Cliff Notes: Howard's University Session 2 by: Elfleda Utiaruk

Hey folks, this is Charles. We’ve loved everyone that has tuned in to session 2 of Howard’s University where we discussed Katrina to COVID-19. Well one of our young folks, Elfleda Utiaruk watched and created some cliff notes, so enjoy.

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Session 2: From Katrina to COVID-19

With Dr Charles Cole III and Dr Howard Fuller

Question 1: Dr Cole asks What is your take on what’s going on in America right now?

 ·      Dr Fuller responds with concerns about the safety of black communities in regard to the reopening after COVID-19 

·      He points out the alarming rate at which the black communities have been affected and then expresses his hopes for the issue to be taken more seriously “we are not taking care of ourselves” and “he hopes 

Question 2: Dr Cole asks for Dr Fuller’s thoughts What were your thoughts after learning how disproportionately affected black communities where affected by COVID-19? And if he was surprised by how disproportionately it was affected

 ·      He responds with a lack of surprise and gave the example of Katrina and how communities with limited resources got impacted the most.

·      He then points back to the lack of priority and the need to get the message out to Black communities to protect themselves because the systems of this country evidently don’t care for us. 

·      Cast away any illusions about what is actually going on and focus on what we can do as a people to take care of ourselves

Question 3: What is your reaction to the call to reopen?

·      He states that “whatever Trump says he’ll do the opposite” because He doesn’t have the best interest for the communities that are being directly impacted.

·      The country may reopen but we as a people MUST stay HYPER vigilant and do whatever it takes to stay healthy and alive.

·      Dr Fuller shares his experience with prostate cancer and how after going through that experience.

 Dr Cole that suggests that Dr Fuller give a quick history lesson for the youth to get a better picture of why more seasoned black folk are more cautious in approaching sectors of authority.

 ·      Dr Fuller narrates what happened during the Tuskegee Trails to further illustrate the lack of care and direct oppression of us as a people by those tasked to lead our country. He states that US Public Health Service conducted a Syphilis study at Tuskegee on a total of African American 600 men. 

·      He then states that “We have to be looking always at what is in our best interest” because we are the only ones that can truly look out for ourselves. He also advises to reference History always as a reminder of this fact. 

·      Ground health in ourselves first 

Question 4: Dr Cole asks why we don’t have these discussions in education? 15:50

·      Dr Fuller responds by highlighting something that Malcom X said “The worst thing that they did was to teach us how to hate ourselves” because with value of self comes liberation from treatment that devalues self.  

·      He also gives another brief history lesson on the year of 1613 when slave trade was prominent where he highlights the fact that black people were originally brought to America as indentured servants and the converted to slaves. 

·      He then briefly talks about the origin of the “Negro” Problem. He talks about a few trains of thought the leaders of America used to tackle the “Negro” problem after we were converted to slaves.

1.     If we stop the slave trade, the slave would die out and the “Negro” problem would be solved

2.     If after the Civil war is fought the Negros ae still around, we have to deport them. Lincoln never felt like black people would live with white people, hence his involvement in the colonization effort to send black people to Liberia

3.     Expand slave trade to other parts of the world in order to get them out of America

4.     Convert them to Christianity and they’ll become a part of the American fabric. This changed when we were defined in the constitution that we were ¾ humans 

·      All this to say that if we see that they are not teaching us then we are responsible for teaching ourselves and demanding that we be taught. 

·      He talks about the need to set up multiple strategies to survive and develop as a people despite all the odds against us

·      Some strategies he mentioned are study groups and institutions focused on learning and teaching our untold history to our people and our children so that they are not surprised by the systemic injustice.

·      During the colonial period

Dr Charles agrees with Dr Fuller and adds that we definitely need to learn more about ourselves in order to get liberation from this false identity that has been pushed on us

Dr Fuller points out that conversations like this have been happening for years and then begs the question “when will we shift from saying something needs to be different to actually seeing and doing things differently”

Dr Cole: In our society, power is taken, not kindly asked for and suggest the we have more conversations around long term plans to achieve a power shift in our favor. 

·      He points out that these leaders made strategic, long-term steps to keep slavery running.

·      Dr Cole brings up a book called “Education of Blacks in The South” by James D. Anderson which was recommended by Dr Fuller for the 8 Black hands Book Club as an example of one of the steps. 

·      The book lays out groundwork for globalization of the slave trade. Essentially, deprive them of education so that the labor stays cheap.

Dr Fuller then responds in agreement for the need of a long-term strategy to tackles the challenges we face as a community

·      He then begs the question “what needs to happen for our children to have some kind of chance when it comes to education” 

·      He quotes Paulo Freire pedagogy by saying education is necessary to equip them with the skills to transform their world/redefine their own existence. The essence of freedom

·      Purpose and direction

·      We have the responsibility to make sure that our people have the tools to exercise their freedom 

Dr Cole brings up the fact that we get distracted a lot and never really get to the planning part

Brings up Katrina and Intro 

Co-host steps in Ray Ankrum, Louisiana Native

Question 5: Help us draw a dotted line between Katrina and COVID-19? Or is there not one?

·      Dr Fuller mentions that after Katrina a lot of people were shocked be how deprived of resources black communities were in Louisiana.

·      Which he sees as ridiculous because the people had been living this way for years and had been voicing out.

·      He then Refenced an article he read in college called “Dirty Workers”. Dirty Worker, according to the article, were tasked to keep the conditions of these black communities hidden from the public/mainstream media.

·      He connects it to COVID-19, how people are shocked that black communities are being highly affected and lack the medical resources to protect themselves when the health care system has been prejudiced to them for years. It was a problem created by the same folks saying that they didn’t know these issues existed. 

·      Black folks made up 51% of the deaths when Katrina hit due to lack of recourses 

·      Mr. Ray responds by pointing out that the lack of infrastructure of levees resulting in the flood. The lack of infrastructure due to neglect for those that had the power to help. All because of lack of care for the community that would be helped.

·      Dr Cole respond to Dr Fuller point and talks about the fact that a disconnect to our history is what causes people to say things like “I didn’t know that’s how bad the lack of resources was in black communities” 

·      He also mentions the dotted line between Katrina and COVID-19 is the fact that the deaths resulting from both tragedies were primarily among the black elders ages 70-75. He highlights that they have been “disposable” to some extent according to history and marginalized during devastating tragedies.

·      My Ray adds with the exception of Black America, because we honor/highlight our elders more in comparison to other races.

·      Dr Cole responds by breaking down his point. He highlights that there is a disregard in the lessons of our ancestors as a result of the education gap between the current generation and that of our ancestors. 

Examining 2 Different types of Protests: A Case Study of the Montgomery Bus Boycotts vs Today’s Cancelled culture  

·      Dr Cole highlights the washy-washy nature of canceled culture and how it has made the elderly cautious about rocking with the youth at 100%.

·      Dr Fuller highlights the importance of organizing in response to Dr Cole about the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Rosa Parks wasn’t the first person arrested. This had been happening for a while. And Rosa Park was a part of a women’s group that essentially was the mechanism that started the work movement.

·      And he briefly mentions Martin Luther king, to make the point that it isn’t just the leaders that make history it the masses of people that make history. Honor shouldn’t just go to the leaders because without the people none of the movements would’ve been successful.

·      He recognizes and calls us to acknowledge the price that was paid to get change to occur.

·      Lost jobs due to not being able to make it to work on time, Lives lost in protest of unfair treatment, the list goes on.

·      Give credit to those names that you haven’t heard about but greatly influenced change.

·      Dr Fuller references an article written by Himself and Shannon Williams on emphasizing the pain of our people in order to get people to listen.

·      Changing the conditions of the masses by give the perspective of the ones hurting.

·      Mr. Ray shares that black folk of today don’t have enough discipline to do a Montgomery Bus Boycott. There’s a level of selfishness.

·      Dr Cole agrees and highlights that 70% of the 90% actually boycotted the Montgomery bus route. 200 people volunteered their cars for the Boycott to be successful.

·      Holding on to the ultimate goal for a prolonged period of time in order to meet the end goal.

Circling back to the topic of the distraction as Cancelled culture

 Question:  A loss of trust in our own people and movements due to the cancelled culture thing. How do we get that back? 

·      Dr Fuller addresses the fact that our generation has different tools and all the noise of cancelling will continue and advises us to shift focus to how we can continue to move forward.

·      He references the French revolution to further illustrate his point. There will be those who storm the Bastille and there will be those that hold the cults. 

·      The focus should be on identifying who will the stormers be, who will the cult holders be and how can we maximize the roles that each of these circles are going to play.

·      Rather than spending time on being at the cult holders, focus on how to effectively use the people who are prepared to struggle and give them support.

·      It’s not worth clapping back at some of these people. It’s a waste of precious time and energy.

·      100 people commit verbally but only 30 people actually show up, are you going to disregard the 30 that showed up and press those that didn’t.

·      Freedom Coalition; 25 people that came to an agreement and did exactly what they were going to so. They showed up.

·      Collect the people willing to struggle and consistently show up for the agenda 

Dr Cole agrees and closes out

Mr. Ray’s final thoughts: If you have a platform that can benefit and support the disenfranchised. Please do what you can

Dr Fuller’s final thoughts: Stay healthy and take care of yourselves and your families