Speaker 1: What's good. Family, it's your girl to make a d
Speaker 1: Mallory and it's your boy my son in general, and
Speaker 1: we are your host of street politicians the place with streets. Listen, Listen, listen, listen, Leanda,
Speaker 1: I cannot go back outside for at least the next
Speaker 1: two years. After all the partying and being out and
Speaker 1: talking and strategizing in the corner with people at major
Speaker 1: parties of v ET weekend. It was Black Folks Black
Speaker 1: Excellence the week of June tenth at the highest level,
Speaker 1: successful black folks, activists, organ Nazis, leaders, elected officials, businesspeople, entertainers,
Speaker 1: regular folks, everybody to get up in so many spaces.
Speaker 1: It was really really the best b et weekend I've
Speaker 1: ever been to. Yeah man, And it started out the
Speaker 1: reason why we actually even were here because our sister
Speaker 1: Miss Diddy honored Until Freedom and her Toast to Black
Speaker 1: Hollywood event which was which kicked it off. Dope. You know,
Speaker 1: the ambiance, it was a vibe like it was. It
Speaker 1: was a dope vibe shoutout to Ditty Man and the
Speaker 1: work that she always does. But um, we want to
Speaker 1: just say thank you for honoring us and recognizing the
Speaker 1: work that Until freedom does. And we just want to
Speaker 1: say the work that you do. You know, the way
Speaker 1: that she brand coordinates and connects and is able to
Speaker 1: navigate and strategize and put together different brands and different
Speaker 1: people in rooms, it's just amazing, you know. And she
Speaker 1: just has a skill set that is needed and and
Speaker 1: and it represents black excellence and it it elevates Black culture.
Speaker 1: So about yeah, you know, she she is a marketing
Speaker 1: and branding expert. Um. The way her brain connects with
Speaker 1: brands and people is so powerful. Not everybody can do it.
Speaker 1: It's a whole lot of people out here that claim
Speaker 1: to be in branding. They want to put them in
Speaker 1: your budget for in there in your in your budget
Speaker 1: for marketing and promotions. And they don't be doing nothing.
Speaker 1: I know because doing anything. I know because I've hired
Speaker 1: some of them. But I know for sure that every
Speaker 1: time Miss Ditty touches a brand, their value increases and
Speaker 1: their ability to reach the targeted market it increases. And
Speaker 1: I see also her own growth. And we should actually
Speaker 1: have Miss Diddy to come on and and she some
Speaker 1: of the things that she's doing. So we have to
Speaker 1: put a you know, a pin there. But that's our
Speaker 1: friend and our sister. You know she was she was
Speaker 1: honoring us, but because of the prices of the flights
Speaker 1: and so many challenges, she was totally like, you guys
Speaker 1: don't have to come, And I'm so glad we were
Speaker 1: able to make it happen to be here. You and
Speaker 1: Angelo Attorney, Angelo Pinto and I attended her event, and
Speaker 1: there was so many other important passionate black folks um
Speaker 1: acknowledged there as well. Uh Trade of Truth, our brother
Speaker 1: he was one of the honorees. Velicia Butterfield Jones, and
Speaker 1: the list goes on. I'm not gonna get myself in trouble,
Speaker 1: but that's just two of the people. Cynthia Bailey, who
Speaker 1: I just I just love and admire so much. So
Speaker 1: it's a really powerful kickoff. And then as you said,
Speaker 1: I mean, there's just so much we did after that,
Speaker 1: Rock Nation had an event. We went to Club Quarantine
Speaker 1: with d Nice and and H Kenny Burns. That was
Speaker 1: one of the brothers. Don't listen Club Quarantine like it
Speaker 1: started online, right, but when you were in that room
Speaker 1: in Club Quarantine, and it's the same vibe, like it
Speaker 1: brought me back to being in the pandemic in my
Speaker 1: living room stressed and this saying, look, I gotta go
Speaker 1: to D Nice page and then lasting the music and
Speaker 1: you're getting that vibe and you get your little wine
Speaker 1: and champagne. It was that vibe in the room. And
Speaker 1: what what D Nice has been able to do with
Speaker 1: Club Quarantine. It's nothing short of amazing, just watching his brand,
Speaker 1: like his brand explode and and it and it was due,
Speaker 1: you know, because D Nice has always been one of
Speaker 1: the best DJs in the world. And I know D
Speaker 1: Knights as the rapper you know, from b DP. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So I always my name is
Speaker 1: D Knight, So I always and from the Bronx you
Speaker 1: understand I'm saying. So I always had this love for
Speaker 1: D Knights. But watching him elevate from positivity right doing
Speaker 1: something to unite the world and and give people level
Speaker 1: a level of joy at one of the most hardest
Speaker 1: times in history, you know, was most hardest, one of
Speaker 1: the most hardest, the hardest or the most one of
Speaker 1: the hardest times in history, Yes, sir, one of the
Speaker 1: hardest times in history. You know, it was nothing short
Speaker 1: of amazing. And watching him evolved into the premant the
Speaker 1: world's DJ is just a good title for him, the
Speaker 1: World's DJ, because he surely is. He He is my family,
Speaker 1: like we are actually family. We're not blood related, but
Speaker 1: we might as well be, you know. And I have
Speaker 1: a lot of respect for him, like you you guys
Speaker 1: know him on you know, from the from the community,
Speaker 1: from him being, like you said, a rapper, being in
Speaker 1: the music game long time ago. But I know him
Speaker 1: from watching him with his daughters, watching him with his family,
Speaker 1: watching him with his mother and his auntie, UM and
Speaker 1: d is. He's a special guy. And that's why this
Speaker 1: has happened. And it's not, you know, just by chance.
Speaker 1: It's because he really did sit and think intentionally about
Speaker 1: like how can he give something to the world that
Speaker 1: was also pouring into him. Uh during the pandemic and
Speaker 1: Club quarantine was definitely one of the highlights of my
Speaker 1: whole weekend. So that brother Kenny, Kenny Burns, Kenny Burns
Speaker 1: is my dude. I love Kenny Burns, man, I really do.
Speaker 1: Kenny Burns is a super authentic dude. Every time used
Speaker 1: to see him, you get the same person. You know,
Speaker 1: He's not the the corny dude that act like he's
Speaker 1: too fly to speak like you know all of that
Speaker 1: because some of these people I wouldn't. I wouldn't. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna tell you what I wouldn't do, but I
Speaker 1: wouldn't do it if they was on fire. But but Kenny,
Speaker 1: since I've known him, always nothing but love, so as
Speaker 1: he can love around the entire weekend um, and that
Speaker 1: for me, it was like it was super powerful. And
Speaker 1: first of all, let's give the shout out to all
Speaker 1: the black folks up in b Et, from Scott Mills,
Speaker 1: the President and CEO, to Connie Orlando, to Janine Library,
Speaker 1: to Louis Carr. I mean again, another place where I
Speaker 1: could get in trouble, but all of these black folks
Speaker 1: that are around trying to create an experience where other
Speaker 1: black people can meet up and be together. And I
Speaker 1: really do mean that in every single thing we went
Speaker 1: to Hennessey event we went to which was at the
Speaker 1: Gathering Spot, So shout out to our brothers that run
Speaker 1: the gathering spot. Um, Ryan, I forget Ryan's last name sometime,
Speaker 1: but our brother Ryan. Um. Then we went to what
Speaker 1: else did we go to? My song? I mean so
Speaker 1: much stuff, so many different things that happened in every
Speaker 1: single room. I was over. I saw you talking to people.
Speaker 1: I was in the corner speaking to mega celebrities and
Speaker 1: door influences in their own right, just about like what's
Speaker 1: the steps that we take? Because of course the Roe
Speaker 1: v Way decision came down right as v Et weekend began,
Speaker 1: and so you had people, which which that happens all
Speaker 1: the time anyway, because there's always some ship going on
Speaker 1: with us. But there were folks who are like, listen,
Speaker 1: I'm really concerned about the violence in our communities. What
Speaker 1: can we do on that front? They were like, you know,
Speaker 1: and now women's rights, we see they're gonna come for more.
Speaker 1: What can we do? So, you know, a lot of powerful, powerful,
Speaker 1: powerful conversations. And then you know, of course did he
Speaker 1: being uh I call him puff, but him being honored
Speaker 1: and his speech and you know, of course talking about
Speaker 1: his mom and all of that was great. But the
Speaker 1: part that was very very touching for me is when,
Speaker 1: as somebody on Twitter said, he became Diddy Luther King
Speaker 1: last last night, Um, which is so funny, but you
Speaker 1: know they do that to us, but you gotta laugh
Speaker 1: at yourself. So anyway, um, he was talking about this
Speaker 1: dream that black people will be together and it was
Speaker 1: that type of spirit all around b et weekend, people
Speaker 1: trying to figure out what can they do? So we
Speaker 1: just gotta keep it up, like, don't stop. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: think I think we had a very pivotal point in history,
Speaker 1: and it's going to be recorded, you know, where we stood,
Speaker 1: what we did, what we didn't do, you know. And
Speaker 1: I think Puff being in this industry so long, right,
Speaker 1: being having a level of successful long being in different
Speaker 1: rooms and noticing, you know, the trends, noticing that most
Speaker 1: people that look like him are not in a lot
Speaker 1: of those faces don't have the same resources, don't have
Speaker 1: the same opportunities, you know, and him having personal investment
Speaker 1: in wanting to see that change where I've been hearing
Speaker 1: them for a while now. That's one of the main things.
Speaker 1: He wants equity, he wants black you know, into generational wealth.
Speaker 1: He when he wants us to create something that is sustainable,
Speaker 1: something that that we own, you know, he wants black excellence.
Speaker 1: And I think we're at a time where it's actually possible,
Speaker 1: you know. I think that merge is about to happen
Speaker 1: between the activists, the artists, all of the people who
Speaker 1: have the ability to make change. And I think it
Speaker 1: is when we at our lowest point where we look
Speaker 1: at the violence in America, Black violence, and how you
Speaker 1: know it's affecting our communities. I think people are realizing
Speaker 1: that we need unity more than anything right now. So
Speaker 1: you know, I'm I'm eager to start the process of
Speaker 1: the change and the evolution of our culture and the
Speaker 1: unity of our culture. So hopefully it starts to resonate. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and there's so much happening in the news, it certainly
Speaker 1: should push us to, you know, want to get more
Speaker 1: involved and really understand how serious all of this stuff is.
Speaker 1: I mean, even just thinking about the Roe v. Wade
Speaker 1: decision that came down from the Supreme Court. You've got
Speaker 1: a lot of people that's upset. And I saw a
Speaker 1: bunch of white women marching out in the streets in California, UM,
Speaker 1: and you know, people really out there, and and and
Speaker 1: not enough of our people, I don't think are I
Speaker 1: think we're paying attention. We certainly know what's happening, but
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that we understand that we need to
Speaker 1: be out physically fighting back against this. It's not gonna
Speaker 1: happen on internet. It's not. And it's actually time for
Speaker 1: us to do something that is really really strong and
Speaker 1: extreme because what's happening to us is extreme. We are
Speaker 1: at war. There is an actual war and people are
Speaker 1: playing their role in it. And I don't think we've
Speaker 1: put our gear on to say, Okay, we're we're in
Speaker 1: a you know this, we gotta go to battle like seriously.
Speaker 1: So hopefully we can. But but it always is better
Speaker 1: when you think about James Brown and um, Reverend Jackson
Speaker 1: and others who were sort of moving at the same time, right,
Speaker 1: you got you have Dr King and Mahilia Jackson and others,
Speaker 1: So that means you have entertainment, Harry Belafonte being um,
Speaker 1: you know, an entertainer. But also if you if we're
Speaker 1: using the term influencer, he certainly was an influencer you know,
Speaker 1: in his time, and all of them merging to move culture.
Speaker 1: And that's what I hear you talking about. So you know,
Speaker 1: Roe v. Wade is is super serious, um, because not
Speaker 1: because people are for abortion or against it, but what
Speaker 1: we are for as a woman's right to choose that
Speaker 1: it's my body and I should be able to make
Speaker 1: a decision with my doctor. That has nothing to do
Speaker 1: with an elected official who is able to determine my
Speaker 1: medical care. So, uh so this is a real serious thing.
Speaker 1: But what is even more important is that it has
Speaker 1: set the tone for what is to come. And by
Speaker 1: the time the Supreme Court, because you know they meet,
Speaker 1: you don't know what the hell is going on. It's
Speaker 1: not like watching hearings, um you know on TV. You
Speaker 1: sometimes you can watch Senate hearings. You know what's on
Speaker 1: the floor. You understand politically what's out there. And we
Speaker 1: always knew Roe v. Wade what's going to come up
Speaker 1: as a major issue. And we know just several weeks
Speaker 1: ago it was leaked by an an employee or somebody
Speaker 1: within the the the Supreme Court that got the documents
Speaker 1: and put it out there. So that's how we knew
Speaker 1: what they were even thinking. But you don't know. So
Speaker 1: when the Supreme Court reconvenes and they're meeting again and
Speaker 1: getting ready to put forth more decisions, it could be
Speaker 1: all kinds of things that you know happen and rites
Speaker 1: that we lose. So that's why we have to really
Speaker 1: seriously get um m hmm in front of it, and
Speaker 1: also why we cannot sit by and allow Joe Biden
Speaker 1: President Biden to make us feel like voting is the
Speaker 1: only thing. You know that he has to do some stuff.
Speaker 1: He has to do some stuff. You have to also
Speaker 1: put yourself out there and start a fight, a real fight.
Speaker 1: You know, I want her listen. He needs to start
Speaker 1: a fight. So you have that going on, and then
Speaker 1: this Brittney Grinder situation is super serious. Now they're saying
Speaker 1: that her court date will be July first, or her
Speaker 1: trial begins July first. I spoke with her wife, who
Speaker 1: basically gave me an understanding of what's happening. First of all,
Speaker 1: it's not even like her trial is happening consecutive days.
Speaker 1: Like you know, when you go to trial, you're in
Speaker 1: there every day. Of course, there's moments when they made
Speaker 1: um recess or a journ or whatever for a day
Speaker 1: or two, but for the most part, every day you
Speaker 1: go to trial until it's over every weekday. Her trial
Speaker 1: is set up where it's like July one, and then
Speaker 1: maybe and don't quote me on these dates, but then
Speaker 1: maybe like July seven, and then July uh eleven, and
Speaker 1: then July twenty something like it's all over the place.
Speaker 1: And the other thing she said was that um in
Speaker 1: in in Russia, their courts have like a nineties seven
Speaker 1: percent conviction rate. A ninety seven percent conviction rate. That
Speaker 1: means it's a kangaroo court. You go to court, basically
Speaker 1: everybody is together. They've already made a decision that you're
Speaker 1: guilty of whatever they say. They're talking about large what
Speaker 1: are they The charge I saw today was like large
Speaker 1: transport of rugs like what they said that she had
Speaker 1: no cousin, and that was kind of weird for me.
Speaker 1: So but they may they may say, first of all,
Speaker 1: her family, they at this point they have not even
Speaker 1: seen or understand anything about what she may or may
Speaker 1: not have had, Okay, so that in and of itself
Speaker 1: is questionable. And her lawyers saying the bottom line is
Speaker 1: that she is innocent, period. And and our position is
Speaker 1: even if she had what they say some vapor or
Speaker 1: whatever thing de vape and whatever, still our country should
Speaker 1: be fighting to get her out. You don't leave an
Speaker 1: American citizen, especially a woman. This woman is not. She
Speaker 1: wasn't over there causing nahim or doing anything illegal to
Speaker 1: where people's lives were in danger, or participating in some
Speaker 1: type of you know, uh, something against the government or
Speaker 1: or something or anything like that to where she was
Speaker 1: a danger against to society in Russia that we should
Speaker 1: allow her to be in that in prison there at
Speaker 1: a time of war when we're also engaged in trying
Speaker 1: to stop Russia's invasion of Ukraine. I mean, this is
Speaker 1: we don't have to even get into all the details,
Speaker 1: because if a person doesn't understand it, to hell with you.
Speaker 1: If you don't understand why we care about Brittany Grinder
Speaker 1: being locked up in in in in in in Russia
Speaker 1: and the kangaroo court situation where you don't even there's
Speaker 1: no way that we see that she will actually get
Speaker 1: a fair trial, then that's on you. But we're gonna
Speaker 1: fight for and in fact, today there will be a
Speaker 1: prayer visual excuse me, and today there will be a
Speaker 1: prayer vigil for her where you know, we're asking people
Speaker 1: to show up outside of the Russian embassy in New York,
Speaker 1: um and and let's pray for her, Let's pray for
Speaker 1: the Russians and their hearts all also to open up
Speaker 1: so that our sister can get out. So that's the
Speaker 1: deal with that. It's a real crazy situation and my
Speaker 1: prayers are definitely were her, you know, just just trying
Speaker 1: to even imagine being formally incarcerated, you know, and and
Speaker 1: being inconcerated here. It was tough, and just noting knowing that,
Speaker 1: you know, the trajectory of her life, she did not
Speaker 1: see anywhere that this would be happening to hers, So
Speaker 1: there has to be a level of trauma that she's experienced.
Speaker 1: So I'm definitely praying for her, her family, you know,
Speaker 1: and hopefully the US gets on his job, yeah, and
Speaker 1: get and get something done. Man. So they say that
Speaker 1: they're working behind the scenes, and you know, you want
Speaker 1: to believe it, but you also you know, it's just
Speaker 1: I don't know. That brings me to my thought of
Speaker 1: the day, going back to this Roby Wade stuff, right,
Speaker 1: because you do not be thinking but and going back
Speaker 1: to the rov Wade issue, and then also even thinking
Speaker 1: about Brittany Grinder, right and knowing that there are so
Speaker 1: many people who could be involved, particularly white folks with
Speaker 1: power and influence that could be standing up for her.
Speaker 1: But they're like, oh, well, they said she had drugs,
Speaker 1: Like we just we we just said that that Putin
Speaker 1: was crazy, he's a liar, he's dangerous, But now we
Speaker 1: believe that quick that a black woman did whatever they say, right,
Speaker 1: So the same people who we just said they're crazy,
Speaker 1: they you know, they're they're they're, they're there whatever. I
Speaker 1: don't I mean, I can't even think of the words
Speaker 1: that people used to describe putin. But it's some serious ship,
Speaker 1: a maniac, a madman, they say all of that. They say,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's corrupt. But then oh for the black
Speaker 1: woman or she did what? They said that anyway, And
Speaker 1: I see a lot of white folks, Um, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm just happen to be in white Twitter, and I
Speaker 1: saw that they were like, well, you know, it's a
Speaker 1: little little different because she was carrying drugs. How do
Speaker 1: you know? Did you see it? Like? What are you
Speaker 1: talking about? Right? So I was thinking that we really
Speaker 1: don't necessarily need a bunch of white folks marching up
Speaker 1: and down the streets. We really don't. We really need
Speaker 1: white women to go march in their communities. We need
Speaker 1: them to go to their communities today, family barbecues. We
Speaker 1: need them to go march over the mama's house and
Speaker 1: put up put a tent outside of the lawn of
Speaker 1: your mama's house and sit there, sit there, go to
Speaker 1: the country club, protests there go to these establishments where
Speaker 1: some of your your your family, because you know, for
Speaker 1: black folks, whether we related or not, when we see
Speaker 1: other black people, we like they it's family, right, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's all of us. When we see black people
Speaker 1: out here in the world hurting or doing crazy things,
Speaker 1: we feel responsible enough to call them in and say, hey, man,
Speaker 1: this is not good for our people. Or we celebrate
Speaker 1: when as a people we're winning, right, and when some
Speaker 1: of our ore are you know, best and brightest, are
Speaker 1: making strides. So take responsibility in the same way white folks.
Speaker 1: The margin is cool, we get it, that's that's you
Speaker 1: know great. But what is more, what I think would
Speaker 1: be more powerful in this moment is to start organizing
Speaker 1: within your own families, sometimes in your house because you
Speaker 1: and your husband are not even on the same page.
Speaker 1: You need to go deal with aunties that are in
Speaker 1: your family that you know, help vote for Trump so
Speaker 1: that he could put three just the sys on the
Speaker 1: court in the court and then take away your right
Speaker 1: to choose. These are decisions that have been made by
Speaker 1: fifty three percent of white women who went to the polls.
Speaker 1: Fifty three percent of white women who went to the
Speaker 1: polls voted for Donald Trump. And now we're in the
Speaker 1: street and we're protesting, and we're screaming and shouting and
Speaker 1: this and that, and all of that's cool, but it
Speaker 1: doesn't mean as much as it would if you could
Speaker 1: turn around the minds and hearts of people who look
Speaker 1: like you. More white people are going to have to
Speaker 1: understand that this is your fight because you need to
Speaker 1: correct your people. You need to correct your people, right
Speaker 1: The white folks need to not be invited to the
Speaker 1: cookout the same way that Clarence Thomas is not invited
Speaker 1: to the cookout. He is not invited to the cookout.
Speaker 1: And that's what white people need to be doing right now.
Speaker 1: I think white people need to be getting Hella uncomfortable
Speaker 1: in their own communities, with their own people. You know,
Speaker 1: it makes it makes a lot of sense, man. And
Speaker 1: speaking to Clarence Thomas, you know, just his his you know,
Speaker 1: take on the things that they need to do. He
Speaker 1: wants to do pretty much an overhaul of presidents, presidents
Speaker 1: cases in a lot of different places. That would change
Speaker 1: the complete dynamics of this culture right now. Like it's
Speaker 1: really dangerous. It's not the culture, it's the country. I mean,
Speaker 1: the country, and the and and the culture everything. It
Speaker 1: would just change the way that we live. And to
Speaker 1: see that these people have this mindset, to me, it's
Speaker 1: so dangerous, Like why would you want to impose your
Speaker 1: personal feelings on somebody's life? Like why why do you
Speaker 1: think that's okay? Why why do you think that because
Speaker 1: you think that somebody's life or the or the choice
Speaker 1: they make isn't okay for you, that you want to
Speaker 1: impose that they live the way that you want them
Speaker 1: to live like that, that mindsety to me is one
Speaker 1: of the weirdest things I've ever experienced in my life,
Speaker 1: you know, And watching this this role v way thing
Speaker 1: is like a wake up call. It has to be
Speaker 1: a wake up call when you see that a fifty
Speaker 1: year you know case that said presidents that moved women forward,
Speaker 1: they gave them the human rights that they deserved. Anyway,
Speaker 1: you know, nobody should be able to tell anybody what
Speaker 1: to do with their body, their mental, physical, emotional health.
Speaker 1: You know, carrying a child in itself does a lot,
Speaker 1: you know, to a woman, and if you're not prepared
Speaker 1: or want to do it is even more damaging to
Speaker 1: your to your psyche, to your physical to everything, you know,
Speaker 1: So for someone to make a ruling about that, you know,
Speaker 1: and and and men making white men making rule a
Speaker 1: along with this, you know, I don't even know what
Speaker 1: it's called something, but making that type of ruling, it's
Speaker 1: just it's unfathomable. So it's like, this is this is
Speaker 1: the first time that we've watched in recent history that
Speaker 1: we're really going backwards, Like we're really watching in this
Speaker 1: time where we they are rolling back our human rights,
Speaker 1: not just you know, our god giving rights. God gave
Speaker 1: us rights over dominion over our own bodies, and the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court has literally taken that from women. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean if people have to fight to get the right
Speaker 1: to have dominion over their bodies, and you know, now
Speaker 1: we're just in a we're in a time where you know,
Speaker 1: I just hope that our people understand that it's serious.
Speaker 1: And guess what, we black women are gonna have to
Speaker 1: fix it because we always do and that's what's going
Speaker 1: to happen. But this time, many more of our brothers
Speaker 1: are like, uh, this is crazy. I'm hearing from so
Speaker 1: many of you all that's like, nah, this is outrageous.
Speaker 1: Like it's at the point now where everybody is like,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, what the hell is going on? But
Speaker 1: we've been asleep at the wheel because guess what they
Speaker 1: told us that this was what they're gonna do. One
Speaker 1: thing about them Republicans. The Republicans say they're gonna do something,
Speaker 1: and they do it. They do it. Hella hot water,
Speaker 1: we better freaking do the same damn thing. So anyway,
Speaker 1: we gotta get straight to our interview now because we've
Speaker 1: got a great, dynamic, incredible, dope, funny um warrior that's
Speaker 1: coming up right now. And I'm really super dupid excited
Speaker 1: about interviewing our next guest, the incomparable Black America's Attorney General,
Speaker 1: brother Benjamin Crump. Benjamin L. Don't Benjamin L. Crump. Let's
Speaker 1: bring him on. So just so happy to have him.
Speaker 1: Our friends, you know, us and our friends on street politicians,
Speaker 1: and we have one of our great friends today, uh,
Speaker 1: Attorney Benjamin Crump. Now, you know what, y'all see Ben
Speaker 1: Crump all the time, and y'all need to know he
Speaker 1: don't just run around from one case to the next.
Speaker 1: He actually has a law firm called the ben Crump
Speaker 1: Law Firm, and it's a bunch of lawyers that work
Speaker 1: with this man. It's not just been there as a
Speaker 1: whole team. He's also the president of the Civil Rights
Speaker 1: Trial Lawyers Association, and he is most importantly what my song,
Speaker 1: what do you call him? He is Black America's Attorney General.
Speaker 1: Thank you, General. Thank you so much for coming to
Speaker 1: Street Politicians. It's been a long time coming, but we
Speaker 1: finally got you on. Thank you queen, and to make
Speaker 1: my side. Thank you all for using your voice to
Speaker 1: amplify the cause. I mean, it's so critical what you'all
Speaker 1: are doing to have this podcast Street Politics, where we
Speaker 1: can communicate to our community directly. I mean, they don't
Speaker 1: have to go through the filter and nothing, and y'all
Speaker 1: can keep it real about how we move the culture
Speaker 1: forward and more importantly, how we make a better future
Speaker 1: for our children. Well, thank you, Yeah, yeah, no, really been.
Speaker 1: I mean, so I I said to you before, and
Speaker 1: and my son and I've been talking every week about
Speaker 1: civil on your new documentary on Netflix, and I said,
Speaker 1: then we're gonna talk a little bit about that in
Speaker 1: a moment. But as we've been discussing it, I've been
Speaker 1: saying I was always for being crump because I know
Speaker 1: you we've been in the trenches since Trayvon Martin together,
Speaker 1: I've watched you. I've actually watched you grow, you know,
Speaker 1: just as a leader. UM, I have really been able
Speaker 1: to up close and personal see how much you sacrifice
Speaker 1: on behalf of this movement. And so they couldn't say
Speaker 1: nothing to me about you before. But now I'm ready
Speaker 1: to fight in the street if anybody says anything about
Speaker 1: my Ben Crump, because I know, I know who you are,
Speaker 1: and you know uh been, what you do and the
Speaker 1: work that you put into this movement. I'm so glad
Speaker 1: that the film is out there so people could just
Speaker 1: see a little bit of how hard you go on
Speaker 1: behalf of black folks and all kinds of folks. I mean,
Speaker 1: I see you take cases that people don't even know
Speaker 1: about UM with people of all backgrounds. And so we
Speaker 1: just want to say to you on street politicians that
Speaker 1: we love you, we appreciate you, we see you, and
Speaker 1: we want you also been to be well take care
Speaker 1: of yourself, you know, because that's something that I don't
Speaker 1: think enough of us focus on as it relates to you,
Speaker 1: is your wellness and your your your well being. Now,
Speaker 1: thank you so much to Mika Mallory. You know I've
Speaker 1: said it before, and I tell everybody you're the queen
Speaker 1: of this movement. You and I literally kind of grew
Speaker 1: up in many ways. I mean, tray Vine happened, and uh,
Speaker 1: that was the first time when I believe the consciousness
Speaker 1: level in America was raised about the killing of a
Speaker 1: black person probably since like when far Immitia really where
Speaker 1: it was part of the national conversation. And I think
Speaker 1: that was being driven by young people like you and
Speaker 1: me at the time, and especially the college students. And
Speaker 1: I think people like you and my son tes y'all
Speaker 1: can communicate directly with the young people are like many
Speaker 1: of the people from the Old Girl simply cannot. And
Speaker 1: it's so important that we communicate with them, because I
Speaker 1: absolutely believe it is the young people, just like it
Speaker 1: was with Martin Luther King and John Lewis. It's the
Speaker 1: young people who are gonna move the needer. We won't
Speaker 1: move unless the young people are making us move. That's
Speaker 1: what has always been the case in the history, is
Speaker 1: going to be the case now. And so when I
Speaker 1: think about civil and I'm grateful to Netflix for you know,
Speaker 1: investing to do this because they thought it was important,
Speaker 1: and I would be remissed if I didn't think Kenya Barriss,
Speaker 1: who you know as an incredible movie producer. Uh created
Speaker 1: the television show Blackish. Uh created the television show America's
Speaker 1: Top Model with Tyra Banks. Uh and he wrote Girls Trip.
Speaker 1: He's direct in my side. White man can't jump to
Speaker 1: so the brother is busy is I don't know what,
Speaker 1: but he said it's not enough. You have to show
Speaker 1: that part of the black experience. We have to show
Speaker 1: the entire black experience. And he thought it was more
Speaker 1: important than to make a comedy or make a basketball
Speaker 1: film that He said, no, no, we're gonna make this
Speaker 1: film talking about the mission and the work that you're
Speaker 1: doing on the front line. Crump and then queen to making.
Speaker 1: They went and got this sister named Nadia Hagren after Karrican.
Speaker 1: I mean, just shop sister from y'all. Nikola was New York.
Speaker 1: She's amazing. She did she did a real good job.
Speaker 1: I don't jump in no, no, I just first of all,
Speaker 1: I want to say that Sybil is amazing. And I've
Speaker 1: been talking about it. You know, I watched it twice
Speaker 1: and every time I still cried both times. Um, it
Speaker 1: was emotional it was you. It was heartfelt. You know,
Speaker 1: I just want to know what what made you decide
Speaker 1: that you wanted to be involved in something like this.
Speaker 1: You know, it was interesting my side. Thurgood Marsha is
Speaker 1: my personal hero and and they're good understood that. Man.
Speaker 1: You gotta are getting the court public opinion a lot,
Speaker 1: because when he was going to court, you know that
Speaker 1: y'all thought they criticized us. Man, people criticize him from
Speaker 1: both sides, like all our leaders, Black people hated them
Speaker 1: more than the white people hated them. They're gonna keep losing.
Speaker 1: He can't win out. So he was saying that what
Speaker 1: y'all to understand, the laws are against us. What we
Speaker 1: gotta do is be arguing to the public to influence
Speaker 1: the court of law because the court of law was
Speaker 1: not made to help black people. And so without understanding,
Speaker 1: I said, uh, you know, Netflix has one of the
Speaker 1: greatest global bull horns in the world. So if they're
Speaker 1: gonna allow me to have this global bullhorn to speak
Speaker 1: truth to power, then I better seized the opportunity. Because
Speaker 1: Netflix is in two hundred and sixty one million households
Speaker 1: all around the world, and it was so fascinating my
Speaker 1: son because you never know. But it was June tenth.
Speaker 1: They released it on just the right date, and they
Speaker 1: said it trended UH number one for half the time
Speaker 1: during that day. So they were very happy that they
Speaker 1: could not only engage their audiences, but what I hope
Speaker 1: is that they educated them and influenced them. I know
Speaker 1: Amanda Seales uh shop sister comedian. She said, June tenth
Speaker 1: should be a day where white people have to listen
Speaker 1: to black coaching, black issues and black causes. And I
Speaker 1: think Netflix gave the opportunity on June tink for them
Speaker 1: to say, hey, let's try to at least understand why
Speaker 1: they are aggravate, aided, and upset since we think America
Speaker 1: is great, but it ain't great to them. You no, no,
Speaker 1: it's just one thing because you said something that was
Speaker 1: so pivotal. I don't know if you was gonna say it,
Speaker 1: but everybody says Ben Crump loses all his cases. He said,
Speaker 1: you know, Ben, and I'll be trying to explain to people,
Speaker 1: and that's what civil was explained that Benjamin Crump is
Speaker 1: a civil lawyer. Right, He's not the prosecutor, he's not
Speaker 1: the defense attorney. He can't he don't try the cases
Speaker 1: when some of the person who killed Trayvon mart and
Speaker 1: you didn't try the case. You know, the person who
Speaker 1: who did something to um um Umar Army, you wasn't.
Speaker 1: You're the civil You only in charge or able to
Speaker 1: get monetary value in conversation for what happened. Could you
Speaker 1: please let that be said because I hate hearing that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know my side. It is one of those things.
Speaker 1: Hopefully we can act people if they're willing to engage
Speaker 1: with us. A lot of people are just our haters
Speaker 1: and you can't do anything about that. And I don't
Speaker 1: spend much time on because I understand my mission in life.
Speaker 1: But I am a civil lawyer. The seventh Amendment of
Speaker 1: the Constitution says what civil lawyers are allowed to do.
Speaker 1: We're allowed to receive civil compensation for our loss or injustice.
Speaker 1: Only elected officials can prosecute somebody. They can. The only
Speaker 1: people can arrest somebody, charge somebody, and have the trial
Speaker 1: and put them in prison is elected government officials, these
Speaker 1: district attorneys, these state attorneys, and so our people have
Speaker 1: to understand that those are the people. If you're gonna
Speaker 1: get mad at somebody for nobody going to prison for
Speaker 1: Brianna or anybody else. You get mad at Daniel Cameron,
Speaker 1: you get mad at the prosecutor. I understand as a
Speaker 1: private lawyer, and my god, I think about to so much.
Speaker 1: And you know, to me, can we talk a lot?
Speaker 1: Strategy hasn't about how you can get some measure of
Speaker 1: justice of this policy. I know tars and we always
Speaker 1: talk about policy or what I can do directly, and
Speaker 1: that is to try to raise the value of black
Speaker 1: life in America. And that's what we do my side.
Speaker 1: We have never lost the case and one of these
Speaker 1: police shootings. We've always been able to recover some measure
Speaker 1: of accountability of justice. And I could be wrong, but
Speaker 1: I want people. I don't ever want to be arrogant
Speaker 1: enough to think I know all the answers, but I
Speaker 1: want to believe if we can raise the value of
Speaker 1: black life in America, they will at least think twice
Speaker 1: before they shoot first and ask questions later. Because that's
Speaker 1: what we've been having on all these cases. They just
Speaker 1: shoot first and ask questions later because they's like, well,
Speaker 1: the police probably will get away with it, and we
Speaker 1: don't have to pay any money for every trade bron Martin,
Speaker 1: every Michael Brown, every George Floyd. There are at least
Speaker 1: ten thousand other black people who would kill ten thousand,
Speaker 1: and we don't know their names because they killed at
Speaker 1: least hundred every year. And so if we go back
Speaker 1: for ten years, they have killed at least almost forty
Speaker 1: thousand people. And to Mika, we've been doing it for
Speaker 1: ten we can probably name about fifty two hundred that
Speaker 1: we know about and that we've dealt with just the ones,
Speaker 1: and there have been some that other lawyers that you
Speaker 1: are affiliated with, our friends, whether it be Lee Married
Speaker 1: and Chris Stewart, and I mean so many lawyers across
Speaker 1: the country that they are working on those cases. So
Speaker 1: you know, there's it's a there's a lot of work
Speaker 1: that's happening. Now you want to I want to hear
Speaker 1: you talk about the monetary value being raised, because I
Speaker 1: think people need to understand where you started, the amount
Speaker 1: of money that you were able to get on behalf
Speaker 1: of Trayvon Martin's family, and you know they should have
Speaker 1: received way more than they got um to where we
Speaker 1: are now twenty seven million for George Floyd, twelve million
Speaker 1: for Brianna Taylor, there's a big difference. What's the strategy there?
Speaker 1: And before you answer that, Ben, talk about how important
Speaker 1: it is that the movement is strong at the same
Speaker 1: time that grassroots organizing is happening in order to help
Speaker 1: feed into whatever small amount of justice we can get. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I'll started there before I talked about the value,
Speaker 1: because I wanted on the record, you know there's no
Speaker 1: way we get any measure of justice for Brianna Taylor,
Speaker 1: this innocent black woman without until freedom. I mean to
Speaker 1: make a I's on record. You were the first person
Speaker 1: I called after uh La Nita and to make a
Speaker 1: Paulma Browna's mother engaged me and I said, if this
Speaker 1: is gonna happen, because they were saying nobody's paying attention
Speaker 1: after month, one month had passed in Brianna was over
Speaker 1: with it kind of reminds you of trade Bine. It
Speaker 1: was over if nobody gave a damn seem Also, yeah,
Speaker 1: as if people don't ever acknowledge what you gotta do
Speaker 1: to make it be a trend in astag or a
Speaker 1: news story, then they say, oh, well, you just went
Speaker 1: for the high profile case. Nobody knew about Brihanna Amar
Speaker 1: at the beginning, nobody cared about Trey Vine. So but
Speaker 1: to me, I I thank you, Queen. I think until freedom,
Speaker 1: there's no way people would know Brianna Taylor's name without
Speaker 1: you all. And I can never say thank you enough.
Speaker 1: I know, like Needa and sam Aggie all were the
Speaker 1: lawyers in the courtroom, y'all, like co councils in the community.
Speaker 1: And it's so important to have the grassroots there, the
Speaker 1: people in the court of public opinion and pushing the
Speaker 1: court of law because the court of law really don't
Speaker 1: care about black people, brown people, for any marginalized people,
Speaker 1: we have to make them care laws or dead words
Speaker 1: on paper. We breathe life into them by what we do.
Speaker 1: And so when I think about the value of black
Speaker 1: life in America, you have to remember, obviously Emmett Till
Speaker 1: got no justice back in the fish. You didn't get money,
Speaker 1: you didn't get criminal conventions, you just got nothing. You
Speaker 1: saw with Latasha Goings, you know, Tupac, one of my heroes.
Speaker 1: You know, everybody in l A when the Asian lady
Speaker 1: shot the system in the back of the head and
Speaker 1: then they let her go back to Korea and with
Speaker 1: no criminal convention, that little girl was dead walking away
Speaker 1: on video in the early eighties in Los Angeles. She
Speaker 1: got no compensation. Rodnni King got like a million dollars. Uh.
Speaker 1: And that was pretty much it. If you out a
Speaker 1: million dollars, you better be happy to grow, It's what
Speaker 1: they were saying. And obviously it didn't make any difference.
Speaker 1: And so then Trey by Martin came and we said, well,
Speaker 1: we won't not just civil conversation. We want the killer
Speaker 1: to go to jail. And so I really started saying,
Speaker 1: they gotta arrest this guy. This guy gotta be charged
Speaker 1: because black people got used to the police shooting and
Speaker 1: killing us, and you know, as terrible as it is,
Speaker 1: we was like, man, that seemed to just be the
Speaker 1: reality in America. But then when Tray Bond got killed
Speaker 1: and this thing, I'll stany in your ground, it changed
Speaker 1: everything because then it said we didn't have to worry
Speaker 1: about just the police killing out children, but any time
Speaker 1: dick and hairy white person could kill our children, as
Speaker 1: long as they said that they felt in fear of
Speaker 1: their life, they could go home and sleep in their
Speaker 1: beds at night. And so we fought that when in
Speaker 1: nine and nine out of a hundred lawyers when I
Speaker 1: have taken Trade by Martin's case and I out of
Speaker 1: a hundred and so people say, oh, well, you took
Speaker 1: this high profile case man Sabrina and tracying them. They
Speaker 1: were like, who do we turn to? Because lawyers are like,
Speaker 1: why would I take that case, this neighborhood. Why the
Speaker 1: person ain't gotten nothing and the police gonna believe him,
Speaker 1: and we're just gonna spend our money and time. So
Speaker 1: we took the case. We settled it out of court
Speaker 1: for one point five million dollars. And what many people
Speaker 1: do not understand is the Homeowners Association had already cut
Speaker 1: Trade by Martin Killer loose. They said, he validated policy,
Speaker 1: we're not responsible for that. He didn't have our permission
Speaker 1: to care a gun and so forth, so it would
Speaker 1: have been a judgment calling court. So they thought that
Speaker 1: was The courts thought that was very fair. We were
Speaker 1: not happy. We then Michael Brown and Ferguson, uh city,
Speaker 1: you know the same thing. We at one point seven
Speaker 1: five you instead of trying to increase the value. Uh.
Speaker 1: Eric Gardner got about five million dollars in two thousand eighteen.
Speaker 1: You know, Treybon was in two thousand twelves. So you're
Speaker 1: you're pushing every time to say, let's give more to
Speaker 1: black people because we want these cities to go bankrupt
Speaker 1: having to pay these lawsuits out. And then we got
Speaker 1: to you know, traybon Mark. I'm sorry, we got to
Speaker 1: Brianna Taylor. Black women to mak her my side. They
Speaker 1: just didn't get any money hero and now nobody go
Speaker 1: to jail black women. It's like Malcolm Mack said, most unprotected,
Speaker 1: mostly gladly, most disrespected because black women that Washington Post
Speaker 1: did to study from two thousand fifteen to two thousand
Speaker 1: and twenty, over four hundred black women have been killed
Speaker 1: by police. Only eight of them have been charged. Four
Speaker 1: of their cases got dismissed, four of them got convicted
Speaker 1: of misdemeanor charges, no felonies. That meant nobody went to
Speaker 1: jail nothing. And that's what happens in black women cases.
Speaker 1: So for Brianna to get twelve million dollars was in
Speaker 1: I mean profound statement that our black woman was not
Speaker 1: gonna be looked at as irrelevant or insignificant or devalued.
Speaker 1: You were gonna have to acknowledge them. And then George
Speaker 1: Floyd and then twenty seven million dollars people. A lot
Speaker 1: of lawyers was like, we never thought we would see
Speaker 1: a day where a police department were spending a third
Speaker 1: of their budget on a single case talking about banking
Speaker 1: while black. To me, because we've gotten over two hundred
Speaker 1: million dollars for black people, that people think that we
Speaker 1: do high profile police cases. No, man, we find this
Speaker 1: emination and employment and iron men of racism, medical racism.
Speaker 1: And so when we got all these banks to pay
Speaker 1: black people two hundred million dollars at one cole of
Speaker 1: the year, it was not they all. They won't let
Speaker 1: me say who the banks are because it's confidential settlements.
Speaker 1: But a lot of black people have very merri Christmases
Speaker 1: last year, and we gotta keep doing that transfer wealth
Speaker 1: taking from rich white corporations given to black people that
Speaker 1: have generational wealth. M So, like you just said, man,
Speaker 1: a lot of people always think that it's just high
Speaker 1: profile cases that you do. And when you watch civil
Speaker 1: you see that there's so many different types of cases,
Speaker 1: not just police killing cases. You know, you have black farmers,
Speaker 1: you're talking about the banks, the young lady who's banking
Speaker 1: while black, and that was one I think that one
Speaker 1: really touching nerve for me just seeing that situation where
Speaker 1: touching nerth Can you speak on some of the cases
Speaker 1: that you have now that you know that might not
Speaker 1: people might not know, because like you said, we have
Speaker 1: to amplify that. So give us like one of two
Speaker 1: cases that you think people should pay attention to. Man well,
Speaker 1: hopefully until freedom will helping. Baltimore, Maryland with Sira Brown case.
Speaker 1: That's the system ninety dollar check that white lady took
Speaker 1: her check, locked it in the boat where she couldn't
Speaker 1: get milk and food for her infant children. And uh,
Speaker 1: it was heartbreaking. You see all these banking while black cases.
Speaker 1: They just she was being accused that they were saying
Speaker 1: to check the faith, but they called the job, didn't
Speaker 1: they to to verify that the ninety dollar check was
Speaker 1: not failing. Exactly the lady too and her check right yep.
Speaker 1: White lady just said, I mean it was just so evil. Really,
Speaker 1: uh wanted to just tell us a little black lady
Speaker 1: that you don't matter. And and she, thank god, um
Speaker 1: got the police officers to buy her milk and so
Speaker 1: for just to make it through the weekend. My mom
Speaker 1: raised me and my little brothers. People don't understand how
Speaker 1: hard it is sometimes for single parents to raise children,
Speaker 1: I mean on their own. And so that's the case
Speaker 1: that hopefully when people see Silver, they'll understand it's more
Speaker 1: than just these high profile cases. And with Blue Nadia
Speaker 1: hard Grain, you know, now they had direct that Michelle
Speaker 1: Obama's becoming and she she is running around the country
Speaker 1: with me my side, and you know, I got these
Speaker 1: I get the calls, I got the thirteen officers. I'm
Speaker 1: just going She could not believe that out all these
Speaker 1: high profile cases I was doing that. I said, we
Speaker 1: gotta go see this young sister who has this bank
Speaker 1: a while black case that I think it's imperative that
Speaker 1: I work on. And they was like, you're gonna stop
Speaker 1: and you're gonna drive Ben Crump, I said, hey, man,
Speaker 1: I understand why we got these blessings and influences. That's
Speaker 1: to try to help people. Can't help everybody, but the
Speaker 1: ones we can, we're gonna do it. So my side,
Speaker 1: that's a big case I want to draw emphasis on.
Speaker 1: I'm doing Wheals Fargo and that's huge because during the pandemic,
Speaker 1: you know, the government lord the interest rate to historic
Speaker 1: lows uh seventy five years ago. I mean, we ain't
Speaker 1: had interest rates that low, and so this was an
Speaker 1: opportunity for people to refinance and get equity anywhere from
Speaker 1: a hundred thousand dollars up to ten million, twenty million
Speaker 1: dollars in their home, which we all know for middle
Speaker 1: class people is the greatest way to grow wealth, to
Speaker 1: accumulate wealth. Well, where's Fargo turned down out the black people?
Speaker 1: And you're like, they the largest home lived in America
Speaker 1: and they were turning black people down. So we're going
Speaker 1: after them. And I know sometimes we don't agree on everything,
Speaker 1: but I was very proud of Mayor Eric Adams in
Speaker 1: New York for saying, until you addressed this pattern of
Speaker 1: discrimination while I'm married, the City of New York would
Speaker 1: do no new business with you. And I think if
Speaker 1: more about elected mayors in these big black seaties like
Speaker 1: Atlanta and Jackson, Mississippi and so forth, faith that stands
Speaker 1: say along corporations, you all are gonna have to be
Speaker 1: held accountable because I know who have vote me into office,
Speaker 1: then that matters. Can you think about it? Just imagine
Speaker 1: to me in my side. Let me just drop this
Speaker 1: point right there, because I don't want to lose it.
Speaker 1: People need to research Maynard Jackson when he was mayor, Okay,
Speaker 1: when he was mayor of Atlanta, he did the same
Speaker 1: in terms of looking at all the contracts, looking at
Speaker 1: all the money going in and out of the city
Speaker 1: of Atlanta, and he made sure that wherever black people
Speaker 1: were not in the high percentile in terms of getting
Speaker 1: the contracts and the business from these agencies, that he
Speaker 1: threatened them to pull the city's money, pension funds and
Speaker 1: other things out of those those businesses and institutions. And
Speaker 1: that's that's that's the what where Eric Adams, I believe
Speaker 1: get got that idea, you know, And it's so profound
Speaker 1: because a lot of people don't have the courage to
Speaker 1: do that. They rather just try to go along and
Speaker 1: get alone to him, want to piss off nobody. And
Speaker 1: you thinking where black people just keep getting kicked in
Speaker 1: the faith. But you up here cheaching and haha with everybody.
Speaker 1: And that ain't why we elected you. And so when
Speaker 1: I think of made that Jackson, that's him and Mary
Speaker 1: bear Uh and these great examples they said made of Jackson,
Speaker 1: it's it's a legendary stir. When they're building Delta airlines
Speaker 1: the airport in Atlanta, and he stops construction, and he
Speaker 1: stays until we get black uh self contractors on this project,
Speaker 1: we won't do anything more uh construction of this airport.
Speaker 1: So it was a stand still and man of Jackson said,
Speaker 1: I'd be damned if everybody else gets rich building this
Speaker 1: airport and black people don't get anything. And he's still
Speaker 1: about and delta blank. And that's why you have so
Speaker 1: much prosperity in Atlanta from the early eighties just from
Speaker 1: the building of that airport, because when we take a
Speaker 1: stand ow, it matters. And so that's why this Whaless
Speaker 1: Fargo thing matters. We might be able to get black
Speaker 1: people close to a billion dollars from whales Fargo. And
Speaker 1: it won't be a high profile case. It won't be
Speaker 1: sex or anything like that, but boy, it would be
Speaker 1: life changing for a lot of black people. Think about
Speaker 1: you getting a house paid off now because they denied
Speaker 1: your re five So now you've got three four hundred
Speaker 1: thousand dollars in equity that you can pass on to
Speaker 1: your children. It's those type of things that is part
Speaker 1: of the mission. And I can't worry about if people
Speaker 1: get it, because you know what you're fighting for. It's
Speaker 1: not a popularity contest. It's about trying to give our
Speaker 1: children a better world. And so that h hen Real
Speaker 1: the Lacks case. Oh man, Yeah, we're suing all these
Speaker 1: pharmaceutical companies for Henry the Lacks family. Yeall know she
Speaker 1: was the sister who they stole herself from Johns Hopkins
Speaker 1: Hospital in the nineteen fifties. Oprah Winfrey made a movie
Speaker 1: about it. They're more the life of Henry the Lacks,
Speaker 1: well her children. They hired me to try to do
Speaker 1: something that people say, I'm crazy. I get called out
Speaker 1: a lot. We're bringing a seventy year uh slawsuit. Statue
Speaker 1: limitations is only two years. We're gonna say, Jared, we
Speaker 1: think that it was you know, fraudulent concealment that and
Speaker 1: when it's fraud, the statue of limitation should not apply.
Speaker 1: And it's uh ingest enrichment, the theory that says, well,
Speaker 1: if we can prove you've been ungestly and rich, then
Speaker 1: we have our day in court where if we're successful. Boy,
Speaker 1: it's looking kind of good for us. These pharmaceutical companies
Speaker 1: have made billions and billions of dollars off of Henry
Speaker 1: o the lack of sales. She was the first human
Speaker 1: being on the face of the earth. We all knew
Speaker 1: black women were the most powerful creatures on earth, but
Speaker 1: she kind of solidified it. They were trying to find
Speaker 1: out how if a human sale could regenerate outside the
Speaker 1: body where he really lacks in ni hersels. They took
Speaker 1: them out, put them in the little process, and they
Speaker 1: know there's something miraculous. Every twenty four hours, herself will
Speaker 1: regenerate on this own, not inside the body, outside the body.
Speaker 1: And it's been doing that for seventy years every day.
Speaker 1: So every pharmaceutic could company, every one of them who
Speaker 1: came up with a vaccine, nation or any kind of
Speaker 1: medical advancement, it was because they used her human sales
Speaker 1: to test it, because that's the only way you could
Speaker 1: do it in laboratory laboratory conditions. And so they have
Speaker 1: made billions upon billions of dollars, and her children had
Speaker 1: made one red penny, one penny. But we sued them.
Speaker 1: Everybody said we're gonna get kicked out of court. They
Speaker 1: laughed at us, called us crazy. But guess what, the
Speaker 1: judge has denied that we get the motion to this myths.
Speaker 1: We kid to keep going forward and what that means
Speaker 1: my side, but that means to mecause those pharmaceutical companies
Speaker 1: will never ever let that case see a court room
Speaker 1: because when they put the argument that we were arguing
Speaker 1: in federal court and they said, well, Judge, where does
Speaker 1: it end. What happens when uh, fifty years from now
Speaker 1: that her grandchildren come back and everything. In my response
Speaker 1: to that, yeah, I was like, let me make you'll
Speaker 1: understand this because y'all disrespect to the black woman, didn't
Speaker 1: see her as a citizen worth of consideration and get
Speaker 1: her to sign a agreement saying you can take her
Speaker 1: genetic makeup her intellectual property so when you used it
Speaker 1: in the future, her family would be able to profit
Speaker 1: or get some proceeds from it. So since you didn't
Speaker 1: do that, y'all are staying now if her grandchildren come
Speaker 1: back in fifty years after these grand children just say
Speaker 1: we won't uh if our percentage of whatever is to
Speaker 1: be given for her intellection property, y'all see a problem
Speaker 1: with that. But I'm confused, judge, because ain't the white
Speaker 1: people who changing of these corporate presidents going to call
Speaker 1: in fifty years and a hundred years and say along
Speaker 1: the reason Sam Walton children are gonna be rich forever,
Speaker 1: it's because Sam won't gotta contract. That says day rich forever, Eli, Lilly, Johnson,
Speaker 1: and Johnson, all of them. So why does this black
Speaker 1: woman grandchildren not entitled to the same equitable relief? And
Speaker 1: was silent. Yeah, you need a part too, You need
Speaker 1: a part to the civil and we need a part
Speaker 1: too to this interview. And I do not want to
Speaker 1: get in trouble with your team because I promise we
Speaker 1: would just do thirty minutes today, so we I want
Speaker 1: to let you go, but I do want to ask
Speaker 1: you this one quick question, Ben, and we'll be done here.
Speaker 1: Kim Fox and Marilyn Molesby. We see all of the
Speaker 1: black women elected official state attorneys, not all of them,
Speaker 1: but many of them are being hit with charges. This
Speaker 1: is not about afther, we think, well, first of all,
Speaker 1: we do not believe they're guilty of what they're being
Speaker 1: charged up. That's Tamika Mallory speaking. I'm pretty sure that
Speaker 1: Ben Crump has his own statement that he make on
Speaker 1: their behalf. What do you think it's happening here? Because
Speaker 1: because we see, we see what's being done to Maryland
Speaker 1: where regardless of how you may feel, still it doesn't
Speaker 1: look like she's getting a fair a trial if you will,
Speaker 1: or fair? Um, what do I want to say? Exactly? Exactly?
Speaker 1: And then in the way that they're after Kim Fox,
Speaker 1: these are black women who have stood up for justice.
Speaker 1: Talk about what you see happening and why have it
Speaker 1: Why no insurrectionists in the government has been arrested yet,
Speaker 1: but yet these black women are under attack. And you
Speaker 1: can add Kim Gardner from St. Louis. That's right. They
Speaker 1: are coming after these black women prosecutors, and I think
Speaker 1: because they are, they are completely disrespectful of black women.
Speaker 1: I mean, it is flavrant. I mean it is, it's
Speaker 1: so over the top. Um. All Maryland mostly did was saying,
Speaker 1: hold on the officers who did this to Freddy Great
Speaker 1: need to stand accountable for what they did. We're not
Speaker 1: saying they're guilty him to prove an innocent, but we're
Speaker 1: saying that they read a great family should have his
Speaker 1: day in court. Man. She did that. The police union
Speaker 1: have been after her for six years now. I mean
Speaker 1: every day, it's not like just now. Every day they're
Speaker 1: trying to take that sister down. They want to destroy her.
Speaker 1: Same thing with Kim Gardner in St. Louis. Y'all remember
Speaker 1: Kim Gardner said the couple who was carrying the goods
Speaker 1: the Trump supporters and pointed it on the black activists.
Speaker 1: She prosecuted them. Man. You know, the governor tried to
Speaker 1: script her of her power. Aaron Massa Yala in Orlando, Florida,
Speaker 1: who was the first black state attorney in the entire
Speaker 1: state of Florida, said that she's not gonna do the
Speaker 1: death penalty because she believed this disproportionately used against black people. Man,
Speaker 1: the whole state came up to this black woman. And
Speaker 1: then obviously Kim Fox Chicago. Man, Chicago has just Chicago
Speaker 1: City in America, and she they come out to her
Speaker 1: and it's so deep because you bring up you bring
Speaker 1: up Maryland most man, Freddy Gray. Tomorrow, I'm going to
Speaker 1: New Haven, Connecticut because y'all are gonna hear the name
Speaker 1: Randy Cox is the Freddy Gray tragedy on video. Brother
Speaker 1: in the back of the padded wagon my side. I
Speaker 1: mean he was arrested with our incident and he went
Speaker 1: and you know, doing anything bad, but the police gave
Speaker 1: him a rough ride. You liotally see him in that
Speaker 1: back of that video and don't tell you being krunt
Speaker 1: word for a handcuff. He slides down the bench head first,
Speaker 1: hiss that and he's on the ground from that point.
Speaker 1: For when the police stopping everything that you're okay, he
Speaker 1: tells them, I can't feel my arms, I can't feel
Speaker 1: my leg. They're like, well, you just drunk. You need
Speaker 1: to shake it off. I mean, no respect, pulls on
Speaker 1: out by his feet. You see its head in again.
Speaker 1: Then they throw him in a wheelchair. I mean, at
Speaker 1: no point do they get him in their help and
Speaker 1: you see his body just hanging around and they just
Speaker 1: are so callous to him. Now, this brother is paralyzed
Speaker 1: from his chest down and only difference between him and
Speaker 1: Fred are gray to me as we see the video now,
Speaker 1: and that video is hard to watch, but it is
Speaker 1: more evidence that we got work to do because they
Speaker 1: just don't respect us. They I don't believe they do
Speaker 1: this to white people, but when it's black people, they
Speaker 1: just don't look at us as having humanity. We're not
Speaker 1: worth their humanity. And so we keep fighting that fight.
Speaker 1: And it's gonna be interesting because they may have a
Speaker 1: black prosecute on this case too, black female prosecutor. And
Speaker 1: if she comes out them like we want, you know,
Speaker 1: they're gonna come out to her. I cannot end this
Speaker 1: interview to make my sign without telling you this one thing.
Speaker 1: It was a historic week. Obviously, civil came out on
Speaker 1: June think and that was a big deal. But tomorrow,
Speaker 1: La Near, a black woman, came to me six years
Speaker 1: ago asking me to sue Harvard University for some slave photographs.
Speaker 1: The earliest known photographs still in existence in the world
Speaker 1: that she said was her great great great grandfather Renting
Speaker 1: and his daughter Delia. The racist Harvard law profect Our
Speaker 1: scientists stripped them down naked to take pictures of them
Speaker 1: and back then to take a picture you had to
Speaker 1: stand for like forty five minutes to an hour, so
Speaker 1: they were button neck and they measured them his lips,
Speaker 1: his buttocks are brass and everything to try to be
Speaker 1: able to give ocular proof, to show visionary evidence of
Speaker 1: his racist theory that black people were inferior to white people.
Speaker 1: In eighteen fifty, so, while Abraham Lincoln was talking about
Speaker 1: Emancipation Proclamation, Harvard and their professors were not only uh
Speaker 1: argument he was wrong, they were endorsing that black people
Speaker 1: were inferior. And so Harvard even to this day is
Speaker 1: complicit because when this black lady went to them, they said,
Speaker 1: you're crazy, get away from us. And so we took
Speaker 1: the case, a hundred and seventy two year old case,
Speaker 1: and that we aargum nine months ago before the Massachusetts
Speaker 1: Supreme Court. They took forever. But on Thursday morning at
Speaker 1: ten a him they came back with unanimous rule and
Speaker 1: saying that Harvard's motion to dismiss our lawsuit is denied
Speaker 1: and that there's a black woman can go forward and
Speaker 1: have her a day in court. So it is going
Speaker 1: to be I believe where Harvard is either gonna give
Speaker 1: those to Garat types, those pictures that they believe it
Speaker 1: worth a hundred million dollars are they're gonna get this
Speaker 1: a black family a substatute amount of money. And so
Speaker 1: it's about trying to have redistributions of wealth taken from
Speaker 1: very rich white institutions and giving the money to black people.
Speaker 1: That is the one thing that we can't control as
Speaker 1: private lawyers. Oh man, that's you know. It just goes
Speaker 1: to show that pretty much all of these rich institutions
Speaker 1: have been built on the backs of black people. And
Speaker 1: I just want to say before we leave, then what
Speaker 1: you do is in as and you know, just watching you,
Speaker 1: working with you, seeing what you bring to this movement,
Speaker 1: you know, the realism like I'm I'm about authenticity and
Speaker 1: I don't like a lot of people. I don't endorse
Speaker 1: a lot of people, but you somebody like to Maka said,
Speaker 1: I'll fight in the street with and for any day
Speaker 1: of the week man. And and I know you take
Speaker 1: a lot of backlash like we do because we really
Speaker 1: do it from the heart. And you know, the enemy
Speaker 1: is gonna be angry when you come outside and you're
Speaker 1: fighting them every day. So it's gonna be backlash, and
Speaker 1: it's gonna be negativity, and it's gonna be people that
Speaker 1: like you said Hayters. But you know, I just want
Speaker 1: to give you your flowers and that you know that
Speaker 1: we truly appreciate what you do because we know what
Speaker 1: you sacrifice on a daily And before I go, I
Speaker 1: just want to know what do you want the world
Speaker 1: when it's all said it done, What do you want
Speaker 1: the world to say about Ben Crunt? Yeah, it's so simple,
Speaker 1: my sign and to make it. And before I say
Speaker 1: that and we close, out man. Thank you, Thank you
Speaker 1: all for that's been on the front line. Man. It
Speaker 1: is longly at times, and so you want to know
Speaker 1: that you're not alone and to fight. And you know,
Speaker 1: our children, I'm boring children. We'll know that we fought
Speaker 1: for them. And so the one thing that I believe
Speaker 1: it's gonna be on my tombs done y'all, is that
Speaker 1: he was an unapologetic defender a black life, black liberty,
Speaker 1: and black humanity. And with that said, we love you,
Speaker 1: Ben Keep doing the work, keep being great. I love
Speaker 1: your general. I love you queen y'all our leaders. Man.
Speaker 1: To make you know what I said, you're the queen
Speaker 1: of this movement. Yeah, well you are certainly. As my
Speaker 1: son started out, Black America's Attorney General. We love you,
Speaker 1: Benjamin L. Crump. Go and do something. Go do whatever
Speaker 1: you're about to do, go do it. Do it well.
Speaker 1: Let's not hold you up anymore. We love you so much. Man.
Speaker 1: I love y'all. Keep up lifting the culture. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Thank you king man. Ben. I mean, I just want
Speaker 1: the haters and the non haters, the lovers and the
Speaker 1: haters to make sure they watch civil because all of
Speaker 1: what he was just talking about is in the film,
Speaker 1: you know, and I don't know if people spend enough
Speaker 1: time watching Ben like in his interviews and understanding how
Speaker 1: how much intellect this man has and just you know,
Speaker 1: what he means to our culture. It's just amazing, you know.
Speaker 1: And one thing I didn't get a chance to ask
Speaker 1: him is how, you know, why does he keep so
Speaker 1: many different types of people around him? Because you know, Teslain,
Speaker 1: our sister Teslain figure, Oh she's Tesla, and Teslain don't care.
Speaker 1: She is on the full spectrum all the way. Black
Speaker 1: folks gonna say whatever she wants to say. And there's
Speaker 1: nobody um that she is not so much afraid to
Speaker 1: go up against. But she's not. She's not paid, bought
Speaker 1: and paid right, so when they say bought, and yeah,
Speaker 1: she's just gonna say whatever she needs to say. And
Speaker 1: that's powerful. But there are a lot of elected excuse me,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of lawyers and other businesspeople and
Speaker 1: folks who are successful, as successful as been who wouldn't
Speaker 1: be around a person like Teslin. Right. Also, us we're
Speaker 1: not your average protesters. The way in which we call
Speaker 1: out white supremacy, the way in which we stand up
Speaker 1: and say things about elected officials, even the Democratic president.
Speaker 1: We we we are always going in on elected officials
Speaker 1: that that many of us put in office and still been.
Speaker 1: He's with us. But then he also works with people
Speaker 1: who are a little closer to the system. So he
Speaker 1: has a way of knowing and understanding how you bring
Speaker 1: everybody together, and that's organised organizing skill. That's definitely a
Speaker 1: skill set. Man. What what Ben does is phenomenal. Like
Speaker 1: you said, he knows how to navigate, and he navigates authentically, right.
Speaker 1: He has so many different relationships and each of those
Speaker 1: relationships means something. Right, each one of the individuals that
Speaker 1: he worked with is people that are doing work, and
Speaker 1: a lot of times it's people that are doing work
Speaker 1: that don't even agree with each other, but they work
Speaker 1: with men because they respect what it is that he does.
Speaker 1: So you know, he has a unique skill set and um,
Speaker 1: like you said, it's a level of brilliance to what
Speaker 1: he does. Man. So I hope everybody watches Civil and
Speaker 1: they get to get a glimpse into the bend that
Speaker 1: we actually know and love and work with on a
Speaker 1: daily basis. Because you know, this this whole theory that
Speaker 1: people chase high profile case instead of making these cases
Speaker 1: INTI for all cases is something that you probably get
Speaker 1: to see in the film. So shout out to bend
Speaker 1: Man and it's dope Man. Just we ain't gonna stop
Speaker 1: talking about They're gonna say every week they keep talking about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what we got. The best documentaries I've seen. I've
Speaker 1: seen a lot of documentaries, but it's definitely one of
Speaker 1: the best documentaries that I've seen. Yep, absolutely absolutely, And
Speaker 1: and that brings me to my I don't get it,
Speaker 1: you know, just just thinking about the movement, just thinking
Speaker 1: about black people, just thinking about the world we're in.
Speaker 1: Actually filming from l A right now. After the BT
Speaker 1: Awards and it was a phenomenal night. Our friend, another
Speaker 1: one of our friends, did he was honored with the
Speaker 1: Lifetime Achieving Awards at the BT Awards and Dope Brother Love,
Speaker 1: Brother Love you know, um, and he had performances, um,
Speaker 1: he had people introduced him and Kanye right and and
Speaker 1: he's my brother. So the Kanye was a part of
Speaker 1: the tribute. He was one of them. He was the
Speaker 1: person who who introduced did he to give him the
Speaker 1: Lifetime Achieving him and baby Face and he came out
Speaker 1: in Kanye fashion with his coat and his massive his face,
Speaker 1: he could be like you could tell that it was
Speaker 1: hard for him to breathe. And I and I just
Speaker 1: want to understand Kanye, like I really do, Like I
Speaker 1: really want to because you know, sometimes I'm very critical
Speaker 1: Kanye because you know what it is, because I know
Speaker 1: that he has a level of intellect ingenious, right, and
Speaker 1: sometimes I think that he utilizes it, you know, for
Speaker 1: some level of attention, and sometimes that attention negatively of
Speaker 1: extra work that we do right and negatively affects how
Speaker 1: we have to show up on the front line and
Speaker 1: what we fight against. And I think sometimes he's utilized that,
Speaker 1: you know, that brilliance in a in a a form
Speaker 1: and in a way that's detrimental to us as black people.
Speaker 1: To me, you know, everybody doesn't feel that way, but
Speaker 1: I just was watching him yesterday, right, and he was
Speaker 1: saying a lot of things that was brilliant and powerful
Speaker 1: and very powerful. But just him being up there with
Speaker 1: this mask and the glasses and the boots and all
Speaker 1: of these things, Yeah, gloves on and it was l
Speaker 1: a and it's hot, and it's just that I want
Speaker 1: to understand Kanye, and I just don't get it, like
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't. I want to. I really want to, Like,
Speaker 1: I want to sit down and try to understand. You
Speaker 1: should sit down with Kanye. I want to, like, I
Speaker 1: really want to. Like Kanye is not It's some people
Speaker 1: that you don't they but I don't even want to.
Speaker 1: But Kanye is not one of those individuals. I like.
Speaker 1: I actually respect the level he has a level of brilliance,
Speaker 1: and I think that's why I'm so critical of him, right,
Speaker 1: and because sometimes I think that he does it purposely, right, Like,
Speaker 1: we we live in this troll era where people do
Speaker 1: things just for attention, right, So sometimes I think he
Speaker 1: does things that can be detrimental just for attention. So
Speaker 1: I think that's been my issue with Kanye in the past.
Speaker 1: But at this point, I just don't even know, because
Speaker 1: he would do some things that's so powerful, you know,
Speaker 1: and then then he does things that completely throws me off.
Speaker 1: So I really just don't get Kanye. I don't know what.
Speaker 1: I just want to say. As a black woman, all
Speaker 1: y'all are like that most of the black men in
Speaker 1: my life may not be as extreme as Kanye in
Speaker 1: terms of what you're talking about, But y'all are constantly
Speaker 1: throwing a curveball. So I feel like that about all
Speaker 1: my brothers that and you know, I have many many
Speaker 1: that I'm really close to and and my brothers that
Speaker 1: I love, and it's like it's like all over here,
Speaker 1: it's great and we're on the right page, and then boom,
Speaker 1: because you do it. I pick up my phone, people like,
Speaker 1: can you please go check my songs Instagram and please
Speaker 1: ask him not to post that. Now. I don't think that,
Speaker 1: you know, again, it's not as extreme as what you're
Speaker 1: saying that the things that Kanye does sometimes it's pretty dangerous.
Speaker 1: It is his affiliations, the ways that he shows up
Speaker 1: in space, some of the things he says. It is
Speaker 1: definitely dangerous to our movement. And also because of the
Speaker 1: fact that he's such an icon when he speaks, even
Speaker 1: if he's just you know, basically going for a shock value,
Speaker 1: because he's a mastermark there, right, and which is why,
Speaker 1: you know, with the clothes and all of that. But
Speaker 1: he's a master marketer, and when he does those things,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that he realizes the minds of the
Speaker 1: young people and other people who may not have developed
Speaker 1: opinions on certain issues. He's able to shift their thinking
Speaker 1: in a direction that is so far away from what
Speaker 1: we need in terms of our people working together and
Speaker 1: towards a particular goal. But so it's not at that level.
Speaker 1: But y'all still all as black men. I think, um,
Speaker 1: you have this curveball thing that happens, and I think
Speaker 1: it has a lot to do with the pain that
Speaker 1: has not ever been processed. Right when you ask about
Speaker 1: looking at Kanye with the mass, I felt the same way, Like, Bro,
Speaker 1: I get it, I understand being different. He you are
Speaker 1: an artist, he's an artist, he's a superstar. I get it,
Speaker 1: and I understand, but it's it's like it's just a
Speaker 1: lot for me. The boots is this big that it's
Speaker 1: just it's a lot for me. But I realized that
Speaker 1: he's expressing, or at least I feel that he's crying
Speaker 1: out saying something is wrong, something is going on, And
Speaker 1: I think that with black men. You know, as we
Speaker 1: were in um here in l A and throughout the
Speaker 1: ET weekend, Taraji Henson was everywhere promoting her mental health
Speaker 1: organization that's focusing on and and in fact B E.
Speaker 1: T And Taraji they now have a campaign where they're
Speaker 1: gonna give one million hours of of of therapy to
Speaker 1: black folks. Right. I hope black men actually invest in
Speaker 1: that and take advantage and that there's ways entry points
Speaker 1: for black men to be like some of the highest
Speaker 1: you utilizers, if you will, of the service, because there's
Speaker 1: too many of you all as black men, that I
Speaker 1: feel are not getting the necessary to process some of
Speaker 1: the things that's going on. So there's a constant battle
Speaker 1: between what is the mission and the passion, and then
Speaker 1: there's these other things that just boom out of know
Speaker 1: where it happened because it's speaking to the pain. And
Speaker 1: I guess all of us are like that, but I
Speaker 1: certainly feel like that about my brothers. Okay, well, give
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give me some mental health from look into it.
Speaker 1: You know, if I'm on if I'm on the spectrum
Speaker 1: somewhere where Kanye is, that confuses then I definitely needed
Speaker 1: to look into some somebody talking to somebody, you know.
Speaker 1: But you're right, we all deal with different things, you know,
Speaker 1: but that's just my opinion. You know, shout out to
Speaker 1: Kanye hopefully you know he's dealing. You know, he said
Speaker 1: something about him taking the hiatus and wanted to be
Speaker 1: you know, Vanish and be Lea for a year. So
Speaker 1: hopefully he's getting hopefully he doesn't do that, no, I
Speaker 1: mean just hopefully he's getting just the therapeutic you know,
Speaker 1: services that he needs and had somebody there to walk
Speaker 1: him through whatever he's going through. So and with that said,
Speaker 1: we had another amazing show. You know, shout out to
Speaker 1: being Crump, Shout out to everybody to BT weekend. It
Speaker 1: was a dope weekend. A lot of our friends. You know,
Speaker 1: we've seen a lot of things. Club Love Listen if
Speaker 1: you've never been to club love, club love is something special, man.
Speaker 1: So once again, congratulations to Diddy. We put on a
Speaker 1: good show. All of the artists they're dope. So with
Speaker 1: that said, we're gonna close the show. I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: always be right, Tamika d. Mallory is not gonna always
Speaker 1: be wrong, but we will both always and I mean always, always,
Speaker 1: always be authentic. Salute. Listen to Street Politicians on the
Speaker 1: Black Effect Network on I Heart Radio and catch us
Speaker 1: every single Wednesday for the video version of Street Politicians
Speaker 1: or I Women Dot TV. That's