Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
26: Where Are The Black Leaders?
85 Plays1 year ago
I reflect on the emotional toll of witnessing another Black life lost at the hands of police - Tyre Nichols. As this downward spiral of police violence against Black people continues, where are the Black leaders we can look to? Sure we have the NAACP, the National Urban League, Color of Change...but is the community at large really looking to those organizations or their leaders for guidance? Is the era of well known Black civil rights leaders gone, and do we need to try to get it back?
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Excitement
00:00:09
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello. It's Brittany Geneva back for another episode of Geneva Says. I'm on a roll, you all. This is the third one in three weeks, which means like, oh my gosh, once a week, like this is actually happening. We're actually here. And I'm feeling pretty excited. I'm feeling pretty excited about it. I can't lie. Thank you guys so much for listening.
00:00:34
Speaker
Thank you for tuning in for this week's episode.
Reflecting on Racial Violence
00:00:39
Speaker
You know what, I'm just gonna jump right into it because there's obviously, I'm recording this on Saturday, January 28th. Happy birthday, J. Cole.
00:00:50
Speaker
And I am waking up the night after they have released this video in very weird Netflix premiere drop style of basically a black man being lynched by police in Memphis.
00:01:14
Speaker
And, you know, this morning I woke up thinking about that. I did not watch the video, but I woke up thinking about it. I woke up praying about it, getting emotional about it and really just thinking about the fact that we are just in such a state as black people in
Systemic Failures and Solutions
00:01:35
Speaker
this country. Like, where do we even begin to find peace in a time where
00:01:43
Speaker
Not only are we being victimized as the folks who are suffering violence at the hands of the state, but victimized as people like the five police officers who committed this murder
00:02:07
Speaker
by the brainwashing of the state. They are exerting power on both sides by not only the killing of this young man, but also Tyree Nichols, by the way, let me say his name, but also by making killers of these officers.
00:02:37
Speaker
and they being absorbed into the system that will find a way to make black people suffer no matter where they sit within the system. And I just feel, I feel especially powerless in this one because all of the things, not all, but many of the things that have been proposed over the years
00:03:07
Speaker
to help alleviate this kind of thing were a part of this situation. Well, we need more black officers. Okay, well, that didn't work. That didn't help. We need body cams. Oh yeah, yeah. The body cams captured them killing. So they certainly didn't do anything to prevent the outcome here. It doesn't matter what you do within this broken system.
00:03:34
Speaker
because this system, no matter what you try to do, is going to prevail in making a victim of black people one way or another.
Frustration with Authorities
00:03:45
Speaker
Whether you're getting beat or whether you have been brainwashed into believing that this is something you need to be doing as a police officer, even if you are a black man, you are going, this system and the powers that be who have created this system will find a way to take you down.
00:04:05
Speaker
And as I reflect on all of this and think about all of this, I find myself sort of wondering like, who do we look to in this moment? Because, and in moments like these, the inevitable future moments that will sadly arise, what do we do to funnel, you know, last night,
00:04:35
Speaker
They made such a show of telling protesters not to be violent. God forbid you tell the police not to be violent. If you tell the police to stop killing black people, promise you that'll help your protest problem. Promise you that that's actually the most immediate way to get people to stop protesting and potentially rioting. That's actually where you need to start. And if niggas wanna riot, look, let me know the place and time because it's the least we could do.
00:05:07
Speaker
but they made such a show of please don't riot, please don't protest. We've arrested these officers. We fired these officers like, please just stay calm. And so what are we supposed to do with this energy and anger and sadness and despair that keeps arising every time we are reminded that this country thinks nothing of us?
Unfulfilled Corporate Promises
00:05:36
Speaker
every time we're reminded that the entity that is literally supposed to protect and serve, which is the biggest joke on earth, takes no hesitation in killing us. What are we supposed to do? We have done the same things over and over again. We thought we saw some type of reckoning with George Floyd that has
00:06:03
Speaker
completely not come to pass, by the way. These corporations have not come through on any of the things that they said they were gonna do. In this huge layoff wave that we are in right now, all of the DNI folks are damn near losing their jobs. What is actually remaining from that 2020 alleged race reckoning other than empty promises? What are we supposed to do?
00:06:33
Speaker
Black Lives Matter, an organization that we want to be able to look to for some type of leadership is under scrutiny and investigation every single day for $6 million homes that they've bought in LA and investigations into mismanagement. I believe after the 2020 moment, they received something like 80 to $90 million in donations.
Leadership and Change
00:06:59
Speaker
Have we seen anything happen with that money?
00:07:04
Speaker
where has that money gone? And let me just say as a side note that I am not, it upsets me that I'm sure there are many organizations that are doing dirt and Black Lives Matter like gets the most coverage and the most like detailed, you know, exposure of all their dirt, but they are not the only ones doing dirt that doesn't make the dirt okay. But I am like, ugh,
00:07:31
Speaker
I know y'all got other organizations that you can investigate too. Anyways, back to my point. The fact is the things that were supposed to give us hope have not, ain't shit panning out. What are we supposed to do? And that is a question that I would love for someone to help answer because I feel pretty helpless. I have,
00:08:02
Speaker
My thoughts on the role that I want to play within the movement, I believe policy change is the answer. That is the avenue that I want to pursue. I believe that self-determination is the answer for Black people to find our help within our own community and not look outside more than we have to. And those things
00:08:29
Speaker
are important, but I still, as I continue on a path to try to affect change via those means, I still find myself wondering, but what are we doing? What is
Critique of Civil Rights Organizations
00:08:46
Speaker
happening at a level that can actually make me feel like we are getting anywhere close to any type of real change? And it makes me think about
00:08:59
Speaker
our leaders, or perhaps the lack thereof. I think about the fact that there was a time where black people very clearly looked to certain individuals to be the person in this moment to tell us what to do, the person in this moment to say,
00:09:24
Speaker
Well, this is how we need to respond and this is how we need to react and think. And that's not to say that we need that type of, you know, we need someone to tell us how to feel, but to help us channel it into something that feels productive. And who, you know, we had the Huey Newtons and the Fred Hamptons and the Malcoms and the Martins of the world. And who do we have?
00:09:52
Speaker
Who do we have now? Raise your hand if you know the name of the president of the NAACP, or the National Urban League, or Color of Change. If you work in those spaces and you work in civil rights, you do.
00:10:12
Speaker
right? If you work in those spaces, yeah, you know that it's Derek Johnson and Marc Morial and Rashad Robinson respectively.
Lamenting Absence of Strong Leadership
00:10:22
Speaker
But if you don't, then you don't. And I would not say that those men serve as any sort of beacon or north star for the Black community. I would also further say, especially for the first two organizations, that they have
00:10:37
Speaker
given too much into corporate white tears, and they are accepting too much money from corporations that are actually doing things that actively harm people every day. That's a separate conversation. But do we look to any of those men or any of these organizations to be any type of beacon for us? I would argue we don't. And who, you know, Al Sharpton, I'm sorry, no.
00:11:06
Speaker
He has a role to play in the movement, but he's not anybody's leader, not in 2023. When is the last time you were like, what's National Action Network thinking or doing about something? I think about, obviously,
00:11:23
Speaker
He is like front page every time a family hires a lawyer, Ben Crump, who I like Ben Crump. I don't think badly of him. But again, is he a leader of this movement? And I, I find myself wondering.
00:11:40
Speaker
Do will we ever have that again? I could argue I think it might be nice. I think it could be nice to have someone who is on the ground and with the people and seemingly driving the driving us towards some type of outcome that feels tangible and real and exciting and uplifting and encouraging and
00:12:09
Speaker
I know there are plenty of reasons why that type of leadership was not useful at that time. And obviously the outcomes for many of these men were murder and or corruption.
Faith Leaders in Social Justice
00:12:26
Speaker
And there are things that obviously are downsides of having this like one charismatic leader.
00:12:33
Speaker
But I find myself just asking myself, I don't really even know what's right or what's wrong, but I find myself asking myself, what happened to the black leaders? Where are the black leaders who really feel like they embody
00:12:52
Speaker
the voice and the sentiment and the feeling of the current generation and have some sort of position to be able to drive forward some type of action in pursuit of a solution that feels real. And so that's just something I've been thinking about, something I've been meditating on. I mean, even
00:13:17
Speaker
our preachers, our clergy, where are they? I think there is an opportunity. I think that we have had a boomerang effect where black people pushed away from the church, like, you know, maybe Gen Xers and like older millennials, but I think younger millennials and to an extent Gen Z,
00:13:41
Speaker
are getting back into the church and are putting, are circling back on the promise of faith and of faith communities and feeling like there actually is something to gain from being a part of a congregation. And I know my pastor, the Reverend Dr. Howard John Wesley Young, no, I'm obsessed with him. I think he is absolutely anointed
00:14:11
Speaker
to really be able to help drive change forward. But is he trying to? Like, you know what I mean? Like, he does a lot, but I don't he ain't trying to be no MLK, you know? And then there are there are wonderful, wonderful pastors around this nation who are taking on that mantle of both faith and social justice in a real way. But are they in a position to be
00:14:39
Speaker
Jesse Jackson, you know like somebody who you really look up to because the last look Reverend Al Sharpton Reverend Jesse Jackson like those were the last faith leaders that we really look to when it comes to social justice and racial justice and who since then and Is there an opportunity now in this moment for leaders in the faith community to be more prominent in terms of driving this movement?
Future of Black Leadership
00:15:08
Speaker
again, questions that I don't have answers to, questions that I think about and that I pose to you all to just, you know, consider. I just, I don't have an answer. Like this is, I've been saying that the last few weeks. Like I really don't have a conclusion. I'm just saying thoughts, but this is, this one is really that. Like I,
00:15:31
Speaker
don't have the answer, but I find myself wondering often, who are our leaders? Where are they? Do we need them? I feel like things are getting worse. I remember in 2012 when I first felt
00:15:49
Speaker
the call to be more of an activist and an advocate after Trayvon Martin. And it is now 11 years later. And I don't think that things have gotten any better. I think there has been various moments that felt encouraging. But at the end of the day, we are not in a better place as black people in America. I don't feel safer.
00:16:18
Speaker
I don't feel that we have any protection against the police who seek to kill us every single day.
00:16:30
Speaker
if we need to return to a time where we did put a little bit more faith into a person to really drive us forward.
Disillusionment with Progress
00:16:42
Speaker
And I'm not saying that that's the answer, but I'm wondering about it. So, you know,
00:16:50
Speaker
I definitely would love to hear from you all your thoughts on this and just general thoughts about everything that's been happening with Tyree Nichols, who, you know, that that situation just hurts me so deeply seeing. Anyways, it's just been it's been emotional for me like the last like 24 hours.
00:17:12
Speaker
um to just really understand like the details and like the the depth to which this is just absolutely the disgusting and like the this freaking video in the way that they're they i hate i hate this video and how it has been
00:17:35
Speaker
treated like a freaking world premiere. I mean, that is so disgusting. And I'm like, is this where we are in America, where we're like sitting down with the popcorn to like watch a lynching like what the fuck? So it's really is this has just been like a real slap in the face of like, whoo, shit is not better. 2020 didn't matter at all.
00:18:00
Speaker
Y'all said all y'all stuff about this, that and the third. We are going to change and Rachel Reckoning and you are right back to your same old shit.
Call for Peace and Self-Care
00:18:10
Speaker
So it's it's not a good day. It's not a good day in America. And it leaves me wondering about different approaches that we might take as people to try to make things better.
00:18:29
Speaker
So that's all I have today. Let me know what you think. I am on the Internet at Brittany underscore Geneva at the Geneva says. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for bearing with me through this episode. I hope that you all are finding and protecting your peace through moments like this. Do not watch that video. I did not and will not watch it.
00:18:58
Speaker
We deserve to have peace. We don't need to watch that shit. That's all. Thank you guys.