Nia (Purpose), The Fifth Principle Of Kwanzaa; Those We Lost In 2024
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Welcome to The Politocrat. I'm Omar Moore. It is Monday, December the 30th, 2024. On this edition of The Politocrat, those we lost, a partial look back on those who have passed, and a look at the fifth day of Kwanzaa. All of that, coming up next.

Dear listener, hello and greetings wherever you may be across the world. Welcome to this brand new edition of the Blizzacrat Daily Podcast. On a Monday, the final Monday of 2024, my name is Omar Moore. How are you on this Monday? How are you whenever you happen to be listening to this episode? I do hope that you are well and that you are

getting through the day as best you can and that you and yours are healthy, wealthy and wise. Look, I always say this to you, almost always, I really do appreciate you. You are a valued, highly valued and well-respected listener and you know that by now. And I thank you for continuing to listen to this podcast. It is really an honor to have you listening. It truly is. Thank you so very much for your precious time.

And speaking of time, this year has gone and flown by, hasn't it? It is gone. It has flown. It is out. It is almost over. Your 2024, how was it? Well, I'll talk about that, I think, more tomorrow. I mean, we are practically really at the end of the year now. And I think back to how quickly this year has gone by, and it's stunning. And I also think back to 2020.

The sheer number of people that we have lost this year is absolutely staggering. It truly, truly is. And, you know, I never cease to be amazed and even shocked by the sheer number of people who have left this stage called life, this stage, this fleeting stage.

It's quite stunning and quite staggering to me that we have had so many people pass. And wow. Whoa, whoa, whoa. I will talk about this a bit more in a few minutes time. But I do want to quickly talk about the fifth principle of Kwanzaa, which is today. Now, as you know, Kwanzaa is an African-American holiday that

Spans seven days and was developed and created by Dr. Malanga Karenga in 1966. He's a professor, I believe, at USC or UCLA here in California. And this holiday is something that's very important. Kwanzaa literally means harvest. And, you know, we have these seven principles of the Nguzo Saba.

And we celebrate these principles every day during this time of year. And they can be celebrated one per day or they can be celebrated all at once on any given day. And they can be celebrated not just in these seven days to end the year and the first day of next year. They can be celebrated at any time throughout the year. And I think should be, I would say that you really should celebrate these principles every single day.

And I've talked about them previously. I did briefly mention them yesterday, a couple of them, Ujima and before that Ujima. But definitely I want to talk about purpose today. It's called Nia. Nia is the fifth principle of Kwanzaa. And so Nia means purpose. What is our purpose? Well, purpose as a...

as the holiday of Kwanzaa goes, is to restore our people as black people to their traditional greatness. That is the purpose of what we do when it comes to Nia, to absolutely restore our people to their traditional greatness, to who we are as people, to restore our people to that as black people, because of course,

Our people began human civilization on the African continent. That's where human civilization began. That's where we began human civilization. And we certainly had dynasties and kingdoms, queendoms. We architected so many different things on this planet, invented so many different things on this planet. In fact, among many other things, we...

invented music, invented country music, invented all forms of music, rock. That came from black people. The blues came from black people, the blues. Our experiences coming through enslavement, coming through Jim Crow, I mean, coming through enslavement, coming through... That's what the blues is, and that's where it came out of. And even before music and before country music, which black people created, we...

invented all manner of things, you know, technologies and light filaments and all kinds of inventions that people would rather keep away from you and that you don't learn or your kids don't learn in school that you never learned in school when you were going to school. So the purpose, our purposes for Nia, which is purpose in Kwanzaa, is to do the things that we do

whether it is to develop our community, the black community, whether it is to build the infrastructure of our community, whether it is to collectively do certain things on a positive level that build our communities and fortify them, the purpose of all of that, the NIA of all of that, N-I-A, the NIA of all of that, if you will,

is in service of restoring black people to their rightful place, their traditional foundation of greatness. Because as quiet as it is kept here in the United States,

Black folk are great people. I mean, if you really look at the backbone and foundation of our history, which is also, by the way, American history, but our history across the globe is that we are a resilient people. We are a people who have gone through hardship.

Things like no other people have over such a long, sustained period of time. And no one has gone through what we've gone through for such a long period of time, 400 years and counting. And no one's gone through those kinds of horrors for that long. Now, obviously, there are groups of people who've gone through some very horrific and traumatic things. I'm not going to sit here and say that that's not true. Of course, it's true. And those things are really...

very, very traumatic and harrowing. We also have gone through some very horrific things and had our names stolen from us, our religion, our language, our culture stolen from us, our land stolen from us, our families stolen from us and divided and destroyed. And if you look at

All of those things, our families destroyed and split up. We were enslaved. All of those things happened to us and we remain here. We are still here. People brought here by strange people in a strange land. And so we are still here. We remain here throughout everything.

And not only are we here and still here, we are, many of us, thriving, not just surviving. Yes, there obviously are some black people, for example, here in the United States who are poor,

But most black people are not poor. Most black people in the United States are not in poverty. Most black people in the United States are not below the poverty line. You know, that's something that is a complete myth. It's not true. Now, of course, there are some, but most people are not. The corporate news media in this country focuses on all poor people. And every time they focus on poor people, they inevitably shine the light on black people. When in fact, there's far more

Obviously, numerically is the one reason why there are far more poor white people in this country than are poor black people. And there are in the part of their group, many more white poor people than there are rich poor people. I mean, that's obvious and clear.

But when poor people are talked about, generally in news stories, they don't focus, the media does not focus on white people at all. But in campaigns, when people are talking about the working class, where you have politicians who are running for office talking about the working class, they are really talking about white poor people. That's the only time you really would hear any alluding to that fact. But

Poor black people do exist, but there are less poor black people than there are in the country than there are white poor people. And also, as I say, there are a lot more black people who are doing better in our communities in terms of they have jobs, they have an infrastructure, they have families, doing very well with that. And this, despite having our ancestral roots,

land stolen from us, having our ancestors stolen from their lands and destroyed. I mean, we've come through a hell of a lot, Jim Crow, all of these upheavals, this violence in our lives, you know, the violent things that happened and continue to happen to our people, you know, people getting shot dead by police. There was an instance of a young brother of

beaten to death by corrections officers in New York just roughly three weeks ago now, exactly three weeks ago now, beaten to death in upstate New York. And, you know,

That was caught on video. We've seen black people over and over again be brutalized by police for no reason. In these cases now, there isn't even a gun. There's nothing where a police officer can say, well, he had a gun. I mean, there's been one case where

recently that I came across where a 16-year-old boy had a gun, but he dropped the gun and put up his hands and they still killed him. And they just, it's horrible. I'll talk about that, I think, perhaps maybe tomorrow, but I might talk about that later on in this episode. But the point I'm making here

is that through all of this storm, through all of the violations and brutalities, we have been able to not only survive but thrive. We've been able to create communities. We've been able, as black people, to continue to build infrastructures, to create businesses, to thrive in our businesses, to build ownership of our businesses and our communities, to reclaim that. We used to have Black Wall Street in Greenwood, Tulsa, Oklahoma.

And of course, that got destroyed by white mobs who brutalized over a two-day period, brutalized many, many black people. Up to around 600 people, between 300 and 600 black people were killed by white people, rampaging and looting. You want to talk about riots and looting and burning down communities and this, oh, black people, they just burn down their communities. No, actually, it's white people who do that.

It's white people who go into your village and go into your towns as they did in the 1900s, in the 1800s, in the 1910s, 20s, 30s, and burned down black towns, prosperous black towns that were created and owned by black people that had

black banks, black post offices, black schools, black churches, you know, it's not what it's not black folk who are doing that. You know, it's you focus on some instances, whereas i.e. 1992 Rodney King verdict, and where there were some black folk who set aflame to places, quite frankly, that weren't even theirs in their own communities. And I don't condone any violence. I don't condone that.

You know, and I certainly don't condone, obviously, and don't support white people coming into our communities and burning them to the ground as they did many times over in the 1900s and Greenwood, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and

And Rosewood in Florida in 1923 in particular were just two of the many, many instances where white people did this to black communities. And, you know, you hear this, oh, well, oh, you just burned down your own community. Well, no, no, no. You burned down our own community. And that's what the history shows.

So, you know, despite all of these things, here we are in what is almost 2025. Going to schools, continuing to invent things. Culture is ours in terms of how we've set the imprimatur for culture. We are the cultural blueprint that everyone else follows and imitates and appropriates and Bogarts and all the rest of it. Our culture is

is inextricably linked to the United States and to places the world over. So whether it's music, whether it's style, whether it is the way we speak, you know, and there's very different kinds of speech in very different black communities across this country.

All of these things, right, are part of our story, part of our heritage, part of our history. There have been black architects, black pioneers, black explorers and inventors. And look, all of this is to say that Nia on this day is about purpose. And the purpose is to continue to tap in to our greatness as black people, to restore us.

our people and restore the history and to restore the infrastructures. And to do that, we have to have a cooperative and collective mindset. And we must come into community as black people to effectuate these things. And there's ways that we can do that. We can do that, whether it is through social media, whether it is through organized events, whether it's through

having organizations that we can devise ourselves or join and get together and do these things. There are people on social media who already are doing these kinds of things. I mean, I think that's very, very clear. I think of someone who I'm going to play you some audio from coming up in a few minutes time, and I promise that we'll get to

the segment that I want to get to afterwards about people that we have lost in 2024. But I do want to say that there are people out here on social media and elsewhere, and I don't really spend as much time on social media, certainly less time. I didn't spend a whole lot of time to begin with on social media, but certainly far less even now, less now than I have earlier on in the year.

And I do feel, as I've always said, much better about that. Mental health-wise, it's a really, really good thing. And so one of the people on social media that I tend to come across is Randy Bryant. And she has built, she's just one of many black people who has built

A successful business is someone who is an educator, a motivator, a DEI disruptor, somebody who spent at least two decades as a DEI expert and someone who is an educator around DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion. She's given speeches across the country and I think around the world, actually, if I if I in case I need to be corrected on that.

on what to do and how companies must represent a diversity of people and groups and how black people must be represented in those groups and how corporations need to do that and all of the rest of it. And as we see these attacks on DEI, Randy Bryant, who for the years has been a DEI disruptor and educator, has often put out videos on social media talking about

and again, the attack on DEI and also talking about white people and the...

their thinking when it comes to black people and white people's behavior around black people and all kinds of really, I think, important and very necessary things to talk about that a lot of people aren't talking about or don't want to or are afraid to. And when I say a lot of people aren't talking about, I'm talking mainly about white people, but there are a load of black people who don't like to even talk about these things for all kinds of reasons. But

It's usually black people who are, if anyone's doing the talking about these issues, it is us. And so Randy Bryant, I think is a really good example of restoring that.

black folk to their really, you know, traditional greatness, you know, and again, all you have to do is do some research and do some history research and reading about black folk and what we've contributed to this world and what we continue to contribute to the world and to culture and, you know, civilization. We started human civilization, as I said earlier, and, you know, it's very important to be mindful of these things because we

We are written out of history books. And someone like Randy Bryant, I think, is a fine example of helping to restore black people to that particular place of greatness that we know we have and that other people know we have, quite frankly, and including white people know that we have this. And, you know, there's a lot of resentment and a lot of anger and jealousy and envy that comes across as well from white

from a large number of white people in their views of black people, in seeing black people who create their own styles and expressions and modes of expression and clothing. You know, I noticed this when I walked down the streets here in San Francisco, for example, in this area of San Francisco, for some, you know, you can see it in the faces of some white people. They do get, you can tell they're either pissed off and it may not be anything to do with me,

because it's nothing to do with me ultimately. You know, I have not created any anger in their lives. I don't know them. They don't know me. But you can see the resentment and the anger and the hostile look, the hostility that you get as a black person. It doesn't have to be in San Francisco, any place on the planet, usually any place inside the US especially, where you get this white hostility directed at you for no reason. You're just minding your business. You haven't said anything to them. How would you have said anything to them? They're, you know,

half a block away from you and they've already got this, you know, resentful, angry look on their face. You know, you have not done anything to them. But this is what black people experience in this country, especially every single day of their lives, of our lives. You know, no, no, we haven't done anything to you. James Baldwin has said this, you know, white people have to ask why they have created this boogeyman. And of course he uses much more,

explicit language and he uses that word that I hate and will never use. Why have you created that person? And he comes to the conclusion that that person was created for

white Americans in particular, and white people to feel much more comfortable with who they are, because they had to invent some boogeyman to avoid looking at the horrors of what their people and their ancestors have wrought on black folk and on native folk and on brown folk, you know, this is the thing that kind of is a rationalization tool and technique, I think, for

for the white people who do this and for generations of white people who have done this. So James Baldwin asked those kinds of questions and punctured those issues and really got down to the deep meat and bone and marrow of all of this. And Randy Bryant is someone who is, as an educator, does these kinds of things as well. And when I come back, I am going to play for you

something that I think aligns with this principle of Kwanzaa called Nia, which is purpose. That's next.

State's history, what most people learn in schools and then from the media is one big fairy tale. It has been designed to make white people feel as if they are the saviors, as if they're the ones who discovered this land, although there were people already here, and that they're responsible for anything great that has happened on it, from music to inventions to the great literature, etc. So ignorance has become bliss for them.

But it's important that those of us who want to be knowledgeable understand the real history of America so we don't look stupid, especially stupid enough to be arguing about how Beyonce has no space or place in country music. This is absolutely ludicrous considering that country music was founded and is the soul of black people.

Country music started with two major instruments, and that is the fiddle and the band. Two West African instruments.

They came over with us. When we were enslaved after being kidnapped by white people and forced to work their lands, we were also forced to entertain them. And we would play these instruments. We also would play these instruments in church. They were part of our hymns. So they would speak to our sorrow, our struggle, our resistance, our unity as a people. That was the soul of who we were and the soul of country music.

Of course, in time, white people said, oh, we really like this music. And they like they do. They said it's ours, but they didn't create it. They took it. They stole it and claimed it as theirs. But during the way, during the time, we did still keep creating our music.

You have people like Mr. Bland who wrote Carry Me Back to Old Virginia, which is our state song. I'm from Virginia, a black man. You had people like Charlie Pride, one of the only three black people who've been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame that, you know, that had a great impact on country music. And I believe then that the reason why they were able to do such things is that for a long time, I don't think people recognized that they were black because there was not the Internet.

We didn't have TV the way we did these days or not music videos going around. So I think people fell in love with their voices before they realized they were listening to black people. Okay, because we see now what happens when black people try to enter into a world that someone has decided is theirs, although they stole it. I want to make it clear also that being country

It's not a white thing. Your Southern roots are your Southern roots. Many of us black people, including myself are from the South. My family's from Texas and I'm telling you, my family's as country as a neck bone sandwich. Okay. And Beyonce's family is from Texas. We are Southern people. And it's just crazy to me that people want to take over a whole half the country and say it's theirs.

And so the idea that she is trying to approach something, our club that she's not welcoming to, is ridiculous because it's a club, it's a genre, it's a life that we started.

And so the only thing that is upsetting people is the inability to completely colonize and take something over and call it their own, which is when they stole it. What Beyonce is doing is paying homage to her history. She's paying homage to her past. She is honoring those who came before us. She is honoring the music that her ancestors created. And she has every right to do so.

That was Randy Bryant, the DEI disruptor. I spoke about her in the last block and that was one of the audio from video that she does on her Instagram account. Talking about the history of country music and how we as black people created that. We invented country music. Country music came from our country, came from us.

And she also talked about the real absolute folly, the folly and the idiocy and the arrogance, frankly, of white people who, you know, have these country music awards or claim that they created country and then act as if it's really weird or strange for Beyonce, a black woman, to be in country music when, as you heard Randy Bryant just say,

Beyonce's celebrating her heritage. She's paying homage, paying respect to her ancestors, to her people, to her history, to her own history. You know, that's the arrogance that you find in this society on the part of women.

the white people who would tell you as a black person that you have no place and you have no history and that you don't have culture and oh, why is Beyonce doing this at the halftime of an NFL game? Oh, why is she doing that? You know, and everybody reacting to some stupid idiot

who is white, telling everyone that, you know, what's Beyonce doing here? As if, you know, you're trying to police, as they do, try to police the spaces that black people are in. And the very spaces that you're trying to police are the very spaces that black people created. And that's what Randy Bryant's getting at in that audio that you just heard. I really would

invite you to go to her Instagram account. It's randi, R-A-N-D-I underscore underscore B as in Bravo. And this is not the first time I have played a clip of Randi's video.

the audio of it on this podcast. I've talked about Randy Bryant on a number of occasions. She really is, I think, one of the very important, foremost leading educators on the subject of DEI, if not the foremost educator in this country on DEI. And I play that clip because it goes toward what I've been talking about when it comes to Nia and purpose, this fifth principle of Kwanzaa, which is celebrated on this day, day five of Kwanzaa,

This idea, this whole mission and this journey of restoring black people to their traditional greatness, going back to our roots, going back and doing things like what Randy does, teaching and educating people, you know, writing books on this as she does. And you should go to her website and purchase her books and her truthing cards, right?

if you're a black person, particularly, I think you really need to do this. You need to do this. If you're a white person, you need to do this. If you are any person, you need to do this. Go to Randy Bryant's website, r-a-n-d-i-b as in bravo dot net. That's randyb.net, r-a-n-d-i-b as in bravo dot net.

And I really, really would like you to buy something from her site. She's got apparel. She's got books. She's got truthing cards. These are educational tools. And so...

Randy Brown is but one of many millions of black people here in the United States who educates and who plays a role every day of restoring black, of trying to and actually restoring black people to their traditional greatness through the work she does in community with people, in community with other educators.

And by talking to her followers on Instagram on a daily basis, as she does in her videos. So I want to point her out because she's one of many, many people who does this. And so she does actually actuate the principle of Nia purpose, right?

and does this on a daily basis. And we all can do this on a daily basis. I know I can do this on a daily basis, and I think I do in some ways, but I need to do a whole lot more of it.

And again, it's not just during these seven days of Kwanzaa. Kwanzaa is something you can practice every single day. Kwanzaa is something that black people celebrate and practice. Anyone can practice this, you know, as well. If you're white listening to me, you can practice these things, right? You actually can, right?

Remembering and knowing full well that this is all about restoring community if you're black, restoring black people and doing things to amplify black voices and black businesses and patronizing black businesses. Actually, just yesterday, and this is not for the first time,

I purchased something from Randy's business, you know, Randy Bryant. And, you know, I buy black routinely and not just during Kwanzaa, but, you know, frequently throughout the year, which we should all be doing. If you're listening, dear listener, you really should purchase from a black business. I remember I had this conversation on social media a year or two ago, and I asked a number of people, a number of the people who are white who follow me on social media, and

When was the last time you purchased from a black business, a black owned business, not a black business that's owned by someone white or owned by someone who is not black, a black owned business? When was the last time you patronized one? And many of the people, more than half said they never have. One or two said, oh, yeah, I do so all the time.

And then they provided me examples of the places that they patronized. Then there are other people that say, oh, I don't see any black businesses in my neighborhood. And I said to those people, the white people who said that to me was, wait a minute, in your neighborhood, you do know there is something called the internet. And on that thing called the internet, there is a thing called a search engine. And in that search engine, you can type up black owned businesses. And

You get the idea, right? So those people who were saying that to me, and there were more than a few of them, were just, I think, talking a lot of nonsense and being very insincere and or slash disingenuous. So the bottom line is, is that I don't know whether people are actually doing this or not, if they're actually patronizing or if they're not. But I do know.

And I gave you the website for this previously. And the app, Blap, B-L-A-P-P. I do know that there is something called a black-owned business. And I do know that there's lots of them online, on apps, in apps. I've told you about the official Black Wall Street. I've told you about all these things. And I urge you, urge you, urge you to patronize black businesses.

patronize black businesses. You know, when you are in a city or a town that you've never been to before, do an internet search or before you even get to that town on your holiday, on your vacation, do an internet search. I don't care where you are across the world.

Right. Whichever town you go to across the world, do an Internet search for heaven's sakes to see if there are any black owned businesses in that town that you are in or that you'll be vacationing in or any place that you are. Do a search online to see if there are any black owned businesses in that town or if they're online.

And patronize from them. Buy something from them. Right? That's something you can do. One of the most effective things you can do is to put your dollar where your mouth is. To put your dollar in a black business. Purchase from black-owned businesses. Black-owned businesses are businesses that you need to be patronizing. You know? It's very important. And I think Randy Bryant is but one of many, many millions of examples.

of a proprietorship, someone who, again, is an educator who does excellent work 365 days a year, educating people and, again, really effectuating purpose as she does it so well. So please patronize Randy Brand. That's randyb.net.

online and you can follow her on Instagram randi r-a-n-d-i underscore underscore b as in bravo take a look at her videos and a lot of the other content that she has on Instagram she's also on TikTok as well

Which, you know, TikTok is something that I will never, ever go on. But Randy Bryant does post videos on TikTok. So if you are a TikTok person, then obviously you can take a look at what she does there as well. But I guarantee you, you will find her to be tremendously edifying.

is someone who really, I think, does a lot of great work and is one of those many, many black people who practices the idea, the principle of Nia, of purpose, with her work restoring black people to their traditional greatness as a people throughout our history. And you just heard what she said about country music, and it's so true.

The arrogance of, you know, this idea of, you know, locking black people out of the country music awards, you know, you know, not allowing, you know, not nominating Beyonce. When Beyonce and black people and people who look like Beyonce and black folk at large created country music in this country, created country music, started country music.

You know, it's just this arrogance and this tomfoolery. That's why these award shows really, in my mind, don't really matter because, you know, they're about creating a fantasy and rewarding people who really, you know, it's just because they know them half the time and really, you know, haven't really done the work, done the great work that they're doing.

that they often win for. You know, we have always the same problem with the Oscars as well. Same thing, you know. But look, that's a whole other story. I don't want to really wander that far afield. But the bottom line is, is that, you know, there's an arrogance and a resentment and an irrationality about...

Getting upset at Beyonce and locking her out, you know, shutting her out by not nominating her in these silly award shows. Who cares what the Country Music Awards says about Beyonce? You know, what really counts is that Beyonce has put the work out there. Who cares what some white guy has to say about Beyonce at the Beyonce Bowl, which you can actually watch on Netflix, by the way. Who cares what one disgruntled, one racist person

white boy, white man, white whomever has to say about Beyonce and Beyonce Bowl and all these other white people who've complained and moaned and groaned and harumphed

about Beyonce last week at the halftime of that game in Texas or before the game started or whenever the thing was. I only watched a couple minutes of it myself. And you can watch the whole thing on Netflix. Who cares what some person who is white is frustrated and angry and react. You're gonna really, what about responding to the, if you're so angry out there, whomever you are,

about Beyonce and you want to harumph about that, why don't you ever talk about the things we've created in civilization? Why don't you post something about all of the things we created in this human civilization?

Why don't you post about how black folks started civilization, human civilization? Why don't you ever do that? Why don't the people who are complaining about Beyonce paying homage to her heritage, to her people, to what they've created in culture and showing love and affection in paying homage to her ancestors? Why don't you all ever, who are doing this, whoever you all is, right? Why don't you ever...

Talk about black folk who start civilization, who have started it and go through the history. Why don't you ever talk about Imhotep, the father of medicine? Why don't you ever talk about Tutankhamen? Why don't you ever talk about those Africans who built the pyramids? Why don't you ever talk about those things? Huh? Yeah, it's very interesting, isn't it? Radio silence. What about Alexander Pushkin? Why don't you ever talk about him and who he was?

And his blackness. Why don't you ever talk... I can go on and on. Why don't you ever talk about Mary McLeod Bethune? Why don't you ever talk about Mary McLeod Bethune? Why don't you ever talk about her? Why don't you ever talk about Ella Baker? Or Harriet Tubman? Or Ida B. Wells? Or Barbara Jordan? Or Shirley Chisholm? Or Sojourner Truth? Why don't you ever post about that? And those people that I just mentioned. Why? Before I talk about...

some of the people that we lost who departed from us during the course of this calendar year I do want to put some books out there for you that I think that you should be reading and definitely think that will be of some real benefit to your knowledge and understanding

of what black people have contributed to this planet and also to our history, which is American history. You know, there's this idea that there's black history and then there's American history. Like there's as if those two things aren't the same thing, you know, because always the, this is always this othering that goes on in this country and not only here, but in a lot of countries in the UK, this happens as well. And in, uh,

in France to a degree, it happens there too. It happens not even to a degree there, it happens in a lot of these places and a lot of these countries, these European countries in particular. And, you know, I think it's very important that as we continue to journey through this 21st century, that we really do look at, face, digest, confront, understand,

History, history or her story is a really important, crucial thing. It's crucial to our development, it's crucial to our knowledge and understanding of the world that we are living in and the world around us and our world, you know, the world that we inhabit, our space, our position, you know, where we are as human beings and as black people in particular.

where we are as human beings. And so, you know, there are some books I would like to recommend to you. There's one called Introduction to African Civilizations. It's by John G. is the middle initial, Jackson. Introduction to African Civilizations. I would also point you to Black Women in Antiquity. The book Black Women in Antiquity, which is written by

Ivan Van Sertimer. Ivan, I-V-A-N, middle name Van, V-A-N, last name Sertimer. I think Van Sertimer might be his last name, but it's two separate words. Sertimer is spelled S as in Sam, E-R-T as in top, I-M as in mission, A. Black Women in Antiquity by Ivan Van Sertimer. Also by Ivan Van Sertimer.

They Came Before Columbus. They Came Before Columbus. And that's a history of African, ancient Africans in America. They Came Before Columbus by Ivan Van Sertimer. He is the author.

So those are just a few of the books. There's also one that's much more contemporary than that called Lies About Black People, L-I-E-S, Lies About Black People, written by Omekongo Dibinga, Dr. Omekongo, O-M-E-K-O-N-G, Dibinga, last name D-I-B-I-N-G-A. I'll be right back.

There are so many books. Oh my goodness me. I got to tell you, I just spoke hurriedly a little bit about a few of them that I really think you need to read. And look, I don't just put these books out there at any time of year, at one particular time of year. This happens to be Kwanzaa. Yeah, it does.

And I'm doing this now, but I do this across the year. I've given away a number of books over the last goodness knows how many years, and particularly also on this podcast. And it's very important to educate and to spread the knowledge, to pass on knowledge that, quite frankly, gets buried in this country. The Republicans, and not only Republicans, but the Republicans chiefly are the ones

who ban books of any kind in a lot of different places, you know, doing what the Nazis did in the 1920s and 30s, doing what they have been doing. And look, the bottom line is that book burning has been going on and book bans have been going on in the United States for an awfully long time. It didn't just start in 2024 or 2020 or 2023. It's been going on for a long, long time. So you really need to know and understand that.

And one of the things I like to do is to open up the doors of knowledge to things that you, dear listener, may or may not be aware of previously. And, you know, there's a lot of books and knowledge out there for us to all explore, to tap into, to learn from, to really gain understanding from, profound understanding and knowledge.

You know, there's a lot to be learned, a lot to be learned. And I've given you just a few of those books. And again, I don't wait until Black History Month. And in the United Kingdom, Black History Month is in October. Here in the USA, Black History Month is in February, the shortest month of the year. Wouldn't you know it? But I don't wait until those months to talk about this. I talk about this at any time of the year.

And I don't wait until December the 26th through January the 1st to do it either, although I am doing it now during this period of time.

Every day of the year is a day to study history. And American history and black history are intertwined because they are one and the same. Black history is American history. That's the thing. It is American history. Now, not every aspect of American history is black history, but black history is American history. There's no question about it. Black history in America is American history. There's no doubt about it.

And so, as James Baldwin once said, the story of the Negro in America is the story of America. It is not a pretty story. And now to the sad part of the episode. And I think this is why I chose to do this last. Because we lost a lot of people this year. And...

So part of me, as I get all teary-eyed about this, because I've always told you, dear listener, that for me, feelings are very important. Not just for me personally, but I just believe in the world. The ability for any human being to feel, to have emotions, I'm talking about now, is so indispensable to our existence, to our being in touch with who we are, to be able to cleanse ourselves in that way.

to have something resonate with our heart and our soul and our spirit. And so when people pass away, people that we know, people that we don't really know, if you are a human being who has any kind of humanity in you whatsoever, you will feel something about that. You will feel a certain way, one way or another, whether it's revulsion,

because some of us do when certain people who we despise pass away or whether it's something much more sad and much more painful and much more sorrowful or whether there's a sense of joy in the sense that we're celebrating them that they have made a transition they've become ancestors and the purpose of this segment dear listener is to just mention and talk a small bit about

about some of those people who we lost this year now, whether you've lost someone in your family, you know. Remember, I just want to say to you that I am very sorry for your loss. I send you my deepest, most profound, heartfelt condolences for your loss. And Lord knows, I think we've lost people this year that we know, we care about, that we love. You know, I've certainly lost a

people. I'm sure that I would say that you perhaps have or know someone who has, if you are of a certain age, you get to a point in your life where you, you know, every few weeks, learn of someone that you know, who's lost someone or at some point, you know, in, you know, in your lifetime, you will have lost someone close to you if you haven't already done so. And so

you know, as I always say, you know, we often said, I should say, death is a part of life and it's very painful, obviously, to go through, to experience. We're all going to experience it. And, you know, we live in a culture that doesn't value life and so therefore doesn't really look at death at all and pretends that it's just not a part of life, which it obviously is, right? So,

I say that to mention some of the people, most of whom are very famous and well-known or people that you will have heard of perhaps, dear listener, and maybe some that you may not have learned of or heard of or known of, who passed away this year, who made transition this year. And I've spoken about some of them on the podcast here during the course of this calendar year who've passed away. And, you know, I want to talk about

People like Nikki Giovanni, who passed away earlier this month. You know, I devoted several episodes of this podcast to her. A poet, an author, an educator, an activist, a leader, you know. Someone who came out of the black arts movement. Somebody who...

She left us so much, gave so much of herself, challenged us, you know, enlivened us, enriched our spirit, enriched our hearts and challenged us and spoke truth to power and did that to the very end of her life. Nikki Giovanni, who taught at Virginia Tech.

as a professor there for many a year. And, you know, she was somebody who was very important to us in the Black Arts Movement, the Black Liberation Struggle. Nikki Giovanni, whose conversation with James Baldwin I played for you on this podcast.

earlier this year. I think it was either earlier this month or late last month. I just think for some reason that Nikki Giovanni passed away in November, not in December. But, you know, maybe I could be wrong about that. I could be wrong about that. It feels like it was November. But anyway, you can search back in this podcast and look back to the two episodes where I played the entirety, parts one and two, of Nikki Giovanni in conversation with James Baldwin, one of the great conversations ever.

That you will ever hear. And so Nikki Giovanni was a very, very, very special person ahead of her time and someone who was always giving of her time to so many millions of people that she came into contact with during her time on this planet. And now she is an ancestor, as you know.

Also, as I've talked about as recently as just yesterday on this podcast, Jimmy Carter, the former president of the United States, the oldest former president of these United States in the history of this country, passed away yesterday at the age of 100. I've spoken a lot about him yesterday on the podcast, so I invite you to listen.

Listen back to that. It's a fairly, I would say, fulsome tribute to the man who I also was fortunate enough to meet some nearly 20 years ago now here in San Francisco at a book signing. The pleasure of speaking a few words to him and him, he doing the same. Although I really don't remember what he said to me, but he did say something. And he signed a copy of his book that I had purchased called Our Endangered Values. He was someone who

Again, devoted so much time to so many people and did so around the world. And as I've talked about, I've talked about him more in depth in yesterday's episode. Jimmy Carter, he left us this year. We lost the likes of James Earl Jones this year. You know, we lost so many people this year. This is just a partial list of the people that

But we lost James Earl Jones, the thespian of stage and screen and the silver screen, passed away this year. And he was, I think, in his 90s, I think he was 93 or 96, somewhere in there. Lived a long life like Jimmy Carter did. And, you know, was someone who personified class and decency and tremendous spirit and honesty and

Really a tremendous person. Somebody who really valued what he did and who he touched in his life. And so, you know, tremendous, tremendous person. We lost a real great one in James Earl Jones. And speaking of a great one in James Earl Jones, another Jones we lost this year was Quincy Jones. In November of this year, Quincy Jones passed away. Quincy Jones was in his 90s or close to it.

I think he was 91 years of age, somewhere around there, lived a long life and did so much in that life. He did enough for 10 lifetimes in the years that he was on this planet. Quincy Jones, an everlasting human being who I pay tribute to as well, as I did James O. Jones on this podcast earlier this year.

Quincy Jones was that bright light of creativity and energy and humanity who we only get one of these kinds of people every so often on this planet. And Quincy Jones was one of them.

He lived, he loved, he laughed. You know, that's what we do, right? When things are tough in this world, and the Lord knows there are many of those tough things that you and I have gone through and we've experienced, dear listener, we hopefully can also find some laughter, some time to laugh, because laugh is very important. It's infectious. It is deep. It is rich. It really lifts our souls up.

and illuminates our hearts as well. And it's very good for us in terms of our

chemical, a chemical balance in our bodies is to laugh. It brings up these endorphins and all kinds of things that are really good. The neurons get fired up and you feel better. It's a release. Laughing is a release, just like crying is a release. And both of those things are good things to do, right? Both of those things really are good for the body, good for our souls and our hearts and our minds actually as well. So

Quincy Jones did all those things. He lived and laughed and loved. And he cried. I'm sure in quiet moments he did as well. But he created, you know. Talking about creative forces in the world, Quincy Jones was one of them. And what a powerhouse Quincy Jones was, you know. He lived to make music. He lived. He was the music, you know. Quincy Jones, in a great sense, in a profound sense, was the music, you know. He lived.

He was the closest thing to Duke Ellington. He really was the closest thing to Duke Ellington. And if you don't know who Duke Ellington was, dear listener, please, please, please do some research online on Duke Ellington. I can tell you I've got so much of his music here. I've only scratched the surface of Duke Ellington, and it's been many years, and I'm still only scratching the surface of Duke Ellington.

Quincy Jones is in that mold. And I say one of the great musicians, composers, conductors there ever was, was Quincy Jones, who'd been doing this kind of thing for 70 years, seven zero years of his life. The kinds of music he created and wrote and composed is really unparalleled, except for someone like a Duke Ellington, you know.

did so much he would crank out seven or eight albums a year at least he would do even more i mean i'm not talking just his own albums but the music he composed for other people's albums for soundtracks for movies for tv thing he did he did all he did all uh and did

And did it in each decade, whether it was in the 50s with Frank Sinatra and into the 60s with Frank Sinatra and other people he combined with like Count Basie in the 1950s and 60s. And whether it was people...

that he did this with in all kinds of realms, you know, Aretha Franklin, I can go on and on and on and on about all the people that Quincy Jones touched and worked with and created with, whether it's Michael Jackson, or whether it was, you know, I can go on and on forever and ever, you know, it was Quincy Jones, by the way, who demanded that Michael Jackson don't even dare take out

It was Quincy's job anyway to control this as the producer and arranger of Off the Wall, the album. He said to Michael Jackson, no, you're not. You're not. And we are not taking out that violin in the beginning of the song Don't Stop Till You Get Enough. Michael Jackson wanted that violin at the beginning of that song taken out of the track. And everybody knows that that's the most famous part of the track.

Right? That violin. Now, if you are a Michael Jackson aficionado of Off The Wall, that album, then you will understand what it is I just did there. If you aren't, please listen to the song Don't Stop Till You Get Enough. Go and listen to that on a streaming platform or on a vinyl. Oh, I love vinyl. Or on CD.

And so you will understand what I'm talking about when I go... You'll understand what that is. That's near the beginning of that song. Don't stop till you get enough. Quincy Jones said, no, Michael, that part... That violin part is staying in the track. Michael didn't like that. But you know what? Michael was wrong on that, right? And so...

Please, please listen to that track and listen to all of the greatness of Quincy Jones, who worked with a gazillion people over the span of at least 70 years. And also watch his documentary, by the way, called Quincy, which I will watch again not too long from now. And was one of the all time greats at what he did.

We lost Ricky Henderson, speaking of an all-time great, in the sport of Major League Baseball. Quincy Jones was an all-time great, really, in music and composition and writing and all of those great things, musicianship. And Ricky Henderson was an all-time great in baseball. He really was here in the United States. He defined...

brilliance, the skill, the science, the ability, the confidence. Ricky Henderson, somebody who went too soon in his early 60s. It's unbelievable that he didn't even make it to his mid-60s. I think he was only 63 years old or something like that. Ricky Henderson was young when he passed away. Young, young, young. Which really frightens me every time I hear someone in their 50s or 60s has passed away. It just kind of

Oh my gosh. Anyway, you know, life is short, as I say. And Ricky Henderson made the most of what was a short life, but he made it with greatness, infectious humor. Confidence was really the thing about Ricky Henderson that I always respected and loved about him. And it sometimes perhaps may have bordered on cockiness, but not quite. And if it did, Ricky Henderson was sure to back it up.

to the point in which he talked about himself in the third person all the time and did it with confidence and love and not with anything that people would say, well, that's strange. It was Ricky being Ricky, as they might say, as someone might say. But Ricky Henderson was a good guy as well. He was not just brilliant at what he did. He was a decent human being, which you can't always say about a lot of people,

But there are lots of decent people in the world. It's you having to come into contact with them that's the thing. And hopefully you surround yourself with people who are decent. And Ricky Henderson was one of the decent people in the world. You know, I miss him. I tell you who I also miss this year is Willie Mays. The all-time great in the sport of baseball. Speaking of baseball, the Say Hey Kid, as he was called. Say hey!

And Ricky Henderson may have been the all-time great in baseball in terms of stealing bases, but it was Willie Mays who was the all-time great, period, in baseball, in Major League Baseball. No one was as good as Willie Mays in the game. The most...

complete player that baseball in the major leagues has ever seen. Willie Mays, a five-tool player. He can catch, he could field, he could throw, he could hit, and he could run around those bases. Oh, could he ever. Willie Mays was the ultimate baseball player, the all-time best, greatest player ever to play a game of baseball in the major leagues. And he came out of the Negro Leagues

which, by the way, had many people who were better than he was. You know, the Josh Gibsons of the world who stole bases for fun and hit, you know, a gazillion home runs in one season. I think over 85, 90 home runs in a season. Josh Gibson, who most people have no idea who Josh Gibson is, you know, and you should go research him. That brother was just off the planet, out of this world, out of this galaxy.

out of this solar system, you know, but, you know, again, a lot of people don't know who Josh Gibson was, and maybe you don't know who he was either, dear listener. But the point is, is that Willie Mays came from such a brilliant stream of skill and talent, precision in baseball. When he was in the Negro Leagues, he wasn't even the best player, nor was Jackie Robinson, for that matter. And then Willie Mays...

came into baseball with the New York Giants and my goodness me became absolutely legendary overnight and then of course as the San Francisco Giant he did the very same thing and continued to blaze a trail I was crestfallen when he passed away earlier this year pay tribute to him on this podcast and also you know I

visited a memorial shrine that was set up here in San Francisco for him at Oracle Park here in San Francisco. Also got myself featured in a couple of newspaper stories in the process. But look, the point is, it's not so much about me at all. It's about Willie Mays and the impact he had on me and millions of people across the planet and certainly a lot of people here in San Francisco.

And so that was a really sad time back in June, you know, devastated by his passing, even though he lived up into his 90s as well. He lived into his 90s. I finally found the picture of him.

that I was meaning to post for months. And I found that picture recently and I took a photo of it. And I will put that on social media, I think probably tomorrow on New Year's Eve, you know, as a tribute to him. You know, I took this photo of him during the 2010

San Francisco Giants World Series Championship Parade here in the city of San Francisco. Anyway, I don't want to give away the photo, but it looks as if he is looking straight at me and straight into the camera. And so does the person driving the car that Willie Mays is in. It's just remarkable. Remarkable. Anyway, a moment that seems very singular and intimate and individual. And so, if I may brag, you know...

But Willie Mays, and I say this is not about me, but Willie Mays was a gentleman, was a teacher, was a tremendous baseball player, instructed so many people, influenced so many baseball players who modeled their game after him. They were...

movie characters written and based on, named after him, you know, in Major Leagues. Major League, the movie Major League, there was Willie Mays Hayes, of course, played by Wesley Snipes. Remember that? In Major League, if you are of a certain age, you know, there were, you know, Willie Mays was an institution and was well-loved and beloved and well-liked. And yeah, it's very sad that he's not here anymore. Linda Lavin passed away just yesterday.

The star of the TV show Alice, remember that show in the 1970s and I think into the 1980s as a waitress in a restaurant. You know, she starred in that series with Vic Tabak, who played Mel, I think the owner of the restaurant. You know, there was, I forget her name.

who played the woman who said, Kiss my grits. Again, if you're of a certain age, you will remember that. And Linda Lavin played Alice, the title character of the TV series. Yeah, she passed away yesterday. Wow, I didn't even know about Linda Lavin until really in the last few hours did I learn of her passing. So yeah, that's someone I can't forget.

I remember her very well and seemed like a decent person as well. I didn't know a whole lot about her background and didn't research it. The people I'm talking about are people I knew about and were familiar with and as I'm sure you were too, dear listeners. So Linda Lavin has passed away as well this year. She left us as did, oh my goodness, so many other people. Judith Jameson, an institution as well. One of the great

architects of dance, if you will. A tremendous dancer in her own right, a brilliant composer of dance, a choreographer and leader. Worked with Alvin Ailey, was part of Alvin Ailey, was an intricate leader of Alvin Ailey's dance troupe. And, you know, dance theatre, she did all of that

She was one of the grand priestesses, if you will, of dance and left a legacy of dance for all of us. And she was an inspiration. Judith Jameson was a really pure spirit. And when she passed away, and I think that was in November, I couldn't believe it. You know, we've lost so many people this year, you know.

You know, Carl Weathers, the actor Carl Weathers, remember he played in the film Action Jackson. He was in the Rocky movies in the 1970s and into the 1980s.

Carl Weathers had many TV series he was part of as well. And so Carl Weathers, someone who was a decent man, decent human being, you know, someone who was really authentic, you know, someone who lit up a place wherever he walked into it. You know, you know, we lost some really good people this year. You know, we lost a great many people this year, you know.

I know I'm forgetting some names. I know I am. And that's the thing when you do these immemorium tributes and remembrances, you're bound to forget some people, you know? And it's, you're not disrespecting them. It's simply that you don't remember every single person. And because you don't, that's not a slight to them. Obviously it would be seen that way and understandably to some degree, but,

And it's just we lost so many people. We lost, by the way, we lost Lily Ledbetter this year. Remember when President Obama, the very first thing he did when he came into office in 2009 was to sign the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act?

for federal workers so that men and women would be paid the same thing. Women would be paid exactly what men were paid in federal jobs for doing the same work. Yeah, President Obama signed that after Liddy Ledbetter, who sued to get, you know, back pay, you know, and prevailed in that, you know.

Because, you know, she had filed a lawsuit on this. She was working the same job as a man and was not getting paid what she should have been getting paid according to what this particular, what a man was being paid. And yeah, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was named after Lilly Ledbetter, who for many a year had, you know, fought for equal pay for equal work.

and Lila Edbetta passed away this year. I hadn't even known that she had passed away this year. Did you know that? You know, she did this work. She spent many years fighting against employment discrimination. She looked, she filed this suit, as I said, and she... Yeah, you know, it's... Yeah, this is...

We lost a lot of people, you know, as I keep saying to you, dear listener, Lili Ledbetter. And I remember her. I remember her. I know about her. I know of her. And I bet you do as well, dear listener. If you don't, please find out who she was, you know. Yeah, there's so many people that we lost this year. And yeah, you know, I've just run out of...

This is such a, as I say, you know, this was a really challenging year, I think, in some respects. And because of the election here in the United States and how that shook out, because of a lot of things that have happened across the globe this year,

A lot of the culture on social media and how that's changed for the worse with X being what it's become and people moving rightfully away from it, including myself, although my account's still there. I haven't disowned the account. I just don't really post on it anymore anymore.

but how social media and technology and automation and AI have really toxified the culture and toxified the globe. AI has some positivity about it, but it really has a lot of negativity to it and a lot of people losing their jobs as a result. Automation, all of these things are

really hurting labor, you know? And so, look, we've lost a lot of things and a lot of people, especially a lot of people this year. And I just wanted to spend a little time talking about some of those people whom we lost in this calendar year. James Lawson, let me not forget him, the Reverend James Lawson, who was in his 90s, who was a civil rights activist and pioneer,

Somebody who I think was an attorney as well at some point, was a preacher, was one of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s lieutenants, lieutenants in civil rights. He was very active. He gave a very stirring eulogy for John Lewis back in 2020. It was his eulogy that was the best one of the lot. I know President Obama gave a eulogy at that same service for, I think it was at the

Ebenezer Baptist Church, right, where Dr. King used to preach. And I think that John, I think during the course of that ceremony, that service for John Lewis in 2020, I know President Obama gave a eulogy, but really the great eulogy of that particular service was from Reverend James Lawson. And he's no longer with us. He passed away earlier this year. Man, oh man, that's a guy that I miss already.

He was a teacher. He was a leader. He inspired people. And he meant a lot to me.

You know, somebody who really endured a lot of things and experienced a lot of things and also influenced and inspired so many people in the struggle, in the black liberation struggle. And I talked about him on this podcast this year and played some excerpts of audio from him during this calendar year. He's somebody who was very meaningful and somebody who really...

a lot of people to struggle and to continue the struggle for equal rights and justice and black liberation throughout the land and throughout the world. James Lawson, the Reverend James Lawson passed away this year as well. Dear listener, I do want to thank you very much for your time. The platforms that you can find me on on social media, I've already talked about X, but you can find me on

spoutable.com forward slash popcorn R-E-E-L on threads, threads.net forward slash popcorn R-E-E-L on the blue sky. As I've said previously, it's popcorn R-E-E-L dot bsky dot social on fanbase, fanbase.app forward slash popcorn R-E-E-L. Remember to join the social media revolution on fanbase.net

Join Fanbase today. Isaac Hayes III with his brilliant platform, which is going to be even better next year. And of course, you can invest in Fanbase. Please do. Startengine.com forward slash Fanbase. That's startengine.com forward slash Fanbase. And of course, as you know, you can also...

Go and find me on Sez, S-E-Z dot U-S forward slash popcorn, R-E-E-L, Sez dot U-S forward slash popcorn, R-E-E. Of course, the podcast is available on numerous podcasting platforms, Apple and Spotify and numerous others. So please do get on board. And I hope that you, dear listener,

found this episode to be edifying and certainly sober as far as those we have lost this year. There were so many other people whom we lost, people in our lives personally, people in our families, obviously. And, you know, I just wanted to give a tribute and a remembrance, a remembrance to the people, just some of those who we lost this year. Thank you very much for listening to this edition of The Politocrat.

I'm Omar Moore.