Why Africatown Matters | Black Programs Changing the Future - Malakai Kaine

What happens when neighborhoods that once thrived as centers of Black culture are systematically dismantled? In this thought-provoking conversation, Ron Brown welcomes Malachi Kane to explore the transformation of our communities and chart a path forward.

Kane offers a refreshingly balanced perspective on neighborhood change. While acknowledging the devastating impacts of drugs, violence, over-policing, and gentrification, he celebrates an overlooked truth: "We held on where others could not." This recognition of resilience provides a crucial counterweight to narratives focused solely on decline. As cultural landmarks disappear and familiar faces are displaced, the conversation examines how communities maintain their identity when physical spaces are lost.

The discussion ventures beyond local concerns to examine global connections, particularly regarding intentional engagement with Africa. Kane cautions against "nigga safari" tourism, instead advocating for purposeful business relationships and cultural exchange. His candid advice for travelers reveals common pitfalls while offering practical guidance for meaningful connections across the diaspora.

At the heart of community survival lies housing stability. Kane identifies this as the foundation upon which all other progress depends, noting that African Americans represent 77% of homelessness applications nationwide. The conversation shifts from problems to solutions, highlighting Seattle's Centralized Diversion Fund, which has distributed over $10 million for housing support.

What emerges is a comprehensive vision for community preservation that combines practical housing initiatives with digital sovereignty and global connection. Kane challenges listeners to look beyond outdated models and embrace collective action: "We need to come to the table, meet, and create the unified front."

Ready to be part of the solution? Visit AfricaTownInternational.org to learn how you can contribute to community-led housing initiatives and join the movement to build livable Black communities for generations to come.

Chapters

• 0:00 Episode Introduction
• 2:06 Changes to Our Neighborhoods
• 5:29 Holding Ground Against All Odds
• 10:51 Immigration and Community Displacement
• 21:25 Building Global Black Connections
• 31:18 Visiting Africa with Purpose
• 41:21 Cultural Expression and Digital Ownership
• 51:34 Africa Town and Housing Solutions
• 1:01:27 Creating Sustainable Community Development

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

All right, what's going on? Everybody, it's Ron Brown, lmt, the People's Fitness Professional, reporting for duty. Wait, is that how it goes? Ron Brown, lmt. People's Fitness Professional, aka Soul Brother number one, reporting for duty. All right, fitness professional, aka Soul Brother number one reporting for duty. On the check-in, we got Magnetic in the building. Malachi Kane in the building. Peace, peace to everybody, whoever's in the chat, whoever's going to come on to the chat later on. As you know, they probably expect it 7 pm and then we're about 10 minutes off. But it's all good, y'all catch you later. Thank you for coming out again, malachi Kane. Thank you, magmatic for bringing us brother on today.

Speaker 1: 0:56

We're going to pretty much. We're on TikTok. I'm hitting TikTok up pretty hard, y'all. Nyp Talk Show. I posted Malachi Kane's video. That's about 1527 on the views, People like that. You got a great response about Kansas City on that one. Yeah, the Kansas City mob and things like that. You got some comments on that. But let's go into the questions you know. First off, like I said, thank you for coming out. How are you feeling today, brother?

Speaker 3: 1:35

Thank you for having me. It's good to have a forum where we can come together without any foolishness and really get down to the straight talking business that impacts and affects us all and our future. So thank you.

Speaker 1: 1:49

You're welcome. You're welcome. So now I want to go into. We asked you what region and city you're from last week and the things that your city is best known for and how much of of your neighborhood remains today.

Speaker 3: 2:06

I want to talk about that um, the degradational process of the drugs and the violence, uh, the over policing, um, and the influx of, I won't say necessarily, immigrants, but but other populations coming in with a separate agenda, have pretty much, you know, really diluted and done away with the place. That I know, you know, as I think most of us can, can attest to from our own various areas, most of us can, can attest to from our, our own various areas, uh, so, uh, the area is, is, is degraded. There's some icons there that we all can call out to like we're all chiefs, fans and we're all this, and that you know the super bowl guys and you know where the barbecue people are there, you know, but it's just it doesn't have the same soul that it had before. You know, and that what I mean by that, it was coming from the people, by the people, for the people. Now it's coming from the people for the money. And I don't know if that makes sense, but that's a transition, a translation of our culture from for us to benefit us to, hey, man, whoever stepped to the thing first, we're going to serve them and you know, get them out of here, and money is green and we don't care about black in between and all of that. So that's the kind of the sentiment that that I see you know, not only there but everywhere. And you know, and I know it's a lot of negative talk a lot of times about our communities. I just want to say and send a shout out to everybody that's listening and that will listen we held on where no one else could.

Speaker 3: 4:04

We held on to these blocks, these schools, these neighborhoods, even if it's just by the pinky toe that we holding on and about to fall into the pot, the melting pot or whatever they want to call it this year. But we held on where others would not and could not, and that's obvious. You got people fleeing their own country, where they speak their own language, just to come here because they fell off and we have gone nowhere. You know, our, our school might have went somewhere. Our community center went somewhere. Our favorite nightclub or hangout spot went somewhere.

Speaker 3: 4:40

The park went somewhere. You know, even our house might have went somewhere. The park went somewhere. You know, even our house might have went somewhere. But we stayed and we remain to continue to fight and try to hold on to all we got. And so somebody got to shout that out. And so I just wanted to do that, man, for all of us in these metropolitan areas that have been assaulted since the 80s up until now, with everything from dope to police, to our own people, you know, gunning us down in the most ruthless of ways, to the racism, the inability to find housing, jobs, all of that. Somebody got to shout that out. Brothers and sisters that have held on, I commend to us.

Speaker 1: 5:20

Definitely Salute, salute. You know what I never thought of, that you gotta think of that.

Speaker 3: 5:29

I want you to think about it. Yeah, I don't want you to think about that. Everything we're doing is a failure when no silver lining on that dark cloud. But that's not the reality. We're still here. We're still here, as we're still here.

Speaker 1: 5:45

As an actual fact. So, you know, you basically spoke on, you know, the immigration issue and we were talking kind of talking about that. I think you were alluding to that before we got on the podcast. We were talking about New York, you know as far as like.

Speaker 3: 6:04

Yeah, as far as like definitely yeah, as far as like yeah, no, I was just saying man, I had, you know, I used to frequently uh visit uh the mosque in, uh, new york, you know, um, and and uh, you know, uh, all the way over to long island, bronx, everywhere, you know. And you know the whole vibe in the 90s was different, um, meaning, and again, there was a culture and a community that had been set up for us, by us, you know, and uh, one that we could involve ourselves in with, you know, no stipulations. You know, come as you are, you know, a welcoming, open arm community, and you know you did everything from shop, pray, eat, sleep, and you was at home. You was at home and it felt good, you know.

Speaker 3: 7:06

And now that feeling is gone and there's an urgency that has been put on everybody in these communities and that urgency is one of we're on limited time, we're not wanted, not wanted.

Speaker 3: 7:28

There's a force pushing and we don't feel strong enough to push back with enough strength to maintain our footing or our position, and that's a feeling, that it's an insecurity that we see now.

Speaker 3: 7:41

And you know, a lot of times we don't look at it like this and we've always been welcoming, our community has always been welcoming, whether the people were Jamaican or African or Hispanic or whatever.

Speaker 3: 7:53

You know, and on our last talk I was calling out to movies that were uh, mirrors or or uh calling out to our culture. Calling out to our culture, you know, look at the movie Breaking and B Street and Colors and all these other movies, you know, regardless if they were negative or positive, you always saw us in the mix, with a multi-ethnic facets and groups of people coming together to celebrate our culture and to push it forward. Okay, so that's always been our identity. Okay, we were never uh, uh exclusive, you know of, of other groups and people, but you know, as more and more came that were exclusive of us. You know, and we all hear that story about people getting on the boat or the plane or whatever to come here and getting a pep talk about don't mess with those African-Americans and you stay away from that community and don't get caught up with those guys.

Speaker 3: 8:52

They'll put you in trouble and this and this and that. You know, and in doing the work that I do, I have to testify that that is an actual reality coming from the State Department of the United States of America. It's not some fantasy or conspiracy or whatever. That is a reality. There are movies, there are PSA movies in multiple languages, detailing this to them how they will lose their citizenship, and this and that so you got this group coming in with already a negative aversion to mingling, communicating or working together. Okay, so we all seen the people that had the, you know, the gas face for us and we didn't really trip on it because it was always somebody else that wanted to come to the hood and hang out or come to the hood and contribute, or come to the hood and just watch. You know what I'm saying. So we never took much stake in it. But as time and the years and volumes of people went by on top of us, you know, it began to take an effect and now we're starting to see that effect.

Speaker 1: 10:12

And it's the time that we really need to speak up, stand up and, you know, maybe even act up. Man, oh man.

Speaker 3: 10:33

Why you put that in my head, why you did that to me, man, because what I'm talking to, what I'm speaking to, um, it's not hatred, it's not dislike, it's not anger, it's none of that, it's survival, right, and somebody has trained you myself and everybody else to downplay our own survival for someone else's. That is what is in style, that's what feels comfortable. You know, anytime we go into a space and we speak about our survival, we automatically have, you know, pressure on us oh, hold it down, wait a minute. What are you saying? You know, but when we speak to our survival and the fact that we are, to an extent, endangered you know, when we speak to that, and then the factors that are creating that danger, then we're saying something hostile or something unwanted, you know, and that's where we get the flack and the pushback. But the most important thing, I think, for everyone immigrant otherwise, because at one point in time you're going to realize we are one people and us as beta test subjects and models for the destruction of ethnic cultures and civilizations globally. Okay, I'm going to repeat destroy a people on us. First they have tested that out on us, perfected it, and now they are exporting that across the board to any and all ethnic groups and other people that are non-Anglo, non-white and non-supportive of the supremacy doctrine therein.

Speaker 3: 12:31

So when we look at that, you know we grew up I don't know about you, I grew up watching. You know friends go to school eating cereal with water. You know we go to school. Your parents go next door and get high. You know people come up to the school, have a shootout right after the school ends. We get on the bus and go home and see the junkies everywhere, get off the bus and go home and have to fight and walk through.

Speaker 3: 13:00

You know all kinds of different. You know situations and things, whether it was prostitutes fighting or police arresting someone, whatever it was just negative imagery was constantly compounded upon us. So we took that as that was the hood, that was the ghetto, that was just normal, ok. So now what they have done is created that normal, that normal thought process for everybody's children, ok, and it has just as it destabilized us and gave us a negative impression of our own place where we lived, and our own people. Now it's doing the same for others. We're starting to see gang violence, the drugs, the police presence and all the crazy mishaps going on in these other communities. But bear in mind, we were the test subjects for this and if there's a wider plan at play besides black, white, low income, upper income, this race, that race, it's a greater plan at play.

Speaker 1: 14:11

OK, so what's the root? What's the root of this? Like the root behind the displacement and the black mechanism what the uh single most important reality is.

Speaker 3: 14:33

Um, for us to build and I know that's a common terminology, but for us to build we have to have a foundation to start on. When we talk about social and community development, that is, a community which braced into our family and our house, okay, where do you stay at? You know, uh, I stay on. You know this block, that block, oh, okay, you right across from me or my grandmother? I know that whole place. I know the park by there, I know the this and that, okay.

Speaker 3: 14:59

So when I create housing instability for you, so when I create housing instability for you, create a normalcy around that, you having a housing instability, but your friends and the community and the people that you were relying on to support you in that community, then the community is at a stage of attack and decline. You know it cannot be founded without a foundation and so without the community, we cannot mobilize, you know, first, socially, just to get along. Secondarily, we can't mobilize any offense to that which is coming in invading and destabilizing the communities. So that's one aspect. Another aspect is I don't belong anywhere, I don't have a home, so I don't mind shooting the person next door to me or having some type of deadly altercation with the people across the street Because I don't know you, I ain't from here, my mama's not from here, she didn't grow up with your mama.

Speaker 3: 16:15

And when I was young, I had those situations where the people across the street they grew up with my father, they went to school with my father, just as I was going to school with their kids, and our grandparents moved in the neighborhood together or around the same time and had been friends. So these are people that I'm still cool with, the ones that are alive to this day. Okay, so when you remove those family ties and those community ties and that foundation to build on, you remove much more, and that is, as I said, the ability to create an offense and a defense against the forces that are trying to destroy, hinder and limit our involvement in the overall society all society, yeah, Check All right.

Speaker 1: 17:09

How do we find our people and direct them back to balance?

Speaker 3: 17:16

Well, it's always going to be a physical place and a coming together. And the Internet is good and we really have to take advantage of it while we can where we can come together. And the internet is good, um, and we really have to take advantage of it while we can where we could come together, uh and speak, and that's why I was so happy, you know and I thank you in the uh onset about the ability to come on and not talk with a bunch of uh rhetoric. It's just extensive and doesn't have any productivity in it. So we must use the internet while we can to meet, greet and come together with those of us who have something solid to talk about, who are trying to formulate plans of action and strengthen these communication lines. You know, a lot of times we're online, we see somebody that's productive, we shout them out, we even have a little conversation with them. Oh man, they canceled my TikTok account. I can't find such and such again. You know, or such and such disappeared Times that we need to be creating and networking the connections when we find somebody that is actually talking with some sense and clarity in a region. You know New York need to be wanting to connect with Los Angeles? Who wants to connect with Vegas? Who wants to connect with Kansas City and Chicago and Houston? And not on some drill music or some shoot them up stuff or some puff puff pass, but on some. How do we survive this next round? Where are y'all at? Where are we at? Okay, man, you need to travel over here. Come, I got you. You know what I'm saying. These are the type of relationships that we need to set up. That will be the foundation of the future.

Speaker 3: 19:05

Because we lost the block. You know, they gentrified it, they bought it out, they sold it out. You know I want to say, hey, man, we can come up on some bread and hit them back and destabilize and buy the block back up on some Greek raw stuff or whatever the guy's name is. But, um, how likely is that? You know, in in the time frame, that we have meaning, you know, if half your life is done, you know, and I, I I'm, you know, an optimist, so I, I plan, I want to live to 100. So half my life is over now, in that 50 years, can I create some plan where I amass enough money to go buy these other people out and move them out of my neighborhood and move, can network and create relationships with people worldwide who can come together and we can amass enough funds and formulate the designs and plans for our future outside of these neighborhoods, outside of these old communities that we come from, and create something new.

Speaker 3: 20:27

And I think that's what's in order and something that we all should be looking for, because, in reality, when I travel through Kansas City and I stop and I look at the blocks or the places and I, one second I rejoice oh man, this is where such and such and we used to go here and such and such used to be over there and we'd go there after school and get burgers and play video games, you know. And then I remember, oh yeah, and then such and such got shot over here, and then such and such got arrested over here and this is where such and such OD'd, you know, and I had a fight with this guy over here that I, you know that type of stuff. So let's escape the trauma, you know, on a larger scale, a national and international scale. Let's escape the trauma, rebuild, regroup and come back at them and let them have that, you know. Let them have that, you know.

Speaker 3: 21:26

Let them have that, because it wasn't anything other than our trauma that built it, sustained it and now locks us out so I think if we come and we build, rebuild from a healthy standpoint, um, and build it right, not from some forced move of poverty or redlining or or, uh, you know, some of the other destructive policies like low-income project housing and these type of things you know.

Speaker 2: 21:50

Science projects. Yeah, let's have high-end housing projects.

Speaker 3: 21:55

You know upward mobility housing projects, you know housing developments with scattered sites and homes that people can own and win out of in the future. So coming together, creating relationships and building new communities, new places, because it wasn't the block, it was us, it was our ideas, our dancing, our music, our thoughts, our science, our math that made it happen, not the numbers on the block. Go ahead, bro. Sorry to speak so long, it's okay um.

Speaker 1: 23:00

So what do you think about? Um, now, I know you're talking about in america. What are you thinking about? Uh, like in the Caribbean and making connections in the Caribbean and Africa? You know, just spread out.

Speaker 3: 23:15

So from here on over, OK, well, I think that the last group of people on Earth that need to limit themselves to a plot of land is us. You know, and I think everybody on the panel at some point in time got some boxing skills and some fighting skills. Let's just keep it like that flat out. And so we knew, and we know, that a moving target is hard to hit. We know that if we want to be real with ourselves, you know, and this is hard, okay, but let's be real with ourselves this is a survival mode and move that we've been put in. And, with that being said, we are fighting and we need to have different places, positions and other stances that we can take, because if we just stand there straight up in the ring flat footed, eventually we get knocked out and we ain't gonna wake up. So we need to capitalize on our ability, because no one else can do this, no one else can do this all over the earth.

Speaker 3: 24:47

Establish relationships can do this, and that is all over the earth. Establish community relationships and relationships based on money, not based on, you know, some material item or something, based on the fact of who we are. You know, and I said that last week and I'll say it again we are. You know, and I said that last week and I'll say it again we are respected and valued globally, and anyone that says differently has not either been there or is lying. Ok, we are respected globally. Now let me say this you got some people that break code and go over there, go to different places. Let's just use Africa as an example. You got people with horror stories and I listen to them, you know, and I just shake my head and I want to reach out. Hey, you did this wrong and it's like I don't get it, but back in the day, and even to this day, if you come to our neighborhood incorrect, you get dealt with in a way that's not favorable to you.

Speaker 1: 26:00

Real quick brother. Your Wi-Fi is a little off.

Speaker 3: 26:07

Okay, is it Robot voice? I apologize for that. Let me see if I can kill some apps and make it a little bit better. All right, how's that? Is it better now?

Speaker 1: 26:26

Yeah, as soon as whatever you started doing started to fix it.

Speaker 3: 26:32

OK, I just start killing apps. Ok, but I was saying that if you were to come in our neighborhoods incorrect, you know, on whatever you was on, you just want to hang out and party. You want to get something to party with or someone to party with, and you came in, correct you're going to get dealt with in a way that is not going to be favorable to that outcome. Can we agree on that? Oh, yeah, for sure, for sure. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3: 27:01

It's called act right, so right. They took my money, they took my car. I remember in the mac when dude sitting in the bathtub she ran off with everything it happens.

Speaker 3: 27:12

Okay. Now, listen, man, you got sisters going over to africa, like they on a girl's trip, okay, and they get over there and the first thing that comes up is she out of line, where's her man? Okay, you don't see them over here without a man. Basically, whether it's their father, their brother or their man, okay, it's our women that's traveling without the chaperone. And I know we got the liberated sister like, hey, I don't need no man to go with me and I drive in my car, I fly it on a plane, I got my own passport. Yes, I understand, but do you understand that that's not the culture over there? Okay, that the women are not unattended over there, however you look at that.

Speaker 3: 28:09

So you out of line as far as their culture goes. You know, you got men doing the same thing. So when you get over there and you have a negative experience, this is the reason why you come in incorrect. So we've got to firstly learn from experience, or someone who has experienced the culture of where we're going and what are we trying to do, you know, and when I take people over there, I tell them like this we got three different main venues that you're going to do Business, some type of spiritual reconnection. Some people want to go over there and have the dude lie to him in the tent with Kunta Kinte's loincloth and pray on it. Some people want to do that and listen to some bongos.

Speaker 2: 29:04

All right, we call that the nigga safari.

Speaker 3: 29:08

Exactly, do that and listen to some bongos. All right, we call that the nigga safari. Exactly, some people want to go over there on Fantasy Island Love Express.

Speaker 2: 29:16

Okay, a lot of people do yeah.

Speaker 3: 29:20

I'm going to find, you know, mandingo. Or I'm going to find, you know, the Black Panther woman, you know, and you know. It's a 50-50, if not less, ratio of success on that. If you go over there on business, though, everybody got to respect you. Everybody got to respect you because we're known here in America as business people. Okay, america is a commerce capital, so I'm not on some tricked out stuff or some whacked out weird stuff. I'm over here on business. Now, if those other things intersect with my journey, there's a greater chance I will will succeed at both of them, but if I go over there on the wrong thing, in the wrong manner, like I said, a favorable outcome may not be attained.

Speaker 3: 30:21

Okay, can you give me examples of that, because I myself I'm thinking about taking a trip to ghana next year okay, um, firstly I'll say this ghana is the un setup point for us to go to, meaning Ghana is their trap. Okay, and we are the trick. All right, ghana is their trap. There was a plan in the United Nations called the Wakanda Villages Okay, and they were to be scattered throughout Africa. Ok, and they were to be scattered throughout Africa, but Ghana was the one of the premier points of that and it was made to attract us and to exploit us financially for a spiritual fantasy of us communing in Africa. So not saying you can't go to Ghana and have a favorable outcome, but saying that is the designated point for exploitation, ok, so when I go to Ghana, what am I doing? I'm bringing a lot of money, first off. Secondly, I'm realizing these people have been schooled amongst each other that I am the mark. Okay, that I'm coming to break bread and and, and you know whatever angle they're going to catch me, whether that's spiritual, or I want to just see what's going on, or I'm looking for my next wife and they got it she over there, all right, you know her position, how to play it. But bottom line is this is an exploitation point. It's just like if I go down to the crack spot and I got my hand in my pocket and I'm walking around with my eyes on books. People like, oh OK, we've seen this before. You know what I'm saying. There are other places and points throughout the continent that are more humble and inviting and accepting of us, where the exploitation is down and our ability to interact in a more positive way and get what we came for. And that's the most important point, it's not there, it's not here, it's in here.

Speaker 3: 32:58

What are you going for? You know what do you want to get out of this? You can have it, but establish it. Don't be random over here, random over there. Establish hey, man, I want, you know, I'm looking for a wife, or I want to start a business, or man, I just want a spot where, if stuff get hot, I can tip and dip. You know what I'm saying. What do I want? Let's get that established Now. Let's establish who am I dealing with and can they get me what I want, because I do not recommend going by yourself and just I'm going to feel myself, feel my way around, and oftentimes we can do that because we do that in our day-to-day life.

Speaker 3: 33:49

But, like I said, this is a trap where somebody done set up. Ghana is an extreme version, but you got the same in Nigeria, the same in Liberia, the same in Kenya. They waiting, you know they waiting. So who are you dealing with before you go? You know who are you dealing with and what are their capabilities. You know, this is what I want. Can you help me with that? How are you going to help me?

Speaker 3: 34:22

Ok, once we have that established, the trip is set. What's the timeline? A two-week trip is not a two-month trip, okay. So a two-week trip is hotels. You know restaurants, this, this and that, and I'm dealing with a small group of people. A two-month trip, no, we're not in the hotel, no more, because that hotel is going to get expensive. We're in a long-term housing situation and I'm dealing with people that are stable, that can connect me with the resources that I need to make me more stable while I'm there. So you know planning and dealing with the people that are reputable, to whatever extent that means to your plan or program, and being able to be prepared financially and otherwise. Ok, so that's you right there that's key got you now.

Speaker 1: 35:30

Now going back to um, you know how do we find our people and direct them to more of a balance. Uh, um, um. Can you refer us to a book to study further into this, into?

Speaker 3: 35:45

this subject as far as our current situation travel to. Okay, as far as our current situation, we have so many. We have our brother, dr Claude Anderson. He's one of my favorites and my go-to call-outs and he has numerous works on the subject and videos, and what he is describing is the time frame that we're in now, when he is saying, once it reaches this point, it's too far gone for us to really, for us to really, uh, right back, and when we look at all the, the key markers that he said in his works, um, we find that they've already lapsed and passed. You know, so he was urging us during the 80s and the early 90s hey, if you all don't do this, this is going to be your reality. Okay, we've already surpassed it, we're there, and so, um, I think just a refresher on his works and his videos and his books, um, bring us to the conscious reality of where we are now, as opposed to us being in a fantasy of man. We're going to go down and have a rally and put on some t-shirts and man, you know, cook up some fish and some beans and rice and come together. You know, we're beyond that point, okay, and what we need to do is come up with a more uh, as he advocated for, uh, an aggressive financial, uh, uh, uh and political campaign, and not so much delving into their political agenda and arenas, but creating our own. Okay, what does that mean? I mean that we're not sitting up here looking for the next candidate and sitting him down and grilling him. What are you going to do for us? No, no, that's over, because we don't have the financial fortitude to motivate that person to do whatever he says he's going to do. So we need to come together and build that political infrastructure within ourselves that says, hey, what does Black survival look like in the next 10 years, in the next 25 years, in the next 50 years, regardless of what Jose and them is doing or Fufu and them is doing? What are we doing to ensure that we are here, our legacy is here and our children are safe, in their right frame of mind? What are we doing? Who is going to make that a reality? Who are the leaders of the future? You know, and that takes a little money. It takes a lot of community building and nurturing, and we have to come together and make that happen.

Speaker 3: 38:54

And, as crazy as it sounds, it's not a simple American deal. This is a global ideal that we have to embrace, that we have to embrace and I say that and at the same time, autonomy and identity, you know, but still saying we still have to embrace globally our assets, our resources, our people and allies and create those inroads so that we can have, you know, finances coming in and assets going in and coming out. There's not one nation on earth that does not interact with Africa. As I said before, he who controls Africa controls the world. Right now, we are in the midst of the third world war and we are seeing the Caucasian, the white man, the European battling each other openly for who will control Africa Now. They may put another spin on it or say this or say that, but when we see these three groups of people openly in an armed struggle for domination, rest assured that the result for them is who will dominate and control Africa Now?

Speaker 3: 40:22

With that being said, who has more right, or more obligation, I would say, to create the roads and the places of safety in Africa, other than us? Who should be more inclined? The European, the white man, or the Caucasian, or the Asian and the Caucasian, however you want to look at it, or us. We should be the first ones, you know, with a diplomatic envoy and proposal for solution to these nations like Ghana. Hey, hey, I know the UN got you on this, but we want this, you know. Hey, I understand that you all have this. We have that.

Speaker 3: 41:09

You know the people at the top, they know who we are, they understand what we can do and, just as a reminder to us, they took us from some people who were in a backward civilization, which was Europe, full of disease, fraud, prisons, insane asylums, criminal institutions. They came to America and, after obtaining us and mobilizing us, they became the most advanced civilization on Earth. Now, if it was them, if it was what they say it is, that they are just supreme and they can do it and this and that, why wouldn't the people that they are just supreme and they can do it and this and that, why wouldn't the people that they came from have done it before them? Ok, so the reality is they couldn't do it until we came. Now everyone on Earth sees that.

Speaker 3: 42:02

No one else is under any illusions about how it happened, when it happened, how it transpired and what. You know. This white man left that white man, or this European left that one and became the white man. And then he did that. No, they simply had a place where they could have rampant, outright unbridled slavery, manipulation, psychologically and physically of a people, and those people were us, and through that manipulation and domination they became the world's most advanced society for over 200 years. All right, now everyone else sees that and those at the top that understand and know have open arms for us to come and do the same thing for them. My proposal is we come and do the same thing for ourselves. Okay, that is my proposal, right.

Speaker 2: 43:03

Hmm, all right.

Speaker 1: 43:06

So you mentioned, you mentioned, uh, claude and Dr Claude Anderson books and you said I mean it was, it was basically made for what we already went through, but you, you said also, you said a refresher. So what are some books that are more like refreshers to deal with today's downtime?

Speaker 3: 43:32

For today I would say power nomics. Okay, power nomics. And we're always going to have to. When I say a refresher, we're going to have to go into these works. You know, even shake shake, anthony, or Jewel as they call him in Senegal. You know he gave us a biological and a genetic foundation of who we are, and a genetic foundation of who we are you know, just in his works about the. You know just the traveling of people throughout the continent and how some of us wound up over here. But powernomics, I think, allows us to integrate the point of capitalism with the digital and information age and how that can be used to leverage a stronger position and place in today's society. You know we have to leverage these tools.

Speaker 3: 44:42

We look at the internet as basically a television with a keyboard as opposed to an engineering firm or a marketing place. We don't look at it like hey, that's tomorrow's Walmart, amazon did and look what happened, you know. So what's really selling? What are we selling? What do we have to sell?

Speaker 3: 45:12

Um, it's always been our personality, our story and our entertainment, which we've done through song, uh, dance and and and cultural expression in movies, theater and play. All right, but we're still relying on the oppositional forces to promote that. We should have been come together and created an internet entity to sell our greatest asset, which is our ability to entertain and storytell. You know, and a lot of times, you know, we look at 50 Cent and his network, bet, you know, and some of the other. You know things that are promoted to us as being for us, but look at the negativity that they're promoting, right, you know, and I remember in the 80s, when I was pursuing some of my music ideas and I met with some people from Sony, a distribution deal was on the table and one of the guys, after the end of the meeting, he said you know, you guys are the only people that kill your target audience.

Speaker 3: 46:32

And it was like what do you mean, and he was just like you know, as they're just listening to the whole. We're here, we made it type situation. You're the only people that kill your target audience. And he said listen man, this year touring the Eagles took in the most money I was like the Eagles he's like yeah, you know, hotel California.

Speaker 3: 46:58

And I was like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that song's tight man, I like that man. Yeah, the bass line, oh man, he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that song's tight man, I like that man. Yeah, the bass line, oh man, he's like, yeah, they've been singing that song since the 70s. He said but can you imagine some guy sitting up here talking about you know, shoot this guy, sell some more drugs to him and shoot up the community and do this? Can you imagine him 20 years from now singing that song? And who's gonna be listening? And then I sat there and I thought about it and I was like, yeah, you don't know, you don't understand, you don't understand our music and our people. Man, you're just. But as I got older I realized what he was actually saying. You know, we're the ones that have misused our media potential or allowed it to be misdirected, uh, to this, this fallacy, uh, that has us in a perpetual cycle of loss. So it's upon us to reverse that, and we can do it. We are the creators. Ok, we're the ones that the entire world is listening to. Ok, no matter how much they suppress our voice, they hear it, they mimic it, they reiterate it, they replicate it, they replicate it. So it's just upon us to take a stand and create the things that are, uh, the next trend or the next fad. You know why are we on tiktok? I love tiktok. Tiktok is hostile to us, you know. You got people on tiktok. Can't call us niggers and this, this and that, and if you write one comment saying that you get an account, strike. And it was like I was just saying what they said in the video, you know. But you could promote it, but when it comes to actually critiquing and interacting with that promotion, dissecting it or making or telling the truth about it, now you are an enemy to a content, guideline or some type of morality that they want to all of a sudden uphold.

Speaker 3: 49:20

Ok, we should have our own own TikTok and it would be 10 times better than theirs. We should have our own YouTube and it would be 10 times better than theirs. Why? Because everybody would be there trying to see what we are doing. Number two, we would not have to be filtering through their nonsense just to get to ours. And number three, we could monetize it and have that, you know. So that's today's version of uh, the jay prince, uh, dr dre, uh, jay-z, you know meeting or whatever should night meeting to create a distribution hub for our music and this, this and that.

Speaker 3: 50:03

That's the new reality, and we have a better chance of getting it off now than we ever had then, because it's not some you know public icon, you know some gangster dude that we got to look up to, that's going to big homie us down, some favor and let us in. It's us coming together and saying let's put this together, man, okay, we could talk, we could sing, we can have news, we can have music, we can have, uh, theater and poetry and and movies. We can do that. Why are we not? So that's the future and I think that's our power right now.

Speaker 3: 50:44

And another thing is we don't have to stay in the same position. You know we became very powerful in rap. No one can deny that rap music has taken over the entire world. So far as the sound of music, ok, from the day and time time when we would turn it on, they'd hate on us. I don't know if you ever remember, but I remember people shutting my radio off or turning it up louder or saying turn that monkey music off or we don't want to hear that. That's not even music, it's just a beat and somebody's talking nonsense. I remember those days. Now you turn on Fox News, it's a hip hop.

Speaker 3: 51:23

Beat you know, the Pope damn near break dancing to it, you know. So what happened was we got comfortable and we didn't continue to elevate and grow. You know, what saved us after rock and roll, after we created rock and roll and they took it over, was the fact that we could take bits and pieces of the musicianship and put it into other genres like jazz, r&b and smooth easy listening and acoustic and this and that, and you know it dispersed our talents, our heads, our leaders, our Curtis Mayfields, our Marvin Gays. It dispersed them, those that couldn't. They lost their mind and went crazy on the blow and other stuff and we lost them. But our talent remains and moves forward.

Speaker 3: 52:16

We are not some fixed entity. We are expressing the creation through our art history entity. We are expressing the creation through our art history, and so we cannot be limited to hip hop or a song or a dance. We have to do the whole thing and accept and express the whole thing for it to continue to grow and for us to continue to be empowered by it. And that goes back to what I was saying about the staying in motion, because this is being a war, you know, and we have to keep reiterating that and come to that conclusion we are in a war.

Speaker 3: 52:48

Whenever you got a situation, with this many people losing their lives, year after year, for this many years, it's on purpose. It's a war. So we got to keep sticking, we got to keep moving. Those are our weapons our minds, our artistry, our ability to create, our imagination, our ability to communicate. No one can communicate with a world like us, so we don't need to shut ourself off from anybody. We don't need to shut ourself off from anybody, um, and we don't need to bar anybody from coming to us with their thoughts feelings emotions and ideas either.

Speaker 1: 53:35

All right, I want to talk about uh, what, what uh? Was it that inspired you to build Africa town? What is Africa town? Um, africa town was a uh you to build Africa Town.

Speaker 3: 53:43

What is Africa Town? Africa Town was a universal concept, and what I mean by that. People adopted their own definition and meaning for it as it applied to them and themselves and their objectives. I heard one man say hey, man, you got a china town, a japan town, a german town, why can't we have an africa town? Right, okay, and from that standpoint, he said, that would be our marketplace and our community gathering point for, uh, uh, you know, just expressing ourselves to the other cultures and community and creating equality amongst them, since they have their own towns. You know, and I listened to that, I adopted it and I thought well, you know, the difference is Africa is not a country. Okay, so, to sum it up, if we were going to logically equate a town to Chinatown or this, and that we'd have to have Ghana town, congo town, siberian town you see what I'm saying? We'd have to do it like that. And how many of those do we need? I mean it would be. I mean 52. And after you did that, then they would say man, you know, we got a village inside of that and we want recognition too. I mean it would just be endless.

Speaker 3: 55:13

So Africatown, to me, took on a more classical and purist definition. Classical and purest definition meaning that the original people that were compiled and forced into this place were Americans and people from West Africa who had to come together and share, share their knowledge, their story, their skills to create methodologies for survival and expansion and growth. Some of the people from Africatown, the original one in Alabama actually went back to Africa. We have been prompted and brought up on roots. Kuntukente came over here. They whooped him, chopped his foot off. He died over here. His daughter got raped, beat, you know, just a continuous story of tyranny and it just never got any real success out of it. You know, I think Kizzy got like 80 years old and got to spit in the white lady's cup or something you know. Was that a win? Was that our victory? You know? But I think they did not promote the Africa town story because number one is the original pan African story, or one is the original, uh pan-african story, or one of the original pan-african stories, where someone is coming telling the story of africa, uh, surviving independently during the the most racist times of this country and traveling back to africa as three people, you know, coming here, never being slaves and leaving. You know, at some point in time, some of them and maintaining that connection and maintaining their language and their story to an extent. So if we could build on that to where I get to be who I am I don't have to change to something else. Who I am, I don't have to change to something else and I still have the ability to interact in a positive way and travel back and forth and have you come and travel back and forth and we can commune and create higher ideals for both of us. I think that message in itself, right there, is the ultimate success and key to our survival at this point, you know, and if we can embrace that concept of Africa town, of us having good, positive relations with the brothers and the sisters and the land.

Speaker 3: 57:58

You know, one of the conversations that consistently comes up is about reparations. You know, um, and you got some people, uh, you know there's many different uh viewpoints on on reparations, but one thing we we frequently overlook is okay, yeah, this man owes some money and some this or that for whatever he's done, some resources, whatever. However, you want to equate that this man owes something. Okay, somebody over there owes something. You know and what I mean by that man if you got drug off your land and put on a boat and sent somewhere, if that's a, or if your people were holding land and they were brought over here and that land was then turned over this, this, and that somebody owes something over there. If it's not just the conversation and the ability to regain your footing on that place, all right, and I think a lot of times we overlook that. You know, and it's not a victim thing where you know we can't move forward unless we get this or that. No, but we have the ability right now to establish those relationships, to communicate our thoughts, and the world is receptive to it. You know the African Union is receptive right now. Who's leading the conversation? You know I was on TikTok.

Speaker 3: 59:29

I heard people on there. They was going off man. You know the AU done established a six region diaspora trying to take our reparation money, you know, and I was like no, wait a minute. We started that, our people started that so that we as a group could have a seat at the table at the United Nations when they are creating resolutions for who is owed what and what happened to who and this, that and the other. That was our place, where we could sit at the table and voice our concern.

Speaker 3: 1:00:05

It had to be expanded to the whole diaspora because you had the Caribbean, south America and other places where similar situations had occurred. But we were the driving force for that, not the AU. They rejected us. No one ever wanted to accept us as Africans or people that were old or victimized by the human trafficking transatlantic operation. No one wanted to acknowledge us not the white man, because he knew he old, and definitely not the African because they knew they old and they wanted to shift the conversation strictly to themselves. And when we try to put our foot in the door, no, so it took years of people advocating for a sixth region which encompasses us and others, but we were the ones leading that conversation and we need to be leading that conversation now, us leading that conversation, and we need to be leading that conversation now.

Speaker 1: 1:01:05

Okay, Now, um, um. Before we go, I want to ask this question how can people contribute to your organization and its objectives.

Speaker 3: 1:01:17

Well, I will say this Um, the number one thing that we're fighting here in the United States of America, number one thing that we're fighting here in the United States of America is housing instability. All right, I could go into so many other things Health care, the prison population, young boys got switches, blah, blah you know but at the root of all of that, we have housing instability in the midst of a housing crisis. So the housing crisis is affecting everybody, from the billionaires on down, and housing instability is not affecting everybody but is primarily playing out on us. So right now, we represent 77 percent of the homelessness applications in America. We're the ones going to the agencies, the facilities, the shelters, everywhere else, saying, hey, I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight. Me and my kids are in the car. We was over at my mama's house but she died, and now they evicting us. They bought our house, okay, and are repurposing it for multi-person dwellings. These things are affecting us. So I think, when we look at that, I think when we look at that in its totality, if one were inclined to want to help, we need to get together first and talk about the solutions, which we have some working solutions.

Speaker 3: 1:02:54

I've iterated some problems but we have working solutions to those problems and we have what we call the centralized diversion fund that we operate here in Seattle. It was a pilot program. It's been adopted by several other groups, but here in Seattle we have the centralized diversion fund. To date we've given out an upwards of $10 million to our people for housing, job, training and to stabilize the home lives of the people in the community. Here If one wanted to donate, they could go to the website and donate, and that's Africatowninternationalorg Africatown International and donate and that's AfricaTownInternationalorg AfricaTown International. I remember Brother Fred I'll say Father Fred Hampton when I'm speaking about one of my icons and people that I look up to. You remember he had a video and the brothers came to him and said man, we want to start a bank and we got some money and this, this and that. And Fred brothers came to him and said man, we want to start a bank and we got some money and this, this and that. And Fred just looked at him and said wait a minute.

Speaker 2: 1:04:06

What about the educational program?

Speaker 3: 1:04:09

Yeah, you don't have no educational program.

Speaker 3: 1:04:11

You got you know, what do you have about a year before they bust you? Or the money is gone, or something crazy. You know he was thinking forward on it, forward on it, and I think we need to think the same so far as what is our agenda for our, for the housing of our people? You know, uh, what is that agenda looking like? Is it to consistently ask the man who's taking everything out from under us consistently for help, or is it for us to come together, mobilize, uh, our funding? That's where power, power nomics come in and and create the education that will give us the ability to create, maintain and sustain housing for the generations to come.

Speaker 3: 1:04:56

We have to do that and that's a conversation first. So I would rather, man, if you want to give me a thousand dollars hey, like the dude said, I'm not turning down nothing, you know, but I would rather have a conversation with real estate developers, civil engineer trained people and others families and say, hey, this is what we need. You know, here's a plot of land, here's an area where we can create sub developments and housings that are favorable and beneficial. You know, these are the conversations that we need to have before the money come, because what I've learned hey, the money can come at any point in time. Money is out there, but what to do with it and how to do it and when, and all of that is an educational factor and we need to strengthen that and also the cooperation, the cooperative group that can carry out.

Speaker 2: 1:05:56

You know, get us from point A to point B.

Speaker 3: 1:05:58

Yes, Exactly and we have to understand all of these problems have been solved before and the reason that we're not dealing with solutions as opposed to problems at this point in time is because someone engineered that. Okay, during the 60s, the creation of Section 8 entailed home ownership and housing stability, not in projects. The projects were temporary uh, housing situations that were supposed to get home ownership and section that was supposed to get you to home ownership and viable, strong communities. What happened? All right, so we have the solution.

Speaker 2: 1:06:48

That's what the buyer said Something happened along the way right.

Speaker 3: 1:06:51

Yeah, it happened.

Speaker 3: 1:06:51

It definitely did. It definitely did With the people that can sit down and logically put this step by step together in solution format and hand off to another group of people who can implement and come back to that table and go forward with the next phase and step of social and community development, as opposed to devolution, which is what we keep seeing, you know, and it's just, it's tragic and it's sad and we're going to lose some more until we come to the table and do what I'm saying, do you know? Until the hope and a future in us Okay, they don't see a future in us. They don't see a future in us. They're out here going in any direction, doing anything, and it's backfiring on all of us. We need to come to the table, like I said, meet and create the unified front. That's what I think the partial solution is, but it involves us. It involves real conversation and real people who realize what time?

Speaker 3: 1:08:15

is yes, sir.

Speaker 2: 1:08:20

Now that's a supreme deal, family, because that's been our conversation here on the black roundtable and with the black, with the series that we've been doing, the livable black cities. That's been the conversation. So this is the grounding and the founding and a practical aspect of it.

Speaker 3: 1:08:36

So we definitely appreciate you coming with not just ideas and theory but with things that people can plug into you know, and you know, please reach out to Brother Ron or you Magnetic, and if they want to be connected and I mean connected in reality, to real solutions, let's get together, let's talk and let's start implementing. Because, look, there's a residence in. I know everybody heard of Marriott's residence in. You know, nationwide there are other housing projects and things of that nature that are nationwide. Okay, we can have a franchise of livable housing that is stable for families. You know, nationwide we can have that.

Speaker 3: 1:09:32

That's not something outrageous. We see large corporations and BlackRock and the rest of them doing it, you know, on the level that they want to do it on for their people, their millionaire and billionaire class. We see them. You know they got places, man, where you go from LA to Las Vegas and the room looks exactly the same as the one you just left, and you go from there to the one in New York and the room and the triage and the service, everything is the same. You don't even feel like you're in a different place till you go outside the door. You know they've got corporate housing like that, you know. So it's just a matter of adapting models that are already in place for people that uh uh need it, as opposed to who can afford it.

Speaker 1: 1:10:27

Right, right, indeed. On that note, thank you, brothers, for coming out this evening. I really appreciate you. Uh, can't wait to have you back on. I want to talk about some other things, um, as well, about, uh, you know the relationships, relationships, marriage, and you know decline of that. I wanted to kind of pick your brain on that and what you think about that at some point. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Thank you for everybody in the chat, the viewers, the viewers later, the viewers next week, and we're out of here.

Speaker 3: 1:11:02

Peace peace, salam brother.