 Sister Power, I'm your host Sharon Thomas Yarbrough. Black history is written every day. It is constantly shaped by people who are living their stories out loud. Our panel for today, we have Barbara Mitchell that she's located in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Deborah Butler is writing paradise. And we have Sequoia, Carl Brown also located here in Hawaii. And we have a special guest people, Curtis Jackson Jr. And we welcome to Sister Power, everyone. I love that. We have a special treat for our Sister Power viewers. Let's sit back and let's listen to Lift Every Voice and Sing. Absolutely beautiful, Curtis. It took fall. Yes. Well, Deborah, I want to start with you. After hearing that beautiful rendition of the Black National Anthem, what would you say that was absolutely beautiful? What would you say is the staying power of Lift Every Voice and Sing? Well, it was written by Dr. Weldon Johnson when the Star Spangled Banner was created in 1814. The United States didn't consider people of African descent, women and other minorities as citizens. So 85 years after that, James Weldon Johnson composed of lyrics and his brother John Johnson composed the song Lift Every Voice and Sing to celebrate the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln is symbolic to African Americans because of his role in leading United States to end slavery through emancipation proclamation. The song will later be adopted as the national song for the NAACP. But to sing the song is to revive the past, but also to recognize as the lyrics of the song reveal that there's a hopeful future that might come of it. So to answer your question, the staying power is how it allows us to acknowledge all of the brutalities and inhumanities and dispossession that came with enslavement, that came with Jim Crow that comes still today with disenfranchisement, police brutality, this dispossession of education and resources continues to announce that we see this brighter future that we believe that something will change. Wow, something will change. So what is it, is it about lift every voice and sing that speaks to a people so much that it's become known as the Black National Anthem? Well, if you look at the words to the song, the first verse opens with a command to optimism, praise and freedom. Lift every voice and sing till earth and heaven's rings, ring with the harmonies of liberty. The second verse reminds us to never forget the suffering and obstacles of the past, stoning the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod, felt in the days when hope unborn had died. The third and final stanzas about the challenges of the future, they had to be met with perseverance, courage, faith and trust in God. So the song lift every voice and sing was written at a pivotal time when Jim Crow was replacing slavery and African Americans were searching for an identity. Two key events that led to being named the Negro National Anthem was when Booker T Washington endorsed it and then the NAACP made it the official song. So it spoke to the history of the dog journey of African Americans who struggled through to get to a place of hope. So the song became a rally and cry for Black communities, especially in the South, which is where I'm from, Alabama, but its influence reached well beyond those boundaries, even during those days of segregation there were southern white churches who wrote to James Welles and Johnson and said, hey, we're singing your song, the one that you call the National Black Anthem. People in Japan, South America, people all around the world, particularly during the 30s and 40s were singing this song. So this song faded from popularity towards the end of the civil rights movement in favor of songs like We Shall Overcome because the song's recognition as a Black National Anthem is actually one of the reasons it's moved in and out of favor because there were many Black people who were like in conflict with the idea that they were saying, well, if we have March and we have attained what we hope to be quality, then we can't have a Black Anthem. We need an anthem that links all of us together. So on the other hand, the song that theoretically should link all Americans together, which is the Star Spangled Banner, falls short of that goal. All right, lift every voice and sing to their earth and heaven ring. Sequoia. Yes. Michelle Obama says women have always led, even when they've been denied official positions of power. They've still done the work of keeping our communities together. Historically, Black women have taken the lead towards truth and justice. What future outcomes do you see for our community? Well, thank you for that quote. She's right. Historically, traditionally, our Black women are strong leaders. Our Black men are constantly being challenged, but we have to continue to uplift one another. I think our future entails getting back to self-care, which if you can't take care of yourself, you can't help your community. I think the trend is to know ourselves, love ourselves, engage with one another in a community to ripple through. But the first step of that, I'm navigating through the gauntlet of racism, social systems in our country, you have to know your enemy. First thing we need to know, we have our history. We know our history. We know no one wants to hear our history. But I found a woman like Dr. Carol Anderson. She wrote a book called White Rage. She chronicles what it is about White America, construct the White America that constantly wants to keep us down. And you notice it's always when we strive forward. Once that forward, it pushes 50 yards or 50 years back at least, right? Select our national anthem. We are striving. We're pushing on where we may be, what we're going to keep pushing through. So knowing what these processes are very important. Also, Dr. Joy DeGru, she wrote post-traumatic slave syndrome. She's a psychologist. And she's all about self-care. And again, knowing what are these systems, how to navigate through them. And she chronicles how we tend as our own community to bring ourselves down as a form, as like an epigenetic memory. It's like a way to protect ourselves, especially our boys. Oh, probably excelling our children, right? But we'll say, oh, that boy, he doesn't know what he's doing. He's this and that. But that was what we used to have to do to keep the eye off, you know, the white eye gaze off of our children. So we've kind of over the generations brought that through. And it kind of holds us back. So we have to learn how to transcend those type of, you know, behaviors so that we can have that self-care and move forward. I love that. You know, if anyone is just tuning in, our theme for today is celebrating and honoring Black history. Nothing can stop us. And nothing has stopped us. And we are still moving forward. That's right. And yeah, we're still moving forward. And Barbara, I want to ask you, you know, a question that's come in from one of our viewers. We've seen how businesses have shown support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Some even highlighting Black-owned businesses during Black History Month as a show of solidarity. How can we individuals show and share support? I think the best thing to do truly is support them. Support them by buying their products and every way that you can. And also buying our products, not just doing Black History Month, but ongoing because we buy, you know, everyone else's products all year round. So don't let it just be something that you do during Black History Month. And I've noticed on several of the websites, I believe I noticed on even Google, sometimes at the bottom, they will have support Black businesses. And if you click on that link, it will show you Black businesses that are in the area, in select areas where we are. So the best thing to do is to buy the products and continue to buy them all year round. I'm so glad that you brought that up, Barbara. Black history is American history, really it's world history. And I would encourage our viewers to appreciate and love yourself every day. We cannot just celebrate in February. So support 365 years is the way to go. But I want to just direct something to Curtis Jackson. And I read this, the day after the death of George Floyd, 12-year-old gospel singer Keejran Bryant posted a video of himself on Instagram singing on original song called I Just Want to Live. And this is what it says. And I want you to tell me how you feel about it. You were born and raised here in Hawaii, am I correct? Yes, ma'am. All right. I just want to live. I'm a young Black man doing all that I can to stand. Oh, but when I look around and I see what's being done to my kind every day, I'm being hunted as prey. My people don't want no trouble. We've had enough struggle. I just want to live. God protect me. I just want to live. I just want to live. Tell me your thoughts. What are you feeling when you hear this coming from a Black boy? Now you're a Black man. Yes. What I felt about that I did hear that when it came out, I felt helpless, especially after seeing the video. Like I felt like what can we do more as a community? Like, why does this have to keep happening? And seeing other people who don't look like me in my community think this is a complete tragedy. It's like, this has been going on for centuries. It's just now everyone's got a camera. Now you're seeing what we feel every day. That's why you don't really know how to really react to this. Like you got to have a comment because being an American, we have the freedom to say what we want. So if someone asks you a question, you ought to automatically have your freedom to have an opinion, whether it be negative or positive. But what I felt ultimately is helpless, vulnerable, and like there's not enough of people, there's not a lot of people who look like me growing up. That's just how my life is. That's something I learned to accept. Seeing like my cousins who live on my family is mostly on the East Coast. My dad's not a family. And I try to get in contact with them. Like, how are you guys doing? Are you feeling like, are you making a movement? Are you just coasting around? And, you know, everyone's different. And everyone has to live their life. And I just wish that I could do more. But the best I could do is just be the best person I can be and help others for the betterment of mankind. I love that. Because last two weeks ago, our tagline was never stopped showing up. So that's what we have to continue to do is show up. And Deborah, I just wanted to go back very quickly about the lift every voice and sing. What do you think all of these people and singers here in the song, you would choose to be our national anthem? And you said, lean on me, which I love Bill Withers. The question was, what do I think all the people see in the song? Yes, you would choose. You would choose to be our national anthem. You said, I think you said, you would want to maybe lean on me and I want to know why. Well, the United States has been referred to as a melting pot, blended into one, and the various ethnic, religious, racial, and political groups within the United States have come to call it home for different yet equally important reasons. America is more like a salad boat. It's not like a melting pot. A melting pot, we put everything in the pot and everything blends into one and comes together as one. But we have distinct cultures, like in a salad bowl, you have a carrot, has its own color, its own taste, its own texture. You have tomato, its own color, its own texture, its own taste. Everything, the lettuce has its own color, its own taste, and its own texture. And that's what the salad bowl is, and that's not a melting pot. America is with different texture and its different taste and combined together as one. So I think the authenticity has a lot to do with it. But back to, I did mention that before we got on that, lean on me. If I had to choose a song to replace it, it would be lean on me because lean on me is a song that says I'll take care of you. It says you'll take care of me. We'll look out for each other. It's a pledge of allegiance not to a flag or country or a creed, but to each other. It's an idea of unity and community of shared burdens, you know, because the song says lean on me when you're not strong, I'll be your friend. I'll help you carry on for it won't be long that I'm gonna need somebody to lean on. At a moment when the United States, you know, is in the grip of multiple, of multiple crises, convulsed by debates over racism and injustice, ravaged by a pandemic with a crumbling economy and a faltering democracy, we must have an anthem. It should be far different from the one that we have now, because the one that we have now is all about war, bombs bursting in the air. So it would be needed if it was a decent song, which a citizen could sing easily. In fact, lean on me would be that song because it's honest. Yeah, yeah, that's one of my favorite songs too. Sequoia, Barbara, both of you, what is the number one way black people can make a substantial difference? Well, I'm again, I'm sticking on my the track of self care. I think we cannot make any differences until we take care of ourselves, our own bodies, minds and spirits. And, you know, navigating through this country, Western society is very difficult. But we have still overcome and transcended despite that. And I think it's very crucial, especially now because we've got a Jim Crow 2.0 situation going on. And we have a lot of great progress going on in our community. And there's going to be a pushback. And it's going to be very this is the white supremacists last stand. So I think it's very crucial that we take care of our mind, bodies and spirits, and we communicate with each other. We enterprise we use our empower ourselves through financial enterprises, buying black all the time, being proud of our history 365 days a year. Wow, yes. You know, Barbara, we had a conversation this week. And I just want to switch gears a little bit. And what was your thoughts after the puddle of 45 last week? Well, actually, just kind of continuing the same line of conversation in terms of the black people is know your power. We must know our power and use our power. And I went back and I looked at the charts from the 2020 election. And it was 44% of whites who voted for a voted Democrat. And it was 68% other. And of course, the 84% of black people are in that other. So honestly, if you really look at knowing our power, it was the black people. It was us who actually saved our democracy. Because had we not had it not been a Democrat in office after seeing what happened in the second impeachment trial, our democracy would have been gone because they did not care about truth. It didn't matter how much proof was there. Nothing mattered. It was like a gain to that percentage of the Republicans. They looked at their phone and simply knew that the facts because you could see it on the screen. It's one thing to have something where you can doubt it, but you could not doubt it. It was there. The facts were there. They totally ignored them. And that says to me that they do not care about democracy. Not only do they not care about it, they do not want it. And black people are another reason there's a lot of pushback because to save our democracy, we are going to be the one to do it. Because there are, you know, there was the 44% of whites who voted for our democracy at this stage. But that was not enough to tip the scale. So it really was other, but it really was black people. And they're going to be pushing back really hard. And that was why I had asked the question earlier this week about the John Lewis voting rights. I did not know. I did see some place where they were supposed to be voting on that today. That is going to be imperative that that vote, that that is passed. Because now they know the only way to stop us is to stop the vote. Because other than that, there's no way to stop us. There's no way. And we have so much power in the they know that actually they've always known that. And if you want to look at all of the different rights from the LGBT, all of those, the voting rights, everything came about after the black says after we were working to get our rights, everything rides in on on us, everything rides in on that. But yet, the votes were still only 44% from the white community. And maybe it's always been that way. We just didn't have all these the statistics to show it. But now we as black people have to know our power and use our power and be the best at everything that we can possibly be just keep know our power. Yes, that's gonna the more we acknowledge it and work with it, the more pushback there's going to be. But so far, we're doing, you know, we did a great job and we have to keep it up. But that's how we know. That's how we know we're doing. We're on the right track when they push back so hard. That means they're scared. Exactly. It's a tell. It's a tell. Yeah. Exactly. They wouldn't try to suppress our vote if we weren't important. This is what's right to realize. Your voice matters. You matter. We matter. So keep on keeping on. You know, we want to be the voices of hope. That's what it's all about. And Curtis, I'm going to come back to you. Yes, ma'am. What is the biggest challenge? And you can, you know, tell us again, what is the biggest challenge of being a black man in Hawaii? The biggest challenge that I've experienced is expectations. Growing up as a black male in my schooling in grade school, I was one of maybe four black people. And the two of them were my older sisters. Whereas being like the only black kid can pick for basketball teams. I'm always the first one to be picked. I happen to be horrible of basketball. Annoying rap lyrics or rap songs. I know some. A lot of people expect a lot of things for me. And I've decided to be mediocre at just about everything. But it does give me a power and opportunity to understand other people. Because they're trying to understand me. They expect things from me. So I understand what they're thinking. Okay, this is what you've been taught. So you've been grown to learn. You think this of me, I'm going to show you something different. I'm not just a black man. I'm Curtis. I have two loving parents. I have a loving sister. I was raped by my grandmother. I'm not just a black man. I am a person. I love that. And you know, I feel you. I feel you. Because I felt here in Hawaii, sometimes we're invisible. Yeah. Yeah, we're just invisible. So we're very well said. Yeah, it's a passive aggressive right there. They know they get it because they have their own way of, you know, indigenous Hawaiian sovereignty. And then you have our Asian, you know, and they've got that model minority thing to deal with where they're like adjacent white and they're tolerated because they're the most tolerable of all the minority groups, right? But then the consequence of that is that they look down on us on black, brown, Hispanic, right, that they feel like they're better than. So I'm almost like, well, if the white power structure isn't looking at us, they prefer us, you know, they kind of ride with that and then push us down. And it's unfortunate, you know, it's very passive aggressive here, I found. But a lot of tropes, it's like they take in the mainland culture more than they want to admit. Yeah, I can remember when I first started here as a school teacher, I started on Maui. And my students weren't used to being around black people. And so they would ask me questions like, Miss, do all black people cuss that you never heard me cuss, but do all black people carry guns? Well, I'm not packing. Well, and then they would say, well, Miss, what are you mixed with? And I would say I'm half rock wild and half pit bull. Yes, I learned a lot from the culture. And I think my students learned a lot from my culture. There was only one African-American student in that school. And I would keep him after school and just cornroll his hair and share stories. Because he was there. Wow, I love that. Well, in closing, everyone, this has been so wonderful with celebrating and honoring black history. Nothing can stop us. And I want to leave us with this quote from Michelle Obama. Do not ever let anyone make you feel like you don't matter or like you don't have a place in our American story because you do. And you have a right to be exactly who you are. So Barbara, Deborah, Sequoia, and Curtis, thank you so much for joining Sister Power. And take care of yourself and each other. Aloha. I feel like we just got started.