- Welcome to Balancing Life's Issues, the podcast.
I'm your host, Kai, and today we are kicking
off Black History Month.
And to help me do that, I'm joined by BLI, senior Trainer,
account Manager, and DEIB contributor James Francis.
Welcome to the podcast, James. Thanks,
- Kai. Great to be here.
- Wonderful to have you as always.
And James, you and I have been planning this month
of programming for a while now.
People are really eager about our message this month,
and it's great to finally be at a place
where we're just sharing
what we've been planning, right? ?
- Yes. Love - It. The, the why behind Black History Month.
So, James, please, you know, in as concise a way
as possible, share with us why we should care
about Black History Month.
- Well, first of all, this should be a month of celebration.
You know, really celebrating the accomplishments,
all the various achievements in different areas in this
country and around the world.
And that is really the why of Black History Month.
There are many people, right?
There's slavery and there's MLK,
but there's so many other wonderful things in
between that, right?
So many resilient people who've led us to
where we are today as a country. Yeah,
- Absolutely.
Well said. And I think really kind of circling
that celebration, um, acknowledging right, uh,
what the black community has been
through to get to this point.
And really what you're saying is let's find some folks
that you probably don't know about,
and let's talk about them.
Let's share their story so that you can pass
that information along.
And, uh, later in the podcast
today, we're gonna get into that person.
And that was Carter g Woodson.
So speaking of history and, and education
and justice, like, can, can we talk about the role
that plays in Black History Month?
- Absolutely. In a time, in a space where
factual things that have happened in the black community,
in this country, they're trying to be removed and erased.
Mm-Hmm. , I feel we must not forget. Right.
These impactful moments in time
lead us to where we are today.
Right? Right. Recalling just the multiple massacre
in this country, directly taking place in black communities
to really undermine generational wealth, right?
Mm-Hmm. , one of the most popular ones is the
Tulsa massacre, but there were others.
There were others in Michigan,
in Mississippi, California
- Most recently in, uh, Buffalo.
- In Buffalo, recently in Wyoming,
in Missouri, in Kentucky.
These are the pieces to the puzzle
that are vastly important.
And these are certain things
that should certainly also be discussed,
why we are celebrating
so strongly Black history month. Mm-Hmm.
- . And so
after saying all that, you know, like your heart starts
to hurt a little bit, but then you end with celebrate.
And I know you and I were talking about this idea of
how negative things happen in our lives,
and when we are resilient, then we can celebrate.
And that's what we're talking about this month.
- Absolutely. And resiliency should be celebrated on all
accounts in the black community in this country.
It's a continuous process.
I feel, even today, even today, I am feeling
the continued sense of resiliency throughout, you know,
my life and specific achievements.
A quick story for you guys, this was just a few years ago,
and my boss simply asked me
to move her vehicle from one parking space to another.
Mm-Hmm. . And, you know, at the time
I gave her, you know, a no, no, thank you.
Or, you know, I'm not comfortable doing that.
She didn't understand why.
- Yeah. What was the why behind that, you know, discomfort.
- Yes. So, full transparency,
it was a beautiful red Mercedes-Benz,
and I'm a father of twin girls, and I thought about my life,
- Right?
- I thought about my life Kai, literally how mm-Hmm.
me moving a car 100 feet can change
my life and my family's life dramatically
just if someone is having a bad day
and I am the one who is taken out on Yeah,
- Absolutely.
'cause 'cause that, that has happened, you know,
that is part of black history is, uh, you know, the,
the issues with policing and,
and things that, that that community has dealt with.
And to me, what I'm hearing out of that is, well, what's,
what's the role out of an employer
or a CEO to be aware of a a, you know,
a a a community's history so that you can be more empathetic
and less quick to judge in a moment where, you know,
an employee could be uncomfortable
based off of type of request.
- Well, to me, it's the ability and willingness to listen.
Hmm. Right. My boss, she, she heard me out.
She really listened to me.
And it grew into a sense of empathy
and understanding on both parts.
We, as human beings, Kai, we only know what we know. Right.
So that open-ended conversation that continues today
between us, that moment really sparked these conversations.
- Yeah. And you said, listen.
And what it reminded me of was, was
after the murder of George Floyd, I learned how to listen.
I, I found myself screaming into a social media void about,
you know, what had occurred and the atrocities,
and I learned how to listen.
And to me, that's, that's what this month is about.
Like, let's celebrate black history.
And for those of us who don't know much about it,
or even if you are part of the black community
and you don't know much about it, like this is a time
to listen and educate ourselves so
that we can celebrate American history together.
- Yes. And it's a wonderful time.
'cause even myself as a black male,
I am continuously learning about other
contributions within our culture
and our country by other black people.
It's a wonderful thing. Yeah,
- Yeah, yeah.
And you know, I I just, just to put it out there
as something that kind of hit me, you
and I were chatting the other day, um, getting ready
for this and you know, I just kind of brought up the fact
that the Voting Rights Act was, um, passed in 1965,
and then I kind of asked you what year were you were born,
uh, what year were you born?
- 1975. Kai. Thank you.
- .
But you're the youngest of siblings.
So my point was you had siblings who were born in a time
where they wouldn't have been able to vote.
That's correct. It's just a profound way to think about
how close this history still is to us today.
- And I, and I completely agree,
and sometimes even myself, I may not view that lens
and that perspective, but it's absolutely correct.
I've had brothers who were born in a time where
our parents couldn't vote.
Mm-Hmm. , our aunts, uncles,
Kevin forbid grandparents, you know,
my mother specifically was born
and raised in the rural south
before moving up north to New York City.
Mm. And I remember the stories.
Yeah, I remember the stories.
- Absolutely. Right. So I maybe let's take that energy,
right, the stories that maybe your, um, your family shared
with you from a time.
Right. And let's, let's, like, let's continue that sharing
of, of stories and, and information
and celebration, um, of black history, um, as we kind of
seamlessly segue, uh, into, uh,
the person we wanna talk about today.
That's Carter g Woodson, by the way.
This is all taken from, uh, Smithsonian is a great resource
for Black History Month,
but Carter g Woodson is widely considered
to be the father of black history.
And it's interesting. Why do you happen to know why? I
- Honestly do not. So
- Carter was a son of former slaves
and he taught himself English fundamentals at 19.
Um, and he earned a four year high high
school degree in two years.
Okay. So we're, we're off to an impressive start. Right?
- Absolutely. - Went on to get a master's in history from
the University of Chicago and later
a doctorate from Harvard.
Uh, so this is someone who immersed
themself, um, in history.
And it was through his studies, uh, where he discovered
that black history was,
was mostly being left out of textbooks.
He took it upon himself
to write Black Americans into na into the nation's history
with the founding of the Association for the Study
of Negro Life and history.
And through that, he developed a Negro Week in 1926
celebrating black history,
which expanded into Black History Month, um, in 1976.
Just a year after you were born. That's
- Right.
Great times. Yeah.
- So why February?
Well, to Carter, it celebrates the birthdays
of two great Americans that helped change the trajectory
of the Black American population.
Uh, the abolitionist Frederick Douglass on February 14th
and President Abraham Lincoln on February 12th.
We wanted to choose him, uh, for two reasons.
One, you may or may not know about him,
but two, uh, we are seeing a foundational shift in
how black history is taught in our schools today.
And you touched on this a little bit earlier.
There are organizations out there who are trying
to water down the negative parts of our history, um, to kind
of soften the blow of lessening the impact
of systematic issues that black Americans have today.
- Correct. And Kai, I think that's really the overall goal
of, you know, these certain things that are happening,
you know, in the state of Florida currently.
So, you know, to me, the conversation should stem
from the racism, stem from the oppression Mm-Hmm.
. And explain the resiliency in a people
and where we are today versus, oh, that didn't happen.
Or the way that things happen
can be explained in a different light.
It's so interesting. Rosa Parks was not the first black
woman not to move on the bus.
Mm. It became extremely popular as she was a part
of the movement with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Oh, wow. She was not the first. Yes. I didn't
- Know that.
- So, you know, things like that deeper
into our history books
or our lessons of African American history in this country
to even know that part.
So just imagine in 50, 60 years,
'cause this was not that long ago.
Mm-Hmm. Imagine a textbook being written
and speaking about the first black president in this country
and not mentioning that he was black.
- Yeah. - That's the direction I feel we are
going unfortunately.
And this is why we continue to celebrate Black History Month
and black history achievements throughout this country.
This is why.
- Absolutely. Well said. And, you know, I,
I think we gotta end it on that note.
Couldn't say it any better. So, um,
everyone out there look forward, uh, to a weekly podcast,
uh, celebrating, uh, black History Month.
Um, and, you know, take it upon yourself, uh, to,
to go do some research on some
of those sites I mentioned earlier, like the Smithsonian,
and just pick someone, you know, if you're a parent, uh,
pick someone together and kind of share, share together
and discover together, um, this important American history.
And, and of course, James, I gotta throw it out there.
On Friday, February 23rd,
you are delivering a free live webinar titled DEIB,
navigating the Difficult Conversation.
Um, I'll be on that to host.
Is there anything you wanted to say about
that presentation at the end of the month?
- Just please, please join me.
These are the typical exciting conversations we will have
and come away with resources
and really tools to navigate these difficult conversations.
- Absolutely. I love it. And registration info is
available@bliinfo.com slash free webinars.
James, thank you so much for joining me today.
I really appreciate your time. Thanks so much, Kai. Yeah.
Until next time, everyone, take care.
This has been a production of Balancing Life's Issues
with your hosts, Kai Sorenson
and Wendy Wallner, produced by me Kai Rate.
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Email me, KI at balancing life's issues.com.
Anything to add? Miles.