Latest / Color Commentary / Ep 37 | Unpacking Diaspora Dynamics, Cultural Identity, and Educational Battles
Transcript
- Charles Cole: Welcome to Color Commentary. ⁓ David O'Yellowwell is a British Nigerian actor. He's known for portraying Dr. King in in Selma in 2014. And he's a little offended when he's asked if black Brits take roles away from black actors. The next thing that was also said when he's asked to play a person from the South. How does he come up with that accent? He said, if you put a lot of slavery on it. And some subservience, that's how you get a Southern accent. Now, listen, it falls in line with the narratives that I've heard when I hear Africans critique black Americans about not having culture, being lazy, not taking advantage of the opportunities that they have. And we'll take those advantages. We'll do that. And by the way, don't bring a black American home. Don't do that. I don't think that's everybody. Let me be very clear. But this is evidence that those conversations happen. And I know they happen because I've heard them happen. I've been subject to those happening. I've dated an African woman before who told me how her parents felt about black Americans. I think David O'Yellowwood was very honored to play Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I do. I also think that there is a deep-seated Superiority that he's been raised to have. Here's his apology. I want to apologize unreservedly to all those who are rightly offended by my comments on the 154 Africa podcast regarding Southern accents. It was the wrong thing to say, and it is not how I feel. I have nothing but deep respect and great love for black people of all kinds, especially those from the American South. Reducing a dialect born from the richness and resilience of black Southern culture to anything less was careless and wrong. All I truly care about is lifting up my black brothers and sisters from all places through my work and my words. Please forgive my failure to do that in this instance. Now, as you can see in this feed, ⁓ a lot of people are not ⁓ they're not really taking To his apology. ⁓ my people are from Texas, Louisiana, and Virginia. Apology not accepted. Someone else said I tried to listen to David O, but he can officially kick rocks as I despise ⁓ African solipsis who only speak black unity when it's only beneficial to them. Black Americans would never be jealous or insecure about Africans. We wanted to be more unified genuinely with Africans, and it goes on further. ⁓ I don't even know if I need to keep going. I'm telling you that all of these are gonna be, I'm not rocking with this. Proud black American. Whether you want to call it foundational black American, whatever the case is. Like I am, I'm proud of what was built here. What I've been able to accomplish, what my family's been able to accomplish. The land that that is now Indiana and Illinois, like a large part of this and swaths of this was freedman land. For you all that don't know, there was people who were enslaved, or some that were never slaves, that founded this land. They built on it. They built a lot of things on it, and a lot of those remnants still stand here. So I don't, I don't want division between black Americans and and and blacks from Africa or black Brits. However, you gotta put a little bit of respect on that name. You gotta put a little respect on the cultural influence that black Americans have. You gotta put you you cannot be having a ⁓ American black swag talking about. Black Americans don't have culture. You understand? And I think there is a way for us to move past this. People disagree all the time. Family members disagree. I have siblings that I fought with. I have cousins that I fight with. I don't hate those people, and I don't believe that they all hate me. I do, I think some do. And I think there are some black Americans that hate Africans. I'm not, I'm not in that. I don't hate. I don't hate that which is me. That which I come from. I don't. I'm not going hard like that, and I might lose some of you all because I'm not going hard like that. But I will call the truth and I will call a spade a spade. And then this one, we got the big joker. Because y'all got caught slipping. And you said what you really felt. Now, what I want to see happen, see, I don't want them to just apologize and go into hiding or hide it better. I don't want this to be a part of the media training that goes forward of how, as an African or non-African. African American black person, how you talk about African Americans. Tyler had a similar situation on the Breakfast Club when asked about ⁓ you know, black people in America. A lot of the Brits are getting caught up on this. I actually think the best way to get through it is to go through it, is to have the conversations. Let's have those talks. When I was in undergrad, there were two panels that I was a part of. It happened Kind of in the same, I think it was the same day or at least the same week, and I was on both panels. One was a black and white relations panel, and one was a American black and African black relations panel. And when we were preparing, there was all this extra stuff and extra dialogue needed for the black and white relations panel, which actually went off without a hitch. It was there was a lot of Places of understanding and and and light pushes, but conversation was fine. But that second con that second talk with the black and the African black, ⁓ it devolved. That conversation was spicy. Both ways. We got some shit to work out. And there's a lot of people that don't want to work anything out. If we're gonna have the conversations, let's have it. You know why? Because we don't shy away from conversations about Crime in black cities. They don't shy away even from lies that we found when they used to say that black fathers don't take care of their kids, and then research later showed that black fathers are some of the most involved parents of any group. When the conversation is to shit on black Americans, we never shy away. In recent months, the Trump administration's Department of Education has been using the Office for Civil Rights to investigate and defund programs built specifically to support Black students. The legal argument being used is Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, with the administration claiming that race-specific programs discriminate against students of other races. The same law written to protect black children from discrimination in schools. Is now being used against the programs designed to help them. Dirty work. Nasty work. Three cases illuminate how this is playing out across the country. In Chicago, Chicago Public Schools created a Black Student Success Plan aimed at expanding access to advanced coursework and reducing the disproportionate discipline black students face. The Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation and gave the district 72 hours to dismantle the program. Chicago refused. The administration responded by canceling a Magnus Schools Assistant Program Grant and withholding more than $20 million in federal funding. In LA, the district launched its Black Student Achievement Plan in 2021 following the murder of George Floyd. The program carries a $175 million price tag and funded additional teachers, counselors, and black history curriculum. A first complaint was filed, investigated, and closed after the district revised the program. A second complaint was filed in March of 2026. The Office for Civil Rights reopened the investigation the following month. And in Cherry Creek, Colorado, a new investigation was opened on June 8th of this year, targeting a suburban district over allegations involving race-based clubs, class assignments, and teacher training. This one matters because Cherry Creek. Is not a major urban district. The pattern is spreading. Most of these complaints trace back to a single organization, Defending Education, a Virginia-based conservative group that filed the original Chicago complaint, both Los Angeles complaints, and is actively targeting similar programs across the country. That is my black and white piece. Now, let's delve into my color. All I can say is nasty words. When we get legislation that's supposed to serve civil rights or black people or women or gay, whatever it is, you gotta be really, really careful of how these things are written and the ways in which they're written matter because these things can quickly become a Faustian nightmare. These are Faustian deals where you know I always say, be careful what you wish for. There'll be language in there. There'll be mangling of the language. When you have somebody That is already entering. They're entering negotiations with nefarious thoughts in mind. And you're thinking about it, and on his face, it looks like it's in service of, but really it's setting you up for the okie doke.