David: You know, I grew up in an era where there was no authentic history of African peoples who were enslaved in America. It was like, you know, one paragraph that preceded the Civil War or a paragraph about abolitionists. Nothing about the brutality of slavery, nothing about the economic origins or intents of slavery, nothing about the contributions of African Americans to society. I got a little bit of that from my white mom who made it a point to educate me in Black history, I’m really grateful for that, but you know I really had to supplement that with a lot of reading on my own. And so, I'm wondering about you, when did you first become aware of the hidden history of Black people in America?
Regenail: Through my family. I'm very fortunate that I've never been confused about the challenges when it comes especially to the oldest people on this planet, which are all people, and that's the African. The oldest people on this earth, the Africans, make up every human on this planet. I've never been confused since day one on this earth about that and I tell just like I was always told as a young kid by my grandfather, my father, my uncles, African American males, which many people do not want to hear and definitely do not want to experience the power of black male leadership. Which by the way, when we talk about contributions to the world have probably the most significant contributions in history. So, I've always walked around with a tremendous sense of pride, kind of clarity and understanding why people look at you and treat you in a way when they don't have something that they wish they had, when they don't understand something that they wish they had the capacity to understand. It does not surprise me, and it has never surprised me, to walk around on this earth like a piece of gold. And that's what we tell our children. That brown skin, that beautiful brown skin is the thing that is the foundation of this planet. It's the thing that which humans have been created. And no one on this earth has contributed more than the African. I've never been confused on this earth about the African diaspora. Makes me very proud to share these stories. And it's made it my life experience must, I believe, less of a stressful issue when I can reverse the tables with real knowledge at every level, especially with the educated ignorant.
David: You know, it sounds like you are indeed extremely fortunate to have had parents who were so kind of self-aware and aware of the contributions of Black people to, you know, civilization, to put it. And, of course, my mom did the best that she could. I think my father, though Black, was raised in a household where the knowledge of African American history was pretty scant. So, you know, it's kind of ironic that most of my education, at least the beginning, came from a white mother. But I'm also wondering about the background of your parents. It sounds like they were incredible people to have been able to raise you with that kind of understanding and self-awareness and historical awareness.
Regenail: Yes, absolutely. Every day I think about my dad, my grandfather, and my uncle, because I've never seen better, stronger relationships and I don't think I've ever probably met smarter people. But my father is a Maroon, so I proudly tell people, I am a Marine Maroon. Marine and my father was not formally educated out of a little town called Craig Town out of a little slum outside of Kingston, Jamaica and my mother was African American. And I'm very thankful that my father's roots through Jamaica always made Africa an area of focus, and for our understanding as people through those relationships, and then my own thirst for more knowledge, I spent a lifetime of really thoroughly understanding and studying our African diaspora. How does your faith impact your political views in your daily life?
David: That's a great question. So, you know, I come from a family that did not believe in God. They call themselves atheist or agnostic. I really appreciate the fact that I was raised without a particular religious bias, right? So, I wasn't raised as a Jehovah's Witness or a Mormon or a Pentecostal or a Catholic. I really ironically thank God that I was not indoctrinated with a particular religious beliefs. So that kind of left me free to investigate a variety of religions if I wanted. And I wasn't really motivated to investigate religion until really, I started looking at the politics of this world. And I looked at all of the hypocritical people who were running this world. And then I looked for people who have what I call moral consistency. You know, they said something, they did it. You know, you could I mean, and so, you know, that led me to think of like some of the saints that led me to think of, well, you know, there's this man called Christ who was able to influence millions of people across centuries. There was this guy named Mohammed who had a similar influence and there were people like Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi and other modern-day people who were self-sacrificing for the good of other people and were effective. So that made me think that, well, there is some truth that these great leaders know that I don't know. And so that led me to start investigating a variety of religions, led me to start praying. And then over time, I ran across the Baha'i faith, which has some very advanced social teachings and accept the divine origin. There were divinely inspired leaders for all of the major religions of the world. So, you know, right now I just believe that there's one God that really is the God of all religions, but people understand God differently because any being that could create the entire universe and all of us is so vast that we can't begin to understand or describe this being. And so, I think one of the reasons for religious differences is that people think that they can define something that is indefinable or undefinable. But yeah, so I'm guided by the belief that there's one God, that people are one human family, and that we're created to serve each other. And so, politics is at best. irrelevant and at worst destructive. And I'm leaning towards destructive. And I think my spiritual beliefs lead me to think that there are other solutions than these political solutions that they involve working with other people towards common goals. And as far as my daily life goes, you know, I get out of bed in the morning, and I try to figure out what do I have to do to be a better person than I was yesterday? What do I have to do to in some small way affect the world positively.
Regenail: Thank you, David, for that. My spiritual beliefs, my mother will read the Bible. She's a Bible thumper my whole life. So, we've had great conversations. My father has been in the church as a choir organizer and conductor, but he has a very, very different perspective on religion. Who believes more in religion like I do? God is with them. And I think when it comes to spirituality, people need to stay out of that lane. That's a personal, individual relationship with whatever spirit, whatever idea a person has. I think people need to keep their religion to themselves or find tribes that think like they do and kind of leave it at that. Because again, for me, I mentioned my African diaspora. I can't even get into how people use religion now. We go much further than that. We're not looking at individuals' bodies. We're looking at humanity through individuals and what that expresses itself as. So, I wish they would keep as much as possible, right? Their politic to themselves. Find your own tribes, work within those tribes to put forth your agendas, but keep out of individual's business when it comes to religion.
David: Well, you know, I have to say, I am deeply impressed with your knowledge and understanding of you know, the history of Africans on this planet. We haven't talked about it in detail, but your understanding of the contributions that Africans have made to our global civilization with your determination to hold people accountable. I'm going to say your steadfast adherence to the truth. And so those are the things that I'm going to remember about you and about this conversation. And I think those are things that I kind of aspire to as well.
Regenail: Wow, thank you, sir. There is no way on this earth, like I've always been told by those who raise me, a person on this earth, one hour, one day longer than you, has a day, an hour more experience. So, you have to respect that. I'm going to take away from this conversation how respected I feel with another African American male. This is how I was raised. The best people on this planet. Thank you, sir, for continuing to demonstrate that we are not lost. We are not confused. We don't need anybody to do anything for us that we know exactly what we need to do. And thank you, sir, for reinforcing that. That's what this call today I'm leaving with. Thank God I was raised by African American men. And when I say that I'm not excluding Latino, my Caucasian brothers and sisters, but I'm saying the oldest people on this earth, the oldest men on this earth, are the core of who I am. And you, sir, give me that energy again to continue to represent ourselves best we can every day. Thank you, sir. That's what I'm taking away from our conversation. Thank you.
David: All right, thank you as well, Regenail. Look forward to our next encounter.