*intro music plays*
Thomas: What is up everybody!
So once again it is February and that means it is Black History Month,
which is a wonderful time of the year
where we are encouraged to
acknowledge and educate ourselves on members of the black community who have
contributed so much to culture, to science and just to the overall progress of the world in general, but like last year
I don't want to be the only one standing here talking to you about it when I have some
amazing friends who are here to help.
*laughing*
Where is that music coming from? {What?}
*laughter* Terrence!
Terrence: Ah, it's my butt, sorry!
Terrence your butt! Turn off your butt!
Hi! Wait. *noise of disgust*
*laughter*
Hello! *Thomas offscreen* You said Terrence?
Oh, I'm Terrence and...yeah...
*laughter*
No, I'm fine. I'm taller than you, remember?
Terrence: THAT'S NOT TRUUUE!
Derionna: Hey guys! It's Derionna.
You don't know me by the way, but that's who I am.
Jamal: What's up party people!
I'm Jamal and it's about to get real black American
*general ooooing*
Thomas (a lovely child we must protect): All the viewers at home are going 'I've never been called a party person ever!'
Dahlia hasn't eaten today.
Dahlia: Hi, I'm Dahlia, and I'm hungry for equality and also this erepa.
*laughter*
*Thomas offscreen* You should totally say that right now
Say what? Oh, that I look like Wiz Kelly from Proud Family?
We had a late comer!
Leo: Hi! I'm Leo and my buns hurt because I'm squatting
*laughter*
That was more than I could have ever hoped for as far as an intro goes
so in the previous Black History Month video that
We did last year
Which you can watch right here. (Do it, caption artist recommends)
A game was created where I asked my friends to research some notable people that maybe I didn't know about maybe they wanted to know more about
and we're all just gonna sit down. They're gonna
Ask me some questions
And hopefully we're gonna have some fun and learn something new because I think it's super
important to learn about people in history that we aren't taught about in schools because you know history is
*Sums up history in one move* There's a lot of it, and we don't get taught all of it
And it's important to acknowledge these people that contributed so much to where we are now
I'm always looking forward to this because I learn something new every time so let's do this. I'm ready to learn again
Terrence: Wait have you been looking at my phone? Because I have the answers Thomas: No
T: Derionna, you're new! D: Ah!
That's nice, yeah.
What My face? Yeah, yeah. Look at that. Come on. Am I doing it right? Dariana your boyfriend is flirting with me. Yeah, he flirts with everyone.
That's not true!
I can do- wait do I do.. T: don't tell me L: oh I can't.. you're right T: Alright Dalia
Thomas: I'm ready to learn some new factoids. Terence: Arthur Ashe was a famous basketball player track star or tennis player. Thomas: ooh
Thom: Tennis player. Ter: Wow you actually right. Thom: Am I right? Ter: Yeah, you're right. He was both a tennis player and activist
He was the first American to win the men's single at Wimbledon and the US Open and the first African American man to be ranked
To number one in the world Thom: Whoa what? Ter: But he was born in 43 died in 93 due to AIDS
But that's what he was an activist for. He was an activist for aids.
Thom: Right Ter: He was diagnosed with the disease and then he started like raising awareness for it and things
of that nature. Thom: Man, what accomplished athlete L: Who was the first African American actress to be nominated for Academy Award
A: Josephine Baker, B: Whitney, Houston, C: Oprah Winfrey, D:
Dorothy Dandridge Thom: Well it's gotta be D: Dorothy Dandridge
That was good, that one was hard, I just- gave you like, easy answers
That's amazing. So she was a singer actress L: yeah T: dancer? L: she was basically like the black Marilyn Monroe
She was actually friends with Marilyn Monroe. She's amazing. T: awesome. That's cool. Yeah.
D: Question number one - Ira
Aldridge was the UK's first black actor to star in Shakespearean roles
What was his first lead role in a Shakespeare play: Macbeth, King Lear, Othello, or Richard the Third? T: Awesome that we're going beyond
American history that's great so was it Othello?
D: Yes, T: *amazed* It was? D: He originated the like Othello being played by a black man cuz usually it had been middle-eastern I think
1825 at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden he actually was born in New York, but
Um, audiences were real
racist so he was like "I'm going to the UK and I'm gonna be a star over there" and actually all the roles that I
Listed Macbeth King Lear Othello and Richard the third he played all of them {T: WHAT?!} at some point or another
T: So he won like a lot of acclaim with that role then {D: mm-hmm} Ira Aldridge.. fantastic.
Jamal: So Thomas, Thomas: Yes Jamal
I'm gonna ask you some black stuff {T: Good!} *Laughter*
Which 17th slash eighteenth-century minister founded the AME Church? AME stands for African Methodist Episcopal.
Was it: Garena Lee, Alexander Twilight, Richard Allen, or Tucker Carlson? T: Did you make up any of these names?
J: No, but one of them is is laughable. T: Richard Allen. J: Oh nice {T: Really?} Yeah, that's it
It just sounded like a seventeen to eighteenth-century name. What was the laughable one? J: Tucker Carlson T: Oh really? J: Yeah
Yeah, yeah, he's like he's like a Fox commentator
oh
So Richard Alan he was he was pretty dope he founded the church everybody knows about him and then AME Church
He was born into slavery in
Uh... 17... 60
he actually bought his freedom {T: Really?} yeah from doing like odd jobs and stuff, so what happened was {T: Wow!}
He was Methodist his master wasn't so he got sold to a different master
Preacher priest some kind of somebody in church came by and convinced his master
He should you know be about Jesus and slavery is wrong and his master was like
Actually, that sound kind of right, and he let him buy his freedom
It didn't sound right enough for him to let him go for nothing, but yeah
T:Yeah J: It is what it is
So he went off there was a bunch of racism going on he was like I'm not about this
So I'm gonna go start my own church. It's pretty rad. T: That's awesome
Leo did is doing last-minute question making like he did last year
L: Don't tell them. T: Welcome to the hot seat I guess I'm in the hot seat because I'm answering the question
D: My seat is cool. *Beautiful laughter*
Who is Sarah Baartman? a) A runaway slave who led others to freedom, b) a South African
taken to Europe to be in human zoos, Or - *Bewildered Thomas*
C: A U.S Civil rights leader
What was the- oh shoot!
My chair fell apart because I couldn't believe it
Literally the chair - the leg gave way
Oh my goodness B is so awful, I want to say it's A - the runaway slave D: No
It's B
T: It is B? D: Yeah, she was a South African
woman with a very large
Butt and so they thought it was so strange that they took her to Europe and they put her in a whole bunch of human
Zoos and freak shows and all these other terrible things
And there's like a statue of her still like in Europe in a museum T: Derionna, What?!
That's horrible. D: Terrible!
Terrence: Next one {Thom: mm-hmm} Garrett Augustus Morgan is responsible for the invention of what: the traffic light, the gas
mask, or the stop sign. Thomas: I have heard that a black man was responsible for making the traffic light
Terrence: Yeah, because we remember we did do this one Thomas: Wait we did?
Terrence: Yeah, we did, so.. Thom: Oh, it's not the same one okay hold on process of elimination. I'm gonna go with stop sign
Ter: No, this is actually the same Garrett Morgan who made the traffic light. Thomas: Or, really?
*laughter* Ter: Yeah, I just thought, I wanted to see if you'd get it again
But he also made the gas mask in 1911 after hearing about these tragic deaths in a factory fire
he
Invented a safety hood and smoke protector for the firefighters the hood which contained a wet sponge to filter our smoke and cool the air
Became the precursor to the gas mask to sell those. They called it a safety hood
He hired a white actor to pretend to be him, so not only did he invent it
But he is also a hustler because he was like I know they ain't going to buy from me, so he had hired a white actor
To- {Thom: Holy smokes.} To be him in order to sell it. Leo: The first black superhero in mainstream
American comic books is: a) Luke Cage, b) Black Panther, c) Black Lightning, d)
Static shock. T: you've told me about this one. It's black lightning
No, it's Black Panther
T: Is it really? L: Yeah, T: that's the first? I had no idea. L: Yeah,
And T: That's why it's so freakin' L: And honestly like that's kinda surprising too - I thought was Black Lightning, but it's Black Panther T: Wow
So I learned something too
I was wrong all these years. This one I feel like you should know. There's a lot of pressure now.
Who wrote the choreo poem for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf is it Toni
Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston,
Lorraine Hansberry, or Ntozake Shange? Okay, the one that sticks out to me is Zora Neale Hurston
No, they're all black authors. Yeah, Ntozake Shange. She was a playwright and an author who lives in New York
She's like 69 right now (really?) It's a play, a book, a movie
It's 20 poems and it's about the struggles that black women face with racism and sexism
And when it opened she actually played one of characters she played Lady in Orange (mmm)
And then they made it into a movie in 2009 and it had people like Janet Jackson, Anika Noni Rose, Kerry
Washington, Whoopi Goldberg, (what?) It's a lot yeah
That's one person I have to sing with before I die is John Legend. Chrissy Teigen, girl, first of all,
Love you. And if you see this, what I got to do to sing with John Legend? (What the heck he gotta do? Who the heck he gotta be?)
Do a little bit of Ordinary People right now. Ooh hey don't put me on the spot. But I think we should take it slow
We're just ordinary people
We don't know which way to go
So
Which state was the last to ratify the 13th amendment?
That's the one that ended slavery. (mm-hmm) The last one to ratify it? Making slavery illegal in
1995 (no freaking way) 1995 all right (are you freaking serious) Here are your options. Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana,
Georgia. I'm gonna go with Alabama. That's a good guess. It's Mississippi.
Holy smokes. Some college, they remembered it
They were like "let me look up when all the states got rid of slavery" and they were like
"Mississippi? Y'all slippin'." And Mississippi was like "Oh, we missed it" You know
I don't know about that
And they were like "Nah, we got it. Cool. Just clean it up." 1995. And then I was born just in time
Just South of the danger zone (dang) It's a factoid
For your hiney
That's called a hemroid
You do okay, oh you do
great. When was interracial marriage legalized?
a) 1945, b)
1979 C 2003 or D
1967 Oh May
1940 and I don't think of you 2003 unless like just slip through the cracks
I mean civil rights. It just happened in 1965 so I think it would be
1967
I know limited things. Oh, that's awesome. I mean it could have been sooner. We've gone way way back with this one
Oh, okay, what year did Harriet Tubman escaped slavery?
1797 okay this year's itseif I woulda just left yeah
1797 1929 or 1840s nines 18-49, I'm gonna go with 1840s nine is eighteen forties nine
18-49 yes her owner died and then she decided to escape slavery to Philadelphia to her brother's been in hearing accompanying her on September 17
18-49 however after a notice was published offering three hundred dollar reward for the return of her and her brother's her brothers turned around and
Went back
And she was I know and she went on a long
Series like hearing her story is just ridic- because she just kept going back into the thick of things to save other
People and then would threaten them if they wanted to go back which I think is
Obviously you got to be brave to be like I will hurt you
More than they will if you go back so right you may as well just keep on truckin keep on going there Josephine Baker
Started out her career as a vaudeville showgirl
And then moved to France where she became the first person of color to become an international
Entertainer and to star in a major motion picture she was also a spy what which war wait what?
World war one world war two vietnam war or korean war. I want to think of like what was like really
Needed spies and one that like really jumps out to me is world war ii was it really? yep
She was part of the French Resistance
And basically she would go to these functions and parties at embassies
And she would just be friendly and charming and she would charm information about German troop location
That is the coolest thing ever they were just like yeah, you're awesome, so I'm gonna tell you exactly where
Things are *laughter* Exactly, that's what she would do!
That's awesome! She from New Orleans
and she also moved to France cuz people here were racist they loved her in France like she was the
Exotic showgirl, she could sing she could dance. She did this one dance where she was naked except for a skirt of bananas
And she was bi, oh wow, and she had 12 adopted children from like all different countries. She was great
She refused to perform for segregated audiences in the 50s in America whenever she came and she
Spoke at the march on Washington with MLK. Wow organized by Bayard Rustin yes heck
Yeah
after MLK was
assassinated Coretta Scott King
Asked her if she would be the new leader of the civil rights movement in the US and she said no cuz I don't want
To do that to my kids and so Coretta Scott King took over Josephine Baker was amazing we talked about this last year, too
But you know the importance of this month, and what it means like are you consistently learning new things
Yeah, definitely
With an anthropology major I like to focus on race and race relations and like the culture of today
And how everything is taken into account?
so just being a black person in general is just like you're kind of forced to learn things and to deal with things and
Figure your way around life and the history behind it
It's definitely like a time to really reflect on all because there's so many like
African-americans that like you know contribute to society is a lot that we still don't know about you know yeah
And it's really cool when you find out that it was somebody who looks like you
I think it's important just because it's not really stuff that we learn in
High school or in grade school per se like you learn a little bit about black history, but it's always like a very
short part of history classes
And you learn the same stories over and over so I think it's important because like
more people who aren't in school or adults and college students and all these other people can bring information to
Everyone but even to young people who don't hear these kinds of stories. Yeah like oh they left a bunch of stuff out
Yeah, I say it's good for us too, fellow black people, be reminded
I know I forget until I'm reminded so yeah, yeah
Try to stay in the know that way you can help other people they want to be in the know
That's like the most important thing to like remind ourself that we can be the stars
They're like. You know the bosses. Okay. They can do it. I can do it. It's nice to know history
Yeah of like your people. Black power. Thank you man. No problem. I loved that I feel good. This wasn't bad
It wasn't it frickin' rocked it out. Yeah, I loved it. Well. That was amazing
I definitely learned something new and I hope that you guys did too
This is such a fun
Exercise to do and I encourage you guys to to just take time this month
and not just this month like any time this year to
Continue to educate yourself on people in history that have contributed so much to where we are now
I hope that you enjoyed this video
I know that I did it was so much fun
And I really like taking the time out to make these videos, so thank you guys so much for watching
Hope you enjoyed the video
Thank you so much to my friends Terrence, Dalia, Dariana Jamal and Leo for helping to make this video
I love you all so much if you're interested in my previous videos you can click over here if you're new to the channel and
Would like to subscribe click down here, and if you're interested in becoming featured bandar click down here
That's it and until next time take it easy guys gals and non-binary pals
PEACE OUT!
*Laughter*
Keep your elbows ashy not really though. I mean no but I said that last year so
That's why I said that. *laughter*