J.D. Baker

From his time as student government president, to his stint as a Gaylord Ambassador to the lunch with Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt that he flipped into a full-time job, J.D. Baker made a name for himself on campus and provided a perfect template for a successful career. Baker graduated in 2018 with a B.A. in public relations and a minor in African American studies; he is currently serving as platform manager at Cortado Ventures. 

We might as well classify J.D. Baker as a celebrity on the University of Oklahoma campus. His career is packed full of these illustrious highlights both previously and currently, Baker took some time to speak with Gaylord Extra about storytelling, interconnectivity between communities and the advice he has for students.  

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Honestly, I could ask questions about your career all day, but will you talk about why your storytelling outside of work- the work you don’t get paid for – is so important to you? 

My storytelling really pertains to history. It helps us understand who we are and where we’ve come from as a society, as a nation and as a community. From this, we have a better sense of our identity, which allows us to decide where we want to go as a people.

I really believe in understanding the fullness of history and the accurate storytelling of it. Right now, we have so much going on with state and federal governments wanting to erase history because they don’t want to talk about the “bad things” that have happened, like racism, sexism and other isms. And when we don’t talk about these things, we are bound to perpetuate them. 

So, for me, storytelling is important because I want to continue telling these stories to make sure we don’t repeat these patterns. Also, storytelling is an art form that helps build a sense of pride in our communities. Even as a Black American, the story of chattel slavery still makes me proud because it shows the resilience of the Black community, as we’ve thrived even after having our identities, languages and freedoms stripped from us. This is why storytelling is so important to me. 

You also talk about the communities built by Oklahoma’s early, Black pioneers in your blog “A Legacy in Front of our Own Eyes.” Could you talk about why this story is so important? 

In that blog, I talk about Dr. J.D. Randolph who had kids that crossed with Dr. W.H. Slaughter. Well, this story eventually crosses with Ralph Ellison, a great Black American novelist, who was educated by a woman who was able to impress Duke Ellington with her musical talents.  

Anyways, I could go on and on about all of this interconnectivity, but it all goes to show the interconnectivity of our communities and the fact that we do not live in isolation. We all live in a community. Then, when people realize that we all live in a community, we can understand how we can collectively change the world and make history.  

None of these individuals I’ve talked about built their lives in isolation. They did it as a community, so I write about these things, so people know how they can take control of their own lives and start building their own communities. 

Again, your storytelling is truly unique, especially with its historical focus. Why do you emphasize history in your writing?  

There are lots of folks who have stories engrained in history all across the nation and even in Oklahoma. Whether it’s New York City, Oklahoma City, Pawhuska, Hugo, Lawton or Miami, our stories are all important and interconnected.  

And these stories that I tell from our history, all across the state, help us understand who we are and where we come from, which helps maintain pride in our communities. In Oklahoma City, we can look at the history of our infrastructures and figure out ways to respect the stories that come from them. Even as our city has evolved, especially with the renewal, we can honor and respect our city’s history by telling historically focused stories that bring context to what we’re doing. 

There’s a quote that I really like in the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: “life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” What advice would you give to students who struggle to find a proper work-life balance?  

College is a hard place to be. There’s a lot going on and you’re learning about yourself in your late teens and 20s. I had dinner with a friend the other night and I was like “Oh crap, we’re actually adults now” so we actually have to make decisions that can impact the next three, four or five years into my life. For example, with money stuff, I can put myself in this much more debt or owe this much more taxes based on decisions I make. 

Ultimately, just live in the moment and cherish the moments you have with friends. And, actually, I think college students do it right. They say, “I want to hang out with my friends... but I have a paper due... Okay, I’m going to hang out with them instead,” and then it’s 11 p.m. with a paper due at midnight and they decide to crank it out or come up with an excuse to get out of it. 

And this is the beauty of what college students do. I’ve lost a few friends since college, and I look back and think about how glad I am to have these moments. Now, I take these moments with friends more seriously, and I ask myself, “can it wait” when figuring out if I can make time to spend time with friends because things can change in a heartbeat. Literally. 

Prioritizing the people that we have in our lives over the work we have in front of us is so important because this life is not about what we get, it’s about what we’re able to share and who we can share it with. 

Last night, I attended a PRSSA meeting in Lindsey & Asp, and our guest speaker spoke on the difference between motivation and inspiration. They said that motivations are usually outside forces, temporary and can fade over time, but inspirations come from within, mentally stimulate us and help us thrive. With this being said, what inspires you to move forward every day? 

It really goes back to storytelling. In my blog “A Legacy in Front of Our Own Eyes,” my friend asked what I wanted my legacy to be. That’s it. Storytelling, for me, is leaving a legacy.  

It’s like when your parents told you to leave the place better than you found it. It’s the same thing with my community, as I’ve inherited lots from my community, so I want to add my little cherry on top, by compiling and telling the stories around me, before I pass them on to the next generation.  

Samuel Duwe Proctor explains this idea in a sermon where he talks about this in terms of benefits and deficits. He talks about how people are given different things when they are born and how he had a family that blessed him with a benefit by teaching him how to read and write very early, enabling him to skip grades and attend college on a scholarship. He says this was something he couldn’t purchase. Rather, he inherited this benefit that he did not deserve or earn. Then Proctor talks about his neighborhood friend who had a drunk father that created hardship in his children's lives. This drunk father was a deficit that the children did not earn or deserve. 

And because this story mirrors my own life, as I inherited benefits from my family, I want to help those that have deficits, through my storytelling, so we can all share and live in a community.