Shine Brighter Together Podcast- Smarter in Seconds W Blaire Imani
Monique: [00:00:00] You're listening to the Shine Brighter Together Podcast. And I'm your host, Monique Melton. Here, we will explore the challenges, complexities, and sheer joy of building healthy relationships and doing the heart work to pursue. Black liberation, so we all can live freely and fully in our humanity, you can expect to hear solo episodes and heartfelt conversations with guests, from various backgrounds and various beliefs that are all committed to living a life aligned with our humanity. Also, before we get started with today's episode, I must remind you that today's information is shared for informational purposes only and does not substitute professional or medical advice. And we do not edit out adult language or code for cuss words or swear words, so please consider this. We also discussed topics that may not be suitable for young children, or you may hear things that are triggering. So, consider this as well. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode, and I hope you enjoy.
Welcome back for another episode of the Shine, Brighter Together Podcasts. And I cannot wait to get right into this one. I'm Monique Melton, published author international speaker, anti-racism educator, and your host of the Shine Brighter Together Podcast, and today we have very special guest with us. All of the guests are special, but I just have to say it. We have a very special guest with us on the podcast. And what I want to do first is share her bio with you, and then we're going to get right into this conversation. So today we have with us Blair Imani, Blair Imani is a critically acclaimed historian, out spoken advocate and activist and dynamic, public speaker, the author of two historical books, Modern Her Story, stories of Women and Nonbinary People Rewriting History, 2018 and Making Our Way Home, The Great Migration and the Black American Dream, 2020. She centers, women and girls’ global Black communities and the LGBTQ community. She is the cohost of America. Did what? An educational podcast and anti-racism initiative with Kate Roberts. Blair has appeared on Fox news and MSNBC presented at colleges and universities spoken at conferences around the world and delivered powerful talks for organizations and brands, including TEDx and Glaad that's GLAAD. I am super pumped to get into this conversation with Blair. So, let's get to it,
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Y'all, I'm so excited. I say that every time, but I am, I love sitting down and having these conversations with so many brilliant, incredible human beings. And so today is no exception. I'm super excited. To be here with the incredible Blair Imani. Welcome to the show, Welcome
Blair: [00:03:47] Hello. Hello. Thank you for having me.
Monique: [00:03:50] Yes, I'm so happy. You're here. And I've already shared your formal bio with the folks, but can you tell us something about yourself that you wish more people knew about you.
Blair: [00:04:06] Ooh. I think I've been shouting it from the rooftops, but I just got engaged. I'm very happy, so that's a new fact about me. I think, too, that I wish I could be a rapper and a comedian. When I lived in New York, I was trying to take rap lessons and I could not find any legitimate ones. So, I let that ship sail, but I spend a lot of my free time watching comedy shows, a lot of my friends are comedians and I just absolutely love all types of music. But I'm not musically or comedically inclined whatsoever. we just work with the gifts that God gave us.
Monique: [00:04:41] You know what I feel like we should have a rap battle because I, in no rights to claim to be a rapper. We do it for fun, me and my daughter, actually, we have rap battles. We have rap battles in. They're hilarious, but I feel like we should have one at some point. Cause that would be, that would be fun, and I, I love comedy too, so we have that in common. that's so cool. I love it. So how have you been, you and I have this similar. Experience of all of a sudden, everyone was interested in what we had to say for about 2.5 seconds.
What was that like? And, how are you? How are you now? Tell us a little bit about that.
Blair: [00:05:24] Sure! It's been really interesting, like I've had dreams that I woke up and had a massive platform, and then it was a dream and this time, it happened. I went from like 50,000 followers to now, I'm like 250,000 and I always thought doing this influencing thing and teaching thing would be a pipe dream, something I would do on the side prior to, in May, at the end of May, I was looking at unemployment. And, I was going to have to do that hard thing where you put your dreams on hold and go back into the nine to five sectors. And I was getting ready to do that. I was writing grants to get right, to do that, and I like to say that a law is the best planner in the need and the interest started to emerge. And so that's, it's been interesting. It's been like a, mental gymnastics of figuring out why now, and, putting all that together, whether it's the pandemic, whether the quote unquote perfect martyr situation. But I'm just grateful to be in this moment and to be able to show up in a way that's helpful, but it has been exhausting. people not respecting boundaries, people, Questioning, things that they shouldn't even be asking about. People feeling entitled to my space, that's been difficult. but I do feel largely blessed. I think I'm a chronic, maybe a little bit of a toxic optimist where I try to find the silver lining and absolutely everything. But it's been largely a blessing to be able to share my gifts in a larger way, and also to be able to innovate on this platform and try to walk the walk of doing what folks I think consider influencing to be, and then making it my own and doing education through those means as well.
Monique: [00:06:57] Yeah. And you definitely make it your own. You have a very distinct brand, when you're scrolling on Instagram, you don't always see the name first. You might see the image, or you might see the caption and especially this new message, you have this new style of showing up. What do you call it? Smarter in what is it 60 seconds?
Blair: [00:07:16] Smarter in seconds. okay, I'm a corndog I was going to call it quarter, minute lessons because I make everything over complicated.
Monique: [00:07:23] Oh no, I'm so glad you didn't do that.
[Laughs] Blair: [00:07:25] Yeah, my friend Color Me, Courtney, Courtney Quinn, who has a master's in marketing and branding. I believe she's @colormecourtney. I highly recommend her to everybody; she is just like a breath of fresh air and she took me under her wing immediately as soon as I started to get this growth. And even prior to that, she has this #colormeclassrooms that helps folks like innovate. Using the different platforms that exist and make it their own and also monetize and everything. and so, I told her, I had this idea for reals because, we're at the same agency now thanks to her. And, she was like trying to give me some ideas about how I could use the platform, and so I was like, okay, I have this idea where I do these 60 second lessons, Or do these 15 second lessons? And I was coming out with all these terrible names and she was like, just smarter and seconds. So that's what it is now. And it's just 15 seconds of me breaking down an issue. It's funny to see the rejection of it, some folks are totally down. Other folks who are more like used to an academic setting. When I explain intersectionality in 15 seconds with citations to Kimberly Crenshaw, people were like, ah, you shouldn't explain that in 15 seconds. And I was like, if I can, why not? if we can make it simple. Why not. And so there's some stuff that works in some stuff that doesn't, so I'm still playing around with it, consulting with folks to make sure that I'm getting the education across, making sure that it's, heavily researched. But the one that has the most views are on, non-gendered ways to introduce guests and friends and family. And that has a 2 million, 481 views. And that is massive to me. It's me with all these different hats. Just say in different ways you can address, and folks are excited about it. I think folks want to do better, but it's just a matter of making that information tangible. And unfortunately, attention spans, especially as far as media goes, is getting shorter and shorter. So, I tried to innovate and fit that niche and it's gone well.
Monique: [00:09:17] Yeah. And I just went to Color Me Courtney's Instagram when you said it and it is absolutely beautiful. I'm definitely going to be checking her out, so thank you for sharing here, and I will make sure we include her information in our show notes, one of the things about marketing is, knowing your audience and being able to adapt to the changing environments. And if you get stuck in just one way of doing things, then you get left behind. And I think it's really important to stay true to yourself. Stay true to the work that you do doing but innovate. That's what we've been doing as human beings from the beginning. We're always innovating. I think that that's such a cool thing, but the other thing, people being upset about you. Sharing it in seconds, it doesn't mean that this is the complete conversation about this. Go and learn some more. I'm not giving you everything. How could I possibly do that? I think it's really cool. I'm glad you're doing that.
Blair: [00:10:11] Yeah. And it's funny too. Cause some folks, I think missed the point that it's 15, second explainer and they're like, why didn't you cover this nuanced element? And I'm like, because those 15 seconds, I'll do a part two part three, but I think there's this perception, especially amongst privileged folks, that they can learn something in 15 seconds and you can, there's some things you can learn. You can learn a definition, you can learn the background of something, the context. I want to demonstrate that it's, it's tangible and present to be able to do that, but that's not the end of it. So, I'm constantly encouraging folks like, Hey, take the conversation further. Let's talk about it in the comments. Let's take it further because, it's a very privileged and entitled mindset that Oh, okay. let's we understand all of oppression in 15 seconds and that'll be the end of it. Monique: [00:10:52] Exactly. Cause no one can give you anything. All of everything. just think about the wide span amount of information that is out there. I always say in my classes that are 90 minutes, two hours, that this is not an all-inclusive examination and that's a two-hour class. There's no way you can cover everything, Whatever people get on my nerves. I tell people, argue with yourself. Okay. If you think you could do it better, do it better then.
Blair: [00:11:18] So that's the thing, folks are like, why didn't you cover this? And I'm like, nobody's stopping you from doing it. Or the other case where, I have to limit comments because I am, all these things. particularly being a bisexual Muslim gets a lot of vitriol from people who just heard about me and feel like. There one hateful comment is going to make me straight or not Muslim. which is hilarious. So, I limit my comments. So, if you follow me, you can comment, and if you don't want to do that, you can DM me and we'll talk about it there. I try to read all my DMS, which is taking more and more time, but I'm working on it. I'm trying to do it in a way that Oh yeah. I tried to do in a way that makes me like leaves me mentally healthy. Because there's all these shortcuts and stuff and I'm working with Instagram now on it, but some folks are like, Hey, why are you shutting down conversations? Why are you limiting your comments? And I'm like, I'm not a news site. I'm a person, I'm not a platform with a faceless nameless thing. Like I'm a real person with real feelings and I will really slap you.
Monique: [00:12:12] I tell people I am not one 800-phone a Black girl and kudos to you. I will engage in DMS, but there are a lot that I will ignore, especially when people are asking me to explain things, explain that when Google, first of all, Google is free. But, like you said, the boundaries and I have a very. Very clearly laid out, but we know the history of this, like you're a historian, there is a history that goes all the way back to slavery of feeling entitled to Black bodies and anything that we produce or anything that recreating feeling as though you should have it because you want it. And that we should just have nothing to say about it and go on about it. And it's. It's it is what it is. So shifting gears a little bit historian, first of all, I just think it's so fascinating, and so cool, when one is a historian. Because it's like the way that your brain has to operate and maintain knowledge and put it all together and synthesize it and then move it. It's just, so fascinating because for one, I'm not a history buff, like I'll remember some stuff, but I'm, I have to look at my notes. I might have to look a few times, so I just love that. I love it so much. How did you get in that path? I go down that pathway.
Blair: [00:13:36] So the hilarious, the thing is that I was a Spanish major and then a Political Science major.
And then I had a Spanish minor. And then, I decided I needed to graduate cause I was also doing student organizing on campus and I was getting a lot of hate, I'm from Southern California and I went to school in. Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Louisiana State University. And there's just different ways of white supremacy. And, in California, sometimes it's more overt or rather, sorry, it's more covert, it's more systematized. And then you have it in the South where it's systematized as well as being overt in, don't speak up, don't show up in this space, don't speak to white people, move out of the way on the sidewalk. Real Jim Crow things. And so, coming from a different context, not being used to those cultural differences, I was just loud as heck, out of the box, not necessarily being the most productive, but doing what I knew to be me. and so, because of that, I drew the ire of a lot of local Hate groups and so I just no longer safe for me to be in campus. So, a year before I graduated, I graduated in three years because of this. I decided to switch over to history cause those classes were open, so that was the thing. I've always loved history, but at the end of the day, I chose a history major because it was way I could graduate, And I love telling folks that because that's true for, I think a lot of folks, like the classes in communications were too full. The classes in political science were too full and we had to read rush Limbaugh. I was like, not I decided to go to the history department and I felt so at home there, my first history class that I took is like a, general requirement, Dr. Steven Ross, and he laid down the date. He wrote, like Thursday, whatever, whatever, month, date year. And then I talked about common era versus AD versus BC. And those different ways that we kind of Euro centrocytes the time, like when we think about today's date, not everybody is acknowledging the fact that the names of the week come from Norse mythology, the months come from Roman and Greek mythology. The dates come from the Gregorian calendar, which comes from like Eurocentric monarchy, and the years are centered around Christian essentialism, the birth of Jesus. Yeah. And so he broke that down and I was glued, I knew that like Thursday meant Thor's day, like the, the North figure Thor, but I didn't realize how much history and not only just like history, but like white Eurocentric history is baked into our every day. So, I started thinking about like, where else is history hidden? And it's everywhere. It's funny, cause whenever somebody asks me, what do you think the key to solving this issue is I'm like looking at the history. So, I'm definitely biased in that way. And I find it to be true that, the conditions that we are, ourselves as human beings exist in, did not come in a vacuum. But that's how we were taught. And that is so disempowering. I used to mentor across the street from me in Brooklyn at the Kingsborough projects, if you learn and then are reinforced through socialization that Black folks are poor. Then you’re also dealing with the barriers to, getting out of poverty and having a food desert and not being able to nourish yourself. Then what is your outcome look like? You're not even going to be able to you, because of the systems that exist, get to college to unlearn that. So, the learning shouldn't start in college. We should just learn it right from the jump. So, I started to. Really get into that. And the transformative point for me was really working with ancestor, Ms. Sadie Roberts Joseph who passed away last year. I met her actually the same day I met John Lewis when he came for his March book tour. She just was dressed in this beautiful, Afrocentric Ghanaian can take cloth just beautiful. And I just gravitated to her and we started to talk, and she was very impressed with me because I was one of the few students who was in the VIP area. Cause I made sure I met John Lewis. She agreed to speak with me and to work with me. So, I ended up taking my capstone course with her on independent study. It was either working at a plantation at the rural poverty museum, which was extremely white centric. Or starting a new program with the African American museum that she founded and operated. So that's what I did. And I learned how to turn history, into something that was from the archives into something that was living. She had this approach of growing cotton plants at the museum, and then having students from all different backgrounds. Try to pick the cotton out of the bulb. And then she would talk about the cotton gin and then she would talk about enslavement and it made it so much more real and no longer abstract. And she would have us hold, wooden instruments from Africa and show us what a drinking gourd looked like and how they would turn and gourd plants into water vessels. Then she would have this makeshift, like underground railroad and try to hide, just to put young people in a way that is nonthreatening and non-traumatic in the shoes of enslaved folks and I'm getting chills now thinking about it, but it was just such a novel thing where, you know, when you go to an institution, you tend to learn how to keep that knowledge at the institution, but working with her. Shifted my entire paradigm. Like before this, I thought wearing a dashiki was like, I had a lot of internalized Anti Africanus. And I didn't realize that till I was working with her. And she wore a dashiki almost every day or a kentia cloth or a mud cloth. And I was like, why do you wear that? And she starts talking to me, she was like, why wouldn't I? This belongs to us too. It's important to know our roots, but we come from somewhere and that belongs to us as well. And I just never felt ownership in that same way. Not in a possessive way, but just in a familiar way. And so, she starts talking to me about it. And the next day she gave me my first dashiki and I was so embarrassed to wear it. And she just really like psychologically breaking that down with me. Like, why don't I want to celebrate Kwanzaa? Why don't I feel connected to these, Black and African American traditions? And I'm a better person for that because, coming from where I came from having class privilege, but also having skin privilege. I, because just how I show up in the world was able to opt out all of so many elements of prejudice and racism just by virtue of having lighter skin. And I think that overlaid with my, internalize that didn't come from nowhere. The only time we saw African, tribes or tribal groups, Was in biology class when it was very clear that we were made to feel that this was primitivism and it was less than so all that came to that moment where I was speaking with her and she was just breaking it down with me. And I'm so blessed because the last conversation we had before passed, I was able to tell her about my first book and I was also about to go to Kenya and I had shaved my head, just like the girls who go to the schools in Kenya to like really connect and that was the last conversation I had with miss Amy before her passing. And I'm so glad we left it on that note because she basically shepherded me through. If I could have a conversation with myself, at that time, I probably wouldn't wanna slap myself, but she totally transformed who I was. And it was like a crescendo to that moment where I'm going to the motherland, and not only am I going, but I'm going with the attitudes that you have taught me and that you have deconstructed within me for, just a better, more globalist understanding of Blackness. So, history then became the pathway to me, learning about myself and my family and my people.
Monique: [00:20:47] Hmm, that's so beautiful. And I'm just thinking about just the power of, , of one really incredible teacher and how it can just really shift the trajectory of your life and how you see ourselves and the informs how you do your work. Wow, what an amazing gift to have been under her wing, that sounds so amazing. I had some great teachers, but I can't think of anyone that has made that type of profound, impact on me as far as like in my college. Career in any way. So that's amazing. That's absolutely amazing.
Blair: [00:21:28] That's the thing to, she wasn’t a professor at the school. She was just a woman who was so influenced by her dear friend, Ms. Odell S Williams who worked so hard to make sure that the, post Brown, Brown versus board of education that. The work that had been done by Black educators to educate Black students about our history didn't disappear. And it did in many cases, we have Negro history week, which became Black history month with Carter G Woodson. But for the most part history textbooks written by folks like Langston Hughes no longer existed when we started attending white schools. And when our programs got defunded. So, it was with that approach that she brought everything, she ran the Juneteenth celebrations, the anniversary of her passing is in July. And I just I'm just so happy that. The Juneteenth celebration occurred, how it was, because I just know that she's up in heaven, organizing the ancestors to bring out this moment. I feel her energy and her presence constantly. And, she passed, she was actually murdered, which is, terrible thing. Yeah and that's how I found out. I found out on Twitter, just to see that happen was terrible. And it was during the final week of edits for my Black history book. And so many of the things that I learned about her work, but learn from her, went into that book. I was sitting on the couch and I was editing and I'm very spiritual. I feel like I commune with the ancestors all the time. I just got this more intense focus into the correction of the book. I was feeling so dejected, and so out of sorts, and I was just hearing her say culture is the glue, culture's the glue. And she used to always say that culture is the glue that holds the people together. Take a step back in time and step into your future. And so that's what I put in the dedication page. And I'm just so grateful for her and for women like her and for educators like her who are hands on and will not only show you something, but we'll put it in your hands and demonstrate it for you so that you feel alive in your legacy.
Monique: [00:23:31] Yeah. And, and I'm, I'm so sorry to hear how she was taken from us. And I say us because she's, she's my people too, even though I never met her, but what an incredible, incredible legacy, it sounds like she left. And, thinking of the work that you do and the history, the teaching, you have your books. You're young, but when you think about your legacy, what is what is the driving theme for you when you think of the legacy that you're leaving and you're creating.
Blair: [00:24:06] I really want folks to like, remember me for access. And it's exciting because I was doing, an interview with one of my friends from when I worked at planned Parenthood, Bridget Todd, who has an amazing podcast. And she was saying that it's so characteristic of me to take something difficult and to put in accessible language, like good. thank you. like that's the highest comment well meant when somebody recognizes you for what you're trying to put out into the world. I just want to make sure that the things that we need and we being not just, like Black folks, but like we, as a people, as a human race need, aren't so out of touch that we have formed our entire identity and then we get access to it. Like it is completely unfair that I am like a young queer person. Didn't learn about so many of the queer icons that came before me. Like that is something I was deprived because of heteropatriarchy. That is a violence, when you deny people their legacy. That's violent and that's what I'm interested in deconstructing and repairing because, it is so freeing when you learn, Hey, not only are you the only one, but here's so many other people who did it and did it well, who did it against the odds, who lived and lived happily because sometimes the only Black figures that we learned about, or, various marginalized figures that we learned about are the ones who became martyrs. I want to learn about the folks who lived. Not to say that the folks who were killed by the system, they were fighting or less valid or less important. But to say that it is so important that John Lewis lived to old age.
Monique: [00:25:32] Yeah. Yeah. Blair: [00:25:34] So holding those truths together. It is so important, and I want to bring forth the history that's complex. Like I was actually, I'm getting ready. I'm very excited about this. I'm getting ready to do a, a talk with the teachers at my former elementary school. And I was talking to the principal this morning, Dr. Lin at Carver Elementary. And I showed him my trophy that I keep on my desk. It's a fifth-grade trophy from my oral. It's the only trophy I have. So, give me an award I'm down with anyway, it's the only trophy I have it's for public speaking and that's what I do now. And that school was so transformative for me. My sister and I, we were the only Black kids at the whole school, but I never felt like a racialized person first. I always felt like a student, like in equal to the extent that you can in a white supremacist society and the school, they did such a good job. So, in California schools, you generally learn about the missions and then you have to make a scale model of the missions. We didn't do that my year. We learned how to do weaving. We learned about the Anasazi people. We learned about the Navajo people. We learned about the Chumash people. I learned about the different customs that they had that made them different. And we had to, learn about the land where we were born and what that, tribal land was before it was stolen instead of honoring the oppressors. And then in second grade, that was in third grade. But in second grade, Mrs. Ishizue she two years old when she was interned in the concentration camps that Japanese Americans and immigrants were forced into during world war II.
Monique: [00:27:02] Wow!
Blair: [00:27:05] She explained to us how the mall that we shop at the Santa Anita mall and the Santa Anita racetrack, was where her family was in turned. And now she's down the street from that. And they taught us that in second grade and it wasn't scary. It wasn't harmful, it wasn't traumatic. It was a necessary when I hear people say things like, Oh, we can't teach kids this. We can't teach that you can really teach a child anything, as long as you put it into context, make it age appropriate, put it in language they can understand, but how do kids even learn how to speak if we don't try?
Monique: [00:27:33] Exactly!
Blair: [00:27:35] Going to school at the elementary school really cheap shifted my entire paradigm. Like they had like no tolerance for bullying, the principal, wasn't just somebody who sat in the office, Liz Hollingsworth. She went to the classroom on a rotating basis just to sit in the back of the classroom, not in an intrusive way, but just to feel like, Hey, I'm here for you. If you need something, I'm here. Doing experimental grants, where we learned how to do mine. We learned how to do the art of miming for no reason other than it was creative expression. And it was available, and we sang Hanukkah songs at the Christmas celebration. Nobody was Jewish at that school that we knew of, but it was still an important part to say, Hey Christianity, isn't the only thing we're going to have this be a real holiday celebration. So that approach informs everything. And so now I have this opportunity I'm doing just in a few days to basically introduce myself as an alumni of the school and to say, Hey, this is a moment in history and time and I live the street, please utilize me and they're willing to do it. it's just so exciting to make it to not only say, Oh, this is my legacy, but till return solidify it and then say, I want to help because, maybe I send my kids there. Maybe I don't, maybe I don't have kids. Maybe I do, but it's just about impacting the futures of other human beings in a positive way.
Monique: [00:28:49] Exactly. Exactly, exactly. Like I can't say exactly enough. We actually have a lot of common, cause I, I actually learned how to do mine as well. I learned how to do it in middle school and yeah, it was an interesting experience. I have to talk about that some other time, but, when you talk about kids and that you really can teach them anything it's True. You just do it age appropriately. So, do you show them images of people being burned and all that? Absolutely not.
Blair: [00:29:18] They do anyway. I tell this to people all the time. when I show people my book, the only like remotely violent image, is an image of an empty news on a red background illustrated by Rochelle Baker and the books Making Our Way Home, by the way. Yall and I had a talk with this woman in Baltimore, a white woman, and she was saying, don't you think this is inappropriate for young people? And I was like, did you know that the first image that young people see of a Black person is an enslaved man who's back is key, loaded and scarred over because he's lash so many times. And she was like, I know that image. And I was like, yeah. And it's because you saw that image before you were eight years old. And it's so interesting because that desensitizes people from violence against Black folks, where informed the school to prison pipeline, it's all intentional. And so, when I hear people say, Oh, we can't do this for kids. let's look at the violence that we're already doing. The fact that I learned in biology class, that if you're Catholic in the back of your head squirrels, a certain way, you're gay. And if it goes the other way, you're not. That's homophobic, pseudoscience like that is violent. And so, it's interesting cause like it was, these developments that happened after the human genome project. And so, some of these things become very specific to certain age groups, but then it becomes something that, queerness is codified in your biology and your physiology instead of it being a conversation. But then you have those same teachers say, we can't talk about LGBTQ people, but we can lie. We can't talk about STDs. We can't talk about STI, but we can do this experiment where we have one glove with a hole in it and have everybody shake hands and then discuss the transmission. It's so duplicitous. And that was a real experiment that we did in class where. Two of the students were given gloves with holes. Some students had no gloves, some students had gloves and they had to go shake hands, which was a proxy for having sex at the end, the two students with holes in the gloves to stand at the front of the classroom. And then if you had shaken hands with that person, you had the made up disease, but those things are so stigmatizing, so harmful. And so, there's already so much that we're doing wrong. Why don't we just do it right from the jump so that we don't have to unlearn it in therapy or in grad school?
Monique: [00:31:26] Exactly. Exactly. Because eventually you get to a place hopefully where you're like, Whoa, what I was taught was absolutely wrong. It was a lie. And now I have to go unlearn that because it still has impacted the way I formed habits in my life. Like those things still affect us. So, you have to unlearn it and then learn the appropriate thing. That takes, that takes a lot of. Effort and a lot of intention, you don't just take a belief and Oh, okay. I'm going to go ahead and operate from that belief from here on out. No, no, no, no, no, no, it's not. It's not that easy. And if we could teach from the beginning and then reinforce it through socialization And be able to support folks to align with humanity from the beginning. Then we wouldn't have what we're we have today. But
Blair: [00:32:16] Yeah, it's so important because if we learn that the trail of tears, was a genocide on all native people and that no native people currently exists and that there's no customs, then. It puts in the back of your mind that this is a people that has already gone. This is a people that no longer exist instead of learning so many things that, decades after the trail of tears, native Americans were still not or indigenous people. We’re still not citizens, which is Ludicrous, not until 1924, but then we learned things like the 19th amendment was the time that women got the vote. Native women were not even citizens, yet Black women could not vote without threat of violence. But then as I often say, then you put that into the context of learning about current movements and you wonder, Hey, why are the gay folks so mad if you're not learning about the fact that don't ask, don't tell, or the previous institution, blue discharge paper resulted in gay veterans or seemingly gay veterans and Black gay veterans. Most often being discharged from the military without rhyme or reason at a disproportionate rate, not even being able to call themselves veteran. So, if you don't learn about those violence's is over and over again. You're gonna to look at these people and say, why are you hurt? Cause you didn't see them fall. You didn't see, not only do they fall, but they were also pushed down by the United States in this case. And you wonder to yourself, why aren't you grateful? And that's what is this culture clash? And I talk about it so often, if you didn't learn redlining, but you're a white woman who benefited from red lining because you inherited your white grandfather's house, who was a GI, meanwhile, Black folks couldn't even get on the housing ladder. Not because we had equal opportunity, but because we couldn't get housing or get loans, literally. But if you don't learn that and all is that some reason Black folks have decided to live in housing projects and not try hard enough, then the war on drugs makes a lot more yeah. Sense to you. But it's all intentional. It's all a mechanism of control. It's all mechanisms of white supremacy. Even when people talk about the new deal. That was extremely racist in its implementation. Yet we see this most progressive party platform talking about it. Like it was the pinnacle of American ingenuity. We have to talk about the two truths at once and we have to call out the bullshit.
Monique: [00:34:25] Yup, exactly. And one of the things that. I talked about in my programs. And you've already said here is that, and I have a guest lecturer who talks on the history of racism in America, and we break it down to four different lessons and she talks, her name is Dr. Marla Parker and she's a professor out in California. You said it already, like history does not exist in a vacuum. You don't have these events that happened in the past have zero implication whatsoever. And what we're experiencing in the present, like how is that even possible? Let's just put it this way. Let's say you stayed up all night. And you were up all night and you're doing what you had to do. And then the next day, you're tired. You're yawning. You're like, Ooh, I'm exhausted. And then you're like, wait a minute. That's because in the past last night I stayed up all night and didn't get a good night's sleep. So that's probably why I'm tired. Most people can make that kind of connection. Oh, that makes sense. Something that happened in the past is affecting what's happening to you today. But when we start talking about racism and the history of violence against people of color, indigenous folk, Black folks, everyone wants to be like, wait a minute. No, that was the past. It has nothing to do with reality. That willful ignorance and that very deliberate attempt to be in denial. It's just, another way to Gaslight folks and to perpetuate this very deadly system of oppression. It's just so frustrating.
Blair: [00:35:54] It really is, but it's, I think once you realize how intentional it is for me, at least it becomes somewhat liberating because then you can see the matrix and see, okay, this connects to this and this is why this happens. And you can start to sever those wires to make it a healthier ecosystem. And it just feels so, immediate to me. And I know you feel this too, like just the sense that okay, we have the solution, we have the keys, but not burning yourself out to try to get it done.
Monique: [00:36:20] Because there's a lot to learn. There's a lot of work to do. And there are so many different components and there are so many different lanes and there are so many different aspects and levels of the work. We can't do it all, not one. We need everyone. We need everyone from every walk of life, from every genre, from every industry, from every age, from every generation to be involved in this. And to really commit to it for a lifetime. I don't know if we'll see in my lifetime, the change that we absolutely need to see. I'm pretty sure we won't, but I would love to see some substantial progress. that's not 2.5 seconds of people sharing Black lives matters. hashtags,
Blair: [00:37:03] what I would like to see is folks to stop brainwashing themselves into believing that they're doing something by doing the bare minimum or nothing like caring isn't in good vibes towards somebody who's actively being killed. Does absolutely nothing. And still leaves you liable for negligence. You know what I mean? So, it's just so frustrating to me because like the challenge accepted thing that went viral or the Black square thing that went viral, people really patting themselves on the back for doing these things. And then you have the conflation of what it means to be a digital organizer because disabled folks like Amani Barber, Mia Ives rudely these folks who are disabled, who are activists, who can't necessarily be in the streets in the same way as somebody who's able to can, but are still extremely crucial members of the movement, then their work gets dismissed because people can't understand the fact that, Hey, if you do something surface level, it doesn't matter if you do that online or offline it's surface level, but movement work can happen anywhere. It's all about how we use these tools. It's like when a kid cleans up their own mess and wants a cookie, it's like you made the mess in the first place.
Monique: [00:38:10] Can you say that again for my kids? Because they'll clean up their mess, but then it's okay, like that's what she's supposed to do. Like what are we talking about here? And if they'll really clean it up well, cause my son. Oh, my goodness. I have to point out. Do you not see the Lego on the floor? Oh yeah. Mommy let me get that. Im like, please. Just do it, but I tell you kids, kids are so they're there. They're What's the right word. I want to say they're so incredible because they can soak this information up and begin to apply it to their real, everyday life situations. And it's like adults. Come on, like y'all can do this too. Like, we're talking about kids and people want to talk about, Oh, I want to do this work so that my kids, what about you? What about you person? You have to be doing this work too. And like you said, not just doing the bare minimum, because my thing is do what you can with what you have and where you are. So, if you are someone who is able body, you're working in a place where you have different types of opportunities for leadership or influence you have wealth or money. What you do is going to look different than someone who is disabled or unemployed, or, trying to do what they can, but it doesn't mean that you don't do anything. But what you do is going to be dependent upon what you have and where your position. And I think people have to stop just being so lazy about what they can do. And just take things as Oh, someone else will do it, or it's too big of a problem. What can I do? You actually have a lot that you can do.
Blair: [00:39:52] Absolutely. And I think too, it's just like I called it the proverbial refrigerator of ingredients, it's specializing, like if you have a bunch of fresh leafy greens in your refrigerator of justice, you better make a salad of justice. You know what I mean? But if you don't have any dairy. You have no noodles; you have no milk. You have no eggs. Then don't volunteer to bring Mac and cheese, especially when there's been Gladys from down the street, who've been making Mac and cheese to bring to this, movement/potluck for years, you are better not. You better pick a lane. You know what I mean? So, it's about specializing, and I try to do it in those ways to make it less abstract for people. Because I think that some of it is a cognitive dissonance. The entire premise of American school systems and socialization is this idea that we have to conform to a larger. System in order to be successful. And this movement is telling people, no, this movement, this, this doesn't work for us. It has never worked from us, wake up, get going. And so, there's that cognitive dissonance for a lot of privileged folks who suddenly realized, Oh, like I was talking to my friend the other day, who are actually yesterday, who's an artist. And how, when a Black person or BIPAC person does artwork, they are immediately compared to Basquiat or compared to, a Black artist. And they're told that they are the next XYZ. Any, field, if your order you're the next, this, if you're a writer, you're the next thing. It was crushing me when I wrote my book about the great migration, I was being called the next Isabel work Wilkerson. Isabel Wilkerson is still alive. She just wrote another book called Cast, which you all should get. And we can talk about similar subjects. Morgan Jerkins has an excellent book out, on The Great Migration. I have a book out; Isabel Wilkerson has a Pulitzer prize winning book out. We don't have to be the same person in order to talk about the same subject, especially when this is a hundred-year period. And there's how many, any books on a three- year period, how many books are on the Cuban missile crisis, comparing those white authors to each other. So, I was explaining this to him about how, when he does artwork, he's taken as an individual. Who's contributing art to the space, but when his peer who is a marginalized person, does artwork, they are expected to enliven. And relive all of their traumas to create art. They can't just make art for the sake of art. Everything they do has to have a connection to pain and trauma as the expectation of the institution. And once he realized that, then there's this panic, Oh, shit. I didn't know that I'm letting this happen. What do I do? And so, there's a little bit of that, that's understandable. And there's also the. Another knee jerk reaction, which is no, that's impossible that couldn't be happening on my watch and what I always try to encourage folks. And I see you do it as well. Like you said, when we do the Instagram live. It's so much about, checking your privilege, checking yourself, checking your car. So, you're not driving out, around in a clunker that's, getting people into accidents, polluting the air, really being responsible for yourself in what you do in the world. Has it connected to other people? And that's something we can all do. Monique: [00:42:45] It's really not that complicated some things are, some things are complicated, some things are full of nuance, but some things are not that complicated. Like being aware there of yourself, being aware of the privileges that you have and trying to figure out how to dismantle the systems that give you that privilege. It doesn't always have to be so complicated, and so it's people don't even try. They give up before they even try it. There was a, there was an image, I don't know who the creator allows of this image, but it was like a Black person next to a white person who looked like they were out of breath. And there was like this ramp and the white person was just like, exhausted. We haven't even gotten started. what are you talking about here, person? we haven't even started.
Blair: [00:43:38] And that's so often, like I got emails on my Patreon from folks who were like, today I just, I spent all day devoted to anti-racism and I called out everything that happened and I'm exhausted. And I was like, yeah. Now imagine how Julie in accounting has felt because she has to deal with people, commenting on her natural hairstyles while she also has to get the annual reports done and y'all are telling her. That, she's, X, Y, Z and it's really those things of personifying and getting that reflection. Some folks are acknowledging the fact that they are tired. Some folks who are acknowledging the fact that it's hard to have difficult conversations and it's uncomfortable, but it's about putting it into context. That's why I said recently, I keep having these like hard hitting quotes, these tough pills illustrated by Cam Ezia, and like things that say Oh, this was a great one from Rachel Ricketts. Actually, "you are never above this work. And if you think you're above this work, you aren't even in this work." So that's about like engaging. And then one I, when I had recently was "sometimes privilege, looks like being able to ignore a crisis that others are dying from. "
Monique: [00:44:36] That one right there, that one right there.
Blair: [00:44:38] It is what it is. we can't hide from the fact that there are people who feel like I don't have to wear a mask because I'm not going to die. you're literally killing other people. I don't have to pay attention to this election cause it's not going to change me. People are going to be really affected. And this isn't a joke. This isn't a game and it's about. Catching yourself, Oh, I don't have to repost that because it's, doesn't matter to me. I don't have to do anything about that. Cause it doesn't matter to me. It doesn't matter directly affect me. But as this virus and this pandemic has taught us, we aren't just human beings living in bubbles separate from one another, like that's how my mom used to explain the need for universal healthcare to her, like waspy white friends, like of which she had very few, my mom would tell them like, okay, yeah, you have healthcare, but what about the people making your food? What about the folks who are doing all these menial tasks that you underpay them for? Because of capitalism. Those people are in your space too. And I think that's become abundantly apparent to people, but there's still the folks who are making the connection that if we have a sick society, then that means you're sick too. Even if you're not directly affected yet. And it shouldn't even be that it has to affect you, but we're selfish people. So sometimes that's what it takes, it's no matter how you get here, it's about what you do from the forward. If you suddenly care about, anti-racism because it's immediately affected you. I find so often that you have, parents of multiracial children who come from privilege, who now, Oh, Oh snap. My son is dealing with racism. Maybe I should care about it. That's terrible, because you should really be preparing yourself, take care of the kids that you have, regardless of what those kids look like. But if that's how you got here, make sure that you're not forcing the kids to do labor, that you need to be doing yourself. Like you wouldn't show up for surgery. Without having read any of the textbooks without having a medical degree. So how are you feeling empowered to rear a child that is going to have a completely different life experience from you? How are you feeling empowered to suddenly bring in diverse folks knowing that your office is a violent environment, how are you going?
Monique: [00:46:33] They don't see it as that. They don't see it as that.
Blair: [00:46:35] It's just so many things. And like I said earlier too, I said, y'all are backseat driving to justice. y'all just realize there was a car. Y'all just realize the car was moving. And now you're trying to shout instructions, take a step back, look around, look at the scenery, and then we can move forward from there.
Monique: [00:46:54] And matter of fact, I wouldn't even say backseat, they in the trunk, what's going on. You don't even know what's going on. That's another thing why people are always acting so shocked about racism. How could we have racism in 2020? Because y'all have not eliminated it. What do you mean? Like me coming in the house being like, oh my God, gosh, I can't believe these dishes are still here did you do them. What did you expect what's going to happen? Actually, I don't do the dishes my husband does, but you get the point, you can't expect work to be done when no one's doing it. So of course, we're still dealing with these issues and these problems.
Blair: [00:47:29] But then American history, I joke, but I'm serious that the way we learn history in grade school, Is that Black people are enslaved and that's when Black people first appeared Africa doesn't exist until later in the story that's how it's told folks, emerge in the year 1600 and we are enslaved and that's the condition that we're meant to be in all lies. These are all big lies folks. And then we disappear from the face of the earth following the civil war, which was not fought around his enslavement, another lie. And then we show back up in the sixties with Martin Luther King and we get free. And then Martin Luther King quote, unquote dies for the sins of the nation. And then Obama extra ends racism. That's not encompassing. That's not true, but that's the way it's told. And I just remember being an adolescent when Obama became president and how folks were saying, wow, racism's really over now. Yeah, that was the hope, but that was not the reality. And we're living it.
Monique: [00:48:24] In fact things got even worse in a lot of cases. There's a book by Carol Anderson called White Rage and, the book, it is clearly documented several different instances in which it was an actual increase in, hate crime and racialized violence directed towards, Obama , and Michelle Obama about it was actually in a lot of cases heightened. And I think people overlook that because there were so many Black folks, really excited to see, Obama in office. And it was like, Oh, okay, it's all done now tied up in a bow. And it's okay, we still have mass incarceration. We still have food apartheid. We still have medical apartheid. We still have people who are disproportionately unemployed, like in a list goes on. Like all of those things did not go away because he was sworn into office. I just don't know, stand sometimes how people can be? Like you said, it's the cognitive dissonance, it's like, how are you able to disconnect so much from reality? And then when you do look around at things and be so blown away, that things, aren't the way that you. I think that they should be, or I believe that they should be, or be taught that they should be like, like how, I don't know, I'm Black, so I don't live in that type of bubble. I've never lived in that white privileged bubble, but I, I just, I don't know. It makes me want to sip this water and wish it was wine.
Blair: [00:49:53] I think for myself, like coming from a relatively privileged upbringing again, having skin privilege, class privilege and going to school in Louisiana and being in a different context. I remember like my first reaction to things where for example, we were trying to do a vigil after we found out that the man who murdered Mike Brown, wouldn't be indicted and there was such a fear from my peers who are from Louisiana, And the thing is if you're in an environment, like if you were somebody else's house, you're on somebody else's turf and they're concerned about something, you need to be concerned about that too. Period. You don't need to act like, better. You don't need to act like you have something else to say. And so that was my first, my, like my inside reaction, you got inside reaction, outside reaction. My inside reaction was like, that's ridiculous. Why are y'all afraid of standing in a circle with some candles, but instead my outside reaction, cause I'm a grown adult and I'm reflective was like, let's talk about what those fears are and let's try and mitigate them because that's the, the wise thing to do and the necessary thing to do, we can't just go through the world, wishing that it was better and operate on that premise. No, we have to understand the world that we're coming from the world that we exist in and then act accordingly. I made sure that we had white allies. They're standing at the top of the, Amphitheater where we had the vigil to speak with the police who we knew eventually would show up. We emailed the school to make sure that they knew this gathering would be happening, that it would be a peaceful gathering. And we just created protections. If I had gone in there with the arrogance of thinking, things are going to be fine because I thought of it or because I thought it was a good idea or because I think it'll be okay. People would have been in danger. And so, it's all those things that come into play, where we can innovate. Yeah, we can take action, but if you're doing it in a vacuum and you're not considering the folks who have gone through it, that you haven't experienced. That's the problem. So, it's possible. I, I love talking about privilege with folks. Cause then I hear folks are saying, it's just so hard for me. And I was like, guess what? I also have privilege. I'm able bodied etcetera, XYZ. I can still get through it. It's about being humble. It's about understanding what other people are coming from. It's about being more concerned with the wellbeing of your human family than your own bullshit. And that is what it is over and over again. It's a constant humbling and it's for the better, if I can live a life that is less harmful to other people that cost me $0 to do that only costs me a half second of introspection to change what I want to say. Not only does it become easier over time, but it's the best thing, like I'd rather be a more compassionate human being, and have my life lived that way, then try to be an Island, and only spew. Harm on other people.
Monique: [00:52:26] Exactly because I want to know if I'm doing something wrong or I'm doing something harmful to someone so that I can stop, that's what I would hope decent human beings, but, dehumanization disconnects you from your humanity and disconnects you from that community. That's why. So many people can go out without a mask and feel like, it's not going to affect me that individualism, that concept that, Oh, it's just me. It's just all about me, me, me, and it's it's disconnecting from how we really are designed to be we're designed to be in community with one another. And when we are designed to be that way, there's a pool for us to be in community. We should make decisions for the good of the community, not just for certain 1% of the community and everyone else is left to fend for themselves, and that’s what the American experiment it has really been. you've got the top. Elite, the white cisgender, April body, hetero men who set the rules and who maintained positions of power by oppressing those who don't have those identities, and so the further you are from any of those, the more you're going to suffer, the more you're going to experience oppression. And so, it's like we have to humanize our community. We have to humanize ourselves so that we can really thrive. And we won't thrive when only some people have access to things and others don't like you said, if the community is sick, you're sick too. You might not feel it right away. But it's going to hurt you either way at some point. Oh, I feel like I could talk to you for a very long time. I am currently reading one of your books. I'm reading, making our way home. I'm reading that one right now.
Yeah, I'm excited. Cause like I said, are there any special tricks, any tools to help me retain more of. The dates and the names, like I can remember things of a story. I can remember like key details and things like that without having to like, look at my notes. But when it comes to dates and names, especially, Oh my goodness.
Blair: [00:54:29] Yeah, I think that's one of the things like, the podiatry of history is alienating. The fact that we have to read some of the most archaic, okay. Did you know that in Australia they have them reading huckleberry Finn in middle school that makes zero sense? It's a terrible book. just cause it's an American classic don't mean that it's a good book. So,
Monique: [00:54:47] come on now!
Blair: [00:54:48] A lot of the things that we learn and that alienate us are intentional. We learn history in a way that makes it very inaccessible. We learn history in a way that puts more emphasis on the dates and the time than on what actually happened. So, what I try to do to truly immerse myself in the history is to have a full bodied experience for it. Like the reason why we remember movies is because it's visual audio, you're getting a vibe, there's a characterization. That's why I use illustrations. I also have Tay Zonday of Chocolate Rain Fame. Do you remember that song? He does audio book, but yeah, I also encourage folks to listen to music as you go through it. That's why I have connections to like Blind Lemon Jefferson talking about the hang man's blues. When I talk about lynching in the 1920s talk about mall rainy in the 1920s. Talk about Ella Fitzgerald. Talk about, Marvin gay in the creation of hip hop and really put this all into context with history. We could, we wouldn't have hip hop without the great migration and it's things like this that I want people to feel that is more connected to history. Yeah. I can tell you that the first hip hop party was on, I believe August 11, 1973, if I'm correct, but. How much does that mean if we're not looking at what the context of that is, how much does that mean? If we're not looking at the fact that Kool Herc was to make an American and that Jamaican Americans are so extremely important to the formation of hip hop, we have to talk about these things. So, I'm far less concerned with somebody being able to pass a pop quiz, more concerned with them being able to tell me the essence of that time period or what it meant for people. Cause that's how you show learning?
Monique: [00:56:17] Hmm, so when are you teaching the next history class, because I don't want to sign up for yours, I love that you have the books cause it's you have your, best information right there for us to consume at any time, but then it would also be nice to just sit and listen and to here you explain things and, ask questions. When's the next history class? Or what are we doing? What are we doing?
Blair: [00:56:38] Well, so actually the next history class, I do a history class every Sunday, so I have a more in depth on Patreon. Then the Cliffs Notes are on Instagram with Learn O' Clock, which is, time to learn, Learn O Clock. The next one, it would probably be, a couple ones pass by the time this air is, but. The next one's going to be on the new deal. Everyone keeps talking about how the new deal was super pivotal, super important. I'm about to break down how racist it was, how it disadvantaged, not only Black Americans, but indigenous Americans, and how we need to get into that. Because the great depression put everybody on equal footing. No, it didn't. It wasn't until world war II that America's economy really bounced back. Yeah. We have public projects. Yeah. We have public works. That how harmful was it to the people that claimed to uplift so how to do it in the means that I have, in the past, yes, I do like guest lectures. Usually I'd be touring giving lectures everywhere. But even when I do those, I'd make sure that I meet with the students ahead of time. So that way I'm adapting, what I'm talking about to what's relevant to the young people. Cause history education doesn't always have to happen in a classroom or with a presentation. It can happen on Instagram. And if more folks can see it that way, then I'm happy to do it.
Monique: [00:57:41] Exactly. Like you said, making it accessible. That's a legacy for you that you are building and you're creating and you're leaving for us. So, I really appreciate that. I feel like I could talk to you for a long time, but we don't have all day. We are so busy folks out here making impacts in the world one, life at a time. So, before we wrap up, I always like to ask a real, really strong, really powerful, I hope you're sitting down type question, it's a really deep, it's really deep. So, are you sitting down?
Blair: [00:58:13] I'm ready? I'm ready.
Monique: [00:58:14] Okay. Maybe even do a deep breath cause, Because it's really deep. so, when you put on lotion, Or wait, are you the oil kind of person? Cause I've asked this question and then our soon realized not everybody is into lotion. Some people like oil, which one is it?
Blair: [00:58:32] I use oil on my face and then I put lotion on my body.
Monique: [00:58:36] Okay. Okay. So, when you put on lotion, are you the type to slather it all over like boom, boom, boom, or one area at time? Like elbow, a knee. What’s your style?
Blair: [00:58:50] Okay. So, this is funny. Cause when I was a kid, my parents would like put lotion, when I was a little baby put lotion like syrup. And so, I always draw faces when I do lotion. I love this question. So I will do like a little circle on my thigh and then two dots and then I rub it in, but it's something that I've always done, like ever since I was like a wee little Blair. And I try to do one area at a time, but I'm always forgetting somewhere. Why is my left knee ashy today? Why is my shoulder blade ashy? So, I haven't mastered it not yet. and then I try to do the thing where like when I was in a real rush, like when I was traveling to shower and then put the coconut oil on in the shower, but that's a mess you just end up slipping and falling on your butt, which is very dangerous.
Monique: [00:59:31] I tried that today. I tried that today. I don't know about that process. It's not that fun.
Blair: [00:59:36] Yeah. But no, I try to do it one by part at a time. And then I do oil on my face, but if there's only oil or only lotion I will make do, because you know, that's the funny thing. Like folks think, Black don't crack, whatever, whatever. We moisturize, because everybody gets ashy. You just can't see the Ash all the time.
Monique: [00:59:54] Exactly. You can't always see the Ash. So, let me tell you what this means about you. Okay. So, this is based off of very limited bias research, and so basically this means that you are the type of person when it comes to making decisions or, doing things, coming up with things to do. You'd like to plan things a bit , you're not the type of person that maybe just do things on a whim all the time, but the fact that you, switch it up some, and maybe I'll put oil on. Maybe I'll put lotion says that sometimes you can adapt. You can adapt. You can make adjustments to go in with the wind or going with the flow, but you prefer to have things a little more organized, a little more calculate, a little more planned. Is that right?
Blair: [01:00:40] Yes. And that's because I'm a Scorpio. Who's very impulsive and intense, but I believe I have a Libra rising, which leaves me a little bit more balanced.
Monique: [01:00:50] Well there you go see; I just did a lotion reading.
Blair: [01:00:54] That's exciting. Cause one of my friends is trying to adapt, a stretch, Mark reading, how like folks do tea tree, or leaf reading. She wants to do stretch Mark reading. So, if somebody has a pregnancy, then just read the stretch marks after that and I'm like, do it.
Monique: [01:01:09] Yeah. I got some stretch marks. I have all kinds of places, depends on where you want to read them. No, yeah. Arms, you got legs, you got everything. So now we really know who you are from that reading. Not for me. Anything else that you've shared only that thing really broke it down. do you have any last, like wish I had said there's a want to share one little last bit with folks that you'd like to share?
Blair: [01:01:37] I would just tell folks, like I do whenever I like do an outro, a lotion, your elbows, change your smoke detector and wear a mask.
Monique: [01:01:46] There you go that's pretty much life essentials. Oh. And wash it and wash your hands too. You have to say that because, you saw how the soap was nowhere to be found. So, I'm like, what were people doing before this. That's declaration of hand washing, what are we doing here people? So, you are the best. Where do people find you out here in these internet streets? I want folks to know where to find your books, your classes, where do people send you money? Blair: [01:02:16] Whoa!
Monique: [01:02:16] What's happening? Yeah.
Blair: [01:02:17] So you can find me @BlairImani not Imani Blair, that's my sister. She's a rap artist in Virginia Beach. She's cool too. Yeah. and I'm at Blair Amani on Instagram and Twitter. I'm on Instagram a lot more nowadays. And I have a Patreon which is just patreon.com/BlairImani and you can go to the link in my bio on Instagram and find all my links. You can find my FAQ Q page. So, you can look at the questions that everybody's already asked about me, so you can quench your curiosity, and yeah, just stay easy and breezy out there. Y'all like just stay excited. Cause we have this opportunity to fundamentally change our approach to love and compassion. And that's not something we can unlive. Let's all rise to the moment, rise to the occasion and make this a better world.
Monique: [01:03:00] And she said it y'all and there's nothing more I need to add to that. We'll just drop the mic. So, thank you so much. It has been such a pleasure to have this wonderful conversation with you. Maybe we'll do some virtual miming and a rap battle. Let's do it. Thank you so much.
Blair: [01:03:20] Thank you!
Monique: [01:03:20] Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. If you enjoyed it and you got something out of it, I want to encourage you to do one or all of the following, subscribe to the show and leave a review. This is one of the best ways and easiest ways that you can support the podcast. And you can also support other folks being able to find and listen to the podcast. Another thing that you can do is share this podcast. This exact episode with a few or are as many as you want of your friends and family and let them know something that you learned from this podcast. Another thing that's really great is that you would share your takeaways from today's episode over on Instagram with the #sbtpodcast be sure to tag me @Momotivate so I can see what you have to say about it. And speaking of Instagram, come on over. And follow and support and join the community over at Instagram @Momotivate and you can be sure to visit my [email protected] to learn more about the different services and products that I offer to support you in your journey of anti- racism. And you can support the podcast financially by becoming a member over at Patreon and last but not least remember, keep shining brighter together.