1
00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:04,400
Speaker 1: Welcome one and all to the Professional Homegirl Podcast. Before

2
00:00:04,440 --> 00:00:06,640
Speaker 1: we begin today's episode, we want to remind you that

3
00:00:06,680 --> 00:00:09,360
Speaker 1: the views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those

4
00:00:09,400 --> 00:00:12,200
Speaker 1: of the host and guests and are intended for educational

5
00:00:12,320 --> 00:00:15,920
Speaker 1: and entertaining purposes. In this safe space, no question is

6
00:00:15,960 --> 00:00:19,239
Speaker 1: off limits because you never know how someone's storyline can

7
00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:22,520
Speaker 1: be your lifeline. The Professional Homegirl Podcast is here to

8
00:00:22,520 --> 00:00:26,200
Speaker 1: celebrate the diverse voices, stories and experiences of women of color,

9
00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:30,200
Speaker 1: providing a platform for authentic and empowering conversations. There will

10
00:00:30,200 --> 00:00:33,600
Speaker 1: be some key king, some tears, but most importantly a

11
00:00:33,680 --> 00:00:37,839
Speaker 1: reminder that tough times don't last, but professional homegirls do

12
00:00:38,600 --> 00:00:48,680
Speaker 1: enjoy the show.

13
00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:52,879
Speaker 2: Hey, professional Homegirls, Welcome back to this week's episode of

14
00:00:52,920 --> 00:00:56,880
Speaker 2: the Professional Homegirl Podcast. Ishagar Ebina here and we are

15
00:00:56,960 --> 00:00:59,680
Speaker 2: back with a fire episode.

16
00:01:00,080 --> 00:01:01,440
Speaker 3: Now imagine fighting.

17
00:01:01,160 --> 00:01:03,720
Speaker 2: For nearly two decades to reunite with the love of

18
00:01:03,760 --> 00:01:06,440
Speaker 2: your life, like can you imagine for twenty one years

19
00:01:06,440 --> 00:01:08,959
Speaker 2: saying my man, my man, my man, and you cannot

20
00:01:09,040 --> 00:01:12,680
Speaker 2: physically be with him now. In nineteen ninety seven, both

21
00:01:12,720 --> 00:01:14,920
Speaker 2: of my guests made a life changing decision.

22
00:01:15,720 --> 00:01:16,559
Speaker 3: They robbed the bank.

23
00:01:17,400 --> 00:01:20,880
Speaker 2: However, all in hopes of securing a better future for

24
00:01:20,959 --> 00:01:25,120
Speaker 2: their family, but that choice, as we all know, came

25
00:01:25,160 --> 00:01:29,520
Speaker 2: with a heavy price. One was sentenced to sixty years

26
00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:33,520
Speaker 2: and remind y'all he was a first time offender, while

27
00:01:33,560 --> 00:01:36,399
Speaker 2: his wife served a shorter sentence, but she had to

28
00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:39,480
Speaker 2: go in after giving birth to her twins. Now, in

29
00:01:39,520 --> 00:01:42,800
Speaker 2: this episode, we explored the journey from incarceration to redemption,

30
00:01:43,280 --> 00:01:46,080
Speaker 2: the strength it took to keep their family together, and

31
00:01:46,120 --> 00:01:50,240
Speaker 2: how their story is a powerful testament to love, resilience,

32
00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:53,559
Speaker 2: and never given up on the people who mather the most.

33
00:01:55,160 --> 00:01:57,080
Speaker 2: And if you want to support them, please feel free

34
00:01:57,120 --> 00:01:59,800
Speaker 2: to email me at hello at the phgpodcast dot com

35
00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:02,360
Speaker 2: you would like to purchase their book in or watch

36
00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:05,520
Speaker 2: their documentary. So I hope y'all enjoyed this episode as

37
00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:08,520
Speaker 2: much as I did, so get ready to fill all

38
00:02:08,560 --> 00:02:12,640
Speaker 2: the emotions because this week's episode starts now. So to

39
00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:14,720
Speaker 2: my guest, it is such an honor to have you

40
00:02:14,760 --> 00:02:16,519
Speaker 2: both on the show. So thank you so much.

41
00:02:16,600 --> 00:02:19,440
Speaker 3: How y'all doing, how y'all feeling oh good?

42
00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:19,920
Speaker 4: Thank you?

43
00:02:20,120 --> 00:02:24,960
Speaker 5: Yes, indeed yes, andratulations the podcast is doing so well.

44
00:02:25,040 --> 00:02:26,200
Speaker 4: I'm so proud of you.

45
00:02:26,760 --> 00:02:29,000
Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you, thank you. Me too, Me too.

46
00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:30,120
Speaker 3: It it's a long time coming.

47
00:02:30,200 --> 00:02:30,440
Speaker 4: Child.

48
00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:35,800
Speaker 2: I feel like when I was watching y'all story, especially

49
00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:37,760
Speaker 2: when I watched the documentary and I started tearing up

50
00:02:37,760 --> 00:02:39,120
Speaker 2: because I'm just a hopeless romantic.

51
00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:41,040
Speaker 3: I feel like they don't make love like y'all know

52
00:02:41,120 --> 00:02:44,040
Speaker 3: more do y'all get that a lot?

53
00:02:44,360 --> 00:02:46,960
Speaker 5: I just think that we are choosing not to believe

54
00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:49,280
Speaker 5: in love and fight for love like we once die.

55
00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:53,600
Speaker 5: We have just and if I can speak freely, yeah,

56
00:02:53,680 --> 00:02:55,800
Speaker 5: speak freely. I think it's because of our music.

57
00:02:56,200 --> 00:02:56,360
Speaker 6: You know.

58
00:02:56,440 --> 00:02:59,240
Speaker 5: It's like Baddy is talking about how you don't need love,

59
00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:03,560
Speaker 5: you know, and it's just like, wow, really, we're the ballads,

60
00:03:03,600 --> 00:03:07,440
Speaker 5: the songs that make us hopeless romantics and make us

61
00:03:07,480 --> 00:03:11,040
Speaker 5: believe that there is something greater operating that connects us

62
00:03:11,080 --> 00:03:14,000
Speaker 5: with one another, that reminds us that we really need

63
00:03:14,040 --> 00:03:14,640
Speaker 5: one another.

64
00:03:14,919 --> 00:03:23,800
Speaker 4: And say that my baby daddy, y you heard that

65
00:03:23,880 --> 00:03:24,359
Speaker 4: song too?

66
00:03:25,120 --> 00:03:25,400
Speaker 6: Right?

67
00:03:25,480 --> 00:03:25,679
Speaker 7: Right?

68
00:03:25,760 --> 00:03:26,079
Speaker 1: Right?

69
00:03:26,320 --> 00:03:26,400
Speaker 6: No?

70
00:03:26,560 --> 00:03:27,040
Speaker 3: I agree.

71
00:03:27,040 --> 00:03:28,919
Speaker 2: I think that music because I love like old school

72
00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:30,960
Speaker 2: music and I was raised on that, so I do

73
00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:34,360
Speaker 2: believe that that plays a part in how we interact

74
00:03:34,400 --> 00:03:34,920
Speaker 2: with each other.

75
00:03:35,160 --> 00:03:36,000
Speaker 4: Yeah, a lot.

76
00:03:36,120 --> 00:03:41,760
Speaker 5: It's programming, So you know, I'm hopeful to invoke the

77
00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:45,480
Speaker 5: music of our society to give us more love ballace,

78
00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:48,720
Speaker 5: to help us return to each other by putting love

79
00:03:48,920 --> 00:03:52,360
Speaker 5: words to the to the sound of the drum and

80
00:03:52,560 --> 00:03:54,080
Speaker 5: draw us to one another.

81
00:03:55,000 --> 00:03:56,120
Speaker 3: You sound like you've been listening to.

82
00:03:56,200 --> 00:03:57,360
Speaker 6: Some brothers.

83
00:03:59,200 --> 00:04:02,520
Speaker 3: On after this right right now?

84
00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:05,400
Speaker 2: What did the American dream mean to you both before

85
00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:07,920
Speaker 2: the robbery and how has your perspective on it evolve

86
00:04:07,960 --> 00:04:08,520
Speaker 2: over time?

87
00:04:10,480 --> 00:04:13,440
Speaker 7: The American Dream, I think that at least during the

88
00:04:13,640 --> 00:04:16,919
Speaker 7: era in generation that at least that Fox and I

89
00:04:16,960 --> 00:04:17,359
Speaker 7: grew up in.

90
00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:18,960
Speaker 6: We know you're only eighteen.

91
00:04:19,279 --> 00:04:21,240
Speaker 4: Yes, I am before your time.

92
00:04:21,920 --> 00:04:24,200
Speaker 6: Yeah, but for a very long time, you know, we

93
00:04:24,320 --> 00:04:25,600
Speaker 6: had this image.

94
00:04:25,200 --> 00:04:31,400
Speaker 7: Of two point five kids, a white house, a picket fence,

95
00:04:31,560 --> 00:04:32,800
Speaker 7: picket fence, you.

96
00:04:32,760 --> 00:04:33,279
Speaker 6: Know what I'm saying.

97
00:04:33,320 --> 00:04:35,560
Speaker 7: And we just had these images of what we thought

98
00:04:36,200 --> 00:04:39,360
Speaker 7: the quote unquote American dream, you know, look like to us.

99
00:04:39,400 --> 00:04:43,040
Speaker 7: And you know, just with programs that we grew up on,

100
00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:49,039
Speaker 7: watching Dallas, watching Falcon Cress, It's Landing, watching Dynasty and

101
00:04:49,120 --> 00:04:51,600
Speaker 7: all of these, you know, those were programs that were

102
00:04:51,640 --> 00:04:55,839
Speaker 7: reflective of American success. And just as we were thinking

103
00:04:55,920 --> 00:04:59,200
Speaker 7: that it was not something that was ascertainable for black people,

104
00:04:59,480 --> 00:05:03,040
Speaker 7: they gave us the Cosby has improved us wrong and

105
00:05:03,480 --> 00:05:08,839
Speaker 7: Bill and well not Camille, but it's actually.

106
00:05:10,600 --> 00:05:12,640
Speaker 6: Who was his wife on the show. But here we are.

107
00:05:12,760 --> 00:05:16,120
Speaker 7: You know, we see two professional people raising successful children,

108
00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:18,640
Speaker 7: uh in a Brownstone in New York, and then we

109
00:05:18,720 --> 00:05:21,240
Speaker 7: came to realize that, okay, with them, it's possible for

110
00:05:21,320 --> 00:05:25,239
Speaker 7: us as well. Even before that, weesey uh and George

111
00:05:25,240 --> 00:05:27,200
Speaker 7: gave it to us and the Jeffersons and it's poor

112
00:05:27,240 --> 00:05:32,200
Speaker 7: and broke as uh uh James were in the projects.

113
00:05:32,400 --> 00:05:34,680
Speaker 7: You know, we still had an idea in terms of

114
00:05:34,680 --> 00:05:38,200
Speaker 7: what we thought the American dream was, and that is

115
00:05:38,760 --> 00:05:41,480
Speaker 7: you know, reflective of what we.

116
00:05:41,480 --> 00:05:44,159
Speaker 6: Thought, you know, and and you know, when.

117
00:05:43,960 --> 00:05:47,640
Speaker 7: We set out to live our own lives and build

118
00:05:47,640 --> 00:05:50,640
Speaker 7: our own adulthood, you know, we we we went in

119
00:05:50,680 --> 00:05:52,440
Speaker 7: pursuit of.

120
00:05:51,760 --> 00:05:54,080
Speaker 6: Of those of those images of those dreams.

121
00:05:54,520 --> 00:05:54,719
Speaker 4: Uh.

122
00:05:54,960 --> 00:05:57,280
Speaker 6: Yeah. I would say that that, at least for me.

123
00:05:57,640 --> 00:06:03,400
Speaker 7: By large, Wood represent uh the construct social construct of

124
00:06:03,440 --> 00:06:06,600
Speaker 7: what I held in terms of what the American dream

125
00:06:07,200 --> 00:06:08,360
Speaker 7: is and should be for us.

126
00:06:08,400 --> 00:06:11,240
Speaker 2: All yeah, that's gonna be my next question, like, do

127
00:06:11,320 --> 00:06:13,080
Speaker 2: you believe it's attainable for black people?

128
00:06:15,120 --> 00:06:15,840
Speaker 4: I think that.

129
00:06:15,960 --> 00:06:19,880
Speaker 7: William, I'm sorry, Daddy, I certainly believe that it's attainable

130
00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:22,200
Speaker 7: for black people because we see black people doing it.

131
00:06:23,279 --> 00:06:25,000
Speaker 7: I think that you just have to look in the

132
00:06:25,040 --> 00:06:27,159
Speaker 7: direction of what it is that you hope for to see.

133
00:06:27,640 --> 00:06:30,760
Speaker 7: If you're looking toward, you know, something that is totally

134
00:06:30,800 --> 00:06:33,080
Speaker 7: opposite of that, you know that's available for us to

135
00:06:33,120 --> 00:06:33,839
Speaker 7: see as well.

136
00:06:34,720 --> 00:06:36,800
Speaker 6: Yes, I do believe that those things are possible.

137
00:06:36,839 --> 00:06:40,120
Speaker 7: It's only because of that belief that we are possible,

138
00:06:40,200 --> 00:06:43,839
Speaker 7: meaning Fox and I, that we're celebrating thirty eight years

139
00:06:43,880 --> 00:06:47,400
Speaker 7: in union to one another and years of matrimony to

140
00:06:47,480 --> 00:06:51,039
Speaker 7: one another in you know, April of this year. So

141
00:06:51,120 --> 00:06:54,280
Speaker 7: with that being said, it's you know, I was just

142
00:06:54,400 --> 00:06:56,400
Speaker 7: we were just visiting my brother and my sister in

143
00:06:56,480 --> 00:07:00,080
Speaker 7: law this past weekend, and I remember actually watching the

144
00:07:00,120 --> 00:07:02,479
Speaker 7: two of them grow up. They've been together for probably

145
00:07:02,520 --> 00:07:05,760
Speaker 7: nearly fifty years now, they you know, all throughout Fox

146
00:07:05,760 --> 00:07:08,640
Speaker 7: and I is courtship. My brother sister in law have

147
00:07:08,760 --> 00:07:12,320
Speaker 7: been together and she is now ill, but my brother

148
00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:13,960
Speaker 7: is still right there with her. You know, he's not

149
00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:17,200
Speaker 7: in the streets, He not out holing is I don't

150
00:07:17,200 --> 00:07:20,080
Speaker 7: nobody know about it, all right, you know what I'm saying,

151
00:07:20,160 --> 00:07:22,280
Speaker 7: At least the guys carrying on with a level of

152
00:07:22,280 --> 00:07:26,680
Speaker 7: decency that nobody dirt but right. But if I had to,

153
00:07:26,880 --> 00:07:29,080
Speaker 7: you know, venture to say that, you know, he win

154
00:07:29,160 --> 00:07:29,920
Speaker 7: her all the time.

155
00:07:30,280 --> 00:07:31,720
Speaker 6: You know, even when it's out, you.

156
00:07:31,640 --> 00:07:33,960
Speaker 7: Know, steps out, he's like, well, you know, I got

157
00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:36,680
Speaker 7: to get back home because I ain't doing too much

158
00:07:36,720 --> 00:07:39,880
Speaker 7: moving right now. So you know we're doing too much moving,

159
00:07:40,280 --> 00:07:42,360
Speaker 7: you know. So it's that you know, he steps outside

160
00:07:42,360 --> 00:07:43,560
Speaker 7: of himself and says.

161
00:07:43,360 --> 00:07:45,560
Speaker 6: You know, we are not moving right now.

162
00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:48,320
Speaker 7: And so, yes, I definitely believe that it's that it's

163
00:07:48,320 --> 00:07:51,880
Speaker 7: possible for us because I see the examples.

164
00:07:51,280 --> 00:07:54,720
Speaker 5: And I think he is. It's the concept that what

165
00:07:54,760 --> 00:07:59,200
Speaker 5: are we dreaming of? You know, because truthfully, the best

166
00:07:59,280 --> 00:08:02,040
Speaker 5: dream that we could dream of is love for ourselves,

167
00:08:02,600 --> 00:08:07,160
Speaker 5: companionship for ourselves, partnerships for ourselves, and the material goods

168
00:08:07,160 --> 00:08:10,400
Speaker 5: that we so often associate with the dream. Even us

169
00:08:10,440 --> 00:08:13,080
Speaker 5: at the onset of our marriage, we thought that the

170
00:08:13,120 --> 00:08:16,200
Speaker 5: American dream was securing the material goods that we thought

171
00:08:16,960 --> 00:08:20,000
Speaker 5: to get through this life, only to discover after risking

172
00:08:20,080 --> 00:08:23,520
Speaker 5: our family and that everything that we ever needed we

173
00:08:23,640 --> 00:08:25,520
Speaker 5: already had, and that was each other.

174
00:08:25,840 --> 00:08:27,360
Speaker 3: It was that's how they program us.

175
00:08:27,600 --> 00:08:28,720
Speaker 4: Yes, it was the.

176
00:08:28,720 --> 00:08:31,400
Speaker 5: Fact and if everything that could come that was good

177
00:08:31,600 --> 00:08:34,760
Speaker 5: from that. So yeah, I do know that the American

178
00:08:34,840 --> 00:08:37,880
Speaker 5: dream is possible. But the American dream is not rooted

179
00:08:37,960 --> 00:08:41,880
Speaker 5: in material goods they go and come. The American dream

180
00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:45,920
Speaker 5: is really rooted in our ancestors who had a rate

181
00:08:46,120 --> 00:08:49,280
Speaker 5: that was higher than white people in this country before

182
00:08:49,640 --> 00:08:50,600
Speaker 5: being sixties.

183
00:08:52,120 --> 00:08:54,559
Speaker 7: And understanding too that I think that there's more than

184
00:08:54,679 --> 00:08:58,480
Speaker 7: there's more than one American dream, right, there are many dreams,

185
00:08:58,559 --> 00:09:01,680
Speaker 7: you know, and you know inside of that American dream,

186
00:09:01,720 --> 00:09:04,560
Speaker 7: and we just have to identify the dream that speaks

187
00:09:04,600 --> 00:09:06,599
Speaker 7: most to us and go into pursuit.

188
00:09:06,240 --> 00:09:11,120
Speaker 2: Of it, Like Jim y'all, y'all really giving me hope? Man, Yeah,

189
00:09:12,920 --> 00:09:15,320
Speaker 2: because to be honest, like and this is getting off topic,

190
00:09:15,320 --> 00:09:18,360
Speaker 2: but it's on topic. Like I'll be thirty eight in

191
00:09:18,400 --> 00:09:18,880
Speaker 2: two weeks.

192
00:09:18,880 --> 00:09:20,760
Speaker 3: Well, no, next weekend, it's my birthday.

193
00:09:20,400 --> 00:09:23,800
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, so even though I look eighteen like they said.

194
00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:28,160
Speaker 2: But Dayton has been really challenging. Like I don't know,

195
00:09:28,200 --> 00:09:30,880
Speaker 2: like when I watch your story, like obviously we have

196
00:09:30,920 --> 00:09:33,640
Speaker 2: a bigger topic when it comes to mass incarceration and

197
00:09:33,640 --> 00:09:36,160
Speaker 2: how it affects black communities, but like just the overall

198
00:09:36,240 --> 00:09:40,000
Speaker 2: just love that really kept y'all through it, and I

199
00:09:40,080 --> 00:09:42,520
Speaker 2: just feel like these days it's just not like that anymore,

200
00:09:42,559 --> 00:09:45,360
Speaker 2: Like every man's for themselves in a way that they

201
00:09:45,400 --> 00:09:47,800
Speaker 2: program or they try to program us with certain things,

202
00:09:47,800 --> 00:09:49,480
Speaker 2: Like it really makes a challenge it for you to

203
00:09:49,960 --> 00:09:52,720
Speaker 2: inspire to have a family like yourself or just you know,

204
00:09:52,800 --> 00:09:54,520
Speaker 2: that union that we are dreamed of.

205
00:09:55,400 --> 00:09:58,400
Speaker 7: Yeah, we've become so sensitive as a people, I believe,

206
00:09:58,440 --> 00:10:00,520
Speaker 7: you know, I'm talking about that as individu rules and

207
00:10:00,679 --> 00:10:02,000
Speaker 7: collectively as a people.

208
00:10:02,600 --> 00:10:05,280
Speaker 6: Yeah, that we seemingly can't take anything anymore.

209
00:10:05,520 --> 00:10:08,640
Speaker 7: People look at Fox and I and they make the

210
00:10:08,679 --> 00:10:11,920
Speaker 7: assumption that, you know, everything's all good over here. But

211
00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:14,160
Speaker 7: you know, it's through our struggles that we've been able

212
00:10:14,200 --> 00:10:18,080
Speaker 7: to be the demonstration that other people see because we've

213
00:10:18,120 --> 00:10:21,200
Speaker 7: been able to hold on in spite of our struggles,

214
00:10:21,280 --> 00:10:24,480
Speaker 7: in spite of challenges, in spite of our disagreements.

215
00:10:24,480 --> 00:10:26,800
Speaker 6: We as couples nowadays look.

216
00:10:26,640 --> 00:10:28,920
Speaker 7: At it and shit, we don't have we don't we

217
00:10:29,160 --> 00:10:32,679
Speaker 7: don't even have the luxury of just dissing.

218
00:10:32,360 --> 00:10:33,560
Speaker 6: Each other in the way that we do.

219
00:10:33,640 --> 00:10:36,560
Speaker 7: But the trouble arises, you know, we all breaking for

220
00:10:36,600 --> 00:10:37,000
Speaker 7: the door.

221
00:10:37,440 --> 00:10:39,840
Speaker 6: You know, it wants to put up with anything anymore.

222
00:10:40,960 --> 00:10:42,240
Speaker 3: That's what Michelle Obama said.

223
00:10:42,520 --> 00:10:44,400
Speaker 2: She was like she and like Barrock for like ten years,

224
00:10:44,400 --> 00:10:45,880
Speaker 2: but she was like I wasn't gonna leave him, like

225
00:10:45,920 --> 00:10:48,240
Speaker 2: I was, just what's ten years to thirty forty years

226
00:10:48,280 --> 00:10:48,880
Speaker 2: we've been together?

227
00:10:49,160 --> 00:10:49,600
Speaker 4: Yes?

228
00:10:49,679 --> 00:10:49,800
Speaker 6: Right?

229
00:10:49,960 --> 00:10:51,640
Speaker 4: Yes, yes? Yes?

230
00:10:52,080 --> 00:10:54,760
Speaker 2: So did y'all ever imagine y'all love story will become

231
00:10:54,840 --> 00:10:55,560
Speaker 2: what it is today?

232
00:10:57,559 --> 00:11:03,600
Speaker 5: You know, Wayne Smillance, You know, I would have to

233
00:11:03,640 --> 00:11:07,040
Speaker 5: say that what God has done through us is nothing

234
00:11:07,160 --> 00:11:09,880
Speaker 5: more than a you know, nothing less than a miracle

235
00:11:11,160 --> 00:11:14,240
Speaker 5: one when you are an incarcerated family. In particular, as

236
00:11:14,280 --> 00:11:17,240
Speaker 5: long as we were incarcerated, our family did twenty one

237
00:11:17,360 --> 00:11:20,800
Speaker 5: years before we able to receive clemency through our governor

238
00:11:20,840 --> 00:11:25,080
Speaker 5: here in Louisiana. And so most marriages, don't you know,

239
00:11:25,160 --> 00:11:28,800
Speaker 5: when you talk about marriages as a whole, sixty percent

240
00:11:28,840 --> 00:11:32,280
Speaker 5: of marriages are ending in divorce, and so talk about

241
00:11:32,320 --> 00:11:38,040
Speaker 5: incarcerated marriages thirty percent. You know, it's less than thirty

242
00:11:38,040 --> 00:11:40,640
Speaker 5: percent of incarcerated marriages that make it in the first

243
00:11:40,920 --> 00:11:44,800
Speaker 5: three years of incarceration. And so what we have pulled

244
00:11:44,880 --> 00:11:48,600
Speaker 5: off is nothing less than a feat of miracle within itself,

245
00:11:50,080 --> 00:11:52,720
Speaker 5: I think. But what we came to understand was that

246
00:11:52,800 --> 00:11:55,240
Speaker 5: we were stronger together than we could ever be a

247
00:11:55,280 --> 00:11:59,040
Speaker 5: part part right, And that you know, four hands are

248
00:11:59,080 --> 00:12:02,400
Speaker 5: better than two four eyes are better than two eyes.

249
00:12:03,240 --> 00:12:06,920
Speaker 5: Just two minds are better than one mind. I always

250
00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:10,720
Speaker 5: reference the animal kingdom when we see animals. We don't

251
00:12:10,760 --> 00:12:14,040
Speaker 5: see them rolling alone, you know, And you know dogs

252
00:12:14,080 --> 00:12:17,400
Speaker 5: going in a pack, and and cows are and a pride,

253
00:12:17,480 --> 00:12:20,760
Speaker 5: and you know the herd and even a fish swim together.

254
00:12:20,800 --> 00:12:23,600
Speaker 5: In school. What I'm saying, but we get to think

255
00:12:23,960 --> 00:12:26,680
Speaker 5: thinking that we have the luxury to exist in this

256
00:12:26,840 --> 00:12:29,000
Speaker 5: life without one another, and I just think that it

257
00:12:29,040 --> 00:12:32,360
Speaker 5: is the farthest thing from reality. And that is why

258
00:12:32,400 --> 00:12:36,000
Speaker 5: we are struggling so hard as a because we are

259
00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:39,079
Speaker 5: not finding a way to connect and fight for our love.

260
00:12:39,840 --> 00:12:42,880
Speaker 2: Right now, just to give a listeners some insight, how

261
00:12:42,880 --> 00:12:44,319
Speaker 2: did the two of you first meet and what was

262
00:12:44,360 --> 00:12:45,880
Speaker 2: your first impressions of each other?

263
00:12:46,559 --> 00:12:49,319
Speaker 6: Well, there's two answers to that question, what one of us?

264
00:12:49,320 --> 00:12:50,960
Speaker 3: You're right?

265
00:12:51,320 --> 00:12:53,880
Speaker 6: So she had the last question. I'll leave with at

266
00:12:53,960 --> 00:12:56,800
Speaker 6: least I understand understanding.

267
00:12:57,320 --> 00:13:02,360
Speaker 2: Right, because you are somebody Mandy, you read the book.

268
00:13:04,760 --> 00:13:08,040
Speaker 6: Yes, but we met as a high school sweethearts.

269
00:13:08,840 --> 00:13:12,720
Speaker 7: I had just exited high school myself and was first

270
00:13:12,720 --> 00:13:15,160
Speaker 7: tour duty in the military and went to the military

271
00:13:15,200 --> 00:13:18,280
Speaker 7: straight out of high school. Couldn't wait to get life

272
00:13:18,320 --> 00:13:21,600
Speaker 7: started on my own terms. And while I was home

273
00:13:21,600 --> 00:13:25,200
Speaker 7: on boot camp. From boot camp, a mutual friend of

274
00:13:25,240 --> 00:13:27,720
Speaker 7: ours she went to my church, but she and Fox

275
00:13:27,760 --> 00:13:30,960
Speaker 7: went to school together and they were auditching school. This

276
00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:33,120
Speaker 7: is where the story differs from one another. They were

277
00:13:33,160 --> 00:13:34,559
Speaker 7: ditching school in mind.

278
00:13:35,080 --> 00:13:38,240
Speaker 4: Right, and see that's how he won't to understand.

279
00:13:38,640 --> 00:13:42,760
Speaker 7: They realized that they needed a weird rise a ride

280
00:13:42,800 --> 00:13:47,760
Speaker 7: back to school. Her girlfriend wanted to call me and said, well,

281
00:13:47,800 --> 00:13:50,880
Speaker 7: you know, I think she said, my boyfriend or something

282
00:13:50,880 --> 00:13:54,080
Speaker 7: to that effect, is home visiting right now. I just

283
00:13:54,120 --> 00:13:55,839
Speaker 7: call him and get him to come pick us up,

284
00:13:55,840 --> 00:13:58,600
Speaker 7: to which I did. And when I got there and

285
00:13:58,840 --> 00:14:01,880
Speaker 7: opened the door, Fox answered it was her residence that

286
00:14:02,120 --> 00:14:04,640
Speaker 7: that I was arriving at, or that I arrived too.

287
00:14:04,640 --> 00:14:06,360
Speaker 6: And when she came to.

288
00:14:06,280 --> 00:14:09,880
Speaker 7: The door, I believe in that moment that I experienced

289
00:14:10,960 --> 00:14:14,439
Speaker 7: what some would identify as a what.

290
00:14:14,400 --> 00:14:15,160
Speaker 6: Do you call it? Love?

291
00:14:15,160 --> 00:14:18,160
Speaker 7: At first, now I knew I was feeling it. She

292
00:14:18,280 --> 00:14:20,440
Speaker 7: was trying to deny that she was, but I could

293
00:14:20,440 --> 00:14:22,680
Speaker 7: see it in her eyes. I could feel it into energy,

294
00:14:23,080 --> 00:14:24,840
Speaker 7: you know, and I can tell how she, you know,

295
00:14:24,920 --> 00:14:27,120
Speaker 7: kind of act like she wasn't looking at me or

296
00:14:27,480 --> 00:14:28,400
Speaker 7: you know, and so forth.

297
00:14:28,440 --> 00:14:30,440
Speaker 4: And he is full of himself, isn't he?

298
00:14:30,840 --> 00:14:33,760
Speaker 7: And so you know, I was convinced, you know, I

299
00:14:33,800 --> 00:14:36,680
Speaker 7: was convinced that I'm going to bring that up out

300
00:14:36,720 --> 00:14:39,080
Speaker 7: of her, you know, to let her know that this

301
00:14:39,120 --> 00:14:41,760
Speaker 7: is this is a thing happening right here between us.

302
00:14:42,040 --> 00:14:46,160
Speaker 7: And long story short, we ended up A friend of

303
00:14:46,200 --> 00:14:48,320
Speaker 7: mine joined me to come pick them up that day.

304
00:14:48,320 --> 00:14:51,120
Speaker 7: He was also home visiting from the military as well,

305
00:14:51,680 --> 00:14:56,040
Speaker 7: and he got Fox's phone number. Came back to my

306
00:14:56,080 --> 00:14:58,040
Speaker 7: house and we were looking for something to do later

307
00:14:58,080 --> 00:15:00,480
Speaker 7: on after we had dropped them off. The school hours

308
00:15:00,480 --> 00:15:03,640
Speaker 7: had passed, and I was like, well, we call old

309
00:15:03,680 --> 00:15:05,600
Speaker 7: girl on them and see see what they're up to. They,

310
00:15:05,720 --> 00:15:07,160
Speaker 7: you know, they might want to turn the block or

311
00:15:07,160 --> 00:15:10,640
Speaker 7: two with us, right He no answer. He and I

312
00:15:10,720 --> 00:15:13,480
Speaker 7: decided we're gonna go out anyway. We go out out.

313
00:15:13,600 --> 00:15:15,760
Speaker 7: The night comes to a close. I come back home

314
00:15:16,160 --> 00:15:18,880
Speaker 7: and I remember unplugging my phone in my room before

315
00:15:18,880 --> 00:15:20,760
Speaker 7: I left because I didn't want nobody else to use

316
00:15:20,800 --> 00:15:21,400
Speaker 7: my phone.

317
00:15:21,560 --> 00:15:23,080
Speaker 6: I had all playing.

318
00:15:23,480 --> 00:15:26,200
Speaker 4: Right when I got a vision.

319
00:15:26,320 --> 00:15:29,600
Speaker 7: There you go, right, I plugged the phone back up

320
00:15:29,640 --> 00:15:31,600
Speaker 7: and I hit what we had then was called Star

321
00:15:31,720 --> 00:15:34,080
Speaker 7: sixty nine six.

322
00:15:35,200 --> 00:15:37,880
Speaker 6: I know, I know, got to.

323
00:15:37,880 --> 00:15:40,040
Speaker 7: Send you back to the last number that was called

324
00:15:40,040 --> 00:15:41,880
Speaker 7: from your numbers. So when I've done so, I called

325
00:15:41,920 --> 00:15:45,240
Speaker 7: back and she answered the phone and she's like, well,

326
00:15:45,320 --> 00:15:45,800
Speaker 7: you know what is this?

327
00:15:45,880 --> 00:15:48,200
Speaker 6: I say this Rob? And she like Rob? Rob? Who?

328
00:15:48,280 --> 00:15:49,800
Speaker 6: And I say Rob. I came by a picky' all

329
00:15:49,880 --> 00:15:52,000
Speaker 6: up from her earlier today. I knew who you was,

330
00:15:52,320 --> 00:15:58,640
Speaker 6: you know, playing my girl playing right? Hold up? She's like, wait,

331
00:15:58,640 --> 00:16:03,040
Speaker 6: mane you want to man? And so she said, well

332
00:16:03,040 --> 00:16:04,880
Speaker 6: that's what Wanda told me. I said, well, I'm telling

333
00:16:04,920 --> 00:16:05,520
Speaker 6: you something.

334
00:16:05,280 --> 00:16:09,640
Speaker 4: Different, said matter of fact, let's call you know, we

335
00:16:09,680 --> 00:16:12,520
Speaker 4: had options back then, so by to be called one

336
00:16:12,680 --> 00:16:14,760
Speaker 4: on three way. I was in love. I was like, no,

337
00:16:14,840 --> 00:16:16,280
Speaker 4: he didn't call one for me?

338
00:16:16,560 --> 00:16:16,840
Speaker 6: Right?

339
00:16:17,840 --> 00:16:18,000
Speaker 8: Wait?

340
00:16:18,040 --> 00:16:18,520
Speaker 4: Where is one?

341
00:16:18,600 --> 00:16:18,960
Speaker 6: Dad? Now?

342
00:16:19,040 --> 00:16:19,880
Speaker 3: Y'all so cool with her?

343
00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:25,720
Speaker 5: Yes, yes, yes, indeed, yes, indeed, yeah, yeah, oh.

344
00:16:27,520 --> 00:16:29,360
Speaker 6: You want. Probably could have got me if she wasn't

345
00:16:29,360 --> 00:16:31,920
Speaker 6: pimping so hard. But I didn't feel right.

346
00:16:32,720 --> 00:16:37,960
Speaker 2: Wander was outside. That's what it was. Oh that is

347
00:16:38,080 --> 00:16:41,160
Speaker 2: so funny. So you both had big dreams and you

348
00:16:41,240 --> 00:16:44,600
Speaker 2: both were actively pursuing them. So whether it was your clothing, story, culture,

349
00:16:44,840 --> 00:16:48,200
Speaker 2: the comedy store, you brought your first house, and there

350
00:16:48,280 --> 00:16:49,960
Speaker 2: was so much other things that y'all wanted to pursue.

351
00:16:49,960 --> 00:16:53,600
Speaker 2: So how do you think that societal pressures to achieve

352
00:16:53,640 --> 00:16:56,200
Speaker 2: success and wealth influence the choices you made in nineteen

353
00:16:56,240 --> 00:16:59,480
Speaker 2: ninety seven? Because I feel like y'all really were trying.

354
00:16:59,560 --> 00:17:01,120
Speaker 2: Y'all had really good intentions.

355
00:17:01,400 --> 00:17:05,240
Speaker 5: I think that you know the term by any means

356
00:17:05,280 --> 00:17:09,200
Speaker 5: necessary fact, So we wanted success so bad we will

357
00:17:09,720 --> 00:17:12,439
Speaker 5: by any means necessary to do what we had to

358
00:17:12,520 --> 00:17:16,080
Speaker 5: do in order to achieve it. And it's what happens

359
00:17:16,119 --> 00:17:19,760
Speaker 5: to so many of us today. On every time you

360
00:17:19,840 --> 00:17:23,080
Speaker 5: turn around, it's some young black woman that's getting arrested

361
00:17:23,080 --> 00:17:27,760
Speaker 5: for a PPP mischions or you know this, the.

362
00:17:27,640 --> 00:17:29,920
Speaker 4: Credit card fraud, or you.

363
00:17:29,880 --> 00:17:32,399
Speaker 5: Know this that and the third all of these unnecessary

364
00:17:32,440 --> 00:17:36,440
Speaker 5: things trying to get the material dream instead of the dream.

365
00:17:36,240 --> 00:17:37,040
Speaker 4: That really lasts.

366
00:17:37,040 --> 00:17:38,919
Speaker 5: And the dream that really lasts is the love that

367
00:17:38,960 --> 00:17:42,120
Speaker 5: we carry with us on this journey. And for us

368
00:17:42,160 --> 00:17:45,360
Speaker 5: it was no different. We believe that we deserved it,

369
00:17:45,720 --> 00:17:48,800
Speaker 5: and you know, and we're willing to do whatever we

370
00:17:48,920 --> 00:17:52,280
Speaker 5: had to do in order to achieve it, just to

371
00:17:52,320 --> 00:17:54,960
Speaker 5: go back and learning that wisdom that the greatest gift

372
00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:58,399
Speaker 5: you can have in us life is life itself and

373
00:17:59,119 --> 00:18:02,240
Speaker 5: never put that at risk for anything else.

374
00:18:03,040 --> 00:18:10,160
Speaker 7: Right now, that's the older portions of us speaking.

375
00:18:09,320 --> 00:18:09,600
Speaker 6: People.

376
00:18:09,640 --> 00:18:26,080
Speaker 3: I was like, I know you were now, I know

377
00:18:26,160 --> 00:18:26,840
Speaker 3: y'all was lit.

378
00:18:27,400 --> 00:18:30,199
Speaker 2: I could tell when Miss Fox, when you was in

379
00:18:30,240 --> 00:18:33,040
Speaker 2: the documentary and you was like, you know, like you know,

380
00:18:33,119 --> 00:18:35,720
Speaker 2: shawing face, being professional stuff. And then when that lady

381
00:18:35,800 --> 00:18:37,399
Speaker 2: was like she said something to the fact of like

382
00:18:37,600 --> 00:18:39,359
Speaker 2: you like, did you check? And she was like nine,

383
00:18:39,480 --> 00:18:41,680
Speaker 2: check and she was like, well, why are you gonna

384
00:18:41,680 --> 00:18:42,879
Speaker 2: tell me one thing you can do other? And then

385
00:18:42,920 --> 00:18:44,720
Speaker 2: you just started going off. When you hung up the phone,

386
00:18:44,720 --> 00:18:46,919
Speaker 2: she was like, he's just not a nigga. And I

387
00:18:47,000 --> 00:18:48,560
Speaker 2: was like, that's the Miss Fox. I want to talk

388
00:18:48,600 --> 00:18:49,280
Speaker 2: to her.

389
00:18:49,480 --> 00:18:51,479
Speaker 3: Let me because that's fresh trade, Like, why would you

390
00:18:51,520 --> 00:18:52,439
Speaker 3: lie to me like that.

391
00:18:52,640 --> 00:18:55,280
Speaker 5: When you are in this system. And that's what I

392
00:18:55,320 --> 00:18:58,760
Speaker 5: say about risking it all. When you think about the

393
00:18:58,800 --> 00:19:01,720
Speaker 5: thirteenth Amendment and the only way that you can still

394
00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:04,400
Speaker 5: be a slave in this country, slavery is not over.

395
00:19:04,880 --> 00:19:07,520
Speaker 5: It is having well and the only way that you

396
00:19:07,600 --> 00:19:09,600
Speaker 5: can be a slave in this country is if you're

397
00:19:09,680 --> 00:19:14,280
Speaker 5: duly convicted of a crime. And so as black people

398
00:19:14,480 --> 00:19:17,480
Speaker 5: all that we have gone through to be free, then

399
00:19:17,680 --> 00:19:20,399
Speaker 5: the last thing that we can afford to do is

400
00:19:20,440 --> 00:19:23,600
Speaker 5: to And probably one of the things that tore my

401
00:19:23,760 --> 00:19:28,560
Speaker 5: heart apart was acknowledging that with my own hands I

402
00:19:28,640 --> 00:19:32,680
Speaker 5: had subjected myself back to slavery that my ancestors had

403
00:19:32,720 --> 00:19:35,560
Speaker 5: worked for hundreds of years to get out of with.

404
00:19:35,680 --> 00:19:36,639
Speaker 4: My own will.

405
00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:39,800
Speaker 5: And so it's just a matter of us placing proper

406
00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:43,760
Speaker 5: perspective on things that how dare we and so our

407
00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:46,280
Speaker 5: history by breaking the law?

408
00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:50,080
Speaker 4: How dare you?

409
00:19:50,160 --> 00:19:50,440
Speaker 3: Right?

410
00:19:51,440 --> 00:19:53,840
Speaker 2: So I remember when I was reading your book, I

411
00:19:53,880 --> 00:19:56,480
Speaker 2: think either you or mister Robert mentioned that y'all was

412
00:19:56,480 --> 00:19:58,879
Speaker 2: watching set it off and then planning to seed in

413
00:19:58,920 --> 00:20:01,800
Speaker 2: your head. And I was watching dead Presidents the other

414
00:20:01,880 --> 00:20:04,159
Speaker 2: day and I was just like, you know, obviously we

415
00:20:04,240 --> 00:20:06,560
Speaker 2: don't condone crime, but I can see why a lot

416
00:20:06,600 --> 00:20:09,639
Speaker 2: of people will results to it because they need to survive. So,

417
00:20:09,680 --> 00:20:12,560
Speaker 2: do y'all feel like filmmakers have a responsibility about to

418
00:20:12,560 --> 00:20:15,760
Speaker 2: influence their stories girls that they put out there?

419
00:20:15,880 --> 00:20:18,600
Speaker 5: Girl, let me tell you something, So I don't know

420
00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:21,240
Speaker 5: if it has been shared with you yet, but we

421
00:20:21,359 --> 00:20:22,680
Speaker 5: have made a sequel to Time.

422
00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:27,760
Speaker 4: It is business thing and and it.

423
00:20:27,720 --> 00:20:30,359
Speaker 5: Will be coming out this year. So we're really excited

424
00:20:30,359 --> 00:20:33,720
Speaker 5: about it. It is my debut and it was a

425
00:20:33,760 --> 00:20:36,639
Speaker 5: story that we were so intentional about telling them. We

426
00:20:36,760 --> 00:20:40,479
Speaker 5: raised the money ourselves to tell to make this film.

427
00:20:41,160 --> 00:20:42,439
Speaker 4: This would not be denied.

428
00:20:42,480 --> 00:20:46,199
Speaker 5: And so for me as a filmmaker, I feel like

429
00:20:46,240 --> 00:20:48,920
Speaker 5: we have a duty and an obligation.

430
00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:50,679
Speaker 4: Uh to tell our stories.

431
00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:53,280
Speaker 5: And so one of the things that I was sharing

432
00:20:53,320 --> 00:20:58,080
Speaker 5: we were at Martha's Vinyard Film Festival in Martha's Vineyard,

433
00:20:58,440 --> 00:21:00,800
Speaker 5: and one of the things that I was sharing with

434
00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:03,920
Speaker 5: the other filmmakers was that if we are in control

435
00:21:04,119 --> 00:21:07,880
Speaker 5: with the narratives that we are telling, why can we

436
00:21:07,960 --> 00:21:09,959
Speaker 5: tell more happier narratives?

437
00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:10,800
Speaker 3: Right?

438
00:21:11,160 --> 00:21:14,200
Speaker 5: If you have the power in your pin, you're writing

439
00:21:14,240 --> 00:21:18,240
Speaker 5: the story, you're getting this story produced, why not give

440
00:21:18,359 --> 00:21:21,840
Speaker 5: our stories our people hope. It should be a rule

441
00:21:21,880 --> 00:21:24,240
Speaker 5: that in every one of our stories that at the

442
00:21:24,320 --> 00:21:26,800
Speaker 5: end of that story there is a lining of hope

443
00:21:26,800 --> 00:21:31,040
Speaker 5: for our people. That we continue to do this trauma

444
00:21:31,119 --> 00:21:34,199
Speaker 5: pourn our calling where they are continuing to put the

445
00:21:34,320 --> 00:21:37,280
Speaker 5: trauma in us. Our stories are so much bigger than

446
00:21:37,280 --> 00:21:40,159
Speaker 5: the pain we suffer. You know, the movie Queen and

447
00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:43,360
Speaker 5: Slim as one of the examples, and people say, oh,

448
00:21:43,400 --> 00:21:46,200
Speaker 5: you and Ra remind me of Queen and Slim. I'm like, no, nigga,

449
00:21:46,200 --> 00:21:55,520
Speaker 5: they died at the end of yes away and kill them. No, baby, you're.

450
00:21:55,400 --> 00:21:56,359
Speaker 4: Not gonna put that on us.

451
00:21:56,359 --> 00:21:58,560
Speaker 5: But if we have the power to tell the stories

452
00:21:58,840 --> 00:22:01,520
Speaker 5: and sing the songs that the melodies, you get to

453
00:22:01,560 --> 00:22:04,280
Speaker 5: put this on the ethos of the planet, why.

454
00:22:04,119 --> 00:22:08,320
Speaker 4: Not let it be good? Yeah.

455
00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:13,240
Speaker 7: In adding to Fox's point as well, it's just when

456
00:22:13,359 --> 00:22:16,000
Speaker 7: it comes to filmmakers, I think all we're always kind

457
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:19,120
Speaker 7: of like looking for a place to lay our wrongdoing.

458
00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:23,760
Speaker 7: But filmmakers, it's just art that they're doing, you know,

459
00:22:23,840 --> 00:22:25,200
Speaker 7: and art imitates life.

460
00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:27,679
Speaker 6: I don't think it's the opposite way around.

461
00:22:28,200 --> 00:22:31,119
Speaker 7: If those types of films, that the type of music

462
00:22:31,200 --> 00:22:34,080
Speaker 7: and the types of art that we see, the expressions

463
00:22:34,119 --> 00:22:36,520
Speaker 7: of art that we see in whatever medium that they

464
00:22:36,600 --> 00:22:39,080
Speaker 7: that they choose to do it from, I think that

465
00:22:39,160 --> 00:22:42,400
Speaker 7: the artist is depicting what the artist sees. It's not

466
00:22:42,440 --> 00:22:46,359
Speaker 7: necessarily us acting out based upon the art that is

467
00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:49,040
Speaker 7: being put out there. So I do think that, yes,

468
00:22:49,119 --> 00:22:54,359
Speaker 7: there may be some ethical issues when it comes to

469
00:22:54,520 --> 00:22:59,200
Speaker 7: you know, what we're choosing to spotlight or to show

470
00:22:59,280 --> 00:23:02,720
Speaker 7: its art or how we're choosing to express certain things. Yeah,

471
00:23:02,760 --> 00:23:07,000
Speaker 7: there's level of responsibility, I guess as it relates to it.

472
00:23:07,320 --> 00:23:09,560
Speaker 7: But at the end of the day, the judge ain't

473
00:23:09,560 --> 00:23:12,440
Speaker 7: pigling to wait up. They ain't pick up, They ain't

474
00:23:12,440 --> 00:23:14,640
Speaker 7: pick up Queen Latif and them. You know what I'm

475
00:23:14,640 --> 00:23:18,399
Speaker 7: saying that none of them rib and fox ass up

476
00:23:18,440 --> 00:23:21,159
Speaker 7: and say you all want but it's bank or just

477
00:23:21,280 --> 00:23:23,560
Speaker 7: rob And you know, we had to stand for that,

478
00:23:23,600 --> 00:23:25,439
Speaker 7: and they didn't want to hear that talk about. You know,

479
00:23:25,480 --> 00:23:28,320
Speaker 7: we even used at one point in my appellate process,

480
00:23:28,720 --> 00:23:33,719
Speaker 7: I even try to lean on a soft science that

481
00:23:33,760 --> 00:23:38,399
Speaker 7: they have called American dreams. Syndrome is a thing, you know.

482
00:23:38,840 --> 00:23:40,800
Speaker 7: But at the same time the court was like, yeah,

483
00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:43,600
Speaker 7: there also is a thing of free will, and you

484
00:23:43,680 --> 00:23:45,280
Speaker 7: exercise your free will on.

485
00:23:45,240 --> 00:23:46,920
Speaker 6: That day to go in the bank and do it.

486
00:23:47,160 --> 00:23:49,960
Speaker 6: Did so I'm going to my free will and send

487
00:23:50,080 --> 00:23:52,960
Speaker 6: you right, you know.

488
00:23:53,280 --> 00:23:56,760
Speaker 7: So other than that, I'm just a proponent of not

489
00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:01,359
Speaker 7: looking or seeking for places to cast our blame, but

490
00:24:01,480 --> 00:24:05,040
Speaker 7: to bring it back home and own it, the owning

491
00:24:05,080 --> 00:24:07,240
Speaker 7: of our own blame that we were able to hear

492
00:24:07,280 --> 00:24:11,320
Speaker 7: our calling. Sometimes God will put us through the universe.

493
00:24:11,400 --> 00:24:13,800
Speaker 7: Whatever it is that you believe as a higher power

494
00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:16,600
Speaker 7: or a God construct, I think that you know, when

495
00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:18,720
Speaker 7: we look at it all or whatever. You know, we're

496
00:24:18,760 --> 00:24:21,720
Speaker 7: all born under a systematic, you know type of thing.

497
00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:23,760
Speaker 6: We're all giving a clean slate, so to speak.

498
00:24:24,200 --> 00:24:26,720
Speaker 7: And with that clean slate, just like Adam and Eve,

499
00:24:26,800 --> 00:24:28,920
Speaker 7: you know, you can make a decision through free will

500
00:24:29,680 --> 00:24:32,879
Speaker 7: to break you know, the codes or the rules that

501
00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:35,440
Speaker 7: have been set. Don't eat from the tree. Well, eat

502
00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:37,920
Speaker 7: from the tree anyway, since I got there, Okay, Well

503
00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:40,120
Speaker 7: you also got the will to be able to deal

504
00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:40,960
Speaker 7: with the sanctions.

505
00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:41,720
Speaker 4: Yeah.

506
00:24:41,840 --> 00:24:44,440
Speaker 7: But at the same time, because God is all merciful,

507
00:24:45,080 --> 00:24:48,399
Speaker 7: all knowing, all present, and the likes, then salvation is

508
00:24:48,480 --> 00:24:51,560
Speaker 7: always available to each and every one of us as

509
00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:55,560
Speaker 7: a result of our transgressions. It is us now because

510
00:24:55,600 --> 00:24:57,720
Speaker 7: we're in that moment to where this is where the

511
00:24:57,760 --> 00:25:00,760
Speaker 7: trial happens. But as long as you stay true to

512
00:25:00,800 --> 00:25:04,360
Speaker 7: the trial, salvation will come because it always has from

513
00:25:04,440 --> 00:25:06,640
Speaker 7: every heart there in the Bible that we've seen from

514
00:25:06,680 --> 00:25:09,080
Speaker 7: the first one to the last one. We've always saw

515
00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:14,240
Speaker 7: salvation happen when you accepted wrongdoing or accepted how you

516
00:25:14,320 --> 00:25:17,240
Speaker 7: even got in the situation, and uh, and then just

517
00:25:17,280 --> 00:25:20,600
Speaker 7: work through it and then you know, allow allow the miracle.

518
00:25:20,280 --> 00:25:21,080
Speaker 6: To be performed.

519
00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:24,159
Speaker 7: I think it's right fact that we demonstrate to other people,

520
00:25:24,280 --> 00:25:27,800
Speaker 7: you know what I'm saying, of what's possible despite despite

521
00:25:27,840 --> 00:25:28,640
Speaker 7: our realities.

522
00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:30,919
Speaker 5: You know that boy got that degree down there, it

523
00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:35,080
Speaker 5: in gol in theology, right right right. I just go

524
00:25:35,280 --> 00:25:38,280
Speaker 5: and sit in the prison. He got some lizard while

525
00:25:38,280 --> 00:25:38,880
Speaker 5: he was there.

526
00:25:39,600 --> 00:25:41,760
Speaker 2: But I was reading about everything he was doing in prison.

527
00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:43,800
Speaker 2: I'm like, that's what I'm talking about. Like, you ain't

528
00:25:43,800 --> 00:25:45,800
Speaker 2: gonna have me sitting here looking crazy. We're gonna make

529
00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:51,440
Speaker 2: some shit happen. You was on programs, you had people

530
00:25:51,520 --> 00:25:56,080
Speaker 2: Mama's coming to see them, Yes, marathons.

531
00:25:56,200 --> 00:25:58,840
Speaker 6: I was like, wow, life, don't stop life.

532
00:25:58,840 --> 00:26:03,040
Speaker 7: And just because you in up being yeah, you got

533
00:26:03,040 --> 00:26:04,080
Speaker 7: the right to do that too.

534
00:26:04,680 --> 00:26:05,600
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a fact.

535
00:26:05,840 --> 00:26:08,439
Speaker 2: So when everything was going down, did were y'all ever like,

536
00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:09,720
Speaker 2: did y'll have a question and be like are we

537
00:26:09,800 --> 00:26:10,720
Speaker 2: really about to do this shit?

538
00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:15,000
Speaker 5: The entire time until the very last moment, and it

539
00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:19,360
Speaker 5: was just like nobody had the courage to say Okay, no, yeah,

540
00:26:19,560 --> 00:26:22,600
Speaker 5: I've been thinking about this concept of the best wife,

541
00:26:23,040 --> 00:26:26,440
Speaker 5: right and what makes the best wife, and in that moment,

542
00:26:26,680 --> 00:26:30,119
Speaker 5: I've always felt that I faltered and being the best

543
00:26:30,119 --> 00:26:33,040
Speaker 5: wife to my husband because if he couldn't think clearly,

544
00:26:33,480 --> 00:26:36,840
Speaker 5: then so my maternal instinct should have kicked in to say,

545
00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:41,520
Speaker 5: you know what, lose you. It's a chance, and the

546
00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:44,600
Speaker 5: chance that how big of a chance were taking here

547
00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:46,960
Speaker 5: is not a risk that I'm willing to take on you,

548
00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:49,600
Speaker 5: because I don't want to lose you.

549
00:26:48,840 --> 00:26:50,080
Speaker 4: You know so.

550
00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:53,239
Speaker 5: I think though, when we deal with each other in

551
00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:56,199
Speaker 5: our community, the same thing with mothers and they know

552
00:26:56,280 --> 00:26:58,840
Speaker 5: that their sons are dealing drugs, and you know, not

553
00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:01,960
Speaker 5: understanding that they're her sons are far more valuable than

554
00:27:02,040 --> 00:27:04,680
Speaker 5: any dollar they could bring in their house, no matter

555
00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:10,640
Speaker 5: no matter what economic constraints they're under. No dollar that

556
00:27:10,640 --> 00:27:12,480
Speaker 5: that child brings in the house is going to be

557
00:27:12,520 --> 00:27:15,879
Speaker 5: more valuable than that child being in your presence and

558
00:27:16,040 --> 00:27:16,919
Speaker 5: in your life.

559
00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:19,840
Speaker 4: Keeping that child from being removed from you.

560
00:27:19,960 --> 00:27:23,320
Speaker 5: Nothing is worth that, nothing losing a family member to

561
00:27:23,400 --> 00:27:24,000
Speaker 5: this system.

562
00:27:24,640 --> 00:27:26,920
Speaker 3: Speaking of mothers, I feel like your mother still feel

563
00:27:26,920 --> 00:27:28,120
Speaker 3: away about everything.

564
00:27:30,080 --> 00:27:32,639
Speaker 4: You're watching. On the end of that documentary, you would

565
00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:35,160
Speaker 4: think that she was. I think that, you know, over

566
00:27:35,240 --> 00:27:36,119
Speaker 4: space and time.

567
00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:41,000
Speaker 5: My mother just thought I deserved better. She you know,

568
00:27:41,640 --> 00:27:44,199
Speaker 5: felt like Robert did that, go let him do that time.

569
00:27:44,520 --> 00:27:47,520
Speaker 5: You know, Yeah, things mamas want to protect, right, she

570
00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:50,360
Speaker 5: did not, and that this is my family.

571
00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:51,240
Speaker 4: We did this.

572
00:27:51,240 --> 00:27:53,840
Speaker 5: Together, my husband and I. It wasn't like he went

573
00:27:53,920 --> 00:27:56,440
Speaker 5: and did something and I found out later. I mean,

574
00:27:56,520 --> 00:28:00,560
Speaker 5: we were intimately involved in this whole transaction. So not

575
00:28:00,640 --> 00:28:03,000
Speaker 5: only did I have a duty and an obligation because

576
00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:05,240
Speaker 5: he was my husband, but he was also my fall

577
00:28:05,359 --> 00:28:09,159
Speaker 5: partner and above all, he was my baby's daddy, is

578
00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:12,440
Speaker 5: you know yeah, all six of them, all six of them.

579
00:28:12,920 --> 00:28:16,440
Speaker 5: And with that being said, if he is there, then

580
00:28:16,480 --> 00:28:19,760
Speaker 5: that's what our Christmas is. That's what I Thanksgiving, That's

581
00:28:19,760 --> 00:28:22,960
Speaker 5: why Easter is. It's with my family. No matter where

582
00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:26,880
Speaker 5: my family is, that's what we are. And so when

583
00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:30,160
Speaker 5: Rob came home, probably two years before he came home,

584
00:28:30,359 --> 00:28:33,600
Speaker 5: she started emailing him on the JPay system that they had,

585
00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:36,240
Speaker 5: so that was a really interesting thing to wash and

586
00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:40,760
Speaker 5: start developing a relationship together. Came home, and then after

587
00:28:40,800 --> 00:28:43,120
Speaker 5: he came home, in that moment while we were filming.

588
00:28:43,400 --> 00:28:46,320
Speaker 4: I think it just was overwhelming. It's a lot, yeah,

589
00:28:46,480 --> 00:28:48,960
Speaker 4: to like take in like while he is really here.

590
00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:50,920
Speaker 5: I don't even know how I really feel about this,

591
00:28:51,320 --> 00:28:53,680
Speaker 5: but we left home last week.

592
00:28:55,080 --> 00:28:56,920
Speaker 4: Take him a whole bag of teacakes.

593
00:28:57,480 --> 00:29:00,800
Speaker 5: Okay, today talking about she was gonna bake him a

594
00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:01,440
Speaker 5: pound cake.

595
00:29:01,840 --> 00:29:04,880
Speaker 3: So John, that's good. Yeah, I was like, come on, mam,

596
00:29:04,960 --> 00:29:05,479
Speaker 3: we're here now.

597
00:29:05,520 --> 00:29:06,480
Speaker 4: We told let me.

598
00:29:06,480 --> 00:29:08,960
Speaker 5: Tell you like and you know, it was just the

599
00:29:08,960 --> 00:29:10,960
Speaker 5: fact that they had really never been able to spend

600
00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:11,959
Speaker 5: time with one another.

601
00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:13,640
Speaker 4: We get to know each other.

602
00:29:13,720 --> 00:29:16,240
Speaker 5: After rober and I married six months later, we had

603
00:29:16,280 --> 00:29:19,280
Speaker 5: found ourselves in this system, and then this system took

604
00:29:19,320 --> 00:29:21,920
Speaker 5: twenty one years of our life from us, twenty one

605
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:24,720
Speaker 5: years of our family from us. And so now it's

606
00:29:24,720 --> 00:29:26,920
Speaker 5: just beautiful to watch her. I have to send you

607
00:29:26,920 --> 00:29:29,000
Speaker 5: a picture of this pound cake she made yesterday.

608
00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:32,440
Speaker 4: But it's beautiful to watch her because my mother took.

609
00:29:32,240 --> 00:29:35,440
Speaker 5: Sick last year and so I have been up in

610
00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:38,000
Speaker 5: Treeport taking care of her full time until she got

611
00:29:38,040 --> 00:29:42,520
Speaker 5: back healthy. And one of the medical episodes she was having,

612
00:29:42,560 --> 00:29:44,760
Speaker 5: we had to call the firefighters out. They come out

613
00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:46,600
Speaker 5: and they're trying to get her to, you know, see

614
00:29:46,600 --> 00:29:50,080
Speaker 5: if she is cognitive. And they say, well, who is this?

615
00:29:50,200 --> 00:29:54,320
Speaker 5: She says Barbara Richison. And they and the firefighter said,

616
00:29:54,640 --> 00:29:57,400
Speaker 5: and who is he to you? She said, my son

617
00:29:57,440 --> 00:30:06,000
Speaker 5: in law. Yeah, I had to pick up and put

618
00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:08,800
Speaker 5: it in a cause she looked at him, say me

619
00:30:08,920 --> 00:30:09,719
Speaker 5: all the way up.

620
00:30:10,560 --> 00:30:15,200
Speaker 2: Okay, I gotta come vincit y'all Louisiana man.

621
00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:18,280
Speaker 4: Were down here in New Orleans any time. Yeah, we'll

622
00:30:18,360 --> 00:30:20,320
Speaker 4: take you all around town to show you all.

623
00:30:20,800 --> 00:30:23,120
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, be the third wheel.

624
00:30:23,600 --> 00:30:28,280
Speaker 6: On super Bowl coming up super Bowl, be a third wheel.

625
00:30:28,280 --> 00:30:29,479
Speaker 6: You will be part of a party.

626
00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:31,880
Speaker 3: Yes, because I know y'all get lit.

627
00:30:32,280 --> 00:30:33,160
Speaker 6: Yes we do.

628
00:30:34,280 --> 00:30:36,440
Speaker 2: Mister Robb, did y'all did you ever have a conversation

629
00:30:36,480 --> 00:30:37,960
Speaker 2: with your dad before he passed away?

630
00:30:38,840 --> 00:30:39,440
Speaker 4: Good question.

631
00:30:40,880 --> 00:30:43,880
Speaker 7: My dad and Fox's dad were both living with us.

632
00:30:44,680 --> 00:30:48,640
Speaker 7: Oh wow, but just before this, well actually during when

633
00:30:48,640 --> 00:30:53,240
Speaker 7: this incident happened. So it was really at a moment

634
00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:55,480
Speaker 7: that me and my dad were really finding our way

635
00:30:55,560 --> 00:30:58,640
Speaker 7: back to one another. When I came home from bonding

636
00:30:58,680 --> 00:31:03,240
Speaker 7: my parents, my parents, my siblings rather had my father

637
00:31:03,360 --> 00:31:06,280
Speaker 7: into an old folks home, and so one of the

638
00:31:06,280 --> 00:31:08,000
Speaker 7: first people that I went to see when I got

639
00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:10,600
Speaker 7: out of out of jail on bond and when I

640
00:31:10,640 --> 00:31:13,200
Speaker 7: went to go see him. You know, old folks homes

641
00:31:13,240 --> 00:31:16,760
Speaker 7: remind you so much of prison. They smelled and the people,

642
00:31:18,120 --> 00:31:20,400
Speaker 7: you know what I mean. And it's a lot of

643
00:31:20,440 --> 00:31:23,040
Speaker 7: the same old stuff. And it really, you know, it

644
00:31:23,120 --> 00:31:25,280
Speaker 7: really bothered me to see him in those you know,

645
00:31:25,400 --> 00:31:28,719
Speaker 7: under those circumstances, because the father who I have in

646
00:31:28,760 --> 00:31:31,959
Speaker 7: my mind, you know, and my experiences through life, I mean,

647
00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:34,760
Speaker 7: he's always been, you know, a provider. You know, a

648
00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:37,120
Speaker 7: lot of people talk about being raised by a single

649
00:31:37,160 --> 00:31:40,000
Speaker 7: parent mom. I was raised by a single parent dad

650
00:31:41,280 --> 00:31:43,840
Speaker 7: for a long time until he remarried. And with that

651
00:31:43,920 --> 00:31:46,680
Speaker 7: being said, like I said, I watched my daddy raise

652
00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:47,400
Speaker 7: you know, eight.

653
00:31:47,320 --> 00:31:50,320
Speaker 6: Children of his own, you know, under one roof.

654
00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:54,480
Speaker 7: Although he had gone through five different marriages, his children

655
00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:56,160
Speaker 7: were never separated from one another.

656
00:31:56,560 --> 00:31:58,680
Speaker 6: My mother raised all of his kids.

657
00:31:59,800 --> 00:32:02,000
Speaker 7: He he reared them, you know, as a father, gave

658
00:32:02,080 --> 00:32:05,560
Speaker 7: them discipline, bought cars, uh paid for school and paid

659
00:32:05,560 --> 00:32:09,240
Speaker 7: for clothing, paid rent well housing, you know, just all

660
00:32:09,280 --> 00:32:10,960
Speaker 7: the things you know that when we think about a

661
00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:15,760
Speaker 7: good dad, and to see him in this state moved

662
00:32:15,840 --> 00:32:18,000
Speaker 7: me and Fox to the degree of saying, like, you

663
00:32:18,040 --> 00:32:21,240
Speaker 7: know what, I'm checking him out of here. It was

664
00:32:21,280 --> 00:32:25,400
Speaker 7: against everything that my siblings you know, had really put

665
00:32:25,440 --> 00:32:28,480
Speaker 7: in place and were hopeful for. But like I said,

666
00:32:28,480 --> 00:32:30,760
Speaker 7: he was my dad, you know, and the father that

667
00:32:30,920 --> 00:32:33,240
Speaker 7: I know may not necessarily be the father that my

668
00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:36,760
Speaker 7: siblings know, because I experienced my dad during the time,

669
00:32:37,880 --> 00:32:39,880
Speaker 7: you know, when he was a different dad, you know,

670
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:43,360
Speaker 7: much in the same way that my oldest child experienced

671
00:32:43,400 --> 00:32:46,760
Speaker 7: me as a different father. He experienced the he experienced

672
00:32:46,800 --> 00:32:51,280
Speaker 7: Rod pre prison. You know, I asked three kids, they

673
00:32:51,360 --> 00:32:54,480
Speaker 7: experienced the dad, you know, the transformed dad or the

674
00:32:54,520 --> 00:32:59,840
Speaker 7: newly u refine, refined father version of the right, So

675
00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:04,040
Speaker 7: you know that makes a big difference. But to your point, yes,

676
00:33:04,120 --> 00:33:07,480
Speaker 7: we did have some conversations. The problem was I just

677
00:33:07,480 --> 00:33:09,920
Speaker 7: hate that we didn't have them earlier because we were

678
00:33:09,960 --> 00:33:12,520
Speaker 7: having conversations at the time that he was going through

679
00:33:12,520 --> 00:33:15,680
Speaker 7: a mental deterioration stage. And I just don't believe that

680
00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:20,000
Speaker 7: the communications that we had with one another whereas of

681
00:33:20,040 --> 00:33:23,000
Speaker 7: the communication a quality of a communication as we could

682
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:27,240
Speaker 7: have had had either one of us thought to ignite

683
00:33:27,240 --> 00:33:31,320
Speaker 7: that relationship earlier. So for the military, my dad and

684
00:33:31,360 --> 00:33:34,120
Speaker 7: I had a strained relationship. It was one of the

685
00:33:34,120 --> 00:33:36,080
Speaker 7: reasons that I left and went to the military.

686
00:33:36,440 --> 00:33:38,440
Speaker 6: Let's out of high school.

687
00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:40,440
Speaker 7: And it was the quickest way that I figured that

688
00:33:40,480 --> 00:33:44,680
Speaker 7: I could care for myself roof over my head and food, travel,

689
00:33:44,800 --> 00:33:46,960
Speaker 7: be grown, and you know, kind of live on my

690
00:33:47,040 --> 00:33:50,560
Speaker 7: own terms absent my father was to join the military,

691
00:33:50,600 --> 00:33:53,640
Speaker 7: and I did so, and shit, to this day, I

692
00:33:54,640 --> 00:33:56,280
Speaker 7: since that day, I never.

693
00:33:56,120 --> 00:33:57,320
Speaker 6: Went back home. After that.

694
00:33:58,040 --> 00:34:01,240
Speaker 7: Yeah, from eighteen to now be fifty five, I've never

695
00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:04,440
Speaker 7: gone back home. But it was because of the fact

696
00:34:04,440 --> 00:34:06,840
Speaker 7: that there was a strained relationship, like I said, between

697
00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:09,560
Speaker 7: my father and I up until I finally went to

698
00:34:09,600 --> 00:34:12,120
Speaker 7: prison and realized that he was more valuable to me

699
00:34:13,280 --> 00:34:16,239
Speaker 7: than I had you know, felt, you know, prior to that,

700
00:34:16,320 --> 00:34:18,799
Speaker 7: and so I started to seek to build a relationship

701
00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:22,319
Speaker 7: with him. But like it, like in most situations, you know,

702
00:34:22,640 --> 00:34:26,200
Speaker 7: it's it's too late. Sometimes that's when we think that,

703
00:34:26,719 --> 00:34:29,279
Speaker 7: you know, kind of make up for lost time.

704
00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:33,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, how did this affect your relationships with your siblings?

705
00:34:34,719 --> 00:34:39,800
Speaker 5: Ooh girl, which ones he is a mine?

706
00:34:39,920 --> 00:34:41,960
Speaker 3: Yeah?

707
00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:45,560
Speaker 8: Oh man, you know, I know for me, it's more

708
00:34:45,600 --> 00:34:50,680
Speaker 8: of a thing because I'm fifty five and my oldest

709
00:34:50,719 --> 00:34:53,200
Speaker 8: brother is like eighty eighty one.

710
00:34:53,719 --> 00:34:54,360
Speaker 4: Oh wow.

711
00:34:54,520 --> 00:34:57,440
Speaker 7: So my closest sibling to me and age is my

712
00:34:57,560 --> 00:35:01,800
Speaker 7: sister and my youngest sister, but she is like seven

713
00:35:01,920 --> 00:35:06,120
Speaker 7: and a half years my senior. That being said, like

714
00:35:06,160 --> 00:35:08,359
Speaker 7: I said, they grew up with a different father than

715
00:35:08,400 --> 00:35:09,200
Speaker 7: the one that I know.

716
00:35:09,719 --> 00:35:12,319
Speaker 6: So there are moments and times where they want to.

717
00:35:12,280 --> 00:35:15,840
Speaker 7: Talk about my dad in ways that don't reflect the

718
00:35:15,960 --> 00:35:18,040
Speaker 7: dad that I know, and I find myself taken up

719
00:35:18,080 --> 00:35:19,240
Speaker 7: for him in those moments.

720
00:35:19,520 --> 00:35:22,320
Speaker 6: You know, you know, no, that's that's not how that worked.

721
00:35:22,480 --> 00:35:22,640
Speaker 6: You know.

722
00:35:22,800 --> 00:35:24,520
Speaker 7: Even my brother in law, you know, me and him

723
00:35:24,840 --> 00:35:26,759
Speaker 7: bump heads a little bit, you know, in terms of,

724
00:35:26,800 --> 00:35:29,920
Speaker 7: you know, how he likes to talk about my dad

725
00:35:30,080 --> 00:35:32,240
Speaker 7: in ways that are not reflective.

726
00:35:31,800 --> 00:35:32,719
Speaker 6: Of who my dad is.

727
00:35:32,760 --> 00:35:34,319
Speaker 7: You know, he has this one thing that he's been

728
00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:37,040
Speaker 7: holding onto, seemed like about him.

729
00:35:37,440 --> 00:35:38,480
Speaker 6: My dad having.

730
00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:42,640
Speaker 7: Had his child, had his oldest son, my brother in

731
00:35:42,760 --> 00:35:46,240
Speaker 7: law and my sister's oldest son, and they brought the child,

732
00:35:46,360 --> 00:35:48,360
Speaker 7: my nephew, to our home.

733
00:35:48,440 --> 00:35:50,719
Speaker 6: And my dad cut his hair, and he had his

734
00:35:50,800 --> 00:35:52,560
Speaker 6: hair that was all over his head and all of that.

735
00:35:52,640 --> 00:35:55,560
Speaker 6: And to this day that had to be what fifty

736
00:35:55,640 --> 00:35:59,520
Speaker 6: years ago. Down brother in law is still about the

737
00:35:59,520 --> 00:36:01,560
Speaker 6: fact that my daddy cut his head like nigga he

738
00:36:01,640 --> 00:36:05,640
Speaker 6: was supposed to cut looking Did you not see how

739
00:36:05,719 --> 00:36:10,240
Speaker 6: he was looking looking like this? They need discipline, nobody

740
00:36:10,280 --> 00:36:11,919
Speaker 6: needs so.

741
00:36:13,840 --> 00:36:21,680
Speaker 5: That our relationship with our siblings, To answer your question,

742
00:36:21,800 --> 00:36:22,640
Speaker 5: has really.

743
00:36:22,400 --> 00:36:23,319
Speaker 4: Been a unique one.

744
00:36:23,920 --> 00:36:27,560
Speaker 5: When you when you bring that kind of embarrassment on

745
00:36:27,640 --> 00:36:31,040
Speaker 5: your family, it is hard for you to conceive. I

746
00:36:31,080 --> 00:36:34,040
Speaker 5: came from a family of educators. Nobody in my family

747
00:36:34,080 --> 00:36:36,719
Speaker 5: had gone to prison. Rob came from a family of

748
00:36:36,800 --> 00:36:40,000
Speaker 5: military servicemen and women, and you know, the same thing

749
00:36:40,080 --> 00:36:43,680
Speaker 5: held true. So this atrocity that we committed, this sin

750
00:36:43,800 --> 00:36:47,399
Speaker 5: against our family's name, it was a lot to take on,

751
00:36:47,680 --> 00:36:50,640
Speaker 5: you know, and it still is a lot of healing.

752
00:36:50,719 --> 00:36:52,759
Speaker 5: I think that is in the process of being done.

753
00:36:52,880 --> 00:36:55,839
Speaker 5: But you just continue to be a demonstration of what

754
00:36:55,880 --> 00:37:01,200
Speaker 5: you believe and knowing who you are, and then you know,

755
00:37:01,560 --> 00:37:03,680
Speaker 5: love heals all things in time.

756
00:37:04,440 --> 00:37:06,560
Speaker 3: Right right, I know they'd be with y'all now because

757
00:37:06,600 --> 00:37:07,239
Speaker 3: y'all live now.

758
00:37:07,280 --> 00:37:12,120
Speaker 7: So I'm home six years now, and I still have

759
00:37:12,840 --> 00:37:15,240
Speaker 7: one of my what was one of my close siblings,

760
00:37:15,280 --> 00:37:18,200
Speaker 7: because she raised me after my after my mom transition

761
00:37:18,680 --> 00:37:20,920
Speaker 7: my mom when I was five, and as a result,

762
00:37:21,320 --> 00:37:25,200
Speaker 7: ended up staying with most of my siblings off and

763
00:37:25,239 --> 00:37:28,240
Speaker 7: on at some point in time through you know, probably

764
00:37:28,239 --> 00:37:30,799
Speaker 7: from age five to maybe age nine, before I re

765
00:37:32,920 --> 00:37:35,320
Speaker 7: before I moved back in with my dad full time.

766
00:37:36,440 --> 00:37:40,080
Speaker 7: But that being said, she was like a maternal.

767
00:37:41,400 --> 00:37:43,560
Speaker 6: Person to me. She wasn't just my sister, she was

768
00:37:43,680 --> 00:37:46,359
Speaker 6: my mother, right, that.

769
00:37:46,440 --> 00:37:49,000
Speaker 7: Being said, when I came home, you know, she and

770
00:37:49,040 --> 00:37:52,319
Speaker 7: I have never we hadn't seen each other yet. You know,

771
00:37:52,400 --> 00:37:54,560
Speaker 7: to this day, she still has some I guess some

772
00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:57,080
Speaker 7: un dealt with issues.

773
00:37:56,680 --> 00:37:58,360
Speaker 6: Or resolve or whatever as a result.

774
00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:01,600
Speaker 7: And I made, you know that that I made about

775
00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:04,200
Speaker 7: my life that didn't necessarily impact her in any kind

776
00:38:04,200 --> 00:38:05,360
Speaker 7: of way, so that I could.

777
00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:06,440
Speaker 6: See, you know what I mean.

778
00:38:06,600 --> 00:38:07,200
Speaker 4: Wow.

779
00:38:07,400 --> 00:38:09,520
Speaker 7: But at the same time, like I said, she is

780
00:38:09,560 --> 00:38:15,440
Speaker 7: still holding on to a stance, you know, of keeping

781
00:38:15,480 --> 00:38:18,160
Speaker 7: separation and distance you know between us.

782
00:38:18,200 --> 00:38:20,080
Speaker 6: Now, we've communicated a few times.

783
00:38:20,360 --> 00:38:23,640
Speaker 7: She wrote me, maybe this long letter about three maybe

784
00:38:23,680 --> 00:38:24,920
Speaker 7: three four years ago.

785
00:38:25,840 --> 00:38:27,400
Speaker 6: She wrote me this really long letter.

786
00:38:27,920 --> 00:38:30,759
Speaker 7: And you know, I've read the letter and ultimately ended

787
00:38:30,840 --> 00:38:34,040
Speaker 7: up writing a letter back to her. But like I

788
00:38:34,480 --> 00:38:37,880
Speaker 7: so doing, I realized, you know, in that moment, or

789
00:38:38,040 --> 00:38:40,320
Speaker 7: it reaffirmed to me in that moment that we still

790
00:38:40,400 --> 00:38:44,480
Speaker 7: have some undealt with issues as it relates to our

791
00:38:44,520 --> 00:38:48,000
Speaker 7: relationship to one another. So it's been, as fox May mentioned,

792
00:38:48,040 --> 00:38:49,200
Speaker 7: it has been quite the challenge.

793
00:38:50,080 --> 00:38:52,600
Speaker 3: That's kind of hurtful. I would, I would definitely feel

794
00:38:52,600 --> 00:38:55,680
Speaker 3: a way about that. Like, girl, come on now, listen.

795
00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:58,000
Speaker 5: You do not know what other people are going through.

796
00:38:58,080 --> 00:39:01,399
Speaker 5: So yeah, how to do is not judged. But what

797
00:39:01,440 --> 00:39:03,600
Speaker 5: you do is you say, well, that's on you, that's

798
00:39:03,640 --> 00:39:06,120
Speaker 5: not you know. One of the things that I admired

799
00:39:06,160 --> 00:39:08,640
Speaker 5: so much about Rob when he first came home, he

800
00:39:08,719 --> 00:39:11,520
Speaker 5: called all his siblings. Now, keep in mind, in the

801
00:39:11,560 --> 00:39:14,560
Speaker 5: twenty one years he had been gone his siblings would

802
00:39:15,440 --> 00:39:18,560
Speaker 5: three of three of the eight had visited him over

803
00:39:18,600 --> 00:39:19,320
Speaker 5: the twenty one.

804
00:39:19,239 --> 00:39:22,879
Speaker 7: Years, and those and those three only one of them

805
00:39:22,960 --> 00:39:24,080
Speaker 7: visited more than once.

806
00:39:25,280 --> 00:39:28,399
Speaker 5: And of that time frame that was at the very

807
00:39:28,520 --> 00:39:30,080
Speaker 5: onset of his incarceration.

808
00:39:30,719 --> 00:39:32,960
Speaker 4: I'm talking about, like and I was in the first

809
00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:33,800
Speaker 4: five years.

810
00:39:33,880 --> 00:39:36,040
Speaker 7: And that was a sister that visited me because her

811
00:39:36,080 --> 00:39:39,080
Speaker 7: nephew was also my fall partner.

812
00:39:39,520 --> 00:39:40,960
Speaker 6: Right, he was really coming to.

813
00:39:40,920 --> 00:39:42,560
Speaker 3: See him see her son.

814
00:39:42,800 --> 00:39:45,000
Speaker 6: Right, But you know, since I'm here, I might as

815
00:39:45,040 --> 00:39:46,600
Speaker 6: well see see both of.

816
00:39:46,560 --> 00:39:50,040
Speaker 5: Y'all, Right, but this man right here, he called every

817
00:39:50,160 --> 00:39:53,359
Speaker 5: last one of his siblings to say I'm home. I

818
00:39:53,440 --> 00:39:56,040
Speaker 5: love you, and you know this is my number. Just

819
00:39:56,040 --> 00:39:57,840
Speaker 5: wanted to make sure you have it in case you

820
00:39:57,880 --> 00:39:58,799
Speaker 5: want to reach out to me.

821
00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:01,200
Speaker 4: That was you know, he could have come home.

822
00:40:01,120 --> 00:40:03,960
Speaker 5: And like they ain't do nothing for me from them,

823
00:40:04,160 --> 00:40:06,160
Speaker 5: you know, they didn't send me nothing, They didn't come

824
00:40:06,239 --> 00:40:06,880
Speaker 5: see about me.

825
00:40:06,960 --> 00:40:08,440
Speaker 4: How could you not come see about me?

826
00:40:08,480 --> 00:40:11,080
Speaker 5: And I'm the baby boy, I'm the baby brother, and

827
00:40:11,120 --> 00:40:13,600
Speaker 5: nobody saw about me. But he let all of that

828
00:40:13,640 --> 00:40:15,560
Speaker 5: go and pick the phone, call every last one of

829
00:40:15,560 --> 00:40:20,319
Speaker 5: his siblings. And I was just like what a man.

830
00:40:19,880 --> 00:40:21,920
Speaker 7: Would when we were on tour and we landed in

831
00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:24,000
Speaker 7: their city, I would call and say, I'm in your city.

832
00:40:24,080 --> 00:40:27,600
Speaker 7: We were speaking at you know, this university, was you know,

833
00:40:27,640 --> 00:40:29,160
Speaker 7: a film interview or whatever.

834
00:40:29,560 --> 00:40:30,840
Speaker 6: You know, in the event that.

835
00:40:30,760 --> 00:40:32,799
Speaker 7: You know that you couldn't make it to where I was,

836
00:40:32,960 --> 00:40:36,240
Speaker 7: you know, I'm yet a little closer to you.

837
00:40:35,680 --> 00:40:40,319
Speaker 6: Right right and gola. But I got out not only

838
00:40:40,640 --> 00:40:42,520
Speaker 6: out of a gol. I'm in San Antonio.

839
00:40:42,680 --> 00:40:46,200
Speaker 7: I'm in Texas and wherever you at right so if

840
00:40:46,200 --> 00:40:48,239
Speaker 7: you want to come see me, you know I'm here.

841
00:40:49,320 --> 00:40:51,880
Speaker 2: But I always felt like you had a calm and

842
00:40:52,239 --> 00:40:55,239
Speaker 2: graceful spirit about yourself. Like obviously there is a part

843
00:40:55,280 --> 00:40:57,760
Speaker 2: in the book The Big Too Later where you your

844
00:40:57,920 --> 00:41:00,720
Speaker 2: energy and your spirit kind of shifted for obvious reasons.

845
00:41:00,719 --> 00:41:02,080
Speaker 2: But I always feel like you was kind of like

846
00:41:02,200 --> 00:41:04,480
Speaker 2: level headed through everything.

847
00:41:08,960 --> 00:41:11,959
Speaker 6: Always trying to manage maintain a certain level of come.

848
00:41:12,040 --> 00:41:14,719
Speaker 7: And it takes it takes that level of come to

849
00:41:14,760 --> 00:41:16,640
Speaker 7: be able to handle fireball like Fox.

850
00:41:17,160 --> 00:41:19,680
Speaker 6: You know, yeah, zero to one hundred.

851
00:41:20,040 --> 00:41:33,600
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, Now, what changes would you

852
00:41:33,680 --> 00:41:36,640
Speaker 2: like to see in the criminal justice system to prevent

853
00:41:36,719 --> 00:41:39,920
Speaker 2: excessive sentences? Because you was a first time offender, but

854
00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:43,360
Speaker 2: you were sentenced to sixty years in prison without parole,

855
00:41:43,560 --> 00:41:44,720
Speaker 2: probation or anything.

856
00:41:44,920 --> 00:41:48,200
Speaker 7: That's right, So me as you mentioned, and then my

857
00:41:48,280 --> 00:41:52,640
Speaker 7: nephew is the same. First the sentence to forty five years. Fox,

858
00:41:52,680 --> 00:41:54,920
Speaker 7: the first offender sentenced to nineteen years.

859
00:41:55,760 --> 00:41:58,839
Speaker 6: It's crazy, like you said, it was, it was, it was.

860
00:41:58,880 --> 00:41:59,879
Speaker 6: It was a thing, you.

861
00:41:59,840 --> 00:42:04,080
Speaker 5: Know, but still a thing more common than not. And

862
00:42:04,120 --> 00:42:07,040
Speaker 5: that's what we discovered, you know, as going into the system.

863
00:42:07,080 --> 00:42:09,640
Speaker 5: It's just that what happened to us, it was more

864
00:42:09,680 --> 00:42:11,520
Speaker 5: common than it was uncommon.

865
00:42:11,640 --> 00:42:14,480
Speaker 4: And that was what was really painstaking.

866
00:42:14,200 --> 00:42:16,960
Speaker 7: And what is most common I think for us in

867
00:42:17,120 --> 00:42:20,439
Speaker 7: American society is slavery. And if it's the one thing

868
00:42:20,480 --> 00:42:22,799
Speaker 7: that I would be hopeful for that would change about

869
00:42:22,800 --> 00:42:25,719
Speaker 7: the criminal justice system, is that we would remove the

870
00:42:25,840 --> 00:42:29,160
Speaker 7: exception clause out of the thirteenth Amendment. I'm not saying

871
00:42:29,200 --> 00:42:31,439
Speaker 7: do away with jails, because I spent time with people

872
00:42:31,480 --> 00:42:33,279
Speaker 7: in jail for more than two decades and I know

873
00:42:33,360 --> 00:42:34,359
Speaker 7: that that is a place that.

874
00:42:34,360 --> 00:42:36,680
Speaker 6: Sometimes we need to be right.

875
00:42:36,920 --> 00:42:39,520
Speaker 7: You know, I would be the last person to be

876
00:42:40,160 --> 00:42:42,400
Speaker 7: on a bullhorn somewhere time I let them all go,

877
00:42:43,000 --> 00:42:45,480
Speaker 7: you know, some that need to hold, They need to

878
00:42:45,520 --> 00:42:46,880
Speaker 7: bake a little longer.

879
00:42:46,840 --> 00:42:47,000
Speaker 6: You know.

880
00:42:47,640 --> 00:42:49,640
Speaker 7: But at the same time, I'm saying that I don't

881
00:42:49,680 --> 00:42:54,319
Speaker 7: think that slavery should be the motivation. Yes, separation, isolation,

882
00:42:54,640 --> 00:42:57,480
Speaker 7: those types of things. Yes, I believe in those things.

883
00:42:57,560 --> 00:43:01,600
Speaker 7: I believe in sanctions for wrongdoing. I believe in penalty,

884
00:43:02,360 --> 00:43:05,120
Speaker 7: you know, for errors. But at the same time, like

885
00:43:05,160 --> 00:43:07,440
Speaker 7: I said, I don't believe that you have to enslave

886
00:43:07,480 --> 00:43:13,200
Speaker 7: a man or woman as a response to a transgression.

887
00:43:13,600 --> 00:43:15,880
Speaker 7: So that one thing that I would be hopeful for

888
00:43:16,040 --> 00:43:18,440
Speaker 7: is that if we could take that part out of it.

889
00:43:18,520 --> 00:43:21,000
Speaker 7: I think we then take the profit parts out of

890
00:43:21,040 --> 00:43:24,719
Speaker 7: prison that motivate the people who runs to want to

891
00:43:24,840 --> 00:43:27,239
Speaker 7: run them, because now it's no money left in it.

892
00:43:27,400 --> 00:43:29,160
Speaker 6: And if there's no money left in it, then we

893
00:43:29,200 --> 00:43:29,719
Speaker 6: can get to.

894
00:43:29,680 --> 00:43:32,200
Speaker 7: The rehabilitation part of it, which is what it was

895
00:43:32,200 --> 00:43:33,440
Speaker 7: supposedly designed for.

896
00:43:34,400 --> 00:43:36,600
Speaker 2: Well, do y'all think that the prison system is capable

897
00:43:36,640 --> 00:43:37,480
Speaker 2: of being reformed?

898
00:43:39,719 --> 00:43:41,720
Speaker 4: I think that it's not the prison system.

899
00:43:41,800 --> 00:43:45,480
Speaker 5: It is the heart of the people who created the

900
00:43:45,480 --> 00:43:48,719
Speaker 5: prison system, right, It's the heart of the man.

901
00:43:48,840 --> 00:43:50,840
Speaker 4: The system is just a reflection of the people.

902
00:43:51,640 --> 00:43:54,480
Speaker 5: Right. We put the policies in place, so we can't

903
00:43:54,560 --> 00:43:57,840
Speaker 5: blame it on the system. It has been perfectly organized

904
00:43:57,880 --> 00:43:59,959
Speaker 5: and designed to do exactly what it is doing.

905
00:44:01,200 --> 00:44:05,920
Speaker 7: A hundred years to follow on the follow follow England's

906
00:44:06,320 --> 00:44:10,440
Speaker 7: example of you know, of slavery. They over in Europe

907
00:44:10,480 --> 00:44:12,560
Speaker 7: they got rid of slavery over a hundred years before

908
00:44:12,560 --> 00:44:14,840
Speaker 7: we ever acknowledged that it was wrong here in America,

909
00:44:15,239 --> 00:44:17,279
Speaker 7: And even though we acknowledged that it was wrong, a

910
00:44:17,320 --> 00:44:20,040
Speaker 7: hundred years later, we're still wrestling with you know, uh,

911
00:44:21,000 --> 00:44:23,279
Speaker 7: you know, the clean up part of it.

912
00:44:23,360 --> 00:44:26,000
Speaker 6: You know, we've changed all We've changed the policies.

913
00:44:26,040 --> 00:44:28,799
Speaker 7: We've changed some things around, but at the same time,

914
00:44:28,880 --> 00:44:31,160
Speaker 7: we have not changed our heart, you know, and how

915
00:44:31,200 --> 00:44:35,520
Speaker 7: we feel about the institution of slavery. But yes, I

916
00:44:35,560 --> 00:44:39,560
Speaker 7: do believe that that all things are possible. Uh, it

917
00:44:39,760 --> 00:44:41,279
Speaker 7: just takes a little time. And you know, I'm just

918
00:44:41,360 --> 00:44:44,480
Speaker 7: kind of noticing, you know, just looking around, but just

919
00:44:45,200 --> 00:44:46,840
Speaker 7: you know, when it comes down to it, I just

920
00:44:46,880 --> 00:44:49,800
Speaker 7: think that, you know, we have to get to a place, uh,

921
00:44:49,920 --> 00:44:52,239
Speaker 7: as a society that we under you know, that we

922
00:44:52,320 --> 00:44:55,680
Speaker 7: start moving away, you know, from our from our our

923
00:44:56,640 --> 00:44:59,680
Speaker 7: insatiable appetite that we seem to have for the institution

924
00:44:59,760 --> 00:45:01,279
Speaker 7: of right.

925
00:45:01,480 --> 00:45:03,399
Speaker 2: But I love the fact that y'all in y'all book,

926
00:45:03,480 --> 00:45:05,759
Speaker 2: y'all mentioned that a white man did the exact same

927
00:45:05,800 --> 00:45:08,239
Speaker 2: thing and he got three years. So why is it

928
00:45:08,239 --> 00:45:11,760
Speaker 2: that a black man you should get sixty years while

929
00:45:12,120 --> 00:45:14,000
Speaker 2: our white comparks get less than what we have and

930
00:45:14,040 --> 00:45:16,400
Speaker 2: he's able to go back into the world and try again.

931
00:45:17,040 --> 00:45:19,520
Speaker 5: And so for me, I think the one thing that

932
00:45:19,600 --> 00:45:21,920
Speaker 5: I would like to see change, aside from the thirteenth

933
00:45:21,960 --> 00:45:27,000
Speaker 5: Amendment being amended, is federal sentencing guidelines.

934
00:45:27,480 --> 00:45:30,000
Speaker 4: Right, they have federal sentencing guidelines.

935
00:45:30,040 --> 00:45:31,440
Speaker 5: You do this, you get a point for this, you

936
00:45:31,480 --> 00:45:33,680
Speaker 5: get a point deductive for this, this, that, and the other.

937
00:45:33,920 --> 00:45:36,000
Speaker 4: But there is structure to how.

938
00:45:35,800 --> 00:45:39,200
Speaker 5: They are sentenced, and here in Louisiana in particular, that

939
00:45:39,320 --> 00:45:41,200
Speaker 5: operates on the Napoleonic Code.

940
00:45:41,640 --> 00:45:44,440
Speaker 4: They have no guidelines, they do they feel.

941
00:45:44,719 --> 00:45:46,880
Speaker 5: So if you come into court today in LSU or

942
00:45:46,920 --> 00:45:50,319
Speaker 5: the Saints of Blass, they actually did a research to

943
00:45:50,440 --> 00:45:54,520
Speaker 5: show that judges in particular imbat and wounds were giving

944
00:45:54,520 --> 00:45:58,760
Speaker 5: people a heavier sentences when whenever LSU didn't win a game.

945
00:45:59,440 --> 00:46:02,880
Speaker 4: You know, So those types of I think.

946
00:46:02,719 --> 00:46:06,000
Speaker 5: It's those types of experiences that we need to get

947
00:46:06,080 --> 00:46:07,839
Speaker 5: some eyes and ears off.

948
00:46:08,040 --> 00:46:08,640
Speaker 4: But one of the.

949
00:46:08,560 --> 00:46:10,320
Speaker 5: Things we've got to do is we got to understand

950
00:46:10,360 --> 00:46:14,360
Speaker 5: it as far as being black people ourselves. Louisiana have

951
00:46:14,719 --> 00:46:18,280
Speaker 5: black judges than any other place in the United States,

952
00:46:18,680 --> 00:46:21,640
Speaker 5: but yet we have the prison population in the whole world.

953
00:46:22,560 --> 00:46:25,640
Speaker 5: So people that are in power are making the same

954
00:46:25,719 --> 00:46:30,359
Speaker 5: decisions to be harsher on us or as harsh as

955
00:46:30,400 --> 00:46:31,920
Speaker 5: their counterparts.

956
00:46:32,160 --> 00:46:34,120
Speaker 4: Then what do you'll be.

957
00:46:34,160 --> 00:46:38,319
Speaker 5: So surprised that it is actually black people that will

958
00:46:38,360 --> 00:46:40,399
Speaker 5: be the first to say, oh, lock that nigga up.

959
00:46:40,960 --> 00:46:46,839
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, damn huh So why incarcerated. Where were someone?

960
00:46:46,920 --> 00:46:48,840
Speaker 2: Did I ever feel like less than human? Because I know,

961
00:46:48,960 --> 00:46:51,680
Speaker 2: miss Fox, before you went to jail, you gave birth

962
00:46:51,719 --> 00:46:52,400
Speaker 2: to your twins.

963
00:46:52,600 --> 00:46:54,399
Speaker 4: Girl, I did. I did.

964
00:46:54,480 --> 00:46:54,680
Speaker 7: Yeah.

965
00:46:55,000 --> 00:46:57,600
Speaker 5: That was probably one of the most painstaking things for me.

966
00:46:58,000 --> 00:47:00,240
Speaker 5: I used to lay in my bed and you can't

967
00:47:00,320 --> 00:47:02,000
Speaker 5: cry when you locked up.

968
00:47:02,000 --> 00:47:03,960
Speaker 4: If you cry, they see some.

969
00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:07,640
Speaker 5: Type of emotional weakness, they will put you in lockdown

970
00:47:07,920 --> 00:47:12,600
Speaker 5: and on suicide watcher and SOD salitary confinement. And so

971
00:47:13,040 --> 00:47:15,200
Speaker 5: I would get under my covers at night and I

972
00:47:15,200 --> 00:47:17,719
Speaker 5: would just cry my heart out because I missed my

973
00:47:18,200 --> 00:47:21,840
Speaker 5: and I knew that I had forfeited on my responsibility

974
00:47:21,880 --> 00:47:25,120
Speaker 5: as their mother, that my mother was having to take

975
00:47:25,120 --> 00:47:27,880
Speaker 5: care of my children because of choices that I made.

976
00:47:28,239 --> 00:47:31,080
Speaker 5: One of the things I take my pride in is

977
00:47:31,120 --> 00:47:34,279
Speaker 5: being a good mother. I brought forth that life, and

978
00:47:34,320 --> 00:47:36,720
Speaker 5: it is my responsibility to protect.

979
00:47:36,360 --> 00:47:38,200
Speaker 4: It, to nurture it, to guide it.

980
00:47:38,239 --> 00:47:41,040
Speaker 5: And here I was, with my own free will, I

981
00:47:41,080 --> 00:47:44,960
Speaker 5: had removed myself from my children. And so that is

982
00:47:45,000 --> 00:47:47,359
Speaker 5: to me, just one of the most heinous things that

983
00:47:47,400 --> 00:47:51,160
Speaker 5: you can do to babies, you know, mother or father,

984
00:47:51,600 --> 00:47:55,120
Speaker 5: And so it was really difficult for me. That was

985
00:47:55,160 --> 00:47:58,520
Speaker 5: the most difficult part about my whole experience was that

986
00:47:58,600 --> 00:48:01,920
Speaker 5: I had removed myself from the care of my children.

987
00:48:02,520 --> 00:48:02,919
Speaker 6: Mm hmm.

988
00:48:03,640 --> 00:48:04,760
Speaker 3: And what about you, mister.

989
00:48:04,600 --> 00:48:12,359
Speaker 7: Rob Prison is definitely ah inhumane uh place, but at

990
00:48:12,960 --> 00:48:17,920
Speaker 7: me personally, probably the very first night that I arrived

991
00:48:18,200 --> 00:48:23,759
Speaker 7: into the prison at Angola State Penitentiary, that is, I

992
00:48:23,840 --> 00:48:26,480
Speaker 7: believe that the spirit of our ancestors was all up

993
00:48:26,520 --> 00:48:29,520
Speaker 7: on me because it was in those moments that I

994
00:48:29,640 --> 00:48:32,799
Speaker 7: really tapped in, uh you know, to the people that

995
00:48:32,840 --> 00:48:37,480
Speaker 7: were able to come across those waters e ses nasty,

996
00:48:37,600 --> 00:48:40,840
Speaker 7: dirty or whatever, but still had their heads held high,

997
00:48:41,200 --> 00:48:43,000
Speaker 7: still had to show and roll back.

998
00:48:43,280 --> 00:48:43,600
Speaker 6: Still.

999
00:48:43,600 --> 00:48:45,759
Speaker 7: Remember that where I came from, I was a king.

1000
00:48:45,800 --> 00:48:47,719
Speaker 7: Where I came from, I was a queen. Where I

1001
00:48:47,760 --> 00:48:50,160
Speaker 7: came from, I was human. Where I came from, I

1002
00:48:50,280 --> 00:48:53,080
Speaker 7: was hold. Where I came from, I was God fearing.

1003
00:48:53,160 --> 00:48:55,960
Speaker 7: I was all the things. So when I came to slavery,

1004
00:48:56,040 --> 00:48:58,680
Speaker 7: or when I came to Angola State Penitentiary, it was

1005
00:48:58,760 --> 00:49:01,040
Speaker 7: just some things that I was not willing to forfeit.

1006
00:49:01,320 --> 00:49:03,719
Speaker 7: I realized that there was some things that were contraband

1007
00:49:03,760 --> 00:49:06,319
Speaker 7: that I couldn't have, that I couldn't underwalk with me.

1008
00:49:06,600 --> 00:49:09,440
Speaker 7: But my dignity, my pride, and my self respect. I

1009
00:49:09,480 --> 00:49:11,840
Speaker 7: took that with me everywhere I went inside of the prison.

1010
00:49:12,040 --> 00:49:14,640
Speaker 7: So no matter who I was talking to, who I

1011
00:49:14,680 --> 00:49:18,120
Speaker 7: dealt with, I dealt with them. I dealt with them

1012
00:49:18,440 --> 00:49:20,720
Speaker 7: all of those things. I led with all of those

1013
00:49:20,760 --> 00:49:24,480
Speaker 7: things because I knew that that place was designed to

1014
00:49:24,640 --> 00:49:27,920
Speaker 7: break me. It was just break my family. So that

1015
00:49:28,080 --> 00:49:31,600
Speaker 7: was the indoctrination of the programming that we did with

1016
00:49:31,719 --> 00:49:34,520
Speaker 7: our kids through the power of truth, letting them know

1017
00:49:34,600 --> 00:49:36,400
Speaker 7: that this is your reality.

1018
00:49:36,440 --> 00:49:39,200
Speaker 6: We are an incarcerated family, you know, by.

1019
00:49:39,160 --> 00:49:44,319
Speaker 7: By by than others or whatever. So don't you let

1020
00:49:44,440 --> 00:49:47,080
Speaker 7: no kids at school will be shitting on you about nothing,

1021
00:49:48,120 --> 00:49:49,560
Speaker 7: feel bad about nothing.

1022
00:49:49,640 --> 00:49:50,640
Speaker 6: You know this, that or the other.

1023
00:49:50,680 --> 00:49:52,400
Speaker 7: You get in the class and you perform, and you

1024
00:49:52,440 --> 00:49:55,400
Speaker 7: perform better than others in the class. So it was

1025
00:49:55,480 --> 00:49:58,120
Speaker 7: just that way that we kind of approached this whole situation.

1026
00:50:00,040 --> 00:50:03,320
Speaker 5: Said Best in Time movie, success is the best revenge.

1027
00:50:04,560 --> 00:50:06,000
Speaker 4: It is the best revenge.

1028
00:50:06,280 --> 00:50:06,920
Speaker 3: That's a fact.

1029
00:50:07,000 --> 00:50:10,120
Speaker 5: When people intentionally make it so that you can succeed,

1030
00:50:10,200 --> 00:50:13,680
Speaker 5: and you succeed anyhow. That's what I love about black people.

1031
00:50:13,880 --> 00:50:16,359
Speaker 4: We succeed no matter what.

1032
00:50:16,600 --> 00:50:18,560
Speaker 7: So when you see me in the film of Time

1033
00:50:18,840 --> 00:50:22,879
Speaker 7: movie streaming live on Amazon Prime Video. Yes, me walk

1034
00:50:22,960 --> 00:50:24,640
Speaker 7: out of the prison. You see me walk out of

1035
00:50:24,640 --> 00:50:26,719
Speaker 7: the prison. Would have never give up T shirt on.

1036
00:50:27,160 --> 00:50:29,680
Speaker 7: It wasn't gave me that T shirt. It was because

1037
00:50:29,680 --> 00:50:31,600
Speaker 7: the prison was trying to pass on that kind of

1038
00:50:31,600 --> 00:50:34,680
Speaker 7: messaging for people on the outside. It was because while

1039
00:50:34,719 --> 00:50:37,719
Speaker 7: I was in graphic Arts, I made that shirt for myself,

1040
00:50:37,920 --> 00:50:40,040
Speaker 7: put it up for myself, and knew that on the

1041
00:50:40,160 --> 00:50:42,080
Speaker 7: day that I walked out of there, it was going

1042
00:50:42,160 --> 00:50:44,160
Speaker 7: to be the It was going to be the thing

1043
00:50:44,239 --> 00:50:46,719
Speaker 7: that I wore exiting in this prison, because it was

1044
00:50:46,760 --> 00:50:48,120
Speaker 7: going to say to the rest.

1045
00:50:47,840 --> 00:50:50,279
Speaker 6: Of the world that I never gave up while I

1046
00:50:50,320 --> 00:50:50,879
Speaker 6: was in here.

1047
00:50:51,640 --> 00:50:53,640
Speaker 2: Listen, I know they missed you at that prison because

1048
00:50:53,640 --> 00:50:57,959
Speaker 2: you had them busy. I mean, you did a lot

1049
00:50:58,000 --> 00:51:00,080
Speaker 2: of great things for them, And I think that's the

1050
00:51:00,080 --> 00:51:03,680
Speaker 2: reason why prison when people get out of prison, and

1051
00:51:04,040 --> 00:51:06,440
Speaker 2: the percentages of them going back is so high because

1052
00:51:06,480 --> 00:51:09,000
Speaker 2: you're not offering them any twos or resources for them

1053
00:51:09,040 --> 00:51:11,160
Speaker 2: to get back into the society. And I think that

1054
00:51:11,239 --> 00:51:12,960
Speaker 2: what you was doing was really amazing, and you was

1055
00:51:13,000 --> 00:51:15,640
Speaker 2: also treating them as people like regardless of what they did.

1056
00:51:15,640 --> 00:51:18,799
Speaker 3: People should be treated as such that's right.

1057
00:51:18,920 --> 00:51:22,480
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, yeah, we had a movement going on in prison.

1058
00:51:22,600 --> 00:51:25,080
Speaker 6: Uh it was. It was a love movement. It got

1059
00:51:25,160 --> 00:51:28,319
Speaker 6: to a point where when up kids would come visit.

1060
00:51:28,440 --> 00:51:31,800
Speaker 7: You know, I ain't never heard so many people murders

1061
00:51:31,880 --> 00:51:34,680
Speaker 7: kill us, rapists in the whole nine yards. Every time

1062
00:51:34,719 --> 00:51:36,759
Speaker 7: that we would exit, we would leave or whatever. It

1063
00:51:36,800 --> 00:51:39,240
Speaker 7: was like, Man, I love you, bro, I love y'all, Fox,

1064
00:51:39,320 --> 00:51:42,840
Speaker 7: I love y'all. You know those words, you know, just

1065
00:51:42,920 --> 00:51:46,360
Speaker 7: not words that you hear in prison. But I would

1066
00:51:46,360 --> 00:51:48,799
Speaker 7: have to say that during my tenure of my time there,

1067
00:51:49,040 --> 00:51:51,480
Speaker 7: that men had found their way to that to that word.

1068
00:51:52,120 --> 00:51:54,000
Speaker 2: And then you also kind of softened them up because

1069
00:51:54,000 --> 00:51:56,319
Speaker 2: you also mentioned how you were starting to notice that

1070
00:51:56,360 --> 00:51:58,800
Speaker 2: you were starting to become hard because of prison as well.

1071
00:52:00,080 --> 00:52:02,600
Speaker 2: So did you ever struggle with feelings of bitterness knowing

1072
00:52:02,640 --> 00:52:05,359
Speaker 2: that your wife was free while you were still incarcerated.

1073
00:52:05,880 --> 00:52:09,640
Speaker 7: No, My bitterness at the highest level was probably with God.

1074
00:52:11,080 --> 00:52:13,040
Speaker 7: You know, I really felt like, you know, if God

1075
00:52:13,120 --> 00:52:15,440
Speaker 7: is all these things or whatever, how and why is

1076
00:52:15,480 --> 00:52:18,759
Speaker 7: it that I'm being left to experience this? You know,

1077
00:52:18,800 --> 00:52:20,920
Speaker 7: I was just like Jesus was on the cross. You

1078
00:52:20,920 --> 00:52:22,960
Speaker 7: know what I'm saying. You know, God, why is down

1079
00:52:22,960 --> 00:52:25,799
Speaker 7: forsaking me? You know, the way that you can move

1080
00:52:25,840 --> 00:52:28,160
Speaker 7: this bitter cup and let somebody else drink from it.

1081
00:52:28,480 --> 00:52:31,120
Speaker 6: You know, you have no qualms with me, but surely

1082
00:52:31,200 --> 00:52:34,400
Speaker 6: I shouldn't have to drink the vinegar, right right.

1083
00:52:34,960 --> 00:52:37,120
Speaker 7: But it was just one of those moments for me,

1084
00:52:37,200 --> 00:52:40,440
Speaker 7: you know that I felt like, you know, my resentment

1085
00:52:40,960 --> 00:52:43,000
Speaker 7: was more so there than it was.

1086
00:52:44,640 --> 00:52:46,120
Speaker 6: You know, with any one individual.

1087
00:52:46,200 --> 00:52:48,040
Speaker 7: You know, I blame the judge, I blame the DA

1088
00:52:48,120 --> 00:52:49,600
Speaker 7: you know, I could blame a whole lot of people.

1089
00:52:49,640 --> 00:52:52,000
Speaker 7: But it was in those moments that when I wrestled

1090
00:52:52,040 --> 00:52:54,240
Speaker 7: with God, God gave it back to me and say, Nigga,

1091
00:52:54,239 --> 00:52:56,440
Speaker 7: you ain't got nobody, blame it yourself. And when I

1092
00:52:56,760 --> 00:52:59,280
Speaker 7: realise that I was to blame because it was my choice,

1093
00:52:59,280 --> 00:53:01,480
Speaker 7: it was my free will. It was in that moment

1094
00:53:01,480 --> 00:53:03,280
Speaker 7: that I really started to be able to see myself

1095
00:53:03,320 --> 00:53:05,080
Speaker 7: bigger than the prison, because I knew that I was

1096
00:53:05,120 --> 00:53:07,719
Speaker 7: here on mission, and so I was gonna be here

1097
00:53:07,800 --> 00:53:08,960
Speaker 7: until my mission was over.

1098
00:53:09,360 --> 00:53:10,839
Speaker 6: But I die here.

1099
00:53:11,440 --> 00:53:12,799
Speaker 3: I know you probably like, come on, God, I got

1100
00:53:12,840 --> 00:53:14,640
Speaker 3: these niggas and hair sing and kumbay y'all like.

1101
00:53:16,280 --> 00:53:16,360
Speaker 6: Me?

1102
00:53:16,560 --> 00:53:20,360
Speaker 2: Ouh, God, Like, come on Now, I got the killers

1103
00:53:20,360 --> 00:53:23,319
Speaker 2: in here saying they love each other and shit, yeah yeah,

1104
00:53:26,000 --> 00:53:29,040
Speaker 2: So miss Fox, what were those moments that? What was

1105
00:53:29,080 --> 00:53:30,759
Speaker 2: those moments that when you struggle with hope and how

1106
00:53:30,800 --> 00:53:32,800
Speaker 2: did you find your way back to it? Because you

1107
00:53:33,040 --> 00:53:35,040
Speaker 2: was going hard. I was like, nah, this is what

1108
00:53:35,080 --> 00:53:37,600
Speaker 2: I'm talking about, Like you really was riding hard from

1109
00:53:37,680 --> 00:53:41,960
Speaker 2: him for twenty one years. Like I was like, it

1110
00:53:42,040 --> 00:53:45,200
Speaker 2: really made me just so proud to be a reflection

1111
00:53:45,320 --> 00:53:47,560
Speaker 2: of you as a black woman. But like everything that

1112
00:53:47,600 --> 00:53:49,759
Speaker 2: you stood for, like you figure it out, Like you

1113
00:53:49,800 --> 00:53:54,080
Speaker 2: were changing tires, you was selling card. I was like, y'all,

1114
00:53:54,680 --> 00:53:57,319
Speaker 2: you was going to different schools. You were selling food

1115
00:53:57,360 --> 00:54:01,400
Speaker 2: and you can't cook like you was like, not no games?

1116
00:54:04,200 --> 00:54:04,520
Speaker 6: You know?

1117
00:54:05,160 --> 00:54:06,640
Speaker 4: For me, it was one.

1118
00:54:06,880 --> 00:54:09,000
Speaker 5: I think this is where most people don't really see

1119
00:54:09,000 --> 00:54:11,879
Speaker 5: the bigger picture is I wasn't just doing it for rob.

1120
00:54:12,400 --> 00:54:16,160
Speaker 4: Your family family was on the line here.

1121
00:54:16,680 --> 00:54:19,640
Speaker 5: My six sons deserved an opportunity to grow up with

1122
00:54:19,680 --> 00:54:23,279
Speaker 5: their father. Nothing that we had done was heinous enough

1123
00:54:23,560 --> 00:54:27,880
Speaker 5: to remove him for his lifetime, and so I was

1124
00:54:27,920 --> 00:54:31,000
Speaker 5: not going to allow the state of Louisiana to keep him.

1125
00:54:31,040 --> 00:54:33,360
Speaker 5: So that was what I had my eyes set on it.

1126
00:54:33,520 --> 00:54:38,200
Speaker 5: I mean my blinders, nothing else matter, you wassion, that's

1127
00:54:38,200 --> 00:54:41,000
Speaker 5: the only way you can listen. One time, Rob put

1128
00:54:41,000 --> 00:54:42,680
Speaker 5: it as clear as I could get it. One time

1129
00:54:42,760 --> 00:54:45,160
Speaker 5: he says, we are taking on what'd you say, baby,

1130
00:54:45,160 --> 00:54:48,719
Speaker 5: a bout a billionaire? What was Louisiana's budget at the time.

1131
00:54:51,920 --> 00:54:54,600
Speaker 5: So when you are fighting a state case, you are

1132
00:54:54,640 --> 00:54:58,360
Speaker 5: literally fighting the state. So like we are, it, says

1133
00:54:58,520 --> 00:55:01,360
Speaker 5: Robert Richardson, versus the state of Louisiana. The state of

1134
00:55:01,400 --> 00:55:04,319
Speaker 5: Louisiana got a whole twenty eight billion dollar budget, So

1135
00:55:04,360 --> 00:55:07,520
Speaker 5: we are on the whole state of our life and liberty.

1136
00:55:07,800 --> 00:55:11,319
Speaker 5: So when you are really keenly focused on something, you know,

1137
00:55:12,200 --> 00:55:14,880
Speaker 5: David and Goliath, it's the same measure. You know, you

1138
00:55:14,960 --> 00:55:18,080
Speaker 5: can't be as scared of it, right, Yeah's got to

1139
00:55:18,120 --> 00:55:20,919
Speaker 5: deal with it and understand that whatever you need, God

1140
00:55:21,000 --> 00:55:23,160
Speaker 5: is gonna give it to you in that moment. So

1141
00:55:23,320 --> 00:55:27,520
Speaker 5: for me, for our family, never once did we ever

1142
00:55:27,600 --> 00:55:31,160
Speaker 5: believe that Rob would die there. Never did we ever

1143
00:55:31,239 --> 00:55:33,640
Speaker 5: believe that he was not coming home. So every year

1144
00:55:33,640 --> 00:55:35,799
Speaker 5: we had a ritual at the beginning of the year,

1145
00:55:35,840 --> 00:55:37,600
Speaker 5: We'll be like, Okay, this is the one right here.

1146
00:55:37,600 --> 00:55:40,560
Speaker 4: I know we thought it was last year, but last here,

1147
00:55:40,800 --> 00:55:43,239
Speaker 4: so now it's gonna be this year. So all right, y'all,

1148
00:55:43,320 --> 00:55:43,839
Speaker 4: let's get out.

1149
00:55:44,000 --> 00:55:47,760
Speaker 5: I mean to get yourself all hoped up all again

1150
00:55:48,120 --> 00:55:50,759
Speaker 5: after you've just been crushed by the end of the year.

1151
00:55:51,120 --> 00:55:53,160
Speaker 5: That what you said you were going to do last year,

1152
00:55:53,200 --> 00:55:56,960
Speaker 5: you didn't pull off. And to repeat that for twenty years,

1153
00:55:57,160 --> 00:56:01,040
Speaker 5: that's another level of tapping into your high power. But

1154
00:56:01,160 --> 00:56:03,440
Speaker 5: what it shows us is that the race may not

1155
00:56:03,520 --> 00:56:06,480
Speaker 5: be for the swift, but those who endure to the end.

1156
00:56:06,960 --> 00:56:09,200
Speaker 5: And so I look back over you know where I

1157
00:56:09,239 --> 00:56:12,000
Speaker 5: could have left, But then just look at how if

1158
00:56:12,040 --> 00:56:13,359
Speaker 5: I wouldn't you tried to leave?

1159
00:56:13,680 --> 00:56:19,840
Speaker 3: I did, right, I'm like, girl, what are you doing?

1160
00:56:20,000 --> 00:56:22,680
Speaker 2: Like, come on, you know he's stressed out in there.

1161
00:56:25,560 --> 00:56:27,480
Speaker 2: I was like, you got some nerve.

1162
00:56:30,480 --> 00:56:33,760
Speaker 4: I tread.

1163
00:56:34,400 --> 00:56:37,759
Speaker 5: This time and stilled down there at the penitentiary and

1164
00:56:37,840 --> 00:56:39,640
Speaker 5: trying to st and get him home.

1165
00:56:39,880 --> 00:56:42,480
Speaker 2: You know he was going to marriage counselor. I was like, no,

1166
00:56:42,640 --> 00:56:48,319
Speaker 2: we're not doing this. Get back with your man. So

1167
00:56:48,440 --> 00:56:50,960
Speaker 2: walk us through the process of leading up to your release.

1168
00:56:51,400 --> 00:56:53,360
Speaker 2: And how did you know that your time was coming

1169
00:56:53,360 --> 00:56:56,640
Speaker 2: to an end? And do you miss him? I know

1170
00:56:56,680 --> 00:56:58,719
Speaker 2: you don't miss prison. But do you miss the relationships

1171
00:56:58,760 --> 00:56:59,120
Speaker 2: you made?

1172
00:57:00,120 --> 00:57:00,359
Speaker 6: I do.

1173
00:57:00,600 --> 00:57:03,839
Speaker 7: I do miss them up tremendously, you know, because when

1174
00:57:03,880 --> 00:57:06,600
Speaker 7: you think about spending that much time with a group

1175
00:57:06,600 --> 00:57:10,080
Speaker 7: of people or any number of people, I've spent more

1176
00:57:10,120 --> 00:57:12,040
Speaker 7: time with people in prison than I've spent with people

1177
00:57:12,040 --> 00:57:14,600
Speaker 7: that I actually share the same bank with. You know,

1178
00:57:15,040 --> 00:57:17,240
Speaker 7: you've been through hard times, and you know we've been

1179
00:57:17,280 --> 00:57:19,640
Speaker 7: through good times. You know, in the whole nine yards

1180
00:57:19,640 --> 00:57:22,560
Speaker 7: inside of inside of prison. Uh, you know, you see

1181
00:57:22,560 --> 00:57:23,840
Speaker 7: people at their lowest moment.

1182
00:57:24,360 --> 00:57:24,680
Speaker 6: Uh.

1183
00:57:24,720 --> 00:57:27,439
Speaker 7: And it's in the lowest moment that you really see

1184
00:57:27,480 --> 00:57:29,240
Speaker 7: the core of who the person is.

1185
00:57:29,680 --> 00:57:31,480
Speaker 6: So I know it's like I said, I got to

1186
00:57:31,560 --> 00:57:35,240
Speaker 6: know a whole lot of people at a different level.

1187
00:57:36,120 --> 00:57:38,600
Speaker 7: The way that I felt leading up to this point,

1188
00:57:38,640 --> 00:57:43,040
Speaker 7: because like I said, it has been a ongoing, arduous journey,

1189
00:57:43,960 --> 00:57:47,800
Speaker 7: you know, to to our ultimate release from from prison walls.

1190
00:57:47,840 --> 00:57:48,360
Speaker 6: But it was.

1191
00:57:48,360 --> 00:57:52,000
Speaker 7: Maybe about a year prior to me going up on

1192
00:57:52,040 --> 00:57:55,520
Speaker 7: the parting board uh on freedom. One of our twin

1193
00:57:55,560 --> 00:57:58,920
Speaker 7: boys was out one night at a at an engagement

1194
00:57:58,960 --> 00:58:01,760
Speaker 7: at one of the local cop and they had a

1195
00:58:01,800 --> 00:58:02,480
Speaker 7: speaker there.

1196
00:58:02,880 --> 00:58:03,040
Speaker 6: Uh.

1197
00:58:03,080 --> 00:58:06,520
Speaker 7: The speaker was was Frank Lunz, and uh, Frank Lunz

1198
00:58:06,600 --> 00:58:08,800
Speaker 7: is a Republican poster, or at least he was then

1199
00:58:09,440 --> 00:58:12,960
Speaker 7: a Republican poster. And my son got up and asked

1200
00:58:13,000 --> 00:58:14,640
Speaker 7: him a question in the midst of it all, and

1201
00:58:14,680 --> 00:58:17,480
Speaker 7: then so doing, Uh, he said, hey kid, he said,

1202
00:58:17,520 --> 00:58:18,080
Speaker 7: don't go nowhere.

1203
00:58:18,080 --> 00:58:20,240
Speaker 6: He said, I'm gonna I'm gonna change your life.

1204
00:58:20,920 --> 00:58:22,680
Speaker 7: And so my son left and he went out, and

1205
00:58:22,720 --> 00:58:24,960
Speaker 7: he was because he was on on mission for his

1206
00:58:25,080 --> 00:58:27,840
Speaker 7: mom to go some tires changed that you was.

1207
00:58:28,360 --> 00:58:30,560
Speaker 6: One of one of the.

1208
00:58:30,240 --> 00:58:33,200
Speaker 7: Cars that they had for the car lot, and so

1209
00:58:33,240 --> 00:58:34,880
Speaker 7: he went out, and then after he told his mom,

1210
00:58:34,960 --> 00:58:36,200
Speaker 7: his mom was like, well, if you don't get.

1211
00:58:36,120 --> 00:58:38,680
Speaker 6: Your butt back in there, and uh, what are you doing?

1212
00:58:39,440 --> 00:58:40,959
Speaker 6: He went back in and so doing.

1213
00:58:41,000 --> 00:58:44,240
Speaker 7: The guy ultimately ended up asking Freedom whether or not

1214
00:58:44,320 --> 00:58:45,960
Speaker 7: he would join him for I think a cup of

1215
00:58:45,960 --> 00:58:48,960
Speaker 7: coffee or something. The next morning, after he found out

1216
00:58:48,960 --> 00:58:51,960
Speaker 7: Freedom's age, he invited his mom to join him in

1217
00:58:52,000 --> 00:58:55,520
Speaker 7: that uh in that setting, and he ended up having

1218
00:58:55,520 --> 00:58:58,880
Speaker 7: a conversation with Freedom. Uh. Fox had already prepped him

1219
00:58:58,880 --> 00:59:01,320
Speaker 7: before they went into the meeting, and after they got there,

1220
00:59:01,400 --> 00:59:03,920
Speaker 7: the guy asked the ultimate question, Freedom, what is it?

1221
00:59:04,120 --> 00:59:06,000
Speaker 7: What is it that I can do to help you?

1222
00:59:06,400 --> 00:59:08,760
Speaker 7: And freedom. Had a laundry list of things that he wanted.

1223
00:59:08,800 --> 00:59:11,160
Speaker 7: It was maybe three, maybe four things that was on

1224
00:59:11,200 --> 00:59:14,320
Speaker 7: his lift on this. At the top of his list

1225
00:59:14,480 --> 00:59:17,800
Speaker 7: was was helped with getting his father out of prison,

1226
00:59:18,080 --> 00:59:19,960
Speaker 7: whether it was through a measure of law that we

1227
00:59:20,000 --> 00:59:22,400
Speaker 7: had been pushing through the legislature.

1228
00:59:23,400 --> 00:59:26,120
Speaker 6: Or or you know, some other measure that we were

1229
00:59:26,160 --> 00:59:26,720
Speaker 6: working on.

1230
00:59:27,080 --> 00:59:29,760
Speaker 7: But then he went on to say that I'm asking

1231
00:59:29,800 --> 00:59:33,280
Speaker 7: you for this, not necessarily for myself, but for my brother,

1232
00:59:33,360 --> 00:59:35,480
Speaker 7: because I believe that he has the right to.

1233
00:59:35,480 --> 00:59:38,720
Speaker 6: Grow up with our father and he deserved the thing

1234
00:59:38,760 --> 00:59:40,160
Speaker 6: that we had been denied.

1235
00:59:41,400 --> 00:59:45,000
Speaker 7: Frank, true to his word, spoke to our governor, and

1236
00:59:45,360 --> 00:59:50,200
Speaker 7: the governor had agreed to uh sign my partner in

1237
00:59:50,280 --> 00:59:53,400
Speaker 7: the event that I passed the partner board, you know

1238
00:59:53,520 --> 00:59:56,720
Speaker 7: the interview with the with the partner Board. And so

1239
00:59:56,760 --> 00:59:58,920
Speaker 7: a year before I ever went up on the partner board,

1240
00:59:59,200 --> 01:00:02,040
Speaker 7: already knew that had the governor's signature, it'd be like

1241
01:00:02,120 --> 01:00:04,240
Speaker 7: going up for something and you already know you got

1242
01:00:04,800 --> 01:00:09,680
Speaker 7: President Trump's commitment to sign once you go through whatever

1243
01:00:09,720 --> 01:00:12,800
Speaker 7: the preliminaries are in order to get it to his desk.

1244
01:00:13,960 --> 01:00:16,480
Speaker 7: So I knew a year a year out, so I

1245
01:00:16,520 --> 01:00:19,440
Speaker 7: started building. Uh the thing that I started building was

1246
01:00:19,480 --> 01:00:24,280
Speaker 7: my last marathon. The last marathon was that it was

1247
01:00:24,600 --> 01:00:30,600
Speaker 7: the theme of it was finished strong. So that last

1248
01:00:30,600 --> 01:00:33,040
Speaker 7: marathon that we'd done that we did in the prison

1249
01:00:33,760 --> 01:00:36,280
Speaker 7: was the theme of it was to finish strong. And

1250
01:00:36,320 --> 01:00:38,440
Speaker 7: I gave a speech out on the yard to all

1251
01:00:38,480 --> 01:00:41,200
Speaker 7: of the brothers that were out there. We had maybe

1252
01:00:41,240 --> 01:00:43,320
Speaker 7: about five six hundred brothers that came out on the

1253
01:00:43,400 --> 01:00:44,400
Speaker 7: yard in order to you.

1254
01:00:44,320 --> 01:00:47,680
Speaker 3: Know, bel ing right.

1255
01:00:50,240 --> 01:00:51,880
Speaker 7: You jail.

1256
01:00:52,680 --> 01:00:54,320
Speaker 6: So it was just one of those moments.

1257
01:00:54,320 --> 01:00:56,840
Speaker 7: I went before the board and then so doing I

1258
01:00:57,040 --> 01:01:00,320
Speaker 7: got the favorable recommendation. It didn't come with ease, but

1259
01:01:00,360 --> 01:01:02,880
Speaker 7: I did get the favorable recommendation. And no sooner than

1260
01:01:02,920 --> 01:01:05,880
Speaker 7: I walked out of the hearing, word had already spread

1261
01:01:05,920 --> 01:01:08,000
Speaker 7: down the walk that I had that I had made it.

1262
01:01:08,680 --> 01:01:10,960
Speaker 7: Everybody was waiting to see if I was gonna make

1263
01:01:11,000 --> 01:01:14,040
Speaker 7: it or not, because this wasn't just my partner hearing.

1264
01:01:14,120 --> 01:01:16,400
Speaker 6: This was the partner hearing for everybody in the prison.

1265
01:01:16,880 --> 01:01:17,400
Speaker 4: Uh.

1266
01:01:17,560 --> 01:01:19,960
Speaker 7: You know, partners had really become a thing of the past,

1267
01:01:20,040 --> 01:01:23,440
Speaker 7: you know, following you know the the you know, just

1268
01:01:23,520 --> 01:01:26,400
Speaker 7: governors moving away from using that power. You know, it

1269
01:01:26,520 --> 01:01:29,760
Speaker 7: just really became a thing that was, you know, hardly

1270
01:01:30,040 --> 01:01:34,000
Speaker 7: see and for me to make it gave other men

1271
01:01:34,080 --> 01:01:37,120
Speaker 7: hope as well, so them, the security officers, everybody was

1272
01:01:37,200 --> 01:01:39,440
Speaker 7: high five. I mean when I came back down and uh,

1273
01:01:39,760 --> 01:01:42,280
Speaker 7: but it was a bittersweet moment ultimately when I walked

1274
01:01:42,320 --> 01:01:44,480
Speaker 7: out of the prison that day, because I knew that

1275
01:01:44,560 --> 01:01:46,919
Speaker 7: I was leaving behind a lot of men that were

1276
01:01:46,960 --> 01:01:50,720
Speaker 7: equally deserving of this opportunity that I was now getting.

1277
01:01:51,120 --> 01:01:52,840
Speaker 6: So the uh.

1278
01:01:52,960 --> 01:01:55,400
Speaker 7: In our second film, I mentioned a thing called sur

1279
01:01:55,480 --> 01:01:59,760
Speaker 7: Barber's guilt and real emotion, you know, for people that

1280
01:01:59,760 --> 01:02:02,360
Speaker 7: had the one gone away to war. That's usually how

1281
01:02:02,360 --> 01:02:06,440
Speaker 7: we associated but it's also associated with men or women

1282
01:02:06,520 --> 01:02:10,800
Speaker 7: who have experienced low times together and you know, and

1283
01:02:10,880 --> 01:02:12,840
Speaker 7: kind of lived through it and then you escape or

1284
01:02:12,840 --> 01:02:15,880
Speaker 7: you've managed to get away from it, and if everybody

1285
01:02:15,920 --> 01:02:18,360
Speaker 7: didn't come with, you can kind of feel away about

1286
01:02:18,400 --> 01:02:20,960
Speaker 7: the people that were left behind. So that's how we

1287
01:02:21,040 --> 01:02:25,160
Speaker 7: ended up starting our organization PDM NOLA, which is an

1288
01:02:25,200 --> 01:02:28,320
Speaker 7: initiative that we started shortly after I came out of prison.

1289
01:02:29,320 --> 01:02:31,720
Speaker 7: We turned it into a nonprofit. The idea we turned

1290
01:02:31,760 --> 01:02:34,880
Speaker 7: into a nonprofit and it's where we're legal awareness as

1291
01:02:34,920 --> 01:02:37,600
Speaker 7: the best form of defense to people who are justice involved.

1292
01:02:38,080 --> 01:02:40,920
Speaker 6: And we've been doing the work now for about six years,

1293
01:02:41,320 --> 01:02:42,200
Speaker 6: and it's amazing.

1294
01:02:42,560 --> 01:02:44,720
Speaker 7: We judge the success of the work that we do

1295
01:02:44,760 --> 01:02:46,600
Speaker 7: by the amount of time that we saved someone to

1296
01:02:46,720 --> 01:02:49,200
Speaker 7: posted the amount of time that they've been sanctioned to serve.

1297
01:02:49,640 --> 01:02:53,080
Speaker 7: And to this date, we've saved well over thirty five

1298
01:02:53,280 --> 01:02:55,640
Speaker 7: one hundred years of people doing time here in our

1299
01:02:55,680 --> 01:02:59,440
Speaker 7: stick over, and because we are one of forty organizations

1300
01:02:59,480 --> 01:03:03,920
Speaker 7: that exist around the country exercising this model, we've saved

1301
01:03:03,920 --> 01:03:07,880
Speaker 7: more than twenty five thousand years of people doing time

1302
01:03:07,960 --> 01:03:08,960
Speaker 7: throughout the country.

1303
01:03:09,480 --> 01:03:10,880
Speaker 4: So it's amazing.

1304
01:03:11,200 --> 01:03:14,000
Speaker 7: It's our way of giving back to the people that

1305
01:03:14,120 --> 01:03:16,280
Speaker 7: are you know that we left behind.

1306
01:03:16,360 --> 01:03:19,000
Speaker 6: So many of the people that are left behind crazy.

1307
01:03:18,800 --> 01:03:21,760
Speaker 7: Enough that had life sentences I get to see because

1308
01:03:22,040 --> 01:03:25,040
Speaker 7: that law, that effort has brought a lot of them home.

1309
01:03:25,480 --> 01:03:27,919
Speaker 7: And so we were just at a ball the other

1310
01:03:28,000 --> 01:03:30,120
Speaker 7: night and they had this one brother that used to

1311
01:03:30,200 --> 01:03:37,200
Speaker 7: work the concessions prison together, had an astronomical amount of time.

1312
01:03:37,240 --> 01:03:39,040
Speaker 7: But every time that I see him it warms my

1313
01:03:39,120 --> 01:03:41,400
Speaker 7: heart because I'm like, man, we was in there together.

1314
01:03:41,480 --> 01:03:43,120
Speaker 7: So I see them all, you know, all the time

1315
01:03:43,240 --> 01:03:47,600
Speaker 7: moving about. I'm like, man, we made.

1316
01:03:47,480 --> 01:03:49,840
Speaker 4: It, so you have to come down and celebrate us

1317
01:03:49,880 --> 01:03:53,439
Speaker 4: in the tennis. Yeah, no, I am.

1318
01:03:53,520 --> 01:03:54,240
Speaker 3: I am definitely.

1319
01:03:54,240 --> 01:03:55,720
Speaker 2: I was going to sit off the screen like I

1320
01:03:55,760 --> 01:03:58,040
Speaker 2: said on the screen too when youth the dating stuff.

1321
01:03:58,080 --> 01:04:00,680
Speaker 3: Let me know and I fly down. Please, I'm serious.

1322
01:04:00,840 --> 01:04:02,120
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm serious too.

1323
01:04:02,120 --> 01:04:03,560
Speaker 5: So make sure I got your I think it may

1324
01:04:03,600 --> 01:04:05,560
Speaker 5: be in the email, but make sure I got your

1325
01:04:05,600 --> 01:04:07,680
Speaker 5: contact information so I can keep you posting.

1326
01:04:08,120 --> 01:04:09,280
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't get it to you over the air

1327
01:04:09,320 --> 01:04:15,960
Speaker 2: because these niggas crazy. Okay, we almost finished, right when

1328
01:04:16,040 --> 01:04:19,040
Speaker 2: I trust her, I don't trust these niggas my audience,

1329
01:04:19,080 --> 01:04:22,880
Speaker 2: but you know that's some weird niggas listening. Okay, we

1330
01:04:22,880 --> 01:04:26,600
Speaker 2: almost finished, but I'm really enjoying your conversation. How do

1331
01:04:26,680 --> 01:04:29,800
Speaker 2: you think enduring such extreme challenges has deepened your love

1332
01:04:29,800 --> 01:04:30,280
Speaker 2: for each other?

1333
01:04:32,280 --> 01:04:34,120
Speaker 3: Because y'all son in love, like I see.

1334
01:04:33,880 --> 01:04:41,080
Speaker 5: It helping me out like that here. You know, I

1335
01:04:41,120 --> 01:04:44,360
Speaker 5: think that anytime that you have gone through as much

1336
01:04:44,440 --> 01:04:48,560
Speaker 5: hardship and overwhelmed in the manner that rib and I have,

1337
01:04:49,120 --> 01:04:54,480
Speaker 5: which yeah read obstacle that we embraced and overcame, it

1338
01:04:54,640 --> 01:04:59,120
Speaker 5: made us deeper connected in a way that is impermeable.

1339
01:05:00,200 --> 01:05:03,720
Speaker 4: So it's like you just I don't know. Man.

1340
01:05:03,760 --> 01:05:08,440
Speaker 5: We think alike, we laugh alike, we other sentences. It's

1341
01:05:08,560 --> 01:05:11,640
Speaker 5: just I think the biggest thing is is I'm just

1342
01:05:11,680 --> 01:05:14,200
Speaker 5: glad on this life's journey at this point.

1343
01:05:14,240 --> 01:05:17,120
Speaker 4: I have not my bank account.

1344
01:05:16,720 --> 01:05:21,200
Speaker 5: Doesn't reflect a few million dollars, but my journey, my light,

1345
01:05:21,360 --> 01:05:25,560
Speaker 5: and my love is brighter than most people I know.

1346
01:05:26,240 --> 01:05:28,800
Speaker 5: And that's because I've had an opportunity on this journey

1347
01:05:28,840 --> 01:05:32,120
Speaker 5: to know love, to love, and to be loved. And

1348
01:05:32,160 --> 01:05:34,439
Speaker 5: so that's what I probably would say that I'm most

1349
01:05:34,440 --> 01:05:38,960
Speaker 5: grateful for is that through all of those hardships, would say, what, don't.

1350
01:05:38,720 --> 01:05:40,400
Speaker 4: Care you make it stronger, stronger.

1351
01:05:40,800 --> 01:05:44,920
Speaker 5: It has definitely made our union stronger and have allowed

1352
01:05:44,960 --> 01:05:47,360
Speaker 5: us to serve as a demonstration of love to so

1353
01:05:47,520 --> 01:05:49,840
Speaker 5: many other people that you know, this is real.

1354
01:05:50,400 --> 01:05:52,120
Speaker 4: You just got to commit to it.

1355
01:05:52,240 --> 01:05:55,680
Speaker 5: I mean, rocket science is not easy, but it is

1356
01:05:55,760 --> 01:05:56,680
Speaker 5: damn sure worth it.

1357
01:05:57,440 --> 01:06:04,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, okay, what about you?

1358
01:06:05,440 --> 01:06:07,320
Speaker 6: I would have to say much of the same.

1359
01:06:07,480 --> 01:06:10,600
Speaker 7: You know, I do believe that the experiences definitely made

1360
01:06:10,680 --> 01:06:14,720
Speaker 7: us made us stronger. We've you know, been faced with

1361
01:06:15,320 --> 01:06:18,760
Speaker 7: some you know, crazy challenges and when you know, again,

1362
01:06:18,840 --> 01:06:21,120
Speaker 7: like you said, you consider that, you know, well over

1363
01:06:21,200 --> 01:06:24,120
Speaker 7: sixty percent of all marriages and in divorce within three

1364
01:06:24,160 --> 01:06:25,720
Speaker 7: to five years, and they.

1365
01:06:25,640 --> 01:06:28,000
Speaker 6: Do so for you know, a number of reasons.

1366
01:06:29,160 --> 01:06:33,320
Speaker 7: Knows, separation through life sentences would be probably good cause

1367
01:06:33,360 --> 01:06:35,760
Speaker 7: by most people, you know, to be a reason that

1368
01:06:35,880 --> 01:06:38,600
Speaker 7: you would say, you know what, maybe this ain't right,

1369
01:06:38,720 --> 01:06:40,120
Speaker 7: We might need to go on and divorce.

1370
01:06:40,200 --> 01:06:43,240
Speaker 6: But the fact that we chose each other every day,

1371
01:06:44,000 --> 01:06:47,120
Speaker 6: every day to you know, to to move forward.

1372
01:06:46,800 --> 01:06:50,360
Speaker 7: Through life within, like I said, has made us, has

1373
01:06:50,360 --> 01:06:55,840
Speaker 7: made us strong, stronger than probably either of us could

1374
01:06:55,880 --> 01:06:59,760
Speaker 7: have ever imagined. And so it's just again, like Fox

1375
01:06:59,800 --> 01:07:04,960
Speaker 7: made mentioned, it's really rewarding, uh to be able to

1376
01:07:05,000 --> 01:07:08,680
Speaker 7: serve as a demonstration, uh to to so many other people,

1377
01:07:09,840 --> 01:07:12,080
Speaker 7: you know, to the where that when they say that

1378
01:07:12,160 --> 01:07:14,440
Speaker 7: thing about your relationship goals.

1379
01:07:14,920 --> 01:07:15,360
Speaker 5: Uh.

1380
01:07:15,440 --> 01:07:16,920
Speaker 6: Funny that when our.

1381
01:07:16,760 --> 01:07:20,160
Speaker 7: Film first came out, they had a number of celebrities

1382
01:07:20,200 --> 01:07:22,480
Speaker 7: that invited us out to l A to come kick

1383
01:07:22,520 --> 01:07:25,760
Speaker 7: it with them, and Kenya Barris was one such a

1384
01:07:26,040 --> 01:07:30,120
Speaker 7: celebt uh that you know, he was so motivated by

1385
01:07:30,320 --> 01:07:33,120
Speaker 7: love that it made him want to you know, be

1386
01:07:33,200 --> 01:07:37,360
Speaker 7: in love and uh love and love deeper you know

1387
01:07:37,840 --> 01:07:39,800
Speaker 7: he wasn't you know, there were so many others that

1388
01:07:39,880 --> 01:07:42,720
Speaker 7: you know, basically said similar and uh like I said,

1389
01:07:42,920 --> 01:07:45,640
Speaker 7: to see that your love has impacted and that was

1390
01:07:45,720 --> 01:07:48,040
Speaker 7: just the love that they witnessed on the screen that

1391
01:07:48,200 --> 01:07:52,040
Speaker 7: wasn't necessarily knowing us on a data right, you know,

1392
01:07:52,080 --> 01:07:55,320
Speaker 7: butabariously they realized that, man, y'all make.

1393
01:07:55,320 --> 01:07:56,080
Speaker 6: Me want to love.

1394
01:07:57,000 --> 01:08:02,320
Speaker 5: Yeah, yes, man, okay, A man can't wait to get

1395
01:08:02,320 --> 01:08:04,360
Speaker 5: you that.

1396
01:08:04,520 --> 01:08:07,800
Speaker 2: I know that I know over this line you can

1397
01:08:07,880 --> 01:08:11,240
Speaker 2: find out right right girl, you know I've been digging

1398
01:08:11,360 --> 01:08:16,400
Speaker 2: you right right. So, being that you've been home for

1399
01:08:16,479 --> 01:08:19,240
Speaker 2: six years now going on seven, what was the hardest

1400
01:08:19,240 --> 01:08:20,679
Speaker 2: part about coming back home?

1401
01:08:22,000 --> 01:08:24,439
Speaker 7: Probably the hardest part of coming back home was the

1402
01:08:24,479 --> 01:08:28,040
Speaker 7: culture shock. Yeah, you know, when I left prison, you know,

1403
01:08:28,080 --> 01:08:31,479
Speaker 7: everybody was wearing baggy clothes and you know, doing certain

1404
01:08:31,560 --> 01:08:31,960
Speaker 7: kind of way.

1405
01:08:32,000 --> 01:08:32,200
Speaker 6: You know.

1406
01:08:32,360 --> 01:08:35,120
Speaker 7: Yeah, in the nineties, you know, the golden era of

1407
01:08:35,160 --> 01:08:35,639
Speaker 7: hip hop.

1408
01:08:35,960 --> 01:08:37,800
Speaker 6: You know, we were kind of doing things a certain

1409
01:08:37,880 --> 01:08:38,280
Speaker 6: kind of way.

1410
01:08:38,280 --> 01:08:40,160
Speaker 7: And when I came home, it's like all those things

1411
01:08:40,160 --> 01:08:43,160
Speaker 7: were not happening anymore. So moment you know that I

1412
01:08:43,200 --> 01:08:44,639
Speaker 7: had to go through you know, most of the women

1413
01:08:44,680 --> 01:08:46,000
Speaker 7: that I saw were naked.

1414
01:08:45,800 --> 01:08:48,040
Speaker 3: Or you know, halving it.

1415
01:08:48,160 --> 01:08:50,400
Speaker 6: I know, well, I'm saying that's when I came home

1416
01:08:50,439 --> 01:08:51,439
Speaker 6: to right.

1417
01:08:51,600 --> 01:08:54,519
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, you know, women were wearing baggy clothes, they

1418
01:08:54,520 --> 01:08:58,840
Speaker 7: were more covered, and you know, men were less revealing,

1419
01:08:58,920 --> 01:09:01,600
Speaker 7: and uh, you know, just all the things, but just

1420
01:09:01,720 --> 01:09:03,960
Speaker 7: many of those culture shocks that came on to when

1421
01:09:03,960 --> 01:09:04,679
Speaker 7: I left prison.

1422
01:09:05,960 --> 01:09:08,680
Speaker 6: They didn't used to pump your own gas before when

1423
01:09:08,680 --> 01:09:09,320
Speaker 6: I went to prison.

1424
01:09:09,360 --> 01:09:11,160
Speaker 7: You got to keep in mind, now, when I went

1425
01:09:11,160 --> 01:09:13,840
Speaker 7: to prison, I went to prison two years on the

1426
01:09:13,880 --> 01:09:17,920
Speaker 7: other side of windows ninety five. So the time I

1427
01:09:17,960 --> 01:09:20,360
Speaker 7: had on my space was a thing. It was no

1428
01:09:20,479 --> 01:09:23,040
Speaker 7: longer a thing, you know, by the time when I

1429
01:09:23,080 --> 01:09:25,080
Speaker 7: came home. So you know, it's just like all the

1430
01:09:26,040 --> 01:09:28,080
Speaker 7: technological advances that happened.

1431
01:09:29,120 --> 01:09:32,360
Speaker 6: Everybody needed and depended on a cell phone.

1432
01:09:32,360 --> 01:09:35,759
Speaker 7: You know, I had what twenty thirty forty fifty numbers

1433
01:09:35,760 --> 01:09:36,799
Speaker 7: committed to memory.

1434
01:09:37,000 --> 01:09:38,600
Speaker 6: People out here, you lose your phone, you.

1435
01:09:38,600 --> 01:09:41,679
Speaker 7: Can't contact you know what I'm saying, because all your phones,

1436
01:09:41,800 --> 01:09:44,720
Speaker 7: all your numbers are in your contact list, and you know,

1437
01:09:44,800 --> 01:09:46,960
Speaker 7: so those things were like challenges to me, you know,

1438
01:09:47,840 --> 01:09:52,200
Speaker 7: just getting past the tech curve. And when you're in prison,

1439
01:09:52,280 --> 01:09:57,000
Speaker 7: you know, tech is a it's a security risk, you

1440
01:09:57,040 --> 01:09:59,479
Speaker 7: know in ways. So as a result of it, they

1441
01:09:59,479 --> 01:10:03,400
Speaker 7: don't prepare hear you, you know, to be integrate to

1442
01:10:03,439 --> 01:10:08,040
Speaker 7: come back. So it kind of again mirrors what we slavery.

1443
01:10:08,120 --> 01:10:11,400
Speaker 7: Most slaves were released from prison, but I mean released

1444
01:10:11,400 --> 01:10:14,800
Speaker 7: from slavery. But in so uh and in so doing,

1445
01:10:14,880 --> 01:10:19,479
Speaker 7: they were not educated in the ways of the community.

1446
01:10:19,040 --> 01:10:23,080
Speaker 6: Outside of slavery. So they were ignorant many of the

1447
01:10:23,760 --> 01:10:25,400
Speaker 6: themes outside of.

1448
01:10:26,080 --> 01:10:28,080
Speaker 3: Here's the reason why they go back exactly.

1449
01:10:28,200 --> 01:10:31,040
Speaker 7: You know. With that being said, when I came home,

1450
01:10:31,080 --> 01:10:34,200
Speaker 7: I was illiterate to a lot of the technology and

1451
01:10:34,200 --> 01:10:37,519
Speaker 7: the ways that business and things are conducted. And you know,

1452
01:10:37,560 --> 01:10:40,479
Speaker 7: I had to get a crash course. Thanks God for

1453
01:10:40,880 --> 01:10:43,600
Speaker 7: my youngest son, because uh, he kind of gave me

1454
01:10:43,600 --> 01:10:45,200
Speaker 7: a whole lot of game and you know, gave.

1455
01:10:45,000 --> 01:10:46,479
Speaker 6: Me something quick.

1456
01:10:49,320 --> 01:10:51,480
Speaker 3: Somebody speaking French in the household.

1457
01:10:52,200 --> 01:10:54,240
Speaker 5: By the time little Rod towed him how to send

1458
01:10:54,240 --> 01:10:57,840
Speaker 5: emojis in the oldest time, how to send memes, he

1459
01:10:58,000 --> 01:10:58,840
Speaker 5: was all in need.

1460
01:10:58,960 --> 01:11:03,320
Speaker 3: It's around right, he takes no time.

1461
01:11:03,560 --> 01:11:06,920
Speaker 5: But asad from that, you know, even our relationship was challenging.

1462
01:11:07,400 --> 01:11:11,080
Speaker 5: When Rob came home, he and we talk about this

1463
01:11:11,160 --> 01:11:14,679
Speaker 5: in the new documentary. When he came home. He wanted space,

1464
01:11:15,200 --> 01:11:17,720
Speaker 5: and when he came home, I wanted somebody.

1465
01:11:17,320 --> 01:11:20,360
Speaker 4: To hold me. I had been alone for twenty one years,

1466
01:11:21,000 --> 01:11:21,200
Speaker 4: you know.

1467
01:11:21,240 --> 01:11:23,679
Speaker 5: I was looking forward to the moment when we would

1468
01:11:24,280 --> 01:11:26,000
Speaker 5: hang out in the shower.

1469
01:11:25,800 --> 01:11:28,880
Speaker 3: And yeah, always have the intimacy.

1470
01:11:28,439 --> 01:11:29,879
Speaker 4: And all of the things.

1471
01:11:29,920 --> 01:11:33,040
Speaker 5: And he's like, whoa hold up, I've been showering with

1472
01:11:33,080 --> 01:11:35,559
Speaker 5: one hundred, one hundred men in my dorm. I've been

1473
01:11:36,080 --> 01:11:38,920
Speaker 5: they had thrown with sharing five toilets with one hundred

1474
01:11:39,000 --> 01:11:40,559
Speaker 5: men and five face bowls.

1475
01:11:40,640 --> 01:11:43,600
Speaker 4: I want some one. Yeah, I want some face you know,

1476
01:11:43,680 --> 01:11:47,200
Speaker 4: and what wait, hold of This is not what I was,

1477
01:11:47,560 --> 01:11:49,080
Speaker 4: you know, thinking. So we had to work through that.

1478
01:11:49,280 --> 01:11:49,439
Speaker 6: You know.

1479
01:11:49,479 --> 01:11:52,040
Speaker 5: It's like we had been married for over twenty one

1480
01:11:52,120 --> 01:11:54,559
Speaker 5: years when he came home, but you know, we hadn't

1481
01:11:54,600 --> 01:11:56,880
Speaker 5: been together as a husband and wife. So we're trying

1482
01:11:56,880 --> 01:11:59,120
Speaker 5: to even figure out how many times do married couples

1483
01:11:59,160 --> 01:11:59,639
Speaker 5: have sex?

1484
01:12:00,200 --> 01:12:02,519
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, listen to your documentary. I'm like, I know

1485
01:12:02,600 --> 01:12:08,880
Speaker 2: they're not about to have sex on this careen. I

1486
01:12:08,960 --> 01:12:11,679
Speaker 2: was like, come on, y'all, right, out of my way, baby,

1487
01:12:11,720 --> 01:12:16,599
Speaker 2: that brother unrestricted in twenty one years? Oh yeah, right,

1488
01:12:17,320 --> 01:12:20,120
Speaker 2: I need to do is connect Lord.

1489
01:12:19,960 --> 01:12:21,960
Speaker 3: I'm surprised you didn't get pregnant.

1490
01:12:22,120 --> 01:12:28,880
Speaker 2: Right, right, Okay, So what's one thing that y'all learned

1491
01:12:28,880 --> 01:12:31,120
Speaker 2: about yourselves throughout this journey.

1492
01:12:33,200 --> 01:12:35,559
Speaker 7: I think the biggest thing that I learned about myself

1493
01:12:35,640 --> 01:12:38,200
Speaker 7: is that my capacity to love continues to grow.

1494
01:12:39,160 --> 01:12:39,760
Speaker 3: That's a good one.

1495
01:12:40,000 --> 01:12:42,880
Speaker 7: I really didn't think that that I could love any deeper,

1496
01:12:43,000 --> 01:12:47,800
Speaker 7: further than you know, than I had. With each passing day,

1497
01:12:47,880 --> 01:12:51,160
Speaker 7: with each passing year, I come to the realization that

1498
01:12:51,200 --> 01:12:55,599
Speaker 7: my love, my capacity to love, continues to expand.

1499
01:12:56,439 --> 01:12:56,920
Speaker 3: Mm hmmm.

1500
01:12:58,600 --> 01:13:00,720
Speaker 4: I think for me it is nothing impossible.

1501
01:13:01,560 --> 01:13:02,000
Speaker 2: Facts.

1502
01:13:02,160 --> 01:13:05,760
Speaker 5: I just nothing is impossible, you know, I did. The

1503
01:13:05,800 --> 01:13:08,599
Speaker 5: only thing is impossible is if you don't try. But

1504
01:13:08,680 --> 01:13:13,200
Speaker 5: I believe that all things are possible with love, all things.

1505
01:13:14,280 --> 01:13:14,479
Speaker 3: You know.

1506
01:13:14,560 --> 01:13:16,760
Speaker 2: When I finished the book and I read our documentary,

1507
01:13:16,800 --> 01:13:19,080
Speaker 2: the first thing that came to mind is the phrase

1508
01:13:19,160 --> 01:13:21,640
Speaker 2: my life is not my own. And I feel like

1509
01:13:21,720 --> 01:13:24,839
Speaker 2: y'all journey embodies that. So do y'all feel like despite

1510
01:13:24,920 --> 01:13:27,000
Speaker 2: everything that y'all been through, y'all went through it for

1511
01:13:27,280 --> 01:13:28,599
Speaker 2: others to give them hope.

1512
01:13:30,240 --> 01:13:32,679
Speaker 5: You know, I can certainly say for sure that God

1513
01:13:32,720 --> 01:13:36,320
Speaker 5: has used us and turned our message for others and

1514
01:13:36,400 --> 01:13:38,439
Speaker 5: I'm just hopeful, you know, we're thankful to be here

1515
01:13:38,479 --> 01:13:42,680
Speaker 5: on your podcast because we get to share with your listeners,

1516
01:13:42,720 --> 01:13:45,720
Speaker 5: you know, this journey and hopes that their lives will

1517
01:13:45,760 --> 01:13:47,880
Speaker 5: be changed and they will see that love is something

1518
01:13:47,880 --> 01:13:51,520
Speaker 5: that is tangible, impossible for all people, but in particular

1519
01:13:51,560 --> 01:13:55,800
Speaker 5: black people, and it's necessary. And so with that being said,

1520
01:13:55,840 --> 01:13:59,240
Speaker 5: when we meet people whose marriages we've helped, when we

1521
01:13:59,360 --> 01:14:03,400
Speaker 5: inspire other people to love to heal, yeah, then it

1522
01:14:03,400 --> 01:14:05,320
Speaker 5: makes it feel like it's all been worth it, that

1523
01:14:05,360 --> 01:14:07,080
Speaker 5: it's bigger than ribing.

1524
01:14:06,800 --> 01:14:09,080
Speaker 6: I m hm.

1525
01:14:10,160 --> 01:14:12,320
Speaker 2: And last, but not least, what does love mean to

1526
01:14:12,360 --> 01:14:14,080
Speaker 2: you now compared to when you first met?

1527
01:14:17,760 --> 01:14:18,000
Speaker 5: Love?

1528
01:14:18,080 --> 01:14:21,679
Speaker 7: For me, when we first met, I think was this warm,

1529
01:14:21,760 --> 01:14:25,759
Speaker 7: fuzzy kind of feeling that you feel when you always

1530
01:14:25,800 --> 01:14:26,920
Speaker 7: want a person around.

1531
01:14:27,479 --> 01:14:29,160
Speaker 4: Uh, you know, you don't.

1532
01:14:28,920 --> 01:14:34,760
Speaker 7: Really have any clear understandings of it. It's that I

1533
01:14:34,760 --> 01:14:38,439
Speaker 7: think they have various divisions or degrees of love. You know,

1534
01:14:39,000 --> 01:14:41,400
Speaker 7: the romantic kind of love that you feel that you

1535
01:14:41,439 --> 01:14:43,559
Speaker 7: know makes you where you can't stop touching the person

1536
01:14:43,640 --> 01:14:47,120
Speaker 7: or whatever. You have that that feeling, your type of

1537
01:14:47,160 --> 01:14:49,160
Speaker 7: love that Philadelphia gets its.

1538
01:14:49,040 --> 01:14:50,439
Speaker 6: Name from, that brotherly love.

1539
01:14:50,560 --> 01:14:52,559
Speaker 7: Then you have that he kind of love, which is

1540
01:14:52,560 --> 01:14:55,120
Speaker 7: a god kind of love, and you know, and so forth.

1541
01:14:55,160 --> 01:15:00,120
Speaker 7: But I do believe that that Fox and I have

1542
01:15:00,120 --> 01:15:05,200
Speaker 7: have gone through different degrees of love one another to

1543
01:15:05,240 --> 01:15:08,599
Speaker 7: the point that you know, I call it an anchor love,

1544
01:15:10,240 --> 01:15:12,400
Speaker 7: and I call it the deepest mind state.

1545
01:15:12,439 --> 01:15:16,559
Speaker 6: When you think of love, it's the thing it anchors us.

1546
01:15:16,640 --> 01:15:18,719
Speaker 7: And I think in the film, well, in the film,

1547
01:15:18,760 --> 01:15:22,280
Speaker 7: the first film, I closed out by saying that love,

1548
01:15:22,479 --> 01:15:24,320
Speaker 7: if it could be an acronym, that it would be

1549
01:15:24,360 --> 01:15:27,960
Speaker 7: life's only valid expression. So they're gone from this warm,

1550
01:15:28,040 --> 01:15:30,719
Speaker 7: fuzzy thing or whatever that we feel and when we're

1551
01:15:30,720 --> 01:15:34,760
Speaker 7: having that puppy count of love other thing that you.

1552
01:15:34,680 --> 01:15:37,240
Speaker 6: Know that it is life's only valid expression.

1553
01:15:37,720 --> 01:15:43,559
Speaker 7: So that's like a deeper, more committed and assured kind

1554
01:15:43,560 --> 01:15:47,519
Speaker 7: of love that happens that a lot of us don't

1555
01:15:47,520 --> 01:15:50,680
Speaker 7: get an opportunity to see because we don't go all

1556
01:15:50,720 --> 01:15:51,000
Speaker 7: the way.

1557
01:15:51,800 --> 01:15:55,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Well, I really enjoyed that conversation. I'm really

1558
01:15:55,400 --> 01:15:57,720
Speaker 2: looking forward to build a relationship with y'all because this

1559
01:15:57,880 --> 01:16:00,200
Speaker 2: was absolutely a treat so and I'm also I'm just

1560
01:16:00,320 --> 01:16:04,519
Speaker 2: very proud of y'all. Seriously, Yeah, thank you, thank you,

1561
01:16:04,640 --> 01:16:05,280
Speaker 2: thank you.

1562
01:16:05,400 --> 01:16:08,400
Speaker 7: Yeah, you get a hard podcast you know, like what

1563
01:16:08,520 --> 01:16:11,360
Speaker 7: you got to do them, so we like you gotta

1564
01:16:11,400 --> 01:16:15,760
Speaker 7: be special. Definitely proud of you for what it is

1565
01:16:15,800 --> 01:16:17,160
Speaker 7: that you've been able to achieve.

1566
01:16:17,840 --> 01:16:18,240
Speaker 3: Thank you.

1567
01:16:19,280 --> 01:16:24,320
Speaker 7: Any of the imagination is a milestone. And again, as

1568
01:16:24,320 --> 01:16:28,080
Speaker 7: you know, we look forward to getting to know you

1569
01:16:28,200 --> 01:16:31,240
Speaker 7: deeper as well. Yeah, I believe that we too could

1570
01:16:31,320 --> 01:16:31,920
Speaker 7: learn from you.

1571
01:16:32,280 --> 01:16:35,400
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, And I think y'all story is the perfect

1572
01:16:35,439 --> 01:16:38,000
Speaker 2: example of why we should share our storylines because you

1573
01:16:38,040 --> 01:16:40,000
Speaker 2: never know how it can be somebody else's lifeline.

1574
01:16:40,160 --> 01:16:42,280
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, yes, So I.

1575
01:16:42,240 --> 01:16:43,120
Speaker 3: Really appreciate y'all.

1576
01:16:43,200 --> 01:16:45,040
Speaker 2: To listeners, if you want to know more about our guests,

1577
01:16:45,120 --> 01:16:47,320
Speaker 2: want to support their book or their documentary, please make

1578
01:16:47,320 --> 01:16:49,719
Speaker 2: sure to email me a hello at the PHG podcast

1579
01:16:49,760 --> 01:16:57,840
Speaker 2: dot com. And until next time, everyone Later.

1580
01:16:57,520 --> 01:17:00,560
Speaker 3: You ain't gonna says oh, I know.

1581
01:16:59,840 --> 01:17:06,040
Speaker 6: I know that. Yeah, yeah, love y'all.

1582
01:17:13,320 --> 01:17:16,439
Speaker 2: The Professional Homegirl Podcast is a production of the Black

1583
01:17:16,439 --> 01:17:20,479
Speaker 2: Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the

1584
01:17:20,479 --> 01:17:23,680
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

1585
01:17:23,680 --> 01:17:26,760
Speaker 2: favorite shows. Don't forget to subscribe and rate the show,

1586
01:17:27,080 --> 01:17:29,519
Speaker 2: and you can connect with me on social media at

1587
01:17:29,520 --> 01:17:30,840
Speaker 2: the PAHG podcast