Speaker 1: Welcome back to Good Mom's Bad Choices.
Speaker 2: I'm Erica and I'm Nyla.
Speaker 3: Happy Wednesday, Happy hump Day, Happy Hemp Day.
Speaker 1: How are you? I'm okay, it's been quite a week.
Speaker 2: It's a lot going on.
Speaker 1: How's your week?
Speaker 4: Then? How are you?
Speaker 3: I'm not feeling great, honestly, like I've had the g yesterday.
Speaker 3: I was feeling a little better today. I'm like, I
Speaker 3: don't know, I just feel I don't want to say helpless,
Speaker 3: but I do in some ways. I don't not like obviously,
Speaker 3: I know, like there's a lot going on and then
Speaker 3: we're empowering ourselves.
Speaker 1: But I'm just I don't know. I guess I'm just
Speaker 1: worried about the future.
Speaker 2: But I'm definitely worried about that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm very worried about the future.
Speaker 2: Twenty twenty is relentless. Huh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it doesn't let up.
Speaker 3: But you know, with everything going on, with George Floyd's
Speaker 3: death and so many just so many deaths at this point,
Speaker 3: you know, I think.
Speaker 1: Our people are at a they're done. I'm done. I'm tired.
Speaker 3: I'm tired too, and like you know, as women like
Speaker 3: what kids, except it's exhausting.
Speaker 2: It is exhausted.
Speaker 1: I don't even know my daughter's vib I don't even
Speaker 1: know how to have these conversations with her right now.
Speaker 1: I haven't really, but I don't know.
Speaker 3: I wanted to when me and really we're talking about
Speaker 3: this this week's episode. I know you guys have probably
Speaker 3: been listening to a lot of podcasts talking about what's
Speaker 3: happening and for us, like for me, my but my
Speaker 3: big concern like what I just can't stop thinking about,
Speaker 3: and all the people that I've been hitting up are
Speaker 3: like the black men in my life, like are you okay?
Speaker 1: You good?
Speaker 3: I love you, I appreciate you, you know, and like
Speaker 3: for this week's episode, I really wanted to have on
Speaker 3: someone who I respect and who I think you know,
Speaker 3: is well versed in talking about many many topics including
Speaker 3: you know, what's happening right now.
Speaker 1: So I'm really excited to have you on.
Speaker 4: Van.
Speaker 1: Hi, Van, we have a van. This is Van Lathan.
Speaker 3: You guys know Van if you've been listening to our podcast.
Speaker 3: He was on our podcast last year, we were on
Speaker 3: his this year.
Speaker 1: He's a friend of good Mom's. Uh so, welcome.
Speaker 5: What's up? Why are you always appreciate that?
Speaker 6: Glad you guys are doing well and appreciate the transparency
Speaker 6: about the conflicted feelings of of uh, you know, your
Speaker 6: headspace in terms of what's going on right now.
Speaker 5: I feel like everyone feels the same way.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean I FaceTime Van today and I think my
Speaker 3: phone died in mid of, like mid of my despair.
Speaker 1: I was like, Van, I'm helpless. He's like, listen, click.
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, so much that He's like, you
Speaker 1: should not feel helpless.
Speaker 4: I'm like, I know, it does feel helpless. It does
Speaker 4: feel it feels like what the fuck I'm honestly, I'm
Speaker 4: just tired, Like I'm exhausted. Being a parent is exhausting
Speaker 4: being a parent to a black child, Like to think
Speaker 4: that you let them out into the world or even
Speaker 4: to expose them to understand the concepts of this life
Speaker 4: that just don't make any fucking sense at all. You know,
Speaker 4: like that is a very hard lesson to teach. That's
Speaker 4: a heartbreaking lesson to have.
Speaker 2: To teach a child too.
Speaker 4: So and then like, you know, me and Erica are
Speaker 4: from the valley. I would say the majority of our
Speaker 4: friends are not.
Speaker 1: Black, And what no, not yourself. My majority of my
Speaker 1: friends are not white. I don't really have white friends.
Speaker 2: You do have white friends.
Speaker 3: I have like two white friends. I'm not and I
Speaker 3: love them. I'm just saying, like, speak for yourself.
Speaker 4: I do have black friends, but here, like in in
Speaker 4: the valley, in LA, most of my friends are not black.
Speaker 1: No, I can't.
Speaker 4: I can't say most of my friends are black and
Speaker 4: here in this state, in the city, but like across
Speaker 4: the spread of the nation. Yes, I have a lot
Speaker 4: of black friends, but like my closest friends here outside
Speaker 4: of you are not black. And honestly, like I I'm
Speaker 4: just I don't want to talk about this topic.
Speaker 5: I'm letting you know the next BT Instagram Live takeover.
Speaker 1: I need more ship, you say my face. Man, I'm like,
Speaker 1: you don't let me finish.
Speaker 3: I'm like, you're on your own island, bitch.
Speaker 4: You better not leave me on this island, the San
Speaker 4: Fernando Valley island.
Speaker 1: Bitch.
Speaker 2: You know what it is. First of all, honestly, the
Speaker 2: point is, yeah.
Speaker 1: Make the point.
Speaker 2: I have felt that I don't. I don't really have
Speaker 2: a lot.
Speaker 4: Of patience to discuss these topics with certain people I
Speaker 4: don't like at this point, like just right now, in
Speaker 4: the like these last couple of days, Like, I know
Speaker 4: people want to be active and want to have their
Speaker 4: input and people care, but like if you say the
Speaker 4: wrong shit to me, I can't be delicate with your feelings.
Speaker 2: This week, like I've found myself ignoring a lot of.
Speaker 4: Comments just because I don't I can't explain them all.
Speaker 2: You know, I don't want to talk about the.
Speaker 4: Small businesses that are getting like looted and how sad
Speaker 4: that is.
Speaker 2: I don't. I can't. I don't have enough. I don't
Speaker 2: have energy for it.
Speaker 4: So I'm not saying I don't have a lot of
Speaker 4: black friends. The majority of my friends are black, Erica
Speaker 4: and Van okay, but here in the valley the people
Speaker 4: I've grown up closest to, and Erica, I don't know
Speaker 4: what the fuck she's talking about her twelve black friends.
Speaker 2: I don't know a lot of them.
Speaker 1: Cause I don't have friends the three that I have,
Speaker 1: and I.
Speaker 4: Don't know if and I know other people not only
Speaker 4: with like the people close to me, but like big
Speaker 4: brands that I'm like some brands that are not saying
Speaker 4: shit that maybe I shop at or just people on
Speaker 4: it's my social you know, who are you know pressing
Speaker 4: those baby hairs down all week, but I ain't said,
Speaker 4: you know, love, love all the hip hop culture, love
Speaker 4: all the black daddies, no words, crickets. It's bothering me.
Speaker 4: It's bothering me. And I'm also I'm questioning, like is
Speaker 4: it trendy right now to be like woke and want
Speaker 4: to be a part of the conversation or is this
Speaker 4: genuine care? Because I'm tired, because I've seen this shit
Speaker 4: a lot. It hurts, it's painful, it's hurtful. Like, are
Speaker 4: are you guys just jumping in right now because it's
Speaker 4: convenient because I don't have time for that. Sorry, I
Speaker 4: had to get it.
Speaker 1: Off my chest.
Speaker 5: Now I get it.
Speaker 6: Like what I'd say, first of all, a couple of things.
Speaker 6: There's a reason why people are their fuses are so
Speaker 6: much shorter in terms of things right now. And one
Speaker 6: reason is that, like, you know, let's say, like we're
Speaker 6: in the game now, this is the game, Like we're
Speaker 6: on the biggest stage as a society, as a culture,
Speaker 6: as a group of people, Like we're this is the game.
Speaker 6: Like if you spent your entire life training for the Olympics,
Speaker 6: you can fuck up and practice all you want, right
Speaker 6: you can stumble when you got your skates on, you
Speaker 6: can fall when you're running. You can have the fucking
Speaker 6: javelin go crazy, or the poll vall poll slip out
Speaker 6: of the thing. It's okay, like you're still working towards
Speaker 6: whatever you're working towards. But when you get there and
Speaker 6: everybody's watching and the stakes are so high and everybody
Speaker 6: is on edge because what happens in the next couple
Speaker 6: of days changes the trajectory of your life. That's when
Speaker 6: you got to be at your best. And I think
Speaker 6: for better or for worse, that's where we are right now.
Speaker 6: You want to see the best from people because the
Speaker 6: stakes are so high.
Speaker 5: This is the.
Speaker 6: Olympics of social discourse right now. This is as serious
Speaker 6: as it's going to get, or maybe.
Speaker 1: Not maybe maybe not.
Speaker 6: Hopefully as serious as it's going to get in our lifetime.
Speaker 6: So anyone who hasn't really put the work in and
Speaker 6: hasn't practiced and done the work to get to where
Speaker 6: we are now, you don't want to have to explain
Speaker 6: it to them now because we don't have any time
Speaker 6: to explain it to them now.
Speaker 5: Because we got to be active and we need the action.
Speaker 6: Really, as far as any of the fake activism, I
Speaker 6: gotta be honest with you. Of course, there's some of
Speaker 6: that out there. Almost anything that you see from a
Speaker 6: corporation is fake. A corporation does not tell you how
Speaker 6: much they love you by posting something on Instagram. A
Speaker 6: corporation tells you how much they love you with a checkbook.
Speaker 6: A corporation is a soulless entity that exists in order
Speaker 6: to make money. Everything that corporation does is around money.
Speaker 6: When they want something, they pay for it. So when
Speaker 6: a corporation cares about Black lives matter, When a corporation
Speaker 6: cares about black people, what they do is they will
Speaker 6: donate a half a million dollars a million dollars or
Speaker 6: something like that.
Speaker 5: Somewhere.
Speaker 6: I think I saw a peloton maybe it was the
Speaker 6: bike company. Half a million bucks. That's what you demand
Speaker 6: from a corporation. An Instagram posts. They could have an
Speaker 6: intern do that in thirty seconds. That does not matter.
Speaker 6: But other than that, like the fake activism, it doesn't
Speaker 6: really bother me that much because there's too much else
Speaker 6: on our plate to be concentrating on it. It's annoying,
Speaker 6: it definitely is annoying. I'm definitely with you, on that
Speaker 6: it's annoying.
Speaker 1: I think it's more.
Speaker 3: So like if you want to educate yourself, there's a
Speaker 3: lot of information out there, Like they're so like I
Speaker 3: was sitting here with my friend this morning and one
Speaker 3: of his you know, his white homeboys, called him and said,
Speaker 3: I'm on your side. My family is I'm trying to
Speaker 3: explain shit to them. How do I explain shit to them?
Speaker 3: What do I say? How do I say it so
Speaker 3: that it makes sense? And I was sitting here watching
Speaker 3: him try and explain it, and I was increasingly getting
Speaker 3: more irritated. What is there to explode? It was more
Speaker 3: so like it's not our jobs. Like I get it, though,
Speaker 3: I get sometimes we have.
Speaker 1: To sit back and we have to be like, okay, if.
Speaker 3: We want asking for help, they're asking for help, they
Speaker 3: want to learn, Okay, like this is all this is
Speaker 3: what we all we could ask for, right.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, I'm like you, this just
Speaker 1: been going on.
Speaker 3: First of all, like now because black people and all
Speaker 3: people are looking at you with our arms crossed like nigga, hello, hi,
Speaker 3: are you gonna say something or not?
Speaker 1: Again?
Speaker 3: You know, I think this time it feels more it's
Speaker 3: very like individual aggressive, you know, Like I've had people,
Speaker 3: some friends call me that I'm like, this is weird,
Speaker 3: like me asking them, I'm a hey, like I get it,
Speaker 3: I appreciate it, but I'm just like, what is it
Speaker 3: about right now?
Speaker 1: That was different than all the other times?
Speaker 3: Besides that businesses are getting looted and protested, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean. Obviously, I know that we've were at
Speaker 3: a breaking point obviously, but like I just don't I
Speaker 3: don't know. I don't feel like it's my job to
Speaker 3: educate you on why this is fucked up and how
Speaker 3: to explain it to your white.
Speaker 4: Friends, especially when I'm I'm experiencing this like firsthand. These
Speaker 4: are these are like, these are things that I've experienced
Speaker 4: for I'm exposed to my whole life, and now that
Speaker 4: you come in and you want my explanation, I don't
Speaker 4: want to be your token black friend that has to
Speaker 4: explain like basic shit, don't call me.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's up to everybody.
Speaker 6: It's up to everyone in that situation to determine how
Speaker 6: much they want to take on.
Speaker 3: Have you gotten those calls and like how are you
Speaker 3: dealing with them? Because I feel like every black person
Speaker 3: has gotten that call. Do you want to go this
Speaker 3: time around. I've never gotten these calls before, ever before,
Speaker 3: But this time I'm not getting I mean, we've had
Speaker 3: it on our platform, like like women reaching out who
Speaker 3: have black sons or you know, white women and black
Speaker 3: sons and stuff. How do we talk about race with
Speaker 3: our kids? But like not not not. My closest friends have.
Speaker 1: Asked me, how do I discuss this?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 1: So, how do you deal with that?
Speaker 6: Oh, your closest friends, Yeah, I'm assuming are white.
Speaker 5: Thereby proving my one friend, my one friend.
Speaker 2: I was like, no, you have a white friend friend?
Speaker 3: Yo?
Speaker 5: Interesting?
Speaker 1: Interesting, No, she said the majority. I said, I don't.
Speaker 3: My majority of my friends are not white. They're not,
Speaker 3: she said, the majority.
Speaker 6: I'm first of all, we look uh no, yeah, of
Speaker 6: course I've got those calls.
Speaker 5: I think you know, it's on the case by case basis.
Speaker 5: Number one.
Speaker 6: If there's somebody that I feel like this is fucking
Speaker 6: with me, then you know, getting and my energy, you
Speaker 6: know what I mean. But if it's somebody who actually
Speaker 6: has real substantive questions about what we see going on
Speaker 6: in our world, I don't feel like it's my duty
Speaker 6: to do that. I don't feel like I have to
Speaker 6: do it, but most of the time, like I'll let
Speaker 6: somebody bend my ear on it, just because I think
Speaker 6: it's important for people to have the information that comes
Speaker 6: from the right sources.
Speaker 5: But listen, for.
Speaker 6: Anybody that's tired of explaining shit, I get it, it's
Speaker 6: on you. I think the reason why a lot of
Speaker 6: people are asking questions now is because despite the fact
Speaker 6: that we've been going through this, what you have to
Speaker 6: understand is mainstream America looks at this as a significant
Speaker 6: degree of peril that they've never been in before. We've
Speaker 6: seen uprisings, we've seen marches, we've seen protests.
Speaker 5: What we haven't seen is the entire country on fire.
Speaker 6: At the same time, the very fabric of America kind
Speaker 6: of being threatened. Like, for example, right now, you can't
Speaker 6: really tell me or can't demonstrate to me the authority
Speaker 6: of the police right now, because what this moment has
Speaker 6: really demonstrated more than anything else is that ninety percent
Speaker 6: of the authority that police have we give to them. Yeah,
Speaker 6: they're they're they're outnumbered by such a significant degree that
Speaker 6: if one day we were to say we're not listening
Speaker 6: to anything that you say, we would lose people. But
Speaker 6: at the same time, there would really be nothing that
Speaker 6: they could do. So what people are asking themselves right
Speaker 6: now is what have we gotten from the unexplained, unspoken
Speaker 6: social contract that we've signed with the police department. Whereas
Speaker 6: we don't go around fucking things up and we listen
Speaker 6: to them, what have we gotten for that?
Speaker 5: And if all we get is death? Then why should
Speaker 5: we listen?
Speaker 6: And until society is able to answer that fundamental question,
Speaker 6: we're gonna see this continue in some form or fashion.
Speaker 3: It's true, I agree, can I It's like, how do
Speaker 3: I add to this?
Speaker 2: Burn this shit up? I don't like. I mean, I
Speaker 2: went out. I went out this weekend. I went out twice.
Speaker 4: I went out in downtown and then I went out
Speaker 4: to the action.
Speaker 2: In Beverly Hills on Melrose.
Speaker 4: And You're absolutely true, there is nothing. Though they weren't
Speaker 4: doing shit. I had a grand ole time. There was
Speaker 4: a lot of community. I think when I was watching
Speaker 4: the news while Simu is simultaneously driving through the neighborhoods,
Speaker 4: pulling up, getting out. And I will tell you this, like,
Speaker 4: first of all, it wasn't just us. It wasn't just
Speaker 4: black people. There's a lot of Latinos there's a lot
Speaker 4: of like, I saw a mix of everyone. And when
Speaker 4: I say, there was just pure love, Like, yo, what's up?
Speaker 4: Black lives matter? You want a shot? Sure, I didn't
Speaker 4: pay for it anymore. You want this bottle?
Speaker 1: Sure?
Speaker 2: Fuck this shit up? And you know what?
Speaker 4: And I had this conversation with one of my non
Speaker 4: black friends. It was brief because I don't have a
Speaker 4: lot of patience and it was you know about you know,
Speaker 4: the small businesses that you know, they may not be
Speaker 4: able to feed their families after this looting.
Speaker 2: That could be true, that's a possibility. Probably not. If
Speaker 2: you have a business, especially a.
Speaker 4: Brick and mortar, you likely have insurance for every item
Speaker 4: that's in that place. And unfortunately, I think a lot
Speaker 4: of those business owners and I saw some people of color,
Speaker 4: you know, owned businesses, you know, and when I'm sure
Speaker 4: it was placed there conveniently sometimes.
Speaker 2: La, I mean.
Speaker 4: The people whose smaller businesses got fucked up. This issue
Speaker 4: may not have been an issue to you at all
Speaker 4: had that not happened to your business, and you may
Speaker 4: not have a good taste in your mouth about it now.
Speaker 2: But I give a fuck.
Speaker 4: I don't this this, this this is happening only as
Speaker 4: a cause and effect of other shit happening. And like
Speaker 4: you said, Van, when we don't do anything, we've waited
Speaker 4: around for this. I'm not saying this is like to
Speaker 4: be the end all, be all, the fucking solution.
Speaker 2: But I don't.
Speaker 4: I don't have sympathy for anyone because no one has
Speaker 4: had sympathy for me and mine.
Speaker 2: And every time this shit happens, this is.
Speaker 4: The first time everybody's all up in arms because it's
Speaker 4: brought to your for your your fucking uh doorst door set.
Speaker 4: And I kept hearing repeatedly on the news, this bitch
Speaker 4: kept saying, Ah, these businesses, they haven't sold anything in
Speaker 4: three months, and now look at this. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was out there like.
Speaker 2: I was screaming.
Speaker 4: I was howling out the window like a fucking I
Speaker 4: was in it to win it, and I and I
Speaker 4: felt I felt good about it, and I felt community,
Speaker 4: and I felt like everybody was there on the same accord.
Speaker 4: We're angry. If you don't want to listen, do you
Speaker 4: hear me now? I saw a sign do you hear
Speaker 4: us now? And I was like, yeah, do you and
Speaker 4: and that and that, and there was police just literally
Speaker 4: standing around when people were taking shit and breaking shit
Speaker 4: and they could do nothing about it.
Speaker 2: And it was it dawned on me that that's true.
Speaker 2: There's power and numbers.
Speaker 4: But also the truth of the matter is, which scares me,
Speaker 4: because I'm a fucking conspiracy theorist, is what if they
Speaker 4: come and.
Speaker 2: Bomb all this shit because they can too, Like.
Speaker 4: They have the force and the means to kill a
Speaker 4: great a lot of people, and they've shown us time
Speaker 4: and time again they don't give a fuck. Morality is
Speaker 4: not their main their main squeeze, nor has it ever
Speaker 4: been humanity that doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: So I mean, are there There's obviously been.
Speaker 4: People planning stuff to like entite, you know, and fake
Speaker 4: looters and all this other shit that exists, and we
Speaker 4: have to be aware of that too. But in the meantime,
Speaker 4: I mean, I don't really feel any sympathy.
Speaker 1: Oh go, I was gonna say.
Speaker 3: I think historically it's been shown that unless you use force,
Speaker 3: shit doesn't change. I mean, being quiet, especially when you're
Speaker 3: black or a person of color, sitting back and waiting
Speaker 3: for the laws to do.
Speaker 1: What they mut that they will has never worked.
Speaker 2: I mean, we said we should do that too, but
Speaker 2: do it all?
Speaker 3: I just mean like money talks and fucking up some shit.
Speaker 3: I inevitably, I hope, I pray, I hope it will.
Speaker 3: I hope it'll change something. But when I was saying today,
Speaker 3: like when I was called when I called Van today
Speaker 3: and he asked me how I was doing, and I
Speaker 3: told him I felt hopeless, it was more so because
Speaker 3: I felt like I support everything that's happening in the
Speaker 3: streets and the protesting and all those things. I'm just wondering,
Speaker 3: like after that, what then, how do we mobilize?
Speaker 5: What?
Speaker 1: How do we change the house we didn't build? You
Speaker 1: know what I mean? It has to be on them,
Speaker 1: like it just has.
Speaker 2: To be burnt down to the ground and started over that.
Speaker 1: But also that does they have enough money to rebuild
Speaker 1: that shit? Yeah, it's endless. So how do we how
Speaker 1: does it change? Is my question?
Speaker 6: Yeah, so little quick hit, little quick history nugget here,
Speaker 6: Like let's say we go way back hundreds of years ago, right,
Speaker 6: you know you have like American colonists. You know, people
Speaker 6: come from Great Britain wherever they come, they settle here
Speaker 6: in America, right, fifteen sixteen hundreds they come here to
Speaker 6: sell in America. Well over a couple of generations. Something
Speaker 6: starts to happen. Right, the people that are here on
Speaker 6: the mainland of America, they become Americans, like they become
Speaker 6: something different than the people that govern them in England. Right,
Speaker 6: there's an ocean separating them. They start to talk different,
Speaker 6: walk different, think different, or want different things than the
Speaker 6: people that were over them, Right, King.
Speaker 5: George or whomever.
Speaker 6: That's who the king was when the rebellion started, but
Speaker 6: all the kings before then, they start to think different
Speaker 6: than them.
Speaker 5: What they then.
Speaker 6: Start to ask As their culture deviates away from the
Speaker 6: culture that governs them and dominates them, they start to
Speaker 6: ask for more representation for the specific way that they
Speaker 6: look at the world, the specific struggles that they're going through,
Speaker 6: and the specific things that happen in their lives. They
Speaker 6: want to be heard. No taxation without representation. That means, Hey,
Speaker 6: we don't want to just pay you and then not
Speaker 6: have a voice in what goes on with us. That
Speaker 6: doesn't work for us. If we're paying taxes and we're
Speaker 6: sort of participating in citizenry the way that we should,
Speaker 6: we want to have a voice that we want to
Speaker 6: be protected. So that doesn't happen for them, right, And
Speaker 6: skirmishes jump off. But how do those people really make
Speaker 6: their presence felt and begin what would end up turning
Speaker 6: into America. Well, what they do is they take tea
Speaker 6: and they dumping into the Boston harbor, right the Boston
Speaker 6: Tea Party. They destroy the number one cash the number
Speaker 6: one cash money maker of trade between them and Great Britain.
Speaker 6: They show that they can economically hurt them, economically cripple them.
Speaker 6: They throw things, they destroy stuff. This country was birthed
Speaker 6: in rebellion. It was birthed by people who were asserting
Speaker 6: the power and the voice of their own culture after
Speaker 6: they were left choiceless. So anyone telling you that what's
Speaker 6: happening now is an.
Speaker 1: American the foundation of America.
Speaker 6: It's literally the most American thing that could possibly exist, besides,
Speaker 6: of course, slavery. So in any of this stuff, this
Speaker 6: is nothing new. The question becomes, to your point, what
Speaker 6: it is that we want?
Speaker 5: Well, the first thing that we.
Speaker 6: Have to do is make sure that everybody is listening.
Speaker 6: So this is in steps. So now that everyone is listening,
Speaker 6: we have to have number one, a comprehensive review in
Speaker 6: policing in this country, whether or not we need to
Speaker 6: defund police Department where the money, Whether whether or not
Speaker 6: we need to separate police unions from political power in
Speaker 6: this country. All of these structural changes are changes that
Speaker 6: we are going to have to demand, and we're going
Speaker 6: to have to pay attention to which group of politicians
Speaker 6: steps up and addresses these concerns.
Speaker 5: Now, it doesn't matter to me, It wouldn't matter right
Speaker 5: now if.
Speaker 6: Trump abolished the police. I'm not prepared to vote for
Speaker 6: him no matter what he does. However, the political power
Speaker 6: of not just black Americans, because it's not black people
Speaker 6: against white people here, it's everyone against racists. So the
Speaker 6: system that we've talked about, to Meela's point, can no
Speaker 6: longer stand.
Speaker 5: It's untenable the way we've been living. It can't go on.
Speaker 5: It's like over now.
Speaker 6: And if people don't really see that movement's being made
Speaker 6: in that direction, this will get worse. It's very important
Speaker 6: that Americans understand there's never been a nation that's lasted forever.
Speaker 5: Never.
Speaker 6: If we were having this conversation in nineteen eighty nine,
Speaker 6: the Soviet Union was the second most powerful nation in
Speaker 6: the entire world. There's never been a nation that's last forever.
Speaker 6: If you want America, you might have to be willing
Speaker 6: to watch it change and help it evolve.
Speaker 5: And we'll see if the country's well ready to do that.
Speaker 3: I think the scariest part, I don't know if we
Speaker 3: have leadership that it's willing to do that.
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't have faith in our election process. I don't
Speaker 3: have faith in the idea that Trump is not going
Speaker 3: to be We.
Speaker 2: Can't have faith. That's when a system can't exist.
Speaker 4: We can't have faith in a system that's been falsely
Speaker 4: presented as a democracy and it's clearly not. Just like
Speaker 4: I said, this country is birth and rebellion and then
Speaker 4: brought us as slaves and said make us strong and
Speaker 4: give us free labor for hundreds of years, and the
Speaker 4: second that you know, and then like, oh, but we
Speaker 4: gave you freedom, and now you're fine. Now you can
Speaker 4: get educated, Now you're fine. The fact of the matter
Speaker 4: is this is this country has been built on the
Speaker 4: blood and sweat and tears of anti democracy. Literally one
Speaker 4: third of a human being being looked at as property
Speaker 4: that it's literally been birth on some bullshit.
Speaker 2: And then we're trying to.
Speaker 4: Fix or upgrade a system. But the system needs to disappear.
Speaker 4: It has to start over. The problem is you're right,
Speaker 4: is their leadership is the leadership in the Black community
Speaker 4: not strongly, no, because the system has made it so
Speaker 4: that that to have.
Speaker 3: I think there is leadership in the black community. I
Speaker 3: just think we are not united.
Speaker 4: Really well, leadership won't There won't be successful leadership if
Speaker 4: there's not a united front, if there's not community. But
Speaker 4: they've done such a grand job at dismantling our community
Speaker 4: and love for one.
Speaker 2: Another and love for ourselves.
Speaker 4: That is really where the like it's hard to be cohesive,
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 1: I think it's that also paired with just the time
Speaker 1: that we live in.
Speaker 3: Like one of my biggest fears even when before this's
Speaker 3: happened with even with the pandemic or whatever, was that
Speaker 3: like nothing would change because we are a society that kind.
Speaker 2: Of just like sheeople, where we just like it's we
Speaker 2: move on so quickly.
Speaker 1: Once it's done, it's done, it's over with.
Speaker 3: Just like just like all of the deaths that have
Speaker 3: happened in our community, they're so important for two weeks
Speaker 3: and then it's over with.
Speaker 1: Like white people, get it out, get it out, get
Speaker 1: it out.
Speaker 5: Do you make no mistake about it?
Speaker 6: This right here would be different if there were other
Speaker 6: things to do right And I.
Speaker 3: Think and I think, I think that being at home
Speaker 3: really has highlights. Really why because my question too for myself,
Speaker 3: and I was asking myself, why is this different? Why
Speaker 3: is this different? This isn't the this isn't the first
Speaker 3: time we've seen a black man murdered on camera by
Speaker 3: a police officer. You know, this is why is this different?
Speaker 3: And I think to your point, a lot of it
Speaker 3: is is because we're home and we actually I feel
Speaker 3: like I think our minds are changing where we are
Speaker 3: more present people I worry about, like I don't want
Speaker 3: to say the younger generation, like I'm so much older,
Speaker 3: but like I don't want it just feels like everything's
Speaker 3: always moving so quickly that I just wonder, like, how
Speaker 3: are we We have to be relentless with this ship.
Speaker 3: We have to and this has like it can't dissipate.
Speaker 4: It's hard to be relentless because it's such heavy shit
Speaker 4: that we're we're exposed to and discussing in our community
Speaker 4: all the time, and for other people it's like it
Speaker 4: could be a season and then it's passed. We've let
Speaker 4: them get it out and let its pass. But for
Speaker 4: us it is it becomes exhausting. But we have no
Speaker 4: choice but to be relentless, just like that conversation we
Speaker 4: have with somebody about like Sean, like seeing these images,
Speaker 4: these images of our people being murdered all the time,
Speaker 4: how does that trauma affect us?
Speaker 2: Absolutely?
Speaker 1: It does.
Speaker 4: But do we have any other option but to continuously.
Speaker 2: Like let people know the reality.
Speaker 4: Because the truth of the matter is you even still
Speaker 4: have the option to watch the ship all the way.
Speaker 2: To the end or not.
Speaker 4: My other friend was like, yeah, I had to make
Speaker 4: my dad watch the video. I asked him had he
Speaker 4: seen it? He hadn't seen it yet, because they can
Speaker 4: people can assume they probably weren't compliant, because that's how
Speaker 4: they think of us, because but.
Speaker 2: We all know that not to be true.
Speaker 4: But you have to, like we have to continuously continuously
Speaker 4: go hard or else, and you know what else scares me.
Speaker 4: I don't know if you guys know that this was
Speaker 4: the actual like reunion or like it's fell on the
Speaker 4: same date as the Tulsa the Tulsa in Oklahoma where
Speaker 4: there was like black Wall Street, so it was like
Speaker 4: May thirty, first, first and seconds, like the same exact
Speaker 4: time period, which is very interesting because I think there's
Speaker 4: like a planet that's in the house that's closest to
Speaker 4: the Earth that also was at that time. I'm not
Speaker 4: sure what planet. Someone said it at the barbecue, but
Speaker 4: you know, there was a Black Wall Street in Oklahoma
Speaker 4: that we had our own banks, our own postal systems,
Speaker 4: like our own community.
Speaker 2: Basically we were thriving, and obviously, for obvious reasons, they
Speaker 2: didn't like that.
Speaker 4: They came and killed hundreds of people and bombed the
Speaker 4: city so that it would be hard like that. That
Speaker 4: is really the truth of the matter is is that
Speaker 4: community within like becoming cohesive that way is what is
Speaker 4: scaring them the most. And that's what scares me. The
Speaker 4: more cohesive become, the more we get allies, the more
Speaker 4: they're going to plot against us to do whatever they
Speaker 4: can to dismantle that. I know it, because we can't
Speaker 4: trust these people. That's who started slavery, that's who supported
Speaker 4: this dialogue.
Speaker 2: So that's why I think it's that.
Speaker 4: Important to have a dialogue completely outside of the media,
Speaker 4: completely outside of this structure, because it's failed us every time.
Speaker 6: Yeah, what happened in places like Black Wall Street and
Speaker 6: then Tulsa, and even in Atlanta to a degree with
Speaker 6: the race riots that they had there. Black Wall Street
Speaker 6: was an extermination of an entire community, very intentional one
Speaker 6: done by people who weren't doing.
Speaker 5: As well as what they were there was.
Speaker 6: There are incidents like that that happened through violence. And
Speaker 6: then there are just other things ways that Americas maintained
Speaker 6: a status quo. Obviously, discrimination, redlining, all of that stuff,
Speaker 6: hiring practices, all of those things, and some of them
Speaker 6: are big, major things, and some of them are little
Speaker 6: bitty microaggressions that you can't quite put your finger on,
Speaker 6: Like we can't reach into people's hearts and change their
Speaker 6: minds about black people.
Speaker 5: And I'm not interested in it.
Speaker 6: If you don't, if you don't fuck with me, if
Speaker 6: you don't think that I'm great because I'm black, that's fine,
Speaker 6: that's your business. But what you can't do is deny
Speaker 6: me rights that are guaranteed to me, that my ancestors
Speaker 6: bled for and earned more than any other group, that
Speaker 6: I won't stand for. And if I don't have a
Speaker 6: government that respects my sovereignty and my ability to assert
Speaker 6: those rights, and that government has to either change or
Speaker 6: fault So what I would say to anyone is kind
Speaker 6: of like, you know it, Like this is advanced citizen
Speaker 6: right here in America.
Speaker 5: You gotta want it bad.
Speaker 6: Like to a lot of the problems that happened is
Speaker 6: that for the last generation, we fail to be engaged citizens.
Speaker 6: We fail to stand up and be counted, not just
Speaker 6: in terms of when there's something that happens like this
Speaker 6: I'm talking about in other things that we should do
Speaker 6: in terms of being involved what they've there's been a
Speaker 6: narrative that's been handed down to us that there's nothing
Speaker 6: we can do to change our circumstances, just fuck it, right,
Speaker 6: And I think that we have to hold each other
Speaker 6: accountable for what it is that we want in order
Speaker 6: to have thrive in communities. And when I say thrive
Speaker 6: in communities, I mean black communities that have hospitals, banks
Speaker 6: and schools, things like that, real self contained communities where
Speaker 6: we can check up on each other. Right, But in
Speaker 6: order to do that, we're not just gonna be able
Speaker 6: to It's not gonna stop at marching or protesting or
Speaker 6: what I call punitive economic damage. Punitive economic damage economic
Speaker 6: damage because people are upset. So this is puted if
Speaker 6: we're not just going out there and going crazy. It's
Speaker 6: not gonna stop there. It's gonna have to continue with
Speaker 6: a structural and mental realignment of what we expect to
Speaker 6: get from the country and what we really should be
Speaker 6: expected to get.
Speaker 5: From the country.
Speaker 6: Is more than a lot of people understand what I'm saying,
Speaker 6: more than a lot of people, because there are very
Speaker 6: few groups, no matter what they say, that can say
Speaker 6: that they built America, that they gave America an economic
Speaker 6: heads start to compete with the rest of the world.
Speaker 6: All of that's do to hundreds of years of free labor,
Speaker 6: and then even after that sharecropping, and then even after that,
Speaker 6: Jim Crow, our ancestors earn it. And if we too
Speaker 6: pussy not pussy, if we're too weak and soft to
Speaker 6: go out there and deliver on their blood sacrifice, then
Speaker 6: it's on us.
Speaker 5: True, and we got to do that. Now, we got
Speaker 5: to keep doing that.
Speaker 2: I think that's true.
Speaker 4: And I think that's the part that hurts the most
Speaker 4: because I think I can say I haven't done enough,
Speaker 4: especially for someone who's a mother, who has a child,
Speaker 4: who you know, like because it does feel helpless, It
Speaker 4: does feel like we're to start because like you said,
Speaker 4: there's all on so many levels. There's so many levels
Speaker 4: of this shit. You know, on the very you know,
Speaker 4: like there's people who pretend they're like they're not, but
Speaker 4: you know, I'm sure and the comfort of their white homes.
Speaker 4: There are comments being said and no one's being corrected.
Speaker 4: I'm sure in the corporate office, if you know, fucking
Speaker 4: Tyrone may be more qualified than Joe, and you know,
Speaker 4: Becky might know it, she might not say shit because
Speaker 4: it may jeopardize her job. It takes for every little
Speaker 4: It's such a fucking cancer. It feels so huge to demolish.
Speaker 4: And it's not even just in the United States. It's globally.
Speaker 4: They've tried to shit on us. They like rape Africa.
Speaker 4: China is raping Africa.
Speaker 2: As we speak. It's just a global pandemic and it's
Speaker 2: been going on for a long time.
Speaker 4: And I think that's why it even heightens, like just
Speaker 4: because coronavirus exists and now this exists and there's just
Speaker 4: like this heightened like thing. But for black people it's
Speaker 4: like I was, I was chirping off of Corona. I was,
Speaker 4: But I'm like, try being black right every day, it's
Speaker 4: you might die. It's Corona every day. So and then
Speaker 4: you add this stress and these levels, you know, and
Speaker 4: it's just an interesting it's very interesting, and I'm over
Speaker 4: it and I'm ready for it to be over. And
Speaker 4: I honestly feel like by any means necessary, you know,
Speaker 4: I don't feel like people understand anything but blood or money.
Speaker 1: How do you, like? How are you doing? Man?
Speaker 5: Like?
Speaker 3: I cause, like you know, I said, like I checked,
Speaker 3: I've been checking in on like the black men in
Speaker 3: my life.
Speaker 1: I'm like, how do you feel?
Speaker 3: How do you how are you? What's your mind? What's
Speaker 3: your mental state? What's your mind?
Speaker 6: Like you know, it's you know what the crazy thing
Speaker 6: is is that I'm well, like this is familiar. The
Speaker 6: disease fucked me up just because I was like, yo,
Speaker 6: like you know, I just didn't handle it well.
Speaker 5: Like I started watching World War Ze.
Speaker 2: Yeah I did that, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: And I'm like, I'm tripping with washing. I was washing.
Speaker 6: I washed my hands so much to a point to
Speaker 6: where my skin was cracking, you know what I mean.
Speaker 6: Like I was checking my temperature fifteen times a day,
Speaker 6: the whole nine.
Speaker 5: So that didn't this though, this is familiar, This is the.
Speaker 6: Reality that I already knew that I lived inside of.
Speaker 6: These are contructs that I was already these are walls
Speaker 6: that I was familiar with. And also this was something
Speaker 6: that there was no way wasn't going to happen. This
Speaker 6: is inevitability. So what I think my function is right
Speaker 6: now is to make sure that people remember it's okay,
Speaker 6: we're going to get through this, but we gotta be
Speaker 6: ready to see this through to the end. And that's
Speaker 6: not necessarily a violent end. Any store owners out there. Obviously,
Speaker 6: my heart goes out to anyone that lost any business,
Speaker 6: But what I'm telling you is that the issues are
Speaker 6: so much bigger than what you could possibly imagine, and
Speaker 6: there's so much deeper and the pain is so much deeper.
Speaker 5: There are things that me and some of my friends
Speaker 5: are doing in order.
Speaker 6: To make sure that people that need help and relief
Speaker 6: to rebuild after all of this is over will get
Speaker 6: that help. In that relief, private funds, different things, money
Speaker 6: that you can come to. I'll come out there and
Speaker 6: I'll help you paint over graffiti. I'll do the work
Speaker 6: to undo the unrest that just happened. But I'm not
Speaker 6: gonna act like what's happening on the streets. America shouldn't
Speaker 6: have been able to see coming, and America shouldn't have
Speaker 6: addressed generations ago. Okay, So that's the thing with me
Speaker 6: as far as I'm concerned, I'm okay, Like I'm trying.
Speaker 6: I'm trying to not just protect my energy, I'm trying
Speaker 6: to amplify it. I'm trying to stay engaged, trying to
Speaker 6: stay in and know, and I'm trying to make sure
Speaker 6: that everybody realizes that as long as we lean on
Speaker 6: each other, we won't fall.
Speaker 5: But we have to lean on each other right now.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I took time out because I realized, I think
Speaker 4: as black people, we go through shit so regularly, especially
Speaker 4: in this in this space where it's just a part
Speaker 4: of life that we you know, we're dealing with trauma
Speaker 4: that we're not even aware of. And it dawned in me,
Speaker 4: like I did have like a therapy thing happened for
Speaker 4: like two months.
Speaker 2: Like like a year ago, and I was just like,
Speaker 2: I took the.
Speaker 4: Time to go and use better help, go and sign
Speaker 4: up for a therapist, go through the thing like even
Speaker 4: And I liked it because it gives you the option
Speaker 4: to be like, do you want a woman, someone of
Speaker 4: color or LGBTQ issues matter. Are you religious? Are you spiritual?
Speaker 4: You know, like these these things that like we probably
Speaker 4: you can choose and not feel uncomfortable about asking because
Speaker 4: it's on the computer and I'm really just taking the
Speaker 4: opportunity to be like, I may need to talk about
Speaker 4: some shit because it's not healthy to be carrying around
Speaker 4: this anger and this stress. And it can and it
Speaker 4: can be directed incorrectly.
Speaker 3: It bleeds into all the aspects of your life. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it starts to bleed into it. I mean all the trauma.
Speaker 4: Like it's so much anxiety. There's so much anxiety. Like
Speaker 4: even thinking about the conversation I'm gonna have to have
Speaker 4: with Luna and like asking her do you want to
Speaker 4: go protest?
Speaker 2: And she's like what is that? And like, you know,
Speaker 2: protests fight for our rights.
Speaker 4: She's just looking at me like I'm fucking crazy and shit,
Speaker 4: but it's just it saddens me, you know, and I'm
Speaker 4: gonna I have to talk to someone to have the
Speaker 4: conversation to figure this shit out, and like you said,
Speaker 4: it takes leaning in and using the resources and really
Speaker 4: first admitting that this shit hurts and it's not it
Speaker 4: should not be a part of life.
Speaker 1: This is not normal. It's not normal. It's not no.
Speaker 3: And I think I think, you know, we we've I've
Speaker 3: always been an advocate for therapy, and I think unfortunately
Speaker 3: in our community, I feel like it doesn't feel like
Speaker 3: an option, it doesn't feel like it's affordable, it doesn't
Speaker 3: feel like we're supposed to be talking about our business.
Speaker 3: But there's a lot to mean to unpack aside from
Speaker 3: just daily life shit. The trauma of like seeing people
Speaker 3: die daily. Are people die daily? That's for nothing, it's traumatic.
Speaker 3: White people don't see videos of their people dying on
Speaker 3: Instagram and every month.
Speaker 4: And then read comments how people have the privilege you're saying, oh,
Speaker 4: they weren't being they weren't being compliant.
Speaker 5: Mm hmm.
Speaker 2: That's traumatic for me.
Speaker 4: The fact that you responded this way, that there are
Speaker 4: people that are seeing what i'm seeing, watching the same
Speaker 4: ship that I'm seeing, and you have the fucking audacity
Speaker 4: and privilege to say some.
Speaker 2: Ship that it is just not there. That is what
Speaker 2: really fucking scares me.
Speaker 6: Yeah, well remember now everyone take breaks, Yeah, take breaks.
Speaker 5: Well, I don't watch It's not like you're not you're not.
Speaker 1: You have to take breaks. I'm not.
Speaker 5: I mean, look, I watch.
Speaker 6: George Floyd video just because, can you guys hear me? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 6: I said, I watched George Floyd video after a watch,
Speaker 6: just because it just kept it was just pounding me
Speaker 6: boom boom.
Speaker 1: I tried to not watch at first. I can't. I can't.
Speaker 3: I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. I already
Speaker 3: know I know how it ends. But then I just
Speaker 3: I had I had to.
Speaker 1: I had to.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, I had to. I had to see it,
Speaker 6: and I wish it never happened. But as far as
Speaker 6: the video, I needed to see it. I needed to
Speaker 6: see it to understand, to to to really be engaged.
Speaker 6: But you know, Sean Sean, what Sean is doing is
Speaker 6: is uh and what other people that put the videos
Speaker 6: out and stuff like that, what they're doing is valuable
Speaker 6: work for a lot of people. I know that there
Speaker 6: are a lot of different opinions on on on Sean himself,
Speaker 6: but he he, there's valuable work, valuable stuff that people
Speaker 6: do as far as putting those videos out. But that's
Speaker 6: not for me, Like my brain doesn't really work in
Speaker 6: a way that I can ingest all of that. What
Speaker 6: I just needed to know is where my guns need
Speaker 6: to go in terms of like my my my mental weaponry,
Speaker 6: and my physical presence. But I cannot exist in some
Speaker 6: of the worlds that I exist in and just watch
Speaker 6: black people being destroyed every day.
Speaker 5: I can't do it. I'll freak out.
Speaker 6: Y'all saw I fucking freaked out on the people last year,
Speaker 6: so like like I'll like like.
Speaker 5: I'll freak out. I can't, Like I can't do it.
Speaker 6: It's like it's not mentally, I don't have the restraint
Speaker 6: and I don't have the Uh really, my my bowl
Speaker 6: isn't that big. I gotta empty stuff out of my
Speaker 6: head sometimes. But look, all of this shit should like
Speaker 6: you guys are mothers, and you guys are very proud,
Speaker 6: and you guys are so it's just fun to watch
Speaker 6: people be loving parents. Like it's always fun to watch
Speaker 6: people love it because at first you get annoyed when
Speaker 6: you don't have kids.
Speaker 5: You're like, hey, on the reil, stop it with the
Speaker 5: kiddie bullshit.
Speaker 6: Like it's like it's like whatever, But after a while,
Speaker 6: just you do after a while, seeing someone pour so
Speaker 6: much of their self and their existence into somebody else's
Speaker 6: happiness and somebody else's growth and somebody else's evolution and protection.
Speaker 5: You can't help but be enamored with it.
Speaker 6: You can't help but be drawn to people who care
Speaker 6: that much about somebody else. And that's why it's important
Speaker 6: for people to really do the work to make a
Speaker 6: better world, because as crazy as it sounds, we've all failed.
Speaker 6: If in twenty years it's still hashtags floating around like this,
Speaker 6: this could either be a time in America that we
Speaker 6: looked back on, or this could be it and it's
Speaker 6: up to us.
Speaker 3: And I you know, people always say, you know when
Speaker 3: your parent, like you want to leave your kid to
Speaker 3: a better world, or you worry about the world that
Speaker 3: you're leaving them too, And that has that I feel like,
Speaker 3: has been the source of so much anxiety for me,
Speaker 3: Like I'm really scared about that. It's not like oh,
Speaker 3: girls are wearing like thongs on the street, or like
Speaker 3: what kind of world am I leaving her too? Like
Speaker 3: people are torking on the camera. It's more like I'm like,
Speaker 3: is there gonna be a world?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 1: Am I cool leaving you here?
Speaker 2: You might have to come.
Speaker 3: I feel guilty you might have to come, And yeah,
Speaker 3: do I need any more kids, Like I want to
Speaker 3: see how this plays out first, Like it's just it's
Speaker 3: a scary, scary world, and like yeah, like my anxiety
Speaker 3: has been bigger more than ever, which is why I
Speaker 3: take mushrooms now.
Speaker 4: Yeah, honestly, mushrooms have help. You should try them. I
Speaker 4: try them then, for really you.
Speaker 6: Should telling me about that. How do you do the mushrooms?
Speaker 6: Like what do you I've never I've never taken that before,
Speaker 6: Like what do.
Speaker 2: You do well them? You can do differently.
Speaker 4: You could just crush them up a little and put
Speaker 4: them in like some yogurt with granola. That's the best
Speaker 4: way because I taste not good. Or you can get
Speaker 4: them in chocolate form, or you can get them in
Speaker 4: little capsules. But however way you get them.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I've just had to kind of like depart from my reality,
Speaker 3: from my reality here, and it's like not that I'm
Speaker 3: like when I take them.
Speaker 1: I'm like I'm somewhere else. That's not what it is.
Speaker 3: It's or so like I don't know I'm able to
Speaker 3: separate them from my anxiety and still be like Okay, this,
Speaker 3: I'm present, this is what's happening. This is not what's happening.
Speaker 3: This is not important. My anxiety is not me and
Speaker 3: like that, but that idea that leaving my child into
Speaker 3: this world of like not knowing, like are you gonna
Speaker 3: It's like.
Speaker 1: I don't know, Like I don't even know.
Speaker 4: We have to raise soldiers, but then we have to
Speaker 4: be your soldier in or to raise a soldier, And
Speaker 4: that's where we need to start, because nothing will change,
Speaker 4: nothing will change unless we start, and then they won't
Speaker 4: even understand what that means until we start, you know.
Speaker 7: There, we just have to do better.
Speaker 6: I mean no, I mean no, I mean we gotta
Speaker 6: do us. They gotta do better. We just gotta do us.
Speaker 6: And when I say do us, I mean listen, man,
Speaker 6: I know that there's a lot of penny bickering that
Speaker 6: goes on between black Americans sometimes, and a lot of
Speaker 6: it has to do with sort of how things have been.
Speaker 5: You know, there's not a lot of slots. We fight
Speaker 5: for the.
Speaker 6: Same slots, you know what I mean, if it's you
Speaker 6: walk into a room like I never forget when I
Speaker 6: was at TMZ, there was actually a point where you know,
Speaker 6: I had made my sort of identity as the black
Speaker 6: guy on the show.
Speaker 5: And so because I was the black guy on the show.
Speaker 5: I never forget.
Speaker 6: This is one of the moments that I really caught
Speaker 6: myself because I had made like my first year two
Speaker 6: there being a big deal on a TV show or whatever.
Speaker 6: I have made my identity as a black guy show.
Speaker 6: So whenever another black dude walked into TMZ, I'll be like,
Speaker 6: oh shit, Yo, is this nigga better looking? Is he
Speaker 6: gonna be smarter? Is he gonna be like?
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 1: There's not enough room for both.
Speaker 5: Yeah, there's not enough room. And do you know the
Speaker 5: way I dealt with that.
Speaker 6: I dealt with that by fiercely combating that and trying
Speaker 6: to prop up as much as I could anybody black
Speaker 6: that walked into that office because I could not allow myself.
Speaker 6: I was around thirty one or thirty two, then thirty two,
Speaker 6: around forty now, I couldn't allow myself to become the
Speaker 6: nigga that tries to dominate the space wherever he is
Speaker 6: so that no other.
Speaker 5: Black people can get in. I had to exercise that
Speaker 5: out of.
Speaker 6: Me, because that feeling happens because you don't know if
Speaker 6: somebody's gonna come in and kick you to the bet
Speaker 6: because they're not enough voices, they're not enough people.
Speaker 5: But we have to get rid of some of that.
Speaker 6: As far as us, what we do together and how
Speaker 6: we view each other together, as far as some of
Speaker 6: this other structural stuff, it's on them.
Speaker 5: It's on them.
Speaker 6: It's on the white American power structure to decide whether
Speaker 6: or not they want a country or not, whether or
Speaker 6: not they want workers, whether or not they want businesses,
Speaker 6: whether they want a copaestic flow and a sharing of
Speaker 6: American wealth if they don't want that, I.
Speaker 3: Do agree with you, But I also think, and I
Speaker 3: know you say, like we have our own mental like
Speaker 3: things like like what you what you shared with your
Speaker 3: you know your dynamic when you see him and saw
Speaker 3: another black man walk into you know, your your workplace.
Speaker 1: I feel like.
Speaker 3: Black people though, like we kind of like we've been
Speaker 3: so taught that we need white things, Like we don't
Speaker 3: buy black generally. We don't even when we're told this
Speaker 3: is what can help uplift us, even when we see
Speaker 3: white people killing us, we don't do it. It's like
Speaker 3: a habit. And I don't know how you unbreak that habit.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think you chip away at it, but
Speaker 3: it's like, are our Nigga's gonna stop buying Christian Dior
Speaker 3: and this and that to support some other luxury black
Speaker 3: brands to help uplift us and empower us.
Speaker 1: I don't know. So the white people.
Speaker 3: Are always gonna get our money, I mean not always,
Speaker 3: I hope not, but like I don't I don't know
Speaker 3: how that changes.
Speaker 1: They have endless money.
Speaker 4: We have to educate ourselves to recognize how that they're
Speaker 4: economics like there they have to like that's where.
Speaker 2: The power lies.
Speaker 4: And if we make excuses to not buy from one another,
Speaker 4: oh you know, you know so and So's customer service
Speaker 4: is poor, this is slow, this is the technology is low.
Speaker 4: So I'm gonna have to go with this major brand,
Speaker 4: this major brand, this major brand. It does it takes
Speaker 4: for us to educate, you know, to be educated in
Speaker 4: those places. And and I honestly think this all times
Speaker 4: for it to be it could work.
Speaker 2: It should work.
Speaker 4: We are excelling at such like black women specifically business owners,
Speaker 4: you know, like just black in corporate America, and the
Speaker 4: and the rate at which we graduate from college. We
Speaker 4: are blooming even despite clear traps to do otherwise. You know,
Speaker 4: So I think now's the time if anybody. I think
Speaker 4: it's I think you're right. There has to be we
Speaker 4: at some point we have to make decisions because economically
Speaker 4: is where the shit matters.
Speaker 2: Those they care about their pockets, that's all. They give
Speaker 2: a fuck about pockets.
Speaker 3: I mean, because I would love like I mean and
Speaker 3: to your point, like we are blooming in spite of
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. So just imagine if there
Speaker 3: was none of that, the like.
Speaker 4: Well, that's what's scary for them, And that's what that's
Speaker 4: what scary for me, is that as they see as blooming,
Speaker 4: best believe they are working up an antidote, like they
Speaker 4: are trying to fight against that blooming.
Speaker 1: Because it's power.
Speaker 2: It's powerful, my friend.
Speaker 4: Okay, this is another thing, the black friends that are
Speaker 4: saying dumb shit. I think that might be even worse.
Speaker 4: That is really the worst of all. I had a
Speaker 4: friend post some shit. I have not called her since
Speaker 4: I don't know where to begin. I am appalled and
Speaker 4: shocked and annoyed.
Speaker 2: What is she saying?
Speaker 4: I don't something to the effects of, like, if we
Speaker 4: want other races to respect us, we have to like
Speaker 4: respect each other.
Speaker 2: Blah blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 4: I hate the conversation about like black on black crime
Speaker 4: in amongst the conversation on like police brutality, and like
Speaker 4: that shit irritates me. That shit irritates me, And like
Speaker 4: even though that's true, they have there are limited places
Speaker 4: and spaces for you know, there's always been like five
Speaker 4: black actors as long as we've grown up. Maybe there's
Speaker 4: ten now been in the same type of movies.
Speaker 2: And now we're.
Speaker 4: Seeing us in different spaces in different ways, and we're
Speaker 4: weird and we could be there's it's just now giving
Speaker 4: letting us have this these spaces. But I just I
Speaker 4: feel like, really though black people genetically are community loving people. Hey, sister,
Speaker 4: what's up you want? You know, like if I go
Speaker 4: to the hood, I'm happy to walk into this. You know,
Speaker 4: even if someone's like you little skinny ass, you want
Speaker 4: some get her some call of greens?
Speaker 2: Yes please.
Speaker 4: You know, Jamilla can bring home a white boy like
Speaker 4: you know you brought him that that white boy last week.
Speaker 2: Still he's getting a plate.
Speaker 4: No one's disowning niggas for bringing home white people like
Speaker 4: we are despite everything we've been through, I guarant I
Speaker 4: I just feel like we got a lot of love
Speaker 4: to give regardless, and that's crazy that we can even
Speaker 4: exist and thrive and love and feel happy despite but
Speaker 4: like that is really our superpower and like you can't
Speaker 4: take that away from us, and you can per you
Speaker 4: can try, but like that, I don't. I don't believe
Speaker 4: in that. I refuse to believe in that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, look, we we come from a place
Speaker 6: originally where there's more land than our people, and where
Speaker 6: those people understood how their relationship with the land uh
Speaker 6: was important to their existence, and therefore how their relationship
Speaker 6: with each other was important to their existence.
Speaker 5: You know what I mean.
Speaker 6: So you come from a celebratory culture, a culture that
Speaker 6: was advanced in so many different ways in terms of
Speaker 6: science and art, mathematics, but a culture that celebrated life.
Speaker 5: And so even throughout.
Speaker 6: Everything that happened to us when we got here in
Speaker 6: some wilderness where we didn't understand it, We don't know
Speaker 6: nothing about the types of lakes and rivers they got,
Speaker 6: the types of trees, they got, the types of animals
Speaker 6: they got.
Speaker 5: We have no clue. We don't know where we are.
Speaker 2: Our diet as.
Speaker 6: Soon as we got settled, diet, same thing, as soon
Speaker 6: as we got settled.
Speaker 5: The first thing that we started.
Speaker 6: To do was try to find a way to give
Speaker 6: thanks for being who we are.
Speaker 5: It's one of the things that we do.
Speaker 6: When somebody looks at you and they say that, they're saying,
Speaker 6: thank you for being black, thank you for your beauty,
Speaker 6: thank you for what everything that you're doing. They appreciate
Speaker 6: that that has to be translated into the actual foremotion
Speaker 6: that we need to change some of those things. Like
Speaker 6: you were talking earlier about the designer stuff and all
Speaker 6: of that stuff, all of that's American. All of that
Speaker 6: worship of excess and all of that worship of luxury brands.
Speaker 5: And all of that prestige.
Speaker 6: That's us trying to in some way show people that
Speaker 6: us similarly to.
Speaker 5: The American dream. Yeah, that's all American.
Speaker 6: Like the cultures that we came from in Africa were
Speaker 6: much more about sharing. Obviously you had some ridiculously rich people,
Speaker 6: but there are much more about sharing. They were much
Speaker 6: more about each one, teach one, and the village itself
Speaker 6: way more. All of this this peak capitalism, this vicious
Speaker 6: gangster version of it, that's all stuff we learned here,
Speaker 6: all of it. And so the reality is that what
Speaker 6: we have to do as a coaches figure out whether
Speaker 6: or not that works for us, or whether or not
Speaker 6: it doesn't. I would say, personally, the way that we're
Speaker 6: gonna build the strongest Black community, it's not by turning
Speaker 6: our backs on capitalism. It's by engaging in capitalism in
Speaker 6: a different way. We just need some solidarity, and I
Speaker 6: think that is coming, not just between black people. By
Speaker 6: the way, when I'm out of these protests, I've seen
Speaker 6: a vast coalition of diversity. The only thing I'll say is,
Speaker 6: you know, I always worried about the after college syndrome
Speaker 6: because the white kids be the after college syndrome. The
Speaker 6: white kids be down with you all throughout college, and
Speaker 6: they're right when it's time to go out there and
Speaker 6: get a job, they're like, Okay, niggas, I gotta I
Speaker 6: gotta go work at JP Morgan Chase.
Speaker 2: My dad has a friend over.
Speaker 1: There, exactly.
Speaker 5: So I always worry about that.
Speaker 1: But you know, maybe that follows that following.
Speaker 3: That's why I'm looking at my wife friends like Okay, okay, bitch,
Speaker 3: I'll see you. I'm glad you're going go do that,
Speaker 3: write that fight. But how let's see how long you're
Speaker 3: gonna fight this fight? When shit gets real and we
Speaker 3: really need you and we need to we need to
Speaker 3: call Grandpa and we need to call you know, you
Speaker 3: know your granddaddy that has this and that and then
Speaker 3: you know, like access usual. I want you to really
Speaker 3: use your privilege. Like that's the thing, Like you don't
Speaker 3: don't exercise your privilege just by going to a riot,
Speaker 3: texting me asking me if I'm okay, take me to
Speaker 3: Instagram after me like I need anything, you know, all
Speaker 3: that's great. Use your privilege, Use your privilege. That's what
Speaker 3: I want to see. That's really what I want to see.
Speaker 3: That's really what matters to me when I'm when I'm
Speaker 3: when I'm thinking about you know, the people that I know,
Speaker 3: my two white friends, man, I'm just kidding, my only
Speaker 3: two friends. No, just and just and just even celebrities
Speaker 3: and people that have like platforms that are so outraged
Speaker 3: right now, like y'all connected to the to the system,
Speaker 3: to the people that built the house.
Speaker 1: So I don't know what's up. That's how I feel
Speaker 1: about it. Like that's why I'm just like people tell you.
Speaker 2: That that's my biggest issue with like all lives matter,
Speaker 2: we're all on human race.
Speaker 1: When I see pull up.
Speaker 3: When I see people put the posting pull up and
Speaker 3: Instagram and shit, and I've seen it multiple times. I
Speaker 3: don't mean just pull up to the fucking protests. I
Speaker 3: just want to be clear about that because I.
Speaker 1: Feel like that's what that's that's what I'm concerned about.
Speaker 3: Like people, these white people or whatever, non black people
Speaker 3: show up to the protests, feel like they did their
Speaker 3: due diligence.
Speaker 1: They did what they were supposed to do, and that's it.
Speaker 3: And then outside of that, now, you know, I support you.
Speaker 1: You know there's gonna be a lot of that.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's convenient, ship if you got your blinders on.
Speaker 4: If I'm living my happy white life, ship, fuck if
Speaker 4: I'm gonna be over here stressing myself out, you know,
Speaker 4: I'm over here with Daddy's Daddy's money chilling. I mean,
Speaker 4: it's just it's it's hard being black in America. It's
Speaker 4: even hard being black in America in the valley.
Speaker 6: But remember though, like it's gonna be up to us
Speaker 6: to do the work for ourselves. Anything else is just
Speaker 6: a bonus. So if you have somebody else that like, uh,
Speaker 6: you know, it's gonna it's gonna come with you, help
Speaker 6: you and support you.
Speaker 5: That's great, but like you know what you're gonna have
Speaker 5: to do.
Speaker 6: It's like people that get a trainer and think that
Speaker 6: the trainer is gonna lose weight for them. The trainer
Speaker 6: is someone that helped guide you. It's it's a it's
Speaker 6: a it's a it's basically an accessory.
Speaker 5: In this it's still gonna be your effort.
Speaker 6: Your mobilization and a change in your mindset is gonna
Speaker 6: get you where you're trying to go. It's good to
Speaker 6: have allies. It's important to have allies. I would even
Speaker 6: say it's necessary to have allies. But you gotta be
Speaker 6: willing to go it alone too, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, Anyway, all I have to say is vote
Speaker 3: in November.
Speaker 1: I know, like you know.
Speaker 3: That idea that that's really blended in our community that
Speaker 3: your vote doesn't matter that you know, like you said Van, like, oh,
Speaker 3: it just it's just nothing matters. You just kind of
Speaker 3: like go to the wind.
Speaker 2: No, this is how it's always and look it's not.
Speaker 1: We don't have great options. Let's be real.
Speaker 3: We don't have great options, but we have an option, okay,
Speaker 3: and that's when we have to take because it's I
Speaker 3: really like it doesn't just start there at the top.
Speaker 3: It does, but like it trickles down, but like that
Speaker 3: needs that. I don't feel like much progress can be
Speaker 3: made as long as Donald Trump as our president.
Speaker 4: Oh god, he's the worst shit ever. Did you see
Speaker 4: him posing with the Bible? Oh my god, it's so
Speaker 4: First of all, he tear gassed peaceful protesters so he
Speaker 4: can get to the church that was burned to take
Speaker 4: several photographs in front of it with.
Speaker 2: The Bible, and he was.
Speaker 1: Like, is this today?
Speaker 2: It was so.
Speaker 1: I don't really watch that.
Speaker 4: He used it as like a prop in a set
Speaker 4: to be like, and then he used force to move
Speaker 4: the people to take the pictures.
Speaker 3: Well, he's a white supremacist, that's it. Like he's white supremist,
Speaker 3: that's it.
Speaker 2: He's just very dumb.
Speaker 1: He's that. But he's also a white supremist, for sure.
Speaker 5: He's dumb. I'm surprised Jesus didn't say, Okay, that's enough.
Speaker 5: I got to get back to earth.
Speaker 6: In the moment, In the moment that Donald Trump was
Speaker 6: holding up it was such.
Speaker 2: A I have to see this photo.
Speaker 5: God, it's crazy.
Speaker 6: But you know what, more than Donald Trump is just whack. Man,
Speaker 6: that picture's wack.
Speaker 2: He's embarrassing. It's such an embarrassment.
Speaker 6: Yeah, but look man, we're gonna stay courage.
Speaker 5: Were out here on the streets about to get out
Speaker 5: here in a second.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Appreciate you as happy to have you. Was that.
Speaker 3: I can't stand either one of you, honestly, No, but
Speaker 3: I'll call you later.
Speaker 5: Hit me up. Not ladies, stay safe, staying courage and say.
Speaker 1: You guys are the fan of Van Lathan at Van
Speaker 1: Lathan duh, bye bye bye.
Speaker 2: Well that was Van. That was great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he always adds you know, he's just he's smart,
Speaker 3: a lot.
Speaker 1: Of perspective to the conversation. And I appreciate his perspective.
Speaker 3: And I don't know, like I I feel like I
Speaker 3: don't sound very optimistic on this episode. I don't mean
Speaker 3: to sound that way. I just feel like today I
Speaker 3: just feel conflicted about where we are in this whole process.
Speaker 2: I definitely feel conflicted.
Speaker 4: I definitely I didn't even want to speak too soon.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm just so tired of talking about this.
Speaker 4: It makes me exhausted, Like it really makes me exhausted,
Speaker 4: and it makes me sad, and it makes me feel
Speaker 4: like I'm never doing enough, and.
Speaker 2: So I guess we have to talk about it. We
Speaker 2: have to do it. It's necessary.
Speaker 4: But I feel your hopelessness, but I just don't. We
Speaker 4: can't feel hopeless because that.
Speaker 2: Gets I think.
Speaker 3: It's just today I don't really feel like I necessarily
Speaker 3: feel overall like hopeless. I'm you know, I'm generally like
Speaker 3: I can see the bright side on and things, and
Speaker 3: I know that everything.
Speaker 1: I truly do believe that.
Speaker 3: Sometimes not sometimes historically you have to burn shit down
Speaker 3: to the ground. And that doesn't necessarily mean like actually,
Speaker 3: but sometimes it really fucking means that way, Like shit
Speaker 3: has got to just you need us to do over
Speaker 3: and you can't erase slavery and you can't delete what's
Speaker 3: been what's happened, but like there has to be a change.
Speaker 1: We can't. We're we're like this.
Speaker 4: Like, well, you made a really good point over the weekend.
Speaker 2: I don't know, you weren't talking to me.
Speaker 4: I don't know. It's just we were having a general conversation,
Speaker 4: which even it's interesting like some even I'm even such
Speaker 4: in a sensitive place where like when we had that conversation,
Speaker 4: like obviously we were amongst.
Speaker 2: Friends but like I just wasn't.
Speaker 4: I was just like, please don't want say anything too stupid,
Speaker 4: and I know I can't go into conversations that way,
Speaker 4: but I'm just like, please don't say anything that I'm
Speaker 4: gonna have to curse somebody out. And that's not just
Speaker 4: like that's just for everybody, because I've like I've had
Speaker 4: even friends that are black say some stuff and I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 4: I'm gonna have to step you know.
Speaker 3: What, though for me, I'm like, please say something so
Speaker 3: i can curse your ass out, because then I'll know
Speaker 3: you don't you don't really you don't really fuck with me.
Speaker 2: Right, That's or it's like I'm just like cringing.
Speaker 3: Hoping, or like if I love you because the people
Speaker 3: everyone that I loved was there, so I would I
Speaker 3: would have, like, you know how, Brand said, it's a
Speaker 3: case by case situation, and I.
Speaker 1: Agree with that.
Speaker 3: I'm not like white people, but I feel like if
Speaker 3: like one of my friends said some dumb shit and
Speaker 3: I just felt like, damn, you really just need to
Speaker 3: educate yourself. I give them an opportunity to listen, to
Speaker 3: listen and learn and let's talk about it. But there's
Speaker 3: all but then at the end of it, at the
Speaker 3: end of it all though, like there's are certain things
Speaker 3: that like if we're not in line, you gotta go,
Speaker 3: you gotta go. Like that's it, You're right.
Speaker 4: But you said, but you said something about America, something
Speaker 4: about Americans and like rebellion and that like, actually, America
Speaker 4: is amongst the most docile of the countries. We don't like,
Speaker 4: there's so much fuckery happening in the White House, within government,
Speaker 4: with legislation, with fucking lobbyists and insurance companies and bullshit,
Speaker 4: so much in moral and ethical ship that is obvious
Speaker 4: and blatant.
Speaker 2: And in media and and and.
Speaker 4: It's we are just cool with it, you know everything.
Speaker 4: Everybody's cool with it. And then when we turn up,
Speaker 4: Oh no, we're we're being animals, we're being louders, we're
Speaker 4: being like, no, Actually, in other countries, the government, people
Speaker 4: overthrow it, overthrow it, they overthrow.
Speaker 3: The bitch, and then they kill the president sometimes or
Speaker 3: they exile his ass or he goes to jail. It's
Speaker 3: like we put we put these laws in place that
Speaker 3: the president can't even go.
Speaker 4: To jail, so the laws don't exist.
Speaker 2: Slavery hasn't ended it's just been substituted people with with
Speaker 2: fucking mass incarceration. It still exists.
Speaker 4: It's absolutely They put some special words over and try
Speaker 4: to fucking seed it in, but bitch, it exists.
Speaker 2: So you don't give a fuck. The ship has to go.
Speaker 3: It has to And honestly, like I was listening to
Speaker 3: Wheezy's new podcast, and you guys should check out Wheezy's
Speaker 3: new podcast, What's it called Again? For facts sake? For
Speaker 3: fact's sake, And she was talking about how her mom,
Speaker 3: her mom's seventy and she's like her mom, my mom
Speaker 3: had to drink, was from a separate you know, I
Speaker 3: had to go to separate bathrooms.
Speaker 1: Had seventy.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yo, I'm just saying to what I'm trying to say
Speaker 3: is the ship it was not that long ago. It's
Speaker 3: crazy because people think that it's like another lifetime ago
Speaker 3: or a century ago.
Speaker 1: It's not was not one hundred years ago.
Speaker 4: There's a meme and it shows like a part like
Speaker 4: some of the protests, like during Martin Luther King and
Speaker 4: they put under they're in color and in black and white,
Speaker 4: the same photos, and they said, can you believe they
Speaker 4: put this shit in history books?
Speaker 2: In black and white to make it seem as though.
Speaker 4: It was farther, further away, because because the mind has
Speaker 4: this precise perception.
Speaker 3: Of things of when when black went to color, And
Speaker 3: it's just like, I just feel those people.
Speaker 1: Are still alive.
Speaker 3: They're just they're they're police officers, they're politicians, they're the ones,
Speaker 3: they're they're they're the president of the insurance company, they're
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying, Like they are still among us.
Speaker 3: Racism has never died. And like I keep I kept
Speaker 3: saying this meme go around.
Speaker 1: That said, like.
Speaker 3: Racists, like, racism didn't die, it's just now it's being
Speaker 3: televised or something, or now.
Speaker 1: It's being filmed, and it's so true.
Speaker 2: It's like it's never it's never been dead.
Speaker 4: But that's why I don't want to hear that lives matter. Shit,
Speaker 4: I don't want to hear that. Fucking I don't want
Speaker 4: to hear it. That doesn't like race does matter, race
Speaker 4: does exist, or else we wouldn't be having this conversation.
Speaker 4: It's very fucking it's historically mattered. And for you to
Speaker 4: fucking under suggest that it doesn't exist because that benefits
Speaker 4: your comfortability, fuck.
Speaker 3: You, absolutely, I agree.
Speaker 2: Fuck power.
Speaker 4: Uh anyway, Wow, But I will say the first night
Speaker 4: I went downtown, it was a little chaotic. Maybe everybody
Speaker 4: didn't have the same I didn't feel the same amount
Speaker 4: of that much as community as I did when I
Speaker 4: went the second night, when I went.
Speaker 2: Up up but to have the looting go for you,
Speaker 2: I wasn't looting, but we were on the front lines,
Speaker 2: were on the sidelines of.
Speaker 4: The front lines, and we were first of all, I
Speaker 4: felt like it was almost intentional. Literally, we were coming
Speaker 4: back from the beach, and it's they're showing that in
Speaker 4: the intersections with like from the helicopter, but putting the
Speaker 4: intersections in like white writing to so exactly where the
Speaker 4: actions is. Then they're like the governor gets on, we
Speaker 4: don't have enough police. Please, it says on the screen,
Speaker 4: small crimes won't be like there's literally it's like small
Speaker 4: crimes won't be in fractured like everyone go yeah, Literally,
Speaker 4: it seemed intentional. I was like, is this a fucking joke,
Speaker 4: because literally the mayor gets on, it's like, we've called
Speaker 4: out forty cops from vntour County forty. You got forty
Speaker 4: to come from into our fucking county He's like, everyone
Speaker 4: just stay inside the curfew. Who's like last God bless
Speaker 4: Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: Oh shit.
Speaker 2: So literally, I was like, we go straight to the action.
Speaker 4: And then when I get out there and I see
Speaker 4: it's mostly kids, girl as teenagers.
Speaker 2: It's like everybody's dressed in black. There's signs, they're spray painting,
Speaker 2: saying you know, fuck fuck, like fuck pig cops.
Speaker 4: It was just, you know, and kids were just literally
Speaker 4: stealing furniture from furniture stores, pulling them in the middle
Speaker 4: of the street, posting up honking. There's kids going to the
Speaker 4: liquor store. Running in the liquor store. You see like
Speaker 4: five car cop cars, sirens rush by, they go by,
Speaker 4: and then nobody stops.
Speaker 2: They like all spurs from the liquor store and they
Speaker 2: just run back in like little roaches. It was hilarious.
Speaker 2: It was great. And I'm like, give me one of
Speaker 2: else bottles. Somebody hand me a bottle of bourbon.
Speaker 4: You know, it's just we got them jumped out the
Speaker 4: car at one point talking asking the kids, hey, where
Speaker 4: are you guys. Finding a lot of them from Compton,
Speaker 4: from East you know, just different parts of LA.
Speaker 2: But all people just saying like.
Speaker 4: Black Lives Matter, and like it was just it seemed
Speaker 4: not I mean, it just it wasn't violent.
Speaker 2: It didn't seem violent.
Speaker 4: Besides obviously the vandalism that was happening, it seemed like
Speaker 4: kids trying to go and get theirs. Honestly, you know,
Speaker 4: we like post them in front of the mouth.
Speaker 3: I mean, I mean, besides the fact that we're in
Speaker 3: a pandemic where they're sending people twelve hundred dollars for
Speaker 3: for money, this would be like I just feel like,
Speaker 3: of course the ships, the people are gonna lose shit.
Speaker 1: People need ship right now more than ever.
Speaker 3: Two.
Speaker 2: We're in a bad place.
Speaker 1: People need ship right now. Oh you, oh so you're not?
Speaker 1: Oh you, oh so you're not.
Speaker 3: So You're gonna give me hundred dollars for unemployment and
Speaker 3: a six hundred dollars check and I'm just to be
Speaker 3: able to catch up and pay six months left.
Speaker 1: No, I'm gonna go to the I'm gonna go to
Speaker 1: the liquor store of the f store.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go cops and ship and I'm gonna resell it.
Speaker 7: It's not Gucci for sure.
Speaker 4: I mean, honestly, I head less if I didn't, if
Speaker 4: I didn't feel like maybe someone on TV like that's Jamilla. I.
Speaker 7: I was fully encouraging me get everything.
Speaker 1: She called me and I was like.
Speaker 3: You better really think about what you want, bitch.
Speaker 1: What do you need? What do we need right now?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 7: So we did. We got off the phone. She really
Speaker 7: hyped me up.
Speaker 4: Someone had handed me a hard drive from like they
Speaker 4: just handed it to me from outside of the Star.
Speaker 7: I was like, yes, I didn't do anything, but I'm benefitting.
Speaker 7: Then I got on the phone the Airic.
Speaker 4: I'm all Drew said I had a shot te quila
Speaker 4: from some some friends that we met on the corners, Like,
Speaker 4: oh yeah, man, I just got this cool.
Speaker 7: I was like, he just popped it open, so it.
Speaker 4: Was no corona.
Speaker 1: I was like, yes, I know. I was like sure.
Speaker 7: I was like uh huh uh huh.
Speaker 1: He gave us a shot.
Speaker 4: So we Erica gets on the line. Really I called
Speaker 4: one friend. She's like, get out of there, go home.
Speaker 4: I got on the phone the Airic and she's like,
Speaker 4: think about everything we need.
Speaker 6: Well.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh my god.
Speaker 1: I was like a murderer.
Speaker 3: I was like, what do we need? We need electronics
Speaker 3: and we need what else? Like a sound equipment and
Speaker 3: my fake. As I was in the streets, I was like, yeah,
Speaker 3: let me think about it.
Speaker 2: Where can we go next?
Speaker 4: Completely as if I was just about to be about
Speaker 4: that life, popping down some shit so we would drive
Speaker 4: his trashity lingerie.
Speaker 2: I'm like.
Speaker 4: When you have a photo shoot, but people had just
Speaker 4: started like popping this shit open, and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 4: we go trashy lunderin and I go inside, I pick
Speaker 4: up the mannequin and I'm.
Speaker 7: Like, I put it down.
Speaker 2: I'm like gotta get out of here.
Speaker 7: I'm not going to chail for laundry, but I'm not
Speaker 7: gonna do it.
Speaker 1: Just walk out. I'm just not good.
Speaker 2: Like literally, my fangs had come out, just like I've.
Speaker 4: Been riding around in the street like screaming out in
Speaker 4: the window, and I was just like following all the
Speaker 4: kids and then my fangs came out, but I'd likely
Speaker 4: I put it down. I gained adult control and I
Speaker 4: left that joint without anything. So no, I wasn't looting.
Speaker 3: I was.
Speaker 1: I was out there.
Speaker 4: I'm hanging with my with adventure Bay, who's super about
Speaker 4: responsible fun, and he we were like with like tally
Speaker 4: get along with some kids that we didn't know.
Speaker 7: I'm sure they're like, why are these people following us?
Speaker 4: And at one point one of the kids shouted like,
Speaker 4: I don't know how you to breaking some glass glass in.
Speaker 2: His hand and he's like I can see my bone.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh no, I can't look.
Speaker 7: He's so my adventure Bay was like do you need
Speaker 7: first aid?
Speaker 2: Do you have first aid?
Speaker 4: In my head like, nigga, you know they don't have
Speaker 4: no first aid, only you have first date.
Speaker 7: Hold on, pull over to the health. These kids that
Speaker 7: we've been following that we don't know, but we think
Speaker 7: we're a part of their.
Speaker 2: Posse because we're just like, yeah, yeah. He goes in the.
Speaker 4: Back of the tront gets the first daid out, like
Speaker 4: giving him gaze and helping him, asking like where do.
Speaker 7: You guys turn.
Speaker 3: Drive.
Speaker 2: Honestly, it was pretty exciting.
Speaker 1: I felt like I was. I mean, it sounds like
Speaker 1: good night to remember it was.
Speaker 2: I felt it was a part of history.
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 2: I just it was good to be there.
Speaker 7: I had the opportunity to not be home on my.
Speaker 4: Couch listening to that bitch on ABC talk about the
Speaker 4: people doing the ship saying how violent it was and
Speaker 4: how this it was and how, And when I was there,
Speaker 4: I realized it was just really about rebellion and about
Speaker 4: the anger and the anguish and the sadness and that
Speaker 4: together they were just saying, this is where a community
Speaker 4: and whatever.
Speaker 3: It wasn't like it wasn't it wasn't. I it's the
Speaker 3: thing that the news portrays. It's like this all out
Speaker 3: of salt on police office. And then and then they're
Speaker 3: not here to police officers.
Speaker 4: And then I noticed they kept repeating this, like the
Speaker 4: same stores like Gucci Gucci that.
Speaker 7: Seems very urban and black to keep.
Speaker 4: Saying Gucci got locked and Gucchi, Like niggas love Gucci,
Speaker 4: we get it, Okay, we get it. But also the
Speaker 4: surf shop on fucking in Santa Monica got fucking looted,
Speaker 4: all non blacks peeling out.
Speaker 2: Of there with full surfboards.
Speaker 7: Okay, So it's like nobody wanted to cover that ship.
Speaker 4: So it was just interesting to be there and then
Speaker 4: to we were honestly watching it at the same time
Speaker 4: and just see, you know, how they're trying to portray
Speaker 4: the situation when it's not that.
Speaker 7: And bitch Beverly Hills room data was locked down.
Speaker 4: Those niggas were out there just chilling on their cars,
Speaker 4: just posted because that's really what they give to talk about.
Speaker 4: Fucking bel air the right off of Laura Canyon. They
Speaker 4: hired private security, they've they've banned it off of cars
Speaker 4: because they're they're trying to make it like you know,
Speaker 4: and truth you told people are gon probably try and
Speaker 4: run into somehow.
Speaker 7: Is because if your criminal, now is a good time
Speaker 7: to be an extra criminal.
Speaker 4: Right, If I'm criminally i'm now. But that's not all
Speaker 4: that's happening. It's not all criminal, you know.
Speaker 2: It's just.
Speaker 4: Be careful of the news that you consume in high
Speaker 4: and how often turn that shit off because it's not true.
Speaker 7: And you just have to be conscious of how you're
Speaker 7: getting fed information.
Speaker 4: These the government owns fucking the radio and major television
Speaker 4: and everything else that we consume.
Speaker 7: So use your fucking intuition and your witch shit in
Speaker 7: your brain and go on that right. Sorry, that was
Speaker 7: a Ryan got high.
Speaker 1: No, it's fine, it was good.
Speaker 3: Well, I am excited because we are gonna have ray
Speaker 3: on so you guys, I don't know if you guys
Speaker 3: remember we interviewed Sean King this year actually god, no
Speaker 3: was it year? And we interviewed him and his wife,
Speaker 3: Ray King, and they actually started their own podcast, and
Speaker 3: you know, it's all about her.
Speaker 2: Marriage to the movement.
Speaker 1: Yeah, to the movement.
Speaker 3: She's yeah, she imagine being the wife of the biggest activists,
Speaker 3: black activists pretty much, I would say, in the world.
Speaker 3: And she just has a lot of perspective. She's so
Speaker 3: so so smart as an educator. And we're having her
Speaker 3: on because I don't know, I feel like it is
Speaker 3: a good time to talk about race and talk about
Speaker 3: how are we talking about how are we having these
Speaker 3: conversations with our kids, because.
Speaker 1: Ultimately they're the future.
Speaker 3: They are Like I think about Irene and I talked
Speaker 3: about that fear of like what I'm leaving her too,
Speaker 3: but also like what am I arming her with? And
Speaker 3: like even white kids, what are we arming white kids with?
Speaker 3: What are white parents? How are white parents how much
Speaker 3: conversation with their kids? Because that is so funny. You
Speaker 3: guys have such a responsibility, you really do. And you
Speaker 3: can drop the ball very easily or you can just
Speaker 3: pick it up right now and make those changes now, because.
Speaker 1: It fucking matters, It really fucking matters, And so.
Speaker 4: I am I mean, And there's a lot of non
Speaker 4: black parents with black children, and that's.
Speaker 5: A whole thing.
Speaker 1: And that's the whole thing too. You don't get to
Speaker 1: miss out on that either. And I care if you
Speaker 1: think he's passing.
Speaker 4: It's vital that you don't think that your kid is passing,
Speaker 4: and that you don't have to have these conversations, and
Speaker 4: that you keep telling your kids that you know race
Speaker 4: doesn't matter, because what will happen is going to be
Speaker 4: this rude, fucking awakening one day and it's not gonna
Speaker 4: feel nice. It doesn't feel good to realize suddenly in
Speaker 4: a jolting way that somebody sees you differently than someone
Speaker 4: else is solely because of it.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I mean, it's it's they're hard, they're different conversations.
Speaker 3: But I'm excited because Ray's coming on. We can ask
Speaker 3: I have a lot of questions. I want to ask
Speaker 3: her too, because she has more, she has more experiences
Speaker 3: than anyone. She has to talk to her kids about
Speaker 3: race constantly because of the work that her and her
Speaker 3: husband do, and.
Speaker 2: She's a diversity educator.
Speaker 7: She's she's both like, she's the person we should.
Speaker 3: So tell all your mommy friends, tell your wife friends,
Speaker 3: go tell your wife friends to join a conversation. They
Speaker 3: need to be in this talk more and more than
Speaker 3: anyone honestly. I mean we do too, obviously. But yeah,
Speaker 3: and that's gonna be on Friday.
Speaker 4: At five pm Pacific and in eight pm East Term time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so if.
Speaker 3: You want to join that zoom zoom, make sure you
Speaker 3: sign up for our Patreon. We're going to be sending
Speaker 3: out a zoom link to all of our patrons.
Speaker 1: This is a patron only.
Speaker 3: Event, so if you are a patron, you're already invited
Speaker 3: it and so we will sign out those zoom liek.
Speaker 3: We'll have more information on our Instagram this week.
Speaker 7: And be love you guys, Thanks for tuning in.
Speaker 1: We'll catch you guys next week. Be safe out there,
Speaker 1: fight the good fight.
Speaker 3: Lad laves night bles how