By Dawn Scotland
The Truth Reporter
The Frederick Douglass Community Association hosted a presentation “The Culture They Hate,” Wednesday, May 15 at the Doug. The event, presented by Albert Earl, board chair of the FDCA, highlighted the origins and dissemination of negative Black stereotypes in popular culture.
“A lot of young people believe in a lot of things that we call a part of “our” culture– some of that stuff wasn’t invented by us… a lot of time we participate in things that speak to our demise,” Earl noted.
“So, I wanted to give them the history on it… We didn’t invent the strip culture and violent culture; this was a carefully orchestrated plan, and we need to be mindful of it.”
‘The Culture They Hate’ is an interactive presentation that explores the history of how propaganda was weaponized and used to justify the treatment and dehumanization of certain groups and how these same tools are being used today to influence violence, hypersexuality, and drug addictive behavior. It also reveals the negative impact on how groups are viewed, policed, educated and what we must do immediately to have any impact on progressive change.
Youth from the Fredrick Douglass Community Association’s programs, adults, and members from the NAACP were present for the engaging presentation that covered topics from Jim Crow to urban renewal, the drug war, the prison industrial complex and more.
The conclusion presented included:
- Protect our children from the influences;
- Take education back;
- Commit to collective work;
- Stop allowing other groups to infiltrate and hijack our movements;
- Don’t assist in your own oppression.
“We’ve got to take education back for our children. What we know that they’re not teaching them— we need to teach them,” stated Earl.
Earl, has been giving a similar talk for over 20 years. “Somethings have changed and somethings are progressively getting worse,” he stated.
“It’s because we’re not doing things like this enough. That’s what inspired having these conversations. We have to steady be in our kids’ faces because the devil is not taking a day off.”
“[The aim is that ] our kids learn, the community embraces some of the conversations and we begin to do some more collective work together,” said Earl.
The previous week, Maurice Morris, held a ‘Home Safe’ presentation at The Doug teaching how to interact with the police to make sure you get home safe. His talk was the first talk of the series that will be held at the Doug.
Future speakers and presentations will be announced in an ongoing series at the Frederick Douglass Community Association located at 1001 Indiana Ave. Visit thedoug419.org or Facebook for more information.
‘The Culture They Hate’ presentation can be viewed on the Frederick Douglass Community Association’s Facebook livestream.