Traditionally, Black History Month has celebrated the achievements of African- Americans throughout American history. Paul Brown, entrepreneur, storyteller, and barber, thinks there’s more to tell. Paul’s our guest, this time on the Behavioral Corner.

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About It's Always Personal In Philadelphia

Steve Martorano 
The Behavioral Corner is produced in partnership with Retreat Behavioral Health -- where healing happens.

The Behavioral Corner
Hi, and welcome. I'm Steve Martorano, and this is the Behavioral Corner; you're invited to hang with us as we've discussed the ways we live today, the choices we make, the things we do, and how they affect our health and wellbeing. So you're on the Corner, the Behavioral Corner. Please hang around a while.

Steve Martorano 
Hi, everybody. Welcome to the Behavioral Corner. It's me again. I imagine this, I get to hang around and wait for interesting people to show up. So that we can talk about, you know, what interests us, which is everything, because everything affects our behavioral health. So we hope you're finding us. If you are, let us know, and hit that subscription button. We love hearing from you as well to the Behavioral Corner. So made possible by our underwriting partners, Retreat Behavioral Health, about which you'll hear a little bit later. We're rolling into February 2023. And as we have in the past, we pause to note Black History Month. We like to think that we present this show throughout the year with plenty of emphasis towards people of color and their unique situations regarding their behavioral health. Because not all people have the same kinds of problems. But you know, it's February, and we note this...this very significant now more than ever, a moment of reflection, and that is Black History month since, I guess, the Gerald Ford administration, it has been sort of federally acknowledged as a historical month devoted to the achievements and roles played by African Americans in our history. That's changing a little bit as well. We wanted a little what the people are thinking about when it comes to Black History Month. And so we reached out to a great friend of the program, Paul Brown is with us in the past. I'll try to do his resume some justice here. He's an artist. He's a podcaster. He's an entrepreneur. He's a mentor to many young people in his community. He's also a barber. And it's one of the great barber shops you're ever going to see it is situated really at a credibly important place when it comes to African American history. And that's the Germantown division of the section of the city of Philadelphia. And we'll tell you about Germantown's role in black history, which is monumental. Paul, thanks for...thanks for coming on...on Black History Month. Great. See you again, buddy.

Paul Brown 
Definitely, but Steve is great being on here, especially with a great mentor like yourself. And I'm always known for these amazing conversations.

Steve Martorano 
Well, I told you when I talked to the telephone, you know that when we do stuff like this, you know, we've gone to historians and academics, and they always shed a lot of light on history. I love history always...always loved history growing up. I don't think he can understand what's going on today unless you have some knowledge of what went on in the past. And so I've always gravitated towards it. Black history is no exception here. And because it's I have a yawning gap in my knowledge of black history, I really enjoy this month in this holiday. So I thought, let's talk to Paul. Paul's wired into this. And as I said, he has a barbershop. Barbershops have a unique place in the African American community. And Paul's place is unique all by itself. So Paul, what does it mean to you? What does this holiday mean to you, a young African American?

Paul Brown 
I feel like black history month, it makes me feel like a very again, in the sense that Black History Month. It's just American history. And it should be taught along with history, right? As opposed to being separated in the shortest month of the year. And for the most part, Black History Month has been extremely whitewashed to a point where we only get nuggets of information that don't really tell the true story of what my ancestors did in his nation to make it stand up to its original values. I mean, we're still doing it.

Steve Martorano 
You know, "whitewash" is not only a figurative expression but in this case, probably a literal one. And there are times when I look at Black History Month, and I think, "Well, it's great for Netflix because they'll highlight films with African American actors in it, you know, and that's good for them, I guess." And sometimes I think that this holiday wasn't originally intended but has morphed into a kind of way to assuage white guilt. "Well, we got a month, let's all pay attention to African Americans." Do you feel that it's, it's sort of drifted into that area?

Paul Brown 
Yeah, I feel like it has because...because the information is cherry-picked for a month. And again, it's not taught to its fullest extent. And it doesn't really tell the story of their fellow citizens and eliminates a lot of information from our original story.

Steve Martorano 
I know I was struck by reading about its history of it. It's I mean, by the way, there's nothing new about this effort. It's been going on since like, 1915, they've tried to get there was a black Negro History Week, out of which came the month. So it's been a long, long effort. But I've always felt I've always wondered what the African Americans take on the central notion of history, black history, which was to highlight the achievement of African Americans and not look at the struggle. Because, you know, we know how it works. Everybody points to Oprah. Everybody points to, you know, Jay Z and they did it in the United States of America, no doubt about it. But this month, this Black History Month is kind of unique, in that every Black History Month has a theme. And as you know, this black history month, the theme is resistance, the effort to resist the hardship of being of color in America. Don't you think that...is that the pivot that should have happened a long time ago?

Paul Brown 
To resist the struggle of being African American,

Steve Martorano  
No, to resist...the resistance, let me see, I gotta get the exact phrase. Black History Month's theme is black resistance. In other words, you know, the struggle to achieve, instead of just focusing on the achievements.

Paul Brown 
I've just finished reading the 1619 Project. Right. And in that book, is a really detailed history of all the many achievements that took place in the African American community. And I never even knew that public schools started because of my ancestors. Once they became free and got into politics, their main goal was to educate black citizens. And then while doing so, they basically said social programs, one of them being public schools, and that's why we have them. So not only did reading that book showed me that a lot of the social programs that we have are because of my ancestors, but the fact that we still have them is a testament to their greatness. And to have to struggle and understand what you need, as far as education, just so you can basically, free your mind also mean ultimately means freeing your body. That's an accomplishment that I think isn't told widely. So I guess, resistance. I'm not sure about relief -- I don't wholly understand that aspect of it, but for me, I would want this thing to be just to educate.

Steve Martorano 
Yep. I mean, I get it. It's so one of the reasons we like here. I mean, yes, there are, you know, it's easy to point to the obvious categories of achievement, as limited as they are. So obviously, it's sort of ridiculous to talk about them, and they are the arts and athletics. But you rarely find out about the achievements of people of color, historically, in the business world, and in medicine, or the sciences. I mean, and that's...that's what Black History Month is, for all by itself, that it's terrific. Tell me about the 1619 Project, because it's interesting that you mentioned that. It was...it was presented by the New York Times and a bunch of historians, they pulled together it was a monumental job of scholarship, I thought journalism, and then it was greeted with a lot of controversies. You...you learned things from it that you didn't know and you think that was what most African Americans got out of it?

Paul Brown 
Yeah, well, in people even outside of the African American community -- this is just a wealth of information they never knew. And to learn more in detail about Frederick Douglass and his role. And basically getting Buffalo Soldiers. Convincing Abraham Lincoln to assign a black regiment to help with the Civil War was a big deal. And to learn that...that nothing was given to black people had to fight for every inkling of freedom that they ever had to ever achieve. And to see where we are at this very moment, we're still fighting for it. And just...just pages upon pages of detail related to history, in a black community was just...just mentally rewarding. And I just really wish that more people knew about that history.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, I waited for my way through it as well. It's, it's an, as I said, it's a monumental achievement. It is greeted by a lot of controversies, which shouldn't surprise us. At this moment in time, black history of Black History Month is more important than ever, in my view, because once again, or perhaps it's just a continuation of a process. There are folks who would like us not to pay much attention to African American history. How do you feel I'm talking about specifically politicians that run trying to stop black history studies? It's African American studies in schools. Incredible, that that effort is ongoing. And it's been going on for a very long time. How do you view that?

Paul Brown 
Well, it's interesting. I remember being in the fourth grade. We were it was around Thanksgiving and my teacher, Mrs. Mizinger, had her blackboard filled with what was taking place during that time. And, of course, she goes through the pilgrims, and she goes through the relationship with the natives. And then she fast forwards to basically to the slaves being slaves, then they were free. And it was basically, black people were basically two sentences on her blackboard. So I remember raising my hand was I asked, like, "How can we guarantee things anything about black people other than the fact that we were just slaves?" And she cut her eyes at me. And she said, "Where would you be if it wasn't for slaves?" So, now, I'm still remembering that.

Steve Martorano 
That's an amazing comment.

Paul Brown 
It's n amazing comment, right?

Steve Martorano 
In other words, in her view, you and your ancestors don't get to benefit from having been brought over here...

Paul Brown 
She basically, from my interpretation of it that slavery civilized blacks in America, was basically her interpretation. Right? So that's what I gathered from it. And now, as a 40-year-old man reading and also teaching my children. There's a great book called The Dead by Randall Robinson. And he basically goes to Africa. He's a Harvard graduate who has a just verifiable history of what black people were doing in Africa prior to slavery. And knowing that blacks were being stolen from Africa since the 1300s. By the 1700s, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach and Carl Linnaeus's call came up with the cause of white supremacy. Black people, so many blacks were stolen from Africa that it was literally unsustainable, but prior to that, they built the pyramids, then you if you go to Kemet, which is modern-day Sudan there are about 20 different pyramids and then you see various different black empires who were also goldsmith's, and you start to learn who your people are, before slavery, and then you learn about slavery. There were never people just taking you there were people always fighting. They were always fighting for their freedom. And then not only did they achieve their freedom by actually fighting in a civil war, but then pushing this nation to actually be more humane to everyone.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, that's a deep insight. And I think if there's a criticism of any...anything that's going on, with regard to raising awareness of black history, it's that it almost begins from the premise that it's a given. They were slaves. And now we're going to correct the record and let you know what happened now. I mean, it wasn't a given it wasn't, it was wrong from the jump. It didn't become wrong when the Declaration of Independence was written. For the first time said, "All men are created equal." People had said before that this was wrong. So there's a given sense of, "Well, all right, they're slaves," like your teacher. Well, here were slaves. What would you expect? I don't think they expected to be slaves. Paul Brown is our guest. In addition to many things he does, as I said, his business is in Germantown. Germantown if for those who don't know, is in the northwest corner of the city of Philadelphia. Philadelphia, I don't have to tell you, is not only the birthplace, of this democracy but was once the capital, and it is also now home to the best football team on the planet. But that's another story. Germantown, as I said, sits in the northwest corner of the city and is ground zero for the anti-slavery movement that exists in this country and now the world. How did you wind up in Germantown? Is that where you wanted to be? Or how'd you got there?

Paul Brown 
Yeah, I was born in Hunting Park. My mother, later on, moved to Logan. And then we moved to the suburbs, which is Elkins Park -- Glenside, then we had to move back to the city when we ended up in Germantown, or Mt. Airy, we're really kind of regular border. So we ended up writing in Mt. Airy. And for the most part, the majority of my childhood was spent in Mt. Airy. And so that's basically how we got here. But you know, my first job ever was in Chestnut Hill. I would walk to work down there every day, just like...just to stay in shape as a kid, so that's where it started, you know?

Steve Martorano 
Do you have young children? Are did they gain from the experience of West Mt. Airy, and the Germantown area, as I said, is multiracial, has been like that for years. They have deep, deep roots in American history and black history, an extraordinary place to raise children. The Quaker experience here is what's remarkable. I know you're aware of this, but I'll just mention it. The first document ever written in this country stating that slavery was wrong was in 1680, something like four Quakers who just woke up one day and said, "This is wrong." And then that got erased. This idea of erasure is scary, and it's going on right now. How important do you think it is to make sure that this continues?

Paul Brown 
It's imperative that you know my children had the benefit of not only experiencing Mt. Airy, but they go to Canada every summer. So in Toronto, their experience the most multicultural city in the world, so they get exposed to various different cultures. And it's interesting. I remember telling my daughters about how horrible it is that our ancestors and well, the young people are robbed of the memory of themselves in the sense that I remember in Canada had a, you know, everyone asks you, "Where are you from?" And I'll always say, "I'm from America." And they would keep asking me to drill down, but we're from them. Right, right. And I will keep telling them I'm from America. So remember, Canada's most culture in the world. So everyone usually identifies with the country that has a culture, they have a culture associated with it. Like if you're Filipino, is food associated with them that's your culture? So I had to explain to them that I was basically robbed of knowing what country we come from, from Africa, because my ancestors were kidnapped and made to be slaves. And people hear him saying, that is absolutely horrible. It is horrible that you don't know what country you come from. That's, that should be a crime against humanity. So hearing that is for me, I make it my job to teach my children black history, detail black history, year-round.

Steve Martorano 
When you say "detail, black history," what do you mean by that detail?

Paul Brown 
When that pick-up book is a book that tells the story, again, where we were before slavery, so might so I suppose you can understand why blacks are still resilient. Right? And actually for them to understand what had to take for Africans to be taken from the Middle Passage. I mean, taken from Africa, and surviving the Middle Passage to get here, and that to go through all that trauma for me to actually be here and this nation right now. That's a testament to how strong, my ancestors were and so I basically go through I will various books, and try to give them as much detail as I possibly can to make sure that I'm honoring the shoulders that I'm standing on.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah. I thought you said this a couple of times now, and I think I understand you. And I absolutely agree that with regard to Black History Month, or any effort to look at the history of people of color, it is not enough just to point out the successes and the achievements in the debate. You've got to look at before that because, as I said, the sense that it was a given that people should be enslaved. I guess it makes for an interesting, better story, right? Oh, look, well, we couldn't help they were going to be slaves no matter what, but look how far they've come under our system. That's what's wrong with this, right? That's what's missing from that story before.

Paul Brown 
Right. Right. And, when you know about the story before, then it gives you a whole different sense of identity. And it gives you a whole different sense of self and a whole different sense of resilience.

Steve Martorano 
You're right. You're absolutely right, it eliminates this notion that there was an inevitability to slavery.

Paul Brown 
We can always because gonna be people who will say, well, Romans had slaves or slaves always there on every side, why would slavery or blacks be any different? And when is that there's a great book called The History of White People by Nell Painter so that people understand that Europeans for a long period of time were slaves. But it wasn't the same type of slavery that blacks were subjected to, and they didn't basically try to brainwash you of knowing where you came from. There wasn't an aspect of that to make you so human. That wasn't there. You lost the war; therefore, you were acquired to help build this new society. Now, when Johann Friedrich Blumenbach and Carl Linnaeus came up with white supremacy. And these guys, literally, their education systems were horrible. All they did was basically said well, we don't find black people attractive. Therefore, they are not human. And this is the first day Carl Linnaeus classified everything, right? So it was classifying humans. And this notion comes from so because he viewed Caucasians to be more beautiful in any society. Therefore, they can't be slaves. And it is like. Literally, his assessment wasn't based on any scientific evidence at all. And then, you know, you're here we are.

Steve Martorano 
The more you bore down and get past, the more I hate to say that Frederick Douglass is a towering figure in the history of the country and people of color but to sort of centralize it all on his achievement. And what he did is to miss your point, that, well, how did this happen? How was it so easily accomplished that people should be thought of as subhuman and doing what's natural? They're supposed to be slaves. And I knew if I talk about like, you're not a fella, like you, I knew if I talk to you, we get right to this because as a white guy, I mean, I really don't have the position to point out, you know, I think a lot of this is bullshit here. We're not really talking about what's going on. So I'm so glad to have you. Have you discussed this? Yeah, they pivoted, and they went, look, we got to justify this somehow. So let's point out everybody and teach for centuries, that they're inferior. They're not the same as us. And they got away with that for a long time. He got away with that for far too long. If he doesn't, let me share something with you. I just thought I was looking at a French film last night. I'm a big fan of those new wave movies and Jean-Luc Godard and all of that new wave stuff. I know you're familiar with this stuff. Do you know what a "Shirley card" is?

Paul Brown 
No.

Steve Martorano 
I'll tell you what the "Shirley" card is because I didn't either. Godard when he...he did most of his work in black and white. When Kodak came out with a new color film, and he examined it, he denounced it in his racism. Film. And he did so because "Shirley cards" are color cards that somebody like Kodak or anybody else who manufactures cameras or they uses to scale colors. In other words, this is the proper color for this situation. And there was nothing for people of color on the scale. It was weight oriented. And Godard was among the first people to go. We can't photograph people based on this color scheme. It eliminates people of color. And I thought, "That's how deeply it went, that they thought light skin was the natural color, and no other skin color needed to be considered when they manufactured this film." so if Black History Month can teach us that stuff, I think it'll do a real benefit. Paul, are you at all I know, I know half of the answer to this. I mean, it's Black History Month, and we're going to go into the Super Bowl as trivial as football may seem in this context, it is the Super Bowl, and we will have two quarterbacks, two people of color playing quarterback against each other in the Super Bowl. First time ever, for that game in that position. Should African Americans take pride in it? Or is that just show business?

Paul Brown 
I think African Americans should look at the lack of opportunity that African American quarterbacks were given. And look at how black quarterbacks definitely changed the game of football and a sense that now, if you don't have quarterbacks who are dynamic, like Patrick Mahomes or Jalen Hurts or Lamar Jackson. Michael Vick. You can go. You probably won't really win that many games anymore. I mean, and you could put Burnell in the same class because he's a running quarterback and when you look at football for a long time, there was a lot of racism associated with it, where they thought that blacks didn't even have the intelligence to play the quarterback position. Not only can they play the quarterback position, but they also go above and beyond the call of duty when given the opportunity.

Steve Martorano 
I've had a theory about this that goes along those lines, but obviously, that used to be able to hear it. "Well, they're not suited for the position." You tell me what you think of this. Look, historically, and quarterbacks didn't have to be athletes. They didn't have to be athletes. They just had to be able to throw the football at all they had to do. Okay? So why would you waste the physician on an African American who was always a way a better athlete? You couldn't have your best athlete playing in a position where you didn't need to be athletic. So you've made up some phony baloney story, but he's not smart enough to do it. I wanted to play, you know, over here. But you know, then after a while, it became apparent that you couldn't afford to do that anymore. That first of all, you know, the guy he just mentioned, they are the best athletes on the team. I'll never forget how phony baloney that intelligence thing was. Terry Bradshaw used to hear that all the time. He can't spell "cat." He may be able to sling the ball and call him a dumb white hick. And he said, "How smart you got to be to play football." And I thought, yeah, that's good. That's great. Well, I hear you have about it. See, this is what they'll tell us. That's a storyline now for African American quarterbacks for the first time. And we're automatically supposed to forget that 100 years when they couldn't get a shot.

Paul Brown 
Right? Or you got or look outside of sports, the same that same theme can be seen in every American corporate structure. It can be seen in most businesses, and you know, and shit we can see the police and how they, how they treat black folks in general. Like he's just, you know, that's always gonna be there is a there's a lack of opportunity, left and right. And it's because we don't have the ability to assimilate.

Steve Martorano 
The ability or the opportunity?

Paul Brown 
Well, the ability I can't really like, you know, suppose my skin color prevents me from assimilating appear like I'm gonna be black and for am I'm anything else in any way. Right? And for that reason alone, you are going to have to be excellent to get the opportunity. Excellent. And to maintain opportunity, you're going to have to be excellent. And so when we see like, like how you mentioned earlier, the Black History Month, you'll they'll highlight certain achievements. Well, Oprah did it. How come the rest of them can't do it? Well, Jay Z did it. How come the rest of them can't do it? You cuz, just like, if you go throughout history, the rest of them have been subjected to systematic, concentrated poverty that continues and now, even more so than when Frederick Douglass had to educate himself to free himself, you have literally people like the DeSantis literally throwing everything, including the kitchen sink and attacking the education system.

Steve Martorano 
Paul Brown, thanks for joining us. You know, tell me if I'm wrong in this, I hear you saying that Black History Month will have achieved its goal when it no longer is a separate month. It's just part of American history.

Paul Brown 
Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. And unfortunately, African Americans have been robbed of the opportunity to really tell their story. Like when we learn about the Holocaust year round. If you go to History Channel, you learn about the Holocaust. And that story is told, and you and it needs to be told so that we understand why we sacrificed so much to liberate people from tyranny and oppression. But they take out of that story the same like the same people from America who were already being oppressed went to fight it and liberate people who were being oppressed. Right, that story is never told and eliminated. So we won't even get to tell how much African Americans really did not only what really did too, again, make America stand true to its original set of values, all men are created equal, but also liberate folks who are in our community and then try to liberate ourselves while fighting for others. We don't get the opportunity to tell that story around.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, Black History Month notwithstanding. Paul Brown, I'm telling you if you guys are in the Germantown area, first of all, it's hard to get an appointment at Paul's shop. Because I do believe that you've got to be at least well-read before Paul cut your hair. Thanks, buddy. It's always a pleasure. Enjoy the football game. We're both Eagle fans unabashed. And I'm a big fan of his podcast, which is called, It's Always Positive...is that it Positive in Philadelphia?

Paul Brown 
It's Always Personal in Philadelphia.

Steve Martorano 
Personal. Personal. I was a guest on the show. It's lively. It'll plug you into a community that maybe you don't know enough about. Really well done. Congratulations on that. Thanks the open invitation to join us on the Behavioral Corner.

Paul Brown 
Hey, Steve, for sure. And also, before we get off, one thing for sure I was reading to my daughter's today. We were reading about what took place before slavery, all the amazing accomplishments that blacks were achieving, and a prime example. My wife is an eye doctor. When I think of the debt, and I read the book, I learned that in Timbuktu, Africans were already doing cataract surgery and the 1300s. Alright, cool. So then we learn about Portuguese. First, we actually started stealing blacks, but the only ones who knew how to build civilization. So instead of going to school to learn, starts dealing with people. Cool. So we get to that point. And we start learning more detail about the slave trade. And my daughter, Alicia, says I said, "What is your takeaway from us read to you." She says, "I hate white people." So I said, "That's not why I'm reading you this. And we don't hate anyone. We don't hate white people. That's not the reason for this story. Because there weren't a lot of white allies, and still continue to be a lot of white allies out there who continually try to push for equality for all this story. What I'm teaching you here is for you to understand why your community looks the way it does and why you're so resilient because we're still here." And I think is really important for your audience to understand that African Americans trying to love themselves does not mean that they hate you. They're just really trying to educate and learn more about themselves who are wrapped up to him to do so.

Steve Martorano 
Well, put, my friend, well put. Thanks for joining us. Black History Month. Read up on it. If you're from the Philadelphia area, and you don't know the history of this area with regard to anti-slavery alone. Oh, no. It's a fascinating, fascinating story. Paul Brown. Thank you, buddy. Check out his podcast. It's really good. We will have a link to it on our site. And don't forget to like us, and follow us. Subscribe to The Behavioral Corner.

Paul Brown 
Go Birds!

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Steve Martorano 
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