New Years Eve Bonus Episode

Richard Dodds 0:00
Well, hello, everybody. This is still talking black, a show about giving perspectives to issues that minorities face every day. I’m your host, Richard Dodds and I just wanted to come on being a holiday time, just do a little bit reflecting on the first six episodes that have gone out. And, you know, I realized that I always have my guests introduce themselves, but I don’t know if I’ve done a good enough job of introducing myself. So I just wanted to take this time right now to first of all, thank thank you, everyone, if you’re listening, that’s so great. I’m so very happy that you took the time out of your day to listen to my episodes, I’m really appreciative of it. My story is that, you know, I grew up in a kind of a neutral state, I was kind of a man of the world. And I knew I was black and I embraced my blackness, but not in the way that I am bracing. Now, the last few years, I’ve really started to wake up a little bit more and try to get active, especially if you listen to the first episode I talked about, kind of like the inspiration for the show. And the inspiration really came from when George floor was murdered. I just wanted to do something I wanted to speak out in a moment. And protesting the normal way wasn’t that didn’t, that didn’t seem to fit what I wanted to do. And I was already using my voice for another podcast. So I really decided that I wanted to make a speech about how I felt as a being a black man in America, that was really the beginning of the podcast. For me, it’s just the is it cuz I’m black speech, it kind of just embodied everything that I had been feeling. And it really was a reexamination of how I’ve been feeling as a black American, and put that on top of me start to grow my hair out. And you know, me being more conscious of the way that I look, and embracing natural hairstyle, and all of the other turmoil that had been going on. And that’s when I got it, I was like, This is how I can make my voice heard, I can produce a show that it’s about giving perspectives to our issues and talk about it from a black point of view, because we have so much more control now we can actually make our own media and disseminate it to the rest of the world, which is a beautiful thing about technology. I mean, sometimes it’s a bad thing for some people, depending on who you asking what you’re doing. So I saw the power that my voice can have, from my own from my previous podcast relationship talks with Rick and Amy. And so I just took it in a different direction. And preparing I kind of dragged my feet because, you know, whenever you talk about the stuff in, it’s always an opportunity for people to misunderstand you. And I just want to make sure that I was understood. But the more I resisted the more conversations that I had with minorities and non minorities alike. And I felt like that I had a unique perspective on a lot of the issues that were going on. And I really wanted to share those perspectives that I had with everybody. And not only that I wanted to talk to people with different perspectives than than I had, and actually learn and get to know some of the things and the ways and thoughts that they’ve had. So far, we’ve only released six episodes, but I feel like I’ve grown so much. Throughout those episodes, whether it’s talking to Mr. Shelton in the first episode, to having a roundtable, the last episode, you know, it was just so much thought, getting to learn people’s perspectives and the way that people feel about different things just because, you know, so long you be a part of a group and you get groupthink a lot of times, but we’re all individuals, and we all have our own opinions. So it’s so nice to be able to have those opinions and and share those opinions. And episode two, I had a friend of mine come on. She is a host of a show called the natural enemy speakout session and in between dragging my feet for for making this show. I was on their show her and she her her co host is Jarrett, the first stuff that we started to talk about was issued over the past couple of years. It was basically how have I been coping as a black creative the last couple of years with all of the civil unrest going on in the country. And really, the first half of that interview was the beginning of this podcast. Because everything that I have been working for for this podcast, I was able to get a lot of that information out and a lot of those feelings out in a way that was very similar to the way that I do my show now and that kind of was like the plan so that really was the beginning. So if you ever get a chance to check that out, their show was phenomenal and they attack Bay tackle blackness from a different perspective their their lane more towards creatives. It’s just so much room for so many different voices.

I am thankful to be able to have a platform where I can talk to all of you and learn from everybody, whether it’s talking to Sabrina on a biracial episode or talking to the HR professional on episodes four and five. And you know, I have some really good episodes coming up where we’re talking, we’re going to be talking about colorism. And we’re going to be talking about black mental health, and I have so many different plans for episodes coming through. And I really hope that you would enjoy the information that I provided so far, because I’ve had such a good time learning and going through this journey and learning more about myself. And whenever we talk. And we get to understand ourselves, I feel like it’s time it’s an opportunity for us to heal and grow as as a people. And I really just want to do my part. So, again, I just want to thank everybody, for listening to the show. I can’t wait for you to hear what I have coming up next and all the all for the rest of the season, everything that I have planned out. The whole purpose of still talking blackness is to create a platform for us for people like me to be able to speak and I hope it’s having a positive impact on your life. So again, thanks everyone for listening. Still talking black as a crown culture media LLC production is produced by me Richard Dodds and our theme music was created by the Digital Blue. Please be sure to rate and subscribe to the show your favorite podcasting app. As always, you can follow the show on Instagram, I still talk on black, but until next time, keep talking

Transcribed by https://otter.ai