The Palenque Podcast: Recent Episodes
Queen LaLa
The Palenque Podcast seeks to empower others to become voices for change that lead conversations, programs, and initiatives in their communities. It is hosted by Queen LaLa who introduces new thought provoking topics regularly. Mix together Social Justice, Black History, Hip-Hop, and some Miami 808s and you've entered The Palenque. You can find more information by going to https://the-palenque.square.site https://linktr.ee/ThePalenque
In this episode we tell the story of the Tulsa Race Massacre. One of the least known and most violent racial incidents in American history occurred in 1921, over 18 hours on May 31 through June 1st, when a White mob obliterated the Black Greenwood Community in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
At the time, Tulsa was fast becoming prosperous due to the abundance of oil. Whites and Blacks flocked to the area for a fresh start. The city remained segregated but Blacks established a community, Greenwood, and flourished due to their skills in specific trades. The community grew as more Blacks arrived and entrepreneurial opportunities grew. Before long the community had its own bank, hotel, hospital, school, stores, movie theatre, etc. Doctors, lawyers, teachers and other professionals also lived in Greenwood and the community was self-sufficient. It was referred to as Black Wall Street and a mecca for African Americans.
The unrest began when an interaction between a Black young man and a White young woman was misreported by a local newspaper as a sexual assault. An angry armed White mob showed up at the jail demanding that the Black young man be lynched. Word reached the Black community and armed Black men from Greenwood came down to protect the young man. An altercation in the crowd between a Black and White man ensued and a gun was discharged. Chaos ensued and the Black man retreated to Greenwood outnumbered. The angry White crowd assembled more members, along with the sheriff that deputized hundreds, and proceeded to Greenwood. The mob looted, burned, and bombed over 30 blocks of homes and businesses and murdered hundreds of Black Greenwood citizens.
Once the National Guard arrived to stop the chaos, the remaining 6,000 Greenwood citizens that had not been murdered or ran out of town were imprisoned in an internment camp at the fairgrounds. Only those that a White citizen vouched for them were allowed out to work and had to wear a ribbon signifying such. No one was ever prosecuted, charged, or brought to justice for the death of hundreds, destruction of property, the thousands left homeless, and the loss of generational wealth. No insurance claims or reparations were ever paid to those that lost everything.
Questions to Consider: Why has this violent incident been left out of American history books? What type of wealth could have been acquired if Greenwood remained a flourishing community? Who now occupies the stolen land where Greenwood once stood? Should reparations be paid to the Greenwood families? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?` Resources from this Episode Tulsa History: https://www.tulsahistory.org/exhibit/1921-tulsa-race-massacre/ The Massacre of Black Wall Street: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-ItsPBTFO0
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: www.ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast Soundcloud: The Palenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast Stitcher: The Palenque Podcast Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
In this episode we discuss the backlash across the country tied to Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project, as well as, changes in laws to disenfranchise voters of color. Many are going to great links to make sure Black voices of truth are silenced and certain citizens are not protected.
Why doesn’t this country want people of color to be educated? Critical Race Theory has been the buzz word from conservatives. The former president and Florida’s Governor have enacted policy banning Critical Race Theory from schools and staff training, citing it is anti-American and makes white people “feel bad”. Critical Race Theory is simply an academic movement that examines social, cultural and legal issues as they relate to race and racism. It is analysis of systems, policies, laws, etc. and not a thing you can teach per se. It requires text, like in law, education, policing, etc.
Many things have now been lumped into the Critical Race Theory bucket in order to maintain institutional racism within the educational system and facts such as those identified in the 1619 Project are being labeled as revisionist history and theoretical. The 1619 Project is a Pulitzer Prize winning piece by Nikole Hannah-Jones which reframes the countries history by centers the contributions of Blacks and the consequences of slavery into the narrative of the United Staes of America. It gives voice to those that have been voiceless for 400 years who watched America call itself a nation of free people while enslaving human beings. This project, which is a collection of essays and resources, has also been banned from schools across the county, attempting to silence Black voices, the Black experience, and Black History. Across the county Equity & Diversity, Culturally Responsive Instruction, Anti-Bias Training, etc. are also being challenged as being Critical Race Theory in disguise. States and school boards are passing laws and policies banning the teaching or training of Critical Race Theory.
Why doesn’t this country want people of color to be empowered? Race based laws existed and still exist in this country. Overtly racist which used race in their descriptions (eg. Jim Crow) to covertly racist (eg. Jim Crow 2.0) that targets minorities in their description (Georgia & Florida Voting Laws).
Questions to Consider: Why doesn’t this country want people of color educated and empowered? Why is the history of Black people in America threatening? What would knowing Black history do for people of color? What would acknowledging the contributions of Black people do and to the country? How did record voting by people of color impact the country? How does the empowerment of people of color impact or threaten America? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?`
Resources from this Episode The 1619 Project: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html 1619 Project Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1619/id1476928106 Nikole Hannah-Jones Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xzNyrFhzew Critical Race Theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_race_theory What Is Critical Race Theory and Why Do Some People Want to Ban It?: https://www.newsweek.com/what-critical-race-theory-why-do-some-want-ban-1587389 The States Following Georgia’s Lead on Voter Suppression: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/states-following-georgia-voter-suppression.html
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast Soundcloud: The Palenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast Stitcher: The Palenque Podcast Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
In this episode we discuss holidays in the lives of those enslaved. Because slaveholders wanted to be thought of as “Good Christians” even though the two titles cannot exist together, they allowed certain holidays to be celebrated throughout the year, namly Easter, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. Frederick Douglas wrote, "I believe these holidays to be among the most effective means, in the hands of slaveholders, of keeping down the spirit of insurrection among the slaves….” identifying that holiday respites were permitted to control the enslaved and avoid uprisings rather than being genuine gestures.
Also, celebration and time off were not guaranteed. If the crop was behind schedule, no time or only a few hours may be granted to those enslaved. Slaveholders often used Christmas and Easter as a day to “gift” the enslaved with their yearly allotment of clothing, special food items, household items, or cash. More lenient slaveholders may provide up to a week off to the enslaved. This time allowed them to visit relatives who had been sold, marry, make repairs to their accommodations, give gifts to each other, and fellowship together.
These holidays were also opportunities for the enslaved. Escape plans were often planned during holidays when slaveholders may be away for holiday travels which allowed for a healthy head start. Harriett Tuban even carried out her brother's escape at Christmas.
Easter was a day when the enslaved could dress in their finest clothes to attend religious services which fulfilled slaveholders' demands that the enslaved practice Christianity. To this day African Americans donning their finest clothes for Easter Sunday church service was born from this tradition.
Questions to Consider: 1. How could slaveholders consider themselves christians yet enslave human beings? 2. What religion, or religions, would exist within the African American community if the enslaved were not forced to practice Christianity? 3. How must it have felt to practice the same religion as your oppressor? 4. What resonates most with you? 5. Who else will you share this with?`
Resources from this Episode Christmas at Redcliffe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAzxL11X2k0 Readings From Slave Narratives: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2oqbab4VzQ
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets.
Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast Soundcloud: The Palenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast Stitcher: The Palenque Podcast Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
In this episode we discuss the January 6, 2021 insurrection on the Capitol. We also once again bring to light the Modern Day Jim Crow dual systems present in the country.
Privilege: a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group. Synonyms: advantage, benefit, entitlement, liberty
Trump’s words to the supporters he incited, “Love you, You're very special, I know how you feel, Go home.” A nod of approval and a final act to hold on to power. Singular to the call to action during the debate to Proud Boys to “Stand back and stand by”.
Questions to Consider: How could terrorists invade a federal building and live to take selfies and souvenirs? Why did the police presence and show of force look different than what was applied during BLM protests? How can taking a knee as a silent and peaceful protest enrage the same White Americans that engaged in insurrection? What does the Confederate Flag and the Trump flag mean for White Supremacy? Has America become great again? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?`
Resources from this Episode Trump’s message during inserection: https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/06/politics/donald-trump-capitol-mob/index.html
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque https://twitter.com/the_palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque https://www.facebook.com/ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast https://www.instagram.com/thepalenquepodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-palenque-podcast/id1490366323 Soundcloud: The Palenque https://soundcloud.com/ThePalenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7aTpRUhH3FqdLFZldMipZ8 Stitcher: The Palenque Podcast https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-palenque-podcast Google Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.google.com/search/the%20palenque%20podcast Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
In this episode we kick off Season 2 of the Palenque Podcast and highlight Black history associated with New Year’s Day.
Heartbreak Day: During slavery, New Year’s Day meant the posobility of being sold or leased to pay debts incurred by the slave owner dirng the year. All debts had to be paid by the start of the year so enslaved Africans held Nightwatch services praying to remain with their families on New Year’s Eve.
Food: The tradition of eating black eyed peas, cabbage, cornbread, and “Hopping John” which is a combination of these ingredients and includes rice and pork, are all done to bring about good luck for the new year. Enslaved Africans were given “time off” on Christmas and New Year’s and these dishes were shared. Also, Eating soup joumou or "freedom soup" is a Haitian tradition that is said to have started in 1804 after Haiti gained its freedom.
Haiti’s Revolution: Haiti gained its independence from France in 1804. The revolution represented the largest slave uprising and Haiti became a free nation ruled by non-whites and former enslaved. On Jan. 1, they proclaimed the independence of a new country, which they called Haiti—the name they believed the original Taino inhabitants had used before the Spaniards killed them all.
Questions to Consider: Haiti remained a “poor” country due to a lack of resources and trade options with other countries in the Western Hemisphere. Who benefits from that? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?` Resources from this Episode The Haitian Revolution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn32cWUT83E
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque https://twitter.com/the_palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque https://www.facebook.com/ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast https://www.instagram.com/thepalenquepodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-palenque-podcast/id1490366323 Soundcloud: The Palenque https://soundcloud.com/ThePalenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7aTpRUhH3FqdLFZldMipZ8 Stitcher: The Palenque Podcast https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-palenque-podcast Google Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.google.com/search/the%20palenque%20podcast Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
In this episode we take a closer look at the movie Antebellum. As a fan of the horror genre, Antebellum exceeded my expectations. The horrors of slavery are definitely bone chilling, no axe wielding psycho necessary.
Obviously, the artistry, clues, and subtleties have gone over the heads of many viewers based on the less that stellar reviews I have read, complaining about it being a slavery movie that subjects it viewers to a cycle of violence and further polarizes the country. This movie parallels the current climate in America and pulls back the layers to reveal the underbelly of White supremacy through the artistry of the genre. Slavery was a cycle of violence, we’ve just been used to seeing it sugar coated on film in America. I wonder why when other period pieces without a person of color in them, or only with people of color cast to serve in some capacity, are made they are celebrated. No one says those films further oppress or polarize the country. How convenient. This is the horror that Black people live with, a shared trauma passed down through many generations, and something that White viewers believe to be far fetched and exaggerated, proving once again that our lived experiences and culture vary greatly based on race in this country.
There are many cultural clues and nuances that speak directly to the Black viewer. One would have to also understand the Black culture to pick up on these things. A Spelman degree hung above a degree from Columbia, Murray’s hair grease, and Ivy Park workout wear just to name a few. The microaggressions purposefully placed throughout that occur daily, that one would struggle to understand without Black skin, are all highlighted in the film. The constant silencing and “shushing” of Black voices and Black history, such as the recent decree from the president against the 1619 Project. The plantation being a Reformer Plantation, because these activists and social justice Blacks need to be taught a lesson and silenced. The communication in the cotton field being the whistling of Lift Every Voice and Sing, a song the Black people would know and understand as being time to organize for freedom while Whites just heard a snappy toon because until this year they didn't even know the song existed. Wrapping the dead senator in the Confederate flag and burning them (Confederate Flag Removal), walking away holding a flaming torch (Charlottesville), being killed by the base of the Confederate monument (Symbols of White Supremacy) were all symbolic Coupled all this with a cell phone saving the Black folks lives and all this is happening while oblivious White patrons pay admission to reenact the Antebellum period “for fun”, and yes, Antebellum is my favorite movie of the year.
Questions to Consider: What symbolism did you see when you watched? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?`
Resources from this Episode Antebellum Movie Site: https://www.lionsgate.com/movies/antebellum Antebellum Period: https://allthatsinteresting.com/antebellum-period
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque https://twitter.com/the_palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque https://www.facebook.com/ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast https://www.instagram.com/thepalenquepodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-palenque-podcast/id1490366323 Soundcloud: The Palenque https://soundcloud.com/ThePalenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7aTpRUhH3FqdLFZldMipZ8 Stitcher: The Palenque Podcast https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-palenque-podcast Google Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.google.com/search/the%20palenque%20podcast Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
In this episode we introduce you to The Queen Mother herself, Dr. Yvette Jackson. Mentor and Spiritual Mother to Queen LaLa, learn more from the special woman who inspired her work and fueled her passion. Queen Mother Jackson is a master educator who teaches that all children are “gifted” and it is our responsibility to activate their strengths to elicit high intellectual performance. What is needed to transform our school systems and ensure success for all students?
Dr. Yvette Jackson is internationally recognized for her work in assessing the learning potential of disenfranchised urban students. Changing this reality for these students to one in which their intellectual potential is believed in, valued and optimized has been her calling for her entire career. She has applied her research in neuroscience, gifted education, literacy, and the cognitive mediation theory of Dr. Reuven Feuerstein to develop integrated processes that engage and elicit high intellectual performances from underachievers. She designed the New York City Board of Education’s Gifted Programs Framework while serving as Director of Gifted Programs. As New York City’s Executive Director of Instruction and Professional Development, she led the creation and implementation of the Comprehensive Education Plan, which maximizes the delivery of all core curriculum and support services in the Public Schools of New York City.
Dr. Jackson currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education, founded at the College Board and Teachers College, Columbia University. She works with school district superintendents, administrators, teachers, and students across the United States and internationally to customize and deliver systemic approaches that enable students to demonstrate high intellectual performances. She bases her work on the principles and practices of the Pedagogy of Confidence, which she created to enable educators to accelerate the intellectual development and academic achievement of their students.
Questions to Consider: What if schools focused on strengths and believed in the Pedagogy of Confidence? How can you activate the strengths of the children in your life? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?`
Resources from this Episode The National Urban Alliance for Effective Education: http://www.nuatc.org/ Twitter: @YJacksonNUA https://twitter.com/YJacksonNUA Instagram: @DrYvetteJackson https://www.instagram.com/dryvettejackson/ The Pedagogy of Confidence: https://www.amazon.com/Pedagogy-Confidence-Inspiring-Intellectual-Performance/dp/0807752231 Dr. Jackson on The Pedagogy of Confidence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gaf693nxUuo
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque https://twitter.com/the_palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque https://www.facebook.com/ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast https://www.instagram.com/thepalenquepodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-palenque-podcast/id1490366323 Soundcloud: The Palenque https://soundcloud.com/ThePalenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7aTpRUhH3FqdLFZldMipZ8 Stitcher: The Palenque Podcast https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-palenque-podcast Google Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.google.com/search/the%20palenque%20podcast Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
In this episode you find out more about the one and only Queen LaLa and the mission of The Palenque. What is the vision for The Palenque? What was the inspiration for The Palenque? How does The Palenque align to social justice work? And what is the one thing Queen LaLa wants everyone to know about her? All these questions and more are answered in this interview.
Pamela Davis, host of The Well Done Life Podcast, leads this hard hitting interview and gets down and dirty with your girl, Queen LaLa. Be sure to subscribe to The Well Done Life Podcast and follow Pamela Davis as she continues her amazing and inspirational work to help us all live our best lives.
“The Well Done Life Podcast is the personal journey of Pamela Davis to live and share her life based on intention. Pamela's mission is to create a space where we learn from personal experiences, and embrace our "inner expert" to live our best lives. No one is perfect. But, we all have had experiences that we can learn from. Growth comes from honesty and sharing. Let's grow together and live a well done life.” -Pamela L. Davis
Questions to Consider: What did you find out about Queen LaLa and The Palenque? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?`
Resources from this Episode The Queen Is Coming: https://www.thepalenque.com/queen-lala-1 The Well Done Life Podcast Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-well-done-life/id1497477237 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6vYapd1xP5smheHpLGWSHe Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-well-done-life Pamela Davis Twitter: @IamPamelaLDavis https://twitter.com/iampamelaldavis Instagram: @PamelaLDavis https://www.instagram.com/pamelaldavis Email: TheWellDoneLife@gmail.com
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque https://twitter.com/the_palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque https://www.facebook.com/ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast https://www.instagram.com/thepalenquepodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-palenque-podcast/id1490366323 Soundcloud: The Palenque https://soundcloud.com/ThePalenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7aTpRUhH3FqdLFZldMipZ8 Stitcher: The Palenque Podcast https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-palenque-podcast Google Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.google.com/search/the%20palenque%20podcast Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
In this episode you will learn about the single bloodiest day in modern American political history, the Ocoee Massacre. Ocoee is located in Orange County, Florida just west or Orlando. On November 2, 1920, the day of the US presidential election, Blacks were attacked by a white mob in order to suppress their votes.
Black organizations had been engaging in voter registration drives in preparation for voting day. The night before election day the Ku Klux Klan paraded through town warning the Black community that “no Negro would be permitted to vote”. Mose Norman and Julius “July” Perry, two Black men, headed the organization of the voter registration and also paid the poll taxes to ensure those that couldn’t afford to do so could vote. Norman, who attempted to vote first, was turned away. All Blacks who attempted were also refused for various trumped up reasons. Norman returned again demanding to vote and was attacked and beaten by White men this time. He went to the home of Perry to seek refuge and tell him what happened. A White mod of around 100 men, Klan members wanting to teach “the negros” a lesson, arrived at Perry’s home and demanded to have Norman. They surrounded the home and tried to break in to get Norman. Perry refused, and three White men knocked down the door and entered his home. Perry fired gunshots from inside his home in self defense and to drive away the mob. Two of the White men were killed and one was wounded. The mob then called for reinforcements from nearby Orlando and Apopka. Black homes, churches, schools, and businesses were burned to the ground. Perry was found and arrested but was taken by the White mob while being transported to the jail. He was lynched from a light post in Orlando with a sign that read, “This is what we do to niggers that vote.” Norman is said to have escaped but was never heard from again. It is estimated that 35-50 Blacks were murdered by the mob. Those murdered were shot, burned alive, beaten, and castrated. Those not murdered were forced to take refuge in the woods and orange groves, ultimately driven out by violence, homeless, and having lost everything.
Photos of Perry’s lynching were placed in stores and sold to commemorate the incident. No one was ever prosecuted for the crimes and Ocoee, Florida became an all white town. Whites claimed the stolen land for themselves and no Black residents settled there again until sixty-one years later in 1981. For 18 years following the Ocoee Massacre not a single Black vote was cast in the whole of Orange County, Florida.
Questions to Consider: Are modern day poll taxes and intimidation used today to suppress Blacks from voting? Should reparations be given to those families massacred and driven out of their homes and communities? What should it be? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?`
Resources from this Episode History of Orlando-The Ocoee Massacre: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1bkzCII8r4 Ocoee Massacre: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocoee_massacre
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque https://twitter.com/the_palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque https://www.facebook.com/ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast https://www.instagram.com/thepalenquepodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-palenque-podcast/id1490366323 Soundcloud: The Palenque https://soundcloud.com/ThePalenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7aTpRUhH3FqdLFZldMipZ8 Stitcher: The Palenque Podcast https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-palenque-podcast Google Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.google.com/search/the%20palenque%20podcast Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
In this episode we learn about the slave owner Willie Lynch and his infamous 1712 speech on how to control slaves. Some say it is fictitious and others believe it to be fact. Whether it actually occurred is actually not even an issue as all that is documented within the speech rings true and still has implications today. Lynch’s speech teaches that the best way to control slaves is by exploiting differences and pitting them against each other, such as young versus old, dark versus light, male versus female and likens it to breaking a horse. He taught to keep the body strong but make the mind weak and dependent on the slave master. The word lynching came from his last name as it was one of his most famous methods.
Juxtapose this with Lee Atwater's infamous 1981 interview that explains how Republicans can win the vote of racists without sounding racist themselves. Atwater worked as a campaign consultant with the Ronald Regan administration and touted that by changing your language you wouldn't get called racist when pushing for changes that would ultimately hurt Blacks worse than Whites.
Current conditions in America are directly related to systems of institutionalized racism, from slavery and still today.
Questions to Consider: What other “tricksters” can you identify? In what ways are the mental traumas of slavery still plaguing the decendants of those enslaved? What current systems are set up to divide and perpetuate the same results? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?`
Resources from this Episode Willie Lynch Letter: http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/Perspectives_1/Willie_Lynch_letter_The_Making_of_a_Slave.shtml Great Debaters Clip on Willie Lynch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaSPWpKQzKE Lee Atwater Clip: https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/exclusive-lee-atwaters-infamous-1981-interview-southern-strategy/ Malcolm X House Negro and Field Negro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98Jmw5o9ulA
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque https://twitter.com/the_palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque https://www.facebook.com/ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast https://www.instagram.com/thepalenquepodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-palenque-podcast/id1490366323 Soundcloud: The Palenque https://soundcloud.com/ThePalenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7aTpRUhH3FqdLFZldMipZ8 Stitcher: The Palenque Podcast https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-palenque-podcast Google Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.google.com/search/the%20palenque%20podcast Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
In this episode we explain the history of the Oregon Black Exclusion Laws. You may have heard about the Oregon Trail and the journey of pioneers that settled the lands in the west. But did you know that Oregon was the only state that banned Black people from the state? White settlers feared that Blacks would compete with them for power and land so Oregon was settled and formed as an all White state designed to be a White Utopia .
In 1844, the first law was passed excluding Blacks from the Oregon borders. This law also authorized the punishment for any Blacks currently in Oregon to be whipped with "not less than twenty nor more than thirty-nine stripes" for every six months they remained. In 1849, the second law was passed barring Blacks from entering the territory or residing in the Oregon territory. Finally, in 1859 when Oregon became a state the law was extended further to include banning Blacks from signing contracts or owning property. This system was created to center White supremacy and robbed Blacks from land they had owned and settled as well as the opportunity to freedom and liberty. Oregan also became the state with the highest Ku Klux Klan membership per capita and still draws many White supremacist groups.
Currently, Portland is the largest city in the state and also the Whitest big city in the United States. The exclusionary laws of the past are directly linked to the current less than 2% Black population in the state, far below the average of other states in the US. The Portland protests occurring now are nestled in Oregon’s history which has made it extremely hard for residents to recognize racial desrimication. Ironically, as of today, August 4th, 2020, Portland is in their 69th consecutive day of protests since the killing of George Floyd. A state that symbolized White supremacy and the subjugation of Native Americans has now become the center of the Black Lives Matter protests. Is Oregon committed to doing the deep work to end White supremacy and racism? Time will tell.
Questions to Consider: What happened to Blacks living in Oregon when the first exclusionary law was implemented? How has blocking Blacks from land ownership, freedom to settle, and liberties as citizens impacted Oregon’s Black residence? Why has Oregon resonated with the Black Lives Matter Movement even though it is predominantly White? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?`
Resources from this Episode Oregon Black Exclusion Laws: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_black_exclusion_laws Why Aren't There More Black People in Oregon? A Hidden History: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWC-8hvP7aY
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque https://twitter.com/the_palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque https://www.facebook.com/ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast https://www.instagram.com/thepalenquepodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-palenque-podcast/id1490366323 Soundcloud: The Palenque https://soundcloud.com/ThePalenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7aTpRUhH3FqdLFZldMipZ8 Stitcher: The Palenque Podcast https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-palenque-podcast Google Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.google.com/search/the%20palenque%20podcast Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
In this episode we talk Kathy & Dan, a retired couple in their 70’s who raised a multiracial family. Knowing they had a lot of love to give, they adopted four children, two being different races than themselves. Hear how that dynamic presented challenges over the years and how they dealt with them, as well as, what they learned along the journey.
Simply by placing a sign in their yard within a conservative community was a powerful action they took while quarantined to ensure they were voices of change and leaders for change during this time. Their sign read:
We Believe Black Lives Matter Love Is Love Feminism Is For Everyone No Human Being Is Illegal Science Is Real Be Kind To All
Their message is to vote, stay informed, and participate in local elections as passionately as the presidential elections. Local elections change communities and impact local communities greatly, therefore voting is the ultimate form of protest if you want change.
Questions to Consider: What small step can you take to be a voice for change in your community? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?`
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque https://twitter.com/the_palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque https://www.facebook.com/ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast https://www.instagram.com/thepalenquepodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-palenque-podcast/id1490366323 Soundcloud: The Palenque https://soundcloud.com/ThePalenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7aTpRUhH3FqdLFZldMipZ8 Stitcher: The Palenque Podcast https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-palenque-podcast Google Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.google.com/search/the%20palenque%20podcast Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
In this episode we talk with the amazing hip-hop freedom fighter Dr Amir Whitaker Esq., who is a civil rights lawyer, musician, author, educator, activist, non-profit founder, filmmaker, world traveler, and just all around dope as hell. He is the founder and director of Project KnuckleHead, a nonprofit organization empowering youth through music, art, and educational programs since 2013.
Often referred to as “Dr. KnuckleHead,” Amir was introduced to the criminal justice system as a child when he visited both his mother and father in prison. At age 15, Amir himself was arrested and entered the juvenile justice system. Problems at school eventually led to him being expelled. Despite these hardships, Amir went on to complete five college degrees.
As a lawyer referred to as a “civil rights and education stalwart” by the Daytona Times, Amir has negotiated settlements and policy changes that have improved the lives of thousands of youth across the country. Amir is currently a policy attorney with the ACLU of Southern California and researcher with the UCLA Civil Rights Project. At the Southern Poverty Law Center, Amir worked on a class action lawsuit on behalf of incarcerated youth receiving inadequate education, mental health, and rehabilitation services. Within the Juvenile Division of the Miami-Dade County Public Defender’s Office, Amir represented incarcerated youth and developed training materials. He has taught varying grade levels and in different educational settings for over a decade, and has held teaching certifications in Florida, California, and New Jersey. He has delivered keynote speeches to thousands, and written for leading publications across the country, including Washington Post and TIME Magazine. Amir's recently released autobiography has been featured on ABC News and in The New Yorker. Amir is the current board chair for the Arts for Incarcerated Youth Network in Los Angeles, a collaborative of 12 organizations providing arts programming to incarcerated youth throughout the county. He received his doctorate in Educational Psychology from the University of Southern California, juris doctorate from the University of Miami, and his bachelors from Rutgers University.
Questions to Consider: What inspired you about Dr. KnuckleHead’s story? Which projects or platforms can you start and/or support? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?`
Resources from this Episode Project KnuckleHead: http://www.projectknucklehead.org/ Escaping the Trap: https://www.drknucklehead.com/author Dr. KnuckleHead: https://www.drknucklehead.com/ Upliftmint: https://www.upliftmint.org/ Rhythms Of The Exodus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=1ujYpUAYjM0&feature=emb_logo
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque https://twitter.com/the_palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque https://www.facebook.com/ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast https://www.instagram.com/thepalenquepodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-palenque-podcast/id1490366323 Soundcloud: The Palenque https://soundcloud.com/ThePalenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7aTpRUhH3FqdLFZldMipZ8 Stitcher: The Palenque Podcast https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-palenque-podcast Google Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.google.com/search/the%20palenque%20podcast Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
In this episode we talk with Kesha Russaw Rushing, the author of Terrell and Keke’s Adventures Through Time. When she couldn’t find books for her own children that reflected their culture, experience, and interests, she chose to write them herself. Listen to how she started her journey, her inspiration, tips on self publishing, and what’s coming next.
Terrell & KeKe’s Adventures Through Time: Eleven-year-old Terrell and his 8 year-old sister, Keke, are time-travelers. Only they don't know it yet. All they know is it's the end of the school year, their parents are having financial troubles and they must leave their friends in Chicago to spend the summer with their grandparents in small-town Tennessee. An entire summer with a sassy, annoying little sister following his every step?! This may be Terrell's most boring summer ever. Or, will it?
Book One - Traveling the Underground Railroad: The woods behind his grandparents' house are deep, dark and forbidden - the perfect place for an adventure. The pair discover a hidden cabin and a trunk full of books that will lead them on a whirlwind adventure through time. Their first stop? The Underground Railroad led by the famous abolitionist, Harriet Tubman. On their journey they will travel as runaways and experience the danger, fear and courage that many slaves experienced on their journey to freedom.
Book Two - Marching to Victory: The march from Selma to Montgomery, led by great leaders from the Civil Rights Movement, including Dr. Martin Luther King. On their journey, they will experience danger, fear and courage in their pursuit of equality. Terrell & KeKe’s Adventures Through Time is a spell-binding series that transports readers to world events from the past and future. Travel with this brother and sister as they learn more about history, and themselves, on their journeys around the globe.
Questions to Consider: Why aren’t there more books published for children of color? What impact does it have to see yourself represented in the stories you read or to not see yourself represented? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?`
Resources from this Episode Terrell and Keke’s Adventures Through Time: https://www.terrellandkekesadventures.com/
Terrell & Keke: Traveling the Underground Railroad: https://www.amazon.com/Terrell-Adventures-Traveling-Underground-Railroad/dp/0692513310
Terrell & Keke: Marching to Victory: https://www.amazon.com/Terrell-Kekes-Adventures-Through-Time/dp/0999670018
808ed: https://www.808ed.com/
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque https://twitter.com/the_palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque https://www.facebook.com/ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast https://www.instagram.com/thepalenquepodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-palenque-podcast/id1490366323 Soundcloud: The Palenque https://soundcloud.com/ThePalenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7aTpRUhH3FqdLFZldMipZ8 Stitcher: The Palenque Podcast https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-palenque-podcast Google Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.google.com/search/the%20palenque%20podcast Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
Racism is complex and far more pervasive than some think. David Kirkland unpacked racism in a recent article where he identified the seven I’s in which racism is expressed.
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Interpersonal Racism: Racism that we see between people
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Institutionalized Racism: Historical, structural, systemic, and does not require interpersonal interactions or individual actors to exist
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Internalized Racism: Extent to which White Supremacy and Anti-Blackness are a part of the schema that people use to see themselves, their positions in the world, and their ability to act upon that world
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Ideological Racism: Ecological Paradigm of the ways racism is nested in our natural social environments
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Indifferent Racism: Expression of abstinence toward race and racism Iconographical Racism: Symbolic representations of racism
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Iconographical Racism: Symbolic representations of racism
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Invisible Racism: Racism that is unseen
“Racism, ultimately is an expression of power linked to a complex system of human subjugation that has a basis in a perverse and incendiary science, history, and politics of race.” -David E. Kirkland, June 2020
Questions to Consider: How have you seen The Seven I’s of Racism show up at school and work or in society? What examples of each “I” can you provide? Have you witnessed multiple I’s operating at once? When? How? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?`
Resources from this Episode What is Racism? Unpacking The Seven I’s: https://davidekirkland.wordpress.com/2020/06/10/what-is-racism-unpacking-the-seven-is/
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque https://twitter.com/the_palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque https://www.facebook.com/ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast https://www.instagram.com/thepalenquepodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-palenque-podcast/id1490366323 Soundcloud: The Palenque https://soundcloud.com/ThePalenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7aTpRUhH3FqdLFZldMipZ8 Stitcher: The Palenque Podcast https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-palenque-podcast Google Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.google.com/search/the%20palenque%20podcast Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
20/20 visions is considered perfect vision. It means one can see clearly and there is no need for corrective lenses or visual aides. The year 2020 has also brought a lot into focus that seemed to be so unclear for many. The Black Lives Matter movement, crescendoed by the modern day lynching of George Floyd, suddenly became understandable for so many that simply could not wrap their minds around it when first coined after the murder of Trayvon Martin.
The dawning of the hypocrisy of declaring freedom from tyranny while enslaving a race of people seemed to sudden become a new reality for so many. The connection that the fight for Civil Rights in the 60’s would not have been necessary if all citizens already had those rights. But why? Why did it take George Floyd, or did it? Was it a series of events or the pause we collectively took during the pandemic that allowed for reflection? Was it tribal politics or that one last tweet from the president that became the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back?
So many people just took off their rose colored glasses and found out that those glasses were actually obstructing their vision. They found that they didn’t need glasses at all and there was nothing wrong with their vision, it had just been blocked, cut off, and filtered. Imagine the exhaustion of the people who must explain constantly to those wearing the glasses what they see without them. Having to justify what is there over an over yet never being able to have them fully comprehend. Now that the glasses have been removed you become responsible for carrying that burden as well. For removing them from others eyes and ensuring truth is fully visualized. The year 2020 has been one we will never forget and it is only half way through.
Questions to Consider: What caused the shift and what dissatisfaction was present? What is your role in fighting against racism and oppression? Hand, Tongue, Heart? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?
Resources from this Episode Fourth of U Lie: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1797714343873984 40 Hadith Nawawi: https://sunnah.com/nawawi40/34
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque https://twitter.com/the_palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque https://www.facebook.com/ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast https://www.instagram.com/thepalenquepodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-palenque-podcast/id1490366323 Soundcloud: The Palenque https://soundcloud.com/ThePalenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7aTpRUhH3FqdLFZldMipZ8 Stitcher: The Palenque Podcast https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-palenque-podcast Google Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.google.com/search/the%20palenque%20podcast Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
In this episode we will dispel learned myths about slavery plantations. Many believe that plantations mainly profited off of agriculture and other crop based resources cultivated by free labor. However, the horrors of slavery run deeper and more distrurbing than can be imagined. Many tactics were utilized to control the enslaved population. Women, children, and men were abused, physically, mentally, and sexually during the middle passage and on slave plantations.
Seasoning Plantations were used to “break” slaves. To control the enslaved, these plantations were brutal places systematically constructed to break their will and their connection to the past, while stripping them of their name, religion, language, and customs. Many were located in Jamaica and throughout the Caribbean. These plantations were a first stop for slaves to be “broken” before going to the Americans used to dominate Africans so they would not rebel. Males, often the biggest and strongest, were raped and sodomized in front of the other Africans to assert power, control, and intimidation. This tactic called “Buck Breaking” emasculated the males and also ensured women and children would feel unprotected and submit to the will of the slave master. Slaves could be sold at a higher price if they came from Seasoning Plantations because they were already “broken” to follow commands and had less probability of uprising.
After the slave trade was ended, enslaved Africans were still needed to maintain the status quo. Breeding enslaved Africans was a practice used on many plantations to acquire more slaves. However, Breeding Farms were established in the United States as a business to produce slaves that could be sold and shipped across the country. These farms and bread people like cattle and the enslaved were forced to “mate” like animals as selected by the slave master. The expected amount of children a woman should bear was fifteen. If those selected to mate were related, as sometimes it could be a mother and son, a sack was placed over the head of the enslaved while being forced to mate.
Questions to Consider: Why were you not taught this in school? Why is information and history hidden from you? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?
Resources from this Episode Buck Breaking in Jamaica and Caribbean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVdFI0fLKpo How Slaveholders in the Caribbean Maintained Control: https://aeon.co/ideas/how-did-slaveholders-in-the-caribbean-maintain-control Thomas Thistlewood: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Thistlewood
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque https://twitter.com/the_palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque https://www.facebook.com/ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast https://www.instagram.com/thepalenquepodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-palenque-podcast/id1490366323 Soundcloud: The Palenque https://soundcloud.com/ThePalenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7aTpRUhH3FqdLFZldMipZ8 Stitcher: The Palenque Podcast https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-palenque-podcast Google Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.google.com/search/the%20palenque%20podcast Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
I heard a White colleague whisper to another White colleague, “Is everything racist now?” after hearing about the recent decision by University of Florida to discontinue the “Gator Bait” cheer. Well the answer to that question is racism hasn’t changed. Yet it seems that some White people's dawning of its pervasiveness must mean that it’s something new or something blown entirely out of proportion. Let’s take a look at what you are not taught in school so we are all aware of how deep systematic racism goes and how much residue still lives in our daily lives as hurtful reminders to the Black community.
Yes, it was acceptable for Black children to be used as alligator bait “Gator Bait” and this practice took place across Florida and Louisiana pre and post slavery. Time magazine documented in 1923 that “colored babies were being used for alligator bait” in Chipley, Florida. Black babies were hung over the waters edge, or placed at the water's edge, while hunters would wait for an alligator to attack. Once the baby was in the alligator's jaws the hunter would shoot, claiming the prize of the alligator’s skin for the life of the child they deemed valueless. Even after slavery, threats of using Black children as gator bait were used as forms of intimadation and actually carried out. Pictures, postcards and gift shop trinkets were sold to commemorate this barbaric practice and ad campaigns were used to boost Florida tourism.
The University of Florida has a history scarred with racism. Prior to 1958, Florida state law banned blacks from attendance at public universities. Eighty-five Black students applied for admission to all levels of the university between 1945 and 1958, and all were rejected. Virgil Hawkins, fought his rejection until his case made it to the Florida Supreme Court, which ruled he had “all the scholastic, moral and other qualifications” of a successful applicant, however the court refused to integrate state public universities. The Chief Justice at the time was none other than Stephen O’Connell, a self-proclaimed segregationist, who would later go on to become the president of the University of Florida. After the attention of the Hawkins case, the university allowed only one Black student admission to the Law School in September of 1958, George Starke. Starke required police protection for the first few weeks of classes due to the unrest of the student population. Starke left UF after only three semesters unable to continue the burden and strain of racism and isolation. To this day the university continues to be predominantly White institution with a 6% enrollment of Black students.
Couple these two things together, profiting from using Black babies as “Gator Bait” throughout the state of Florida, with a university that has a history of racism and uses the highly offensive racial slur, “Gator Bait”, in their cheer. The University of Florida, home of the Florida Gators, cheer may refer to all those that are not from UF as “Gator Bait” to their alumni and fans, but it is a reminder to the Black community of the horrors, violence, intimidation, and death produced from the same set of words for decades. Maybe instead of getting upset that you cannot hold on to the vestiges of a racist past, alumni and fans can come up with something that encompasses what they want to leave as a legacy moving forward.
Questions to Consider: Do you feel that the “Gator Bait” cheer being discontinued is the right choice? Why or why not? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?
Resources from this Episode The Gut Wrenching History of Black Babies and Alligators: https://theundefeated.com/features/the-gut-wrenching-history-of-black-babies-and-alligators/ Mammy’s Little Alligator Bait: https://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/collection/105/128 Gator Bait Newsclip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHApIEUp7tE
In this episode, we discuss the revolution of 2020 with a diverse group of children aged 8-16. How are they feeling watching the protests? What are their feelings about race in America? What do they think are solutions to the unrest? And, what advice do they have for adults?
Questions to Consider: How are you feeling right now while watching the protests going on across the country? Why are people protesting and what are your thoughts about what you’ve seen or heard? Have you ever had an experience that you feel involved a form of racism? Please explain the experience, how it made you feel and how it was resolved? What do you think should be done to make the situation in our country better? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque https://twitter.com/the_palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque https://www.facebook.com/ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast https://www.instagram.com/thepalenquepodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-palenque-podcast/id1490366323 Soundcloud: The Palenque https://soundcloud.com/ThePalenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7aTpRUhH3FqdLFZldMipZ8 Stitcher: The Palenque Podcast https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-palenque-podcast Google Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.google.com/search/the%20palenque%20podcast Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
In this episode, Queen LaLa and her cousin Chill Wave will discuss their experiences with race while growing up together living different realities in America, one as a black woman and one as a white woman. The recent revolution and the Black Lives Matter movement brought them together to have a conversation long overdue. Racism, White Privilege, and Black Lives Matter are all discussed with organic honesty and genuine love for one another.
Questions to Consider: When do you first remember race being or becoming an issue growing up? What are your feelings about Black Lives Matter? Why are people protesting and what are your feelings about it? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?
Resources from this Episode Lakewood is Changing: https://www.niot.org/nios-video/lakewood-changing Cleveland City Council Declares Racism A Public Health Crisis: https://patch.com/ohio/cleveland/cleveland-city-council-declares-racism-public-health-crisis Cleveland just fired the cop who shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice more than 2 years ago: https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/5/30/15713254/cleveland-police-tamir-rice-timothy-loehmann
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque https://twitter.com/the_palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque https://www.facebook.com/ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast https://www.instagram.com/thepalenquepodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-palenque-podcast/id1490366323 Soundcloud: The Palenque https://soundcloud.com/ThePalenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7aTpRUhH3FqdLFZldMipZ8 Stitcher: The Palenque Podcast https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-palenque-podcast Google Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.google.com/search/the%20palenque%20podcast Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
In this episode, we will learn about the looting of Black wealth and the many times Black progress was destroyed in this country due to racism and the desire to maintain White supremacy.
The Red Summer, 1919: This period was marked by riots in more than 60 cities across the country and hundreds of deaths. During this period, after World War I, there was tremendous postwar frustration due to White soldiers wanting to return to the status quo and Black soldiers returning after fighting for the country and holding increased expectations for equality. Blacks had also migrated to the North from the South in the Great Migration and there were not enough jobs and housing available. Whites did not want to compete with Blacks for jobs. Also, Blacks were used as strikebreakers, replacing White employees who were seeking pay increases. This increased the resentment by Whites who led months of terrorist attacks on Blacks across the country.
Tulsa Massacre: Tulsa, Oklahoma 1921 Greenwood was known as Black Wall Street and was at the time the richest Black community in the United States. Educated and professionally skilled Blacks created a self sufficient and thriving town. Many Blacks from the South migrated to the area and brought with them their superior skills which allowed them to create businesses. When a White woman reported she had been assaulted, it started a chain of events leading to the destruction of the town of Greenwood. A White mob destroyed over 35 blocks of the town, murdered residents, and also dropped explosives over the town from private planes.
Rosewood Massacre, Rosewood, FL 1923: When a White woman was believed to be attacked, the Black town of Rosewood was destroyed and residents were murdered by an angry White mod. Survivors were forced to flee, losing all their property and possessions. After the incident, the governor appointed a special grand jury to investigate the violence which claimed to not find enough evidence for prosecution.
These terrorist practices against Blacks were consistent across the United States. The states were unwilling to interfere or prosecute the White mobs for their destruction or those that lynched and murdered Blacks. Therefore, Whites continued to acquire property and resources by brute force and violence. This constant destruction and looting by Whites across the country, robbed Blacks of their liberty, opportunities, property, safety, and wealth for generations to come.
Questions to Consider: How were Black towns and communities across the country allowed to be destroyed and looted without justice being served? What would the United State look like now if Black towns and communities had been able to prosper? What impact did this destruction have on Black & White communities? What impact did this destruction have on future generations Black & White? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with? Resources from this Episode Rosewood Massacre: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TXj90wvCT8 Tulsa Massacre: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-ItsPBTFO0 The Red Summer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy3a6PvIcxI
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque https://twitter.com/the_palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque https://www.facebook.com/ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast https://www.instagram.com/thepalenquepodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-palenque-podcast/id1490366323 Soundcloud: The Palenque https://soundcloud.com/ThePalenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7aTpRUhH3FqdLFZldMipZ8 Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers. The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
In this episode, we will learn about the historical roots of mistrust between law enforcement and the black community. Racism and law enforcement are closely linked back to the antebellum South. Paterollers were men recruited to a slave patrol for a designated area and the first form of policing in the South. Known for their cruelty, their job was to patrol for runaway slaves and potential uprisings. Hundreds of Slave Patrol and Slave Catchers were employed to monitor the large amount of slaves in the south. Lantern Laws made sure slaves traveled with a lit lantern from dust to dawn to be visible and they must also carry with them a pass or permission from their masters to show when stopped. Full time police forces began developing during the 1800’s in cities across the South after slave rebellions and uprisings serving primarily to control slaves.
After the Civil War, tracking and monitoring of Blacks continued. Slave patrols were replaced by the Ku Klux Klan and Black Codes, to terrorize Blacks and continue to enforce White authority through violence. It was perfectly acceptable at the time for prominent officials and law enforcement officers to also be members of the KKK and lynchings were community spectacles with no repercussions for vigilante justice. During this time, Black Codes restricted how Blacks could live their lives and evolved into the Jim Crow Laws that maintained a racial caste system. It was the duty and responsibility of the police to enforce the law of the land which was segregation and institutional racism. The law continued to be enforced differently for White people and Black people to ensure the privileges for Whites were maintained.
This was also a reality in the North. After the Civil War the police departments in the North began to grow. Many former slaves headed North to escape the horrors of the South. The North’s model for policing began to look more like the Southern model of law enforcement relying on maintaining order through violence. Violence toward the Black community became very common. The 13th Amendment allowed “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime”, so freed Blacks who were caught committing a crime to be imprisoned and forced into manual labor. Blacks were arrested on trumped up charges on the word of Whites in order to create a new free labor population to continue to work in the South. This system is still very much working for and in America today.
The system has not changed even though cloaked in the rhetoric of equality and justice for all. From Trayvon Martin, murdered by one operating as a modern day “Slave Patroler” George Zimmereman, to Ahmaud Arbury, slain by those modern day “Slave Catchers” the McMichaels. To the modern day “Lantern Law, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws” that restrict convicted felons who are released from prison after serving time from voting and allow Stop and Frisk and racial profiling to remain tacics of policing. To the infiltration of police departments to this day with KKK members and White supremists along with the modern day “lynching” of George Floyd. The names and cases could go on and on and there are now too many to name. Black people and blackness is still being violently over-policed, mistreated, terrorized, and brutalized and We Can’t Breathe!
Questions to Consider: Why has policing virtually stayed the same as an American system? Who is the justice system serving and how? What are the effects of denied freedom and justice for generations?What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?
Resources from this Episode The 13th -Documentary provided free from Netflix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krfcq5pF8u8 The Slave Laws: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SUFS874yp4 What were Black Codes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAUXdd-DAh0 KKK-Then and Now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CTG58jIlNA Jim Crow Laws: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzL2Brhg9aQ
In this episode, we dialogue with a diverse group of educators in The Palenque. Education is the great equalizer so it is a civil right that all students have access to a quality education, however, students finished the year on distance learning. Coronavirus & the George Floyd protests have placed a spotlight on disparities and inequities across the nation. Disparities in health care, who can and cannot social distance, policing and institutional racism, as well as technology divides between students who have access to a device, WIFI and other resources versus those who do not. What will schools look like once we return? How do we close the inequities and achievement gaps? What do teachers need to support students returning to school after these traumatic events?
Questions to Consider: What will schools look like once we return? How do we close the inequities and achievement gaps? What do teachers need to support students after these traumatic events? How do we ensure equity for all? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?
Resources from this Episode International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP): https://www.iirp.edu What is Restorative Practices?: https://www.iirp.edu/restorative-practices/what-is-restorative-practices Courageous Conversations About Race - Glenn Singleton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLsm8h9qSuQ & https://www.amazon.com/s?k=courageous+conversations+about+race+by+glenn+singleton&i=stripbooks&crid=2PVOZLQZB96PH&sprefix=courageous+con%2Cstripbooks%2C632&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_14 The Pedagogy of Confidence - Yvette Jackson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gaf693nxUuo & https://www.amazon.com/Pedagogy-Confidence-Inspiring-Intellectual-Performance/dp/0807752231
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque https://twitter.com/the_palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque https://www.facebook.com/ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast https://www.instagram.com/thepalenquepodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-palenque-podcast/id1490366323 Soundcloud: The Palenque https://soundcloud.com/ThePalenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7aTpRUhH3FqdLFZldMipZ8 Stitcher: The Palenque Podcast https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-palenque-podcast Google Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.google.com/search/the%20palenque%20podcast Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
In this episode, we discuss the revolution of 2020 which has in fact been televised. People are desperate for equality and we have seen it spark a movement for justice. Along with the majority of peaceful protesting, acts of looting, and violence have been shown on news outlets across the country. We are a nation divided and many wonder what the future holds.
Questions to Consider: What emotions are you feeling about what you've seen and why? How would you describe what is happening in our country now? What is necessary to ensure an equitable system for all? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?
Resources from this Episode The Well Done Life Podcast: https://www.untilfreedom.com Black Lives Matter: https://blacklivesmatter.com Until Freedom: https://www.untilfreedom.com
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque https://twitter.com/the_palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque https://www.facebook.com/ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast https://www.instagram.com/thepalenquepodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-palenque-podcast/id1490366323 Soundcloud: The Palenque https://soundcloud.com/ThePalenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7aTpRUhH3FqdLFZldMipZ8 Stitcher: The Palenque Podcast https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-palenque-podcast Google Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.google.com/search/the%20palenque%20podcast Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
In this episode, we discuss our feelings about the Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd murders. You will also be introduced to Princess Ella and hear her perspective on these issues. This episode is to allow for processing and discussion as well as to spark the same conversations with others.
The Palenque is a place “Where Voices For Change Gather”, where every listener is called to action to take ownership for their own deeper learning and knowledge seeking. Knowledge is power and through learning and doing we solidify our collective role in transforming our world, one person and one community at a time.
Questions to Consider: How are you feeling about these incidents? What do you want others to know? What do you need to be okay? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?
Resources from this Episode Black Lives Matter: https://blacklivesmatter.com
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque https://twitter.com/the_palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque https://www.facebook.com/ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast https://www.instagram.com/thepalenquepodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-palenque-podcast/id1490366323 Soundcloud: The Palenque https://soundcloud.com/ThePalenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7aTpRUhH3FqdLFZldMipZ8 Stitcher: The Palenque Podcast https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-palenque-podcast Google Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.google.com/search/the%20palenque%20podcast Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
We have a new track for the celebration of our tenth episode! It’s a theme song for and homage to your girl Queen LaLa by none other than Nam White. You will remember Nam White as the artist who created the current theme music for The Palenque, “Welcome to Jubilee!”. Shout out to Nam White for Queen LaLa’s theme song, “The Queen Is Coming, LaLa Here!”.
In this episode, you will learn more about the one and only, host of The Palenque Podcast, and reigning Queen of The Palenque, Queen LaLa. Queen LaLa's strength is that she is a teacher and also a griot, or storyteller (see Episode 6-The Grio), preserving history and knowledge. As an HBCU (Historically Black College & University) graduate and educator herself, she recognized the miseducation and lack of education of the history of People of Color as well the damaging role it plays in reinforcing racism and stereotypes while also desensitizing others to historical inequities that are still manifested today. Those things together, as well as a love for rhythm, music, and dancing, make the essence of Queen LaLa, and the spirit of The Palenque. She believes in celebrating strengths and using your strengths to live your purpose. Therefore, Queen LaLa uses her strengths to inspire all “Palenquros” (The Palenque Podcast Followers) and strengthen The Palenque.
Let’s also spend time with the four questions that are the foundation of The Palenque. Who is our audience? Anyone who believes in our why and wants to be a voice for change. All those who seek freedom are welcome at The Palenque. Freedom used in this context means your mind being free from miseducation and lack of information. What do we want for the future? We want to empower others to become voices for change that lead conversations, programs, and initiatives in their communities. We want to create Palenqueros world-wide #ThePalenquePodcast.
Queen LaLa’s vision for The Palenque Podcast is to provide short meaningful learning segments to allow time for processing and reflection. Educational research teaches that short chunks of information are processed at deeper levels and those chunks should be no longer than 15-20 minutes for adults. At the end of the learning segment you should allow for additional processing time for the brain to cement that learning and for the learner to draw conclusions and develop individual meaning. Through the Questions to Consider and Resources provided in the Podcast Notes from each episode, listeners should feel compelled to know more.
The Palenque is a place “Where Voices For Change Gather”, where every listener is called to action to take ownership for their own deeper learning and knowledge seeking. Knowledge is power and through learning and doing we solidify our collective role in transforming our world, one person and one community at a time.
Questions to Consider: How are you reflecting after each episode of The Palenque Podcast and are you using the tools to deepen your knowledge and dialogue with others? Why or why not? What are your strengths and how can you use those strengths to be a Voice For Change? What other topics would you like Queen LaLa to cover on the Palenque Podcast? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?
Resources from this Episode Queen LaLas Theme Song, The Queen Is Coming! LaLa Here! Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eru1duZv8g8&feature=youtu.be
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/the_palenque Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-palenque-podcast/id1490366323 Soundcloud: The Palenque https://soundcloud.com/ThePalenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7aTpRUhH3FqdLFZldMipZ8 Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com
In this episode, we learn about the Green Book, not the movie, the actual book created and published by Victor Hugo Green beginning in 1936 and used as a tool in the African American community that wasn’t discussed in the movie. The Negro Motorists Green Book was an actual book, a travel guide, for African Americans during the Jim Crow Era so they would know where it was safe to sleep, eat, get gas, etc. You may be thinking it is simylar to a travel guide of today but the orpeative work here is “safe” because during this time horrific violence and lynching were realities for people of color in the United States. It also listed “Sundown Towns” across the country, actual cities and municipalities that banned Blacks after dark. The motto on the guide’s cover read, “Carry your Green Book with you—You may need it.”
Imagine the fear of traveling because you could lose your life. This tool provided a sense of comfort and also a reference tool that could potentially save your life and the life of your friends and family members. This anxiety around travel and traffic stops still exists in the Black community. The historical implications from slave catchers, lynch mobs, sundown towns, and police brutality swirl within the legacy of the Green Book and needing to feel safe “Driving While Black”.
As the Green Book evolved, its annual issues also include international travel information and advice to readers.The guide was in publication until 1966 (30 years) two years after the passing of the Civil Rights Act that banned racial segregation. The Smthsonian and other Universities have digitized copies of Green Books available online for review. For a certain demographic of our county a Green Book was an absolute necessity while another demographic has never even heard of a Green Book or could fathom the need for such a tool would exist.
Questions to Consider: How was Victor Hugo Green a Voice of Change through his creation of the Green Book? How must it have felt to be in fear of losing your life while traveling in your own country? Why did the movie Green Book, leave this history out of the movie? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?
Resources from this Episode The Negro Motorists Green Book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Negro_Motorist_Green_Book Diving While Black: http://www.dwbfilm.com The guidebook that helped black Americans travel during segregation: https://www.vox.com/2018/3/15/17124620/green-book-black-americans-travel-segregation Smithsonian: Negro Motorist Green Book 1936: https://transcription.si.edu/project/7955
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque https://twitter.com/the_palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque https://www.facebook.com/ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast https://www.instagram.com/thepalenquepodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-palenque-podcast/id1490366323 Soundcloud: The Palenque https://soundcloud.com/ThePalenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7aTpRUhH3FqdLFZldMipZ8 Stitcher: The Palenque Podcast https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-palenque-podcast Google Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.google.com/search/the%20palenque%20podcast Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
In this episode, we highlight Rosa Parks who is most famous for being the catalyst for the Montgomery Bus Boycott. However, Ms. Parks was not the first African-American woman to be arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. In fact, four other women were arrested before Rosa Parks for the same several months prior. Those women, Claudette Colvin, Aurelia Browder, Mary Louise Smith and Susie McDonald were all plaintiffs in the Browder v. Gayle case that resulted in the Supreme Court ruling bus segregation unconstitutional.
Rosa Parks was actually forty-two-year-olds at the time of this famous event, not a woman too tired from working all day to move from her seat, as the so-called history is commonly taught. Prior to this incident Ms. Parks was involved in raising funds for the defense of Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old who was the first arrested for not giving up her seat on a bus. Prior to that she also investigated the gang-rape of Recy Taylor and helped organize The Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. Recy Taylor. She was a well established activist in the Civil Rights Movement. When this protest occurred and Parks was arrested she was the secretary of the local NAACP chapter. Over the several months of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 40,000 African Americans walked or formed car pools in solidarity. This left many public busses sitting idle severely impacting city finances. During this time there was also horrible backlash and retaliation. Churches were burned, homes bombed, and other violence to force an end to the boycott.
What also is often not mentioned is the price Ms. Parks paid for her courage. Soon after being arrested, she lost her job, and her husband was also forced to quit his job after his wife became the face of the boycott and tension grew. Over the course of the boycott and even after it ended, the couple received threatening phone calls and death threats which forced them to move out of Alabama to Detroit, where she worked as an administrative aide for Congressman John Conyers, Jr. Rosa Parks courage and committment were instrumental in the fight to end racial segregation.
Questions to Consider: What leadership, planning, committent, and systems must be present to support 40,000 Afican Americans in maintaining a protest at this level for months? Knowing what was at stake, Rosa Parks courageously did what was right. What are the costs of doing what is right in protest? What did she sacrifice? Why does history reinforce the idea of Rosa Parks being a frail tired old woman that just by chance couldn’t take it anymore? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?
Resources from this Episode Rosa Parks Biography: https://www.biography.com/activist/rosa-parks Rosa Parks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks Rosa Parks Civil Rights Activist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8A9gvb5Fh0
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque https://twitter.com/the_palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque https://www.facebook.com/ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast https://www.instagram.com/thepalenquepodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-palenque-podcast/id1490366323 Soundcloud: The Palenque https://soundcloud.com/ThePalenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7aTpRUhH3FqdLFZldMipZ8 Stitcher: The Palenque Podcast https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-palenque-podcast Google Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.google.com/search/the%20palenque%20podcast Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
In this episode, we share the infamous Tuskegee Experiment, officially known as the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male. In 1932, doctors from the U.S. Public Health Service recruited black male participants in Tuskegee, Alabama, primarily sharecroppers, with the promise of free medical care, meals, and burial insurance to participate in the study. Six hundred participants were selected, 399 men who were infected with syphilis and 201 who were free of the disease to serve as the control group. The doctors told the men they were being treated for “Bad Blood”, a common term used to refer to a variety of ailments.
As the men began to exhibit symptoms, they were monitored by the U.S. Public Health workers and provided with placebo such as aspirin so that the government health organization could continue to study the effects of syphilis. Some men sought help from local doctors as their health diminished but the government agency convinced local physicians not to treat any men involved in the experiment. Even when penicillin was determined to be the recommended treatment for syphilis in 1947, the men were not administered the drug so that government physicians could continue to study the effects of the disease. Men went blind, insane, exhibited other health related issues and died from the disease.
Peter Buxton, a public health investigator found out about the study in the mid 60s and reported his findings to supervisors as unethical. However, the government agency decided to continue the study until all participants had died to continue to collect data. Mr Buxton then leaked the story to the press who began to investigate and finally broke the story in 1972. The public outcry forced the government to end the study.
The study lasted 40 years and during that time 128 participants died from syphilis or related complications, 40 spouses had been diagnosed with the disease and it had been passed to 19 children at birth. Congress held hearings on the Tuskegee Experiment in 1973 and the surviving participants and heirs of the study were awarded a $10 million settlement. New guidelines were also established to protect human subjects from U.S. government funded research studies. As a result, many African Americans to this day do not trust public health officials or facilities, knowing that other such studies and medical experimentation was a common practice on slaves and prisoners. President Bill Clinton issued an apology for the Tuskegee Experiment in 1997 and the final participant of the study passed away in 2004.
Questions to Consider: What are the implications for public health agencies based on this and other similar studies? How can trust be repaired to citizens? How could doctors who must take the hippocratic oath engage in such malpractice? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?
Resources from this Episode Tuskegee Experiment: https://www.history.com/news/the-infamous-40-year-tuskegee-study : Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_syphilis_experiment The Unknowns About the Tuskegee Syphilis Study: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3tQ93fQf8U
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast iTunes Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast Soundcloud: The Palenque Email: Info@ThePalenque.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
In this episode, we will introduce you to the West African Griot. A griot served as the keeper of tradition and lineage through storytelling and song. The griot’s role was to preserve the history and passed it down through generations. Griots were born into a grio family and learned the traditions and stories from the previous generations and therefore became responsible for continuing to pass the history down to future generations born into the family. Griots helped to keep history and traditions alive and were also called upon in times of dispute as a reference for past history and for advisement. Today griots of West Africa can be found among the Mandé people (Mandinka, Malinké, Bambara), Fula, Hausa, Songhai, Tukulóor, Wolof, Serer, Mossi, Dagomba, Mauritanian Arabs and many other smaller groups. This tradition and practice is also true throughout other Afican countries and among the Yoruba, the storyteller is called Akewi while among the Hausa the storyteller is called Maroka and among the Xhosa people the storyteller is called Imbongi.
Dave Chappelle was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2019. During his acceptance speech he referenced the term Griot. “We had a real oral tradition in our house. I knew the word ‘griot’ when I was a little boy. A griot was a person in Africa who is charged with keeping the stories of the village. Everyone would tell the griot their stories and they would remember them all so they could tell future generations. When they got old, they’d tell them to someone else. And they say in Africa, when a griot dies it’s like a library was burned down. My mother used to tell me, before I ever thought about doing comedy, she said you should be a griot.” A griot he is, and has interwoven history lessons into his stand up comedy and comedy sketches that hold a mirror up to our nation. A master storyteller, known for walking away from a five million dollar contract when his integrity was challenged by the content of the story he would be telling.
As most African Americans are descended from West Africans, it is not surprising that storytelling is still a rich tradition. Enslaved Africans lost their names, religion, culture, and language but many folktales were retained and retold, being passed down through generations. African stories were about the hyena, lion, elephant, monkey, and trickster Anansi, the spider, but evolved while enslaved in a new land to include instead the rabbit, bear, and the fox and be known as Brer Rabbit tales. Storytelling is present in many aspects of African American culture such as conversation style, church services, music, and other traditions. In fact, it has also been said that the rapper is a form of a ‘postmodern griot’.
Questions to Consider: What other cultures have a type of “griot”? What are they called and what type of stories do they tell? What role does memorization and storytelling play for enslaved Africans who are not allowed to learn to read and write? What is the story of your family and who preserves it? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?
Resources from this Episode Griot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griot The Griot Tradition of West Africa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdrPmZwsXiM Dave Chappelle’s Acceptance Speech for the 2019 Mark Twain Prize: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwyeYmXjD1A Anansi the Spider Folklore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvb5EsITzoM Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC9L_RqSS90 You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast iTunes Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast Soundcloud: The Palenque Email: Info@ThePalenque.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
In this episode, we will detail the significance of Jubilee and why it is referenced in our podcast intro music. New Year’s Day for enslaved Africans before the Civil War was known as “Heartbreak Day” because it was the day that debts for the year prior would be settled by slave holders. That meant that slaves would be traded, rented out, or actioned, therefore splitting them from their families or relocating them to another plantation. Husbands and wives, parents and children, extended family and friends were separated forever. Enslaved Africans spent New Year’s Eve praying together that they would not be separated and if separated that their enslaver would be humane.
Jubilee is a biblical reference, found in the third book of the Torah and the Old Testament. The Book of Leviticus references that Hebrew slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven, and the mercies of God would be particularly manifest. It is celebrated in many cultures and religions and has been interpreted by the African American community as significant for the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves in Confederate states on New Year’s Day in 1863. The day was hailed as the Day of Jubilee, however it was first celebrated by African Americans on June 19, 1865, Juneteenth, the day that all slaves were finally informed by federal troops that they were freed, over two years later. Jubilee is a celebration of freedom, and to this day, over 150 years later, there are still New Year’s Eve “Watch Night”services at African-American churches nationwide.
Jubilee is the theme song for our podcast and has a special meaning. The negro spiritual “Soon I Will Be Done With The Troubles Of The World”, is sampled in the background and inter woven with hip-hop as a homage to both forms of art and their significance to the struggle for freedom. As you have heard in the previous episodes, The Palenque is a place of freedom. It is Jubilee for those previously enslaved and now free, therefore when you enter The Palenque you are Welcomed to Jubilee, Where Spirits Remain Free!
Questions to Consider: Where else is Jubilee connected to the African American experience? How have other historical events shaped the significance of Jubilee for African Americans? Why did it take over two years for all slaves to be notified that they were free? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?
Resources from this Episode The Palenque Podcast Theme Song-Jubilee: https://soundcloud.com/namwhite/jubilee Time - 'The Slaves Dread New Year's Day the Worst': The Grim History of January: https://time.com/5750833/new-years-day-slavery-history/ Jubilee: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubilee_(biblical) The True Meaning of Watch Night Service: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8luWRqtmbzk Library of Congress - Freedom's Jubilee: https://www.loc.gov/resource/ihas.200001580.0 The Negro Spiritual database: http://spirituals-database.com/the-negro-spiritual/#sthash.r9SkrHZ4.dpbs Fisk Jubilee Singers-Soon I Will Be Done: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw5a7qBruMQ This Is Why Junteenth Is Important: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu6ntwHws5g
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast iTunes Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast Soundcloud: The Palenque Email: Info@ThePalenque.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
In this episode, we will discuss how the knowledge of self creates strength and purpose and also the impact of a lack of self knowledge. You oppress a people by taking their language, their religion, and their name. All those things were inflicted upon the African American community through multi-generational physical, emotional and psychological trauma.
Dr. Na’im Akbar is a clinical psychologist, educator and author. Essence Magazine proclaimed him as one of the world's preeminent psychologists and a pioneer in the development of an African-centered approach to modern psychology. His work centers around the idea that African Americans still carry many of the scars from slavery and oppression that lead to psychological struggles assoiated with that trauma.
Questions to Consider: What is self-knowledge? How did systemic and structural racism and oppression cause trauma? How does the lack of knowledge of self present itself? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?
Resources from this Episode An AWARE Profile: Dr. Na'im Akbar: https://www.pbs.org/video/aware-an-aware-profile-dr-naim-akbar/ Book-Know Thyself by Dr. Na’im Akbar: http://africaworldpressbooks.com/know-thyself-by-naim-akbar-forward-by-dr-asa-g-hilliard-iii/
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque https://twitter.com/the_palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque https://www.facebook.com/ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast https://www.instagram.com/thepalenquepodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-palenque-podcast/id1490366323 Soundcloud: The Palenque https://soundcloud.com/ThePalenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7aTpRUhH3FqdLFZldMipZ8 Stitcher: The Palenque Podcast https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-palenque-podcast Google Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.google.com/search/the%20palenque%20podcast Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
In this episode, we will discuss Tyler Perry. Most know Tyler Perry from the character Madea, made famous by his many stage plays that started his career and later motion pictures based on those same plays. Tyler Perry created a brand that resonated with a Black audience, stuck to that brand, remained true to his skill set and forged ahead to unparalleled success. Perry did not wait for Hollywood to recognize that his work was valuable. He did not expect to be selected for major awards or nominations. He did not make his work more “mainstream” even though told that it was imperative to do so to gain a broader audience. Instead, he built his own empire, rejecting simply a “seat at the table” and ultimately creating his own table with many seats for others. Today, his 330 acre major motion picture studio in Atlanta is one of the largest in the nation, creating the possibility for media and art that may not have had the opportunity to be realized otherwise.
Hollywood has shaped American culture and beliefs through presentations of images and narratives in movies and TV. The first 12 reel film ever made, The Birth of a Nation by D.W. Griffith, was released in 1915 and became a huge success. It was the first movie ever shown in the White House, inspired the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan, and was originally called The Clansman. Since that first film, Hollywood has historically utilized racial stereotypes in popular media and also fallen victim to what Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie calls “The Danger of a Single Story”.
This podcast and The Palenque were inspired by the work of Tyler Perry. Seeing Mr. Perry open his studio, while paying homage to his elders, mentors, and inspirations, evoked a call to action and a reality check. For so long the belief that we must conform, wear our masks, change systems from within, and show our value by being the best at what we do has been the collective way of work for many. Mr. Perry demonstrated that you can create your own system, empower others, and by doing so, ultimately truly impact change. The ancestors are proud!
Questions to Consider: How did Tyler Perry achieve his goal? How have stereotypes been shaped by Hollywood and what are the effects? What is the Danger of A Single Story? What impact will the Tyler Perry Studio have on America and the world? What resonates most with you? Who else will you share this with?
Resources from this Episode Tyler Perry Story: http://tylerperry.com/tyler/story/ Tyler Perry Studios: https://tylerperrystudios.com The Birth Of A Nation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation The Danger of a Single Story: https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque https://twitter.com/the_palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque https://www.facebook.com/ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast https://www.instagram.com/thepalenquepodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-palenque-podcast/id1490366323 Soundcloud: The Palenque https://soundcloud.com/ThePalenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7aTpRUhH3FqdLFZldMipZ8 Stitcher: The Palenque Podcast https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-palenque-podcast Google Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.google.com/search/the%20palenque%20podcast Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
In this episode, you will learn about the San Basilio de Palenque, the first free slave town in the Americas, located near Cartagena, Colombia. San Basilio de Palenque was founded in the 16th century by Benkos Biohó. Biohó was an African king who was captured and sold into slavery. Approximately three years later, in 1599, he led an escape with a small group of other enslaved Africans from Cartagena. He fled into the swamps to the south of Cartagena and then to the mountains where he established the Palenque, a secret “walled city” where the first free Africans in the Americas settled.
Benkos Biohó went on to form an army of escaped slaves who conquered the area around the Montes de Maria. Biohó also created an “underground railroad” which helped to organize more successful escapes. This angered the government even more as they feared dangerous uprisings among the slave population. A treaty with the Spanish was finalized in 1612 which prohibited Biohó from taking additional Africans into the Palenque but ensured peace for current residents. The Spanish violated the treaty in 1619 by capturing Biohó in Cartagena and executed him in 1619. In 1691, the Spanish issued a decree officially recognized the Africans in San Basilio de Palenque as free from slavery.
Today, Benkos Biohó’s image is immortalized as a statue in the Paleque square. The statue depicts him reaching up with one arm with broken chains hanging from his wrist. To this day, African traditions are preserved at the Palenque and even a unique African and Spanish creole-based language is spoken by residents.
Questions to Consider: 1. Why haven’t you heard of Benkos Biohó or the San Basilio de Palenque before? 2. What kind of man must Benkos Biohó’ been? 3. What did it take to establish and maintain the Palenque? 4. How would the existence of the palenque impact those enslaved and those enslaving? 5. What resonates most with you? 6. Who else will you share this with?
Resources from this Episode 1. Benkos Biohó: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benkos_Biohó 2. San Basilio de Palenque: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Basilio_de_Palenque 3. Visit Palenque, Colombia!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcBFKVZyBQ0
You can connect with Queen LaLa and The Palenque Podcast through multiple social media outlets. Website: www.ThePalenque.com Twitter: @The_Palenque https://twitter.com/the_palenque Facebook: @ThePalenque https://www.facebook.com/ThePalenque Instagram: @ThePalenquePodcast https://www.instagram.com/thepalenquepodcast Apple Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-palenque-podcast/id1490366323 Soundcloud: The Palenque https://soundcloud.com/ThePalenque Spotify: The Palenque Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7aTpRUhH3FqdLFZldMipZ8 Stitcher: The Palenque Podcast https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-palenque-podcast Google Podcasts: The Palenque Podcast https://podcasts.google.com/search/the%20palenque%20podcast Email: ThePalenqueInfo@gmail.com We’d love to connect with you Palenqueros. Share this podcast with your followers.
The Palenque: Where Voices For Change Gather!
Palenque: The word "palenque" means "walled city" and the Palenque de San Basilio is only one of many walled communities that were founded by enslaved Africans who escaped captivity as a refuge in the seventeenth century. San Basilio de Palenque, in Colombia, is the first free settlement with the first free Africans in the Americas and the inspiration for this podcast.
Why do we need The Palenque? Too much time is spent trying to repair inequities from within the system that created them. It's time to create new systems. Time to create our own table instead of trying to sit at a table reserved for others.
Who is our audience? Anyone who believes in our why and wants to be a voice for change. All those who seek freedom are welcome at The Palenque.
What do we provide? We provide a free and safe place to share topics aligned to our why. We provide a refuge, A Palenque, "a walled city" within the system for those that want to live free.
What do we want for the future? We want to empower others to become voices for change that lead conversations, programs, and initiatives in their communities. We want to create Palenqueros world-wide
Mix together Social Justice, Black History, Hip-Hop & some Miami 808s and you've entered The Palenque! Get to know Queen LaLa and visit The Palenque, www.ThePalenque.com or https://linktr.ee/ThePalenque
Where Voices for Change Gather!