Dr. Alex Gee

Pastor Alex Gee's personal website: articles, audio, podcast and videos, Madison Wisconsin

Embodying Black Greatness: Joseph Rogers on Re-Enacting His Ancestor’s Fight For Freedom

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To listen on iTunes, click here. To view on Youtube, click here.

Dr. Alex Gee talks to Joseph Rogers about his experience of bringing his ancestors and historical figures to life. Rogers does living historical interpretation work by acting as slaves at public and private historical sites around the country. Recently, he took part in a federal 1619 commemorative event at Fort Monroe. 

He is also the new Education Programs Manager for the American Civil War Museum.

To see the NBC News article referenced in the interview, click here.

To learn more about James Apostle Fields, click here.

Joseph also recommends looking at the Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project website which seeks to “reclaim “Gabriel’s Rebellion” and Richmond’s African Burial Ground, the Sacred Ground Project seeks to expand and promote community access to and understanding of its public history resources: http://www.sacredgroundproject.net/

And the Defenders for Freedom, Justice and Equality’s Facebook and main pages: https://www.facebook.com/defendersfje; https://defendersfje.blogspot.com/

Do Black Wisconsinites Control The Fate Of Humanity In The 2020 Election?: Interview With Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler

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To listen on iTunes, click here. To view on Youtube, click here.

Dr. Alex Gee interviews Ben Wikler, Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, about the power of Wisconsin politics for America and the world. The discussion covers the potential of the Black vote, the need for Black wealth, and practical ways to make an impact.

Ben has spent his life fighting for economic, social, and racial justice. In his work, most recently for the progressive group MoveOn.org, Ben has played a leadership role in some of the most critical political fights of recent years. From a young age, Ben has been driven by a passion for change and inspired by Wisconsin’s progressive tradition. Ben worked nationally for climate change, peace, human rights, and many other issues. As MoveOn’s Washington, DC director, Ben worked closely with the Obama White House, served as a surrogate for Bernie Sanders, and helped raise millions of dollars for grassroots organizing to elect Hillary Clinton.

White Savior or White Ally?

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To listen on iTunes, click here. To view on Youtube, click here.

Dr. Alex Gee answers listener questions with podcast producer Tyler Nylen. Their conversation addresses the complex work of racial reconciliation and justice. Keep listening for the most honest discussions of race and the African American experience.

To hear the music piece by Marquis Hunt, click here.

Door Of No Return: The Pan-African Perspective With Dr. Kwasi Obeng

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To listen on iTunes, click here. To view on Youtube, click here.

Dr. Alex Gee continues the conversation connected to the anniversary of the 1619 African slave trade and his trip to Ghana. On this episode, he gets the perspective on the relationship between Africans and African Americans with Dr. Kwasi Obeng. Dr. Obeng grew up in Ghana, studied in England, and now works in the U.S. Currently, Dr. Obeng is the Madison Council Chief of Staff who is responsible for coordinating the execution of strategic initiatives, assisting the program development and policy responsibilities of 20 elected City Council members, and manage the Council office and staff.

The Resilience of Being African & African American: More Ghana Reflections With My Sister Lilada Gee

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To listen on iTunes, click here. To view on Youtube, click here.

Dr. Alex Gee has a boldly honest conversation with his sister Lilada Gee about their experiences in Ghana for the Year of Return trip. Lilada brings a female perspective to their journey to Africa and reflecting on the 400 years since the beginning of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. You won’t hear the authenticity of this kind of discussion anywhere else.

Lilada Gee’s Artwork: society6.com/Lilada

No Stockholm Syndrome Here!

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Don’t Fret My Sons And Daughters 

When You See Troubled Waters 

We’ve Learned To Swim And Those Who Can’t Can Tread

For Fear Alone Disarms Us 

And Water Can Only Harm Us

If Left To Rise Above Our Bowed Down Head ~ Verline Gee (My Mom)

No Stockholm Syndrome Here!

Stockholm syndrome is a condition which causes hostages to develop a psychological alliance with their captors during captivity. (Wikipedia) 

Stolen descendants of Africa remembered who they were.

Some European immigrants would exchange their birthright for whiteness.

Although they weren’t stolen, they allowed their identity to be sold.

For nearly 300+ years descendants of Africa were denied citizenship. (Chattel property can’t be “citizenized”, right?)

When you don’t know your father, you’re a called a bastard, right? But America thought we didn’t know our Mother…but we did! As we were stolen from her, we locked down on her DNA within us and it echoed in our genes and souls for nearly a half-millennia!

They told us…

“You have no Mother. You have no family”

Africa was our mother and we invented foster families!

“Your Mother doesn’t care for you. She didn’t even try to find you!”

That’s a lie! Although Mother’s physical reach and lack of fleets of ships limited her search for us…she wailed so loudly and so deeply and so often…that she kept us in her thoughts and dreams until we could commandeer ships and aircrafts back to her shores…and arms.

It wasn’t enough to own our bodies, our privates, our children and our labor. They wanted us to like it and smile, and dance, and sing and do a little jig. So they created salt and pepper shakers and aprons and picture books and movies that depicted us a smiling, happy, satisfied and useful.

They thought that just because we were chained that we were desperate.

They thought that just because we were limited we weren’t limitless.

They thought that just because we were beaten we were defeated.

And they wanted us to make them think that we thought that they loved us.

Black people are many things, however, we were not some part of some sick Stockholm Syndrome.

…These alliances result from a bond formed between captor and captives during intimate time together, but they are generally considered irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims. (Wikipedia)

Refusing to hate because of what it does to the hater’s own soul should not be confused with loving our captors and excusing their actions. We refused to be eaten alive with hatred the way it had ravaged the souls of white slaveowners. 

We were too good for hate. Love…for ourselves…and our people, kept us alive.

Believing we were happy helped evil slaveowners sleep at night and to take communion on the bloodthirsty altars of their theologically bankrupt churches.

We weren’t friends.

We weren’t family (Well…in some sick circumstances we were.)

We weren’t seen as equals.

We were only tethered by hatred, rape, dominance, manipulation, coercion, violence, fear and free forced labor.

Slaveowners believed that our great-great-grand mothers loved them just because they couldn’t get enough of her dark sumptuous curves. Consequently, he set up distance between his white wife and Black slave, a tension that still presents itself today between Black and white women.

Ha! Our compliance was a means of defiance.

How could we love someone who denied our humanity?

The fact they demeaned and denied our humanity made them unlovable…to us.

And the fact that they treated us inhumanely made them inhumane, and they wanted us to “love” them in order to redeem their wretched souls, which, had become enslaved by the same greed that had enslaved our beautiful Black bodies. 

We knew how to resist slavery of the body. Sadly, ironically, they didn’t know how to resist the slavery of their own souls. We fought in civil war battles and freed ourselves. They fought in wars and took spoils and further enslaved themselves. 

We were never “attached” to those who held us in bondage as the Stockholm Syndrome would suggest.

However, I believe that slaveowners’ infatuation with us, our bodies, our strength, our faith, our beauty, our resilience and our Blackness, was somewhat “Stockholmish” in that our compliance would somehow make them feel somewhat humane.

Hmmmm

Stockholm syndrome is a condition which causes hostages to develop a psychological alliance with their captors during captivity.

Perhaps the smart white people who write up diagnoses like this should consider a friendly corrective amendment such as:

*JamestownStockholm Syndrome is a condition which causes *slave traders, owners and rapistshostages to develop a psychological alliance with their *slavescaptors during captivity.

Hmmmm

My family did not have Stockholm Syndrome, but I am certain that my family’s slave traders and owners suffered from Jamestown Syndrome.

Sorry. I can’t do a jig for you, white people. Mother Africa is calling me to join her on the dance floor.

I am not your savior. I am not your lover. I am not your consoler. But, I can be your brother if you are truly woke enough and willing enough to free yourself. 

Your brutality and limited view of us was not…is not…strong enough to break us. Mother Africa gave us identity and stamped it into our souls…and our skin…and in our resilience!

We loved ourselves too much to love your treatment and assessment of us!

Educate yourselves! Learn real history! This wasn’t love! This wasn’t personal…for you…it was business. And it was survival for us.

Slavery is over. We don’t have to take care of your anymore. Help yourselves…and each other.

There’s no Stockholm Syndrome here! Tether yourselves to something … and someone…else!