Modern Day Mullatos Podcast: What have we discussed so far?
By Jaya Gordon-Moore
In partnership with Fearless Youth Association (FYA) , the Modern Day Mullatos (MDM) started during the emergence of what has been labelled the biggest civil rights movement in history. After the death of George Floyd (May 25th 2020), and the longstanding history of racial prejudice, violence and discrimination across the world against non-white people, millions of people across the globe stood up to peacefully protest, elevate their voices and stimulate change. Alongside protesting in our local areas, Me (Jaya), Kofi, and JJ felt so hurt and angered by the current climate, that we had to do more. We have been friends through our music careers and social media for a while and related over the fact that we were all mixed race. So we decided to create a podcast series, all about racial and social issues, intersectionality’s and progressive politics from our perspective.
Understanding Intersectionality
Drawing from intersectional studies, we recognise that oppression and privilege is a reflexive process that heavily relies on one’s identity and the social constructs and contracts around that. For example to be a Black man is very different to being a white women, or a middle class Black person with a physical disability is very different to being a working class Asian person who is mentally ill. In summary, intersectionality looks at the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, gender, sexuality, disability etc. They create overlapping interdependent systems of discrimination and disadvantage, but also advantage. These identity structures are so important to recognise because they determine how society treats us, and how we experience it in turn. Not only is there a lot of research into the complex nature of the mixed race identity, but also how a lot of the time, in the words of Earl Sweatshirt we feel, ‘Too black for the white kids, and too white for the blacks”. Although we know we are black, and no one can take that away from us, we know that our experience is different from some of our Black and White counterparts.
Our spelling. Our Voices.
The name Modern Day Mullatos is a modern twist on the offensive noun ‘mulatto’ meaning a person of mixed white and Black ancestry, especially a person with one white and one Black parent. We changed the spelling to reclaim and redefine the word for our own. Like how rapper and activist Tupac Shakur used the word ‘Nigga’ to empower himself and others, redefining it as ‘Never Ignorant Getting Goals Accomplished’. The goal of the podcast is not only to relate, but to inform, inspire, empower and stimulate change. Our short term goal is our biweekly podcasts on YouTube, but our long term goal is to be going into schools and setting up workshops.
Episodes so far and where to watch.
As mentioned before, the series is on YouTube via Fearless Youth Associations channel. So far we have released seven episodes, discussing a range of topics! Click on the titles to watch them:
The topics are diverse and unique. Such as episode 5, where we link the anti-mask protests to the concept of white fragility and discuss how it is so detrimental to the Black Lives Matter protests. In our latest episode (7), we critically discuss the history of policing in the UK and USA and its aims. We look into the debate of community action and defunding the police, discussing whether reform is possible. We also look at representation, racial bias, and denial of institutional racism in the criminal justice system. To find us easily, you can either go to our social medias (linked below) or scan the QR code on this page!
