Latest / The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi / Alphonso Braggs and Rev. Dr. Gregory C. Carrow-Boyd on Black History Month in the City and County of Honolulu

Transcript

Alphonso Braggs and Rev. Dr. Gregory C. Carrow-Boyd on Black History Month in the City and County of Honolulu · The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi

• 0:07
  You. Walk up to the One Oahu podcast.
• 0:17
  I'm your host, Brandi Higa, and this is a special episode celebrating
• 0:20
  Black History Month. Here in the month of February.
• 0:23
  Joining us are Alphonso Braggs, assistant secretary of the National Board
• 0:27
  of directors for the NAACP, and Reverend Doctor Gregory C Carrow
• 0:32
  Boyd, director of worship and religious education
• 0:34
  at the First Unitarian Church of Honolulu.
• 0:36
  Gentlemen, thank you both for making some time.
• 0:38
  Thank you for having us today.
• 0:39
  It's a pleasure.
• 0:41
  So, Doctor Boyd, if we can start with you, can you tell us a little bit
• 0:43
  about yourself? Where did you grow up? Where did you go to school?
• 0:46
  How did you get to where you are now?
• 0:48
  Absolutely.
• 0:49
  Well, I grew up in central Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
• 0:52
  where I was an active member of the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg
• 0:55
  and then left to go to Boston University to study bilingual education.
• 1:00
  Eventually returning to Pennsylvania to study for my master's
• 1:03
  in teaching and curriculum before moving to California
• 1:06
  to serve a congregation out there, and also pursuing my doctoral degree
• 1:09
  in organizational change and leadership at the University of Southern California.
• 1:13
  Right after I finished that up, I moved here on Island,
• 1:15
  and I've been with the First Unitarian Church of Honolulu for about two years,
• 1:19
  which is about as long as I've lived on Island as well.
• 1:21
  We're happy to have you.
• 1:22
  Secretary Briggs, what about you?
• 1:24
  What was your path to get here?
• 1:26
  My path to get here is I grew up in Wilmington, North
• 1:28
  Carolina, and immediately after graduating and serving three years on city council,
• 1:34
  I joined the US Navy.
• 1:37
  And I ended up here in 1992 thanks to the Navy.
• 1:42
  And then I retired from the Navy in 2004, and I've stayed ever since.
• 1:49
  But where did your
• 1:50
  interest in politics, activism, where did that come from?
• 1:55
  It came from, the community that I grew up in.
• 1:58
  I was active as a child.
• 2:01
  They involved us.
• 2:02
  They trained us, developed us.
• 2:05
  And then I got elected to city council as a youth member.
• 2:10
  And so after I finished my military time, I went right back into civil rights.
• 2:16
  But was it hard?
• 2:17
  Usually when I think about kids, they want to just be kids.
• 2:20
  But you feel it almost feel like you had a bigger purpose.
• 2:23
  You kind of had a bigger vision from an earlier age.
• 2:25
  And maybe most.
• 2:27
  I think it was a normal thing.
• 2:28
  If you stop and think about it.
• 2:30
  Martin Luther King was, involved as a young man.
• 2:33
  John Lewis got in some very good trouble,
• 2:37
  got injured there on that bridge.
• 2:39
  So I think that when we look at history,
• 2:43
  we find that within the African-American community
• 2:46
  that we have a lot of examples of young adults,
• 2:51
  who are very, very active in the civil rights movement.
• 2:54
  Doctor Boyd, what about you?
• 2:55
  Where did your interest start?
• 2:57
  So it probably started in the church.
• 2:59
  One of the tenets of my religion is a commitment to justice,
• 3:03
  to making sure that all people are treated fairly
• 3:06
  with, inherent worth and dignity,
• 3:09
  making sure that we're building the beloved community,
• 3:12
  that Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King sometimes talked about.
• 3:16
  That idea comes
• 3:18
  to us from a variety of sources, but especially one in the Christian legacy
• 3:22
  and Unitarian Universalism, evolves out of that in time.
• 3:26
  So I was raised with an understanding that to live
• 3:29
  my faith fully, I also had to commit to the works of justice.
• 3:33
  I had to work for the full inclusion of all peoples.
• 3:36
  And by working for my own liberation as a black person,
• 3:40
  I was also centering the needs of all Americans, of entering the needs
• 3:44
  of all people in the world who might be marginalized, pushed to the sides,
• 3:48
  either in history or right now.
• 3:49
  So it's really a practice of my faith, and it's something that is true to us
• 3:53
  as Unitarian Universalist
• 3:54
  today, that we always like to be on the side of love, as we say.
• 3:58
  But the words that you're using work commitment,
• 4:02
  and then you say things like marginalized, I mean, this journey for you
• 4:06
  personally, what do you think has been the hardest part?
• 4:08
  And then can you tell me how you got out of that? Yes.
• 4:11
  I think the very hardest part was actually
• 4:16
  learning to understand my own.
• 4:23
  My own situation
• 4:25
  as an historically and currently marginalized person to
• 4:29
  to counter the narratives that I was less than,
• 4:33
  or I could be made to feel less than
• 4:36
  and to actually work with other people who shared similar stories
• 4:40
  as mine, from our families, from the legacy of our ancestors,
• 4:44
  to learn that there was so much resilience there.
• 4:48
  There was so much of the work we have done
• 4:51
  to get out of times when there was no way forward.
• 4:55
  We we figured out ways together through joy, through food,
• 5:00
  through community building, through tending to the most basic of one
• 5:04
  another's needs in order to do that work.
• 5:06
  So the the hardest times for me were, especially as a young person,
• 5:10
  where everything felt stacked against me.
• 5:14
  I just didn't understand how we had made a way out of no way.
• 5:19
  And now I understand myself.
• 5:21
  Thanks to the work of ancestors, thanks to the work of aunties and uncles,
• 5:25
  thanks to the stories that I've been able to share, the meals
• 5:29
  I've been able to share with people all around the world,
• 5:32
  whether they be black, indigenous, people of color, or people
• 5:35
  who are marginalized because of their sex or gender, that type of thing.
• 5:40
  It has been so helpful to see that no matter what, no matter how bad it has
• 5:47
  been, there's always a way forward, and that's what helped me get out of it.
• 5:50
  It took a very long time.
• 5:52
  I'm not going to say it happened overnight.
• 5:53
  I had an epiphany and all of a sudden, yay!
• 5:56
  We're committed to justice. And everything was fine and good.
• 5:58
  It took many years, many meals, lots of encouragement from mentors,
• 6:04
  and sometimes consulting the ancestors, whether through story
• 6:07
  or spiritual practice, to figure out
• 6:10
  what is it that we want to do and how I can be part of that legacy.
• 6:13
  Secretary Briggs, what about you on this journey for you?
• 6:16
  What has been the hardest part and how did you get through that?
• 6:19
  I think it's as a child, we understood that
• 6:24
  this journey is one that requires a labor of love.
• 6:29
  And I think probably what I'm most proud of
• 6:33
  is that I have been taught all along that
• 6:37
  if we yield ourselves to something greater than ourselves,
• 6:41
  which is the freedom and the liberty of all of humanity, then,
• 6:47
  this labor will not be so intense,
• 6:52
  and that if we can just get to a place
• 6:55
  where we find our divine purpose
• 6:58
  and we're able to see the dreams unfold in those that we have nurtured
• 7:04
  and developed along the way, it inspires us.
• 7:08
  And that becomes my energy, my refreshment.
• 7:13
  To continue to forge on.
• 7:15
  You know, we thought it was appropriate
• 7:17
  to get you both here because we are fresh off a ceremony here,
• 7:20
  at Michigan Memorial Auditorium on the grounds of the Fossey
• 7:23
  on the Fossey grounds, where Mayor Blangiardi presented
• 7:25
  a proclamation proclaiming February as Black History Month.
• 7:28
  Here in the City and County of Honolulu.
• 7:30
  You both are speakers at that event.
• 7:32
  For those who maybe weren't able to attend or didn't see it online,
• 7:35
  if you could just share, your messages, Secretary Boggs will start with you.
• 7:39
  Okay.
• 7:40
  Pretty much.
• 7:41
  I reminded us that while this nation
• 7:44
  is in the midst of some unprecedented times,
• 7:48
  and although a lot of people are feeling as though
• 7:52
  it's just not worth the fight,
• 7:55
  I would take us back to something
• 7:57
  that, Senator Hirono reminds us of,
• 8:01
  which is that, in this war,
• 8:04
  we may win a lot of battles.
• 8:07
  The battles that we've won, we got to keep won.
• 8:10
  We've got to make sure that we stay in the win column.
• 8:14
  And so my message was about hope.
• 8:17
  It was about peace. It was about power.
• 8:19
  And that when we invoked the spirit and the commitment of our ancestors,
• 8:25
  and when we lift up their legacy, then we are going to be able to make it.
• 8:29
  We will get through this storm, you know, it will pass over.
• 8:34
  And, we got to stay focused.
• 8:36
  What is the prize?
• 8:37
  What do you know?
• 8:38
  Our eyes need to stay on that great asset which you, our future
• 8:41
  generation of kids, got to make sure that things are good for them.
• 8:45
  And so we will stay in the fight because of that.
• 8:48
  But do you find that frustrating?
• 8:49
  Because I know people say that, you know, history tends to repeat itself.
• 8:52
  But, you know, for those who have fought so hard to push for things like diversity,
• 8:56
  equity, inclusion, words that are not supposed to be bad words
• 9:00
  and then all of a sudden are now, you know, in the conversation again.
• 9:03
  I think that
• 9:06
  we have to slow down.
• 9:09
  We have to listen.
• 9:11
  And I think that we have to meet people where they are.
• 9:15
  I welcome an opportunity to truly explain to someone
• 9:20
  what is the negative for diversity, equity and inclusion.
• 9:24
  That's the new terminology we have always since the beginning of time,
• 9:30
  we have been taught and fostered that all people are to be created,
• 9:36
  they are created equal and to be treated equally.
• 9:39
  And so when we talk about the right to truly be seen,
• 9:44
  the right to have our voices heard, the right
• 9:48
  to experience a sense of belonging, you can put any title
• 9:52
  that you want to put on those, but here in America, those are inherent.
• 9:57
  They come from our Constitution.
• 10:00
  The framers had no less of intent of any person.
• 10:04
  And the Supreme Court has rendered
• 10:07
  their final decision that, you know, that is our right.
• 10:10
  And it's not a stroke of a pen that can remove that is not a piece of legislation.
• 10:15
  It is our right.
• 10:16
  And so when we know that we're able to sit down as adults
• 10:21
  and have mature conversations about the relevance of it.
• 10:25
  Well said, doctor boy, what about you?
• 10:28
  If you could share some of your message from the marriage ceremony?
• 10:30
  Yes, absolutely.
• 10:31
  I centered us in the olelo nyo of Nana UK Como
• 10:36
  look at the source and reminded us that at the point
• 10:40
  where American history intersects with the history of these islands,
• 10:44
  at that point, black people are always here and moving forward.
• 10:49
  From that point, black people will be here.
• 10:52
  Black people are leading forward in our understandings of a society
• 10:57
  that can be fully inclusive on the basis of gender identity
• 11:02
  and gender expression, sexual and romantic orientation,
• 11:06
  democratic decision making, and be treated with inherent worth
• 11:10
  and dignity in their quest for affordable housing.
• 11:15
  Those were some of the points that I made.
• 11:16
  And also reminding us that just as in the past as is,
• 11:21
  and now as we go into the future, black people will continue
• 11:25
  to be part of the
• 11:26
  history of these islands, will continue to be part of the history of this nation.
• 11:30
  And we can look at the source, at the source of our history
• 11:34
  as a source of Hawaiian history.
• 11:36
  Black people are here. Black people will be here.
• 11:39
  Yeah. I love that you brought up that a lot of not. Yeah.
• 11:41
  So what makes black history, especially here in Hawaii so unique?
• 11:46
  One of the things that I mentioned
• 11:49
  rather obliquely in my message is
• 11:53
  it is true that depending on whose measurements
• 11:56
  you look at or which data you refer to about anywhere
• 12:01
  between 3 and 10% of all Native Hawaiians are actually of African descent.
• 12:06
  And that has to do with the immigration patterns, primarily,
• 12:09
  that people who were brought from Cap there, which was, an island
• 12:14
  nation, continues to be an island nation that was formerly controlled by Portugal.
• 12:18
  When sailors came from that place to these islands,
• 12:22
  they were recorded as Portuguese rather than of African descent.
• 12:25
  So there is a period in the history of these islands
• 12:29
  where there is a massive influx of people of African descent,
• 12:33
  but we marked them down as Portuguese
• 12:35
  and because of the beautiful cultural hybridity of this place,
• 12:41
  before the people who were American missionaries, before the folks
• 12:47
  who came here started to say, okay, at this point is what a native Hawaiian is.
• 12:52
  Those folks, many of them, had already been part of the families
• 12:56
  that make up these places. Right?
• 12:57
  So we forgot part of that.
• 12:59
  Another thing, another strand that is important
• 13:03
  in Black American history as it relates to these islands,
• 13:06
  is early on, early on, when black sailors first started coming here,
• 13:11
  the elite saw that enslavement was happening.
• 13:15
  Other people in the world, and they said, no, no, no, no, no, none of that.
• 13:19
  And put in the Constitution of the Kingdom
• 13:21
  that anyone who was in a condition of bondage when they arrived
• 13:25
  here was automatically free when they arrived here.
• 13:28
  So. It's kind of a chicken skin story.
• 13:30
  Yeah, yeah.
• 13:31
  It's beautiful.
• 13:32
  It's a beautiful.
• 13:33
  And, you know, black people, we talk, right?
• 13:36
  We talk across oceans a lot across time.
• 13:38
  And we learned that to be true.
• 13:40
  And so many other people started to find ways
• 13:44
  to get to these islands in order to get our free rights.
• 13:47
  So at the beginning of Hawaiian history, as it intersects with American history,
• 13:52
  is this understanding that there there's a place where we can be free,
• 13:58
  there's a place where we can know our our full ability to live out in society.
• 14:03
  There's a place where we can call ourselves Hawaiian
• 14:06
  if we want to, and we will be fully welcomed and fully embraced
• 14:09
  so that those are some of the items that make black history unique in this place.
• 14:13
  It's not a history that I was aware of before I moved here,
• 14:17
  and now it is very true to this time and place.
• 14:22
  It is very true to the people who are here.
• 14:25
  Almost all black people who are here in Hawaii now
• 14:28
  have come from some other place.
• 14:30
  There is also a large group of us who are here for a very long time.
• 14:35
  Well, yeah.
• 14:35
  I mean, I asked you in the beginning
• 14:37
  of this conversation where you both were from, Mr.
• 14:39
  Bragg, same thing for you.
• 14:40
  You know, you're you're not from here, and you could be doing your good work
• 14:44
  anywhere you wanted to. Really?
• 14:45
  But why did you choose Hawaii?
• 14:47
  Why do you choose to live here? All of this on a paycheck?
• 14:51
  That may sound a little cliche, is
• 14:54
  it is one of the most beautiful places to live in America.
• 14:57
  It it certainly is very, very diverse.
• 15:01
  It is an easy space
• 15:04
  to get in touch with the creator and be constantly reminded
• 15:10
  that we did not form this earth,
• 15:14
  and that we have a constant reminder
• 15:19
  that we have a responsibility to preserve it for future generations.
• 15:23
  And I think that if there is a lesson that we owe ourselves
• 15:28
  and others as humankind, then we can find it here.
• 15:32
  And if we can do it here, it can be done anywhere in the world.
• 15:36
  You mentioned earlier, mentors and people that
• 15:40
  we could always look to from the past.
• 15:41
  So when we're trying to get through times,
• 15:43
  hard times, do you have any mentors who are there?
• 15:47
  I was mentored as a child
• 15:49
  by individuals that I did not realize.
• 15:53
  What mentorship was.
• 15:55
  And I simply thought,
• 15:58
  man, this is so, so powerful
• 16:02
  to sit at the feet of the elders in the literal sense,
• 16:07
  to be in the company of greatness,
• 16:10
  to have then in inculcate within me that wisdom.
• 16:16
  And so I simply now will be in a space in time
• 16:21
  to where I get to pay their contributions forward through my own life skills,
• 16:27
  coaching and mentorship, and continue what they have, what they gave me.
• 16:33
  So yes, I was tremendously blessed.
• 16:35
  And many years as an adult, I found out, you know,
• 16:39
  that these people were part of professional organizations.
• 16:43
  That was part of their commitment to community building, and it was doctors,
• 16:49
  lawyers, church leaders, politicians from all walks of life.
• 16:54
  It was truly a community.
• 16:57
  Reverend Doctor Boyd, what about you?
• 16:58
  Yeah, I I'm so blessed
• 17:02
  to be asked this question and I'm so grateful for it.
• 17:05
  I, I think immediately of two mentors of,
• 17:10
  now memory, the reverend doctor Hope Johnson.
• 17:13
  She her and Andrea Williams, who, did a lot of work
• 17:17
  with, the, Highlander Center, over in Tennessee.
• 17:21
  They both taught me.
• 17:25
  They taught me to channel my righteous anger
• 17:28
  and to use it for our purposes, to use it for connection,
• 17:32
  rather than to break things down, to use it
• 17:36
  in ways that are productive.
• 17:39
  That can that can bring us forward together.
• 17:44
  And certainly a more recent one is, Doctor Paul Cole Jones,
• 17:48
  who lives in the Washington, DC area, who reminds me again and again
• 17:53
  that it is important for me to use my voice
• 17:57
  because I have the ability to be in places that other people cannot.
• 18:02
  I have an obligation.
• 18:04
  I have an obligation to be in the rooms where I am
• 18:08
  and to say the things that we've talked about,
• 18:11
  to fight for the ways of being that we most truly desire
• 18:17
  to make sure that we're continuing to secure a way going forward
• 18:22
  that is open to all people, that is welcoming to all people,
• 18:26
  that can truly make more space for people who aren't at the table now,
• 18:31
  but should have always been there.
• 18:34
  Seeking
• 18:34
  help to channel righteous anger kind of makes it seem like
• 18:38
  there was an issue where you needed to channel that.
• 18:41
  What? What are you talking about?
• 18:43
  What is what is that you're referring to?
• 18:44
  Yeah, I, I'm grateful for the clarification.
• 18:47
  It is hard growing up as a person of color.
• 18:51
  In these United States. Right.
• 18:53
  The I I've grown up in a country
• 18:56
  where the Constitution still says I'm 3/5 of the person, whether or not
• 19:00
  the 13th amendment sort of addressed that at one point in time.
• 19:04
  Right. This is growing up as a black person.
• 19:07
  I've been black the whole time.
• 19:08
  And now as a black man in these United States
• 19:11
  is learning to
• 19:14
  deal with, we have a history of unequal treatment.
• 19:19
  Sometimes that unequal treatment is going to surface
• 19:22
  when we least expect it, and nonetheless we have to make it through the day.
• 19:27
  Nonetheless, we have to make it better for the next generation.
• 19:30
  Nonetheless, we have to dream a wild dream.
• 19:34
  So just as we are our ancestors wildest dreams and my ancestors were enslaved,
• 19:40
  I am not currently in a condition of enslavement.
• 19:42
  What can I leave for generations that I will never know?
• 19:45
  We've got a dream, wild or dreams.
• 19:48
  And so all of that is a tinderbox for anger.
• 19:53
  If you're coming to a racial awakening, if you're coming to a justice awakening,
• 19:57
  as I was, especially in my early teenage years,
• 20:00
  and without guidance, without the guidance of elders and elders
• 20:04
  as I had, I, I don't know how I would have found my way
• 20:08
  to this podcast
• 20:09
  to say the things that need to be said in this time, in this place,
• 20:13
  so other people can say more things in another time, in a different place.
• 20:17
  Now. Well said.
• 20:18
  Mr. Bragg's for you.
• 20:20
  If you could sit down and have a meal with anyone, dead or alive,
• 20:25
  who would it be and why?
• 20:28
  There are a number of folks that I would,
• 20:31
  enjoy having company with.
• 20:34
  I think, though
• 20:37
  I probably would like to sit down
• 20:39
  with Doctor Mary McLeod Bethune.
• 20:42
  Okay.
• 20:43
  And the reason would be,
• 20:45
  is because I would like to go back to her life and legacy,
• 20:52
  and in particular, her last will and testament.
• 20:56
  And I would like to just get her assessment
• 21:02
  of how attentive we have been
• 21:06
  to the messages that she gave us, which was that, you know,
• 21:10
  that we need to educate, we need to protect, we need to make sure
• 21:15
  that we provide health and that we have a responsibility
• 21:19
  as citizens, for governance
• 21:22
  and, accountability
• 21:25
  and that, you know, where there is an a path for each one,
• 21:30
  you know, where there is no hospital build one
• 21:33
  where there is no classroom to teach, then
• 21:36
  gather up the kids and educate them, whatever it is that we do,
• 21:41
  you know, we cannot take our eyes off of our divine purpose.
• 21:47
  And that was what our life was about.
• 21:48
  So I would love to have that chat with her.
• 21:52
  Doctor Boyd, what about you?
• 21:54
  I would probably want to sit down with Sojourner
• 21:57
  Truth, who is, for mother of intersectional feminism.
• 22:01
  Right?
• 22:02
  She understood what it meant to be both black and a woman, in a time
• 22:07
  when that was even more of a case for severe treatment
• 22:11
  than some black women, some black trans women, some black femmes experience.
• 22:15
  Now, I would want to know what she thinks about how far we've made it.
• 22:20
  If we've made it very far at all, I'd want to pick her brain for some ideas
• 22:25
  about how we continue to lean into a liberatory future
• 22:30
  that can really center the fullness of an intersectional identity.
• 22:34
  I think she'd have some great things to say about it.
• 22:36
  Yeah.
• 22:38
  February is the month that we
• 22:39
  usually celebrate Black History Month, but it doesn't have to end with this month.
• 22:43
  Is there anything you want our listeners to know about how they can get involved
• 22:46
  throughout the year?
• 22:47
  Maybe your call to action for our listeners.
• 22:50
  And I would say that, one of the easiest ways
• 22:54
  is every single week or month
• 22:58
  that you simply today in history,
• 23:02
  oh, you know, and it gives you an opportunity to learn
• 23:06
  not only about the contributions of people from the African diaspora.
• 23:11
  It gives you an opportunity to have a conversation with someone
• 23:15
  about the contributions of everyday people in America
• 23:20
  who have truly made this nation a great place
• 23:23
  to live and thrive and be.
• 23:27
  And I think in doing that, it causes you to celebrate everyone.
• 23:33
  Doctor Boyd, what's your message?
• 23:35
  I would say, remember, black people have birthdays, right?
• 23:39
  Black History Month is also about making a place for successful black futures.
• 23:44
  And the way we have more black futures is by making sure
• 23:46
  that the black people who live right now can thrive.
• 23:50
  All respect to the ancestors.
• 23:52
  All respect to the current mentors and elders that we have.
• 23:56
  Every time we connect with black people and make their day more meaningful,
• 24:01
  make our days more livable, remind one another that the conditions
• 24:07
  of American racism require indigenous erasure and anti-Black racism.
• 24:12
  We can undo that.
• 24:14
  We undo that simply by humanizing people, simply by remembering
• 24:18
  that the wisdom of the ancestors lives in our bodies,
• 24:22
  lives in our spirits, lives in the words that come from our mouths.
• 24:25
  So find a black person.
• 24:28
  Create a meaningful relationship with that person.
• 24:30
  Celebrate their successes.
• 24:32
  Empathize with us when we're feeling sad.
• 24:36
  Humanize us by being in relationship with us.
• 24:38
  The way forward is black and the way forward is together.
• 24:43
  And for those that maybe want to listen to you a little more, is there a way
• 24:46
  we should they follow the church?
• 24:47
  How can they get more information?
• 24:48
  Yes, you can find us at u u honolulu.org.
• 24:52
  We are on the poly highway 2500, poly highway 10 a.m.
• 24:56
  every Sunday in person or online.
• 24:58
  If you want to dip your toe in online, you can do that.
• 25:01
  Or if you're just traveling, you can always find a service you.
• 25:04
  Honolulu.
• 25:05
  We're also on Instagram.
• 25:07
  We're on blue Sky.
• 25:09
  We're still on Twitter.
• 25:10
  And you can also find us on YouTube.
• 25:12
  You can always find full length recordings of all services,
• 25:15
  as well as meaningful clips from the previous week's services.
• 25:18
  And then, Mr.
• 25:18
  Briggs, for you, if folks are here in Hawaii,
• 25:20
  you want to get involved with the NAACP.
• 25:22
  How can they do that?
• 25:23
  Naacp.org they can follow us on,
• 25:28
  Facebook or Instagram.
• 25:31
  NAACP Hawaii and.
• 25:35
  Their reels of you on Instagram dancing.
• 25:36
  And are you are you a social media guy?
• 25:39
  I personally am on, Instagram.
• 25:43
  Okay. Facebook.
• 25:44
  As Bragg's legacy.
• 25:46
  Got it.
• 25:47
  And, gentlemen, is there anything that we missed?
• 25:50
  I just think how it is very important
• 25:53
  that we celebrate
• 25:56
  in an intentional way,
• 26:00
  the contributions of people from the African diaspora.
• 26:05
  And I think the worst thing that we could ever do
• 26:08
  is marginalize those contributions.
• 26:12
  So I think that we need to celebrate it every single day,
• 26:15
  because there's no facet of our life
• 26:19
  where African-Americans have not contributed.
• 26:22
  We're sitting in air conditioning.
• 26:24
  We're sitting in light filaments, we're eating certain cuisines.
• 26:28
  We're riding in cars that that food that was transported to the grocery stores
• 26:33
  because a black man invented an air conditioner
• 26:36
  that allowed us to efficiently, transport frozen goods
• 26:40
  long distances, you know, so I think that when we take the time
• 26:46
  to really see what we're different at, we find out how much we have in common.
• 26:52
  And I'd
• 26:53
  say that Hawaii is one of a handful of states
• 26:57
  that is majority black, indigenous, and people of color.
• 27:00
  And that means we have always been on a trajectory
• 27:03
  of creating a future that is different, a future
• 27:08
  that is not so beholden to the errors that sometimes happened on the continent.
• 27:14
  And the more we embrace that identity, both as people who live on these islands,
• 27:18
  as well as people who are learning about the things that we do on these islands,
• 27:22
  the better we we are truly making a different way forward
• 27:27
  by honoring our shared legacies, by understanding that blackness
• 27:33
  and indigeneity and the various communities of color
• 27:36
  that make this place great are making it more Hawaiian,
• 27:41
  making it a more sustainable and thriving future.
• 27:44
  And we're in this together.
• 27:46
  Black contributions are central to that.
• 27:48
  The contributions of all people on these islands are important.
• 27:51
  We need to make sure that we continue to center center where we came from.
• 27:56
  Look to the source.
• 27:58
  That sounds like a fancy way of saying lucky. We live Hawaii.
• 28:03
  Yeah, yeah, I think so.
• 28:05
  Also, Brad Boyd, thank you both again for joining us.
• 28:08
  Thank you so very much for having us. Absolutely.
• 28:10
  And to view the full mayor ceremony for Black History
• 28:13
  Month, head on over to Mayor Rick Blanchard YouTube page.
• 28:16
  Mahalo for listening.
• 28:17
  And until next time, Aloha.