Speaker 1: Native Lampid is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with
Speaker 1: Reisent Choice Media.
Speaker 2: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome. I'm gonna tell
Speaker 2: you right here, when you put a poster over her face,
Speaker 2: that's why what brought she used to own the spot
Speaker 2: right over there. We're not fucking around. Don't come into
Speaker 2: this mother fucking neighborhood. Cover it up, icons, get this
Speaker 2: mother fucking shit out of here. Don't do it. When
Speaker 2: you see a black face here, don't put a mother
Speaker 2: fucking thing on it. God damn it. Well, you caused
Speaker 2: a mother fucking problem, and don't do it again. Don't
Speaker 2: put a fucking thing on you. It parks in this neighborhood.
Speaker 1: Welcome home, y'all. I'm your host, Angela Ry. This is
Speaker 1: the solo pod for Native lampod. And uh, what you
Speaker 1: just heard is from a very good friend of mine,
Speaker 1: good brother Omari Salisbury, who runs Converge Media. And what
Speaker 1: you saw happening there something that is all too familiar
Speaker 1: to many of us all throughout this country. When gentrification
Speaker 1: invades your neighborhood. These are the kinds of reactions you
Speaker 1: may have that and it may be an outburst and
Speaker 1: maybe something that you hold, but it is something that
Speaker 1: made me want to put on my soft girl era
Speaker 1: sweater on the last day of Black not Black History Months.
Speaker 1: I wish it was still Black History Months Women's History
Speaker 1: Month because I needed to find some softness in this moment.
Speaker 1: But I'm going to bring in my good brother Omri
Speaker 1: so we could talk about this and how he was feeling. Omar,
Speaker 1: how are.
Speaker 3: You, Angela. I'm good. I'm getting a little.
Speaker 1: More calm today.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, under every day, I'm a corner reserve guy.
Speaker 3: You know the background.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And so it surprised people, but it was just triggering,
Speaker 4: and I think I know now how people feel when
Speaker 4: they're like, man, I was triggered, and that was just
Speaker 4: years of just seeing us being really wallpapered over in
Speaker 4: our own community.
Speaker 3: There was just a real triggering moment right there.
Speaker 1: Well, let's back into it a little bit. So we
Speaker 1: saw what happened. And when you confronted him, tell me
Speaker 1: what was happening? When was this? Where were you in
Speaker 1: the city?
Speaker 3: So, I mean, here's the thing is. And I was
Speaker 3: really in a great move.
Speaker 4: This was Saturday and I was leaving Juggins playfield and
Speaker 4: it was the Little League Chamboree. They had all the
Speaker 4: black teams, team names, the steal Heads and the Owls
Speaker 4: and the crow Birds and everything. And I'm sitting there
Speaker 4: taking pictures, you know what I'm saying. So you know,
Speaker 4: I'm a big baseball guy. So this was great Little
Speaker 4: League Jamboree. And I just go four blocks. I get
Speaker 4: the twentieth in Jackson, I'm in a red light, and
Speaker 4: to be honest with you, I'm sitting there chilling them.
Speaker 3: I'm oblivious.
Speaker 4: Somebody drives Western Jackson basically crosses the intersection. He's yelling
Speaker 4: out the window and pointing over to the box, which
Speaker 4: is to the left of me. He's like, man, don't
Speaker 4: do that. And I'm like, well, what's going on? And
Speaker 4: so then I look right there, and what's not on
Speaker 4: the video was that the box was already papered over.
Speaker 4: You see what I'm saying. And so you know we
Speaker 4: should have been there. I'm from the turf. We're in
Speaker 4: the CD ced or see me. I just pulled my
Speaker 4: car right there. I end up blocking traffic, you know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying. So that's when I get out the
Speaker 4: car and I'm yelling at him out the window. I'm like,
Speaker 4: hold up, what are you doing? And that's when it
Speaker 4: starts removing everything. And that's when I start the video.
Speaker 4: And you know what I'm saying, I think you just
Speaker 4: got to let people know because oftentimes we be too quiet.
Speaker 4: We keep this what my mom calls architectural trauma that
Speaker 4: we experience in our neighborhood. We internalize it and everything else.
Speaker 4: But like, man, that day, at that time, and like
Speaker 4: I said, I was coming from a very happy space
Speaker 4: and people know me, I'm a real quiet person out
Speaker 4: in public, and yeah, but you know, it just needed
Speaker 4: to be said. You know, I still got apologized to
Speaker 4: my parents, to our elders and everything that for that,
Speaker 4: for that outburst. But you know, it's Angela. You from here,
Speaker 4: it's town business. It's we only fifty thousand strong in
Speaker 4: this city, you know what I'm saying. And so, man,
Speaker 4: we ain't waving a white flag. We ain't give it
Speaker 4: up on nothing, and we used to having to fight
Speaker 4: for everything that we get, and so you know, it's
Speaker 4: a little bit of fight that came out on Saturday.
Speaker 1: Well, and that's the thing you're talking about. Fifty thousand strong.
Speaker 1: It ain't always been that way. See this, which is
Speaker 1: this central district of course was majority black, the south
Speaker 1: end was majority black. Nine eight one one eight historically
Speaker 1: has been the most diverse zip code in the entire country,
Speaker 1: not just the state. And so when you see something
Speaker 1: like that, I also don't want to erase the sister
Speaker 1: you're talking about. So you mentioned I want to talk
Speaker 1: about who was Rawa to especially it's women's history, wen.
Speaker 1: So I think it's a good time to let people
Speaker 1: know about our local heroes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so, I mean Rawa sheep man.
Speaker 4: She owned the spot there when I was pointing across
Speaker 4: the street in the video called man the hid Moh.
Speaker 3: But even more than that, it was it was all
Speaker 3: about you know, it's.
Speaker 4: Community space, things that we really be missing these days,
Speaker 4: really into the arts, arts scene, to the music scene,
Speaker 4: to just young creatives, right, And I mean she meant
Speaker 4: a lot to a lot of people in our community.
Speaker 4: And you know, one of the one of the reasons
Speaker 4: that she lost the hib mah, you know, the hipmo clothes,
Speaker 4: was because of these shifting demographics or gentrification displacement however
Speaker 4: we want to call it, you know, And she had
Speaker 4: died a few years after that, and so this wasn't
Speaker 4: because there are some icons. If you go to twenty
Speaker 4: thirty Union, there's there's Earl Is on a box, Earl
Speaker 4: Is still with us.
Speaker 3: You know, he's living.
Speaker 4: He's mad an icon as well, and you know he's
Speaker 4: on one of those boxes. But you know, she's someone
Speaker 4: very beloved in so many different communities, and it really
Speaker 4: struck a nerve. There's so many different types of people
Speaker 4: that have hit me, you know, regularly just just black women.
Speaker 4: There's the artist, there's immigrant community, there's there's man, there's
Speaker 4: so many different people because she touched so many different
Speaker 4: people's lives. And man, you know, Malcolm X said, it's real.
Speaker 4: The black woman is the most disrespected person on earth. Man,
Speaker 4: Come on, man, you know what I'm saying. We can't
Speaker 4: just sit there. It's a small thing. It isn't the
Speaker 4: whole whatever. But man, it's just not okay. And what
Speaker 4: people should know is real real quick is like because
Speaker 4: of gentrification and displacement, neighborhood and here in Seattle, that's
Speaker 4: the same neighborhood that Jimmy Hendrix is from. That's the
Speaker 4: same neighborhood that Quincy Jones met Ray Charles on twenty
Speaker 4: thirty Jackson and the rest is history. You know a
Speaker 4: lot of people don't understand the black history in Seattle,
Speaker 4: and because of this just gentrification displacement right.
Speaker 3: Now, man, some of us.
Speaker 4: All we got left is these power boxes that have
Speaker 4: murals to pass icons.
Speaker 3: So it's serious business for us.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that what struck me one, I've never
Speaker 1: heard you that loud. So I was like, oh, I
Speaker 1: got to watch to see what happened. And what did
Speaker 1: strike me was I remember Omari And I haven't told
Speaker 1: you this, but I was sitting down when I you
Speaker 1: know it, just like firmly planning back home. I was
Speaker 1: sitting down talking to our former mayor, Bruce Harrow. We're
Speaker 1: sitting there, like right across the street from Seattle, you
Speaker 1: where I went to law school where I mean again,
Speaker 1: he's also a hometown hero, legend, played football, you dubbed,
Speaker 1: like all of that grew up with, you know, my family.
Speaker 1: And so Bruce is sitting there, some random white guy
Speaker 1: is riding by on a bike and screams f you
Speaker 1: at him, and I'm like, I jump up, like I'm
Speaker 1: what I'm Bruce has a whole security detail. I jump
Speaker 1: up and Bruce's like, Nah, it's okay, that's just how
Speaker 1: people feel. But that's not how we came up. Like,
Speaker 1: you don't yell out expletives at our elders, you know, no,
Speaker 1: I don't care who you are. And so it's what
Speaker 1: is jarring about what you displayed on that video is
Speaker 1: how blatant the disrespect is. And I think the reason
Speaker 1: why it's gotten so many reposts and so much traction
Speaker 1: OMRI is because people have continued to witness this and
Speaker 1: they haven't let out that rage. And it's not just
Speaker 1: happening in our city.
Speaker 4: Come on, man, like, so people should know, right Seattle,
Speaker 4: there's probably more, but like officially, Seattle has a civil
Speaker 4: rights assassination.
Speaker 3: And that was Edwin T. Pratt.
Speaker 4: He was the former head of the NAACP and everything else, right,
Speaker 4: and he was he was a few months I think
Speaker 4: after doctor King. And that's like Seattle's civil rights assassination.
Speaker 4: Like standing it was kind of almost like how Mega
Speaker 4: Evers got killed. Evert Practice was there in the crib.
Speaker 4: He got murdered in front of his family. There's a
Speaker 4: building there in our neighborhood. There's a pract building and
Speaker 4: this apartment building pract you know, I go over there, bro,
Speaker 4: and the people in the building is looking at me
Speaker 4: like I ain't supposed to be there. It's named after
Speaker 4: this civil rights icon this you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 4: and so like that, that's how crazy it is. And
Speaker 4: you know, in our neighborhood right now, and it's a
Speaker 4: lot of stuff that you know, it's people in the
Speaker 4: Central District. We grin and we bury it and we
Speaker 4: try to figure it out everything else. But there is
Speaker 4: a collective yell. There is a like a frustration to
Speaker 4: it there. There there is you know, I mean, man,
Speaker 4: it hurts to be displaced, it hurts to be erased,
Speaker 4: It hurts to be papered over and still have to
Speaker 4: pick yourself up every day. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: We have a strong cultural history and here to the
Speaker 4: Central District of Seattle, on the south end of Seattle,
Speaker 4: and those ties are being cut and they're not being
Speaker 4: cut even with care, They're being cut with disregard.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And that's just that's exactly it. To the point.
Speaker 1: You know, we were raised with the elders who made
Speaker 1: sure that we can never forget our history. That's not
Speaker 1: everybody's story. So the question really is for the folks
Speaker 1: who are coming in here and don't know our history.
Speaker 1: What obligation, what collective obligation do they have, not just
Speaker 1: black transplants, but also white folks who come in. What
Speaker 1: is their obligation to know our history, to know the
Speaker 1: responsibility they hold to not paper over us, to not
Speaker 1: erase us.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, as somebody who's who's been a migrant worker,
Speaker 4: almost a majority of my career, I spent like twenty
Speaker 4: years overseas. I've been in sixty five countries, launched TV
Speaker 4: and radio stations all over the world. Launched a TV
Speaker 4: station and the UAE and radio and all kinds of
Speaker 4: stuff in East Africa, Tanzania, Rwanda. Man, whenever I was
Speaker 4: in a new country or a new place, first thing
Speaker 4: I really did was learn the customs overall generally and
Speaker 4: especially in my neighborhood. You feel me like, I mean,
Speaker 4: it ain't hard to really go and some things are
Speaker 4: definitely universal.
Speaker 3: When you see art, and.
Speaker 4: Especially art of a person, of the description of a
Speaker 4: human being, you're not supposed to like deface that anywhere.
Speaker 4: Like we shouldn't have to go to remedial school for that.
Speaker 4: But like I'll just let people know first, sure, and
Speaker 4: be very clear here on your podcast that man, when
Speaker 4: you're coming to the Central District of Seattle. Man, it's great,
Speaker 4: you know, we welcome here or whatever. It's all good,
Speaker 4: But man, you need to move with some regard and
Speaker 4: some care for the people.
Speaker 3: Understand. I'll throw this in here real quick, an over
Speaker 3: run out of time.
Speaker 4: What's unique about our neighborhood is it's one hundred and
Speaker 4: forty years old. It's older than the state of Washington.
Speaker 4: William Gross about that land from Henry Yesler over one
Speaker 4: hundred and forty years ago on what's now twenty third Union.
Speaker 3: And Henry Gross was a baller. We didn't come out
Speaker 3: here begging.
Speaker 4: We came out here buying, you know, a a long
Speaker 4: long time ago. And you know, and our history here,
Speaker 4: black folks history precedes the State of Washington as buyers
Speaker 4: and owners and land owners.
Speaker 3: And people just need to respect that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they do well. I respect exactly how you responded
Speaker 1: to getting papered over o Maria. I bet you he
Speaker 1: won't do it again. And in the meantime, what I
Speaker 1: hope we can do, good brother, is really fine. Time
Speaker 1: to hold these conversations in public spaces so that black
Speaker 1: folks know we see each other, and then we figure
Speaker 1: out what our collective response is going forward, so that
Speaker 1: we feel safe in a city that we helped to build.
Speaker 3: Man anytime, Agela, I'm here for it.
Speaker 1: Thank you, O. Marie, take care all right, y'all. Well,
Speaker 1: I wanted you all to hear what's happening in my town.
Speaker 1: And I really appreciate Omri's response because so many people
Speaker 1: look at these things. We scream, we gas, our mouths
Speaker 1: drop open. But the erasure is real and it doesn't
Speaker 1: just happen in Seattle right now. It is also happening
Speaker 1: in the state of Kentucky. There is an HBCU Kentucky
Speaker 1: State University, which I believe was established in eighteen sixty six.
Speaker 1: The state legislature, Senate Bill one eight five, I believe
Speaker 1: is working to change the mission of that institution. So
Speaker 1: I asked one of my good friends who is in Kentucky.
Speaker 1: He is moving all over the state right now. He's
Speaker 1: also running for the United States Senate. His name is
Speaker 1: Charles Booker. Asked him to join us today to talk
Speaker 1: about what is going on, what's the collective response in
Speaker 1: what black people all over the country can do to
Speaker 1: ensure that we push back against this.
Speaker 5: Hello Charles, Hey Angela, it's good to be with you.
Speaker 1: Good to be with you too. Your fight looks a
Speaker 1: little different than on Maris, but it's important. Nonetheless, whatever
Speaker 1: our means are, as long as our goal, our end
Speaker 1: goal is the same, that's what we got to do.
Speaker 1: So talk to us a little bit about what's happening
Speaker 1: with Kentucky State.
Speaker 5: Well, what we're seeing with K State University is an
Speaker 5: attack on not just an institution, but on identity, on culture,
Speaker 5: on community, and it's something we're seeing across the country
Speaker 5: with the underfunding and undermining of HBCU. So K State is,
Speaker 5: like you said, an esteemed institution, and this legislation now
Speaker 5: is essentially going to put it under state control and
Speaker 5: completely restructure it, essentially turned it into a trade school.
Speaker 5: They're calling it a polytechnic school. And not only would
Speaker 5: it erase the sense of community, substantially reduce enrollment, substantially
Speaker 5: reduced the number of courses and options available for students,
Speaker 5: but also for Greek organizations, which of course I'm a
Speaker 5: member of Cap Alphacib Fraternity Incorporated, would force them to
Speaker 5: essentially have to reapply for their charter. It's completely eroding
Speaker 5: the sense of community and place that has been a
Speaker 5: staple for so many across Kentucky and across the count
Speaker 5: and beyond. I have folks on my campaign staff who
Speaker 5: are from k State University and everybody who has been blindsided,
Speaker 5: and they're afraid of not only what's happening to us,
Speaker 5: but this broader picture of the erasure and just the
Speaker 5: trampling on the identity of so many people who help
Speaker 5: build this country.
Speaker 1: I got to ask you, what you think the reason
Speaker 1: for this is, Like, it's not new for HBCUs to
Speaker 1: be collapsed into traditionally white institutions. I used to work
Speaker 1: at NAFIO, and it was a battle we would have
Speaker 1: all the time, SUNO and UNO, Southern University of New Orleans,
Speaker 1: University of New Orleans. There was a constant battle the
Speaker 1: closure of the schools. What do you think is the
Speaker 1: reason that the Senate, in particular in the state of
Speaker 1: Kentucky wants to do this now.
Speaker 5: Well, this conversation has been years in the making. When
Speaker 5: I was a state legislator, we actually had a lot
Speaker 5: of battles around protecting Kentucky State University as our HBCU
Speaker 5: and of course we have Simmons College as a private
Speaker 5: HBCU here in Louisville. But a lot of the argument
Speaker 5: had really revolved around the necessity of having Case State
Speaker 5: as an HBCU. There are folks in the legislature, in
Speaker 5: political power who do not see the importance of institutions
Speaker 5: that center the black experience, black community, our culture, and
Speaker 5: account for the brave injustice in our country. And so
Speaker 5: year after year, Case State has not received the funding
Speaker 5: that it is needed and that it has been deserved.
Speaker 5: And we know that's true across the country. A lot
Speaker 5: of our HBCUs have been grossly underfunded. We've seen studies
Speaker 5: showing the Case State was underfunded to the tune of
Speaker 5: nearly two hundred million dollars over the last three decades.
Speaker 5: And so to essentially claw the funding back and then say, Okay,
Speaker 5: since you're struggling with the crumbs, let me punish you
Speaker 5: by taking more funding away. Okay, now you're struggling with that,
Speaker 5: let's just get rid of you all together. That is
Speaker 5: very part and parcels to the experience that my ancestors
Speaker 5: have facing this country that we certainly face today, and
Speaker 5: it's why I'm running for that is why I'm standing up.
Speaker 5: We have to fight back.
Speaker 1: What do you think your response would be? Certainly? The
Speaker 1: one thing I appreciate about your charles too, is you
Speaker 1: don't wait to be an elected office to make a difference,
Speaker 1: to weigh in to advocate. So I know what your
Speaker 1: position is right now, But what do you think would
Speaker 1: be different if you were in the United States Senate
Speaker 1: with this issue on the table? How would you respond?
Speaker 5: Well, you know, my main argument for why we need
Speaker 5: to not just argue in the streets, which we got
Speaker 5: to do. We gotta make noise in the streets, but
Speaker 5: we have to also go into this places where decisions
Speaker 5: and policies are made, is because we need leaders in
Speaker 5: those positions who see our humanity. So having a United
Speaker 5: States Senator that understands the value of black institutions, that
Speaker 5: understands the importance of equity, that understands the importance of diversity,
Speaker 5: because right now there is a very widespread campaign to
Speaker 5: essentially say that diversity is easy. The people that I'm
Speaker 5: running against petition on the Republican side are putting out
Speaker 5: ads saying that it's Unamerican, it's evil, it's an attack
Speaker 5: on cre ristianity. I mean, they're saying all the things
Speaker 5: to essentially erase us, and we know the Senate has
Speaker 5: an important role in not only securing funding and infrastructure
Speaker 5: resources for our HBCUs, but being an advocate and using
Speaker 5: that bully pullpit. Right now, we can't be silent. This
Speaker 5: is not just about HBCUs. We're seeing the rature of
Speaker 5: our history in real time. We're seeing the undermining and
Speaker 5: the attacks on humanity from every angle. People are struggling
Speaker 5: to find a way to just put food on the table,
Speaker 5: and we know that education is a part of the
Speaker 5: key forward. So when they're attacking education, they're letting us know, hey,
Speaker 5: we don't value your life. And what I know and
Speaker 5: what I'm hopeful about, is that so many voices, not
Speaker 5: just the lum student leaders, faculty people are speaking up,
Speaker 5: the NAACP, they're speaking up to call out the fact
Speaker 5: that this is not going to happen on our watch.
Speaker 5: Because they're trying to rush this bill through. They were
Speaker 5: hoping no one would notice, but we did notice. And
Speaker 5: even as a candidate, I'm working with our colleagues out
Speaker 5: in the States to help raise the noise and make
Speaker 5: sure that we're taking direct action to make sure if
Speaker 5: they're going to run us over, they want to look
Speaker 5: us in the eyes. And at the federal level, we
Speaker 5: need leadership that will fight for working people, that will
Speaker 5: fight for the hard task, for the critical task of
Speaker 5: pulling up the roots of racism and white supremacy. And
Speaker 5: we need our black institutions to do that.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. You brought up the students. I know students were
Speaker 1: marching today on the Capitol, but also there is a
Speaker 1: student response that we have to a local news station there,
Speaker 1: So let's run that clip.
Speaker 3: We want to get across through the message.
Speaker 6: A small group of leaders meet in the student Activity
Speaker 6: Center to strategize.
Speaker 1: So I feel like we're washing everything. And again we're
Speaker 1: just going to do the same thing with Kentucky State University.
Speaker 6: They're concerned cenerfl one eight five will have deep negative
Speaker 6: impacts on the historic black university established in eighteen eighty six.
Speaker 4: We cannot sit back and say it's okay.
Speaker 3: It's not okay.
Speaker 7: We need to say it.
Speaker 6: The word polytech new vision for the school from the
Speaker 6: state legislature has the student bodies attention.
Speaker 8: If it changed the polytech that mean that all liberal
Speaker 8: arts majors will go online and we would lose a
Speaker 8: sense of community that we have as black students here.
Speaker 6: The small group then met with a larger group inside
Speaker 6: Bradford Hall to discuss proposed amendments to the bill. They
Speaker 6: hope to have their voices heard by more lawmakers Tuesday, and.
Speaker 8: We're demanding to keep our identity. And we are also
Speaker 8: demanding that they support more than a thousand students on campus.
Speaker 8: And the bill it actually states that they would only
Speaker 8: support at least a thousand students, So we actually want
Speaker 8: to have more students on campus.
Speaker 1: You know, the main point here, Charles, is that students
Speaker 1: are activating. We are often under you know, the mistaken
Speaker 1: assumption that it takes a huge number of people to
Speaker 1: make a difference. You saw that auditorium. It was not full.
Speaker 1: I wish that it was. It would be for a concert,
Speaker 1: it might be for you know, a good basketball team
Speaker 1: or a good football team. I just wish that we
Speaker 1: could ensure not just our young people, but all of
Speaker 1: us were more actively engaged. What are some of the
Speaker 1: things that you are doing in Kentucky tonsure broader engagement
Speaker 1: with our folks.
Speaker 5: Well, you nailed it. A lot of coming from the
Speaker 5: struggle I come from the Hood West and a little
Speaker 5: but I mean, we're so used to being screwed over
Speaker 5: and disregarded and seeing our resources taken away that you
Speaker 5: almost just prepare for it. And a lot of what
Speaker 5: I'm doing now, even in running for Centate, but also
Speaker 5: in my organization, Hood to the Holler, is giving people
Speaker 5: permission to use their voice, to know that if we
Speaker 5: speak up, if we locker rooms together, we can change things.
Speaker 5: And Good to the Holler is so important to me
Speaker 5: because standing up for this institution is not just a
Speaker 5: fight for Black Kentuckians. A strong KSU is a strong
Speaker 5: Kentucky and we know that in order for us to
Speaker 5: heal our deepest wounds as a society, we have to
Speaker 5: protect and invest in the culture and community for all people.
Speaker 5: And this is why reparations are needed. And so using
Speaker 5: my platform to lift up story telling to help support
Speaker 5: direct actions, they help cause good trouble. We show up
Speaker 5: in the streets, we show up in the halls where
Speaker 5: those decisions are made, and so a lot of people
Speaker 5: know that my campaign and candidacy for Senate is a
Speaker 5: testament to that work. And that's why I'm excited about
Speaker 5: these young people stepping up to say, wait a minute,
Speaker 5: we know our voices matter, we know our lives matter,
Speaker 5: we know this institution matters, and we know you've been
Speaker 5: underfunding it and you're not going to use that as
Speaker 5: a reason to take it away. So I'm proud of them,
Speaker 5: and I really appreciate you having us to shine this
Speaker 5: light because we suffer in silence all too often and
Speaker 5: we can't allow that now.
Speaker 1: Absolutely Well, my good friend Charles Booker's running for Senate
Speaker 1: in Kentucky and also fighting a good fight to ensure
Speaker 1: that Kentucky State University's mission does not change. For more
Speaker 1: information on Booker for Senate, where can they find you, Charles?
Speaker 5: They go to Charles Booker dot org. We'll be lifting
Speaker 5: up not only this issue about Kentucky State University, but
Speaker 5: the fight for humanity for our whole country.
Speaker 1: Amazing. Thank you so much for joining us today. Always
Speaker 1: all right, well, y'all, this has been an amazing show.
Speaker 1: I hope that when you get home at your kitchen table,
Speaker 1: you continue to talk about these issues. It's not all bad.
Speaker 1: There are some good things happening to. Brandy got a
Speaker 1: star on the Walk of Fame in California and There's
Speaker 1: a really dope speech that Isa Ray did at her ceremony,
Speaker 1: and so I wanted to share that. As we end this,
Speaker 1: I keep wanting to say Black History Month, y'all. I'm
Speaker 1: black every month, okay, but Women's History Month, because it's
Speaker 1: such an incredible thing to see two young black women
Speaker 1: lifting each other up. Lisa talks about all the many
Speaker 1: ways in which Brandy inspired her in her career. So
Speaker 1: I want to roll that clip and that is how
Speaker 1: we'll go home. So welcome home, y'all.
Speaker 7: Everyone. Hi Randy. Nice to be true. I'm so so
Speaker 7: honored to be year. I've never said yes faster to
Speaker 7: a text from my publicist who asked me to be
Speaker 7: here on behalf of Brandy to speak to Brandy. I
Speaker 7: talk about Brandy and in all of my interviews, and
Speaker 7: they told me I have two minutes to talk about her.
Speaker 7: So i'mna I'm gonna get to it. I wasn't gonna
Speaker 7: use the two minutes to just sing, have you ever
Speaker 7: loved somebody so much? And makes you cry? But I won't.
Speaker 7: I won't do that in front of you or to
Speaker 7: you guys. The first time I saw Brandy, I had
Speaker 7: no idea how much I needed to see Brandy. I
Speaker 7: was in fourth grade when I Want to Be Down
Speaker 7: came out, and that single was the first tape I
Speaker 7: ever bought with my own allowance money, which was two
Speaker 7: dollars a week from Sam Goodie. And when the Broken
Speaker 7: Hearted remix came out, I was singing my heart out
Speaker 7: like I had. I had suffered the.
Speaker 1: Deepest pain.
Speaker 7: On the school bus. I was so excited when it
Speaker 7: came on in the race video, Rinda came on the
Speaker 7: radio and I was singing it and I was sitting
Speaker 7: next to my crush and he was like, who sings
Speaker 7: this song? And I was like Brandy proudly, and he
Speaker 7: was like, then let her sing it. So that was
Speaker 7: my first heartbreak. Thank you, Brandy, and so much for that.
Speaker 7: Brandy is a star for so many reasons, but her
Speaker 7: transition to acting was a game changer. While her first
Speaker 7: official role was as Stia's daughter and Thea, it was
Speaker 7: really Moesha that made me understand what was possible. It
Speaker 7: was the first show that I'd ever seen told from
Speaker 7: an ordinary black teenage girl's point of view. Said in La,
Speaker 7: the same city I was born in, and we moved
Speaker 7: back to that same year it premiered, Brandy made Mosha
Speaker 7: someone I wanted to befriend, the girl I wanted to be.
Speaker 7: At a time when beauty standards on television looked nothing
Speaker 7: like us, Brandy was the standard. The smile, the eyes,
Speaker 7: the braids, the way she carried herself. She was cool
Speaker 7: without trying and beautiful without apology. Mosha gave me confidence
Speaker 7: over confidence. In some cases, you guys will never see
Speaker 7: those pictures, they will never see the light of day,
Speaker 7: but they're all because of her, and she made it
Speaker 7: all look effortless because she was put in so much work, honestly,
Speaker 7: and you didn't know that from behind the scenes. But
Speaker 7: the most inspirational part of her career is just how
Speaker 7: she had no lanes. As her career progressed, so did
Speaker 7: her ambitions movies, the first Black Cinderella, as you guys
Speaker 7: heard Broadway producing, she didn't need to stay in one lane.
Speaker 7: To me, Brandy was and is the blueprint. Without Brandy
Speaker 7: as Moesha, there's no Parkers, there's no girlfriends, there's no insecure,
Speaker 7: and honestly, without Mosha, there's no me as a Because
Speaker 7: at eleven years old, that show gave me the confidence
Speaker 7: to write my very first TV sitcom, which was so, so,
Speaker 7: so bad, but thank god I got better. Bradie. I
Speaker 7: just want to thank you so much for your impact.
Speaker 7: Thank you for showing a little girl from LA that
Speaker 7: her story was worth telling. And this star has always
Speaker 7: been yours. I love you so much, Thank you for
Speaker 7: all you do.
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