"Changing the Narrative" podcast aims to amplify voices of Black men
MINNEAPOLIS — Two Black men are on a mission to talk and share their message with people who are not Black.
The new podcast is the collaboration of two members of 100 Black Men, a mentorship non-profit: Karl Benson, a marketing executive, who grew up in a mostly White community in North Dakota, and and Dr. Gabriel Warren, a professor who grew up in a predominantly Black community in Alabama.
"I was around a lot of progressive people doing things but those weren't the things I was seeing celebrated on TV," explained Warren.
Benson said, "For me I didn't have a network of Black men so the only thing that even I saw was what's on TV. Doing this or that or musicians or athletes but you just didn't see regular guys doing great things."
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So, they just launched "Changing the Narrative" to amplify the many voices of Black men.
"Black men that are having good jobs, being there for their families giving back to their kids, giving back to their communities and I wanted to celebrate that," said Warren.
So far, they've talked to the president of a building group, a high school ESL teacher and an executive who runs a grill company.
They are talking with Black men, but they hope another demographic is listening.
"Karl and I were planning this and we were like the target of this podcast is non-Black people because a lot of people in Black community know this stuff. I feel like this opportunity gives people outside of our culture a chance to see what it's like to be a Black man in America," said Warren.
The hope is Minnesotans will be less afraid to talk.
"White folks get a little nervous in general when they talk about race in general and especially White-Black stuff so to me it's all about relationship building. And I think ultimately that's what we hope to do, is I'm a cool guy. Dr. Warren is a cool guy, let's just have a conversation and keep it moving," said Benson.
Changing the Narrative Podcast is available on Youtube, Spotify, Apple Music.