BXN RADIO: S2 EP 04 - Protest 2020
BXN radio talks with Ethelyn Daley about recent episodes of police brutality, the immense social media response, and Ethelyn’s experience and tips for organizing a rally in the Bronx.
BXN radio talks with Ethelyn Daley about recent episodes of police brutality, the immense social media response, and Ethelyn’s experience and tips for organizing a rally in the Bronx.
In the 50’s and 60’s we had segregation, and Jim crow as the preeminent figures so to speak of racism. We had something tangible to focus our energy and efforts towards putting an end to. We could mobilize and target specific locations that openly embodied these ideologies and practices. We were able to aim our acts of civil disobedience at the right places to leave the strongest message.
Today segregation has ended, or at least the blatant signs on the front door. However what fueled these practices has far from been abolished, demolished, or destroyed. So I begin to ask myself, how do you end hate? How do you destroy a feeling? How do you abolish an emotion? An emotion, feeling, thought, solely directed at anyone with a darker hue than those with fair skin and those with anything but historically European features.
The simple answer logically seems to be love right? Both hate and love take the same amount of energy and effort to truly do. And when I say truly do, I mean putting your ALL into these things. Focusing the maximum amount of energy and effort to sustain and maintain these beliefs and practices. Yet I find myself faced with a new question, I don’t know why you hate us, and quite frankly I don’t know why we should love you?
My people and my ancestors have done nothing to you historically, by way of account through your own text books and teachings. None of my people came up to the captains of slave ships looking to hitch a ride here. This has all been by the design of YOUR forefathers, and perpetuated by your Grandfathers. When the Constitution was written we were only considered to be three-fifths of a person, so the term “People” in that same Constitution didn’t, and has rarely, represented us since the dawn of this country.
I say all that to again ask the question, why do you hate us, and why should we love you? And when I say you, you know who you are. This isn’t some written condemnation on white people, this is my written condemnation of racism and senseless hate. You can’t fix what is broken. You can’t replace pieces that you didn’t know were there to begin with. Racism is a broken concept, it can’t be replaced with Love when you don’t know where the hate truly comes from.
I don’t know if you want us to love you, I don’t know if you will ever love us, what I do know is that WE outnumber YOU. Those old systems you built on hate are being broken. Those old motions of violence are being exposed. Those old ways of thinking are being changed and it's time for you to change with it. The world as you once knew it of us standing still and just taking orders is over. You aren't a master anymore.
This country, and more importantly this world, are no longer your plantation that you can beat, sculpt, groom, or cultivate in a way you deem fit. The power is slowly but surely shifting to the people. We are at a tipping point in history, a place we’ve been many times before, and will likely be time and time again. So long as we continue to put pressure on the needle, the needle will shift; slowly but steadily. One day we'll look back and realize the needle is much further than it was when we began pushing, unfortunately that day is not today.
With all the progress we’ve made in science and technology, it’s such a shame we’ve made so little progress in humanity and empathy. How long will we allow classifications to keep us apart?
Javon Chasten is an artist and writer born and raised in the Bronx.
To see more work and get updates follow him on Instagram and Twitter .
What is a protest? According to Google a protest is “a statement or action expressing disapproval of or objection to something”. A protest can be made in so many ways; kneeling, sit ins, bus boycotts, posts and tweets, marching. All powerful statements that send a message or spark a conversation. However what makes a protest, or who rather, are the people!
Red, Black, and Green. Those were the colors chosen by Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr. for the Pan African flag. A flag that has become a common sight in the streets across the United States of America. States that seem far less united recently than the country’s name would suggest. One of Garvey’s plans and dreams was to facilitate African American migration to Liberia. Almost 80 years after his death, and African Americans, and all people of color, are fighting for our liberation here on American soil. Today thousands of modern day freedom fighters and revolutionaries have flocked to the streets of the United States, and streets around the globe, to demand the freedom and right for Black people everywhere to live without the fear that our skin color will make us targets. That it will no longer be open season for us as if we are doe’s and buck’s in a forest.
Signs in the windows of stores, homes, and apartments reading “Black Lives Matter” can be seen all around. Workers standing outside of storefronts cheer on those marching. Tenants hang outside their apartment windows banging pots and pans to show their support of protesters. In the sea of those marching are people of all colors, ages, occupations, and backgrounds. A beautiful sight of togetherness and camaraderie. Good samaritans hand out water, snacks, and food. Everything from peanuts to vegan empanadas were given to protesters who were tired and covered in sweat from the glaring sun above. At one point the heavens seemed to part, granting those marching a refreshing shower for a few moments. Rain would not deter anyone from marching to get their messages across, that the systematic racism of old will no longer be tolerated and blindly accepted.
Thousands of hands raised in solidarity to signify the many Black and brown unarmed men, women, and children who have died in front of the guns of trigger happy police officers. Names like Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling, Breonna Taylor and Philando Castile can be seen written on signs raised all around you. The name of George Floyd is shouted through the streets in unison. His is just one of many names on a sad, yet long, list of people who died at the hands of police brutality. A brutality that is all too common for Black and brown people. Historically police rarely receive any type of real punishment for their acts of violence. It seems like they are held to lower standards than that of the average American citizen.
There is no comprehensive government data on the topic, but most, if not all, independent studies show that Black people are killed at a disproportionately higher rate than that of any other race of people in America. Mappingpoliceviolence.org, which uses data from 3 databases - Killed by Police and Fatal Encounters, and the U.S. Police Shootings Database, says that 99% of police killings from 2013-2019 went without a conviction. The site also states that in 2019 police killed 1,098 people in America. Of those 1,098 people, Black people killed account for 24% of those deaths, despite only being 13% of the American population.
Many of these deaths came from false raced-based 911 calls. An old trend that has gained new attention thanks to the advancement of technology in the form of camera phones. By now I’m sure we’ve all seen at least one video of an outraged white woman threatening to call the police on Black people for seemingly no reason. Some of which are quite hilarious, but its origins are sinister and heinous. The story of Emmett Till comes to mind. A young 14 year old boy who was falsely accused of flirting with or whistling at a white woman in a grocery store. Till was kidnapped, beaten, mutilated, and murdered. His body was thrown in the Tallahatchie River, and left there for three days before it was discovered. Today we’ve seen Black people threatened with calls to the police because they were barbecuing with family in a park, walking into their apartments, or like Ahmaud Arbery, jogging in a neighborhood. Being Black should not be suspicious and make someone a target.
The persistence of the people has begun to pay off though and progress has been made. One of the focuses of the New York marches was to repeal 50-a, which was a state law that did not allow the review of personnel records of police officers, firefighters, and corrections officers. Therefore not allowing police misconduct records to be seen by the public. On June 12th however New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation into law that repealed 50-a, bans police chokeholds, and prohibits false race-based 911 calls.
That has not stopped the call for continued progress and reform. The marches have not, and will not stop there. As long as police brutality goes uncharged and unpunished, the people will not and should not let up. So long as unjust laws remain written, we must fight to rewrite them. Change is the only constant, and the time for change in our system is now!
Javon Chasten is an artist and writer born and raised in the Bronx.
To see more work and get updates follow him on Instagram and Twitter .
An interview with co-founder, Daniel Ahmadizadeh, of the new innovative dating app, ‘Quarantine Together'—which uses current quarantine conditions to its advantage.
Daniel, please introduce yourself to our readers. Including where you are from and your occupation.
Thank you for having me, Brittany. My name is Daniel Ahmadizadeh. I’m a Bronx native and co-founder of Quarantine Together. I live by 231st street currently with my parents during Quarantine season. Growing up, I had a brief time where I went to middle school in Harlem, but I returned to the Bronx for high school and I’ve been here since then. Yeah, that’s kind of my story here as a local. 1 train all the way.
1 train all the way for me too. So, how have you been holding up during this pandemic? What do you find has been the most productive way to spend your free time?
Well, my dad’s a doctor in the Bronx. Immediately, the first concern was his health. For me personally, it’s been about just staying positive and taking this time to be creative. There’s a lot of negativity happening all around us. So it’s like, how can you create something that is positive? Whether that’s conversations you have with other people or projects that you work on. There are a lot of new behaviors that we have been doing since this all started. Six feet apart, face masks. Even though this virus is really negative, there are a lot of positives that can come out of it. When the recession happened 12 years ago, companies like Uber and Venmo were launched during this time. This has been an opportunity to make something good out of the bad.
Positivity is a great tool to deal with this stress. Awesome, thank you for that. So let’s dive in, shall we? What was the source of the inspiration for ‘Quarantine Together’?
Quarantine Together is a project that my friend and I kicked off and started working on for fun on March 8th. That same night, we launched it. It was very easy to get it off the ground. 14 days later, it was on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. We have about 30,000 people all over the world that use it every day. We work on it nights and weekends. It’s been exciting to see how people are looking for human connection.
Wow! QT has really taken off since its inception. How does this app stand out from other dating apps and websites, such as Hinge or Tinder?
Great question. So let’s think of people as “books.” Apps like Tinder and Hinge are first and foremost about your picture, your clever bio, and the ‘cover’. People are getting judged by that ‘cover’. With us, there’s no photos, no judgement. It’s two people, anonymous and having a private text conversation. The ‘content’ of said ‘book - that’s really the primary difference. For a segment of the population, physical appearance is the number one way that they want to connect with someone. And that’s fair. You have different types of bars. You have the Irish pub. You have the bar that plays Spanish music. And that’s what we’re doing here. Just like every bar has its own flavor and vibe, many apps are the same. Tinder is about hookups, Hinder is a little bit more serious, Bumble is women first. For us, it’s about people that don’t want to be judged based off of their appearance. They want to have a genuine conversation first.
As we both know, many dating apps and websites utilize the “swipe-right” technique or personal profile methods to match potential partners or friends together. Others use a ‘face-to-face’ speed dating method. But for ‘Quarantine Together,’ it uses a combination of the two, aiming for a genuine connection free from visual bias. Why did you go with this concept rather than the more common methods I described?
The root of it is we crave authentic human connections. Loneliness is not going away. In fact, it’s always been here before Covid-19. Just like we crave authentic experiences in life in general, we look at the movement of how things are happening. We don’t want fake, we want real. That’s why people buy organic food or look for real raw content. The reality is Tinder makes 2 billion dollars a year on revenue with 60 million users. What about all the people who aren’t on dating apps because of how they work? We focus on the users that never liked traditional dating apps. We think it’s a great opportunity to help those people.
Does this app take into consideration non-binary people or members of the LGBTQ community? How so? (If not, any ideas on how to implement this?)
Absolutely. So when you look at our form to sign up, there’s a section for gender. There are multiple options, not just male or female. There is non-binary and we have a place where you can put it in yourself. Then we match people based off of those preferences. In fact, Buzzfeed did a video about the QT experience. One of the reporters in the video matched with another man and talked about his experience. QT is about no judgement… on all fronts. It comes down to connecting with another human being.
What kind of criteria do you use to connect people?
The way the matching works is by age preference, location, availability (when they send the ‘wash hands text), and gender preference. It can be tailored to preferences in regards to what is craved from this experience. This can all be accessed from your dashboard before you begin matching with other people.
The internet is a tough terrain to navigate for some, especially with internet bullying being a major social issue in today’s society. Have you all created precautions or a code of conduct to combat bullying should this problem arise within the realm of ‘Quarantine Together’?
When we match people, you get matched and introduced to each other. It might say “Daniel, meet Jasmin. You have thirty minutes to chat. Be kind to one another.” Then it says “P.S. If for any reason your match is being disrespectful, just text back ‘End Chat’.” This function immediately ends the chat. Look, when you’re texting your match, they don’t know your phone number and vice versa. It’s all anonymous and it’s a private number. Just like when you text your Uber driver.
So like a secondary number that keeps a level of respect and protection for both people?
Exactly. So let’s say your match is disrespectful or you’re having a bad experience, you text back ‘End Chat’. In fact, we think this will be a meme someday [laughs]. So we want to be proactive about bullying and we thought of this way to help users remain in control. Another thing that we do is that every single chat is rated by both parties. You’re not rating the person, necessarily, but you are helping us understand how your conversation and experience were. But we do ask you if we should keep your match in the QT community? And it allows you to explain. So the feedback really helps us police QT and help users feel comfortable.
Can you tell me a little bit about the process in developing QT with your team? Maybe give us a short rundown on the collaboration it took to create this app?
My friend and I were catching up via email on 3/8. Decided to build something that night and we launched the first prototype the same night. We used no-code tools like Typeform, Webflow, Zapier, and Twilio to make it happen.
Thanks for that, Daniel. So let’s take a step back and talk a bit about you. Are you currently dating? (IF yes, how did you guys meet, dating app?)
Not dating! Single.
What would you say is your most memorable form of connection with another person?
Ones where we have something to bond over. Where there is shared context. Sometimes it can be surprising context.
I understand what you mean. You never know what will spark a connection between you and someone else. Speaking of connections, the ‘Quarantine Together’ website mentions covid resources and donations. Could you explain this aspect and why it was important for you guys to include in this project?
My dad is a ER physician on the front lines and we recognize that many hospitals around the world do not have the resources for protection, so we wanted to link out to organizations that are raising funds for the cause.
What was the most challenging part about creating this app?
The beauty of our app is that it is not even an app. No download required. It's all via SMS. The challenging part for us in creating QT in the early days (10 weeks) was more around messaging and positioning. Setting the vibe and energy of the QT experience.
What’s the most exciting part?
Feedback from users. They share with us magical conversations that took place and how QT helped them feel less lonely.
So once ‘Quarantine Together’ launches, what’s next for the app? Where do you see it going in 6 months, when hopefully, quarantine is officially over?
We'll probably just call ourselves Together or just QT. Loneliness isn't going anywhere.
Okay, to wrap up, I have one question I’m sure our readers have eagerly been waiting for: is this app available on all platforms, Android and iPhone? How do we sign up?
You can sign up on Quarantine Together - no app download required!
These are stressful times, especially for our community.
The constraint of time is what I often hear from people who really want to get started on exercise, but cannot find the time. My name is Jonathan, an online strength and nutritional coach, born and raised in the Bronx. Many of us put ourselves last because of the responsibilities of children, bills, and other pressing problems to manage. Doing too much will overwhelm your wellbeing, as we are already in a stressful state during this pandemic.
Start by understanding that your body's capacity for stress is like a cup and has only so much space for stress.
If you are overly stressed, imagine you pouring too much liquid in a cup, What happens? It overflows! We tend to do this with our bodies. What happens when we are constantly overflowing our bodies with stress?
This Stress Cup worksheet walks you through what your cup might be like.
When our stress cup is overflowing, our health deteriorates and this is when we can fall to illness and disease. You also need to understand that chronic is long term. This means that it is happening consistently for a very long time. The term acute is short term. Many of us are living in a chronically stressed state. This means that we are damaging our bodies every day, but since it is not at the onset of lets say a bruise after a fall, we overlook it.
Here is a list of common stressors that may take up space in your cup.
Lack of sleep
Lack of water
Too many fried foods and sugar
No exercise
Rumination (worrying)
Relationships and personal problems
If you are filling your cup every day with so much stress that it is overflowing, how about we upgrade your cup to make it larger?
Exercise can increase your capacity for stress, which allows you to deal with more stress. If you can manage. Get reacquainted with the floor. Why? Your bones and body need ground contact to stimulate bone resilience and also keep you able to get up and down from the floor.
Here is a way to get started: Pick two exercises. Do them for the time allotted. You can pick a different pair of two everyday for up to 5 days. If not, stick to the first two and get really good at them.
Set a 10 minute timer. Pick 2-3 exercises and do them in a circuit. Complete each exercise for the prescribed repetitions, That is one round. Complete as many rounds as you can within the set time. Break as needed, but push yourself :)
If you follow this for a full month, you will be surprised at how much stronger and conditioned you feel. It takes only a little to get started. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or need some extra assistance. Visit www.trainwithjon.com or email me at jonathan@trainwithjon.com
Here is part two of We're in This Together, which was recorded earlier during the pandemic and may not reflect current news and developments.
BXN Radio discusses relationships with special guests Relationship Insurance. The team reviews cuffing season, how to date with intention and share the biggest gift of self care before all.
Design by Hoay Smith / Show Notes by Sabrina Hall
With COVID-19 bringing everyone to a still, we decided to do a two-part special podcast with the team.
We’ve started a new playlist featuring our homegrown talent.
We’re open to all genres, submit your music to info@bronxnarratives.com to be featured.
At the top of the new year when so many have already abandoned their resolutions, it’s only right that we talk about falling short. Host Kayla Smith and new co-host Brandon Chacon talk with Tessa Smith, lead organizer of TEDxWakefield, about being intentional and self aware during the process of failing forward. And how bringing a TEDx event to the Bronx can create a space for community, collaboration and sharing some of the best ideas coming out of the borough. Listen below and/or on Apple Podcast + Spotify.