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Only One Mic Podcast
Carl Jerard, Brooklyn Dre, and JRob welcome you to The Only One Mic Podcast. We are joined each week by authors, activists, advocates, community leaders, and professionals from several walks of life who would like to offer their experience, expertise, or commentary on the various topics you will be interested in learning.
Only One Mic Podcast
How Can We Reclaim Black Narratives?
What does media that genuinely loves and cares for Black people look like? Diamond Hardiman and Courtney Morrison join us to introduce a powerful exhibition coming to Los Angeles on May 2nd. This exhibition, part of Media 2070's Black Future Newsstand initiative, features over 70 interviews with LA residents who experienced the 2020 uprisings following George Floyd's murder. These stories, collected in partnership with USC's Charlotta Bass Journalism and Justice Lab, create a rich tapestry of lived experiences that challenge oversimplification and erasure.
learn more about the Black Future News Stand, Free Press, and Media 2070 by clicking the links below.
https://blackfuturenewsstand.com/
Brothers and sisters.
Speaker 2:Give me a moment with you, friend. I've never been up to my thoughts before.
Speaker 3:Welcome to the only one-night podcast called Gerard and Brooklyn Drake, joined by our special guest sisters Diamond Hardiman of Media 27 and Courtney Morrison of Free Press, here to discuss the Riot to Repair Soundscape exhibition presented by Media 27's Black Future Newsstand. How you doing, ladies? Doing well, all right, okay, doing good.
Speaker 4:Happy Doing well. All right, okay, doing good. Happy to be here.
Speaker 3:All right, that's good. So listen, before we get into it. We're going to talk about the Riot to Repair Soundscape exhibition. We want you to introduce yourselves to our audience. We want to start with you, diamond, you know. Let them know what your background is. We're working with Media 2070. I have all your information. Like I tell people all the time, I have your information right here. I can read your jacket right here. But I want you to be able to tell your story to our audience, and then we'll jump into Courtney's story, and then we'll jump into what we're here for, which is Riot to Repair.
Speaker 4:So go ahead, diamond tell us who you are? Thank you so much. That's a great opening question. My name is Diamond Hardiman pronouns are she hers?
Speaker 4:I am the Director of Repairative Narrative and Creative Strategy with Media 2070. And so what that means is that I work in the world of art and culture to build narrative strategies to transform society. So how do we use our video, visual production like film, and these installations like the one that we're talking about today, to talk about the problems in the world and what's going on around us and then to imagine new futures? So that's what I do with Media 2070 is thinking about how can we imagine the world on the other side of 2070, on the other side of media reparation?
Speaker 4:My background is in organizing, so I used to do housing organizing, abolition organizing, and what I found is that story and media is kind of the central line between a lot of those things. It connects to the people we're organizing with and what they believe is possible. It connects to us as organizers and what's possible in the policy space, because the stories that we tell and the media that gets told about the things that we're doing kind of sets the ceiling for what's possible. So that's where I'm coming from and that's what I try to incorporate into my work.
Speaker 3:And speaking of your work, you advocated for the elimination of cash bail in St Louis, and I know this is not the topic. However, I was like, once you got on here, I had to discuss that with you, you know, and ask you a question what was that like, working in that particular space?
Speaker 4:And was there any turnaround in it? Did you see any changes for cash reform, cash bail reform? Yes, that was a minute ago in my past life, in like 2018. So don't quote me on the specifics, but that was one of those first places where I saw this three pronged strategy of narrative. And so the place I worked at was the Bail Project. They're like a national org that has different setups in each city and we bail people out, we put up funds and then we give them resources in the city for folks that have just got out.
Speaker 4:And then we worked with this place called Arch City Defenders, which is a legal org to kind of get through the legal processes of you know why is there cash bail in the first place? Because, especially in St Louis, in St Louis, a lot of people are locked up for parking tickets because of the way that their parking ticket system works, the way that their registration works for cars. A lot of people are getting warrants for their arrest just because they can't pay their registration fees for their cars. And then they're getting locked up in this place called the workhouse for 60, 90, 120 days, and the conditions in there are terrible. They're horrible no air conditioning, just violations of everybody's rights, and so we were kind of attacking all of those things the jail, getting people out of it immediately, but also this longer term strategy. And that was definitely really interesting in terms of seeing the disconnects between the different institutions in the city, how we were kind of having to hold that like why isn't this org about jobs talking to this org about housing? But it was nice that people were were holding that and creating those webs for people.
Speaker 4:As of today, the workhouse, I think, is actually on schedule for demolition and so the organizers which was Action St Louis is like the organizer behind it they did a lot of work over a lot of years to, you know, lift up the kind of abuses that were going on in there, to talk about the ways that how, if you're in jail just for 30 days, how you can lose your job, how you can get evicted, how that messes up things in your life, especially as black women with children, the kind of effects it was having on mothers, on mothers.
Speaker 4:So it was definitely a learning curve that was when I was a young organizer to see all those things. But that jail is getting closed. I can't speak for cash bail. I know that there has been some reform in cash bail, but I know even in forum conversations I had when I lived in Chicago for a minute in Illinois recently had like a cash bail campaign go on and the media jumped on it Like corporate media jumped on it with this misinformation about what it means to bail people out and you know why people even get put in jail in the first place.
Speaker 2:There's been a couple of states that's been trying to reform that whole situation. Have you heard any state that actually able to approve no cash bail? I think I thought I heard something like that One of those states that actually have pulled it off where they don't have cash bail.
Speaker 4:I think it might have gone through in Illinois. Don't quote me I might be wrong, but I think it might have went through Illinois and the efforts that we did in St Louis, I think those did go through. And the efforts that we did in St Louis, I think those did go through. But then what ended up happening is the judges kind of did a backdoor thing. So whatever we had set as a policy legally whether it was like this amount or this type of offense you could get bailed out or you couldn't require cash bail. Then the judges kind of went around it and just started assigning stuff to everybody so that they couldn't take access or take control of that. But I'm sure there are examples of them. I just don't know. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:I can recall that happening in Chicago. Folks were pushing for it, especially around 2020. More organizing happening around that time, so I can recall a movement towards pushing for the end of cash bail, and I believe we were successful on some level. I don't know if it was statewide, though, but Chicago has definitely seen movement towards that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think even Delaware was doing something simple, like I don't think they was putting you in jail for traffic offenses Well, they were, but I think it was like a weekend, like they had you on like a weekend warrior schedule, like you would work a a regular weekend. Then you had to sign in the jail on the weekend or something like that, you know, for tickets, parking tickets and different things like that. I think that was the case and definitely I know it was for like drink drive, drunk driving or any kind of offense like that, you know, whereas you didn't hurt somebody, or something like that, yeah, like bailing out murderers and releasing back into society and some people should be in jail oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm an advocate of that Totally with that Destroying the community.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know you're a threat to the community, definitely. All right, and so, courtney, now on to you. Okay, and can you tell us about your work with Free Press?
Speaker 1:Again, I have your jacket up here, but I want you to speak to our audience and let us know. Yeah, of course. So, yeah, my name is Courtney Morrison, pronoun she. They and I work for Free Press, an organization that advocates for better policies around media and technology, and with them I do creative content work. So I'm strategizing around all the creative for everything that goes out, because largely our communications are digital. So working with different teams to bring projects and campaigns to life, one of those being Media 2070, working with them to produce the Black Future newsstand and all the materials that go with it. My background lies in filmmaking and photography and I found my way into marketing just by way of necessity, being a freelancer and just having to wear multiple hats, and so, along the way, I've really developed a, I'd say, value around centering Black, queer and trans voices in everything that I do, whether it's an experimental documentary or a photo series or something like an exhibit. So that's the practice that I bring to this work.
Speaker 3:All right, ok, so now we're going to jump into the Black Futures Newsstand Riot to Repair Soundscape exhibition, and that's going to be on May 2nd of this year, 2025, in Los Angeles, california. Can you touch on what the exhibit is? How did it come about, like the origins of it, and what was the? What is the hope of the exhibition when presented to the public?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I can jump in first and give a little background. So Black Future Newsstand is a concept that Media 2070 premiered a couple years ago in Harlem, where we built a life-size newsstand and filled it with Black media Black zines, black magazines and Black newspapers with this question of what does a media that loves and cares for Black people actually feel like? And so we built this structure so that people could step into it. And so, since Harlem, we've been to Austin, we've been to Chicago and now we're going to LA and we're doing a different rendition of it, where we're still centering around how do you step into this future where media reparations exist, where Black people are able to control their stories all the way from ideation through the creation of it and all the way out into distribution?
Speaker 4:And so this is just a play on that history of Black future newsstand, and what's special about this one is that we have the Right to Repair Community Archive, and so we work with Charlotta Bass, journalism and Justice Lab at USC and Dr Alyssa Richardson to create an archive of over 70 interviews of folks from LA about their experiences of 2020 and what it was like being present during the uprisings and after the death of George Floyd. And so what we did is we merged these worlds of what is a media that holds our stories well look like, and we took that into practice with those students and let them tell those stories with those people. And in LA, what we're going to be doing is exhibiting them in a multimedia exhibit for people to touch, see, hear all the things, a full sensory experience of what we believe is possible and inevitable for us.
Speaker 3:Hearing you describe it is kind of and I know it's two different categories, but it's kind of likened to how the 9-11 museum was in New York, into how the the um, the 9-11 museum was in new york and the way that that was immersive and more where you can go to. This is just why I'm visioning it in my head. You can go to a section where you hear people talk about their experiences during that particular thing. It was like individual experiences also, um, things that were displayed that happened during that time, like you might see a person's wallet or something. I mean, it's not the same exact thing, but the way that I'm envisioning it is like having somebody sitting in front of that camera and telling their story, or maybe having something that was a representation of what happened on that particular day, whether it be a sign or something like that. But that's just the way I was envisioning it. And, courtney, what can you speak to this? What do you? Can you explain to the audience about this exhibit?
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I was going to say I can help you envision it even further because we took a lot of time to really adapt how people would move through the space, which was really exciting for me because we have all these different interviews that Diamond has taken the time to digest and make sense of, to then identify themes for the exhibit. But as you're moving through it, we wanted people to feel like it's something like tactile and it feels like something that people can relate to. We wanted to take people to a place ultimately in this exhibit, and where we're taking people is a grandmother's living room.
Speaker 1:Everybody knows that feeling of like going to grandma's house, sitting on the couch, eating some food and having a good conversation with your family, cackling, you know, sharing stories. Like creating that nostalgic feeling of warmth but also tension too. Like hard conversations come up. Who knows what's on the TV at the time, whether it's a news station giving a report on something that now we're all reacting to.
Speaker 1:Whatever comes of that being in the space is kind of what we wanted to recreate and give people an intimate experience as they're navigating it, because one we can all relate to being in a grandmother's living room or a family living room. But then the other element is listening to the interviews as you're navigating the space, which we aim to do with headphones. So it'll be like a silent disco experience where you have your headphones on and you can switch channels to hear, oh now I'm listening to this on this topic, or now I'm listening to a soundscape, to have people kind of have like a choose your own adventure experience. So yeah, that's kind of how we want people to move through it.
Speaker 2:What are you interested? Well, I want to know what you ladies think about, like the current state of Black media or urban media. I mean, which term do you even like? Do you of black media or urban media? I mean, which term do you even like? Do you like black media or urban media? Which term do you prefer?
Speaker 4:I like black media, capital B black media, because I know urban media is the one that most people use, you know.
Speaker 2:So I was just wondering and what do you think? What are your ideas on the state of what's going on right now?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I can speak to that a little bit and then, courtney, you can jump in if you feel so. I actually wasn't trained as a journalist. So, like I said, I come from organizing and then I'm an artist, so I'm a storyteller in that way. But being in this field and talking with journalists and building relationships and coalitions with them, it is definitely precarious.
Speaker 4:Time is what I would say, particularly when we think about funding. But what we say at Media 2070 is the way that they set up the media system has always made it precarious for us. The way that they have funded us since the beginning, the way that they have divested from our knowledge, from the impact the cultural and social impact that our newspapers have had, from the straight up theft, or the ways that, like we even have examples in the media 2070 essay of them burning down Black newspapers. So, even though that this is a very precarious time where you know journalists are being threatened for telling the truth, black journalists, black people, black communities have tools to know how to move through this time, because we've done it before and we have understood what it means to work in community with one another and to have newspapers and press and media that's actually grounded and rooted and then supported by the people around it, so that it isn't as subject to the whims of the government and thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, totally 100% to what Diamond's saying. Everybody's talking about the death of journalism, and it may be true, and I think there is a public media crisis happening and folks can read all about it through free press, and I think in this moment there's an opportunity to change the media landscape, to finally center Black voices Going to look at the media system and say that there's a problem and it's failing. The solution should be in who has been left behind and left out the whole time, like that's where we start. So I do see this as an opportunity to rebuild from a place where we're listening to Black, brown, indigenous voices first and laying a framework from there, because owning our narrative will always be relevant, like in all of history. Owning our narrative as Black people and changing the landscape to center us will always be relevant, and so we're always going to have to push for the need for resources to tell our own stories so that we're not waiting or letting someone else do that for us, right.
Speaker 3:And I'm glad that you mentioned that, because even the way that this exhibit is you know you're describing this exhibit when we watched the uprisings in 2020 and we seen that I mean from us, from our perspective as African Americans, and all we've seen the reasoning for it, the reasoning why it was done. If you kind of probably go across town and you look at it from a white person's perspective, it's just like, oh, these guys are just destroying their own neighborhoods and all of that. And it's good with that exhibit that you give people the opportunity to tell that story, to just not have us all be looked at as you know, for lack of better terms savages. That's just looking for a reason to burn something down. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:And this is kind of like, even where you see the current administration and the way that things are handled with different, with people of different cultures. You know I always say that train is not always going to come back to us eventually, you know. I mean. So, um, how can we like going forward, like even if you say urban media youtube is a big space, a lot of people out here, they, you know their boots on the ground with these type of situations like. So how would I mean, how can we do this without putting ourselves in a negative light? If you get what I'm saying like, how can, how can the average person get in here and do their boots on the ground journalism without showing all the negative aspects and kind of putting that up front? You know what, what? What would you suggest in this space?
Speaker 4:that's a great question. I'm gonna um do a plug here because we did a reparative journalism discussion guide. So courtney and I worked on a with our other co-worker chain. We did a three-part video series of reparative journalism and it kind of looks at it at these different levels of what is it at a structural level? But then what does it also just look like from an everyday black journalist to practice it? And in that discussion guide we have activities and questions that get at what does it look like for an everyday person to do that? So I have a few answers rattled around in my head, but I think the one that's coming up for me right now is giving context in my head. But I think the one that's coming up for me right now is giving context.
Speaker 4:Like you said when certain news media was discussing what was happening in 2020 or in 2016 or in 2012,. They're not telling the whole story. They're not telling the arc, the root of where these problems come from. So, as everyday people, when we're going to look to tell stories, let's make sure that we understand the arc that it plays within. Where is the context? What happened before you got to this story? What may happen after you leave this story and then for me, something about reparative journalism is also always just honoring being a storyteller, like it is very valuable for somebody to sit with you and talk with you and give you a story.
Speaker 4:And so how do we act as caretakers of that and how do we act as stewards of that? And I think you know we call it in the space, we call it citizen journalism, where, like, the everyday person takes journalism tools and puts them into community, takes journalism tools and puts them into community. And now that we have, like you say, youtube, we have iPhones, we have TikTok, a lot of people are doing acts of journalism and we talk about that within the exhibit and Dr Alyssa Richardson also has a book about that called Bearing Witness While Black, and just thinking about the ways that, how Black people sit with one another, how Black people are in community and can continue to build community with one another, is how we do that journalism that's preparative and healing.
Speaker 2:Are we taking more like a worldview or is it more like going to be like an African-American thing? What do you focus on? The reason why I ask that is because recently I was turned on this African diaspora news and I think I kind of liked it because it was like not just focusing on issues that we have here in America, it was focusing on issues abroad. So I was just wondering what you guys take on that.
Speaker 4:Courtney, you want to hop in or you want me to hop in?
Speaker 1:I think you can speak to the video series. Well, I was thinking about the second video. Were we on the same page there?
Speaker 4:You had a better idea than me, I don't know. But now I want to hear about the second video.
Speaker 3:Yeah, let's go ahead.
Speaker 4:Tell them, Courtney.
Speaker 1:Tell them. The second video highlights a few different reparations movements across the country Land Back reparations in South Africa and the Truth Commissions process that they went through. Land back reparations in South Africa and the truth commissions process that they went through. And reparations in the US for Black folks. And in doing that work we're showing folks how other people have approached reparations, to give us the tools to think about how we would go about that in the media landscape. And that's one way I'd say that we're reaching broader um to draw the line between, like what's happening here locally connects to across the world movements that are happening okay.
Speaker 3:So what I also wanted to ask was we can have like over 70 some was it 70 narratives for, um, this particular project that you did, and and if you could tell, if you can pull this back out your mental Rolodex, was there one particular story or maybe two particular stories that might've stood out from the 70 that you did? That says like wow, I did not know this.
Speaker 4:Yeah, today was a great day to ask me that, because I was in them today trying to put together a run, a show.
Speaker 4:There's this one by a 17 year old, tiana, that really speaks to me and she's talking about how she got her voice because of this movement. Because of this movement, she was leading a protest and the police paid a lot of attention to her because she was a young Black girl, versus when everybody else was grabbing the mic, and so when she went up and grabbed the mic, she kind of felt the full force of all the police turn their directions towards her and she was just really talking about you know, and their directions towards her, and she was just really talking about, you know, being 17,. Little thing, I'm not a threat, but y'all clearly see me as one. So how do I understand my own power in that way and even being able to take up space, and how much power my voice has, and so I really liked hers because she talked about 2020 inciting her ability to speak, and I just really liked hers because she talked about 2020 inciting her ability to speak and I just really think about that on a lot of levels, including a spiritual and artistic one, so that was definitely my favorite.
Speaker 4:I might have to come back to you on the second one, because I got lost Just off of that one.
Speaker 3:It makes me think where she is now. From 2020 to now, like, what type of work or commitment is she putting into the movement, you know, after finding her voice?
Speaker 4:She started her own youth organization actually. So, yes, she founded, I think, maybe a nonprofit, maybe an LLC. That's Youth Media Advocates for Change and she works with young people to organize, build solidarity and probably to tap into what she found in that moment. But hers is one of the ones that we have featured at the exhibit, because we have 70, but we're only doing a preview of a few of them and that's one of the ones that we're previewing with folks okay, and, courtney, did you have an opportunity to listen to any any of the uh narratives from this exhibit?
Speaker 1:not in depth, not yet okay.
Speaker 3:so let me flip this on you, ladies. Okay, um, if you were in this exhibit and I mean some of you could have been a part of these things in different areas that was not Los Angeles, but what would your narrative be If you had, even if you could imagine yourself there or when you saw it, what would your narrative be If someone asked you to explain your part during those particular uprisings?
Speaker 1:I'm about to put on some jeopardy. Yeah, I mean, I know you had to think about it for a minute.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm thinking like even if from a person who why, you know, I'm watching it on television because the funny part is, when the uprisings in Philadelphia and Delaware were happening, we looking at people looting stores. You know what I mean and my thought was actually why are we doing this? This is not the mission. If you, if you out there and your boots on the ground, what could I have done to kind of make, kind of put it on the forefront, to say this is why I'm here, not for, not for that, not for tearing up anything, not for getting any trinkets or goods. I'm here to make a statement. What would that statement be? This is my thought. I'll put it back to y'all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the first word that came to mind was activation. That was a moment for intense activation. I had just graduated college in 2018 and I was working, and then everything happened in 2020, shut down wasn't working as much because I was mostly freelancing, and once I had that time and space, it was just an intense period of educating myself, because you learn a bunch and I had learned a bunch in college. But what was happening in real time was something new, for me at least, which was seeing more mutual aid pop up and solidarity that I had never really experienced from an organizing perspective, and it came with struggle, I would say. I was in Chicago, living in Pilsen, which is a predominantly Mexican neighborhood, and around the time that folks were looting, folks in Pilsen took it upon themselves to defend, in air quotes, their Black by targeting Black people. And that was a moment where I'm like, wow, okay, like what we thought came and left in the 90s is still here and is sort of like dormant until it's activated again, and so what do we do with that? And what I saw happen was mutual aid and solidarity. Like brown people, who are not about that Sorry, I cursed, not about that Stepped in and created solidarity networks to say, hey, if you need to walk to the grocery store, we're going to escort you. In fact, we'll actually just drop off your groceries. What do you need? And like watching the neighborhood, like, hey, don't go down the street or that street. So, in the ways that we like come back to one another.
Speaker 1:I was reminded of that, I'd say, in 2020. And I think that speaks to my voice and my values. And it also reminded me like people will get what they need. You mentioned looting and we don't have to go into it, but I certainly took that moment to understand that people will get what they need and I can't shame them for that. And we can refocus the movement to say, hey, let's get in the streets and let's align on our values. But ultimately, people will do what they want and get what they need. And it speaks to the fractures in our society to me, more so than like individual wrongdoing, and that's my personal perspective.
Speaker 2:In New York City when I seen, like you know, watching that movement on television and I thought the wonderful part about that movement is that, you know, in New York City, because I guess it's so multicultural it's the first time I've ever seen like white people and Black people hand in hand marching and being real serious. I don't know how to you know the rest of the country might've been a little bit off, in different areas, but New York I thought it was a beautiful thing. I was like the first time we've seen the civil rights movement and you see sprinkles of white people and stuff like that. But this movement I saw I was like, wow, it's a lot of white people, a lot of Spanish people involved in this movement and I thought it was a good thing, it was a good feeling.
Speaker 4:My question is now what do you feel about this movement now? Like, what do you think about Black Lives Matter now? Yeah, I think that takes in to what I was going to answer in terms of 2020. Child, I had to remember where I was and what I was doing before I could answer that, but that was actually what I was writing in my notes just now. It's like as the curator of like the listening, so I had to go through and listen to all of them and pick which ones are going to be in the exhibit.
Speaker 4:You could kind of see the gap between 2020 and where we are now, and almost like a gap in hope, a gap in the promises that we made and what we thought was possible in 2020. Because in 2020, to me, I had been organizing for a little bit, so it was dope to see it on this larger scale. But it really felt like an opportunity. It felt like People were.
Speaker 4:We were getting rent, like holds on rent, people weren't getting evicted, we were getting stimulus checks from the government, like people were able to work from home and be able to have child care and things like that. So it seemed like OK, like let's grab this up and keep it moving into our future, future and then, like you said, the ways that we saw solidarity and people kind of start to begin to understand the world from a Black person's daily lived experience, versus now, where I think we've been scared into forgetting, like the promises we made to each other in 2020 and the promises we made like as a community, like, I think, fear has stepped in on purpose to kind of dismantle what we believe is possible and allow us to imagine those things. And that's what we hope to do with this exhibition, to be honest, is to transport, like Courtney said, people back to a place and back to a time where we thought that more was possible and available to us.
Speaker 2:So you're trying to pick that energy out? Yeah, start it all over again. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like make them reflect on what it was that you stood on the first, in the first instance, like right now, you know, with everything that's going on in the current political climate and we only in the first few months, god only knows where we go from there. But we should more now probably be on the same page. Everybody won't.
Speaker 2:I know you talked about fear, but do you think we kind of dropped the ball with the momentum or do you think it was, like you know, regular systemic racism falling back in place and putting things back to where you know the norm is?
Speaker 4:racism falling back in place and putting things back to where you know the norm. Is Y'all making me need to open up my books to prove that I've been studying child? I haven't, but I was actually talking with Tia, the senior director of Media 2070, about this. I think it's probably both and I think you know the systemic affects the individual and I think whenever we have these movements, we have to get to the root of things and the root of it is anti-Blackness. So, like we have to be honest about you know how all over the world, there are systems set up to like, hurt darker skin people and we call them different names, but it's anti-Blackness and I think that that's what makes us as individuals drop the ball, because we don't understand what it means to then show up and combat that. But then, at a systemic level, we were talking about this theory called white lash, where it's like every time Black folks get like these major accomplishments or what seem like they are in a front-facing scale, there's a huge, like this pendulum swings back the other direction to try and push us back to where we were and like that's.
Speaker 4:I sound like a walking ad for Media 2070, but Joseph Torres, the historian on our team talks about reparations in that context of reconstruction. And so right at the end of slavery, how reconstruction? We had all these political wins. We have Black folks getting land, we have Black folks leading towns and leading cities and the backlash to that was like black holes and Jim Crow and all these things. And so reparation is part of this unfinished promise of reconstruction. So I think at the end of the day, it's just too smart.
Speaker 2:That's pretty deep that you said that Cause, when I think about what you're talking about there and I'm like it seems like every time we take a this huge step forward, it seemed like it's a gut punch that brings us back. Because you know, like the night Obama got elected, everybody's like, oh yeah, wow, wow. You know. Then now we got Trump, you know I mean, and then now we get a female black vice president and you know we figured Joe's gonna be, you know, good democratic guy. I was out there one night and everybody was, because he was in delaware and they had their, their little party in delaware. So I was out there that night and I was just sitting there watching and everything like that. I was like, okay, this is nice. And then now the gut punch again and we got. It seems like it get worse. Every time, you know, we take a step forward.
Speaker 2:And I'm glad you mentioned that.
Speaker 3:It's going to get worse as we take the step forward. Right? So if you had to be the spearhead of this organization and say, all right, this is what we need to do to move forward and I know it's a broad question because, again, do we really know what we need to do to move forward? Do we really know what we need to do to move forward? Like, how would you present that to say, look, this is what we have to do, you know, to get our foot back up there before they knock it back down?
Speaker 4:I really get this from my coworker, venecia. We call her, like the pastor on our team because she's always giving sermons and she kind of reminds us of the not to get swayed by the ways of the world. Innocent, but if I was, if I was to tell the people anything, um, it would be to rely on what we know like to rely on what we know and who we know in the ways that we're talking about mutual aid, about you know giving to your neighbor when they're in need, about having these connections so that when these things do fall around us, we are already strong and we're already rooted and just believing that we know how to do that, so that we can move forward with our agenda and with our culture and with our knowledge, instead of having to play whatever game they're playing. We focus on our game and we do it well. That's what I would say.
Speaker 1:To add to that, what I've been hearing in a lot of different spaces and even within free press and media 2070 is just continuing to repeat the truth. Because what I was going to add to the white lash that you were talking about, diamond, what's coupled with it now is the misinformation ecosystem that we're in and the way that we're all inundated with it. On social media, particularly platforms like X, are just spewing it out, and so when you're inundated with that misinfo, it literally alters your ability to recall, like what's true, like your brain has to do more effort just to remember oh right, this is real, this isn't. And so the fact that we're all kind of working overload to even decipher the truth. It's our job as storytellers and as organizers and anyone with a platform to repeat the truth, name it and just commit to stating it in different ways, just so we remember it and fight the inundation of misinfo.
Speaker 3:Just to speak to your point, Courtney, truth is always kind of suffocated in the spaces of, like you know, X or even YouTube to some degree.
Speaker 2:It ain't even suffocated, it is no true X is crazy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that's what I was getting ready to get at is that you know you can put out information as good and anybody who you know knows this notice. I mean you guys, being in, you know journalism and all. You can put out something as informational, something that's truthful, something that might have someone think, but, however, it's suffocated by foolishness, because that's the one thing that's going to get it. You know the hits, the clicks, the views, the likes or whatever the case is, and the shares. Nobody's going to share good information. Unfortunately, this is where we are with it right now, you know. So I totally agree. Just keep pumping it out as best as you possibly can and you know it'll grab the people that it needs to grab.
Speaker 2:Let me ask you this question too. I mean because, you know, with Black Americans I'm going to throw it out here we have a lot of different African people we deal with. You know Caribbean, you know some of the African brothers. Maybe I might be wrong, but I feel like we don't really like be on top of our news like that, like I know that, like my african brothers and sisters, like they're deep into what's going on in their country. They're very, um, you know, informative about what's going on. They're very um, into what's going on. They're supporting what's going on. How do y'all feel about you know here, you know us as african-american people. How do y'all feel about us supporting uh, you know real news outlets, not like you know vlad tvs and you know real news outlets, not like you know black TVs and you know whatever other you know urban media that you want to say.
Speaker 4:That's a great question. I don't know how I feel about us on the whole. I have to think about it for a second. I know there's a couple of polls that I could pull from. That just came out about, like how black folks taking information, but I think I can speak to young people and then I might be able to speak to like the older generation too, um, but I know young people are on top of it from what I can tell, um, they just get their news in different places than we would expect, um, and we aren't necessarily accounting for that. Like we, as in the news and journalism industry. Like people will be talking bad about TikTok, but kids be knowing stuff because of TikTok. I be knowing stuff because of TikTok and like YouTube, and so I think that, like the younger population is more informed than ever about not only, maybe, what's going on locally but what's going on globally and like how what they do impacts people elsewhere, like there was a whole.
Speaker 4:It wasn't just Black folks in particular, but I remember when people are talking about what's going on in the Congo and we found out that iPhones were actually like being the things that would be in mind in the Congo were in iPhones, like all the youth were like I don't need a new iPhone, like I don't need a new MacBook and things like that.
Speaker 4:So I think the young people definitely have channels that allow them to access that information. And then when we talk about elderly people, I don't necessarily have an answer so hopefully Courtney does. But like we talk about the way that CNN be on repeat on their TVs or how the news be on 24 seven and that's kind of what we're getting out of the grandma's living room and like why we do this work, because sometimes it would be easier to just like seclude off. You're like we doing this over here, we building our own things, which is important, um, to breathe life into the people that are breathing life into our community. But at the same time, like we have grandmas that are watching cnn. So how do we make intervention so that that isn't harming them? Because my grandma be watching the news every day, so I know the older people being forced.
Speaker 4:I've been telling her to turn it off, please.
Speaker 1:I can't hear that so, but I don't know about everybody else in between, so maybe for me it could be yeah, I feel like my mom is on a fast track to being an elder like that, just sitting in front of the tv. Um, it's a really good question and I don't have a perfect answer, but I think the question itself speaks to the need for more media outlets that represent the diversity of what people look for, what black people look for, because, like, yeah, you may want a does do people want the CNN? I don't know, but what I'm saying you might want to the ratings.
Speaker 3:Do people want the CNN? I don't know, but what I'm saying you?
Speaker 1:might want to the ratings, right, like you may want something traditional, but you may want something more casual, like a Vlad and like they. We can get resources for that and tell better stories in those platforms. I don't think we need to together, right, I'll be like shifting how we talk about things within those media outlets.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's kind of important about what she just said, because I think I guess with the younger people, I guess they get the information in bits and pieces, Like they're not like sitting down watching. You know our news outlet, it's just like all right, well, we saw this little short, we got it, you know we're moving on, you know.
Speaker 3:So that's kind of deep yeah, and also like a lot of the international outlets too, a lot of people are not paying attention to, like the you know, the algeciras and things that, like you mentioned, african diaspora news and all these things are like touching, you know, topics that we don't even know that is happening here in the United States, like I was watching one particular story we talked about how the people are gone are the ones that feed the AI, are the ones that plug in the information for AI. But the you know, and I say to you, ladies, as well as the listeners, please go look up this documentary that Al Jazeera did and it showed that the conditions that they deal with is so horrible, you know, in terms of their mental health, because it's a computer, so when you feed in it the information, they'll say like, well, what's this a picture of? It's a picture of a cat, ok, all right. Well, what's this a picture of? A picture of a car? This is how you feed an AI. However, now you got a picture of a dead baby up there. What's this? Child pornography, what's this? And the company that employs these people don't give them the proper mental health that they need, because after you ingest all of this horrific stuff. Now you got to go home to your wife, your kids, your husband and all that horrific stuff. Now you got to go home to your, your wife, your kids, your husband and all that you know, and they say they're in a space where they can't even function mentally and they're not offered any services. The services that they're offered are go on, go on youtube and watch some cat videos.
Speaker 3:I kid you not, it was two service, two, two outlets that gave it, uh, 60 minutes, did a special on it as well as I would, just so I suggest that everybody go check that out. But it's stuff that you did not know, that this is where it was coming from and this is why international news is very important as well. Ladies, in our final minutes together, give us your final thoughts on this particular project. If you want to give out, I should say, more information in terms of where people can reach, you know you all, as well as the project that's going to be presented on May 2nd, you know, just promote this thing. Tell us. You know, tell us in the audience, like, what can we do to kind of help support the cause?
Speaker 4:Yeah, thank you so much. I had a great time. These were amazing questions. If you want to learn more about Media 2070 and Media Reparations, you can find us at mediareparationsorg. You'll be able to find me, the essay, all my colleagues, the discussion guide. Everything's going to be there. And then, if you want to learn more about the LA stop, you can go to blogfuturenewsstandcom. You'll be able to find that one and the past ones that we've done as well.
Speaker 3:Okay, and Courtney.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you want to learn more about Free Press, visit freepressnet or Free Press Action on all platforms. The Reparative Journalism video series is actually on the Free Press YouTube channel, so please, please, watch that if you haven't. And thank you so much, okay.
Speaker 3:And, again, we could stretch this conversation as long as we could possibly stretch it, but you know time is time. So again, I want to thank you, diamond, as well as Courtney, really enjoyed the conversation, really enjoyed the conversation, and you know the platform is open anytime you guys have something you want to report. We really appreciate you both. All right, so now we're going to give our little pertinence. All right, all right Again, thank you, ladies.
Speaker 3:Thank you, and the Only One Mike podcast is available on all major platforms. You stream your podcasts on. Also, check out our Only One Mike podcast YouTube channel and you can watch our past episodes, current episodes. Don't forget to hit the like button, subscribe to the show, share it. Also, you can check us out on Instagram and X. That's cesspool. We call X at the Only One Mike P1. Facebook and LinkedIn at the Only One Mike Podcast. You can also contact us via email at theonlyonemike00 at gmailcom or call us at 302-367-7219 to have your comments and questions played on the show. We thank you once again, ladies, for your time and, as always, we encourage you to speak the truth quietly and clearly and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant, because they too have their story to tell. So until next time, please keep in mind, if you never had to run from the Ku Klux Klan, then you shouldn't have to run from a black man. Peace.