Speaker 1: You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on Demand from
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: It's February twenty eighth. I want to do something a
Speaker 2: little bit different tonight. You may not have noticed, or
Speaker 2: maybe you did, but I don't talk about quote unquote
Speaker 2: Black History Month. I don't do Black History Month features
Speaker 2: or mentions or anecdotes. It's not that I'm not aware
Speaker 2: of it. I'm just something that I don't do. And
Speaker 2: that's always been intentional. And again, don't get me wrong,
Speaker 2: it's not that I couldn't. Nobody has ever told me, Mo,
Speaker 2: you can't say that, you can't talk about that, you
Speaker 2: shouldn't talk about that. But for me, it clouds my
Speaker 2: intended message and confuses some folks. Some people wrongly think
Speaker 2: that Black History Month quote unquote is exclusionary, but actually
Speaker 2: it's quite the opposite. It's including. It's inclusive of a
Speaker 2: lot of the stuff that most people me included, missed
Speaker 2: in our primary and secondary college education. No exaggeration. When
Speaker 2: I was attending Arnold Elementary and Calimeher Middle School in
Speaker 2: South Torrens High School in the early nineteen seventies and
Speaker 2: into the eighties, the only thing I was ever formally
Speaker 2: taught having to do with African Americans was slavery and
Speaker 2: George Washington Carver.
Speaker 3: That's it. That's it. No exaggeration.
Speaker 2: Oh I forgot and doubled down with Huckleberry Finn and
Speaker 2: of mice and men. Not exactly flattering portrayals, as if
Speaker 2: that was the only thing connecting us with American history.
Speaker 2: And that couldn't be further from the truth. Not even
Speaker 2: taught about doctor Martin Luther King Junior. And this was
Speaker 2: even during the fight to make his birthday a holiday.
Speaker 2: No mention of doctor King. What's your point, Moe, Well,
Speaker 2: here's my point today. As I said, is February twenty
Speaker 2: eighth the last day of quote unquote Black History Month,
Speaker 2: and for some folks is still in twenty twenty five
Speaker 2: a controversial idea, some people even call it racist. Oh
Speaker 2: my goodness, and I'm here to tell you you have
Speaker 2: been participating in Black History Month basically all year long,
Speaker 2: and you're none the worse for it. You may not
Speaker 2: have realized it, but all of you, including Mark Ronner,
Speaker 2: including Stephan what yes, oh, all of you you listening
Speaker 2: in your car right now, you in the gym with
Speaker 2: your earbuds are you've been participating the fact that you
Speaker 2: know anything about doctor King today and can mention that
Speaker 2: one line from that one speech of his, that's a
Speaker 2: direct result of Black History Month. It just crossed over
Speaker 2: into the mainstream. I bet you didn't know that. I'm
Speaker 2: here to tell you. And it's not like the country
Speaker 2: is worse off for learning about doctor King. You use
Speaker 2: that quote today out of context, usually incorrectly, but you
Speaker 2: use that quote today, and you know about that quote today?
Speaker 2: Why Black History Month? And you probably never even made
Speaker 2: the connection. It was Black History Month which made him
Speaker 2: a historical figure who is now taught in schools. If
Speaker 2: I went back to Arnold Elam or Caliban Middle School,
Speaker 2: South Towarrents High School, they'll talk about doctor King, They'll
Speaker 2: learn about doctor King.
Speaker 3: There's a connection. We're not worse off today because of that.
Speaker 2: The fact that you know anything about Jackie Robinson, same
Speaker 2: thing just crossed over into the mainstream. And now all
Speaker 2: of Major League Baseball celebrates him every single year and
Speaker 2: his number has been immortalized in the sport and the
Speaker 2: Dodgers start their season very soon. Guess what, you can
Speaker 2: thank Black History Months for that. And you know also
Speaker 2: what America didn't fall into the ocean and sink. If
Speaker 2: you know anything about Jackie Robinson, there's a connection. And
Speaker 2: it's for me at least. And this is just my
Speaker 2: one guy's opinion. It's never bad to learn more American history,
Speaker 2: even if it can be uncomfortable at times. And in fact,
Speaker 2: that's why I love this country. I hope you're hearing me.
Speaker 2: I love this country because when you learn all of
Speaker 2: its history, including the part with all the warts, you
Speaker 2: can see what a mighty long way we've come as
Speaker 2: a nation.
Speaker 3: Think of it this way.
Speaker 2: Think about learning the story of World War Two and
Speaker 2: the majesty of d Day, but leaving out Pearl Harbor. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it changes the story. All of it matters, and all
Speaker 2: of it made America stronger. Believe that part. And I
Speaker 2: don't explicitly talk about Black History Month because I don't
Speaker 2: segregate it unintended in my mind. But you get a
Speaker 2: steady diet all the time and you don't even know
Speaker 2: it all year long, and you didn't die from it either.
Speaker 2: When I gave you the history of ROBERTA. Flack, remember
Speaker 2: that at the beginning of the week and her time
Speaker 2: at HBCU Howard university with my parents. That right there,
Speaker 2: That right there when I talked about the anti ice
Speaker 2: marches and economic blackout happening today that I'm not participating in,
Speaker 2: and I compare contrasted it to the civil rights movement.
Speaker 2: That right there when I shared the story of astronaut
Speaker 2: Ronald McNair his contributions and the challenger. That right there,
Speaker 2: when I told you about a Philip Randolph and FDR.
Speaker 3: That right there.
Speaker 2: It's not black history, it's just good old American history,
Speaker 2: and I submit that we're all better for it.
Speaker 3: You might have even learned something.
Speaker 2: Nobody's face melted, nobody's not one person's face. And you
Speaker 2: might have also noticed that during quote unquote Black History
Speaker 2: Month or African American History Month, I don't much quibble
Speaker 2: about the title. You may have noticed that a common
Speaker 2: theme is acknowledging the first person to do this or
Speaker 2: the first person to become that. I know it just
Speaker 2: drives you up a wall. You're annoyed by it, and
Speaker 2: I know a lot of folks are tired of hearing it.
Speaker 2: But if I could let me offer a different perspective
Speaker 2: each time you may hear something like I don't know,
Speaker 2: Colin Powell, the first African American Secretary of State.
Speaker 3: Let's use that for example.
Speaker 2: It's for me at least, another public acknowledgment of how
Speaker 2: much this country has grown, how far this country has come,
Speaker 2: another door which has opened, and room in which we
Speaker 2: all can walk into, one once upon a time which
Speaker 2: was unavailable. I tend to think of it as a
Speaker 2: very public acknowledgment of how great America is presently. How
Speaker 2: As the late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan said that America can
Speaker 2: be as good as her promise, a lot of people
Speaker 2: talk about making America great again, won't call any names,
Speaker 2: but want to pick and choose what and who are
Speaker 2: considered great. I'm just saying, include all of it and
Speaker 2: include everyone. For me, each time I hear about another first,
Speaker 2: I celebrate and I make no apologies for that. It
Speaker 2: makes me love this country even more because it's something
Speaker 2: probably my grandparents never lived to see. I attended Georgetown University,
Speaker 2: a school that my parents couldn't imagine attending. It didn't
Speaker 2: even have its first black student until nineteen fifty. I
Speaker 2: was one of the first black males in the Torrents
Speaker 2: Unified School District back in nineteen seventy three. I was
Speaker 2: called the N word the first day of kindergarten. I'll
Speaker 2: never forget it. I was the only black male in
Speaker 2: my high school graduating class. And today it's no big deal.
Speaker 2: And I think about that and I'm proud. I remember
Speaker 2: when my parents weren't allowed to buy a house in
Speaker 2: Torrance back then. I remember how Torrance as a sundown
Speaker 2: town that it looked that up do not sell to
Speaker 2: black's racial covenant back then. And it's okay to celebrate
Speaker 2: growth and inclusion. It's okay to acknowledge that things are
Speaker 2: much better now. And as I celebrate that and the
Speaker 2: growth of America, America continues to grow. Black History Month
Speaker 2: for me, quote unquote, is a way of reminding all
Speaker 2: of us, not just you, but me as well, how
Speaker 2: much we've grown in a very positive way, learned about
Speaker 2: its struggles, so celebrate its successes. And if you learn
Speaker 2: anything from me beyond what you were taught in high
Speaker 2: school about these subjects, sorry, I'm here to tell you. You
Speaker 2: can thank Black History Month, and no, you didn't melt
Speaker 2: in the process. Imagine that America is the greatest country
Speaker 2: on the face of the earth, not just because it
Speaker 2: exists not because of the Constitution, but because it has
Speaker 2: overcome every obstacle which has come its way. I don't
Speaker 2: call it Black History Month because for me, it's just
Speaker 2: American history, and American history is alimited to twenty eight
Speaker 2: days of the year.
Speaker 3: But hell, what do I know.
Speaker 2: I'm just the first African American to ever host a
Speaker 2: weekday talk show on KFI since its inception in nineteen
Speaker 2: twenty two. Only took one century for it to happen.
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Speaker 1: You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty