The Black and White Societal Flip with Black Cotton Comics’ Brian Hawkins

Imagine a society where Black people are the majority and white people are the underrepresented and marginalized race. What has this society’s history been like? How is the educational system different than our reality today?

This dystopia is what comic book creator Brian Hawkins built with Black Cotton, and today he shares his story on his inspiration for the comic, bias, and empathy for races that are different from our own.

Transcript

Jackie Ferguson: Hello everyone, and welcome. My guest today is Brian Hawkins. Brian is a freelance writer of comic books, novels and scripts. Additionally, he is an editor for Mad Cave Studios, a freelance writer for Black Box Comics and Zenescope Entertainment, and author of two children’s chapel books for North Star Editions Publishing. Brian, thank you so much for being here. 

Brian Hawkins: Thanks for having me. 

Jackie: Of course. Would you tell us a little bit about your background, your family, your identity, anything you’d like to share?

Brian: All right. Background, family identity. Oh man. My origin story, right? 

Jackie: Yes.

Brian: I’m from Fredericksburg, Virginia. Born and raised, I’ve lived in Virginia, my whole life. My mom was a stay-at-home mom and my dad, a construction worker. so he worked long hours. he was the quote unquote sole provider. So with me being home with my mom, you know, a lot of love, lot of nurturing, and also where I believe I got my love for storytelling watching soap operas with her, 

Jackie: Ah, 

Brian: just sitting on a couch, watching soaps

Jackie: Yes. Every, every black child’s afternoon, right.

Brian: Yeah. Some days when I skipped school, you know, I would stay home and watch Young and the Restless and Days of our Lives in the era when Beau and Hope were together. So, oh Yeah. From there, you know public school, did well in high school. ended up going to, to VCU for undergrad.

The interesting thing was that college wasn’t necessarily the plan. My mom and dad really left up to me what I wanted to do. and so when I decided when I was a junior, like, you know what I think, I don’t know what a college, you know you know, I figured out how to do it and, you know, touch base with a lot of the community groups that was helping with that.

And, and we made it happen, you know, loans, et cetera, et cetera, because, you know, we were in a, you know, one income family, so wasn’t easy. But you know, I I’ve always felt provided for, you know, even though I know that not everything that we did have was easy to have. So, you know,

Jackie: Lots of sacrifices, right. 

Brian: Lots of sacrifices, absolutely. And, and, and my mom and my dad both did that for me and for our family.

Full Episode Transcript

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