Speaker 1: Welcome to Street Politicians. I and my son and I'm
Speaker 1: Tamika Mallory and we are happy to have you here
Speaker 1: tuning in. Thanks for the support and love, and we
Speaker 1: hope that every time you come to this podcast that
Speaker 1: you get a little something that you can leave with
Speaker 1: that you enjoy, that you learn a smile or laugh, educational,
Speaker 1: So you know, we're happy to have you out here. Man.
Speaker 1: Street Politicians is all about us learning together. That's right,
Speaker 1: That's right. So what's going on with you? Well, the
Speaker 1: end of a decade and the beginning of a new one. Right,
Speaker 1: some ship change, some ship hasn't. So it hasn't. But
Speaker 1: you know, but personally, each one of us are actually
Speaker 1: posted a meme um that said that living from January
Speaker 1: to December is no joke and thanking God for keeping us,
Speaker 1: keeping our minds, keeping our health, our spirits, our families.
Speaker 1: So much is happening in the world and the fact
Speaker 1: that we keep living every day with all the challenges
Speaker 1: is a blessing. Got Trump being leaving the White House?
Speaker 1: How about that I saw? I mean today, it wasn't
Speaker 1: even a meme, It was a tweet from Mike Huckabee
Speaker 1: ran for president, former governor Mike Now I don't think
Speaker 1: he's still governor. Uh. And he was talking about how
Speaker 1: he's been selected as the whole store the chair of
Speaker 1: the committee to had to re elect Trump for a
Speaker 1: third term because the Democrats are you know, this is
Speaker 1: illegal what they're doing, and it's wrong, and impeachment is
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's unfair and it was a witch
Speaker 1: hunt and all this stuff, and you know, and we
Speaker 1: have been saying for a while that you know, listen,
Speaker 1: Michael Bloomberg did it in New York and this is
Speaker 1: one of the most uh you know, the most powerful
Speaker 1: cities in the world, and he did it here where
Speaker 1: he extended his term. His term limits was two terms,
Speaker 1: so that would have been eight years, and when it
Speaker 1: was getting towards the end of the second term, he
Speaker 1: was able to get the city Council to vote for
Speaker 1: a third term, which of course the city council members
Speaker 1: were also able to be in office for a third term.
Speaker 1: But he is mayor wanted to stay for a third
Speaker 1: term because he said that, you know, the city needed him,
Speaker 1: that he was doing so much economically and turning the
Speaker 1: city around, and you know all that. And by the way,
Speaker 1: I know from council members that I was friends with,
Speaker 1: that there was a lot of pain in the decisions
Speaker 1: that they made. There was you know, there were people
Speaker 1: who knew personal background stuff about those folks and was
Speaker 1: like literally coming to them saying, you better vote for uh,
Speaker 1: this extension this, you know, the term limits to be
Speaker 1: lifted if you will based upon that's like putting your
Speaker 1: public your your personal business and public. I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: say that they were black male because well listen, I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to be suited by the Bloomberg said people
Speaker 1: were black men exactly. And Trump ain't leaving the White House. Well,
Speaker 1: so you know, you never know. I don't know if
Speaker 1: he's going to leave. The man has for him to
Speaker 1: cool and you're looking at one of posts on my page,
Speaker 1: we got to his three fifty seven is making sure
Speaker 1: that nothing happens to Trump. You know, if people try
Speaker 1: to impeach him, he's going to be civil war. And
Speaker 1: you know, and I've been saying that for a long time.
Speaker 1: He's running the White House like the mafia, Like he
Speaker 1: really like a mab boss. So it's not pass him.
Speaker 1: Like when he doesn't feel like he wants to leave,
Speaker 1: I can't see the reason why he would. He has
Speaker 1: to Trump is a gangster man. He is going to
Speaker 1: be able because you know what, so is Nancy Pelosi.
Speaker 1: Uh and and you know AUNTI Maxine is up in
Speaker 1: there like, oh he think he I'm definitely exactly so,
Speaker 1: you know. And I'm not a big fan of like
Speaker 1: any of them, Pelosi, I mean, obviously anti Maxine, but
Speaker 1: I'm not a big fan of avideo of them. But
Speaker 1: I do know that what Pelosi has done is something
Speaker 1: that Trump tried. He tried everything that he could to
Speaker 1: really be like threaten her without like calling her out
Speaker 1: her name, but damn near, he was really trying to
Speaker 1: intimidate her in the media, even in person, and she
Speaker 1: still went forward with the impeachment because the man is
Speaker 1: a trader. He's a trader. His behavior, his behavior is
Speaker 1: treason us and really he should have been impeached a
Speaker 1: long time ago. But hey, we are where we are,
Speaker 1: so that's that we were. I haven't. I really literally
Speaker 1: refused to get myself deep into the impeachment proceedings and
Speaker 1: watching everything because what I think is more important than
Speaker 1: the sensationalism of what's happening in this moment is us
Speaker 1: focusing on getting our people ready for to money twenty.
Speaker 1: And I'm not even talking about registering the vote. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about mentally, like folks need to know how serious
Speaker 1: it is for them to be in the game and
Speaker 1: for them to be able to understand everything that's happening.
Speaker 1: So do you do you think is gonna benefit us
Speaker 1: or it's gonna be negative? I think you damned if
Speaker 1: you do, damned if you don't. I think that no
Speaker 1: matter what, the people are losing in this moment because
Speaker 1: I don't I don't see anybody running the government like
Speaker 1: the government. I don't even know what the government does
Speaker 1: because everything I hear is we lose food stamps, you know,
Speaker 1: the children being separated. The young man died in the
Speaker 1: jail just last week. Actually, yandy Um. She sent me
Speaker 1: a piece of like a clip of the young man
Speaker 1: falling out in his cell. He had the flu, and
Speaker 1: there was another person in the cell as well, under
Speaker 1: those like silver blankets or whatever he was. He is
Speaker 1: in there as well. They had they quarantined them, put
Speaker 1: them in the cell, and the boy died. That's he
Speaker 1: fell out and died like a teenager. But those things
Speaker 1: are not they're just so common being formally incarcerated. I
Speaker 1: know so many people who have passed from similar circumstances.
Speaker 1: If it wasn't from somebody beating them, it was just
Speaker 1: lack of taking care of their health for them being
Speaker 1: put into the box and then just left isolated, not
Speaker 1: fed properly. So those are common things. I was just
Speaker 1: told about one of of the friends I have that incarcerated.
Speaker 1: They're supposed to start putting the body cams on the offices.
Speaker 1: I think they started. I think he said that somebody would.
Speaker 1: But they only use it. They only, excuse me, they
Speaker 1: only use it when, like there's an incident, so it's
Speaker 1: not like all day they were in it. But when
Speaker 1: somebody pulls a pain and they says the incident and
Speaker 1: they have to go and deal with one of the prisoners,
Speaker 1: they have to show the camera. That's what he was telling. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, because the camera's that's all around, I'm supposed
Speaker 1: to be able to show you what's going on, and
Speaker 1: somehow for years and years and years, that doesn't really work.
Speaker 1: But yeah, because they put him in blind. If you
Speaker 1: look at what they put them, they put them right
Speaker 1: outside that you can see in front of the celle
Speaker 1: you can't in yourself unless they have to. Yeah, they
Speaker 1: do it all the time, and nobody gets to see.
Speaker 1: Like I've just seen one online the other day where
Speaker 1: a guy was getting processed. They walked him in the
Speaker 1: sale next to you know, he comes out limping, his
Speaker 1: eyes all beat up. Then nobody shows how it happened,
Speaker 1: but they just showed they came beat up. Say that's
Speaker 1: some of the stuff that has not changed, right, definitely
Speaker 1: in this new decade. Um, let me see what else
Speaker 1: has happened to Michael Vick. I mean, he's getting this
Speaker 1: opportunity which we were saying is an award, and I
Speaker 1: guess that's no, it's an honor. It's not a reward.
Speaker 1: It's um he's been he's been voted as one of
Speaker 1: the captains for the Pro Bowl. So that's like when
Speaker 1: you have legendary status, they choose you as whinning captains.
Speaker 1: Mike Vic pretty much revolutionary, I mean revolutionized the quarterback position.
Speaker 1: He was one of the first um multi talented running
Speaker 1: back slash quarterbacks who ran for a bunch of yards.
Speaker 1: So he had this kind of you know, multi task
Speaker 1: that he was able to do as a quarterback, which
Speaker 1: prior to him wasn't being done. The quarterback was primarily
Speaker 1: the person who threw the ball, handed the ball off.
Speaker 1: He wasn't a runner, and he revolutionary revolutionized, no revolution.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the words definitely makes it's not I just know
Speaker 1: how to make vocabulary evolved. Whatever you gotta help, you
Speaker 1: gotta make because we can't keep using the same and
Speaker 1: that we gotta we gotta evolve. But I think that
Speaker 1: means using words in the English. Yeah, that's the word
Speaker 1: revolutionary word, I know that, but but you know what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about. I would pull one up for you
Speaker 1: when you made up a whole word. It worked though,
Speaker 1: so usually have the route that's the word anyway. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so there's a there was a petition had over four
Speaker 1: hundred thousand signatures on it from people who said they
Speaker 1: did not want him to be honored. When you're saying
Speaker 1: is really more so positioning like him being recognized as
Speaker 1: the captain and the bowl and then him there, so
Speaker 1: pretty much I don't think people knew that. I think
Speaker 1: that the way I think the way the media said
Speaker 1: he's being honored, folks signed it thinking he was about
Speaker 1: to stand up and get some you know, special But
Speaker 1: if that's but if that's what they did, I'm just
Speaker 1: saying that that's what people were reacting. I don't think
Speaker 1: a lot of folks understood exactly what was happening. Common
Speaker 1: sense ain't that comment or more? And people don't even
Speaker 1: They just want to grab onto social media and they
Speaker 1: want to attack things. You know, Michael Vick was did
Speaker 1: his he served his time for his infraction, you know
Speaker 1: with the dog fighting situation, and he did his time,
Speaker 1: he paid his fines, he came out, he's been he's
Speaker 1: an apology tour. He's been an advocate against you know,
Speaker 1: animal rights, I mean for against for for animal rights
Speaker 1: like he's been. He's been doing his job. So for
Speaker 1: somebody to make a statement or sign a petition to
Speaker 1: stop him from being anything, getting honored or being an
Speaker 1: honorary captain, it's just ludicrous to me. And it's like
Speaker 1: when when do you pay your debts to society? Like
Speaker 1: what what does rehabilitation look like? So you know jewels,
Speaker 1: you know jewels. How Julianne who works with us, she's
Speaker 1: a white woman and she is one of our allies.
Speaker 1: We rather call her an accomplice. She's more than an
Speaker 1: she's assistant these our sisters. She's down with us, working
Speaker 1: with us in the struggle. So I happen to turn
Speaker 1: on Facebook, you know, open up Facebook, and the first
Speaker 1: thing that popped up was that she was up there
Speaker 1: with her her her She was basically promoting the petition
Speaker 1: asking people to sign the petition against Michael Vick. Now,
Speaker 1: you know, Jules loves her dog, just very serious dog.
Speaker 1: Like her dog is like the whole person. And I
Speaker 1: understand she loves her dog, but I had to I
Speaker 1: wrote to her, to Jules, the question that I have
Speaker 1: for you right like, you know, being a part of
Speaker 1: our movement, she is often around people, particularly black men
Speaker 1: who are formerly incarcerated, who who or who may have
Speaker 1: killed someone, who may have hurt another person. I mean,
Speaker 1: she's been around all these people, and we support all
Speaker 1: of us together. The idea here that these black men,
Speaker 1: black and brown men who are entering society again should
Speaker 1: be that their time is up, they've done their time,
Speaker 1: and that if they're being honored for turning their lives around,
Speaker 1: for helping young people for whatever, that you support that,
Speaker 1: And I asked, so you support that you support this
Speaker 1: These men who may have killed another black man, may
Speaker 1: have hurt someone you support them being acknowledged for turning
Speaker 1: their lives around after serving their time. She's and of
Speaker 1: course she agrees with that, and like, you can't be
Speaker 1: okay with that and then say, but you can't be
Speaker 1: honored for killing a dog because that puts more value
Speaker 1: on the dog's life than another black man. And we
Speaker 1: specifically support something called the Time Done Campaign, which our
Speaker 1: brother Jay Jordan's is the executive director of an organization
Speaker 1: in California that has this Time Done campaign that really
Speaker 1: talks is specifically designed to deal with at that when
Speaker 1: you come home from prison, when a person comes from
Speaker 1: from prison, there are too many barriers for folks being
Speaker 1: able to into society and do work and be productive citizens.
Speaker 1: And you support that. And she's a great supporter, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think, but she came back just to be clear
Speaker 1: after she thought about it, she said, you know what,
Speaker 1: you're right And now she's like the biggest advocate online.
Speaker 1: Because that's the thing about being an airline and accomplice
Speaker 1: and someone who leads in love is that when you
Speaker 1: see when somebody gives you the truth or somebody is
Speaker 1: able to change your mind honestly based on you know,
Speaker 1: facts and and based on really just sitting you down
Speaker 1: and walking you through something and you're able to say,
Speaker 1: you know what, I made a mistake or now I
Speaker 1: see it your way. That's what it is about, you know,
Speaker 1: because we can just argue just for the sake of
Speaker 1: arguing all day. So, like I put out a post
Speaker 1: also about Michael Vick situation, I was just talking about
Speaker 1: the comparison to him and ray Lewis, and a lot
Speaker 1: of people give me flat, you know, and I understand
Speaker 1: he was one of the people. And for me it
Speaker 1: was just like understanding. Like you said, like Michael Vick
Speaker 1: killed the dogs. Let me change that Michael Vick was
Speaker 1: was he was found guilty or he pled guilty to
Speaker 1: having um something to do with the dog fighting ring.
Speaker 1: I don't think. I don't know, facilitate, facilitated, I don't
Speaker 1: I don't know if he was okay, I don't know what.
Speaker 1: I don't know that his father exactly said that this
Speaker 1: is his thing, fighting dogs. But even if it was
Speaker 1: in a house that belonged to him, that's still facilitates.
Speaker 1: So he facilitated. But what I was saying was ray
Speaker 1: Lewis was involved in a situation which led to the
Speaker 1: death of two black men, and he pled guilty to
Speaker 1: a lesser charge which was associated with it there for
Speaker 1: the two black men. So I was in, we're okay
Speaker 1: with a black man who kills a black man or
Speaker 1: is responsible or any way has a connection to the
Speaker 1: death of two black men, but we're not okay with
Speaker 1: the black man who is connected to the death of dogs.
Speaker 1: And you know, it just shows to me that the
Speaker 1: black man's life is less valuable in America's us, you know.
Speaker 1: So that was my argument. A lot of people, a
Speaker 1: lot of people seen in my way, and a lot
Speaker 1: of people, you know, then there was you know, there
Speaker 1: was this discourse and it's but my only issue was
Speaker 1: that I just felt like I didn't I hate us
Speaker 1: even having to talk about what another black man has
Speaker 1: or has not done, when there's so much that white
Speaker 1: folks have done. But I want and if not ever,
Speaker 1: but I get your point. You made me understand your
Speaker 1: position that you know, basically, there's two different black men
Speaker 1: with two different scenarios, but one is responsible for the
Speaker 1: death of dogs and the other one that's responsible potentially
Speaker 1: or involved somehow in the killing of a man. And
Speaker 1: it's the same organization and the hypocrisy because he was
Speaker 1: being just voted was one of the top one hundred
Speaker 1: players two weeks ago, so nobody there was no petition.
Speaker 1: If there was, please show me how to see a
Speaker 1: petition at all for somebody to say that he didn't
Speaker 1: deserve it. So you know that this is hypocrisi out
Speaker 1: and now he's gonna and that's that's a good thing.
Speaker 1: Good looking. The NFL did something good. They did something good.
Speaker 1: They got a lot of other stuff, but you know,
Speaker 1: one of the things that is it that I'm verily,
Speaker 1: like really concerned about. So you know, like I'm not
Speaker 1: getting myself caught up into impeachment stuff right because I
Speaker 1: can't take it. You know, I get mad. I saw
Speaker 1: yelling at the TV and calling everybody and saying we
Speaker 1: need a march and a protest. But I am paying
Speaker 1: attention to as I said, nobody doing work in the government.
Speaker 1: Most of our cabinet members are acting like none of
Speaker 1: them are actually confirmed cabinet members. He really is running,
Speaker 1: like you said, the government like the mafia because he
Speaker 1: knows that the loophole is having everyone is acting cabinet
Speaker 1: members because he can't get people confirmed, which means that
Speaker 1: there's a vote with the House and then and they
Speaker 1: confirmed exactly. You still getting paid for him, so he
Speaker 1: doesn't need confirmed. But but the reason why it's important
Speaker 1: for these people to be confirmed is because it gives
Speaker 1: the American public and opportunity to see through the hearings
Speaker 1: and other things, who these individuals. We know what's important
Speaker 1: to us to him, and then and then the people
Speaker 1: that we put an office get an opportunity to vote.
Speaker 1: And so he has he has that process and he
Speaker 1: has all these people acting. So so this guy William Barr,
Speaker 1: who's the acting Attorney General, which means he is the
Speaker 1: top cop in the country. He was speaking to a
Speaker 1: group which include law enforcement officers, which included law enforcement
Speaker 1: enforcement officers, and he started talking about how when veterans
Speaker 1: come home from war, they are they're acknowledged their parades
Speaker 1: when out. And there's a lot of veterans that would
Speaker 1: disagree with that, let's be clear, but you know, he said,
Speaker 1: there's so much love for veterans coming home and good
Speaker 1: and he said, but police officers are not treated the same,
Speaker 1: and that he we certain communities, certain communities, people need
Speaker 1: to start respecting police officers because if not, we may
Speaker 1: find ourselves being, you know, left without protection. Our communities
Speaker 1: may be left without protection. That is absolutely crazy. It's
Speaker 1: not because the problem with this whole situation with Trump
Speaker 1: and bar and all these things is these people are
Speaker 1: just seeing things that have been happening. You understand I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So when you hear Trump spewards rhetoric and people like yo,
Speaker 1: you heard what he said, this is what America has been.
Speaker 1: This is what they've been thinking. When you hear William
Speaker 1: Barr said what he says, it's what the police been doing.
Speaker 1: They either over police our communities to where they make
Speaker 1: us just um criminals. They don't come in there to
Speaker 1: help and really say protect and serve. They've never done that.
Speaker 1: So ultimately, this is why the king stopped killing King's
Speaker 1: model and raising King's model that I've created. It's something
Speaker 1: that is going to be needed in our society. We
Speaker 1: have to get back to police, to um community police,
Speaker 1: and we have to get back to the men in
Speaker 1: the community and the women in the community coming to
Speaker 1: hand in hand and being in unison and being able
Speaker 1: to dictate what goes on the community so we don't
Speaker 1: have to call police because we see what having when
Speaker 1: the police come to our communities. They either harm someone
Speaker 1: who called for help. Um, you know, mentally ill people
Speaker 1: being shot down in their own homes that call when
Speaker 1: somebody calls to help them, they're being killed, you know police.
Speaker 1: I mean kids are being handcuffed and beat up on
Speaker 1: the corners for walking down the block because they quote
Speaker 1: unquote fit descriptions. So the bottom line is we have
Speaker 1: to get back to that mine. Anyway. We have to
Speaker 1: tell Mr Ball thank you, because what that's going to
Speaker 1: do is call us to start commute. I mean, police
Speaker 1: in our own community is gonna call us to be
Speaker 1: a lot more responsible. It's gonna call us to be
Speaker 1: a lot more unified and look to each other for
Speaker 1: solutions before we call these people into our communities that
Speaker 1: are just throwing our kids in jail or hurting and
Speaker 1: killing them. So I say thank you. Let's like I
Speaker 1: said thank you the Trump. I told you these people
Speaker 1: were needed. I didn't I knew that any other president
Speaker 1: but Trump was gonna have us sit around for a
Speaker 1: few years and be like, look we did something. Oh
Speaker 1: look Hillary is here, the first woman. While we did something.
Speaker 1: Something that's happened. Ain't nothing happening in America? And Trump
Speaker 1: just lets you see that America has been racist, It's
Speaker 1: been directed at us. White supremacy has always been the
Speaker 1: mantra of America, and now you get to see it.
Speaker 1: So when you hear these people say the things, and
Speaker 1: you hear the people talk them out. If Trump is impeach,
Speaker 1: is gonna be civil war, and you hear the bars saying, hey,
Speaker 1: the police are gonna stop doing if certain communities don't
Speaker 1: respect them. It gives you the reality and the route
Speaker 1: awakening that people in our communities, the people in our
Speaker 1: communities need to wake up and start governing their themselves.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, okay, first of all, I think that yes,
Speaker 1: there are problems with police and community, absolutely, but generally
Speaker 1: police officers go to work, to do their job, go home.
Speaker 1: They don't want to have issues. There are the bad cops,
Speaker 1: if you will, and the good cops that there and
Speaker 1: watch it happen, so we can classify them all together.
Speaker 1: Because unless you are and Edwin Raymond or one of
Speaker 1: the you know, or the officers who are considered whistle
Speaker 1: blowers or people who really stand up within the department,
Speaker 1: you are part of the problem. But most police officers
Speaker 1: do try to do their job every day, and unfortunately,
Speaker 1: they work within a system that if they they facilitate
Speaker 1: their job the ways in which they're being trained, it
Speaker 1: means they're either over policing or under police and our people.
Speaker 1: I agree with you about that thousand percent. I don't.
Speaker 1: I still think when you are in they uh not
Speaker 1: an elected official. But when you are representing the country, right,
Speaker 1: you're you're you're the top cop, You're the person that
Speaker 1: is setting the tone for what happens in the country.
Speaker 1: You cannot say things like that. It incites tension on
Speaker 1: both sides of the owl. It puts police in danger,
Speaker 1: and it puts communities in danger because now you basically
Speaker 1: are telling us that if we hold the protest then
Speaker 1: and then the police can just come in and do
Speaker 1: whatever they want to us, or they can hurt us.
Speaker 1: Then our response to that is going to be a
Speaker 1: visceral response. It's not good. So I just I think
Speaker 1: it's wrong. I think the rhetoric is extremely dangerous. I
Speaker 1: do agree with you that there has to be a
Speaker 1: movement to take care of our own communities. And I
Speaker 1: don't know that we can use the words police. I
Speaker 1: think we do need different languages or Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: that we do need to evolve the language. We have to.
Speaker 1: We have to find a different way words. You have
Speaker 1: to make up a word because we have to find
Speaker 1: a way because we're policing, policing, policing the stigma and
Speaker 1: the negativity attached to that world. It doesn't even fit
Speaker 1: what that want. Yeah, we we do got to find
Speaker 1: a different way to be able to describe what it
Speaker 1: is that we need to do. And I do think
Speaker 1: the Kings Stopped Killing Kings movement is so important because
Speaker 1: what you're basically doing is taking madis into your own
Speaker 1: hands and get and you have so many community partners
Speaker 1: where across the country people are like, we're gonna go
Speaker 1: out and work on kings to stop the killing in
Speaker 1: their own communities, which would give us right, which right,
Speaker 1: It's right. It's a culture shift. It's not just about shooting.
Speaker 1: It's not just even though we do work on those
Speaker 1: efforts as well, but it's not about that. It's a
Speaker 1: culture shift. And even queens and a lot of women
Speaker 1: are involved in helping people who gender nonconforming for are
Speaker 1: involved because they understand the importance of like when the
Speaker 1: men in our community are healthy, when when we have
Speaker 1: a king's mindset, then it lends itself to a more
Speaker 1: positive space. But if people don't need to come to
Speaker 1: our communities to lock us up and to have so
Speaker 1: much contact with the men in blue, right, and that's
Speaker 1: that's the thing that we have to be able to create,
Speaker 1: is a model for how people can take care of
Speaker 1: their own communities as we always have. We always have.
Speaker 1: In fact, in New York there was a police slowdown
Speaker 1: over some issue. I don't remember what it was, but
Speaker 1: they were piste off with everybody for what people were protesting.
Speaker 1: The police might have been around stopping frisk um. And
Speaker 1: the data showed that when police when their efforts decrease,
Speaker 1: crime went down. Because I think again, I think it's
Speaker 1: something to be said about people feeling like folks are
Speaker 1: in your commun and don't really necessarily have your best
Speaker 1: interests at heart. Just thinking about even in Queens, they
Speaker 1: have these big the towers where police officers are near
Speaker 1: the parks and everything and they're watching everything that's going on.
Speaker 1: But yet a fourteen year old boy was shot to
Speaker 1: death right next to the towers, like literally where this
Speaker 1: microphone is over the park, and a little boy was
Speaker 1: shot in the park, shot dead. Basketball player I guess
Speaker 1: he was, you know, shooting his last shot and he
Speaker 1: he so what is the point. They're not doing anything?
Speaker 1: And that's what I'm saying. That's why we have to
Speaker 1: take matters back into our own hands. Yeah, no, we
Speaker 1: absolutely do. We do. We do. Um which And then
Speaker 1: this week, I mean when you talk about like changing
Speaker 1: the culture, the whole issue around this guy Juice World,
Speaker 1: who I've never heard of. Then again, there was a
Speaker 1: song on the radio and then I was like, oh man,
Speaker 1: I kind of like that he has. He has some
Speaker 1: good music. M young boy, one years of age, um D.
Speaker 1: They are different accounts why it happened, but it's been
Speaker 1: common knowledge that he was advoct and excessive user of
Speaker 1: Lean quote unquote quoting that these kids are taken in perks,
Speaker 1: and you know, his music reflected that. Talked about it.
Speaker 1: He talked about how artists such as Future influenced him
Speaker 1: from his mixtape, the Dirty Sprite Mixtape, which he heard
Speaker 1: when he was only eleven years old, and he was
Speaker 1: inspired and wanted to sibling. Like he said, he just
Speaker 1: wanted to be on Lean and you know, and I
Speaker 1: just and I had a conversation about someone about this,
Speaker 1: and I was like this culture of drug culture, you know,
Speaker 1: which also has been a culture of the suicide culture.
Speaker 1: Like if you listen to the music, there's so much
Speaker 1: pain and drug usage, and people are saying, all these
Speaker 1: kids are over they just medicated because they're deal with
Speaker 1: pain and trauma. And you know, I understand understand being
Speaker 1: young and being confused, and I understand just looking at
Speaker 1: social media. Social media is doing so much damage to
Speaker 1: these kids because they're trying to live a life that
Speaker 1: is not even attainable, because the life that is being
Speaker 1: shown to them is not But it's even worse when
Speaker 1: when you're young and you're trying to figure something out
Speaker 1: and you think you're supposed to you see somebody's best
Speaker 1: sixty seconds of their life, and you're looking at their
Speaker 1: best sixty seconds and you're judging your whole life by that,
Speaker 1: not knowing that they didn't prop this and put this
Speaker 1: money here, and they took a picture in front of
Speaker 1: his camera and they put this background here, and you're
Speaker 1: saying that, why is my life not like this? And
Speaker 1: you know, and these kids have been program that this
Speaker 1: perks in this lean and this drug culture is something
Speaker 1: to you know, the aspired to and then you know
Speaker 1: it's definitely going first aired. They are listening. If you
Speaker 1: listen to the interview that I put on my page
Speaker 1: that Juice Worrey. We're talking about the way he felt
Speaker 1: when he listened to Futures Dirty s Bright mixtape and
Speaker 1: he was like, yo, I couldn't wait. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: gotta get me some lean your ways of that. Like
Speaker 1: he said, I was a basketball player, I was a
Speaker 1: good in sports and all that, but as soon as
Speaker 1: I heard that, I want I just wanted to sit lean.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to get hot. But people said you
Speaker 1: was a hater when you talked about Future because that's
Speaker 1: the person, that's the thing that's been glorified. You know,
Speaker 1: Futures quote unquote this megastar and hip hop. So when
Speaker 1: you talk against the megastar, you know that when you
Speaker 1: go against the status quo on the trend, everybody's gonna
Speaker 1: say you hate because you don't got what you got.
Speaker 1: So you're just mad. You want to shoot him down,
Speaker 1: and there's nothing about that. This is another black man.
Speaker 1: I'm happy that he's able to escape poverty and able
Speaker 1: to feed his family and provide beyond the means that
Speaker 1: then most of the people in our community, and I'm
Speaker 1: happy for him, but not on the backs, not on
Speaker 1: the you know, not at the expense of our children,
Speaker 1: not feeding our kids poison. If that's what it's gonna
Speaker 1: take for you to attain some level of monetary wealth,
Speaker 1: and I don't think it's worth it, and not for
Speaker 1: me anyway, So I've always not even necessary. It's not
Speaker 1: because you already here at this point, you know. And
Speaker 1: I think I think the future said, did you respond?
Speaker 1: I think he said I'm sorry or whatever, but it
Speaker 1: was like, you know, in response to him, it wasn't
Speaker 1: so much of him. But I just think at some
Speaker 1: point you have to do more than just do a
Speaker 1: little interview saying yeah, I said this and this and that.
Speaker 1: I think at some point you what I said, Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I know I said that because he's done interviews saying yeah,
Speaker 1: I've taken lean or haven't taken Lean. I don't even
Speaker 1: take lean. I used to. I don't do it no more.
Speaker 1: But I can't say that to the people because then,
Speaker 1: you know, my following is gonna stop following me because
Speaker 1: that's what they believe I do. And when you when
Speaker 1: that's how you feel, that's ignorant. You know it's it's
Speaker 1: it's terribly ignorant, and you you miss leading and miss
Speaker 1: gud and these kids so that you can make a
Speaker 1: couple of dollars. So I'm never I'm gonna be okay
Speaker 1: with that. I always speak against that. And if that's
Speaker 1: what's called the hater, then I'm okay with the hater.
Speaker 1: We know you're okay with the hater title because you're
Speaker 1: always going against, always going against, said is quote man.
Speaker 1: But it's sad when you look at what the drug
Speaker 1: is a culture of drugs. It is definitely before we
Speaker 1: people are smoking a little weed in and now when
Speaker 1: you talk about these pills, they're popping pills like it.
Speaker 1: But I saw I think it was Charlemagne and Amanda
Speaker 1: Stills talking about how it's deepening just taking drugs right like,
Speaker 1: like you said, the pain that people are suffering, what
Speaker 1: folks are going through every day, and and I think
Speaker 1: you're right, Like when as I'm sitting here really processing
Speaker 1: your statement, it probably is that folks are even no
Speaker 1: matter how successful they are, they're still trying to get
Speaker 1: to some mystified place. When when when I think of
Speaker 1: hip hop of our time, like the Queen Latifa, hip
Speaker 1: hop time, the Woutang clan. I feel like maybe weed
Speaker 1: because when you think about Wu Tang, there was a
Speaker 1: lot of weed. But I don't know if people were
Speaker 1: like taking that much medication, just taking anything. But did
Speaker 1: you make it? Not saying that they weren't doing it
Speaker 1: because there was always drug used, Like was the thing
Speaker 1: that that under the table if you was somebody that
Speaker 1: had some level of money and status, people would you know?
Speaker 1: They they called a little cocaine and they did it whatever.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't put in music to where it was glorified.
Speaker 1: Was personal, personal thing that they did. It wasn't trying
Speaker 1: to make kids. I don't know because I didn't hear
Speaker 1: it exactly. You find out if you was in the
Speaker 1: circle of people you finally do you're doing that? You know?
Speaker 1: And it was it was never glorified. But they were
Speaker 1: saying Mary Jane. I didn't know Mary Jane was about
Speaker 1: weed and until I got Mary Jane or something. But
Speaker 1: we weed was glorified because just like right now, we
Speaker 1: just damn the illegal, so we understand the different levels.
Speaker 1: Like you ain't finding people overdosing on weed. You know what,
Speaker 1: I was walking around acting like they over what the
Speaker 1: reality situation is that these pills and personally is killing
Speaker 1: because um, major League Baseball they decided to treat marijuana
Speaker 1: like alcohol. This week they said they're no longer going
Speaker 1: to test for marijuana because they're trying to get to
Speaker 1: the opioid abuse like that. And you know, and I
Speaker 1: read a story the other day that said, we need
Speaker 1: to stop acting like opioids is just the white people problem. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's being treated different. So there's a disparity and the
Speaker 1: hypocrisy around how they treated crack versus um. You know
Speaker 1: now how they're treating opioid abuse. So we know that,
Speaker 1: but in terms of understanding the issue, the seriousness of
Speaker 1: the issue, all our people are caught up in it.
Speaker 1: And it's all ages. It's you know, young people. I
Speaker 1: had a cousin contacted me the other day telling me
Speaker 1: that she needs, you know, twenty dollars. I'm like, what
Speaker 1: what do you need twenty five dollars for? And then
Speaker 1: it it clicked for me. She just need a few
Speaker 1: pills to be able to get by. That's very serious.
Speaker 1: It is. It is extremely serious, man, and we have
Speaker 1: to treat it like it's serious. And that's why I
Speaker 1: think hip hop being the pretty much the staple of
Speaker 1: the culture, and pretty much these are the vanguards of
Speaker 1: our culture. So when you are giving that message and
Speaker 1: you're being very you know, irresponsible to say the least,
Speaker 1: and you're giving that message and you glorifying it to
Speaker 1: these kids knowing that they holding onto every word that
Speaker 1: you say because they believe you. And if you're not
Speaker 1: if you're not giving them the facts, if you're not
Speaker 1: saying even if that's something that you're doing, if you're
Speaker 1: not telling them how it's hurting you and the negatives
Speaker 1: that come with it, and you're just telling, you know,
Speaker 1: we're taking perks and we're doing this, and you're not
Speaker 1: telling how many of your friends is dying, how many
Speaker 1: people have locked up, whatever that comes with that, then
Speaker 1: you just being a false of prose prophet for me
Speaker 1: and I can't do it. But that fair are I mean,
Speaker 1: I know it is. But there are a lot of
Speaker 1: people who say, as an artist, they are not responsible
Speaker 1: for raising your kids. But that's not true because as
Speaker 1: an artist, you you you, especially as my kid's favorite artists,
Speaker 1: you spend more time to my kid than I do.
Speaker 1: Because when I ain't talking they got you in their headphones,
Speaker 1: they're going to YouTube to find you. So you have
Speaker 1: to have some level of responsibility. And if you don't
Speaker 1: have responsibility, then it's our responsibility to make sure that
Speaker 1: you don't have the ears of our children. So that's
Speaker 1: that's what it comes down to me. It's like, I
Speaker 1: get it, you don't need responsibility, but we need to
Speaker 1: make sure that you ain't over here spreading his poison
Speaker 1: to these kids. Because it's pretty much like a cold leader.
Speaker 1: You understand, music is is is has that same level
Speaker 1: of code. If you look at the fans that musicians
Speaker 1: have that they jump on and they fall out when
Speaker 1: you see people live their lives on the words of
Speaker 1: these artists. So we a cold leader can have tend
Speaker 1: people in the room and say yo, I want you
Speaker 1: to kill each other or kill yourself, and he just
Speaker 1: keeps saying, but it has happened. It's not saying it
Speaker 1: happens often because that was the men said that the
Speaker 1: Cold Leader wanted to temple. But we've seen it happen.
Speaker 1: So if you are artist and you keep saying lean
Speaker 1: and perks and we're on perks and lean, and then
Speaker 1: you have influenced it's a lot of these young artists
Speaker 1: that talk about that stuff all the time. But when
Speaker 1: you talk about artists and music, it brings me to
Speaker 1: this place where I'm just so proud. I'm so proud
Speaker 1: of Mary J. Blige until write a post because I'd
Speaker 1: be getting choked up. This is twenty five years my
Speaker 1: life album. That was the album that to your point,
Speaker 1: she has I wouldn't a cult, but we are a following.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, you rap singing. I don't think you
Speaker 1: do sing When it come to Mary, I could do whatever.
Speaker 1: This is true. That's the thing about Mary J. Blidges
Speaker 1: music right, Like you can sing. You know, it isn't
Speaker 1: matter if you have a good voice, a bad voice,
Speaker 1: doesn't matter. If you can get and you feel like
Speaker 1: you can even if you can't. She just makes you
Speaker 1: feel because you feel so connected to me Mary is.
Speaker 1: It's iconic and so many facets of the world of
Speaker 1: icon man like she has she created something, recreated herself,
Speaker 1: rebranded herself and continued several times several times over like
Speaker 1: she has been able to transcend and continue to be
Speaker 1: relevant in so many different time periods of music. Man.
Speaker 1: So when you think about twenty five years years ago
Speaker 1: I was fifteen years old. I'm literally six months almost
Speaker 1: to the day of turning forties. So you know, I'm
Speaker 1: on this little like I'm gonna be forty. Who do
Speaker 1: I get rid of? Who do I keep? What do
Speaker 1: I do? How do I get better? Stronger? The whole thing?
Speaker 1: And I think about being fifteen. That's like when we
Speaker 1: really discovered love. Like I thought, I just I knew
Speaker 1: already broken, and my life was like I know what
Speaker 1: the hell I was singing, but I knew it was
Speaker 1: like it was it was, it was, it was. It
Speaker 1: was like turning my inside and and she would take
Speaker 1: you through feeling good about yourself. Mary was listen. Mary
Speaker 1: is one of the only singers and women that could
Speaker 1: bash a man, and the man still she really not
Speaker 1: really bad. She wasn't bad. She was just selling her story.
Speaker 1: And it was like, damn, he hurt you like you
Speaker 1: didn't feel like come on, because women would play it.
Speaker 1: Women would play it to you like they mad at you,
Speaker 1: and you don't even kid you still be she mad
Speaker 1: at you and you still singing Mary like, but you
Speaker 1: know what's funny? Twenty five years ago, that's probably true.
Speaker 1: That's how we how many people interpreted it. But the
Speaker 1: other day when we were coming down to your Kings
Speaker 1: stopped killing King's March in Baltimore, Angelo, our brother, Um,
Speaker 1: we were listening to the lyrics and she really wasn't
Speaker 1: bashing men at all. She was actually talking a lot
Speaker 1: about love. Some of it was pain, but a lot
Speaker 1: of it was more so about when you love your man,
Speaker 1: when you really into a man, when your man is
Speaker 1: into you. You see three songs, but there are so
Speaker 1: many other songs that were not about like bashing. No,
Speaker 1: she never really bash. I'm just saying she gave she
Speaker 1: gave woman a voice for pain, pain, pain in relationships.
Speaker 1: And it was so good that the men even gra
Speaker 1: gravitated to it and grabbed on while the woman was
Speaker 1: using it against them. You know what I'm saying. You
Speaker 1: know when they were using it against because women singing women.
Speaker 1: When you're coming the house, okay whatever, you come out
Speaker 1: and you know your girl madded she's playing married and
Speaker 1: she looking at you and she's singing the song and
Speaker 1: you're still dancing, like, no, she killed this. You ain't
Speaker 1: even you You know she mad a you were she
Speaker 1: using it to say something to you, but you still
Speaker 1: just singing you like I would. I would suggest because
Speaker 1: as I said, Angela, and we're listening and he was
Speaker 1: talking about the woman bashing, and then we listened to
Speaker 1: the song after song and he's like, Yo, this is
Speaker 1: this is some like powerful always Bible music. So you
Speaker 1: didn't listen again because you might hear that it's probably
Speaker 1: two or three songs that might be really bad. I'm
Speaker 1: just saying she gave the voice to women that were
Speaker 1: mad at their man's That's that's definitely heartbroken, Yes, definitely
Speaker 1: heartbroke and and putting the pieces back together. We watched
Speaker 1: Mary put the pieces back together and she broke a
Speaker 1: cover us down to at the same time, whut the
Speaker 1: was necessary? One thing is one thing we have to
Speaker 1: say about Mary J. Blide is that consistency but truth.
Speaker 1: It was always her true self and the storyline was
Speaker 1: always true and she was. That's why we relate to
Speaker 1: her so much because we are married and she is us.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Mary, congratulations on years not been giving
Speaker 1: how the type of love that she deserves right now
Speaker 1: because she supposed to be here your marriage shut down,
Speaker 1: so we can hug you. We want to show you
Speaker 1: love like we wouldn't you on Street politicians, like, come on,
Speaker 1: make that happen for us. Man, We love you. What
Speaker 1: you mean to our culture, what you meant to meet
Speaker 1: as a young boy growing up seeing you man, just
Speaker 1: the essence. And he was like right from yawkers, like
Speaker 1: right down the block, and I was in the Bronx
Speaker 1: and I used to be like, yo, Shore, he is
Speaker 1: just dope. She was. You couldn't go to skate, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm saying you couldn't like they were playing they're playing
Speaker 1: Mary and sk skating like Mary was for every aspect.
Speaker 1: What's the four one one? Hunt? Yeah? Whats so that
Speaker 1: means we missed the anniversary of What's the four won one?
Speaker 1: It was a good, good show. So glad to have
Speaker 1: everybody to join us on Street Politicians. We talked about
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of topics. We want folks who have comments,
Speaker 1: question Jen's thoughts, ideas, things you want us to talk about, about,
Speaker 1: things we need to learn together, to hit us up,
Speaker 1: to send us all your thoughts. You can send us
Speaker 1: all your thoughts. You can look at the information on
Speaker 1: the screen and get in touch with us, and also
Speaker 1: you can reach each one of us directly. I'm at
Speaker 1: Tamka D Mallory. That's with an eye, not an e
Speaker 1: you know, shout out to people with the ease. But
Speaker 1: it's I to Maka D Mallory on Instagram, on every platform,
Speaker 1: I'm Tamica D Mallory. I don't check Twitter because twitters
Speaker 1: we are crazy people. Oh yeah, I don't go to either,
Speaker 1: but I come sometimes. But I'm on Instagram mostly it's
Speaker 1: my song and why and eating why general. You can
Speaker 1: follow media or I'm sometimes on more Facebook and I
Speaker 1: want you with that my song sometimes. But like we
Speaker 1: always say, we're not always going to be right. You're
Speaker 1: not always gonna agree with us, and we might even
Speaker 1: be wrong, but we will always be authentic. He might
Speaker 1: be wrong, Yes, she's you know what, peace, that's not
Speaker 1: We owned it.