Jelani Memory, CEO and founder of A Kids Company About and author of A Kids Book About Racism, discusses Black history, Black heroes, and favorite superheroes with Kohen of Team End Racism.
Jelani Memory, CEO and founder of A Kids Company About and author of A Kids Book About Racism, discusses Black history, Black heroes, and favorite superheroes with Kohen of Team End Racism.
View interview on YouTube (view video)
*Want to be on a future episode of A Kids Book About: The Podcast? Or… I wonder if any of you would be interested in interviewing one of our authors? Write to us or record a message and email us at listen@akidsco.com.
A Kids Book About: The Podcast
S2 EP06, Kohen Asks About Racism
[INTRODUCTION]
Matthew: Welcome to A Kids Book About: The Podcast! I’m Matthew. I’m a teacher, a librarian, and I’m your host.
There is nothing I love more than starting a new conversation with you, except for when I get to listen in on the conversations you’re having about the big things going on in your world.
So today I thought I’d bring you something a little different. Kohen, an amazing kid and the founder and CEO of Team End Racism asks about racism with A Kids Book About Racism author Jelani Memory.
Kohen asks about Black heroes and Black history. The conversation turns to representation and superheroes. And Kohen also asks Jelani about writing about racism.
Let’s get into it! Here’s Kohen, making introductions.
[A KID ASKS ABOUT]
Kohen: So now to introduce myself, my name is Kohen, CEO and founder of Team End Racism.
Jelani: Wonderful to meet you. My name is Jelani Memory. I'm the author of A Kids Book About Racism and the founder of A Kids Book About.
Kohen: oh, yes. I know. Like, that is so amazing!
Jelani: Thank you. That's very kind of you.
Kohen: Oh, you're welcome. Are you up for some black history questions?
Jelani: I'd love some black history questions. Hopefully I'm good at answering them.
Kohen: Ok, so question number one. Who are your hero? I mean, black heroes and why?
Jelani: That's a really good question.
You know, one of my favorite black heroes is Jackie Robinson. I think what he was able to accomplish as a major league baseball player and playing in the time that he did and his incredible story, I think leaves such an incredible legacy and something that I still look up to to this day.
Obviously recently, Hank Aaron passed and his story is just as incredible.
And then I think about more recent folks like Barack Obama is still an incredible and massive inspiration to me. As well as folks like LeVar Burton with the work that he did on Roots and Reading Rainbow and Star Trek, and now his podcast, LeVar Burton Reads. I think he's just a literal living legend.
Kohen: Wow, cool. So I think my black hero is Martin Luther King, Jr. With all those good, that good at vice and his speech, “I Have a Dream”. I really love him.
Okay. Question number two. What do you wish people knew about Black history month?
Jelani: I think I wish people knew and understood that black history is really American history.
It's the history of our country that you can't tell the history of America without telling the history of black individuals in it and their incredible contributions and stories and voices and hardships that they've overcome. And so I wish folks would look at it as one month to dive deep and focus on black history while also looking at the rest of the 11 months in the year as a way to acknowledge and take a look at black history in a way.
Kohen: I wish people knew about black history month is that it's really important, like the most important month of the year to me.
How does superheroes get their powers?
Jelani: Oh, how does oh, well, you know, um, as you can see with the action figures behind me, I think about this actually quite a bit.
I actually have a handful of them on my desk, and believe it or not, all of the action figures behind me, they're all black and brown action figures. It's a good reminder to me that superheroes look like me and you, um, as well.
How does superheroes get their powers? Well, often a superhero story starts with a sort of something tragic, something terrible happening in life that catalyzes them into the idea of becoming a hero.
And so that can be a radioactive spider. That can be, you know, traveling from one planet to the other. Or the tragic death of your two parents as an only child, like Bruce Wayne. So I think there's, there's a lot of different ways that superheroes get their power.
Kohen: I think I might have an agreement to you.
Like, I think, like, something like, like weird just happens to them and then they get their super powers.
Jelani: That's well-put. That's very accurate.
Kohen: So my mom asked you, I think, what is your favorite superhero?
Jelani: Well, my favorite superhero. Gosh, I don't get asked that a lot. That's a real tough one for me to answer.
You know, I'm a big fan of Black Panther. I think Black Panther is fantastic and awesome. I really love Fro-Zone from the Incredibles. I think he's, he's pretty cool.
I'm also a big fan of Luke Cage. I think he's a, he's a really cool, superhero. So that's, that's a handful of them. What's your favorite superhero?
Kohen: So my favorite superhero is the Hulk because when Bruce just turned into this Hulk guy and trashing all of the bad guys and stuff, and I really enjoyed that.
Jelani: The Hulk’s great.
Kohen: And here's my number three rules:
One - Smile at everyone.
Two - Educate on Black history.
And three - Support Black authors and businesses, which I do support you.
Jelani: I love that.
Well, we at A Kids Book About are huge fans of you and huge fans of Team End Racism, and will continue to be supporters and cheering you on and tremendously thankful for your support.
Matthew: We’ll be back with Kohen in conversation with Jelani, including the challenges of writing a book about racism.
[BREAK]
Matthew: Welcome back to A Kids Book About: The Podcast. On today’s episode, Kohen of Team End Racism is interviewing Jelani, author of A Kids Book About Racism.
Here’s Kohen.
Kohen: My mom said I could do any wild card questions. So how hard was it to make A Kids Book About Racism? How hard was it?
Jelani: That's a good question. I was just actually chatting last night with my wife about when I made the book. Um, and, and I think to be quite honest, it wasn't that hard, um, because I didn't have big plans.
I didn't, I didn't spend sort of months and months and months writing it, thinking that it was going to reach thousands and thousands of people. The reality is I spent a couple of weeks working on it. And it was really important for me to get it right, and to tell my story. Growing up as, as a biracial kid, um, and dealing with racism so that my kids can understand it. And they were the first audience really that the book was for. And, um, I've been so amazed and surprised how many more people it's reached beyond my six kids. And so a lot of ways it was really simple.
If there was one hard part to it, it was hard to write in as much as it was difficult to talk about because there's a lot of pain and hurt associated with those experiences around racism.
And so trying to put those into words for my kids was a little bit painful, but, but writing it was really simple in as much as it's just my story. And guess what? I know my story better than anyone else in the world. And so it was really easy to do.
Kohen: Wow. So cool. I love the book, like, I think it was one of my first books that talks about racism and it really helped me understand it way much better.
Jelani: That's awesome. Hey, can I ask you a question?
Kohen: Oh, sure. I'm up for any questions.
Jelani: Have you ever thought about writing?
Kohen: Oh, yeah. I'm like a couple, like a month ago, I was writing my own like little journal about A Kids Book About Love and it think I might be up wanting to write a book about it.
Do you have any advice for me?
Jelani: Oh, and advice? Um, yeah, I think I could, I think I could try out some advice.
Let's see. Thing one is I want you to remember, Kohen, that those things that are hard right now when you're young, but you know are right and good… make sure you focus on them and you do them because later on, they become a lot easier. And those things that other kids might look down on or think are silly, become really important when you become an adult. And you'll be really proud of yourself that you focused on them.
And I think you're already doing that work with Team End Racism. You're starting that work long before I did, um, uh, as, as a young person. So congrats to you on that.
My second bit of advice is. Really learned to be patient with yourself and, uh, you know, let yourself learn as you grow. Um, you won't know everything in a single day, um, or in a single year, you'll get smarter and know more and understand more as you grow up. And so just be patient with yourself that you don't have to know everything now.
Kohen: Okay. So... thank you.
Jelani: This was a really fun and fantastic discussion. And again, I think you're doing really incredible work, um, and any way that we can support you and the work of team and racism, just let us know.
Kohen: Thank you. It was a pleasure meeting.
Jelani: You pleasure meeting you too. Bye
Kohen: Bye.
[CLOSING]
Matthew: Thank you to Kohen and Jelani for this conversation about racism, Black history, and Black heroes.
Kohen is the CEO and founder of Team End Racism.You can learn more about the work he’s doing by visiting teamendracism.org.
Jelani Memory is the author of A Kids Book About Racism, which you can find at akidsco.com.
Want to be on a future episode of A Kids Book About: The Podcast? Or… I wonder if any of you would be interested in interviewing one of our authors? Write to us or record a message and email us at listen@akidsco.com.
A Kids Book About: the Podcast is written, edited, and produced by me, Matthew Winner, with help from Chad Michael Snavely and the team at Sound On Studios. Our executive producer is Jelani Memory. And this show was brought to you by A Kids Podcast About.
Follow the show on Apple Podcasts or wherever podcasts are found and check out other podcasts made for kids just like you by visiting akidsco.com.
Join us next week for a conversation about belonging, with Ana and A Kids Book About Belonging author Kevin Carroll.