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Black Excellence: We use it on t-shirts, in social media captions, and as affirmations to all of our amazing feats, yet the term can also put pressure to be twice as good.
When it comes to raising their four boys, Dead Ass podcast hosts Khadeen and Devale Ellis tackle the topics of excellence and being Black, explaining how they learned to embrace each of their Princes' journeys to become Kings.
In the latest episode, "The Art of King Making," the Millennial parents discuss how they became aware of each of their sons' individual interests and how all of this fits into the term "Black Excellence."
Devale opens the episode with a story "of accountability" about when a "young Black father from Brooklyn had to realize that all of his sons are not going to be athletes." The former NFL player and actor is actually talking about himself and the moment he realized he could be forcing sports onto his third-born, Kaz, who has already shown he "does not want to do anything that [his] brothers want to do."
"I had to realize that Black Excellence doesn't look like one thing," Devale says later in the episode. "What if my son grows up to be bigger than [Jean-Michel] Basquiat and his first memory is that 'my father wasn't at my fourth birthday party when I was painting trees?'"
"I would be heartbroken," he said, adding that, "if you don't put your kids in situations to be successful, and learn how to nurture their passions, how can they turn their passions into their paychecks?"
Check out the full episode above or by clicking HERE.
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