The Docs reflect on the events of last week and the Culture of Violence that has become pervasive in the US. The actions we witnessed have been brewing for awhile, and the Docs discuss some of the changes they've seen in their lifetimes that have contributed to this new culture, as well as how it has affected their personal lives.
The Docs reflect on the events of Breach of the Capitol and the Culture of Violence that has become pervasive in the US. The actions we witnessed have been brewing for awhile, and the Docs discuss some of the changes they've seen in their lifetimes that have contributed to this new culture, such as scanning for exits in the movie theatre.
--
New Episodes every Tuesday, available wherever you get your podcasts!
Rate and Subscribe! Also, join us for our monthly live podcasts on Facebook and Youtube!
Sign Up for our newsletter here or at 3BlackDocs.com
Join the Conversation! Follow us on social media!
3 Black Docs
facebook.com/3blackdocs
twitter.com/3blackdocs
instagram.com/3blackdocs
YouTube.com/3blackdocs
Dr. Karen Winkfield
facebook.com/drwinkfield
twitter.com/drwinkfield
instagram.com/drwinkfield
Dr. Zanetta Lamar
facebook.com/drzanetta
instagram.com/drzanetta
Dr. Karen
So it's the first week of 2021, I'm doing all this stuff and then y'all started texting yesterday. And I'm like, Why is my phone burning off the hook?
Dr. Tiffany
You know I figured you would still be awake though. I mean, I said I was gonna stop texting you at 9 because, you know after nine because you go to sleep and
Dr. Karen
I'm talking about during the day when you first said they were coming into the Capitol building like that whole-
Dr. Tiffany
Well, why was that wrong?
Dr. Karen
I didn't say it was wrong. I'm saying I was in my element, and I was like, "well why is my phone going nuts?
Dr. Tiffany
Oh, Oh
Dr. Karen
So I have been on a hiatus. I haven't been listening to any news the last two weeks of December, I'm not checking- I'm not doing news 'cause there ain't nothing on anyway. And of course, the phone's going off so I'm like, "oh, Lord, that means I have to turn on the news."
Dr. Tiffany
Well, I thought I had escaped, because I was like, I'm not watching the Georgia Senate. Returns, I watched Ru Paul's Drag Race, because I missed the first episode instead, because I saw Steve Kornacki with his like, marker at the board. And I was like, I can't I don't have it in me anymore. I don't. And so I said, Well, I'm gonna just wake up tomorrow and see who won. So I thought I had escaped, you know, any extra stress.
Dr. Zanetta
Well, you know, I was thinking about advocacy. So Ashley sends the text, like, what do we think we need for advocacy in the black community? So I'm like, we need consistency-
Dr. Tiffany
Yea and how did you come up with that in the middle of all this chaos??
Dr. Zanetta
Okay, so then my line sister sends a text that says cnn now. And she's in Seattle. And I was like, Wait a second, then I go to CNN. And it's like, Capitol breached. And then I'm like, Oh, my goodness. And I'm still in the middle of the clinic. So so then all my advocacy, consistency, and whatever I was thinking- I was like, crap! the capital is breached. And so that was the end of that. And I was no good for the rest of the day.
Dr. Tiffany
I was impressed that you came out with something that quickly.
Dr. Karen
I was listening the other day. Wow, the state of California just passed a law prohibiting employers from discriminating on the basis of hairstyle. Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait. Yeah. That just happened. just happened. The State of California said it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of hairstyle. And we're talking about natural black hairstyle, let me make that clear. Yeah, the fact that in this country, black people couldn't wear their hair, the way it grows out of their head. Or else they would be discriminated against. They may not get jobs, there may be biases, they may, they may not be treated the same at a hospital, whether their hair was straight, or whether it was curly. And you have to have states coming up with laws? Because there's still discriminatory practices around that. Doesn't that speak volumes? about where we are as a nation?
Dr. Tiffany
Absolutely, yeah. I mean, absolutely.
Dr. Karen
I mean, I remember when I was when I was in academia, when I was in Boston, I was afraid to, to transition. I wanted to get the, you know, the creamy crack out. I didn't want to put my perm in anymore, right. But I was really afraid to transition because I was like, wow, what is that going to say If I have an afro? like, like, what should it say? that's how my hair grows out of my dang head. But people are still discriminated against. And it's so horrible, that people cannot be their authentic self. I was talking to one of my girls, we talked about authenticity, I know.
Dr. Tiffany
See it always come back to this
Dr. Karen
And i mentioned all this comes back to this our conversations around being your true and authentic self. And I was making her I still struggle with that I struggle with that. Whether I'm at an HBCU or whether I'm at a PWI, I'm struggling a little bit with kind of being my authentic self. Because, you know, number one, I'm a little out there. But because of this
Dr. Zanetta
I don't think so. You think so?
Dr. Tiffany
Girl if you're out there then where am I?
Dr. Zanetta
Right, I'm like where are you out there?
Dr. Tiffany
I'm at a different solar system if that's the case.
Dr. Zanetta
You're still on Earth right in the center.
Dr. Karen
Wow. But you know, your lived experiences impact, you know, those perceptions, and all of that.
Dr. Tiffany
Of course
Dr. Karen
And, you know, when I tell people, you know, that my husband had gone to a segregated school, they're like, really, and I'm like, you know, it wasn't that long ago, people that this country was completely segregated that black people couldn't even walk into some of the hospitals that are now like saying, hey, we'll come and join our clinical trial. Well, no, because you my granddaddy was sick, you know, you didn't want him
there. Right? He had to be on the blackboard and he was treated like crap. And they wouldn't let me in a private school and Louisiana. I mean, it's, it's our generation, right? I mean, this is that. Yeah. So I mean, again, yep. To the point of the state of California having to pass legislation to say that black people can wear their hair, the way it grows out of their head is problematic. And so there has to be an acknowledgement of past present. issues. It doesn't mean you have to rehash but there needs to be some sort of acknowledgment that, hey, this, this has been a wrong this is this was wrong. eugenics was wrong. You know, we apologize that our institution was involved with that. Yeah, no, right.
There's not been that.
Dr. Zanetta
Right. And wasn't it? I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, the wasn't it in South Africa. When Nelson Mandela came to power, and he in there was like, the truth and reconciliation, you know, and in reparations, and it's just, you know, just acknowledge, I remember, in my book club, one time, we were having a conversation, I was like, would just acknowledge that there was a problem, like, we can't even get you to acknowledge. And actually, I don't know if you guys heard Biden talk. He actually made the point, that look, if these were black lives matter protesters, there would have been a different outcome. And we all know it.
Dr. Karen
Oh, he did.
Dr. Tiffany
He did.
Dr. Zanetta
He did. And so to me, I was like, this is the first time a president has acknowledged the difference. And it was really just so blatant. It was so blatant, and and really just sad. And I'll be honest with you, I don't care what side of the political spectrum that you're on. I don't want my political leaders assassinated, like this just not a country that I want to live in that where you are building scaffolds with like with nooses, like, really outside the Capitol Building, like what kind of world is this? Like, this is insane. So I was happy that he acknowledged, I was happy that he acknowledged that and I thought that was at least a step in the right direction. And also, I think one of the things that I've noticed, is just the black excellence that I have been seeing from Stacey Abrams, and actually the morning of the Capitol Building breach. I was late for work. And but I was watching the news and raffia Warnock was on. And he was I was, I was half listening. But I had to stop and listen to what this man was saying. And it was it was a message of unity. And he quoted Martin Luther King. And I was like, wow, like, How long has it been since you just hear people that are kind of uplifting? And you want to listen to that. And you think about the impact of john lewis, right. So Raphael Warnock was John Lewis is Pastor John Ossof was John Lewis's intern. Yeah.
Dr. Karen
Very cool.
Dr. Zanetta
Right. And so, that morning when I drove to work, I literally was in my car smiling. About just hope, you know, like, wow, I really, I feel so hopeful and optimistic. And it made it all the way until about noon. When you just saw saw that saw the differences, but I think like, like you said, Karen, there have been some good things that have happened in you know, we just have to build upon that. But-
Dr. Karen
yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing, though, is is? I am, I am, it'll be fascinating to see what happens with the new administration. But there's a lot of work that needs to be done. And there's a lot of attitudes that need to be changed. And for the institutions that are interested in building trust, they have to build trust inside. First
Dr. Zanetta
Charity begins inside.
So there's a story that I didn't tell you all. And it took me a while to process it. So this was after Thanksgiving, because I cooked a lot for Thanksgiving. And I was like I'm not cooking. So there's a there's a restaurant that has really good ribs. And they have em a good price. You get a whole bunch of ribs. And it's at a cheap price. So I put my daughter in the car and order the food go to pick it up. So I'm sitting in the little pickup area for the takeout, right. So there's just you know, you there's no sign you parked in front of the time. So the way the restaurant is, there's like an overhang. You know, so if it's raining, so there's a place where you can park your car, but there's enough space that you can go around, you know if you're in the takeout area, so I am listening to the book "Caste" on Audible listening to the book; my daughter, she's coloring and seeing in the back and there's this white truck that that I see driving towards me on the other side. And then parks behind me and starts honking his car. He starts I mean, he starts honking his horn. And I jumped. And I looked. It's like, why is he honking his horn? I mean, there's space like you can go around me. So then people fromthe restaurant, they're bringing out the food because it's a lot of food and takes two people to bring it out. So, one of the girls, she's, she's bringing out the tray, and his hand is on the horn, like, ON the horn. And she starts yelling at him. And she's like, cut it out, cut it out, you cut it out. And so somebody else starts yelling. And then there's another man that comes in front of the car. And he starts cursing at the man behind me, because now it's like, a solid two minutes, that he's honking his horn. And then my daughter is like, why is why is he Why is this car making so much noise, right? And so I am panicked. And I just want to get out of there. Right? But I'm also trying to stay calm, because I don't want my daughter to get PTSD from this moment. So I mean, there are now three or four people there yelling at the guy. I'm just trying to stay focused. He has not lifted his hand off the horn. has not lifted his hand off the horn. So so then they put the food in the car. And I was like, you know, I'm just going to drive off. The guy drives behind me and is still honking the horn.
Dr. Karen
Why is he honking?
Dr. Zanetta
And so then, I mean, I drive further and I just stopped the car. And I put on my hazards, and he he sits behind me and is honking the horn. And finally, like I roll down my window and I said go around, like like I'm on the side of the road. Like, go around me. And so finally he drives off. And so when I finally I just made it home, and I walk in my room, I didn't I didn't even bring the food in. I make sure my daughter's out of the car. I walk in my bedroom. And my husband he sees the look on my face. And he was like oh man because he actually ordered the food. I did I ordered the wrong food. I thought I thought you said ribs, right? And I was like, No, I hate it. I just hate it. And I cried harder than I have cried in years. Because I just could not understand. This man chose to come and harass me. There was no reason for it. He saw me. He saw me in the car.
And he just wanted to harass me. And, and and so I called the restaurant back. And I asked them, I was like, Do you know who he was? Do you know? And they're like, no. And, and I guess they said that they were running behind. They were running behind me in the car because they didn't want anything to happen. And they were trying to get the license plate. They were trying to call the cops.
Dr. Karen
I'm sure they got numbers. I mean, I'm sure they got cameras out.
Dr. Zanetta
But you know, the only thing is what what are you going to charge him with? honking around?
Dr. Karen
Harassment. Wow.
Dr. Zanetta
And I just- I think just that was just a really, and I think when I cried, I was just crying not just- It was that and just everything else.
Dr. Tiffany
Everything
Dr. Zanetta
It was everything
Dr. Karen
Yeah. Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot.
Dr. Zanetta
It was everything. Like, why? Why do you feel the need to do that? Right? Because the only thing that you can see is me in the car.
So, I mean, I don't know, it's when I think about the country and just you think about the day to day things that happen and the things that you have to deal with. Um, you know, it's alot.
Dr. Tiffany
And what has bothered me is like, since last night, right, since the capital storming happened last night and today and people have been tripping over themselves to say "this is not who we are. This is not who we are" and I'm like, it's not??
Dr. Zanetta
This is exactly who we are.
Dr. Tiffany
We have our elementary school children, children doing active shooter drills in school. Preparing for the day when a gunman will come and shoot up their school and and people offered up not comically, like people offered up as a solution. For the teachers to have guns, which is ridiculous. Yes. And I'm like, have been watching what's happening in the last decade. I mean, think about this. You know, I'm 45 When I was in elementary school, the idea that some of the come shoot up the school was, I mean, I don't even have a word for it.
There was no word for it.
It did not. It did not happen. So this, this culture, what has happened over these last few years? And I'm like, why is and this is the problem, right? We don't want to be realistic. Everybody bent over themselves saying this is not who we are. This is not who we are. This is not who we are. Im like yes, the hell it is. Because my kids have to be prepared for what happens if a damn shooter comes in their elementary school. I have to be worried about before the pandemic, going to the movies and looking at the exit door about what happens if somebody comes in the movie theater, and start shooting it up? How am I going to get out so I can get home to my kids? So I can go see a damn movie? Let's not talk about shootings at the mall. Okay, so the idea that like, this is not who we are just the hell it is. Okay, we have been, this has been bred in the last, we've been seeing like, in my lifetime, in my lifetime, I have gone from being a kid myself, to where you would go to the movies, the mall in school, without a second thought, right? To be in an adult with a kid who gets active shooter drills and for be looking for the exit to go see a movie in case somebody buses out here with a gun? Are you kidding me? Right? And the problem is, if we're going to trip over ourselves to say this is not what we are, then nothing is going to get fixed.
Dr. Karen
Right.
Dr. Zanetta
Right. You have to acknowledge the problem.
Dr. Tiffany
Once again, you have to acknowledge what really is going on. If you don't acknowledge what's really going on, it is not going to be solved.
Dr. Karen
Correct. You know, and you're talking about a culture of violence, which is one component. And again, when we throw in racism on top, with racism being built in a violent society and kind of growing talent, because I can tell you in the 60s, my father in the 60s, probably in the 50s music growing up, experienced stuff that he will he won't even talk about. Yeah, down in Georgia. Yeah. Right. That there's trauma that has been inflicted upon black people for a long time and it may not have been as overt as having to do shooter drills, right or at schools,
Dr. Zanetta
it may be somebody honking their horn at you.
Dr. Karen
Or, you know, you not being able to ask to use the restroom in a particular place for fear that you're going to get, you know abused
Dr. Zanetta
I've learned recently that my uncle could not be a commissioned officer because he was arrested during a sit in at his school in high school during the Civil Rights Movement
Wow, and that followed him?
Could not become a commissioned officer after like a decorated military career. It's unbelievable.
Dr. Karen
So acknowledgement is more than half the battle? And, you know, I think but again, there needs to be preparation in communities around what that what that could mean, because that's the other thing is, you know? I i don't i don't i don't know what it would be like for, for instance for the President of the United States to say, "Oh, well, we're going to acknowledge black people's struggles." I mean, that's not sufficient. That's not what it is. Right? It Again, it has to be something that's a little bit closer to home and more. You know, and I think that's one step certainly. And the fact that Biden acknowledged the fact that, you know, there'd be a different story, if the people who had stormed the Capitol were black, that the ending was very different. I love that. And that's a start in the right direction. But these things is people honking behind you that those are individuals, right.?
Dr. Zanetta
Right
Dr. Karen
But those are people who have very strong aversions to people who are not like them. And they have been liberated over the past five years, to feel as though that they can say and do whatever they want without consequence, because that's what they've seen. And that's what's been demonstrated to them. So that is a huge issue. Just the same way, Tiffany, you're talking about, you know, having to do these gun drills, and that kind of stuff is gun safety. You know, why? Because now when a gun culture, right, it's now it's now okay to go around with a gun into tote and NRA is very strong, and there's lobbyists, etc. Now, my fear is that because the past five years, this culture of hatred in this culture of racism has been elevated, and has been showcased with out impunity, there's been no, nothing has happened. And nobody-
Dr. Zanetta
And can we just stop and think they tried to kidnap the governor of Michigan.
Dr. Tiffany
Yes.
Dr. Zanetta
This is this is not I mean, it's they, they tried to kidnap the governor of Michigan like, in you know, what the plan B was of this. The people who are trying to kidnap the governor of Michigan, Plan B was to storm the Capitol and to assassinate the Democratic Congress. That was Plan B.
Dr. Karen
Wow. Wow, wow
Dr. Zanetta
this is unreal.
Dr. Tiffany
But here's what my concern about all of this, right. Everybody's rushing to say, this isn't us. When we have a new administration in a few weeks, everyone's gonna say, that wasn't us. We got a new administration. It's all good now.
Dr. Zanetta
back to normal work fine.
Dr. Tiffany
And we never really addressed it.
Dr. Karen
But I actually, I actually have an even different fear. Because I agree with you. I think that this was all this is going to fade away quickly, in some ways. But I actually feel like this group of individuals who has been stoked to become visible and vocal and violent, that they will continue, I think we're gonna get, unfortunately, some other countries where they have an underground and there's that's what my fear is.
Dr. Tiffany
And that's what I think that they'll be driven underground, but they will continue to be very active and become more active.
Very active terrorists right here in the United States. Yes.
And by not saying what it is and saying what we where we truly are.
Dr. Zanetta
Then we hide it. They're secrets. Yeah.
Dr. Karen
And that's why it's so funny, because there are some people who are like, Oh, my goodness, I love the fact that Lindsey Graham, his comments. I'm like, Are you kidding me? This person was right. In the complicit in all of this crap. Like too little too late
Dr. Zanetta
Did y'all Betsy DeVos resigned. Just now as we were talking
Dr. Karen
Oh, oh really? Who cares? she wasn't doing anything. just mucking up stuff anyway?
Dr. Tiffany
You don'tget it. Somebody said that on social media. Like, oh, I'm here for these people saying whatever. I was like, why not? Y'all should have been saying stuff a long time ago for four years or five years, five years. Right. And you're right, five years for more than that abusive. Yeah, you don't get to come in at the last minute, you know, and have it written in the history books that you took some big stand against this. And you know, and that that's what your legacy is. Yeah.
Dr. Karen
Anyway. All right. It's all doldrums.
Dr. Zanetta
Oh, and we didn't even talk about the bombing in Nashville.
Dr. Tiffany
Yeah, I know. There's so much going on it seems like that was years ago that was literally on Christmas day where the bomb went off in Nashville. Yes, and took out communication. So the hospital didn't have communications. They were part of the communication. They were down the hospital. Yeah. And then found out that actually that explosion took out a cell, a communication cell for 911 in the state of Kentucky.
Dr. Zanetta
Oh, also in Louisiana, so that so towers in North Louisiana were down
Dr. Karen
because of that explosion?
Dr. Zanetta
because of that explosion. It's crazy. So apparently, I don't know if this is true or not. I guess the guy knew that He was by a communication tower and had stuff... I don't know. So I've just
Dr. Karen
Welcome to the United States of America. Like I said, I want to retire early. And I'm moving. I'm planning on retiring early anyway,
Dr. Zanetta
What's early?
Dr. Tiffany
Define early.
Dr. Karen
Well, so my original goal was 55. But since I'm almost there, I figure I still have my goal of taking over the world. So I need to do that for another five years. So maybe 60?
Dr. Zanetta
Pinky..Pinky and the brain brain brain brain
Winkz Productions
3 Black Docs is not intended as medical advice. All opinions our own. 3 Black DOcs is produced by Winkz Productions. Like what you hear? Make sure you rate and subscribe. Three Black Docs is available wherever you get your podcasts
Transcribed by https://otter.ai