Speaker 1: What's up, family, I'm to mek A D. Mallory and
Speaker 1: it's your boy, my son in general. And we are
Speaker 1: the host of street politicians, the place where the streets
Speaker 1: and politics meet. Let's get into it, into it, let's
Speaker 1: get busy Black History. Why we always get a month? What?
Speaker 1: What the what? What is this month like when we
Speaker 1: go get a Black History Black History year? Especially all
Speaker 1: the ship that we've been through this last year, we
Speaker 1: need our own year. But we are Black History Year,
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of Black history that happens all year. However,
Speaker 1: this is an important month that we do get an
Speaker 1: opportunity to do one thing that I think it's important.
Speaker 1: I think if you're a parent who is not teaching
Speaker 1: your children something they don't know about our history during
Speaker 1: this month, you're not necessarily even if you're a white
Speaker 1: I'm not to say you're failing. And that's a good
Speaker 1: point exactly. I think I said parents, sent you did?
Speaker 1: You did? But I just wanted to make the clarification
Speaker 1: because people would think if you're a black parrent, no
Speaker 1: during Black Black History Month. I think all ethnicities, all
Speaker 1: races need to educate your children about Black history. And
Speaker 1: while we love Dr King, and we certainly don't want
Speaker 1: to educate people on Dr King. Malcolm X. We love
Speaker 1: Malcolm X. We want to educate people about rosa parte.
Speaker 1: We love Rosamart. But there are other leaders and other
Speaker 1: figures within our culture that also need to be acknowledged, acknowledged,
Speaker 1: but also there needs to be some deliberation, if you will,
Speaker 1: about those individuals. So for instance, if I was a
Speaker 1: you know, a younger parent, my son he knows, I
Speaker 1: don't know if he tells people that he knows, but
Speaker 1: he knows, I would teach my kids about Nat Turner.
Speaker 1: Right now, that's something that a lot of people. Oh
Speaker 1: Nat Turner. You know, he was the leader of a
Speaker 1: rebellion and they actually did kill some of the slave masters,
Speaker 1: if you will, But you know what, I don't mean
Speaker 1: to interrupt you, but for me, right, we celebrate all
Speaker 1: types of generals and soldiers who have killed millions of people,
Speaker 1: hundreds of people like you thinking about they've killed thousands
Speaker 1: of millions if you think, well, so when we celebrate
Speaker 1: a person who fought against injustice, who was being held
Speaker 1: against his will, his life and everything, and wrote and
Speaker 1: chose to rebel against instructure and people who were actually
Speaker 1: killing slaves. They were killing slaves, they're being they were
Speaker 1: harmon enslaved people. Okay, well they were killing enslaved people,
Speaker 1: and he fought in rows up against that. I don't
Speaker 1: understand why that's so controversial. People don't want you don't
Speaker 1: have that conversation unless there is an intent to cover
Speaker 1: that up because they don't want you to have that
Speaker 1: safe ideology again because they plan to enforce their type.
Speaker 1: I think that one, I think one of the issues
Speaker 1: for us because I'm just for now, let's just focused
Speaker 1: on why black folks might not do it. It's a
Speaker 1: lot of things. You know, we still carry a lot
Speaker 1: of the behavioral patterns from the plantation. On the plantation,
Speaker 1: you could talk about God, you could talk about some
Speaker 1: you know, peaceful loving individual and and pray to and
Speaker 1: about that type of person. But you were not able
Speaker 1: to have conversations about revolution, rebellion, fighting back, or any
Speaker 1: of that unless use the field need even the field
Speaker 1: even if no one you weren't allowed. I'm not saying
Speaker 1: that it didn't happen. I'm saying you weren't allowed. And
Speaker 1: so oftentimes you're we get a little nervous about even
Speaker 1: having those conversations on say, our jobs, because if someone
Speaker 1: comes up to or goes up to different people and
Speaker 1: you know, in the corporate space and other spaces and says,
Speaker 1: you know what, what's happening to us isn't right. Even
Speaker 1: if you're working at a fool a fast food chain,
Speaker 1: you say, well, what's happening here isn't right. We need
Speaker 1: to either establish a union, or we should write a letter,
Speaker 1: or we should do this. You have people say, don't
Speaker 1: say that around massive, like don't let Massive find out
Speaker 1: that that's what we're talking about, because we've been taught
Speaker 1: that we're not allowed to have certain types of conversations
Speaker 1: or else there will be consequences. But for me, black
Speaker 1: people need to stop being so damn scared man, Like,
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, you know we've overcome
Speaker 1: so much. And when you know something doesn't feel right
Speaker 1: to your core, if something doesn't coexist with your moral
Speaker 1: fiber and you're scared to say something about it, Are
Speaker 1: you're scared to stand up? Like all you actually living?
Speaker 1: Are you actually no? But and and and that's for me,
Speaker 1: like that's a problem. We do exist and mainly existing
Speaker 1: because for me, like at some point we have to
Speaker 1: be able to man up, woman up, whatever it takes
Speaker 1: up to say, Yo, this ain't right, and I can
Speaker 1: say it is ain't right, or this is right and
Speaker 1: I agree with this and be able to stand in
Speaker 1: that truth, to stand on what you stand on, Like
Speaker 1: why are we so scared to stand on we stand
Speaker 1: a week? We have pretty much literally built this country,
Speaker 1: especially in this moment. We have seen the power of
Speaker 1: black people. We've seen our vote, We've seen our our tenacity,
Speaker 1: We've seen our resilience. We have done been through everything
Speaker 1: that the worst had to offer, and we have succeeded
Speaker 1: and we have survived and we have persevered. It's no
Speaker 1: more time to be scared. Like I hate hearing people.
Speaker 1: Well you can't why you can't say that, say you
Speaker 1: don't want to say that. If you say you don't
Speaker 1: want to say some ship or you don't agree with that, cool,
Speaker 1: But don't tell me what you can't say as a
Speaker 1: grown adult man or grown adult woman, don't give me that.
Speaker 1: I agree and and not. And so I think to
Speaker 1: your point that we have to be willing to teach
Speaker 1: our children about all the many diverse facets if you will,
Speaker 1: of the movement and people who came before us. So
Speaker 1: that's one thing, but I also think we have to
Speaker 1: correct history. If you're going to teach your children about
Speaker 1: Rosa Parks, you also have to talk to them about
Speaker 1: Claudette Covid. They have to know that there was a
Speaker 1: woman who came before Rosa Parks that did some of
Speaker 1: the very similar things. She said at the front and
Speaker 1: said I will not move. However, as that was happening, um,
Speaker 1: you know, there was a decision made by the movement
Speaker 1: that she wasn't the right person for everyone to get behind.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is real, This is an actual decision
Speaker 1: made because there is strategy to these movements, and it's
Speaker 1: unfortunate that that's how it has to be. But there
Speaker 1: are moments when you have situations struggles that were involved
Speaker 1: in and you already know that trying to fight for
Speaker 1: a three time convicted murderer who was killed by the police,
Speaker 1: and you know something, it's gonna be difficult not saying
Speaker 1: that we should and we should absolutely if it if
Speaker 1: it's if it's injustice, it's injustice no matter who it is.
Speaker 1: But you know that as a strategist, it is going
Speaker 1: to be more difficult to win over the people's attention
Speaker 1: and pull the heartstrings during certain things that Cordet Covin
Speaker 1: wasn't a convicted murderer, but you get my point that
Speaker 1: there was a decision made that Rosa Parks. She looked different.
Speaker 1: I would imagine she was a little she was lighter.
Speaker 1: At that time, there was the paperbag theory that you know,
Speaker 1: if you were darker than a paper bag, you weren't
Speaker 1: necessarily considered to be in proximity to whiteness. Is what
Speaker 1: you've been talking about. You know, she had her hair,
Speaker 1: looked different, she had certain attributes, and she was a person.
Speaker 1: She worked for the n double a CP, she was
Speaker 1: in the movement, and so they chose her to be
Speaker 1: the face of the Montgomery Bus boycott um and so
Speaker 1: there should be And that's okay, it's okay if that,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's okay to strategize. I'm not I'm not
Speaker 1: taking away strategy, right, but there needs to be during
Speaker 1: this month if we're gonna if we're gonna have the
Speaker 1: shortest because the thing is, the key is to get
Speaker 1: It's like this, right, It's like telling people, wait, we
Speaker 1: just let us get in the door. Right. We got
Speaker 1: the best chance to get in the door because I
Speaker 1: understand that. Understand there's a strategy as certain people that
Speaker 1: people accept. More like if you accept if I'm trying
Speaker 1: to get behind that door, and I'm like you, they
Speaker 1: know me there, I can just let me get in
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna bring you in because people told us
Speaker 1: WI fight for Brianna Taylor because she clearly was associated
Speaker 1: with someone who was you know, was dealing drugs or
Speaker 1: was was associated with drug dealing. Right, we can't go
Speaker 1: convicting the man without knowing. But here's the deal. We
Speaker 1: love running towards fires. That's what it is. And I
Speaker 1: think that's I think that's what our people have to do.
Speaker 1: And that's why when you look at don't worry, but
Speaker 1: I don't know. I forgot. I forgot too. But you know,
Speaker 1: when we look at Briana Taylor and we look at
Speaker 1: our decision to say, you know what, this is who
Speaker 1: we're gonna stand behind because we know it's wrong. Our
Speaker 1: hearts says it's wrong. We know right from wrong, and
Speaker 1: we're willing to stand behind that. And the fact that
Speaker 1: we had that fortuited tidness to continue on and understand
Speaker 1: the people who are already on the ground who were
Speaker 1: doing it, and we wanted to uplift their voices. The
Speaker 1: fact that all of us came together and say this
Speaker 1: is something that we personally believe that whether you believe
Speaker 1: it or not, we're willing to stand, die, lose our freedom, life,
Speaker 1: whatever it takes so that this this woman gets justice.
Speaker 1: You know, it made the world pay attention, and and
Speaker 1: that's a lesson. It's a lesson in that. Listen, do
Speaker 1: not allow anybody to ski you out of your conviction.
Speaker 1: Do not allow anybody to tell you. Don't let nobody
Speaker 1: tell you that what you believe, what you believe in
Speaker 1: is not strong enough to fight for because they don't
Speaker 1: see it. Your your will. The mind is so powerful man,
Speaker 1: when you will things that exist, and when you believe
Speaker 1: something so hard, it becomes true. So do not allow
Speaker 1: black especially black people. We have shown that, we have proven.
Speaker 1: I believe millions of dollars millions. I'm gonna have billions, billions, billion. Listen,
Speaker 1: I already know I'm I'm a billionaire already. That's that's
Speaker 1: shame about. Now I'm a billionaire, I'm a multi billionaire.
Speaker 1: You're looking at a billionaire and making someone's gonna change
Speaker 1: the trajectory of this country and do it with honor
Speaker 1: and be a billionaire and give most of that money
Speaker 1: to my people so they could continue to have intergenerational wealth.
Speaker 1: That's who I am. Who what's his name, Bernie Sanders. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what it says there should be no billionaires. But
Speaker 1: that's what I'm saying. I'm gonna be a billionaire and
Speaker 1: didn't give it to my people. So ultimately, if you
Speaker 1: make a billion dollars, you've hurt a lot of people
Speaker 1: along the way. Well, listen, everybody, you don't. I don't
Speaker 1: agree with nobody on everything. You know what I'm saying, Like,
Speaker 1: maybe that was good you you got to I don't
Speaker 1: because I believe that. I believe in the theory that
Speaker 1: some people got to go out and get it and
Speaker 1: bring it back home. You know. See, I'm saying the
Speaker 1: bottom line is everybody does not have the wherewithal, the talent,
Speaker 1: the skill, that everything that is going to take to
Speaker 1: accumulate massive amount of money. That's not everybody's for ta.
Speaker 1: So it's like, well, um, Mason told you, oh right,
Speaker 1: so so our my mentee, I become your mentee. Mary
Speaker 1: Patt she's but she's been on the show before. She
Speaker 1: runs the Until Freedom Division in Georgia and she's an
Speaker 1: incredible leader. She's been at it since she was eleven.
Speaker 1: She's now graduated from Trailman. She's us a law student,
Speaker 1: so she's obviously much older. And her brother, Mason is
Speaker 1: he owns he's only like twelve years old, and he
Speaker 1: owns a hot dog business. He actually has a facility,
Speaker 1: so it's not like he's selling hot dogs out of
Speaker 1: his house. He literally has a restaurant where he sells
Speaker 1: hot dogs and he has all different types of products
Speaker 1: and services around food and once a second location. And
Speaker 1: mother Cathy was mentioning to be the other day that
Speaker 1: he's looking for a second location. And Mason thing, which
Speaker 1: is your point, was that you know what, I've watched
Speaker 1: my sister. She's out here fighting a good fight. I
Speaker 1: love that. I'm happy and I'm and I'm a part
Speaker 1: of the movement too. I'm I'm I'm centered in that word.
Speaker 1: But I need to make some money so that my
Speaker 1: sister is not struggling. And it's so so real, it's
Speaker 1: so real that he was able his level of discernment
Speaker 1: at his young age. He's been this is now since
Speaker 1: he's been about ten nine or ten years old that
Speaker 1: he's been thinking of ways to make money to support
Speaker 1: his system. His discernment is so clear that there was
Speaker 1: a point between her graduating from Spellman, getting in law
Speaker 1: school and trying to find jobs because she is one
Speaker 1: over qualified and she's worked within the movement. And sometimes
Speaker 1: when people don't realize the challenges of when you work
Speaker 1: for someone who was high profile in the movement, you
Speaker 1: may not always be able one to get another job
Speaker 1: in the movement, but beyond that, to go out and
Speaker 1: work for a corporation or some other entity, because there's
Speaker 1: a lot of baggage that goes along with the sacrifices.
Speaker 1: And so she needed a job and she was able
Speaker 1: to work with Mason on college campuses. She went out
Speaker 1: with him the more House. They sold hot throgs once
Speaker 1: a week or every few days there. And now she
Speaker 1: supports him in his business, but she's willing to work.
Speaker 1: That's right, And that's my point exactly. Like you know,
Speaker 1: we understand there's so many this entry points into this movement.
Speaker 1: Especially Black people need everything. We need everything. So this
Speaker 1: is Black History money. If anything I want to tell
Speaker 1: you in Black History Month is no time to be divided.
Speaker 1: There's no time to say that your methodology or your
Speaker 1: strategy is better than somebody else's and exile that because
Speaker 1: we need every everybody. If we're all trying to get
Speaker 1: to the same place, in the same destination, then it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter how you get there. We all need to
Speaker 1: be working together. You know, I hear so many different
Speaker 1: dialogues and I've I've actually been a part of them
Speaker 1: where people are arguing me about strategy and why are
Speaker 1: you doing this? And why aren't you doing that? And
Speaker 1: I just say to them, like, why don't you do
Speaker 1: what I'm not doing? Because I can't do everything. I
Speaker 1: never told you I could do everything. I'm I'm capable
Speaker 1: to do. Of doing what I do, I don't believe
Speaker 1: that I think it is cancer is to tell people
Speaker 1: not to vote, because that, for me is very problematic,
Speaker 1: and I know I need to problem I just think
Speaker 1: that you know what it is for me, I think
Speaker 1: it is, but you know what you know? What I
Speaker 1: say is this, if you can come up with a
Speaker 1: strategy or ideology in which not voting and makes sense
Speaker 1: to you, and you're doing something behind not voting, and
Speaker 1: that whatever you're doing as a result of not voting
Speaker 1: is pushing us forward. Then that's something that you have
Speaker 1: to do as a person. That's what you have to
Speaker 1: do as an individual. I cannot make you believe in
Speaker 1: what I believe in me. I believe that it makes
Speaker 1: no sense to be a part of a system where
Speaker 1: you don't have any say so over the people actually
Speaker 1: running system. You're gonna pay all the bills, You're gonna
Speaker 1: pay your taxes, You're gonna follow every law and every rule,
Speaker 1: every legislation is that's put into order, you have to
Speaker 1: follow on. Unless you've decided that you're gonna rogue outside
Speaker 1: the government, then it makes sense. Don't vote because I'm
Speaker 1: not participating nothing the government has And that makes sense
Speaker 1: to me. But if you're going to participate and be
Speaker 1: a Sitton of America, of the United States, and you
Speaker 1: don't have any say over the people who govern the state,
Speaker 1: how does that make sense to you? Well? And but
Speaker 1: but so you said I, and you said if you,
Speaker 1: because I don't believe and if you, and if you,
Speaker 1: and if I and the view which is I get
Speaker 1: your point, but at the heart of that is individualism.
Speaker 1: That person, you're not just voting for yourself. When you
Speaker 1: choose to uh, not to participate in this system, you're
Speaker 1: leaving Ray, Ray and Kesha and those people who come
Speaker 1: from our communities behind. Because those that live in public housing,
Speaker 1: they need to ensure that there are people in office
Speaker 1: who want to actually help them in public housing that
Speaker 1: don't want holes and rats and heat or no heat
Speaker 1: cold in the winter and hot in the summer, because
Speaker 1: that's what happens in public housing. Those people they need
Speaker 1: public how hospitals. Now, maybe you have doctors that work,
Speaker 1: you know, that's your family members that got trail, is
Speaker 1: somewhere that you can go to and get fixed up,
Speaker 1: But most people need the public hospital. The public hospital
Speaker 1: is controlled by the local politics. So perhaps you can say,
Speaker 1: I don't vote for president, right, I don't I don't
Speaker 1: believe in any of these presidents. I don't want to
Speaker 1: participate in that. I don't remember with that either, Because
Speaker 1: if you don't show up to the polls at the
Speaker 1: time when there is a presidential race, there are many
Speaker 1: other seats down the ballot, right, there are other people
Speaker 1: running for other offices that you need to be there
Speaker 1: to ensure that your voice is counted. And while you're there,
Speaker 1: you might as well make sure you try to pick
Speaker 1: the right president for the time as well. So I
Speaker 1: totally don't agree with any period. But if that's what
Speaker 1: you say, fine, you definitely should not. And that's the
Speaker 1: problem with how we raise up our young people, because
Speaker 1: when we start saying I don't vote, I don't believe
Speaker 1: in the system, what happens is that young people say, okay, well,
Speaker 1: we don't have to do it. They turn it off,
Speaker 1: and it's difficult to turn them back on when it
Speaker 1: comes to the local d A, who might arrest them, okay,
Speaker 1: and depending on what that DA believes their ideologies, you
Speaker 1: can have hell on your hands if you don't have
Speaker 1: the right type of person in office. When it comes
Speaker 1: to city council members that have to do with streets
Speaker 1: and you know what the street lights and things that's
Speaker 1: going on in your local community, state senators and otherwise,
Speaker 1: it's difficult to turn people off and on. So I
Speaker 1: think it's cancers for us to say don't vote because
Speaker 1: most of our people I'm not talking about the few
Speaker 1: that are living outside the system. They got their own
Speaker 1: money that you know all of that. Most people are
Speaker 1: trapped in the system and they need to be able
Speaker 1: to walk and chew bubble gum at the same time,
Speaker 1: we're gonna vote, We're gonna ensure we put these people
Speaker 1: in office and that we can hold them accountable and
Speaker 1: build systems that are out side of what we know
Speaker 1: as America and the American government. It's my opinion. Well,
Speaker 1: there you have it. Hopefully you've changed their minds of
Speaker 1: some of the people who say they're not gonna go
Speaker 1: talking about thinking. I was thinking, because you know, every
Speaker 1: uh time we sit down for street politicians, I always think,
Speaker 1: and there's a lot to think about it. And our
Speaker 1: guest today made me think about this um and that
Speaker 1: is what happened to Kanye. Like I know, everybody thinking,
Speaker 1: you just that's the left field. But it's true though,
Speaker 1: because we're talking about black history more used to history.
Speaker 1: Because Kim Kardashian, who you know, I could take girly,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. She cool some days, I
Speaker 1: think Kim's doing something. She looks cute at times. I
Speaker 1: loved her kids, and you know the whole thing, and
Speaker 1: I actually appreciate the story of their family and the
Speaker 1: way that their mother really is a boss chick that is,
Speaker 1: you know, making it, making it happen for all of them.
Speaker 1: So sometimes I like them, but I also see a
Speaker 1: lot of cultural appropriation. UM and you know, I'm not
Speaker 1: always excited about the Kardashians, but Kim has really been
Speaker 1: involved and engaged with cultural appropriation. For me, that they
Speaker 1: stole ship from black people, maybe stealing ship from black people,
Speaker 1: steal some ship. Cultural appropriation, especially for the Kardashians, would
Speaker 1: be to see her in what corn rows and then
Speaker 1: for her to not quickly let it be known that
Speaker 1: this I didn't make this. Because people started blogs and
Speaker 1: UM and other media entities started saying that, oh, you know,
Speaker 1: look at Kim, she created corn rolls or she's making
Speaker 1: corn rolls cool, and she was not quick enough. I
Speaker 1: don't even know if I ever saw a response from
Speaker 1: her to say, no, I didn't create this. I took
Speaker 1: this look from black folks. I was influenced by black women.
Speaker 1: And you know, tell the story. Use your platform to
Speaker 1: tell the story about how our corn rolls were actually
Speaker 1: used to stuff food, rice and other things inside of
Speaker 1: our hair when we were enslaved. Okay, just you and
Speaker 1: I believe this, You should use your platform to do that. Well, no,
Speaker 1: you know whatever, let's put that to the side. One
Speaker 1: thing she is doing, it's being very engaged in trying
Speaker 1: to get pardons for people who she feels has been
Speaker 1: locked up for too long for crimes, small crimes, or
Speaker 1: just crimes they committed long time ago. UM And she's
Speaker 1: really been a champion for a number of individuals. She
Speaker 1: used her influence to go to the White House to
Speaker 1: meet with someone who the rest of us don't get with,
Speaker 1: but she was able to go navigate that space and
Speaker 1: a few people have been pardoned as a result of
Speaker 1: her work, and she's really been engaged. I'm trying. I
Speaker 1: ain't seen Kanye going with her about none of that.
Speaker 1: I think you know what it is. I think, first
Speaker 1: of all, it's mental health. It's definitely mental health. And
Speaker 1: I hear that they're working on a divorce at this point,
Speaker 1: it's not I don't I can't confirm nor deny whether
Speaker 1: they get intivorce, but that's what I here. But when
Speaker 1: you look at Kanye, I think what happened was his
Speaker 1: own cultural appropriation. I think you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I think he tried to cope UM appropriate their culture right,
Speaker 1: and he started to believe that he was bigger than
Speaker 1: what it is that he came from. You know, there
Speaker 1: was a point where he had such a message and
Speaker 1: he had such a grip on understanding, and he was
Speaker 1: so common. He was just the underdog. He was the
Speaker 1: college dropout. He represented just the average black man, you know.
Speaker 1: And it was times when he spoke like that, and
Speaker 1: I think maybe through mental health, maybe through just success,
Speaker 1: you know, and and just losing yourself man, that he
Speaker 1: actually just got so discu nected with the culture and
Speaker 1: his own self. And it's so it's so visible because
Speaker 1: sometimes he comes back, he does Sunday Service and you
Speaker 1: look okay, maybe, and then he just says and does
Speaker 1: So I'm praying for Kanye, ma'am. I'm really hoping that
Speaker 1: whatever he's dealing with that he overcomes, because you realize
Speaker 1: we're dealing with mental health and people commit suicide. He
Speaker 1: does Sunday service. But they are evangelical Christians who who
Speaker 1: believe in a different type of God, and we we
Speaker 1: saw them and with this insurrection that just happened last month,
Speaker 1: we saw them singing and praising their God right outside
Speaker 1: of the building prior to them going in to literally
Speaker 1: kill and and and capture individuals right so, and I
Speaker 1: don't believe that we will go as far as to
Speaker 1: say that that's Kanye's God, but I know that the
Speaker 1: god that made him say George Bush doesn't care about
Speaker 1: black people. Somewhere along the line, he lost touch with
Speaker 1: that individual of that that that that spiritual influence. And
Speaker 1: I hope he gets it back because we see what
Speaker 1: sister is trying to do. Some people say, well, she's
Speaker 1: cloud chasing. I don't care. She got some people. If
Speaker 1: you can cloud chase, you can actually get something done
Speaker 1: while you cloud. There's people that's cloud chasing, they ain't
Speaker 1: getting So if she getting done stuff done like that
Speaker 1: and chasing chase away. So that's my thought. That's what
Speaker 1: I was thinking. If I just want to know what
Speaker 1: happened to my brother, because I felt like the two
Speaker 1: of them together doing the type could have been man
Speaker 1: and that and that brings me to what the streets,
Speaker 1: the streets are wondering right now, if representation is really
Speaker 1: going to equate to some level of change. We look
Speaker 1: at Joe Biden and he's just put Jamie Harrison as
Speaker 1: the DNC chair. Black man from South Carolina, a Southern
Speaker 1: black man, Kesha Lands Bottoms is the VP of the
Speaker 1: check I mean of the Democratic and around they've just been.
Speaker 1: There have been some other important, important appointments where black
Speaker 1: people are represented, and a lot of people are saying, yo, well,
Speaker 1: just because we represented, don't mean they're gonna do anything
Speaker 1: that has never equated to change people. Are they wrong
Speaker 1: when we look at this cabinet and say that, I
Speaker 1: guess a lot of black representatives. They are black and
Speaker 1: brown representatives. This is a diverse cabin This is something
Speaker 1: that we've never seen. Are they wrong in saying that
Speaker 1: nothing's gonna change? Or should we be hopeful? The streets
Speaker 1: want to know, should we be hopeful in thinking that
Speaker 1: this representation is actually going to represent some level change
Speaker 1: for us? You know, I think that hope is the
Speaker 1: foundation of our existence, and I don't think we should
Speaker 1: ever get to a place where we're not hopeful. I
Speaker 1: believe we should have hope every day because the God
Speaker 1: I serve I have seen do amazing things, right um,
Speaker 1: And so I believe that this is what they say,
Speaker 1: the same God that got us through the last thing
Speaker 1: will take us through this time. And I um, I
Speaker 1: believe our hope is so important. I also don't know,
Speaker 1: right like everything remains to be seen, whether or not
Speaker 1: having people like Keisha I call it Keisha because I
Speaker 1: know her, but Mayor Bottoms, she's actually the mayor of Atlanta, Georgia. UM.
Speaker 1: And also Jamie Harrison, who we raised money for. UM.
Speaker 1: We gave him UM. I know, I did give him
Speaker 1: money during the election cycle. This year. You started giving
Speaker 1: money to people during the election, you know, because I realized, man,
Speaker 1: you know, UM a lot of people that we want
Speaker 1: to represent us. That's one of the things that I
Speaker 1: ever knew, Like, you have to raise money for a
Speaker 1: campaign to be able to show that you're a viable candidate.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna put my coins.
Speaker 1: I can't disrespect people to get an office. But we
Speaker 1: give some We give some money. We give a couple
Speaker 1: of hundreds, and a couple of people got a couple
Speaker 1: of thousands. So we want to act like, you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of people got, you know, and it pays off,
Speaker 1: you know, So this you know, we I think, like
Speaker 1: you said, I'm kind of hopeful, you know, I'm kind
Speaker 1: of hopeful. I want to believe that people who have
Speaker 1: fought this loan to get in these positions, who have
Speaker 1: understand the struggle that we have daily every day that
Speaker 1: get into the actually get into the room and get
Speaker 1: an opportunity to make and dictate change or going to
Speaker 1: you know, to utilize to do something. I want to.
Speaker 1: I want to believe. That's why I say the world hopeful.
Speaker 1: I believe I'm hopeful. But the bottom line is we're
Speaker 1: gonna I'm on your ass. Snell think that both Mayor
Speaker 1: Bottoms and also Jamie Harrison have been through enough over
Speaker 1: the last few him running. He just ran for office,
Speaker 1: and although he lost, I think this is a real
Speaker 1: good position for him now. Um, I think both of
Speaker 1: them have seen enough. And certainly Mayor Bottoms has seen
Speaker 1: a lot and she actually has received some of my
Speaker 1: critiques about her leadership and others, and I think that
Speaker 1: they have developed in a way that will hopefully inform
Speaker 1: more radical decision making. Because the Democratic Party, now, this
Speaker 1: thing that the Republicans just did has really really messed
Speaker 1: up their part. I mean, I don't see how they
Speaker 1: make it out of this, right, but the Democrats are
Speaker 1: just this close. It's it's it's really the whole system
Speaker 1: is crashing, it's falling apart, and um, and therefore some
Speaker 1: type of leadership is going to be necessary, and it's
Speaker 1: gonna take some radical shifting and some real strong changing
Speaker 1: of the guard and changing of ideas and the ways
Speaker 1: in which we operate in order to get people interested
Speaker 1: again and to get them back to the table. Because
Speaker 1: no one that I know, and I'm not saying that
Speaker 1: most people can't do it, but no one that I
Speaker 1: know ran to the polls in Georgia and door across
Speaker 1: the country because they were excited about the Democratic Party.
Speaker 1: They were excited, they were not even excited. They knew
Speaker 1: there was an imminent threat. They saw the insurrection coming
Speaker 1: before the insurrection, and so in a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: people knew that they had to go out and do
Speaker 1: what they had to do. But if they had to
Speaker 1: make a decision based upon the two party system that
Speaker 1: we have at this time, both parties would we wouldn't
Speaker 1: have people voting, not not many. But we have a guest, Yes,
Speaker 1: we have a guest, somebody who's been on the ground,
Speaker 1: that's always done doing the work, or always invites us,
Speaker 1: that stands with us, even as crazy as politicians. We
Speaker 1: really can fill up our shows. My bro. That's that's
Speaker 1: about bro right there, And he balled. You know what,
Speaker 1: he don't look. We bring that's where is the street
Speaker 1: politicians like the streets like you gotta bring the people.
Speaker 1: This is one of those brothers man. You know, he's
Speaker 1: one of the uh NBA train that he trained some
Speaker 1: of the best players in the NBA. And he utilizes
Speaker 1: his platform, utilizes influence to speak truth to power, to
Speaker 1: stand on the front lines with us to fight, you know,
Speaker 1: and he's become instantly become a brother of mine, like
Speaker 1: really a brother of mine that I stand by any day.
Speaker 1: So listen, 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 further Ado, we have my brother
Speaker 1: or rolling in the What's going on Earth? I got
Speaker 1: going on? Man, we get we getting ready to get
Speaker 1: a bus and we're gonna go down, you know, to
Speaker 1: about Oklahoma somewhere be the You're gonna look, you're coming
Speaker 1: with us. Look, he always wouldn't look. That's what I'm
Speaker 1: trying to say, always on cold whenever it's time to go. Man,
Speaker 1: that's the last time I think I saw you, you
Speaker 1: about three rows ahead of me, sleeping on a bus
Speaker 1: for nine days, eleven days then, yeah, state of emergency.
Speaker 1: I saw y'all was in Louisville for Travis. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: was at the funerals. Yeah. So you just walked a
Speaker 1: mighty long way and we laughed at you. I just
Speaker 1: want you to know, um, we laughed because we know
Speaker 1: what you want to know all about that. Walked in
Speaker 1: the bottom of your feet every night. That's so c neat. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's so. I know your your eggs. You boy, you
Speaker 1: play ball, but you know that it's a different when
Speaker 1: you just walking on that pavement. Did you get some
Speaker 1: mold skin and all that that you're to put it in?
Speaker 1: I had everything. I had some stuff to keep your
Speaker 1: feet from blistering. Um. Then I had some stuff for um,
Speaker 1: you know, keep them shaping or whatever. And then I
Speaker 1: had stuff because I got a bad hip. I got
Speaker 1: I'm hooping. I got a towny achilles broken leg on
Speaker 1: the other side. So from all this running bad and
Speaker 1: jumping bad, I got a bad hip. So man, I
Speaker 1: was all messed up. Now what was happening that you
Speaker 1: would do that type of put that type of strain
Speaker 1: on your body knowing that first of all, you're not
Speaker 1: a young chicken anymore because we didn't got older. And
Speaker 1: then you you talk about these injuries from playing sports
Speaker 1: and to still go and walk that long because we know,
Speaker 1: we did two hundred plus miles from New York City
Speaker 1: to Washington, d C. When Eric Garner was killed, UM
Speaker 1: to bring criminal justice perform packages to UH, to Congress
Speaker 1: and and and you know, we were fighting for three bills.
Speaker 1: Shout out to our Justice League family led by Assister
Speaker 1: Carmen Perez. It was rough. I mean, I had to
Speaker 1: get shots in my knees. I've been through a lot,
Speaker 1: so it had to be a good reason why you
Speaker 1: hit the pavement in that way. So my brother Julius
Speaker 1: Jones man, UM. You know, we always talked about how
Speaker 1: you know, you guys do it more than me obviously,
Speaker 1: but you know we're always on the front line for
Speaker 1: people that we didn't know. You know what, it's Brianna Taylor, whoever.
Speaker 1: Julius Jones is someone that I grew up playing basketball
Speaker 1: with and against. UM. He was a year older than me.
Speaker 1: He was on academic scholarship at the University of Oklahoma
Speaker 1: engineering major and UH he was framed for a murder
Speaker 1: in so for the last twenty plus years he's been
Speaker 1: facing the death penalty in the state of Oklahoma. So
Speaker 1: I have a friend J. B. Williams, who was a
Speaker 1: rapper and activists in Oklahoma City, and he had the
Speaker 1: idea of like, man, look we've been doing marches, we've
Speaker 1: been going rallies. It's not enough. Let's just walk to
Speaker 1: the prison. So we started at the state capital, Okama City,
Speaker 1: and we walked a hundred and thirty one miles from
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City, state capital all the way to the prison
Speaker 1: um State President in Kalistar, Oklahama. That's amazing, man, that's like,
Speaker 1: you know, we wish that we had people fighting like
Speaker 1: that for us in all situations. You know. I remember
Speaker 1: I was incarcerated and I was in there for a
Speaker 1: crime I didn't commit, and it was days. I used
Speaker 1: to write to certain people, you know. I remember I
Speaker 1: wrote a letter to my judge and she actually replied
Speaker 1: to me, you know, and she and she said, she
Speaker 1: said some good things, and she was like, you know,
Speaker 1: I really I remember your case vividly. I remember she said,
Speaker 1: I remember a case vividly, and you know, I was
Speaker 1: just I was bound by my job too. You know,
Speaker 1: the jury found you guilty, but you know, I believe
Speaker 1: that you're gonna come home and be uh productive member
Speaker 1: of society. And I used to always wish that was
Speaker 1: people just fighting for me. So I know, regardless of
Speaker 1: his situation, just seeing that people put that type of
Speaker 1: energy into fighting for him, I know that gives him
Speaker 1: some level of energy. Man. I just want to commend you,
Speaker 1: you know, as it was wild, because it would be
Speaker 1: time like that first day we hit the gates running
Speaker 1: like we were a little too ambitious. We out here
Speaker 1: like were running a sprint and uh, you know it's
Speaker 1: raining and snowing. My ankles is cooked. I'm out of there.
Speaker 1: And then he called, Julius called on the phone and
Speaker 1: you know he you know, like you said, man, to
Speaker 1: know that you're behind the walls and people out here
Speaker 1: giving up, you know, their time, their energy to do
Speaker 1: this for you. Like his energy woke us up and
Speaker 1: gave us some strength, man. And so like that kept
Speaker 1: happening every day and I'm just like, man, it's it's
Speaker 1: easy for me to sit back and do whatever I'm
Speaker 1: doing and be comfortable and you know, just be like
Speaker 1: hashtag free. Julius gotta be front and center. We gotta
Speaker 1: do something that's right. Tell me about the other individuals
Speaker 1: that walked with you. Yeah, So my friend j B.
Speaker 1: He's a rapper activist and I'm from a city very
Speaker 1: uh tapped in the community in Oklama City. And then
Speaker 1: his girlfriend Francy, who's a lawyer, criminal justice lawyer in
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City. And then two white guys that are close
Speaker 1: with j B. One Jess Eddie, he's um has a
Speaker 1: law degree and does a lot of stuffies out there
Speaker 1: on the front lines every day with our people. A
Speaker 1: great ally and m Cody Bass, whom I mean, this
Speaker 1: dude is just ride or dive. When we had our rally,
Speaker 1: man he broke down crying because he just every day
Speaker 1: it just each at him that the situations that we
Speaker 1: have to endure because the five of us, man, we
Speaker 1: hit the ground. We didn't want a lot of people
Speaker 1: because because you all know you you we can't trust everybody.
Speaker 1: We got COVID still is a thing. So just the
Speaker 1: five of us hitting the ground, that's like we wanted
Speaker 1: to be there, you know. It just we was in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: We're working on this center race, but we sent all
Speaker 1: our love man, and we and we just was like
Speaker 1: IRV is one of us was in the streets. We
Speaker 1: would just say out of nowhere, you know, Linda Saser
Speaker 1: and Angelo Attorney Angelo penol Our co found this. We
Speaker 1: were all in the same are and be Airbnb and
Speaker 1: we would turn around and be like, how the hell
Speaker 1: is erv Man? Like anybody check on Earth to day
Speaker 1: because we know how hard this. So his family, like,
Speaker 1: does he have support and what's the goals at this point?
Speaker 1: Right now, we're trying to get back in front of
Speaker 1: the Partner pole board and fighters Clintency. Um, There's been
Speaker 1: a number of celebrities that have come forth and try
Speaker 1: to fight for him. By Alla Davis did the show,
Speaker 1: UM The Last Defense on ABC A special. Uh. Kim
Speaker 1: Kardashian has been in Oklahoma several times to me with
Speaker 1: our governor. Um Baker Mayfield, quarterback of the Cleveland Browns.
Speaker 1: Every Sunday he wears justice for Julius on the back
Speaker 1: of his helmet, even though the NFL, you know, if
Speaker 1: they choose not to speak on it, but um, he
Speaker 1: does that. And so you know our brother Kenny steals Man.
Speaker 1: Everybody been fighting for him. So we're ho been that
Speaker 1: once he gets back in front of Partning broad board. UM,
Speaker 1: we can show them what he can do once he
Speaker 1: gets out, and how he's been affecting change even though
Speaker 1: he's inside the walls, and how he can be a
Speaker 1: productive member of society. Boy, So are there like petitions
Speaker 1: or anything that we need to be signed? What do
Speaker 1: we need to do? Justice for Julius dot com? You
Speaker 1: can go on there. It has my friend c C.
Speaker 1: I'll be crazy not can mentioned. R c C is
Speaker 1: c C. Johnes. She's uh a wife of an NBA
Speaker 1: trainer on the medical side. He worked with the Oakland
Speaker 1: City Thunder for years. That's how she got tapped in
Speaker 1: with it um. But now they're in Washington with the Wizards.
Speaker 1: But c C took this whole thing to another level, uh,
Speaker 1: with the with the social media stuff. So if you
Speaker 1: go to Justice for Julius dot Com, that's the page
Speaker 1: she put together and has a whole story, all the documentaries,
Speaker 1: you can sign a petition and all that stuff. So
Speaker 1: we've been sharing that like crazy. Well, we're definitely gonna
Speaker 1: share it, We're gonna sign it, We're gonna do all
Speaker 1: we can. Man. We I just appreciate you, brother, man.
Speaker 1: You know, like I tell you about I think one
Speaker 1: thing about Earth man. From the minute I met him.
Speaker 1: His energy is always up. He's always just like a
Speaker 1: spark in the room. You know. He comes to you, good, bro,
Speaker 1: he checks on me, just just checking in on you, man,
Speaker 1: like you need people like good brothers like yourself. And
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm just happy to be somebody that that
Speaker 1: I can have the access that I have to a
Speaker 1: brother like you, man. So I really appreciate you can.
Speaker 1: I think one of the things that I really appreciate
Speaker 1: about you is how much you work. Like you know.
Speaker 1: I remember there was a moment when we were on
Speaker 1: the State of Emergency tour. You know, I think people
Speaker 1: feel it's fun to just be out on the road
Speaker 1: and that you know, we're like hanging out and we
Speaker 1: do make it look good, right, you guys work out.
Speaker 1: Y'all are well trained and um and you know, you
Speaker 1: look good and we look like we're having great experiences
Speaker 1: and we make it feel fun and we make it cool.
Speaker 1: But that bus ride after a while, when you trying
Speaker 1: to figure out a position for seven or eight hours
Speaker 1: riding from state to state. When we made it to
Speaker 1: um Pittsburgh, we almost died under that awning whatever we
Speaker 1: it was literally flying up again shout out to our
Speaker 1: one hood family, just Sirian Celeste x Um. We went.
Speaker 1: We went through a lot on that role. We went.
Speaker 1: It was cold, it was hot. It was so many
Speaker 1: things that we experienced and moments that were really difficult
Speaker 1: and challenging. And I remember when we were outside of
Speaker 1: a college in North Carolina. It was after actually I fell.
Speaker 1: I hurt myself and so I showed up late. And
Speaker 1: when I got there, you were like giving out T
Speaker 1: shirts and and and helping people and really in the mix.
Speaker 1: And there are people who are around us who hang
Speaker 1: with us and they they they're good people, but they
Speaker 1: don't really really get their hands dirty. But that's something
Speaker 1: that you do. Do you think that you're experiences, um,
Speaker 1: you know working within the NBA, Like what made you
Speaker 1: this guy that is willing to put the real grind
Speaker 1: into the work? Man? Um? I think you know my father,
Speaker 1: my grandfather that both ministers. Um My aad is actually
Speaker 1: an elementary school principal and a Baptist minister. So I
Speaker 1: think it comes from them obviously in the you know,
Speaker 1: working in the NBA. For me, I wasn't an NBA player,
Speaker 1: so I had to grind to get where I am.
Speaker 1: I haven't. I don't know if I've told job, but
Speaker 1: like to start in the NBA, I had to work
Speaker 1: for free, forty fifty hours a week for the Austin Celtics,
Speaker 1: just to give my foot in the door, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. And so if I had to do
Speaker 1: that for my professional career, I mean it's unlimited. My
Speaker 1: sign here joking about are we're gonna get on the
Speaker 1: bus to do this. You know, I'm with whatever. I
Speaker 1: feel like it's gonna take for us to get whatever
Speaker 1: we want. I'm with whatever. And so you know that's
Speaker 1: really my mindset. And you know, when we got arrested
Speaker 1: with the Louisville Lady seven, I would tell people the
Speaker 1: group of men and I was in jail with that's
Speaker 1: what America should be like, should be uh and women.
Speaker 1: Obviously it was more of them, but in myself there
Speaker 1: should be people that don't look alike, to come from
Speaker 1: different backgrounds, that are willing to sacrifice whatever to, you know,
Speaker 1: to get our liberation. And so you know that's really
Speaker 1: my mindset. Being around you guys, being around the rest
Speaker 1: of the group is always therapeutic for me. Kenny Steals,
Speaker 1: our brother uh, we have to have him on the show. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but y'all his season, hopefully they get a couple more
Speaker 1: dubs and he can get a ring. But hopefully the
Speaker 1: Buffalo Bills go all the way. But um, you know,
Speaker 1: we talked about it all the time in our space,
Speaker 1: um and I even hit up trade of truth about
Speaker 1: it invent to him in our space and sports and entertainment.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's a struggle sometimes to be around these
Speaker 1: guys that are so far removed from reality, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. And I spent more time with them
Speaker 1: than I do with my family around y'all, it's therapeutic, man,
Speaker 1: because it's it's here that you get around people like that. Well,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's a blessing for us to and it's
Speaker 1: rare to have people who are authentic as we are, man.
Speaker 1: And you're definitely one of the real ones they say, real, recognized, real,
Speaker 1: and you look familiar, Kings. So we're just want to
Speaker 1: preciate never never, already, well, we appreciate you Earth. You know,
Speaker 1: you know we're gonna be on the road soon. We're
Speaker 1: gonna be doing something, man, so you already know alright,
Speaker 1: peace peace, see listen man, like, that's what it is.
Speaker 1: That's what it's about for me. Man Like brothers like Earth,
Speaker 1: you know that really live a life of service, you know,
Speaker 1: because that's how I live my life. Like when I
Speaker 1: it don't be no reason like people, oh you out here,
Speaker 1: you cloud chasing, don't care. It's like, what does that mean?
Speaker 1: Like I don't even know what that means. I see
Speaker 1: a need like I don't want to see brothers in jail.
Speaker 1: I don't want to see brothers dying. I don't want
Speaker 1: to see people sisters being abused. I don't want justice
Speaker 1: is to continue to just discard us. And in the
Speaker 1: spirit of Black History Month, you know, we want to
Speaker 1: talk about what black kids really means to black people
Speaker 1: and four black people, like I joked at the beginning
Speaker 1: by like, we need to have a whole year, but
Speaker 1: it is significant that we have this month and just
Speaker 1: understanding that we all have some level of responsibility in
Speaker 1: this month. And you know, and I just thought it
Speaker 1: made sense to talk about that after showing his responsibility,
Speaker 1: because we know what that moskin, We know what the
Speaker 1: feet feel like one and thirty eight miles of walking.
Speaker 1: And there's some people that say, what is that gonna
Speaker 1: do well doing nothing absolutely and just gonna do nothing. So,
Speaker 1: you know, I appreciate r. I see Earth's character and
Speaker 1: I know that he really is a leader. There's so
Speaker 1: many UM athletes and others who he may not. You know,
Speaker 1: IRV is not on the floor every night every game,
Speaker 1: he's not sung hero of the NBA. But yet the
Speaker 1: work that he's doing with NBA and NFL players behind
Speaker 1: the scenes, it's so important because we're always like, who
Speaker 1: do you talk to? Like when we hear players say
Speaker 1: the craziest thing you're talking about? Yeah you need you? Like?
Speaker 1: What since it is black history? Like what should people
Speaker 1: be doing? What should we be united? Like? What should
Speaker 1: we be telling people? Well? I already said, you know
Speaker 1: earlier that I think it's an important month to really
Speaker 1: really talk to our kids because so many of our
Speaker 1: young people do not know history. They don't know anything
Speaker 1: about it. And that's also because adults don't know it.
Speaker 1: So one thing that I think people should do is
Speaker 1: by your book, right, Oh yeah, get my book. I
Speaker 1: know my rights, that's right, I know my rights, and
Speaker 1: definitely go pre order to make a Malory's book State
Speaker 1: of Emergency. But but something they can actually get this month.
Speaker 1: My book comes out May eleventh, and I definitely support
Speaker 1: are Absolutely you should buy a lot of people's books
Speaker 1: during Smith Absolutely bevelations, Mark Lamont Hill has a new
Speaker 1: book out. There are a lot of people who we
Speaker 1: should purchase and and by black, as they say, and
Speaker 1: also not just by black, but by black intellectualism right
Speaker 1: trying to learn you something. So I think that's one
Speaker 1: thing I think again, educating yourself and your kids. And
Speaker 1: the reason why I said by your book is because
Speaker 1: one of the things that I noticed, which you know,
Speaker 1: it's really amazing to see how well your book is doing,
Speaker 1: is um it really is. It's and I mean really
Speaker 1: really doing well. And one of the things we see
Speaker 1: is that a lot of parents have purchased the book,
Speaker 1: especially during COVID while they're home with their kids. They're
Speaker 1: trying to give their kids a little bit of extra
Speaker 1: oo and you don't give them things to read, probably
Speaker 1: to keep them out the way a little bit because
Speaker 1: there's a lot being in the house with everybody all
Speaker 1: the time. But they're learning also, and you see parents
Speaker 1: writing in the comments. I bought the book my kids,
Speaker 1: we read it together and I learned as they were learning,
Speaker 1: So I think that's important. I also think you know,
Speaker 1: something is simple. It's simple. It might seem a little
Speaker 1: like okay, yeah to Amica. Fix some things with people
Speaker 1: that you know that you work with, or other organizations
Speaker 1: that you might have. You know, people who you know
Speaker 1: you might not be working with that you know. You
Speaker 1: should try to see whether or not this is a
Speaker 1: good time that there's some relationships you just can't restore.
Speaker 1: Some people you just got to leave them alone and
Speaker 1: it's best for you and them. But there are some relationships,
Speaker 1: and I'm speaking of professional relationship, but this applies to
Speaker 1: all relationships that this is a good time to have
Speaker 1: a kind word um to make sure that black people
Speaker 1: in general, that we we have some level of peace
Speaker 1: among us, whatever that means. Relationships take on different things.
Speaker 1: You may have left the job, you may not nest
Speaker 1: to severely be working with the particular group of people.
Speaker 1: You may have had to exit a movement, but it
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that the relationship has to be so bad
Speaker 1: that you're now out speaking negatively against one another, you know,
Speaker 1: publicly doing things that harms other people and the movement.
Speaker 1: So I know that might you know, be something that's
Speaker 1: kind of like as corny, but it's actually important. We
Speaker 1: were going through too much like when we look at
Speaker 1: the insurrection and we look at how that transpired, right,
Speaker 1: and most most of us realized that that wasn't our situation.
Speaker 1: You know, stand back, stand by, let them deal with
Speaker 1: their own issues like we had to deal with ours
Speaker 1: and you know, chickens coming home and ruce. But in
Speaker 1: this moment, right, we should be unifying under something else
Speaker 1: because even though we know that particular situation doesn't have
Speaker 1: anything to do us, the fallouts from these situations will
Speaker 1: definitely affect us as black because we look at you know,
Speaker 1: how the white suprema to see it's now waging war, right,
Speaker 1: even though it's waging war on its own government that
Speaker 1: created it, and it's coming, you know, and they have
Speaker 1: to deal with that. But we know ultimately when when
Speaker 1: they get a cold, we get pneumonia. Right, So we
Speaker 1: have to be uniuniting right now. We have to say
Speaker 1: what is our strategy because effectively these things that you know,
Speaker 1: the ramifications of what happened there, will come to our communities,
Speaker 1: will come to our homes, will come to our doors,
Speaker 1: or come in our taxes, whatever it is, it's gonna
Speaker 1: come to us. So we have to be figuring out
Speaker 1: how do we unify, how do we strategize, how do
Speaker 1: we build, how we building black empowerment, how we building
Speaker 1: black businesses, entrepreneurship, how we educating our own, how we
Speaker 1: creating a structure within this structure that we are self
Speaker 1: sustainable because because Romans followed, Because when we look at this,
Speaker 1: you know, empires fall all the time, and this is
Speaker 1: what we're seeing right now. We're seeing the fall of
Speaker 1: an empire, and there's going to be a new structure,
Speaker 1: and we have to be able to make sure that
Speaker 1: we've created instructure OVID. We've been saying it will the country,
Speaker 1: the world will never be the same, right, so there
Speaker 1: is going to be some difference, right that it will
Speaker 1: come out of all that we have seen happening over
Speaker 1: these last too. I don't know it's been so long
Speaker 1: at this point. I don't know it's been forever, but
Speaker 1: it really has been this four year period where we
Speaker 1: have learned about the vulnerabilities of this country. We also
Speaker 1: have learned how much hatred is really out there, because
Speaker 1: there were a lot of people who up until about
Speaker 1: George Floyd, maybe a little bit before that, they just
Speaker 1: really acted like they didn't know. And I'm talking my
Speaker 1: folks who look like us. I don't really think they
Speaker 1: were acting because, you know what, prior to me getting
Speaker 1: into this movement, to me, like probably eight years ago,
Speaker 1: like I didn't understand, like I didn't know what was
Speaker 1: going on. I was in my own silo. It was
Speaker 1: in my own in the hood, trying to figure out
Speaker 1: how I was gonna do this, how it's gonna wrap,
Speaker 1: how it's gonna do things, and how it was going
Speaker 1: to Uh. You know, I always knew I wanted the
Speaker 1: right thing. I would see people dying, but I don't
Speaker 1: think until Trade Lawnmartin it actually made me pay attention,
Speaker 1: you know. So there are a lot of people that
Speaker 1: really just don't don't know. They don't know. And you know,
Speaker 1: one of the things that happened, I posted that we
Speaker 1: as black folks need to stand back and stand by
Speaker 1: during that. I obviously we got that from the guy,
Speaker 1: and so I said, we need to do that and
Speaker 1: not get involved in these people's business because I believe
Speaker 1: that white folks were having a throw in a tantrum
Speaker 1: and we need to not be We don't need to
Speaker 1: always handle the burden of everybody else's fight. We just
Speaker 1: can't do it every time. But people, some folks took
Speaker 1: it the wrong way and said, oh no, we can't
Speaker 1: just you know, ignore it. We still have to deal
Speaker 1: We know, absolutely we have to deal with the issues. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: there will be a fallout. And it's not even a fallout,
Speaker 1: it's a front end, right. And what the reason why
Speaker 1: I said it is because when I think about the men,
Speaker 1: the red men responsible for killing Ahmad are very they
Speaker 1: are the insurrectionists, the patriots, those because they believe that
Speaker 1: they are the right to kill him. They believe that he,
Speaker 1: this black man, should not be going through our community unchecked,
Speaker 1: and I should be able to have a citizen's arrest.
Speaker 1: And he's supposed to listen to me. He supposed to
Speaker 1: do what I say, and he's not supposed to give
Speaker 1: any resistance. And if he gives resistance to what I say,
Speaker 1: I have the right to kill him, because that's what
Speaker 1: white supremacy teaches. I don't know, I feel like, yes,
Speaker 1: we have to pay attention, but I actually think it's
Speaker 1: a different moment. I think this is a moment that
Speaker 1: we need to like slide under the radar, and focus
Speaker 1: on our own plane exactly that plans, because they're not
Speaker 1: really paying attention that much to us at this moment,
Speaker 1: and they're more they're caught up in what's on news
Speaker 1: and with what's gonna happen with impeachments and this and
Speaker 1: that and all of those things. Is the is the
Speaker 1: the mainline focus. And while they're focusing on those things,
Speaker 1: we need to be focusing on some of the plans,
Speaker 1: the brilliant plans that are out there about building our
Speaker 1: own structures, as you said, creating a structure within a structure,
Speaker 1: um figuring out ways to ensure that our children have
Speaker 1: the knowledge that they need not just to be a
Speaker 1: good and successful but also to be black, like black
Speaker 1: and black. And that that's why we developed like until
Speaker 1: Freedom Right, because we've seen a need, We've seen a
Speaker 1: need in this movement where people like myself didn't feel included.
Speaker 1: We didn't feel that, you know, we represented what the
Speaker 1: movement looked like. We didn't come from Ivy League, you know,
Speaker 1: we didn't have this. See I've been in the movement
Speaker 1: for so long that I never really agree with you
Speaker 1: about this, But for now, that's what I see. But
Speaker 1: that's what we see or or or you have a
Speaker 1: church background or everything that you you're done is is quoted.
Speaker 1: You look at our leaders, Dr King. You know, Malcolm
Speaker 1: X had a religious back if you don't come from
Speaker 1: any of these kind of backgrounds. But when he was
Speaker 1: in we didn't know that. Most of us just thought
Speaker 1: Marcolm Mix was this this intelligent black man who represented
Speaker 1: the nation Islam, you know, and he was a brilliant speaker,
Speaker 1: the brilliant man. And some of us were just regular
Speaker 1: dudes from the hood that we knew a couple of words,
Speaker 1: We can wrap a little bit, play a little ball,
Speaker 1: and we had passion in us and we wanted to
Speaker 1: do things. We just didn't feel like we was embrace
Speaker 1: And that's what I think. Until freedom was for me,
Speaker 1: it wasn't. I don't but you sign this excuse, but
Speaker 1: I'm telling you that it was a real It's a
Speaker 1: real concern. Now I got dudes, rappers and everything that
Speaker 1: hit me up and say, yo, I'll be wanting to
Speaker 1: be out there, but I know I'll be doing this
Speaker 1: and I don't want to look like a hypocrite. I'm like,
Speaker 1: what does that mean? What did you do? What you wrap?
Speaker 1: You talk about with your reality that you've been through,
Speaker 1: so you can you can't wrap and not want to
Speaker 1: see if people die. At the same time, again, I
Speaker 1: been in the movement longer than you. I have a
Speaker 1: twenty five year track record of being able to see
Speaker 1: and understand the movement, but I have more years, thirty
Speaker 1: plus years of just being around. The movement has always
Speaker 1: been made up of people who are just as broken
Speaker 1: as the next person. People who are alcoholics, drug abuses,
Speaker 1: people who have broken marriages, people who didn't finish school, um,
Speaker 1: you know, people who came out of prison. All those
Speaker 1: things have always been in the movement. The difference between
Speaker 1: then and now is that we're social Media Number one
Speaker 1: allows you to show more of yourself in your life,
Speaker 1: and if you go on there and you're trying to
Speaker 1: hide certain things about yourself, people can see through it.
Speaker 1: So authenticity has become much more of a front and
Speaker 1: center piece for organizing and galvanizing people. So I think
Speaker 1: what until Freedom is wing that is different from me
Speaker 1: movements of the past. It's not that we're different as
Speaker 1: individuals as those who came you know, as I said,
Speaker 1: Red was red right, So it's not that weird different.
Speaker 1: What we are is being more authentic about who we
Speaker 1: really are and our failures and our and and the
Speaker 1: things like I always talk about. I like to twork,
Speaker 1: I'm not perfect. I drink, I do things, you know,
Speaker 1: And those were things that that was hidden in the
Speaker 1: movement in the PA. They did it behind closed doors,
Speaker 1: and we want to do it. I don't want to
Speaker 1: do it behind clues. You know, you know I don't.
Speaker 1: I want to be I want to be accepted. I
Speaker 1: want to be able to go from a strip club
Speaker 1: to the march. And I have somebody called me hyocrits.
Speaker 1: I hope you don't go from this strip club from
Speaker 1: I don't want to be between the strip club and
Speaker 1: the march. There needs to be some showering sometimes the
Speaker 1: times sometimes the marches. You need to leave after all
Speaker 1: of that. But the bottom line is, you know, that's
Speaker 1: what that's what the stripple wants your march sweaties thinking
Speaker 1: self from the street on her Yeah, yeah, she doesn't.
Speaker 1: She don't want it, and we don't want to see
Speaker 1: you when you come from her and her sweaties. Thinking.
Speaker 1: Bottom line is, man, we want to have a good
Speaker 1: time and still be at the fight for freedom. And
Speaker 1: I think until freedom represents the least of these, those
Speaker 1: who have been casted out from those who from the
Speaker 1: streets to the sweets, as we like to say, man.
Speaker 1: And that's what and so what does the future What
Speaker 1: do you think the future goal should be for black people?
Speaker 1: I think that we have to have a real clear
Speaker 1: and broad understanding of reparations what that means um for
Speaker 1: our communities, because people say reparations, and many people as
Speaker 1: soon as we hear reparations, we think dollars and cents,
Speaker 1: the forty acres in the mile, and we should we
Speaker 1: should have land. We should have land. We should have
Speaker 1: a check. And because we still haven't cash to check.
Speaker 1: Dr King says to check with say it was coming forward,
Speaker 1: and he said the check was insufficient, had insufficient funds.
Speaker 1: So the check is important. And by the way, Joe
Speaker 1: Biden needs to write them two thousand dollar checks. Okay,
Speaker 1: you know right there, two thousand dollars, and don't send
Speaker 1: fourteen hundred more, send the whole two. I try to
Speaker 1: check the six hundred thousand. I'm really concerned about whether
Speaker 1: or not I'm supposed to get that all the ppe
Speaker 1: you know, I ain't got nothing. Well anyway, I got
Speaker 1: me a check the six dollars, and I'm really happy
Speaker 1: to have I needed it. People telling me I could
Speaker 1: get it at you good? You know, you go the
Speaker 1: hood everything. Like listen, I'm telling you get you about
Speaker 1: twenty rap right now. I'm telling you. What you gotta
Speaker 1: do is go fill out the phone a business so
Speaker 1: you could do that. I when I got my six
Speaker 1: hundred checked, I was like, WHOA. But if I would
Speaker 1: have received that little two thousand, that's good. So they
Speaker 1: need to just go on scratch that. Don't worry about that,
Speaker 1: just send another two thousand. I'll check out anyway. Most
Speaker 1: people when they hear reparations, they think about cash money um,
Speaker 1: and they obviously think about you know, land and ownership
Speaker 1: and and really basically paying us back for what we've
Speaker 1: been through and being held back and held down and
Speaker 1: in this country. But reparations to me means other things.
Speaker 1: It also means ensuring that the laws are set up
Speaker 1: in a way that provides equity to our communities. It
Speaker 1: means things like retroactively looking at sentencing laws and guidelines
Speaker 1: and going back and allowing people especially we talked about
Speaker 1: Gloria Taylor, a woman who's in prison for nine and
Speaker 1: ninety nine years for selling a handful of cocaine. These
Speaker 1: are things that we want to see changes made and
Speaker 1: people allowed to be free to go back to the allives,
Speaker 1: back to their families. No elder should be imprisoned if
Speaker 1: they didn't commit a heinous crime fact, especially for drug
Speaker 1: dealing or drug abuse, because there are still people in
Speaker 1: prison not for selling drugs, but for an act that
Speaker 1: they may have committed that did not include murder or
Speaker 1: rape or anything like that when they were using drugs,
Speaker 1: which is now considered to be a sickness because white
Speaker 1: people are on opioid absolutely, and so we want to
Speaker 1: see that, you know, our people are letting our people go. Um.
Speaker 1: That should be a part of the reparations plan um
Speaker 1: and you know, and reparations let let our people go.
Speaker 1: Joe Biden's black, black and voice, now you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, he should definitely want to contribute to let
Speaker 1: my people. Will you have a lot of people we
Speaker 1: talked about that exactly, So listen to me. I want
Speaker 1: you to understand I am not blind or ignorant to
Speaker 1: the fact of the harm that was caused to black
Speaker 1: people by this administration. You know, So when when i'm
Speaker 1: individuals within the well individuals, when I'm well the administration, individuals,
Speaker 1: the president, the head of present president, and vice president,
Speaker 1: they have contributed to the locking up of black bodies.
Speaker 1: That is a fact. I don't there's nowhere around it.
Speaker 1: But I believe that they have more in store and
Speaker 1: more of a forward path for black people then peach Man.
Speaker 1: And that's what I said, And I said that we
Speaker 1: were going to push them, for we were. He had
Speaker 1: say that, you know, people were piste off with us
Speaker 1: because we were, like, you know, to the preachers right
Speaker 1: that went to go meet with Trump many many years back,
Speaker 1: or to some of them, some of the singers, you
Speaker 1: know that we're we're out there flirting with Trump, and
Speaker 1: I don't mean that in a sexual way, but you know,
Speaker 1: trying to be his friend, performing at his events. And
Speaker 1: and we challenged them every time it came up. We
Speaker 1: challenged them, and people said, you can meet with anybody
Speaker 1: now that we see what happened with the insurrection and
Speaker 1: the way that he actually led slaughter because they were
Speaker 1: out there slaughtering, that's what they were doing, beating people
Speaker 1: with flags, dragging them, crushing people, all of those things,
Speaker 1: now that you see that, do you think you should
Speaker 1: have given that man your time? You think you should
Speaker 1: have sat down to meet with that man. We knew
Speaker 1: that was he, someone said on my page the other day,
Speaker 1: which I thought was absolutely hilarious because I was like,
Speaker 1: we already knew this. You know, this is after the
Speaker 1: insurrection um and I said, I said, I said, we
Speaker 1: knew this. I was on Live. I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: he's been racist, he's been sexists, he was always harmful.
Speaker 1: We knew it. And the person wrote, he came down
Speaker 1: the escalator, grabbing Coody and speaking and speaking violently. And
Speaker 1: that's a fact. The escalator For people who don't remember,
Speaker 1: when he was running for president, after announcing that he
Speaker 1: was running for president, there was a moment where Donald
Speaker 1: Trump and Milania Trump were coming down the escalator at
Speaker 1: the Trump Towers in Manhattan, and he at that moment
Speaker 1: was talking about the Mexicans. He was being divisive off
Speaker 1: the back. He was saying the nastiest things that day.
Speaker 1: I don't remember the exact words, he said. I'm sure
Speaker 1: we can find it and play the clip from him
Speaker 1: coming down the escalator. But to the person on my
Speaker 1: pages point, he was grabbing coody and talking crazy from
Speaker 1: that moment all the way through his campaign. So once
Speaker 1: he became president, he didn't just change, and in fact,
Speaker 1: for the last four years he literally has been working
Speaker 1: on and planning and being very intentional about organizing a
Speaker 1: cult of individuals and being able to use their vulnerabilities,
Speaker 1: weaknesses and their dumbass, ignorant cells to challenge this country
Speaker 1: for his benefit because he does not care about them.
Speaker 1: How do you care about people that you allow to
Speaker 1: go get themselves now locked up? People don't lost their jobs,
Speaker 1: CEOs have been fired by their boards. You don't care
Speaker 1: about anybody that you allowed to go do that in
Speaker 1: your honor? You can't because the bottom line is Trump
Speaker 1: has always been about Trump, you know, and not not
Speaker 1: only white supremacy, but narcissism is one of his biggest
Speaker 1: attributes in his mind, like his not caring about what
Speaker 1: you think and how it affects people, you know, has
Speaker 1: got him to a place that he feels is successful.
Speaker 1: In the same thing that got him there is the
Speaker 1: same thing that has taken it away to destroy him.
Speaker 1: And I thought blue lives matter to happen. Where's the
Speaker 1: blue lives matter? People? Man? People don't kill the people
Speaker 1: killed the officers. Yeah, we're like, where's the blue lives matter?
Speaker 1: When black people was out there and they said that
Speaker 1: somebody did anything that closely remotely looked like standing in
Speaker 1: front of me hurting it was blue lives matter, they
Speaker 1: stood up, they turned their backs on governors and mays
Speaker 1: and said this and that we we can't take this.
Speaker 1: Where are the blue lives matter? And I thought Trump
Speaker 1: was a Blue Lives Matter person, so he really should
Speaker 1: be out there condemning Blue lives only matter when it's
Speaker 1: black lives you kill, kill And that brings me to
Speaker 1: what I don't get. What don't you get, sir? You know?
Speaker 1: And in the spirit of Black history moth, what I
Speaker 1: really don't get right is how you can be a
Speaker 1: black person with any level of influence, any level of notoriety, financials,
Speaker 1: you know, surplus, and not see the need to do
Speaker 1: something to help our culture and help out people like
Speaker 1: it's it's so strange to me when I see brothers
Speaker 1: like Earth, you know, brothers like trade, brothers that's on
Speaker 1: the front line, that's willing to sacrifice something all the time.
Speaker 1: They don't have as much, don't have as much reach
Speaker 1: don't have as much influence, don't have as much finances,
Speaker 1: anything willing to really put their lives on the front
Speaker 1: line for our people. And it's people who have surplus
Speaker 1: that don't want to risk anything. How do you sit
Speaker 1: how do they don't even want to contribute to they're scared,
Speaker 1: like they just don't care. But I don't understand how
Speaker 1: as somebody who's been through it, who understands the struggle
Speaker 1: that black people are, who knows who probably went through
Speaker 1: the exact struggle, who come from the same humble beginnings
Speaker 1: as most of us come from, how do you not
Speaker 1: see the need in this moment to utilize everything you
Speaker 1: have to ensure that we don't go back to that
Speaker 1: that we evolved past, that we actually get equity, actually
Speaker 1: get equality. How do you sleep at night knowing that
Speaker 1: you ain't this ship? Like, how do you do? I
Speaker 1: get that? I get it? And it's a simple answer
Speaker 1: for me. They know that there are some of us
Speaker 1: that are going to fight on their behalf because everything
Speaker 1: they have came from someone else's blood, and so they
Speaker 1: don't really see a need to step in and do
Speaker 1: anything because they are leaning on the backs of Big
Speaker 1: Mama and Big Papa, who have been carrying them through
Speaker 1: that everything they ever have, every type of uh, every
Speaker 1: bit of their success is based upon the sweat equity
Speaker 1: of those who came before them, and therefore they don't
Speaker 1: see a need. They don't understand the importance of getting involved,
Speaker 1: because why do that when somebody's gonna feed somebody's gonna
Speaker 1: feed your empire with the bottom line is you can push,
Speaker 1: you can can you can feed your own empire and
Speaker 1: create a legacy, you can change. You actually have. You
Speaker 1: are your ancestors, wildest dreams, your ancestors, and when you
Speaker 1: look at history, people actually when because people say this,
Speaker 1: you know it's cliche, people died for you to get
Speaker 1: with you, but this is they literally died for you
Speaker 1: to get opportunities that to be able to be financially
Speaker 1: stable and have excess amount of money and have access
Speaker 1: and have people pay attention and listen to what you're saying.
Speaker 1: Like I'm not saying, dedicate your whole life to this
Speaker 1: movement or civil rights or just to you know, the
Speaker 1: elevation of black people. But take some part of your life,
Speaker 1: take some part of what you have, your voice, your
Speaker 1: finance is something, and give to the elevation of the people.
Speaker 1: This especially in Black history money. I think if you
Speaker 1: are a black person in Black history money and you
Speaker 1: and you have the ability to elevate this culture, to
Speaker 1: push your people, to give them more access, more resources,
Speaker 1: more anything, and you don't do it, then you like,
Speaker 1: what are you what are you doing? What are you
Speaker 1: really doing? I absolutely agree, you know, I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't respect anyone who's not engaged in some way, shape
Speaker 1: or form. And you don't have to be on the
Speaker 1: front line, but you certainly need. You need to be
Speaker 1: on the line. You need to be in line, line
Speaker 1: in line. Well, listen, the number one show in the world,
Speaker 1: the number one. We had another dope show, another dope
Speaker 1: number one podcast to existence number one. Make sure you
Speaker 1: tune in top top. We better than everybody in the world.
Speaker 1: There's no podcast ever better than us. Listen, I'm happy
Speaker 1: that we had this this Black History Month. It's been good.
Speaker 1: And you know, street Politicians is the thing people are
Speaker 1: starting to You don't hit me up and say, yo,
Speaker 1: I've been watching the shows. You guys are talking about
Speaker 1: good topics and they have been giving us critical feedback.
Speaker 1: My sister Sharon is the number one, but it's all good.
Speaker 1: But you know when she liked and she like, I
Speaker 1: like you, and she likes it, but she don't like it,
Speaker 1: She's like, no, they gotta gotta fix this, fix this.
Speaker 1: The lights need to be here. I'm wrong, but when
Speaker 1: y'all didn't have good energy, shon, we got we got it.
Speaker 1: So listen once again, I'm not gonna always be right.
Speaker 1: Tamika is not gonna always be wrong, not always, but
Speaker 1: we will both always I mean always. I promise you
Speaker 1: always be authentic. Thanks for joining street politicians Black History Month.
Speaker 1: You don't have the right to do nothing. Peace