Speaker 1: I'm Tamika D. Mallory and it Shit Boy my Son
Speaker 1: in general, we are your host of TMI.
Speaker 2: Tamika and my Son's Information, Truth, Motivation and Inspiration.
Speaker 1: New Energy.
Speaker 3: What's up, Tamika D. Mallory. How you doing today?
Speaker 1: I'm doing good, my SONA now.
Speaker 3: You I am doing better.
Speaker 2: It has been a rough week, but now I'm coming
Speaker 2: to terms with the reality of what we're dealing with.
Speaker 2: You know, I got my mojo and I'm ready to go.
Speaker 1: You know, yeah, me too. I'm good.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: I feel like I am putting into practice things that
Speaker 4: I've learned since that horrific burnout.
Speaker 1: That landed me in rehab.
Speaker 4: Right, and you know, the trauma and everything that I experienced.
Speaker 4: I talk about what I learned and how I came
Speaker 4: out of it. But often times, as time goes on
Speaker 4: and you have different experiences and you live in life,
Speaker 4: we often forget about things. It's like when you drink
Speaker 4: too much and then you're like, God, I promise you,
Speaker 4: if you would just help me get over this, I
Speaker 4: promise I won't drink as let next. Oh no, that's it,
Speaker 4: this is my last time. And then of course five
Speaker 4: times later, maybe even the next day people go back
Speaker 4: to some of their old ways that you know, we revert,
Speaker 4: and so I've had to be mindful of that in
Speaker 4: this moment, and I write about it in my book,
Speaker 4: my new book.
Speaker 3: Yes, I live to tell the story.
Speaker 4: I live to tell the story, and that's the real thing.
Speaker 4: I live to tell the story. And the story goes
Speaker 4: and I say that I'm going to fight for freedom
Speaker 4: until I die, but this time freedom includes me, right.
Speaker 4: And so with that being said, I cannot allow my
Speaker 4: self to go back to where I was in twenty
Speaker 4: nineteen to ninety eight pounds, even though I wish I
Speaker 4: could get to ninety eight pounds now shoot on my own.
Speaker 1: Without being stressed out.
Speaker 4: But that's a whole different day's topic, not ninety eight pounds.
Speaker 1: But you get my point.
Speaker 3: I guess, let me get my point.
Speaker 4: So I can't allow that to happen. So I'm not
Speaker 4: going to allow myself to drown.
Speaker 1: I feel it.
Speaker 4: I know where we are, and I think what is
Speaker 4: very frustrating is watching people wake up knowing that like
Speaker 4: we said this, we said all of this and had
Speaker 4: been saying it before an election. Yeah, that's the other thing.
Speaker 4: I just want to make sure that. That's clear. We've
Speaker 4: been saying a lot of this stuff before an election.
Speaker 2: Definitely way before election. Well, listen, how do people get
Speaker 2: this book? When does it drop? Like this is our show?
Speaker 1: People already know.
Speaker 4: They already know because I'll be telling them every other day.
Speaker 4: It's February eleven. Yes, first event is February sixth in Louisville, Kentucky.
Speaker 4: It is extremely humbling and it's such a proud moment
Speaker 4: for me to go to Louisville and have my friends
Speaker 4: Sadiqa Reynolds and attorney Leanita Baker to be the host
Speaker 4: of my first public event. It's actually before my book
Speaker 4: comes out. It's a pre event. It's the first event,
Speaker 4: and it means so much because you know what we
Speaker 4: went through in Louisville. Yeah, you know that, and well,
Speaker 4: and Louisville was right after I came out of rehab, right,
Speaker 4: I mean right before.
Speaker 1: Louisville was right before I.
Speaker 4: Came out of rehab, right, because twenty nineteen, and then
Speaker 4: we went there in twenty twenty. I was still a mess.
Speaker 4: I was still trying to piece myself back together. I
Speaker 4: was still dealing with shit. I you know, didn't know
Speaker 4: exactly what I was gonna do which direction to go in.
Speaker 1: I had so much.
Speaker 4: Going on, And when Ben Crump called me, all of
Speaker 4: that's in this book about you know, Breonna Taylor, we
Speaker 4: went and so these are people that we've only known
Speaker 4: for five years, but it seems like we've and it's
Speaker 4: not even five years yet, but it seems like we've
Speaker 4: known them for a lifetime. And they became our sisters,
Speaker 4: you know, to Meeka Palmer, she excuse me, she's one
Speaker 4: of the hosts as well of the event. And so
Speaker 4: I'm just like, wow, you know, this book has.
Speaker 3: Been I love to cover like show like show to.
Speaker 4: This is the uh, the this is my vision.
Speaker 3: It's the duality, all right.
Speaker 2: It's the duality from you know, the braids to the
Speaker 2: long here and it's just and this.
Speaker 1: Is actually the housing projects that I grew up in.
Speaker 4: People probably, oh, I can't even realize that and projects.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 4: So anyway, is this book was a lot to get out.
Speaker 4: I always say that it's like I'm at the right now.
Speaker 4: I'm in the delivery process. Like I already have my
Speaker 4: date scheduled. It's February eleventh. I know we're gonna have
Speaker 4: the baby that day. It's coming out, and all the
Speaker 4: terrible things, the what do you have with morning sickness?
Speaker 4: You nauseous, can't eat, can't rest, can't whatever. Most of
Speaker 4: those things have subsided at this point from this book,
Speaker 4: except you know, trying to get the tour done and
Speaker 4: the sales where they need to be. That kind of
Speaker 4: feels like the part when you need the body pillow.
Speaker 4: Janie is looking like yes. Janice, who is our director
Speaker 4: of everything over there, she's looking like yes.
Speaker 1: So I'm in that stage.
Speaker 4: But it's pretty much I'm in the sailing part. We
Speaker 4: know the baby is coming and win. But it was
Speaker 4: a lot to get this done. The stories that I'm
Speaker 4: telling in this book, I wish I could take like
Speaker 4: five of them out because I don't know what I
Speaker 4: must have been like, I don't.
Speaker 3: Know, just telling you tell your business.
Speaker 4: Or something that day and just went the little bit.
Speaker 4: So but I'm glad that it's out here. I know
Speaker 4: that this book is going to help somebody.
Speaker 2: Well, I look forward to reading it today, you know,
Speaker 2: because I got my little copy and I'm gonna read it.
Speaker 2: But I'm proud of you. And please make sure that
Speaker 2: you'll go out pre order. Make sure that you at
Speaker 2: every event on the tour, show out, show up, make
Speaker 2: sure that you support this woman because the way she
Speaker 2: fights for black people is undeniable.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well, and also make sure that you get my son's
Speaker 4: book I got a couple of years.
Speaker 1: Last one is.
Speaker 3: Called it's called Echoes in the Streets.
Speaker 1: Echoes in the Street, and it's.
Speaker 2: About gun violence, the stories about gun violence within the
Speaker 2: inner communities in the cities, and it breaks down different
Speaker 2: ways and strategies that community and you you can come
Speaker 2: together and stop gun violence. So there's really really strong
Speaker 2: stories inside. So shout out to my partner and publisher
Speaker 2: Heed Yes.
Speaker 1: Right cool.
Speaker 4: So, so you know wherever, first of all, wherever you
Speaker 4: buy books, Black bookstores very important, Barnes and Nobles. Also,
Speaker 4: please pick up a pre order copy. I know how
Speaker 4: we as black folks, especially how we are, we got
Speaker 4: to we want to touch the thing. We don't want
Speaker 4: to buy anything and wait for it to come. I
Speaker 4: remember when we were out getting people to the polls
Speaker 4: and I was like, you're not gonna early vote, Like
Speaker 4: you could go vote today.
Speaker 1: They be like our own vote early. I want my
Speaker 1: vote on the day. I'm like, but you gotta stand online.
Speaker 1: I don't care.
Speaker 4: I want my vote on the day. That's sometimes how
Speaker 4: we are, that's how we operate. But in the publishing world,
Speaker 4: and shout out to my publisher, Black Privilege Publishing, CHARLEMAGNEA
Speaker 4: god Atria, and the Simon and Schuster family.
Speaker 1: But in the publishing world, authors need pre sales.
Speaker 4: That's very helpful in terms of how their books get
Speaker 4: out the bond.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: It's like when you know when you in a race,
Speaker 4: you don't try to like take off slow. You coming
Speaker 4: out moving. You're coming out moving. So that's what we need.
Speaker 4: So you can go to Tamika D. Mallory dot com.
Speaker 4: That's Tamika D. Mallory dot com and you can find
Speaker 4: out all the things how to purchase the book.
Speaker 1: Where the tour is going.
Speaker 4: The sixth we're in Louisville, Kentucky.
Speaker 1: The ninth, I'm.
Speaker 4: At Jamal Bryant's Church, New Birth Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker 1: The eleventh, well, actually the thirteenth.
Speaker 4: The eleventh, I got something going on, but I ain't
Speaker 4: really talking about it too much. If you know me
Speaker 4: and you want to come to what I'm doing on
Speaker 4: the eleventh, holla. But on the thirteenth, We're at the
Speaker 4: New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. I'm
Speaker 4: gonna be with Jimani Williams, the Public Advocate, and Janelle Aggie,
Speaker 4: who is the executive director of editing at Ebony Magazine.
Speaker 4: I mean, then we're in that's the thirteenth. The eighteenth,
Speaker 4: I'm in Washington, d C. At Politics and Pros. Then
Speaker 4: I'm in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Our family there, the Crutcher family,
Speaker 4: and also Keim Roxy of Lamique Beauty. And then you know,
Speaker 4: also in New Orleans, we're at Baldwin and Company. I
Speaker 4: think that's on the twentieth, but don't listen to me.
Speaker 4: Go to the website and look it up for yourself. Jacksonville,
Speaker 4: Florida on the twenty second. We have a full schedule
Speaker 4: of things that we'll be doing all of February, all
Speaker 4: of March, and I'm really really excited.
Speaker 1: I didn't get to do this with my first book.
Speaker 1: We were at home.
Speaker 4: Although I had a star studded release for my first book,
Speaker 4: we had everybody. We had panels and discussions online that
Speaker 4: included everybody from Taraji p Henson to Tiffany Hattis. Of course,
Speaker 4: Charlemagne was helping to hold some stuff. You held to
Speaker 4: host things. Linda Sarsour was invo I mean I could
Speaker 4: go on. Alicia Keys, you know, did panels and discussions
Speaker 4: with me. So it's not that we did not have
Speaker 4: a good amount of people who were supportive, but everybody
Speaker 4: was at home. It was now going outside.
Speaker 3: Now you outside with it, man.
Speaker 2: So I definitely I know it's gonna be a good book,
Speaker 2: and I know that people are gonna love it because
Speaker 2: it's so authentic and raw, like every time you talk
Speaker 2: about it, you got a team your eyes, and everybody
Speaker 2: that's read it so far has tears in it. So
Speaker 2: I make sure make sure that you go out and
Speaker 2: get the book. Yes, and the news for me. Yesterday
Speaker 2: was my youngest son, Kesten's birthday, Happy birthday casting He
Speaker 2: turned eleven yesterday and we had a ball, took him
Speaker 2: out to Humdinger's, this place he likes with his friends.
Speaker 3: So I enjoyed that.
Speaker 4: I just you got three sons and grandson.
Speaker 2: I'm a g from the gipop, but Kessen is like
Speaker 2: he's a very he's an impact. He's a very intelligent
Speaker 2: young boy and he picks up on everything like he
Speaker 2: knows what you're thinking, he knows how you're feeling. You know.
Speaker 2: He's very passionate about things. He messed up his foot
Speaker 2: last weekend, you know, playing soccer, and he had a
Speaker 2: game the next day he couldn't make it to. So
Speaker 2: he was up all night.
Speaker 3: Trying to heal itself together.
Speaker 2: He was soaking his ankle, he was putting alcohol, he
Speaker 2: put vics on his leg, anything you could think of.
Speaker 2: He was trying to make it to that game. He
Speaker 2: did not want to let down that team. He woke
Speaker 2: up at eight o'clock in that morning, was like, tried
Speaker 2: it again. He was just like, nah, Dad, he's still
Speaker 2: been living. So I made a little joke. I've been
Speaker 2: calling him young peg Leg and he hates that, but
Speaker 2: I played with It's.
Speaker 3: A joke, a joke. What God? Yeah, listen, everything is
Speaker 3: not so serious.
Speaker 1: No, But it's not that.
Speaker 4: It's that injuries sometimes makes people feel already, especially like
Speaker 4: you said, he can't play.
Speaker 1: He already is feeling.
Speaker 4: A way about that, and then you over here putting
Speaker 4: a label on him, and.
Speaker 1: They feel he laughed it up.
Speaker 3: Sometimes he doesn't like it. Sometimes he likes it. Sometimes
Speaker 3: Young peg Leg is fine.
Speaker 4: He's he'll be good for you know that there are
Speaker 4: people who really have peg legs. And it's kind of
Speaker 4: like you saying that to him.
Speaker 2: It's like saying, you know what, the reason why I
Speaker 2: call him because he limps like he has one. He
Speaker 2: looks like it looks like he has like a little
Speaker 2: pirate sometimes when his legs starts hurting very much. Disregarding
Speaker 2: these it ain't got nothing to do with I'm talking
Speaker 2: about my son. You're talking about these people. This ain't
Speaker 2: got nothing to do. This is not to offend anybody else.
Speaker 2: It's a joke that I have with my son.
Speaker 4: Right so please call somebody who actually has a peg
Speaker 4: leg a peg leg, although he probably won't do that.
Speaker 3: Because I will do that, because I would never do that.
Speaker 2: I made a joke with him about his little foot
Speaker 2: being hurt.
Speaker 3: I'm going to once again, happy birthday. I love you.
Speaker 4: Listen if my granddaughter was being pushed in the swing
Speaker 4: and when she said something, but her father was also
Speaker 4: talking to our whole family on face time, because we
Speaker 4: literally have everybody possible on a FaceTime. Whenever he wants
Speaker 4: to show Blair and he hit something and then everybody goes.
Speaker 1: In and go, hi, Blair, we love you. She's the
Speaker 1: star of the show.
Speaker 4: So he was pushing her, and he pushed her one
Speaker 4: time and she said and she said something, but he
Speaker 4: doesn't he didn't know what she said.
Speaker 1: And her mom was there also, so he said, what
Speaker 1: did you say? What does she say? So her mom.
Speaker 4: Says, she said do it again or put or do
Speaker 4: it one more time or something like that, and so
Speaker 4: he goes, she didn't say that.
Speaker 1: Now, she was probably.
Speaker 4: Talking kind of baby gibberish, but a mother's gonna understand
Speaker 4: her child.
Speaker 1: We don't care.
Speaker 4: You could be talking backwards and a mother is gonna
Speaker 4: be like, I know exactly what that means. So he said,
Speaker 4: she didn't say that, and Blair goes, yes, she's old too.
Speaker 4: She said, yes, like mommy is right, I can do
Speaker 4: it again.
Speaker 1: I might not have said it exactly, but.
Speaker 2: Listen, she wants you to understand, and she knows what
Speaker 2: she wants for herself, and she wants you to understand
Speaker 2: that she's expressing herself.
Speaker 3: And her mama understood exactly.
Speaker 1: That's exactly right. That's why I love my mother, because
Speaker 1: my mother she knows she's they are they are.
Speaker 4: We talk about this all the time. These kids parents
Speaker 4: are amazing. It's not like when we was parents.
Speaker 2: That's one thing I say about these kids. My son
Speaker 2: is serious about being a father to his son. These kids,
Speaker 2: they do not play about his son.
Speaker 1: Now. They can have all.
Speaker 3: Kinds of they're crazy otherwise, but.
Speaker 1: Them kids, they serious about them kids. They go.
Speaker 2: So that's a testament to you know, parenting that they
Speaker 2: see they either you know, they feel like something didn't
Speaker 2: happen that they want to happen, or they've seen something
Speaker 2: happen that they want to.
Speaker 4: Continue to Later on, they're going to realize we weren't
Speaker 4: as bad as.
Speaker 3: They That's what I think.
Speaker 2: What happens is they realize it now because they realize
Speaker 2: all of the pressure and stuff that they're under, and
Speaker 2: then they're like, damn, I didn't even know you went
Speaker 2: through this.
Speaker 1: I just because it's hard.
Speaker 3: It's hard.
Speaker 1: Is very very very hard. It's very hard. It's very hard.
Speaker 4: And speaking of hard things, there's a lot of hard
Speaker 4: things happening in our world.
Speaker 3: Love and I.
Speaker 4: You know, I've only made one post maybe two about
Speaker 4: the target situation and and just overall diversity, equity and inclusion,
Speaker 4: and I am committed. I've only made two posts maybe
Speaker 4: about it, maybe one and then also I only said
Speaker 4: one thing like on camera. But I thought about it
Speaker 4: and I listened for the last few days.
Speaker 1: I just listened.
Speaker 4: I was taking in all the different aspects, because you know,
Speaker 4: we follow and are followed by all different types of people.
Speaker 4: We got the super radical blacks, we got the Pan
Speaker 4: African blacks, we got the the the bougie black, we
Speaker 4: got the conservative blacks.
Speaker 1: We had we every.
Speaker 4: Kind of person, black person, we have somebody who is
Speaker 4: a part of that Republicans of course, Democrats or whatever,
Speaker 4: black women, black men.
Speaker 1: Troll we got trolling, pntroll we have the trolls. We
Speaker 1: have the ignorant.
Speaker 4: We have all kinds of young, we have young, we
Speaker 4: have different age groups. So we see a lot of things,
Speaker 4: and I follow a lot of different types of people,
Speaker 4: and I just want to I just listen.
Speaker 1: I said.
Speaker 4: The one thing that I have learned in my leadership
Speaker 4: position is that I now don't where I used to
Speaker 4: need to respond. I don't have to as quick because
Speaker 4: the more information that I gathered before speaking, I think
Speaker 4: it makes my voice more effective, more powerful. So I
Speaker 4: just sat back and I kind of listened to people
Speaker 4: sending me everything.
Speaker 1: Every body sending me something.
Speaker 4: And I know that part of the reason why so
Speaker 4: many people are sending me so many different things is
Speaker 4: because folks know that I have not said this is
Speaker 4: what I think we should do, and they want to
Speaker 4: try to not so much influence in a negative way,
Speaker 4: but just put their perspective into mind.
Speaker 1: In my in my thought process.
Speaker 4: And so speaking of thoughts today, in my thought of
Speaker 4: the day, I really want to take the time. And
Speaker 4: we don't have a guest for this show because it
Speaker 4: just we just couldn't fit it with what we want
Speaker 4: to discuss. So I want to just start off by
Speaker 4: saying that. So I want to put this at the
Speaker 4: beginning in the end as a bookmark to Meeka Mallory
Speaker 4: personally will not be shopping at Target. That's not going
Speaker 4: to happen. I won't be going to Target. I have
Speaker 4: always and will continue to uplift black brands. I am
Speaker 4: a die hard support supporter of black people in general,
Speaker 4: and I will continue to do that. But I personally
Speaker 4: will not be shopping in Targets. Some people are saying
Speaker 4: Black History Month, others are saying the third quarter. I
Speaker 4: mean the first quarter. People have different ideas about it.
Speaker 4: I don't know when or if I will ever return.
Speaker 4: Our history is that when we leave a brand, we
Speaker 4: we almost never go back. I looked at myself today
Speaker 4: and realize that I've been wearing my little Blenciaga sock sneakers.
Speaker 4: I was a good I was a beyond a Blencioga
Speaker 4: person like I liked Blenciaga. Uh and and I as
Speaker 4: soon as they start with the kids and the videos
Speaker 4: and the devil stuff and whatever, I don't know what
Speaker 4: was going.
Speaker 1: I didn't even take.
Speaker 4: The time to do bus so much research about whatever
Speaker 4: that was.
Speaker 1: But it just didn't feel right to me.
Speaker 4: I don't like the way it looked, and I didn't
Speaker 4: have anything to do with this side it packed up
Speaker 4: a bunch of Balenciaga stuff and just gave it away.
Speaker 4: I might I have like two sweaters, maybe three sweaters,
Speaker 4: and these little sock sneakers. So that's where I'm at
Speaker 4: with it. But I'm probably never going to be caught.
Speaker 4: And when I say caught, I don't mean like gotcha,
Speaker 4: but me personally walking into a store purchasing something from Balenciaga.
Speaker 1: That's just me.
Speaker 4: I gave up Gucci and the blackface sweater. I did
Speaker 4: not like it. I felt, first of all, the impact
Speaker 4: to me, it was very very disrespectful for people to
Speaker 4: even try to make the excuse that they did not
Speaker 4: know or that it wasn't exactly what we saw. And
Speaker 4: so I just decided that I was done with it.
Speaker 4: But then even if I even if I would have said, well,
Speaker 4: maybe I'm overreacting or maybe we need to educate them
Speaker 4: and it's going to get better, the way in which
Speaker 4: things rolled out after that I didn't appreciate at all.
Speaker 4: So I just don't wear a Gucci. But that's you know,
Speaker 4: everybody do their thing. That's my personal thing. Then Kyrie
Speaker 4: Irvin Nike, they cut their contract with him.
Speaker 1: I cut Nike.
Speaker 4: So you cut Kyrie, I cut you. That's it, simple,
Speaker 4: one hard decision. First I was kind of like, what
Speaker 4: we're doing. Everybody wears Nike. Then I realized it's not
Speaker 4: that serious. I don't have to wear Nike. There's a
Speaker 4: number of black brands, actively black being one of them,
Speaker 4: there's other.
Speaker 3: They just hit me a couple of Piers Niggas new.
Speaker 1: Dope, sigh of collected.
Speaker 2: I mean, they go get Kyrie's the answers he got
Speaker 2: all kinds of flavors.
Speaker 4: So there's a there's a million things we can do,
Speaker 4: and we're gonna talk about that because distribution is very important,
Speaker 4: which is why this target piece is so serious.
Speaker 1: Wiffle House ain't been back. The waffle house.
Speaker 2: She was on my page ten somebody up this morning
Speaker 2: talking about me, So she don't she don't play.
Speaker 4: Shakisha Clemings was attacked, brutally attacked and dro in a
Speaker 4: waffle house because a white woman wanted to try to
Speaker 4: charge her for a plastic four.
Speaker 1: And they and and and they.
Speaker 4: What they did to her was something that it wasn't acceptable.
Speaker 4: But what was worse was that waffle House response wasn't
Speaker 4: even to respectfully say, we apologize for what took place,
Speaker 4: and we you know, we don't condone the way in
Speaker 4: which our employee and the police officers came in here.
Speaker 4: They doubled down and acted like Squisha Clemings was some type,
Speaker 4: like she was in there doing a robbery.
Speaker 3: And then she took her to trial.
Speaker 4: Right, and then tried to exactly the police took her
Speaker 4: the trial to say she did something to them. So
Speaker 4: waffle House been off my list. Okay, so I'm saying Starbucks.
Speaker 4: Muslims said, we're not going to Starbucks because of their
Speaker 4: support for and by the way, Starbucks has been around
Speaker 4: in a cycle on my list of people that I
Speaker 4: don't shop with, but specifically around Israel, Palestine and the
Speaker 4: Palestinian people and Muslims in general, saying we do not
Speaker 4: support Starbucks because of their support for the Israeli government
Speaker 4: and what is happening. Unfortunately, whether you want to accept
Speaker 4: it or not, it's whose side or you are you on.
Speaker 4: That's just where we are right So Starbucks, I be
Speaker 4: dying of I got a cold. I used to like
Speaker 4: the medicine ball have I my stomach be growling.
Speaker 1: Some airport you go in. All they have is a
Speaker 1: little Starbucks.
Speaker 4: Count and you know what I do, Get me some
Speaker 4: water from a store and keep it moving.
Speaker 1: I don't go in Starbucks. I'm saying all of this
Speaker 1: to say to you all that I know that I'm different.
Speaker 4: I know I was cut from a certain cloth that
Speaker 4: is very, very different from most people. I know that
Speaker 4: when a school calls me up, or a corporation calls
Speaker 4: me up, and they get in touch with Toya and
Speaker 4: they say they want me to speak at a conference,
Speaker 4: or they want me to participate in some type of program.
Speaker 4: But they tell me that I need to scrub my
Speaker 4: Instagram page or I need to not say these things,
Speaker 4: or don't do this thing, or don't wear this, And
Speaker 4: I'd say I can't do those things, and they telling
Speaker 4: me that it's twenty five thousand dollars or it's fifty
Speaker 4: thousand for two sessions, or it's whatever. I have turned
Speaker 4: it down many times. I have had people call me
Speaker 4: on the phone and say to me, Tomka, your book
Speaker 4: is about to come out, or this is about to happen,
Speaker 4: or y'all just you know, the rebranding of your show.
Speaker 4: You got all these things going on. Let's just leave
Speaker 4: that alone for now. And strategically they might be right. Strategically,
Speaker 4: what they're saying is probably it's probably right that if
Speaker 4: I just go dark, stay under the radar, and just
Speaker 4: you know you because there's different ways to work. You
Speaker 4: don't always have to be in the front, right, You
Speaker 4: can do things differently.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: I've had people say that to me, Hey, just you
Speaker 4: know for now, but that's not who I am. So
Speaker 4: I have to take that into consideration whenever I'm out
Speaker 4: here speaking to other people that we are not all
Speaker 4: at the same place, we're not all on the same level,
Speaker 4: and we're not all committed in the same way. Our sister,
Speaker 4: Leslie Redman says something so true yesterday. Leslie Redmand, who
Speaker 4: was the president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP
Speaker 4: while we were there fighting for George Floyd, she said
Speaker 4: something yesterday.
Speaker 1: It is so true.
Speaker 4: Most people don't want to be free. Most Black people
Speaker 4: don't want to be free. They want to be rich,
Speaker 4: That's what and that's the fact. And sometimes being rich
Speaker 4: looks like freedom. But if we know anything about that,
Speaker 4: jay Z said, still nigga, OJ and all everybody. You
Speaker 4: can have lots of money and still be treated like
Speaker 4: a nigga. And so not to say we should not
Speaker 4: acquire wealth, because we should, but wealth and freedom are
Speaker 4: not the same thing.
Speaker 2: It should it should be a balance, right, and it
Speaker 2: should be real conversations like you said, you know, when
Speaker 2: we when I looked at this hotel, good situation, when
Speaker 2: I'm just looking at the last one hundred executive orders, right.
Speaker 1: And hundred Yeah, there's been a hundred.
Speaker 2: Executive orders signed in in the last week. And when
Speaker 2: I'm looking at how these things actually roll back civil
Speaker 2: rights that have been established for the last fifty sixty years,
Speaker 2: you know, And you really just sit there and think
Speaker 2: about this, And I say to myself, what are we
Speaker 2: willing to say? And I've heard all these people you
Speaker 2: know there are you know, we have we have black
Speaker 2: scholars and black leaders that say that's good. We don't
Speaker 2: need d you know, we need to separate anyway, We
Speaker 2: need to do our own.
Speaker 1: I don't know too many scholars they're saying, well.
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know, Okay, well these are this
Speaker 2: is what they say. Doctor Claude Anderson has said that
Speaker 2: we need to separate, and we need and that's what's
Speaker 2: going to take for us to do is to build
Speaker 2: our own.
Speaker 3: And I do not disagree with those things. Right. I
Speaker 3: do believe that we need to separate.
Speaker 2: I do believe that we need to build our own,
Speaker 2: but I do not believe that we should build it
Speaker 2: while we are experienced injustice. I don't believe that we
Speaker 2: should make it okay for them to do negative things
Speaker 2: to us. I don't believe we should be okay since
Speaker 2: we need to separate. You don't have to give us
Speaker 2: what you owe us, right, we don't deserve the amount
Speaker 2: of reparations and things that we've earned in America. I
Speaker 2: don't I believe we should be doing both ads. It's
Speaker 2: like I'm in jail and I'm filing for my pill right,
Speaker 2: but at the same time trying to figure out if
Speaker 2: we got to break out and I got life inside
Speaker 2: here and I gotta break I'm gonna do both of
Speaker 2: them at the same time. It's not gonna not fire.
Speaker 2: And then if I'm locked up for life for a
Speaker 2: crime I didn't commit. So this is what I'm trying
Speaker 2: to tell you. I want you to understand we're inside
Speaker 2: of This is jail for black people. We living in America.
Speaker 2: We were sentenced to life in America, right, and we're
Speaker 2: trying to figure out how do we get our freedom back?
Speaker 2: Because that's what it is. It's a lifetime bid in America.
Speaker 2: So how do we get our freedom back?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 2: As I'm trying to from my freedom, I know that
Speaker 2: America still owes me. So sure, I want reparations, I
Speaker 2: want repair, I want You know what has been owed
Speaker 2: to our ancestors who built America on his back, It
Speaker 2: was never compensated for it. You know, we have built
Speaker 2: our own economies time and time through our history, and
Speaker 2: they have destroyed it. They've burned it down, they've disenfranchised
Speaker 2: us over hundreds and hundreds of times.
Speaker 3: This is documented.
Speaker 2: So I don't I do not, you know, subscribe to
Speaker 2: the fact that we what we actioning for is a handout.
Speaker 2: We're not asking for handout. We're asking for we old.
Speaker 2: But in the meantime, we should be building what you know,
Speaker 2: our own economy should we should be building.
Speaker 3: Our own structure.
Speaker 2: We should try to separate and build out because everyone
Speaker 2: else has done that. But what I say when people
Speaker 2: say that to me is what are you willing to
Speaker 2: sacrifice for it?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: Because the same people that are saying, yo, we don't
Speaker 2: want nothing from the white man and we don't want
Speaker 2: this with the same people that's saying, well, we got
Speaker 2: a stimulus check, right, and they wanted to make it
Speaker 2: seem like that was okay. But that's not a hand though, right,
Speaker 2: the same people that say they aren't willing to boycott,
Speaker 2: they aren't willing to stop spending their money with the
Speaker 2: people that's suppressing us. They don't want to They sit
Speaker 2: there and say, yeah, we don't need none of this,
Speaker 2: but you're not willing to make the sacrifices.
Speaker 4: Well, it just depends, okay, because I just want to
Speaker 4: make sure we put these things in little buckets. Because
Speaker 4: first of all, when you said, they say, doctor Claude
Speaker 4: Anderson and others have said that we need to separate, right,
Speaker 4: And I don't know, Like I know that doctor Claude
Speaker 4: Anderson teaches a lot about independence and all of that,
Speaker 4: but I would love for somebody to just show me
Speaker 4: where doctor Anderson has said that black people do not
Speaker 4: deserve a seat at corporate tables, a seat in institutions,
Speaker 4: that we should not have ourselves intertwined in systems where
Speaker 4: we are able to monitor what is happening with the
Speaker 4: millions of black people who are coming through the stores,
Speaker 4: the banks, the colleges.
Speaker 1: The whatever.
Speaker 4: I do believe building our own is important and I
Speaker 4: want to see us continue to do that because I
Speaker 4: believe that there are a lot of people who are
Speaker 4: in They're building sustainable communities, They're building you know, black banks.
Speaker 4: You got Greenwood, which is Killer MIC's bank. You have
Speaker 4: people that are doing all of these things, and so
Speaker 4: we don't want to conflate them because I know that's
Speaker 4: a group.
Speaker 1: Then of course you have.
Speaker 4: The stimulus check, it was more money in my pocket.
Speaker 1: People.
Speaker 4: But those people in these people are not the same people.
Speaker 4: And then you have the people who are in the
Speaker 4: middle who are like, the hell with everything, we don't
Speaker 4: need them for anything.
Speaker 1: Here's my thing.
Speaker 4: Even with that, Okay, I've been asking people all weekend.
Speaker 1: They said, well, we.
Speaker 4: Don't need you know, we don't need anything from the
Speaker 4: white man. And by the way, I think anybody who's
Speaker 4: telling you that this moment, the executive orders and the
Speaker 4: things that's happening in this nation are not going to
Speaker 4: impact you. Any black person that says that to you,
Speaker 4: that it doesn't have to impact you, or that it
Speaker 4: doesn't impact you at least, they are ignorant, just and
Speaker 4: not ignorant in a negative way, but they don't know.
Speaker 4: At best, they are dangerous when they tell you that,
Speaker 4: because we are all living in a society that impacts
Speaker 4: every single one of us. Everything that happens, it impacts
Speaker 4: all of us, whether or not, whether or not we
Speaker 4: realize it. Even when we talk about violence in our communities,
Speaker 4: we talk about you know, happiness in our communities, all
Speaker 4: of that is in fact influenced by what is happening
Speaker 4: in the atmosphere. So when you say that things don't
Speaker 4: impact people, it's a very dangerous statement to make because
Speaker 4: it does.
Speaker 1: All policy are local, all politics.
Speaker 3: Are local, and they affect everyone, and.
Speaker 1: They impact all of us.
Speaker 4: If you drive, you got to have gas, Okay, if
Speaker 4: the gas price is high, that's.
Speaker 1: Going to impact you.
Speaker 4: You want to put your children in schools, and all
Speaker 4: the things that you are doing every single day. Even
Speaker 4: if you only do a little bit and you're more
Speaker 4: self contained, you still will if you breathe the air
Speaker 4: that's outside, if you don't have your own air, it
Speaker 4: is impacted by whatever chemicals are being put into the
Speaker 4: atmosphere or all of that.
Speaker 1: So I don't want to say that.
Speaker 4: I don't want people to tell you that policies don't
Speaker 4: impact all of us. But we also have to keep
Speaker 4: in mind that as we move about building our own
Speaker 4: So you say, we don't need targets and walmarts in
Speaker 4: all of these places, right, we don't need that. The
Speaker 4: average person in our community is not going to build
Speaker 4: our own.
Speaker 1: There's only gonna be a few.
Speaker 4: People who do it, and then people who funnel into
Speaker 4: it and help it to thrive. Right, That's how it works.
Speaker 4: So if you live in a food desert and you
Speaker 4: don't really have transportation.
Speaker 1: While we're on a five to ten year.
Speaker 4: Process to building our own, which we should focus on
Speaker 4: rather than focusing so much on being on the internet
Speaker 4: telling everybody else, all of us what we're doing right, wrong.
Speaker 1: This, that, and the third.
Speaker 4: But if you building something five ten years, then how
Speaker 4: is Jojo going to eat? Where is he going to
Speaker 4: work right now?
Speaker 2: And that's a That's another conversation that I'm having when
Speaker 2: we have this conversation about boycotts and we talk about Target.
Speaker 2: You know, there's been this long, large conversation about there
Speaker 2: are black people who vendors, who have vendors who have
Speaker 2: contracts with Target, and if we boycott Target, then it's
Speaker 2: gonna hurt them and we shouldn't do that. And I
Speaker 2: say to myself, there are hundreds and thousands of people
Speaker 2: who are going to be affected because of these policies
Speaker 2: that Target, and they're not going to have jobs, They're
Speaker 2: not gonna have a way to survive this. They don't have,
Speaker 2: you know, the resources to be able to produce and
Speaker 2: be entrepreneurs.
Speaker 3: Their families are going to suffer.
Speaker 2: There are people who are in d oppositions in major
Speaker 2: you know stores and Target and all that they're gonna
Speaker 2: their families are going to be completely wiped out. Right,
Speaker 2: These are this is a right reality. They are people
Speaker 2: who are in positions. I'm just saying everywhere. So I'm
Speaker 2: saying Target because when we talk about were Target and Target,
Speaker 2: there are they were d I departments in Target that
Speaker 2: these workers were working and that no longer existed.
Speaker 3: So I don't know they also whole departments that have
Speaker 3: been But I don't.
Speaker 1: Know if Target has fired a bunch of people, Well.
Speaker 2: If you scaling, if you deciding that you no longer
Speaker 2: are invested in d I, then what is the department?
Speaker 3: Where's the department gonna be at? Well?
Speaker 4: Because I mean I don't know, I mean we we
Speaker 4: we shouldn't. I don't know that they had a specific
Speaker 4: department where people are going to be let go. They
Speaker 4: may have reassigned people, giving them new titles or whatever.
Speaker 4: I don't know if that has happened, but I can
Speaker 4: tell you that in government offices, right, that is definitely happening.
Speaker 4: In educational institutions, that is happening. So I can't say
Speaker 4: in Target.
Speaker 2: Just based off the policy, the culture, the culture of
Speaker 2: dismissal exactly.
Speaker 3: It's going to disenfranchise thousands of black.
Speaker 1: People more maybe and probably million.
Speaker 3: Probably millions.
Speaker 2: So what I'm trying to say is, are we saying
Speaker 2: that the one or two hundred people who are important
Speaker 2: that we're not saying they don't have value but their
Speaker 2: finances to proceed the cause of the many. Are we
Speaker 2: saying that we're willing to sacrifice the millions of people's
Speaker 2: lobbihoods and just the law and establishing something that.
Speaker 1: Is all the respect of the respect.
Speaker 2: Of the mass is in the lord, just the impact
Speaker 2: that it's going to have, right, because once, if you
Speaker 2: don't stand for something, then you're gonna fall for anything.
Speaker 2: And if they can say, okay, you know what, we're
Speaker 2: just gonna take that from y'all, and that's it, and
Speaker 2: there's no response, there's nothing for us to sacrifice.
Speaker 3: Nothing.
Speaker 2: There's not enough of us that's willing to sacrifice so
Speaker 2: that two hundred people can continue to thrive, or maybe
Speaker 2: three hundred, but I know it's in the hundreds.
Speaker 4: It ain't in the thousands they're saying.
Speaker 2: So they saying that Target has contracts with thousands of
Speaker 2: black people.
Speaker 1: It's not just black people.
Speaker 4: Because diverse, I'm not saying I don't ever want to
Speaker 4: use the word the turn DEI I want to say
Speaker 4: it completely diversity, equity, and inclusion, because when you say
Speaker 4: those words, it makes it clear what somebody is saying
Speaker 4: that they're they're model no longer fits diversity, equity and inclusion.
Speaker 4: Equity is what y'all on the internet, all the Internet
Speaker 4: negroes that know everything, that talk everything about why this
Speaker 4: one and that one is weak, and this one ain't
Speaker 4: no good and this one don't know know y'all are
Speaker 4: talking about equity, building, equity, having more than enough for
Speaker 4: us to survive. Right, So these companies are saying diversity,
Speaker 4: equity and inclusion.
Speaker 1: So to your point, but I'm tak you a thousand
Speaker 1: and might be a thousand, might be fifteen hundred.
Speaker 3: Okay, I don't, but it's still not.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's a thousand, but based on what I've been hearing,
Speaker 2: it's been hundreds. So a few hundreds of people. So
Speaker 2: what I'm trying to say is, I think I'm willing
Speaker 2: to sacrifice. I've sacrificed all time. But like you said,
Speaker 2: I know that I'm built different. I know that there's
Speaker 2: a level of revolutionary in me that most people don't have.
Speaker 2: That's not like I was willing somebody did so uner Kyrie,
Speaker 2: who's somebody I had never met prior to that, but
Speaker 2: just that I identify with him in his struggle.
Speaker 3: I said that these hundreds of pairs sneakers.
Speaker 2: That I have, I no longer need them, and I'm
Speaker 2: willing to throw them away because that's how strong I
Speaker 2: am in my conviction about saying fuck you, because that's
Speaker 2: how I feel. Everybody is not going to do not
Speaker 2: understand that. But if we're not willing to, at the
Speaker 2: drop of a dom say we're willing to stand on
Speaker 2: principle and lose whatever it takes to establish a level
Speaker 2: of respect amongst our culture, then we're going to find
Speaker 2: ourselves back at the same position. So a lot of
Speaker 2: people say, well, you know, we got to figure out
Speaker 2: how do we go about a boy.
Speaker 3: We gotta do that.
Speaker 2: And I'm all for strategy, but I understand that the
Speaker 2: longer we take to strategize, right, the longer we take
Speaker 2: the longer, the the more ground we lose, the more.
Speaker 3: Energy we lose.
Speaker 2: Right now, people are fired up, They're looking and saying,
Speaker 2: damn this is this is happening in real time. So
Speaker 2: if what our leadership has to say in our leadership,
Speaker 2: we have to say, listen, we gotta understand who's with
Speaker 2: us and who's not with us, because you sometimes you
Speaker 2: lose time trying to bring somebody to your cause that
Speaker 2: ain't gonna come with you anyway.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, I have multiple feelings about that. I
Speaker 4: think that yes, we do have to move with the time.
Speaker 4: When you hear a cry from the community, or if
Speaker 4: you hear just to give a better example, if you
Speaker 4: hear a cry from a baby, you want to go
Speaker 4: at least and look and address whatever it is.
Speaker 1: But if you know that the.
Speaker 4: Baby is crying out in the moment because they're hungry
Speaker 4: and the food is not prepared, you have to go
Speaker 4: let the baby cry for a little while while you.
Speaker 1: Prep pair a meal that is going to nourish.
Speaker 2: The problem is the baby won't cry for too long
Speaker 2: in these situations what we deal with in our communities,
Speaker 2: people have outrage for one week until weeks.
Speaker 1: But that's what.
Speaker 3: Happened is the news cycle changes.
Speaker 2: Somebody talks about that this happened mc carty b and
Speaker 2: this and that people's is on that this week.
Speaker 4: But the thing about this time, Mice, I want to
Speaker 4: say to you that those people are gonna drop off anyway.
Speaker 4: So that means that the people you're talking about are
Speaker 4: people who we would never be able to sustain anything
Speaker 4: with because they're not serious about or committed to it anyway. Right,
Speaker 4: the purpose of planning and strategizing is that, especially in
Speaker 4: this particular time period, they are not gonna stop doing
Speaker 4: the things that they're doing.
Speaker 1: It's gonna get worse.
Speaker 4: So there will be a need for a response that
Speaker 4: is not just about target, but a response that is
Speaker 4: about all this shit that's happening, and how do we
Speaker 4: use our economic power to be our voices in the
Speaker 4: midst of a fascist government that is attempting to take
Speaker 4: away our rights and to make us second class citizens.
Speaker 1: That's what we have to be thinking about.
Speaker 4: And so yes, target is now, and I and one
Speaker 4: of those people just like you, they ain't never got
Speaker 4: to call me since they don't want diversity.
Speaker 1: Damn it, I'm diverse. They don't want equity.
Speaker 4: I believe in equity, and they don't want inclusion, no problem,
Speaker 4: I don't. You don't need well, I mean, but even
Speaker 4: talk about but even when we talk whichever one is
Speaker 4: your thing. Whichever one is your thing, the diversity, the equity,
Speaker 4: or the inclusion, whichever one is your thing. Because again,
Speaker 4: we are not asking white people to give us money, right,
Speaker 4: We're not saying inclusion means we want white people to
Speaker 4: give us money. We're saying, I made a product. I
Speaker 4: made Jaden made this good water. This is a good product.
Speaker 1: This is not a.
Speaker 4: Product that needs pity, it needs whatever. And guess what
Speaker 4: black people shop at Target. So we're saying we want
Speaker 4: to be in the shelf, on the shelf, in the
Speaker 4: place where our people are walking past it. That's what inclusion,
Speaker 4: men means. It means that you can't have black people
Speaker 4: walking up and down these aisles and the only thing
Speaker 4: they can find on the shelves are your things that
Speaker 4: you'll profit off of. Inclusion means my black product needs
Speaker 4: to be sitting right next to the poland spring, the
Speaker 4: smart water, and whomever else, because we also deserve to
Speaker 4: be on these shelves, since our people make up part
Speaker 4: of the economy that keeps you going. Now, here's what
Speaker 4: I want to say to get to your point about
Speaker 4: how do I feel hearing black women, especially say I
Speaker 4: put everything that I have on the line to get
Speaker 4: my product on these shelves to be included. And going
Speaker 4: back to the Kyrie Urban example, while Kyrie has incredible sneakers,
Speaker 4: we already saw them. You have a pair of two
Speaker 4: two pairs or whatever. I don't got nothing. I don't
Speaker 4: know why I didn't ask for myself. Oh because of
Speaker 4: my size, that's what it was. But anyway, he has
Speaker 4: a line that's doing well.
Speaker 1: When we were in whatever.
Speaker 4: Country in South Africa, people were like buying them, people
Speaker 4: were walking around in them. So we know that he's
Speaker 4: gonna do well. But the distribution is different, and that's
Speaker 4: why people are making sure they getting target in the
Speaker 4: big box stores. Because the corner store sneaker store, that's cool.
Speaker 4: You want to be there too, just like Nike is
Speaker 4: in there too, just like New Balance is in there too.
Speaker 4: In order to scale so that a little. Because I'm Rovio, Alabama,
Speaker 4: where my family members live, they ain't got no small
Speaker 4: too many small sneaker stores. Maybe they are one, but
Speaker 4: not really right. They might have a sneaker store that
Speaker 4: sells like sketches and that has something for people who
Speaker 4: have prosthetic legs or something, you know, like elderly people,
Speaker 4: but they don't have a fly ass sneaker store. Should
Speaker 4: somebody open one, no problem, I agree with that one
Speaker 4: hundred percent. But they got Walmart right, And so when
Speaker 4: people are this is why people want to be in
Speaker 4: these places where the masses can get to their product.
Speaker 4: It builds generational wealth, and generational wealth ultimately helps people
Speaker 4: in our community because our people generally hire their own people, right.
Speaker 1: And so so I get the point.
Speaker 4: I get the point of why we want diversity, equity,
Speaker 4: and inclusion because.
Speaker 1: We are the engine that fuels these companies.
Speaker 4: But I just want to say this because I know
Speaker 4: that there are people who want to know how I
Speaker 4: feel about the video that Tabbit the Brown, who I
Speaker 4: absolutely adore. I love tab With the Brown. I share
Speaker 4: her videos, I talk about what she's said everywhere because
Speaker 4: she is so authentic and beautiful and Courtney out of
Speaker 4: La love Courtney. Courtney has supported us in the past.
Speaker 4: I've been in space with her. She has the main
Speaker 4: excuse me, the main choice. I support these women and
Speaker 4: I see what they're saying, and that's why I stop
Speaker 4: to listen because I know what struggles they have been
Speaker 4: through in order to get to where they are today.
Speaker 4: But I want to frame this and it's very important
Speaker 4: that people hear me.
Speaker 1: One.
Speaker 4: It is not not smart because I heard that somewhere.
Speaker 1: Let let's be smart.
Speaker 4: It is not not smart to take your money and
Speaker 4: put it in your pocket when you feel you being disrespected.
Speaker 1: That is very smart.
Speaker 4: So it is not not smart to say I don't
Speaker 4: want to spend my money.
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna tell you another thing. If you are.
Speaker 4: Spending your money in a store with a brand, or
Speaker 4: you are going into places and spaces and doing business
Speaker 4: with people and they disrespect you, damn it, you should
Speaker 4: be emotional as a motherfucker. When people keep talking about
Speaker 4: don't be so emotional, it's too much emotions. I am
Speaker 4: extremely emotional about the blood, sweat and tears that I
Speaker 4: put into every dollar that comes into my bank account,
Speaker 4: every dime I make. It's an emotional battle for me
Speaker 4: because I know that if it were not for me
Speaker 4: getting my ass up out the bed every single day, hustling,
Speaker 4: dealing with situations and people that I don't want to
Speaker 4: deal with, Feeling the pain, the pain of the struggle
Speaker 4: of what it takes to be able to survive, that
Speaker 4: is an emotional thing.
Speaker 1: Between me and my resources.
Speaker 4: Right, so when you disrespect me, I emotionally can respond
Speaker 4: and say you won't get a dime.
Speaker 1: Now, should leaders be strategic.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, but consumers have the right to decide. As has
Speaker 4: been said, Both Courtney and Tabitha and others have said,
Speaker 4: do what you think is right.
Speaker 1: So nobody has said don't do it.
Speaker 4: But when we said we were going to boycott Gucci,
Speaker 4: they told us, but Dapper Dan is there and he
Speaker 4: has a partnership with them. We don't want to abandon Dappadan.
Speaker 4: When we said we were going to boycott waffle house,
Speaker 4: they said, but what about the employees?
Speaker 1: We don't know, it might create this, that and the third.
Speaker 4: The point is that every time we get ready to
Speaker 4: say we're not going to spend our money somewhere, we
Speaker 4: are told, but what about this?
Speaker 1: That, and the third? And brothers and sisters, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 4: I want to tell you today that I understand the
Speaker 4: challenges because, as Angelo said to us when we were
Speaker 4: meeting yesterday and whatever, that, black folks are always in
Speaker 4: the catch twenty two. We always in between a rock
Speaker 4: and a hard place, trying to figure out how we're
Speaker 4: going to move forward. But the one thing I understand
Speaker 4: so clear about oppression and about the white man who
Speaker 4: believes that they have power and dominion over us, is
Speaker 4: that they have studied our patterns and they sit back
Speaker 4: and they watch us dismantle even our own people's frustration.
Speaker 4: We are able to dismantle a movement without even negative intentions.
Speaker 4: It's not even intentionally. We're just trying to figure out
Speaker 4: which way to go. So whenever Black people get real
Speaker 4: and we're ready to move, our own people are the
Speaker 4: ones who helped to shift the energy, and we gotta
Speaker 4: be real careful about that, real careful about that. And
Speaker 4: so I personally am not going to target, but I'm
Speaker 4: not going to join any particular call for boycott yet.
Speaker 4: And that is because I want to go back to
Speaker 4: the teachings of doctor King operation bread Basket, when he
Speaker 4: was thinking through economic withdrawal, and they were using their
Speaker 4: economic power, and they had points that they studied, and
Speaker 4: they had points to their movement. And so there's a
Speaker 4: lot of work that needs to be done, and I'm
Speaker 4: not taking away strike for all people who are doing
Speaker 4: different things. You got people out here saying I'm just
Speaker 4: gonna walk in the door and I'm gonna get just
Speaker 4: the black products.
Speaker 1: You got people who are saying they're gonna do all
Speaker 1: types of things.
Speaker 4: But for us to have the impact necessary to show
Speaker 4: these people that we're not playing with them, we're going
Speaker 4: to need to come together, to sit down, to talk
Speaker 4: through what our steps are, what our goals are, and
Speaker 4: what it is that we're attempting to accomplish, and then
Speaker 4: make a move that our people can get behind and understand.
Speaker 4: Because right now, all this confusion, everybody's this one says this,
Speaker 4: this one says that you lose.
Speaker 1: People in the middle of it.
Speaker 4: And then I'm saying this last thing, and I promise
Speaker 4: I won't say another word.
Speaker 3: You're talking good though, No, But I just want.
Speaker 1: To say one last thing.
Speaker 4: It is I and I I struggle because the last
Speaker 4: thing that I want is.
Speaker 1: To be.
Speaker 4: At odds with our people. We've got enough, we got division,
Speaker 4: we have so many things that pulls us in different directions,
Speaker 4: and people just struggling, people just and people. People are
Speaker 4: just trying to figure it out as we go along.
Speaker 4: All of us have those moments, and so I want
Speaker 4: to be conscious of that because most of the people
Speaker 4: that I see involved in this truly love black people
Speaker 4: like we love black people, and so I want to
Speaker 4: be conscious of that. But I want to say to
Speaker 4: you that movements protest and most importantly, fighting oppression is
Speaker 4: not convenient or comfortable. People will hurt, people will lose,
Speaker 4: people will suffer. But I promise you for everything that
Speaker 4: I love that if we stand up and we do
Speaker 4: it majority together right, even though some people may lose,
Speaker 4: the gain on the end is for a long stretch.
Speaker 4: I can't say a lifetime because they always circle back,
Speaker 4: but it's a long stretch that we will be able
Speaker 4: to make gains, even with our own young people being
Speaker 4: able to look at us and see that we stood
Speaker 4: for something.
Speaker 1: And the idea that some of us are.
Speaker 4: Gonna walk into Target and say, I'm just gonna purchase
Speaker 4: the black brands. Perhaps some people might do that. I
Speaker 4: think it's a lot of people that's gonna do that,
Speaker 4: but the majority of our people will easily slip back
Speaker 4: into what they got the paper towels on sale today,
Speaker 4: they got this.
Speaker 1: A boycott is a boycott.
Speaker 4: If we say we don't shop at Target, we don't
Speaker 4: shop at Target. So we do e commerce. We figure
Speaker 4: out how to support people, but we cannot be walking
Speaker 4: in and out the door. Because another thing I said
Speaker 4: I was gonna say us. But another thing is that
Speaker 4: your presence is also a part or lack thereof is
Speaker 4: a part of a boycott.
Speaker 1: Your presence.
Speaker 4: Okay, So when you when you come through the door,
Speaker 4: that in and of itself is a sign that in
Speaker 4: and of itself shows.
Speaker 3: Places other people.
Speaker 2: Because the reality of the situation is there are people
Speaker 2: who are saying, I'm not going to the store, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna boycott, and they and they watch you walk into
Speaker 2: that store and they just see.
Speaker 4: Like, damn, I need to go to targeting that I
Speaker 4: have anywhere, and people, people, you.
Speaker 2: Need people to hold us to keep us strong, like
Speaker 2: you know, because a lot of people are this is
Speaker 2: Shopping is addictive, you know, especially when you when you
Speaker 2: go to your Target and that's your favorite store. You
Speaker 2: going every hour and it got what you want, and
Speaker 2: you used to that, and you you you're fighting against
Speaker 2: that urge and you see somebody else that you know
Speaker 2: has that same urge and say, look, I know it's hard,
Speaker 2: but we ain't going to that Target. And y'all walk
Speaker 2: to another store and you we start getting used to it.
Speaker 2: We need we listen to me, like you said, we
Speaker 2: have to be steadfast and we have to be unified
Speaker 2: in order to get because on the other side of it,
Speaker 2: it shows these people that they can't play with us.
Speaker 2: It shows them that, you know what, we have to
Speaker 2: make consensions. We have to come back, we have to
Speaker 2: rethink this, We have to have meetings because we moved
Speaker 2: a little too fast.
Speaker 3: And that's what history has told us.
Speaker 2: When we talk about Operation Break Basket and we talk
Speaker 2: about Doctor King and the boycotts they had, it's because
Speaker 2: they were willing to sacrifice for a year. They were
Speaker 2: willing to say I'm not going to do this. The
Speaker 2: majority of us, ninety nine percent of us are not
Speaker 2: going to Sure, there was people who back, and there.
Speaker 4: Are people right now who need the bread and they
Speaker 4: only have a Walmart or they only have a Target.
Speaker 2: And we understand, and you know we have to do
Speaker 2: in our organizer, we have to figure out how do
Speaker 2: we get them some bread and how do we get
Speaker 2: them to another store? You know, as as thoughtful leaders.
Speaker 2: This is what I want to talk about. I want
Speaker 2: to talk about, Okay, we're boycotting, right, We're gonna go
Speaker 2: outside and we're gonna pick it in front of it.
Speaker 2: We're gonna pick a target today that we're gonna go
Speaker 2: out and we're gonna explain why we're not going to target.
Speaker 2: We're gonna tell people where else they can go. We're
Speaker 2: gonna say, you know what, we're willing to set up.
Speaker 2: We have two or three cars a day that's willing
Speaker 2: to take you. If you can't get to another store,
Speaker 2: we're gonna willing to drop. These are things, These are
Speaker 2: strategic things that we have to do to show community,
Speaker 2: to show unity, that we're not just doing something on
Speaker 2: a whim. But that's what the Panthers was doing. That's
Speaker 2: what doctor king Ino was doing. They were utilizing their resources,
Speaker 2: they were utilizing their bodies. They were able to give
Speaker 2: whatever we can and that's when we come together like that.
Speaker 2: There's no way that they can beat us. There is
Speaker 2: absolutely no way that they can beat us. So I'm
Speaker 2: saying to you, I already know what I'm willing to sacrifice.
Speaker 2: I know how far to me is willing to go
Speaker 2: and sacrifice on behalf of our people and to get
Speaker 2: the respect and the dignity not even just the resource,
Speaker 2: but the dignity that we deserve.
Speaker 3: Because if they think that they.
Speaker 2: Can do whatever they want to to you, then they
Speaker 2: will do whatever they want to to you. So this
Speaker 2: is what it is at this moment right now. There
Speaker 2: are a lot of people who are feeling confused. They're
Speaker 2: watching on the news, you see all these type of things.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you, take a deep breath, Take a deep breath,
Speaker 2: and say, the only thing that's gonna win is our unity.
Speaker 2: When we show them that we're not breakable, when we
Speaker 2: show them that we're not weak, when we show them
Speaker 2: that we're not scared, then they have no choice for takaar.
Speaker 2: You know, they say, if you look the devil in
Speaker 2: its eye, he will flee, and it's time for us
Speaker 2: to look the devil.
Speaker 3: In his eyes.
Speaker 4: Absolutely absolutely well, I think there's you know, I have
Speaker 4: a whole bunch of more stuff here, but I think
Speaker 4: that we have covered it all, you know, And I
Speaker 4: would I would circle back to my point that I
Speaker 4: am completely understanding and aware of how challenging and how
Speaker 4: complex these moments are in these situations because they get
Speaker 4: us wrapped.
Speaker 1: Up in different ways. You know, you get you all.
Speaker 1: But I know that.
Speaker 4: A boycott is a boycott. I know that everybody's not
Speaker 4: gonna do it. I know that the people who are involved,
Speaker 4: these black businesses who can be substantially hurt, they love
Speaker 4: black people, at least the ones I know they love
Speaker 4: black people.
Speaker 1: And I also know that.
Speaker 4: We are not I personally in the position that I'm in,
Speaker 4: I cannot sit by and not at least tell us
Speaker 4: where we are and make sure that people understand what's happening. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I know, you can't just take your product off the stand,
Speaker 4: off the shelf, but there ought to be a morality.
Speaker 1: Clause for you too, that's right.
Speaker 4: They ought to be if you are my partner. Because
Speaker 4: Target was supposed to be these people's partner. They never
Speaker 4: said that Target. They never said that Target was the
Speaker 4: employer of XYZ Black Brands or XYZ Women own brands.
Speaker 4: They said they were partners, right. That's why one of
Speaker 4: the things that we've been told that's a big risk
Speaker 4: is that if you don't sell your product, you either
Speaker 4: owe them money or you end up with all the
Speaker 4: product and no money. Right, So, because that's what partnerships
Speaker 4: look like. But and and by the way, people, some
Speaker 4: of these same brand owners, I'm talking about all of them.
Speaker 4: That's so please, let's not do the old Tamika said
Speaker 4: this about Tabithaugh or this about so and so or
Speaker 4: such and such, because that's not what I'm talking about
Speaker 4: to about the whole pie. Right, If you black brand
Speaker 4: or black woman was so much of a partner of targets,
Speaker 4: why would they not pick up the phone and call
Speaker 4: you to tell you that this is what was going
Speaker 4: to happen.
Speaker 1: So already there's a breach.
Speaker 4: In terms of what that partner looks like, because they
Speaker 4: should have been sitting with you, saying we're doing this
Speaker 4: new thing, were.
Speaker 1: Trying to figure out how we're gonna go about it.
Speaker 4: We want to tell you that this is gonna impact
Speaker 4: you because there are people that.
Speaker 1: Since I'm doing what I'm doing, they not gonna work
Speaker 1: with you no more.
Speaker 4: How do we know that that's the case, because we've
Speaker 4: discussed that in our board meetings all the time for
Speaker 4: Until Freedom.
Speaker 1: And other organizations that I'm a part of.
Speaker 4: In fact, when I went to Savior's Day and was
Speaker 4: called anti Semitic for being a supporter of the Nation
Speaker 4: of Islam, there were people who stopped working with me,
Speaker 4: People pulled their money, and there were people I was
Speaker 4: on boards that I was asked to resign from because
Speaker 4: the morality clause is that if you do something in
Speaker 4: this partnership that we have that harms the brand of
Speaker 4: another person, then how does that impact met and my organization,
Speaker 4: my company.
Speaker 1: This is what these people said to me.
Speaker 4: So if Target is your partner, why did they not
Speaker 4: even have the respect to pick up the phone and
Speaker 4: have a meeting with people and say, hey, this is
Speaker 4: what's going on so that you could get prepared for
Speaker 4: what is to come. It didn't happen. It didn't happen.
Speaker 4: So the partnership has been breached. Okay, not wanting diversity,
Speaker 4: equity and inclusion should at least be something that lawyers
Speaker 4: can look at to see if there's a morality clause
Speaker 4: that has been broken on their behalf. All of these
Speaker 4: things need to be done, and I'm sure it is
Speaker 4: being done. But the point that I'm making here is
Speaker 4: that the consumer who chooses to walk in the door
Speaker 4: and just do a little this and little do a
Speaker 4: little of that, that is still crossing the picket line.
Speaker 4: It's crossing the picket line. Sorry to tell y'all. How
Speaker 4: we figure it out from here from an e commerce
Speaker 4: perspective or what we need to do.
Speaker 1: We need to figure that out.
Speaker 4: I'm not going to Target, but I understand that there
Speaker 4: are some people who will say, well, this is my
Speaker 4: product or these are people that I respect, and I'm
Speaker 4: going to do that. In the meanwhile, however, we as
Speaker 4: leaders need to come together to figure out what our
Speaker 4: people can do collectively, collectively to address what we know
Speaker 4: is an onslaught that if other people in America have
Speaker 4: a cold, even the flu, we as black people are
Speaker 4: going to experience a pandemic. So we better be aware
Speaker 4: that what they're doing over here to.
Speaker 1: Homie, they gonna do to you.
Speaker 3: One hundred times.
Speaker 1: So there's that.
Speaker 2: On that note, we'll end this show without mine. Don't
Speaker 2: get it, and I had a lot of stuff to
Speaker 2: say about it. I don't get it. But I think
Speaker 2: this boycott, in this situation where Target was extremely important
Speaker 2: for us to speak about, well, please let us know
Speaker 2: how you feel. We want to hear all sides, especially
Speaker 2: from our people who are going to be impacted by
Speaker 2: what's going on in Target.
Speaker 3: Just let us know.
Speaker 2: Once again, I'm not gonna always be right, Tamika d
Speaker 2: marriages and I can always be wrong, but we will
Speaker 2: both always and I mean always be authentic.
Speaker 1: Pace that's how we own it.