WS Chronicle

By Busta Brown

The New Cool Podcast and The New Cool Movement feature a brilliant group of middle and elementary students. According to co-president 7th grader Jeremiah Jett, “We’re changing the image of cool – a cool where character, intellect, and academics come first. We support the protest for equality and also peace in our own communities, all of which are more important than image, money and fame. When you make the world better, all of that other stuff will eventually come. I’m not saying kids shouldn’t have fun, but it’s a time and place for everything. And I believe as black youth, we must begin planning for our future instead of playing with our friends and video games all day. You can always make time for that.”

Jett said the organization is planning events and forums that will bring youth of all groups together. “It’ll be a love meeting. We’re going to talk about how each group feels about what’s going on today and what we can do to change it, so that our future is more equal and fairer for all people. Dr. King said, people fear each other because we don’t know each other. We don’t know each other because we don’t communicate. The New Cool Movement events and forums will encourage other youth to communicate better. We must communicate and protest non-violently, because it’s more effective, and no one gets hurt.” 

The New Cool Podcast does a phenomenal job of giving youth a platform to share their views “… because our voices do matter,” said Co-President Destiny Harris. 

But Harris’s views are a bit different from her co-president Jett. “I agree with Jeremiah. We must learn to communicate better and listen to one other. But you can never ever get rid of racism, because there’s always going to be some people that have negative thoughts. It’s our job to make sure we don’t take that to heart and allow it to affect our self-worth. We can’t make long-term decisions off of short emotions, because the affect can be permanent. So, when someone says something hateful, just keep it moving,” said the straight-A honor roll student. She said protest is very necessary. “Police brutality and racism need to be addressed, but the chaos was over-shadowing the message. I love seeing the positive and peaceful protests, yet I know the pain we’re feeling as black people. We’re supposed to feel safe with the people that are there to protect us, but we fear them instead. And that’s very unfair. The best thing we can do right now is continue to push for change, stay on a good path, and hope for the best,” shared Destiny. 

Jett added, “There are some police that despise what’s going on, so all of them are not bad.”

New Cool Movement member Kandake Boyd shared how police brutality toward black people has turned her once dream of becoming a detective into a nightmare. Her testimony brought tears to my eyes. You could hear the heartbreak in her voice as it trembled. “I always wanted to be a detective, but I told myself that I didn’t want to be like the cops out here today. I don’t want to be a detective anymore, because I would feel like I’m turning on my people. And what I’m seeing in police today, I don’t want to stand by that.” 

She paused for a few seconds to gather her composure and then began to smile. I could tell something beautiful was on her mind. “I still love watching detective TV shows and movies. When I was younger, I would imagine myself solving mysteries, crimes and stuff like that. It was fun!” She became very emotional, “But I don’t want to do that anymore!” 

But it got much better. She began smiling again and held her head up with pride. “Instead, I’m going to use my voice in public and on our podcast. I refuse to stop fighting for change.” 

I shared Kandake’s story with my best friend of over 25 years, Lieutenant Alexander Ricketts of the Greensboro Police Department. “I’d love to meet her. I want to share how important it is for young black men and women to join law enforcement, because that’s where they can make the change needed. We must become a part of the system to make effective and significant changes,” Lt. Ricketts said. 

I can speak to that personally. Chief Thompson and Sheriff Kimbrough are making positive changes in Forsyth County. Chief James and Sheriff Rogers are doing the same in Greensboro. All four are African American, so I look forward to connecting them with Kandake Boyd. 

New Cool new member Roberto Garcia-Aguirre said it breaks his heart that racism is still happening in 2020. “It really does break my heart.” He got very emotional. “This is ridiculous! I understand that police are human like anyone else, and they will have bad days. But they shouldn’t take their anger out on anyone else. They are sworn to protect us, not hurt us. You would think that they would be grateful and happy with the job God trusted them with. They’re saving people’s lives and helping people in need. It’s horrible that we have to deal with this. It’s horrible! It really is,” Roberto said with extreme passion. He continued, “It’s not how I want it to be. It’s not how anyone should want to be!” 

Member Romeo Adom added some hope. “It’s a song that I listen to. It says, we all breathe the same, even though our skin tone might be different. If we look at the personalities and our character, we’ll notice that we’re beautiful when we come together. And we can’t do this alone.” He concluded with, “Humans should be fighting for each other and not against each other.” 

Roberto jumped back in. “I agree, because the color of your skin doesn’t matter to me.” 

Jabien Dockery joined in on the conversation as well. “Violence is not going to get you anywhere. It’s going to create another mess that we don’t need.” 

Logan Eckler said, “We should come together and put an end to all of this drama.” 

Taliya Coffie also commented on watching videos of young children responding to what’s going on in our country.  “It’s been emotional,” she said.

The New Cool Movement co-president closed with some very inspiring words: “Even though we look different, we’re not animals. We’re not dumb. We’re extremely brilliant, creative, productive, and successful people. So, treat us with the respect and equality we deserve. It only takes one person to make the change. That person must go and encourage other groups, and then it’ll spread around. It will take time, but at least we’ll start the motivation of moving forward. I’m very hopeful.”

If you would like New Cool to speak at one of your events, contact them at newcoolradio@gmail.com. Listen to The New Cool podcast on Anchor.com and Spotify.