ADISA OMAR CAMARA – musician, songwriter, activist… beloved

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Published on 09/08/2020 by

 

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Show # 99– 9-9–2020 Jason Schwartz shares conversation with  ADISA-OMAR CAMARA … Hawaii songwriter, musician, DJ & more shares his world views in a thoughtful powerful hour.

 

 

Summary & Timestamped Transcript Below…

Maui arts and music community event promoting unity and positive action.

Adisa Omar Camara on Race, History, and Community Life


  • [00:00 → 05:03] Introduction and Background
    The conversation opens with an introduction of 
    Adisa Omar Camara, a longtime friend, musician, singer, and DJ based in Maui. He grew up in Los Angeles (Compton) from 1973 to 1988, which immersed him in a distinct cultural environment. The host reflects on how Omar’s experience in Compton was eye-opening, particularly regarding race and prejudice. Omar shares that he grew up in New York surrounded by Black people and never felt the racial divide until he encountered it in places like Compton. They discuss how fear underpins racism and Omar highlights his own experience of having an open heart with no fear, which allowed him to connect with people beyond race.


[05:03 → 12:53] Black Lives Matter, Historical Context, and the Ongoing Struggle
Omar describes 
Black Lives Matter (BLM) not as a movement, but a lifestyle that has always mattered to him. He recounts his experiences from the 1960s, including Martin Luther King marches, the Black Panther Party, and the 1968 Olympics Black Power salute. Living on Maui for over 16 years gave him a different perspective, allowing him to lower his defenses and adopt an open mindset, yet his heart remains with family on the mainland facing systemic risks.

He emphasizes the importance of multi-racial solidarity today, noting that many people from diverse backgrounds are now “waiting in the water” protesting alongside Black Americans, a reference to the historical song “Wade in the Water” used during the Underground Railroad. Omar distinguishes protesters from looters, highlighting that looting is not part of legitimate protest and that white supremacist groups often infiltrate protests to create chaos.

He stresses the marathon nature of the civil rights struggle and the foundational issues embedded in American history, including racism, gun culture, and land theft from Indigenous peoples. Omar calls for living by the Constitution’s promise of equality for all, not just white Americans. He condemns systemic barriers like redlining and mass incarceration that maintain racial inequality.


  • [12:53 → 20:12] Systemic Racism, Affirmative Action, and Underrecognized Black Contributions
    Omar refutes the misconception that Black people want handouts; rather, they seek 
    equal opportunity and an end to systemic oppression—“just take your knee off our neck so we can breathe.” He recounts the history of racial massacres in America—27 massacres of Black communities since the end of slavery, including Black Wall Street and Rosewood—as evidence of ongoing violence and suppression.

Contemporary Maui luxury home with large glass windows and lush tropical surroundings.

He shares newly discovered historical facts, learned especially in recent months through internet research, such as:

  • Black people helped invent ice hockey, with a Maritime Negro Hockey League established in 1825 in Nova Scotia, predating organized white hockey leagues by 50 years.

  • The slap shot” and goalie techniques in the NHL were derived from Black hockey players.

  • The term cowboy” originated from Black workers who tended livestock, yet popular culture often erases Black cowboys, despite one in four cowboys historically being Black.

Omar laments how history is often rewritten by the victors, erasing Black contributions and suffering. He explains that continuous massacres and systemic oppression have repeatedly forced Black communities to rebuild from scratch, undermining progress and economic independence.


  • [20:12 → 27:19] Contemporary Racism, White Supremacy in Policing, and Maui Experience
    Omar discusses the 
    infiltration of white supremacists into police forces, a fact warned about by the FBI over a decade ago but insufficiently addressed. He cites the disproportionate and excessive police violence against Black people, including shootings of unarmed individuals even when they are already subdued, as evidence of systemic brutality.

Regarding life on Maui, Omar states he has not personally experienced racism there, clarifying that Hawaiians cannot be racist towards white people because racism requires control over the narrative and power structures, which Hawaiians do not hold. However, prejudice exists on all sides based on historical grievances and experiences. He explains that white people can be prejudiced because they “wear the body” of historical supremacy, while Black people can also be prejudged due to stereotypes.

Omar credits his open heart and lack of fear for positive experiences in Hawaii and calls for greater understanding beyond skin color judgments, emphasizing that racism and prejudice are products of “low thinkers” lacking empathy.

Maui Neutral Zone video showcasing content awareness and safety measures on the island.

  • [27:19 → 33:42] Denial of Racism, Affirmative Action Impact, and International Perspectives
    Omar highlights the 
    denial of racism by some officials, including a Trump appointee over fair housing claiming uncertainty about racism’s existence in America. This denial hinders progress toward equality.

He shares a personal success story about how affirmative action helped his Sacramento printing business gain government contracts, which were previously inaccessible despite his qualifications. Affirmative action provided him a tax break and access to larger markets, allowing his business to thrive without changing his work ethic or identity.

On international comparisons, Omar and the host discuss how Black entertainers and soldiers historically found more respect and equality in Europe and Canada than in the U.S. For example, during WWII, Black American soldiers were treated as equals by locals abroad but faced discrimination from white American soldiers, even leading to violent conflicts overseas.


  • [33:42 → 41:57] Personal Reflections, COVID-19 Impact, and Call to Action for Musicians
    Omar reflects on the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, including unemployment and losing creative outlets. To stay connected and productive, he began Facebook live shows to maintain his artistry and community presence.

He expresses hope for turning negative energy from political and social turmoil into positive spiritual energy for growth and healing. He encourages musicians and artists to use their platforms to spread love, cooperation, and positive messages through free or low-cost online performances during difficult times.

Omar stresses that artists are natural leaders who can influence public attitudes and foster unity by “planting seeds” of hope and justice.

Scenic view of Little Beach in Maui with vibrant purple hues and calm waters.

  • [41:57 → End] Closing Thoughts and Encouragement
    The conversation closes with Omar encouraging viewers to practice mindfulness and calm:

  • Close your eyes, take deep breaths, sit in stillness, and realize you’re going to be all right.”
    He expresses gratitude and hope that the world is learning to overcome ignorance and hatred through love and understanding.


Key Insights

Theme Key Points
Race and Fear Racism is rooted in fear; overcoming fear leads to open hearts and true connection.
Black Lives Matter A lifestyle, not a movement; ongoing fight rooted in deep history of injustice and resilience.
Historical Erasure Black contributions to sports, culture, and history (e.g., hockey, cowboy culture) often erased.
Systemic Racism Embedded in policing, housing, and economic structures; denial blocks progress.
Affirmative Action Essential for providing equal opportunities; not a handout but a level playing field.
Racism vs. Prejudice in Hawaii Racism linked to power and control; prejudice can exist without systemic control.
Solidarity and Future Hope Multi-racial protests, artistic leadership, and persistence as keys to change and healing.
COVID-19 Impact Disruption to community, business, and creativity; adaptation through technology and resilience.

Timeline of Significant Historical References

Year/Period Event Description
1825 Maritime Negro Hockey League formed in Nova Scotia (Black hockey league predating NHL).
1860s (Emancipation) End of slavery in the U.S.; start of racial massacres against Black communities.
1960s Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King marches, Black Panther Party, 1968 Olympic Black Power salute.
1980s Affirmative action policies begin affecting minority-owned businesses.
2000s-2010s FBI warns of white supremacist infiltration in U.S. police departments.

Maui Neutral Zone outdoor community space with trees and clear skies.Summary of Quantitative Data Mentioned

Scenic view of Little Beach in Maui with vibrant purple hues and calm waters.
Data Point Details
Number of Black Massacres Post-Slavery 27 massacres documented in the U.S.
Black Cowboys in Southwest U.S. 1 in 4 cowboys historically were Black
Police Shootings Examples cited of people shot 15, 18, 27 times
Affirmative Action Tax Break Up to 10% tax break for minority/women business partnerships

Conclusion

This in-depth conversation with Adisa Omar Camara provides a powerful, firsthand perspective on racial history, systemic injustice, and hope for change. Omar’s reflections emphasize the importance of understanding history accurately, recognizing ongoing struggles, and nurturing community through love, creativity, and solidarity. His insights encourage continued activism, mindfulness, and artistic leadership as essential tools in the pursuit of true equality and justice.

Transcript

00:00

[Music] aloha everyone welcome to another neutral zone maui neutral zone we are not neutral anything but neutral and today we have a a longtime friend someone that i hold dear to my heart many of you on maui know him this is adisa omar Camara camara right and to you in the world that uh may not yet know him he is a besides being a wonderful guy he’s a musician and singer and dj but he also has all kinds of other aspects for many years and he you grew up in l.a did you i did i grew up in los angeles straight out of

Maui Neutral Zone surfing scene with surfers on paddleboards and kayaks.

01:02

compton compton and i i was in l.a from 1973 to 1988 came out of new york and uh i remember i was working in in the early 80s selling insurance plans to county employees and we would go office to office talk to workers and i remember going into compton i remember going into compton and recognizing that it was was la but it was a different area it seemed like a very different i wasn’t sure what it was and then later i i heard you know my blindness i grew up in new york where uh my father worked for a wt grant company

01:49

which was why i don’t know if you know like kreskeys and woolworths and one of his departments his first store that he got as a manager was at 125th street and broadway which to those that know say well that’s like right in the middle of harlem yeah and so i grew up and all around me black people i never thought about it until i was in school and realized there’s no black people here i mean it’s really it was an interesting experience in my life you know and compton i got immersed into a culture felt very

02:26

comfortable there in compton but yet when people talk to me they’d say you went to compton how did you go in and and so i started to understand that that race thing and prejudice thing is just it’s heavy and it’s heavy because uh to me i was invisible to it now in these this 2020 here we go another incarnation forward right what’s going on in the world i mean i remember 1969 i graduated high school and i my photo project in 1969 was we drove in our convertible through harlem and i

03:10

was taking pictures and when i people said me how did you do that what i had no fear i wasn’t in a fear mode and so i i seem to but prejudice i’m only bringing it up because if you were to ask me i would say another way of saying you weren’t afraid is you weren’t a racist because i think most of the thing most of the problem with the race is is fear and they’re afraid of something they’re afraid of being overtaken or they’re afraid but you didn’t have that fear you had an

03:46

open heart and you know so i believe that’s why you were able to be open to the whole area and like when i think about you you’re my friend omar i don’t think of you as you my friend my black friend you know and think of it as a separate category or something exactly neither do i yeah we just call it friendship and uh it’s nice when we can be open-minded and tall thinkers and not let that type of mentality lower our characteristics or lower our standards and get to a inferior mentality that’s what i call it

04:27

now you’ve been recently a presence you’ve been out there um maybe you can describe it better than me because you’ve had you’ve been in uh private sector and kind of sidelined by this covered time so what have you been doing through this period you’ve been i mean i think of you as my opinion you’re a guy who’s always happy always doing good things for the community all kinds of people you know you got married you’re having a fantastic and suddenly we see these things but

Kahakuloa coastal landscape with lush greenery and mountain backdrop in Maui.

05:03

you’re a man who stands up for truth and you’ve been out there what have you been doing and as far as presence because black lives matter and you’ve been i mean very visible i haven’t paid close attention i i had a friend our mutual friend gwen george her husband and her daughter died you know within times of each other she was on my show and i was trying to talk to ayn adams i didn’t really know who would be a good spokesman i thought about you because you know again i want you to jump in i’m

05:42

just talking too much right right okay well as far as what i’ve been doing lately uh it works as far as black lives matters or the movement that’s where people are calling it a movement i don’t call it a movement i call it a lifestyle because black lives have always mattered to me and when we talk about what’s happening now it’s kind of like a soapbox for me to stand on because at this tender ripe age of 64. you know i’ve been around for a while and i remember the 60s in moldtown and i

06:18

remember the martin luther king marches and i remember the watch riot and the black panther party and i remember a lot of those things i remember the 68 olympics when tommy carlos and john smith raised the black fist and see i’ve been going through and now that i’m living on maui and have been i guess you know for the last 17 16 17 years um it has allowed me the opportunity to drop my dukes to just drop my defenses to be able to live with a much more open mindset and reality um because a lot of times we get caught

06:59

up here in the inner city with what’s happening now or marketing or crime or traffic or road rage or there’s so many things when people are just living on top of each other and so as for me currently what i’ve been doing unemployed on unemployment because of covet but i’ve been helping where i can i can my motto is to get in where you fit in and so then therefore being on maui i felt i started feeling distant i started feeling like i was really on an island because my sons and my grandsons and my brothers and my

07:46

nephews are all here on the mainland and are all you know part of that high risk uh situation of you know with policemen so my heart is always concerned for them and so on maui i’m like well what can i do what can i do to raise awareness and you know so that’s when i started giving the sign wavings and a couple of rallies but the main thing jason that is on my heart that i’d like to share i’d like to say thank you i’d like to say thank you to you and every other white person

08:29

who is down for justice who is up for justice who is up for peace who is of her equality who is up for everyone being the same because you know um now this is going to take you back a little bit you ever heard of a song called wade in the water weed in the water yeah about uh the underground railroad yes sir you know that that’s history most people don’t know that oh don’t let yourself okay that was one of the songs that harriet tubman used to signal to the uh slaves on the field to weigh

Scenic view of Little Beach in Maui with vibrant purple hues and calm waters.

09:17

down that night toward the water because the slave train is coming through and so traditionally speaking in the 60s or the 90s when rodney king happened generally speaking it’s been the african-american waiting in the water and protesting and out there fighting and protesting now there have been whites and other folks with us for sure especially with dr king hand in hand because that’s when they stopped using the water holes and sticking the dogs when they saw there were whites intermingled with the blacks

09:49

and then so what happened was aft right now we’ve got people from every race creed and color around the world protesting demonstrating positive protesting now the looting we don’t have nothing to do with the looting i don’t know who’s looting because protesters don’t loot looters loot now when we protest blm we don’t lose martin luther king we don’t lose we protest now because we have all of these other people waiting in the water with us protesting they don’t know how to protest

10:27

so that’s why they’re breaking windows and doing stuff and it’s not necessarily the blacks who have been protesting for years it’s the people who so-called coming out to help us that’s not the way we protest and it’s also um the white supremacists the kkk groups all of those hate groups that are putting on masks they’re putting on blackface they’re having umbrellas they’re breaking windows they’re trying to make the movement look bad they’re trying to

10:56

make they are making the protest look bad but we’re not gonna stop that’s not us that’s them we just have to identify them see if we stop we stop breathing because we can’t stop this is a marathon martin luther king was killed on my birthday when i was 10 years old so every year on my birthday i carry that with me it’s like a civil rights cross that comes upon me every year and so you know we’ve been fighting this battle a long time and i’m very thankful that there’s a lot of people now

11:30

waiting in the water with us and we just have to suck it up and realize it’s a marathon because um you know with this company this country kind of being built on the gun and built on racism and built on taking away the land from the mexicans and from the indians you know so you know uh with that being the foundation we have to realize that for your america to be the same america of your constitution you have to live by the constitution if every man is going to be equal then they have to be equal it’s not like

12:11

every white man equal is every man equal and so now that we have so many people coming together we’re gonna be able to fight this white supremacist attitude that says we’re in charge and we’re elite and we’re making the rules for you right you have been for years and years and you will continue until the people get enough power and unity to say not anymore because the system is the system and the system is not built for us to have equality the system is built for us to have any quality

Maui Neutral Zone scenic view with salt ponds and mountain backdrop.

12:53

for for if the system is built for us to have to go through when i say us i could be speaking of blacks or other minorities to go through a lot of other jumps and hoops and holes and redlining and all types of things that you know racism holds us back from um and you know a lot of people say that we want folks to give us something we don’t that is not true we don’t want nobody to give us anything we just want you to get your knee off our neck so that we can breathe you see at first they wouldn’t allow us

13:34

to play sports and we had the negro baseball league and then finally uh the new uh the brooklyn dodgers brought in jackie robinson so jackie robinson then roy cappanella then all the so you see how we’re doing in sports we can do whatever we want to do wherever if we’re allowed we don’t have to be given all we need to be given is the opportunity we’re not asking for anything free just give us the same equal opportunity and that’s why black lives matter you know when you know when black lives stop mattering

14:16

then i’ll share this and then i’ll i’ll get off of it the year that three the year that slavery ended that’s when black lives didn’t matter anymore to white people the racist white people because that’s when the massacre started there’s been 27 massacres in the united states of black people since slavery the first massacre wasn’t until six months after slavery they said if they couldn’t own us they were gonna kill us and all of these massacres black wall street

14:52

uh rosewood uh north carolina um there’s there’s 27 of them i can send you the chart but they all started right after slavery so it was almost like well if we can’t own you then we’ll we’ll kill you you’re talking about that now go ahead so you’re talking about dudes since the emancipation proclamation in the uh 1860s right that you’re talking since then it’s like the white people said okay that’s it we’re going to either get rid of you or you’re a slave that’s

15:34

my only choices that’s horrible and it’s been just we’re going to be in jail we’re gonna put you on the chain gang we’re gonna do something with you but we’re gonna do it now and it doesn’t have to be fair and so that was the thing right now i have learned so much black history in the last four months i’ve learned more black history in the last four months than i’ve as much as i’ve known my whole life because of this and the internet because of the challenge we have going on and the

16:03

internet and people are researching and putting all of these posts up and i’m like what what i didn’t know that what like for instance did you know that uh it was runaway slaves and blacks that created hockey ice hockey i can send you a picture it happened in nova scotia what happened was the slaves that ran away ran away up north and they ran into canada and in the nova scotia they put together a league it was called the maritime negro hockey league their first commission game was in 1825. the first commission

Contemporary Maui luxury home with large glass windows and lush tropical surroundings.

16:54

white game in england was in 1875 50 years later and i’ve got a picture you know old school picture that i got from offline and um also there’s two and the in it that the nhl national hockey league has already confirmed this that there are two uh two moves two things that they got from the negro league and brought into the national hockey league one was the slap shot they got the slap shot from the negro league and the second one was the ability for the catcher not catcher that’s baseball

17:36

the goalie to drop down on his knees and block the puck the national hockey league didn’t do that at first they got that from the negro league and so that’s why i think it’s so hypocritical when people now when the blacks are starting to play hockey and they’re like this is our sport this is our sport it’s like wait a minute bruh we invented the sport so it’s and and let’s here’s another thing i found out the word cowboy it came from negros we were house boys we were pin boys we were field boys

18:13

we were cowboys we were house boys we were see we were whatever boys and the cow the boys who worked with the cows in in the pens for the livestock that’s where the name came from they’re working from the livestock so they were the cowboys that’s where the word cowboy came from and then but now it’s it’s like the cowboy is an all-white thing and it’s like wow history can really rewrite itself the victor writes history and he will write that right out of it that really is the

18:50

biggest and tallest thing we’ve really learned that the victor writes the story and uh yeah on an amazing journey isn’t it wow yes sir it’s just really really something it’s like we didn’t learn any of this in school no we didn’t learn any of this in school this stuff is you have to search for it and did you know i didn’t know that one in the south like texas uh southwestern texas arizona colorado all in there one out of every four cowboys was black one out of four and i don’t never see a

19:33

black cowboy movie i just you know so i love western you know so it’s just we so i don’t want to forget all of our past some of our past is really good but they like rewriting it and taking our pass out so we don’t really know who we are and what we’ve done so it’s like why aren’t why are they lazy why don’t they do this why don’t listen you guys have burned down and massacred at least 27 of our cities we have to keep starting over you burn our banks you burn our houses

20:12

you burn our businesses you burn everything you kill two or three hundred people and then people just have to go out and start over but then when you get in the 50s and the 60s it’s like why won’t they do this i’m just saying if you would stop massacring us and take your knee off of our neck we can have our own banks we can have our own things we can do whatever but stop stifling us like throwing rocks and hiding your hands like you know like you haven’t done anything to us you continue to do things when i

Group of yellow and red kayaks on grass in Maui Neutral Zone.

20:46

say you it’s the system the system continues to try to hold it back but you know i’m just glad that there’s so many people waking up now that’s saying bump the system the system is unfair we need a new system you know this archaic system of yours is not working and if we had remembered i don’t know if you remember but 15 16 years ago the fbi warned us that there was a overwhelming number of white supremacists joining the police departments around our country they tried to warn us for more than a

21:31

year but and they did warn us but what were we going to do to stop it and they just joined and joined and joined and now we have what people getting shot 15 times 27 times seven times in the back all these these these shots are not just coming from regular people they’re coming from supremacy they’re coming from kkk supremacist minded people that’s why they’re unloading the gun in them 18 times why does a person need to be shot 27 times that don’t make any sense at all no why would you be on the ground

22:07

there’s there’s some videos of police shooting guys on the ground that are already dead and they’re still pumping bullets down this is i’m not surprised we got it all on video so yeah it’s madness it is madness have you found that living on maui outside of that thing that’s going on in the minute has it been a different kind of life on maui for you was i don’t know if you’ve experienced prayer life no i haven’t i haven’t experienced any prejudice on maui now let me share this uh all of

22:50

your listeners or viewers um now it is impossible for hawaiian to be a racist to a white person it can’t happen you know why because a racist is a person who controls the narrative the hawaiians don’t control the narrative now the hawaiians a lot of them are prejudiced towards whites but they’re not racist that’s not just how you become racist you have to control the narrative to be a racist that you never let people get a fair amount or you always get the right amount for you or you take away their land or you do

23:26

this and you pass out rules if you’re in control then you can possibly be the racist but if you’re if you don’t have no control you’re not a racist but you can be prejudiced toward the people who are racist to you and so as i explained that no i haven’t received any on maui but i know a lot of my white brothers and sisters who say that they have been um profile and i could understand that because uh it’s not because of them personally but it’s because of the body that they

24:01

wear uh white my white brothers and sisters all wear the body of a supremacist they’re not supremacists jason you’re not a white supremacist but you have a white body and you have the same body of a supremacy so when those hawaiians see you guys coming he sees the body type of a supremacist and then they might give prejudice because they don’t know your heart and they don’t know that you’re a loving person and would never be that but they still show it to you because they’re just prejudiced towards white

Data center with servers and professionals working on laptops in Maui.

24:38

people because they felt like they’ve been done wrong and so the same with any i’m in a black body i live a black body experience just like you live a white body experience so when they see my black body sometimes they might assume that i’m a bad actor or character until they get to know me but these again are shallow people these are judgmental people that’s just judging you by the color of your skin but that’s what racist prejudice people do they don’t they’re not hype thinkers

25:13

they’re low thinkers uh in 1988 it was 2010 i worked the census and the area that i got to work was happy valley which is heavy hawaiian and uh again after i got out of there the comments from the white people was wow did you have a problem no problem the people were loving it was a beautiful experience and uh it’s what you take in it’s because you aren’t scared brother you have that open heart you have that open spirit and you weren’t afraid you weren’t they didn’t you know just

25:55

like a dog can read fear people can read fear and they did not fear you at all and they did not sense you as a supremacist at all and that’s why you were treated fairly right that’s what i that’s my why don’t you wish the world would kind of wake up to the way that um i mean like i say i’m happy to call you my brother you know and um i just hope that our world will learn from our the loving example you know thank you for all the ideas thank you my brother our world is learning our world has learned

26:39

we just got a few big mouth people with um that streak of hatred and then they’ve got some ignorance a big streak of ignorance they just are unaware they just don’t know and we we’re working on them because some of them have a stronghold some of them are actually like clergymen and politicians they have a stronghold and they don’t tell you right up front that they’re racist and they try to call you a racist when you identify the racist terms in them they try to put the mirror that’s

27:19

the new thing to turn it around and say if you mention race you must be the racist no we’re not falling for that we’re not falling for that so they’re trying to now convince themselves that racism doesn’t exist do you know the guy that trump appointed over fair housing said i saw this coming out of his mouth he said that he wasn’t sure if racism actually existed in america this is a guy that he just appointed over fair housing and i’m like see so if you’re gonna walk

27:57

if you’re gonna sleepwalk like that i wouldn’t even call that sleepwalking i just called it straight lying that’s a lie walking and if you’re just not gonna acknowledge it this is what we’re dealing with we’re dealing with the whites who just won’t acknowledge it and and and it’s like well if you don’t acknowledge it how we’re going to deal with it and they said that’s my point we don’t want to deal with it we like the way it’s structured now with

Data center with servers and professionals working on laptops in Maui.

28:26

us having an advantage and then when affirmative action came out i had a business in sacramento i had a printing business and i had my business for about 10 years i was in business for about three maybe four years before affirmative action came out i could not get any contracts with any state agencies or county agencies or city agencies but i did get like you know some corporations and things of this nature that would you know have purchasing agents that would allow me because i was in commercial printing there weren’t you

29:02

know i was the only black in commercial printing in sacramento period in the 80s okay so um so once that came in what they said was we will now give you a break on your taxes up to 10 if you will allow part of your business to women-owned or minority-owned businesses so next thing you know i got a contract with the state now i’m printing for the county now i’m praying for the state again big jobs my uh my income level changed really blessed my household they they allowed me to play in into arena

29:49

that they didn’t allow me to play before i didn’t change anything about myself i was calling on the same companies that would not give me the business but as soon as they said we’ll give you a tax break they gave me the business so i appreciated affirmative action it’s not like that we’re cheating it’s just allowing us to play in the big arena but then if you know and even that they define the game there’s still the american i call it american it’s still we the white people are

30:25

giving you a chance to play in our game like you said it’s like they take possession like they’re doing some favor from you when you in fact created it but have you when you would go out to other countries how did you see the difference there go ahead you first go ahead i’m sorry i was just saying you know i’m just gonna say this is all inside of america but kurt lee uh who we know our buddy grew up in canada and he says it was different there america has got its problem you know we’re so

31:04

far behind you remember [Music] go ahead do you remember all the stories that you used to hear from all of the uh famous jazz musicians and black entertainers they always said they would love to go to europe and canada because they got treated as equals a lot of them moved over there um as a matter of fact part of history that i learned the second world war i forget the town they were in but they were treating the black soldiers as equals and the black soldiers appreciated it with the fra lines but

31:46

the white soldiers didn’t appreciate it and they go now this isn’t their country but they go in somebody else’s country and tell the bar keepers and the store keepers not to serve us not to serve blacks and so the people said no and they put up extra signs saying blacks are welcome here do you know that history showed that those white guys the uh military went and got the military police and guns and they had a civil war in that country against the black soldiers they went to shoot and kill black soldiers

Maui Neutral Zone scenic view with salt ponds and mountain backdrop.

32:28

in someone else’s country because they were dancing with white women or drinking or eating or having fun and so i know you personally so after we get off this show in the next couple days i’ma look that article up and send it to you this is part of the history that i’ve learned in the last four months but it’s like wow man it’s like that’s why we’re not gonna stop i mean a lot of people say can’t you guys just be satisfied we can be satisfied if you can just be satisfied

33:00

but you’re never satisfied you gotta always try to hold us back and whenever you don’t hold us back we excel we excel in whatever it is so uh we excel just like you excel just like they excel just like anybody can excel we’re not inferior people human knee so you know we just keep we just loving and living you but you are really um i haven’t been around you all these years and been you are just a great guy and i’m so happy you put it out so matter-of-factly i hope the people

33:42

not only on maui and in hawaii but in the world see the beautiful guy that you are loving guy you know i don’t know music i want to i don’t want to not talk about other passions but this thing really just sort of is this giant cloud i hope it moves in here in 56 days how many days till the election uh you know and you know what i’m trying to i’m trying to i’m trying to change the way i think about it because i’m about i’m not the type of person that gets bored much but after i was uh unemployed you know

34:20

laid off for about two months i started getting bored and i’m like where’s this coming from and i’m like where is this coming from well i haven’t been creating no singing no you know worship no band rehearsal no that’s all creating so when you’re an artist a musician a painter a creator you need to create to keep your flow going so that’s why i started doing a couple of facebook live shows so that i could still be able to offer my gift and give and get into what is my pattern

34:59

and so now i’m thinking how do i deal with this trump situation racial situation okay i’m still working on it but i’m gonna have to turn it from a negative into a positive some kind of way i’m gonna have to get it into a nuclear some kind of spiritual reactor and convert that energy so that i can use it for the positive and because it’s a lot of energy it’s a lot of energy out there and i just i just i just want to keep planting seeds i don’t you know like they say be a good farmer don’t

35:36

watch your crop just keep planting seeds bro just keep planting seeds someone’s knocking at my door believe it or not i hope they just did okay well um open the door and let them in i know what that is you know you stay right there i’m gonna go get it and come back somebody’s knocking at the door somebody’s ringing my bell somebody’s knocking at the door somebody here might look at him do me a favor it’s my lunch let it in there’s a program that the county here is trying to

Group of yellow and red kayaks on grass in Maui Neutral Zone.

36:20

the feds give money and the kids are figuring how can we use this money to somehow help our community so they’re paying so many dollars to a couple of restaurants that prepare these meals it’s almost a little scary but they have different vouchers and things around but good good deals to businesses who then have a little money it’s going to be quite challenging to imagine how some of these businesses are going to come back from such a long time of being on it’s like every you could

36:56

either say every week there’s a couple more going down every month for sure there’s a few going down the longer we wait the more it hurts the more businesses won’t be able to make it the longer we wait and so i’m just hoping and believing that the waiting will be over soon that we can really get on top of this and and and get us going because it’s causing so much uh internal turmoil that it’s become political and it’s like this is a disease disease doesn’t is not how you gonna politicize a

37:35

disease come on let’s just get the disease gone it does it has no respecter of person young old black white anybody it’ll take you out but somehow it’s become you know us against them kind of disease and um some people have isn’t it so polarized politically it’s just ridiculous it’s ridiculous well that’s why we’re here we’re here to point at it and say come on people smile on your brother everybody get together try to love one another right now that’s right it’s it’s fear

38:15

false evidence appearing real and they’re being pumped right now by a fear-monger and this fear-monger is telling them they’re coming to take your house they’re going to come and steal all your stuff they’re going to come and loot you uh the police it will take the police a week to get to you pushing nothing but fear and they’re gobbling it up like jim jones gave out kool-aid in guyana they’re just serping it up give me a double give me a triple of fear let me bask in it

38:50

no bro it’s not gonna and it’s false and it’s never gonna last that’s one thing about fear you always find out whatever you were afraid of you were you shouldn’t have been afraid of it or you’ve grown over it that’s what a fear is we grow over it we grow out of it as a child we have a lot of fears darkness people we don’t know animals dogs but as we get older we lose those fears until somebody starts stoking them and then all of a sudden you see all of these roaches and insects crawling out of the

39:26

cracks and crevices with confederate flags don’t let me go there though well i am afraid that we are running out of time on our show beautiful but uh cracks and you know we’re gonna let everybody know that um we’re gonna do it i’m gonna be making a pivot soon because you know as maui arts and music i’ve been focusing on environment and social things i’m making the pivot toward music so we’re going to be doing something here very soon i hope you realize that and um we

Scenic view of Maui's coastline with stacked rocks and ocean backdrop.

40:05

are going to be the the what do we say the musicians and the artists can be the opinion leaders to the world and be able to help put our arms around loving goodness cooperation and uh right we’re the ones i would like to right now encourage all musicians to get on facebook live or to get on your website and start doing some free concerts now if you want to ask some people for money through paypal or whatever do that but start giving away some of your gifts it’s more blessed to give than receive

40:40

and when you start giving it’s going to start coming back to you okay so give the first one away free and then charge or don’t charge or charge whatever but get your gift absolutely and uh it’s going to bring up everyone’s attitude and i have all kinds of ideas we’ll talk about online in a new way because we’re the maui arts and music association where art and music to educate people in the world and show it where we live as an example to the world what better thing for us to be doing

41:15

together that’s give right and praise god you’re sure that not only can it be done it is being it is being done give thanks in praise namaste my brother bless thanks to you my friend i um the next time until the next time and all you out here have been watching i know we’ve been a little informal in this show been just perfect for me how about you omar good i’m good with it anything otherwise you want to let our audience know before we sign away yes i do i just like to say in all of this that’s going on

41:57

close your eyes when you get a chance sitting on the side close your eyes take a couple of deep breaths sit in the stillness and realize that you’re all right and you’re gonna be all right give thanks and praise namaste namaste well thank you guys for joining us thank you omar for being with us here today it’s been a pleasure we will see you soon all right my friend you

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