dive atlanta

hey everyone, this is chris and shu, how's it going? i wanted to make a sort of a follow-up video to the last video that featured my wife and i, shu from china. we made a video and there i was talking a lot about african-american culture. with myself being an african-american, i wanted to talk more about that video. i saw the video posted and i read through the comments, and i must say... the interactions were amazing. i pretty much agree with all the comments that were written there. and it sparked some really good discussions. and that's one of the things i like about lily's channel. that her audience is not your typical youtube comments type, 'heh', type of audience.

her audience are intelligent people. people who comment. there are lots of things that are said here. i want to address some of these. i want to read through some of these comments. on this video, i want to address some of these and kind of continue this dialogue i think it's, i think it's a great discussion and what i do want to say is that. at the time, we were having a casual lunch and we recorded that video. and i gave a very high-level... viewpoint of what i was trying to say without digging to much deep into it. and i wanted to, in this video provide a little more depth into kind of what i was saying so that we can all understand. because i think that at the end of the day, we can all get something out of it. and this video isn't for just african-americans or either just asians

but really for anyone. i think anyone can pretty much take the principles that we talk about here and apply them in any relationship. if you're an interracial or blasian couple and your dating and you're say an asian girl or an asian guy, i think by watching this video, you can gain some resources. and i hope you guys keep watching because i have something to give to you in this video later on. so hopefully you'll keep watching and uhm, so the first thing i want to is, i want to... point out that the comments were great! i agree with them. i'm going to read some of them. if i can...so some of the comments.... ... zero1200 says "i agree that, you know, our culture has been taken away but from the other side my parents are from africa and came over here to the united states."

"and i just kind of follow their culture (i don't know if that makes sense)" that's what it says shout out to my boy dexter williams. he commented a lot. thank you dexter. he said some really cool things. he says, 'heh', "he needs to study more...", meaning chris, myself. "he needs to study more...," shu is behind the camera by the way, say "hi" shu. [shu: 'hello'], so they can hear you. okay, she's over there laughing at me. "he needs to study more. american culture is african culture rebranded." "he is absolutely wrong. we don't have a business culture so we barely own what we produce." ...uhm.....

h-sark, or hsark says, "in my opinion i think african-americans have created their own strong, unique culture so i have to disagree with him." "though i really love that bit about, that your culture feeds your body, spirit, and mind. i'm going to quote you sir." we have itachi uchiwa, sorry, itachi uchiwa, says, "he is not wrong, you agree that you don't have your own culture or very little" and uhm... so he saying basically that, you know, he's not wrong. there's some, other comments that says. nathan cole says, "i can follow what chris was saying in terms of how shu coming to america..." "...still has traits from the way she was rooted and grew up in china, but we can't say the same thing, that we were rooted in african culture." "...but i don't exactly agree that black america does not have a culture." shay 1000 says, "but we do have culture the fact that we have provided so much to the world, and it's basically amazing." all these comments are great. i could go on and on, it's really...and i totally agree.

so i want to break it down a little bit and dive a little deeper into this. black folks. when i say black folks, i'm mainly talking about african-americans. we've given so much to the world. i think hip-hop music, for example, i think hip-hop is the most listened to music around the world like #1. and, i mean, we just created that. we've created; we've invented the toilet we've invented stoplights, we invented, you know george washington carver produced synthesized rubber from plants. we have. the modern video game console was created by an african-american [jerry lawson] the list goes on-and-on-and-on-and-on...the radiator, you know the list just goes on-and-on-and-on and i think. the way i look at it is, these are pretty much, i call them "cultural artifacts." for a people to endure so much, yet still produce amazing things and give back so much to the world,

is an amazing, is an amazing feat, and you have to ask how? and why? how? and you have to question things. and the reason why we're able to do these things, is because it comes from a root; a cultural root. i'm talking about our ancestral roots because, my parents, and my grandparents, and great-great-grandparents, and my heritage going all the way back... i look at it as, i'm an accumulation of all of them inside of me living in my dna, in my blood. the same as you, in your dna, in your blood. and so i can see a kid dancing in the street or do creative things, here in atlanta, and see something similar in africa because, it's in our dna! and that's something to be very proud of, it's something to be... it makes you stonger it gives you confidence and motivation

and this is very important that, even though culture may have been taken away from us or we feel robbed or every time we come out with something new, someone copies it or rebrands it and, ah, it just, it just i hate that. it happens like almost everyday now on a daily basis you know, i remember back when, i started undergrad in college, you know we used to give each other 'dap' like 'yo, wassup, wassup', you know, like in the neighborhood. i got to college and the guys were like, you know, my white friends were like you know, 'give me a fist pump,' and i was like 'what?', like we didn't have names for the stuff that we did; we just, we just did them. we didn't call it a 'fist pump' or 'give me a pound' i didn't even know, i was like 'what?' 'you want me to...alright', you know. that was kind of late 90's or early 2000s when that came out

but for us, we grew up with that kind of stuff all the time and, you know, it's, it's a bunch of stories like that i'm sure you can relate. and so, what i look at it as is, i want us to be able to do more things. we've done so much already and you're right, so much for the world. but i think we can do so much more if we can tap into the source. so i'm all about tapping into the source. and they way that i got there, i want to talk a little bit more about my personal journey. and the journey i'm still on. and raising this awareness because at the end of the day, when you watch this video, or you watch the last video, either you're going to wake up the next day and you're going to continue to do whatever you've been doing.

if you're comfortable with that. or, you're going to change and try to create a better version of yourself. i always strive to try to create a better version of myself. if you have a certain body, or you're imagining yourself with a certain kind of body and physique, and say that is the best version of myself, i wonder what that looks like. even if for a short moment, right. 'heh' you know you want to know what that looks like. so you want to strive to create a better version of yourself, and i think through each of us creating better versions of ourselves, we elevate our people and as a whole. so, a few things. i talked about how a culture is a blueprint for your physical body,

your mind, and your spirit. and i think that. i just want to first make the point that all the things we've done, i look at it as a result of the source, of the root, of the source so we're able to do a lot of these things. when you mention jazz, or blues...we made jazz, we made blues, we made rock-n-roll, hip-hop, all these things... and, those are the results. not the cause. those are the residual results, what i call "cultural artifacts" but what we miss is the, what we're absent of is the source. so when i say we're absent 'culture',

what i'm really saying is, we are absent the source. we're absent the root. right. so as a result we get these cultural artifacts you know it's kind of the jason bourne movie where we wakes up, and he has amnesia and the next thing you know he's like, "i speak german" "oh, i know how to fight", like [heh]. he kinda understands that he kind of can do these things but he doesn't know why he knows how to do these things. but he does these things. but it's only later on that he finds out he's a part of this big organization. and this is what really helps him to really have a more holistic view

i look at this the same way. we're doing amazing things around the world, but we sort of don't...we're not tapping into the source. my goal is to tap into that source so that we can do even more things than we've already done. so when i...your'e not going to get there if you don't ask questions. you should hang around people, who ask questions more so than people who don't ask questions. it's like being in the matrix, where you can be there, you can be comfortable but, the minute you start asking questions...neo starts asking questions then he starts getting together with a group of people who are also asking questions, then he's able to see outside of the matrix and see kind of both worlds.

and if you want to live in the world and live in the matrix and be comfortable, that's ok. but at least you should know where you are and what's around you. and so for my journey, if i can, i want to take a personal view, into sort of my journey and maybe i'll read more comments. there were some comments about you know, american culture, and, i call it 'european' culture because for me, the words 'european', 'western', there all synonymous like when people say 'western culture' like they're really talking about european culture. and american culture is still really european culture. in fact... one great. one of our elders, dr. francis cress welsing which i'll probably talk about in a bit,

she mentioned that, at least, our elders they mentioned that, they call this 'people activity' so when i mention 'people activity' to you i'll define what that is. but i want you to think about, here in america, who really runs this form of 'people activity' so in alphabetical order, those people activity are, all forms of people activity are: economics...[okay]..., education...[alright]..., entertainment labor, law, politics, religion, sex, and war. okay, so, you know, pretty much for us this is dominated by european society and this culture that we live in. and that's who we adopt, that's who we, like one comment said, "i just kind of follow the gist of what everybody else is doing."

and that's okay, nobody is faulting you, but you just have to have this awareness. uh, so for my personal journey what i said was, i said...if... i said if, you know, if a culture is a blueprint for physical body, how to feed your body, feed your mind, feed your soul,... then, what should i be feeding myself? and, is there an order to it? and i don't know if there's an order. this is just my personal opinion. but i feel like..., my intuition says, if i'm sick... and i call out for work; i can' work today. it's not because i cannot type.

but it's because i can't mentally focus. because i'm sick. i'm physically, biologically sick. i can't have the mental focus that i need. also, if i lose someone close to me... and i'm mentally down, my spirits will be low, right. so then you have the physical body....you're your mental mind being dependent on your physical body, and your spirituality being dependent on your mental state, and and vice-versa. i mean this can work in other ways too, like, you can lose someone (same example), and then you won't eat for the next couple days

because you're feeling bad and it's affecting your physical body, so they're all kind of connected, but at the same time you have to start somewhere. i started at the physical level. i said okay...i need to think about my physical body, so i just sort of cleaned the slate. i literally just cleaned the slate and said i'm going to eat the most basic foods, you know, and research what i eat. i ended up being thrown into a category some people would term a 'vegan.' i never started out saying, i want to be a vegan. i just, [heh], i was just literally cleaning the slate.

i need a reference point or something. and i just started eating like that. and even until today..., all this happened before my wife and i got together by the way. and so, i was already doing this. and then,... and i started to eat the same way then as i eat today. and you know, i still don't eat meat or fish, or anything like that i still eat sweets here and there. some dairy, you know, i eat ice-cream, or a slice of cake. you know, but i try to stay away from eggs, and meat and things like that. and just mainly focus on vegetables, nuts, fruits, [and grains] ...uhm... and a lot of other recipes. i'll talk a little more about that later

but the point i'm trying to make is that, if you're trying to create the best, optimal version of yourself... a culture usually dictates that. and what i was trying to say [in the first] video with foods, see a lot of people, in the video when i say, "oh, my wife eats asian food." it's kind of like oh, because she likes asian food, like... on the surface, that's what it looks like, but you've got to realize that when a culture dictates what you eat, there are bigger implications going on. it's not just about how it tastes, in fact, ... some people, the first thing they think about when they talk about different cultures, different foods they think about their taste buds.

but actually your taste buds, the point, the reason why we have taste buds, is to be healthy. because it's not just necessarily to enjoy the food [heh], you know, i can't remember all the senses of tastes, it's like... uhm, 'umami', 'sweet', 'bitter', 'sour', and some other [and salty]... you know, whatever, ... 'spicy' is not a taste, an actual taste, anyway uhm, it's not classified that way, but anyway.... so the point is, if you eat a variety of foods, like a variety of like, if you don't know, if you didn't even know the word, 'vegetable' right. you don't know anything, right. because humans should be able to be healthy without knowing anything about the word 'vegetable', right?

i mean we're made, we're built to be able to be healthy right, it just makes sense. so if i ate something that was sour and i ate something sweet, and i ate some umami type taste, (you have to look that one up [savory]), and some sweet, some bitter or whatever, or bitter from the vegetable, sour from lemons and things sour tastes clears toxins, ... builds up all these different things. as long as i'm cooking a variety of it or you cook a dish, make sure you put some sour, put some sweet, put some bitter,... you're going to be healthy. because you should have the knowledge that eating a variety of tastes, is healthy having a variety, versus, only eating salty. or only eating sweet, or only eating, you need to have the combination. so, it's not about just the taste. the culture dictates that because ancient knowledge

shows you how to make you more healthy and thus a better version of yourself. so food is very important. it's not just about taste. and that's why i had to really look into this stuff. uhm, after that i started to feed my mental side. in the black community we have a word for it. we call it being, we call it black consciousness. and by now you've probably heard a lot about that. because it's growing and that's a great thing. uhm, black culture, we're trying to reach a point where, you know, we have a critical mass of people really on the same page and in-sync.

because the other reason why i said we're absent, sort of this source is that, not only do we not have this source, but we don't have this unification, we don't have this, organized, unified, thing. and someone, i think, pointed that out in the comments. sorry i don't have your name right now, but, that's also another thing, that's another reason why i said it. but, but we can, and we will! and i believe we will and it starts by asking questions. none of what i've looked into i would have gained if i didn't ask the question. uhm, my mental consciousness, i've started to read about history, i've started to read about

sort of, self-identify, you know 'where do i come from?', 'who am i?' 'where do i fit in the world?' there are things that i began to question and began to think about, you know, the education system. all these things of 'people activity' i listed to you: economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, religion, sex, and war. you have to really start to think about. you get a whole new perspective. medication, the way you diagnose treatment. should i agree with the whole, 'germ' analogy that modern medicine gives about germs and the way it attacks your body. so you say someone had a 'heart-attack'. but actually maybe you 'attacked' your heart.

the heart didn't attack you. so what was it; how were you attack your heart, right, so, even like slight adjustments to your thinking could open up whole new levels of thinking and perception. and eventually the spirituality side. now i haven't researched too much into the spirituality side but, as far as i'm concerned, i would probably start with the family unit. i think [cough] that, there's a spiritual bond that happens in a marriage, or in a relationship between a husband and wife. there's roles to play between the 'male' principle and the 'female' principle. and the spiritual energy that i give off to her, or the spiritual energy that i receive from her

and that energy, and the energy from both of us going into our children. i think it's a very special thing, and in fact, even in asian culture, you have what's called the yin and the yang, right. and that's spirituality. that's these principles. in fact, in history, when the greeks were learning from the egyptians, they took this law, and they turned it, they messed up the translation turned it to 'the law of opposites' like 'true' and 'false'. male and female opposite, but actually, originally the egyptians never said that these were opposite things, they said, that these were complimentary. there's a difference,

there's a slight difference between something being opposite and something being complimentary. and, it's a very important thing. i think with the yin and the yang they got it right. because even if you look at the graphic there's like a black dot on the white half and a white dot on the black half. it's complimentary, it's not saying it's opposite. male and female is complimentary, it's not opposite. and that has, huge implications. and it's things like this you have to look into. i started to educate myself on a mental level on this consciousness. and i've just mentioned a little bit about the spirituality.

so i kind of wanted to, to point that out, you know hang around people who ask questions because that's what's going to really get you to the next level. in the comment section, when you leave comments... you know, i know, people water down the word culture a lot because isn't it true that i could say 'new york culture,' or 'l.a. culture,' or 'atlanta culture,' right. we can throw the word 'culture' anywhere but the point i was trying to make, i was talking on a very, very high-level, in the context of feeding your body, your mind, and your spirituality, your soul right. so, i was speaking on that level. and i think it was too high-level and i owe you guys an explanation.

i owe you guys this. that's why i'm doing it. because i feel like you guys gave great discussion in the comments and things and i owe you guys this. and i wanted to distinguish between the the 'cultural artifacts' and tapping into the source. so, i said i wanted to give you something. and, what i want to give you is, for those who are really interested and want to learn and grow, i gave you my personal journey that i'm on and i wanted to give you some good references that if you don't know where to start; things that you can look at. so i want to start with the physical body and health

so here's a book that i have. i pulled some books off my library shelf, and i just want to show you a few things. this one is called 'afro-vegan.' it's by a guy named bryant terry. and he just has awesome recipes and awesome things... my wife is over there smiling because she's like, "he don't cook a dang thang from that book." and that's true because she cooks a lot and it's just so good i haven't had time to cook as much as i used to. but i need to crack this open. it's kind of cool because actually he's a blasian couple too and you can see their beautiful child over there i don't know where his wife is from...

[shu: "taiwan"] [chris: "taiwan?"] [shu: "i think so, i'm not sure] probably taiwan or the philippines or something. she looks like she could be taiwanese. i think. anyway, that's bryant terry's 'afro-vegan.' it's a cookbook with recipes and things. this is 'african holistic health' which i studied under dr. llaila o. afrika. amazing, amazing book. he's really big on youtube. you should check him out. the way you spell his name is l-l-a-i-l-a o. a-f-r-i-k-a. 'african holistic health.' amazing guy he does a lot of things and he has a lot of good credentials. and he talks [heh] about, many, many things.

this is a book called "the way of herbs.' this is from michael tierra you might have family members who get sick or have diabetes or high-blood pressure and you come in here and they'll tell you literally formulas and herbs and things to use to help cure yourself. if you come from the earth, you should be able to cure yourself from the earth, right? this is another book from... dr. llaila o. afrika has a herbal class that he teaches out of this big 'ole book. it's called 'the complete textbook of holistic self diagnosis' and as you can see from the diagram, the human face actually has ways that you can look at the human face

to figure out which organs are in trouble. also you can look at your tongue and do like a tongue test. and see, if you have a liver problem, have a kidney problem,..., so these are all things that you can look at. if you're not, if you're tired of taking medication and drugs and you're trying to find alternatives that's important. i kind of just wanted to point that just that small selection. i have a few more... let me point one thing out too. i follow herbalists like, so dr. llaila afrika is one. i follow dr. sebi a lot. if you recently saw on the news, he just got killed in honduras. he is from honduras. and it was very unfortunate. i got a chance to see him live (in person). he came out to atlanta last year. and there were a lot of people who where there.

i saw him live and it was great! i consume herbs from him. here's... here's one such herbs from him. these are bromide plus. this is basically seamoss, seamoss bladderwrack mix. it's an amazing herb. it has like 90 or something percent of the nutrients of what the human body needs. it has all kinds of things. i'm just showing you guys some stuff. the things i say on the video, i'm not just making it up, they are grounded in research and study and things. i think it's important for us to realize where we are, so that we can improve.

in terms of my mental, sort of consciousness state, i said, there's things that deal with politics, history, different things you can know. i'm an engineer. i like scientific facts and evidence, and that kind of material so i'm really into that. here's one book, everybody knows this one. his is 'the souls of black folk" i'm sure a lot of you have this. and this is from w.e.b. dubois, so, this is amazing. and again, this video is for anyone. if you're a blasian couple, you might be at home, you might be a korean woman wanting to date a black man, and knowing, sort of history, and this sort of more african-american history, knowing this stuff,

it can improve your relationship. just like he would study your culture, as well. this is llaila o. afrika once again. obviously, i like this guy a lot. 'melanin: what makes black people black!' it's very scientific, it's great, it's awesome. it's a small book. he goes into a lot of things. melanin is more than just your skin pigmentation. it's actually deeper than that. it controls, most functions in your body to be honest. and so it teaches you a lot about that and it's very, very, very useful. and also how to nourish your melanin. right, and to maximize it because it allows you to do a lot of things.

it's interesting, you know, i had a conversation with my wife and we were talking about the slanted eyes. and you know it's interesting because if you look back, some things i've read and researched geology and geography had a take in this with the slanty eyes because it's you know if you're from a group of people who lived, say, in a mountainous region and you were say, on the upper part of the mountain and the wind blew from the bottom, up, your eyes would slant up this way. because when wind is blowing you have to squint and after generations, you know, nature makes it so that the children don't really have to squint or use that muscle. it'll just automatically be there, so,

so, if the wind is blowing from bottom, up, it will slant up this way. if you're at the bottom of say the mountain, the wind is blowing down, your eyes will slant down. if the wind is blowing straight at you, your eyes will slant this way. and that's why we have slanted eyes. that's why it's not just specific to asian culture. my wife is smiling right now so much. anyway, so that's why you get like nelson mandela, and other people in africa with slanted eyes and you're like, 'wait a minute', you know my wife, here in america; she's been here in america for several years, she says like "hey, that black guy looks chinese!" "is he blasian?" and you know it's kind of funny because i'm always like,

"actually the chinese look like the black man." you know, [hehehe], right! no, but, so we always joke like that. and it's kind of an interesting perspective. more books,.. 'stolen legacy.' my wife is reading this one right now, it's really good. this is more of a history book...by george g.m. james. these are books that you hear people quote all the time. 'stolen legacy,' george g.m. james. the egyptian mystery system [school] you gain some history of the educational system that was in africa. before the greeks and arabs came. so this is a good one for mental consciousness.

you have chancellor williams of course, this is a classic. 'the destruction of black civilization from 4500 b.c. to 2000 a.d.' really good stuff! really good information. a lot of people have questions you'll often hear people in the black community say, "oh we were once great, we were awesome people" and people will say, "well, what happened?" and you're dating interracially, and they say "well what happened to you?" [heheheh] this will help explain at least historically some of the things that happened. and then finally you have dr. francis cress welsing who i mentioned earlier. this is 'the isis papers: the keys to the colors'

awesome book! she recently passed away a few years back. it's sad to see her go. she's one of our elders that passed away. and she has a lot of good information and material here. it's getting more into the political system that we have here, and freeing your mind from some of these struggles in the political system. that's all the books i'm going to show you for now. and i just kind of wanted to share with you guys what kind of journey i'm taking. i appreciate lily. your channel is awesome! for allowing me to say this on your platform. and i think that your channel is very diverse. and you're always putting up new material, and original material. and hopefully this makes it to your site

as a follow-up to the other video to help people understand deeply because we're truly a powerful, strong, great people. and i really didn't represent that to the fullest in the last video. in that short amount of time that i had. so i wanted to give to you this video to follow-up and say that we are great, we have done great things as a people. but i'm not satisfied with just the residual 'cultural artifacts' and things we've done so far. i think we can do so much more... if we have a unified mechanism to teach people how to feed their physical body, their mental mind, and their spirituality. so thank you! this is chris & shu. see you guys later. bye bye! [shu: byyyeeeeee!]