Rita Omokha - Resist: How a Century of Young Black Activists Shaped America

Published Nov 20, 2024, 6:31 PM

Author Rita Omokha joins us to discuss her new book Resist: How a Century of Young Black Activists Shaped America. We discuss the reelection of Donald Trump, historic and modern forms of activism, and the place literature has in the future of this country.

Podcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. I'd like to welcome you to another episode of Civic Cipher, where our mission is to foster allyship, empathy and understanding. I'm your host, Ramsey's job.

He is Rams's job. I am q Ward. You are tuned into Civic Side.

From DJR and today we have a very special guest. For longtime listeners of the show, you know that one of the things that we like to do is take a moment per episode and delineate that and dedicate it to instructions on how to become a better ally. It's indeed the name of the segment, but other ways of looking at that include, you know, gaining perspective, learning and growing and understanding a world beyond your own. And I think that today's guest deserves more than two minutes, which is why we're doing an entire episode dedicated to her and her current work. You'll come to know her in a minute if you are already familiar. Rita Amoka is an award winning Nigerian American journalist in New York City. She was born and spent her early childhood in Benin City, Edo State. Her writing on politics, race and vulnerable communities. Has been featured on CNN and in Cosmopolitan, The Daily Beast, Elle, Glamour, The Guardian, New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, The Washington Post, and Wired, among other publications and outlets. She has written about policing in America, federal inaction, on growing numbers of COVID orphans, and missing and murdered Indigenous women. And she is our guest today. So welcome Rita. It's a pleasure to have you on the show today.

Thanks for having me appreciate you.

Okay, so do us a favor. You know, we've talked about your work, but just so that our listeners are familiar and understand who their meeting, tell us a little bit about your background, you know, maybe a little bit about you know, how you grew up, kind of what shaped your perspective on the world and sort of what led you to the conversation we're about to have today.

Yeah, yeah, thank you for that.

So.

I was born in Nigeria.

I came here when I was really really young, and I grew up in the stab Bronx. And I always say it's a privilege to grow up as an immigrant. And I say that because we don't have the history of what it means to be descendants of African African American slavery. So in a way, that's a privilege because you get to navigate this country almost insulated, almost in a bubble, and that protects you from how the white gays in the sense kind of limits you and makes you feel like you're less Dand so to me, I feel like my brothers and I have four brothers. I believe my brothers and I were privileged in that sense because we were able to navigate this country not really knowing the depths of.

Race and racism and discrimination.

We came to this country because my mother was a beneficiary of the Immigration Act of nineteen ninety and that act was seeking to have more nurses come to this country from third word country, so they went to places like Africa and the Philippines, and so my mom was one of the nurses that was hand selected to come to this country. So our way of entering this country was through her academic excellence, through her brilliance, and so again having that be the background to which we were granted access to this country, it was a way of insulation because all we knew was all you needed to do in this country based on our understanding was to be academically excellent and everything else falls into place. And so that was how I navigated this country. Even with my eldest brother, Manny. Years later, he was arrested. He was going to College of State ne K formerly White neighborhood, and he was arrested and at the time he only had a green card, and.

So because of that he was supported.

And so that deportation began, the separation of my family, and that's how we've navigated this country for a long time. But even when that happened, none of us thought it was race or racism or discrimination. It was like, oh, man, you know, just bad luck right again. Because we had that insulation, we didn't really have a deep understanding of what it was like to be this skin color in this country.

It was just again, you.

Go to school, you go to work, you work hard, and everything else should work out for you.

But then fast.

Forward for me, in twenty nineteen, I went to Columbia to get my master's in journalism, and when I graduated was May twentieth, five days later.

If you recall, that's when George Floyd died.

And even though at this point Obviously, I had known about other deaths like this, like Michael Brown, Trevon Martin, Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor. I knew that people were being senselessly killed at the hands of police. But for some reason, watching that video of George Floyd being killed so slowly, so viciously, so inhumanly, just did something to me. And it called back the memory of my brother Manny being arrested.

Even though we never talked about it like a family.

But I, for the first time, even though I had navigated this country since his deportation with so much anger and just so much just angst, for the first time seeing how George Floyd was being treated. One, it broke my heart. But two, and I feel a little shamed saying this, but I was grateful that the worst thing that happened to Manny was that he was deported. And so I stopped watching George Floyd and watching what was happening. I just started to think, why is it that I've never thought about race as something that could be a limitation to someone that looks like me. I think I was again protected from it because I didn't see it, I didn't want to see it, and because I felt because I had navigated the different spaces I was in and kept doing well. It it really impacts me and so again I felt guilty for never thinking that race can be a factor in someone that looks like me and my brothers and how we navigated this country. So I wanted to go investigate that very ideology of like, what what does it mean to mean this country?

What does it mean to be you in this country? What does it mean to be all of us in this country?

So I wanted to travel the country and just had that conversation about how we all contend, and especially in twenty twenty, there was so much happening that year, but really I wanted to travel the country and do this study of race relations and how the different subsets of this country interacts with race relations, the understanding of it. And it was through that journey that the book came to be.

Wow.

Hearing that from the perspective of someone who had an understanding of the privilege of knowing where home is and you know, blessings to our ad eBay and Yoruba brothers and sisters in Nigeria. Hearing that from that perspective really just kind of gave me chills. And to hear it explain so honestly, you know, speaking of a kind of mindset of privilege as you experienced that and then reaching a point where you realized a lot of this we are experiencing together, and the blessing that your brother did not have a worse outcome and that interaction that he had, the thing that Ramse and I have been very excited about, not know, our listeners will be excited about as well as this book. So please tell us about Resist, how a century of young black activists shaped America, why you wrote that book, and who you were targeting as an audience for it.

Yeah.

Yes, So going back to the trip, So the actual idea, like the ideation I actually say, started from that trip, right. So one of the stops I went to was in Portland, And in Portland I stumbled upon this protest that was being run by young people teenagers, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen year old and they were protesting twofold, right, so it was twenty twenty. They were protesting against the time that.

We were all in.

It was this major global racial reckoning. But they were also protesting in remembrance of Patrick Kimmons, who had died two years prior to that date. It was September thirtieth.

And so I followed them.

It was like one hundreds of people and I would say five hundred plus people just protesting downtown Portland. And they marched from this public downtown square to this parking lot which is where Patrick was killed. And while they were there, you know, one by one, they each were taking to the bullhorn just talking about how they felt and how they felt disregarded and overlooked in this country because they were, you know, black people.

And I just took a.

Moment to just kind of like look in the crowd and just thought about what does this even mean, you know, again that immigrant perspective of what is happening right now. I have never been to protest in my life. That was that was my first protest. So I had a lot of questions. And one of the questions that came to my mind was how do they know that they can even do this? How do they know that they can protest and organize and galvanize in this way? And so that began the questioning that I had in my mind. I came back home to New York City and started to research that. You know, what is the origin story of protesting by young people, especially young black people, who have been so systemically subjugated by the system, and how do they know that they can even have a voice and use their voice. So I wanted to trace this and go back one hundred years, because again, twenty twenty for me, I felt as a nation was such a culmination of so many ills of this country. So I wanted to do one hundred years from twenty twenty going into nineteen twenty and looking for young people who have fought for us. As we know, freedom is not free, It was not never free. So how did we get to this place where someone like me can navigate this country so freely and revel and inherit this democracy?

Where did it come from? So that was my research.

I wanted to go find young people, young people of color, who were at the forefront of fighting for this democracy but were often overlooked. So Resist examines one hundred years of young change reformers like Ella Baker, Charlie Cobb, Barbara John's All the Way to twenty twenty to I'm Sorry, Danella Frasier, who filmed the video of George Floyd. So I really wanted to look at this kind of holistic view of all the young people who have been, you know, kind of fighting for what we know and see today as democracy. And so yeah, so all the people I cover in the book are lesser known, but they are audacious, just like the ones I saw in Portland, and they were not afraid to use their voice to decry the ills of this country. They were not afraid to want to hold this country to the ideals of the Constitution. We know that this American democracy is still an experiment, and they wanted to push America, to push this country to that point where it actually lives up to the expectations as outlined in the Constitution.

You know, there's there's something really special hearing such a profound story from outside of my own head because during twenty twenty obviously we all had our own reaction to all the goings on in twenty twenty, but you know, I'm one of the people that actually made it to Portland too, And to listen to your experience on the ground in Portland, it's interesting, you know, I feel connected to your experience because while mine wasn't nearly as pronounced as yours, I do recall being on the street I was there a little bit before y'all was there in August on the ground, but I remember they had a part of downtown sort of sectioned off and I could pass very easily into that part of downtown. But they did have I forget the name of the zone, but it was like an encampment or something like that, and it was a police free zone. And what they were trying to do was let people know that people could get along without policing as it was traditionally done. In other words, it was a small sort of experiment to validate the idea of community policing or really kind of developed some other ideas that didn't that weren't subjected to external forces or influences. And being on the ground there, I saw something very similar to you. I saw the the anger and the angst. I saw youth. I saw a lot of graffitise. You know, it was outside and it was it was getting busy. But I saw a lot of hope. I saw a lot of willingness to to learn and to grow, to accommodate other people's perspectives as they were. There wasn't a lot of pushback of in terms of the allies that were out there. They weren't pushing a back, pushing back against black narratives, black perspectives, not at all. They were there to receive that information. And that's something that I brought to the conversation when you and I first started this show. It was very special and very meaningful to have that perspective. You know. I realized that I needed that I needed to have that experience in order to know that there were people out there who were willing to learn and to listen and so forth, and so again we developed a show that was dedicated to feeling that that desire. We assumed that people would take something meaningful away from the conversations we might have on that program. And so similarly, you were inspired to write this book Resist How a century of young black activists shaped America. In your words, what do you feel like your readers will take away from the book? How will they grow? How might it shape their perspective of this country, of the world, of their others and sisters across tribal lines.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think the one thing that just keeps recurrent in my mind, especially since two weeks ago with the election, it's just that freedom wasn't free, And I think We're going into a time of regression with Trump.

As head of state.

We're going into a season of regression, and that's really scary to me. And I think this book is so important right now because it just shows us how many people literally fought, dyed bled for the democracy that we have today. And to have people like Trump and his single fans and flatterers want to take us back to a time that we can't even fathom, that's really scary. And I think I'm so grateful and so blessed that I got to write this book right now because of what's happening.

We see it behind in front of.

Our eyes that there are This country is rooted in white supremacy. This country is rooted in misogyny. This country is rooted in racism and sexism. And we saw that with the election results. And I think people keep saying that Kamala Harris lost because of bread and milk and the price of all these groceries. But I think she lost because she was a black woman, a woman of color, and this country is inherently racist. And the book outlines just how we got here, right and why supremacy has ruled this country for so long and it still rules this country right now. The fact that Trump was even allowed to run again just shows just how deeply how flawed we are as a nation. So I'm really not prescriptive, but I do hope that whoever engages with this book understands that that our freedom is so fragile right now. It was never free, and now we're going into a time in this country that some of us who look like us may have to fight a little harder, may have to tap into action and activism to hold people accountable more. And I love that I was able to spend so much time these characters because I really explained their blueprint and how they fought. So hopefully people who are thinking about, you know, activism can see that it's not always about stomping the street.

You know.

Writing is a form of resistance too, you know, calling people, organizing your friends and family to have conversations and educate them. That's a form of resistance too. There are many ways to fight back, and in this next four years, I think we all, all the others in this country have to figure out how to fight back. Because sure, I mean, I'm still mourning the results, but I'm so grateful that I had the backdrop and the research of the book to help me navigate this time. I'm being very sincere because I cried for three days. But I remember someone like Barbara John's right, who was sixteen years old living in jim Crow, South, and she decided to fight against her school district and said, it's not fair that my all black school we have to go to school with paper paper shacks, whereas all the all white schools get to have new resources and new buildings. If she can fight back in that condition, we can do so much more.

Now.

We have come so far and we have to now take up that mantle and fight and safeguard this democracy. So that is really my hope is that people really understand that our freedom right now is so fragile, and it's going into a time where people who look like us may not even have some of the fundamental rights that we once had and reveled in, and that was fought for by people who came before us. So my hope is that we understand that it's not a joke, it's not a game, it's real. I mean, Trump really said he wants to be a dictator on day one, and we see his game plan I mean, he nominated Matt Gates to DJ the same deal of just investigating him for sex trafficking.

Where are we right? So it's really a scary time.

I think people like to ignore politics, but we're going into a time where it's almost going to be all hands on deck, where you have to figure out what is your form of resistance and you just do it.

You know, I echo so many of your sentiments. I didn't speak to anyone for a few days after the election, and anyone, including my brother that I'm sitting next to, I just I could not fathom that result. In my mind, it wasn't even a possibility. And then I listened to all these political strategists and talk show hosts and quote unquote experts talk about all the reasons why our vice president lost the election, and I'm listening to these reasons and realizing the other candidate was not held to this same standard. I wonder why, And I think the reason is exactly what you said. The black woman had to be perfect, while the white man was not only flawed but disgusting. So even if that was the only thing on his resume, that should have been a discre qualifier. But here we are. I also have to speak to the humility that you just expressed in asserting that you are not being prescriptive, right, Ramses and I have to remind our listeners all the time, we don't have all the answers, we are not always the expert, but we can't do nothing. And with this book you have given it not just data and information, but some form of instruction.

Right.

This might not be the answer, but this is what these activists did in their time. This is how they wielded their power and fought back against a system that is kind of set up against us. Bringing us to today, however, our circumstances may not feel as dire as they did in the fifties and sixties and even in the early nineteen hundreds, but here we are where black history, black literature, black authors, and black experts are under attack, not just for mainstream media, but from the federal government when you had or in state level governments that are outlawing you know, black literature and black history. As an artist and the creator in this space, you know, talk to us about this new climbing and do you think the work that you do will come under fire or even the work that people like rams and I do. Will we be in a place where where we're able to flex this muscle and even use this tool as a way of fighting back.

I think so.

I think even though like right now Trump there's really no guardrails right now they have a house to senate. But I do think there's enough sensible people in Congress to fight back, like he cannot, for example, take back the First Amendment right and that's what protects us right to use our boys to to speak out. I don't see that happening because again, there's enough. I believe there's enough people in Congress. I see it now as they're fighting back against Matt Gates. So I don't see a time where he wants to you know, jail reporters and and people who speak out against them who had their right to do that because they're protected at their First Amendment. So I don't see a time where we won't be able to speak out. Now, what his single fans and his I want to say, like followers do, is out of our control. I mean, I've been targeted by trolls. I get emails all the time calling me all kinds of names.

I think, yeah, yeah, Unfortunately, we can relate.

Yeah, yeah, So I think that's the extent of it, the bullying, the trolling.

Sometimes.

You know, the reason I'm not on social media is because someone found my mom's address and sent it to me after I get this op ed on Trump, and I said, okay, if this is not worth it. So so that's the extent of it, is the violence, and just a reminder. When Trump was first in office, hate crimes went up by twenty percent. This is according to the FBI. So I do think we'll see a lot of hate crimes. I do see US reporters and writers getting attacked by that. But I don't think there'll be any sort of like federal intervention to prevent us from using our voice. It will be everyday people doing every day people hate kind of stuff and coming and trolling us. But I don't see a time where Trump or any sort of federal intervention can stop us from doing what we do.

Sure, sure, I appreciate that because as time passes there since there seems to be a little bit more I wouldn't say a little bit more optimism, but a little bit less in the way of like bleak outlooks. I think people are sobering up and recognizing that. Of course, you know, we need to batten down the hatches, we need to prepare for what is to come. But I and I hear it in your voice too. You know we'll make it through. We're resilient. We're going to suffer some losses inevitably, and you know the rip effects will be felt for the rest of our lives. But such as such as the game we're playing here, you know. You know, for us to even get to this point took hundreds of years, and there were certainly setbacks along the way. Uh And I'm sure that your your book speaks to some of those even so, you know, and you mentioned personally people finding your mother's address. I recall it an instance where some online bullies found the address to my son's school, you know, and this comes with the territory. You know, you mentioned that a twenty percent increase in hate crimes during Trump's first presidency.

That is going to be a far greater number this time.

Sure, And and you know we covered we covered a recent story where we discussed I think it was forgive me if the numbers aren't accurate, but I think it was like a fifty six increase in anti women rhetoric online, specific phrases that you can that you can track, you know, your body, my choice. There was a similar uptick and at on college and high school campuses around the country. And you know, this is something that and and of course the racist stuff as well, but you know, this is just you know, these upticks are what we've we've referred to on this show as the Trump Effect. And this is what we've been trying to say to, you know, people who are fans and sycophants and part of that Maga cult that still considered themselves to be decent people. They turned them. They turn a blind eye even if Donald Trump is the best candidate for them. They turn a blind eye to the Trump effect and how that negatively impacts so many of us who have worked so hard and and and have have been on this road for such a long time trying to bring about even more changes that brings about an equitable experience for us and our children. And you know, we function in this capacity. We're broadcasters and podcasters of course, and you know you're an author. We're eventually we're going to kind of break into that space. I feel like you should probably break into this space if you're not already because your stories they play like movies. But I really think that there's something special here. I want you to do us a favor. And I know you mentioned that you weren't on social media, but can you please let these actual allies and people who are are, you know, actually in the fight ourselves know where we can get this book, maybe some of the other things that you're working on, and any connective tissue, if it's not social media, maybe there's a website or somehow that people can kind of track, you know, things to come from your part of the world.

Yeah, thank you for that.

Yeah, the book is out wherever books are sold, Amazon Bookshop, on Alsa McMillan, which is a publishers website. And my website is my first thing, last Name dot com, so Rita Amoga dot com.

And I'm also on LinkedIn.

I'm not as active on there, but that's where I'm usually connecting with people.

And I do have a few things coming up.

I have my second book I'm working on right now, which was influenced by this recent loss by Kamala Harris, and it is going to be are we examination of black women's experiences in this country and connecting that to slavery and onward, and I think it's it's helping me heal right now. The researching and reporting on the book right now is helping me just navigate this time and understanding more acutely how we got here, because again I'm still I'm still mourning and grieving the time, and I think as a black woman, I represent everything that Trump and his incoming team hates. So I'm trying to just navigate that and figure out how I'm going to heal and make sure that Again, I see writing for me as a form of resistance, and I just want to encourage people to find a way to be part of activism. It doesn't mean you have to protest and go outside, but again, if it's writing journaline, talking to your friends about different things that are happening, and keeping people informed, that's how we stay connected. Because there's so much this information out there that I think really led to Trump's win as well. There were so many people getting their first hand use from social media. I think that's what we impacted how people were getting their information because they were digesting wrong information and thought this one thing about Trump and thought this one thing about Kamal up and it was untrue. So yeah, I think it's all hands on deck. I keep saying for the next four years, we have to help each other out and make sure we're protected, but also that we find a way to get active and to form some kind of alliance with each other. I love that.

Well, thank you so much for your time, and thank you for your book and the work that you've done, and you know, just sharing the experiences that you have. I know that, but you know, you mentioned that we need to share stories with each other, and I think you've done a fantastic job and we can't thank you enough. This was something we're definitely looking forward to absolutely, So yeah, just from the bottom of our hearts, thank you once again. Today's guest Rita Amoka, an award winning Nigerian American journalist and the author of the book Resist, How a century of young Black activists shaped America.