#107 Bakari Sellers: It Might Not Be Okay
When you’re talking to Bakari Sellers about fatherhood, you’re talking to a man who truly is a link between generations. As the son of a famous Civil Rights activist who befriended the likes of Stokely Carmichael and Martin Luther King, Jr., Sellers feels the weight of expectations from his ancestors and his community. And as the father of two young twins, he feels the pressure of helping ensure the world is better for them than it ever was for him.
But what happens when that pressure sometimes feels like too much? And what happens when, despite all the work he and his father have done to make it so, he simply can’t tell his kids everything will be okay? On this episode of Paternal, Sellers discusses why he sees his life as an extension of his father’s journey, how he copes with anxiety, his relationship to anger, and why he thinks the U.S. has reached a nadir after George Floyd’s death failed to produce a racial reckoning so many expected.
Sellers is a political commentator for CNN and a former state legislator from South Carolina, as well as the author of the new book The Moment, which is available now wherever you buy books.
Episode Timestamps:
00:00 - 07:40 - Introduction
07:40 - 10:15 - Lessons from his father
10:15 - 16:00 - dealing with the pressure of a famous father
16:00 - 19:26 - handling pressure from the Black community and dealing with anxiety
19:26 - 24:20 - on generational changes among poiliticians and activists
24:20 - 27:35 - channeling anger and realizing the world might not be okay for our kids
27:35 - 29:50 - on lessons we teach our kids, and a sense of resignation
29:50 - end credits
