01/24/2021
Reflections on Do You Speak Djembe? | Racism & White Supremacy
#rhythmofpurpose
This link above and video has me doing a lot of thinking. It has given me the courage to put my thoughts down for all to see. Here it goes...
Even though I know that this white man linked above probably created an opportunity for these African artists/musicians to face a predominantly white crowd in this TedX event and he probably paid them a decent wage to do it... it still disturbs me to see when African culture and black music is taken over by non-black people. I don't have a problem with them enjoying the culture and even learning the culture, but it disturbs me when the white man is front and center holding the space and the narrative acting like the leader of the pack and the music and profiting handsomely off our talent, culture and resources.
I wish that I had the financial means to produce opportunities for black artists to promote themselves and get paid handsomely for it OWNING their craft/talent without having to hide behind predominantly white people because they have all the money and access to diverse audiences or because white people like to see themselves doing things even when it didn't originate with them.
It disturbs me when someone like Arthur Hull who popularizes drum circles all over the world can even admit himself that he was once racist. I can't make assumptions about who this guy is and what he does. I don't know him. But he leaves me wondering how Black People can monetize things that come from us like white people do. I don't know his history and who he learned from/where he got his permission and entitlement to do what he does. But I sure would have liked to see that Babatunde Olatunji didn't experience so much financial hardship trying to share the culture back in the day. Same pattern that I see with artists I know today. Master drummers not able to monetize and capitalize on their own talent. But at the same time, I see some of these Artists not taking the matter seriously either.
After being Senior Vice President and CFO of a music publishing company for 5 years, my whole experience left me wondering, how do we Black people stop being poor artists and doing things just "for the culture?"
There was a time in my life when I thought I could save the world by taking all my business experience and combining it with my love and passion for the drum and create something sustainable for African artists. I realized from my own experience how difficult something like this is to sustain a living. I didn't have all the money to create beautiful websites, create promotional materials, buy all the drums and costumes needed, hire attorneys to draft contracts and create something like Drum Cafe for Black African drummers and dancers.
Not only that, it was with great crisis of consciousness that I created experiences for African Drum and Dance troupes where we performed in front of rich white people at the Four Seasons...like what am I doing? Are we just the new minstrel show? Is this right? Africans own the culture and shouldn't they be represented? At the same time, what am I doing at the Four Seasons playing at the "Diamonds do Good Awards Gala"....am I here just to appease white people and make them feel less guilty for their wanton materialism and exploitation of poor Africans and the resources of the Motherland? What is my purpose then? I don't know what I'm doing and I don't know what to do. Am I doing the right thing or the wrong thing? Of course I want to get paid, I want to make money, I want to be in nice places and have nice things, but am I really doing the right thing?
On top of that, in my experience, I learned that some of the Africans that I've worked with don't even think the same as African Americans and that proved challenging as well. It would take a whole novel to explain my own identity crisis when I learned the true opinions and feelings of some of the Africans that I encountered. Not saying all Africans, but with some, we were definitely NOT on the same page.
In fact, I'm sure an African can read this right now and say Africa is so diverse and has many countries with over a billion people and many different tribes...you cannot characterize us all the same. Yeah...I KNOW that. Shout out to the many times that some Africans gave me subtle reminder that I'm not African and don't understand their distinct cultures. With all that being said, shout out to all the Africans that I have worked with that have welcomed me into their culture with open arms. There have been many and we have bridged the divide and learned a lot from each other.
Sorry NOT sorry, I'm just a descendant of slaves trying to connect to the Motherland and my roots. Forgive me if I don't know exactly what I'm doing in the process. I mean for God's sake, there were even people coming for Beyonce for Black is King. Yeah their thoughts and opinions were educational and a perspective I never thought of but man I LOVED Black is King. Yeah I get it, everyone these days is a critic of something and everyone is educating and enlightening everyone on all issues...that is a good thing. But I, for one, applaud Beyonce's efforts and her more recent activism as well as the use of her platform to uplift and empower Black Women. Maybe not all her songs, but Brown Skin Girl is a great example.
I guess my thought is that how can we come together as Black people if we are always trying to find ways to divide us? Isn't this always how imperialism and white supremacy keeps on winning? How can we find more ways that we are similar with the intention of uplifting the entirety of our people out of our conditions? When are we going to see that it's the entirety of our people....at the end of the day despite tribes, ethnic groups, religions, neighborhoods, nationalities, no matter what, when it comes to white supremacy, we are all Black. We still have people arguing over what we should even call ourselves while the One Percent keep on winning. That is super dumb to me.
On another note.
I'm going to be honest and say that I've found that often more white people come to drum classes and drum circles than black people. African drum and dance might be cool during Black History Month, but it has been difficult even getting Black people to want to engage in and absorb and support the art form although we did do well last summer bringing free African Dance classes to the community and we had a great turnout from the African American Community for A Touch of Africa. I'm not saying that is true in every city, but why don't we see more African Drum and Dance in our Black American world? Is this just a Vegas thing? How do we make it more popular with Black folks...or is it even necessary?
I've always wondered why we put these African drum classes on and mostly white people come. Is it the price? Okay okay maybe trying to put on African Drum classes in Town Square is not exactly catering to a black audience. I accept that irony. But man, Black people live all over this city...does black stuff always have to go down on the West side? I don't see that as being true considering how many Black folks show up to Blue Martini on Sundays for Neo-Soul...so what gives? How do we make one of our greatest technologies, the drum, more interesting to Black people?
It is such a conundrum that I cannot and have not been able to solve in spite of all my work and efforts to do so.
None of the aforementioned withstanding....I'm getting back to my original point. I still feel very disturbed by seeing this white man Doug Manuel in this TedX talk linked above who is probably doing great work, work I cannot afford to do, to help some poor disadvantaged village in Africa by donating some of his proceeds and exposing the African Drum to a National/worldwide audience. Do I have the resources to do that at this time? Nope. Plus I'm pretty sure the African drummers in this video speak French and their native language and were probably happy to have a white man who speaks English translate.
Why is this shit so complicated? And why am I acting like a hater? I'm pretty sure that the drummers I know wouldn't want me to be saying something like this because I might damage their opportunities to sustain a living. But...this is how it has always been. We have always had to be risk our living in order to remain quiet and appease white supremacy.
This is partially why I created this page to demonstrate that it's not just about cultural appropriation and look how cute it's a white person doing black shit. It goes far beyond that.
What are we to do when it appears that white people have all the resources, money and all the power? What of the fact that white people have been exploiting us and the Motherland for years? How do we unpack that? How do we fix it? How do we create an all Black version of a Drum Cafe that WE own? How can I have the audacity to say anything when I don't have the money and resources to employ or help anyone on a massive level? How can I have ill feelings regarding these companies and people that allow Africans to share their drums and culture with the world? Am I just jealous? I know some of these drummers and what pisses me off is that their families back home in Africa are poor with nothing. Ain't that some shit?
How can we turn our worldwide dependency into independency, financial security, wealth, stability and prosperity? How can we OWN our own selves and our futures for generations to come? What can we do as a people when we ourselves are trying to recover from post-traumatic slave syndrome and colonialism?
How do we rise up and unify with each other? I'm not just talking about African Americans, I'm talking about ALL BLACK PEOPLE ON THIS PLANET. How do we become FREE? How do I become free, to be me and we to be we at the end of the day....especially mentally and financially? How do we become independent? How do I stop being afraid, dominated and exploited by the white supremacy in my own mind? And when are white people going to dismantle white supremacy?
I don't have all the answers. All I can do is go within daily, talk to my ancestors/Higher Power/Divine Mind, introspect, meditate, journal and continue to tell my story and share what I learn in the best way I know how which is through my website, social media and my youtube channel.
It is through my own journey and my own reconnection with the African Drum that my consciousness has evolved. Quite frankly, I never even heard of or paid attention to African Drums and Dance until I turned 40. At first I thought it was all about drumming and that I wanted to be a drummer, dancer, singer and entertainer, but I learned through the evolution of my consciousness that this is much more than just being out there putting on a show. I learned that my purpose is much bigger than just beating a drum and my love for rhythm.
Even though I'm continuously evolving, I currently feel that I am here to foster what is needed to uplift, educate, inspire, enrich and empower black people all over the world. The drum has helped me do that by helping me reclaim my "Afrikan Identity" or rather my BLACK Identity.
I truly believe that our power rests in the drum, the rhythm that moves within all of us. It is a great unifier of people and this is why we must be careful how we use that power. We need to take back and monetize our resources which includes our talent, our culture, our music, our rhythms and all the resources of our Motherland. This is not about bashing or hating white people, it is about equity and creating a world where black and brown people are not the poorest people all over this planet. This is self-determination where we OWN ourselves and the power of OUR beat.
This whole post is not about individual white people per se, it is about systemic racism and white supremacy. As you can see from my youtube channel, I have played music with and learned from people from all nationalities. In fact it was a white man that first introduced me to Brazilian percussion at UNLV and a white-skinned Cuban who introduced me to Afro-Cuban music ; he not only plays a mean James Brown but used to always tell me how racist this country is...go figure. It was white people I met at a studio in Berkeley California that introduced me to a whole new world (at the time) of jazz and `rhythm tap and all the Black tap hoofers I had no idea about. And it was a predominantly white choir I first joined as an adult where we sang a lot of black gospel music. Not only that, it was my white high school orchestra teacher that had me play 2nd chair violinist in our production of The Wiz.
So anyway before this starts to sound like I hate white people or that I'm some kind of "reverse racist" (no such thing), please know that I have been in the company and friends with a large share of white people. In fact, I have a long list of white people that have been very benevolent and kind towards me and have helped me in my life. Just because that is so, it still doesn't invalidate what I'm saying here in this post. The reality is that no matter how many nice white people I have had in my life, it still doesn't invalidate white supremacy.
In fact, my life has been filled with mental/psychological confusion and dare I say it, self hate and low self-esteem, because I have had so many friends and people of all races in my life that I almost had a hard time believing the reality of true systematic racism and white supremacy until I started educating myself and learning about history. Up until that point, I was in partial denial and furthermore afraid to express myself fully as a Black Woman because I didn't want to upset or face backlash from all the white people around me. I couldn't go walking around acting like the stereotypical "angry black woman" when so many benevolent people helped me achieve success in whatever I was endeavoring to do. So most of the time that anger was turned inward towards myself. This has truly been some confusing shit to unravel.
I have heard time and time again that "there is no money in culture" and "music and drumming is for everybody".......I do believe music is for everybody and brings people together but it's about time that Black and Brown people AS A WHOLE get an equal playing field when it comes to wealth and capitalizing off the things we create, including our music.
The drum connected me with my ancestors who have shown me that I have a powerful calling and purpose. This is my #rhythmofpurpose.
No matter how I felt yesterday and no matter how much confusion I've experienced, I'm at a new place in a new time. And at this point, as Issa Rae said, "I'm rooting for everybody Black" and I'm proud to say it.
Reflections on Do You Speak Djembe? | Racism & White Supremacy
#rhythmofpurpose
This link above and video has me doing a lot of thinking. It has given me the courage to put my thoughts down for all to see. Here it goes...
Even though I know that this white man linked above probably created an opportunity for these African artists/musicians to face a predominantly white crowd in this TedX event and he probably paid them a decent wage to do it... it still disturbs me to see when African culture and black music is taken over by non-black people. I don't have a problem with them enjoying the culture and even learning the culture, but it disturbs me when the white man is front and center holding the space and the narrative acting like the leader of the pack and the music and profiting handsomely off our talent, culture and resources.
I wish that I had the financial means to produce opportunities for black artists to promote themselves and get paid handsomely for it OWNING their craft/talent without having to hide behind predominantly white people because they have all the money and access to diverse audiences or because white people like to see themselves doing things even when it didn't originate with them.
It disturbs me when someone like Arthur Hull who popularizes drum circles all over the world can even admit himself that he was once racist. I can't make assumptions about who this guy is and what he does. I don't know him. But he leaves me wondering how Black People can monetize things that come from us like white people do. I don't know his history and who he learned from/where he got his permission and entitlement to do what he does. But I sure would have liked to see that Babatunde Olatunji didn't experience so much financial hardship trying to share the culture back in the day. Same pattern that I see with artists I know today. Master drummers not able to monetize and capitalize on their own talent. But at the same time, I see some of these Artists not taking the matter seriously either.
After being Senior Vice President and CFO of a music publishing company for 5 years, my whole experience left me wondering, how do we Black people stop being poor artists and doing things just "for the culture?"
There was a time in my life when I thought I could save the world by taking all my business experience and combining it with my love and passion for the drum and create something sustainable for African artists. I realized from my own experience how difficult something like this is to sustain a living. I didn't have all the money to create beautiful websites, create promotional materials, buy all the drums and costumes needed, hire attorneys to draft contracts and create something like Drum Cafe for Black African drummers and dancers.
Not only that, it was with great crisis of consciousness that I created experiences for African Drum and Dance troupes where we performed in front of rich white people at the Four Seasons...like what am I doing? Are we just the new minstrel show? Is this right? Africans own the culture and shouldn't they be represented? At the same time, what am I doing at the Four Seasons playing at the "Diamonds do Good Awards Gala"....am I here just to appease white people and make them feel less guilty for their wanton materialism and exploitation of poor Africans and the resources of the Motherland? What is my purpose then? I don't know what I'm doing and I don't know what to do. Am I doing the right thing or the wrong thing? Of course I want to get paid, I want to make money, I want to be in nice places and have nice things, but am I really doing the right thing?
On top of that, in my experience, I learned that some of the Africans that I've worked with don't even think the same as African Americans and that proved challenging as well. It would take a whole novel to explain my own identity crisis when I learned the true opinions and feelings of some of the Africans that I encountered. Not saying all Africans, but with some, we were definitely NOT on the same page.
In fact, I'm sure an African can read this right now and say Africa is so diverse and has many countries with over a billion people and many different tribes...you cannot characterize us all the same. Yeah...I KNOW that. Shout out to the many times that some Africans gave me subtle reminder that I'm not African and don't understand their distinct cultures. With all that being said, shout out to all the Africans that I have worked with that have welcomed me into their culture with open arms. There have been many and we have bridged the divide and learned a lot from each other.
Sorry NOT sorry, I'm just a descendant of slaves trying to connect to the Motherland and my roots. Forgive me if I don't know exactly what I'm doing in the process. I mean for God's sake, there were even people coming for Beyonce for Black is King. Yeah their thoughts and opinions were educational and a perspective I never thought of but man I LOVED Black is King. Yeah I get it, everyone these days is a critic of something and everyone is educating and enlightening everyone on all issues...that is a good thing. But I, for one, applaud Beyonce's efforts and her more recent activism as well as the use of her platform to uplift and empower Black Women. Maybe not all her songs, but Brown Skin Girl is a great example.
I guess my thought is that how can we come together as Black people if we are always trying to find ways to divide us? Isn't this always how imperialism and white supremacy keeps on winning? How can we find more ways that we are similar with the intention of uplifting the entirety of our people out of our conditions? When are we going to see that it's the entirety of our people....at the end of the day despite tribes, ethnic groups, religions, neighborhoods, nationalities, no matter what, when it comes to white supremacy, we are all Black. We still have people arguing over what we should even call ourselves while the One Percent keep on winning. That is super dumb to me.
On another note.
I'm going to be honest and say that I've found that often more white people come to drum classes and drum circles than black people. African drum and dance might be cool during Black History Month, but it has been difficult even getting Black people to want to engage in and absorb and support the art form although we did do well last summer bringing free African Dance classes to the community and we had a great turnout from the African American Community for A Touch of Africa. I'm not saying that is true in every city, but why don't we see more African Drum and Dance in our Black American world? Is this just a Vegas thing? How do we make it more popular with Black folks...or is it even necessary?
I've always wondered why we put these African drum classes on and mostly white people come. Is it the price? Okay okay maybe trying to put on African Drum classes in Town Square is not exactly catering to a black audience. I accept that irony. But man, Black people live all over this city...does black stuff always have to go down on the West side? I don't see that as being true considering how many Black folks show up to Blue Martini on Sundays for Neo-Soul...so what gives? How do we make one of our greatest technologies, the drum, more interesting to Black people?
It is such a conundrum that I cannot and have not been able to solve in spite of all my work and efforts to do so.
None of the aforementioned withstanding....I'm getting back to my original point. I still feel very disturbed by seeing this white man Doug Manuel in this TedX talk linked above who is probably doing great work, work I cannot afford to do, to help some poor disadvantaged village in Africa by donating some of his proceeds and exposing the African Drum to a National/worldwide audience. Do I have the resources to do that at this time? Nope. Plus I'm pretty sure the African drummers in this video speak French and their native language and were probably happy to have a white man who speaks English translate.
Why is this shit so complicated? And why am I acting like a hater? I'm pretty sure that the drummers I know wouldn't want me to be saying something like this because I might damage their opportunities to sustain a living. But...this is how it has always been. We have always had to be risk our living in order to remain quiet and appease white supremacy.
This is partially why I created this page to demonstrate that it's not just about cultural appropriation and look how cute it's a white person doing black shit. It goes far beyond that.
What are we to do when it appears that white people have all the resources, money and all the power? What of the fact that white people have been exploiting us and the Motherland for years? How do we unpack that? How do we fix it? How do we create an all Black version of a Drum Cafe that WE own? How can I have the audacity to say anything when I don't have the money and resources to employ or help anyone on a massive level? How can I have ill feelings regarding these companies and people that allow Africans to share their drums and culture with the world? Am I just jealous? I know some of these drummers and what pisses me off is that their families back home in Africa are poor with nothing. Ain't that some shit?
How can we turn our worldwide dependency into independency, financial security, wealth, stability and prosperity? How can we OWN our own selves and our futures for generations to come? What can we do as a people when we ourselves are trying to recover from post-traumatic slave syndrome and colonialism?
How do we rise up and unify with each other? I'm not just talking about African Americans, I'm talking about ALL BLACK PEOPLE ON THIS PLANET. How do we become FREE? How do I become free, to be me and we to be we at the end of the day....especially mentally and financially? How do we become independent? How do I stop being afraid, dominated and exploited by the white supremacy in my own mind? And when are white people going to dismantle white supremacy?
I don't have all the answers. All I can do is go within daily, talk to my ancestors/Higher Power/Divine Mind, introspect, meditate, journal and continue to tell my story and share what I learn in the best way I know how which is through my website, social media and my youtube channel.
It is through my own journey and my own reconnection with the African Drum that my consciousness has evolved. Quite frankly, I never even heard of or paid attention to African Drums and Dance until I turned 40. At first I thought it was all about drumming and that I wanted to be a drummer, dancer, singer and entertainer, but I learned through the evolution of my consciousness that this is much more than just being out there putting on a show. I learned that my purpose is much bigger than just beating a drum and my love for rhythm.
Even though I'm continuously evolving, I currently feel that I am here to foster what is needed to uplift, educate, inspire, enrich and empower black people all over the world. The drum has helped me do that by helping me reclaim my "Afrikan Identity" or rather my BLACK Identity.
I truly believe that our power rests in the drum, the rhythm that moves within all of us. It is a great unifier of people and this is why we must be careful how we use that power. We need to take back and monetize our resources which includes our talent, our culture, our music, our rhythms and all the resources of our Motherland. This is not about bashing or hating white people, it is about equity and creating a world where black and brown people are not the poorest people all over this planet. This is self-determination where we OWN ourselves and the power of OUR beat.
This whole post is not about individual white people per se, it is about systemic racism and white supremacy. As you can see from my youtube channel, I have played music with and learned from people from all nationalities. In fact it was a white man that first introduced me to Brazilian percussion at UNLV and a white-skinned Cuban who introduced me to Afro-Cuban music ; he not only plays a mean James Brown but used to always tell me how racist this country is...go figure. It was white people I met at a studio in Berkeley California that introduced me to a whole new world (at the time) of jazz and `rhythm tap and all the Black tap hoofers I had no idea about. And it was a predominantly white choir I first joined as an adult where we sang a lot of black gospel music. Not only that, it was my white high school orchestra teacher that had me play 2nd chair violinist in our production of The Wiz.
So anyway before this starts to sound like I hate white people or that I'm some kind of "reverse racist" (no such thing), please know that I have been in the company and friends with a large share of white people. In fact, I have a long list of white people that have been very benevolent and kind towards me and have helped me in my life. Just because that is so, it still doesn't invalidate what I'm saying here in this post. The reality is that no matter how many nice white people I have had in my life, it still doesn't invalidate white supremacy.
In fact, my life has been filled with mental/psychological confusion and dare I say it, self hate and low self-esteem, because I have had so many friends and people of all races in my life that I almost had a hard time believing the reality of true systematic racism and white supremacy until I started educating myself and learning about history. Up until that point, I was in partial denial and furthermore afraid to express myself fully as a Black Woman because I didn't want to upset or face backlash from all the white people around me. I couldn't go walking around acting like the stereotypical "angry black woman" when so many benevolent people helped me achieve success in whatever I was endeavoring to do. So most of the time that anger was turned inward towards myself. This has truly been some confusing shit to unravel.
I have heard time and time again that "there is no money in culture" and "music and drumming is for everybody".......I do believe music is for everybody and brings people together but it's about time that Black and Brown people AS A WHOLE get an equal playing field when it comes to wealth and capitalizing off the things we create, including our music.
The drum connected me with my ancestors who have shown me that I have a powerful calling and purpose. This is my #rhythmofpurpose.
No matter how I felt yesterday and no matter how much confusion I've experienced, I'm at a new place in a new time. And at this point, as Issa Rae said, "I'm rooting for everybody Black" and I'm proud to say it.