Southern University: Hip-Hop & Politics
This podcast was born from Dr. Eugene Lee-Johnson's Hip-Hop & Black Politics class at Southern University. Throughout the semester, the students learn how White supremacy impacts each part of their lives and how fate and group consciousness work to influence Black political participation. In tandem, the students will speak about specific topics (the media, gendered racism, the history of American racism, etc.) from class and how they influence their lives. We hope you enjoy!
Southern University: Hip-Hop & Politics
The "Clock It" Podcast
Imagine an undefeated basketball team that barely makes a ripple in the media, while a rookie gets the limelight. That's the tip-off to our passionate conversation about the glaring media coverage imbalance and the untold impact of colorism within the Black community. We unpack the overshadowing of icons like Aja Wilson and Angel Reese, call out the glorification of conflict in reality TV, and explore how these narratives shape the role models available to young Black girls. With candid reflections on our personal experiences, we spotlight the transformative influence of positive representation, even as we confront its scarcity in mainstream media.
We navigate the complexities of colorism and racial identity, addressing the pain inflicted by discrimination and derogatory terms. Celebrating the recent embrace of Black aesthetics and natural beauty, we give a shoutout to artists who promote self-acceptance and have shifted the cultural narrative. The conversation also examines the power of media in shaping self-image and the cultural attitudes toward figures like Blue Ivy Carter, as we stress the importance of diverse and empowering representation.
To round off, we scrutinize the fairness in media portrayal and opportunities for Black individuals, particularly in sports and academia. The significance of community support beams through as we discuss the need for unity in the face of external and internal adversities. We challenge Black athletes to consider their college choices' impact on collegiate sports' power dynamics and media representation. As we wrap up, we foster a dialogue on the resilience of the Black community and advocate for authentic representation across all media platforms. Join us in this thought-provoking episode as we strive for a media landscape that truly reflects the diversity and dynamism of the Black experience.
So tell me why South Carolina just went 38-0 on the season, won the national championship and not get no media coverage. And then turn around and you see Kayla Clark on Saturday Night Live. Make it make sense. To me it don't make sense, literally none at all. Because you have these people Now. Don't get me wrong.
Hermione & CB:Donnaaley had to go through an entire redeem period. She lost the whole team. Everybody went to WNBA draft. So now this is your redemption year, and to go undefeated, win a national championship and get no media coverage, that would be outrage. But Kayla Clark, who just got drafted, going on a press tour, didn't she just get some new shoes too? Nike, yeah, let me clock you real quick.
Hermione & CB:You gave out three signature shoes, three To people that just got drafted to the WNBA. Not knocking their accomplishments Never. But Aja Wilson, who is arguably the best player in the WNBA right now. Angel Reese, who has single-handedly drew more attention to any sport ever in the two years that she's been playing at LSU. Anytime you hear Angel Reese, or Leah Boston, who just won Rookie of the Year, they don't have shoes. Not a shoe, not nothing. Oh, but you can see them on TikTok Right and Instagram Right All through them. Social medias, right, but yet they don't get no shoes.
Hermione & CB:That's crazy, hey y'all, my name is Hermione, I'm CB and this is the Clock it Podcast, and we about to clock out really wants to put a cast on how we are and how we act. Because everybody loves a train wreck, right, and the the biggest train wrecks that we get are often from I hate to say it, but from black people, right, because you know they always portray us as fighting. Nothing goes more viral than a fight, than an argument, somebody cussing out somebody at walmart and they always happen to be black, right, and so, sorry to say it, I could name five TV shows right now that's playing right now that specifically single handedly tears down black women. Because, more specifically on Zeus, why y'all fighting? Talk about it, why y'all going to Jamaica or a whole other country that you don't know nothing about? And my thing is like, why, if the whole y'all going to Jamaica or a whole other country that you don't know nothing about? If I think it's like, why, if the whole purpose of, like the Zeus thing, well, let's start from the beginning.
Hermione & CB:Bad Girls Club was really just a way for people to like, find what's wrong with them, their aggressive behaviors and solve that. And now it's like we have transitioned from that period of actually helping to actually like publicizing the fights and the arguments and if somebody wants to kumbaya in the house, oh, she doing too much. And this and the third, and it doesn't get the media coverage that it needs, right. But yet we got so many different versions of bad girls club now all over zoos talking about um wearing, wearing any and everything shoelaces, right, my god, wearing shoelaces for clothes, always going clubbing, like they're portraying us as literal animals, right. And it's not good for um, it's not good for young people like young girls, young black girls at that to see. That, I Just feel, is if the representation of a black woman right now is a joke and that's so sad to say.
Hermione & CB:But when you wait me, you were growing up, we had people to look up to. Okay, we had the OMG girls, omg on everything, omg girls we had. It might be a little bit out of our range, but I like to say I'm an old soul. We had destiny's child look up to sierra, I mean, when she was fresh out. They keep an eye. She embodied a girl, okay. And now the cherry looking up to sexy red ice spice. Every time I see ice spice. She does not have clothes on, literally like.
Hermione & CB:But you know, at the end of the day, I just think, like I was saying earlier, media is always going to want to see a train wreck or some type of ghetto. Fabulous is what they portray us to be, but yet, like the biggest I think one of the biggest media um coverages that we had that was beneficial for us as black women was when kamala harris got vice president, right. And then, of course, you had michelle obama when she started doing her um, switching like the lunch stuff still still got a little bit dead against her, because I like my fries, but the sweet potato fries were not hidden, like she said that we're supposed to. But after that you just really don't have much, but just the everyday, and then let's really clock it. Oh, real housewives. Oh, jesus, real housewives, jesus. Love you nini. Love you, love you Nene. Love you Giselle, love Sheree, she by Sheree, still waiting on it. What she say Spring summer, spring summer, yeah, september, still waiting on that. But it's like you got that side of the media that you know we want the big life, the lavish houses, the cars, all of this stuff, but yet we're clocking each other on reunions and parties. I'm really for the clock Giselle's team. Now.
Hermione & CB:Giselle, baby, other than your husband being a cheater, you have a reputation for notoriously tearing down black women. And I'm going to just say this Dr Wendy Osefo has multiple degrees and a whole bunch of things, but you constantly nitpick and tear her down like wendy has. Wendy has three kids, three kids. Wendy has three kids and she got a robbie makeover. So she got her boobs done and that was a real highlight of like season six or seven. And they were sitting at a table and giselle says I don't feel like you have any more substance because you're starting to wear your body out. But you didn't say nothing to ashley, who is a lighter complexion like giselle, when she got her boobs done. So so is Giselle a colorist, and you know I'm so glad you brought up colorism.
Hermione & CB:Okay, so before we get into colorism, what's your definition of colorism? My, hmm, the true definition of colorism to me is excluding, or excluding or demising a person for the color of their skin, or making it feel like we're not the same level of intelligence or I don't have what you have. I don't get the same amount of opportunities that you get because I'm like your skin. Yeah, I definitely feel that too. Like, when I think of colorism, I always think of like the paperback test, right, or like passing women.
Hermione & CB:But there was a movie. I can't remember the movie, but it was about this black woman. I want to say she was mixed or whatnot, and she had fairer skin and she always got imitation of life. That's what it was and she just passed as a white woman her whole life, right, and you know that's good for her. But, like, what does that say for other mixed races who want to in, want to um, embrace their blackness? But yet you have movies like imitation of life and you know it's just, it's not good and it hurt her mind. Who was dark-skinned and I love my black queens, right, but what does that say for little kids or kids who are mixed race, who want to embrace their blackness? And you see movies and media portrayed as if you have to be fairer skin to get the same opportunities.
Hermione & CB:And I think that all starts, baby, even when we were younger, like if you was too dark skinned, you was a burnt biscuit. Yes, yes, oh, my gosh, I got this. I mean, if she, well, he wasn't a woman, but in my class in high school I had this Spanish teacher and she just always picked fun at one of like the darker kids in my class and she wound up one day calling him oil spill. Oh, and I was like. Back then I was like, okay, that's funny. But now it's just like why, why would you call him that?
Hermione & CB:But now, growing up, it's like we're starting to see a new age when it comes to colorism and things like that, because now people are starting to love that, the skin that they're in. Yeah, which is why I feel as if when black, when black women are hurt, you know it's a tougher skin now because of all the tough things that I had to go through, right, but I feel as if we need to start putting more fight into fighting for ourselves, so we not we're not just plastered on instagram or on tiktok or even tv just fighting each other. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, so it's more like the thick skin that we developed when people were sitting there calling us, uh, burnt biscuits. We need to be that way when it comes to media coverage as well.
Hermione & CB:Yeah, and I especially like the fact that, of course, with hair color, the natural part of black women, are definitely starting to become the forefront, right, you know, of course, we're still always going to have the weaves, the wigs and all of that stuff, but now you see more and more black girls embracing their hair texture and their clothes and their colors. And back when I was growing up, my mom always made sure that I went to the beauty shop and I got a perm girl, the perm era, the perm era, the perm era. But it's just like, yeah, I, but who I really want to thank for that is our relatives, yes, as well as chloe and hailey. Okay, because they've been doing some past styles with them locks, okay, okay, they've been having some past styles with them locks. No, shout out to them. Shout out to them because any other time, like when we were growing up, like locks and like that and like wearing your hair in a natural afro, that'd be like, oh, your hair is nappy, it's unkept, your mama don't know what to do with it, right, you know? And stuff like that. And it's just like now that we're Ari Lennox. I don't think I've seen Ari Lennox with straight hair, maybe, like I can count as many times on my two hands. And then we had Inspirations growing up as well with NDI, re and my two hands right. And then we had inspirations growing up as well with ndre and the song is I'm not my hair, yes, and she made it a point to say I'm not my hair and I'm not my skin, okay. And then you have lauren hill with the only album that she has ever put out. She's in a fro, okay, and um, free forms, right, and she's killing them, right, killing them.
Hermione & CB:I don't think anybody can hold the candle to her. No, no, no, no, no. I could, because aesthetically she just pleases, like she's really a please, and then she don't try hard. You know that is new normal girl, you got to get it together. But I will say, like you have other artists like beyonce, you know who I?
Hermione & CB:I mean there's always a controversy around beyonce in her hair, right, and whether it's her real hair and it's not. And me personally I think it's real. The Renaissance if you went to see the Renaissance movie, a lot of her rehearsals, she has her real hair and it was one show. I can't remember where she was, but it was raining. I think it was like Seattle, it was somewhat up the inner north and it was raining. She didn't cancel the show, but if you watch that hair was really really straight in the beginning and it just got like super curly. And Beyonce Shows that different hair textures are bit like are showcased beautifully in different ways.
Hermione & CB:Because just because she was wigs and a whole bunch of stuff like that, you know she's showing that I can still authentically be myself, you know, and I really love that she put that out. Even with blue ivy in the beginning, yeah, everybody sat there. They talked about blue ivy hill and that the black media, white media, everybody but now that she's older, she's renamed the conversation because almost every single show that Blue came out with she had a new hairstyle and it's like you had to give it up for her. You couldn't sit there, you couldn't bathe about her anymore, because she came out with something new and she did it to the potential. And I even remember going back to her first show when she first came out and you know she was nervous. I mean, I'm a dancer. When I first started dancing I was nervous. I wasn't dancing as cross, as big as her, but yeah, I just remember seeing everybody, more specifically white media, tear her down and I think people tend to forget that she's still 11. Right, she's not even 13 yet.
Hermione & CB:But here's the other side of that. I feel as if the the loyal how can I say this? Okay, I feel as if white media is really hard on people like beyonce and her family because, at you had at one point beyonce was like big in the black community and you like this was like during her, when she at first came out, like after destiny's child you're talking about, like the b-day album, her first um self-titled album, you know, and you know you had a few white people listening to it, but it was mainly like a black audience, right. And now she's like putting out more music that touches all different races, and now it's like white people. It's like, how can I say this? It's like white people love Beyonce because what they're doing for them Right, and not necessarily like does that make sense? Yeah, but then again, beyonce never loses. Yeah, beyonce will always benefit from everything. Yeah, you can sit there and talk about her child. She won win this whole situation that she's in. Now I feel like Beyonce is starting to cater to white people because they're saying what she cannot do. I feel like the worst thing you can tell a black woman in this world what she cannot do? Okay, because she's going to go out there and do it. They say Beyonce couldn't make a country album. She made it. Okay, but it's a good album. Okay, it's trending on tiktok, so she gotta be doing something right, so it's like she will never lose.
Hermione & CB:You can never put beyonce just in one category, and that's what I want people to start understanding about black women more specifically. You can't put black people in one category because we always gonna show you that we're not meant to be in one category. Bringing it back to basketball Angel Reese. Now Y'all say Angel Reese, oh, she's a basketball player, she can't do anything else. But she has brand deals with just about everybody. Like she has a brand deal with Reebok, she has a brand deal with Fashion Nova and things like that. She's not a model. And then, on top of that, to piggyback with you with Angel Reese and her brand deals, what other 20-year-old black 20-year-old in college still getting her degree? What other black woman do you see doing that At her age and getting the amount of money that she's getting and the amount of credit that she's getting, which goes back to white people, will only portray what they want, right.
Hermione & CB:You know they're only going to expound on what they want to see, right. And I mean I hate it. I hate it for it to be so, so close to home, because we're at southern and it's right there, right, and it's just. It's just really sad to see the amount of media coverage that black women get as successful as they are, especially right in our own backyard, when it's white people who are doing the exact same thing in a different context, but yet they get more benefits and they get everything right.
Hermione & CB:So even when she made her announcement for the wba, everybody was like oh, she's not going, she's not going, she's not going. But the way she announced it who you know announcing I'm going to the wmba in vogue so it's like when she did that, they was like, oh, she had to do all that. A simple instagram post would have done it. But then say she would have did it. You'd be like she couldn't do nothing better, literally. So she's in a lose-lose situation and I just feel when we put ourselves in positions to spring higher, it's an easier target for people to tear us down, definitely, and I'm starting to learn that white media will put something out intentionally for us to tear our own people down.
Hermione & CB:Yeah, no matter how bad the story is or how dumb the story is, they're always going to find a way just to put it out there so we can tear each other down. So it's like when Angel Reese, when she first did her first modeling gig with Sports Illustrated and she was a cover of Sports Illustrated she was authentically Angel Reese. No makeup, no, none of that. And just as fast as they were to put it out about her was just as fast as we were to tear her down, like, oh, she couldn't get her makeup done or they couldn't sculpt her body a little bit more. It is just like for what, though? She's authentically herself? Is she making money off of it, literally? And then, on top of that, it's just like you have, you got her her cover with vogue and the sports illustrated that she just had beautiful, beautiful woman, beautiful woman.
Hermione & CB:But at the end of the day, I think for white people, they know if we just, if they just go off, put and say what they really want to say, right, we're always gonna back up a black woman or a black man all the time. But if they understand that, okay, well, let's just put this out here and let them tear each other apart. We don't even have to do nothing at the back end, right, and we can slip up and say what we want to say, probably get a few hate comments, probably get our jobs taken away, and this then and third, but the job is already done because we have been tearing at each other for what right? For nothing? I think the to piggyback not to piggyback, but to turn it around. I think the main reason why we're here and we're having conversations like this is because of the scope of whiteness that white people have put in the media and how black people are supposed to be portrayed, especially when it comes to things like HBCUs and PWIs or even different HBCUs versus HBCUs, right? So when we go to the HBCU versus HBCU debate, I would like to not say it's like Howard versus Feldman. That's the same thing. You put two things against each other. So let's take, for example, howard versus Feldman.
Hermione & CB:When you think of Howard, you think of all the big name people. You think of Kamala Harris, michelle Obama, you think of Felicia Rashad, felicia Rashad, chadwick Boseman, things like that People who made really big impacts in the world at one particular institution. You come down here to Southern. Southern has a lot of notable alumni, like Randy Jackson was here, david Bader was the SGA president and things like that. But people don't see that. People don't see how one institution is quite literally not equivalent but it's the same playing field. I feel like the same education I would get from Howard. I get from something Definitely. But the difference is white media has deemed Howard or the AUC as the standard of black college. And what makes Southern different than those four particular schools? Because as an AUCU student it gets gets tiring seeing oh, spelman get a million dollars, howard gets a million dollars, or Morehouse gets a million dollars, but they get the million dollars.
Hermione & CB:Then you look on twitter at the HBCU shade room and Howard got roaches. Uh, howard, they sleeping in tents outside the administration building. So it's like what are y'all demons so good about Howard vs Southern? And the HBCU shade room is a space, an anonymous space, that I feel is needed but then at the same time it can be debated Because it's needed. Because I go to school in Louisiana, I want to know what HBCU is like in Virginia, or I want to know what HBCU is like in Delaware. So I feel like it's needed because it's a connection thing, and then you truly understand what I'm going through at Southern. And then I can relate to you because you go to school like Virginia or you go to Howard. So when people sit here and like, oh, howard has a housing crisis, ok, southern does too. And then we understand very heavily the housing crisis because we both are East Right, very heavily the housing crisis, because we both already Right.
Hermione & CB:So, and I think, to piggyback off of um, if the shade room is something that's needed, I think it is to a certain extent, like you were saying right, because when it comes to the shade room, it's all it's. It's not always drama, but the crux of it mainly is like drama and things like that. But if we can allude from the drama, I do think it is because you're trying to see what another HBCU is like, outside of the scope of what you already know. Like you were saying, like I go to Southern, I would love to know what it's like to go to an all-girls school like Spelman or like have that spell house thing type deal. Like Spellman or like have that spell house thing type deal. But I don't, I don't, I don't necessarily think it's something that's needed because it's an HBCU is always going to be talked about either way, but I think it's a good place for us to like come together and compare and contrast to see like, oh okay, well, the white people believe that Howard is such this big school and they just have so many different opportunities, but yet they have the same problems as we do at Southern University. And another question for you is like do you think black people have some type of role in portraying the white scope of things when it comes to HBCUs?
Hermione & CB:I feel like we have a very strong head in seeing what America sees when it comes to us, because we're so quick to be like oh, I don't have no houses, or I got roaches in my room, or they feed me chicken and fish every day. But for us, more specifically, we're not raving about how we have the top nurses in school the nation right. We're not raving about that. We're not saying how we have the best engineering program, or we're not saying how everybody's coming from around the world to come to law school, or we're not putting certain things on pedestals that need to be put on pedestals. I feel like we're so quick to tear down things that aren't needed to tear down. I feel like in the HBCU world it's very open but it's very closed.
Hermione & CB:I feel like a lot of times it's HBCU against HBCU because of what the white media is putting out there. They always going to say that, oh, somebody donated a million dollars here, so now we on Twitter are like girl, you don't need a million dollars yet. So now we on twitter are like girl, you don't need a million dollars. Right, it look really right now they just might need that million dollars more than we do. So I feel like black people created their own spaces on twitter or instagram or even created apps. Now are really giving us the the space to branch out and show what we truly do to eat and being an hbcu student.
Hermione & CB:We need to start coming together more on even little small accomplishments, like I remember, just the other day, I was counted on twitter and I was like girl, let me stop complaining about our little 84 aka right, because tennessee state crossed 174. So instead of just being like girl, I'm so honest let's really take the time out to be like y'all really did that, because I have respect for anybody that go greek right being my friends and people I don't even know. So that's a space we can really sit down, sit there and like uplift each other. And then another thing that we need to stop doing we need to stop tearing down black people that cross Greek at PWI, whether it be denying Greek or the other side, because we do have to take accountability everywhere. It's somewhere for everybody and an HBCU might not be the space for a student that's from california, that's been going to these private schools all this time and but then at the same time they can't be so quick to tear down us right and to piggyback off that. I will. Now that I'm Greek, like is I've.
Hermione & CB:I see more like PWIs and HBCU Greeks and like the culture is different. And I know Greeks at HBCUs feel a certain way when you have a big line of AKAs or AKAs or whoever at PWIs, because they don't have the same culture, they don't have the same thing. And outside of that you have black student unions at PWIs and in my mind it's like why would you want to create a black student union when you can go to the HBCU that's down the street, you know, and not even have to create a black student union, but the whole body is a black student union. Everybody wants to see everybody win. Everybody's trying to, you know, strive for the same thing, but at the same time it's like I can't really tear them down because they're just trying to create something in the midst of a school that wasn't created for them by them. You know what I'm saying. So it's I think it's more beneficial for to see black student unions um come together and actually like, try to get the same opportunities that they would have at hbcu, at a pwi, whether they go to a PWI because it's more convenient, whether it's more portrayed in the media as this big, beautiful thing.
Hermione & CB:And I know personally I'm. I'm from a city that's majority white and I went to a predominantly white high school in Shreveport Louisiana, white high school in Shreveport Louisiana. And the reason that I went to the high school was because I knew if I put Byrd High School on any type of resume, whether it's I'm removed from high school in high school, out of college, trying to get a job, if I put that high school that I went there and I did all of those achievements at that high school, that I went there and I did all those achievements at that high school, just because I went there, I'm gonna get, if not more opportunities than someone who went to a predominantly black high school like huntington high or um shreve high school that have predominantly black um student bodies rather than bird high school. And then, on top of that, like it's so many politics when it what that goes on with PWIs or predominantly white institutions, because you're trying to feel yourself out first of all as a black student. As a college student period. The main goal for college is not only to get your degree but to figure out who you are outside of college, because outside of college you can have your degree in anything, but if you didn't learn anything, then what's the point of you even getting into college if you're not trying to get those life skills? And then, on top of that, especially if you go to a PWI, it's twice as hard because you're now competing with your white counterparts and your white peers that have more more opportunities than you just because of the color of their skin. And I hate to say it, but what martin luther king jr was talking about with with you know, it's not the their skin color, but it's the content of their character.
Hermione & CB:Do we really see that nowadays, because all the white media is portraying black people to be is that they're loud, they're ghetto, they fight, um, they fight all the time. They wear portraying black people to be. Is that they're loud, they're ghetto, they fight, um, they fight all the time. They wear a certain type of clothing and, um, they speak a certain way, they act a certain way, they live in certain areas. They're all inner city kids, they're all like rural city kids and they don't really have much of nothing. But you know, you see those same people and those same people grew up in the white suburbs with white people, but yet, because they're black and maybe they speak with a certain dialect or a certain tone, they can't be afforded the same opportunities, right, and um, we put ourselves in positions like that all the time. So I'm gonna educate y'all a little bit.
Hermione & CB:We have this thing on campus. It's called Pretty Wednesday. It's usually every Wednesday, every two Wednesdays. You put on your best feet and come outside. We've created the space where LSU Greeks and LSU students can come over on our side, right, and enjoy or indulge in our pretty wisdom. But you rarely ever see our griefs or our students going to what they know is their wild outweighs. These, I feel as if we created a space to accept everybody and people in those positions were like, unless you, or even our way, ul, it's not really the same welcoming experience.
Hermione & CB:So last year we had was it family feud? It was family feud issue versus right and that was really an eye-opening experience for me because we just say it's gay complexion. We just going to schools 15 minutes from each other and I didn't got called the jiggle boom okay, I didn't got called the monkey, I got all, got called all types of things. But it's literally how white people or white media deems us like basically being the same thing but separate. So equal, but but separate Right, we're both equal. We both have the opportunity to go to college, get our degree and put ourselves in better positions to grow, but we're separate because you go to PWI and I go to HBCU.
Hermione & CB:So one day on Twitter one of our alums was going back and forth with this boy that goes to LSU and he basically says it's easier for us to get A's here than it is to get an A at MSU. I work off of my 3.2 GPA Okay, real hard, listen and it's not easy. And a lot of people think it's because you go to HBCU instead of a PWI that getting your degree is easy. No, it's not. It's so much harder. It's not. It's so much harder because you got so many black people grinded for the same thing exactly grinded for a 4.0 gpa, grinded for the same opportunities that aren't afforded to them, as is so if you got. You got 5 000 people striving for the same position, for the same thing, even with campaigns in elections, people wild out. They get so many things just to get a position on campus, just to you know, have of the position on campus, have the resume look good or for whatever reason.
Hermione & CB:But as for like a pwi, if you're running against a white person, you got the whole black student union behind you. You know what I'm saying. So you got that. You have that advantage. But now here it's more of like okay, well, suzy got the same opportunities, I got at pwi, but me and um hermione, me and hermione striving for the same opportunity here and I can't see no advantage because we both black, we both got the same major, we both have the same gpa, we both grinded, we both got the same amount of work. So how do I find an advantage over one where I'm at a pwi, where I'm at an hbcu and it's just harder. Right, it's so much harder and I don't think they get that because I don't know why, but I feel like black.
Hermione & CB:When it comes to black people, they often take themselves out of fight and rage when it comes to we take ourselves out of fight and rage when it comes to putting ourselves on pedestals. So it's like when black people okay, so, for instance, the last chief justice that we just had she had like a 4.0 or something like this, but that wasn't portrayed the way it should have been, and not even just in the media, but just like here, and I knew it because she was an RA. But that's not something you see. Yeah, just like the first thing you click on. I feel like when you click on something on the website because that's what a lot of people do when you click on a website, that should be the first thing that should be popping up I really feel like we need to change the look of our website and all Like. I feel like it's very outdated. So it's like we need to put ourselves in better positions to be put on an even playing field with everybody else.
Hermione & CB:Because my favorite argument when I'm arguing with somebody, they go to pwi and, forgive me, they just use you as a a piece of diversity on a pie chart, because when you click on lsu website, you're gonna see a black. You're either gonna see andrew risa flojit you're not gonna see you. A couple slides later you're gonna see a little white person on there, but you're always gonna see like they always use black people for their game. But why are we using it for our own? So I think that's another tactic that white media also portrays for black people, because I I'm a strong advocate for if, if you're a D1 athlete and you have the opportunity to go to an HBCU and play ball, go to the HBCU and play ball, because the white, because white people in white media, like I was saying earlier, they will support what they like or they will support what makes them money right. And if you know for a fact that lsu is offering this amount of money over southern university, who's offering this amount of money? You're the black person is gonna gonna consider choosing lsu just because it's lsu and how it's portrayed in the media or how white people have portrayed it in the media. So I should say, because it's like you have lsu over su and I hate to say it, but it's always going to be lsu after before su.
Hermione & CB:That's just because white people have made lsu the standard in the south when it's really it's really not. There's multiple other schools who can be the pivotal part of the south, but it's always lsu. Why? Because they lsu has more white donors, they get more awards and accolades just because it's lsu and just because the majority of white people in the south go to lsu, just because it's lsu. Now, if we had the same, the same amount of donors at southern, would we be at the same topic or the same pedestal as LSU? Of course, but we probably wouldn't be as pivotal because we don't have a lot of, we don't have white people up there who's like, oh my gosh, go to Southern University, go here, go here. They have great opportunities. They have great. They have one fantastic nursing program number one in the state nursing program number one in the state. They have the greatest um law center which most lsu graduates who want to go to law school go to. That's, that's literally it's.
Hermione & CB:I just think it's crazy how white people have portrayed black people to be a certain way but yet praise us when they want our support to go to their schools because they feel as if oh, if we got Angel Reese and if we got Flage, oh, we got black people too. This is always how black people are going to be. We always want somebody to run for us, we always want somebody to do something and we'll throw a little change at them, because all black people are self-seeking and they want all this money because Southern not doing that, they just offering the culture. They just have a whole bunch of black people that are ghetto and they fight all the time and they wear this and they do that, but they do the same thing at LSU. But because the white people in the white media, like Angel Reese for what she does, likes Flange for what she does and who her family is on top of it.
Hermione & CB:And you got, like you were saying earlier, with caitlyn clark. She just got all these these nike deals and all that good stuff, but yet it's just not. It's just not where it needs to be right and piggyback off of what I remember when you said throw a little, a little change to her. So she carried richardson, that's my girl, love her down, love Sha'Carri. She went to LSU. Her mom died so she couldn't run to the Olympics or whatever I don't want to say. Lsu threw her to the wolves, but they were quiet when white media was tearing her down Like quiet, like you ever see. You know the movies where the little tumbleweeds just be passing. That's how it was.
Hermione & CB:But now she's back to who she is and not everybody's back on her coattails. Is it because she's back in a place that white people were to be in or is she following what society deems right, inacceptable Right, because all she gotta do is put on the spikes and roots? Okay, that's all she has to do, that's all she get paid for. But y'all want her to fit into a world, a media world, that's not built for her. You don't have people that. You don't have enough black journalists who will positively change the narrative of how black people are supposed to be viewed in the media. Right, I feel like it's too many white people trying to control what black people are supposed to do, what they deem is right in society. Or black people should do this or black people should do that.
Hermione & CB:All black people are not the same Black people. All black people are social workers. All black people are teachers. Right, all black people don't work low budget salaries. Right, we got some doctors, we got some lawyers, but yet that's not portrayed in the media, right?
Hermione & CB:Or in tv shows. Actually, because you got these, these big name tv shows that have black people as janitors, black people as teachers, but you got, but thank god, for shows like a different world, yes, or the cosby show, most importantly, where felicia was shot was a lawyer and you had Bill Cosby was who was an OBGYN, and I grew up on that and I'm like OK, now I see, like I see a bigger scope than what white media is trying to portray black people as. Because you like, back in those times, like you had shows like Good Times that showed, you know, black people basically trying to get it out the mud and enjoying the fruits of their labor when they could. But you got the bit the gospel show that shows a middle-aged, arguably high, high, um, middle, high class, upper middle class family, right, you know, with a lot of kids that you know aren't poor and who aren't. You know doing the things of like good times did and as a young black woman seeing that, it's like okay, now I see that I can have these same opportunities as white people have because it's been portrayed, and then you take it all the way to Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Hermione & CB:Somebody that's just from West Philly you said it's on West Philly, born and raised, moving all the way to Bel Air, which is predominantly white. You don't see a lot of black people in Bel Air and and the weather was black, just shaping how you can go from being from basically fighting for your life because you from West Philly, I'm from New Orleans. You know they kind of correlate to each other. Well, really correlate to each other, because speaking from somebody from New Orleans is getting out the mud and it's good to see past your 18th birthday, and then I just turned 21 in October. You're not supposed to make it past 21 in New Orleans. So he went to Bel Air.
Hermione & CB:I came up here to Baton Rouge and I can honestly say, even though it's an hour away from my house, it's opened way more opportunities to me versus staying back home, just like when Will moved from West Philly, being able to integrate and adapt into a society that's really not for him. He introduced Carlton to another side of him and Carlton introduced him to a side of people that he wasn't really used to, and, coming from New Orleans, I had to learn how to adapt for people that's trying to help me. So if I would've stayed back home, I probably wouldn't be in the position that I'm in now, but taking what was known as a bad stayed back home. I probably wouldn't be in the position that I'm in now, but taking what was known as a bad thing back home, bringing it here and turning it into a good thing. I'm able to go on trips paid for, like Southern was the first time I was able to get on the airplane or being able to go to Washington DC and see a Capitol or go to the Smithsonian, because I used the resources that were for me, but I used them and worked them to my understanding. Yeah, and I think once white media can start really understanding that all black people don't fit under the narrative of being ghetto or being, or always having being an argumentative spirit and things of that nature, once they realize that we can actually do these same things that you're doing, like cure cancer or have all these amazing achievements like the white people do, I think that's when we'll really get a level playing field as of what black people are. All right, so we get ready to close it.
Hermione & CB:Let's do some unpopular opinions. Okay, beyonce is not the spokesperson for black people. Beyonce don't even talk. Beyonce is not the model black girl. She's the model rich black girl. That's what a lot of people need to understand. You can't compare me to Beyonce. Beyonce is going to win Now. You can compare me to somebody that's down the street at LSU and we can go head for head, but she's not the model black person.
Hermione & CB:Another thing Stop using black people To monetize Off of what you think You're going to benefit from. So Meaning Stop putting Like Angel Reese or Caitlyn Clark together Because, statistically speaking, like, uh, angel reese or caitlyn clark together, because statistically speaking, you're gonna pick caitlyn clark. Let's start putting angel reese up against like not to do it, because that's her, but let's start putting up against fudge. Or let's start putting her up against some of these black girls that were taking in the wmba draft, because they can really go head to head. Stop using us for y'all political game and then get mad when we show y'all true colors. And then I think to.
Hermione & CB:Another unpopular opinion is that there's no, there's no premiere, there's no icon. Icon, there's no icon. There's no iconic black person that you can compare to all black people, and I think that's where a lot of white media gets it wrong is that, you see, you have like Kamala Harris, right? Not everybody can be Kamala Harris, right? Not everybody can be Andrew Reese or Flage. Not every black person can be me and not every black person can be me and not every black person can be hermione, right, you know. And once we can figure out that just being black equals perseverance, right, and once that starts being portrayed in the media more and more, both on our end, especially on our end and more of on a white person's end, I think that's when we'll really figure out, you know, how to move on and move forward from this, right. Well, I'm her body and I'm cb and we just got it, you.