Maya Gwynn
With KVCR Public Media, I'm Maya Gwynn with Black Perspectives IE, a show where we learn about the amazing things members of the Black community are doing in the Inland Empire. My guest today is Johanna Perez, founder and executive director of San Bernardino County Black Pride. Thank you so much for being here.
Johanna P. Perez
Thank you all for inviting me.
Maya Gwynn
I love your mission, created to celebrate and uplift the Inland Empire's Black LGBTQ+ community through healing, culture, connections, reclaiming wellness, joy, and visibility together. That’s beautiful. Kind of want to start at the beginning. What inspired you to create this organization, and what gap did you see in black LGBTQ wellness in the IE?
Johanna P. Perez
For me, like I said, I grew up here, and what we lacked before I left here was visibility. A lot of my friends that were black and gay were ashamed to be pushed out by family, friends, and there was like no safe places to go. And even when returning, I realized, still the same situation. So something that I established in Vegas, I'm like, let me see if it could work here, and I know that it can, you know, so let's just attack it. And I'm already living with it, dealing with it, and if we can find a solution, we all win. So let's make Reclaiming Us that solution.
Maya Gwynn
What kind of resources do you guys offer?
Johanna P. Perez
Through my community partners, we offer health care, mental health services, HIV prevention, we do healing circles, just a well-rounded programming, so I've been linking with a lot of beautiful organizations here, and have been making a huge, huge impact. So, I believe this mission is like, it's just getting started.
Maya Gwynn
Yeah, that's beautiful. How do you encourage wellness while working with the heavily marginalized community, which is black and LGBTQ people?
Johanna P. Perez
Well, one thing that I've noticed is the large amount of teens, young adults living with HIV. I encourage wellness because a lot of them haven't taken care of their self because they're scared to come in. They've never been welcomed, and even when coming in, they've been attacked sexually, mentally, and they don't feel safe. So, me coming in, I encourage them to come, because now I'll be there. My team will be there to protect them, to be able to hear their stories, and make sure that it's not used against them, it's not something that they express, and now they're talked down on. You know, nothing to be ashamed about. You know, I always tell people you never understand how a person got in a predicament that they are. You say, "Oh, it's AIDS, so they must be dirty, they must be, you know, sleeping around. What if this teen was put out of their home and a predator attacked them and gave them something that they didn't even know that they were dealing with, and they don't even know what they have, you know? So, you got to look at, you got to look at things a different way, so I approach these teens in a different manner. I just want to meet them where they're at.
Maya Gwynn
That points to my next question, which is something that bothers me, as having a lot of queer people in my life and queer family members. People sometimes point cultural attitudes within the black community as more homophobic, yet laws and policies that criminalize black and marginalized people, including the LGBTQ community, come outside of our community, so if we're going to measure it, it makes no sense. How does your work address the systemic factors rather than blaming the community itself?
Johanna P. Perez
Well, we all want to point a finger because we don't want to take accountability. My main thing is with a lot of the programming that I do, I bring parents back into children's lives. I always say we're reclaiming, let's reclaim our kids first, because they are the future. Understand that even if you didn't understand their sexuality, something you did forced them out and made them run to something else. Not that they wanted to be there, they still need shelter, they still need to eat, and they still need to survive. So we need to take accountability that our actions force our kids to be so angry, to be so harsh, to be so protective of themselves, that they push everybody out, because you were the closest person to them, and you did not protect them. And then everything was a ripple effect. So when I bring the parents in, I remind them these are children, they are so innocent, and when you put your harshness on them, you break them even more. So we have to first, regardless of the doctors and everybody else, as a home base, we have to just go get our kids, love them, and then meet them where they're at, talk to them, and let's see how some of these programs can assist the both of you guys, instead of targeting the child by themselves, as if they are the problem. They are not the problem, they're just the result of the problem.
Maya Gwynn
That's amazing. How do you measure the impact of your work beyond attendance in terms of community healing, empowerment, and long-term changes? And I can already tell that you have long-lasting relationships with these people.
Johanna P. Perez
Although I work with the black LGBT, I have so many straight men approach me like, "Wow, I can see your work, I see what you're doing, and I admire that mission for someone to take their time with kids, especially - I deal with youth, I'm saying five years old, six, seven, because I feel like that is the moment they're paying attention to you the most, and if we can't catch them at that age, then what are we doing?
Maya Gwynn
Yeah.
Johanna P. Perez
So I just feel like the impact is felt all around, because we remind people of how families used to keep each other together, no matter if we had problems or not, whether we didn't understand each other or not. We still were together working things out, and that's how we need to be. So, I feel like the impact - it's just a natural feeling. It just feels like family when you're around me. No matter if I met you today or five years ago, it always feels like a welcoming space to talk and unwind and be you. And if we tackle everything like that, then you just grow on people.
Maya Gwynn
That's awesome. We're gonna move to our rapid fire portion. If your work had a theme song, what would it be?
Johanna P. Perez
I like Mystikal, and I'm sorry, just a weird thing. What's that beat? Doom, doom - here I go! Because, like, when you walk into this work, it's like we're unapologetic. I don't ask any questions. I don't really ask if I fit. I don't ask, like, do you need me? I just come in and I just do what I do, because I feel like the work is needed everywhere.
Maya Gwynn
Yeah, you need a hype song.
Johanna P. Perez
Yeah, something to uplift. Because people are so pfft.
Maya Gwynn
If you have to teach a master class or give a TED talk on a random skill you have, besides the work you already do, what would it be?
Johanna P. Perez
I do hair. I'm very great with my hands. I do any kind of hair, I cut hair, I do everything pretty well. I just don't know how to swim. I could definitely teach someone how to do a weave, braid hair, all of that.
Maya Gwynn
And what's your favorite IE restaurant or landmark that reminds you of the Inland Empire?
Johanna P. Perez
Bakers, and that's funny. I just left there.
Maya Gwynn
That's the most common fast food restaurant people talk about on the show, so you're not alone. And how can people keep up with you guys and support the amazing work you're doing?
Johanna P. Perez
Everything is combined under the umbrella of Reclaiming Us, a Black Pride wellness movement that is our nonprofit organization. You could go to our website at Reclaimingus.org or if you want to break it on down, you could go to SBC Black Pride on all social medias, and like I always tell people, I have two Prides. So we celebrate SBC here, and we also take it to Vegas, because I'm the founder of Vegas Black Pride. So, hey, you can reach us everywhere.
Maya Gwynn
Awesome. Thank you so much. This was such a great conversation.
Johanna P. Perez
Righteous, righteous. I appreciate you.
Maya Gwynn
Johanna Perez, is founder and executive director of San Bernardino County Black Pride. Find this segment and others at kvcr.org/bpie. Support for this segment comes from the MECCA IE Fund at Inland Empire Community Foundation, advancing racial equity and supporting long-term investments and black-led organizations in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Join us again next week for Black Perspectives IE. For KVCR Public Media, I'm Maya Gwynn. Thank you.
