Speaker 1: Welcome to my show.
Speaker 2: This is your girl, madel and you're listening to exactly Amada.
Speaker 1: This is a production of Ihart. You guys already know
Speaker 1: that in as usual.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for tuning in every Thursday, for
Speaker 2: supporting me, for showing me love, and obviously I feel
Speaker 2: like I'm always telling me like, oh my god, I
Speaker 2: don't forget to give us those five stars. But yes,
Speaker 2: go over there and give me those five stars. Show
Speaker 2: me that you like the show, show me that we're
Speaker 2: doing good. I love to see how we're growing little
Speaker 2: by little with my life and my career, which I
Speaker 2: try to keep busy for those that know me, and
Speaker 2: if you don't know me, you're about to find out.
Speaker 2: I have always been very I'm a passionate type of girl.
Speaker 2: Anything that I do, I go all in, one hundred
Speaker 2: percent like whatever it is.
Speaker 1: And one of the things that I've been very passionate
Speaker 1: about my.
Speaker 2: Whole life, obviously because I've been black for as long
Speaker 2: as I can think of, is about the AffA Latino community.
Speaker 2: You guys have heard me be very passionate about my community, racism, colorism,
Speaker 2: all the issues that we've had, especially in the entertainment industry,
Speaker 2: and just because I'm not talking about it twenty four
Speaker 2: to seven, it doesn't mean that it's not on the
Speaker 2: top of my mind. It doesn't mean that I'm not
Speaker 2: working behind the scenes to continue to make changes.
Speaker 1: It's just that I hate to feel like things are
Speaker 1: a wave.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: That she's doing it for publicity, she's doing it.
Speaker 2: For cloud, she's doing it. No matter what you do,
Speaker 2: people are always gonna talk shit. And if you really
Speaker 2: believe in something, you're gonna do it whether people see
Speaker 2: you or they don't. So I'm not saying that Alex
Speaker 2: can relate to my Afro Latinidad, but.
Speaker 1: But hey, you never know.
Speaker 3: You never know.
Speaker 2: Maybe deep down inside you feel Afro Latino or maybe
Speaker 2: you have an Afro Latino you know, relative, which which
Speaker 2: I always say just because you may not be able
Speaker 2: to relate one hundred percent, meaning like, Okay, well, I'm
Speaker 2: not brown, i'm not dark skin, i'm not black, I'm
Speaker 2: not whatever, but maybe you have relative that is and
Speaker 2: some ways, somehow we're all connected.
Speaker 1: Alex, how you doing, how you're feeling was popped?
Speaker 4: I'm doing great? Another interesting, very good topic to cover today,
Speaker 4: because as we know, we do that here we go
Speaker 4: where other people don't.
Speaker 1: Where are we going today?
Speaker 4: Today we have Christopher Rivas. He is a multi talented
Speaker 4: artist and writer who explores his self doubt, body dysmorphia,
Speaker 4: and frustration with the systems that makes life harder for
Speaker 4: people of color in his book broad Enough True Stories
Speaker 4: about love, violence, the students, loan crisis, Hollywood, race, familia,
Speaker 4: and making it in America.
Speaker 1: Now, revosn't think that.
Speaker 2: I don't think that this podcast is long enough to
Speaker 2: break down all the issues that you just said in
Speaker 2: that one sentence.
Speaker 4: Oh for sure. Now, Rivas acknowledges is Latino heritage with pride,
Speaker 4: but he's also frustrated with being defined by it in
Speaker 4: a country where white people hold the power and conversations
Speaker 4: about race and tend to focus on black and white issues. So,
Speaker 4: ladies and gentlemen, not only is he an actor, a playwright,
Speaker 4: a podcaster, and PhD candidate. Yeah, yeah, we would like
Speaker 4: to welcome once again to the show, Christopher Rivas.
Speaker 5: Welcome. What's up, y'all? How you doing?
Speaker 1: How you doing? By the way, he I wish you
Speaker 1: girls could see him. He's so cute and then there
Speaker 1: so the.
Speaker 2: Little curls, you know, really you go everything, Chris, how
Speaker 2: you doing?
Speaker 1: How's life was good?
Speaker 5: Life is good.
Speaker 3: I'm in Los Angeles. I got my confecito and some tea.
Speaker 3: I got all my liquids. I gotta say off the bat.
Speaker 3: You said something in Google in the search probably said
Speaker 3: life is harder for bodies of color.
Speaker 5: Maybe you said people of color.
Speaker 3: I personally, throughout the book and in my life, use
Speaker 3: a term called bodies of culture, because I think it
Speaker 3: is not our color that whiteness tries to take from us.
Speaker 3: It's our culture, it's our sus own, it's our flavor.
Speaker 3: It's our culture that makes us unique, not our color.
Speaker 3: And whiteness especially loves our culture.
Speaker 5: When they can make money off of it.
Speaker 3: And so what unites us as bodies under whiteness is
Speaker 3: our culture.
Speaker 2: I will say that this melanie is expensive, so yes,
Speaker 2: they do want some of this, they do want some
Speaker 2: of this color. But besides that, I definitely understand how
Speaker 2: culture is very heavy, and I really want you to
Speaker 2: break it down because in this book of yours, in
Speaker 2: your life experience, you taught you touch a lot of
Speaker 2: like important points. It's not just about brown people and
Speaker 2: the color issue, the cultural issue, but you even spoke
Speaker 2: about student loans and this, and you not be that, Lina,
Speaker 2: like you went in like in in in this book.
Speaker 1: So baca masad, let's go by.
Speaker 2: Parts brown enough, right, So first of all, what inspired
Speaker 2: you to want to write this book? How long did
Speaker 2: it take to be like, okay, you know what I
Speaker 2: want to focus on this, like this is what I
Speaker 2: feel in my heart that should really be talking about.
Speaker 5: I went to see Tanahase Coats.
Speaker 3: He's this great writer, thinker at one point, maybe he
Speaker 3: still does, had the most read article in the history
Speaker 3: of the Internet, and he speaks on white and black
Speaker 3: race relations in America. I saw him in this small
Speaker 3: library in downtown LA. It came time for questions and
Speaker 3: I raised my hand, you know, I said, as a
Speaker 3: as a brown kid, Latino kid from Queens, where does
Speaker 3: that leave me in the conversation? And he said not
Speaker 3: in it? And then and then that was it. That
Speaker 3: was the end of the conversation. So I sat down
Speaker 3: and I felt like a reprimanded sort of child. And
Speaker 3: I went home and I thought about my family, and
Speaker 3: I thought about Queens, and I thought about my mom
Speaker 3: and my pops, and my friends and my South Asian friends,
Speaker 3: and you know, you asked me where I was from earlier,
Speaker 3: and I said Queen, right, I didn't say Dominican and Colombian,
Speaker 3: because I come from the most diverse place on the planet.
Speaker 3: I literally come from culture, like there are more languages
Speaker 3: spoken in Queens than any any other place in the world.
Speaker 3: That's cool, That's what I grew up in. Like, and
Speaker 3: you're telling me we not in it. Everything between white
Speaker 3: and black.
Speaker 5: Is not in it.
Speaker 3: And so then I was inspired to explore what it
Speaker 3: means to be in it, what it means to be enough?
Speaker 3: What is this beautiful thing called brownness, which is Latini died,
Speaker 3: but also so much more, What.
Speaker 1: Does being brown mean to you?
Speaker 3: So brown means I don't easily identify with blackness, and
Speaker 3: I don't want to identify with whiteness. And I think,
Speaker 3: what what whiteness does really well? Is it says what
Speaker 3: labels do really well in a white black society. Is
Speaker 3: it says, if blackness will accept you, go over there.
Speaker 3: Otherwise A lot of people, I think, especially in Latini,
Speaker 3: I try and push blackness away to get closer to whiteness,
Speaker 3: for its privileges, for its rewards, for its benefits. I
Speaker 3: don't want to. And I have found myself in my life.
Speaker 3: I think all of us have subtly. When whiteness can
Speaker 3: serve you, you jump in that, you go to that line,
Speaker 3: right because it's like, got to get this job, trying
Speaker 3: to do this thing, you know, trying to move up
Speaker 3: in the world, got to want to pay rent, you know, American.
Speaker 2: Dreams, which by the way, I do that too, but
Speaker 2: I do that with being American. I'm only American when
Speaker 2: convenience a blar piki toist be all. You know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying, I'm not in one hundred percent, like you know,
Speaker 2: it's crazy. We do play those roles. And if you
Speaker 2: pay attention to the Latino community, you're right. You know,
Speaker 2: whenever you can get closer to the whiteness, you use it.
Speaker 1: When convenience.
Speaker 5: It's a tool. And so that's what brownness was for me,
Speaker 5: like it was to me.
Speaker 3: I was trying to write something for anyone who didn't
Speaker 3: clearly identify with blackness as we know it, you know,
Speaker 3: the black diaspora.
Speaker 2: So how about this, just out of curiosity, when you
Speaker 2: have to pick between you know, how they'll give you
Speaker 2: these boxes. Then you have to pick between being white,
Speaker 2: you know, Asian or whatever, whatever the case may be. Black,
Speaker 2: between white and black, what do which box do you check?
Speaker 3: There will never be a box that can contain twenty
Speaker 3: four different countries, nationalities, hips, flavors, and curls. Ever, and
Speaker 3: yet this country is constantly trying to put you in
Speaker 3: a box. Education wants to put you in a box.
Speaker 3: Your mother wants to put you in a box. The
Speaker 3: people on the street want to put you in a box.
Speaker 3: Everybody wants to act like they know who you are.
Speaker 3: That's actually why I think gender fluidity is so incredibly
Speaker 3: powerful because it says because it says like I can
Speaker 3: be more than one thing. Facts, you can be twelve things,
Speaker 3: one hundred things. You are uncontainable. I'm trying to live
Speaker 3: in a more expansive way. So when I think of brown,
Speaker 3: I'm trying to like, live more expansively. It's not this
Speaker 3: that yes, no, right, wrong right. We can be so
Speaker 3: many things.
Speaker 2: You somewould use that term to be like well as
Speaker 2: a brown person or the brown community, we can also
Speaker 2: be whatever we want to be.
Speaker 1: I am curious to know as far as are you married, single,
Speaker 1: what what's happening with you?
Speaker 5: I'm not married a part.
Speaker 2: He has a partner. Girls, you're late Betro when it
Speaker 2: comes to dating because you are so close to this
Speaker 2: in this experience. Do you have a preference when it
Speaker 2: comes to dating.
Speaker 3: I discovered you know who Portrilio Rubro. Yes. So when
Speaker 3: I discovered him in college, he changed my life. I
Speaker 3: always wanted to be James Bond. James Baum was based
Speaker 3: on him.
Speaker 1: I've always wanted to be Beyonce, but I haven't gotten
Speaker 1: this coming.
Speaker 3: So I wrote a play about him called The Real
Speaker 3: James Bond was Dominican. In my research of this man,
Speaker 3: I realized the only dated white women, and he mainly
Speaker 3: married white women. I was in the pattern of being
Speaker 3: with only white women. This really blew up my world.
Speaker 3: I wrote a play, well, please don't hate me for
Speaker 3: dating white women, got into the New York Times that
Speaker 3: scene I had broken up with my partner.
Speaker 5: To explore why I was with so many white women.
Speaker 3: You know, I had to identify like every movie that
Speaker 3: told me that the hand I hold is more valuable
Speaker 3: than my own hand. You know, every movie that showed
Speaker 3: me a body of culture getting saved by some white
Speaker 3: women and their life being better.
Speaker 5: Every image, every yeah, every.
Speaker 3: Billboard, and so I really, I really took years years
Speaker 3: of my life to be like, what is this Am
Speaker 3: I attracted to white women?
Speaker 5: Or do I think I should be? In order to
Speaker 5: move ahead?
Speaker 3: And I did that journey publicly New York Times. It's
Speaker 3: in the book It's all the things you know to
Speaker 3: the play.
Speaker 2: I only ask not because I'm trying to be out
Speaker 2: of being your business, but basically yes, only because for
Speaker 2: the most part, when we talk about and I'm talking
Speaker 2: from my personal experience, when we talk about culture, when
Speaker 2: you talk about and I say race, because we're talking
Speaker 2: about the white, the black, the in between, the brown,
Speaker 2: et cetera. So when you're trying to identify what you know,
Speaker 2: why am I attracted to these type of people? Even
Speaker 2: the toys that you play with? And I'm telling you
Speaker 2: because now I have you know, I am a mother
Speaker 2: as usual. Everybody you know knows I have two little girls.
Speaker 2: And even when you're going to the store right to
Speaker 2: look for dolls, you find this big department of blonde
Speaker 2: blue hair.
Speaker 1: You know, white babies.
Speaker 2: Shout outs to all my you know, listeners that are blonde,
Speaker 2: blue hair, and.
Speaker 1: Shout out to y'all.
Speaker 2: But we would love to also have a really nice
Speaker 2: department that is just as you know, whye for that
Speaker 2: as well, and to me, when it comes to us
Speaker 2: identifying and understanding our culture where we come from visually
Speaker 2: accepting us.
Speaker 1: It starts from your childhood as well. You know. That's
Speaker 1: why there's so much confusion as an adult.
Speaker 2: So I just wanted to, you know, bring it back
Speaker 2: a little bit to try to understand, you know, growing
Speaker 2: up as well. Was that something that you heard in
Speaker 2: your household? Were there any you know, or you know,
Speaker 2: those little things. Do you think that that also affected
Speaker 2: the way that you saw yourself or the way that
Speaker 2: you dated.
Speaker 3: First time I brought home a black girl, my my
Speaker 3: grandma was furious, you know. So there's that That same
Speaker 3: Dominican grandmother told me to pinch my nose every night, you.
Speaker 1: Know, Oh my god.
Speaker 2: Yes, And if you go like this, it's supposed to
Speaker 2: make your nose my mom or get up.
Speaker 3: Pin.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they can you hold it like this when they're
Speaker 2: when you're little, and those so they can make your nose, they.
Speaker 5: Can sleep like that, you know. So I knew early on.
Speaker 5: I also would go to salons with the smell of
Speaker 5: burning hair like you know, I knew early on that
Speaker 5: we were.
Speaker 3: All striving for something that wasn't us. I also heard
Speaker 3: the moments where, you know, people would say, oh, what
Speaker 3: are you trying to be white now, which is really
Speaker 3: just like a comment on power. Oh, you're trying to
Speaker 3: you're trying to have power now, so hurrying me on
Speaker 3: as a child. Whether I could articulate it or not,
Speaker 3: you have so many lessons and examples that whiteness is
Speaker 3: a thing to strive for and that it's related to power.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's deep, that is real deep. When you were
Speaker 2: talking about violence in your book, what exactly were you.
Speaker 3: Referring to, you know, specifically black bodies, but also bodies
Speaker 3: of culture.
Speaker 1: I think it's crazy. I think it's crazy. How if
Speaker 1: you really.
Speaker 2: Look at it as a community as.
Speaker 1: A whole, we are so strong. We are a strong community,
Speaker 1: and I don't me and.
Speaker 2: In my case because for me, I feel like I
Speaker 2: have the best of both worlds and the hardest part
Speaker 2: of both worlds because culturally you si Latina, Silminicana, Mikurdura
Speaker 2: and in the country where Latinos and many occasions are
Speaker 2: not wanted.
Speaker 1: Then on top of that, I'm black. So it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: we don't want you to read.
Speaker 2: So it's like if you're you're too Latina to be
Speaker 2: with the black and many occasions and you're too black
Speaker 2: to be, you know, or vice versa. It's always been
Speaker 2: a thing for me trying to find supposedly where it
Speaker 2: is that you belong. So you have to kind of
Speaker 2: speak up for your own people to find like, okay,
Speaker 2: well then let's do this here, or how do I
Speaker 2: become part of both worlds?
Speaker 1: It's crazy how strong we are.
Speaker 2: It's crazy how we know of our history, where we
Speaker 2: come from, the things that have occurred, all these things,
Speaker 2: and we still can't come together to fight the system.
Speaker 2: And the only reason why I personally feel that we
Speaker 2: can't fight the system. We could, but we won't, is
Speaker 2: because they work our minds first. Once you've been able
Speaker 2: to conquer the mind, the body will just follow the
Speaker 2: division that they've been able to create, you know, between
Speaker 2: even our own communities, because it's not even just a
Speaker 2: black and white thing within our own community, whether you're Columbian, Peduano, Mexicano,
Speaker 2: et cetera.
Speaker 1: There is still that whiteness that that whitewash of Josma
Speaker 1: Blan can do.
Speaker 2: I have better hair than you, either da da da,
Speaker 2: there's always the preference La of the family, or the
Speaker 2: darker you are, the the you know, the the more
Speaker 2: your features are, the texture of your hair, all these
Speaker 2: are the things they've even been able to figure way
Speaker 2: how to divide us within our own community, which is
Speaker 2: the worst part because it's like, yeah, we're just talking
Speaker 2: about oh, you know, the whites are against us, but
Speaker 2: we're against each other.
Speaker 1: So it's like, do you feel that at any point.
Speaker 2: This racism, colorism, or classism, or any of the sism.
Speaker 2: Do you think that at any point we'll be able
Speaker 2: to surpass this? Will this last forever? Will this generation
Speaker 2: be able to break that curse? Will there be anything
Speaker 2: in your mind that we'll be able to do to
Speaker 2: make a difference. Because we're not the first ones to
Speaker 2: speak up, we're not the first leaders, we're not the
Speaker 2: first ones that are like, let's take control, let's do
Speaker 2: something about it.
Speaker 1: Will that ever happen in your eyes?
Speaker 3: I think it will. Will it happen in my lifetime?
Speaker 3: I don't know, the world is actually getting browner, and
Speaker 3: so eventually it's gonna be hard to at some point,
Speaker 3: you know, it's gonna be hard to hate, but we'll
Speaker 3: find ways to hate because hate is a more powerful
Speaker 3: energy to gather around in love. You must hate something
Speaker 3: to overthrow, you know, like you must galvanize yourself with
Speaker 3: an energy in order to go get the power. This
Speaker 3: is one of the things that blackness has done beautifully.
Speaker 3: They said, you black, you here, you fail, come here
Speaker 3: like I got you powering numbers.
Speaker 6: Blackness has done a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful job at that.
Speaker 6: Latinidd has not Hollywood example, It's like a show like
Speaker 6: Go to Eat The Chronicles gets made and all the
Speaker 6: Columbians are like, where's my show? The Dominicans get their show,
Speaker 6: A show like Heenthi five gets made, and all the
Speaker 6: you know, Puerto Ricans are like, where's my show?
Speaker 5: The Mexicans got a show. Everyone's sort of like where's
Speaker 5: my shot.
Speaker 3: I hope we arrive at a place with Latinidad where
Speaker 3: we realize it's not zero sum, right. If Amara wins,
Speaker 3: we all win. If Rivas wins, we all win. Like everybody,
Speaker 3: a show for you is a show for everybody. We
Speaker 3: need to keep lifting each other up, you know.
Speaker 2: And I'm going to tell you why that part too, also,
Speaker 2: because if I win you win.
Speaker 1: If you win, I win.
Speaker 2: But the people that do make it, the people that
Speaker 2: do get that little bit. Because here's the thing. Every
Speaker 2: if you go to Hollywood, obviously, and if you don't
Speaker 2: go to Hollywood, you got it on Instagram, there's more
Speaker 2: artists and fans and actors and than there is fans.
Speaker 2: Everybody's an actor, everybody's a rapper, everybody's a model, everybody's
Speaker 2: a dancer. Now since TikTok, it's like everybody knows how
Speaker 2: to do everything right, and there's like there's more y'all
Speaker 2: now than there is fans. Those that finally do make
Speaker 2: it in that small gap of Hollywood that you do
Speaker 2: get known coming from a Latino background, it is your duty.
Speaker 2: It is your responsibility. I'm sorry if you hate me
Speaker 2: for it. You got to bring somebody up as well
Speaker 2: when it bring When I say bring somebody else up,
Speaker 2: it could be the smallest thing of at some point
Speaker 2: if you can be like yo, support this actor or
Speaker 2: support this been from your social media platform, whatever it is.
Speaker 2: But for the most part, we don't do that. Once
Speaker 2: you get up there, it's all about you.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: How are we supposed to Okay, that I feel that
Speaker 2: the American African American community has also done greatly. They'll
Speaker 2: bring somebody else up, whether it is that you're an athlete,
Speaker 2: whether it is that you sing r and b alda.
Speaker 2: Everybody is like, let's collapse, let's do this. But when
Speaker 2: it comes to the Latino community is like yao, Lae
Speaker 2: is me. It's all about me, and you don't figure
Speaker 2: out ways to bring So how are we supposed to grow?
Speaker 1: How are we supposed to grow? Speak up?
Speaker 2: And then because it's been so hard for our community
Speaker 2: to finally be placed in certain and then we feel like,
Speaker 2: let me not talk too much, let me not say
Speaker 2: too much, because I don't want to mess it up
Speaker 2: for me. You know what I'm saying, Like I already
Speaker 2: made it here. You know, y'all gotta figure it out
Speaker 2: on your own. And so say, that's why for me
Speaker 2: as an activist for the Affilatino community. And when I
Speaker 2: say the Alfilatino community, I mean so la Gale, anybody
Speaker 2: that's black, anybody who's as dark as me, who's lighter
Speaker 2: than me, who has a black mother or father there
Speaker 2: it is important for me to be like, you have
Speaker 2: to use your platform to speak up, you know, and
Speaker 2: bring somebody else.
Speaker 1: Up, Like why are we so stingy?
Speaker 5: I don't.
Speaker 2: I feel that other cultures aren't necessarily like that, they
Speaker 2: support each other more than we do. Why do you
Speaker 2: think is Zachamo that like it's like, oh, no, you're
Speaker 2: Puerto Rican, Oh you're Dominican, or you're Cuban, or you're
Speaker 2: Colombian or.
Speaker 1: Guy at that I got. We're Latinos and we're trying
Speaker 1: to make it just like what do you think the
Speaker 1: issue is here? Why can't we connect?
Speaker 5: Do we think it's it's scarcity.
Speaker 3: There's two ways to live in this life, abundance and
Speaker 3: generosity or scarcity and fear.
Speaker 5: And I think Latini's are rightfully so.
Speaker 3: I think whiteness has done this to us. Colonialism has
Speaker 3: done this to us, and we need to remember there's.
Speaker 5: Enough food at the table.
Speaker 3: And the way that happens is, you know, slow and steady,
Speaker 3: like amar, you do that, lift someone up, you know,
Speaker 3: put someone on here, like give someone they shot. You know,
Speaker 3: nothing changes until the people's signing checks look like us,
Speaker 3: sound like us, come from where we come from, you know,
Speaker 3: show that the table has enough food for all of us.
Speaker 1: I feel very proud of myself for a lot.
Speaker 2: A lot of times I'll ask me, what do you
Speaker 2: feel the proudest of the things that you've accomplished, And
Speaker 2: I honestly would say that one of the things I
Speaker 2: feel the most proud of is the fact that through
Speaker 2: my activism and through you know, just being who I
Speaker 2: am and me using my platform, I have been able
Speaker 2: to bring awareness to my community to the issues that
Speaker 2: happened in my community, to bring light. And it was
Speaker 2: crazy to me when I, you know, first came out
Speaker 2: and spoke about it, and they're like Afro Latinos, We've
Speaker 2: never heard of this, what is it?
Speaker 1: I mean, you got to be kidding me, Like, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean.
Speaker 2: I just feel proud to know that my work has
Speaker 2: been able to make somewhat of a difference in my generation.
Speaker 2: And I think that what you're doing as well, whether
Speaker 2: you do it through music, whether you do it you know,
Speaker 2: through book, whether you do it through social media, whatever,
Speaker 2: the fact that you're taking action to do something that
Speaker 2: is going to make a difference in our world and
Speaker 2: our generation. In Nuestra Puzdura, it's something that we should
Speaker 2: thank you for. We should have more people like yourself
Speaker 2: and if no one is thinking you enough for what
Speaker 2: the work that you're putting in, I personally want to
Speaker 2: thank you because we need more people like you. My
Speaker 2: daughters aren't, you know, as dark as I am. They're
Speaker 2: way lighter than I am. And I always said that
Speaker 2: it is important for me to speak up because one
Speaker 2: day when I have children, I don't know what their
Speaker 2: future looks like, you know, and in the world that's
Speaker 2: becoming more brown, we need more brown people to say something,
Speaker 2: and we have a lot of people who are just
Speaker 2: on mute, you know, waiting for someone like you to
Speaker 2: speak up. So something that you also hit was you
Speaker 2: were talking about student loans.
Speaker 3: Education is widely valuable, whether it's education in the streets,
Speaker 3: whether it's education from your parents, whether it's education from
Speaker 3: an institution. The American dream, which I think is being
Speaker 3: challenged and changed, says that go to the best school,
Speaker 3: you know, come out like I was the first in
Speaker 3: my family to go to like an it's a real institution.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 3: My parents didn't go to college, right, but it felt
Speaker 3: right like they were like I get to my kid
Speaker 3: gets to follow their dreams, go to school. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 3: let's just sign the dotted line, and then we are
Speaker 3: punished for doing the thing the dream told us to do.
Speaker 3: You know, when I get out of school six months
Speaker 3: later and my student loan payment is twice my rent,
Speaker 3: and I'm trying to be an artist, and I think
Speaker 3: about how many people don't get to be what they
Speaker 3: wanted to be because they got to work three, four
Speaker 3: or five jobs. I got to be a barista and
Speaker 3: then walk the dogs and then babysit, and that because
Speaker 3: I got to just pay my student loans, I feel
Speaker 3: like I'm the dummy, like I made the mistake. And
Speaker 3: so every day that I wake up, even with my
Speaker 3: student loans, I feel incredibly blessed that I was able
Speaker 3: to Maguiver maneuver Machavelli scheme my way. You think I
Speaker 3: got a PhD. Because I want more education. I needed
Speaker 3: a way to bypass student loans. So I discovered this
Speaker 3: program in Switzerland where I only have to go in
Speaker 3: this summer, and so I was like, I'm going to
Speaker 3: buy time. I know one day I'm gonna be able
Speaker 3: to afford these I'm just going to keep buying time.
Speaker 3: I'm going to keep buying time. You know, I wouldn't
Speaker 3: let it break me. And then I think that student
Speaker 3: loans is directly tied to this myth of the American dream,
Speaker 3: what I call the American dream. That's the chapter. It's
Speaker 3: a con. It's like, it's a con and it sells
Speaker 3: you this idea of movement and perfection, but it's selling
Speaker 3: it to a very specific type of person. You know,
Speaker 3: a white person, a white person who even today is
Speaker 3: bribing universities and giving them five hundred and fifty thousand
Speaker 3: dollars to get their kids into school that the kids
Speaker 3: don't even want to go to, and then they still
Speaker 3: have to pay tuition. I'm anti anti yam, I'm anti scam,
Speaker 3: anti asking young people who you didn't give them any
Speaker 3: real educational financial education. You're giving them thousands of dollars
Speaker 3: without proper information. Like I'm into vocational schools. I think
Speaker 3: there's other ways. I think there's certain careers where you
Speaker 3: might not need a traditional college.
Speaker 1: He is speaking truth, he is preaching fingers preach.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'll tell you this, I did the whole
Speaker 2: student loan things and being don't judge me, and if
Speaker 2: you're doing them, this.
Speaker 1: Is exactly I'm not.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you, I don't want to say that
Speaker 2: my generation is a dumb generation because we're not better here.
Speaker 2: Are we less educated in many things than our past
Speaker 2: you know generation.
Speaker 1: To me and my eyes, yes, why because we've gotten
Speaker 1: real comfortable. A lot of you don't even know how
Speaker 1: to spell no more, you got this damn spell check.
Speaker 1: I mean overall, it's like.
Speaker 2: You know, we have become so comfortable with technology, the
Speaker 2: internet and everything else.
Speaker 1: I feel that this is a world scam for.
Speaker 2: The next generation of mass and stupid, more dumb than
Speaker 2: the past because with all due respect for all of them,
Speaker 2: they don't respect and everybody feels offriended those that.
Speaker 1: Are out there, you know, showing your toes on the
Speaker 1: only fans.
Speaker 2: Now you made this income and now you don't feel
Speaker 2: the need to find any type of education for what
Speaker 2: you see. What I'm saying, it's like I think that
Speaker 2: education is key, is important. That's how I feel about it.
Speaker 2: I really feel that education should be free. That's just me,
Speaker 2: because it's a way of making our country a better
Speaker 2: place if everybody wanted to study what they really want.
Speaker 2: My mom wanted to be a teacher and study and
Speaker 2: go to school, but she comes from poverty. She was
Speaker 2: never able to have. You know, my grandparents take her
Speaker 2: pay for her college. She ended up being a cook,
Speaker 2: you know. I mean she cooks fantastic, but that really
Speaker 2: wasn't her dream. And like that, there's many people that
Speaker 2: have so much potential that if they were just given
Speaker 2: a small opportunity, God knows what they could have been,
Speaker 2: you know, made out of themselves. So I really really
Speaker 2: wish and pray that at some point.
Speaker 1: Amazing and it's like.
Speaker 2: You know what, everybody gets to go to college for free,
Speaker 2: everybody free education. I know that I'm dreaming very high,
Speaker 2: but anything is possible, and that would be so great.
Speaker 2: I really feel inspired and motivated when I speak to
Speaker 2: someone that knows their shit. That's that's you know, inspired, motivated, driven,
Speaker 2: you know, that's passionate.
Speaker 1: I really love this. But if you had that the
Speaker 1: last tip of I'm gonna stay or take away, what
Speaker 1: would you leave the people with?
Speaker 3: My invitation to everyone listening is there is enough food
Speaker 3: at the table. If you have one mantra in your
Speaker 3: life this week or today, try and operate from there
Speaker 3: is enough. When you see your community winning, it means
Speaker 3: you are winning. And I promise you if you shift
Speaker 3: your mind in that direction, you will you will breathe
Speaker 3: a little easier, and you will see more wins in
Speaker 3: your life. There is enough food at the table for
Speaker 3: all of us. Whiteness is the thing that's trying to
Speaker 3: tell you to fight a scrap, to use your nails,
Speaker 3: to keep other people down. We have to unplug from
Speaker 3: whiteness by any means necessary. And one of the ways
Speaker 3: we do that is we operate from abundant.
Speaker 2: Wow, that was deep in a matter of term, will
Speaker 2: be like, oh yes, that being stingy.
Speaker 1: What the hell? Don't be stingy. Everybody gotta eat. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, put in the work. And if
Speaker 1: you find somebody else, drag the ass long too.
Speaker 2: If you know somebody that's talented, somebody that's good at
Speaker 2: what they're doing, you see them struggling. And you're in
Speaker 2: a in a place where, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 2: a place of power, in a place where you can
Speaker 2: make a difference. Gon Yo, just be like, oh Amy,
Speaker 2: put a referral, listen, alex yo, he's dope, he's questa.
Speaker 2: It doesn't cost you, nothing is not gonna take away
Speaker 2: from you. It's only but gonna build you and build
Speaker 2: your community and build your people. And if God forbid,
Speaker 2: this is my takeaway. And if God forbid you know,
Speaker 2: one of youall jobs. If you do good for someone else,
Speaker 2: I promise you that that person will be there or
Speaker 2: what at least see soona persona you know soon with
Speaker 2: a good heart. Be like yo, I remember when I
Speaker 2: was in a bad place a homeboy. They you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying, Let me, let me help. So at
Speaker 2: the un this is a ladder. Stop stop feeling.
Speaker 1: Like it's only about you, like oh my god, I
Speaker 1: get Don't be like that.
Speaker 2: And besides, karma is a bitch, and karma can also
Speaker 2: be real good to you if you do things right.
Speaker 1: So I hope you like my takeaway because you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: After he gave it so smoothly, I had to be
Speaker 2: exactly I'm out of and give you the business. Christopher muchisi,
Speaker 2: my grass I, thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to inspire some people right now, because
Speaker 1: this is what the show is about.
Speaker 2: I always want people to take away something at the
Speaker 2: end of the day that can inspire you, motivate you,
Speaker 2: maybe make you look at things differently. Maybe someone who's
Speaker 2: listening now be like, you know, damn, I really hadn't
Speaker 2: thought about it this way. And now that he said that,
Speaker 2: like you know, I feel like, you know, I'm going
Speaker 2: to do something about it. And that's what we need.
Speaker 2: We need more people to be vocal about it and
Speaker 2: make a difference. And you definitely are. Where can we
Speaker 2: purchase your book anywhere?
Speaker 5: Anywhere?
Speaker 3: You get your books at the Amazon, the bookshop, the
Speaker 3: Bars and Nobles, the books and books.
Speaker 5: If you're in Miami, you have.
Speaker 1: Money, you got the books.
Speaker 5: Are You're aw.
Speaker 1: Listen by the way, not for nothing. But I'm an
Speaker 1: audiobook type of girl too, So eventually.
Speaker 5: The audiobook I narrated it.
Speaker 1: He did the audiobook.
Speaker 2: Damn, I don memo. He's trying to make you get this.
Speaker 2: You have no excuses if you don't. If you don't
Speaker 2: want to read it, you could just hear it. The
Speaker 2: point is check it out.
Speaker 1: I'm Alex.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much as usual for joining in a
Speaker 2: little person Gangganggang. You already know what it is, guys,
Speaker 2: must I say thank you, thank you, thank you once
Speaker 2: again for listening to exactly Amada. Find me at all
Speaker 2: my social media platforms at Amada or exactly Amada, make
Speaker 2: sure to find me on YouTube. Catch my show by
Speaker 2: searching for Michael through that podcast and.
Speaker 1: Clicking on exactly Amada.
Speaker 2: I remember that this has been a production of Ihearts
Speaker 2: Michael through that podcast network. For more podcasts from iHeart,
Speaker 2: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 2: you listen to your favorite shows.