Speaker 1: So it's Black History Month, and for many of us
Speaker 1: over fifty, because it's fifty plus my showifty plus from
Speaker 1: James Lodd Junior. I know there's always been a lot
Speaker 1: of mixed feelings about it in our own community, for
Speaker 1: us who are older, and I know it now. It's
Speaker 1: also coincigning with people who are younger, and of course
Speaker 1: with our society these days. It's a lot going on kids,
Speaker 1: and so people would ask me my thoughts on this subject,
Speaker 1: and my thoughts are varied, and I'm gonna share some
Speaker 1: of them with you, of course, because we got what
Speaker 1: we do on the show. We share thoughts. All thoughts
Speaker 1: are my own, of course, and it's just things that
Speaker 1: I feel and think on some level. I I was
Speaker 1: born during the Civil Rights movement. I first went to
Speaker 1: school during desegregation and bussing. I was inside, was in
Speaker 1: school when they were it was gang ridden, and I
Speaker 1: didn't get myself out of there. I entered a workforce
Speaker 1: where there were jobs. I did not get approaches on
Speaker 1: that get because I was black. Then I raised children
Speaker 1: at some point and got to see the world do
Speaker 1: that situation as a parent, as a black parent, and
Speaker 1: as a black parent to mix children, and I'm an
Speaker 1: older man watching got to see a president be black,
Speaker 1: and I don't mean Clinton a little joke there. And
Speaker 1: I'm an older man seeing a lot of stuff go
Speaker 1: down and in politics in America and the world. So
Speaker 1: my thoughts are always going to be very varied because
Speaker 1: I went through all the different experiences and many of
Speaker 1: you have to do you right there, right there with me.
Speaker 1: I always found it funny that Black History Month was
Speaker 1: in February, which we all always did, because that's like,
Speaker 1: you know, that's a short month of the year, right.
Speaker 1: I always a joke about that, but I always thought, Okay,
Speaker 1: so it's during a winter time, and I was like, well,
Speaker 1: at black is like the party, like the party, so
Speaker 1: it should be during the summertime. Where I said a
Speaker 1: tongue in cheek, of course, but I always we always
Speaker 1: made jokes about that, But I get why at one
Speaker 1: point we had to have a Black History most so
Speaker 1: to speak, just to kind of remind people that black
Speaker 1: that Black history is American history. That's completely why I
Speaker 1: always say that all the time, Black history is American history.
Speaker 1: And I always wanted to believe that the the purpose
Speaker 1: was to accent those Black Americans who did stuff for
Speaker 1: America that was very positive going to school for me
Speaker 1: in the seventies and eighties, there were a lot of
Speaker 1: textbooks left a lot of these folks out. There were
Speaker 1: a lot of there were a lot of teaching that
Speaker 1: didn't happen in the classroom about other peoples of color
Speaker 1: that did a lot of you know, a lot of
Speaker 1: building of America. Most of that back then was independent study.
Speaker 1: For me, I didn't go look for it, or somebody
Speaker 1: would tell me about it, and I didn't look for it.
Speaker 1: Nowadays a little different. You can well google, we'll tell
Speaker 1: you everything, but like it's a little more different. When
Speaker 1: I was a kid and I was a teenager and
Speaker 1: young adult, I had to search for it. So Black
Speaker 1: Astrey Month would say, I'll go, oh, I never knew
Speaker 1: that that. I never knew that either, And it gave
Speaker 1: me a sense of pride being a black man, to
Speaker 1: see somebody looks like me accomplished things. And that's that's
Speaker 1: the thing I think about Black Astry Month even today.
Speaker 1: The thing about Black Astrey Month or Latin American Heritage Months,
Speaker 1: or Pride Months, or at least these special months. I
Speaker 1: know that folks who are not any of those groups.
Speaker 1: I think it's ridiculous. There's a Portgan Pride parade in
Speaker 1: New York, there's an Italian right Irish, you know, say
Speaker 1: Patrick's Day. Basically everything you happen, there's all these different things.
Speaker 1: And I think one side may say is it's separatists,
Speaker 1: Like you say, you're still separating yourselves. You're separating yourself.
Speaker 1: Why do we have to celebrate that, your blackness or whatever?
Speaker 1: And I just I don't know, I guess I just
Speaker 1: I don't see it that way. I just see it.
Speaker 1: I see it as who cares? We have a month
Speaker 1: that's black history? Well, why does it bother you so much?
Speaker 1: Especially if you're part of a group where you're always celebrated.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's all it's just it's always celebrated. And yes,
Speaker 1: we all want the utopia of post racial life and
Speaker 1: that everybody's treated equally and everybody's and everybody's presented equally.
Speaker 1: It just is not happening. It's happening in some areas
Speaker 1: here and there, but not really. You know, there's hardly
Speaker 1: any black folks playing in baseball. There's hard any black
Speaker 1: coaches in football, Like there's there's a few, there's not
Speaker 1: a black person, uh leading a soap opera, Like we're
Speaker 1: like just all these things are just not that just
Speaker 1: aren't happening, that have not happened and had not I
Speaker 1: just I and we want them to happen. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I look at I look at black casts. As I
Speaker 1: get older. It's not necessarily a thing that I go
Speaker 1: hard on. But I've seen my friends really now, especially today,
Speaker 1: are really posting all this stuff and I'm learning. I'm
Speaker 1: still learning in my fifties, I still learning stuff like
Speaker 1: that person did what. I don't know everything. I don't
Speaker 1: know everything, so still I kind of appreciate it. But
Speaker 1: as I look back and as I look at my
Speaker 1: age and everything, I think the whole thing of seeing
Speaker 1: people who look like me or my relatives and seeing
Speaker 1: that they had successful roles in this country is motivation
Speaker 1: black because you could be a motivational tool because in
Speaker 1: some black pers are great. We can't be victims, we
Speaker 1: should be victims. We shouldn't be in a victim mentality.
Speaker 1: I totally agree with that. But if you never see
Speaker 1: anybody who looks like you doing anything, he doesn't say that, well,
Speaker 1: people don't understand. I was trying to explain this to you.
Speaker 1: A friend of mine who's white, I said, I know
Speaker 1: for a fact we walk the world differently. We just
Speaker 1: you can't tell me we don't. We do. We have
Speaker 1: some things to intersect that are color in common. But
Speaker 1: for the most part, because you walk it differently, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna see it differently than you do. You will seething
Speaker 1: like just just every it's not even enough for debate
Speaker 1: or argument. That just that just is. Somebody goes to
Speaker 1: New York and somebody goes up in La go see
Speaker 1: things differently. Just going to somebody who's sixty five, we
Speaker 1: see this. Somebody who's fifty five, somebody who's Asian will
Speaker 1: see things this, somebody who's Massic. It's just just just there.
Speaker 1: There's no problem having difference. That's what makes the world go.
Speaker 1: We're all different. Now. The point is talking about the differences,
Speaker 1: listening to them, you know, being there for each other.
Speaker 1: The differences. That's what needs to happen. Not this. We
Speaker 1: don't talk about it, don't situate it, don't anything. We're
Speaker 1: all the same. We're all the human race. That's it.
Speaker 1: It's like, well, that sounds great, but why not talk
Speaker 1: about history. History is love history. I love hearing about
Speaker 1: some other people have done. Love my ancestors, but seriously,
Speaker 1: why can't we use it as motivation and motivational tools
Speaker 1: for the younger generation to say, see they did it,
Speaker 1: you can do it too. And not just athletes, musicians
Speaker 1: all that stuff, but just like people who are in
Speaker 1: the sciences. And you know that some of the industries
Speaker 1: that are dying out because they can't get people to
Speaker 1: do them. You know, let's let's lesserate those people. And
Speaker 1: you know if they're in the or Latino or black
Speaker 1: and so folks who go, I see that, Wow, I
Speaker 1: have an interest in that to you kind of but
Speaker 1: now I know I can go and do this. There
Speaker 1: are people that I looked up to that I what
Speaker 1: I saw them do. They're like, okay, they can do it.
Speaker 1: And there's no one saying you can't look up to
Speaker 1: somebody of a different race and have them also as
Speaker 1: a mentor or as an idol, or as somebody you
Speaker 1: want to emulate. For me, it was James the Different
Speaker 1: Extra Studio. It's Casey Casem on the radio, you know,
Speaker 1: as Larry King as a host. Like, I mean, they're
Speaker 1: not black, and I TOI looked up to them. But
Speaker 1: then when I hear people voices like James Earl Jones,
Speaker 1: Isaac Hayes, Barry White, that's one of my voice idols,
Speaker 1: and they're black. I love it something you can have
Speaker 1: all of that, but I don't understand the problem with
Speaker 1: having Why not have it used as something motivational As
Speaker 1: I get older, that's more because I think everything is
Speaker 1: teaching moments, and so I'm more I'm more apt for
Speaker 1: that else. And that's why I said this one. I'm
Speaker 1: going to talk about like history was in my own ways.
Speaker 1: I do every year because in America right now, they're
Speaker 1: cutting their the words woke DEI, all these these words
Speaker 1: are being weaponized, back immigration, all of this stuff's being weaponized.
Speaker 1: And in my opinion, again, in my own opinions, I
Speaker 1: feel it's all color based. You can't. You can't convince
Speaker 1: me otherwise. I don't. The optics are too strong, and
Speaker 1: I just don't. And I'm like, it's just not, it's
Speaker 1: just you won't. You can't convince me otherwise. But I'm
Speaker 1: a discussion with you about it. We can talk about it.
Speaker 1: I'm not I've never closed discussions. I'm always close to them,
Speaker 1: and my friends and I who are a different, different
Speaker 1: thing differently, they appreciate the fact that I will talk.
Speaker 1: I think the key to everything, and maybe I know
Speaker 1: reason why Black History Month was started was to get
Speaker 1: conversations going. I don't sell a quanta. I'm like quanta person,
Speaker 1: I'll say, but I appreciate it's different folks. You do.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about it. Why is it there? Why is
Speaker 1: it you know? What does it mean? What are some
Speaker 1: of the tenants like? That's I have no problem with
Speaker 1: any of that stuff. Conversation. That's why I do this
Speaker 1: talking talking. Anybody says off, you get something out of it,
Speaker 1: and it's audio only. But if you get something out
Speaker 1: of this or agree or disagree, I have no problem
Speaker 1: with that. But that's the beauty of living in a
Speaker 1: country where you're supposed to have free speech. We be
Speaker 1: able to talk and free thought. There are some countries
Speaker 1: around the world you can't even do that. So I
Speaker 1: appreciate that. And I'm an American. I am an older American,
Speaker 1: and I know I'm heading towards my time out, so
Speaker 1: I'm looking out for my kids, grandkids, and if I
Speaker 1: have great grandkids one day, what the world will be
Speaker 1: like for them. That's where I'm at. I'm James Lott Junior.
Speaker 1: This is fifty plus. We're out all audio streets, doing
Speaker 1: service platforms. Todju aim