Speaker 1: We're back. I'm Drew mcarry and I'm David Roth and
Speaker 1: coming in September a new site we have built together
Speaker 1: called defect or Defector, and we're gonna have a new
Speaker 1: podcast to go with it. This very podcast which has
Speaker 1: the name The Distraction. It's out right now, available every rust.
Speaker 1: Get your podcast at Stitcher, Spotify, Apple, Go listen right
Speaker 1: now to The Distraction everywhere. It's out right now. Go
Speaker 1: listen to see us by. Welcome to a special bonus
Speaker 1: episode of dead Ass. Hey, I'm Cadem and we're the Ellison.
Speaker 1: You may know us were posting funny videos without boring
Speaker 1: and reading each other publicly as a form of therapy.
Speaker 1: I'm making me derby most days. Oh and one more
Speaker 1: important thing to mention, we're married. Yes, so we are.
Speaker 1: We created this podcast to open dialogue about some of
Speaker 1: them live's most taboo topics, things most folks don't want
Speaker 1: to talk about through the lens of a millennial married
Speaker 1: couple did as starts now. This isn't a part of
Speaker 1: our usual lineup, but we got a chance to record
Speaker 1: something really special that we wanted to share with you all. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: this conversation was very special to us in this current
Speaker 1: climate because the winds of change are very prevalent, and
Speaker 1: it is our duty to use this platform to provide
Speaker 1: information that continues to educate our listeners. We appreciate each
Speaker 1: and every one of you, guys, and we find it
Speaker 1: imperative that we promote positive discussions about politics as part
Speaker 1: of a successful millennial Black marriage. So, as you can tell,
Speaker 1: we're not in the studio. We're still quarantined or are
Speaker 1: we in Phase one or two? I don't even know where.
Speaker 1: I don't it. Just to be safe, we're gonna stay
Speaker 1: home still with the kids. We have them outside and
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk to you. We have a special topic
Speaker 1: today amidst the current climate in this world. We have
Speaker 1: two pandemics that we are currently facing right now running concurrently,
Speaker 1: we have COVID and racism. Yes, racism has been a
Speaker 1: big talking point for a lot of people in this
Speaker 1: this current climate, specifically in politics, and we have a
Speaker 1: special guest with us today. UM Vice President Joe Biden,
Speaker 1: presidential candidate for his team, requested that we sit down
Speaker 1: and have a conversation. So we felt the responsibility to
Speaker 1: bring that conversation to everyone. And since Kadina and I
Speaker 1: are both I would say novices when it comes to politics.
Speaker 1: We felt that it would be responsible both of us. Now,
Speaker 1: we felt that it would be responsible for us to
Speaker 1: bring in some people who are way more knowledgeable than
Speaker 1: us and the three factors in our lives that we
Speaker 1: think a very important corporate structure, criminal justice, and also financials.
Speaker 1: So absolutely, because we felt like if there was going
Speaker 1: to be an area for change, those are probably some
Speaker 1: of the biggest areas that we would have to tackle
Speaker 1: first from the top. So you guys know what's here
Speaker 1: a dead ass, and we make it a point to
Speaker 1: try to get you guys as much in information is possible,
Speaker 1: especially information that's going to help bring forth some empowerment
Speaker 1: in the black community. That's our community, the community we
Speaker 1: love so much. So we thought it was important to
Speaker 1: have this conversation with Vice President Joe Biden and let's
Speaker 1: see what do you have to say, you guys, I'm
Speaker 1: here to learn, I'm here to ask you here your
Speaker 1: questions and just have a frank talk. Welcome to our home.
Speaker 1: First and foremost, I'm Cadine Yes, and as you know,
Speaker 1: i'm Delo. You've done your research, so thank you so
Speaker 1: much for joining us. Exactly, And we don't have too
Speaker 1: much of your time, so I'm going to just dive
Speaker 1: right in. Um. All right, So we've seen Governors Cuomo
Speaker 1: and Newsom, for example, be very clear on their stance
Speaker 1: when it comes to ending the racial divide in this country.
Speaker 1: Both have publicly agreed and stated that Black Americans are
Speaker 1: indeed telling the truth about the oppression that exists within
Speaker 1: all of its institutions. Um, do you echo their sentiments
Speaker 1: and if you're elected as president, will create an execute
Speaker 1: and actionable plan for a race reconciliation. Absolutely. Look, I'm
Speaker 1: not only echo it. That's how I got involved in
Speaker 1: public life to begin with. You know, way back when
Speaker 1: Reagan was president, I got in the shouting match with
Speaker 1: UH with the Secretary of State over apartheid. I was
Speaker 1: one of the leaders and trying to stop apartheid in Africa.
Speaker 1: It's not only here, it's all across the world. It's
Speaker 1: basic human rights. UM. My point is that's how I got.
Speaker 1: I got involved in politics that way. I got involve
Speaker 1: a pause because of the Civil rights movement. I moved
Speaker 1: down from an area Grand Pennsylvania where my dad lost
Speaker 1: his job. We moved a little place called Clemont, Delaware
Speaker 1: and Delaware, and uh, I didn't know any African America,
Speaker 1: but I became very deeply involved in the movement because
Speaker 1: we had the eighth largest black population in the United
Speaker 1: States America in Delaware, our cities over sixty percent African Americans.
Speaker 1: So I grew up. That's where I come from, That's
Speaker 1: what I did. And so you know, one one of
Speaker 1: the things that I've observed from the very beginning is
Speaker 1: that there is just flat, systematic systemic racism and white supremacy,
Speaker 1: and uh and what we have to do is here,
Speaker 1: here's the point I want to make to you all.
Speaker 1: I've observed. I'm a hundred years old, you guys, but
Speaker 1: here's what I've observed. I thought that you could defeat hate.
Speaker 1: I thought that when you know, when I got elected
Speaker 1: as a twenty nine year old kid running on a
Speaker 1: platform of civil rights in my state, which was then
Speaker 1: a very conservative, southern oriented state. We were at border state.
Speaker 1: We we we couldn't make up my want which side
Speaker 1: we're gonna fight on the Civil War, Okay, and uh,
Speaker 1: I end up taking over the Judiciary Committee, I got
Speaker 1: the Voting Rights Act passed, and you know, a whole
Speaker 1: range of stuff that I thought, God, we're making progress,
Speaker 1: this is over. We're gonna really keep moving. And what
Speaker 1: I didn't realize it hate only hides, It only hides.
Speaker 1: There's a constant struggle between the good and the bad
Speaker 1: in every society and ours as well. And for every
Speaker 1: game we make, you get this enormous push back. But
Speaker 1: as Dr King said, the art does bend towards justice.
Speaker 1: But we gotta keep keep keep pushing it. And so
Speaker 1: what I think we have to do is I think
Speaker 1: we have an opportunity now. And I've spent time with
Speaker 1: the with the Floyd family, and I'm gonna be seeing
Speaker 1: them again. And one of the things that I think
Speaker 1: they believe as well, we have an opportunity now because
Speaker 1: the incredible racism that still exists in the country has
Speaker 1: been exposed to people who kind of thought it went away.
Speaker 1: I kind of thought, I'm not a white supremacist. I
Speaker 1: don't think that that's not who I am. And all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, they're seeing in a major American city
Speaker 1: a guy having a breath. You know, I can't read.
Speaker 1: I can't breathe. Jesus God, all I can't breathe. It's
Speaker 1: a phrase heard around the world. This time around the world,
Speaker 1: you have foreign leaders like in Germany's saying what's wrong
Speaker 1: with America? The brutal killing the Ford reminds of the
Speaker 1: urgency of the work we have to do. You know,
Speaker 1: we have an open wound. It is an open moon,
Speaker 1: and none of us can turn away and none of
Speaker 1: us can be silent. Silence is complicity, and so we
Speaker 1: have to grapple with it. But that's the good thing
Speaker 1: that's happened from this is the as a scab. We
Speaker 1: can't let the scab heal over the words of a
Speaker 1: president matter, and this guy continues to fullment. Look what
Speaker 1: he did in Lafayette Parks and the military. Did you
Speaker 1: ever think there's everything well that you would see three three,
Speaker 1: four four star generals, two marine generals come out against
Speaker 1: the city president, United States America the most of power.
Speaker 1: We have a chance. What are some actionable things that
Speaker 1: we can actually do in place, like as a president
Speaker 1: is a future president, there are some steps we can
Speaker 1: take to actually move this forward. First of all, we
Speaker 1: got to build a stronger and more resilient and inclusive
Speaker 1: country and a middle class. And this time we got
Speaker 1: to bring everybody along and that means the African community
Speaker 1: is constantly left behind. We have to have a comprehensive
Speaker 1: plan with the ambitions to match the scale of the channels.
Speaker 1: Let me give you an idea and my agenda the
Speaker 1: African America Comunity includes creating creating wealth in the African
Speaker 1: American community, doubling the funding for small business credits for
Speaker 1: African Americans from uh to three billion dollars, bringing sixty
Speaker 1: billion off the sidelines for black owned businesses, because that's
Speaker 1: what generates things in neighborhoods ensure the first term homebuyers
Speaker 1: were behind the eight ball. They get a fifteen thousand
Speaker 1: dollar tax credit, meaning they'll be able to get any
Speaker 1: loan they need because they have a down payment for
Speaker 1: the first home they buy. Investing billions of dollars in
Speaker 1: affordable housing. Nobody should be in a position where they're
Speaker 1: paying more than thirty of their income for rent. Protecting
Speaker 1: and building on on Obamacare, black Americans are still less
Speaker 1: likely the Way Americans to have health insurance at all
Speaker 1: or access to health insurch making it universal. You know,
Speaker 1: you know from the a eight three million non elderly
Speaker 1: black Americans gained health insurance. And this guy is trying
Speaker 1: to wipe it out completely. Invest in students and education, education,
Speaker 1: supporting education beyond high school. Tripling the funding which I've
Speaker 1: been pushing for for now years, seventy billion dollars for
Speaker 1: HBCUs minority serving organizations because they don't have they they
Speaker 1: don't have these foundations that are available in these large,
Speaker 1: large reservoirs of money. Making sure that any anybody comes
Speaker 1: from a family that makes less than a DWI grand
Speaker 1: a year gets free year, four years of free state
Speaker 1: university college fount out free free, Strengthening the commitment to justice,
Speaker 1: reforming the criminal justicystem by appointing judges of the bench.
Speaker 1: One of the most things going on I known, is
Speaker 1: paying attention to look why they're called the senators back
Speaker 1: into session, um Mr McConnell and company to to to
Speaker 1: get more lousy judges on the bench, that more judges
Speaker 1: don't think they're basic human rights that are out there
Speaker 1: that are available to all people. Establishing a task force
Speaker 1: on prosecutors discretion. But go back and look, go through
Speaker 1: a flying tooth comb. What did you what what? What
Speaker 1: charges did you bring against him? How many of those
Speaker 1: charges did you bring? Did you bring them against whites
Speaker 1: as well as blacks. What did you do? There's so
Speaker 1: many things we can do, and the country is ready
Speaker 1: to do it. And if I'm able to win an
Speaker 1: election with a U. S. Senators taken over Democratic senators,
Speaker 1: this is because the people are with us. The vast
Speaker 1: majority of people are with us, and we can change things.
Speaker 1: But guess what, the fights never over, no matter if
Speaker 1: we get all this done and root out institutional racism,
Speaker 1: institutional equities, like for example, we look look at all
Speaker 1: those not just African American, but single moms out there
Speaker 1: with no childcare, no childcare were the only industrious country
Speaker 1: in the world doesn't have childcare made out there without
Speaker 1: having paid family lead. What tell are we doing? These
Speaker 1: are and we're seeing it come to the fore now
Speaker 1: with so many people dying trying to protect her from COVID.
Speaker 1: These are the same people that don't have that help.
Speaker 1: Well well, Vice Vice President Biden, no sorry, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I just we've seen an increased number of Americans who
Speaker 1: have publicly said now that they understand the black outcry.
Speaker 1: And we've heard this before, even in two thousand and
Speaker 1: eight when Barack Obama ran and you ran on his ticket,
Speaker 1: we've heard all of the same promises, and it was
Speaker 1: tough for us. A lot of the black community have
Speaker 1: lost faith in the political system because we've heard these things.
Speaker 1: If elected president, right for example, if elected president, what
Speaker 1: would be your plan to help black families move forward financially,
Speaker 1: because economic empowerment is important. For example, gentrification in the
Speaker 1: past and still currently happening right now, Black families are
Speaker 1: typically forced out of their homes by wealthy investors looking
Speaker 1: to turn the profit. So even with the plan that
Speaker 1: you've mentioned, there are a lot of black families who
Speaker 1: still do not have the economic empowerment to gain access
Speaker 1: to those resources immediately. What is your plan to help
Speaker 1: us gain access to those resources immediately so that we're
Speaker 1: not caught behind economic justice? The creation of wealth is
Speaker 1: the most important thing right now that people have to
Speaker 1: have a chance to be able to fight. You realize
Speaker 1: the reason I ran for office the first time it
Speaker 1: ran is the twenty six year old kid come from
Speaker 1: a family with no money, was to end redlining. And
Speaker 1: it's still going on. And so two things. One, no
Speaker 1: city where there We're gonna change the law that you
Speaker 1: cannot engage in gentrification in the community unless you get
Speaker 1: a majority of the people in that community to vote
Speaker 1: that they're in fact they able to do that. Number one.
Speaker 1: Number two, that we provide for housing funds to build
Speaker 1: up the housing stock in that community. That's right, called
Speaker 1: for billions of dollars in from HUD to provide for
Speaker 1: rental housing and direct housing available to be built by people.
Speaker 1: For too long, we've asked Black Americans to bear the
Speaker 1: brunt of all of this. And here's the deal. It's
Speaker 1: not just we're gonna change it. You're not gonna be
Speaker 1: able to gle in and just wipe out whole communities
Speaker 1: and gentrify. Number one. Number two, I've called for send
Speaker 1: billions of dollars in housing funding. We're not funding housing anymore.
Speaker 1: HUD doesn't do it anymore. We should be in a
Speaker 1: position to provide housing, single family housing as well as
Speaker 1: apartments that are available to be built, and the money
Speaker 1: made available now to communities that in fact will invest
Speaker 1: in build those facilities. Now. Now, I've met with a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of mayors throughout the country. They're ready for it.
Speaker 1: They understand what's going on. Lastly, you know, if if
Speaker 1: you think about it, I know you guys know this
Speaker 1: If a builder comes along and bills me at home,
Speaker 1: and you the exact same home, and you and we're
Speaker 1: divided by a freeway. You're in a black community, I'm
Speaker 1: in a white community, same exact home. Your home was
Speaker 1: valued at twenty four less than mine before anybody even
Speaker 1: moves into it. If that problem, that's that one problem
Speaker 1: I heard today that in fact, you would have somewhere
Speaker 1: on a hundred and twenty billion dollar reduction in the
Speaker 1: gap between whites and blacks in terms of being able
Speaker 1: to accumulate wealth. How do most people wh accumulate wealth
Speaker 1: in their homes, in the vast majority in their homes.
Speaker 1: That's how they build equity as how to send their
Speaker 1: kids of school, That's how they send them off to college.
Speaker 1: So we've got the fundamentally changed right. For example, if
Speaker 1: you live in a black neighborhood is successful, both of
Speaker 1: you are, and you have an autobill and I got
Speaker 1: the same one. I live in a white neighbor You're
Speaker 1: gonna charge more for your insurance than I get charged
Speaker 1: with no basis for it, none, zero, none. So the
Speaker 1: things that I want to make sure is that the
Speaker 1: undervalued home, school, underfunded, justice denied the poverty rates are
Speaker 1: twice that where there are way to America, black workers
Speaker 1: disportnately hold low waight jobs without benefits, and we're seeing
Speaker 1: the worst of the layoffs to the experts predicted the
Speaker 1: disproportioned number Manaradio businesses won't get any the stimus money
Speaker 1: that the Congress explicitly voted to go to them. And
Speaker 1: automation is going to displace African Americans Latino workers at
Speaker 1: a higher race, and there are weights anyway. We gotta
Speaker 1: begin to train people, educate them for the new jobs,
Speaker 1: and we're not doing I will understand how politics works,
Speaker 1: and you know, talking points with politics and closing. I
Speaker 1: just wanted to ask, as a as a mom, because
Speaker 1: I normally go with my gut, why should we trust
Speaker 1: you in office? Because I know what pain is like,
Speaker 1: I know what losses life. No one's ever said I've
Speaker 1: said anything that I don't mean. I understand what a
Speaker 1: lowful of those people losing some of the COVID I
Speaker 1: got a phone call, I got left to the United
Speaker 1: States Center. Was twenty nine years old, top of the world,
Speaker 1: no money, no background, but I was the top of
Speaker 1: the world. I was down in Washington before I got swarning.
Speaker 1: I got a phone call first responder. I'm sorry to
Speaker 1: tell you, Mr Biden, your wife's dead, your daughter's dead,
Speaker 1: and your two sons are not like you live or
Speaker 1: Traylor Broadside. Kill him. My son, Bob Biden, great guy,
Speaker 1: war hero, Attorney General came home from the war. Ron
Speaker 1: Stark conspicuous service mountain stage four gleo blastoma cancer, the
Speaker 1: brand given. Just when he's gonna live, just how many
Speaker 1: months he's number. Watched him sit there and die, And
Speaker 1: I thought to myself, what in God's name would I
Speaker 1: do if an insurance companies everyone come in and say,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, you've outrun your coverage, okay, and dying in peace?
Speaker 1: What would I do? What would I do if I
Speaker 1: didn't have the ability to see two? You've got good care,
Speaker 1: you know. So I promise you. I promise you. The
Speaker 1: reason I ran in the first place, because that we
Speaker 1: got to rebuild the backbone of this country this time.
Speaker 1: Bring everybody along, everybody, And I promise you, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: treat all those folks, black, white, Latino. It's after my
Speaker 1: own family, and I've never acted in any other way.
Speaker 1: It may not be the most brilliant the most wonderful
Speaker 1: the licen. But I tell you what no one's ever said.
Speaker 1: I don't do what I said. What people are hurting,
Speaker 1: hurting so badly, and we can fix a lot of it.
Speaker 1: Just it re unite. I mean, you saw all the
Speaker 1: crap I got from my start. When I announced, I said,
Speaker 1: I think in the battle for the soul of this nation.
Speaker 1: I'll conclude by saying that I hadn't planned on money.
Speaker 1: Again my God's truth. And when my son died just
Speaker 1: a couple of days ago in the anniversary after five years, um,
Speaker 1: I had no intention. But he made me promising that
Speaker 1: I'd stay engage, not run for president, but I'd stay
Speaker 1: engage because I've done it my whole life. He was
Speaker 1: worried I would just withdraw. And the only way that
Speaker 1: I found how you can deal with real pain is
Speaker 1: with purpose. If you have a purpose. And uh, one
Speaker 1: of the things that I'm committed to do. When I
Speaker 1: saw those folks walking out of the fields and said,
Speaker 1: God to my words, abide in Charlottesville carrying those tortures,
Speaker 1: chanting that anti Semitic pile accompanied by the Clukux plan,
Speaker 1: the leader of the clan saying this is the reason
Speaker 1: why we voted for him, Me and Trump. Young woman
Speaker 1: got killed protesting approach those folks. The president was asked,
Speaker 1: what do you think, Mr? President? Nobody said. He said,
Speaker 1: they're very fine people on both sides. No tresident in
Speaker 1: American history he's ever said anything that. While not one,
Speaker 1: not one, it's gotta change words of a president matter. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: spice President. But um, first and foremost, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for your time. We appreciate you. Um, we will
Speaker 1: be we will be watching, our children will be watching.
Speaker 1: Hopefully this line of communication will stay open um from
Speaker 1: now through November November, regardless of what happens. But you know, well,
Speaker 1: we wish you could love Yes, we would love that.
Speaker 1: We would absolutely love that. Thank you so much. As
Speaker 1: the question is, my granddaughter is longest my grand I have.
Speaker 1: I have six grandchildren and my granddaughters I have the
Speaker 1: first the first four all granddaughters, and one of them
Speaker 1: is a rising senior. It's the one that talked me
Speaker 1: into making sure we have this kind of engagement. She
Speaker 1: was not earlier, but she had to drop off. She's
Speaker 1: a rising senior. Kinds of pop pop you gotta do this,
Speaker 1: pop pop, you gotta get They get it good. You
Speaker 1: gotta have that generation behind you. Let you know which
Speaker 1: way to go. The youth is the future. The youth,
Speaker 1: the youth is definitely gonna change your Your husband and
Speaker 1: I have something in common. We both absolutely definitely I'll
Speaker 1: kick in my case intellectually and otherwise both of us.
Speaker 1: That that's how you know you went in life right. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you guys, you so much, Thank you for your time,
Speaker 1: good luck, all the best to you, and we'll see
Speaker 1: what happens in November. The road to the White House
Speaker 1: all the best. So then, as podcast That's Devoid myself
Speaker 1: would like to thank Vice President Joe Biden for sitting
Speaker 1: down and chatting with us about his take on what
Speaker 1: needs to be done and what he's planning to do
Speaker 1: moving forward if he were to be elected president. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was great. It was great to sit down with
Speaker 1: Vice President and speak about the state of black culture
Speaker 1: and also the state of Black America. But I do
Speaker 1: really feel as if there's going to be a lot
Speaker 1: more that needs to be done between now and November
Speaker 1: and even after November, to continue to push forward with
Speaker 1: all the momentum we have with the current movement. I mean, yes,
Speaker 1: social media has been an amazing platform for us to
Speaker 1: get the information out there. So the videos, the memes,
Speaker 1: the reposting, um people really just rallying around the cause
Speaker 1: has been amazing. And social media activism is one thing
Speaker 1: which is great because we can sit back and we
Speaker 1: can post, and we can put the information out there.
Speaker 1: But now that the information is out there, what are
Speaker 1: we actually going to do with it moving forward to
Speaker 1: create the actual tangible change that we all want to see. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I mean not enough can be said about social media activism.
Speaker 1: I mean Will Smith said it the best. He said,
Speaker 1: racism isn't getting worse, it's just getting filmed. And if
Speaker 1: it wasn't for everyone out there continuing to post the
Speaker 1: stories and letting it be seen to the entire world,
Speaker 1: we would still have to convince people that systematic racism
Speaker 1: still exists. So for everybody who's out there putting the
Speaker 1: world out there, using their platform to push us forward,
Speaker 1: we appreciate you. We're gonna take a quick break for
Speaker 1: some ads. Please don't go away. Ye this for the
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Speaker 1: asking what if the story of Tiger Woods that the
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Speaker 1: All American Tiger is out now. Listen and Stitcher, Apple
Speaker 1: Podcasts or your favorite podcast app, and we're back. We're
Speaker 1: gonna dive right back into our conversation about politics, power
Speaker 1: and black prosperity with some special guests, some who have
Speaker 1: already paid a visit to Dead As Podcasts. As far
Speaker 1: as moving forward, we talked about, you know, different types
Speaker 1: of activism and Kadina and not have sat down and
Speaker 1: discussed three ways that we feel as a black community
Speaker 1: we need to kind of educate ourselves on and and
Speaker 1: kind of push the envelope. No, it's true, I mean
Speaker 1: we thought of three ways, but there are, of course
Speaker 1: as several different ways that you can do it. Um,
Speaker 1: but we felt it necessary to kind of reach out
Speaker 1: to experts in the reflective fields since we are not
Speaker 1: experts at all, and and one thing we know is
Speaker 1: what we don't know. So rather than try to sit
Speaker 1: up here and make it seem as if we are experts,
Speaker 1: we reached out to three experts in the fields under
Speaker 1: standing corporate culture, criminal justice reform, and economic empowerment. I
Speaker 1: believe in Candem believes that if we can push forward
Speaker 1: on these three fields, particularly over the summer heading into November,
Speaker 1: we can use this momentum to push forward as a community.
Speaker 1: No for sure, so that encompasses so many different things
Speaker 1: like controlling where our dollar goes. For absolutely, that's going
Speaker 1: to be discussed here for the future in this episode here,
Speaker 1: So I mean, I think we should dive right into
Speaker 1: I can't. I can't wait for you guys to meet
Speaker 1: our panelists. We're excited about them. So so joining us now,
Speaker 1: we have Mr Lewis Carr, President of Media Sales, generating
Speaker 1: over eight billion dollars in revenue over thirty one years
Speaker 1: at b ET, also a philanthropist and author. Thank you
Speaker 1: for being with us today was the car. We also
Speaker 1: have Kenneth Montgomery, former New York prosecutor turned criminal defense
Speaker 1: and civil rights attorney A Kenny and again on Dead
Speaker 1: as podcast. Tiffany Elite, also known as the Budge at Lisa,
Speaker 1: an award winning teacher of financial education, motivational speaker, and author.
Speaker 1: What's that Si? Hey, how y'all doing? We're doing all right?
Speaker 1: So look we're gonna jump right in because Mr Carr
Speaker 1: has a heart out. But um, realistically, it's been a
Speaker 1: lot for the black community over the last uh ten
Speaker 1: days especially, but you can say four centuries centuries, but um,
Speaker 1: I think it's time for us to kind of take
Speaker 1: this momentum and move forward. So, Mr car my question
Speaker 1: to you is, um, you've been responsible for pulling in
Speaker 1: major capital for a huge business. What are some of
Speaker 1: the action items we as a community can begin to
Speaker 1: do to build a strong financial infrastructure for our community. Well, well,
Speaker 1: I think debout number one is to understand the value,
Speaker 1: the power, and the influence that they have. You know,
Speaker 1: we know that the black consumer market is worth about
Speaker 1: one point for trillion dollars on an annual basis and
Speaker 1: spent across multiple categories everything from groceries to automobile osh
Speaker 1: to solve goods, but not that's one portion of it,
Speaker 1: the overall value, but their influence also, as we say it,
Speaker 1: be to what black people do today of the world
Speaker 1: does tomorrow. And I think this is a classic example
Speaker 1: if you're seeing their influence on the front lines of
Speaker 1: this other pandemic called racism. This is one of the
Speaker 1: first times, probably since the civil rights era, that you've
Speaker 1: seen black, white, brown, yellow people marching together. And I
Speaker 1: think it's started months ago when those who are in
Speaker 1: the culture said, you can't love my culture and hate
Speaker 1: my people. So I think understanding their value, understanding and
Speaker 1: making demands on where they spend their money, whether it's
Speaker 1: brands or whether it's just individual categories. I think we
Speaker 1: really need to really focus that we have power. We
Speaker 1: are not really backing up on our hears and not
Speaker 1: just beaten and downtrodden sort of consumer market. We have
Speaker 1: real power and influence and it's just how we use
Speaker 1: it and executed in the marketplace. And Kenny, I just
Speaker 1: want to ask you quickly just to to piggyback off
Speaker 1: of that. You know, you deal a lot with criminal
Speaker 1: defense and also civil rights. Um, how can we utilize
Speaker 1: that power to build some political capital? A lot of
Speaker 1: people ask me all the time, like, how can we
Speaker 1: use the money we have to get behind the right politicians?
Speaker 1: And I really don't have an actionable item for them.
Speaker 1: You know, how how can we see it done? And
Speaker 1: I think I think that requires Unfortunately we've been in
Speaker 1: the last twenty to thirty years, we've we've been in
Speaker 1: this sort of u uh hazy position where we're as
Speaker 1: Mr Carr just stated, we have been able to make money.
Speaker 1: I think Black people have made money from the time
Speaker 1: we got off the ships here. That's never been the issue.
Speaker 1: The issue is our inability to control our echo system
Speaker 1: amongst a predatory system. And when I mean it gets
Speaker 1: no credatory, then people actually using your black body as wealth. Um.
Speaker 1: And we've we've been enabled unable to do that. And
Speaker 1: I think part of the reason why we've been able
Speaker 1: to unable to do that is, you know, uh, we've
Speaker 1: become a part of the American spectacle to a certain degree. Um.
Speaker 1: Those those leaders, many of who we know, many who
Speaker 1: we don't, who've died, who sacrifice in the sixties and
Speaker 1: seventies and before UM, they understood organization, they understood grassroots organization. UM.
Speaker 1: There's a difference between grassroots organization and CNN and showing
Speaker 1: the protests all across the country because the grassroots organization
Speaker 1: you don't see. And I think we suffered in in
Speaker 1: the seventies when this sixties and the seventies, when this
Speaker 1: country waged the war against that they cointell pro and
Speaker 1: all these other programs. They destroyed any semblance of black nationalism,
Speaker 1: and people are afraid to say that, even black people.
Speaker 1: And I think we have to begin to get back
Speaker 1: to grassroots organization through supplemental education. UM. And when I
Speaker 1: say supplemental education, I think you have to start thinking
Speaker 1: about different ways of education in this century. How it looks. Look,
Speaker 1: we're in the pandemic and kids aren't even in school anymore.
Speaker 1: So we have to really get back to grassroots organization.
Speaker 1: That grassroots organization allows you now to have accountability. When
Speaker 1: you have accountability, you can start nurturing and producing the
Speaker 1: leadership that you need in politics socially. UM. But when
Speaker 1: you don't do that, you're stuck with choosing the lesser
Speaker 1: of two evils. Um. You know, And I think we
Speaker 1: can do it, but I think it's it's gonna take
Speaker 1: a pivot, a really hard pivot. UM. And a really
Speaker 1: maybe uncomfortable for most of us reflection process about about
Speaker 1: what's good for us and what's not good for us.
Speaker 1: But where's that commonality? It's funny you say that, because
Speaker 1: an Tiffany, I want you to chime in here. Right
Speaker 1: when you're speaking about creating budgets and creating a plan
Speaker 1: for yourself financially, right, where does black nationalism fall in
Speaker 1: that plan for black families? Because so many people ask me, Hey, Devout,
Speaker 1: we're in the pandemic and I'm thinking about trying to invest,
Speaker 1: but how do I make sure I invest in my
Speaker 1: people and myself not just just investing quote unquote, because
Speaker 1: they're kind of lost. So one of the things I
Speaker 1: teach the folks that followed me is that you vote
Speaker 1: with your dollar. I can't remember being really young and
Speaker 1: going to like this corner story that we all used
Speaker 1: to go to, and I noticed they only followed the
Speaker 1: black kids, even though we went there all the time.
Speaker 1: And I went home and I complained to my mom, like, well,
Speaker 1: every time I go in there, they followed me, but
Speaker 1: they don't follow my friend Susie, And she said, then
Speaker 1: why do you continue to go there? That your dollar
Speaker 1: is a vote, you're allowing them to say that, Um,
Speaker 1: we get to treat you this way, and you continue
Speaker 1: to come here. So I was like, you know what,
Speaker 1: she's right, So I stopped going and I told a
Speaker 1: friend of mine, we just stopped going, and before I know,
Speaker 1: we all stopped going, and that store started to close
Speaker 1: because they could no longer. It was mostly us that
Speaker 1: was going there, and they couldn't. They couldn't sustain. It
Speaker 1: was like one of these little corner stores. They couldn't
Speaker 1: sustain without our dollar. So imagine, if you know, if
Speaker 1: we were more intentional with that, and so even just
Speaker 1: on some of the smaller level. So I have am
Speaker 1: a black running business. I hired largely black women, and
Speaker 1: we serve black women, and I'm really intentional, but not
Speaker 1: just the women that we serve, teaching them financial education,
Speaker 1: but internally as well. Right, So the women who work
Speaker 1: for me, not only do I pay them well, I
Speaker 1: also have financial educators come in folks to teach them
Speaker 1: how to invest, Folks, to teach them what it looks
Speaker 1: like to set aside for retirement, folks, to teach them.
Speaker 1: We just had a class the other day to teach
Speaker 1: them how do you set up your LLC. How can
Speaker 1: you properly become an independent contractor that's what you desire?
Speaker 1: How do you get the p P P loan? We
Speaker 1: had that kind of internal training, and I think that
Speaker 1: comes down to it's almost like we have to have
Speaker 1: more home training when it comes to financial education. See,
Speaker 1: that's that's what And and I know, Mr Carl, you
Speaker 1: gotta run, so I want to let you close out
Speaker 1: on this topic before you bounce. But building an infrastructure.
Speaker 1: I know you've worked in the corporate space for so
Speaker 1: many years, but it's been hard for black people to
Speaker 1: penetrate corporate culture because there's not many of us there.
Speaker 1: How can we begin to use this voice now in
Speaker 1: this momentum to push towards changing corporate culture so we
Speaker 1: can have more voice, more of a voice. Use so
Speaker 1: many businesses now I've seen when they're asked to kind
Speaker 1: of the pull up and show us who's in your
Speaker 1: corporate leadership positions? There are none of us if not baby,
Speaker 1: So where can I think that's an area that we
Speaker 1: must demand change and we must demand it at the
Speaker 1: board seat level that they have to make that board
Speaker 1: more diverse. Uh, And we can't get caught up in
Speaker 1: the world be patient, uh, because as I said, we've
Speaker 1: been patient for several hundred years. So we know we
Speaker 1: have to have more people on the board. We have
Speaker 1: to have more people in leadership at corporations who look
Speaker 1: like us, who really want to uh make a change
Speaker 1: in the industry. If you look at my organization, I
Speaker 1: have the most diverse team in the entire media industry,
Speaker 1: diverse and gender, diverse in color. Uh. And that is
Speaker 1: not by accident. That was by plan because it is
Speaker 1: good for business. It gives you access in places that
Speaker 1: you would normally not get. It also gives you the
Speaker 1: diversity of thought. I mean, when we sit around, we
Speaker 1: have a lot of debates on should we do this,
Speaker 1: and why we shouldn't do that, and what else we
Speaker 1: should do. So I think we have to as part
Speaker 1: of the solutions, this is one of them. We have
Speaker 1: to have more people who look like us in corporate
Speaker 1: leadership and on corporate boards. And we have to demand it.
Speaker 1: No more saying can you do it please? We have
Speaker 1: to demand it. And that's why I'm so inspired. I'm
Speaker 1: so energized by the young people that I see as
Speaker 1: a central front line workers in this pandemic on racism.
Speaker 1: So we who are in corporate America, as I sent
Speaker 1: out a letter the other night, we have to do
Speaker 1: our part. We can't just let people march and be
Speaker 1: sprayed and everything else and beat. We have to do
Speaker 1: our part in the corporate boardrooms and in the corporate
Speaker 1: office is to close the deal for them because we
Speaker 1: have the access, we have the influence. They see that
Speaker 1: on the news, but we have we sit down with
Speaker 1: meetings and everything else with them, so we have a
Speaker 1: real obligation. I'm excited about it. I'm energized about it,
Speaker 1: and as I said, I'm not gonna let them down
Speaker 1: if it's the last thing I do. Mr car first
Speaker 1: of all, thank you so much for your time. We
Speaker 1: know you have someone we appreciate you. You you just you.
Speaker 1: You kind of snuck us in right in between me
Speaker 1: and so we thank you so much. Man. I'm going
Speaker 1: to continue to reach out to you for for more advice.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna help. I appreciate your brother and thank you guys.
Speaker 1: Anything you need me to do, I'm on board and
Speaker 1: I appreciate your guys. Tiffany really quick they got to
Speaker 1: see Mr Carr at the Blueprint men something a great
Speaker 1: area in a great space for black men to get together.
Speaker 1: I know we had a great time. That's Ryan and
Speaker 1: Kenny has the Brooklyn combine. It will be a dope
Speaker 1: opportunity to get us. We all need to get together, Yes, sir,
Speaker 1: all right, thank you the car, take care left to
Speaker 1: the wife. All Kenny, I want to throw to you
Speaker 1: because Mr Carr said something that was so It was
Speaker 1: something you said to me years ago when we were
Speaker 1: talking about sports, right, and you said that everyone is
Speaker 1: so focused on getting that kid to be the next
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan, the next Lebron James. Right, but we're not
Speaker 1: grooming any politicians. We're not grooming any judges, we're not
Speaker 1: grooming any attorneys. So we don't have the ability to
Speaker 1: take up that space. Like Mr Carr says, we need
Speaker 1: more people in corporate structure, but we're not grooming our
Speaker 1: kids and take up those places. Can you talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about how we can you know what, and
Speaker 1: and think about it like every day, right, we get up,
Speaker 1: we get tweets, we get um social media, post, Facebook, Instagram,
Speaker 1: you name it about what the far right has said,
Speaker 1: what the far left has said. From uh, where do
Speaker 1: you get where the base to get what the black
Speaker 1: voice says, the black voices that we hear, and not
Speaker 1: to knock anyone. They're usually pivoting from whiteness on either side.
Speaker 1: So when when they get in those positions of political power,
Speaker 1: whether it's in the corporate world, whether it's in a
Speaker 1: nonprofit world, or it's in the philanthropy world, whatever those
Speaker 1: worlds are, that helped keep keeps this ecosystem going there
Speaker 1: informed by that our children. We live in a society
Speaker 1: or community where we've we've been um targeted so much
Speaker 1: and you know, put in such a difficult position that
Speaker 1: success is usual league. You know, I gotta get out
Speaker 1: the hood, I gotta get away, never to come back.
Speaker 1: So we're not cultivating or nurturing the mindset, the ideology.
Speaker 1: We're not like, we don't need uh heroes, we don't
Speaker 1: need martyrs. We we can grow money and understand economics.
Speaker 1: But what I think we need more importantly is ideology
Speaker 1: and that audeology has to emanate. You would like it
Speaker 1: to emanate from the home, but sometimes the home is
Speaker 1: not there to do it. So what's the next step
Speaker 1: the community? So those who have the resources in the community,
Speaker 1: the retired financial people, the retired teachers, the retired um politician, whoever,
Speaker 1: they need to begin coming together and and and forming
Speaker 1: a a commitment and a community to nurture and train
Speaker 1: through education and knowledge that hopefully leads to wisdom. So
Speaker 1: now you have an eighteen year old kid, when when
Speaker 1: so now our teenag used the twelve and thirteen and
Speaker 1: they they know the issues are right. When you study
Speaker 1: the civil rights era, you know, it's funny because we
Speaker 1: look at those images of children, I mean people being
Speaker 1: hosed and bitten and beaten by police. The conversation that
Speaker 1: we don't have in this country is, you know many
Speaker 1: of those people, they weren't adults, They were kids, twelve, fifteen, seventeen, nineteen,
Speaker 1: and they drove it. Um, we we get stuck on
Speaker 1: the leaders, but they drove it. And he always the teams,
Speaker 1: the kids always seem to be the one to put
Speaker 1: their bodies on the loss. And they don't have the fear.
Speaker 1: They don't have the fear. So we we as a community,
Speaker 1: it's not too late. We have to stop. You know,
Speaker 1: we're not organizing enough. We're not you know, we're organized enough.
Speaker 1: We're having this conversation right now. Um, those who are
Speaker 1: in that position need to create a a a hub
Speaker 1: and UM share information, have accountability because one thing, and
Speaker 1: I think you know, um, Mr Carr and and you
Speaker 1: know you guys may be able to spread this a
Speaker 1: little bit more than me. Capitalism is at its advanced
Speaker 1: stage in America. UM, It's it's not as sexy in
Speaker 1: America as it used to be. It's a little bit
Speaker 1: more sexy in China and other places of the world
Speaker 1: right now. If we are suffering because of institutional and
Speaker 1: systemic racism, not just UM socially, politically and economically, we're
Speaker 1: also suffering health that this pandemic has shown that UM
Speaker 1: as advanced and the economic fallout of this we haven't
Speaker 1: seen yet. You're gonna talk about that definitely could speak
Speaker 1: way more than I can. But we're gonna suffer. So
Speaker 1: our ideas of how we look at economics, how we
Speaker 1: look at advanced advancing in this society has to be different.
Speaker 1: It has to be different, you know. And that's something
Speaker 1: us now too, that this is gonna be the worst
Speaker 1: in the depression and what we're seeing financially economically across
Speaker 1: the country to world, UM, how are you using your
Speaker 1: platform to prepare people for this? Because I know a
Speaker 1: lot of you know, people in general, but especially our
Speaker 1: black community. We want to know how we're gonna be
Speaker 1: able to take advantage of this or how we can
Speaker 1: maybe some people climb out of this hole that they're
Speaker 1: now in. Um So, how are you speaking to um
Speaker 1: the masses about this recovery that's gonna have to happen.
Speaker 1: So it's been a little deceptive because the market keeps
Speaker 1: rallying and folks are getting excited, and I see so
Speaker 1: many black folks getting the side that I'm like, but says,
Speaker 1: do you do you have do you have a home
Speaker 1: that you own, do you have retirement? You're excited about
Speaker 1: the points, and are you even invested in the stock market?
Speaker 1: You're you're cheering from the silence, but you're not really
Speaker 1: playing the game. And that's what I find with our community,
Speaker 1: that we're not really actually in the game. We don't
Speaker 1: have the basic fundamentals. So one of the things that
Speaker 1: I so, I used to actually be a school teacher
Speaker 1: in northern New Jersey, one of the black cities in
Speaker 1: the country. I still here live here in NewYork, So
Speaker 1: it was it was interesting, um um, what was said
Speaker 1: earlier about that folks don't want to stay here after
Speaker 1: they've gotten successful. They want to lead the hood, you know.
Speaker 1: But I was like, no, I was really adamant that
Speaker 1: my husband was born raised here. Um. They've since turned
Speaker 1: out a project that he grew up in. But I'm like, no,
Speaker 1: I want to live here in Newark. I taught here
Speaker 1: in NewYork, I was born here in Newark, um, and
Speaker 1: I want folks to see me at the local you know,
Speaker 1: um grocery store. So one of the three things that
Speaker 1: I do is what I used to even do when
Speaker 1: I used to be a preschool teacher here, which is
Speaker 1: we need knowledge, access, and community. Those are the three
Speaker 1: key tools that I use to activate whatever change and
Speaker 1: transformation I want to make um in the financial lives
Speaker 1: of the people that I served. So knowledge, when we
Speaker 1: know better, we do better. So as I learned, I
Speaker 1: know that one of my superpowers is education. I know
Speaker 1: how to teach. I've been teaching for twenty years now,
Speaker 1: ten years in the actual classroom. I am a good teacher.
Speaker 1: If I learned a thing, I can teach a thing,
Speaker 1: and then I can teach you to then teach a thing.
Speaker 1: So knowledge is critical and pair our memory, access This
Speaker 1: is where we struggle because access typically comes through a person.
Speaker 1: There are some doors that can only be open from
Speaker 1: the other side. There is no door knock. Someone has
Speaker 1: opened the door and literally pull you in. And so
Speaker 1: very very rarely do we have access on the other side.
Speaker 1: So when you get in, it's so important to teach
Speaker 1: folks that when you do get in that room, when
Speaker 1: you do get to sit on that table, to come
Speaker 1: open the door, kick your foot open and and and
Speaker 1: bring folks in with you. And so one of the
Speaker 1: things I do is that can reach out to other
Speaker 1: black financial educators. We have a a number of communities
Speaker 1: that we're a part of online and I'm always tapping
Speaker 1: into them to continue to teach our community, Like, oh,
Speaker 1: hey till you teach docs, can you teach this Wednesday? Wednesday?
Speaker 1: Hey ask you teach financial mindset? Can you teach on Thursday?
Speaker 1: Hey learticulately you teach credit? Can you teach this this Friday?
Speaker 1: And And so that access is what I'm always trying
Speaker 1: to provide and finding higher and deeper levels of educators
Speaker 1: that I can I can tap into to bring that
Speaker 1: access to this community and community I am. My parents
Speaker 1: were born and raised in Nigeria, and I've seen firsthand
Speaker 1: over and over and over again that we were best
Speaker 1: in the community. We as in you know, folks of
Speaker 1: African descent. This is where this is from where we've come.
Speaker 1: I remember the first time I went to Nigeria and
Speaker 1: I met someone in the village and they were like,
Speaker 1: you know, they told me their name and it was
Speaker 1: their last name was Eliche. I was like, oh, Stap,
Speaker 1: my last name is Leiche. Then the second person, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm check, oh my lad place is my dad's
Speaker 1: like Tiffany. Everyone's last name is Eliza. And I'm like
Speaker 1: what how was that? He was like, that's how a
Speaker 1: village is set up, that this is your family's family family.
Speaker 1: And I thought wow. And so they collectively come together
Speaker 1: to live together, to work together, to to rise up together.
Speaker 1: And we've come from that tradition that we work best
Speaker 1: in community. So what I do here is I've created
Speaker 1: a community. It's about we're almost a million strong and
Speaker 1: we work collectively on our finances together. Because you might
Speaker 1: be a single I'm not a single mom, so I
Speaker 1: might not get it, but someone in that group is
Speaker 1: and she can walk you through. You might have five kids.
Speaker 1: I don't have five kids, but someone in that group
Speaker 1: is and she can walk you through. So I pump
Speaker 1: in the knowledge, I pump in that access, and that
Speaker 1: community helps to take care of each other. And so
Speaker 1: that's what I've been I've been really trying to struggle
Speaker 1: with what do I do so when things like this happened,
Speaker 1: I feel like you're supposed to lean into your gifts
Speaker 1: and talents, and I know that mine is really um
Speaker 1: making connections and and teaching. So I'm even now just
Speaker 1: working on a ten step foundational financial foundational plan that
Speaker 1: we can all follow, like starting with budget, ending with
Speaker 1: the state planning, and not making a complicated not making
Speaker 1: it so overwhelming because we lack that foundation. You know,
Speaker 1: I think I was. It was like a Forbes article
Speaker 1: that said the African American community in the United States
Speaker 1: by by Tift will be bankrupt. That's like crazy and disheartening.
Speaker 1: So how how do you prevent that there's something because
Speaker 1: of systemic resaid, some racism that are not quite in
Speaker 1: our control? Like I just got my house a praise
Speaker 1: and it was a praise twenty hollars lower than I
Speaker 1: know it should have been. I turned around all the
Speaker 1: black pictures in the house. I knew already because I
Speaker 1: know that's just how it goes. And it was quarantine
Speaker 1: because I would say I had in my mind, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna ask my white grin Catherine to come and be
Speaker 1: me while I'm not here. Who I'm about to do
Speaker 1: that that you have to do that your white friend
Speaker 1: will show your house as you. But because it's quarantine,
Speaker 1: I wasn't able to do so. And I was pissed
Speaker 1: because I know I didn't get the value of my home.
Speaker 1: Now that sounds like a personal problem, it's not. Because
Speaker 1: if my home is the value by whether because I'm black,
Speaker 1: are live in a black neighborhood, then that is that
Speaker 1: is the that like whole, ownership is the cornerstone for wealth.
Speaker 1: So if I've lost twenty of my wealth, then I
Speaker 1: can pass on twenty percent less to my stepdaughter Alyssa.
Speaker 1: And then imagine, just like in this community alone, how
Speaker 1: much less wealth this black community I live in has
Speaker 1: compared to the town next over. And so we we
Speaker 1: are bleeding wealth because of these because of systemic racism.
Speaker 1: So I have a quick question, Tiffany, though, because this
Speaker 1: is the question I always get from people if we
Speaker 1: know that that's the fight, and we know that this
Speaker 1: is gonna happen, what's the point of voting. What's the
Speaker 1: point of taking part in politics if it's so rigged
Speaker 1: against us? And to be honest, I don't even have
Speaker 1: an answer or a lot of these these questions, and
Speaker 1: especially financially, you know, we when we spoke to Mr
Speaker 1: Carl two days ago, he said the same thing about
Speaker 1: house appraise was an insurance. And even when we spoke
Speaker 1: to Vice President Biden, he said verbatim, he knows that
Speaker 1: as an older white man that if I go get
Speaker 1: the same house built as he gets built in a
Speaker 1: different area because I live somewhere different, my house is
Speaker 1: gonna be a praise lower, my insurance is gonna be higher,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be a lot more different. Pass on wealth.
Speaker 1: How do we play a role in politics to help finances?
Speaker 1: That's what people want to know. Because it's it's a
Speaker 1: political season now between now in November, all we're gonna
Speaker 1: do is here speech after speech after speech, and people
Speaker 1: are either like I don't care, so I'm not gonna vote,
Speaker 1: or they're just like I'm lost, so you know, I
Speaker 1: don't I don't know els, how do we approach that
Speaker 1: from a financial stamp. I think first of all, its creating,
Speaker 1: Like what is it that we want? You know, what specifically,
Speaker 1: what specific um tennants do we want? You know, we
Speaker 1: want to be treated fairly as it relates to our homes, right,
Speaker 1: we want to be under we don't want to be
Speaker 1: over police. What does that look like? And how do
Speaker 1: we let a politician know that if if you don't
Speaker 1: adhere to this, then you won't be voted in right.
Speaker 1: So so for example, if I brand sometimes want to
Speaker 1: work with their branding shot to me the other day
Speaker 1: and I just know that their their CEO, Jeff said
Speaker 1: that he was giving all this money to the current
Speaker 1: inhabitant of the White House, and you're reaching out to me.
Speaker 1: Black asked that y'all talk about that as Black asked
Speaker 1: me part of some like I was like, no, you know,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna get access to my community, you know,
Speaker 1: with your racist ideals. And so one of the things
Speaker 1: I do is I I block you know what things
Speaker 1: are not in alignment. So if we could be clear
Speaker 1: about you know, this is what's unfair and this is
Speaker 1: what we're needing, then like even voting with your dollars,
Speaker 1: like I have so now switched from the bank bank
Speaker 1: that I was a part of, and now I bank
Speaker 1: my business. I have five businesses, one of them when when,
Speaker 1: which is eight figures a year, we're back. We banked
Speaker 1: with a black bank now, So it's those shifting your
Speaker 1: funds like that, you know what I mean? Because you
Speaker 1: could talk about it, but we gotta be about it, like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm banking with this black business. Okay, you know what.
Speaker 1: I'm actually gonna go to the cleaners, the black cleaners
Speaker 1: down the street. Okay, you know what I'm actually going
Speaker 1: to work with. Like I look at my team, I'm
Speaker 1: always asking myself, are we black enough? Right? And so
Speaker 1: it's like ninety fopercent black women, And I'm just like, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm they know already when I'm looking for someone because
Speaker 1: most of the women on my team are corporate refugees.
Speaker 1: They have been mistreated by corporate America and they fled
Speaker 1: and so now they work here. So I'm always looking
Speaker 1: for ways, even the smallest and the biggest ways of
Speaker 1: where I could put my money or my black ass
Speaker 1: mouth is. So that's what we need to do. So
Speaker 1: it's like you say, a thing. But it's your money
Speaker 1: in the alignment with that, are you using it to
Speaker 1: vote for the person that it's telling you this is
Speaker 1: what they're going to do, And if they don't, are
Speaker 1: you voting them out when they're when they're not? So so, Kenny,
Speaker 1: it makes perfect sense if we if we put our
Speaker 1: money where I'm out is, we can gain political capital. Right.
Speaker 1: But then when it comes to asking, like Tiffany said,
Speaker 1: you have to ask for what you want. And everyone
Speaker 1: says this buzzword criminal justice reform, but no one has
Speaker 1: yet to explain exactly what criminal justice reform looks like.
Speaker 1: And can a president change criminal justice reform on his own?
Speaker 1: Because I'm not gonna lie, I've been guilty myself. I'm
Speaker 1: saying we had eight years of a black president and
Speaker 1: the criminal justice system doesn't look any better. And I
Speaker 1: know a part of that has to do with the
Speaker 1: fact that black people put their hands up and said,
Speaker 1: we got a black president. We didn't go out and vote,
Speaker 1: We didn't go out vote for local judges, we didn't
Speaker 1: vote for Congress. What can we do to help people
Speaker 1: better understand the criminal justice system and how we can
Speaker 1: change it? Um? The criminal justice system is one of
Speaker 1: the stalwarts to make sure racism persists. Um, the financial
Speaker 1: system is one of the vanguards to make sure racism exists,
Speaker 1: the housing market, but the criminal justice system, and not
Speaker 1: just criminal justice, the legal system, because it's also civil
Speaker 1: things that happened in court concerning consumerism versus corporations. Most
Speaker 1: of these judges choose the corporation over the consumer, as
Speaker 1: they do the government over the defendant of the culture
Speaker 1: of American jurisprudence, which is baked based on Anglo Saxon
Speaker 1: jurisprudence law and for people, if you want to have
Speaker 1: a really strong no chaser understanding of American society as
Speaker 1: it comes to criminal justice and the rights of black people,
Speaker 1: there's no better decision for anyone to have their children
Speaker 1: read at the earliest possible age where they can comprehend
Speaker 1: is Dread v. Scott. Where um the the decisions did
Speaker 1: the Dress good decision, the Taney's decision said that a
Speaker 1: black person has no rights that a white man has
Speaker 1: to respect for the most part, and that is one
Speaker 1: of the most important decisions. So criminal justice and the age,
Speaker 1: this digital age that we live in where everything is digitized,
Speaker 1: the racism is digitized. The misogyny is digitized. You name,
Speaker 1: it is digitized, and we have brands in this marketing.
Speaker 1: We forget America is historically violent, but it's also historically
Speaker 1: masterful at propaganda. Um. Criminal justice reform is a cliche.
Speaker 1: It means absolutely nothing, Um, because you had, as you
Speaker 1: just mentioned, you had Obama coming to the White House
Speaker 1: and people put to their thinking caps off through the
Speaker 1: ship out of the window because they thought that his
Speaker 1: blackness transcended the position that he was in, which was
Speaker 1: he was the now head of the American empire, right,
Speaker 1: and they stopped thinking. He put and I've been in
Speaker 1: front of several of these federal judges. He put a
Speaker 1: bunch of judges on that bench and they're no different
Speaker 1: than the judges that Bush put on that pitch. Um.
Speaker 1: Criminal justice reform is a cliche that in my opinion,
Speaker 1: whiteness figured out, Wow, this criminal justice thing is a problem.
Speaker 1: You know, we are only five percent of the world's population,
Speaker 1: but we incarceerate of the world's prison population, and the
Speaker 1: majority of that or black and brown people. We're constantly
Speaker 1: removing black men from their community, marginalizing them, education system,
Speaker 1: all the underlying risk factors that would create the pathway
Speaker 1: to prison. We've done nothing about except worse than though.
Speaker 1: You know, really I live in New York. New York
Speaker 1: is still one of the most segregated school educations in
Speaker 1: the country. This is after, you know, watching Um calif
Speaker 1: Browers documentary. I had never seen it and I didn't
Speaker 1: even know, you're honest, So I was like that I
Speaker 1: saw Kenny on it and the way I sobbed for
Speaker 1: that young man and here and you know what's messed up? Um,
Speaker 1: that is one of a million. I was just about
Speaker 1: to say, how many kids are you? And I know million?
Speaker 1: How do you? And you? And I know? And Broke
Speaker 1: has gone through that. So the criminal and and remember
Speaker 1: what America has done, it's commodified black dysfunction and pain
Speaker 1: through entertainment and music. So we have that element with
Speaker 1: criminal justice. So what we have to do. Criminal justice
Speaker 1: to me is a cliche. It's it's a way for
Speaker 1: people to line in your pockets. Now, it's a great
Speaker 1: thing to to get people riled up and going. But
Speaker 1: the work that needs to be done to pull away
Speaker 1: from that system, it has to happen in our neighborhoods, Newark, Compton, Brownsville,
Speaker 1: and we have to start putting a fence around our
Speaker 1: children through education, through um uh information other outlets, because
Speaker 1: the criminal justice system is targeted towards them. That's what
Speaker 1: happens when you have underfunded schools, when you are pedaling
Speaker 1: your kids nothing but nonsense on entertainment all day that
Speaker 1: you know, no, not to jay Z, but you made
Speaker 1: your career saying you hustle, you sold drugs and you
Speaker 1: got the pretty wife now and you're you're the dawling
Speaker 1: of America. So what do we think we're telling our children? Like,
Speaker 1: what do we is the message? You know where we
Speaker 1: are Our doctors are engineers, where the people who want
Speaker 1: to be botanist scientists uh lumber. So you know, to
Speaker 1: really fix criminal justice, you have to start with education.
Speaker 1: You then start to you have to really we have
Speaker 1: to check these political people. There's a lot of black
Speaker 1: people who hold political office, but they're literally just there
Speaker 1: at the seat at the table to get whatever crumbs
Speaker 1: they can get from whiteness. Um they used. On Sunday
Speaker 1: they go to the churches and they hallelujah it up
Speaker 1: and sweat it up. And then on Monday there down
Speaker 1: at the Democratic leader who doesn't look like them and
Speaker 1: promising him something that only benefits him. So we have
Speaker 1: to remove the political leadership that currently exists. You know,
Speaker 1: we had tremendous people who have lost their lives. Uh
Speaker 1: if you think think about this, back in the day,
Speaker 1: the black leadership was not Democrat or Republican. They were
Speaker 1: black telling you how these issues affected us. Now, all
Speaker 1: of our political leadership as it comes to criminal justice
Speaker 1: and everything else, is centered on something else. And then
Speaker 1: even now we have to understand the legacy even look,
Speaker 1: look what Biden said. You know everybody now you know
Speaker 1: if I'm not into this whole spectacle of blackness right
Speaker 1: now getting on your knees with Kentake Claude looking like
Speaker 1: you're about to get up, bro, I think I think
Speaker 1: that's a collective we all in agreement. What you know
Speaker 1: what that is though, that is two things. That's America
Speaker 1: is masterful at usurping narratives, particularly narratives of people who
Speaker 1: they marginalized. And that's also the lack of leadership and
Speaker 1: genuineness in our own community. Because if you had any
Speaker 1: black political leaders or white for that matter, they would say, yo,
Speaker 1: cut this ship out. We're not doing But you see
Speaker 1: what Biden said, Um, oh, I'm not I'm not with
Speaker 1: defunding the police. Why why are you not with that?
Speaker 1: You're not with that because from America's racist narrative, they
Speaker 1: have to have the police there to keep them away
Speaker 1: from the scary black people. And it happened under Obama.
Speaker 1: Obama came out trying to protect his boy in the
Speaker 1: Black Eye, Retiro Henry Lewis Gates and set some powerful
Speaker 1: things on Monday, and by Friday he was sitting in
Speaker 1: the Oval Office garden having a beer summit with the
Speaker 1: cops who did that to his friend. So Biden comes
Speaker 1: out and says, no, I'm not with the funding. Why
Speaker 1: because you know what people think, Oh, that means you
Speaker 1: with these black people, That's what that's about. And and
Speaker 1: in the criminal justice politically, it's always been used as
Speaker 1: a fearmonger for white Americans and middle class back black
Speaker 1: people that the way to help the black community is
Speaker 1: to police them. So we need to militarize the police,
Speaker 1: we need to fund them. And that's what that's about.
Speaker 1: And so so, and that's Biden, that's the guy who
Speaker 1: supposed these double digit wins. Right now, we're supposed to
Speaker 1: me to answer to the other racist guy. And that's
Speaker 1: that's the question I have for for both of you guys,
Speaker 1: because this is the hardest part for me. People say,
Speaker 1: do I vote for the lesser of two evils? Is
Speaker 1: one guy even a good guy? Or do I just
Speaker 1: not vote? How important is it for us to express
Speaker 1: out voting power this November? Because and I want to
Speaker 1: hear from both of you guys, because you both have
Speaker 1: different platforms, You're both coming from different mindsets. You know
Speaker 1: your mom, you're a dad, You're into finance, you're into
Speaker 1: criminal justice. It's like, how how to be honest? I
Speaker 1: don't even have the answer. People ask me all the time.
Speaker 1: Are you gonna not vote about Are you gonna vote
Speaker 1: for Biden because he's Democrats? Are you gonna vote for
Speaker 1: Biden because he's just anti Trump? Are you gonna vote
Speaker 1: for Trump because he's promising to do more for the
Speaker 1: black community. How do we utilize our vote to make
Speaker 1: it a difference? I think I'll be brief. I think
Speaker 1: the voting, as Stokely Carmichael talked about it years ago,
Speaker 1: is an organizing tool to leverage and to bring your
Speaker 1: community together. If your community is not together, it's pointless
Speaker 1: in my opinion, because when you think about it, white
Speaker 1: people vote for financial reasons, how are they gonna be
Speaker 1: tax and then racially issues? In my opinion, you don't
Speaker 1: talk about where do black people vote are We're We're
Speaker 1: in a perpetual position of voting for the lesser evil.
Speaker 1: So unless we start nurturing our own local political leadership
Speaker 1: and then nationally, we have to create apparatus is where
Speaker 1: people in Indiana, Gary, Indiana know what the issues are
Speaker 1: in North and vice versa, and then sharing that information
Speaker 1: and then exhibiting it at the polls doing what uh
Speaker 1: Tiffany said, maybe boycotting, maybe just you know what, I
Speaker 1: don't shop at those stores once they see that, you
Speaker 1: just don't stop at voting. Because vote you could do
Speaker 1: several things. I know some brilliant people who don't vote,
Speaker 1: but they teach kids. They are out here putting the work,
Speaker 1: the community part. Yeah, so it really it's a personal thing.
Speaker 1: But in the perfect world, we need to organize and
Speaker 1: we right now we're on the world stage trying to
Speaker 1: get our house together, very position to be, and we
Speaker 1: gotta get out of that space before we can even
Speaker 1: begin to change the political um landscape. Right now I say,
Speaker 1: I mean, I I believe more even almost more importantly
Speaker 1: than voting from president is voting locally. Like I are
Speaker 1: our mayor here in Newark. Ros Baraca his his his
Speaker 1: father is late and Mary Baraca and um, even before
Speaker 1: all this rose. I mean, if anybody knows why he's
Speaker 1: been an organizer, he's been you know. I mean, people
Speaker 1: have a lot to say about while the one thing
Speaker 1: you can't say that he's not for his people. Um.
Speaker 1: And it was, you know, it was so eloquently displayed
Speaker 1: when we had our protests. He led the protest. He's
Speaker 1: been leading before he was mayor. He was a principal
Speaker 1: bo at one of our high school's public high school.
Speaker 1: Before he was that, he was a teacher at one
Speaker 1: of our high school. So the community wasn't like, oh,
Speaker 1: here you go. You just came out. It was like, oh,
Speaker 1: there goes Rod. He's been new you know. Um. So,
Speaker 1: but putting him you know, in that position, you know,
Speaker 1: in in this black city was critically important. So we're
Speaker 1: voting locally. I was talking to my husband about I
Speaker 1: was like, Yo, but we need to make sure, like
Speaker 1: you you need to highlight all your boys from back
Speaker 1: in the day till now that registered to vote for
Speaker 1: these local elections to ensure that um that les Kay
Speaker 1: said that we that that what's happening is in alignment
Speaker 1: with with what our personal agendas are. I think that
Speaker 1: especially especially, nothing moves America like violence and money. Okay,
Speaker 1: so you know when people are like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: people know they know my brand. It's pretty happy, go lucky,
Speaker 1: and so you know the good white folks sometimes that
Speaker 1: follow me like you you're not mad the riots, I said,
Speaker 1: you're not mad at a man being murdered on on
Speaker 1: social media. You're worried about target Yo, somebody die. Get
Speaker 1: out of my inbox with that. I'm not worried about
Speaker 1: the violence. I am worried about the violence. Racism is violence.
Speaker 1: It's the longest lasting global pandemic in world history exactly.
Speaker 1: So imagine it, because I want to think I'm thinking
Speaker 1: about it. Was like even if they was just something
Speaker 1: as simple as like collectively telling, because my audience is,
Speaker 1: like I said, about a million deep. Imagine if I
Speaker 1: was like, Yo, we are going to do a save
Speaker 1: a hundred dollar challenge, and I want you to save
Speaker 1: that hundred dollars and put it in a Black Bank.
Speaker 1: That's a hundred million dollars you know, on the day
Speaker 1: that we could do. Just imagine how powerful that can be.
Speaker 1: And I think that's when people wake up, when money
Speaker 1: starts shifting hands, when money starts going from one place
Speaker 1: to another. Like people don't care about this bus and stuff,
Speaker 1: but they listen to violence and they listen to to money.
Speaker 1: So and so that's that's really what I'm trying to
Speaker 1: lead into it. I feel like you're supposed to ripple
Speaker 1: where you are, right. I can't do all the things.
Speaker 1: All I can do is like or what I all
Speaker 1: I really should do is lean into what my strengths are,
Speaker 1: what I'm capable of doing, and rippling out that way.
Speaker 1: And if someone else it's like watching a movie. You'll
Speaker 1: watch these like like uh like um uh when was
Speaker 1: it not that? What is that Hobbit movie? But you
Speaker 1: ever watch these movies in right, Lord of the Rings, right,
Speaker 1: so you see like the habits are doing this, the
Speaker 1: true folk are doing this, that everybody is collectively doing
Speaker 1: what they're doing in their neighborhood, and then by the
Speaker 1: end it comes together for a greater movement. I think
Speaker 1: that's what we really have to lean into you don't.
Speaker 1: Everyone doesn't have to be on the front lines. Everyone doesn't.
Speaker 1: There are some people who are who are um, you know,
Speaker 1: who have money, so they should lean into that. There's
Speaker 1: some people who have connections, leaning into that. There's some
Speaker 1: people who have knowledge, leaning into that. There's some people
Speaker 1: who are gonna be on the front lines. I think
Speaker 1: critically now that we should be leaning into our individual
Speaker 1: gifts and talents and amplifying that even more so. So
Speaker 1: that's what I'm working on doing. I'm like, Okay, I
Speaker 1: know my audience, listen, if we can if we can
Speaker 1: shift a hundred million, two hundred million, I have the
Speaker 1: billion dollars in wealth from we're taking it from here
Speaker 1: to here. How how powerful can that be? Because banks
Speaker 1: have come to me and I told him the kick crocks,
Speaker 1: I don't partner with big banks. I remember I told
Speaker 1: one bank in particular, um, they wanted to be with
Speaker 1: me so bad. I was like, I'm not interested. They
Speaker 1: probably put a system on phone because yes, yes, And
Speaker 1: I told her for you sis, I'm gonna come in,
Speaker 1: but let's just I'm coming in as myself. And she
Speaker 1: was like, okay, you know that's fine. And I came
Speaker 1: in and I said, I just posted your bank in
Speaker 1: my Facebook group and asked these sisters in this group
Speaker 1: how they felt about your bank. Would you like me
Speaker 1: to read those replies? They said no. I said, that's
Speaker 1: the problem. You know that, you know you want me
Speaker 1: to cape for you. I refuse. You know, and also too,
Speaker 1: I think because I was in my my stepdaughter, my
Speaker 1: bonus started her room the other day. She has on
Speaker 1: her wall her her vision board, and in it she
Speaker 1: see she's mapping out how to start a business. And
Speaker 1: I was like, you know, kids, you think kids don't listen.
Speaker 1: She is listening. And so I think that us we
Speaker 1: need so many more black entrepreneurs that can create safe
Speaker 1: spaces for black people to be hired and to be
Speaker 1: looked after. That can create wealth, because when you're an entrepreneur,
Speaker 1: wealth like the sky's the limit, you know of what
Speaker 1: you could. This company rewards entrepreneurs and punishes folks that
Speaker 1: work regular nine to five. You pay taxes before you
Speaker 1: get your even your money if you have a nine
Speaker 1: to five, and if you're an entrepreneur, you dictate what
Speaker 1: your what your taxes are. It enables me to to's
Speaker 1: enabled me to grow well. Is enabled me to pour
Speaker 1: right back into the community where I live. It's enabled
Speaker 1: me to make certain decisions. So I think that's that's
Speaker 1: another in another way that we can because I'm starting
Speaker 1: to mentor other black women entrepreneurs so that way they
Speaker 1: can hire other other other black folks to work at
Speaker 1: their company. Because I'm like, well, what else can I
Speaker 1: do to help expand this because I I'm not Look,
Speaker 1: I'm tired of looking outside of us for the solution.
Speaker 1: We don't we don't need to. And I want to say,
Speaker 1: I think that's a very important part. Um. We have
Speaker 1: to stop emulating whiteness and we have to be comfortable
Speaker 1: um uh innovating who we are. And I think that's
Speaker 1: where we're lacking. Even in the political process. We're lacking
Speaker 1: the innovation to impact a very young political system. People
Speaker 1: like to think the American political system is always very young.
Speaker 1: Um you can go back generations, you know, six sixty
Speaker 1: five years ago. It's not a long time to time.
Speaker 1: Um we I would love to see in the next
Speaker 1: coming years or this moment in time really inspire the
Speaker 1: young generation to start forming their own political parties. I
Speaker 1: think it's very important, um I. And back to the
Speaker 1: criminal justice thing. There is no criminal justice. Criminal justice
Speaker 1: reform is not giving money to any of these entertainment
Speaker 1: companies for social justice reform or talking head Van Jones,
Speaker 1: this guy, this guy, that's all gained because ultimately, if
Speaker 1: you want to change this criminal justice system, you have
Speaker 1: to get rid of these people. You have to get
Speaker 1: rid of certain laws you have to do, and if
Speaker 1: you're not doing that, you're literally moving furniture around and
Speaker 1: in the voting process. If we're not if we're not
Speaker 1: using information and data to make wise choices with knowledge
Speaker 1: and wisdom, we're simply moving furniture around in that sector.
Speaker 1: And we can't afford to just move things around. It's
Speaker 1: very critical for for black people in this country, as
Speaker 1: it always is that I have a have an interview
Speaker 1: with Essence as I gotta jump off. I don't want
Speaker 1: to my wife, my wife and my wife, you know,
Speaker 1: my wife. My wife told me. I told her I
Speaker 1: was coming on this show. Tell her, I say him
Speaker 1: for having me on. It's a pleasure, Tiffany. We love you.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you already. No peace, guys,
Speaker 1: know peace, Kenny. I appreciate you, bro Yo, listen, I
Speaker 1: love you guys. One thing I want to say, and
Speaker 1: it really it's really important to me. I don't f
Speaker 1: with these entertainers. I think these entertainers have their gender,
Speaker 1: ain't right. The fact that you guys from the inception
Speaker 1: have been using your platform and your voice to educate
Speaker 1: and inform and listen is powerful and I noticed it
Speaker 1: and it means a lot to me. Whatever you guys need,
Speaker 1: I'm here. Appreciate you for always letting us lean on
Speaker 1: you with y and says, we know what we don't know,
Speaker 1: so if we have to calling the reinforcements, Look, we're
Speaker 1: in a foxhole together and we replacement is in between y'all.
Speaker 1: Those only replacements we got. Wow, that was amazing, so
Speaker 1: much knowledge, so much more to this uff. I feel
Speaker 1: like we just kind of that was just a tip
Speaker 1: of the iceberg, and it really makes me wonder and
Speaker 1: it kind of lit this fire in me. For season
Speaker 1: four of Dead as Podcasts, how much more we have
Speaker 1: to discuss because this is not something that's gonna be
Speaker 1: around for just like a week or two or a month.
Speaker 1: This is going to be a movement for several months
Speaker 1: and years to come. And I have to say this
Speaker 1: when we first started doing Dead Ass podcast for us,
Speaker 1: it was to talk about millennial Black love and millennial
Speaker 1: Black family, and it is. But we realize now more
Speaker 1: than ever that speaking about millennial Black love and family
Speaker 1: is talking about trying to get rid of systematic oppression,
Speaker 1: trying to talk about social injustice, trying to push forward
Speaker 1: economic empowerment to all of our people so that we
Speaker 1: as a community can continue to grow. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think that we have so much more to talk about
Speaker 1: going into season four, and just so much more people,
Speaker 1: so many more people to bring on to share with
Speaker 1: you guys, because like I said, we know what we
Speaker 1: don't know, but we know people who do know exactly
Speaker 1: if you're black love, Black family. We cannot continue to
Speaker 1: exist and to thrive in an environment like this. And
Speaker 1: we've had four hundred plus years before us and we
Speaker 1: still have a long march ahead of us. So we
Speaker 1: want to send a special thank you to Kenneth Montgomery
Speaker 1: who has been on. He's been on the podcast. We're
Speaker 1: going to have them back on again for sure. Kenneth Montgomery,
Speaker 1: He's like family to us. Appreciate you. Kenny Um. The
Speaker 1: budget Minista Tiffany Leech, who was also in another episode
Speaker 1: that we have because there's so many different ways to
Speaker 1: break down finance and economy, but particularly pertaining to right
Speaker 1: now with a recession that's about to hit. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was so important to have her shed her light
Speaker 1: on that. And of course Mr Lewis Carr, who has
Speaker 1: been great like the mentor to de Val and has
Speaker 1: really taking him under his wings. So I appreciate somebody
Speaker 1: like that who you can call on when we have
Speaker 1: things like this, absolutely, you know, some advice on And
Speaker 1: I think it's important, especially for Mr Lewis Car because
Speaker 1: he talks about corporate corporate culture, and for so many
Speaker 1: years black people have felt like it's difficult for us
Speaker 1: to exist in corporate culture because there's so few of us.
Speaker 1: But here's a man who's existed for over thirty one years,
Speaker 1: raised billions of dollars, and he's done it at an
Speaker 1: international level. Um, I think we need to continue to
Speaker 1: groom young men and young women to occupy that space.
Speaker 1: You know, we always talk about trying to occupy space,
Speaker 1: but if we have no one to occupy this space,
Speaker 1: there will be no more Lewis Cars, there will be
Speaker 1: no more Tiffany and Lee Chase, there will be no more,
Speaker 1: Kenneth mc comies. We're talking about financial advisement attorneys. We're
Speaker 1: talking about ceo s and presidents, very vital to making
Speaker 1: this world run. So thank you so much for being examples,
Speaker 1: thank you for educating us, and thank you for being
Speaker 1: a part of the dead ass community. So, babe, do
Speaker 1: you have a moment of truth for what we've just experienced?
Speaker 1: That was? That was heavy? Man? Were you nervous? Were
Speaker 1: you nervous just taking on this project and trying to Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean yeah, you know. The reason why I feel
Speaker 1: like I was maybe a little apprehensive at first was
Speaker 1: just because anytime you step foot into that political realm,
Speaker 1: it creates contention, It creates divide you have political and
Speaker 1: not whatsoever. And I hope you don't either. You should
Speaker 1: probably discuss with the prospective spouse. Thank you. I'm glad
Speaker 1: that we know that now. Um, but yeah, it was
Speaker 1: just it was a little nerve wracking, just because whenever
Speaker 1: you step foot into this little chrome and there's so
Speaker 1: many things to um, you know, decompress and to figure out,
Speaker 1: and it causes a lot of you know, contention. Like
Speaker 1: the biggest thing that we've always heard growing up is
Speaker 1: like there's certain things you don't discuss friends, and now
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, everyone has a voice social media. You know,
Speaker 1: you see friends on Facebook post and certain things and
Speaker 1: you're like, wait a second, cist, I don't know you
Speaker 1: felt that way. Let me unfriend you, but you know what,
Speaker 1: let me not unfriend you. So you can see these
Speaker 1: posts about the posts as a rebuttal, you know, it
Speaker 1: becomes like this this silent debate that happens online, um
Speaker 1: with with friends or you know, acquaintances. So you know,
Speaker 1: it is a little a little touchy, but I feel
Speaker 1: like it's necessary. I feel like everything that's happening right
Speaker 1: now is creating a level of discomfort for everyone. You know.
Speaker 1: That's like I saw a team recently that said something
Speaker 1: about like it took for sports to stop, entertainment to
Speaker 1: stop every pretty much everything that would have been a
Speaker 1: distraction stopped. And this for people to realize that there
Speaker 1: was a problem, a problem everything has like everyone had
Speaker 1: to disconnect to realize, oh my goodness, you know. Um.
Speaker 1: And it's funny because you can even feel attention sometimes
Speaker 1: just leaving your front door, like you know, having white
Speaker 1: neighbors that are just like hey, you know, you're not
Speaker 1: sure if they're comfortable. Yeah, it's like us and we're
Speaker 1: not comfortable with them. It's like, do we even discuss
Speaker 1: what's happening? Do we act like it never happened? And
Speaker 1: prior to this, like you know, a couple of months ago,
Speaker 1: everything was finus like Nebory neighbor, and now it's kind
Speaker 1: of like it's a little bit attention in the year.
Speaker 1: So so yeah, I think overall in general, it's just
Speaker 1: a very uncomfortable time. But I think it's going to
Speaker 1: be a time that's this is a catalyst for change
Speaker 1: right now, and I think we should embrace that. And
Speaker 1: that might even be my moment of truth kind of
Speaker 1: spiraling into that. It's just like using this discomfort to
Speaker 1: promote change. How am I going to change? How am
Speaker 1: I going to create a better future for my children?
Speaker 1: How can I do that from a grassroots level? What
Speaker 1: role can I take in my community? There's so many
Speaker 1: things to reflect on and now to strategize to see
Speaker 1: how I can be the actual change that I want
Speaker 1: to see? Right I can? I? I see that. That's dope,
Speaker 1: because so many nights I sat here with you and
Speaker 1: we were trying to figure out what do we do?
Speaker 1: How do we do it that? And what rocked me
Speaker 1: to was having that conversation with our boys, you know, Jackson,
Speaker 1: particularly because he's older, he can kind of grab and
Speaker 1: that was the most heartbreaking conversation to have. I felt
Speaker 1: like I stripped a piece of his innocence a way,
Speaker 1: because you know, for him to feel like, wow, there's
Speaker 1: people out there that just won't see me as Jackson,
Speaker 1: my sweet you know, EmPATH, EmPATH of a child, and
Speaker 1: it just, oh my goodness, it was. It was a
Speaker 1: lot to deal with. Well, my moment of truth is this.
Speaker 1: I realized something throughout this whole process. We're constantly talking
Speaker 1: about occupying space as a community. But then I realized
Speaker 1: that we are not doing a good enough job of
Speaker 1: grooming the next generation to occupy that space. And I'm
Speaker 1: guilty of it too. I've never mentioned to my kids
Speaker 1: about being a politician, about being a judge, about being
Speaker 1: a lawmaker. And I'm saying to myself after listening to Kenny,
Speaker 1: how do we create the change without actual policy? Because
Speaker 1: the people can change, but if the policy is still
Speaker 1: in place, systemically, nothing will change. So we have to
Speaker 1: do a better job as a community of grooming the
Speaker 1: next generation of leaders in the corporate space, in the
Speaker 1: political space, so we can get the change that we
Speaker 1: really want. That's my moment. I love that now needs
Speaker 1: to find some resources. Anybody got any resources for the kids,
Speaker 1: you know, people sharing some resources and things that we
Speaker 1: can read to the kids and things for them to
Speaker 1: see and where site. So I think that would be
Speaker 1: great to have as well, so they can see that
Speaker 1: there's power and being a judge, and there's power and
Speaker 1: being an attorney and being able to have people who
Speaker 1: look like us in those positions looking out for the
Speaker 1: greater good. You know, absolutely, well, listen and we appreciate
Speaker 1: you joining us. We thank you so much. We love
Speaker 1: you guys as always make sure, no matter what you do,
Speaker 1: you go out and you vote. Make sure you go
Speaker 1: out there and let people know that you matter and
Speaker 1: make sure that your voice is heard. Absolutely and continue
Speaker 1: to watch us. Subscribe to dead As Podcast season four.
Speaker 1: We'll be coming up at some point. We're not really
Speaker 1: sure when we'll figure it out. We'll figure it out
Speaker 1: for you, guys. Still kind of touch and go at
Speaker 1: this point, but please continue to subscribe and listen. Tell
Speaker 1: a friend anywhere you get your podcasts, That's Right and
Speaker 1: this is dead as podcast. Dead Ass is a production
Speaker 1: of Stitcher. We are produced by Jackie Sojico end Noor
Speaker 1: Opinion are executive producer t Square. Our associate producers are
Speaker 1: Triple and Kristin Torres. Our Chief Content Officer is Chris Bannon.
Speaker 1: Our studio engineer and original music is by Brendan Burns
Speaker 1: and Last but not least, we are mixed by Andy
Speaker 1: Kristen's We'll Back. I'm Drew McCarry and I'm David Roth.
Speaker 1: We have a podcast going on right now as part
Speaker 1: of the stitchen Net. We're called Abstraction. That's available everywhere.
Speaker 1: Get the podcast at Stitcher, Spotify, Apple, Go listen right
Speaker 1: now to the Distraction, right now, it's out. Do it please,