Speaker 1: That's how that's what's up.
Speaker 2: Family. Is your girl, Tamika D. Mallory, and it's your boy,
Speaker 2: my son and general and we are your host of
Speaker 2: street politicians, the players, streets and politics. Me what's up
Speaker 2: my story?
Speaker 1: Oh man, I'm blessed the Holy Favorite on this beautiful day.
Speaker 1: You know, over here, I'm alive, blood flowing. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm feeling good, are you? I'm good?
Speaker 2: You know, it's been a real whirlwind for It's been
Speaker 2: a whirlwind for several years. Honestly, Like I can't really
Speaker 2: point to a time when I was like not feeling
Speaker 2: the pressure of like life in years. I don't know,
Speaker 2: like I think about it, you know, because I went
Speaker 2: from as you know, working for the National Action Net
Speaker 2: fourteen years to build my own business to going into
Speaker 2: the Women's March, and before that it was Justice League
Speaker 2: and gathering for justice, and then of course the Women's March,
Speaker 2: and after the Women's March until freedom and in all
Speaker 2: the stuff in between that happened. So I just feel like,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm blessed also, But it just seems like
Speaker 2: we have these big peaks and of course some low valley,
Speaker 2: so you know, it's good to be alive for sure,
Speaker 2: and to you know, feel blessed, and I don't feel
Speaker 2: depressed or anything. So I thank God for that. This
Speaker 2: has been a good week when I haven't been feeling depression.
Speaker 2: Well actually it's just the middle of the week, but hey,
Speaker 2: two or three days blessed you not feel depression?
Speaker 1: Well, that's you know what it is. I always have
Speaker 1: the conversation with people when people talk about depression on
Speaker 1: and I don't really know if I ever had pressure,
Speaker 1: right because I don't I don't think I know how identify.
Speaker 1: I know I've been through then without feel stressed. I know,
Speaker 1: you know, I've been confused and all I've been through.
Speaker 1: But I don't know if I would ever say that
Speaker 1: I've experienced what depression is, you know, and there'd be
Speaker 1: times like you know, during this week just you know,
Speaker 1: this week has been kind of a lot. You know.
Speaker 1: That's why I say I'm blessed because I've seen so
Speaker 1: much death this week and you know, and and just
Speaker 1: been in taking a lot of that. You know, I
Speaker 1: intake a lot. I think like I'm more of an impath,
Speaker 1: Like I found myself randomly being tough for me. I
Speaker 1: found myself randomly in the house is in teared, like
Speaker 1: seeing shit that just you know, disturbs my peace, you know.
Speaker 1: And but I don't know if I've ever experienced depression.
Speaker 1: I don't know, you know, I don't. I am not
Speaker 1: really the person who who deals with mental health in
Speaker 1: the capacity that you know it's been projected lately. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm not a person who has a therapists and other things,
Speaker 1: So I don't know. I talked to one or two
Speaker 1: people that have talked to that are feel comfortable talking
Speaker 1: about certain things. But for the most part, you know,
Speaker 1: I've just been dealing with life on life turn taking
Speaker 1: bumps and buz cry, get up, move, wipe your knee,
Speaker 1: you know, just do live like that way. So you know,
Speaker 1: when I hear people sneaking depression, and I'd be like,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I've ever been depressed. I know
Speaker 1: I've felt pained. I know I felt stressed. I know
Speaker 1: I felt trauma. I know I'm dealing with things that
Speaker 1: having trauma for me in my life, you know, being
Speaker 1: formally incarcerated, going through that process, losing you like walking
Speaker 1: into your house and your father's dead on the couch
Speaker 1: at twelve with drug overdose, like you know, experiencing your
Speaker 1: mother on drugs and just having to go through that
Speaker 1: and then going to jail. Lif I know, I'm dealing
Speaker 1: with trauma, and I don't know how I deal with it.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's made me depressed. I don't know,
Speaker 1: so I can't really sneak to that. I was, you know,
Speaker 1: a type of the conversation the other day, and I
Speaker 1: was actually who was I speaking to talking about this?
Speaker 1: I was talking about who was I come, stay sure.
Speaker 1: I don't know what who it was, but I know
Speaker 1: I was talking about sports, right, And I used to
Speaker 1: play basketball all through like junior high school, all the
Speaker 1: way through high school, like that was my thing. And
Speaker 1: and I'm and I never really thought about this, but
Speaker 1: my mother knowing my father, ever came to any basketball
Speaker 1: game I ever played in my life. Never was there
Speaker 1: one time that they ever came to see me play
Speaker 1: basketball at a tournament anything. I never seen them on
Speaker 1: the side. It just never happened, you know. And I
Speaker 1: and I say to my I say that and say
Speaker 1: that I make sure, and I don't know, and I
Speaker 1: don't know if it just any time that I can,
Speaker 1: like I do everything possible to make sure I met
Speaker 1: all of my sons they play soccer game that I
Speaker 1: made sure my son was playing basketball, that I was
Speaker 1: at every one in his basketball games. So I don't
Speaker 1: know if it was subconsciously I did it because I understood,
Speaker 1: you know, I never had it for me, But this
Speaker 1: was the first time I ever actually recognized that, you know,
Speaker 1: And that was just the other day. That's a forty push,
Speaker 1: you old man say to itself, Yop, you never had that.
Speaker 1: So you know, we deal with trial love and you know,
Speaker 1: but I just say that mistake. I don't even know
Speaker 1: if I ever had depression.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I don't know how to tell anybody
Speaker 2: else how to identify it, because obviously I'm not a
Speaker 2: medical person doctor, not medically trained, and so if you
Speaker 2: have never experienced it, God blessed, like that's a beautiful
Speaker 2: thing to be able to claim that. But I could
Speaker 2: tell you that from my perspective, depression has been crippling
Speaker 2: to me more than once throughout my life, you know,
Speaker 2: especially starting out probably mainly when I had my son
Speaker 2: at a very very young age. That was a really
Speaker 2: really difficult time because I just I'm talking about even
Speaker 2: before his father died, just in trying to figure out
Speaker 2: what to do with this new life that I had,
Speaker 2: you know. And then when his father and I separated,
Speaker 2: which was before he died, it just was so many things.
Speaker 2: And that's what the first time in my life when
Speaker 2: I knew I was going through something that made me
Speaker 2: feel not so much. I wasn't crying or any of that,
Speaker 2: but I felt I felt weird, very weird, and I
Speaker 2: didn't know exactly how to explain it. As time has
Speaker 2: gone on, though, I've learned through therapy and just through conversations,
Speaker 2: through listening, the more that mental health becomes a part
Speaker 2: of the daily discords. I learned that depression is something
Speaker 2: It goes up and down, It comes in different shapes,
Speaker 2: and for some people get it for you know, various reasons.
Speaker 2: And I certainly certainly have experienced it in some real,
Speaker 2: real rough times and some real, real real difference kuw
Speaker 2: waves and it. You know, I've never wanted I've never
Speaker 2: wanted to die by suicide, but I will say that
Speaker 2: I have at least thought to myself, maybe once I
Speaker 2: take these pills or whatever, I won't wake up, you know,
Speaker 2: doing things like you're taking the pill with the alcoholic beverage,
Speaker 2: knowing like I'm drinking alcohol to take down the pill
Speaker 2: instead of the water. And I didn't think I was.
Speaker 2: I didn't, you know, I didn't ever think, oh, I'm
Speaker 2: trying to do this to die. But I certainly have
Speaker 2: thought maybe today I just won't wake up with to
Speaker 2: have to continue to deal with all this craziness. But
Speaker 2: I'm so glad. I'm grateful to God for my experiences.
Speaker 2: I tell you, because now that I've gone through a
Speaker 2: lot of different things, I'm beginning to realize what really like,
Speaker 2: I understand what matters today more than ever before. So
Speaker 2: that's you know, just where I am with that. But so,
Speaker 2: you know, a lot of a lot of things happening.
Speaker 2: When you talked about seeing death, you know, I felt
Speaker 2: like a chill up my spine because the last week
Speaker 2: I have been extremely focused on two projects that I've
Speaker 2: been working on, and I had to get through these
Speaker 2: things and not be distracted and not have my.
Speaker 1: Words or my.
Speaker 2: Words, my position, my whatever be a distraction for positive
Speaker 2: things that I was doing for black women, that I
Speaker 2: was doing for our community, and just also doing for
Speaker 2: myself and my friends. I've been working on these projects
Speaker 2: for a minute and it's particularly one, and I had
Speaker 2: to be disciplined enough to really step back from the
Speaker 2: discourse of what's happening in the media, and not just
Speaker 2: in the media, but in the world, like real life stuff,
Speaker 2: and remember that even though yes, these things are important,
Speaker 2: so are the other things that I'm working on. And
Speaker 2: there was no void of voices people out there speaking
Speaker 2: to specifically the devastating crisis that it's happening in Israel Palestine.
Speaker 2: And I felt my heart was heavy because I wanted,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm so used to being out there and
Speaker 2: being in the conversation around important issues, and I wanted
Speaker 2: to do that. But I was so I was, I was,
Speaker 2: I was. My heart was warm that I'm trying. I was.
Speaker 2: I won't even say content, but I certainly felt some
Speaker 2: level of stylish, if you will. And I don't even
Speaker 2: know if that's the right word, but you get my
Speaker 2: point by watching all of you, including of course Linda
Speaker 2: of including Mark lemont Hill, Angela I mean, excuse me,
Speaker 2: a man, the Seals, Uh, Sean King, and the list
Speaker 2: goes on. Jamal Briant, Freddie Haynes. You know, as I said,
Speaker 2: you already really speak truth to power, Uh and get
Speaker 2: out there and make sure that the story is being
Speaker 2: told in a balanced way. I've watched the news and
Speaker 2: I see I see several things at once. I see
Speaker 2: one where there is certainly some truth, like you know
Speaker 2: there is, there is there is a very real and
Speaker 2: very raw attempt to honor is really lives that were
Speaker 2: lost and the hostages who are held or being held
Speaker 2: right now, and that's happening, and you see it. But
Speaker 2: I also see an imbalance and information and I see
Speaker 2: lies flat out lies being told at times depending on
Speaker 2: which network, and all of them have selective storytelling and
Speaker 2: the way in which they speak. And that's why I
Speaker 2: said earlier that I'm so glad that I've been through
Speaker 2: the things that I have gone through because throughout the
Speaker 2: Women's March and other situations and issues that have come
Speaker 2: up in my life which were truly controversial where the
Speaker 2: media was involved, I got to see how they play
Speaker 2: games with words. I got to see how they will
Speaker 2: present some information and they'll present some facts and it
Speaker 2: will be embedded. It's even in the context and the direction,
Speaker 2: it's in the imagery. It's in so many things that
Speaker 2: they intentionally misinformed people or try to force people to
Speaker 2: only see one way, and in this particular moment, I
Speaker 2: feel like it is better because we have forced you all. Really,
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously people already know where I stand right
Speaker 2: and so, but you all, and the marchers, the protesters,
Speaker 2: the people who are rising up, the Jews that are
Speaker 2: rising up around the world, to say, not in my
Speaker 2: name will you slaughter babies? Will you slaughter babies? Continuously
Speaker 2: we don't want our babies slaughter, which is the right
Speaker 2: thing to say, because it is heart wrenching to know
Speaker 2: that people, families, men, women and children died on October
Speaker 2: seventh in the attack against them.
Speaker 1: It is all.
Speaker 2: It is horrible. I am not and I said this
Speaker 2: before and I'll say it again.
Speaker 1: I refuse.
Speaker 2: If you are looking for me as an ally to
Speaker 2: be someone who either celebrates and or lacks the empathy
Speaker 2: or the ability to acknowledge all death, all deaths, all murder,
Speaker 2: all of that, then you got the wrong person. And
Speaker 2: I'm okay with that because I can go home to
Speaker 2: my Savior knowing that I'm standing in the right in
Speaker 2: my right mind and in the right shoes. When I
Speaker 2: can look around and say I don't want you to die,
Speaker 2: and I don't want you to die, and we do
Speaker 2: that every day because even in the gun violence prevention
Speaker 2: work that we do, we look at the person who's
Speaker 2: the shooter and the person on the other end of
Speaker 2: the gun as being equally important, because both sides of
Speaker 2: the gun have a story. And I think that, to
Speaker 2: me is what informs our passion and our defiance and
Speaker 2: our calling for there to be an absolute cease fire
Speaker 2: and an end not just the ceasefire, but an end
Speaker 2: to the brutality that it's happening in the Middle East,
Speaker 2: and of course, which we've been calling for even before
Speaker 2: October seventh, is the end to the occupation of the
Speaker 2: Palestinian people, which I believe will ultimately keep Israeli citizens,
Speaker 2: or it's the citizens of Israel as well as Palestinians safe.
Speaker 2: I think that the focus on Hamas and trying to
Speaker 2: take them out by bombing and shooting people is the
Speaker 2: wrong Killing people, killing babies and allowing those images to
Speaker 2: be out there, I think it is the wrong strategy.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying that I don't know good and damn
Speaker 2: well that if there is an attack against you, they're
Speaker 2: will be a response that violence begets violence. I am
Speaker 2: not ignorant to that, but I do understand that a
Speaker 2: cycle must be broken, and in order for the cycle
Speaker 2: to be broken, because we could make an excuse for
Speaker 2: one side, this side, this side, that side, back and forth.
Speaker 2: We can keep doing this for forever until more and
Speaker 2: more people and more and more bloodshed, or we could
Speaker 2: go back to the root of the problem and deal
Speaker 2: with it so that there will be a really so
Speaker 2: that the citizens, the people themselves, will have a will
Speaker 2: have a lack of interest, a lack of need, a
Speaker 2: lack of vulnerability for any type of terrorism, whether it
Speaker 2: be from the IDF or harmon, it won't need any
Speaker 2: of it. People will understand, and it will people will
Speaker 2: feel free to move about and feel true security in
Speaker 2: their birth place, in there on their land. And that's
Speaker 2: that's just it. So any news outlet that it's not
Speaker 2: speaking to that, that's not talking about it straightforward as
Speaker 2: far as I'm concerned. I quote Linda Sarsaw, our sister,
Speaker 2: our Palestinian sister from Brooklyn, our partner. I quote her,
Speaker 2: and I stand one hundred percent by that. If you
Speaker 2: don't tell the truth about what's going on in this
Speaker 2: moment and support an ending to the occupation of Palestinian people.
Speaker 2: Then you cannot possibly care about Jews and the people
Speaker 2: of Israel or anybody else, because the only way I
Speaker 2: see to go forward is to end this occupation and
Speaker 2: to make sure that people feel safe and free to
Speaker 2: exist all over the Middle East.
Speaker 1: My whole mold compass was shifted through this, just watching,
Speaker 1: you know, the death of babys to me, you know,
Speaker 1: just see it, literally see it bathing die under rubble,
Speaker 1: just father's holding their children, mother's holding their children, fathers.
Speaker 1: My father had the remains of his children's in bag.
Speaker 1: You know, there was rubble. They was digging babies out
Speaker 1: of rubble like these were this or really happened, you know.
Speaker 1: And I don't know, I don't know what type of
Speaker 1: human being, right, And because I consider myself a warrior, right,
Speaker 1: I consider myself a warrior, and I'm willing to die
Speaker 1: for what I believe in. I'm staying for my family
Speaker 1: this and that I personally couldn't be involved with another
Speaker 1: human being and savagely murdered their kids and their thing
Speaker 1: and feel some type of some type of success or
Speaker 1: feel like I have a complished my moral compass would
Speaker 1: be okay with me? As a warrior, and somebody I
Speaker 1: believe I'm a warrior. I don't think any real warriors
Speaker 1: soldier for willing to die for its country as people's life,
Speaker 1: would look at a baby dying and feel like he accomplished.
Speaker 1: So if you don't have a level of empathy or
Speaker 1: regard for that type of life, or just understanding that
Speaker 1: that's not okay to you, then there's something that you
Speaker 1: have to do. Right. The fact that people are angry
Speaker 1: with people who have the humanitarian mold combers to look
Speaker 1: at himan beings, mainly babies and women dying. You know,
Speaker 1: a quote unquote war that is supposed to be had
Speaker 1: with soldiers, right, so when nobody said and there are
Speaker 1: people who were able to justify it and feel as
Speaker 1: if it's really like an eye for either and for
Speaker 1: me it's that I don't want to see none of it.
Speaker 1: And anyone who would kill innocent people and kill children
Speaker 1: is wrong. It's horrible, it's terrific, and I do not
Speaker 1: stand by it, and I understand anyone who will speak
Speaker 1: against it. But if you can see that I have
Speaker 1: and on one side and and vehemently and adamantly speak
Speaker 1: up against it, and then you can see it happen
Speaker 1: on the other side and remain silent. To me, it's
Speaker 1: just wrong. It means that you're you're you're you're okay
Speaker 1: with certain people being murdered and certain children being murdered.
Speaker 1: You're just not okay with others, or you're too weak
Speaker 1: or scared to say that you're not okay with it.
Speaker 1: And that's to me, it's just not it's not it's
Speaker 1: not humane, you know. And it really pains me to
Speaker 1: watch black leaders and black people in positions of power
Speaker 1: who can take the position to say that I stand
Speaker 1: with Israel and if you should, you should stand against
Speaker 1: what moster is done. You should, you should absolutely stand against.
Speaker 1: But if you can't use that same breath to say,
Speaker 1: what is happening to the Palestinians in all, and I
Speaker 1: stand for them to be free, then I don't understand
Speaker 1: where your moral compasses. I can't, of good nature be
Speaker 1: able to see things they've been done every day for
Speaker 1: the last eighteen days, just dying every day and not
Speaker 1: say anything.
Speaker 2: And it's here's all, sorry, oh dare a. But here's
Speaker 2: here's one point that I keep hearing people say, right,
Speaker 2: they keep saying and not my friends who are Jewish.
Speaker 2: I was having a conversation with one of my very
Speaker 2: very close Jewish friends who said, they said, it was
Speaker 2: so soon, you know, where people expected Jews and the
Speaker 2: world to just immediately turn their attention to the Palestinian
Speaker 2: people and begin, you know, automatically fighting for other rights
Speaker 2: and protecting other individuals. And she said, it was so soon,
Speaker 2: and it just felt so raw, and it's like they
Speaker 2: didn't have time to grieve properly, and they wanted the
Speaker 2: world to grieve with them. And I sat with that.
Speaker 2: It hit me so hard at length because that I
Speaker 2: feel that, I feel like when you know, that's a
Speaker 2: real thing that we didn't get to greed. And so
Speaker 2: it took me a few days or maybe overnight to
Speaker 2: respond to her, and then I said, here's the thing.
Speaker 2: Black folks have been doing that bad bum Like, I
Speaker 2: understand what you're saying, because we have to constantly.
Speaker 1: Harmed.
Speaker 2: We're harmed and tell people don't bomb the buildings, so
Speaker 2: you the families be out there. How many times li
Speaker 2: you'll talk about it? How many times have we been
Speaker 2: at a George Boord or somebody is shot to death,
Speaker 2: they killed, the blood is still on the streets. The
Speaker 2: people are angry, and as soon as folks get ready
Speaker 2: to go tear up the buildings and the preset the
Speaker 2: next day or the night of we have no choice.
Speaker 2: The lawyers, the family members, saw ask the people, the organizes, and.
Speaker 1: That's just but that's that's just property though, right, because
Speaker 1: it ain't it ain't like it's it's it's not like
Speaker 1: we we have to you know that we have to
Speaker 1: deal with the cartage of it. And did we have
Speaker 1: to just tell people not to deal with We gotta
Speaker 1: be so we gotta watch blood be spilled. And then
Speaker 1: we have to protect property. We told about protecting light, right,
Speaker 1: that's just the next level. We we can't even say, yo,
Speaker 1: fuck that that building. Can't you know what they done?
Speaker 1: Kill this man in that building, don't deserve to be
Speaker 1: in the more fucking We don't even have that right.
Speaker 1: We don't even have that. So when it comes to
Speaker 1: them like we would, we would never even say take
Speaker 1: innocent people clouds, Okay, they shot somebody, so you know what,
Speaker 1: we're gonna go bomb the whole building in Milwaukee because
Speaker 1: the police shot somebody in the WORL. That wouldn't even
Speaker 1: make sense. That that's not something that I can fathom
Speaker 1: in my mind right if my if this is just
Speaker 1: me and and because I don't deal with hate and vengeance,
Speaker 1: I don't deal with that. I don't even know what
Speaker 1: that looks like. If you took of a life of
Speaker 1: my take, if somebody shot and killed one of my
Speaker 1: family members, I couldnot sit there and be happy to
Speaker 1: see a baby get killed because they shot one of
Speaker 1: my things. I just couldn't do it. I couldn't be silent.
Speaker 1: I like, I don't know. I don't know what that is.
Speaker 1: And that's other people's things. I'm just saying there are
Speaker 1: people who feel that way and some people that say
Speaker 1: fuck that, you're killed as some period. I don't have
Speaker 1: that that type of moral compass. That's not who I am.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's what any warrior who warriors is.
Speaker 1: I can understand the medias of ben who sitting here,
Speaker 1: and if you lost your your your loved one, maybe
Speaker 1: you maybe you do. Look, maybe there is a level
Speaker 1: of vengeance, But I don't see how that vengeance, you know,
Speaker 1: equates to babies a woman and I just don't see
Speaker 1: how that vengeance equates it. I don't I personally don't
Speaker 1: see that, and I can't. There's nothing that nobody could
Speaker 1: tell me that makes me feel like I should be
Speaker 1: quiet or I should understan there why people feel like
Speaker 1: the depth of one side is it's horrific, but the
Speaker 1: death of the other one is something to be solid
Speaker 1: and well, I just don't understand it, and I never will.
Speaker 2: A nonoether of it is just that none of it
Speaker 2: is None of it is right, None of it is right,
Speaker 2: None of it is right. All the killing is bad.
Speaker 2: All the killing is terrible. All the killing is horrible.
Speaker 2: And you must acknowledge that even before October seventh, Palestinians
Speaker 2: were dying. We know we were there, we saw what happened,
Speaker 2: so we must we must say knowledge brutality before October seventh.
Speaker 2: So how do you in the cycle? That's the question.
Speaker 2: It's the only question, you know. President Obama wrote a
Speaker 2: letter and you and I and others spent some time
Speaker 2: really reading yesterday, and there's still some stuff in it
Speaker 2: that I still consider parts of the letter to be propaganda.
Speaker 2: I think to not be ten toes down for a
Speaker 2: ceasefire is trash, period. I don't care who you are,
Speaker 2: President Obama, the Queen Mother whoever, President Biden, you name
Speaker 2: the people, just put them out on anybody you bring
Speaker 2: me anybody. I don't care who it is. My mama,
Speaker 2: my mama and daddy, my granddaughter who I love everything,
Speaker 2: I give my life right now if she said, well,
Speaker 2: I don't believe in the cease draw so to me,
Speaker 2: his whole letter unfortunately misses the mark, because we must
Speaker 2: be calling to in what is happening there and to
Speaker 2: stop at least at least for humanitarian aid. But beyond
Speaker 2: that this point, a ceasepy is a small thing. There's
Speaker 2: much more that needs to be done. So I have
Speaker 2: to say that. But I also know and understand that
Speaker 2: one he was the president of the United States of America,
Speaker 2: and he ain't gonna go but so far against the
Speaker 2: position of the new president who he supports, right, and
Speaker 2: also the country and the politics and the things we
Speaker 2: know and don't know, the things that are seen and unseen. Right,
Speaker 2: he's not gonna go much further than that. And I
Speaker 2: am I am, I am politically astute enough to understand
Speaker 2: that half of it is said, the other half isn't said,
Speaker 2: and then there's still some shit that's left out or
Speaker 2: that we don't. We're not We're not pretty too. I
Speaker 2: understand how the talks happened. I understand the games that's played.
Speaker 2: I understand all of it. So as I read the letter,
Speaker 2: I read it knowing that I wasn't gonna get a radical.
Speaker 2: Uh you know, he wasn't gonna be Malcolm X. I
Speaker 2: know that, but I am looking for him to include
Speaker 2: important things. He said some things that were really important,
Speaker 2: and I wish I had it so I could read
Speaker 2: it at this moment, but I don't want to. I
Speaker 2: want people to go because that's one of the things
Speaker 2: we about to talk about next. It's people don't read
Speaker 2: enough from start to finish to understand and then check
Speaker 2: the source and do it and get another source for information. Right,
Speaker 2: But he talks about how long this conflict, and some
Speaker 2: people don't like the use of the term conflict. So
Speaker 2: for those who don't like that term, we're not gonna
Speaker 2: be perfect. And nobody should be looking for, especially people
Speaker 2: who are not either from Israel or Palestine, or Israeli
Speaker 2: or Palestinian, to say it exactly perfect every single word.
Speaker 2: That's just not realistic. So I understand some people say,
Speaker 2: will stop saying conflict. Well, It is a conflict to
Speaker 2: me when people, all kinds of people are dying. But
Speaker 2: I understand, you know, of course, the occupation and all
Speaker 2: of those things. And he talks about the history of
Speaker 2: how it happened and how we got to this place.
Speaker 2: He talks about the fact that the huge, the the
Speaker 2: the the that Israel needs to follow the guidelines of
Speaker 2: the United Nations and all the other you know, powers
Speaker 2: that be that set the tone for what is a
Speaker 2: humanitarian effort and what is violating law like war crimes.
Speaker 2: He talks about that and says that they need to
Speaker 2: be careful not to turn global the global world or
Speaker 2: global society against them, and they need to be you know,
Speaker 2: careful about uh, you know, what they do and how
Speaker 2: they go about protecting themselves in this situation. Then he
Speaker 2: talks about the settlements, right, and he talks about how
Speaker 2: the settlements are and set learn which are people who
Speaker 2: have gone to Israel and the Jews who have shown
Speaker 2: up in Israel and in Palestine and decided this is
Speaker 2: my land. And the government backs them, taking people's land,
Speaker 2: throwing them out their homes. He talks about that, and
Speaker 2: he said the settlers have gone unaddressed. They have been.
Speaker 2: The displacement is a problem, and that and and and
Speaker 2: and I thought that was powerful talking about using the
Speaker 2: word the terminology displacement, you know, And and I said
Speaker 2: to myself, it's not that people don't know the truth,
Speaker 2: it's that they're unwilling to say it.
Speaker 1: There is this false narrative and people have to deal
Speaker 1: with it, right And there's the false narrative that when
Speaker 1: you speak and you have a different opinion about a
Speaker 1: situation like this, you know that somehow this word anti
Speaker 1: semitic is for you. And what it does is it
Speaker 1: scares people from having a conversation and makes people say,
Speaker 1: I don't want to be labeled. That you can have
Speaker 1: a disagreement. And that's one of the things that Obama
Speaker 1: said in his speech that was really really touched me.
Speaker 1: In a letter that he said, he said, it is
Speaker 1: possible for people of goodwill to champion Palestinian rights and
Speaker 1: the poll certain Israeli government policies in the West Bank
Speaker 1: and guys are without being anti semitic. Perhaps most of all,
Speaker 1: it means we should choose not to always assume the
Speaker 1: worst in those who we disagree. In the age of
Speaker 1: constant Ranker troubling in misinformation on social media at a
Speaker 1: time when so many politicians and intention seekers see an
Speaker 1: advantage in shedding heat rather than light. It may be
Speaker 1: unrealistic to expect respectful dialogue on any issue, and that
Speaker 1: that's what that's what it comes down to. There's so
Speaker 1: many people who have you watched people just have disagreements
Speaker 1: and you just say, okay, they disagree. It doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that our anti youth. I can be anti oppression, right.
Speaker 1: I can think that what the Israeli government is doing
Speaker 1: in guys that is oppression. And I can say that
Speaker 1: and it doesn't mean that I'm anti Semitic. It doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that I hate Jews or I don't like Jews.
Speaker 1: It can mean that I disagree with something and it's
Speaker 1: it's it's it's actually horrible that we have to do that,
Speaker 1: that that people have to be quiet or don't want
Speaker 1: to say it because they don't want to be laid
Speaker 1: with something that they're not right. We have love for
Speaker 1: we have love for Jews. We on the front line
Speaker 1: with Jews all the time. In this movie, this movement
Speaker 1: is comprised with mainly Palestinian Jews, Blacks. It's all of us.
Speaker 1: We fighting against oppression people who are pressed. So when people,
Speaker 1: when people have to fear the fact that they say
Speaker 1: something that disagrees with somebody, they can be label something.
Speaker 1: It's just not fair and it's just not fair what
Speaker 1: it does. It doesn't lean space for real dialogue, for
Speaker 1: honest dialogue, for people to honestly express how they might
Speaker 1: about something. Whether you disagree or not. We can disagree
Speaker 1: on something, and I don't think that you anti black
Speaker 1: because you don't agree with what I am. I don't
Speaker 1: think that you're a racist person because you don't agree
Speaker 1: on my position with something. You know, And it's just
Speaker 1: not I just don't understand how you know.
Speaker 2: I guess you know, people do label, but people do
Speaker 2: label folks who question, you know, police brutality or whatever.
Speaker 2: People do label white folks who have questions or pushback
Speaker 2: or whatever as being anti black, And I think that
Speaker 2: is something that we need to examine, right because sometimes
Speaker 2: they are and sometimes people are straight up anti Semitic,
Speaker 2: and there is anti Symthitism. It exists, and it has
Speaker 2: existed and people have been harmed as a result of it.
Speaker 2: I don't think anybody can sing here and say different
Speaker 2: that that's not the point of the conversation.
Speaker 1: That's never bring a coil of the car conversation. The
Speaker 1: point is that every every disagreement about a political stance
Speaker 1: that that has to do with this situation is not antisemitic,
Speaker 1: and it shouldn't be labeled that. You know. It's it's
Speaker 1: just like somebody was saying the other day. So up
Speaker 1: to all this point, the same people that you thought
Speaker 1: were the best leaders in the world, that followed the
Speaker 1: believe in everything that you've been with, that been hand
Speaker 1: in hand with the Jewish community, to be fighting against
Speaker 1: all these things now that they believe, like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I don't think maybe should be dying in God them right.
Speaker 1: I think that that doesn't make sense. I think that
Speaker 1: you know, there should be a ceasefire. I think the
Speaker 1: palace city is you know what, you'd be free. I
Speaker 1: don't think they should live in concentration. Came the open
Speaker 1: air prisoners. I don't think anybody should live because you
Speaker 1: have that position. That doesn't that doesn't take back all
Speaker 1: of the ship that you've been doing in community with
Speaker 1: the Jewish community for years. So it's it's it's this
Speaker 1: unfair that some people do it, like just like it'll
Speaker 1: be unfair with some people who if a person said, well,
Speaker 1: I think you know this police forwards, that was right.
Speaker 1: In this situation, I don't agree with the way this
Speaker 1: person and you might not agree, but it doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that person is anti black. It doesn't mean that person
Speaker 1: is racist. I've had we've had a conversation and dialogue
Speaker 1: with people who don't agree with us on police's If
Speaker 1: black people don't agree with us all or it doesn't
Speaker 1: mean you anti black. It means that we have a
Speaker 1: different position in this situation. It means that we don't agree,
Speaker 1: and we might not never agree on a subject, and
Speaker 1: we can still love each other and I can still
Speaker 1: think you a dope person. I can still want you
Speaker 1: to live and fight for your rights every day, but
Speaker 1: I cannot agree with you on a particular issue that
Speaker 1: has to do with Israel and Ganda.
Speaker 2: That's real, what Israel and power sn I just want
Speaker 2: to make sure because one thing that is very very
Speaker 2: very very very important is that we stop allowing the
Speaker 2: media to make this Gaza because it is not just Gaza,
Speaker 2: it's the Palestinian people all over the region and even
Speaker 2: in the West Bink. We are seeing protests we're seeing
Speaker 2: people being brutalized, we're seeing people being arrested. We're seeing
Speaker 2: the internet and the stories the news sources controlled that
Speaker 2: the people can even watch and listen to because they
Speaker 2: don't want ol Jazeera and others that are telling a
Speaker 2: balanced story about the situation to exist in that area.
Speaker 2: So it's important because people are still even in this moment,
Speaker 2: with all that has happened, they're still dealing with a
Speaker 2: level of oppression, and therefore we have to make sure
Speaker 2: we call it out. And I, you know, I think
Speaker 2: we can end this just again reviving people that if
Speaker 2: you put a dog in a cage for a certain
Speaker 2: amount of time and you don't feed it, you treat
Speaker 2: it a certain way, you beat it, you brutalize it.
Speaker 2: When you open that cage or if that dog is
Speaker 2: able to get out of there, they are going to
Speaker 2: attack whatever is first and foremost, and when they attack it,
Speaker 2: it is not going to be pretty. That's what we
Speaker 2: learned about pit bulls. Don't play with them, don't be
Speaker 2: beating them up or making them, you know, or or
Speaker 2: confining them, mistreating them, because when you do that, you
Speaker 2: turn them into animals, You turn them into something that
Speaker 2: you don't. I mean what they already animals, but you
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying, you turn them into something that
Speaker 2: you're not prepared to deal with, that they get into
Speaker 2: a situation where they are able to you know, retaliate
Speaker 2: or reactor or initiate or whatever, you know, since you
Speaker 2: want to put it in. And so the best thing
Speaker 2: to do is to treat all people and all and
Speaker 2: all things that have life, that have a heart, that
Speaker 2: is a breathing, living organism, to treat it with respect,
Speaker 2: because the more you respect it, then you have the
Speaker 2: right to demand respect from it. Doesn't mean that terrorism
Speaker 2: won't always exist, because we know that, you know, people
Speaker 2: do bad things to folks and they've done nothing, nothing
Speaker 2: at all. You know that that happened. And of course,
Speaker 2: even in this situation on October seventh, there were people
Speaker 2: who were killed who some of them were actually defenders
Speaker 2: of the Palestinian people. They were folks who at least
Speaker 2: this is what I've been told by watching news interviews
Speaker 2: that listening to some things online, that there were people
Speaker 2: who were very liberal, that they were out there and
Speaker 2: they believed in Palestinian rights right. And so there's casualties
Speaker 2: all the time. When there's war. But you got to
Speaker 2: get to the rule of the war so you can
Speaker 2: end that. You can't just think that because you've taken
Speaker 2: out people that you're not actually just developing more of
Speaker 2: the same. They might change the name from Hamas to
Speaker 2: Tou Tou. You don't know what the new and improved
Speaker 2: version will be, but promised but best and believed that
Speaker 2: what will not change is that the images that will
Speaker 2: be in the next generation mind will be that of
Speaker 2: a time when blood bodies, piece bits of bodies in bags, mothers, babies, fathers, families,
Speaker 2: blown up their community level. There is no way that
Speaker 2: that brings about the peace you claimed you want. It's
Speaker 2: no way. It is no way. And do I understand
Speaker 2: that wars war, absolutely, but they What I know is
Speaker 2: that you have a military that goes out into a
Speaker 2: place where there is other military And maybe this is
Speaker 2: just on the movies, but in the movies, what I
Speaker 2: see is there are military people that's out there in
Speaker 2: the middle of other military space or whatever you wan
Speaker 2: on the lay in or whatever they're fighting for, and
Speaker 2: they shoot and kill one another people who are signed
Speaker 2: up to be there. So nobody should be going and
Speaker 2: taking some innocent life. Nobody should be doing that and
Speaker 2: in order for us to stop it. I don't think
Speaker 2: it's that difficult of an answer. I think if you
Speaker 2: are a person who truly wants peace, it's not that difficult.
Speaker 2: But if you are someone who already who already committed
Speaker 2: war crimes, and who wants land, and who wants power,
Speaker 2: unconditional and unending power, then you will use anything as
Speaker 2: an opportunity to continue the plan you already had. And
Speaker 2: we're not gonna see him latelight, that's not the situation.
Speaker 2: How does net and y'allhoo become a hero?
Speaker 1: Who are we serious?
Speaker 2: Always curious? Janni was great during nine to eleven, and
Speaker 2: guess what, he's still a rasist. He was a racist
Speaker 2: then and he's still erasist. And it didn't change my parents'
Speaker 2: opinion of him. Even Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New
Speaker 2: York I, was getting in so much trouble online because
Speaker 2: during the pandemic he was up there on TV and
Speaker 2: they all manned. The people love Andrew Cuomo, Baybay. They
Speaker 2: thought he was the best thing walking. They were so
Speaker 2: and I was the only one dropping up there. Let
Speaker 2: me tell you the truth about who Andrew Cuomo. Is
Speaker 2: him doing this good thing during the pandemic, is in
Speaker 2: the way that he speaks and how he's charismatically mesmerizing you.
Speaker 2: Has nothing to do with the havoc that has been
Speaker 2: reaped over our communities because of his policies, because he
Speaker 2: has played games and been able to divide the Democrats
Speaker 2: or the Democrats don't have power, so he can allow
Speaker 2: the freaking Republicans to impose their will on a people
Speaker 2: that have voted overwhelmingly for different policies for in a
Speaker 2: different direction. Okay, I know who Andrew Cuomo is, and
Speaker 2: I didn't stop telling the truth about him just because,
Speaker 2: oh now, all of a sudden, he's the dear sweetheart
Speaker 2: of the nation. So you know, that's that's my thing
Speaker 2: about it. And there's more to be seen. I think
Speaker 2: we ought to be out in the streets even more,
Speaker 2: and you know, I'm ready to go.
Speaker 1: So.
Speaker 2: Also in the news, Revolt TV has announced that Baltimore
Speaker 2: parents are outraged as no high school student passes the
Speaker 2: math proficiency test. No high school student in the whole
Speaker 2: city of Baltimore past the math proficiency test. Now there's
Speaker 2: a lot of things with that. I mean, there have
Speaker 2: been a lot of studies that talk about those proficient
Speaker 2: proficiency exams and how they are are not in the
Speaker 2: best interests of all children. Her racist has been used,
Speaker 2: but I don't know enough for me to add my
Speaker 2: lend my voice to that, So I would just say
Speaker 2: that there has been absolutely studies and talks about those
Speaker 2: proficiency exams and why they are not in the best
Speaker 2: interests of our you know, of young of young black people,
Speaker 2: you know, especially when you are teaching to test coming
Speaker 2: off of a pandemic.
Speaker 1: However, though.
Speaker 2: We still I'm hearing from educators, especially young black boys,
Speaker 2: have not fully returned to school since the pandemic. We
Speaker 2: know that many of these students lost two now almost
Speaker 2: three years of the proper foundation in terms of their
Speaker 2: edgy cation, and so it is not difficult for me
Speaker 2: to believe these results. But it can't be that everybody
Speaker 2: failed the test, except that the system is completely broken,
Speaker 2: completely broken, because even the kid who who is not studying,
Speaker 2: some of them are brilliant enough to be able to
Speaker 2: take tests and past. So if everybody failed, the system
Speaker 2: is so broken that it's actually very scary because it
Speaker 2: means if we can't handle this, this thing he if
Speaker 2: none of our students can handle it, where we're going
Speaker 2: as a people is a real sad sad sad sad
Speaker 2: sad sad.
Speaker 1: Please, no, it really is. You know when I when
Speaker 1: I heard that story, I'm not surprised. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: really just not surprised because not only is the system,
Speaker 1: you know, just failing our kids in general. And I
Speaker 1: speak about this all the time. You know, a lot
Speaker 1: of curriculums in schools that I there, especially like young boys,
Speaker 1: young men, and we have the lowest Black Black male
Speaker 1: have the lowest graduation in high school. Right, we have
Speaker 1: the highest drop out rate and and and when you
Speaker 1: think about it, it's it's for me. I put myself
Speaker 1: in the position of being a young black male in
Speaker 1: school and I was actually intelligent, right, but there was
Speaker 1: there was very little that kept me engaged. Right, There
Speaker 1: was very little in the curriculum and the style of
Speaker 1: teaching and everything that kept me engaged. I didn't really
Speaker 1: want to be there. I did it because you know,
Speaker 1: I wanted I wanted to be able to say that
Speaker 1: I could pass the test. I wanted my mother to
Speaker 1: be proud. I wanted those days have it. So you know,
Speaker 1: I pushed myself to do it, but it wasn't like
Speaker 1: the classes were engaged me. That kept me engaatey. You know,
Speaker 1: I speak about this all the time. I remember my son,
Speaker 1: who was nine or ten as old at the time,
Speaker 1: to start crying when I was taking them to school,
Speaker 1: and it was like, I don't want to go to
Speaker 1: school because you know, it pretty much hinders my creativity.
Speaker 1: Like I sold to be learning. I learned off life.
Speaker 1: When I'm outside, it's find of learning. I learned things
Speaker 1: and there you just sit there and you take tests
Speaker 1: and they just want you to pass the tests, and
Speaker 1: it's not it doesn't really work for me. And he
Speaker 1: was crying, and I thought about this shit. I'm like,
Speaker 1: damn because I remember feeling that way, you know. And
Speaker 1: so when we look at the structure and the system
Speaker 1: that we set up, especially for our children, they're not
Speaker 1: set up for us to be too excel. You know.
Speaker 1: There are some of us who are some of us
Speaker 1: are able to fit within the system. Some of us
Speaker 1: you know, were trained within you know, our households and
Speaker 1: the way that we were brought up that they gave
Speaker 1: us this certain level of you know, able to ability
Speaker 1: to adapt to this destructure, it's too and then some
Speaker 1: of us didn't most of us, but for the most part,
Speaker 1: especially in our communities at risk. When you talk about Baltimore,
Speaker 1: you know, you know the demographic. You know most of
Speaker 1: them are living in.
Speaker 3: Poverty, strict and communities and situations like that. You know
Speaker 3: what they're dealing with every day, and you know that
Speaker 3: the current curriculum instructure it doesn't engage them.
Speaker 1: You know. So if we, if we, if we, if
Speaker 1: we want to be intentional about giving our kids the
Speaker 1: best opportunities to excel, you know, and and and be
Speaker 1: able to win, we have to we have to say ourselves, yo,
Speaker 1: we got to create the structure that that fits us.
Speaker 1: You know, every culture, when you look at cultural when
Speaker 1: you look at school system throughout the world, they are
Speaker 1: culturally competent, right and and that's why their kids are
Speaker 1: able to accel. Like even if there was once like
Speaker 1: I think last year, they would talk about how in
Speaker 1: New York that the Jewish schools they weren't they weren't
Speaker 1: given they weren't making their kids take these to them, right,
Speaker 1: they were saying that they weren't even giving it to
Speaker 1: them because they didn't like commit We're not giving our
Speaker 1: kids because this shit, First of all, it must have
Speaker 1: not been culturally competent to them. They didn't feel like
Speaker 1: it was relevant to their level of intelligence and the
Speaker 1: ship that they needed to do in their community to
Speaker 1: be successful. You know. So if we're not intentional about
Speaker 1: having that same level of cultural competence in our community,
Speaker 1: in our school to make our kids feel like they
Speaker 1: have they enjoying learning, that they have an opportunity like
Speaker 1: we're not. We're not creating systems that say, hey, this
Speaker 1: is the best way that black and brown people learned
Speaker 1: inside of school. This is the best way for us
Speaker 1: to get the best, you know, the highest level out
Speaker 1: of that. And if we're not doing that, we're gonna
Speaker 1: keep having these conversations. We just gonna keep having them.
Speaker 1: I tell them you. I remember I was in seventh grade.
Speaker 4: And my teacher you know, I was in eighth grade actually,
Speaker 4: and we was having standdized tests and we we was
Speaker 4: one of the smartest classes inside the school.
Speaker 1: Uh, one of the smartest classes in the school. And
Speaker 1: we had a teacher and she looked at when she
Speaker 1: gave the tests of she was looking through it and
Speaker 1: she realized that none of the ship that we was
Speaker 1: learning was in this test. And what she did was
Speaker 1: the lady, I'll never forget that she went inside the room,
Speaker 1: pulled the curtain down, and started giving us the answers,
Speaker 1: literally started giving and writing the answers on the board
Speaker 1: and the race and looking making sure none of the
Speaker 1: people because she realized that we weren't prepared, that whatever
Speaker 1: they was teaching us didn't prepare us for these tests
Speaker 1: that they was giving us. And I was even though
Speaker 1: I felt like most of the edswer she gave me
Speaker 1: I had anyway, but there was a lot of people
Speaker 1: in the class that was lost, like what the fuck
Speaker 1: he did? You know, we weren't properly prepared, they.
Speaker 2: Weren't giving And I think that, and I think that
Speaker 2: I think that, you know, there's something to be said
Speaker 2: about the fact that we cannot accept mediocrity right and
Speaker 2: we have to succeed, excel and then succeed and excel again.
Speaker 2: So I don't, you know, I don't want to give
Speaker 2: the impression that we think it's just okay, or you know,
Speaker 2: black children should just have something different or be treated differently.
Speaker 2: But I know for a fact that in Baltimore, they're
Speaker 2: from super super super smart kids. Everybody in Baltimore is
Speaker 2: not an uneducated or unable to pass that test. There's
Speaker 2: something else going on, and I hope that they take
Speaker 2: the time to figure it out. And I also hope
Speaker 2: that parents, while they can be upset with the system,
Speaker 2: but that they also look at themselves and to know
Speaker 2: how much are they helping their children to focus so
Speaker 2: that they can be prepared beyond the test, you know,
Speaker 2: beyond tests. I'm not even talking about the test. I'm
Speaker 2: talking about just making sure that our kids are properly prepared.
Speaker 2: But I knew that they would be some ramifications of
Speaker 2: the pandemic, and I think this is one of them
Speaker 2: showing up, and it's going to be even more because
Speaker 2: our ability to compete in the global society is really
Speaker 2: really it's it's a it's a very sensitive topic and
Speaker 2: it's also a uh, it's a gloomy conversation because it's
Speaker 2: not We're not where we should be. But I do
Speaker 2: think that when we speak about Baltimore, we should shift
Speaker 2: to the next conversation quickly. And and I want to
Speaker 2: give my thought of the day and year related to
Speaker 2: the issue that we were just talking about. I'm really
Speaker 2: watching this next topic unfolds, and I'm realizing that reading
Speaker 2: and comprehension is becoming real difficult for folks. I was
Speaker 2: driving the other day and I was gone into a
Speaker 2: place in New Jersey or root for and I've been
Speaker 2: going to this place for several years. I go there
Speaker 2: all the time. I got ready to put on my
Speaker 2: GPS the address, and I said to myself, why are
Speaker 2: you using that GPS to get to somewhere where you
Speaker 2: know how to go? Yeah, I'm sure there's a couple
Speaker 2: turns that you know sometimes you kind of when you're
Speaker 2: going to something. It's not my everyday drive. So when
Speaker 2: you're going it from New York into New Jersey and
Speaker 2: you don't know what you're doing, you could go past
Speaker 2: something and then you gotta go all the way back,
Speaker 2: and that's not always easy. So it's definitely simpler to
Speaker 2: put your GPS on and to take me straight there.
Speaker 2: But I rejected the idea that I can't figure this
Speaker 2: out on my own with my own brain, and I
Speaker 2: don't need the phone, the internet and the lady talking
Speaker 2: to me to tell me exactly how to get to
Speaker 2: where it is. And I'm going I need to open
Speaker 2: pay attention stop talking on the phone so much or
Speaker 2: doing whatever else that I'm doing that's distracting me from
Speaker 2: using my own brain. So I just started driving, and
Speaker 2: you know what, when it was time for me to
Speaker 2: turn into the entrance to where I was going, which,
Speaker 2: by the way, it is a very it's kind of
Speaker 2: dangerous because if you don't big no early enough and
Speaker 2: then turn into the parking lot, you can really you
Speaker 2: could cause an accident because it's people right up on
Speaker 2: you behind. And I wasn't paying attention that well at
Speaker 2: that time, and so I went past it right And
Speaker 2: then I've started for a few seconds being like, damn,
Speaker 2: I went past it. I should have put the GPS on,
Speaker 2: have another conversation with myself, like it's not that serious.
Speaker 2: You need to get off here, either go around the
Speaker 2: back way and come around to it. This ain't ain't
Speaker 2: like I'm in a different community. I'm not in the
Speaker 2: next state. You know, I'm ok here, or just go
Speaker 2: this way, do this, do that. It took me next
Speaker 2: of seven extra minutes to find my way around, and
Speaker 2: the next thing you know, I was at my location
Speaker 2: and I said to myself one of the things about
Speaker 2: this cell phone and the conveniences of information that is
Speaker 2: largely misinformation in some instances and in other instances overloaded
Speaker 2: information is that it is dumbing people down from being
Speaker 2: able to read, discern, and understand underlying context and facts.
Speaker 2: And the reason why this happened is because with all
Speaker 2: of us last week or the week before, when we
Speaker 2: were traveling together to go to our coworkers mother's funeral service.
Speaker 2: As I was driving, I was having issues because the
Speaker 2: GPS wasn't catching up with me to go different turns
Speaker 2: or whatever, and I started and because I was relying
Speaker 2: so much on the GPS to tell me things, the
Speaker 2: style was right there and I wasn't paying attention. So
Speaker 2: I said to myself, when going to Jersey from New
Speaker 2: York City, I'm not going to focus only on this phone,
Speaker 2: because if the phone goes dead or something happened, right.
Speaker 1: No, the phone, we can focus on that fall work.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying. It is become the endoor be all,
Speaker 2: and it just can't be that way. It just can't
Speaker 2: be that way. So you know, there's some people who
Speaker 2: will probably say, whatever, do what you want to do,
Speaker 2: and that's fine. I respect that too, but I personally
Speaker 2: have decided that I have to do a lot more
Speaker 2: without the cell phone guiding my every move because it
Speaker 2: is truly taken away from I remember before my parents
Speaker 2: had cell phones, they used to read books all day long,
Speaker 2: that's what they love. Then be reading three books at
Speaker 2: the same time, both of them sitting there either reading
Speaker 2: the same book and discussing it or reading one read
Speaker 2: one book and pass it to the other one the
Speaker 2: other word like they used to read all the time.
Speaker 2: And I'll never forget my father saying that since he
Speaker 2: picked up the cell phone, because they didn't have cell phone,
Speaker 2: they waited maybe a year and a half or so,
Speaker 2: two years after people or everybody had a phone, they
Speaker 2: still was on the back end of that. I remember
Speaker 2: my father saying to me, since he picked up the
Speaker 2: cell phone, has it has cut back on the amount
Speaker 2: of reading because he can't necessarily focus on reading as
Speaker 2: much as he used to. And I realized that that's
Speaker 2: part of the problem with this generation, is that we
Speaker 2: are so focused on the cell phone and focused on
Speaker 2: the information coming through the line coming through the You
Speaker 2: know everything, you see everything, you know your full understanding.
Speaker 2: It's based upon a post or something that you read
Speaker 2: on the Internet, which is through two sentences and maybe
Speaker 2: a caption, maybe a caption, maybe even ten words that
Speaker 2: somebody said when the extra part is in word eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen,
Speaker 2: and fifteen. But all you heard is up to ten
Speaker 2: and therefore you make a full assumption. You're not even
Speaker 2: a person to sit back and say, well, let me
Speaker 2: go see a little bit more about that. And it
Speaker 2: brings me to my thoughts on Jada Pinkett and this book.
Speaker 2: I've already put a statement out there and you know,
Speaker 2: and talked about it. But now this week we had
Speaker 2: a beautiful, amazing event. I just want to thank you,
Speaker 2: my son, and James Bond and Angelo Pinto and all
Speaker 2: the other brothers who were there to assist the women
Speaker 2: and make sure that our event went well. All the
Speaker 2: help that you all were putting in, and the hands
Speaker 2: and the drinks and this and that and just everything
Speaker 2: y'all did to accommodate us holding phones, taking pictures, you know,
Speaker 2: making sure that we had everything that we needed as
Speaker 2: a team. But it's interesting to me that I see
Speaker 2: so many people making comments about the posts have been
Speaker 2: going up for the last two days where people are
Speaker 2: saying positive, beautiful, things about the energy, about Jada, about
Speaker 2: the book, about what they learned. There are still people,
Speaker 2: there's a few that I'm like that I see this,
Speaker 2: like really, like that's your impression, because I was thinking
Speaker 2: something different. Even people who came to the event said,
Speaker 2: you know, outside eye on y'all because I ain't even
Speaker 2: understand it. But I can't because my girls invited me.
Speaker 2: And now I'm leaving well totally different understanding a totally
Speaker 2: different feeling. And I after sitting with that and looking
Speaker 2: at how there were people and there are people in
Speaker 2: the comment sections that even though I or someone else
Speaker 2: is saying, Wow, you can't judge a book by its cover. Wow,
Speaker 2: I heard some powerful things.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: I was so glad to hear Jada's story and to read,
Speaker 2: you know, to hear things in a book or wow,
Speaker 2: read the book and it's amazing. And I got to
Speaker 2: see the energy. I feel this, and that they're still
Speaker 2: in there, Like, no, I can't believe you would say that,
Speaker 2: Oh my god, this world is going, Oh my god,
Speaker 2: how can you support you this? And that the third meanwhile,
Speaker 2: you ain't read the book. You've never been in a
Speaker 2: room with the woman and we had and you telling
Speaker 2: us based upon a social media post. You're giving us
Speaker 2: your opinion based upon a social media post or seven
Speaker 2: or eight words that you heard the sisters say. And
Speaker 2: we're telling you that we sat there for hours and
Speaker 2: heard all of it. And people have read the book
Speaker 2: and listened to long form two three hour podcasts where
Speaker 2: she is speaking in fall sentences, where the book you
Speaker 2: can read the paragraphs to know the story. They're like, oh,
Speaker 2: she's changing the story now, No, the story in the
Speaker 2: book is exactly what she is saying. But you are
Speaker 2: hearing a clip or somebody's impression of it and making
Speaker 2: a determination and telling folks who are actually doing due
Speaker 2: diligence about a black woman. Here, you are a black
Speaker 2: woman tailing down somebody you don't know, never sat down with,
Speaker 2: having read the book, having listened to a long form
Speaker 2: interview of any sort. I haven't heard anything past a
Speaker 2: few words. And you got the nerve as a black
Speaker 2: woman and even a black man to sit up there
Speaker 2: and try to tell somebody who didn't do all of
Speaker 2: that that they are crazy or they are wrong, or Jada,
Speaker 2: ain't this or that and the third And you ain't
Speaker 2: spent more than six minutes listening to what she's saying.
Speaker 2: This to me is the most ridiculous thing ever, And
Speaker 2: it's telling me that the cell phone is dumbing people
Speaker 2: down because the cell phone helps you form opinions about things. Meanwhile, meanwhile,
Speaker 2: the in person interaction that we had with Jada and
Speaker 2: Will and their family for years says something completely opposite
Speaker 2: of the shit that you see online. And yet you think,
Speaker 2: because you read it in a clip, that you know
Speaker 2: more than we know.
Speaker 1: I think, for me, right, it's it's the hypocrisy. It's
Speaker 1: it's this, you know, I get. I get called the
Speaker 1: sympth every day. Oh, you're not the whole black woman accountable?
Speaker 1: Why you never do this? And in my my my
Speaker 1: reaction and reply to that, it's simple. I've never been
Speaker 1: a black woman my whole life. I've never been a
Speaker 1: black woman. I've been a black man in my whole life.
Speaker 1: And I was raised on what men should do. I
Speaker 1: was raised by other men, and they say, hey, men
Speaker 1: should be carrying themself like me, and men should be
Speaker 1: doing this, and men should be doing this, and this
Speaker 1: is what a man does. Well, I wasn't. I wasn't
Speaker 1: taught about what a woman should be doing and what
Speaker 1: a woman should do. I know what the woman that
Speaker 1: I want you right, so I can I'm able to
Speaker 1: pick that woman. That doesn't mean that they're what my
Speaker 1: my expectation of what a woman should do for me,
Speaker 1: it's what a woman should be all together. That I
Speaker 1: don't want to put my expotensions on all women, but
Speaker 1: I do believe that there are certain activities and certain
Speaker 1: shit as men that we should be doing in ways
Speaker 1: that we should be carrying ourselves. And I'm going to
Speaker 1: always be vocal about those things. So when we talk
Speaker 1: about this situation, the fact that to me that there
Speaker 1: are so many men that someone has to say about
Speaker 1: with Jada done what Jada saying right, and they are
Speaker 1: ignoring the fact that her husband, the man that she's with,
Speaker 1: hasn't said many of the ship that you're saying, isn't
Speaker 1: angry about the shit that you anger by. You are
Speaker 1: sure because you have a criteria and expetition for your
Speaker 1: woman to be a certain way, and that's why you're
Speaker 1: not in the relationship with Jada Pinjin. That's why your
Speaker 1: relationship is not their relationship. They've been walked together for
Speaker 1: over twenty seven years in a relationship, in a marriage
Speaker 1: for all these years and it's working for them because
Speaker 1: of the thing that you might not he be like,
Speaker 1: you know what, I could never do that I can
Speaker 1: never Oh man, it is y'all of y'all is in relationship.
Speaker 1: Were women the nigga that got four or five baby
Speaker 1: ruppers and had baby white y'all. A lot of y'all
Speaker 1: is when women that that got babies woined you. A
Speaker 1: lot of y'all have been a lot of y'all are
Speaker 1: products of those relationships. A lot of y'all just come
Speaker 1: from this more high ground ship that y'all be talking
Speaker 1: because it's the Internet. Because you don't think nobody knows
Speaker 1: what you've been dealing with or what you put up with,
Speaker 1: and if it was okay for you, that was your relationship,
Speaker 1: the ship that you you you probably put up in
Speaker 1: your relationship. Jada and Will probably wouldn't do what they
Speaker 1: put up with what they put up in their relationship.
Speaker 1: You don't understand the dynamics of someone else in the
Speaker 1: relationship to be able to have such full judgment on it.
Speaker 1: It is actually corny to me that I watched men
Speaker 1: always do the oh j I watch a lot of
Speaker 1: men talking about with Jada's this, and she's this and that,
Speaker 1: and I watched niggas all of like, I had this
Speaker 1: conversation the other day and I'm like, Yo, the ship
Speaker 1: that I re seeing blue faith due to them girls.
Speaker 1: That shit is crazy. Ain't no man gonna be like
Speaker 1: that shit is whack, bro, Like those are your being mothers.
Speaker 1: But have a level of respect or you know, fuck it,
Speaker 1: I wonture for what you go through. Just talk this
Speaker 1: like we watch it, Like they say, YO, will respect
Speaker 1: Jada enough to not say even if you whatever you
Speaker 1: think is going on, you know, there's a level of
Speaker 1: respect for that that will let right that a man has.
Speaker 1: He's killing himself like a man in every situation. When
Speaker 1: we look at the situation that he was gonna do,
Speaker 1: and when the reason why they had to be a
Speaker 1: red told you know why, because it was a sucker
Speaker 1: ass nigga that would disposed what he had to talk
Speaker 1: about in their family. He want, he want. He He
Speaker 1: opened his mouth about a relationship with another woman that
Speaker 1: she never said to the body, and that man decided
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go public about me and me in a relationship.
Speaker 1: This is what's sucker. This is the something shit that y'all,
Speaker 1: don't say nothing about nobody ain't saying that stuff, and
Speaker 1: that that brings me to my eye. Don't get it.
Speaker 1: You know, we can continue over, but it's this is
Speaker 1: just a perfect segue from me. I don't get It's
Speaker 1: like even when I would listening to Blueface talk about
Speaker 1: he has sex with Megan and this other person talking
Speaker 1: about who they has, when did men start doing this
Speaker 1: clown shit? Like? When did men just start saying yo,
Speaker 1: I had said to the woman and I need to
Speaker 1: publicly talk about it. That shit is so corny to me,
Speaker 1: Like to me, like the men, yo, we never did
Speaker 1: shit like that. Women wanted to talk about them having
Speaker 1: sex with it. I never wanted to to brag and
Speaker 1: publicly talk about who I had sext with because they
Speaker 1: were something like this shit is so corny. When did
Speaker 1: niggas get this corny like it used to be real
Speaker 1: men and be like, nah, that me me with me
Speaker 1: and that woman did it personal to us? You know,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna devote the information if that's not something
Speaker 1: that's public knowledge already. I'm not publicly going up and
Speaker 1: devote a private situation I had with a woman. Y'all,
Speaker 1: niggas the fuck the game. But when did y'all get
Speaker 1: this week? Intended that you y'all need to get props
Speaker 1: for having a woman so wants to give props for
Speaker 1: having sex with you. When your niggas got this week, man,
Speaker 1: when your mouth start opening up and talking about shit
Speaker 1: like that. So we look at this whole situation that
Speaker 1: brought us to a red table talk. It was a nigga.
Speaker 1: It was a nigga that decided, oh, you know what,
Speaker 1: my feeling is so hurt, and I'm going to go
Speaker 1: on public TV and I'm gonna talk about how this
Speaker 1: woman did me bad when when we're in a relationship
Speaker 1: and now she decided to talk and she explained to
Speaker 1: y'all what was going on in her marriage on how
Speaker 1: they were separated, and y'all didn't want to hear that part.
Speaker 1: Y'all just want to villainize that woman. And just to
Speaker 1: me and just watching men like I don't, I don't
Speaker 1: really talk about when women say the other women. That's
Speaker 1: your decision, y'all, y'all know what y'all going through. Y'all
Speaker 1: can have y'all dialogue, that's your thing. But to me,
Speaker 1: this kid constantly watching men have something to say about
Speaker 1: Jada when her man ain't saying nothing about it. It's
Speaker 1: just corny and nigga read to get a life, bro,
Speaker 1: I know it shit that we you dealing with in
Speaker 1: your household. That of an no nigga like that, I
Speaker 1: probably ain't gonna deal with that. We all have, We
Speaker 1: all dealt with other people. They gonna deal with any
Speaker 1: old relationship. And you have just to mind your mother
Speaker 1: fucking business man.
Speaker 2: On the thing that, well, you know what, I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't why that's what said. This whole mind your
Speaker 2: business thing, because when people put their business out there,
Speaker 2: then folks are gonna speak on it. So I'm cool
Speaker 2: with that.
Speaker 1: If you're going to say, when they put their business
Speaker 1: out there, say the right business, right, don't.
Speaker 2: You don't even know because.
Speaker 1: If you if you're not informed, if you just making
Speaker 1: it just like I don't what I don't do right
Speaker 1: right when I said your group Faith said that he
Speaker 1: had sex with mag this, I didn't get that off
Speaker 1: a blogs I watched. I watched the interview and I
Speaker 1: heard him say that his mouth right, I didn't say
Speaker 1: this person said that this is going on and saying
Speaker 1: it was all new they said it was all. Now,
Speaker 1: this is what I'm trying to say. So when I
Speaker 1: when I make this, uh, when I make my opinion
Speaker 1: on something, it's something that that individual personally said they
Speaker 1: did and personally and literally, and then I can I'm
Speaker 1: basing it off that alonee I'm not basing it off.
Speaker 1: Oh she cheated or real she did this. He ain't
Speaker 1: say that. He ain't never said that.
Speaker 2: Well, he never said that. He never said that. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, she admits, which, by the way, no one
Speaker 2: is perfect and no situation is gonna be perfect, right,
Speaker 2: So she admits that the whole thing, the whole red
Speaker 2: table talk people that don't want them to do it,
Speaker 2: because as they were getting ready for it, the only
Speaker 2: right thing to do would have been to tell people
Speaker 2: at that time that they were separated. And she says,
Speaker 2: Will wanted to go to the table with her. He
Speaker 2: didn't want her to go by herself. So she went
Speaker 2: to the table. They sat together, and then she knew,
Speaker 2: based upon the way in which you know, the communication
Speaker 2: was going, he wasn't ready. He wasn't ready to tell
Speaker 2: people that they weren't together. And it's a lot of
Speaker 2: things about that. It's a lot of things about that
Speaker 2: we could sing it analyze, but we won't. But you
Speaker 2: can rea between the lines. Number One, when people say, oh,
Speaker 2: he looks so hurt and this and that, I know.
Speaker 2: I know from living life, not from being their friend
Speaker 2: or knowing Jada and being around and seeing them, because
Speaker 2: I've never seen anything other than honorable behavior and them
Speaker 2: being so loving towards one another. But me being a
Speaker 2: woman and living life, we know that Jada and Will
Speaker 2: didn't just separate in twenty sixteen because they woke up
Speaker 2: the sin Oh I don't like shit happened. Some things
Speaker 2: went on, right, and I'm sure some things went on
Speaker 2: that he did. Like she said, he ain't perfect noise
Speaker 2: she so wherever they ended up, whatever they came to
Speaker 2: when they got to the red table. When you start
Speaker 2: talking about exposing to the world that we're not really
Speaker 2: we've been separated for a while, people have to really
Speaker 2: think about the fact that Will Smith has in many
Speaker 2: ways lived a perfect life publicly a perfect life. You
Speaker 2: don't know much about anything that he has going on.
Speaker 2: It has been publicly pretty much perfect. Everything else is
Speaker 2: hearsay and salacious headlines and whatnot, but it's been pretty
Speaker 2: much perfect. So when people start unveiling and pulling apart
Speaker 2: that perfection, it's not easy for everyone to deal with
Speaker 2: for many different reasons. So she says that people didn't
Speaker 2: want her to do the Red Table, but she was ready,
Speaker 2: she was ready to talk. She was ready. And sometimes
Speaker 2: our egos drive us in a lot of ways to
Speaker 2: be like y'all. Like she said, I wasn't gonna be emotional,
Speaker 2: held hostage emotionally. I wasn't gonna let people know something
Speaker 2: about me and try to hold it over my head
Speaker 2: or use it and talk about me as it. No,
Speaker 2: I'm not doing that. I'm gonna tell my own story.
Speaker 2: And I think the story is powerful. But I appreciate
Speaker 2: the one thing she said that is the best part.
Speaker 2: I mean, she said a lot of things at that event,
Speaker 2: a lot of things that were so powerful, and it
Speaker 2: was so moving all the way to your stomach. You
Speaker 2: could feel it because she's so dope. But it was
Speaker 2: the one thing that I think sums up this conversation,
Speaker 2: and that is when that woman said, me and will
Speaker 2: be laughing at everybody together. And she said, she said,
Speaker 2: and because the question that Kim Blackwell, who was an
Speaker 2: incredible moderator, conversationalist with Jada, Kim Blackwell did an awesome job.
Speaker 2: And the question Kim asked her was, how do you
Speaker 2: you know, how are the kids and how is all
Speaker 2: of this working out for the kids and with all
Speaker 2: the noise and whatever, And Jada said, one, this is
Speaker 2: old folks problem because my children, for the most part,
Speaker 2: when I'm talking to them, they don't even know. They're
Speaker 2: not even they in a whole different world. They don't know,
Speaker 2: they're not seeing this every day. This is not something
Speaker 2: that's coming up on their timeline all the time. But
Speaker 2: beyond that, my family has been through this. I'm telling
Speaker 2: y'all the story on the back end, they already been
Speaker 2: through it with me, so they know the deal. They
Speaker 2: understand the dynamics of the relationship between their father and
Speaker 2: me and this and that they know all of that.
Speaker 2: And she said, if my family wasn't good, I would
Speaker 2: not have written this book. I wouldn't even be doing
Speaker 2: this if my family wasn't good. But we're in such
Speaker 2: a solid place as a family that it gives me
Speaker 2: the freedom to speak and to tell my story.
Speaker 1: And I thought that was beautiful.
Speaker 2: And we know even at the times when they may
Speaker 2: have been going through things that we didn't know. We
Speaker 2: were in space with them, and we can honestly attest
Speaker 2: and anybody who doesn't believe it or this and that
Speaker 2: that's on you. We can honestly attest that the Smith
Speaker 2: family is one of the most solid, down to earth,
Speaker 2: beautiful and loving families that I've ever experienced in terms
Speaker 2: of these Hollywood relationships. Those people are solid and whatever
Speaker 2: they but they solid and real, so real shit has happened,
Speaker 2: and I think that Jada and the way of which
Speaker 2: she's telling her story and all that it means, I
Speaker 2: just feel sorry for anyone that's so foolish that they're
Speaker 2: caught up in the headlines and they missed the opportunity
Speaker 2: to learn something and to experience what this woman is
Speaker 2: offering to us in this time, because we know. We
Speaker 2: had a conversation with one of our friends who said,
Speaker 2: I came here and thinking y'all was all crazy. I
Speaker 2: can't believe it. But now I'm leaving here feeling inspired,
Speaker 2: feeling empowered, feeling like wow, like damn, like what can
Speaker 2: we do to make sure how truth is really out there?
Speaker 2: Because this stuff that's out there that ain't that's not
Speaker 2: matching up with what is actually in the book. That's
Speaker 2: that with me, and that's pretty much it.
Speaker 1: Man. You know, that's on period.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Jada, shout out to will tell her
Speaker 1: to the Smith family. You know, I look forward to
Speaker 1: reading the book, is you know, because I, you know,
Speaker 1: just having a relationship with both of them and just
Speaker 1: want to get correct right, just not just want to
Speaker 1: expul shit like people just be on the end of
Speaker 1: the internet, just such a cesspool for dumb shit. People
Speaker 1: just spew anything and say whatever they think. They don't
Speaker 1: have no facts to back it up. They just throw
Speaker 1: all type of random bullshit out. Read the book, understand
Speaker 1: exactly what's going on. And then if you make a
Speaker 1: decision that you don't like Ja, you you think she
Speaker 1: did all the ship baits on the fact and cool,
Speaker 1: then that's your opinion. That's good.
Speaker 2: But I just I don't want to read the book.
Speaker 2: They're gonna say, I don't want to read book. If
Speaker 2: you don't want to read the book and you don't
Speaker 2: want to get the real owner leadership, quiet.
Speaker 1: You should just be quiet. And that's how we go
Speaker 1: end this show. Man. Once again, we appreciate y'all for
Speaker 1: support and Street Politicians Man, it's been three seasons, three
Speaker 1: seasons the Street Politician Man. We love y'all. Keep on
Speaker 1: this us number one podcast in the world. Shout out
Speaker 1: to our heart, shut out to Black Effect Network for
Speaker 1: all the love and support. You know, we really appreciate y'all.
Speaker 1: Keep on giving us ideas. Man. Hit us up at
Speaker 1: Street Politicians part on Instagram. DM must let us know
Speaker 1: what you want to hear. Tell us how about you
Speaker 1: love us? How much you hear us? We want all
Speaker 1: the feedback. We truly appreciate you. We're gonna keep doing
Speaker 1: what we do. I'm not gonna always be right till
Speaker 1: we get the matteries, and I canna always be wrong
Speaker 1: both always and I mean always always always be authentic. Hello.
Speaker 2: Listen to Street Politicians on the Black Effect Network on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: And catch us every single Wednesday for the video version
Speaker 1: of Street Politicians on Eyewomen dot TV.
Speaker 2: Listen to Street Politicians on the Black Effect Network on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: And catch us every single Wednesday for the video version
Speaker 1: of Street Politicians on Eyewomen dot TV.
Speaker 4: Yooning h