guess, and make
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it appear that they weren't that integrated, just to a
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piece the Southerners.
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The more things change there, they stay the same.
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Were they the same?
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Right? Exactly?
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Yeah, let's talk about the washing society. I you know,
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I don't think these women get a lot of play.
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These are black women from Atlanta, right, and we're going
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all the way back to eighteen eighty one.
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Yes, they It was about twenty black women in Atlanta
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who started this strike, and they organized other laundresses and
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recruited up to three thousand more to go on strike
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to demand higher fees and more consistent fees. And that
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you know, this was backbreaking work at the time. This
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was before washing machines. They had to actually make their
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own washing tubs and then wash the clothes by hand
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in the cubs rents them they had to bring in
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the water. They hung them up during the winter throughout
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their houses and during the summer I guess outside. So
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they worked very hard, and most people could afford a laundress,
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and most people employed a laundress at the time, you know,
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most middle class people, and uh so it was of
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a common uh job for black women and some white
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women in Atlanta, but the vast majority of the laundresses
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were black. So and they won their strike.
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This is pretty amazing. I mean, we're just talking about
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less than two decades out of slavery. These women are
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becoming labor organizers.
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Basically exactly exactly.
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Yeah, Well, tell me anything else you know you would
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like us to, you know, know about this book, Like
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who are you hoping to reach?
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Who should get this book?
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I think anyone anticipating being an activist or considering being
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an activist should read this book because it draws on
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some of the tactics that people used, and it goes
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into its various movements are covered. It starts with the
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Indigenous people resisting the colonizers. There's a chapter on religious freedom.
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The response to enslavement is one of my favorite chapters.
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It's the rebellions, the self emancipation, the runaways, and the
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underground railroads organizers are in that book. And then there's
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a separate chapter on abolitionists themselves and their kind of agitation.
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There's two chapters on various phases of the women's movement.
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There's the labor movement, civil rights movement, peace movement, and
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the environmental movement and climate change movement are the final chapters.
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But you know what we can learn from this is
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different tactics that that people use. The women, for instance,
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picketed the White House. The Vietnam movement, they had what
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they called teachings on college campuses at the moment to
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help organize people and school them on what the issues were.
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Those are are some of the tactics. The women also
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went on hunger strikes. There's the meet who movement is
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covered with the hashtag me that they used me me too.
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So there's all kinds of things that that people have
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done to resist whatever that they were protesting at the moment.
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I think we can learn from them.
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Yeah, it's interesting is not just about covering the activists
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themselves and their stories, but the tactics and strategies that
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people have used to make change in this country. And
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it sounds like this is you're making the argument that
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this is the nature of this country, this is the fabric.
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Yes it is.
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Well, congratulations once again, we've been here before. How rebellion
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and activism have always sustained America. Are you on social media?
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Do you have a website? How can we find out
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about your book signings and articles and many things.
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I'm on social media use I'm on Facebook, and I'm
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on x announced signings on their a lot. I do
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have a website, which is angelop dotson dot com, and
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I will be posting things there in the future, I believe,
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and Broadleaf Books dot com, as I mentioned, posts some
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of my activities.
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All right, well, we just have a minute left here
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and you know, point of privilege. I'm just wondering how
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you see where we are or what we can do
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I guess as consumers of journalism, certainly to make sure
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that we are, you know, supporting what is high quality
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and moving away from missing disinformation.
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Well, I think we're at a very dark moment, uh,
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socially politically at the moment, and that we have to
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keep ourselves as informed as possible. My strategies are generally
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watch ms NOW most of the day if I can,
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or if I'm in the room where the television is,
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I don't keep one in my office, and then I
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switched to ABC News for the evening news it's at
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six point thirty, just to get another point of view
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and to get a broader view of what's going on
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in the country, because ms NOW tends to do politics,
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not only or mostly politics during the day, where ABC
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also gives you the plane crashes that you know, for
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fires and weather and plane crashes or whatever is happening
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in the world in addition to the politics, so you
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get a greater sense of this is what's going on
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in the country today. I think you have to do those.
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I think you have to watch social media and search
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out ouricles from the New York Times and other major papers,
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the Washington Post, the LA Times, things like that to
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get a broad view and some you know, some of
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the new podcasters or substack writers are pretty good.
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All right.
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You need to bombarde yourself with as much information as possible.
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Basically, absolutely, Angela Dodson, Thank you so much for joining
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us this morning. Thank you News, Traffic and sports. Then
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the phone lines are open. KBLA Talk fifteen eighty.
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Wow.
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Okay, so that's I love your spot, Miles.
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Good job. Miles's show premieres on Saturday.
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You do not want to miss it. Yep. The Do
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Better Network now is officially on terrestrial radio like the
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partnership Baby. Yeah, congrats on that. So some people were
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asking me where I went on vacation. I may or
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may not have been spending time over the past year
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or so thinking about places I might move if I
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could no longer live in the United States. Maybe over
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the last eight years. Actually, you see if you're on
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a YouTube or at KBLA fifteen to eighty that I
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have on my African focused.
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Trailblazers Tour t shirt.
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I was very sad that we did not get to
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go to Africa this year. We had to cancel our
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trip to Boswana and Zambia because of the Ebola virus outbreak.
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Not just the outbreak, because Africa has done a great
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job of containing its.
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Its outbreaks, but.
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Because the Trump administration cut USAID health subsidies to many nations,
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making it very difficult for them to respond because they
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don't have the supplies that they need, the medications that
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they need, so we end up having to cancel our trip,
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which I'm very, very very sad about this. I've been
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to Africa seven different times. I think it's nine or
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ten countries. I have to update my list that.
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I've been to.
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And US Americans are flooding out of this country. They
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are retiring or fleeing to Portugal, to Spain, to Belize
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as a popular destination. Mexico City apparently just overrun with
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US Americans fleeing this Trump administration. Now, this was something
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that was already happening before the second term of He
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who shall not be named the resident. But we are
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the new migrants. It has opened the floodgates. And although we,
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meaning people from this country, don't tend to be the
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lower income migrants. They tend to be the middle class
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folks who are retiring with social security or a pension,
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or people who can work from another country. It's still
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becoming a worldwide issue. Countries are cutting, are cracking down right,
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They're making it harder to get a visa. They're making
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it more difficult more and more and more money. And
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I know this is partly a response to the Trump administration,
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which has raised the cost of visas to many people
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that want to visit here. They've also added for some
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folks ten or fifteen thousand dollars deposits that you have
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to pay before you can come here. So some countries
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are retaliating.
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I know that in.
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Mexico City people are locals are angry because everything has
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become more expensive because so many people from this country
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are moving there. So I find it incredibly ironic that
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we have this anti immigrant sentiment and this xenophobic phobic
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attitude here in this country at the same time many
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of us are asking other countries to harbor us as
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we try to get away from the high costs and
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low rights of our current administration. That said, I did
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go through the whole should I move as an outspoken
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activist who could easily be targeted, who has been targeted,
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just as you know Nolan Wells quote unquote friends are
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saying how much the death threats can take a toll.
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I've had my share of them. They are freaky. But
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on the other hand, I'm a reparationist, and my ancestors
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fought and died for this country. My ancestors helped build
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this country. Enslaved persons. Your ancestors and mine built the
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way else and much of the US.
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Infrastructure, the wealth of this.
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Country, the fact that we are a superpower reflects twelve
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generations of black people working without pay, and I'm not
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willing to abandon that.
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So I've decided Teams, stay and fight. I will be here,
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and if they come get me, please protest. Know that
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I will never off myself in jail or prison. I
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have quite a number of friends who are making plans
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to leave, or who have already left, because they feel
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that fascism is here, that our rights will be more
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and more a bridge, that they are being a bridged,
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that people journalists are being arrested or being targeted, silenced,
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and they just want to get out. And I understand that,
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but I have decided to stay less. If you want
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my opinion of the many places I've traveled and will
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continue to travel, where you might want to go, I'm
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always happy to talk about it. I love to travel,
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I plan to keep traveling, and the only way I
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leave the country is if they don't let me back in.
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I love my country with all its warts, and they
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are considerable. But I believe, as Frederick Douglas said, that
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a true patriot is the one that points out the
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problems with their country and tries to fix it. Not
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a Pollyanna who runs around acting like everything is perfect,
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or a dictator who tries to blame every mistake and
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fault on vandals, or the radical left. A true patriot
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sees the country their country, with all of its glory,
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all of its accomplishments, potential, and also the challenges that
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need to be addressed. So where did I go? I
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went to Costa Rica. You know what's in Costa Rica?
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A whole bunch of US Americans, expatriots who have fled
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there because they don't want to live here, either because
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they were retiring there or because they wanted to get
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away from this country. And you know what else was there?
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A lot of Black Americans, A whole bunch of course,
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I went to the black side. Like many cities, Costa
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Rica has a black side, and the not black side.
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The black side is the Caribbean the east side, lol.
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As same as in many cities, it's the east side.
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In the east side, they have the Caribbean coast, which
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is where you have in many countries like Hondoras and Nicaragua,
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and to some extent in Costa Rica, you have Africans
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descendants of Africans. They're now Nicaraguan's, Salvadorians, Panamanians, Hondurans. But
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in many cases these were slave ships that were either
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shipwrecked and the black people swamed ashore back then when
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we used to be able to swim, because we hadn't
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been discriminated against in swimming pools and beaches for generations.
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They swam ashore and survived and made community, or in
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some cases they were ships where there were rebellions aboard
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that ship and the black enslave persons took over the
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ship and settled along the East coast, the Atlantic coast,
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the Caribbean side of Central America. So we as a result,
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we have the black side of any of these countries,
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and that in many cases is where folks migrate to
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if they're not they're not white, if they want to
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be with the black community. The other thing that was
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amazing about Costa Rica is there are so many Jamaicans,
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Jamaicans who've been there for generations, who own businesses, hotels, restaurants,
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their culture is everywhere, the music, the patois the just
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the whole vibe. So I actually know someone who is
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a radio person kind of a famous and it's not
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THEO by the way, kind of a famous radio personality
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that I used to work with back in the day
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who went to Costa Rica on vacation and never came back.
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He loved it so much he never came back, and
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he was, you know, making a lot of money here.
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So I always wanted to go there. That's one of
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the reasons why. And so it's glad to go somewhere
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that I'd always wanted to go to without without band
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to go to Africa, and you know, would recommend it.
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I do think they're they're they're expensive there. The fact
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that so many US Americans have moved there, fled there,
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planted their flags there has made it very expensive. That's
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the same thing that's happening in Mexico City. We're used
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to paying higher prices. We pushed the locals out further, further,
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further into the countryside, and then it's expensive. So that's
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not a place to go if you're looking for a bargain.
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But it is beautiful, it is abundant, it is rainforest
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and beaches and mountains and volcanoes.
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We got to be.
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With the Bree Bree people, which are the indigenous people there,
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and they are known for their coffee and their chocolate,
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and it's you know, it's a beautiful place in Costa Rica.
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Miles the squirrel We found this out because we went
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to the animal rescue center. The squirrels do not bury
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their food. And the reason they don't bury their food,
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unlike squirrels in almost the entire rest of the world,
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is because there is so much food that they do
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not have to hide it from other animals. There's so
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much abundance that there's no point. And I just thought
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that was very deep, beautiful. I thought it was very
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deep because it's it's not just a commentary on animals
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or squirrels. It's about behavior. And so many of the predatory, hoarding,
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greedy behaviors that we US Americans have is because we
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live in a predatory, capitalist society where we have to
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hide our nuts.
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Years old, they're writing your name on orange juice.
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Bro look at the squirrels.
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No better, do better because you knew better, indeed, And
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and there there's multiple other examples of that. But so
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if you want to go somewhere where there won't be
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a drought because it's a rainforest and there's so much
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food that, you know, even the homeless. I didn't seen
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any homeless people. I'm sure they have some. There would
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be plenty to eat. Then consider Costa Rica. Let's go
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to Cuomel calling us from Guardina jambo Ola.
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What's up?
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Hello? All right? So, uh, I think you're talking about
489
00:34:33.840 --> 00:34:36.800
ease the reta. I was kind of wondering, Uh, did
490
00:34:36.840 --> 00:34:38.880
yall decide to skip the actor? I can focus trip
491
00:34:38.880 --> 00:34:39.880
this year? Is the way later?
492
00:34:40.320 --> 00:34:42.559
Oh yeah, I was just saying that, No, it's because
493
00:34:42.679 --> 00:34:47.079
of the Ebola. We had to cancel it. It was
494
00:34:47.320 --> 00:34:51.079
we were going to Boswana and Zambia. Zambia's shares a
495
00:34:51.119 --> 00:34:54.599
border with the Congo, which of course is where the
496
00:34:54.599 --> 00:34:57.400
most aggressive outbreak is. And although we're not hearing a
497
00:34:57.440 --> 00:35:00.000
lot of reporting on it, this is the worst out
498
00:35:00.039 --> 00:35:04.000
rak of ebola in recent history, so it's pretty bad.
499
00:35:04.039 --> 00:35:04.760
People are dying.
500
00:35:04.800 --> 00:35:07.639
Sixty percent of folks die from that, and we just
501
00:35:07.639 --> 00:35:09.639
didn't want to take a chance, so we had to cancel.
502
00:35:11.239 --> 00:35:15.800
I understand, I understand all the way. Yeah, yeah, thank
503
00:35:15.840 --> 00:35:18.920
thanks for the information I was wondering for the longest. Yeah,
504
00:35:18.960 --> 00:35:21.239
so I don't know. The plus we get any is interesting.
505
00:35:21.320 --> 00:35:22.679
I'll talk about that probably next time.
506
00:35:22.760 --> 00:35:26.679
Or you know, would you ever consider leaving Aquamel? Would
507
00:35:26.719 --> 00:35:29.280
you leave the US? Are you team flee or team
508
00:35:29.320 --> 00:35:29.960
stay and fight?
509
00:35:31.719 --> 00:35:33.679
Well, for the most part of me, in La is
510
00:35:33.719 --> 00:35:38.199
my home. I mean, I feel like there's other places
511
00:35:39.079 --> 00:35:43.599
worth retiring, but it's you know, gonna be kind of
512
00:35:43.599 --> 00:35:47.599
an uphill theme for me to find where because yeah,
513
00:35:47.679 --> 00:35:50.239
I mean I'm about you know, where, the where and
514
00:35:50.320 --> 00:35:50.719
all that.
515
00:35:51.719 --> 00:35:54.159
So that's that's my thing now.
516
00:35:54.719 --> 00:35:58.199
I mean, I love I love La, I love my country.
517
00:35:58.239 --> 00:36:00.679
I love to travel, but I'm not giving up what
518
00:36:00.760 --> 00:36:03.400
my ancestors built. Y'all gonna have to take it again.
519
00:36:04.880 --> 00:36:07.000
On top of that, I have I have a philosophy,
520
00:36:07.239 --> 00:36:11.639
and I'll try to be brief about that. We we are,
521
00:36:12.000 --> 00:36:14.119
you know, we as black folks are to show solidarity
522
00:36:14.199 --> 00:36:17.440
with with the indigenous folks and not just kind of
523
00:36:17.519 --> 00:36:20.800
leave them on their own to Yeah, you know, battle
524
00:36:20.840 --> 00:36:26.480
this battle, this really really awful whiteness machine. That also,
525
00:36:26.800 --> 00:36:30.239
what I really want to talk about seems to be
526
00:36:30.480 --> 00:36:34.960
heck bent on capturing all of us and making us
527
00:36:35.400 --> 00:36:39.400
say things they say, think how they think, move how
528
00:36:39.440 --> 00:36:42.239
they move. And you know, even though even though I mean,
529
00:36:42.239 --> 00:36:44.960
of course we black folks will never achieve whiteness, you know,
530
00:36:45.239 --> 00:36:48.880
for obvious reasons. As long as long as they got
531
00:36:48.920 --> 00:36:52.800
us you know, captured, you know and tolonizer you know,
532
00:36:53.000 --> 00:36:56.800
racist thinking, then that's kind of it's kind of good
533
00:36:56.880 --> 00:36:59.800
enough for them. I'm seeing this, you know, with with
534
00:37:00.400 --> 00:37:03.719
how how he sometimes will flip the word woke their way,
535
00:37:03.880 --> 00:37:09.280
or also dealing with uh, you know, there's this anti
536
00:37:09.400 --> 00:37:13.920
Bach's resurgence talk again. It's just I just I just
537
00:37:13.960 --> 00:37:17.159
look and watch and be like, wow, y'all, y'all you
538
00:37:17.360 --> 00:37:19.840
must really love the right. And and that's also why
539
00:37:19.920 --> 00:37:25.400
we've been seeing uh kind of the standdown stuff where
540
00:37:25.480 --> 00:37:29.039
folks don't you know, don't protest Trump over over Gaza,
541
00:37:29.119 --> 00:37:33.159
but still haven't smoked for Kamala Harrison. She's not leading anything.
542
00:37:34.119 --> 00:37:36.280
It's like they're just like their man just having to
543
00:37:36.320 --> 00:37:38.840
get elected in anyway or something. But you know, they're
544
00:37:38.880 --> 00:37:40.920
just kind of everybody's just standing down, just letting Trump
545
00:37:41.000 --> 00:37:44.360
do whatever he wants. And it's like, Jesus, how capture
546
00:37:44.400 --> 00:37:44.960
can you be?
547
00:37:45.800 --> 00:37:48.159
Well? I mean to me, the perfect example of what
548
00:37:48.199 --> 00:37:51.239
you're talking about is this officer Brandon Tatum, right, who
549
00:37:51.280 --> 00:37:54.760
has two point five million followers on Instagram and even
550
00:37:54.800 --> 00:37:59.880
more on YouTube, running around attacking the family of no
551
00:38:00.280 --> 00:38:06.639
Wells and you know, supporting this white supremacist narrative. And
552
00:38:06.639 --> 00:38:09.159
that's the perfect example. He can do that all he wants,
553
00:38:09.159 --> 00:38:11.920
He can tap dance and minstrel all he wants, and
554
00:38:11.960 --> 00:38:14.440
he will never ever, ever, in the history of ever
555
00:38:15.039 --> 00:38:20.039
have the full force of white privilege behind him.
556
00:38:20.159 --> 00:38:23.320
He even absolute trash pandam if you know what I mean. So,
557
00:38:23.440 --> 00:38:26.920
I just have no I have no tolerance for for
558
00:38:27.159 --> 00:38:30.760
black ignorance. Word of Lord Jamar. Uh Yeah, people like him,
559
00:38:31.280 --> 00:38:33.880
you know, uh as as some of the forceful internets
560
00:38:33.880 --> 00:38:35.360
people like to say they didn't as well as going
561
00:38:35.400 --> 00:38:37.440
to wood Shiver. As far as I'm concerned, I have
562
00:38:37.599 --> 00:38:40.360
no time for him. I was trying to well a
563
00:38:40.360 --> 00:38:41.920
matter of fac yet, I'll take your comments off the
564
00:38:41.960 --> 00:38:44.920
air on this. I wanted to uh. I wanted to
565
00:38:45.079 --> 00:38:49.280
hear from you a kbl A delegation, uh take or
566
00:38:49.440 --> 00:38:51.760
guide on Black August. I don't know if you've got
567
00:38:51.960 --> 00:38:55.360
guests coming up to that effect or anything, but anything
568
00:38:55.440 --> 00:38:57.719
that kind of gets all of our education up on
569
00:38:57.920 --> 00:39:01.639
Black August and how to understand it and and do
570
00:39:01.800 --> 00:39:03.519
work with any commemorated things like that.
571
00:39:04.360 --> 00:39:07.320
Yeah, awesome, Okay, Yeah, we've talked some about that. We'll
572
00:39:07.360 --> 00:39:10.039
talk more about it. Clamel, thank you for your time.
573
00:39:10.239 --> 00:39:13.280
Thank you for always uh you know, stopping by.
574
00:39:13.440 --> 00:39:14.079
Appreciate you.
575
00:39:15.239 --> 00:39:17.639
We will continue this conversation when we come forward on
576
00:39:17.760 --> 00:39:20.840
KBLA Talk fifteen eighty Derima on the way out the
577
00:39:20.920 --> 00:39:23.039
door to have as Smiley is coming up next. Let's
578
00:39:23.119 --> 00:39:25.239
squeeze in one more call, but you don't want to
579
00:39:25.280 --> 00:39:28.599
miss mister Smiley. He's got a great Tuesday lineup for
580
00:39:28.760 --> 00:39:32.239
you today. Let's go to Fahima calling us from Washington,
581
00:39:32.360 --> 00:39:34.960
d C. Good morning, Sarah.
582
00:39:34.840 --> 00:39:40.199
Tabara, Ganians, Papa Dominique, Welcome back. Costa Rica is one
583
00:39:40.239 --> 00:39:43.079
of my places that I was looking at retiring of
584
00:39:43.280 --> 00:39:46.400
the beautiful place, particularly because I my good friend Martha
585
00:39:46.519 --> 00:39:51.039
Johnson's first Black governor of lamone. She hosts a celebration
586
00:39:51.480 --> 00:39:55.119
the end of August every year and well, one day
587
00:39:55.159 --> 00:39:56.559
when we have more time, I'll share.
588
00:39:57.159 --> 00:39:58.400
Yeah, they were talking about it there.
589
00:39:58.480 --> 00:40:02.119
They call it Festival Gross, the Black People's festival.
590
00:40:02.199 --> 00:40:03.400
Yep, yes, it's the.
591
00:40:03.519 --> 00:40:04.239
End of August.
592
00:40:04.360 --> 00:40:06.400
And did you get a chance to visit Lamone?
593
00:40:06.719 --> 00:40:09.719
We were mostly in Lemone State and we did pass
594
00:40:09.760 --> 00:40:11.400
through the city, but yeah, we were. We were on
595
00:40:11.480 --> 00:40:13.559
the black side of town for sure, the chocolate side.
596
00:40:13.599 --> 00:40:14.760
As doctor West would say.
597
00:40:15.639 --> 00:40:17.360
I wish I had known, because I would have put
598
00:40:17.400 --> 00:40:20.159
you in touch with Martha Johnson. Next time you go back,
599
00:40:20.519 --> 00:40:23.760
let me know, she will show you a royal time.
600
00:40:24.199 --> 00:40:28.400
Yeah, it's a it's a beautiful, beautiful country and you know,
601
00:40:28.559 --> 00:40:30.639
and but also expensive. So I don't know if that's
602
00:40:30.719 --> 00:40:33.920
the retirement move fahim, Like you want to go somewhere
603
00:40:33.960 --> 00:40:36.960
where prices are down right, we can stretch your dollar.
604
00:40:38.039 --> 00:40:39.960
The cost of living is still not as.
605
00:40:39.920 --> 00:40:43.039
High as it is here close though pretty close.
606
00:40:44.079 --> 00:40:45.400
Yeah, I was surprised.
607
00:40:46.159 --> 00:40:48.480
I guess if you go way out into the country
608
00:40:48.679 --> 00:40:51.519
and way out and further into the countryside, away from
609
00:40:51.559 --> 00:40:55.679
the beach, in the black side, it's still a little cheaper,
610
00:40:55.880 --> 00:40:58.440
but it's yeah, it was pretty high.
611
00:41:00.239 --> 00:41:04.000
Us to an island, Reggae Island, which is a restaurant
612
00:41:04.239 --> 00:41:08.840
which is between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The last time
613
00:41:08.920 --> 00:41:12.199
you go back, I'm gonna chok you up with Martha
614
00:41:12.239 --> 00:41:13.440
and maybe she'll take you out here.
615
00:41:13.559 --> 00:41:16.159
Okay, well, thank you for hum. Yeah, we were on
616
00:41:16.239 --> 00:41:21.519
the Panama side. Costa Rica's sandwich between Nicarawa and Panama.
617
00:41:21.639 --> 00:41:24.320
We were on the Panama side, and was really fascinating
618
00:41:24.719 --> 00:41:27.480
to hear from one of the guides that we had
619
00:41:27.519 --> 00:41:30.960
the Bree Brey indigenous man who gave us the rainforest
620
00:41:31.039 --> 00:41:34.400
tour and the chocolate tour, that a lot of the
621
00:41:34.480 --> 00:41:41.599
brebri are, you know, interconnected in families with black you know,
622
00:41:41.880 --> 00:41:46.880
black Caribbean folks and black Jamaican folks from Panama and
623
00:41:47.079 --> 00:41:51.760
throughout that whole Caribbean side. So you have that mixing
624
00:41:51.840 --> 00:41:55.159
of the indigenous and the black folks, just like we
625
00:41:55.320 --> 00:42:00.679
have here in Los Angeles, and it's it's man fascinating.
626
00:42:00.920 --> 00:42:02.639
You know you're on the black side of town. When
627
00:42:02.679 --> 00:42:06.079
you roll into the restaurant and they're serving curried oxtails,
628
00:42:08.719 --> 00:42:12.800
there's yeah, everything nice and spicy the way you like it.
629
00:42:12.920 --> 00:42:19.079
But again, probably not the most affordable spot so far.
630
00:42:20.320 --> 00:42:22.679
But as I said, I'm team stand Fight, so I'm
631
00:42:22.679 --> 00:42:27.679
gonna be here and I so is KBLA God willing,
632
00:42:28.000 --> 00:42:31.000
and we're gonna keep doing what we do, speaking out
633
00:42:32.960 --> 00:42:39.000
being unafraid, unbossed, unbothered and unbought.
634
00:42:39.159 --> 00:42:42.199
So hope you'll join us in that. Like I told you,
635
00:42:42.440 --> 00:42:43.519
t have a smile. He's up next.
636
00:42:43.599 --> 00:42:46.280
Please follow me everywhere I'm at to Prema Radio, d
637
00:42:46.440 --> 00:42:50.119
ip R I m A and then radio. The station
638
00:42:50.360 --> 00:42:54.840
is at KBLA fifteen eighty everywhere, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, all
639
00:42:55.199 --> 00:42:58.559
the things. Please follow, like and subscribe. It makes us stronger,
640
00:42:58.960 --> 00:43:03.880
allows us to be st wrong for you, and please
641
00:43:04.039 --> 00:43:04.679
leave a comment.
642
00:43:04.800 --> 00:43:05.599
Let's engage.
643
00:43:06.480 --> 00:43:09.920
My mother, the late great poet Laureate of San Francisco,
644
00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:13.039
has a poem called rant that I often quote, and
645
00:43:13.199 --> 00:43:14.679
I will leave you with a little bit of it.
646
00:43:14.800 --> 00:43:17.719
She says, the war that matters is the war against
647
00:43:17.760 --> 00:43:22.880
the imagination. All other wars are subsumed in it. The
648
00:43:23.079 --> 00:43:29.400
ultimate famine is the starvation of the imagination. Until tomorrow,
649
00:43:29.639 --> 00:43:36.239
my KBLA delegation, I'm Dominique de Prima one Love