Oral History Interview with Kaleb Seay

Title: Oral History Interview with Kaleb Seay
Interviewee
Interviewer: Walker Robinson
Description: Kaleb Seay of Sewanee, Tennessee, was interviewed by Walker Robinson, a Sewanee student, on October 30th, 2023, in person. While their conversation was primarily on the Black Lives Matter Movement, other topics included how the Black Lives Matter Movement has influenced Seay’s views on race and race relations. We hope that this conversation will assist scholars with a further understanding of race in the United States during the early twenty-first century. Please click on the link to see the full interview.
Transcript: 0:01 Walker Robinson: This is Walker Robinson from Sewanee University of South. It is October 29th, 2020 3, 8 40 6:00 PM and I am with

0:13 Kaleb Seay: Kaleb Seay. I'm I'm Kaleb Seay. And I'm from Sewanee, university of South as well.

0:29 Walker Robinson: Thank you. Caleb C for being here. Where you live with Kaleb. Where are you from?

0:37 Kaleb Seay: I'm originally from Nashville, Tennessee, but it's like a small city outside of that, probably like 20 minutes called Mount Julie, and that's where I'm from. Small little city, not too much going on.

0:55 Walker Robinson: How is Swatee different from Mount Julie?

1:05 Kaleb Seay: How is different from Mount Juliet? Well, ain't no at first, I ain't had no cell service up here. They got cell service in Mount Juliet. Mount Juliet. It's like a city. It's a growing city. Little, it was little while I was there, but now it's starting to grow. Got a lot of people got malls and stuff too now. So that's how it's different. People up here are different. That's really Soia a special place.

1:33 Walker Robinson: You

1:33 Kaleb Seay: Go here, it is different.

1:35 Walker Robinson: A special

1:35 Kaleb Seay: Place.

1:38 Walker Robinson: Where did you find community as a child

1:41 Kaleb Seay: In sports? My community was like, it was always, my mom was like, as long as she keep me busy, I wouldn't be doing nothing. No hard headed stuff. So football, that's where I found my community at the park playing basketball. That's where I found all my guys through AU Teams. That's where I built the best relationships. So really anything with sports. I was in sports school too. I wasn't plays and stuff at school, but they knew me because of sports.

2:10 Walker Robinson: Yeah, I remember mom trying to do the

2:12 Kaleb Seay: Same thing. Sheriff Dickens, sheriff Dickens in the play by elementary school.

2:19 Walker Robinson: Exactly. I was, I was grandpapa George from C Charlie Chocolate.

2:31 Kaleb Seay: What was that? Middle school? Yeah.

2:32 Walker Robinson: No, it was in elementary school. It was

2:34 Kaleb Seay: Was sixth grade. Everybody had to do elementary. Everybody had to do something.

2:37 Walker Robinson: Exactly.

2:38 Kaleb Seay: Something quarter. Something. Y'all had the recorders too, like the little

2:41 Walker Robinson: Recorder. Yeah, we had recorders. Yeah, I was in the band too.

2:45 Kaleb Seay: You was in the band. See we didn't have a band,

2:47 Walker Robinson: But

2:48 Kaleb Seay: We had to take a music class. A

2:50 Walker Robinson: Music class.

2:50 Kaleb Seay: So yeah, that's what we doing.

2:52 Walker Robinson: You had to take music, you have to take chorus.

2:55 Kaleb Seay: No, but when I went to BGA, the only reason I didn't have to take chorus is because I went, I transferred when I was a sophomore. My freshman year I would've been in the chorus.

3:03 Walker Robinson: Kirsten,

3:04 Kaleb Seay: My little sister, she was in the chorus. She the chorus. She had to that you could either do drama or do a music class. No, do a speaking class.

3:18 Walker Robinson: Speaking, yeah, we

3:18 Kaleb Seay: Had to do a public speaking class, get up in front of school to talk. Y'all didn't have assemblies.

3:25 Walker Robinson: We had assemblies, but we didn't. We never had to get it. Never get it in front of anybody to talk. That's scary.

3:32 Kaleb Seay: Upper school, Oxford, Wednesdays. I've barely got out that moment. It's okay. I ain't have to do it.

3:42 Walker Robinson: Yout have to do it. No. Hell yeah. That's good too. And why do you find community today here? Wan,

3:53 Kaleb Seay: I mean, I think it's still me. Football. Even for, we get up here, what, three weeks before everybody else.

4:02 Walker Robinson: So

4:02 Kaleb Seay: The first community we know of Wan is football. So those are my guys. That's how me and Walt

4:08 Walker Robinson: Football,

4:12 Kaleb Seay: That's how I find my community. But I'm starting to find it, I guess as I get older, outside of that, outside of football a little bit too, especially with me being a senior. Yeah, I'm a senior now. I'm going to have a one more year. But me not knowing if I'm keep playing football, I know it's going to stop one day. So I'm trying to branch out a little bit and meet new people and see what's going on in the community. Music too. If it ain't football, music, I be doing music. That's how I know a lot people too.

4:43 Walker Robinson: Yeah. Tell me more about your music.

4:46 Kaleb Seay: Shit. Music, bro. I describe it like going out on the football field, bro. When you put headphones on, you got some stuff either written down, you got something on your mind and you hear the music and it's you in the mic. It's that feeling. At first it was nervous. You get nervous and stuff. At first you don't know what's going to be sound. You don't know if it's going to sound good, but after you do it your first time, it's like, I'm about to kill this one. Yeah, let's go get that feeling. I'm about to kill this one, but it's just like an escape. That's what I found out there in Covid. I was like, I had to do something because football, we would stopped playing football. So I ain't have,

5:22 Walker Robinson: Well, you didn't play football at all during Covid?

5:24 Kaleb Seay: Nah.

5:25 Walker Robinson: So

5:26 Kaleb Seay: I needed something to escape my thoughts and stuff. So started doing music.

5:35 Walker Robinson: You working?

5:36 Kaleb Seay: I like music.

5:37 Walker Robinson: I love

5:37 Kaleb Seay: Music though. That's what I want to do with my life, the rest of my life outside of football. But you don't really tell people shit like that though, because they'll be like, you feel me? You shouldn't.

5:49 Walker Robinson: So what's your

5:50 Kaleb Seay: Plan

5:50 Walker Robinson: Beat? What's your They be

5:53 Kaleb Seay: Music, but

5:54 Walker Robinson: You don't see as a, nah,

5:56 Kaleb Seay: A ballet option. You go go and tell people. So I just be like, I don't know, I'm do English and see what's going to go. See what happens from there. But yeah, bro, that's my music. I get I off on a little tangent. I ain't going to,

6:11 Walker Robinson: Yeah. Let's see. Let's move more into some of the Black Lives Matter questions. Let's see. When did you talking about specifically George Floyd? When did you receive the news that George Floyd done?

6:38 Kaleb Seay: My mom came home. My mom was like, well first off it was through social media. That's the first, yeah,

6:42 Walker Robinson: First thing thing. That's the first. That's where the,

6:46 Kaleb Seay: Yeah, effects. But I think I not woke up, but I always go to Twitter. I be on Twitter because it is news. I feel like that's my news. That's where I get my news from. Not, I guess you get both sides of it. So I went on Twitter and I seen the little hashtag and I think my mom came home. Really? She was like, you see what's been going on, you see what's happening in the world. I guess that's when I really realized then had that spark of, it was movement going on. I heard about George Floyd and what happened. Then you hear about the movement behind it. But then too, I got to think Trayvon Martin too. That was another thing where I guess I, that's where I realized I guess shit wasn't even feel, it kind of wasn't even, but it kind of made me nervous too, hearing about Trayvon Martin because it, like I walk around Mount Julia, a white community
7:45 Or Franklin where I'm at private school, white community with dreads my hood on, be doing what I want to. But it's like, and it could have been me. It could have been one of my brothers. That could have been somebody else. I knew it kind of was just kind of hit different then. But yeah, when I received the news about George Floyd, it was kind of like, dang. They got, oh, it is made public. That's how I felt at first. It's finally made public because this shit that going like this every day. I was like, oh, they got a public story. Then I seen the video of George Floyd. I was like, shit different.

8:20 Walker Robinson: Or

8:20 Kaleb Seay: Was that, yeah, George Floyd, I think it was a video circulator or some type of picture or something. That's when it really hit. I was like, dang, Rodney King in today. Yeah. Know what I'm saying?

8:45 Walker Robinson: It was like there because he had a long ass talk.

8:50 Kaleb Seay: Thanks. Some inhumane type shit. Caught in four K in video. You're caught and we still seen the justice system kind of take a of time to do something about it.

9:03 Walker Robinson: Exactly, yeah.

9:05 Kaleb Seay: But yeah, that's when my initial reaction was kind of at first it was like I kind wasn't surprised, nothing like that. I was like, dang it. Finally, okay. It's a story that's public. Finally we got, okay, we got a little voice. We got a little something. Not saying that his life was a voice, it had to be taken or whatever. But it was like, okay, it's some type of traction. It's got social media going. We normally don't get an image on social media, even a word on, I mean, not social media on the news. So when I seen that I was like, oh shit. Must be some shit going on. For real.

9:48 Walker Robinson: What has been your experience with social media as a whole as well as with the Black Lives Matter?

9:56 Kaleb Seay: Okay, social media as a whole, bro. At first I loved it. It was cool. Middle school, having the Instagram, it was cool. I was like, oh, this is great. I ain't really think too much about it because we were still, at least I was still outside playing. Still outside. I just had my phone and social media. I just had it with me. But social media, I don't know. I kind of see it now sometimes. Not now, I still be on it, but I be like, bro, sometimes you get so caught up in it. Before Covid, I was caught up in social media from what I posted, what I commented, how I looked, making sure it was a certain type of image I put out.

10:33 Walker Robinson: I

10:33 Kaleb Seay: Was like, bro, you can really get lost in it. I guess social media and the whole, but then when I think about Black Lives Matter and stuff like that, with social media, I would say it's an easier way, I guess to talk, to be, I guess personal with the people. It has its pros and cons, especially with Black Lives Matter, I feel like it wouldn't have got as much traction back in the day. They didn't have social media, maybe newspapers and stuff like that.

10:59 Walker Robinson: But

10:59 Kaleb Seay: In social media you can post and be viral.

11:02 Walker Robinson: Especially with they have, TikTok

11:04 Kaleb Seay: Is different. TikTok, that's what I'm saying. TikTok too. Everything is like social media, literally. You can post in, for example, with music, you can post and be an overnight sensation, have 2 million, 3 million views in less than 24 hours. That's how fast stuff go. So once the word about that happened, and we even read about it with the hashtag Black Lives Matter and stuff like that, it all just started caught I, it finally felt like, I guess white people too was seeing not even just white people,

11:33 Walker Robinson: Everybody

11:34 Kaleb Seay: Everywhere. Everybody finally seeing what's been going on in America for so long. So I don't even think if that answers your question, but I dunno.

11:43 Walker Robinson: Yeah, that definitely does. What's your opinion of Black Lives Matter?

11:54 Kaleb Seay: I stand with it. I stand with it. Especially you feel me? Being where I stay at currently, when my mom stayed currently it's a wealthy white community bro. So it's like these people with money and their response at First to Black Lives Matter was like, well all lives matter. So then it was kind of like, at first I was like, yeah, all lives do matter. But then after

12:20 Walker Robinson: Doing

12:20 Kaleb Seay: Research and actually looking into it, but we literally set up in a game that we weren't even meant to be like players in. They didn't even count us as human. But then again, you think about it, they didn't count us as human and they took this place from somebody else. So it's like, I don't know. I stand with it. I stand with it. I feel like it's a powerful movement. Black Lives Matter and we're not saying that White lives don't matter. Asian lives don't matter. Blue lives don't matter. We're not saying that we're just bringing attention to black lives. They obviously haven't mattered in the eyes of police or the government, certain shit like that. Certain people, not saying all people. I feel like that Black Lives Matter movement literally has changed the narrative, bro. Even to the point where people are like, I almost had to start questioning some people. I'm like, you just posting it to be a part of the wave a little bit. Do you mean it when you post it or are you posting it because everybody else posting it. But I stand with, I think it's a powerful movement. I'm glad I was here to experience that, I guess.

13:29 Walker Robinson: And what was your community's reaction to Black Lives Matter? What changes did you see in your community? Did you see, what was the reaction to?

13:44 Kaleb Seay: I think at first we naturally, I guess as humans, I think we first naturally see the negative in any situation. So my first initial reaction and what I seen was all lives matter and people saying do lives matter? So my first reaction was like, dang bro, y'all reacting negatively. But something that we just stating how it is. But as I started to look and shit like that and kind of pay attention to the people around me and the people in the community, people really started to educate themselves over, I guess black lives in general. Even my friend's mom having a conversation with my mom. Just trying to understand the dynamic, I guess, and how it is being different, how she is ahead and systematic racism and shit like that. And I literally started seeing a whole lot of people, even BGA start, it took a little minute. It took a little pull I guess. But even the schools start to kind of put black history on the front front of BGA and stuff like that. Trying to educate. I've seen a lot of people start to, I think the positive outweighs the negative. I think I see a lot of people just try to understand the movement and literally understand black lives, black culture.

15:10 Walker Robinson: What, what generation do you think was most effective by the

15:13 Kaleb Seay: Black Lives

15:14 Walker Robinson: Matter?

15:17 Kaleb Seay: That's a good question. What do I think of generation? Because my mom's generation, she took that, that I think my mama, we celebrate her birthday. We tell her she's 29 every year, but I don't know how old she's but her generation, I think they took it serious. They started getting social media and shit too,

15:45 Walker Robinson: I think, I don't know.

15:48 Kaleb Seay: I think our generation did though. I think our generation did just because I think the kids had TikTok

15:54 Walker Robinson: And had

15:55 Kaleb Seay: Instagram in their hands. So now they're asking their parents questions. So did you see this video, mom? Did you see this? So I think our generation, it affected us a lot to the point where we see it too. Excuse me. Even times are changing, bro. Almost. I feel like it's slowly changing.

16:15 Walker Robinson: Yeah. Also we've been seeing it since we was little kids.

16:19 Kaleb Seay: Yeah, everybody kind of get along trying to get along. You had a few bad apples too, like Karens and shit. But as of right now, I feel like our generation, you don't find, it's like they scared to be racist. Some people, you feel me, some

16:33 Walker Robinson: They be positive. They

16:34 Kaleb Seay: Be secret. Yeah, secretive. But they're so scared to be open about it that don't make it no better, but it's a change, bro.

16:49 Walker Robinson: Big change. How has it impacted your life?

17:00 Kaleb Seay: I think it's made me want to do more. Literally just gain more information from it. But knowledge, think I'm, I don't know. I guess it's because I'm getting older bro. I'm starting to realize bro, knowledge goes a long way. That's from anything. You can get knowledge from YouTube, knowledge from Instagram, you can get knowledge gaining some type of knowledge. Especially for me on Black Lives, where we come from, not where we come from, but our culture, our history, we got some inventors that's invented. Some things that have been taken by white people. I feel like we just dope people, bro. Everything. We so dope that some people hate us because we're brown. I don't understand. They trying to

17:41 Walker Robinson: Replicate it. Yeah.

17:42 Kaleb Seay: Yeah. I don't know. I feel you're not doing nothing if they not hate on you. Exactly. So it motivated me to do more research, but I know where we're coming from. Know how the system is set up against us and then try to beat it. So that's really, how

18:04 Walker Robinson: Has it affected how

18:05 Kaleb Seay: You talk to your family and friends? Family, I talk. My family is normal. It's normal dialogue, family. They know who I'm friends. I think what has really made me realize friends is I try to understand their perspective. If I want you to understand where I'm coming from and want you to hear me, I first got to listen. So I'll be trying to hear wherever somebody else coming from and be like, okay, how I'm take this approach to be a little better. How I'm going to take this approach, I guess take it and get knowledge from it. So when I'm talking to my friends or some shit like that and we do bring up, I feel comfortable enough to bring up Black Lives Matter. Me and Jay had to talk. We just talked about Black Lives Matter and shit like that. But I was listening. I just wanted to, he just didn't, I guess know, have no knowledge of what was going on. He knew what was going on, but you feel me. Then again, he was like, bro, he ain't have to really worry about too much. He's seen his social media too and posted and shit like that. But when it's not really affecting his money, his mama is. But that lives matter to help me, I guess.

19:13 Walker Robinson: What was the question? I'm how you talk with your family

19:17 Kaleb Seay: And friends. Oh yeah. It just helped me try to understand where people is coming from, what their, there's always two sides of every story, what their side is I guess on certain topics. But then it helped me sometimes when they don't know, I try to educate them and let them know what I've kind of learned from classes and stuff and black lives from experience this shit real being, motherfucking being of my bad, being discriminated against. That's real. Being in the store and being somebody discriminated

19:50 Walker Robinson: Was discriminated. You see

19:53 Kaleb Seay: Somebody watching, somebody watching you, bro. It's like, I got money, I'm going to pay this. I'm going to buy this shit. But it's like, dang bro, we got this. I guess this thing on this where it's just you really think we just going to come in and steal, bro. I'm no different than the white man's walked in, but lemme try to educate.

20:19 Walker Robinson: How has the Black Lives Matter movement changed how you interact with people in other

20:22 Kaleb Seay: Races?

20:27 Walker Robinson: It, sorry, it helped me.

20:39 Kaleb Seay: What the

20:40 Walker Robinson: Question you said Trinity,

20:41 Kaleb Seay: What was the question?

20:43 Walker Robinson: How was a black matter make change how you interact with people? Racist?

20:48 Kaleb Seay: Oh, I guess it just helped me try to understand their difficulties too. Because everybody got a little struggle in America, but they try to help me understand where they're coming from and help them understand where they're coming from. Same shit, bro. Same narrative. I try not to be, because I be being racist sometimes not being racist, I don't be being racist. But sometimes I be stereotyping people. Sometimes I be trying not to. I be trying to stop them. I don't understand where they coming

21:26 Walker Robinson: From

21:27 Kaleb Seay: Saying some outlandish stuff.

21:33 Walker Robinson: How do you think the Black Lives Matter movement, succeeding success? What do you think the success is for?

21:43 Kaleb Seay: I haven't done too much research on what it's actually done. I'm in the class right now too. But I mean at a point it had a chance to meet with the president, you feel me? So it is reached the top, actually not the top, but somewhat the top. So it's done that and I think it's just reached more people across the world, not even just the United States, across the world, bro, because of the social media, what time periods a part of hashtag can just go like that. So it brought more attention, more awareness, not just attention, awareness to Black Lives. Think that was the most successful part about it. How

22:33 Walker Robinson: Do you think it failed? What do you think? What Failures?

22:44 Kaleb Seay: Failures, man, I'm trying to think. I think failures, bro. I don't know. I don't really think it had any

22:53 Walker Robinson: Failures this yet,

22:54 Kaleb Seay: Bro. Just because it might've had some setbacks, but it hasn't failed because they're still going. I guess when I say setbacks, you

23:02 Walker Robinson: Fail when it is.

23:04 Kaleb Seay: Yeah, if it quit. So we're still in the middle of it. I bet it's had some setbacks. They can say them not meeting with the prisoners with a setback, but they're still going, still making a stop. So that's really 23 minutes. Anything bro,

23:21 Walker Robinson: Really. What's the state of race relations in the United States that matters?

23:30 Kaleb Seay: The race relations?

23:31 Walker Robinson: Yeah. I

23:32 Kaleb Seay: Think it's improving. Not from the top down, but from the bottom up. I feel like, yeah, I feel like wealth condo. I see that right now in Franklin Wealth. When you're wealthy in the community for white people, you kind don't tend to just think about black lives unless you're different because you don't really see black lives. It's not really around black lives. But with the people that's middle class, that's white middle class and black blue class, it's right together. It's like, okay, let me help you understand and help understand so we can come together and have this great community change. What's going on? So I think it's bridging. Think racial relations is starting to, people are starting to realize that people are just because of their race and it's not really right at all. Just because I feel like the Black Lives way before people have been doing it way before, but Black Lives really shed light on that.

24:28:00 Walker Robinson: Do you think the future of the

24:30:00 Kaleb Seay: Black Lives Matter movement? I think it has a bright future as long as it doesn't, and I don't mean in today's world. It's all about staying relevant and I feel like as long as there is long, there is some type of, I don't even know the word. Some type of oppression happening in the black Lives is going to be relevant. So I feel like they can only keep doing what they're doing. I don't see an end coming any soon unless it turns into something that it's not just like any other thing, black Panthers, anything like that. If they started doing something, it's not.

25:20:00 Walker Robinson: Were you involved in the Black Panther article at all?

25:23:00 Kaleb Seay: Yeah, I went to the march in Nashville, but then also it was a couple other marches I was supposed to go to, but I didn't go to because my mom was like, I don't want to happen. Yeah, exactly.

25:34:00 Walker Robinson: I went to Warrior Raleigh and that was the only one.

25:38:00 Kaleb Seay: Yeah, it just like, I don't want that happening to you. Exactly,

25:40:00 Walker Robinson: Because it was getting real.

25:42:00 Kaleb Seay: Yeah, but that's not the only thing. Repost stuff like that, do that all the time. But I feel like you really got to get in the field, but that's really,

26:00:00 Walker Robinson: Yeah. Well those are the questions,

26:03:00 Kaleb Seay: Man. That's perfect timing, bro. 26 minutes. That's straight.

26:08:00 Walker Robinson: That's straight. Yeah, exactly.

26:10:00 Kaleb Seay: We already know each other too. So the setting who each other is.

26:14:00 Walker Robinson: Yeah,

26:18:00 Kaleb Seay: I bet that's the phrase.

Part of Kaleb Seay