Speaker 1: What's up. Family, it's your girl to mek A D.
Speaker 1: Mallory and it's your boy my son in general. And
Speaker 1: we are your hosts of street politicians, the place where politics.
Speaker 1: You got your your your your Boycott Black Murder gear.
Speaker 1: I see that you went and got you some nice
Speaker 1: things embroidery kings which is in the Brosper anybody wants. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if anybody you know where we get um. You know
Speaker 1: who does the embroidery for our merch is Embroidery Kings.
Speaker 1: And last week on his page, I saw that he
Speaker 1: shared how you know he's making like the stitching the
Speaker 1: embroidery process for Boycott Black Murder, and I thought that
Speaker 1: was super super cool. And Um, this new merch that
Speaker 1: you have on today, UM was done for the event
Speaker 1: that happened last week, which us the announcement of and
Speaker 1: or the premier of your world class video. One of
Speaker 1: the best videos that I've seen you do. And you
Speaker 1: have many and I love many of them, but this
Speaker 1: is really powerful, the Boycott Black Murder m video and song.
Speaker 1: And in the video, your nephew Chris, my little homie,
Speaker 1: he plays um a character of an individual who is
Speaker 1: you know, he's out in the street, he shoots many people.
Speaker 1: Um and at the end of the video we find
Speaker 1: out that uh, he was shooting himself, or at least
Speaker 1: the depiction is every time he shoots someone, he was
Speaker 1: shooting himself. The video is powerful. By now everybody should
Speaker 1: have downloaded it, uh and had the opportunity to check
Speaker 1: it out to support Until Freedom because it is an
Speaker 1: Until Freedom campaign. We're super proud of what you have
Speaker 1: accomplished with this material, but what it is doing this
Speaker 1: opening up a conversation, and so immediately following the screening
Speaker 1: that we did of the video, we had a conversation
Speaker 1: that included the moderator, Landell McMillan, who is the owner
Speaker 1: of the Source magazine, but he was the lawyer for
Speaker 1: Prince Um. He's been in the culture, you know, Landell
Speaker 1: has been a culture creator for years and years and years.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know, I'm not gonna age him,
Speaker 1: but I know he's older than us. And Laondel is
Speaker 1: well known as an entertainment attorney and one who again
Speaker 1: has been like at the cutting edge of many cultural
Speaker 1: things for you know, as long as I can remember.
Speaker 1: And then on the panel also was a T. Mitchell
Speaker 1: a man up in Brooklyn. Our brother who is the
Speaker 1: New York City Czar for Violence UM Intervention. Yeah, Violence
Speaker 1: Intervention and Prevention UM. He is the mayor has a
Speaker 1: point into him with that role, and he's been doing
Speaker 1: an incredible job of bringing people together around this issue
Speaker 1: of violence, intervention and prevention. Then also on the panel
Speaker 1: was Congressman Jamal Bowman, who's from the Bronx UH. He's
Speaker 1: an a former educator. He's a congress person who is
Speaker 1: a squad member. So he's one of those that's in
Speaker 1: Congress fighting for us, fighting for our issues, and you know,
Speaker 1: and speaking truth to power. Congressman bowing is strong. I
Speaker 1: see the trajectory of where he's going. The only thing
Speaker 1: that's gonna getting in Bowman's way is the scary negroes
Speaker 1: in Congress who would try to block him because he's
Speaker 1: too too powerful, too strong, he's too black, and he
Speaker 1: knows the issues too well. And he calls out white
Speaker 1: supremacy all the time, and you know, black people are
Speaker 1: scared to save white supremacy. Some about people um or
Speaker 1: you know, to talk about to talk about white supremacy.
Speaker 1: Then on the panel also was the Great kep Rick
Speaker 1: Kers who is the Chief Wellness Officer at Life Camp UM,
Speaker 1: which is life Camp is one of the premiers UH
Speaker 1: violence intervention and prevention organizations in the nation. She was
Speaker 1: joined on the panel also um UM. She was joined
Speaker 1: on the panel also with Bud Erica Ford or with
Speaker 1: Erika Ford, who is the head of Life Camp, the
Speaker 1: founder UH And so you guys had a real powerful
Speaker 1: conversation about the It was a very solution based conversation UM.
Speaker 1: And I just you know, I think that what and
Speaker 1: now we have people calling saying can we do it
Speaker 1: in other cities? So that's what this video, the powerful
Speaker 1: video as well as the conversation has created. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It was a beautiful turn off. I want to think
Speaker 1: everybody who came. We we did it like really last minute,
Speaker 1: and we had limited space, so we invited, you know,
Speaker 1: a close knit group or people who are doing this work.
Speaker 1: I loved ones of people who we know we'll be
Speaker 1: able to take the message and utilize it in their
Speaker 1: own areas and places to be able to make sure
Speaker 1: that the video gets a little traction. But it was.
Speaker 1: It was an excellent conversation that you know. I was
Speaker 1: blessed by the response from the video. Shoutout to Mark
Speaker 1: Garcia on point blank who shot the video? Mark? You
Speaker 1: you always beating up on Mark, like job when he's
Speaker 1: when he's serious, he's focused, man, he's when he's a
Speaker 1: dope director and you know, and he loves what he does.
Speaker 1: So I want to shout out him for the video.
Speaker 1: And also, like you said, my nephew Chris. But the
Speaker 1: conversation that followed the video was compelling to me, just
Speaker 1: hearing everybody talk um, just knowing that we all have
Speaker 1: something special that we bring, you know, and understanding that
Speaker 1: violence is a culture, right, It's become a culture inside
Speaker 1: our society, and we have the ability to shift the culture, right,
Speaker 1: And that conversation was co you're shifting, like, shout out
Speaker 1: to Keepra man. Everybody kept coming to be like, yo,
Speaker 1: who's kemper? Like Kebyra has she has an ability two.
Speaker 1: You know. It's just certain people that when you listen
Speaker 1: to them, they shift. They just shift the way that
Speaker 1: you think, Yeah, she's skilled in a way that she
Speaker 1: talks and it resonates and and and it disarms you, right,
Speaker 1: I can't. Like I was listening to her and I'm like,
Speaker 1: we need a keeper in every community. Right, because if
Speaker 1: Kepra is outside, I can't see people want to be
Speaker 1: with each other and she's having a conversation, you know.
Speaker 1: So when she's a healer, she's like she and that
Speaker 1: is not that is not it's not a tern right,
Speaker 1: that's not like, oh, she's a healer. You know, I
Speaker 1: could be a healer. You could be healing. No, that's
Speaker 1: a god given anointing to be a healer where your
Speaker 1: voice can actually number one. I won't show you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we have had it on our show, and you know,
Speaker 1: she also did several weeks of um Fridays on my
Speaker 1: um uh Instagram as well, So yeah we have, but
Speaker 1: it's it's been a while. But she's so great in
Speaker 1: terms of her understanding of not just the mental um
Speaker 1: uh like what Like she said, mental health is one thing,
Speaker 1: but that makes you narrow in on schizophrenia, anxiety or
Speaker 1: this or that one issue. But when you think about
Speaker 1: spiritual warfare and that that is actually what our communities
Speaker 1: are experiencing. It's a spiritual warfare and it is being
Speaker 1: fed by the culture, by entertainment. Infotainment is so much
Speaker 1: coming at us that we're literally at war with ourselves.
Speaker 1: And of course with this world and the way in
Speaker 1: which she breaks it down. She has to be a
Speaker 1: part of every conversation because and she and others like her,
Speaker 1: Queen of Foul and others, they have to be a
Speaker 1: part of these conversation sations because you can't talk about
Speaker 1: solutions and what we have to do as a people
Speaker 1: if you don't deal with the root of our concern
Speaker 1: our issues that most people never even talking. Most people
Speaker 1: if you walked up to a person just in you know,
Speaker 1: that rouge Louisiana that's waiting to get them some food
Speaker 1: from the local chicken spot, and you start talking about
Speaker 1: spiritual warfare and things we're up against, they might be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I kind of get it, but like rink gotta be paid,
Speaker 1: you know, uh, food needs to be on the table.
Speaker 1: Matter of fact, get out the way because I'm trying
Speaker 1: to get this because I gotta run and go pick
Speaker 1: up my kid from school and these things. So you
Speaker 1: have to in these conversations. We have to be able
Speaker 1: to slow down enough to hear the content that she's
Speaker 1: putting forward. So I just, you know, I thought the
Speaker 1: whole thing. Erica's um her her masterful way of explaining
Speaker 1: that at the end of the day, we could talk
Speaker 1: about what black folks need to do and what's happening
Speaker 1: in our communities. We have to keep our eye on
Speaker 1: the fact that there are there's intentional oppression happening, you know,
Speaker 1: and and and Congressman Bowman said, policies are created every
Speaker 1: day to inflict harm on our community. So when people
Speaker 1: walking around, which brings me to the whole midterm elections conversation,
Speaker 1: when people are walking around talking about they don't need
Speaker 1: to vote and just get money, get money, we need
Speaker 1: to be real clear about the danger in that because
Speaker 1: while we are not paying attention to the mid term
Speaker 1: elections and other elections federal, all levels where there are
Speaker 1: people being voted into office, what happens is that they
Speaker 1: are making policies that the majority of our people will
Speaker 1: be impacted by. See. My thing is that the whole
Speaker 1: idea of getting to the bag is important. And certainly
Speaker 1: in these conversations that we're having about violence community, you
Speaker 1: have to have all the components, the healers, the grassroots organizers,
Speaker 1: the elected officials, the the economic development folks, like there's
Speaker 1: so many different the practitioners, if you will, so many
Speaker 1: different areas that have to be covered. But what we
Speaker 1: have to understand is that those these things, it's a
Speaker 1: heart and every all of these things become arteries, they've
Speaker 1: become connections. It is not one. If you cut off
Speaker 1: another supply, the heart will stop. The heart can't live
Speaker 1: just with one particular thing pumping into it. It requires
Speaker 1: all the we've seen it. We know, right, we should
Speaker 1: put it on the screen so people can see there
Speaker 1: are there are multiple uh functioning organs in our body
Speaker 1: that makes us live, and when one of those organs
Speaker 1: goes bad, the body starts to break down. And so
Speaker 1: with that being said, we cannot allow other people to
Speaker 1: make policy decisions on our behalf and we take our
Speaker 1: eye off the ball. We have to ensure that we're
Speaker 1: in the process so that we can at least if
Speaker 1: for nothing else. Yeah, it's true we're not getting enough.
Speaker 1: We're not getting enough, we're not gaining enough. But we
Speaker 1: damn sure need to be blocking folks who want to
Speaker 1: put things in place and policies in place that will
Speaker 1: harm most of our people. When as we work on
Speaker 1: the economic strategies that are important, and we're gonna we're
Speaker 1: leading towards that place. Right, We're working on the economic strategies, strategies.
Speaker 1: It's gonna take years and to catch all of our
Speaker 1: people in this nation and get them in the pipeline
Speaker 1: and get them educated and give them the things they need,
Speaker 1: get them on the farms, get them fed. That takes time.
Speaker 1: It takes unity too, and it takes us being able, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, to work in a way that we are
Speaker 1: not all the way prepared. But we're getting there. We're
Speaker 1: getting there because people are waking up. But what what
Speaker 1: is happening every day is that Ray Ray, Jojo, Keisha
Speaker 1: and Letitia them they live in communities where policy is
Speaker 1: impacting everything they do from moment to moment. And for
Speaker 1: some of us to be so elite in our thinking
Speaker 1: that because we're not living in those spaces that we
Speaker 1: can just turn off the system. That is not a
Speaker 1: good idea. We must make sure that our people go
Speaker 1: to the polls because there's propositions, there are questions being asked,
Speaker 1: decisions being made, and we have to be a part
Speaker 1: of making those decisions. You're right, man, when we when
Speaker 1: we look at you know, what's going on with our
Speaker 1: society and how it's impacting us, you know, which brings
Speaker 1: me to the conversation of Curry. You know, money doesn't
Speaker 1: really have that much of an impact in certain and
Speaker 1: certain arenas. Right, people can take money from you. They
Speaker 1: can they like when we look at Kanye situation when
Speaker 1: woman and being you know, saying you're the richest black
Speaker 1: man in America too. Next day realizing that people have
Speaker 1: the ability to take those finances from you, right, because
Speaker 1: there's no structure built, you know, that in place that
Speaker 1: makes sure that you're able to thrive, that you're able
Speaker 1: that protects you from that. Right. So there's so many
Speaker 1: multifacets of the way that we have to be intentional
Speaker 1: about what we're doing, you know. And and that conversation
Speaker 1: really fed to that, you know, and we talk about
Speaker 1: our government, like Jamore Woman was saying a lot of
Speaker 1: things about policy, you know, and how it affects our
Speaker 1: communities and and and policy that you know can change
Speaker 1: the dynamics of our community. Erica was talking about specific
Speaker 1: bills that they're trying to pass that can release amounts
Speaker 1: of funds into our community that can impact completely change
Speaker 1: and shift, you know, the reality of the community. Because
Speaker 1: I tell people all the time, you can't change the
Speaker 1: conditions of the community until you change the conditions of
Speaker 1: the community. You know, poverty is violence, Poverty is everything
Speaker 1: that you know, the structural um damage that's going on
Speaker 1: in our communities. It stems from poverty, but it also
Speaker 1: and and poverty stems from you know, the laws. You know,
Speaker 1: the reason why our community support because there are laws
Speaker 1: that create that have been created to make sure that
Speaker 1: those communities support because, like I said all the time,
Speaker 1: capitalism cannot function without high and low. You know, capitalism
Speaker 1: wouldn't be a thing if there wasn't a poor class.
Speaker 1: You know, Unfortunately, it's cyclical. I saw Angelo Roi talking
Speaker 1: about it the other day. It's cyclical. We're not voting
Speaker 1: because we're frustrated because we're not getting what we want
Speaker 1: from the system. But in order to get what you
Speaker 1: want from the system, you have to vote so that
Speaker 1: you can get inside the system. And you can't get
Speaker 1: inside the system if you stay outside the system and
Speaker 1: it goes around and around, and even to your point
Speaker 1: from an economic perspective, you can't. You will experience a
Speaker 1: change in policy that will stop you from being able
Speaker 1: to make money in certain ways if you're not paying
Speaker 1: attention everything you want to do. And I think It's
Speaker 1: actually very naive of some folks to think that other
Speaker 1: communities don't pay attention to policy because the policy represents
Speaker 1: how they live. I see people saying that the Asian
Speaker 1: community they don't care about that, you know, they don't
Speaker 1: vote up. Let me tell you what is it called Chinatown.
Speaker 1: They are absolutely engaged in policy in their area and
Speaker 1: in that community so that they can make sure that
Speaker 1: they have their businesses, their banks, and everything that they
Speaker 1: control in those areas. And it goes all the way
Speaker 1: up the system. So then, in other words, you have
Speaker 1: local folks, but then there're state folks, and then there's
Speaker 1: federal legislation. Ship we always talk about. I get hit
Speaker 1: every day with the Asian Hate Crime Bill. UM. That
Speaker 1: passed because Mitch McConnell's wife is an Asian woman, and
Speaker 1: they were able to push it through through uh Congress
Speaker 1: and the Senate quickly with her supporting advocacy and Mitch McConnell,
Speaker 1: who happens to be one of the most powerful white
Speaker 1: men in this country. So of course they got it
Speaker 1: done right, um and and and so if if Asians
Speaker 1: didn't care and they weren't engaged, and how in the
Speaker 1: world did we come up with the Asian Hate Crime
Speaker 1: Bill or Asian So I forget the name of it,
Speaker 1: but it's not out of disrespect. I just can't remember
Speaker 1: exactly what it is that happened because the Asian community
Speaker 1: UM had had advocates and there are people lobbying on
Speaker 1: their behalf. So it is what it is, you know.
Speaker 1: And I think at all of this consistently brings us
Speaker 1: back to the conversation around Kyrie, the moment that we're in.
Speaker 1: I know there are some people who have said, well, Tamika,
Speaker 1: you know you need to say more and do this
Speaker 1: that in the third and be out there fighting this.
Speaker 1: And first of all, people have no idea what we've
Speaker 1: been doing, so please don't assume that just because it's
Speaker 1: not on social media that there's not things happening UM.
Speaker 1: But also we're very strategic and understanding how all of
Speaker 1: these things operate. And I know from my perspective experiencing UM,
Speaker 1: you know, a very traumatic UM moment with the label
Speaker 1: of anti Semitism being placed on me and knowing what
Speaker 1: it caused, knowing what's happening in the background with those
Speaker 1: individuals who are not trying to have reasonable dialogue right
Speaker 1: there are individuals from the Jewish community that are not
Speaker 1: trying to have reasonable dialogue. Their individuals even in our community,
Speaker 1: that do not want to have reasonable dialogue. That is
Speaker 1: a challenge that we face, and I experienced the firsthand.
Speaker 1: So I know more about this issue than most people think.
Speaker 1: Do I support Kyrie one thousand percent? Do I think
Speaker 1: the Kyrie hates any community? No? I do not do
Speaker 1: I think that do. I also understand And that's the
Speaker 1: other thing we are. We lack the ability to have
Speaker 1: nuanced in a nuanced conversation because I see as you've
Speaker 1: been writing, I've been reading some of your comments, and
Speaker 1: I see people saying, oh, he didn't do anything wrong,
Speaker 1: he didn't say anything, so he was forced to make
Speaker 1: an apology, And I get that. I get that feeling
Speaker 1: because certainly there were people who were trying to force
Speaker 1: me to say certain words. But I know that Kyrie
Speaker 1: did not apologize. Uh. He says in it, there's a
Speaker 1: there's a line in it that lets me know that
Speaker 1: he had consciousness. I don't lead, first of all, that
Speaker 1: a man of Kyrie's stature, because on one hand, people
Speaker 1: are saying he's strong and he's powerful, and he won't
Speaker 1: be broken. But then on the other hand, they're saying
Speaker 1: that he was forced to put out a statement. You
Speaker 1: gotta do have to choose one or the other. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they'll say, well, you can do both. And I don't
Speaker 1: believe that Kyrie is the type of person that if
Speaker 1: he meant something that he stood a hundred percent with it,
Speaker 1: that he was just gonna be forced to make a statement.
Speaker 1: I believe what he said in the statement is true,
Speaker 1: that he and I'm paraphrasing, but that he responded out
Speaker 1: of a place of being defensive. And I could tell
Speaker 1: people all about that right when when I saw that line,
Speaker 1: because I was breathing it, trying to see what is
Speaker 1: this statement. Is this the statement that they typed up
Speaker 1: for you and you had to approve it, or is
Speaker 1: it a statement that actually represents your feeling? And when
Speaker 1: it said I responded out of place of being defensive,
Speaker 1: it occurred to me in that moment that these were
Speaker 1: his words, and the reason why it's not so much
Speaker 1: that he did any thing, um that he said anything wrong,
Speaker 1: or that he was intentionally being one thing. And I
Speaker 1: get it. People are like when he wasn't trying to
Speaker 1: he was just trying to show a film that talks
Speaker 1: about or educates us on the roots of our history, right,
Speaker 1: and we get that. However, what I believe he apologized
Speaker 1: for and understood after being able to assess it from
Speaker 1: a non um defensive position, is that there are things
Speaker 1: in the film that denies the Holocaust and talks about
Speaker 1: Jewish people being evil that I watch it. No, do
Speaker 1: I trust the individuals that have told me exactly what lines.
Speaker 1: I've had people give me specific statements. Did he did
Speaker 1: were those things in the film? Yes? Did he? Was?
Speaker 1: He probably paying attention or was it that deep to
Speaker 1: him at the moment. No, he probably was just like, Okay,
Speaker 1: it's it's a bunch of stuff in here that I
Speaker 1: may or may not agree with, but the basis, the
Speaker 1: premise of it is in more and and therefore he's
Speaker 1: shared it. But the problem is, and where I can
Speaker 1: see him saying, hey, I apologize for this is the
Speaker 1: idea that when you have a major platform, When you
Speaker 1: have a major platform, unfortunately we are not giving the
Speaker 1: ability to just make flippant mistakes or put things out
Speaker 1: there without context and understanding for those people who are
Speaker 1: viewing it, and people pick apart every single thing we
Speaker 1: do so we have more of a responsibility with our platform.
Speaker 1: And when people come and say, well, Tamika, this thing
Speaker 1: you said, it hurt me or it upset me, I
Speaker 1: can double down and say I don't give a ship
Speaker 1: because sometimes I don't. Or I can actually hear what
Speaker 1: it is that you're saying, reflect upon it, and not
Speaker 1: have any ego in saying, listen, I apologize. I can
Speaker 1: say that the problem becomes and I know, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: I'm talking a lot, but I haven't really been talking
Speaker 1: about this. The problem becomes when you have people around you.
Speaker 1: And let's let's be real clear. Let's be real clear.
Speaker 1: In my situation when words, specific words were being enforced
Speaker 1: on me to say, it was not just Jewish people
Speaker 1: who were doing that, because in fact, as you know,
Speaker 1: we met a number of black Jews, which by the way,
Speaker 1: I didn't even know existed, and many of our conversations
Speaker 1: and relationship began to to be built around black Jews
Speaker 1: helping me to understand the nuances within the Jewish community
Speaker 1: and them being black and Jewish at the same time,
Speaker 1: and being able to understand our position and things that
Speaker 1: we were feeling. Right, it was not just white Jews,
Speaker 1: who some of them also became very good friends of mine.
Speaker 1: I have friends that are my Jewish. Rabbi bar Elman
Speaker 1: is a very good friend of ours. And Sophie, a daughter,
Speaker 1: very good friend of ours. These are people who we
Speaker 1: and we we have deep relationship with at this point.
Speaker 1: And it took time and it came through controversy. But
Speaker 1: it was not just Jewish people who were telling me
Speaker 1: which words to use. It was not. There were all
Speaker 1: types of people may and and yes, mainly white people,
Speaker 1: some black, but mainly white, people of all different backgrounds
Speaker 1: were trying to force on me words to say. So
Speaker 1: when Kyrie says I apologize and somebody tells you you
Speaker 1: have to say I'm sorry, that begins to strip a
Speaker 1: man of his humanity. I'm saying, and you and someone
Speaker 1: said to me, Kyrie says, I apologize, you say I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I say my bad. My brother Marvin being said, I
Speaker 1: say my bad. When I want to apologize, I say
Speaker 1: my bad. Right, all of us have different ways of
Speaker 1: being able to express ourselves, and it is not right.
Speaker 1: I don't give a damn what anybody says to force
Speaker 1: people to say word words exactly as you wanted to
Speaker 1: be because we are not going to let you beat
Speaker 1: us into a level of submission. We do want to
Speaker 1: acknowledge wrong. He did acknowledge wrong, he apologized for and
Speaker 1: he admitted that I was defensive. Therefore I could not see.
Speaker 1: But after deeper reflection, I recognized at that point if
Speaker 1: a man can't be allowed to apologize and move forward
Speaker 1: from that when we know he does not have a
Speaker 1: history of anything antie anybody. When we know that, then
Speaker 1: we're doing too much when we start demanding of him
Speaker 1: that he checked off boxes to fulfill someone else's fantasy
Speaker 1: about how to put a black man in his place.
Speaker 1: That's how I feel. Please don't think for any reason
Speaker 1: that because you don't see me talking about it every day,
Speaker 1: that I don't know and cannot articulate my feelings. But
Speaker 1: this is a very personally traumatic thing for me, and
Speaker 1: i've all and he had to experience a lot in
Speaker 1: this area. I learned a lot. I also, uh, I
Speaker 1: learned a lot and I heard a lot all at
Speaker 1: the same time. And therefore it's okay to allow others
Speaker 1: to speak. Because when you have personal trauma and you
Speaker 1: bring it with you to a conversation, you may not
Speaker 1: be able to help in any way because you're bringing
Speaker 1: your personal trauma into it. But do not think that
Speaker 1: I don't know how to describe what I see in
Speaker 1: front of me that has happening to a black man
Speaker 1: who happens to be my brother, who I have reached
Speaker 1: out to to tell him that we love him and
Speaker 1: to support him, because when people apologize, folks will tell
Speaker 1: you you're weak. But that is not being weak when
Speaker 1: you are a man who can say, listen, I made
Speaker 1: some mistakes here or some or some I moved in
Speaker 1: the wrong way in this area in that area, and
Speaker 1: I'm acknowledging it. And anybody that doesn't respect that, shame
Speaker 1: on you, because I certainly do respect it. I don't
Speaker 1: really think as much else to say it after that,
Speaker 1: you know, I definitely have always been a fan of
Speaker 1: Kyrie the individual, especially you know, the way he carries itself,
Speaker 1: how he stands on principle, how he's always willing to
Speaker 1: do the right thing morally, you know, But for him,
Speaker 1: it doesn't you know. And he's been adamant about saying
Speaker 1: that more things than basketball, and and and he and
Speaker 1: he's a great basketball player, and you know, he loves
Speaker 1: the game of basketball. But when you made a decision
Speaker 1: that the thing you you you studied and played for
Speaker 1: your whole life, isn't as important as the things that
Speaker 1: go on within you, with your people, and within the
Speaker 1: real world and outside of you know, your passion. When
Speaker 1: you realize that your purpose is to bring light, he said,
Speaker 1: I'm a beacon of light. You know, that's what I'm
Speaker 1: here for. I'm here to to be a beacon of light.
Speaker 1: And you've accepted that and you're willing to deal whatever
Speaker 1: comes with that. That that that's a level of integrity
Speaker 1: for me, you know, And I don't. I don't see
Speaker 1: anything about Curry that's anti anything. I think he's anti negativity.
Speaker 1: I think he's inti falsehoods. I think he's anti you know,
Speaker 1: the worldly things being dominating over what he believes is
Speaker 1: God and what you know, what life is really about.
Speaker 1: I think he's anti those things. But as far as
Speaker 1: negativity pro or pro instead of us using anti, he's
Speaker 1: pro positivity. As you said, instead of anti negativity, it's
Speaker 1: pro positivity. And I and I know I'm cutting you
Speaker 1: off what you've been talking about this for days, Ironman,
Speaker 1: he said, anything you know, we've never ever, ever watched
Speaker 1: Kyrie be anything other than who he is. Right, there's no,
Speaker 1: there's no, I'm not He's not questionable to me. That
Speaker 1: doesn't mean I agree with everything he said or do
Speaker 1: or does. And I'm sure he don't agree with everything
Speaker 1: I do and say and saying to you, because that's
Speaker 1: not real. Right. We all have differences. But he's been
Speaker 1: solid as an individual overall all, especially with our communities,
Speaker 1: the things he supports, in the ways that he shows up,
Speaker 1: I've not ever seen him compromise himself uh to stand
Speaker 1: with our oppressors or to give our oppressors any type
Speaker 1: of entry point to our communities. And therefore he deserves
Speaker 1: that we will be able to stand with him, even
Speaker 1: in a moment where he made a determination that he
Speaker 1: could have done things differently. Right, we should be able
Speaker 1: to stand with him during that time. And and you know,
Speaker 1: and and and and and and and and I am
Speaker 1: I am um. We can't. We can't. We can't cower
Speaker 1: on that. You know this, They cannot be well, I
Speaker 1: can just throw my brother out because these situations, this
Speaker 1: situation could have been handled. No, it is. It is
Speaker 1: absolutely not okay to deny the Holocaust or to say
Speaker 1: that all Jewish, all white Jewish people are evil. That's
Speaker 1: not okay, that's not okay. I'm not okay with it.
Speaker 1: I'll give them what you said. And no, he didn't
Speaker 1: say it. He did not say it, but it was
Speaker 1: content in the film, and therefore the Jewish community had
Speaker 1: an issue with it, and Kyrie responded the way he
Speaker 1: felt he should respond. What more can you ask a
Speaker 1: man for? And we ain't gonna always get it right.
Speaker 1: The first time we open our mouths were not. Sometimes
Speaker 1: you open your mouth and you don't even know what
Speaker 1: you're saying, especially when you got agents and people and
Speaker 1: this and owners and friends and family and everybody is
Speaker 1: coming at you and telling you, were telling you and
Speaker 1: telling you and accusing you of something that is not
Speaker 1: even in your heart. Because that's what I experienced, being
Speaker 1: accused of things that was not even in my heart.
Speaker 1: So you respond the first time based upon that, and
Speaker 1: then maybe the second time you get a little better,
Speaker 1: but you still are in the battle, and after deep reflection,
Speaker 1: you have an opportunity to sit still and say, you
Speaker 1: know what I thought about it. I really thought about,
Speaker 1: not a thought about it to respond, but I thought
Speaker 1: about and I see you know where I could it
Speaker 1: could have done things differently. So I guess that was
Speaker 1: your thought of today, huh, because because I sure have
Speaker 1: a lot of thoughts. But you know, that's that's what
Speaker 1: I have to say on that. So that's it. Agree, man,
Speaker 1: shout out to Curry, loving life to you can continue
Speaker 1: to be the beacon of life. All right, brings us Listen,
Speaker 1: we got so much controversy and conversations with this and
Speaker 1: that and the third it circles us. We're gonna circle
Speaker 1: to block back with our next guest that's coming up
Speaker 1: right now. That's so we have new friends that we
Speaker 1: are welcoming to street politicians today. Uh, there's actually two,
Speaker 1: but today we've we've got one half of the duo
Speaker 1: with us. UM. And you know, they have been the
Speaker 1: top of conversation for the last two weeks at least
Speaker 1: every day. Everyone's talking about these two brothers. And here
Speaker 1: to represent them is rams this job of civic cipher um.
Speaker 1: And you know, uh, you guys, you guys have become
Speaker 1: um synonymous with this idea of like how do we
Speaker 1: contain the term white lives matter? Um? And you know
Speaker 1: I've been watching your interviews and checking you all out
Speaker 1: and and and and and really just how articulate you
Speaker 1: are about so many different issues, and so we're happy
Speaker 1: to have you as one of our new friends. We
Speaker 1: have a joke on Street Politicians that every all of
Speaker 1: our friends on here doing great things, and so um,
Speaker 1: you all have down become our friends. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for joining Street Politicians today. I appreciate you having
Speaker 1: me that. Uh, that tone is energizing for me. And
Speaker 1: I'll speak on Ques behalf as well, because as you
Speaker 1: can imagine, not everybody is going to be a fan
Speaker 1: of every decision that you make, and when you're in
Speaker 1: the decider's seat, tries you might to do right by everyone. Um,
Speaker 1: people will pick you apart. So to hear here that
Speaker 1: that tone in your voice, that's that's energizing, and we
Speaker 1: definitely appreciate it. Now we know about those decisions. Don't
Speaker 1: we missed the letting it is? It has to be
Speaker 1: a lot to to you know, you have some people
Speaker 1: who applaud you, do you have you know, the naysayers
Speaker 1: and the people that want to make it seem like
Speaker 1: you've done something wrong. So how how is that that? Um? Well, uh,
Speaker 1: let me start by saying that most the vast majority
Speaker 1: of people, UM, are really happy that this move has
Speaker 1: taken place. Like you said, it kind of contains something
Speaker 1: that a message that we really didn't want to get
Speaker 1: out there, particularly in the name of fashion or commerce. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, a phrase that that people, especially my people,
Speaker 1: our people, associate with hate. UM. So most people have
Speaker 1: been overwhelmingly supportive and that that feels very special. UM.
Speaker 1: The other the other half of this, though, as you
Speaker 1: can imagine, is that there are people who are very much,
Speaker 1: almost zealous when it comes to being a fan of uh,
Speaker 1: the the gentleman at the center of this whole thing.
Speaker 1: And you know, we've we've been fortunate the media has
Speaker 1: been very kind. We've been fortunate enough to be able
Speaker 1: to say our piece. We don't agree with what he's doing. UM,
Speaker 1: I'll be a little bit, you know, uh softer. We
Speaker 1: don't think what he's doing is particularly smart wise. We
Speaker 1: don't think it's waking folks up in the way that's
Speaker 1: he's trying to do that. But we far be it
Speaker 1: from us to talk down. We can be fair and
Speaker 1: we can be firm, but we don't talk down on
Speaker 1: our people. UM. We have to condemn the behavior, but
Speaker 1: the man we feel is still worth a little bit
Speaker 1: of dignity. UM. And he's admitted to us that he's
Speaker 1: going through some mental health challenges. He's he's he said
Speaker 1: it very publicly. He's a brilliant man. UM. And the
Speaker 1: and the problem with brilliance is that, UM, it can
Speaker 1: be used. It can become uh, the thing that you
Speaker 1: use against yourself without knowing it can help. It can
Speaker 1: cause you to stand in your own way, or block
Speaker 1: your own blessing, or shoot yourself in foot or whatever
Speaker 1: metaphor you want to win. Certain and so we've we've
Speaker 1: been very careful too, UM, make sure that we're not
Speaker 1: tearing a black man down. That's not ever what we
Speaker 1: would ever want to do. Um. However, we have to
Speaker 1: be fair and in some instances we have to be firm.
Speaker 1: You know. This is one thing that's true about us,
Speaker 1: is that we are meant and so far be it
Speaker 1: from us to coward. But at the same time, we
Speaker 1: have to be constructive with our approach and not destructive
Speaker 1: in as often as we can be. UM, if if
Speaker 1: if I may, uh. You know, again, the media has
Speaker 1: been very kind, but the comments and some of these
Speaker 1: sections you get different people subscribing to different realities, let's
Speaker 1: be honest, um, and their realities reflect their values. And
Speaker 1: so I don't want to say anyone's wrong or anyone
Speaker 1: is right. But as you can imagine, it's very difficult
Speaker 1: to make a move, make a decision, say, say a
Speaker 1: thing that some group of people won't take an issue with.
Speaker 1: And so that's been very challenging because again, you know,
Speaker 1: if this was just one group, if this was white supremacist,
Speaker 1: if this was you know, that sort of thing, this
Speaker 1: would be easy to deal with. But the white supremacists
Speaker 1: have been very quiet. This has been our people trying
Speaker 1: to decide for us what the right thing to do is.
Speaker 1: And um, so let me let me, let me jump
Speaker 1: let me jump in here and say one thing to
Speaker 1: you that I have learned. And there was a recent
Speaker 1: New York Times article, uh that was released maybe it
Speaker 1: was about a month ago now, and it talked about
Speaker 1: research that the New York Times did and how they
Speaker 1: found Russian bots were used to take down the Women's March.
Speaker 1: They were used pretty much to antagonize us, harass us
Speaker 1: and specifically lender Saur soul as a Palestinian Muslim woman. Um.
Speaker 1: And then of course the rest of us caught it
Speaker 1: just because we were connected to her, UM and we
Speaker 1: know that even you know, as it got towards the
Speaker 1: latter part of our three years within the Women's March, UH,
Speaker 1: there was a absolute online attack against me personally. And
Speaker 1: what we found with that is the profiles are not
Speaker 1: always the people. So even though it looks like black people,
Speaker 1: brown people at that time, some of them were Jewish people.
Speaker 1: The platforms look that way, but behind the scenes it
Speaker 1: was still white supremacists using some of these um these pages, UM.
Speaker 1: And so even though yes, I'm sure you're seeing a
Speaker 1: lot of black people who are given commentary because we
Speaker 1: get it all the time, so we know about it.
Speaker 1: But rest assured that there are probably more people to
Speaker 1: your original point with you and trying to help or
Speaker 1: or see where this goes. Then there are people who
Speaker 1: are just negative and you know, anti whatever decisions you make,
Speaker 1: so hopefully that makes you feel better than you you
Speaker 1: might be hearing from people who are not even real us.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, So listen, let me let
Speaker 1: me I want to go backwards real quick because I
Speaker 1: want people to know I have throughout my career. UM,
Speaker 1: whatever I'm doing, whatever I'm working on. It's like Jamika Mallory,
Speaker 1: the Women's March, Jamika Mallory, this and that. But we
Speaker 1: never really get our own identity and get an opportunity
Speaker 1: to say who who am I? You know that it's
Speaker 1: outside of the label. So people associate you all with
Speaker 1: the White Lives Matter trademark, But who are you outside
Speaker 1: of that? What have you been doing? And what is
Speaker 1: civic cipher for? Civic? I appreciate that question, because yes
Speaker 1: we are. I'll speak for Q and myself. We are
Speaker 1: men UM with fathers, we are DJs. Our background is
Speaker 1: in hip hop radio broadcasters UM, and civic cipher is
Speaker 1: something that was born out of the protests of UH
Speaker 1: during that time. As you can imagine, UM, seeing George
Speaker 1: Floyd lose his life, it motivated us to take action
Speaker 1: along with everyone else in our city and having a
Speaker 1: higher profile me UM because I had done like you know,
Speaker 1: afternoon Drive for many years. I had like billboards and
Speaker 1: all that sort of stuff in this city, so folks
Speaker 1: knew the name RAMS this job in Arizona, you know. UM,
Speaker 1: I felt like I could do more UM then stay
Speaker 1: home and just ride ride it out, you know. And
Speaker 1: and that's not my way anyway. You know, when I
Speaker 1: was a very young man, nineteen years old, I met um,
Speaker 1: my college mentor and my lifelong friends don't very close
Speaker 1: to me today. In fact, she was giving me some
Speaker 1: advice yesterday. She's very much my elder, Dr Camilla Westenberg.
Speaker 1: And when I was nineteen, I became the president of
Speaker 1: the Double A C. P. Blacks student union at my college,
Speaker 1: and she was the teacher and the chair of that chapter.
Speaker 1: So uh, by the time I got into radio, I
Speaker 1: kind of knew who I was. And you know, my hair,
Speaker 1: and I know that many people can't see it, but
Speaker 1: I wear my hair the way it grows, um, and
Speaker 1: I don't cut it. Um. That is a choice that
Speaker 1: I made. That is by design. I have to represent
Speaker 1: my people in rooms where my people aren't represented, because
Speaker 1: I often get to make it there and I'm the
Speaker 1: only one. And I have to bring my legacy and
Speaker 1: my culture and you know, my pride and all that
Speaker 1: with me, and I have to speak louder, and I
Speaker 1: have to be more articulate and more direct. And so
Speaker 1: back to the story, Civic Cipher was a a necessary
Speaker 1: place on the radio that we carved out to have
Speaker 1: conversations to take a break from you know, wrapping and
Speaker 1: singing and dancing and all that sort of stuff. Um.
Speaker 1: And you know how how the story originally went. We
Speaker 1: we went to our old ideal station and he said, hey,
Speaker 1: look these folks on the streets. They got messages and
Speaker 1: the news is saying that they're rioting. But I was
Speaker 1: out there with my children. I was out there with
Speaker 1: my sons. They wrote signed we walked, you know, we
Speaker 1: you know, everything was fine. We need to help these people.
Speaker 1: This is black culture on these airwaves, and that's black
Speaker 1: culture on the streets, and that's a facet that may
Speaker 1: not make a lot of money. But this is not
Speaker 1: the time to be a fair weather friend. You know.
Speaker 1: I didn't use those words. You know, I know how
Speaker 1: to talk to these folks. But the long and short
Speaker 1: of it is they said yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: and then ultimately they said no. Specifically, they said to me, Um,
Speaker 1: ramsay is, we don't want to do a black show.
Speaker 1: And that's the wrong thing to say to the wrong
Speaker 1: person at the wrong time. So I resigned publicly. I
Speaker 1: wrote my resignation to the City of Phoenix, who had
Speaker 1: given me my ratings for many years. Allowed me to
Speaker 1: feed my children and live what I felt was a
Speaker 1: very happy life and very comfortably. Um, And it wasn't
Speaker 1: worth that for someone to say that to me, so
Speaker 1: I resigned. Unfortunately, the city had in my back. They
Speaker 1: saw me at the protest. They my son wrote a sign.
Speaker 1: He was learning how to write at the time, so
Speaker 1: it's chicken scratch. They put that in the newspaper. You know,
Speaker 1: city had my back and shared it, and then that grew,
Speaker 1: had some momentum, and the trades picked it up, so
Speaker 1: forth and so on. And then uh, some other programmers
Speaker 1: reached out. Um. You know, in cities like this, there's
Speaker 1: usually a couple of hip hop stations. So the other
Speaker 1: hip hop station reached out. He says, hey, I don't
Speaker 1: know what you were trying to do over there, but
Speaker 1: will you please come and do it over here? And
Speaker 1: then then we had to come up with a name.
Speaker 1: Then we had to come up with a you know,
Speaker 1: a clock, We had to come up with a you know,
Speaker 1: a format for the show, etcetera. So Sam Excipher was
Speaker 1: born out of that, and we tell stories that long
Speaker 1: form that don't exist in cultural spaces and spaces where
Speaker 1: black culture is consumed. Um, particularly in a hip hop space.
Speaker 1: So our our show sounds like a hip hop show.
Speaker 1: What we're talking um, and we're empowering allies and black
Speaker 1: and brown people, so they know, what's the big deal
Speaker 1: when you hear the in word? Or what is it
Speaker 1: like to be a black man walking down the street
Speaker 1: at night and there's a white woman walking forward you?
Speaker 1: How is that also scary? You know, things that they
Speaker 1: may not um be able to even conceive of. Um.
Speaker 1: We also talk about, you know, a lot of political issues,
Speaker 1: and of course we deal with police brutality uh uh,
Speaker 1: and and social social issues across the board. We do
Speaker 1: our best an hour a week and fortunately we're on
Speaker 1: over thirty stations now and we're looking to expand that.
Speaker 1: So yeah, we're just some regular guys. We were trying
Speaker 1: to do our best. So I hope that's a sufficient answer. No,
Speaker 1: that's that's more than sufficient. You know, just get in
Speaker 1: the background and hearing you, so I kind of understand this.
Speaker 1: You know, this situation and how you guys got here
Speaker 1: with the whole trademark. I heard that it was gifted
Speaker 1: to you, but you didn't. This wasn't something that you
Speaker 1: set out to do. There was gifted to you from
Speaker 1: someone from Arizona. Like, what was that process? What is
Speaker 1: something that you asked for? Was it something that you
Speaker 1: know they just give it? Like, what was the process
Speaker 1: of that? Yeah, So the the individual that had it,
Speaker 1: um again, reached out and explained the story to us,
Speaker 1: and it sounded the same way it sounded to you.
Speaker 1: We're like, whoa, what is this? And of course we
Speaker 1: didn't realize it was going to be like a global
Speaker 1: thing at the time. Um, it's just sort of a
Speaker 1: weird coincidence. So, yeah, they reached out, We had some conversations.
Speaker 1: They kind of explained what it is that they wanted
Speaker 1: to see. Why they didn't feel they were in the
Speaker 1: best position to decide what the future of that mark
Speaker 1: should should look like. Um. And you know, this is
Speaker 1: a private citizen, this is an individual. Um, what do
Speaker 1: they yeah, I mean intervitable? What exactly was their plan
Speaker 1: for what did they want to see? Um? So, initially
Speaker 1: when they filed a trademark, I can't speak to that
Speaker 1: because I wasn't, you know, involved in that process. But
Speaker 1: when they spoke to me and Q, the idea was that, um,
Speaker 1: really it was just you're in a better position to decide,
Speaker 1: you're in a better position to defend whatever decision that is.
Speaker 1: You're more connected with these issues. This is you can
Speaker 1: speak to the people. Um, you can probably do more
Speaker 1: good with this that. This was this tone and the demeanor. Um.
Speaker 1: And when you have a radio show and you can
Speaker 1: explain your you know, vision and your thoughts and what
Speaker 1: it is that you want to do and explain why
Speaker 1: you even have the market in the first place, because
Speaker 1: nobody wakes up, not in the space that I live in,
Speaker 1: and says, you know what I want to do. I
Speaker 1: want to have White Lives Matter shirts all over the country.
Speaker 1: You know, it's not a thing that I would ever do. So, UM,
Speaker 1: we had to like really weigh what that meant before
Speaker 1: accepting that responsibility. Unfortunately, you know, we we we reached
Speaker 1: our conclusion in short order. I think we took a
Speaker 1: It's funny we took a six mile walk. It's funny
Speaker 1: that we know how long it was, but you know,
Speaker 1: that was enough time to kind of go back and forth.
Speaker 1: And then we drove to l A. So you know,
Speaker 1: from Phoenix to l A is about you know, five
Speaker 1: hour drives. So we had another you know, um little
Speaker 1: session in there where we kind of debated it back
Speaker 1: and forth, and um, it's funny. But the morning that
Speaker 1: we were going to go sit down with Big Boy
Speaker 1: just to talk about Civic Cipher and the growth that
Speaker 1: the show had, you know, achieved in two years, and
Speaker 1: the partnership with I Heart and the partnership with Radio PACIFICA,
Speaker 1: just to talk to him about those things. That morning,
Speaker 1: as we were leaving the hotel to drive five minutes,
Speaker 1: we're in Burbank. If you've been to the I Heart
Speaker 1: studios out there, Um, we were. By the time we
Speaker 1: got to the parking lot of the radio station, we
Speaker 1: had the assignment from our lawyer and we're looking at
Speaker 1: it and we're like whoa. And we told Big Boy
Speaker 1: and like, yo, guess what. And he's like, oh man,
Speaker 1: we're talking about that. And then when we mentioned it
Speaker 1: and now it's translated into Korean and you know that
Speaker 1: we have to do interviews with the BBC. And when
Speaker 1: you all were debating, who was on which side of
Speaker 1: the coin? What did the debate sound like? That's a
Speaker 1: great question. Um, so we were both on both sides
Speaker 1: of the debate. UM, and I think initially Que was
Speaker 1: not really on either side, but really raising concerns about
Speaker 1: what this could mean for us, because we live in
Speaker 1: a world as we know that, you know, folks will
Speaker 1: not open an article, they will read a headline. Um,
Speaker 1: and that's a very dangerous place to put yourself in
Speaker 1: with your face, you know what I mean, and with
Speaker 1: your brand and your your show, especially when you're trying
Speaker 1: to do good, you're trying to help, trying to prevent harm,
Speaker 1: and so, um, that was definitely one thing that you
Speaker 1: brought up. One of the things that I brought up
Speaker 1: and to ended up finishing thought for me was that, Um,
Speaker 1: if we don't do this, there could potentially be non
Speaker 1: black children who emanate the behavior of the gentleman in question,
Speaker 1: and where these clothes in the name of fashion as dude,
Speaker 1: as a popular dude, everything he puts out cells out.
Speaker 1: We know this. We could end up in a world
Speaker 1: where our mother's grand mother's people, as I mentioned, like
Speaker 1: Dr Westenberg, people are very important to us, will interact
Speaker 1: with you know, white kids and you know kids who
Speaker 1: don't really know the full weight of a message like that,
Speaker 1: and how hurtful that can be, and how that can
Speaker 1: feel like regression to a person like that, and how
Speaker 1: harmful that can be when it kind of splinters a
Speaker 1: message of us really trying to affirm that our black
Speaker 1: lives matter. UM. And so we had to weigh the
Speaker 1: responsibility with the potential consequences. UM. And we were both
Speaker 1: again on both sides of that discussion. But ultimately we
Speaker 1: we felt like if this is in our lap and
Speaker 1: this is what we've signed up for, and at the time,
Speaker 1: we were thinking it would come from white supremacists. You know,
Speaker 1: we live in Arizona. The headquarters of the ku Kutz
Speaker 1: Klan is maybe eighteen minutes from where I live. You know, Uh,
Speaker 1: this is not a place where you know, you want
Speaker 1: to bring scared business. And we knew that when we
Speaker 1: started Civic Cipher and when we had to talk about
Speaker 1: police shootings and you know, there's police shootings that happened
Speaker 1: here then make national news as well. So you know,
Speaker 1: it's we just we had to bite it off and
Speaker 1: we had to chew it, and it just phoamed up
Speaker 1: in our mouths a little bit paused, but um, you
Speaker 1: know here we are, UM and uh. We we think
Speaker 1: that we have done right so far by everyone, and
Speaker 1: our hope is that we continue to do as right
Speaker 1: by as many people as we possibly can, because there's
Speaker 1: no way for us to make everyone happy, and no
Speaker 1: one sets up to disappointment. I definitely appreciate that. So
Speaker 1: just listening to that, I've heard also heard that you're
Speaker 1: planning to to give it to either then Double A
Speaker 1: c P or the A d L. Like, what are
Speaker 1: your plans for the trademark? Is this actual fact? So
Speaker 1: so yeah, that that is something that we are Um,
Speaker 1: I'll say that we're looking into it. Um, we have definitely.
Speaker 1: So here's the thing that a lot of folks don't realize.
Speaker 1: The Anti Defamation League is the entity that deemed this
Speaker 1: term a white supremacist term. As you know, the Anti
Speaker 1: Defamation League has a team of lawyers. Um, we are
Speaker 1: radio hosts and any lawyers. Like, so far this mark
Speaker 1: has cost me money personally, right, Um, but really I
Speaker 1: have a closer relationship with then Double A c P
Speaker 1: and the A d L was just a conversation we
Speaker 1: were having in case the double A CP thing didn't
Speaker 1: quite come together. Um, that felt like our cultural museum,
Speaker 1: if you will. To me, I could put it in
Speaker 1: a box, put it in a museum, and it's purely symbolic.
Speaker 1: It is not worth anything. It might be worth something
Speaker 1: to one person who would never sell it to even
Speaker 1: for a billion dollars, you know, and I made that
Speaker 1: very clear. But you know people love headlines, right um.
Speaker 1: Uh And and at present we're we're that particular headline
Speaker 1: that you all were willing to sell it for a
Speaker 1: billion dollars is like just what they do. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: it really misrepresents the idea of where we are and
Speaker 1: where we're going. But I recognize that, Um, you know,
Speaker 1: for certain outlets, that's that's the business that they're in.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately for all the outlet, well at least for the
Speaker 1: one where we actually said that, where I said that, uh,
Speaker 1: they were very kind. They put the full video up,
Speaker 1: so you know, anybody that chose to click on it
Speaker 1: sees that that was just something said sort of as
Speaker 1: as are hypothetical, like maybe and you know, for for
Speaker 1: those listening to us right now, what I said was, um,
Speaker 1: we are not interested in selling anything to anyone. That's
Speaker 1: not what we're trying to do. Who would do that? Um?
Speaker 1: But you know when they asked the same question over
Speaker 1: and over again, it's like you kind of have to
Speaker 1: answer to give him something so you can move on
Speaker 1: to the next question, and so um when they keep pressing,
Speaker 1: I said some effectually, what I said was, um, hypothetically,
Speaker 1: if you know, in a parallel universe, somebody came with
Speaker 1: a billion dollars, um, maybe at that point we might
Speaker 1: have to weigh the good that we could do by
Speaker 1: donating that money to civil rights organs and what they
Speaker 1: could accomplish, real change that they could accomplish in the world, um,
Speaker 1: and way that those outcomes versus the outcomes of you know,
Speaker 1: people not wearing T shirts, you know, And so that's
Speaker 1: you know, in the furthest stretches of my imagination to
Speaker 1: answer a purely hypothetical question. You know, that's what ended
Speaker 1: up coming out. But of course the headline is Kanye
Speaker 1: can buy something for a billion dollars and nobody ever
Speaker 1: said that, and that's not something that remotely interested in.
Speaker 1: You know, we know all about those headlines, and now
Speaker 1: they get twisted around to make it yes, for for
Speaker 1: for clickbait. But why are people saying that? I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, I am at the point in my life
Speaker 1: where I don't really pay attention that much and like
Speaker 1: need deeply things on social media, but you kind of
Speaker 1: see stuff and I've been seeing somewhere. They've been saying
Speaker 1: that it's not true that you all have the trademark,
Speaker 1: or it's not real. Do you know where that came
Speaker 1: from or what. So. One of the things that, um,
Speaker 1: it's important to know is that our trademark attorney is
Speaker 1: we we saw him out because, uh, based on our research,
Speaker 1: he's one of the most prominent trademark attorneys in the
Speaker 1: United States. Um, that's not a uh, that's not an accident.
Speaker 1: We recognized that in a lot of spaces. It's kind
Speaker 1: of like the golden rule. You know, whoever has the
Speaker 1: gold makes the rule. So if we are going to
Speaker 1: have to hold court with someone who at the time
Speaker 1: has billions of dollars, we at least need to make
Speaker 1: sure that we've strategized, you know, um appropriately. So that's
Speaker 1: first and foremost. Um, And we obviously heed the account
Speaker 1: some of our our lawyer. But furthermore, the way trademarks
Speaker 1: work is you know, to to some folks, UM points,
Speaker 1: they're absolutely right. Um, it's it's a technical thing. Uh.
Speaker 1: So I'll make a parallel for you. Have you ever
Speaker 1: heard of the term patent pending? Yes? Okay, So patent
Speaker 1: pending means that you've filed for a patent. Right, This
Speaker 1: is the United States Patent and Trademark Office, same same entity,
Speaker 1: same process. Right. Patent pending means that your patent application
Speaker 1: has been accepted. In order for it to be accepted,
Speaker 1: there has to be an assumption that it will be approved.
Speaker 1: In other words, it has to check all, you know,
Speaker 1: these certain boxes to meet certain criteria in order for
Speaker 1: it to be approved. But there's a lengthy process that
Speaker 1: things go through before they finally are patented. Patent patent
Speaker 1: pending protest action afford you the same protections more or
Speaker 1: less than a full patent. In other words, it is
Speaker 1: a prohibitive sort of thing that keeps other people from
Speaker 1: moving into that space. Um. And for folks to say
Speaker 1: they don't have the trademark, um, it's like trademark pending. Right,
Speaker 1: we have the application. Everything was accepted, It was filed
Speaker 1: by our lawyer, and you know, everything is everything is there, um.
Speaker 1: And it's a matter of a waiting game, you know. Um.
Speaker 1: And if we if if folks want to stick around
Speaker 1: for two or three years, however long it takes for
Speaker 1: a full you know, mark to come back, you know,
Speaker 1: be my guest, um, But you know, the folks trying
Speaker 1: to pick that apart either know the law very well
Speaker 1: and are using that sort of technicality to get some
Speaker 1: views I think, or um, they don't know the law
Speaker 1: at all and they're just kind of copy pasting um.
Speaker 1: But we don't obviously heed the counsel of Instagram commenters.
Speaker 1: We heed the Council of Morris Turik, our patent trademark attorney.
Speaker 1: And I just want to so, based on what your
Speaker 1: attorney is saying, and and and the likelihood and the
Speaker 1: normality of this process, more likely than not, unless something
Speaker 1: really strange happens, you guys will definitely be able to
Speaker 1: own the trip. Absolutely. So here's the here's the other
Speaker 1: part about that, if for some reason there was something wrong, uh,
Speaker 1: that agency it is it is they are required to
Speaker 1: help you make it across the finish line. You know
Speaker 1: that that. Okay, you have to tighten this up. Let's
Speaker 1: change this. Okay, then not a work, Okay, let's let's
Speaker 1: run it back. So this is kind of the nature
Speaker 1: of the the US. Now. I'm not a I don't
Speaker 1: want to sound like a trademark professional, but this is
Speaker 1: what I've learned from Again, our legal council so um,
Speaker 1: worst case scenario, we might have to you know whatever,
Speaker 1: but you know, we don't anticipate that because we found it.
Speaker 1: It's it's not a very complicated thing too. Absolutely, I
Speaker 1: know a lot of people. I think I saw Isaac
Speaker 1: is the third before he I think he may have
Speaker 1: interviewed you all, uh, and he was talking about how
Speaker 1: many trademarks he owns. There are people that take they
Speaker 1: get trademarks all the time, they hear something, they see something,
Speaker 1: and that's they're actually in the business of holding the
Speaker 1: trademarks to many different things. So it's not that difficult.
Speaker 1: But to your point, it takes time, um for everything,
Speaker 1: for all the legal process to be done. I just
Speaker 1: want to say, and you know, I know that you
Speaker 1: have given us so so much of your time today
Speaker 1: and it's been so gracious, wonderful to listen to you.
Speaker 1: I don't know why I have not been exposed to
Speaker 1: you in the past, but now that you've become a
Speaker 1: friend of the street politicians certainly on tend to you know,
Speaker 1: keep listening and and and get some of the awareness
Speaker 1: from whatever you all are doing on your show, because
Speaker 1: it sounds really, really, really powerful, And I don't want
Speaker 1: to take this conversation into my own political thoughts and theories.
Speaker 1: And I understand your position on the White Lives Matter
Speaker 1: statement and what the a d L said, But I
Speaker 1: have many critiques around the A d L just from
Speaker 1: my engagement with them, and I hope that whatever decision
Speaker 1: you make, it is that it would go to an
Speaker 1: organization that literally represents our people. How dare I give
Speaker 1: an opinion after we just talked about so many people
Speaker 1: out I appreciate that. I appreciate that, UM and I
Speaker 1: didn't really get to fully flesh out the part of
Speaker 1: the our our consideration of the Double A CP. But UM,
Speaker 1: the Double A c P is an organization that is
Speaker 1: I've worked with since I was a teenager, you know, UM,
Speaker 1: I I and and then you know people are gonna
Speaker 1: take this with that. UM, the A d L was
Speaker 1: always kind of conceived as kind of right, why not
Speaker 1: just holds it? And yeah, that I mean, that's I
Speaker 1: guess that's an option to UM. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: As long as this thing is in our possession, UM,
Speaker 1: we are forever married to it in a way that
Speaker 1: puts us It puts a target on our back, and UM,
Speaker 1: it leaves us exposed to folks who might want to
Speaker 1: throw rocks at the throne, if you will. Not not
Speaker 1: trying to big myself up, but you know you get
Speaker 1: the the the analogy there, Um, and that is a
Speaker 1: weight that we don't necessarily need to carry again in
Speaker 1: our estimation, it is a worthless mark. We don't anticipate
Speaker 1: anyone selling anything. It doesn't have any val you and
Speaker 1: why not put it somewhere where it can be better protected. UM,
Speaker 1: I personally don't want to go to court, regardless of
Speaker 1: if I'll win or not. I that's who wants to
Speaker 1: go to court for any reason. You know, we've done
Speaker 1: what we needed to do. It's kind of like a
Speaker 1: someone told me this and it in it. I don't
Speaker 1: think of it in this way for myself, but I
Speaker 1: appreciate what they said. They said. It's kind of like
Speaker 1: a Robin Hood story. You know, you do this and
Speaker 1: then you pass it along and you know it's not
Speaker 1: for me to hold onto. It doesn't serve any purpose
Speaker 1: in my life. I'm I was charged with making the
Speaker 1: decisions that would affect the most people, and I think
Speaker 1: that by keeping those shirts off the backs of as
Speaker 1: many people as possible, um And protecting the right to
Speaker 1: do that. If I can create that reality by putting
Speaker 1: it in a place that has revenue and lawyers and
Speaker 1: you know that sort of stuff, then then that makes
Speaker 1: a little bit more sense. And so I will say that, UM,
Speaker 1: these conversations is are ongoing, UM, and it is not
Speaker 1: our our hope to hurt anyone. We are not misinformed.
Speaker 1: We do recognize how UM. You know, there's been you know,
Speaker 1: friction on all sides of you know, everything, and that's
Speaker 1: not something that we're not sensitive to. UM. Your your
Speaker 1: statement is is you're not the first person to say
Speaker 1: that to me, UM, not even the first person to
Speaker 1: say that to me. It was close to me. UM.
Speaker 1: And you know, these are all things that we have
Speaker 1: to to weigh. I mean you can hear it in
Speaker 1: my voice like I really do. I'm trying to love
Speaker 1: everyone as best I can, and it is impossible to
Speaker 1: do that. UM. And you know it's no one asked
Speaker 1: to be in this position. But now that I'm here,
Speaker 1: now that you is here, it's like, well, you know this,
Speaker 1: I guess it comes with it. And so UM, you
Speaker 1: know the only thing that I can promise is that
Speaker 1: we will do our best UM to to honor what
Speaker 1: our commitment to this moment and to our people is
Speaker 1: based on our truth as we know it in that moment,
Speaker 1: and hopefully, um, you know, people are able to celebrate it.
Speaker 1: So we pray for you, brother, We pray for both
Speaker 1: of you. Q Quentin in his absence, Quinton Ward Um,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I said his name in the beginning.
Speaker 1: We pray for you. And you know what, when God's
Speaker 1: on your side, you just make the decision and walk
Speaker 1: away from it knowing that you did what was in
Speaker 1: your heart. And so we pray for you, um, and
Speaker 1: wish you nothing but peace over this matter, Peace in
Speaker 1: your heart, peace in your mind, and peace over whatever
Speaker 1: decisions you just you choose to make. And we got
Speaker 1: your back. You know, appreciate that we got your back. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm glad that somebody got it, man, because I was
Speaker 1: just thinking about the havoc that actually could have been reaped,
Speaker 1: as in the harm that could have come to us
Speaker 1: to quote unquote harm who came to black people. So
Speaker 1: I appreciate you for doing what you're doing and and
Speaker 1: and you know, just know that you have warriors on
Speaker 1: your side, prayer warriors, front line soldiers and warriors. We
Speaker 1: were with you man, Thank you. That means a lot
Speaker 1: to me. I appreciate that. Care take care, d be great.
Speaker 1: That's how we are Rams this job of the duo,
Speaker 1: Rams this job and Quentin Ward of Civic Cipher, they
Speaker 1: got a big This is big because you know how
Speaker 1: angry we were when we've seen that trademar and then
Speaker 1: you know the battle we were when we saw this shirt.
Speaker 1: I mean the shirt, not the trademark, the shirt exactly
Speaker 1: when we've seen the shirt and just understand it, because
Speaker 1: you know, people don't understand why we were triggered. And
Speaker 1: I say all the time that we dealt with up
Speaker 1: for upclose and personal White lives Matter, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. When we were eat Kentucky, there were a
Speaker 1: lot of people utilizing that term. Some people even had
Speaker 1: on you know, gear that said it, and they were
Speaker 1: and they were fighting back with us, surrounding us with guns.
Speaker 1: You know, as we screen Black Lives Matter, just marching
Speaker 1: and protesting for for justice for Brianna Taylor. They were
Speaker 1: using it to intimidate us, and in times I felt
Speaker 1: like our lives were definitely in jeopardy by the people
Speaker 1: who was using their Bourbons. So you know, it was
Speaker 1: very dangerous, it was very inconsiderate, you know, and I
Speaker 1: didn't I didn't understand the marketing strategy. I didn't understand anything.
Speaker 1: And I think that because the individual who who utilized
Speaker 1: it didn't take the time to think about the harm
Speaker 1: it was it would have cost, you know, it made
Speaker 1: it that much more dangerous and that much more disrespectful,
Speaker 1: and then didn't connect with individuals who were directly impacted
Speaker 1: by that. So I'm glad these brothers did what they do,
Speaker 1: you know, more than hopefully you know, they'll get the path,
Speaker 1: I mean, get the trademark and they'll own it and
Speaker 1: you know, and they will give it to a place
Speaker 1: that you know it won't be able to harmony mm hmm. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I hope they get an opportunity to contain it as well.
Speaker 1: So that was, you know, a really important conversation and
Speaker 1: I'm glad we were able to have it. I'm so
Speaker 1: glad we're able to have it. But um, I know,
Speaker 1: I know we talked about um Kyrie today earlier in
Speaker 1: the show, and um, but I don't get and and
Speaker 1: it's not too to disparage anybody or anyone, but I
Speaker 1: Just what I don't get is why people don't understand
Speaker 1: the difference between Kanye and Kyrie. Right. It's it's like
Speaker 1: the weirdest thing to me, like you know, everybody, because
Speaker 1: I've been very vote cool about my support of Kyree,
Speaker 1: just like I was about what yea quote unquote said
Speaker 1: and did that that made me uncomfortable, you know, And
Speaker 1: I don't think and I think so many people just
Speaker 1: want to put one blanket around the situation, right, or
Speaker 1: what they're both saying that, you know, be he were
Speaker 1: saying this before. Why people don't And I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: there are nuance, there is circumstances and their individuals, you know.
Speaker 1: I think for me, my support for Kyrie because he's
Speaker 1: been consistent, right, He's never from the beginning, He's always
Speaker 1: been a star worth in our communities. He's um supported
Speaker 1: every issue that we faced. When we were fighting for
Speaker 1: Brianna Taylor, he was one of the vocal for people
Speaker 1: when George Floyd, he was vocal. I remember us having
Speaker 1: knowledge of even in the bubble, ky Reid said that
Speaker 1: he didn't even want to play basketball because he didn't
Speaker 1: feel that the NBA was focusing on the issues of
Speaker 1: black people, you know, and he he sacrificed then, you know,
Speaker 1: and even in every sacrifice I think that he's made
Speaker 1: thus far has been based on principles in his own
Speaker 1: spiritual beliefs. And I don't know why somebody doesn't see
Speaker 1: the difference in when Kanye utilized his voice and it
Speaker 1: was out of emotions in his own personal value, you
Speaker 1: know what, what when he wasn't being able to gain personally.
Speaker 1: So I really just wish people stopped making the comparison
Speaker 1: to the two and and and and I hope that
Speaker 1: people can understand the difference and understand why a lot
Speaker 1: of us, if you even looking, you see every day
Speaker 1: it's more and more people coming out to support Cyry.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Jason Williams who said something, you know,
Speaker 1: it's more and more people saying, Hey, what's happening to
Speaker 1: the man. It's just not right. So I really don't
Speaker 1: get why people don't see the difference between someone who's
Speaker 1: emotionally charged and somebody doing something based on the spirituality
Speaker 1: and the principles and just wanted to be a better
Speaker 1: black person, a better man, I guess, a better Black person,
Speaker 1: I guess because you know, the reality of the situation
Speaker 1: more informed informed, And I think I think the short
Speaker 1: answer that I would give is or why I agree
Speaker 1: with you, is that I've never heard Kyrie and we've
Speaker 1: already talked about this, but I've never heard Kyrie say,
Speaker 1: uh that white that the white man is the most
Speaker 1: uh marginalized or oppressed person in our society. I've never
Speaker 1: seen Kyrie kissing up to Trump and wearing a Maga hat.
Speaker 1: I've never seen or heard Kyrie do all the stuff
Speaker 1: I said earlier, just take it and repeat it again.
Speaker 1: I've not seen that, and therefore I am inclined to
Speaker 1: support him, even though he has said. You know what,
Speaker 1: when I sat back and I thought about what happened here,
Speaker 1: I've made I want to apologize for the harm that
Speaker 1: it may have caused. So I just think people don't
Speaker 1: want to see the difference. They want them both to
Speaker 1: be the same for their personal reasons, whatever those reasons
Speaker 1: may be. And then we've just found out that there's
Speaker 1: a lot of people out here that no matter what,
Speaker 1: they're just gonna support ya, Kanye, And that's, you know,
Speaker 1: completely fine with me. I'm like, we're the we're the
Speaker 1: whole different space in the war the ass has been said,
Speaker 1: the mental warfare um that we're up against as a people,
Speaker 1: and so you know, I have limited time or things
Speaker 1: to even say to address um anymore. The craziness that
Speaker 1: happened or the craziness that kind of started all of this.
Speaker 1: So that's my opinion, and I agree to Maka Mallory.
Speaker 1: Grandmama t grand Mama te my grand baby is coming
Speaker 1: to me right now. Well listen, man, So we'll end
Speaker 1: this show on that note. I appreciate all of you
Speaker 1: for making this the number one podcast in the world
Speaker 1: podcast what is the podcast? Badcast? The podcast the number
Speaker 1: that's not custom me saying custom me, the podcast he
Speaker 1: got this little English accent that he talks about anyway,
Speaker 1: the number one podcast in the world. We appreciate you.
Speaker 1: If you have any suggestions, make sure you hit Street
Speaker 1: Politicians Pot on Instagram. D M mus Let us know
Speaker 1: what you love us, let us know what you want
Speaker 1: us to talk about, give us any critiques. We open
Speaker 1: for it, man, and we're here for you, and we
Speaker 1: love the support. Thank you you. This show is growing
Speaker 1: every day and we really appreciate you. And with that said,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna always be right to make a d
Speaker 1: Malory Mama T and grand Mama Mama Mama closed, Real
Speaker 1: Mama Tea is not gonna always be wrong. We will
Speaker 1: both always and I mean always, be authentic heads We
Speaker 1: Got Black Mother. Listen to Street Politicians on the Black
Speaker 1: Effect Network on I Heart Radio and catch us every
Speaker 1: single Wednesday for the video version of Street Politicians or
Speaker 1: I Women Dot Tv.