We don’t get “well” until everyone has an opportunity to tap into the resources needed to live. This week, Derek reads a 2006 essay from one of his closest friends, Dax-Devlon Ross, about being pulled over twice in the same stretch of NJ highway in a manner of minutes—all due to an air freshener dangling from his rearview mirror.
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Hello, Matthew here from the Conspirituality Podcast Team.
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When I saw that Dante Wright was pulled over for having an air freshener dangling from his rearview mirror, it brought up some pretty powerful memories, ones I've discussed on the podcast before.
But that's what I'm going to focus on for this bonus episode.
And I understand that race relations don't seem to fit into the dynamic of the wellness industry, but as I've argued numerous times, There are many moving pieces of what really defines wellness.
And if the focus is going to be individual wellness, which is so much behind this anti-mask and anti-vax rhetoric about the sovereign immune system, for example, it really misses the point of a holistic wellness.
Which means the collective.
Which means taking care of every member of the society in which you live in.
And I also recognize that America is not a small society.
It is very large, both in terms of landmass and population and diversity.
And of course, we have to remember that America is an experiment.
It was the first time, at least the principles of a place where people from every background and gender can commune together, having equal representation
was made possible and it took a long time from the founding or if you're watching the HBO series which I recommend exterminate all brutes the colonization of this country took many centuries for at least the possibility of a equal playing ground being brought forward
So while I know we talk about wellness influencers often on this, if we don't grapple with the forthcoming effects of climate change, and in a country where there's been 45 mass shootings in the last month,
Much of it around aggression and aggrievement from societal conditions and much of that rooted in race relations.
If we don't face down those issues and actually create legislation to address it, to create better systems, to make resources more accessible to larger populations,
Then all of this wellness downline bullshit that we cover week after week, it really is irrelevant and it really speaks to the privilege that a small minority of people are able to enjoy, often at the expense of the fears and misconceptions and ignorance of others, both in terms of politics and in terms of science.
We featured Dax Devlin Ross on a very early episode, and he has a new book coming out soon, which will probably prompt another interview to sort of catch up in this year since we've last featured him.
But he's one of my closest friends.
In 2005, he got a book deal for a book that he wrote on African Americans who live outside the box.
And so from some of the money from that book deal, we created an independent publishing company and we published about 10 books between the two of us from that.
And the book was called Beat of a Different Drum.
The publishing company was called Outside the Box because it fit the dynamic and it gave us the funds for me to publish my first book on international music called Global B Fusion.
We've lived in parallel and often worlds that cross because of our friendship that has now run many decades.
And the reason that the Dante Wright story hit me particularly hard was because Dax and I collectively, together, experienced something similar that didn't end in tragedy but had to do with a vanilla-rama air freshener.
This was in 2006.
And I'm going to read the essay he wrote.
We published together a collection of essays called A Staircase of Words.
And that was based on a line from Ivan Van Surtema's book that we both read back in the day.
We both studied under Ivan at Rutgers University.
It was called They Came Before Columbus.
And it was about the African influence on Mexico and North America before the colonizers came.
It's an incredible book.
It's been debated, some of the research in it.
Ivan was by far the most powerful professor I studied under and he talked about how language changed throughout time the way that words evolve and that was the staircase of words where language and meaning are always being adapted and suited, suiting different populations.
So I wanted to share this essay at this time Because it's timeless in a sense, and that's unfortunate.
You'll notice how Dax concludes it, and obviously he wrote it, but I'm going to read it.
And he ends with a note of hope.
But here we are 15 years later, and you see that these problems are systemic and multi-generational.
And as Dax now has children, a beautiful little daughter, and another on the way, you know, he's going to have to teach them how to deal with cops.
If you watch Trevor Noah, he did a segment this week on the talk that African American families have to have with their children.
I highly recommend it.
And so I think about Dax needing to have that talk at some point with his children.
And it's inevitable.
Or maybe it isn't.
Maybe we can make some ground.
Maybe we can make a little bit of headway here.
But given that the far-right caucus, including people like Marjorie Taylor Greene, is calling for, literally, putting forward an agenda of white nationalism that was announced this week, it's going to take work.
And again, that's why in a podcast dedicated to conspiracy theories and wellness influencers, I don't want to lose sight of the bigger picture.
And it's why I do some segments sometimes that pull back from that and look at the bigger playing field that we all have to work within.
It's why I published this essay, republished, because the book is no longer in print.
This predates Amazon in print on demand, that we published it and, you know, we were a small independent publisher that only were able to put forward a few hundred copies of everything that we did.
So I wanted to get this out there.
I published it on my Substack on Friday.
And then I wanted to share it here.
And it opens with a quote from Preacher Man.
So Dax also wrote a book with an underground hip-hop artist named Kreacher that we were friends with back in New York.
And Kreacher and Preacher Man, but especially Kreacher, sold thousands of copies of his CD, of his music, his CDs though, on the street, usually in the East Village.
And that's where we both met him.
So Dax ended up publishing a book called The Underground's Manifesto, which was sort of an oral history book.
Dax and I were both influenced by Studs Terkel, if you don't know his work.
He wrote a book called Working, and he's written many books on oral histories.
And this was sort of an oral history of what it's like to be a street artist who made a living And was raising kids off the money that he was hustling.
And Preacher Man was in that crew.
And he had a song called Negroes Stay Crunchy in Milk.
And the quote that Dax opens the essay with is, I think you think that I've lost my mind.
So I'm going to play a sample to lead into the essay, and then I'm going to play the whole song at the end, because it's just a great song.
It's very unique.
And you can find some of Preacher Man's, there's two ends, the end of his name, stuff on Spotify and more on YouTube.
But he's still an independent artist.
We're still independent publishers, although Dax's new book is on a major publishing house, which is great.
But here it is, the 2006 essay, Vanillorama, an outrageous tale of air fresheners, terror, and racial profiling run amok.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
I know I appear to be from a different ilk.
Though many have judged me, Negroes stay crunchy in me.
New York State!
Standing, standing, standing, standing, standing, standing Crying to me Ooh, five eighths of a man You claim I am Still I rise to the top, despite your wicked plans.
See my eyes of the demon, in your warm ass smile.
Twice the man you've ever been, still you treat me like a child.
Still you treat me like a child.
Oh, you know 94%, baby.
I think we're gonna have to bring that back.
One time selector!
Five eighths of a man.
You claim I am.
Still I rise to the top.
Despite your wicked plans, seen the eyes of the demon, in your world that's my I am.
Twice the man you've ever been, still you treat me like a child.
I think you think that I've lost my mind.
Got a lot on my mind.
Dogs are barking, tempers sparking, water crushing my tenterframe.
Nightly riders, coke and spirals.
Half a man did it from behind the mask.
Frontal weakness, shall we speak this?
Insecurity in the things that last.
Though the obstacles are great, they can never set us back.
I think you'd think that I'd lost my mind.
I think you'd think that I'd lost my mind.
I think you'd think I think you think that I've lost my mind.
I think you think that I've lost my mind.
Traveling through the wilderness.
Travel if you dare.
Traveling through the wilderness.
Travel if you dare.
You say you want the truth.
But you live your lies.
You say you want the truth.
But you live your lies.
Negro style, Negro style, Crunchy and male, I say.
I think you think that I've lost my mind.
I think you think That I've lost my mind I think you think That I've lost my mind I think you think That I've lost my mind I think you think That I've lost my mind
