Speaker 1: What's up, family, I'm your girl to meet A. D.
Speaker 1: Mallory should boy, my son the general, and we are
Speaker 1: your hosts of street politicians. That the place where the
Speaker 1: streets and politics meet meet, streets and politics meet. Father's
Speaker 1: Day just happened, just passed. You know, black folks out
Speaker 1: here fighting, struggling, and we're making sure that we're standing
Speaker 1: up for our communities, for our people. So it's a
Speaker 1: good time to be black and to be a freedom fighter. Right.
Speaker 1: Justice for Pam Turner, Justice for pam Ala Turners. This
Speaker 1: woman was killed by police in Houston, Texas. She was
Speaker 1: She suffered from some mental health challenges. Officer lived in
Speaker 1: her community, knew her. I think there are reports that
Speaker 1: he had encountered her in the past. She was out
Speaker 1: doing what she does, you know, often, walking the community.
Speaker 1: Everybody knows Pam Turner was one of those women that
Speaker 1: you might see out there taking the garbage out. Maybe
Speaker 1: sometimes she might actually be rumbling a little bit. You know,
Speaker 1: she had some challenges. Officer approaches her, she they get
Speaker 1: into a little conversation back and forth. He tells her
Speaker 1: over and over, you know, not he tells her, she
Speaker 1: tells him over and over again. I don't want to
Speaker 1: be harmed. You know, I'm pregnant, which I think later
Speaker 1: on they found out she wasn't, but she was trying
Speaker 1: to appeal to his morality, you know, trying to tell
Speaker 1: him I'm pregnant. She didn't want to be harmed. He
Speaker 1: tasted her, and while she was down on the ground,
Speaker 1: he got on he stood on top of her and
Speaker 1: shot at the death um. And so Pam Turner died
Speaker 1: because a hateful man decided to take her life for
Speaker 1: no reason at all. And we are fighting for a
Speaker 1: justice for Pam Turner. Shout out to Ben Crump, family attorney,
Speaker 1: also miss Miss Turner's daughter and family members, her sister.
Speaker 1: They're out here, they're struggling on her behalf. And just
Speaker 1: weeks ago we went to Houston along with the Just
Speaker 1: All Our movement folks to be with traded truth uh
Speaker 1: and stand with the family of Pam Turner. Definitely did man,
Speaker 1: So justice for Pam Turners. Turn What made you get
Speaker 1: up today and put your Pam Turning? I was. I
Speaker 1: was going through my closet right, you know, trying to
Speaker 1: because I always want This is our podcast and we
Speaker 1: should be branding things that we represent that we own,
Speaker 1: you know, God's work had on, you know, shameless plug.
Speaker 1: And then I looked and I've seen this T shirt.
Speaker 1: I hadn't one. It was still in plastic, and I
Speaker 1: was like, you know what, today's the day. You know,
Speaker 1: I just we just celebrated Father's Day. And and that's
Speaker 1: always a good thing, you know, even though we don't
Speaker 1: really get much. But you know we we ain't gonna
Speaker 1: talk about that. We're talking about that later. But anyway,
Speaker 1: I found my Pam Turner shirt and I just wanted
Speaker 1: to say justice for PM Turners. So we got justice
Speaker 1: for Pam Turners for sure. So there's a lot that's happening. Um.
Speaker 1: And you know, I feel like, you know, now we're
Speaker 1: we've entered this sort of freedom riding hot summer where
Speaker 1: we're now beginning to pick up the steam of protests
Speaker 1: around the nation. Tomorrow we'll be in Washington, d c. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, until Freedom and other partners will be there
Speaker 1: dealing with this filibuster issue, ending the filibusters so that
Speaker 1: we can actually move some legislation through the federal government. UM.
Speaker 1: So it basically is it's it's basically a delay. It
Speaker 1: gives power to particularly the Republicans to delay the process.
Speaker 1: And have you ever seen them on the floor where
Speaker 1: they're like talking for hours and hours and hours and hours.
Speaker 1: The most simple way of explaining the filipbuster is to say,
Speaker 1: it's a delay. That's that's the that's the shortest way
Speaker 1: to describe it. It's a delay. And if you ever
Speaker 1: watch where there when you see uh legislators speaking for
Speaker 1: a long period of time and they're just like standing
Speaker 1: on the floor, they're basically trying to obstruct progress. And UM,
Speaker 1: I forget exactly how it works between the Democrats and
Speaker 1: the Republicans, but I do know that the Republicans use
Speaker 1: the filipbuster to be able to slow down and delay
Speaker 1: progress as often as possible. It really sort of throws
Speaker 1: the government into this this stalemate process, and um, it
Speaker 1: needs to be removed. It's there's no reason for it.
Speaker 1: There should be votes, We should have people voting on issues,
Speaker 1: voting to pass laws and moving forward. There should not
Speaker 1: be any process in place that can slow down progress
Speaker 1: or gives you the ability to obstruct justice, because that's
Speaker 1: what the feel of us to currently does. Then most
Speaker 1: Democrats are for getting rid of it, but you of
Speaker 1: course have folks like Joe Manchin and Senators Uh Cinema
Speaker 1: who are saying that, well, you know, they're not a
Speaker 1: hundred percent in agreement with ending it unless the GOP,
Speaker 1: which is the Republicans, agree as well. So they want
Speaker 1: everybody to be on the same page, and we're just
Speaker 1: not in that. We're not in that space. And I think,
Speaker 1: and I think that's what it is to me, right,
Speaker 1: you know, I think most people are losing faith and
Speaker 1: what what government even is not even just individuals, just
Speaker 1: the whole state of what government is. Right when you
Speaker 1: when you can have something like this that can purposely
Speaker 1: just delayed progress, right, when you have people who who
Speaker 1: have been in Korea, politicians and they know that this
Speaker 1: process has never been everybody on the same page, it's
Speaker 1: never been coomed by young right, And then you hear
Speaker 1: and these are the same people that are supposed to
Speaker 1: be with the party that you supposed to be progressive.
Speaker 1: And now when we have an opportunity to do something
Speaker 1: that's progressed to you need the people who have been
Speaker 1: stopping progress to agree. It makes no sense. So I
Speaker 1: think people are starting to see that, right, And that's
Speaker 1: why I say we need something different. I think you know,
Speaker 1: and then the Philipbuster. Philipbuster is definitely one of the
Speaker 1: first things that's really important. It's very important to see
Speaker 1: the other thing that they can do with the Philipbusters,
Speaker 1: like they enter all types of motions, you know, again delays, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, coming finding all kinds of problems with the legislation,
Speaker 1: um serving this motion and that motion, just delaying and
Speaker 1: exactly that it really it sits on someone's desk and
Speaker 1: it never really moves because the philip Buster was was
Speaker 1: designed to sort of like stop things or to dis
Speaker 1: imagine being imprisoned and somebody and you're waiting to go
Speaker 1: to trial and they and they're able to do that.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not on that level, but I get
Speaker 1: you just think about it, because it's not level is
Speaker 1: a different thing, but it's pretty much the same because
Speaker 1: people's life hanging the balance of these bills that they
Speaker 1: won't pass. So while we wait, we're fighting to get
Speaker 1: just basic civil rights bills passed that you block, and
Speaker 1: people are dying. People are losing their life, they're losing
Speaker 1: their finances, they're losing so many things. So it's yeah,
Speaker 1: people are dying. The blood is still spelling, and so
Speaker 1: I agree with you. You know, the Philipbuster needs to end.
Speaker 1: And so tomorrow when we go to Washington, we will
Speaker 1: be one addressing that, protesting to end the Philipbuster, to
Speaker 1: push especially the Democrats to do something. And then also
Speaker 1: there are other issues passing the George Floyd Justice and
Speaker 1: Policing Act that for us is not negotiable and we
Speaker 1: wanted to pass as it currently stands, rather than it
Speaker 1: being a watered down bill. So you know we're gonna
Speaker 1: be This summer is hot. It's time for us to
Speaker 1: get back to the energy of last summer. People don't
Speaker 1: people got their vaccinations. The world is opening back up,
Speaker 1: and there should be no reason why we're not hitting
Speaker 1: the streets. And you know, I was thinking, because that's
Speaker 1: what I do. In my thought of the day, I
Speaker 1: was thinking about this idea of June teach and realizing
Speaker 1: that there are some folks who are really mad at
Speaker 1: people like me. I don't know your position on on it.
Speaker 1: We haven't really talked much who are not impressed by
Speaker 1: the fact that there is a Juneteenth holiday, you know,
Speaker 1: I want to say, and I did alive on it
Speaker 1: um the next day after it happened last week, after
Speaker 1: the uh the holiday um was passed into federal law.
Speaker 1: You will um you know where people I did a
Speaker 1: live explaining why I said, I'm not impressed. And there
Speaker 1: was some folks who were like, when you say you're
Speaker 1: not impressed, it's disrespectful because there are people who fought
Speaker 1: to make this happen, you know. And they named particularly
Speaker 1: one woman, miss Opal, who is someone who let them move.
Speaker 1: Meant to get um, the the June team to be recognized.
Speaker 1: And obviously we understand the history of June teenth, this
Speaker 1: when black folks became free. When when people in Galveston,
Speaker 1: Texas who didn't know that they were free from when
Speaker 1: we originally supposedly received emancipation on June nineteenth, that's when
Speaker 1: they learned that they actually was still being held in
Speaker 1: bondage with the word didn't get to them that they
Speaker 1: were free. We know that, and we understand that June
Speaker 1: tea is important. And to your point is we're not
Speaker 1: freedom right? Well, I mean, but we can move about
Speaker 1: the world, right, and so and and and and if
Speaker 1: you compare today to what they were experiencing, oh, certainly
Speaker 1: there's progress. Right, So we all we all respect that.
Speaker 1: And I understand a thousand percent why people would lead
Speaker 1: a movement to get that day recognized, because at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, right the first step towards anything
Speaker 1: is an acknowledgement of wrongdoing. So we all support that.
Speaker 1: No one is saying that we don't appreciate the work
Speaker 1: that was done by Miss Opal and others who have
Speaker 1: fought hard. And I know for sure they didn't just
Speaker 1: want a symbolic day. They wanted an acknowledgement so that
Speaker 1: we would know who we are, where we come from.
Speaker 1: Our children will understand the history of black folks in
Speaker 1: this country. So we would not think that the fourth
Speaker 1: of July was our Emancipation Day, because it is not right.
Speaker 1: And so I understand that they they they were working
Speaker 1: to get this holiday put in place, not because they
Speaker 1: think this is the end of the conversation around the
Speaker 1: enslavement and oppression of black folks, but so that we
Speaker 1: have a new beginning, a new conversation. But some of
Speaker 1: us said, and so when we say we're not impressed,
Speaker 1: we're not talking to the advocates who worked to get
Speaker 1: the holiday. We're talking to the people who passed it
Speaker 1: who are disingenuous. Is because you won't pass the Voting
Speaker 1: Rights Act. You won't secure voting rights in this country.
Speaker 1: You won't pass an anti lynching bill. You won't pass
Speaker 1: and hate I hate crime bill. John Kanye is died
Speaker 1: trying to get a racial profile and bill in place.
Speaker 1: You won't pass the George Floyd Justice and Police and Act.
Speaker 1: Not only will they not pass it, they're trying to
Speaker 1: block it to the point where they want to roll
Speaker 1: us back to what I think is the sixties and
Speaker 1: even beyond that, even before that. Okay, that's that's what
Speaker 1: we're up against. And you and and so that. They said, well,
Speaker 1: these folks have been fighting all their lives. Well, John
Speaker 1: Kanye is for all his life. Guess what John lewis
Speaker 1: for all his life for our voting rights to be secured.
Speaker 1: And we're losing them every single day. Okay. Brianna Taylor
Speaker 1: died while they were out here. Uh. You know which,
Speaker 1: by the way, it's still happening with no knock warrants
Speaker 1: and other forms of policing that is harmful and dangerous
Speaker 1: and abusive for our communities. Uh. Eric Garner died being
Speaker 1: choked to death. Uh. George Floyd died with officers me
Speaker 1: and his neck. We got names of people who have
Speaker 1: given their lives for this struggle. And so what I'm
Speaker 1: saying is acknowledge the day, celebrate the day, have our
Speaker 1: black joy as a resistance method and as a as
Speaker 1: a revolutionary act, have all of that. But for me,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to be impressed with the holiday until
Speaker 1: I have the accountability match with the holiday so that
Speaker 1: I can look at it and say, they gave us
Speaker 1: a holiday on whatever whatever the date is, June of
Speaker 1: two thousand and twenty one, and this holiday signifies that
Speaker 1: we've actually turned the page and then we've actually made
Speaker 1: some form of progress. So no, I'm not impressed. And
Speaker 1: in the in the words of my dear sister, our
Speaker 1: sister Leah Daughtry, Bishop Leo Dartry, that's nice. That's nice,
Speaker 1: you know, thank you to appreciate that. But we want
Speaker 1: some real stuff done. We want some real things done
Speaker 1: so that we can celebrate the holiday knowing that you
Speaker 1: can't say we won't be killed, we won't be harmed,
Speaker 1: we won't have to deal with racism. But what you
Speaker 1: can say is that somebody's gonna have to pay for
Speaker 1: it if they do it in our communities, because damn
Speaker 1: it June nineteenth is a great day, a great holiday
Speaker 1: that we can all celebrate together. And meanwhile, on the
Speaker 1: way to your celebration or back, or if you Brianna Taylor,
Speaker 1: you could be dead in your home on the same holiday,
Speaker 1: and guess what, nobody's gonna give you a damned piece
Speaker 1: of justice for it. So no, I'm not impressed. I'm
Speaker 1: I'm glad that there are some folks who see this
Speaker 1: as a milestone, and God bless them, and keep fighting
Speaker 1: for us, Keep fighting for us, keep doing the work
Speaker 1: to make sure that their flag is raised, that people
Speaker 1: know we're at war and what our people have been through,
Speaker 1: because we've been harmed, we've been abused, and we have
Speaker 1: been in this country for over four hundred years experiencing
Speaker 1: an oppression that nobody else has ever experienced on American soil.
Speaker 1: So keep doing what you're doing, keep fighting for us.
Speaker 1: When I say I'm not impressed, I'm not talking to you.
Speaker 1: I'm impressed by the work, the struggle, and the sacrifice
Speaker 1: of our elders and brothers and sisters who are out
Speaker 1: there sounding the alarm on our behalf. But I am
Speaker 1: not impressed by some, particularly white men, who are sitting
Speaker 1: up in Washington, who have struck justice every single day,
Speaker 1: deciding to sign a damn holiday in place and give
Speaker 1: it to us and say, now, on this day, go
Speaker 1: eat some stuff, dance. We're gonna give you some damn
Speaker 1: uht off at this store. We're gonna give you a
Speaker 1: few things to make you celebrate and drink away the
Speaker 1: the the real truth of what we're doing, which is
Speaker 1: to try to take you back to at the same
Speaker 1: time when June nineteenth had to be granted to you
Speaker 1: in the first place. That's how I feel about it.
Speaker 1: So no, I'm not impressed, have mercy, and I can
Speaker 1: still say happy holiday on June nineteen. I have the
Speaker 1: right to feel both things. And we need grace for
Speaker 1: people to be unimpressed and celebrate at the same time. No,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the truth. Listen, you just you sound
Speaker 1: like a Baptist preacher in here today. You just look,
Speaker 1: she listened. We don't even need to talk about that
Speaker 1: is what you call thought of the day. She from
Speaker 1: the router to the tutor about this man. She feels
Speaker 1: some way. And let's right, man, we need real We
Speaker 1: don't need symbolism, we need activities, we need policy, Biden.
Speaker 1: We need policy and everything that it encompasses. So listen,
Speaker 1: June teeth is nice. Like she said, it's nice. It's nice.
Speaker 1: It looks good, but make it feel good. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm tired of looking good. Make me feel good. Get that.
Speaker 1: What's her name? Holly Berry and Moss is going Now,
Speaker 1: this is funny. Holle Berry was talking about something else
Speaker 1: I'm talking about, Yeah, but not halle Berry. Come on, now,
Speaker 1: let's get it together because people, you know how people get.
Speaker 1: We did the comments to be the only chi like
Speaker 1: Hollie Berry and Master's Boy. You know what's going on
Speaker 1: in Marsters, No champion, make me feel good? Okay, she
Speaker 1: was talking about something completely different than I'm talking. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about policies and laws. She about somebody's draws. I'm
Speaker 1: not talking about that what I'm saying, So no, h's
Speaker 1: the truth. Before we go to the next segment and
Speaker 1: have our special guests joint, we're gonna take a quick
Speaker 1: break for our sponsors. That's so in keeping with this
Speaker 1: idea that we're still celebrating fathers. We always celebrated black
Speaker 1: fathers on street politicians trying because I'm a black father.
Speaker 1: So we did celebrate you. So you know, we talked
Speaker 1: about how great you are as a father, this is true.
Speaker 1: And then also to the community, there's so many young
Speaker 1: people who look up to you, So we're still celebrating fathers.
Speaker 1: That and in keeping with that, we're being joined by
Speaker 1: one of our friends, of our friends, that's a that's
Speaker 1: a that's a brother. He's still because the fame is
Speaker 1: that we've got so many friends across the country that
Speaker 1: do such amazing, amazing work. And I appreciate you for
Speaker 1: allowing me to introduce him today because Jeff Johnson is
Speaker 1: someone that I consider to be a mentor, uh, someone
Speaker 1: that I have been for many many years looking up
Speaker 1: to and looking to for advice about strategy and how
Speaker 1: to maneuver through this crazy movement that he knows all
Speaker 1: too well. UM. I first learned earned of Jeff Johnson
Speaker 1: when he was the director of the Youth and College
Speaker 1: Division of the nub A c P, which is a
Speaker 1: position that Jamal Bryant, Reverend Jamal Bryant, our friend, um
Speaker 1: and brothers you said, also had. And then Stephen Green,
Speaker 1: Reverend Stephen Green, who's one of our friend and he's
Speaker 1: our until freedom. UM, I won't call him a baby
Speaker 1: because he won't appreciate that. But he said, well he's
Speaker 1: yesterday at an event he actually said that I was
Speaker 1: his elder by far, So I will call him one
Speaker 1: of the until Freedom babies today. And then Tiffany Lofton,
Speaker 1: who is one of our colleagues dope organizer. The Double
Speaker 1: A CP has produced some of the absolute baddest young
Speaker 1: organizers in the country. Um, I think about Stephanie Brown,
Speaker 1: James and now Brother Wisdom is running then a CP
Speaker 1: youth in college the business. So Jeff comes out of
Speaker 1: that tradition. Um, he's a commentator, radio personality and influencer. Uh,
Speaker 1: he won't want me to say a celebrity, but he is.
Speaker 1: And he is a brilliant organizer and now leading men
Speaker 1: thrive and so and he's a dope father ape that
Speaker 1: might be a T shirt. Yeah. If the Dad gang
Speaker 1: already has they got a dope dade. Okay, all right,
Speaker 1: you see, look you know all about the dead. But
Speaker 1: thanks Jeff, thanks for coming on this show today. Of course,
Speaker 1: thank you. I mean you all are you all are
Speaker 1: friends and I don't I don't I like you all.
Speaker 1: Don't throw that around like and um we've been in
Speaker 1: this a long time, and there's just certain people who
Speaker 1: you know that whenever you call or they call, they
Speaker 1: always answered. UM. So I'm just I'm forever thankful and
Speaker 1: grateful for who you all are in this work, uh,
Speaker 1: and who you are in my life. So when when
Speaker 1: you hit me and say come on, I don't even
Speaker 1: think I checked my schedule. I'm just like, let's go
Speaker 1: appreciate that. We definitely appreciate that. Man. Just just just
Speaker 1: watching you over the years, man, and I watched how
Speaker 1: fatherhood just changed you. You understand, I'm saying, like I
Speaker 1: watched you just always be one of the greatest speakers
Speaker 1: of all our time. Educated and always I'm looking on
Speaker 1: your shows and just tune into your social media and
Speaker 1: just get guide into certain things. But I remember, and
Speaker 1: we actually probably and I don't know when it was,
Speaker 1: but we had a conversation about how being a father
Speaker 1: had had changed your perspective about life and it probably
Speaker 1: saved a lot of different ideologies and things that you
Speaker 1: thought you change becoming a father. What is that process?
Speaker 1: You see? My son is that I was never in
Speaker 1: the public space, not as a father. So so my
Speaker 1: daughter was born, Madison was born, Uh, four months after
Speaker 1: I started working at the a CP. So by the
Speaker 1: time I was on Rap City, which is when most
Speaker 1: people got to know me, I was already a thirty
Speaker 1: year old dada too. So i've I've never really been
Speaker 1: in the public space and not been a father. But
Speaker 1: to your point, um, I think fatherhood if if if,
Speaker 1: if you're doing it in a way that makes any
Speaker 1: sense at all, reminds you how the difference between, um,
Speaker 1: the difference between moving to create pleasure and moving to
Speaker 1: create legacy m hm. And and so I never got
Speaker 1: everything right. I don't get everything right now, but but
Speaker 1: being a father helped me recognized with real clarity the
Speaker 1: difference between legacy movement and pleasure movement. And there's something
Speaker 1: I think too, to my son's point, because there are
Speaker 1: a lot of people who don't know that we had
Speaker 1: children so young, you know what I mean, And so
Speaker 1: they see you with your newer children and it's like, oh, wow,
Speaker 1: you know, now Jeff has kids. Will know actually, Jeff's
Speaker 1: had kids probably for as you said, as long as
Speaker 1: your you know, public career, um, you know, and as
Speaker 1: long as people have known you. But there is something
Speaker 1: about having children later in life, uh, that I I
Speaker 1: do think it's sort of shifts your perspective from when
Speaker 1: you have them and you're young and you don't really
Speaker 1: know anything, and they don't know anything, and y'all don't
Speaker 1: know anything together. When you have the smaller kids, you're
Speaker 1: trying to approach it from a different perspective. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: know what's funny, the perspectives already changed. So I mean
Speaker 1: you're right. When I had Madison a twenty six, I
Speaker 1: didn't know ship. Uh. I'm just like, can the rink
Speaker 1: get paid? And can I not kill her? Kay? I'm winning? Um.
Speaker 1: You know when when Baldwin Garvey was born, I was.
Speaker 1: I was in my forties, and so you know, my
Speaker 1: wisdom was different, my revenue was different, my thought process
Speaker 1: was different. Um, the relationship that I was in with
Speaker 1: my wife was different than the relationship I was with
Speaker 1: my previous wife. And so there were all this this
Speaker 1: maturation that it happened, and so too, I literally tell um, Madison,
Speaker 1: Miles and Maltham like, don't hate your brothers, like they
Speaker 1: just got a better me than youall. And and what
Speaker 1: I learned being a father with you, the joys, the pain,
Speaker 1: the mistakes, the triumphs at all have maybe a better
Speaker 1: daddy for them, and so they get it. I think
Speaker 1: on most days sometimes they'll be looking like, damn, dad,
Speaker 1: you ain't never do that when we was killing But
Speaker 1: but um, but it is a blessing. It's it's such
Speaker 1: a blessing to be in this space and be a
Speaker 1: father for the first time again. Um, because I just
Speaker 1: know so much. I didn't know how old is your
Speaker 1: youngest child? Two too? Wow, I remember that. It was
Speaker 1: terrible too. I tell people all the time, at two
Speaker 1: years old, they trying to kill yourself when your job
Speaker 1: is to make sure that they don't know. You know,
Speaker 1: it's crazy. They are trying to discover the world and
Speaker 1: like with with no limitation myself, Like brother, I will
Speaker 1: sit there and watch them move, and I'm like like, Lord,
Speaker 1: please please help me not mess up this life us
Speaker 1: because they're not supposed to stop. And my wife I
Speaker 1: had to teach my wife. I'm like, this is age
Speaker 1: appropriate defiance. Like if you got a two year old
Speaker 1: who does everything, you say something wrong with him? Like
Speaker 1: something is wrong with a two year old that does
Speaker 1: everything because they're supposed to pretend like they don't hear you,
Speaker 1: and they're supposed to break stuff and throw stuff and
Speaker 1: figure stuff out and kick stuff. And they're supposed to
Speaker 1: be overly emotional and whine and cry and get angry
Speaker 1: and and of course we're supposed to parent them through that,
Speaker 1: but that's naturally what a two year old energy is
Speaker 1: supposed to be. And so I really they have taught
Speaker 1: me something like I now have a mantra where like
Speaker 1: every day I want to have childlike joy at least
Speaker 1: once a day, because I watched them operate in a
Speaker 1: level of joy that often confuses me because I'm so
Speaker 1: busy trying to figure out how to fix stuff and
Speaker 1: create stuff and make stuff that I often deny myself
Speaker 1: that joy. And so I have learned so much from
Speaker 1: their joy about joy that I gotta make sure exists
Speaker 1: in my life when we think about the community, because
Speaker 1: then it's like, now you're twelve years old, you grow up,
Speaker 1: and I would like to see that young black boys
Speaker 1: would still have that joy. But now you get to school,
Speaker 1: you get to other places, and you're operating within systems
Speaker 1: that are trying to stop you from realizing you know
Speaker 1: your greatness and and and seeing the world. What would
Speaker 1: you say is the approach that educators and administrators need
Speaker 1: to be taking to to continue to allow that defiance
Speaker 1: to blossom in to the greatness that our young people
Speaker 1: can actually display. Yeah, I mean, listen to me. I
Speaker 1: don't I don't even think it's just about defiance. It's like,
Speaker 1: let them be who the hell they are. And that
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that that doesn't mean that there aren't rules, right,
Speaker 1: and to some degree we were, so we're so concentrated
Speaker 1: on order and controlling people that we destroy what they
Speaker 1: were put here to do. And so I think it's parents,
Speaker 1: I think it's teachers. I think it's administrators. I think
Speaker 1: I think we have to realize what spectrum is. And
Speaker 1: so whether we're talking about autism or we're talking about dyslexia,
Speaker 1: kids exist on spectrum. And so we're busy diagnosing and
Speaker 1: labeling that we're not dealing with the nuance of our babies.
Speaker 1: And so kids are gonna exist on a spectrum one
Speaker 1: way or another. And as opposed to spending so much
Speaker 1: time saying, well, now something's wrong with this kid because
Speaker 1: they've been diagnosed for this, and now they can't do
Speaker 1: a B, C and D or now this kid has
Speaker 1: been diagnosed and that means she is this, and now
Speaker 1: we're creating judgment around what she's gonna be able to
Speaker 1: do with her life. Just recognizing my my, my oldest son, Myles,
Speaker 1: has dyslexia. And I'll never forget when we got the diagnosis.
Speaker 1: And maybe six months after that, we ran into Mr
Speaker 1: bel Fonte and we're at a we were at an
Speaker 1: event for kids with dyslexia because because Yale runs this
Speaker 1: event and and Mr B has dyslexia, and so he
Speaker 1: was like, it's this the boy And I was like yeah,
Speaker 1: And so he pulls him aside and like, I need
Speaker 1: to have a conversation with him without you. And so
Speaker 1: my Miles is probably nine years old, has no real
Speaker 1: clear understanding of who Mr B is at all. And
Speaker 1: when I asked him, I said, well, what did he
Speaker 1: say to you? He said, he told me that I
Speaker 1: have that dyslexia gives me a superpower and I just
Speaker 1: learned what mine is and and it was so empowering
Speaker 1: for him. But I think every kid is in that space.
Speaker 1: It's like every kid is in a space where they
Speaker 1: have been told or they have been convinced that something
Speaker 1: that is really natural to them is crazy to other people.
Speaker 1: And if we would stop telling kids that there's some
Speaker 1: yellow brick road to success or some narrow road that
Speaker 1: if they travel this road that all these other people
Speaker 1: have traveled, that they're gonna make it and start individualizing
Speaker 1: that give them have a unique gift and they have
Speaker 1: to uniquely identify the tools that help them get there.
Speaker 1: Then whether it's defiant, um, whether it's questioning, whether it's activity,
Speaker 1: whether it's whether it's uh, you know, solving problem solved,
Speaker 1: whatever it is, we would be getting out of these
Speaker 1: babies way helping them actually do what it is that
Speaker 1: they were put here to do, as opposed to convince
Speaker 1: them that they were put here to do something else.
Speaker 1: Before you, I just wanted to to chime in on
Speaker 1: that thought. That and I talked about it all the time, um,
Speaker 1: because you know, I of to talk. That's something we
Speaker 1: do together. We talk all the time. When I was young,
Speaker 1: I was punished a lot for talking. Um. It was
Speaker 1: actually the thing in school that would keep me in
Speaker 1: trouble and I and I wasn't just a talker, but
Speaker 1: I recognize injustice and so I would speak up on
Speaker 1: behalf of other people. I would speak to the conditions
Speaker 1: of the school. I attended a Catholic school in which, um,
Speaker 1: you know, there was clearly a difference between the way
Speaker 1: that the Latino young people, especially young girls, they had longer,
Speaker 1: prettier hair, they were treated differently from us as young
Speaker 1: black girls, darker brown skin girls, um, you know, who
Speaker 1: had the sort of pigtail look. And I used to
Speaker 1: say things about it, and they found ways to marginalize
Speaker 1: me and to use the fact that I was so
Speaker 1: talkative as something to tell my parents so that I
Speaker 1: would stay in trouble. So the discipline, if you will,
Speaker 1: at school was rough, and then I would get home
Speaker 1: and my parents would punish me over the weekend because
Speaker 1: they had to to pay me back for whatever I
Speaker 1: was doing in school, and it made me miserable and
Speaker 1: probably very rebellious to where at twelve years old, I
Speaker 1: started running away from home. And the conversation that I've
Speaker 1: had with my parents since then is that the thing
Speaker 1: we thought or they thought, was, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: it was problematic about me ended up being what now
Speaker 1: has shaped who I am as a person. Um. And
Speaker 1: so I agree with you so much about individualizing individuals,
Speaker 1: and you know, we call people individuals, but then we
Speaker 1: want them to act in a pack. And it doesn't.
Speaker 1: It doesn't work that way. And I think if folks
Speaker 1: had been more like if perhaps if they had found
Speaker 1: me a debate school, perhaps if they had, you know,
Speaker 1: allowed me to be the one to do the announcements
Speaker 1: every day, you know what I mean, giving me some
Speaker 1: job that allowed me to speak rather than trying to
Speaker 1: suppress my voice. It may have actually helped me. But
Speaker 1: you know, I still did it. I still talked too
Speaker 1: much behind whatever I think it's I think it's it's perfect.
Speaker 1: I say that all the time. I said, your gifts
Speaker 1: are the things that come so natural to you, you know,
Speaker 1: and when you have when you say what you just said.
Speaker 1: Your mother actually acknowledged that at your party. She was like,
Speaker 1: you know, the children who give you the most, hell,
Speaker 1: those let them do what they need to do. She said,
Speaker 1: those are the ones that are gonna go off and
Speaker 1: do great things. And I realized the same thing in
Speaker 1: my life. But I want what I want. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: bring it back to this. I think black fatherhood is
Speaker 1: so important right and when we look even when now
Speaker 1: when you go they have a lot of commercials for
Speaker 1: schools where they want black teachers black male teachers, because
Speaker 1: there's not a lot of black male teachers, and I
Speaker 1: realized there was one. There was there was one black
Speaker 1: teacher that that really pretty much molded me in fourth grade.
Speaker 1: I never had any other teacher. And I remember one
Speaker 1: day I was just in a school walking. He pulled
Speaker 1: me to this out and tell me pull your damn
Speaker 1: pants up, and he just put me to side. He said,
Speaker 1: you know, you know these kids look up to you.
Speaker 1: You know how influential you are. You know how intelligent
Speaker 1: you are, you know how smart you out here and
Speaker 1: you out here running around here looking like a fool
Speaker 1: and letting these people um marginalize you and pay us
Speaker 1: and label you as something that you're not. You You
Speaker 1: reflect me, and you gotta and you need to act
Speaker 1: like it. And from that conversation, the way that I
Speaker 1: conducted myself every day after that, because I didn't want
Speaker 1: him to see me in a certain way and I
Speaker 1: wanted him to be proud of me, pretty much shaped
Speaker 1: my life throughout the rest of my life. Every time
Speaker 1: I would do something wrong in school, I thought about
Speaker 1: this teacher's name was Mr. Johnson, So I wanted you
Speaker 1: to speak to what do you how do you feel
Speaker 1: about the the presence of black fathers, the presence of
Speaker 1: black men just in the community, whether it's your father
Speaker 1: or your father like figure in the community. No, I
Speaker 1: mean I I don't. I don't think we can argue
Speaker 1: the importance of men in communities. I think the question
Speaker 1: for us, because we know we know when when men
Speaker 1: are in communities and and that there is a difference,
Speaker 1: the question for me is how are we investing in
Speaker 1: how brothers are in communities? And so I think sometimes
Speaker 1: we're so heavy to talk about presents that we don't
Speaker 1: talk about health. I know, you know, we we created
Speaker 1: a community called JOURNALSY, and JOURNALSY is taking the word
Speaker 1: journey and legacy and bringing it together. So JOURNALSY is about, um,
Speaker 1: how do we honor every black dad's unique journey to
Speaker 1: create legacy for his kids. But the community is about health.
Speaker 1: I mean literally, I did an unplanned live uh two
Speaker 1: days ago, and a brother came on and said, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm raising this two year old by myself, her
Speaker 1: mother's daughter. Her my daughter's mother passed away, and I
Speaker 1: don't know what the hell I'm doing. And not only
Speaker 1: do we have another brother who was alive and these
Speaker 1: are just regular dads. Like I literally went on and
Speaker 1: was just like, I just want to talk to some dads.
Speaker 1: So this wasn't influencers, this wasn't dad influencers, this wasn't
Speaker 1: celebrity dads. Was his brothers at work, and and so
Speaker 1: he was like, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm angry.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I'm like, why did this happen to me? Um,
Speaker 1: there's certain things with her I don't know how to do.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, bro, like one, can I celebrate you
Speaker 1: right now? Because you you didn't put this baby up
Speaker 1: for adoption, You didn't drop it off in your mind,
Speaker 1: and do you you acknowledge like most parents do that
Speaker 1: we don't know what Any good parents will tell you.
Speaker 1: They don't know what the hell they're going Any parents
Speaker 1: like I don't. I'm showing up at what I have
Speaker 1: because I don't know what else to do, and I'm
Speaker 1: hoping for the best. But but we were able to
Speaker 1: connect him to three brothers who have been raising their
Speaker 1: daughters by their self because they either lost the mother
Speaker 1: in childbirth or the mother had a ray ease or condition.
Speaker 1: And I talked to him the live is two days ago.
Speaker 1: I talked to him this morning and he's like, man,
Speaker 1: these brothers are fantastic. It seems like an entirely new day.
Speaker 1: And I bring up that story to say, that's the
Speaker 1: focus for me, because I don't want brothers to be
Speaker 1: present and broken. I want them to be present. And
Speaker 1: black men have the lowest life expectancy of any demographic
Speaker 1: in America. We've got the highest level of toxic stress,
Speaker 1: highest level of anxiety, highest level of of of increased
Speaker 1: suicide rate, highest level of certain preventable diseases, and as
Speaker 1: a result, we're dying from stuff that's preventable, but we
Speaker 1: don't even have the wherewith all to talk about it
Speaker 1: because what we've been told is manhood is shut the
Speaker 1: funk up and standing there and look strong. So so yes,
Speaker 1: my sound. The more brothers we can have present, I'm
Speaker 1: with it. But can you imagine a world where black
Speaker 1: men show up whole? That's beautiful And so that's what
Speaker 1: that's what men thrive is about, That's what journalysy is about.
Speaker 1: Destre mentor that's what I was about to ask you.
Speaker 1: So that's pretty much what I've been that dude that
Speaker 1: was showing up and like I got to a place
Speaker 1: and I know y'all been there. I got to a
Speaker 1: place where I was on the road for the mpteenth day,
Speaker 1: and I got a call from Myers actually, and he
Speaker 1: was like, I said, buddy, how you doing. You know,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah. He was like, Daddy, I just
Speaker 1: need you to come home. You come home, And and
Speaker 1: I mean, coming out of the a CP, I was
Speaker 1: probably in the worst place I've ever been. Um it
Speaker 1: was a place of depression. I realized I hadn't. I
Speaker 1: had been living this life of service and never serving me,
Speaker 1: and so I was broken. Um, I wasn't who I
Speaker 1: was supposed to be. I was navigating crazy um character
Speaker 1: flaws that were being encouraged a lout of the brothers
Speaker 1: around me were a whole either. And so I'm I am.
Speaker 1: I am for my son brothers being president anyway, they
Speaker 1: know how, but I'm excited about brothers being holed. M M. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean pretty much. You pretty much sailed to deal
Speaker 1: with that one. Being hold man. It's hard, you know,
Speaker 1: we deal with so many different things, and like you said,
Speaker 1: we've been told to just shut up and be strong,
Speaker 1: you know, So just unpacking that and re teaching ourselves
Speaker 1: something different. Man, it's really important. I'm in the process
Speaker 1: of doing that because I find myself doing that with
Speaker 1: my child. You don't have two young sons, and a
Speaker 1: lot of times they'd be doing things and they fall
Speaker 1: and I'm like, you don't be crying, and then I
Speaker 1: have to pull myself back and say, that's not that's
Speaker 1: not really something I should tell them. Be emotional, have
Speaker 1: expressed yourself. I don't want you to feel like you
Speaker 1: have to put up a certain role or be something different,
Speaker 1: or be too strong like you know, you should be
Speaker 1: able to do those things. So I'm unlearning as I'm
Speaker 1: trying to teach them, you know. So it's a process.
Speaker 1: So definitely appreciate men throughout. I mean, I want to
Speaker 1: get more in tune with that, you know, connect with
Speaker 1: you on that and see what we could do. I
Speaker 1: appreciate you though. All I will say, Jeff, is that
Speaker 1: the more you are able to help black men heal
Speaker 1: as you continue your own healing process. Yes, it's important
Speaker 1: for our children, but black women need you all. You know,
Speaker 1: Black women need healed black men in our lives, and um,
Speaker 1: I think the work you're doing is probably the most
Speaker 1: critical component of what can bring the black family together.
Speaker 1: And I don't mean it so much in a relational
Speaker 1: sense in terms of husband and wife for spouses. UM.
Speaker 1: I mean it just the Black family. Is the grandfather
Speaker 1: to the grandchild, it's the granddaughter having a relationship with
Speaker 1: the son. I mean, all those things are so important.
Speaker 1: And I believe that in this moment. I think that
Speaker 1: throughout history, UM, and I guess, I guess I don't think.
Speaker 1: I know that throughout history one of the most important
Speaker 1: tactics of our oppressor has been to keep our families
Speaker 1: split and to keep us broken. UM. Because once we
Speaker 1: recognize and realize the power that we have being a unit,
Speaker 1: how how bold will we be? UM. And So it's
Speaker 1: something I look forward to and I look forward to
Speaker 1: even my own healing, because I am in transformation and
Speaker 1: I feel it every day, and I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: showing up better in space with my son, which you
Speaker 1: and I have talked about so many times over the years.
Speaker 1: What it's like to try to raise a twenty two
Speaker 1: year old when I also needed to be raised. UM.
Speaker 1: So I love you and and I'm so grateful for you, Jeff.
Speaker 1: Thank you for your work. Thank you for your sacrifice.
Speaker 1: Thank you for your commitment. Know that it does not
Speaker 1: go unseen. Absolutely, but you before you go, we got
Speaker 1: to come back and talk about something you just said.
Speaker 1: Because the family is us, it really is the platonic
Speaker 1: relationships between black men and women. We could get to
Speaker 1: the place where relationship goals, where more about how do
Speaker 1: black men and black women look at each other and
Speaker 1: say I want to create a relationship with them just
Speaker 1: because not because I want to hit because they look
Speaker 1: good on my arm, not because she can hold it back,
Speaker 1: not because she can cook, not because this negro can
Speaker 1: buy his ring, or not because he can drive this.
Speaker 1: But I think about the relationship you and I have
Speaker 1: and it's like, I love you because you dope theory
Speaker 1: because you dope, no right and so, but imagine what
Speaker 1: we would look like if even the romantic relationships we
Speaker 1: were in were rooted in the fact that we got
Speaker 1: first because we each other was dope. That's that's the
Speaker 1: key to Yeah, that's the key to it. Y'all are
Speaker 1: both dope dads. Love y'all so much. Thank you, Jeff,
Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us, you coming back again,
Speaker 1: definitely You appreci YouTube helping men thrive Jeff. Jeff is
Speaker 1: very inspirational. I watched just just watching him. See the
Speaker 1: thing is, you know, I realized that he had a
Speaker 1: lot of children. He got well, I realized that he
Speaker 1: had children before. But I think maybe it's the fact that,
Speaker 1: you know, social media got way more prevalent. And I
Speaker 1: started seeing him talk about the journey, you know, it
Speaker 1: was a lot, and I was like, damn. And he
Speaker 1: started talking about how changed and it even changed the
Speaker 1: relationship with him and his wife and everything. So you know,
Speaker 1: I just I applaud him and just listening to the
Speaker 1: men thriving something that's because a lot of us men,
Speaker 1: we just was taught different. We was told we wasn't
Speaker 1: supposed to be emotional. We was supposed to strow emotions,
Speaker 1: were supposed to always be strong, and a lot of
Speaker 1: us were raised that way. And and when you start
Speaker 1: to think about it, it's not even realistic. Yeah, right,
Speaker 1: part of the breakdown between black women and black men,
Speaker 1: it's of the things that we've been taught on both sides.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, when I when I was growing up,
Speaker 1: my mother didn't say it because she obviously has an
Speaker 1: incredible husband, which he wasn't always incredible, but nonetheless he's
Speaker 1: a good man. Um. But there was a narrative that
Speaker 1: I heard from many older women, and men ain't ship,
Speaker 1: you know, that's just something we were taught. You can't
Speaker 1: trust them. They all lie, they all cheat, and so
Speaker 1: we carry that with us into relationships. So we're entering
Speaker 1: a relationship with trauma just based upon somebody else's story
Speaker 1: or what what what's being deposited in our minds, and
Speaker 1: so in state of emergency, one of the things that
Speaker 1: I thought was so important is to hire someone to
Speaker 1: help me with research, because sometimes we as black folks,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if other communities do this, but
Speaker 1: I know with us, we tell stories like tales to
Speaker 1: make a particular point. And then later on you're like
Speaker 1: going around thinking that Jesus walked down hunt twenty five street,
Speaker 1: and it's like Jesus was not. He was never on
Speaker 1: Huntsway history. But that's something that made sense at the
Speaker 1: time that your grandmother said, if you know, because Jesus
Speaker 1: is down there walking on in twenty fifty and he
Speaker 1: gonna get you. And you're like, oh my god, can't
Speaker 1: you know You're thinking that these things are true, and
Speaker 1: it's actually not. So I wanted to make sure that
Speaker 1: even the things that I believe I know about history
Speaker 1: that I was I was right, that I was right
Speaker 1: on point, and I learned in the process and unlearned
Speaker 1: some things. And one of the one of the issues
Speaker 1: that I told you about all the time is that
Speaker 1: towards um the end of the book, where I start
Speaker 1: to really get into some of the solutions, I talked
Speaker 1: about police reform. And it just kills me that I
Speaker 1: used the word reform, because over the year that I
Speaker 1: was writing the book, I still believe that reform is
Speaker 1: what we needed and towards and now as I'm entering
Speaker 1: this new phase of my own development, I realized reform
Speaker 1: won't work. That it's you overhaul that transformation, overhaul, tearing
Speaker 1: down up what exists and rebuilding public safety with community
Speaker 1: at the center of it. And so but you know,
Speaker 1: that's evolution, That's what growth is all about. Where we
Speaker 1: get in trouble is when we think we know and
Speaker 1: are unwilling to listen to other people. So I appreciate
Speaker 1: Jeff for saying we're healing, learning and growing together. Definitely,
Speaker 1: I definitely appreciate him. One of the fathers that I
Speaker 1: look up to. And the next person that we're about
Speaker 1: to have is also a father that I look up
Speaker 1: to a very you know, a brother of somebody I
Speaker 1: consider a brother. He's our friend. We got more friends
Speaker 1: than anybody. But this is one of those brothers that man.
Speaker 1: I just I watched the way he moves. I love,
Speaker 1: you know, how stand up he is. I love the
Speaker 1: way that he carries itself as a man, the way
Speaker 1: he carries his family. And you know, he's always tintoes down.
Speaker 1: So this is one of my brothers. And he happies
Speaker 1: to he I mean, and he happens to be married
Speaker 1: to our brand expert, LaToya LaToya Bond. Yes, and this
Speaker 1: is my brother, none other than James Bond, the Bond Man.
Speaker 1: What's going on? Everything good? Appreciate job, but we appreciate you. Man.
Speaker 1: It's funny because y'all you had Jeff here today and
Speaker 1: me and Jeff just went live yesterday. Yeah, we were
Speaker 1: just building and kicking it about the importance of fatherhood,
Speaker 1: you know, and how the neighborhoods and in the city
Speaker 1: kids really need that, you know, and not only the
Speaker 1: in the city. You know, it's very important. Yes, sir,
Speaker 1: I was saying that to Jeff two, you know how
Speaker 1: important it is to have black men in prevalent in
Speaker 1: our communities fathers, even even if you're not biologically fathers.
Speaker 1: But there's a lot of men in our communities who
Speaker 1: people look up to as fathers, you know, and I
Speaker 1: think it's important that we get back to that. You know,
Speaker 1: So tell us about dad Ish. You know what made
Speaker 1: you created? What is it is? I like the name already,
Speaker 1: but I just wanted there is the name for me,
Speaker 1: you know, do some of the little bit of down
Speaker 1: to it. Yea. So reason why I came up with
Speaker 1: Dada's just because I've seen that it was just a
Speaker 1: lack of you know, like brotherhood, So I call it
Speaker 1: dad It's just the fatherhood brotherhood, you know what I
Speaker 1: And then what I try to do with dadashes link
Speaker 1: up with like minded fathers because as fathers and as
Speaker 1: men were we all have circles, right, So what I
Speaker 1: do is I come in with my circle and we
Speaker 1: get our circles together, which create a larger circle. And
Speaker 1: if we build the right way, that overflows to the
Speaker 1: kids in the community, you feel me. So that's what
Speaker 1: Dadash is really all about. Networking and building and just
Speaker 1: giving back, you know, because as a dad, the reason
Speaker 1: why I do the things that I do is because
Speaker 1: I grew up without a father. So all the things
Speaker 1: that I missed out on is the things that I
Speaker 1: give to my kids, you know, and it's very important
Speaker 1: to me. So what activities of dad is like, what
Speaker 1: have you guys been doing? I mean, I've been watching
Speaker 1: you on social media really building a movement. I love
Speaker 1: the networking opponent of father is getting together because one
Speaker 1: of the big arguments that my son and I have
Speaker 1: on a regular basis not just him, also um Angelo,
Speaker 1: who you know well, our partner until freedom. One of
Speaker 1: the biggest arguments we get into is this idea that
Speaker 1: women get together all the time working on women. So
Speaker 1: we don't need y'all to tell us what we need
Speaker 1: to do, because that's what they do to me. Y'all
Speaker 1: need to do this, and y'all need to do that,
Speaker 1: and y'all need to know what you do to Yeah,
Speaker 1: well that's because y'all don't get together and figure out
Speaker 1: what y'all need. Y'all need us to tell y'all. We
Speaker 1: don't need y'all telling It's true because women do get
Speaker 1: together more than men, and they building, they create common
Speaker 1: goals and then they attack them, you feel me. And
Speaker 1: that's another part of this where I reached out to
Speaker 1: all the brothers who I know, the young Dad's old days,
Speaker 1: because it's basically each one teach one thing. So what
Speaker 1: I do is, first of all, I'm from Halem of
Speaker 1: Coach ya know what everybody else don't know. I go
Speaker 1: back to where I'm originally from, where they know me
Speaker 1: the best at and I started there. That's my grassroots,
Speaker 1: you know, and I just build with the brothers, like, yo,
Speaker 1: you could be doing something different, you know, with this
Speaker 1: amount of I mean, you could call it power, but
Speaker 1: it's just basically influence in the community. You could be
Speaker 1: doing much more. And I tell them, look, I'm a
Speaker 1: perfect example that we all come from the same place,
Speaker 1: you know, and that's that's what it is. That's the
Speaker 1: key to it, you know. And I try to do
Speaker 1: the same thing. Go back to the community because for me,
Speaker 1: it's like why would I want to grow and evolve
Speaker 1: and be successful and have the people from where I
Speaker 1: you know, is that my lowest at stay there, you know.
Speaker 1: I want to evolve what people come back to the community.
Speaker 1: I tell people all the time A lot that the
Speaker 1: notion of leaving the hood is good, but you know,
Speaker 1: you want to go to a better place, you want
Speaker 1: to live in it. But the key is to transform
Speaker 1: the hood to where it's something that's that's beautiful for you.
Speaker 1: You know, you want to I want to see everybody
Speaker 1: in our community thrive. I want to see these young
Speaker 1: brothers utilized, like you said, their influence to be, you know,
Speaker 1: something positive, because it's it's easy to do. And when
Speaker 1: you start to realize it, you know, when I started
Speaker 1: realizing that the influence I have and the ideologies I
Speaker 1: have can be put to something more than what we've
Speaker 1: been taught about in the streets, you know, and when
Speaker 1: you apply it to something else that's that's legal and positive,
Speaker 1: the amount of success that you can have from it.
Speaker 1: I was startled. I couldn't even believe that because we
Speaker 1: have only been taught that this is the way. You
Speaker 1: gotta do this, and you gotta utilize the streets, and
Speaker 1: you gotta go to this method. And as soon as
Speaker 1: I realized that the same ideology and the same talents
Speaker 1: that I have I can use to do something positive,
Speaker 1: I immediately did it. So Dad is when I when
Speaker 1: I think about what you're saying with Dad, is is
Speaker 1: influences and people of integrity who have you know, some
Speaker 1: level of notoriety. Just coming together with this regular people
Speaker 1: everybody and just and letting them feel empowered and showing
Speaker 1: them how to utilize what they have to be in
Speaker 1: power game changes, just showing them that it's other options.
Speaker 1: You know, we don't got to be stuck in the
Speaker 1: same ways anymore. There's so many optionss guys with limit
Speaker 1: and you know, with Dad is as you guys already know,
Speaker 1: we're putting together a tournament for get back I mean
Speaker 1: back to school in August, and also working on putting
Speaker 1: a retreat together for Dad so that we could get together.
Speaker 1: And there you go, because these girls are retreats. You
Speaker 1: already know. We gotta build and just playing the seeds,
Speaker 1: you feel me because without playing the seeds, it won't
Speaker 1: be anything. Yeah, No, And you know I think, Um,
Speaker 1: you know you are our change maker today. We have
Speaker 1: a change maker, a segment in which we choose people
Speaker 1: who are doing really, really positive things within the community.
Speaker 1: Some folks are doing it on an international scale. Other
Speaker 1: people are doing it just on their block. Um, and
Speaker 1: I think all those things matter, and Dad is is
Speaker 1: so important. I see this movement growing. I know the
Speaker 1: drive that you have and also the support of the
Speaker 1: strong black women who are there to help you um
Speaker 1: and and it's obviously a very very very important moment
Speaker 1: in our in in in just in in general, in
Speaker 1: our society, especially when we know that shootings are up
Speaker 1: around the country. People are dying, and they're dying because
Speaker 1: there's so much oppression and pain and so much lack
Speaker 1: to your original point, where folks are feeling like they
Speaker 1: don't have. But one of the things I will say
Speaker 1: is that watching you with your daughter, watching you with Journey,
Speaker 1: is where I see the most of the of the
Speaker 1: of the let's see, what do I want to call it,
Speaker 1: it's change maker stuff. Man to watch a man and
Speaker 1: his daughter have such a bond and come together in
Speaker 1: the way with you, And I know because I have
Speaker 1: that bond with my father, I know other young men
Speaker 1: on the other, young women who have those bonds with
Speaker 1: their dads. And I don't know if men, and particularly
Speaker 1: black men, understand how important it is for your daughter
Speaker 1: to know that her first love is her father, who
Speaker 1: is there to teach her the values of what it
Speaker 1: is for a man to be in her life. So
Speaker 1: I just want to salute you for that and thank
Speaker 1: you for the movement you're creating, because there is definitely
Speaker 1: a need. Yes, yes, sir, Man, we appreciate you. King.
Speaker 1: I always tell you, Man, you wanted brothers I look
Speaker 1: up to. Man. Continue to be with you all man, Dad,
Speaker 1: is just something I see going far. Make sure we
Speaker 1: get these retreats going because we need to go out
Speaker 1: and just build with each other. Because these women got
Speaker 1: all types of stuff going on. Every time I turn around,
Speaker 1: they got something going on. They work, They working. Look,
Speaker 1: we gotta work. Well, listen, we working too. Let's work, man,
Speaker 1: Let's get it going. Man. I appreciate you, appreciate your love.
Speaker 1: You keep doing what you're doing. The Bond James Bond
Speaker 1: Dad Ish Yes, Sir, shout out to James Man, James,
Speaker 1: these are just a great dude. You know, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of dudes, and you know it's hard, right transitioning
Speaker 1: from where we come from. I see a lot of
Speaker 1: brothers that I know have a struggle transitioning from the
Speaker 1: streets and then evolving into having seen principles and morals
Speaker 1: that we got from the streets but transform into something
Speaker 1: that's positive. They think you just got to be the
Speaker 1: street person and stay in golfing that. And he's one
Speaker 1: of the people who shows you don't have to do that,
Speaker 1: that you can come from the streets and understand the
Speaker 1: ideology and still be respected, still be firm. That's what
Speaker 1: it is because a lot of people and respect every
Speaker 1: first of all American society. A matter of fact, the
Speaker 1: whole world is has been built off of the perception
Speaker 1: of power and respect. Right, well, you gotta have in
Speaker 1: order for you to have power, people have to respect
Speaker 1: or fear you. And um, I think that for a
Speaker 1: lot of men, there is this feeling of you know,
Speaker 1: if I soften and or change, will it make me
Speaker 1: lose the grip that I have on whatever power is
Speaker 1: in my little box, whatever box I live on, my street,
Speaker 1: corner my house. So do I need to have power
Speaker 1: over my wife? Do I need to have power, you know,
Speaker 1: on the corner and the hood? So I think, now,
Speaker 1: what what I'm hearing is that this is an opportunity
Speaker 1: to figure out how to use, as you said, the
Speaker 1: same skill set, the same talents, the same strategic thinking,
Speaker 1: but to apply it to how we're going to develop
Speaker 1: and empower our community. Shout out to James, and and
Speaker 1: that just brings me to mine. Don't get it. I
Speaker 1: don't get how any man would not want to be
Speaker 1: your father to this shop. You know when when I
Speaker 1: hear or you know, hearing the desk because some of
Speaker 1: the stories and I've real you know, they are different,
Speaker 1: you know, situations in people's relationships, but they are actually
Speaker 1: men who father childs, who have had sons, who have daughters,
Speaker 1: who really want to be connected to their fathers, and
Speaker 1: they don't do it, you know, And as a father,
Speaker 1: just understanding how connected I am to my children, how
Speaker 1: just wanting to hear their voice, just seeing them smile,
Speaker 1: just wanting to guide them through things, and watching how
Speaker 1: they just evolved. Like when she talked, when he was
Speaker 1: just talking about his child and seeing them do things
Speaker 1: and his freedom. You know, every time my sons do
Speaker 1: different things and I and I see them Jeff was
Speaker 1: talking about his his two year olds, said watching them
Speaker 1: and seeing them be so free and wanting to have that.
Speaker 1: I don't understand how a man would not feel so
Speaker 1: connected and obligated to be a father to their child,
Speaker 1: Like I really don't get at all. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, I guess I don't get it either. Um,
Speaker 1: but there's a lot of it, and unfortunate, it's a
Speaker 1: lot of absent parents in general, and certainty dads. But
Speaker 1: the positive note is that there are many studies that
Speaker 1: show black men are re entering the home, that black men,
Speaker 1: especially those having children today, are finding ways to be
Speaker 1: more committed and more present in their families. And I'm
Speaker 1: really proud to see your son, my son who has
Speaker 1: a new baby, really stand up and be a dad
Speaker 1: now hopefully to reak his best buddy doesn't go out
Speaker 1: and do the same thing. We're trying to keep him
Speaker 1: at twenty two, my child from having a baby because
Speaker 1: it's hard. You know, it's hard, And I think that's
Speaker 1: one of the issues is that. And again a lot
Speaker 1: of things, as we were just saying, it's been taught
Speaker 1: over time. So one of the things that we learned, um,
Speaker 1: as black women or as men, is that it's mommy's baby, daddy's.
Speaker 1: Maybe that was a saying that you would hear as
Speaker 1: people were trying to encourage you as a young girl
Speaker 1: not to get pregnant. It's mommy's baby. Daddy's maybe, but
Speaker 1: that statement. But I thought the statement was about we
Speaker 1: don't know if it's the demands baby. That statement or
Speaker 1: at least the way that it was given to me,
Speaker 1: it was about, you have no choice but to take
Speaker 1: care of your child, and you hope the dad will
Speaker 1: be present, but it's possible that he may or may
Speaker 1: not be there. For me, it was, look, you don't
Speaker 1: know who she even sleeping with, and you better go
Speaker 1: get your blood test to make sure. From the male
Speaker 1: perspective to the female perspective. But I know for us,
Speaker 1: we definitely learned you stuck with this child, and the
Speaker 1: baby's going to live with you. The father can come
Speaker 1: and go, he can do whatever he chooses. But I
Speaker 1: think that's I think that's that's that's a two pronged
Speaker 1: situation because legally the mother is the primary I can't
Speaker 1: take of the child. Legal like, you have to go
Speaker 1: through processes for you to have the same rights as
Speaker 1: the mother all the time. It's not if you if
Speaker 1: a child is living in the mother's home, right, if
Speaker 1: both of y'all living in the same place, you can't
Speaker 1: just take the child. No. But well, but so first
Speaker 1: of all, there are there are provisions in place or
Speaker 1: laws in place on both sides, because also the mother
Speaker 1: cannot take the child out of state and just move
Speaker 1: without out of state, but she can take it to
Speaker 1: somewhere else, and she's the primary chip. If you take
Speaker 1: as a father, you're both living in the same house,
Speaker 1: and you take the child and you go to the way,
Speaker 1: they're bringing that child back to his mother. Well that's
Speaker 1: probably true, but they're still court proceedings that will take place.
Speaker 1: So for instance, I have a friend who I'm very
Speaker 1: close to, and recently that happened. Her nine year old
Speaker 1: daughter went to her father's house and decided that she
Speaker 1: wasn't going home because she's They got into it and
Speaker 1: she was like, I'm staying with my father. Well when uh,
Speaker 1: you know, her mother got the police and went to
Speaker 1: his house to get him get her back because he
Speaker 1: wasn't willing to send her back, and a c S
Speaker 1: got involved and said, well, we can't just remove her
Speaker 1: from her father's home because her mother did not have
Speaker 1: any paperwork that says that she is the prominent or
Speaker 1: the dominant parent, not dominant, but the main parent, primary parent,
Speaker 1: that's the word. Um, she didn't have that paperwork, so
Speaker 1: now they need an investigation to figure out is the
Speaker 1: child being harmed, this and that and now that little
Speaker 1: thing that happened. Unfortunately, has the child protective services in
Speaker 1: both homes on a regular basis over the fact that
Speaker 1: the mother and the nine year old got into it.
Speaker 1: So it's the system. The lines get very blurred. But yes,
Speaker 1: the mother does birth the child, and therefore there's a
Speaker 1: lot of responsibility and also expectations placed on the mother.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying that because of the way it's framed
Speaker 1: in the world, because you know, sometimes you put things
Speaker 1: in the air in the universe and it sticks, and
Speaker 1: I think that there has been because it's so difficult
Speaker 1: to raise a child. It's stuck somewhere along the line
Speaker 1: that the father is like, maybe you know, you can
Speaker 1: be there, but you can also go off and do
Speaker 1: whatever else you need to do in your life, and
Speaker 1: maybe you come, maybe you don't. And I think that's
Speaker 1: shifting because people are understanding that their children need both parents.
Speaker 1: There is no way that balance of two parents is
Speaker 1: very critical, and it's not just two parents. You actually
Speaker 1: need two parents, grandparents on It takes a whole village
Speaker 1: to raise one child, so it's good to see daddish,
Speaker 1: It's good to see men thrive. I love these types
Speaker 1: of shows when we bring the brothers into the space
Speaker 1: because we always have powerful black women, but they are
Speaker 1: also great black men out there doing IMpower the whole
Speaker 1: things as well. That's right. So that concludes our episode.
Speaker 1: Great episode celebrating fatherhood. Happy belated Father's Day to all
Speaker 1: the fathers out there. If you have a child, you
Speaker 1: deserve to be celebrated. Hopefully you got more than the card.
Speaker 1: Maybe somebody cooked you something. Probably maybe you got a
Speaker 1: little more than socks. Come on, woman, step up, gives
Speaker 1: his Father's Day. Look, I want all the types of
Speaker 1: gifts and jewelry and trips and all this stuff. Act
Speaker 1: like Father's Day really exists. Were tired of getting the
Speaker 1: same old card that you wiped off from last year
Speaker 1: and you put the new you say, they do we
Speaker 1: want more than a hug. We were more than a
Speaker 1: hug for you know, for Father's Day. Starts stepping up,
Speaker 1: Step up, step your Father's Day. You know, thing up
Speaker 1: so we appreciate your game. Father's Day game, step your
Speaker 1: Father's Day game all the way up. Salute you dads.
Speaker 1: We love you. We appreciate you. Continue to be great,
Speaker 1: and once again, I'm not gonna always be right, but
Speaker 1: I am now because today's probably day and we're gonna
Speaker 1: celebrate Father's Day. So fathers are right and Tamika is
Speaker 1: not gonna always be wrong, but we will both always
Speaker 1: be right. Thanks for the Street Politicians, the number one,
Speaker 1: number one podcast. Appreciate your number one Subscribe, Subscribe, subscribe, suscribe,
Speaker 1: hit hit the light button. That's how we owned it.