- Noah Anderson joins us this
week from Madison, where we
talked with him earlier.
And Noah, thank you very much
for being here.
- Thank you for having me.
- So as a member of the Black
Student Union, you helped
organize a school walkout
in support of your father
and against a policy
that didn't allow for the
nuance of the circumstance,
that walkout protests drew
some 1500
participants.
How did that experience help
shape who you are today?
- Yeah. You were-- about 1500
people had walked out
on.
My experience in a school was
pretty iffy.
That really showed me that, you
know, I had people that stand
in my line, standing with me
with unity and solidarity.
But it was about, I
believe, 80%, 85%
of the schools that had walked
out that day.
Really what that day and what
that experience taught me
was this is my calling in life.
You know this is what God set me on this
Earth for because
how everything played out.
No way in the world
would that have-- that case
get the amount of attention
that it did.
You know Cher, you know
had reacted to it.
I heard the
queen of England reacted to it.
The whole world reacted to it.
You see what's
going on right now with,
you know, Black Lives Matter.
It's like it's like, I had
a dream, like, you know.
I'm not Martin Luther King but
I had a dream.
I'm a religious person.
And God show me that this is
the final walk to the promised
land for my people.
So that
experience really shaped me.
And God was just showing me
through that little experience
that this is, this
is the beginning of,
you know what's soon to come.
You know, my dad lost his job.
And that's sad.
But without him losing his job,
it would not have
ever brought light to
the MMSD problem
in the school.
So him his losing
his job -- he got his job
back with extra benefits.
So, you know, he was taken
away for a little bit, but
then it was given back to him
pretty much a lot like the
story of Job, if you know
anything about that.
But really, in that experience,
God showed me that this is my
calling.
And that's what he put me on
this Earth to do.
So, yeah, I mean,
I'm really excited for, you
know, what's coming up next.
- What would you want people to
know about the experience of
being a young African-American
male in today's society?
- I want people to know that,
you know, it ain't hard-- I
mean, it ain't easy.
God. But it
is not easy at all, but I
love it. I wouldn't trade it
for the world, you know what I'm saying. So-- but
it's not hard.
I mean, why do I-- I'm sorry.
I'll
apologize.
I'm a little, I'm a little
nervous.
It's very hard.
The experience-- ever
since I was little growing up
in Madison, Wisconsin, it's a
pretty, it's a pretty liberal
town.
But still, remember, it's
a red town.
My first experience with
actual-- with
strong racism
was actually my entire
elementary school bring in.
I was called many names.
I was called "the missing
link".
I was called "ape." I was called
multiple things.
But one time
during Juneteenth, me and my
father had went to Walgreens.
At Walgreens,
we just was trying to get
snacks. You don't know what
Juneteenth is, is black
liberation celebration.
But we went to get snacks.
We had won a couple of prizes
so we gave the prizes
to the lady
at the cash register and
-- just so she didn't think we
stealing anything.
And when we got our snacks,
we brought it back to the cash
register.
She didn't want to give us our
bag back. She had looked
through our bag. She said
there's a lot of expensive
things in here.
I think you stole it.
I don't think that you had it.
And I was about
eight years old and
so I knew
it was wrong but me looking at
my father's response.
My father started tearing up
a little bit
and getting mad because it was
embarrassing to him
for this to happen to him in
front of this child.
And then also seeing me
be there with him.
You know, we gave the-- we gave
the woman a bag. She saw us
walk in with the bag.
Then she called the manager
down.
The manager said she saw us
walk in with the bag.
So we was being watched the
entire time.
So being black,
a black male -- and not just the
black men go through this, but
black women as well.
You know, as matter of fact,
the black woman is the most
oppressed person in America,
most oppressed person in the
world.
But me being a black man-- you
feel like you're always being
watched.
You know, and I did not-- you
know, me seeing my people being
killed on television,
I didn't see how
it traumatized me until
I've been in experience
where I was walking-- it was nightime,
I walking home from
my theater class
and
the cop car stopped somebody
else at a traffic stop.
I had nothing to do with
anything, but I was walking and
just seeing those lights
scared me. Like it legit-- it legit scared me
and
that was my first experience,
like thinking like, oh, my God.
You know, seeing
this stuff on television
is really traumatizing
me as a person.
I didn't realize that until
I just saw the light.
Had nothing to do with me.
But me just seeing the light
and me walking by the cop
cars, you
know, it scare me.
I took my hands out of my
pocket. Had my-- I was
very open so they could see
everything about me.
But you've got to be brave.
I mean, I always say, you know,
it's home of the free.
Not for us, but it's the land
of the brave.
You know what I'm saying?
So we are brave.
- Was this experience that you
just described about
seeing the squad car lights
and putting your hands in your
pockets following
the death of George Floyd
or was that more
of just a description
of every day?
- It was a description of every
day.
It was not-- it was actually--
this last year.
I was I was in a
play and I was I was walking
home from downtown
and it was a stop.
Can't really think of the name
of the street. I can drive.
I know my way around town, but
I don't know the name of the street,
which I got to figure that out
at some point.
But, but
this was, this was before
George Floyd.
And it was, it
wasn't really a name
that was being publicized
at that time either.
And that's one thing that's sad
is that nobody really paid
attention until it's
a-- it's a trending hashtag.
But yeah, there was no trending
hashtag. There was no name
at the time.
But it just traumatizes me
seeing it from a child
to growing up to being
a18-year-old.
Seeing all that, it
it puts fear in your mind.
You know what I'm saying and
like until you are put in that
position, you really don't see
it.
- So all of that said,
what was it like for you to see
the death of George Floyd
and now to see the global
protests over
his killing?
- So I actually, I chose
not to watch that video.
I know about it.
I know about everything.
And just-- when I say, well, I
mean, I couldn't see a man
lose his life
through a 10 minute video.
Really like my mind,
you know, the liberation
of my people, that's been set
in my heart for--
since I say sophomore year.
I wasn't always,
you know,
conscious. Am I black and my
black history and conscience
and who
I was, you know.
But actually, Ahmaud Arbery
is what really struck me,
because the difference between
George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery,
Ahmaud Arbery was killed by a
civilian. George Floyd was
killed by a cop.
And, you know, we all like we
know that
police brutality been going on
far before I was born, far
before any of us was born
that's living today
but
Ahmaud Arbery was killed by a
civilian, later
found out was a active member
of the KKK.
That's what really scared me
because, you know for
them to get away with that
for three months until a video
had came out.
That scares me, and it makes
me think how many-- how many
people that look like me
are dying and
I can't see it.
You know, we can't see just
because there's no media
attention but
I really think you know
this -- I think I really
thing it's God working the fact
that this got so much attention
and we're seeing so much
change. You know, it's not
the big change that we really
want to see but everything
comes with baby steps.
We're going to have streets
named after Black Lives Matter.
That's, that's beautiful.
We got companies,
you know, only like--
I can't think of the name of the
company but it's a makeup
company. I just saw yesterday
but they're opening of 50% of
their business to-- or
50% of their show space to
black-owned beauty
supplies.
And so we're seeing these
things. We're seeing change.
And, you know,
it's all it's all baby steps,
but it's really for sure.
Sure enough, it's
the walk to the Promised Land.
I'm loving that.
- Noah Anderson.
We leave it there We wish you
well in your future endeavors.
Thanks very much.
- Thank you so much
for having me.