Fatimah Gilliam, Esquire. is the Founder and CEO of The Azara Group. As a skilled strategist, business leader, negotiator, and trusted advisor, she has spent her career advancing her clients’ goals. She leverages her expertise to provide real-world guidance. Her mission is to empower her clients to be strong business leaders, drive results, have successful careers, and be strategic in influencing others. She is an author, lawyer, consultant, public speaker, and entrepreneur whose career combines expertise in the law, diversity, human capital, leadership, stakeholder engagement, and negotiations – helping organizations gain influence and strategic leverage, build coalitions and consensus, drive business and organizational goals, and advance workforce optimization.  Ms. Gilliam is the author of the groundbreaking book, Race Rules: What Your Black Friend Won’t Tell You, which is an innovative, practical manual of the unwritten “rules” relating to race, helping people navigate polarizing issues.  Race Rules provides much-needed how-to advice to drive equity and behavioral change.  Introducing a straightforward, universal 3-step framework to unlearn racism, drive equity, and challenge misconceptions, it provides tips and tools on cross-racial interactions in people’s personal and professional lives. 

What You Will Hear:

• Being on CNN to discuss her uncle Jesse Balmore’s murder by the government and it impact
• What Fatimah learned about herself during her incredibly diverse and successful career
• The key component in the art of negotiation
• Difference between a good leader and a great leader.
• DEI
• Race Rules: What Your Black Friends Won’t Tell You

Quotes:

“Don’t ask don’t get…… if you want it, you’ve got to ask for it because no one's going to ask for it for you.”

“Don’t negotiate against yourself.”

“One thing that I think is really important for people to recognize or think about when it comes to race is that it's not neutral….there is no neutral zone. You're either standing in opposition to racism, or you are standing in support of it.”

Mentioned

Race Rules

FatimahGilliam.com

I AM Music Group

Portia Burch is a Black queer activist and Omaha native with a specific focus on anti-racism work and abolition. Portia was activated by the murder of Michael Brown Jr. and the subsequent protests and riots in Ferguson, MO. As consciousness shifts towards reckoning with racism and white supremacy in the world, Portia is working to create spaces that are just and equitable as a way to build communities that are focused on healing and growing. She does this by curating and nurturing spaces to unlearn and decolonize behaviors that have upheld racism and white supremacy culture. Her priority is and will always be the uplifting of Black people, Indigenous people, and other people of the global majority. She is intentional in her work so that people working to be active anti-racists and social justice accomplices understand that by making the groups they advocate for their priority, the decolonization becomes a natural act and creates effective change.

What You Will Hear:

• The motivation for and importance of podcast episode “Let’s Heal Together: Make the Most Marginalized Voices the Ones Most Heard”
• The unaddressed white supremacy in the LGBTQ+ community
• Why black women, cisgendered, lesbian, hetero, and trans are still the most disrespected and silenced women
• How Portia deals with moments of hopelessness
• Surviving suicide attempts.  Lifeaversaries

Quotes:

“I need for queer white people to remember that they are white first…….You can be white and gay, white and bi, white and poly, white and pan, any of those things, but you're white first, which means that if we're standing  in a line and we're talking about anti-black rhetoric, you can appear to be straight and you don't have to deal with any of that. You might internalize it, but are you directly harmed by it? No, because nobody knows that you're queer.  For me, if I wanted to, I could tuck my queer away, but I'm black all day long.”

“Twitter is the place where critical and cognitive thinking goes to die.”

“White women need to know that they still benefit from the patriarchy because the men that are in office, even though they're making laws that are detrimental to all white women, it's gonna hit them last.  It’s gonna go through us first.”

“A sense of urgency is a characteristic of white supremacy.”

“Rest is an act of resistance, rest is an act of liberation and rest is a requirement not a reward.  The sense of urgency isn't helping anybody because we're rushing to do things  and  what we're actually fighting for isn't working.”\

“If you're not checking in with you, if you're not touching in with you,  part of you starts to die.”

“it's important to be loved. It's important to allow people to love you. It's important to share that love with somebody else. Whatever that love looks like, platonic, romantic, whatever the case may be, it's just important to have people.”

Mentioned

@portia.noir

Instagram

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Linktree

https://portiaburch.com/

White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide

I AM Music Group

Portia Burch is an activist and educator, with a focus on deconstructing current societal norms and systems in power to create a more equitable and just world. She believes in creating change from the inside out which involves identifying the root cause, where change needs to begin, and encouraging growth beyond. Portia works with both nonprofit and for profit organizations as well as private sectors.

What You Will Hear:

• Portia’s father’s influence
• Portia’s why and her legacy
• White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide
• Whiteness, white supremacy, white fragility and aggression
• Children learning about race
• Community and collective mind set

Quotes:

“We're just human beings and we're doing our best, and if somebody shows you that they're trying, hold them close and hold that space for them.” 

“I do what I do for black women.”

“Whiteness, inherently, is a place of defensiveness. it is never at fault. It's white people never do anything wrong.  White people expect black people, indigenous people and other people, the global majority, to just give them a free pass, to accept the same apology over and over again.

The tears.  the caring, the acting out because you didn't get your way, those are all  characteristics of whiteness because white people can get away with it.  You’re melanated people cannot.” 

“You cannot be an ally in a war that you created.”

“there's no reason why  a black child at five years old can have a conversation about race and a white child can't.” 

Mentioned

https://portiaburch.com/

White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide

I AM Music Group

Jill Nagle is a published author, coach, facilitator, and founder of Evolutionary Workplace. She aims to help reduce harm to Black and Brown people, as well as support white people in liberating themselves from the effects of white supremacy’s toxic mythology. She uses somatic tools to help white anti-racist leaders dismantle white supremacy and liv  their most aligned lives from the inside out. She’s working on her book called Skin in the Game: How White People Benefit from Dismantling White Supremacy, and hopes to find a publisher very soon. You can find out more about Jill Nagle at EvolutionairyWorkplace dot com.

What You Will Hear:

• Corporate contract work and Jill’s focus
• Healers
• Dismantling white supremacy
• Dysfunctional white psyche

Quotes:

“I think that dismantling white supremacy, mythology, that work ought to be done by white people  and it ought to be done by white people seeking out other white people, particularly those who are resistant because we have a certain kind of privilege. “

“The compartmentalization is attached to the, into the individualism of the white culture and so it can compartmentalize it and not necessarily feel this today and recognize it tomorrow, and that is yet another bit of access and privilege that can be experienced on behalf of the white culture.”

“I think that what white supremacy, mythology does to white people is it strips us of our full humanity. “

“Poor and working class white bodies do not have a collective identity within which to organize.”

“My intent is to shift the discussion from whether or not an individual white person is racist and how racist are they, that kind of provokes defensiveness and shame, to let's stand together and look at this phenomenon called white supremacy mythology that we are all subject to and let's think together and work together to unpack that from our beings so that we can feel more sane  and we can be more effective in dismantling it and preventing harm to black and brown bodies. 

Mentioned

Evolutionaryworkplace.com

LinkedIn

Robin DiAngelo

Lily Jang The Ethical Sellout

Jacob Holt American Pictures

Daryl Davis

I AM Music Group

James Joyce III is Founder and Chief Visionary Ocer of Coee With A Black Guy, an innovative movement in which he provides consultation and coaching that is rooted in facilitating conversations about race and perspective for community groups and organizations. Joyce is an educator, a former award-winning journalist, and runner up in the 2021 Santa Barbara mayoral election.

James Joyce III is an educator, public servant—civil rights activist and social entrepreneur that founded Coffee with a Black Guy. At its foundation, CWABG serves as a safe place for interactive, community conversations about a variety of issues from the perspective of a Black man. It's been a growing, grassroots effort hosted by Joyce and his team to help put an end to racism.

For these efforts and more, several organizations have recognized Joyce and his innovation, including the Ventura County (CA) branch of the NAACP who awarded Joyce with their 2018 Distinguished Citizen Award. It's bestowed upon an individual whose groundbreaking work increases understanding and awareness of racial and social issues. Forbes also featured Joyce and his work with CWABG in a piece published during the Covid-19 outbreak. In that, Joyce was recognized for his outstanding leadership in aiding anti-racist conversations even during a worldwide pandemic. He's also served as keynote speaker for the University of British Columbia’s 2021 Social Enterprise Conference, among more.

Currently serving as adjunct faculty for the Santa Barbara City College Career Skills Institute, for much of the past decade Joyce has served as District Director for California State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson (Ret.), who represented nearly 1 million constituents within Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, until terming out in Dec. 2020. In that role, Joyce was responsible for the day-to-day operations representing the Senator and her work. Known as a sturdy leader and champion for justice, Joyce has served on various advisory boards in the area including Impact Hub Santa Barbara (now Kiva Cowork), the Ventura County Leadership Academy (Joyce was awarded the 2021 Alumnus of the Year), and the Santa Barbara Young Black Professionals.

Joyce is also on the board for the Common Table Foundation (formerly the Lois and Walter Capps Project), Sanctuary Centers of Santa Barbara, TV Santa Barbara, formerly the California Association of Marriage & Family Therapist Education Foundation, as well as the national board for Student African American Brotherhood (SAAB), where he helped found the collegiate chapter while a student-athlete at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.

An award-winning journalist, Joyce, a Maryland-native is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., currently active with Xi Iota Lambda Alumni Chapter, seated in Camarillo, CA. Joyce was runner up in the 2021 Santa Barbara mayoral election, securing 27 percent of the votes cast among 6 candidates. Now, Joyce leverages more than two decades of public service and journalism experience to provide impactful insight for groups an individuals seeking to gain better cross-cultural understanding

KL Collins is a Cornell University graduate who has worked for several large studios, including Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., and DreamWorks. After years of writing as hobby, he took a draft of his screenplay, Talk Show, and used it to gain entrance into the Guy Hanks and Marvin Miller Screenwriting Fellowship Program at the University of Southern California.  Kevin has written a number of books but more recently, he has completed his third book—his first non-fiction work—The White Supremacy Playbook: Decoded about the inner workings of white supremacy and its impact on Blacks and other people of color.  We are so excited to discuss his latest endeavor and to catch up Kevin today on CTN w/JD Fuller

What You Will Hear:

• The motivation behind Kevin’s new book, The White Supremacy Playbook: Decoded
• Tone, anger, sadness and the message
• White supremacy indoctrination
• The manifestations of racism
• The unfortunate marriage of racism and misogyny
• Collateral damage
• Hollywood’s racism and desensitizing
• Rebranding:  What does it look like to rebrand the US and the world. 
• What Kevin has learned throughout the years and throughout the process.

Quotes:

“People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.”

“When I worked in corporate, I didn't try to sit at the table. If I went into a conference room with a bunch of people, a lot of times I would go sit on the wall and you don't realize all the different ways in which you're subliminally saying, I don't see myself as being valid sitting there.”

“We've been living in this narrative as if it's reality, and now we're starting to deconstruct it and realize that it's narrative. It's not reality.”

“There's a discomfort of seeing black people congregating, even if they're just having fun, that makes some people uncomfortable.”

Mentioned

The White Supremacy Playbook: Decoded

Facebook

LinkedIn

James Baldwin

Joy DeGruy

Connect with JD 

@chnge_the_narrative 

I AM Music Group

Description

Leteria Bailey is a motivated Jamaican-American professional with a passion for serving and advocating for youth and people of color (POC). Through her work serving 5 NGOs in Montgomery County, Maryland, Leteria has researched and developed digital platforms, coordinated public-facing organization events, and supported the distribution of over 1.3 million dollars to fund countywide youth development programs.

In 2016 Leteria founded Young Black and Aware to bring national awareness to police brutality and racism in communities of color. Young Black and Aware has garnered international recognition by highlighting social justice issues on a daily basis. As of January 2021, online engagement surpasses 350,000 persons monthly. Notable supporters of Young Black and Aware include American Filmmaker Ava DuVernay, Activist Brittany Packnett-Cunningham, and Artist Bisa Butler. Follow @youngblackandaware on Instagram. She has gotten into so much this since the last time we shared space so we are so happy to welcome her back to catch up on CTN with JD Fuller

What You Will Hear:

• Consistent theme of lessons and growth
• What it’s like to be an activist in white space, especially corporate America
• The sellout factor
• Activism throughout the country
• Sense of urgency about the banning of black history
• White supremacy
• The awakening after George Floyd’s murder 
• Using social media to inform the work without desensitizing it
• Addiction 
• Trauma
• Should black people stop using the N-word

Quotes:

“You never know when you might need some kindness back….Get what you give out.”

‘Grassroots is the answer.”

“I feel a sense of urgency about the fact that they're banning black history in our schools,  and  I don't think that there's enough of an outrage about it.”

“White supremacy demands the perfect victim. “

“In this anti-black world. They will demonize you before they try to give you grace.”

“George Floyd wasn't the first, and there was many after him.”

“We have to stop subscribing to the fact that there is not enough power amongst us to finally  Cease and desist. “

Mentioned

@YoungBlackandAware

Youngblackandaware@youngblackandaware

Sleuth, Gang or Die

Connect with JD 

@chnge_the_narrative 

I AM Music Group

Buck Angel's message of empowerment through self-acceptance and the mission to encourage everyone to be comfortable in their own skin - whatever that means to them - has struck a passionate chord with people around the world.  Buck was born female on June 5,1962. He never felt female and struggled through life until he had the life-changing opportunity to transition from female to male and finally live life authentically. He had many obstacles during his transition mostly due to no information for transitioning for FTM transsexuals. Since then he has managed to live his truth and he continues to help to educate the world with his story. His mission is to inspire people to redefine gender and to foster a new generation as they discover the fluidity of sexuality and navigate gender politics. His message, "It's not what is between your legs that defines you." has sparked many conversations and opened minds.  Buck is a truth teller and he is here to share his perspective and experience today on Change the Narrative with JD Fuller.

Mentioned

@buckangel     

Instagram

Twitter/ X

Youtube

I AM Music Group