Sankofa & Solidarity: Uncovering Black and Native Legacies for Health Equity Episode 1

Welcome to Season 4 of Questions You Didn’t Ask! We're opening with a bold and necessary four-part series: Sankofa & Solidarity: Uncovering Black and Native Legacies for Health Equity.

In this premiere episode, Niasha Fray sits down with award-winning historian and author Dr. Alaina E. Roberts to explore what it really means to "look back in order to move forward." Drawing on her acclaimed book, I've Been Here All the While: Black Freedom on Native Land, Dr. Roberts challenges the sanitized narratives we were taught in school and reveals how the histories of Black and Native American communities are deeply intertwined—through land, enslavement, survival, and resistance.

Together, we unpack:

• Why Native American slaveholding remains absent from mainstream conversations
• How intergenerational trauma connects to modern-day health disparities
• The romanticized myth of “having Indian in the family” within Black culture
• Why Native communities often resist acknowledging Black ancestry
• What true solidarity between Black, Native, and other marginalized communities could look like—especially in public health

🧠 This is more than a history lesson. It’s a call to truth-telling, reconciliation, and reimagined systems that promote collective healing and justice.

📘 Learn more about Dr. Roberts: https://alainaeroberts.com 🎙️ Subscribe and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Audible, or your favorite platform. 💻 Stream or read the transcript at: https://niashafray.com/podcast ☕ Support the show: https://buymeacoffee.com/niashafrayO

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