Speaker 1: Hey, hey, Hey, we're back. We're black, We're blah blah
Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah buh buh b brown, ambition and.
Speaker 2: Ambition, ambition, ambishing.
Speaker 1: Hey a Manda, how you holling?
Speaker 2: I'm all right. I had a long, lovely long weekend.
Speaker 1: What about you?
Speaker 2: You went a little upstate?
Speaker 1: I did. By the time this came out comes out,
Speaker 1: it will be my birthday? Is your birthday? It's your
Speaker 1: birthday October sixteenth, the big four or five? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: know it's not crazy. I'm like, forty five? What the hell?
Speaker 1: Who's that? Oh my god, it sounds bananas. Like my
Speaker 1: sixteen year old self is like you, oh well, she's
Speaker 1: like she said hey, because she hasn't figured out her
Speaker 1: brows yet.
Speaker 2: Ain't nothing but a number. Well, how are you feeling about?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I mean forty five? Like, how are you feeling?
Speaker 1: I don't know. Here's the thing. I don't feel forty
Speaker 1: five whatever that means. I feel grown and you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like I do feel like a full
Speaker 1: fledged adult, like.
Speaker 2: I think, you know, likes and it happens. Okay, I know.
Speaker 1: I want to say it was like my mid to
Speaker 1: late thirties when like I made the transition to like, oh,
Speaker 1: I actually feel grown. For the longest time, I still
Speaker 1: felt like my second gradeself, like girl, why do they
Speaker 1: let me drive? But no, no, I feel like an adult.
Speaker 1: And I will say for me, I know for a
Speaker 1: lot of people's birthdays kind of represent kind of like
Speaker 1: what you haven't done. Oh, I wish I would have
Speaker 1: done this. I wish I have to say by the
Speaker 1: time I hit forty, I could look around and say
Speaker 1: kind of like if I look at my journal and
Speaker 1: then had like my big dreams written down, for the
Speaker 1: most part, achieve those things, so my birthdays don't come
Speaker 1: with it. What I haven't done is kind of like
Speaker 1: what the hell how did I get here? So I
Speaker 1: don't know. They're time for reflection in a good way.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't feel a sense of like, oh man,
Speaker 1: I thought by this age i'd be data. I want
Speaker 1: to say I stopped that by forty.
Speaker 2: Mmm, that's good.
Speaker 1: I mean.
Speaker 2: Just once day. I don't wait. I don't wait to
Speaker 2: I don't wait just once a year to do that
Speaker 2: once a day the way that I'm like, dang, I
Speaker 2: wish I would washed those dishes last night. I wish
Speaker 2: I would have put my clothes in the dryer like
Speaker 2: I meant to you last night. Now I got to
Speaker 2: rewash them.
Speaker 1: But I'm not gonna lie. I gotta get back like
Speaker 1: in the cause they do say like especially now like
Speaker 1: I have to start lifting weights again. I used to, like,
Speaker 1: you know, do weight training and not even for like
Speaker 1: the you know, so you could be all tight and slim,
Speaker 1: because you know, I'm entering into this perymenopause. I still
Speaker 1: get my cycle. Sorry man, So I guess I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think you can still get your take on Perry.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm still but I do know that the
Speaker 1: older you get, you really are supposed to build muscle
Speaker 1: and it helps with like osteoporosis. So you know, I've
Speaker 1: just been like mindfula tiphany. Honestly, you need to hit
Speaker 1: the gym and like do more weight training because I'm
Speaker 1: just entering into this age where you know, like if
Speaker 1: you don't, you really put your just your general health
Speaker 1: at risk. I'm like, I know what osteoporosis.
Speaker 2: You know, listen, good, look it sucks. It's not fun.
Speaker 2: I've been I think I hit like the two month
Speaker 2: mark with my trainer, Gary Awa. I said his name
Speaker 2: out loud. He doesn't deserve that free press.
Speaker 1: Why do we love hate? Our Trainers're like, I hate,
Speaker 1: but thank you.
Speaker 2: What a terrible job. I don't know why a trainer
Speaker 2: trains like no one's happy to see you, you know.
Speaker 2: And it's not like he's training like elite athletes. He's
Speaker 2: here in the suburbs, training like busy moms, and he
Speaker 2: like he. And also what I like about my trainer
Speaker 2: is that like we're kind of rude to each other,
Speaker 2: like I don't have to like you're gonna see me
Speaker 2: at six thirty before coffee, like I'm not giving you.
Speaker 1: I'm not giving you, And it's like a dentist thankless.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you feel you feel skinny of your pants
Speaker 2: fitting looser, I'm like, I'm here, okay, that's the only question,
Speaker 2: no questions. But I don't feel like physically that like
Speaker 2: I've had that big transformation but obviously so much stronger,
Speaker 2: like that is definitely the benefit. But then today I
Speaker 2: was like, god, damn, I'm just gonna have to do
Speaker 2: this three days a week forever. When does it stop?
Speaker 2: I know, But you're a good reminder of why I'm
Speaker 2: doing it now. Yeah, to prepare myself.
Speaker 1: No and a good way.
Speaker 2: Sorry. The tone was not giving what my brain.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 2: I just mean like, you know, start small, like start
Speaker 2: building these abbits early. But the way that I desperately
Speaker 2: want to stop, I'm just like three, I've been doing
Speaker 2: it three days a week and I think. I think
Speaker 2: I'm just tired, tired of waking up. And I don't
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know. Something's got to I
Speaker 2: don't want to. I don't want to quit, but my
Speaker 2: body is like, m can we have a little woos off?
Speaker 2: And so I don't know what the right balance.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's like that's the point where you actually have
Speaker 1: to push past. I can know it is, and I
Speaker 1: mean as someone who girl, Remember I was on my
Speaker 1: jump rope craze until my knees were like who and
Speaker 1: I thought I had authoritis you know, Arthur and idis
Speaker 1: at each of my knees. The doctor was like, girl, no,
Speaker 1: you just need to exercise. Because my nise was like,
Speaker 1: oh my niece is giving up and She's like yeah,
Speaker 1: like basically I have to strengthen the then the the
Speaker 1: you know, the muscle around my knees, and I'm like so.
Speaker 1: Then I was walking a lot and honestly, I still
Speaker 1: really do love walking. I just have not hit the
Speaker 1: road jack like I've had before. And honestly, walking is
Speaker 1: still not weight training, and I know that like I
Speaker 1: need to wait train. It doesn't even have to be
Speaker 1: weight to weights. It could just be your own body.
Speaker 1: So that's like the stage I'm mentoring into. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm taking all of November off, which I do now
Speaker 1: because I learned from my therapist that November for me,
Speaker 1: I mean I knew it, but I didn't feel it's
Speaker 1: so triggering because that's the monster ill passed away. And
Speaker 1: so I told myself that's going to be like I'm
Speaker 1: not going anywhere I'm traveling. I'm just going to I
Speaker 1: almost like reclaim my health in November. Like I wanted
Speaker 1: to do my first like drip vitamin drip. I've never
Speaker 1: done that before.
Speaker 2: Oh, like were they actually hook you up to an
Speaker 2: IV Yeah, like rich people do after their parties.
Speaker 1: So my friend Linda does does that and she was
Speaker 1: just like she'd gets it quarterly and she just like
Speaker 1: she just swears by it.
Speaker 2: What goes in you?
Speaker 3: Like, what is it?
Speaker 1: You can kind of cheose, so you could do vitamin
Speaker 1: B because I tend to get a cold every November,
Speaker 1: so I want to get see. I know I'm vitamin
Speaker 1: D deficient maybe some bee. So I'm just these are
Speaker 1: kind of conversations I'm going to have. Like I'm like,
Speaker 1: okay that I'm debating whether maybe I'll join a gym.
Speaker 1: I actually used to not mind going to the gym.
Speaker 1: I haven't decided because also too, when it gets really
Speaker 1: really cold, an't nobody leaving the house. But that's what
Speaker 1: it is.
Speaker 2: I think that's what it is. I think it's the
Speaker 2: colder weather. I'm just like, thank god I can pre
Speaker 2: warm my car. I mean, for y'all who just.
Speaker 1: Like, how do you don't even know? Right now? I'm
Speaker 1: during my dad, my mom's twenty five year old Mercedes
Speaker 1: Benz like she has a bet she had a bench
Speaker 1: twenty five years ago.
Speaker 2: The millennium Benz, I'm hen of the century.
Speaker 1: When they got that bit, it was first of all,
Speaker 1: she has heated seats, I said, not Sylvia stunting on
Speaker 1: the ground twenty five years ago? Do you know? She was? Yeah?
Speaker 1: But no, because you know they hit Durrell's car, and
Speaker 1: so I got the money and bought Alyssa.
Speaker 2: Not your parents someone hit but not your parents. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that way you said that made it seem like.
Speaker 1: Yes, and so I used that They gave me, like,
Speaker 1: I'm around fifteen thousand dollars and I used it to
Speaker 1: get a Listen's car, which is like sixteen thousand. And
Speaker 1: so now I'm debating, and maybe you know, we could
Speaker 1: talk about.
Speaker 2: This episode made a nice car for yourself.
Speaker 1: I am, but I'm debating least versus by that's a
Speaker 1: debate right now. But I mean we can talk about
Speaker 1: it maybe the next session to talk about the pros
Speaker 1: and cons as I make my decision because I don't
Speaker 1: drive that much. But yeah, so I'm just November, it's
Speaker 1: going to be like I want to get a massage,
Speaker 1: I want to get like a routine going of an exercise,
Speaker 1: you know, I want to sleep late. Yeah. Just it's
Speaker 1: going to be like, yeah, just kind of like regain
Speaker 1: health a month. I mean, I'm not unhealthy. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, I just but I just feel like, you know,
Speaker 1: I have to be more intentional. You know. It's not
Speaker 1: like I'm like, oh, girl, forty five ain't what it
Speaker 1: used to be.
Speaker 2: Well, it's also just like, I mean, you're holding space
Speaker 2: for your grief at the same time too. So I
Speaker 2: hope that it's just that you don't have too much
Speaker 2: on your to do list and that you.
Speaker 1: Can you know, yeah, everything is very if I feel
Speaker 1: like it, which I like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're giving yourself a soft place to land.
Speaker 1: And also said, I just want to feel I don't know,
Speaker 1: I feel like we're in this pivotal moment where it's like,
Speaker 1: if you don't take care of yourself physically, it's hard
Speaker 1: to come back harder, you know. And so I'm just
Speaker 1: like Tiffany, I'm not even I'm not trying to be
Speaker 1: some muscle woman, which nothing's wrong with that, but I
Speaker 1: just want to be like, oh, I've got a gentle routine,
Speaker 1: you know that, Like my body's in good shape. As
Speaker 1: far as I feel strong, I can get up off
Speaker 1: the floor without having to do the Okay, now I
Speaker 1: roll to the side.
Speaker 3: This need I got a trick shoulder, shoulder I haven't
Speaker 3: got already live these days. Damn well, you looked.
Speaker 2: A real good live and in color at me a
Speaker 2: live live? What do we say about our live show?
Speaker 2: Our first ever?
Speaker 1: Lie? It was, first of all, I don't know what
Speaker 1: I was expecting. First of all, packed house. Okay, the
Speaker 1: house was packed, but to sing our ba qa song
Speaker 1: and our opening song and to have people sing it,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just so used to like I'm talking
Speaker 1: about my friend Mandy, I'm talking about girl Mandy. That's
Speaker 1: my sister Mandy. And I'm like, wait, I forgot that
Speaker 1: y'all are listening because y'all sang it along with us,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh my god, that was so real.
Speaker 1: That was the most surreal moment for me. When people
Speaker 1: saying like it's.
Speaker 2: Time, it was like, it was so fun. Honestly, what
Speaker 2: if we just took the audio from that, like fifty
Speaker 2: women singing that song with us and just you said
Speaker 2: as our you should true, yeah, I know you should.
Speaker 1: That's fun for you. No, I didn't think about that.
Speaker 1: I love that, And because we always said we never
Speaker 1: had like a you know, yeah, oh my god, but
Speaker 1: it was and to meet people.
Speaker 2: People flew in they really did from Savannah. God, and
Speaker 2: she didn't just fly from Savannah. Courtney has just been
Speaker 2: you know, it's just really special when people will follow
Speaker 2: along with the show four years. I mean it just
Speaker 2: like the way that you guys leave us comments and
Speaker 2: messages on Insta like it matters, and I recognize y'all
Speaker 2: like friends in my head. So to see Courtney in
Speaker 2: person so cute. She was even wearing the lip bar
Speaker 2: color that I wear rich Auntie that we talked about before.
Speaker 2: Everyone was just so happy to be there, and I'm
Speaker 2: just I'm just I feel proud, immensely proud, and and
Speaker 2: to the venue source of Knowledge bookstore in Newark. You
Speaker 2: always said it was special, but I mean, I think
Speaker 2: I still. I think the smell of incense is still
Speaker 2: kind of like burned.
Speaker 1: I was like, all right, we getting y'all my cyluses,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't magical, yes, because I don't know that.
Speaker 1: I've been to black bookstores obviously, but this is not
Speaker 1: just a black bookstore, like owned by black people. It's
Speaker 1: a black book black and brown well, a black bookstore
Speaker 1: that exclusively carries books and resources and literature focused on
Speaker 1: black and brown people. Like I know, Mandy, you're looking
Speaker 1: for a children's book that was like bilingual, that had Spanish.
Speaker 2: And and didn't have to look far. I'm a whole
Speaker 2: all of them. Yes, I was like, I never knew
Speaker 2: these books existed.
Speaker 1: Yes, the children's section alone will blow you away. So
Speaker 1: many brown faces. You're like, all these books exist out here.
Speaker 2: Wow, it was beautiful. And to Patrese and Masani and
Speaker 2: Patresea's little grand baby. He was running around. He's Rio's age,
Speaker 2: and I was just like, oh you're you're I'm adopting
Speaker 2: you for this evening because it just felt right to
Speaker 2: have a little boy running around.
Speaker 1: Oh, foods by Nisha. The girls were tearing Abnicia's food.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yeah, it just was.
Speaker 1: And then we have to thank Chris for Oh my god,
Speaker 1: Chris from Popcorn Finance.
Speaker 2: Yes, for if you're a podcaster and you ever need well,
Speaker 2: if you never need someone to fly cross country, just
Speaker 2: befriend Chris and we'll just do it. He will. No,
Speaker 2: but what a gem of a human being. And yeah,
Speaker 2: and thank you so much Chris for like planning everything.
Speaker 2: And even our producer Tanya came out. I know that
Speaker 2: she was getting some cute like she was doing some
Speaker 2: Q and A in the audience to see how people
Speaker 2: were feeling. And I'm really glad that we got I
Speaker 2: know that this is you know, we're nearing the end.
Speaker 2: You're taking November off, so I'm just like it's just
Speaker 2: cutting into our time. But but no, I'm just to
Speaker 2: go out like that, to have an experience like that,
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm just really really grateful that we just
Speaker 2: like did it. It was very stressful, but we did it.
Speaker 2: It happened, and thank you be a fan for showing up.
Speaker 2: What more can what more can we say?
Speaker 1: We did?
Speaker 2: You guys will hear the episode? So when is that
Speaker 2: gonna live? When when is that gonna Airmandy, we weren't there.
Speaker 2: When can we listen to it? I think we decided
Speaker 2: November we'll be airing a two part yeah, two parter.
Speaker 2: But it was really fun. We know, we talked a
Speaker 2: lot about our personal growth, the year of the pivot
Speaker 2: when we call it the Great Pivot, the pivot, and
Speaker 2: then we did some trivia, some trivia with the VF
Speaker 2: that was fun.
Speaker 1: It was it was can I tell you that Tracy
Speaker 1: gave me the best compliment. She was like, because you know,
Speaker 1: sisters don't be listening. She was like, wait, is that
Speaker 1: how the podcast goes? I'm like, what do you mean?
Speaker 1: She was like, it was so great. She said something
Speaker 1: that Mandy said about you know, you had said something
Speaker 1: about mediocrity. She said, it just touched me so much,
Speaker 1: and I was like, is this is this how it goes?
Speaker 1: She's like, what I hear I've been missing out.
Speaker 2: And I know her family does not want to hear
Speaker 2: us talk.
Speaker 1: They're they're missing out. Yes, she was like, honestly, she said,
Speaker 1: it's one thing. Oh I'm going to my sister a
Speaker 1: half find Andy. But She's like, honestly, I was really
Speaker 1: engaged and it was really good, and she was just like, Wow,
Speaker 1: what an amazing podcast. And Tracy's not the system that
Speaker 1: compliments nice, you know, but she was like, that was amazing.
Speaker 1: She'd let me add that to my list of podcasts.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, well that's great, so I just have this.
Speaker 1: We got Tracy approves, which is a huge approval.
Speaker 2: Thank you. And your sisters showing up and I know me,
Speaker 2: me and Roman were not having it, but they rolled
Speaker 2: up the show was happening.
Speaker 1: She's somebody signed the books. She's like, one day I'm
Speaker 1: going to sign books.
Speaker 2: You will, Oh my goodness. I just can't wait. She's
Speaker 2: like the Malia and the Sasha of the podcast, I
Speaker 2: feel like.
Speaker 1: And Roman was just on his roebucks of rodbox girl.
Speaker 1: I don't even know what the kids be doing. Roadblocks.
Speaker 1: I couldn't tell you.
Speaker 2: I could not tell you. But yeah, so look forward
Speaker 2: to a two part series. We'll be airing the b
Speaker 2: A live in November. All right, but we got to
Speaker 2: get into some well let's just like, I mean, like
Speaker 2: one buzzy brown buzz buzzworthy news item today is future
Speaker 2: vice President, future president, future black, first black female president
Speaker 2: and Asian president in American history is putting out put
Speaker 2: out a specific plan to basically woo black male voters
Speaker 2: because I guess black men have been leaning more towards
Speaker 2: the side of Trump, which I can understand sadly.
Speaker 1: I can.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm not like, I don't know in your circles, Tift,
Speaker 2: do you feel like with your family, cousins, neighbors, Like
Speaker 2: are you hearing that in new work? Do you feel
Speaker 2: like black men are just a little bit less persuaded
Speaker 2: or excited about Kamala.
Speaker 1: If I'd be honest, Well, One, I have all sisters,
Speaker 1: our girl friends, and so I have not I don't
Speaker 1: have a ton of black male friends. And I'm like
Speaker 1: not now that Jerell's not here, so not like in
Speaker 1: the normal mix where maybe his boys are talking about
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So because honestly, Like, my
Speaker 1: closest black male friend is Cabraw, and it's different. Cabraw
Speaker 1: is gay black men, and I you know, all his
Speaker 1: mostly his friends are gay black men, and so there's
Speaker 1: a different energy. So I can also I can say
Speaker 1: I'm kind of out of the loop to like what
Speaker 1: like the average black man, not to say, you know,
Speaker 1: if you're gay in a average but you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, like like I'm just out of the loop
Speaker 1: of like what black men in general are thinking about
Speaker 1: kamalos just because I just don't have them in my
Speaker 1: circle as much.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I feel like what I hear from
Speaker 2: neighbors and extended relatives is like there's this sense of like,
Speaker 2: and we should probably get someone who can speak to
Speaker 2: the black male experience on the show. But what I've
Speaker 2: felt like is that deep sense of nothing really changes
Speaker 2: for me no matter what happens. And I think unlike
Speaker 2: women of color, like black women, I think there's just
Speaker 2: this real sense of it doesn't matter, you know, like
Speaker 2: no one's really speaking for me, no one speaking to me,
Speaker 2: And so I know that there's tons of I think
Speaker 2: that from both sides, there's criticism, there's excitement about this plan.
Speaker 2: But I thought we could just like talk about it
Speaker 2: point by point because honestly, everything in this plan, and
Speaker 2: this is the real thing about any kind of economic
Speaker 2: plan that is put together to serve black communities, it
Speaker 2: serves all of us at the end of the day.
Speaker 2: But there's stuff here, like legalizing recreational marijuana at the
Speaker 2: federal level.
Speaker 1: Opportunities for Black Americans to succeed in this new policy
Speaker 1: because they're legalized. It's you know, it's legalized, for example
Speaker 1: in New Jersey. But that's not who has the dispensaries.
Speaker 2: They're all at Where are they at in California and Colorado?
Speaker 1: No? Meaning like folks who own the dispensaries are there
Speaker 1: are no? I mean it's black folks that over represent
Speaker 1: in jail for Mariana, but the dispensaries are not owned
Speaker 1: by black folks, you know.
Speaker 2: Oh okay mm hmm, all right, So providing but what
Speaker 2: are those opportunity? So what I want to get into
Speaker 2: the details. So what does that mean, like are black
Speaker 2: are they going to give like startup capital to Black
Speaker 2: Americans who want to start their own dispensaries or get
Speaker 2: into the business.
Speaker 1: Let me see, because she does have if you go
Speaker 1: on KamalaHarris dot com. Also like, oh my gosh, there's
Speaker 1: so many points to this. There's like expanded pathways for
Speaker 1: black men to get good paying jobs whether or not
Speaker 1: they have a college degree. This, I will say, I've
Speaker 1: here heard a lot from the black men that I
Speaker 1: am connected to. They're like, yo, I cannot find a
Speaker 1: good paying job and I do have a college degree,
Speaker 1: Like it's really hard. Providing more pathways for black men
Speaker 1: to become teachers and school leaders. This one. One of
Speaker 1: my friends is the CEO of a nonprofit, so I
Speaker 1: love this one. It says something about HBCUs and and
Speaker 1: providing a pathway for them to have access to like
Speaker 1: to become physicians. I think that's what I read, which
Speaker 1: I love because my friend Micheline, she used to be
Speaker 1: the state Treasurer of New Jersey and then she was
Speaker 1: the CEO of one of our largest hospital systems here
Speaker 1: in New Jersey, and now she's the CEO of this
Speaker 1: nonprofit organization. It's the number one, like I want to say,
Speaker 1: provider of black physicians. So it's like this program think
Speaker 1: of like eof you know, for those of you who
Speaker 1: aren't familiar. Oh maybe I don't know, I don't have
Speaker 1: it an EOF as an economic opportunity fund. Basically, if
Speaker 1: you are black or brown, and I wouldn't say back
Speaker 1: or brown, but if you are struggling financially and maybe
Speaker 1: the school that you came from was like okay, but
Speaker 1: you want to go to school, you have all the
Speaker 1: potential in New Jersey anyway, EOF. It's kind of like
Speaker 1: the bridge program between high school and college. So you
Speaker 1: do the program in the summertime to kind of prepare
Speaker 1: you for college, and then they follow you throughout college.
Speaker 1: They help financially, they help with tutoring, they help with
Speaker 1: all the stuff. And it's so she kind of provides
Speaker 1: this bridge program through her through the nonprofit. She's not
Speaker 1: the owner for black physicians because oftentimes it's like they
Speaker 1: have all the intelligence but none of the access, you know, like,
Speaker 1: you know, how do I get someone to pay for
Speaker 1: lodging for me? How do I Because you know, so
Speaker 1: black doctors are so critically important. Black maternal health is
Speaker 1: more Black women die unnecessarily during childbirth because of the
Speaker 1: lack of access to doctors that understand us.
Speaker 2: And so I feel something that parent like Kamala has
Speaker 2: actually been quite vocal about, especially during her run as VP. Okay,
Speaker 2: so thank goodness for just a good old PDF because
Speaker 2: these news reports. Also, it's interesting, you know how the
Speaker 2: media will take something like this and the first, the
Speaker 2: first sentence in their story is legalizing marijuana. But that
Speaker 2: is not at all. It's number five on this five
Speaker 2: point plan. So let's just break it down, okay. So
Speaker 2: the agenda from a high level is number one, providing
Speaker 2: one million loans that are fully forgivable to black entrepreneurs
Speaker 2: and others to start a business up to twenty thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: I wonder if that's on top of the fifty thousand
Speaker 2: dollars loan that or grants or something. It's probably on
Speaker 2: top of the fifty thousand dollars tax credit excuse me
Speaker 2: that she talked about for entrepreneurs small business owners. All right,
Speaker 2: So Number two championing education, training, and mentorship programs that
Speaker 2: help black men get good paying jobs in high demand
Speaker 2: industries and lead their communities, including pathways to become teachers. Oh,
Speaker 2: we love that. Number three supporting a regulatory framework for
Speaker 2: cryptocurrency and other digital assets so black men who invest
Speaker 2: in and own these assets are protected. Okay, that's very
Speaker 2: welcome back to that, Okay. Okay. Number four launching a
Speaker 2: national Health Equity Initiative focused on Black men that addresses
Speaker 2: sickle cell disease, diabetes, mental health, prostate cancer, and other
Speaker 2: health challenges that disproportionately impact them. And number five legalizing
Speaker 2: recreational marijuana and creating opportunities for Black Americans to succeed
Speaker 2: in this new industry.
Speaker 1: And they really goes deep. I mean, if you really
Speaker 1: start to look at some of the bullet points she
Speaker 1: talks from. Everybody, talks about everybody, from black farmers to
Speaker 1: expanding access to bank accounts, lending to black to help
Speaker 1: black men build wealth, and so those are kind of
Speaker 1: like the high level bullets. But if you really dig.
Speaker 2: Like, well, let's do that now. Yeah, that's what I
Speaker 2: want to do. Okay, So which one do you want
Speaker 2: to start with? Which one jumps out at you?
Speaker 1: I would say the one that jumps out at me
Speaker 1: most is this. I mean, because we talk about finances.
Speaker 1: Number three supporting regulatory framework for crypto and other digital assets, Well,
Speaker 1: I guess it's the financial component. How do we give
Speaker 1: more access to black men when it comes to dances? Okay,
Speaker 1: it's all forgivable loan twenty thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so yeah, okay, so it does detail. This is
Speaker 2: on top of the small business tax deduction, from which
Speaker 2: has already been tenfold increased from five to fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: She says the money needed to start your own business
Speaker 2: is not acceptable for many Black Americans. She's proposing a
Speaker 2: new initiative, a partnership with the SBA, the Small Business Administration,
Speaker 2: to do those twenty thousand dollars forgivable loans to entrepreneurs
Speaker 2: who have a good idea but don't have the resources, connections,
Speaker 2: or access to capital. These loans can help entrepreneurs rent
Speaker 2: office space and software to launch a cybersecurity company, pay
Speaker 2: for permitting fees, and purchase a van for a catering business.
Speaker 2: All these different examples of what you can use that
Speaker 2: money for, by chair space for barbershop, by lawnmowers for
Speaker 2: landscaping business. She'll also work with the private sector and
Speaker 2: call for additional funding to expand on proven ways to
Speaker 2: break down barriers and provide financing and venture capital to
Speaker 2: entrepreneurs and small business owners in black communities, Expanding access
Speaker 2: to bank accounts and lending to help black men build wealth.
Speaker 2: That's a big one because of high fees that tend
Speaker 2: to and again it's like, I mean, my thing with
Speaker 2: this plan is that all these things are great for everybody,
Speaker 2: just like the black community in general. But it's the
Speaker 2: targeting of like we're doing this for black men that
Speaker 2: is like that for me, is a little bit of
Speaker 2: marketing spin on policies I really benefit all of us.
Speaker 2: I'm not mad at it, but it's like, great, the
Speaker 2: black community in general needs access to bank accounts that
Speaker 2: are not vertable with high fees, you know, so they
Speaker 2: can build credit, save invest, that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: And someone who like taught in Newark and saw parents
Speaker 1: come in who were like, I still go to check
Speaker 1: castrom because there's no bank around here, and they're losing
Speaker 1: three four percent of their check at the check cashing place.
Speaker 1: So this is real for some people. Are like banks
Speaker 1: are everywhere, No, they're not, Just like supermarkets are not everywhere.
Speaker 1: There's literally places called flood deserts we can go. There's
Speaker 1: only corner stores available. The people who live in this
Speaker 1: kind of environment, it makes it very difficult to keep
Speaker 1: your money, even if you are trying to live frugally
Speaker 1: because of these.
Speaker 2: So yeah, so this one the cryptocurrency thing. So this
Speaker 2: for me, this is for anyone who owns cryptocurrency. I
Speaker 2: don't know how they would just target this for Black Americans,
Speaker 2: but cryptocurrency is unregulated right now in a large extent.
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously we've had like iconic crypto bros who've
Speaker 2: gone to jail for defrauding investors, like sample is blank
Speaker 2: man or I don't know whatever, he's in jail. But
Speaker 2: this does acknowledge the fact that, especially during the recession,
Speaker 2: I mean sorry, during the pandemic, more Black Americans we're
Speaker 2: investing in crypto.
Speaker 1: Twenty percent of us own That's what it says here.
Speaker 1: I was like, I did, honestly, I think about this
Speaker 1: is not praise nor say. I think about like Earnier Leisure.
Speaker 1: I think about my friend Terry trade and travel. I
Speaker 1: think about there was this huge uptick in which I think,
Speaker 1: in general is good of like really getting black folks invested.
Speaker 1: There was a remember that article we talked about it.
Speaker 1: I thought, this huge uptick in like black people are
Speaker 1: really investing in the market. But you know, whenever we
Speaker 1: get into something, that's when lots of predators also come
Speaker 1: and so I guess she's like, you know what, the
Speaker 1: fact remains that twenty percent of Black Americans are invested,
Speaker 1: which means likely in the cryptocurrency, which means the unregular,
Speaker 1: unfettered access to folks who might not be as sophisticated
Speaker 1: as an investor, you know, because maybe they just learned
Speaker 1: in the last couple of years, you know, Can we
Speaker 1: put some barriers in place to protect these kind of
Speaker 1: like newer investors. And so that's why she's like Black
Speaker 1: Americans because she's like, girl, like twenty percent, that's a lot.
Speaker 1: It went from hardly anybody in our community was investing
Speaker 1: to twenty percent investing in Cristo cryptocur see assets. That's tremendous.
Speaker 2: Like stresses me out too, because I'm like, yeah, I
Speaker 2: mean it is very similar to the stock market. You
Speaker 2: don't know if you're going to make any wins, but
Speaker 2: it's like if you're going to have you know, communities
Speaker 2: investing in crypto but not other types of assets that
Speaker 2: are a bit less risky, then it's just a lot
Speaker 2: that you're gambling with. So that's good. So what caught
Speaker 2: my eye also is the barriers to employment for black men.
Speaker 2: So this one acknowledges the fact that black men are
Speaker 2: more likely to have criminal records and poor credit that
Speaker 2: holds them back from some jobs. So it talks about
Speaker 2: how she's gonna work with employers or maybe introduce legislation
Speaker 2: that will require businesses to limit the use of unnecessary
Speaker 2: criminal arrest histories, convictions, and credit scores and their employment decisions.
Speaker 1: You might say, well, you shouldn't have done the crime.
Speaker 1: Do you know what happens when you over police a place.
Speaker 1: If you watch your kid twenty four to seven, you're
Speaker 1: gonna ca them so not I think because I hate
Speaker 1: what I hear people say, like, well, that's what happens.
Speaker 1: Black people are more more likely to be criminals. No,
Speaker 1: it's because if you've got so much policing in a place,
Speaker 1: you're gonna catch every nukle crate. I lived in an
Speaker 1: old white neighborhood. When I tell you that was going down, girl,
Speaker 1: I remember I was only talking. I was like, there
Speaker 1: was a kid in middle school who used to come
Speaker 1: to school with liquor in his Gatorway bottle. I'm like,
Speaker 1: what the hell was Ben going through?
Speaker 2: There's always a Ben. It's always a Bend or a
Speaker 2: Britain you know, and.
Speaker 1: Then parents literally buying alcohol for the kids because they
Speaker 1: could be the cool house girl, the stuff that was
Speaker 1: going down in Westfield, New Jersey. But and I remember
Speaker 1: just think it was this one young man, Rashid, and
Speaker 1: this other man I don't know, his name was Jared.
Speaker 1: While she was black, Jared was white. They're both selling
Speaker 1: weed in high school and they both got caught. But
Speaker 1: Jared was white and his parents had money and Rashi's
Speaker 1: I think it was from I don't know if I'm
Speaker 1: a single mother household. She didn't, and he, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know that he went to jail, but juvie
Speaker 1: or whatever. And then some years later I was feeding
Speaker 1: the homeless on Thanksgiving in there he was do you
Speaker 1: think Jared is? Do you think he's there? So how
Speaker 1: was that? Like he's not more guilty, he had just
Speaker 1: more access for help and so yeah, so I'm just
Speaker 1: saying all that to say, like this is why the
Speaker 1: evening of the playing field is not about like, oh,
Speaker 1: well you shouldn't have done the crime, yes, but people
Speaker 1: do because they have access.
Speaker 2: Paid your time, Like if you paid your dues, you've
Speaker 2: done your time. Like it just it never made sense
Speaker 2: to me and it's just like a long, long lived issue.
Speaker 2: It never made sense to me why we put people
Speaker 2: through the criminal justice system and then spit them back
Speaker 2: out and say, well, you can't have access to any
Speaker 2: of these things to give you the tools to not
Speaker 2: go back, you know. So I'm glad to see that.
Speaker 2: And I think this is also where you're seeing like
Speaker 2: her experience as a prosecutor really coming out because she's
Speaker 2: been on the other side. She knows, like and I mean,
Speaker 2: you can talk. I know there's a lot of criticism
Speaker 2: of her record as a prosecutor, and it's like, at
Speaker 2: the end of the day, you know, she's there. Criminals
Speaker 2: have done things, she puts them behind bars because that
Speaker 2: is her job as a prosecutor. But this is her
Speaker 2: I think, really getting at the root of what sends
Speaker 2: these people, what sends us into situations where desperate situations
Speaker 2: where we are committing crimes. I thought it was cool.
Speaker 2: I love to see that. One of her initiatives here
Speaker 2: is to incentivize businesses to do more profit sharing, like
Speaker 2: to do more employee stock ownership plans, because for me personally,
Speaker 2: that was a huge contributor to my wealth building, was
Speaker 2: the fact that I had access to stocks in the
Speaker 2: companies that I worked for. Let's see, there's so much
Speaker 2: I love. The teacher one. Only one percent of public
Speaker 2: school teachers are black men, so Harris wants to work
Speaker 2: with HBCUs to create a pipeline. Never my pe teacher
Speaker 2: in the eighth grade, ninth grade. I remember he said
Speaker 2: that I was one of the hardest working girls on
Speaker 2: the team because I never complained about my period. Oh
Speaker 2: my god, not in the team.
Speaker 1: The class I had one he taught, which is crazy
Speaker 1: African American Studies, but they only they only had like
Speaker 1: every other year or whatever, of course, because Westfield was
Speaker 1: so white and so yeah, I can't remember his name,
Speaker 1: but yes, mister Harry, mister Perry, I don't remember, but
Speaker 1: I think that was my first and only.
Speaker 2: There's a black male teacher at Remy's daycare, and I
Speaker 2: try not to like be weird whenever I see him.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 2: Can I talk to your mom and just congratulate her
Speaker 2: on raising I'm just but that's amazing. And I love ABD.
Speaker 2: Elementary is my favorite show, and I love that episode
Speaker 2: where what's the teacher's name, Eddie?
Speaker 1: Mister Eddie, Oh, the one that everybody has Chris that
Speaker 1: character please.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's so cute anyway, where his students
Speaker 2: like draw pictures of him and it's like, you know,
Speaker 2: a black male teacher and he really understands the impact
Speaker 2: that he's having and then he puts them all over
Speaker 2: his rooms.
Speaker 1: So you love that she has this thing about investing
Speaker 1: in programs for mentorship. One of my friends owns a
Speaker 1: company called Black Male Mental Health on IG and that
Speaker 1: is his core thing that, like, mentorship is so critical
Speaker 1: for everybody, but especially black boys. And I love how
Speaker 1: she even shouts out like support programs like My Brother's
Speaker 1: Keeper in HBCUs to provide more opportunities for black men
Speaker 1: to develop leadership skills through their development. But having a
Speaker 1: really good mentor and sponsor is really critical.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I think that's all. It just all is
Speaker 2: like let's make sure the root of these lives that
Speaker 2: we are creating, Like she's actually this is something that
Speaker 2: it's like, Oh, let's take care of the people that
Speaker 2: we already have and make sure that they can succeed.
Speaker 2: Because I mean, all this to me is just like
Speaker 2: adding like the right growth conditions for people to thrive.
Speaker 2: And when you help black men, you help black families,
Speaker 2: you help communities, and it goes for women too, black women,
Speaker 2: So this to me doesn't feel like an affront or
Speaker 2: like leaving behind women of color at all. This to
Speaker 2: me just feels like great, Like let's I mean, if
Speaker 2: she has a plan for Asian Americans, or she had
Speaker 2: a plan for you know, for LGBTQ Americans, like bring
Speaker 2: it on, because I think all these different communities could
Speaker 2: have different you know, definitely more attention and or you know,
Speaker 2: accessor or increase create a plan for Americans who are disabled,
Speaker 2: you know, like there's all sorts of communities that need support.
Speaker 2: So but I get it. I think black men and
Speaker 2: specifically haven't really been spoken to in a long time
Speaker 2: by the leaders in the country, and I'm happy to
Speaker 2: see something so specific, like let's just say it, this
Speaker 2: is for black men.
Speaker 1: So thank you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks, I was gonna say thank you, Tiffany what
Speaker 2: but this was a I don't we don't have time
Speaker 2: to read the whole thing, but we are going to
Speaker 2: post I really encourage you to read the whole documents
Speaker 2: only nine pages. But you know, the media is not
Speaker 2: going to post this thing in their entirety. They're going
Speaker 2: to just pull out the highlights, but read it. We'll
Speaker 2: post it in the show notes, share it. I mean,
Speaker 2: this is the kind of thing that I'd print out
Speaker 2: and highlight and bring it to every you know, every election,
Speaker 2: every like, every debate, every event where you're talking about politics,
Speaker 2: and just remind these legislators like, didn't you say you
Speaker 2: were gonna and whatever happened to this? Because these are ideas,
Speaker 2: they're not actually policies that are input And it's also
Speaker 2: ain't none of that's getting done if we lose the
Speaker 2: House and Senate. So don't forget to vote down the
Speaker 2: ballot as well. When you guys show up an election date,
Speaker 2: it's not just about the president. It's about who we're
Speaker 2: electing into the House in Congress. And it's looking tight.
Speaker 2: It's looking very tight for Democrats right now.
Speaker 1: I told myself, I'm like, I'm not, I'm not. I'm invested,
Speaker 1: but I'm not as viscerally did as I was the
Speaker 1: first because it I mean, I almost lost my mind
Speaker 1: because remember it wasn't until like January, well even January
Speaker 1: we had you know, the the insurrection. It was a
Speaker 1: my heart, didn't I don't think I calmed down till March,
Speaker 1: and I said, yeah, I'm just gonna do my part,
Speaker 1: but I don't know if I'm going to do my
Speaker 1: part in this. Like the social media component of it
Speaker 1: all was too much. So I've been like I did
Speaker 1: my baby toe in, read a little bit of something
Speaker 1: and did back out because it's just Chad like they
Speaker 1: want to stretch us the hell out with this election,
Speaker 1: and I just it was like I got to protect
Speaker 1: my mental health while also trying to help to save
Speaker 1: the free world.
Speaker 2: Right. Well, I think Brown Ambition like this is what
Speaker 2: we're this is the perfect platform for us to just
Speaker 2: sit here and let's just like calmly read through some
Speaker 2: ideas and you know, and that's what I think. At
Speaker 2: the end of the day. It's all this heightened emotional
Speaker 2: element like that it's what they want you to feel.
Speaker 2: But let's just like get down to the nitty gritty. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so Ba fam, let us know how you're feeling about
Speaker 2: the election. Don't forget to go to Brown Ambition pod
Speaker 2: dot com and fill out our annual our annual brandnabish
Speaker 2: and listener survey because I ask all, well, we ask
Speaker 2: all kinds of questions about where you're at what issues
Speaker 2: are important to you, and we'd love to hear from
Speaker 2: you as well. Break I'm going to do a boost
Speaker 2: and it's I know, man, where's the book? I guess
Speaker 2: I keep carrying this book up and down the stairs.
Speaker 2: I can't find it. But I've been reading this really
Speaker 2: incredible book, and I'm it's one of the books that's
Speaker 2: there's like three books recently that have changed my that
Speaker 2: have been like deeply helpful to me. One of them
Speaker 2: was Attached that we talked about before. The second one
Speaker 2: was a book called Borderline by my new therapist Alex
Speaker 2: because yes, I read his book and I was like,
Speaker 2: I'm making that man my therapist because I found out
Speaker 2: he's local to me, and so now he is, and
Speaker 2: that's why I got to go in two minutes. The
Speaker 2: third one is Boy Mom and Reimagining parent I think
Speaker 2: it's reimagining parenting in the Age of Me Too or
Speaker 2: something like that. And it's by this author called Ruth
Speaker 2: who's a British lady, but she lives in California or
Speaker 2: the West Coast somewhere. And if you're a parent of boys,
Speaker 2: I don't I say parent, but mother, father, whatever, guardian
Speaker 2: of boys it's a really it's like it is the
Speaker 2: answer to every little anxiety or fear that I have
Speaker 2: raising boys in the society and just feeling like this
Speaker 2: huge responsibility to create good men who are compassionate and
Speaker 2: empathetic and you know, changing the idea of masculinity. So
Speaker 2: it's not it moves away from toxicity and to like
Speaker 2: just a better place so that they can, yeah, just
Speaker 2: bring love and joy and yes, strengths and all those
Speaker 2: great things to their communities, but just in a different way.
Speaker 2: So she uses all kinds of research and data. I mean,
Speaker 2: she travels across the country, she goes to she really
Speaker 2: gets on the ground with communities and organizations that are
Speaker 2: making sure that little boys are getting off the phone
Speaker 2: and building friendships and building relationship And for me, data
Speaker 2: is everything. I love research. And she really blows up
Speaker 2: myths around is it the phone or is it lack
Speaker 2: of social engagement that hurts boys? What does turn boys
Speaker 2: into you know, school shooters or drives them to have
Speaker 2: the highest suicide rates?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: And what happens to boys who are accused of sexual
Speaker 2: assault in school because they don't understand consent? And like
Speaker 2: all of these really like hot button issues. Highly recommend
Speaker 2: it again. It's called boy Mom and it's by Ruth Whitman.
Speaker 1: Okay, real quick, I'm going to just do a break.
Speaker 1: So I just got a I was like, I got
Speaker 1: a Treasury check in the mail from the eye of
Speaker 1: the r of the s And I was like, what
Speaker 1: is this I want? It was a refund and I
Speaker 1: was like, but it said Tiffany Alice and Jorelle Smith.
Speaker 1: And I was like, I'm so annoyed because you know,
Speaker 1: I don't think people realize even after your partner passes away,
Speaker 1: so many legal things still come in the mail regarding
Speaker 1: both of y'all. So I'm looking at at it and
Speaker 1: I'm realizing, like, because last time I checked, like this
Speaker 1: came in the mail, took it to the bank. The
Speaker 1: bank said, oh no, your partner also has to sign.
Speaker 1: I said, he's dead. The hell I I brought everything
Speaker 1: with us like, and they give me such a hard time,
Speaker 1: even though I have an estate like you could open
Speaker 1: up in a state account like for things like this,
Speaker 1: and it was Wells Fargo, and they gave me such
Speaker 1: a hard time. But the saving grace was when Dorella
Speaker 1: was alive, we had a joint Wells Fargo account, and
Speaker 1: like our Bill's account was joined and I just never
Speaker 1: closed it, you know, and I never even thought to
Speaker 1: take his name off. And I was like, well, they said,
Speaker 1: he said, either they have to sign it or you.
Speaker 1: It has to go an account that both of y'all
Speaker 1: are on. I'm like, well, I have a joint Bill's account.
Speaker 1: They're like, okay, but can you imagine that that is
Speaker 1: more legal to have a joint account with someone who's
Speaker 1: no longer here. But girl, whatever, I deposited it. And
Speaker 1: so this check. And I say all this to say like,
Speaker 1: if you have a partner and you don't have at
Speaker 1: least onejoint account, even if you don't use it, please
Speaker 1: do because things like this is so annoying. Because I
Speaker 1: looked on this check. This was from a refund check
Speaker 1: from twenty eighteen, so obviously the IRS is just now
Speaker 1: going through taxes, so this is a refund, so meaning
Speaker 1: that their IRS is not going to reissue me likely
Speaker 1: a check because essentially it is for Drell and I
Speaker 1: because we were married, we filed jointly. Because this is like, oh,
Speaker 1: here's your money from twenty eighteen. So I just say
Speaker 1: all that to say, I'm just so grateful for our
Speaker 1: joint savings and our joint checking that I still have,
Speaker 1: not likely keep forever because if checks come ten years late,
Speaker 1: I want to still be able to access because it's
Speaker 1: not a little bit of money. So that's my little
Speaker 1: brown break, but just a reminder of like some of
Speaker 1: the things to do now that if some gon forbid
Speaker 1: substing should happen later, you still have the ability to
Speaker 1: access stuff with your person.
Speaker 2: So it's so stuff you never think about. Girl, I
Speaker 2: don't even know if I mean, I think enriy K
Speaker 2: just has my login for our account that I say
Speaker 2: is joint. I don't know I should look into that.
Speaker 1: No, you've having literally like a joint account when both
Speaker 1: of your names are on it. I don't care if
Speaker 1: you have ten dollars in there, just so if something
Speaker 1: were to happen. Number one and this is my last
Speaker 1: because I know you got to jump, is that. I
Speaker 1: remember what as soon as Joe passed away, my financial
Speaker 1: advisor was like transfer he had his own I knew
Speaker 1: I had login for his personal accounts too. I was
Speaker 1: able to transfer his money to our joint accounts. So
Speaker 1: that because the bank is going to freeze everything and
Speaker 1: give you so much trouble, and they're so dumb that
Speaker 1: it's like, no matter how much paperwork you bring, it's
Speaker 1: just such an issue. So I was able to because
Speaker 1: I you know, you can go from a Drarell account
Speaker 1: to a Drell and Tiffany account easily. So I was
Speaker 1: able to do that, hold that money there and not
Speaker 1: have to fight with that months and months and months
Speaker 1: that it get access to money that I start to
Speaker 1: have access to. So having at least one joint account
Speaker 1: with your person, with your partner, especially if you're married,
Speaker 1: even if you're not married, and mean, like I said,
Speaker 1: even if you just keep ten dollars for just worst
Speaker 1: case scenario, a savings and a checking. And so I'm
Speaker 1: grateful for that. So I don't have to battle with
Speaker 1: the irs, which I'm probably not gonna win, and I'll
Speaker 1: have to bury the Bank of America, which I'm definitely.
Speaker 2: Not probably can't even get them on the phone if
Speaker 2: you try. Okay, I'm gonna try my mail. I want
Speaker 2: a refund. I should get a refund soon, not my.
Speaker 1: Six year old check coming in mail.
Speaker 2: They're like, girl, you made no interest on that either. Girl.
Speaker 1: All right, y'all until Friday.
Speaker 2: Until Friday, Thanks for listening, don't forget to leave a
Speaker 2: review and then again. Brandanbission podcast dot com you can
Speaker 2: fill out the be A Listener survey and we'll see
Speaker 2: you guys next time. Byye