 Think Tech Hawaii. Civil engagement lives here. And Aloha, welcome to another edition of Hawaii Union Farm. I'm the host Calvin Griffin. And thanks for joining us on another program here. For those of you who've seen the program before, you know, we talk about what's happening here in the state of Hawaii, about the military and veterans community, and try to enlighten you. And we're also looking for a response also to some of the things that may be out there that we may not be aware of. And as I mentioned, besides this program and other programs that are hosted by this station, that deal with veterans and military issues, a lot of good hosts that tackle these things. Here in Hawaii, we have a very diverse community. But a lot of people are not aware of the African American presence. I mean, we're here and you see us around and all that, but mainly through the military. But there is a large and very dynamic history about the presence of African Americans here in the state of Hawaii. Of course, this month being African American History Month, you know, people are bringing into the forefront a lot of things that happened concerning the culture. But there's a lot of things that people are not aware of. Not only about the presence here in Hawaii, but also around the country and also expansion around the world. Today I have my guest, Mr. Richard Brunsch, who is a film maker. He's done extensive research about the African American and African cultures. And he's here to share some of the views with us. Richard, thanks for coming on the program. Thanks for having me. No problem at all. Reason, just to get started, a lot of people, you've been here for quite some time. So a little bit about yourself so people will be familiar with who and what you are and get the like and love you like like some of the others do. Yeah, right. Okay. I came here in 98, been here pretty much the whole time. Did a stent on the mainland for a little while, about three and a half years. Had to come back to Hawaii. I've worked for PBS here. I've worked for Lello. I've done, you know, a number of TV shows. I've done TV production since I was in high school. And I created the first, literally the first African American commercial TV show here called Newby and Hawaii News. And that was in 2007. So I've been here a while. I've seen a few things. And they interact with a lot of people out there in the community. And again, like I say again, I know that some of your focus is with, of course, the African American experience. The military. What are some of the things that you've been enlightened to? I mean, I've learned a lot since I've been over here about some of the past, you know, here in the history of history in Hawaii. But what are some of the things that you may have been that you're aware of that you'd like to share with our audience? Well, I mean, the African American veteran has been coming through here for years. You know, it's not anything new. In fact, it's kind of funny because usually when people see an African American first thing they ask him is, are you a veteran? So that's just an indication of, an indicator as to how many black folks actually come through here on a regular basis. There's so much, and I want to say hidden knowledge about African Americans here. One of the crucial things that is veterans related was over at Pearl Harbor. Portlock. Portlock, when they had that explosion. People don't know that they had a similar explosion on the mainland that dealt with African Americans who were loading and unloading ammunition because that was the dirty work. Nobody else wanted to do it. They didn't want to sacrifice any of them. And consequently, you know, you have these major explosions because nobody really cared, you know, what would happen. It's like, oh, you guys just do your job. Okay. Consequently, they would have these two major explosions. So there's a lot of details in terms of black history, African American history that people will never know. Well, that's the one thing that I see the problem with so-called history months. Okay, we've got black history, Latino history, women history, the whole nine yards, you know. It's like, okay, we're going to give you guys a month a day, whatever it is, like say, to acknowledge your contribution. All right. Just this period of time. To me, I have a major heartburn with that because I don't think there should be a black history week, the whole nine yards. And what does he mean by that? What I'm saying is that it should be inclusive in the history curriculum year-round, you know, with not only celebrating, like, the African American experience, but all the other experiences also that people need to be made aware of. Because what I noticed is when they have, of course, with black history months, got these different events, the only thing you do, you have people of the African American, you know, related community, they're the ones that show up. So it doesn't seem that there is, the information is getting out there, or sometime, you know, people's eyes glaze over, could you talk about African American history? It's like, oh my God, here we go, Malcolm, you know, the marches, the slavery and everything else, you know. So we heard it before, done there, got the t-shirt, the whole nine yards. You're not telling a t-shirt to me. As a matter of, no. No. I'm just going to be sure about this. Okay. Anyhow. No t-shirts today. You know, my take on as far as, like I said, with the black history thing, but I know that, again, right now, just focus with here in Hawaii, you know, the history. People didn't know that a lot of people may not aware that the Buffalo soldiers were here. They helped to build the roads on the big island, I believe, like say up in Monacaia, you know. And also here on Oahu, there was a section that was set aside for black service members down by the, currently it's like Walkenburg and where the Trinity Church is located, you know. It wasn't actually a set aside. It was more like discrimination. They didn't want to make, they wanted to make sure that they kept the African-American, the black soldiers separated from the white soldiers. It's not like, you know, they were giving some, you know, equal and fair thing. It was, we want those black people over there and we don't want them associating with the white people. That's the bottom line, you know. In terms of African-American history, it's almost like, okay, why do you need African-American history? Because you're not included in any of the American history. You're not included in world history. So if you're not included, then it would behoove you to create your own. That's why, I mean, nobody complains when people who practice the religion of Hebrew talk about their heritage. Nobody complains. Nobody complains when Italian-Americans have their parades and all that stuff. But all of a sudden, people become soft and gushy and nasty and ugly when Africans and their descendants talk about their history. So not only, it was those months, days, celebrations weren't created out of the benevolence of the greater society. They were created because we weren't included. And if you're going to sit there as a person and allow somebody to denigrate you, especially for all that Africans and their descendants had done for human civilization, then we need a whole year of African-related history. That's just my take on it. Oh, Kenny, I hear the passion in your voice. Oh, no, you haven't heard my passion. Let me get a grip. Anyhow, yeah, I see where you're coming from with this. But a lot of people say, OK, what we're going to talk about in a few minutes is about something that you're presenting to the community as far as enlightening people to the African experience and the African-American. I keep saying that, anyhow. But let's say black, just get it over with, anyhow. Yeah, let's put it where it's supposed to be, black history. Don't say we'll try to be correct, but not too politically correct on this. OK, the thing is, as far as with the histories and things of that nature, again, a lot of people get frustrated because they see here in this country, again, a lot of people may not be aware of, we hear about certain things, but in depth, because a lot of people will say, OK, with the different cultures, you have the different Asian cultures, people coming in from different parts of the world and everything else, they come here and they get their communities together and they expand economically on things that have nature. And a lot of people will say, well, how come the African-Americans, the blacks haven't done it to this point, to any degree? A lot of people are not aware of a section called Black Wall Street, which is in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which they talked about 9-11, which not to take away from 9-11 and the horrors of what happened that day. But when they say that it was one of the worst incidents that happened in the history of this country as far as terrorism, it was the first time in the history of the world when I understand, as far as aerial bombings where you had a section of 39 square blocks in Tulsa, Oklahoma, hospitals, schools, the whole nine yards, very vibrant communities, and then, of course, an incident happened, normally it's like, OK, some kind of transgression about it from a black man against someone else, and normally it's a female, and that's when things sparked. And during that period of time, like I said, I don't think the full account has been, this hasn't been a full accounting where some would say it was hundreds, possibly thousands of African-Americans, like I say, that were killed during that particular day. That is not one of, let's say, the only incident. You had Rosewood, you had a number of different things. The thing is not to really harp on all the, you know, what we say, the negative things, because there's been some very positive things within, you know, around the country that blacks have instituted in their different communities. You don't hear about a lot of the grassroots operations where people are self-sufficient, where they're able to do certain things, like say, to interact with other cultures, you know. And the thing is, with the media, they all say, of course, if it bleeds, it leads, and all of a sudden, like say, what they try to do as far as trying to make us think we are different than one another, you know. And when you have that, I mean, when you disrespect culture, all right, then that's when a lot of the, what seemed to be animosity in a so-called what is perceived as hostility and actuality is not being hostile. What you're doing is you're asserting your cultural presence, you know. And I think a lot of people misconstrued, like say that, you know, when you do hear somebody that's forceful, when they talk about how they feel, that the way that you come across, I've heard you speak in the past, your presentations, you know, and a lot of people may say, okay, well, you know, it's Afrocentric. No, it's not, you know. Again, it's being, it's setting it up where, like say, I mean, you asked me to respect your culture. I would like you to respect mine because I think that any culture that is disrespected or disintegrated or taken down, we all lose the amount of what the culture is, you know, but again, you know, like say, it's still that feeling, you know, and you know, you can't always dwell on the past, you know, but again, there's certain systemic problems that I have, I still, you know, have a manifestation that like say in current, you know, the current situation anyhow. And I think like say, well, what you're trying to do as far as present the history, because if you don't know, we even have a lot of blacks, if you don't know where you came from, you don't know where you're going as a people, you know, as a culture, you know. But yes. The thing is a lot of what would be perceived as acts. Okay. What, somebody calling it? I think we're going to take a short break. Okay. That's coming up pretty soon. Okay. Inhale. Okay. Let's go ahead and we're going to take that break and we'll come back in a few minutes. Cool. Aloha. I'm Winston Welch. And every other Monday at 3 p.m., you can join me at Out and About, a show where we explore a variety of topics, organizations, events, and the people who fuel them in our city, state, country, and world. So please join us every other Monday at 3 p.m., and we'll see you then. Aloha. Good afternoon. My name is Howard Wigg. I am the proud host of Code Green, a program on Think Tech Hawaii. We show at 3 o'clock in the afternoon every other Monday. My guests are specialists both from here and the mainland on energy efficiency, which means you do more for less electricity and you're generally safer and more comfortable while you're keeping dollars in your pocket. Okay. You're back with Hawaii Uniform. And again, my special guest today is Mr. Richard Brunski who's a filmmaker. And we're going to get into our conversation before I went on my little rant there. I know that, again, what you're trying to do to enlighten, you know, not only African blacks, but also other cultures. And like I said, you interact and I know you work with other different people who are in the genre of foreign films and things of that nature who try to get their message out there and enlighten people also. But the current project that you're working on right now is you're promoting a... there's a series that came out Hidden Colors. Right. There's a series of four films called Hidden Colors. And what they do is they've documented the history of blacks worldwide, globally. Things that you are never going to hear. They're never going to teach them in high school. They're never going to teach them in grammar school. They actually have taken four films, these four films, and they're actually looking at them to turn them into curriculum for colleges because they're pretty in-depth. So my thing is, as a community service, because I'm definitely not making any money off of this deal, I'm showing these films at the Doris Duke Theater. We've already shown two. Hidden Colors I, Hidden Colors II. So this Monday coming up, we're showing number three. And then the following Monday we're showing number four. You know, half of the people, literally, half... half of the small crowd that we've had come were not black. They were either Asian or Caucasian or white, whatever adjective you want to use. And across the board, people leave that theater saying to them, saying out loud, oh my God, my mind has been blown. Because, I mean, they cover all aspects of black history. Africans were the first people to literally circumnavigate the planet. And there's evidence all over the planet that indicates it. There's a catchphrase they use in the film that says, the deeper they dig, the blacker the planet gets. Because Africans have been everywhere. You know, long before Columbus, Africans were going to the Americas. The South Americas. All of Africa is just a wealth of information. Europeans got their culture, literally, from Africans. The Renaissance was not about Europeans being, you know, these great inventors and all that stuff. They were being taught by the Moors, okay? Now they want to make the Moors white, just like they want to make Hannibal white. Just like they want to make Cleopatra white, or European. And that's the kind of history that is being revealed. I mean, we all know, you know, everyone should seriously doubt that Cleopatra had livened their eyes like Elizabeth Taylor. I mean, we just kind of know that. You know, other things like who actually built the pyramids. We know that they were not Europeans. Right, okay. The first thing, I mean, there might be some viewers out there who may be hearing this for the first time in this perspective. And it's like, all right, is this just some more Afro-centric propaganda fact or... It's all factual. The people who have done these studies they are scholars. They are world travelers. They travel to these places. They meet with other people of authority who say, yes, this is what we know, okay? They're debunking myths about, you know, just different things that we're all having to do with black people that Europeans have claimed. These people, you know, they're not like people who are jokes. These people are scholars. They are learners. Okay, when you mentioned, like, going back and digging, like, the deeper you go, the darker the history gets. You know? To put things in context, it's like, at some at some point it's been, I guess, commonly agreed to in the scientific world, like, say that a lot of the life of human beings that we know at started in Africa, and then they spread out, you know? I know that we're talking about the culture, everything else, but at some point in the past there wasn't that separation between the racial distinctions. Was there? You know, it's interesting because in the film they talk about back in ancient times, people actually lived together. There was no strong delineation between, well, he's white, I'm black, because Europe, a lot of Europe was actually black. They just came out with this revelation that the people in England or Scotland or somewhere over there were actually dark-skinned people. I mean, everyone knew that. There are things in the film that discuss the fact that there are pubs in that part of the world that actually talk about you know, I think they're called the black boy pubs. That's because blacks were all through England, they were all through Europe. So people lived together and one of the points that they make in the film is that there were no such things as world wars. There were skirmishes, maybe one country was in, but a world war, that's a new phenomena that has happened on this planet with the onset of Europeans kind of venturing forth, you know. So I got to a certain point where we're getting back and one thing I truly believe is that we're all part of the same wherever we come from wherever you look like, the mile far back you go we're all part of the same we have the same origin. We have the same roots. We diversify. With what you're the series and a lot of things like you're also promoting, again it's not from a I wouldn't say an adversarial point of view it's from a point of again trying to acknowledge or trying to enlighten people. People like to make derogatory variations with certain things. So they'll tell you, well that's kind of afrocentric. No, it's historic. The fact that it's been left out of history because it may frighten some people, that doesn't make it negative. The fact that people don't want to be called Negroes anymore and they choose to be called African Americans or Black, oh now they're speaking out too much. It's the truth. So you know somebody will always say to you, wow those people, they're really pushing now, they're really pushing. As the truth had been told to begin with Black folks wouldn't have to stand here and say, yeah Leonardo da Vinci where'd you get your information from? All of the castles that were built most of the castles in Europe were not built by Europeans, they were built by the Moors. See nobody is upset when other cultures assert their history. And what's really amusing is a lot of other cultures got their culture from Africa. But the minute Black folks make a statement it's like, oh you know, they're being they're being too brazen. Yeah, but the response you mentioned the response you got from the films and individuals who are not of African American descent, it was very positive as far as... It's incredible. There was a couple that was there from New York, Long Island, where I'm from and she was white, he was white she came out, she got up from her chair and literally walked up to me and said my mind has been blown she said I had never known any of this and she said and I gotta go to the bathroom and she just ran out and her husband came by and said oh my god he says we've never been taught any of this. So what has the response been from the so called status quo or of this proper term but there's certain things like say that are incorporated or allowed into the media here in the state of Hawaii. What resistance did you get at any point from any type of venue that might give you access to the public that was there a major thing going on or was it easy to to get this in a public form? You know since this is Black History Month and the museum normally has an entire month that they give the Black History for the Film Festival they've since decided okay they're gonna do a week this month and then they'll do a week further down the calendar and I had people actually question me as to why are you doing this because these are films that you haven't shown and the first film came out in 2011 the second film came out in 2012 2014 and 2016 and I'm not saying that the museum or the committee that's involved was negligent it was their choice not to show them okay I spoke with one of the members and she actually knew because she had seen one of them so my thing is when they question me like I had done something wrong I had to let them know nobody has a lock or exclusivity on Black History Month and since I'm doing this on my dime I've had to I'm the guy who does not have the money to do this but I just felt like we gotta do it now with President Obama leaving and this current climate Black people need to know as much as they can because you're going to be challenged above and beyond okay again here in Hawaii with the multicultural those are the things that I have nature in here what okay speaking to the camera and tell somebody why they should come and view your presentation they possibly could walk away with it and what do you see in the future as far as you know what you're trying to contribute to the overall spirit of aloha here in Hawaii America the bottom line is these films some people would say are controversial but they're not controversial they're just truthful when you neglect to learn things about Black people you pretty much sacrifice relationships with them everybody should come see these films I don't care what your ethnicity is because they cover so much of world history that you're walking around like with half the story or less so my thing is come and see these films we're on the last two like I said anyone who leaves the film they are blown away so this is more it's not to be something that's going to be divisive it's more or less again to open people's eyes and to more or less give that commonality as far as the human experience well I'm not here to really make people comfortable I'm here to let people know that these are the facts if these facts scare you then you should be asking why you never heard them before I'm not here to apologize for our history I'm not here to apologize for you not knowing our history now people want to get uptight that's on you but nobody gets uptight when Jewish people push their history the minute Black folks push our history then what are they going to do next are they going to get guns and all that stuff that has yet to happen in this country alright we're down to the wire first I want to thank you for coming in sharing your views and enlightening our serious thing enlightening our audience to this perspective anyhow but in the last 30 seconds or less I'll you can call me at 808 491 7368 you can go see the films that coming up like I said this Monday this film started 705 the following Monday the film the fourth film started said 705 there is a fee because like I said I'm giving this to community and I'm definitely not going to make any money off of this okay I want to thank you like I said what we're trying to do is be more informative bring us together anyhow like I said but check it out I know what's going on but thank you for your efforts I know you've been a very valuable member of the community and to our viewers thank you God bless and until that time