Speaker 1: What's a family, it's your girl to me, told Mallory,
Speaker 1: it's your boy like son and children, and we're your
Speaker 1: hosts of street politicians the place the streets and politicians.
Speaker 1: What's going on my son, Lennon, what's going on with you?
Speaker 1: To Maka Malory well as well. Still on the road,
Speaker 1: we've been um in Georgia with some with families such
Speaker 1: it was like, even though I mean it's the win
Speaker 1: of uh, you know for Senator Warnot, feels even better
Speaker 1: because of like getting there and seeing so many of
Speaker 1: our family members, people that worked with every day and
Speaker 1: how hard they were pushing on the ground. I mean,
Speaker 1: people really did some expensive work. And I was talking
Speaker 1: about it. I know people said I was being negative, Betty,
Speaker 1: but it needed to be said. UM. But I thought that,
Speaker 1: you know, when de pundits were on the news the
Speaker 1: night of the election, um, and when you know people
Speaker 1: are online saying, you know, celebrating all those who were responsible.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to make sure that we never forget
Speaker 1: the the the organizers, the people like Black Voters Matter,
Speaker 1: you know, Georgia Voter Project, Uh. Who else? Melanie Campbell
Speaker 1: and National National Coalition of Black Civic participation, you know.
Speaker 1: And I don't even want to get in trouble for
Speaker 1: leaving people out. But there was so many faces, so
Speaker 1: many individuals, revenue, all Priyant bonds, Worth, ventlely, um, you know, sororities, fraternities,
Speaker 1: so many people on the ground who were there to
Speaker 1: ensure that herschel Walker did not become a United States
Speaker 1: Senator and to ensure that Reverend were not kept to see.
Speaker 1: And I thought, I just, you know, if the wind
Speaker 1: feels better knowing that America has to over and over
Speaker 1: and over and over again acknowledge, even if it doesn't
Speaker 1: want to say it out loud, the power of black
Speaker 1: people and the power of black organizing. Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: the thing, you know, um, being on the ground, just
Speaker 1: feeling the energy, watching the youth like I'm just most
Speaker 1: impressed by you, you know, the way that they've been organized,
Speaker 1: in the way that they've understand the moment and understand
Speaker 1: how seriousness was, and seeing so many of them come out.
Speaker 1: And you know, I've seen um youth from New York
Speaker 1: come down here to help, you know, organize. I've seen
Speaker 1: youth all over the world understood that Atlanta was like
Speaker 1: ground zero at the moment, you know, and and and
Speaker 1: if you went to social media to express you know,
Speaker 1: how it was definitely the voice and the organizations of
Speaker 1: black people that got this done. It wasn't just you know,
Speaker 1: like you said, it wasn't the Democratic Party. Wasn't that
Speaker 1: it did. It was the fact that grassroots organizers and
Speaker 1: black young and old and you know, in between everybody.
Speaker 1: Guddy and everybody understood this moment it came up, and
Speaker 1: you know, and I went to social media and just
Speaker 1: expressed my disdain for the fact that the GOP had
Speaker 1: the unmitigated goal to even put hershel walk up there.
Speaker 1: And I think that was one of the things I think,
Speaker 1: I think especially black men. Black men were insulted. You
Speaker 1: know that this is this is the person that she
Speaker 1: was gonna have as a representative of us, and you
Speaker 1: thought that she'd be just because he played football and
Speaker 1: he was a legend of football and he had a
Speaker 1: celebrity status that he were ignorant enough to vote for
Speaker 1: someone who definitely wasn't it. It's not capable of leading,
Speaker 1: you know, that they didn't deserve you see, that wasn't
Speaker 1: even eligible enough, that didn't even have a platform, that
Speaker 1: didn't have anything that he ran on other than he
Speaker 1: was herstual walker. And you know, and I think that
Speaker 1: that that's one of the things that made me realize
Speaker 1: that as black men, we have to be a lot
Speaker 1: more assertive. We have to let our voices. We heard.
Speaker 1: A lot of us are doing a lot of work,
Speaker 1: you know, on the ground, in the office, everywhere. But
Speaker 1: I think it's time for us to step up in
Speaker 1: a major way. Like I always say, I've watched a
Speaker 1: lot of black women, especially in this space, do so
Speaker 1: many things organized. You know, um speak up even when
Speaker 1: we're outside. I tell all the time, it's it's more
Speaker 1: women than it is men up. So I always I
Speaker 1: always do this for me. It's called out myself, not
Speaker 1: just black men. But I called out myself and I
Speaker 1: say we I don't just say y'all. I said, we
Speaker 1: have to do better. We have to make sure that
Speaker 1: we're representing popularly, and we have to make sure that
Speaker 1: bro know that we understand when you're trying to you know,
Speaker 1: m hmm, yeah. I mean, you know, black men should
Speaker 1: have been insulted or should be insulted. And I think
Speaker 1: black people in general, you know, first of all, we
Speaker 1: literally are fatigue, like hell as a people just by
Speaker 1: all the stuff that we see, you know, the media constantly,
Speaker 1: constantly attacking us. There's so much division that is being
Speaker 1: created between uh, different segments of our community because folks
Speaker 1: are uh, you know, there are there are issues that
Speaker 1: some of us care more about than others. So some
Speaker 1: people feel like, well, the administration is doing a great
Speaker 1: job in this area, and then there's other people are like, no,
Speaker 1: you know, there's more that needs to be done, particularly
Speaker 1: around the issue of policing, and it's you know, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of back and forth. So you're dealing with
Speaker 1: that all the time, trying to make decisions about what
Speaker 1: you trust, what you don't trust, you know, how you
Speaker 1: feel about the system. You are also dealing with life
Speaker 1: as everybody, not just black folks, but we as a society.
Speaker 1: We're dealing with life. And it's a lot of fatigue
Speaker 1: to have people going back and forth to vote. You know,
Speaker 1: it's already hard enough to get you out the first time,
Speaker 1: but to have to turn around and be back out
Speaker 1: there for a runoff is not an easy thing to
Speaker 1: make happen. And you know, especially if I feel like
Speaker 1: if the Republican Party had enough respect for black people,
Speaker 1: and for itself, they would have ran a candidate or
Speaker 1: they would have run a candidate that is much more
Speaker 1: qualified uh than herschel Walker. And if they did that,
Speaker 1: it may have actually been a different outcome because of
Speaker 1: the numbers. You know, the numbers telling and a lot
Speaker 1: of people people said, well that means that you you know,
Speaker 1: you think black people would have just would have voted
Speaker 1: for the Republican candidate. No, but people would have stayed
Speaker 1: home if they didn't watch the news every single day
Speaker 1: and see there was a crisis happening, like this was
Speaker 1: a crisis scenario. People were watching that, like this is
Speaker 1: a meltdown of someone who clearly has challenges um and
Speaker 1: and he can't be the senator. Not to mention that
Speaker 1: he was his his platform, it's anti most thing or
Speaker 1: anti things that most of us as black folks want
Speaker 1: to see happen in this country. So you know, it
Speaker 1: just it's it's a it's a funny time where we
Speaker 1: really have to have do some serious reflection on where
Speaker 1: we are because the numbers continue to show us that
Speaker 1: this country is so divided it's a dangerous place. Is
Speaker 1: actually pretty outrageous that we even had a runoff, and
Speaker 1: that which I did see that it closed somewhere around
Speaker 1: a hunt a thousand votes, and I don't know that
Speaker 1: was yesterday a hundred thousand votes. Um. Warnock was up. Um.
Speaker 1: And so hopefully by the time we look at the numbers,
Speaker 1: it grows even more, you know, towards the end of
Speaker 1: the week, um, you know, or by and whenever, we
Speaker 1: will see that the numbers are even stronger because the
Speaker 1: percentage point of how close they were, it's it's it's
Speaker 1: it's a scary place. It's a scary place. So, you know,
Speaker 1: hopefully anyway, But so in other outrageous news, but ln
Speaker 1: Ciaga is a little out here, like you know, I
Speaker 1: didn't have time. First of all, I was just um,
Speaker 1: you know, there was so much going on. It's like
Speaker 1: again social media and media, it's like every day stuff
Speaker 1: is popping, popping, popping. So I kept seeing something happened
Speaker 1: with Valenciaga. I'm not like a big Valenciaga person, you know.
Speaker 1: I have a couple of things, but it's not like
Speaker 1: something I really really and like, oh when the newest
Speaker 1: such and such comes out, I'm gonna running get it.
Speaker 1: So it's not it wasn't really important to me. But
Speaker 1: then I started seeing stuff about children sack and we
Speaker 1: were talking about this last week a little bit, and
Speaker 1: I still wasn't all the way up to speak. And
Speaker 1: then as we were traveling, I really took the time
Speaker 1: to read and start like digging into it. And it's like,
Speaker 1: this is some weird, weird child thing something. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't know if this I don't know if you
Speaker 1: call it. It's all abuse, but like sacrificing and then
Speaker 1: the gods of children's sacrifice, and then it's like some
Speaker 1: straight weird, weird those stuff, and I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm just you know, it's no way. And now we
Speaker 1: see that Balenciaga dropped their lawsuit against the creative directors.
Speaker 1: You have to because no matter what, the buck stops
Speaker 1: with you. It's like me choosing to sue somebody on
Speaker 1: on on our staff and until freedom that I already
Speaker 1: approved whatever they was doing and or haven't done the
Speaker 1: research to know that this person is actually a racist
Speaker 1: or a rapist or you know, or something. When it's
Speaker 1: out there, it's different if you don't know, you know
Speaker 1: that nobody knows, that the world doesn't know it. But
Speaker 1: if you've been If you are a person who is
Speaker 1: on our staff and your Instagram or your social media
Speaker 1: is why open and you're promoting child pornography, that's my
Speaker 1: responsibility to know it definitely is your responsibility. Know if
Speaker 1: when you run an organization, when you run a corporation,
Speaker 1: you know, you're supposed to know, and I and I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't believe they didn't know. I think when you
Speaker 1: look at when you look at the history of this,
Speaker 1: you know it's dating back. When you start showing you
Speaker 1: and you start unraveling and you look at these things,
Speaker 1: it shows you there's a history of these things that's
Speaker 1: been going on. It's like, how did it? Plain sight?
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of it. This this, this, this
Speaker 1: is under underground world that they believe in these things.
Speaker 1: You know, we were not involved in that world, so
Speaker 1: we don't we don't pay attention. We don't know what
Speaker 1: these dogs with the chains is. We don't know what
Speaker 1: these little hidden meetings are. So when when people who
Speaker 1: do know start uncovering, and some people probably who actually
Speaker 1: are part of it, you know, decided they're gonna ring
Speaker 1: the bell, you know, and and that's what happened. That's
Speaker 1: what all all of this happened. They've been doing these things.
Speaker 1: You know when you look at um a lot of
Speaker 1: the staff and then then pointing out these things, you're
Speaker 1: like that this is a history, this is this is
Speaker 1: a lifestyle these people have left. You know, I'm not
Speaker 1: a Valencia. I'm not really never been. I got one
Speaker 1: Valenciaga shirt that I'll never wear again. So you know,
Speaker 1: I think, and a lot of people, oh, you ain't
Speaker 1: saying that about Valencia. I'm like, what we see what
Speaker 1: it is said? What do we gotta say about Balency?
Speaker 1: I don't wear Bulsia, you know what. A lot of
Speaker 1: times people want you to say what they want you
Speaker 1: to say. I talk about black ship, the things that's
Speaker 1: going on in our community, things that's going on, the
Speaker 1: hip hop and the culture, the violence in our community,
Speaker 1: you know, the things, the negative you know, people inside
Speaker 1: of our community, I know are detrimental to black people.
Speaker 1: Those are the things I speak about most of the time.
Speaker 1: But when you you know, I didn't think that those
Speaker 1: underworld that's that's what white people have been doing. Some
Speaker 1: of the white people been doing that. Well, I'm not
Speaker 1: saying all white people were very very clear to say
Speaker 1: that's what some of these white people have been doing. Okay,
Speaker 1: what I'm trying to tell you is that culture when
Speaker 1: you look at when you go from Epstein and you
Speaker 1: go to all of this ship, this is ship that
Speaker 1: they've been doing that. It's not ship that I even
Speaker 1: know that. It's comes into my culture, into my life.
Speaker 1: It's not a reality in my life. It's not something
Speaker 1: that not even identified with. I've never had a conversation
Speaker 1: with somebody who was into those things. I don't know
Speaker 1: anything about it. So me talking about it, it's like,
Speaker 1: what am I saying? I don't funk with pedophiles and people.
Speaker 1: You know, when they were talking about Kelly was working
Speaker 1: a little Girls. I had a conversation on it because Kelly,
Speaker 1: it's inside of my culture and I know that the
Speaker 1: these little girls you told about with young black girls
Speaker 1: that didn't have anything that we didn't understand none of this.
Speaker 1: So people want me to talk about Biliscia out and
Speaker 1: I was like, well, I don't really, it's nothing for me.
Speaker 1: Y'are seeing it. Y'all know exactly what's going on. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So that was that was my point.
Speaker 1: There's a there's a difference between Valenciaga and Nike period.
Speaker 1: Like you said, Nike is something that is in our culture.
Speaker 1: You have millions, and we talked about this last week,
Speaker 1: so it's not anything new. But you know, I now
Speaker 1: have done some research and I'm like wow. And the
Speaker 1: thing I'm like really trying to figure out is, I
Speaker 1: know there's diet product, which is one of those um
Speaker 1: Instagram pages that you could go and learn things about brands.
Speaker 1: But I'm trying to figure out where else do we
Speaker 1: go to like research some of the things about you know,
Speaker 1: products that we buy, not just things you wear, it's
Speaker 1: things in your house, it's companies all around us every
Speaker 1: single day, places where we eat, people we are in
Speaker 1: relationship to businesses we support. And I don't know how
Speaker 1: you I guess there's no way. I guess you find
Speaker 1: out in times of controversy and then at that point,
Speaker 1: you know, and of course one of the more important
Speaker 1: things is to try to support your own as much
Speaker 1: as possible, which we agree with. I found the stress
Speaker 1: that I love, UM that I wore on this this
Speaker 1: past Sunday to an event, and UM it's a black
Speaker 1: owned designer. You know, I'm like, wow, it's wonderful. To
Speaker 1: find designers that are um, you know, affordable somewhat because
Speaker 1: it was a nice old penny, but still it was
Speaker 1: in my price range, and it's good quality, good customer service,
Speaker 1: all of that. So I think increasing the support for
Speaker 1: our brands, um you know, making sure that we target
Speaker 1: our own first is important. I do want to push
Speaker 1: back on one point though. Yes, I know that the
Speaker 1: culture you're talking about culture, and that's what you were
Speaker 1: saying culture, culture is largely that white people participate in
Speaker 1: this child sacrifice and behavior. But then you said, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't really, I don't mess with pedophiles anyway. And
Speaker 1: I just want to say for black girls everywhere, there
Speaker 1: are black pedophiles. And they're not just men. There are
Speaker 1: women too that are pedophiles. It is something that exists
Speaker 1: within our culture, in our community. Rather in our community,
Speaker 1: there are people who take advantage of kids in every
Speaker 1: single race. And so, yes, that the sacrifice and stuff
Speaker 1: and and and like the degree to which there this
Speaker 1: thing looks because we don't know what we do know
Speaker 1: right now, And I'm just trying to be careful because
Speaker 1: I still don't. Like. I found some stuff that I
Speaker 1: was reading and I'm like oh my god, can't believe it.
Speaker 1: And then when I did some deep research, I found
Speaker 1: out that it wasn't true. So the internet is also
Speaker 1: very as I say every week, very very dangerous. But
Speaker 1: the overall sentiment of it, yes, it cannot be applied
Speaker 1: to the fact that there are white people who have
Speaker 1: participated in this type of behavior and in fact, in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways because of our enslavement and our
Speaker 1: um being uh what is the word being cultivated by? Um?
Speaker 1: You know, the sort of American society of what happened.
Speaker 1: We learned some things and picked up some behavioral patterns
Speaker 1: that is harmful to our communities. So I totally get that,
Speaker 1: But I just want to say, on behalf of black
Speaker 1: girls and black boys pedophiles exist in every single community.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think. I don't think that I must.
Speaker 1: I definitely understand because we just said that we were
Speaker 1: about Kelly, and I was like, they're all pedophiles or community.
Speaker 1: I'm just talking about when you look about this this
Speaker 1: underworld of um child pornography and you know, all of
Speaker 1: these things I have. Yet maybe I'm wrong. It's just
Speaker 1: not something that I've seen that's prevalent or even spoke
Speaker 1: about in black culture, Like even when they show you
Speaker 1: the people who are guilty of it, I don't think
Speaker 1: I've ever seen a black person that they said was
Speaker 1: doing it. So maybe I'm wrong. I could be wrong,
Speaker 1: but it's just not something that's identified in our culture
Speaker 1: as a norm or something that is even spoken about
Speaker 1: in our culture. You know, pedophial pedophilia is spoken about.
Speaker 1: But this underworld of child pornography, and you know, these
Speaker 1: little rings of all the ship I hadn't seen black
Speaker 1: people involved. Maybe they are, well the rings, the rings, yes,
Speaker 1: the rings, Yes, this such trafficking thing because that's the newest.
Speaker 1: And you know, and most of the time we as
Speaker 1: black people are involved in things that you know, we're
Speaker 1: trying to take advantage of, like how we get paid
Speaker 1: off of being in this right. So for instance, even
Speaker 1: when we were engaged in enslavement of our own people,
Speaker 1: there was some I mean, there was the the there
Speaker 1: was the European mind set of indentured servitude that was
Speaker 1: much more brutal, much more demeaning, dehumanizing all of that,
Speaker 1: and then there were Black people that was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we could eat off for this too, or Africans rather
Speaker 1: that was like we could eat off of this too,
Speaker 1: So we do get involved in stuff trying to see
Speaker 1: like how do I benefit from this enterprise, whether it's
Speaker 1: good or bad from a financial perspective. But and there
Speaker 1: are some sick people that we can actually sell kids
Speaker 1: to and do all of these crazy things. But we
Speaker 1: are engaged. We are engaged. We are in the fruit
Speaker 1: in the food chain, and it's and and it's something
Speaker 1: that has to be called out, so you know. But anyway,
Speaker 1: it's not really a debate because you agree. So it
Speaker 1: is what it is. I'm just saying and I think,
Speaker 1: you know, just thinking about what people can expect for me,
Speaker 1: because as I'm doing the research, I'm like, okay, supporting
Speaker 1: more black brands. I've always tried to do that, I
Speaker 1: want to do it even or But I do have
Speaker 1: two or three things from some of these brands that
Speaker 1: we're canceling that I'm probably gonna continue to wear. And
Speaker 1: most of it is just comfortable sneakers, Like it's not
Speaker 1: really like, you know, I'm not I probably will never know.
Speaker 1: I know for sure that I'm never ever going to
Speaker 1: be outside with the Valenciaga sweater with all the Valenciaga
Speaker 1: around and I can't ever do that. You know, that's it.
Speaker 1: It's over. It's packed up in the Gucci box with
Speaker 1: the stuff that every every It's like the little bins
Speaker 1: for the things I'm never gonna wear again. It's growing
Speaker 1: and growing and growing. But I do have my comfortable
Speaker 1: sneaker is that I travel with. I got my because
Speaker 1: I'm also not supporting anything Kanye, that's just not I'm
Speaker 1: just not doing it. But I got my phones. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna wear those, and I probably got like two fair
Speaker 1: nikes that I'm probably gonna wear, so people can expect
Speaker 1: that from me. Well, it's it's it's kind of it's
Speaker 1: you know what, you know what, it's kind of U.
Speaker 1: I don't really agree with that method because because I
Speaker 1: hear it from a lot of people. Um, because you're
Speaker 1: you're pretty much icon to certain people. You are a
Speaker 1: cultural somebody who's cultural. What you wear people pay attention to, right,
Speaker 1: So people see you wearing things you you promoting these things, right,
Speaker 1: So there's gonna be people that see you with those
Speaker 1: sneakers on, see you with Blixiaga sneakers, and but I
Speaker 1: want to make and still wear them. So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go buy me those, and I like those anyway, so
Speaker 1: let me go get it. So in essence, you're you're
Speaker 1: not you're actually hurting the process because when every time
Speaker 1: you wear it you advertise it, if somebody's gonna look
Speaker 1: at you and said that, they're gonna go get it. So,
Speaker 1: I just don't know if it's worth that. If just
Speaker 1: if you think just because there's a bunch of shoes
Speaker 1: that you can wear, you've got hundreds of shoes. You
Speaker 1: don't have shoes. No, that's not true. I have. There
Speaker 1: are certain things that I first of all, I and
Speaker 1: purchase Valenciaga sneakers to be in fashion. That's not never
Speaker 1: why I purchased them, right, I didn't. I'm not, like
Speaker 1: I said, I'm not a Valenciaga fan. I literally have
Speaker 1: four or five things in my house that's Valenciaga. Uh,
Speaker 1: there're certain brands that I am a fan of that
Speaker 1: I actually wear a lot of their stuff, and I
Speaker 1: order shade and I'm online to things and never physically.
Speaker 1: But you know, Stylus and others helped me get in
Speaker 1: the line to purchase new releases. I bought Valenciaga sock
Speaker 1: sneakers because they're quick and easy to travel with taking
Speaker 1: them off and on, and they're very, very comfortable. That's
Speaker 1: why I bought the two pair of sneakers that I had.
Speaker 1: One pair has Valenciaga written all big on it on
Speaker 1: the bottom, and they real cute. Some black and white sneakers.
Speaker 1: I'm not wearing those because it does have a big
Speaker 1: old logo money. But the other pair that's got this
Speaker 1: like little thing where you can't really see it, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm probably gonna wear those because they are comfortable and
Speaker 1: it's easy for me to travel, and I already spent
Speaker 1: my money on it, so I'm gonna wear him my
Speaker 1: um easy. The ones that look like skeletors and the slides, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna wear those. Definitely gonna wear them. It's and
Speaker 1: I and I do reserve the right to wear a
Speaker 1: black man's product no matter what. Like I couldnot like
Speaker 1: Kanye and say I can still wear my shoes because
Speaker 1: he is a black man, and I get to do that.
Speaker 1: And in terms of Nike, you know, I'll probably look
Speaker 1: for some other running shoes. I don't know Nike. I'm
Speaker 1: a little I do feel what you're saying. I feel
Speaker 1: that on the Nike tip I do. I kind of like,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe I keep holding onto these two
Speaker 1: particular pair because they're like my favorites that I have
Speaker 1: and I've had them for years and I wear them
Speaker 1: and they're comfortable in there and I just love them.
Speaker 1: But you know, I haven't put them on since this happened.
Speaker 1: So it's probably that I'm just saying it because I
Speaker 1: feel it in my heart. But as time goes on,
Speaker 1: I probably will get away from him. However, anything I
Speaker 1: travel with that makes my feet feel comfortable, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: wear them. So that's that on that. And you know,
Speaker 1: I know people. People don't agree with every and you know,
Speaker 1: I listen, I they like me and they love me,
Speaker 1: and then they hate me, and that's just like listen,
Speaker 1: I love you. I'm just I'm just saying to myself,
Speaker 1: what sense is it really weird to promote? Because you
Speaker 1: every time you wear something. That's what I understand for me,
Speaker 1: Right when I wear something, I'm promoting every time that
Speaker 1: I wear things, people or will you get those from?
Speaker 1: I want that. So if I understand that I'm promoting something,
Speaker 1: and I understand that these brands don't represent who I am,
Speaker 1: you know, Blissy, I'll gonna like you. And I made it,
Speaker 1: and I'm saying that I made a kind of decision
Speaker 1: that what it is that they represent, I don't represent.
Speaker 1: I don't I mean, just for comfort. I can find
Speaker 1: another pair of shoes, just comfortable. It's a lot of
Speaker 1: shoes that I like. Maybe maybe I will, maybe I will,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll find it. But here's what I do know.
Speaker 1: Every single day we are finding out things about everybody.
Speaker 1: All kind of things come out. There's like a certain
Speaker 1: like at some point, I get what you're saying, and
Speaker 1: I believe what you're saying is correct. That we shouldn't
Speaker 1: be promoting and supporting these brands, which is why I
Speaker 1: would never buy anything from these individuals again. And I
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna pack up all the stuff that I
Speaker 1: may have from these different places because Nike I have
Speaker 1: my God. But at the same time, next week, the
Speaker 1: new shoes that I get could be a problem. So
Speaker 1: I'm just saying that I have a couple of pairs
Speaker 1: of shoes that are comfortable for me for my travel,
Speaker 1: They're easily accessible, and I'm probably gonna wear them. And
Speaker 1: I get that some people are not gonna like that,
Speaker 1: but that's just my truth. So that's it. Okay. So
Speaker 1: you know, did my uh thought of the day today
Speaker 1: is on this Brittney grinding please. Last week we saw
Speaker 1: that she was released. Um, you know from the beginning, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, we were supportive. We have always been supportive.
Speaker 1: We were mad as hell. I want to make sure
Speaker 1: that the Biden administration was doing what it's supposed to.
Speaker 1: We've never seen any uh progress on behalf of black
Speaker 1: people and particularly black women that did not require some noise.
Speaker 1: And so we helped along with a bunch of folks
Speaker 1: that have to give uh Angela Ry a lot of
Speaker 1: credit because you know, she was one of the first
Speaker 1: people when we know, when we got engaged, she was
Speaker 1: already there working with Brittany's wife. And we held a
Speaker 1: few protests and events just to really make sure that
Speaker 1: this was on the map, that people were actually talking
Speaker 1: about it. And it really wasn't protest, but we um,
Speaker 1: you know, did bring some awareness and make some noise
Speaker 1: and you know, we even went to the Russian Russian
Speaker 1: consulate and had a prayer, visual inter inter faith pray invigil.
Speaker 1: Not you know, it wasn't hostile, but it was we
Speaker 1: were there to say listen, please like open your heart
Speaker 1: to let this woman be free. And then people said, well,
Speaker 1: the administration is doing something about it. They made some statements,
Speaker 1: they were very public and they said we're making moves
Speaker 1: on it. They didn't want to have too many um
Speaker 1: they didn't want it to be too controversial, right, They
Speaker 1: wanted to really have the time that was necessary to
Speaker 1: work on and we said, cool, no problem, call us
Speaker 1: if you need us. But we were monitoring the situation
Speaker 1: very closely, and to see that she was released, it's important, right,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's incredible, and in fact, it's historic that
Speaker 1: you know that America would really cashing a big, big,
Speaker 1: big big chip in the middle of of of us
Speaker 1: being in their war that they have going on with
Speaker 1: another country that we support, right or that this this
Speaker 1: country is supporting. UM. To see that they use this
Speaker 1: big chip to get this woman free, this black woman free,
Speaker 1: a black queer woman free, is huge. It's huge for us,
Speaker 1: particularly as black women, because you know, it's like it
Speaker 1: shows our value. And I know I understand very clearly
Speaker 1: that there are people right now who are saying, one
Speaker 1: day are other imprisoned individuals, not just in Russia, but
Speaker 1: even here in America. Right, I saw on Angelo Pinto's
Speaker 1: page our our partner at Until Freedom that you know,
Speaker 1: America helped to get a black woman free regarding marijuana,
Speaker 1: you know, a marijuana situation. We need to make sure
Speaker 1: that the people who are in jail in America for
Speaker 1: marijuana violations are also free, and we can say that
Speaker 1: what would be consistent is that the um that that
Speaker 1: the federal government and Joe Biden did sign an executive
Speaker 1: order to say on a federal level that people who
Speaker 1: are in prison for uh certain types of marijuana convictions
Speaker 1: that they should be free. Right. So, so to this
Speaker 1: this is this is good, but it's still a lot
Speaker 1: with that because I learned more about how many people
Speaker 1: it does not apply to, and of course black everything
Speaker 1: there needs to be it needs to be um there
Speaker 1: needs to be focused on making the legislation better or
Speaker 1: the executive order better and stronger. So but that's not
Speaker 1: what we're here to debate today, UM which reminds me
Speaker 1: we do need to have a show on that because
Speaker 1: there are some real significant pieces of it that's missing
Speaker 1: and so therefore it's not going to have the widespread
Speaker 1: appeal or that it needs used to have or effective effectiveness.
Speaker 1: But anyway, I understand the implications of other people that
Speaker 1: are imprisoned in Russia. I also understand the arms dealer.
Speaker 1: What is he? The merchant of death. It's a very
Speaker 1: dangerous man, and it is a big chip, big chip
Speaker 1: to put on the table for one person. And you know,
Speaker 1: knowing that there are other people that were there longer
Speaker 1: than Brittany, I totally get it. I understand it, and
Speaker 1: I know there are people who want to have that discussion.
Speaker 1: But I also want to remind everybody and remind us
Speaker 1: as black women that we are just that valuable, that
Speaker 1: we are actually just that precious and we get every
Speaker 1: and by the way, when you do business with somebody,
Speaker 1: they're supposed to do business back with you, right. So
Speaker 1: the business that we did was closing the deal for
Speaker 1: the Biden administration and helping them to get elected to office.
Speaker 1: We did business with the body uh administration. That's how
Speaker 1: they got there. They said, it not just me, the
Speaker 1: exempos and Vice President Harris and President Biden, they both said,
Speaker 1: we have to thank black women. Black women helped us
Speaker 1: get here. We owe black women and you know who
Speaker 1: was out there really sort of leading the charge around
Speaker 1: getting Brittney Grinder or black women free. Black women not
Speaker 1: saying black men weren't. I'm just saying we had a
Speaker 1: role right and so they owe us and we're just
Speaker 1: that valuable. And when you are responsible for helping someone
Speaker 1: get a job, then you show up on the job
Speaker 1: one day and say hey, I need to I need
Speaker 1: you know, I need to get a few things done here.
Speaker 1: Not saying that anybody should do anything illegal for you,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that anybody should break the rules, but
Speaker 1: damn sure you should be acknowledged, and you should be
Speaker 1: moving a couple of favorites and now and then when
Speaker 1: you when you were you put working. That's that's the thing.
Speaker 1: You're having relationships and building bonds and creating you know,
Speaker 1: community and things that I need just because you you
Speaker 1: you have somebody who you can call in the chip.
Speaker 1: You call it and say hey, we've been and they're like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: this person has always been supporting me. They don't. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go above and beyond because I know when it
Speaker 1: came down to it, they got my back. And that's
Speaker 1: that's what happened here. You know, black women pretty much
Speaker 1: supported and put this presidency into presidency, you know, so
Speaker 1: it's time to cash in one of those chips. Brittany's
Speaker 1: black women put the presidency in the presidency. Man. So
Speaker 1: I don't see nothing wrong with it. Man. Everybody ain't
Speaker 1: got the same juice, card man. And because everybody ain't
Speaker 1: putting the same working, well, there's that, and you know,
Speaker 1: hopefully there's more to come out of the administration on
Speaker 1: a number of other issues. Yes, as of something going,
Speaker 1: they keep fighting, keep pushing. But this is a historic
Speaker 1: moment and this is what we all said. This is
Speaker 1: what we said, and a lot of people are still
Speaker 1: met all Joe Biden, Joe Biden, listen, we said that
Speaker 1: we was gonna push to get things done. When we
Speaker 1: look at these executives, we look at look at the
Speaker 1: things that are happening. Whether you think they're good, bad,
Speaker 1: or they don't really matter. Everything that we've got done
Speaker 1: in this administration is because people pushed and they fought
Speaker 1: and they continue to fight and every day we fight.
Speaker 1: We're not we don't. Like we said before, we don't
Speaker 1: have no allies. We just wanted better. I wasn't gonna
Speaker 1: sit there. What did we say, what did we say? No, No,
Speaker 1: it's not so much they say. They say that the
Speaker 1: same is we don't have permanent friends. We just have
Speaker 1: permanent interests. That's what that's the same, right, We don't
Speaker 1: have permanent friends. And we always said were looking for
Speaker 1: a better opponent. We was looking for a better opponent,
Speaker 1: and we went so this is still our point. You know,
Speaker 1: we're four Trump for four years and now we we're
Speaker 1: gonna fight him. We're gonna fight by his whole term.
Speaker 1: But we got a better chance of beating him. We
Speaker 1: got a better chance of beating him in two submission
Speaker 1: to doing the ship we want because Trump don't give
Speaker 1: a funk. Trump al killed itself before he gave an
Speaker 1: about a black man. That man don't care that you know,
Speaker 1: So I'm not I'm just for me. You know. This
Speaker 1: is this is proof that you know, for me that
Speaker 1: the work that's been put in is slowly, slowly coming
Speaker 1: to food. You know, a lot of these executive orders
Speaker 1: that we've seen side slowly. Sure they could be a
Speaker 1: lot better, all these things, but I'm slowly seeing things happen.
Speaker 1: Is because we continue to push and we continue to fight.
Speaker 1: We got a guess coming up now. Trent out loud
Speaker 1: from exclusivey uh, and I'm super excited to bring this
Speaker 1: brother on so we can learn about what he has
Speaker 1: going on in Canada and be out here talking to
Speaker 1: people internationally. This gentleman who's joining us today is very,
Speaker 1: very very persistent. I uh. For a few days was
Speaker 1: being tagged in my stories the d ms the comments
Speaker 1: section by someone saying, you know, check read your read
Speaker 1: your stories, check check your DM, check your DM. And
Speaker 1: I get that a lot. And sometimes I open things
Speaker 1: that are it's not favorable, um, you know, rude, lies,
Speaker 1: all kinds of things, and so I'm careful about what
Speaker 1: I exposed myself too. But I did click UM on
Speaker 1: his page to learn, like just to see, like, who
Speaker 1: is this person that's being so persistent, And I was like, Oh, wow,
Speaker 1: this guy, you know, somebody that I think we should
Speaker 1: learn more about. Uh. And then I read the story about,
Speaker 1: you know, his partnership with Nike and where that relationship stands,
Speaker 1: and I was like, Oh, this is someone we want
Speaker 1: to off to just to learn more, you know, and
Speaker 1: and to really sort of understand what's happening with UM
Speaker 1: some of the relationships with black partners and you know
Speaker 1: and black UM other black owned Uh, you know companies
Speaker 1: that have relationships with Nike and other brands. And I
Speaker 1: think what we were just talking about, Mice is so
Speaker 1: important that we are we find out things in the
Speaker 1: midst of catastrophes and controversy and what have you. And
Speaker 1: so I guess, you know, a lot of things are
Speaker 1: come into life now. So it is what it is, um.
Speaker 1: But you know, upon learning more about him, I found
Speaker 1: that he's more than just the partnership with Nike. He
Speaker 1: actually has a lot going on. A Canada resident, um,
Speaker 1: and someone who's business had it extends beyond just a
Speaker 1: sneaker brand or sneaker store. He actually is engaged in
Speaker 1: a lot of things and and being sort of an
Speaker 1: activist as well and real interesting guy. So let's bring
Speaker 1: Trent out loud, who has a boutique in Canada called
Speaker 1: Exclool City Exclool City, Uh, and let's learn some more
Speaker 1: about him. Thank you trying, thanks for joining, Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for having me. It's an honor. What's up, Mice?
Speaker 1: What's going on? So tell us about Exclude City like
Speaker 1: city exactly so Exclusive City joining Exclu City, um. So,
Speaker 1: School City is a sneaker boutique that UM I started
Speaker 1: that was actually at the trunk of my car. We
Speaker 1: sold do rags and long teas. If you guys remember that,
Speaker 1: UH long teas and do rags used to drive down
Speaker 1: to Manhattan and UH I started selling mix tapes and
Speaker 1: long teas and do rags of the trick of my car.
Speaker 1: UH gott into a basement of a tattoo parlor at
Speaker 1: my first brick and mortar location, etcetera, etcetera. Fifteen years
Speaker 1: down the line, we are a national brand and UH
Speaker 1: Canada's you know, premier sneaker boutique and the only black
Speaker 1: owned neighborhood account with Nike neighborhood. What is the neighborhood account?
Speaker 1: So thank you so much for asking me that. So
Speaker 1: the neighborhood account is Nike's top tier account. They classified
Speaker 1: as as Nike and Jordan's backbone to their business. UM
Speaker 1: neighborhood accounts are tapped too, set the trends culture and
Speaker 1: influence style and trends, because we all know that's where
Speaker 1: all these corporate companies get all their ideas from. Right. So,
Speaker 1: for example, like the Jordan's one Lost and Founds that
Speaker 1: just came out, you won't find that at Sears or
Speaker 1: Debay or Coals or department stores. You'll find that in
Speaker 1: your neighborhood, UM, neighborhood accounts and your in your neighborhood
Speaker 1: boutiques because they want to get that those styles to
Speaker 1: the kids that are going to create the culture. So, UM,
Speaker 1: we're Nike's you know, top tier. UM, you know, their
Speaker 1: best and brightest um hairs are given to neighborhood accounts.
Speaker 1: So how long have you? How long did you? I've
Speaker 1: been doing it since when? Again, So I've had a
Speaker 1: Nike account for we've been open, We've just celebrated our
Speaker 1: our sixteenth year anniversary. I've had a Nake account for
Speaker 1: close to thirteen years. M wow. So but before we
Speaker 1: get more into the ninety situation, what I what was
Speaker 1: intriguing to me beyond your current issues in terms of
Speaker 1: dealing with that company, was your personal story. And I
Speaker 1: see that you had two books. UM. One is called
Speaker 1: How Sneakers Uh Saved My Life and the other one
Speaker 1: is How Sneak Has Ruined My Life? And I was like,
Speaker 1: this is interesting. There must be something really powerful that
Speaker 1: lies in that story. So tell us about your journey, um.
Speaker 1: And then ultimately, why did you write those two books. Okay. Um,
Speaker 1: So I've always wanted to write and to kind of
Speaker 1: give back. And it started out as like a how
Speaker 1: to book, how to live your truth, how to you know,
Speaker 1: not beulacy, how to be present, persistent and get the
Speaker 1: attention of Tamika Mawory and my son, um you know,
Speaker 1: and it just it just didn't really connect. Um. And
Speaker 1: then during COVID and as I was preparing to celebrate
Speaker 1: my fifty year anniversary at the store, I started writing
Speaker 1: my story and my journey. And then I gave it
Speaker 1: to a few people and they're like, yo, that's the
Speaker 1: book you need to write. You need to write your autobiography.
Speaker 1: And even though I'm young, it's still you know. And
Speaker 1: this the reason why even started my podcast. It turned
Speaker 1: out lot of podcasts. I believe that everybody has a story,
Speaker 1: everybody has a journey. If you're a neighbor or custodian
Speaker 1: or whatever, it doesn't matter. Like everybody has a journey,
Speaker 1: has a story. So um, that's where it started out.
Speaker 1: And um, and for me, I wanted to give back
Speaker 1: to the people that helped me get to my fifty unniversary,
Speaker 1: that black men or women out there that is looking
Speaker 1: for a black entrepreneur, and they don't see when especially
Speaker 1: appear in Canada, you don't see a lot of black
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs being successful, having a multimillion dollar business and having
Speaker 1: a national brand, and especially writing a book about it.
Speaker 1: So I just thought it was really important to give
Speaker 1: back to the community that gave gave me my everything.
Speaker 1: And so why why are the two books and one
Speaker 1: sneakers stage your life on one it rooined your life? Okay,
Speaker 1: so the first one saved my life is it starts
Speaker 1: out with me, um, and I thought it was really
Speaker 1: important to let people know, UM my, my family backgrounds.
Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of us come from this. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: the same dynamic where I grew up in. UM my
Speaker 1: father was president, but it was also a verbally and
Speaker 1: physically abusive household. Um I got out of that house.
Speaker 1: Um I got I moved out of my house and
Speaker 1: I was seventeen years old, you know, started hanging around
Speaker 1: with the wrong crowd. Uh, you know, getting arrested. I
Speaker 1: had a gun charge. Um I. Um was found guilty
Speaker 1: of fraud. I was UM yeah, I was just going
Speaker 1: down the wrong place. I was banned from entering the US,
Speaker 1: and UM, I just looked one day and I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I can't keep going down this road. I can't keep
Speaker 1: going on that this path. And I looked to, um,
Speaker 1: I only graduated high school. I self educated myself. I
Speaker 1: started reading books, and I started trying to understand more
Speaker 1: about business, and it was and that's why the book
Speaker 1: is How Sneakers Saved My life. It's really how business
Speaker 1: saved my life. But I just use Sneakers as the
Speaker 1: catalyst because I opened five companies that failed prior to
Speaker 1: exclucity making it work. So that first book is really
Speaker 1: about the grind and determination and not letting um your
Speaker 1: unfortunate circumstances or your past or your family's dynamic to
Speaker 1: not let that hold you back. And I felt like
Speaker 1: I didn't find enough business books from entrepreneurs or CEOs
Speaker 1: that spoke about that, So I thought it was important
Speaker 1: to let our culture know that no, UM, you don't
Speaker 1: have to let your circumstances hold you back and you
Speaker 1: can be profitable. So now tell us about how Sneaker
Speaker 1: has ruined your life. All right, So so that was
Speaker 1: the positive. Now the negative aspect is that business is
Speaker 1: not always cracked up to be go into business thinking yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be my own. But you know, like you
Speaker 1: know did e J. You you know, you look at
Speaker 1: all of these you know, rappers and you know that
Speaker 1: hip hop lifestyle and fifty cent get Richard I trying,
Speaker 1: and you're like, yeah, I'm gonna be a boss. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do this. So I'm gonna have cars, gonna have
Speaker 1: all that, and you gotta be careful what you wish for. Man. Um,
Speaker 1: I was very successful. I had the house that I wanted,
Speaker 1: I had the cars that I wanted. I had the
Speaker 1: lifestyle that I wanted and that I thought that I
Speaker 1: wanted that was gonna make me happy. And I, um,
Speaker 1: you know when they say, like the material things are
Speaker 1: not gonna make you happy, but you're like, let me
Speaker 1: get those material things and find out. You know, I
Speaker 1: got those material things and I found out real quick
Speaker 1: that that you know, it wasn't making me happy. Um.
Speaker 1: So that's part of the book. And the second part
Speaker 1: of the book. Um. Still, how sneakers ruined my life
Speaker 1: was the Nike and Adidas battle. And I don't know
Speaker 1: how familiar you guys are in a sneaker industry, um,
Speaker 1: but when Kanye left Nike for Adidas. It started a
Speaker 1: huge battle between the two brands, and not in the mainstream,
Speaker 1: but like what I spoke about before, in the neighborhood tiering,
Speaker 1: and it really started Nike and Adidas really focusing on hype.
Speaker 1: And what a lot of people don't realize is that
Speaker 1: these hype sneakers, we don't get enough of them to
Speaker 1: pay our rents and to um to make our payroll.
Speaker 1: So um in two thousand and eighteen, I lost two
Speaker 1: point two million dollars UM due to this. Yeah, yeah exactly,
Speaker 1: that's yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you man exactly. That's why
Speaker 1: these books are are really important. And I didn't even
Speaker 1: know I was gonna be on your show talking about that,
Speaker 1: but but thank you for bringing it up. UM. So
Speaker 1: so when I and and just to make sure, like
Speaker 1: when I when I speak about that, people are like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you lost two million dollars in sales. No, No, I
Speaker 1: lost two point two million dollars Like I lost that money,
Speaker 1: not in sales. I physically lost that UM. But the
Speaker 1: important part about it is that I lost more during Sorry.
Speaker 1: The important part about that is that I learned more
Speaker 1: about business during that time that I learned in the
Speaker 1: time growing I had to get financial advised. You see
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. That's what's important. That's why I booked two.
Speaker 1: Is very important. The grind, hustle, and you know, not
Speaker 1: letting the obstacles get you in your way is really important.
Speaker 1: But also when you get there, the dynamic of business,
Speaker 1: and it could apply to anything in life, your downturns,
Speaker 1: or where you're gonna learn about yourself the most and
Speaker 1: about your business the most. Right um So, anyway, so
Speaker 1: I was like very close to filing for bankruptcy two
Speaker 1: thousand and nineteen. UM I lost two hundred thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: which still is a loss. But if you look at
Speaker 1: the year before losing two million, and then the next
Speaker 1: year losing only two hundred thousand, that means that I've
Speaker 1: made exactly I made the appropriate changes, and in two
Speaker 1: thousand and twenty came along UM and then you know
Speaker 1: we're on our way to being more profitable. And then
Speaker 1: COVID hit and then I'll give away the secret. There
Speaker 1: is a book three. Book two ends at me UM
Speaker 1: with me on the floor drunk, coming back from Barbados,
Speaker 1: dealing with the anxiety of not knowing how I'm going
Speaker 1: to survive this potential bankruptcy and I haven't fought for
Speaker 1: bankruptcy and I'm more successful now than I have been
Speaker 1: um in the past fourteen years. But I'll tell you
Speaker 1: guys about that book. Three mm hm. So, so tell
Speaker 1: us about this current situation that you're going through with. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's a loaded question. What do you want to know exactly?
Speaker 1: How did you get the relationship with Nike going? Like where?
Speaker 1: How did you Is it just an application process or
Speaker 1: did so? Thirteen years ago when we were starting out,
Speaker 1: like I said, we started, I was doing it was
Speaker 1: just doing apparel, and it was now setting emails, doing applications,
Speaker 1: and they got denied deny did in the night. And
Speaker 1: we had to prove ourselves with others, with other sneaker
Speaker 1: companies before like we got Supra, then we've got Converse,
Speaker 1: and we've got Vans, and then you work your way
Speaker 1: up in the Nike. He's like, Okay, you could make yourself,
Speaker 1: you know, profitable and working without Nike, then Nike will
Speaker 1: will open your account. But that was thirteen years ago.
Speaker 1: They're not opening any new accounts now. Sorry to like
Speaker 1: for any kids out there that that's that's looking to
Speaker 1: open this think your boutique, but so so now what
Speaker 1: I'm understanding is that you as a business that has
Speaker 1: a boutique where people can walk into the boutique and purchase,
Speaker 1: and obviously everything is going digital, people are shopping more online.
Speaker 1: You at some point started to move your business to
Speaker 1: a digital space and then there became some issue. So
Speaker 1: tell us about that and you know and where you
Speaker 1: swear you are now all right? So um prior in
Speaker 1: two thousand and nineteen, uh, when we started, um, you know,
Speaker 1: making changes to to stay out of bankruptcy, I closed
Speaker 1: down a lot of my non profitable stores, and I
Speaker 1: had an idea to say, listen, instead of having these
Speaker 1: you know, rents that are fortys in these payrolls out
Speaker 1: of forty tho dollars a month, you know, I'm starting
Speaker 1: out a month a hundred thousand dollars behind eight ball,
Speaker 1: Like I'm gonna I'm gonna change the um the structure
Speaker 1: of of what traditional brick and mortar is. And I
Speaker 1: want to have my stores be more experience stores where
Speaker 1: I'm pushing people to shot more online, and then I'll
Speaker 1: be able to move my stores away from the locate
Speaker 1: the the the high traffic locations and I can have
Speaker 1: cheaper rents and I can maybe not open every day
Speaker 1: and just have the stores be more of an experience
Speaker 1: stores and less of a traditional brick and mortar and
Speaker 1: then you have your inventory at a warehouse and then
Speaker 1: ship your product to the customer. Makes sense, right, Um?
Speaker 1: So the so that was approved, and then during covid
Speaker 1: Nike made UM a lot of managerial changes, and uh,
Speaker 1: coming out of COVID UM, you know, they're like, Trent,
Speaker 1: you gotta open up your stores. What's going on. I'm like, hey,
Speaker 1: I told you guys before I was working on my
Speaker 1: new concept. I'm working on it. They're like, okay, whatever
Speaker 1: you're doing, just do it. I finally got it open
Speaker 1: UM December two thousand twenty one and they opened and
Speaker 1: I opened, and they're like, what is this. You need
Speaker 1: to open your traditional brick and mortar retailer. What is
Speaker 1: this experience stores? You're only open a few days a week.
Speaker 1: People can't buy product in your store. They have to
Speaker 1: order on the tablet and it ships to them. And like,
Speaker 1: we spoke about this, and I have emails to prove
Speaker 1: this that it was approved. They're like, listen, that was
Speaker 1: past management. We don't care about what they say. You
Speaker 1: need to open your traditional brick and mortar. And I'm like, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: I wrote a damn book about the ebbs and flows
Speaker 1: and the downturn that I just experienced for three or
Speaker 1: four years with this old traditional brick and mortar retail model,
Speaker 1: and you guys are not giving me the amount of
Speaker 1: pairs that I need to pay these rents and to
Speaker 1: pay these payrolls. So I'm not going to go back
Speaker 1: and open up a traditional brick and mortar retailer if
Speaker 1: I'm not going to get the product to um to
Speaker 1: um to balance those those expenses, right. And um they
Speaker 1: had a problem with that. We went back and forth
Speaker 1: and um, and that's my issue now. Um we I
Speaker 1: sent them a couple of lawyer letters. They sent me
Speaker 1: back a lawyer's letter, and my account was closed October
Speaker 1: the first, two thousand and twenty two. Mm hmm. See
Speaker 1: That's why I say, Maggie, you know, that's that's been
Speaker 1: that's been my mode, you know. And so you you
Speaker 1: you you started modernizing, getting with the times, understanding that
Speaker 1: you needed a lot less overhead. You know, they already
Speaker 1: had trusted you with the brand because you knew obviously,
Speaker 1: you knew how to market and sell the brand, you know,
Speaker 1: so when you came to them with this new model
Speaker 1: that you were going to did initially agreed and said, okay,
Speaker 1: this is it's okay. So the new leadership came in,
Speaker 1: they said, nah, we don't care about nothing that We
Speaker 1: need you to do the regular old stuff that you've
Speaker 1: been doing. That basically had you damned bankrupt and had
Speaker 1: you about to eat at the garbage so amasically like
Speaker 1: you didn't give a funk about you. They was trying
Speaker 1: to figure out, Look, we just need our shoes inside
Speaker 1: of the stores. We don't care what you gotta do.
Speaker 1: We don't care if you can make money. None of
Speaker 1: that badness to us. We need you to open these
Speaker 1: bricks brick and mortar stores and have to sneak is
Speaker 1: physically in there or it's over correct. And and that
Speaker 1: is my argument. And this is why, Like I follow
Speaker 1: you on your Instagram and I know your whole funk
Speaker 1: Nike hashtag, and I was like, should I leave these
Speaker 1: two Jordan's right here behind me? I wonder what my
Speaker 1: sound is gonna think? I was, but I short of
Speaker 1: I was gonna say something, but I understand that that's
Speaker 1: your things, but I don't know this is your you know,
Speaker 1: that's your thing me and to me to just had
Speaker 1: a conversation prior to you coming on about her saying
Speaker 1: she got two pair Nike that she probably still on
Speaker 1: where that you know, maybe she still she still she
Speaker 1: loved those her favorites. But you know, I just think
Speaker 1: I think we're at a time, you know, when these corporations,
Speaker 1: traditional corporations that have benefited off of us, have profited
Speaker 1: off us, showed us, show us that they don't value us,
Speaker 1: right and this and that's what this basically goes down to.
Speaker 1: It's not it's like they don't value they value you
Speaker 1: when they think that you can make the money. They
Speaker 1: don't value the brain power that you have. Because obviously,
Speaker 1: you you understand the market. You out there any you
Speaker 1: have these brick and mortar stores, and you understand where
Speaker 1: the market is calling. For most people, I don't even
Speaker 1: I don't even think I go this once in a while,
Speaker 1: I go to a sneaker store here there For most part,
Speaker 1: I see sneakers online in order they sent me four
Speaker 1: or five sneakers. That's how most people are shocking. So
Speaker 1: when when you've already established a brand like exclusiity. You
Speaker 1: you already established that brand, so people know that you
Speaker 1: have the exclusive. So once you make it, put it
Speaker 1: online and oh yeah, this is okay, this is the
Speaker 1: store I used to go to. I could just sit
Speaker 1: at my house and order these same sneakers, or I
Speaker 1: can go there. I know, i gotta be there on
Speaker 1: Monday or Thursday because that's the only days it is open.
Speaker 1: So I'm definitely gonna go there. And only only a
Speaker 1: few of us to get to that. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. So you you understand it's still etlusive, and
Speaker 1: you understand them the marketing, and you understand the strategy
Speaker 1: and and and the fact that they don't value that, right,
Speaker 1: the fact that they wouldn't value that means that they
Speaker 1: just don't value us, and and and I know you
Speaker 1: know that's your business. And I'm not telling you what
Speaker 1: to do, but I just think that we have to
Speaker 1: get into the mind state. Like I was telling you
Speaker 1: before we even started, that there has to be us
Speaker 1: detaching from these systems because they understand that's what gives
Speaker 1: them the power. They realized that we feel so attached
Speaker 1: to these systems that we feel like we need them
Speaker 1: to be able to do these things. And it's like, no,
Speaker 1: we we created the culture. We created the fast we created.
Speaker 1: Look like you said, we've created what's cool. We dictate
Speaker 1: what's cool, and you have to start dictating the things
Speaker 1: that are cool that we actually control, you understand, And
Speaker 1: that's what they know. They know that that you create
Speaker 1: the cool, and then they they do the things that
Speaker 1: they control for you to make it cool. And then
Speaker 1: they when they don't feel like you benefit them no more,
Speaker 1: they take it away. And then we look like, oh,
Speaker 1: what do we know? We created the cool, So it's
Speaker 1: it's time for us to get get into that mind state.
Speaker 1: You know, black owns, black business creating the cool, creating quality.
Speaker 1: You know, I have a bunch of different brands who
Speaker 1: have been senta me quality black brand sneakers, and I'm like, wow,
Speaker 1: I didn't even know these existed because I was so
Speaker 1: trapped into I gotta get these Nikeis and I get
Speaker 1: these gotta get this that I don't even realize there
Speaker 1: was brothers like me coming from The brother told me
Speaker 1: that he just came out of prison. He did three
Speaker 1: three different things of president. He was a rapid us,
Speaker 1: and that he just started designing his own shoe in prison.
Speaker 1: Now he's a neemons. He's in all of these major
Speaker 1: stores with his own shoes and in a quality shoes.
Speaker 1: But we don't know these things because we're still attached
Speaker 1: to the matrix and these corporations that actually don't give
Speaker 1: a funk about us. So, you know, I think this
Speaker 1: is a time for you to pay attention and still
Speaker 1: do your business and senior lawyers to do with it,
Speaker 1: because this is this is your business. But while you're
Speaker 1: doing that, start to create something that does not dictated
Speaker 1: by the people who are these corporations that don't give
Speaker 1: a funk about us. Okay, so you said a lot.
Speaker 1: I want to unpack a few things. One really important
Speaker 1: thing that I love is that I've never spoken to
Speaker 1: you before. You and I do not know each other.
Speaker 1: We literally just met five minutes ago. I was able
Speaker 1: to tell you my idea and my concept in four minutes,
Speaker 1: and you got it, and you were able to repeat
Speaker 1: it to me verbatim. And not only that, you're also
Speaker 1: able to repeat it and identify that it's a brilliant
Speaker 1: idea and a very profitable idea. But You're telling me
Speaker 1: that no Nike executive could look at my idea that
Speaker 1: is way more in depth presented to in the deck
Speaker 1: and all of this stuff, and to say, hey, Trent,
Speaker 1: that's a great idea. When we were shut down and
Speaker 1: we're I'm in Canada, we were shutdown a lot longer
Speaker 1: than you are. Stores were closed here, retail stores for
Speaker 1: a year and a half. I was more profitable during
Speaker 1: that year and a half than I have been in
Speaker 1: the past fourteen years. Forget opening up stores as an
Speaker 1: experience where I'm telling you my stores were shut down,
Speaker 1: that's proof to Nike that I don't need stores. Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: I was calling them saying any extra inventory you have.
Speaker 1: My inventory levels were at the lowest they were ever
Speaker 1: they had ever been during COVID. Yes, I understand a
Speaker 1: lot of people were buying more, shopping habits were different.
Speaker 1: My point is is that I've proven to Nike that
Speaker 1: I could be more profitable closed than open. The reason
Speaker 1: for me opening up experience stores is for the customer
Speaker 1: to get an experience on a Saturday or on a Friday.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't necessarily just transactional reasons. I was gonna have,
Speaker 1: like you know, just like events a party, DJs. I
Speaker 1: was just gonna give the customer, um, you know, a place,
Speaker 1: a cool space to create culture. That's what it was.
Speaker 1: It wasn't at all even to sell the product, because,
Speaker 1: like I just told you, I could be more profitable
Speaker 1: just not even having stores. So that that's one thing.
Speaker 1: The second thing is, like I told you, I left
Speaker 1: up the shoes on purpose because I wanted to have
Speaker 1: this conversation with you and to be honest with you.
Speaker 1: I think I'm like to make it like I don't
Speaker 1: know exactly where I stand on wearing the product. And
Speaker 1: this is what I wanted to speak to you. Is
Speaker 1: it fuck Nike or is it fuck Nike management? Is
Speaker 1: it fuck Phil Knight and John Donahue who's the founder
Speaker 1: and now CEO. Because it's not fun the Cowboys, it's
Speaker 1: Jerry Jones. You need to stand up and denounce racism.
Speaker 1: It's not fun the US. It's fun Donald Trump? So
Speaker 1: is it is it the brand? Is it the country
Speaker 1: or is it you know, is it fun Russia or
Speaker 1: is it funk Putin? I think that is the question
Speaker 1: that we have to ask each other. Well, I mean
Speaker 1: it's it's very simple for me it's fun. Thank you
Speaker 1: for me, because it might be that people might say
Speaker 1: it's because my thing is this, When you are the
Speaker 1: founder or CEO of a company, you are the the
Speaker 1: head of that company. You represent that right. And if
Speaker 1: people inside that corporation realize if other people inside that corporation,
Speaker 1: because it's been a lot of corporation, just like what
Speaker 1: happened with Twitter, when Twitter, when Elon Musk went over there,
Speaker 1: he started doing this that racist ship, people quit right.
Speaker 1: People a good moral standards and understand the stance that
Speaker 1: I refuse to be aligned with something that doesn't represent
Speaker 1: me moral right. So if it just like in America,
Speaker 1: you can't say for America, there are people inside America
Speaker 1: that publicly revolting against the ship that Donald Trump of
Speaker 1: American Donald Trump, So you don't have to say but
Speaker 1: outside of America, they might say America because that's who
Speaker 1: you're lead. Is we inside of America understand we we
Speaker 1: might we see it differently because most of us don't
Speaker 1: funk with Donald Trump. So I mean, from my perspective,
Speaker 1: if the CEO and the co CEO decides to do
Speaker 1: some racist ship and nobody inside that corporation speaks up
Speaker 1: and say this, This doesn't represent our values. We can't
Speaker 1: be attached to that. And that means that you are complicit.
Speaker 1: That means that you you actually agree with this this method.
Speaker 1: Nothing agree. I don't know. I wouldn't say they agree,
Speaker 1: but I would say silence is definitely violent, but it
Speaker 1: doesn't mean greed, right, and it is Stilence means that
Speaker 1: you agree with. If you're standing next to me and
Speaker 1: I say you're funk the whole world, and you're standing
Speaker 1: right next to me, you co sign funk the whole world.
Speaker 1: If you're standing right like this, we were you. Now.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying I I hear you, and I understand
Speaker 1: from abroad you know perspective, how that is true that
Speaker 1: if you are silent about something, you become complicit. I
Speaker 1: don't know if that means you agree, but you do
Speaker 1: become complicit. And I think being complicit is a little
Speaker 1: different than agreeing. It means that basically you are convicted
Speaker 1: at this point because you have not uh you know,
Speaker 1: stated because because I this is a conversation I've had
Speaker 1: with you before. I know a lot of people that
Speaker 1: know one that their friends is you know, doesn't see
Speaker 1: their children. Uh, you know, might be even abusive to
Speaker 1: women or whatever, right, and that it doesn't mean they
Speaker 1: agree that they are standing next to the person or
Speaker 1: that they continue to work with them or see them,
Speaker 1: but they are complicit if you know something like this
Speaker 1: is happening and you're not doing anything about it. So
Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's very tricky how we
Speaker 1: talked about it. But I do want to circle to
Speaker 1: one thing. Um, you would talk and Trent about how
Speaker 1: easy it is for us to see what you're trying
Speaker 1: to do and why it's important. I think archaic mindsets
Speaker 1: within companies right where you have people, especially white folks,
Speaker 1: that have a particular position and are inflexible in terms
Speaker 1: of how they see things, it is very it's very
Speaker 1: damaging for businesses in general, right, Like I mean, we
Speaker 1: were just talking about Balenciaga. At some point somebody, some
Speaker 1: new leadership was supposed to come along and say, these
Speaker 1: people gotta go, like this whole thing that's going on
Speaker 1: over here, it has to go. But their archaic mindset
Speaker 1: tells them that, you know, people get so arrogant, like
Speaker 1: you know, we know better, and that is that you
Speaker 1: know what we're you gonna say, Yeah, you know we
Speaker 1: know better and we're gonna stand on a particular position.
Speaker 1: And I think we can all learn from that across
Speaker 1: the board with our big businesses without organizations, that we
Speaker 1: have to be flexible enough to move, to change, to shift.
Speaker 1: And that's what you're trying to do. And I appreciate
Speaker 1: what you're trying to do and understand it very well
Speaker 1: because it makes perfect sense. And I think that what
Speaker 1: is unfortunate is the idea that they will close down stores.
Speaker 1: Right with loss, all businesses have had to reduce size. Um,
Speaker 1: they have closed stores, they've cut stores in half. You know,
Speaker 1: I went to a store recently and it was like this.
Speaker 1: You know, at one point it was this big, big,
Speaker 1: big thing and then now it's like half of the
Speaker 1: size because of what had to make different decisions. And
Speaker 1: for you to be and this is where I completely
Speaker 1: agree with you, my son, for you to be a
Speaker 1: black business, the only black business. Nike should be using
Speaker 1: its power to help you grow so that you can
Speaker 1: open all those stores again at some point and make
Speaker 1: all and have it experience you open every day, all
Speaker 1: all the things. But they should be flexible enough to
Speaker 1: work with you at the time when you need to
Speaker 1: shift so that you can stay in business. And I
Speaker 1: think that is for them to try to push your
Speaker 1: back up against the wall. It is very uh it's
Speaker 1: telling you know about sort of where they stand with
Speaker 1: their relationship too and their real commitment to supporting black folks.
Speaker 1: And and and and and I and I hear you
Speaker 1: on the idea of trying to like figure out is
Speaker 1: it funck Nike or is it fuck these individuals? And
Speaker 1: I agree with my song that once you represent a brand,
Speaker 1: you know, because once Black Lives Matter leadership got into
Speaker 1: some issues the whole brand, people won't support BLM and
Speaker 1: you know f BLM, and you know, we started to
Speaker 1: sort of experience that which also cross over the movement.
Speaker 1: There are people like we don't we're not supporting any
Speaker 1: of the organizations. So I totally get in see. But
Speaker 1: I also no Night has done some good things for
Speaker 1: you know, standing with Colin Kaepernick, you know, some of
Speaker 1: their community initiatives. I know they've done that. And that's
Speaker 1: not why I'm talking about my two payer sneakers that
Speaker 1: I intended to possibly where I'm just saying that that
Speaker 1: is a conflict that we have to acknowledge that there
Speaker 1: are people who feel both ways. Nonetheless, we really don't
Speaker 1: need any of these brands. We truly don't. What we
Speaker 1: really need is uh for us to be trying to
Speaker 1: find ways to build our own so that we don't
Speaker 1: have to be in debt it to them forever. Now
Speaker 1: here's my conflict on even what I said. We should
Speaker 1: also not be boxed out of the market place. We
Speaker 1: as black business owners, we who have stores, we want
Speaker 1: to wear certain things, should not be boxed out of
Speaker 1: the marketplace where we only can you know, everybody else
Speaker 1: can buy anything they want. They can buy from the
Speaker 1: Asian community, the Black community, the white community, whoever they
Speaker 1: wherever they want to, and we should not be boxed
Speaker 1: out of the marketplace where we can't make money and
Speaker 1: cannot compete on a global level because we're you know,
Speaker 1: have been reduced to just or not so much reduced.
Speaker 1: I don't want to use negative language, but we've sort
Speaker 1: of been boxed into only supporting one thing. So it's
Speaker 1: a lot of issues that will come up. But I
Speaker 1: think that we're at a place where as soon as
Speaker 1: we find out that this company, especially these companies that
Speaker 1: are making white folks super super super super super super
Speaker 1: duper rich, we should have no problem cutting it when
Speaker 1: we need to. Uh yeah, I agree with a lot
Speaker 1: of your points. I just want to tackle three of them.
Speaker 1: So you're you may have comments about old leadership and
Speaker 1: them thinking they're stuck in their old ways. Um, Nike
Speaker 1: revenue direct sales were up last year eighteen point seven
Speaker 1: billion dollars. There were up eighteen percent digitally. Nike is
Speaker 1: very as very well aware that did digital is the
Speaker 1: place to be. So they they're not like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: you know, you know how many Nike stories you're seeing
Speaker 1: open opening up? Nicky knows that they need to um,
Speaker 1: that they need to focus on their sneakers app. But
Speaker 1: when they're so focused on digital, which is the more
Speaker 1: profitable end of the business, they need somebody to take
Speaker 1: the expensive end of the business. And that falls on
Speaker 1: the neighborhood to win, not for you to win exactly.
Speaker 1: That that's my problem. Now what upsets me is these
Speaker 1: In two thousand and twenty one, Nike held the summit
Speaker 1: for Black and Latin as retailers. Now, we didn't ask
Speaker 1: for the summit, we didn't ask for any help, and
Speaker 1: they came and they said, hey, you know again, credit
Speaker 1: to both you guys for for bringing attention to the
Speaker 1: George Floyd movement. Um you know that whole era, every
Speaker 1: company came around and was like, oh my gosh, what
Speaker 1: can we do for black people? What can we do
Speaker 1: for black people? Nike, you held this summit and they said,
Speaker 1: we want to listen to you, we want to learn
Speaker 1: from you, and we want to read a find and
Speaker 1: how we work. I can't speak for anybody else. Nike listened,
Speaker 1: but they didn't learn, and they didn't redefine because I
Speaker 1: presented them with an amazing concept and how to redefine
Speaker 1: our relationship and they didn't. And that's what pisces me off.
Speaker 1: If you don't want to help us, don't help us.
Speaker 1: I am cool with that. But if you're gonna say
Speaker 1: you're gonna help us, don't make it lip service. Come
Speaker 1: out and really help us. Because I provided you with
Speaker 1: a fundamentally sound, profitable business concept, and I asked you
Speaker 1: to help me by supporting me, not helping me by
Speaker 1: any sort of financial means, just support the approval that
Speaker 1: you gave me two years ago. And they turned me
Speaker 1: down and tried to and try to force me to
Speaker 1: go back to a model that push me into smoking, drinking,
Speaker 1: I talked about it in the book. I don't want
Speaker 1: to get getting here like I was in therapist office
Speaker 1: every week. Uh left from my therapist office going to
Speaker 1: a Bank of C trustee. Uh you know it's I
Speaker 1: was day is away from filing for bankruptcy. I can't
Speaker 1: I can't begin to explain to you how it is
Speaker 1: to wake up every morning preparing to lose a company
Speaker 1: that you built for fifteen years of your life. I'm single,
Speaker 1: I have no kids. Extracity is all I have. Extracity
Speaker 1: is my everything. And I had to wake up every
Speaker 1: day and financial advisors told me it's not if you're
Speaker 1: gonna lose it, it's when you're gonna lose it. You
Speaker 1: know hard that is to manage through, and then, miraculously,
Speaker 1: because of the shutdown, and because of the lockdown, I
Speaker 1: was able to do what was told to me by
Speaker 1: every person financial present that wouldn't happen because it was
Speaker 1: an unprecedented time. I came out of that. And now
Speaker 1: you want me to go back to that because you
Speaker 1: think that you know how to heap the streets and
Speaker 1: to create culture better than me. Well, why why was
Speaker 1: I the only black account? I'm so mad? I thing is.
Speaker 1: The thing is, they don't think that right. The reality
Speaker 1: is they understand the market like you understand the market, right,
Speaker 1: But they realize they don't need you to do it
Speaker 1: anymore because they could do that by themselves. They can
Speaker 1: go online and send it to they can send out oils.
Speaker 1: So they need to cut you off because ultimately you
Speaker 1: don't really benefit them the more you they've used you
Speaker 1: to get to this this place. And now they're saying, yo,
Speaker 1: we don't need him because if he's sent him clothes
Speaker 1: on them, we can self sh online ourselves. We don't
Speaker 1: need him no more. The loyalty that he's been here
Speaker 1: and all the sneakers he's sold and him being one
Speaker 1: of our top they don't care about that. It's not
Speaker 1: The thing is, it was never like a partnership to them.
Speaker 1: It was how can I benefit It's like you over there,
Speaker 1: you over there, and I need just to get that block.
Speaker 1: So if you're not just gonna be on that block,
Speaker 1: standing there for the rest of your life when that's
Speaker 1: stand block, you're not trying to grow outside of that.
Speaker 1: If you if you're not gonna stay on that block,
Speaker 1: we don't need you no more. So that's I'm trying
Speaker 1: to tell that it's not about value. It's how do
Speaker 1: I make money off It's not how much do I
Speaker 1: make money with you. They don't want to make money
Speaker 1: with you. They want to make money off of you.
Speaker 1: They want to benefit off of what you bring, only
Speaker 1: what you bring to the table. And it's not That
Speaker 1: means after thirteen years, there's never it's never really been
Speaker 1: a partnership. It's not like, okay, we've we got here together.
Speaker 1: You you had all these stories, people going to these stories,
Speaker 1: buying all these nikes. Now we did you ever. We
Speaker 1: all can make money. You can get it over there,
Speaker 1: you can send it for over there, you can do
Speaker 1: these things. We all together because you helped, let's get
Speaker 1: to a level that we are. We realized. We acknowledge that, no,
Speaker 1: you're not on that corner no more. You're not the
Speaker 1: dude boy on the corner that's taking the risk that's
Speaker 1: going hand in hand. It might lose everything if you
Speaker 1: aren't able to do that. If we don't need you,
Speaker 1: We don't need you boss enough no no, no, no.
Speaker 1: The boss up shot and where you can make triple
Speaker 1: times the money, Now we don't want that. And I
Speaker 1: don't all for us, because okay, so let me so
Speaker 1: let me ask you this, because you said somebody that
Speaker 1: stands beside them is complicit. My sales reps approved and
Speaker 1: liked my concept. I brought my Jordan's rep there, he
Speaker 1: took pictures. He's like, Yo, this is dope. It's amazing.
Speaker 1: His bosses the leadership at Nike was like, no, we
Speaker 1: don't like it in Portland's. So I asked a question again,
Speaker 1: if my sales reps, other stores, other neighborhood accounts even
Speaker 1: are like, yo, we think it's dope. We would want
Speaker 1: to do something like that. But the senior management John Donohue,
Speaker 1: that runs the offense, if that trickles down, is it
Speaker 1: still funk Nike? To me, it is because if all
Speaker 1: of those reptues saying they would want to do it,
Speaker 1: and they're not willing to stand up and say, yo,
Speaker 1: this is wrong, Like for first of all is wrong.
Speaker 1: Not only is the idea dope, but what you're doing
Speaker 1: to the man is wrong. Right If if that's sometimes
Speaker 1: tell you because leadership it doesn't. You can't leave somebody
Speaker 1: that's not followed, right, And I don't care if you
Speaker 1: could be the biggest leader. If you say, yo, I'm
Speaker 1: making an order, Everybody like, no, we're not doing that.
Speaker 1: Ship that don't make sense, Then who are you actually leading?
Speaker 1: You understand I'm saying. So that's that comes. There's a
Speaker 1: level of integrity, as a level of understanding, there's a
Speaker 1: level of more right, all of these things that a
Speaker 1: lot of these corporations lack and a lot of these
Speaker 1: people is a is a dog eat dog world in
Speaker 1: these corporations, and you have to understand that. And when
Speaker 1: you understand and that that, you have to say to yourself,
Speaker 1: I understand that there's a like there's a ceiling here.
Speaker 1: They're not letting me get but so far so I
Speaker 1: know that I know that the ceiling is gonna get
Speaker 1: here because this is how they work. They're only only
Speaker 1: when they can make money off me. They don't want
Speaker 1: to make money with me. They want to be able
Speaker 1: to benefit off of me. So I have to figure
Speaker 1: out a way that I eat independent of them while
Speaker 1: I'm taking the money and I got this relationship, how
Speaker 1: am I building out something on this side that when
Speaker 1: when they realize or they feel like I'm no longer
Speaker 1: valuable to them, and they decided to do what they're doing. Now,
Speaker 1: how do I continue to eat? How I built a
Speaker 1: mechanism that continues to go outside of that because what
Speaker 1: it is, don't get it twisted right? Like I was
Speaker 1: on sent them the lawyer letter. I was one who
Speaker 1: told them I was not opening up my stores, and
Speaker 1: they told me if they don't open my stores, I'll
Speaker 1: lose my account. I'm fully prepared. I believe in my concept.
Speaker 1: I'm working with investment groups right now. I was just
Speaker 1: over in London and I'm going to still open up
Speaker 1: my Experience stores with or without Nike. But my play
Speaker 1: and the reason why I DM do you and Tamika
Speaker 1: to help me with this fight and to bring awareness.
Speaker 1: And this is the one thing that we disagree on
Speaker 1: is that I feel like I want to attack Nike management.
Speaker 1: You want to attack Nike brand, and I see where
Speaker 1: you're coming from. I just don't know. I just don't
Speaker 1: know how I feel yet. But but like I said,
Speaker 1: I was excited to have a conversation. I love. What
Speaker 1: I love though, is that we all that that we
Speaker 1: are not stoic in our understanding right, meaning that there
Speaker 1: is there's the well still with meaning that we're just
Speaker 1: still like right, we are we are able to understand
Speaker 1: nuance right, Um, and the activists do what we do right,
Speaker 1: the protesters do what they do. We've got people who
Speaker 1: are part of our protest movement that work within the
Speaker 1: administrations that we're protesting, and they go in and they
Speaker 1: are able to work the inside outside with us to
Speaker 1: help us. So we might say the whole police department
Speaker 1: shut it down, you know, period, But then there are
Speaker 1: people who work inside. They may be executives, they may
Speaker 1: be senior leadership. I know for me in in the
Speaker 1: NYPD in New York, I have many friends that are
Speaker 1: in leadership that are able to take the message inside
Speaker 1: and try their best to push the line. Our job
Speaker 1: is to be as bold as loud and to create
Speaker 1: and awareness at these issues as possible. But because of
Speaker 1: the fact that there's so much money being made on
Speaker 1: our people's backs, we have to make sure that even
Speaker 1: when it's you know, I don't say f Nike, like
Speaker 1: my son says, it's so powerful when he says it.
Speaker 1: But um, even though I'm not lying Nike anymore, I
Speaker 1: don't support the brand anymore. Even though that is true,
Speaker 1: I still know that there are employees, there are businesses,
Speaker 1: there are students, there are other people that should benefit
Speaker 1: from the eighteen whatever you said, billion dollars, billion dollars
Speaker 1: that our community is a big part of the spend. Hopefully.
Speaker 1: What we can do, though, is use what uh my
Speaker 1: son has been doing to move our people to start
Speaker 1: spending that eighteen billion with our own or whatever portion
Speaker 1: of the eighteen billion we are with our own, and
Speaker 1: that is that's gotta be all of us thinking about
Speaker 1: that and working on it and figuring it out. So
Speaker 1: you know, I just I want to thank you because
Speaker 1: you're bringing a different perspective to the dialogue, you know,
Speaker 1: um as a business person who has a different relationship,
Speaker 1: and I hope that things work out. And to the
Speaker 1: point that you and my son just kind of discussed,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say debated, what is that? What does it
Speaker 1: look like to believe in yourself enough that whether Nike
Speaker 1: comes along or not, you can still survive and still
Speaker 1: have The book number three be about the fact that
Speaker 1: they try to shut me down, but Sneakers is still
Speaker 1: saving me right yet. So I don't know, Mince if
Speaker 1: you have anything else, but by the way, you're well
Speaker 1: over our time to sorry, But it was a good
Speaker 1: conversation though it was definitely good. I just want to say,
Speaker 1: you know, I definitely understand like Tomika said, they're they're
Speaker 1: multiple you know, entry points into a fight. You know.
Speaker 1: My mind, like I tell people all the time, my mind,
Speaker 1: my protest is extreme me. That's how I am. I'm
Speaker 1: a very extreme individual. And and it's from my own
Speaker 1: personal thing because I know when I when I make
Speaker 1: my mind up about and then I have to I
Speaker 1: have to see it in real time, like you know,
Speaker 1: I have to be tangible. So when I say I'm
Speaker 1: not doing something, I'm doing something, I've gotta do it.
Speaker 1: I gotta see it. And once I commit myself to it,
Speaker 1: I'm principal to the point where it's like okay, that's
Speaker 1: what it is for me. And I don't commit myself
Speaker 1: to something that I'm not seriously about doing. So that's
Speaker 1: just who I am. And so what and and I,
Speaker 1: like I told you before, the way that I've seen
Speaker 1: you know that white man speak about Kyrie as if
Speaker 1: he was a slave. It it triggered me in the
Speaker 1: manner that I couldn't have a good conscious continue to
Speaker 1: support the brand or anything that that this was me
Speaker 1: as I know there's no way that the code they're
Speaker 1: gonna get rid of, the co found He's not gonna
Speaker 1: go anywhere. Don't matter what happens, He's still gonna be there.
Speaker 1: You understand I'm saying, So me protesting against him, what
Speaker 1: is that going to he? He go in the background
Speaker 1: and say, oh yeah, let me just disappear and still
Speaker 1: have the ideologies that I have, you know, running this company.
Speaker 1: You know, so that that's just my perspective. Your perspective
Speaker 1: is different. You you know, you built the brand, all
Speaker 1: of you know, doing this, this partnership with Nike and
Speaker 1: you and you, and you see where you are able
Speaker 1: to identify certain individuals that you need to attack, not
Speaker 1: the brand. So and that's a different thing. But when
Speaker 1: we when we're all attacking from different angles, did That's
Speaker 1: how change happened. When you're attacking this and I'm attacking this,
Speaker 1: it's like it's like term mites eating all all over
Speaker 1: the world, So it ain't it ain't one direction. Then
Speaker 1: they realize, Okay, we gotta do something there, something gotta change.
Speaker 1: So you fight your fight. I fight my fight to
Speaker 1: meek the fight. So we all fight, but we all
Speaker 1: fighting towards the same thing. We want equity in the quality.
Speaker 1: So you know, I definitely support you, but thank you,
Speaker 1: and yeah, thank you and Tomka, thank you for breaking
Speaker 1: it down to me. I never I didn't look at
Speaker 1: it from that perspective. And activism is let's blow everything
Speaker 1: up and then the trickle down the fact we might
Speaker 1: we might move somewhere, you know. So no, I I
Speaker 1: totally see the angle you guys are coming from. And
Speaker 1: and thank you so much for having me on the
Speaker 1: show and whoever is listening to this. Yes, I still
Speaker 1: am a proponent of let's change Nike's management. Let's get
Speaker 1: John Donnehue out of there. Let's get that strategic goal
Speaker 1: of keeping their neighborhood accounts on the sidelines, with not
Speaker 1: having enough pairs unable to pay their rent, just so
Speaker 1: that we could heap the streets and create culture. We
Speaker 1: could be profitable. We could be uh you know, um,
Speaker 1: you know we I want to see the neighborhood accounts
Speaker 1: I p oing. I want to see uh, you know,
Speaker 1: neighborhood accounts being foot five hundred companies. And we won't
Speaker 1: if we just keep on staying on the block and
Speaker 1: we can't you know, grow with outside of our radius.
Speaker 1: So I will keep up my fight and keep fighting
Speaker 1: for the neighborhood accounts even though I don't have one anymore. Right,
Speaker 1: And I feel and we could build our own neighborhood
Speaker 1: accounts for our own black brands, that we can make
Speaker 1: something that's bigger than Nike, and we can be controlled
Speaker 1: on our own and we can have our own I
Speaker 1: p O. Because black brilliance and black excellence is with
Speaker 1: this coach. Yes, sir, agreed. What we're gonna say to
Speaker 1: me goa nothing. Thank you, Exclude City, Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for joining us on keep being great man. Yes
Speaker 1: you too, brother, thank you, thank you well, that was
Speaker 1: a very good conversation. Man. Shout out to tune out aloud,
Speaker 1: shout out to Exclude City. You know, I love having conversations,
Speaker 1: not really debate, but conversations so that we because we
Speaker 1: all have the ultimately the same goal, you know, we
Speaker 1: we want to be treated properly, we want fairness, we want,
Speaker 1: you know, to be have equity in the things that
Speaker 1: we do. And you know his approach it's different than mind.
Speaker 1: You know, he he believes that he can change it
Speaker 1: by the management, and I believe you just can't change it,
Speaker 1: I just leave funk it all. But you know, ultimately
Speaker 1: both of our strategies will get us somewhere, you know.
Speaker 1: So shout out to him man and his grind and
Speaker 1: his two books. He's working on the third one. You know,
Speaker 1: I just I appreciate him. Man. He sounds like somebody's
Speaker 1: very brilliant young man. You know, the the idea that
Speaker 1: he has to sell sneakers in this current market and
Speaker 1: understanding the Internet and understanding all those things, it's brilliant.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, his his idea, it's gonna give
Speaker 1: him where he needs to go. And you know, with
Speaker 1: or without night. Absolutely. Yeah. So that brings me to
Speaker 1: my I don't get it now. You know, I wrestled
Speaker 1: with this one. I wrestled with this. I don't get it.
Speaker 1: But you know, because I've grown to actually like Ben Jones.
Speaker 1: You know, there's somebody that I've met, We've had dialogue,
Speaker 1: and he's somebody I think it is very influence you,
Speaker 1: very smart individual and and ultimately he wants the same
Speaker 1: thing that I want as a black man. You know,
Speaker 1: he want equity. You know a lot of times he
Speaker 1: goes about it and the way that I don't really
Speaker 1: agree with we me and him have discussed. I don't
Speaker 1: really agree with some of the things he said, and
Speaker 1: you know, and he's admitted that he might have admitted that,
Speaker 1: but this this new statement, you know, Um, I just
Speaker 1: don't understand how he could apologize for black people about
Speaker 1: something that black people have been doing. It didn't really
Speaker 1: It just was like and then there was this the
Speaker 1: the statement that he didn't say what he did say,
Speaker 1: and then the video and the audio came out, and
Speaker 1: I just I just I just think that we have
Speaker 1: to do a lot better, you know, we just have
Speaker 1: to do better. You know. None of us like anti semitism,
Speaker 1: you know, and a lot of us has spoken out
Speaker 1: a lot of times, you know, we we we say
Speaker 1: a lot, you know, and I've seen Corner West say
Speaker 1: some things that a lot of us have been way
Speaker 1: more vocal about anti Semitism than people have been about
Speaker 1: anti blackness. And that's one of the real things, you know.
Speaker 1: I know, I just was on my page, you know,
Speaker 1: debating with my own with a lot of people about
Speaker 1: some things that that um that um Kanye had said
Speaker 1: that that I didn't agree with at all, you know,
Speaker 1: and I voiced it. But I just think for then
Speaker 1: to to publicly stand up in certain rooms. And it's
Speaker 1: the certain rooms that you're going, right. He didn't go
Speaker 1: into a room with black people and say, yeah, we
Speaker 1: should be doing this, or pheel have a conversation. You're
Speaker 1: into rooms, you know, with people outside of our coach,
Speaker 1: outside of you know, our blackness, and talked about us.
Speaker 1: And I don't like that. I don't think it makes sense,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, you know, And like I said,
Speaker 1: I have a lot of love and respect for man,
Speaker 1: but I just I really didn't get what he thought
Speaker 1: he was doing. I didn't. I didn't think. I didn't
Speaker 1: get how he thought it made sense, you know, to
Speaker 1: stand up and say something like that, and it was inaccurate,
Speaker 1: you know, because there's a lot of us who've been
Speaker 1: speaking up about anti sellagis. Yeah. I mean I think that, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, none of us can apologize on behalf of
Speaker 1: an entire community, right, none of us, not, none of us.
Speaker 1: There's nobody that can do that. Um. I think that
Speaker 1: Van is consistent, however, and I would you know, and
Speaker 1: I hope that people know that he's very consistent. He is,
Speaker 1: you know, he said he often says things that make
Speaker 1: me go, well, you know, that position that you're taking
Speaker 1: feels very much like you are supporting negative concepts, ideologies
Speaker 1: or whatever things that think people think and say about
Speaker 1: us as black people and um. And you know, there's
Speaker 1: been times when he's missed the mark, and I'm sure
Speaker 1: he probably would say, oh, well to me, I'm glad
Speaker 1: you said that. I don't like some of the things
Speaker 1: that you have said. Right, But to your point, we
Speaker 1: know Van. We see him often and we have conversations.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we agree, sometimes we don't. I think in this situation,
Speaker 1: he really the whole I apologize on behalf of our
Speaker 1: community thing. No, he should never have said that when
Speaker 1: he should have said, is I apologize for myself, you know,
Speaker 1: for what I hadn't been doing, and then nobody would
Speaker 1: have been upset about anything he said. They might have
Speaker 1: there may be there may have been a few people
Speaker 1: to say, oh, Van is over there, you know doing
Speaker 1: you know, telling people he's sorry, apologize there, But who cares.
Speaker 1: He has every right to be for himself sorry to
Speaker 1: a community that he feels he should have done more
Speaker 1: to support. Yeah, I have be right to say that.
Speaker 1: And that's where that's and I think I think it's
Speaker 1: just that simple. So anybody that's talking to him when
Speaker 1: he's trying to explaining, well, I was saying this, and
Speaker 1: then you can make it. We can boil it down
Speaker 1: to these words right here, be sorry for yourself. That's it.
Speaker 1: And and then and then and then and then I
Speaker 1: think the conversation to me, the conversation is over with
Speaker 1: at that point because what people think about you, how
Speaker 1: you feel, it's all on you, right, Because I might
Speaker 1: have been a little bit more. Um, I may have
Speaker 1: been comfortable or not so much comfortable, but I might
Speaker 1: have understood it a little more if he if he
Speaker 1: was in the room full of black Jews, if he
Speaker 1: was in the room full of black juice, to say,
Speaker 1: you know what, we as black people have to be
Speaker 1: more supportive of black Jews that exist that are dealing
Speaker 1: with blackness and't they're being they're being disregarding in their
Speaker 1: religion and their race, which we all experience is being
Speaker 1: attacked on a regular basis. And we noticed because we
Speaker 1: talked to black Jews who told us what they deal
Speaker 1: with discrimination and be and and people not even acknowledging them. Right. So,
Speaker 1: so if he had said something like that but still well,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry for all black people I don't know, you know.
Speaker 1: And that's and and this is a conversation that I
Speaker 1: often have with you, um and you know, and I'm
Speaker 1: trying to check myself constantly with be real careful about
Speaker 1: generalizing our statements. This is why our friends something that
Speaker 1: is our friend, it is actually our it's a helper,
Speaker 1: it's our it is what makes us uh thoughtful and
Speaker 1: and and helps to to bring our points to a
Speaker 1: place of of great uh. You know. Where we're educating
Speaker 1: is to use words like some a few those that
Speaker 1: you know, to make sure that we use turns and
Speaker 1: words rather when we're speaking. That narrows in on who
Speaker 1: you're talking about. Because when we say white people this,
Speaker 1: or black people that, or black men or whatever, we
Speaker 1: gotta be real sure that what we're saying applies to
Speaker 1: the whole m. Yeah. So yeah, you know, and and
Speaker 1: and that's that's what it is, man, you know nothing
Speaker 1: but love for then you know, I try until until
Speaker 1: you go all the way over the line and you
Speaker 1: make me feel like you just don't funk with us
Speaker 1: at all. I try to give you the benefit of doubt,
Speaker 1: even though you know I'm a you know, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: consistently gonna say some ship that when I see some
Speaker 1: ship that don't make sense to me, I'm consistently like nah,
Speaker 1: especially when you have a public voice and public platforms,
Speaker 1: you know, and you and you you represent black people.
Speaker 1: Then and you do ship that don't make sense, then
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say, Now, I don't really I don't agree
Speaker 1: with that, you know, And I'm gonna give you the
Speaker 1: benefit of doubt. So well, I'm gonna give you the
Speaker 1: benefit of doubt. But in this situation, you know, man,
Speaker 1: I just think you know, it was just a misstep.
Speaker 1: Like like Tomka said, speaking about yourself and how you
Speaker 1: felt that you've attacked attacked anti Semitism wasn't up to part.
Speaker 1: You know. I don't think you can speak for us. Oh,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of us feel like we've done,
Speaker 1: we've got going above and beyond. You know, a lot
Speaker 1: of us feel like we've done more than we've actually
Speaker 1: seen Jews do about anti blackness. You know, j some Jews,
Speaker 1: some Jews because we know people like Barro Ellman and
Speaker 1: other Jewish people who do a lot to try to
Speaker 1: support the black community. But overall, right, we are always asked,
Speaker 1: always asked to defend lots of communities, to join lots
Speaker 1: of fights, and and and and and we should continue
Speaker 1: to do that, right, and we should understand because there's
Speaker 1: so many people, as you and I know, they do
Speaker 1: not even know what antisemitism is. They never heard the
Speaker 1: term at all, right, and now they're being exposed to it,
Speaker 1: and they're getting an opportunity to learn, Right, what does
Speaker 1: this mean? Who does it harm? Which communities are impacted
Speaker 1: by it? And like what does it mean for us
Speaker 1: as black people? How do we participate in whatever side? Right?
Speaker 1: Um and and and and it's nothing wrong with us
Speaker 1: being educated about other communities, being educated about hate that
Speaker 1: exists in the world for different people. You know, it's
Speaker 1: nothing wrong with that, but you know there's so much
Speaker 1: there and not even but it's just that is the fact, Like, right,
Speaker 1: people are getting to learn about this particular issue, and
Speaker 1: we all just have to be mindful of what we say,
Speaker 1: which is to your point, nobody is gonna tell mean
Speaker 1: that I have to get over racism, that I gotta
Speaker 1: get over what the KKK did to us. It doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that I'm walking around digging into people's history to
Speaker 1: find out if their great great grandfather was a KKK member.
Speaker 1: I'm not. I may not be at that extent, but
Speaker 1: I damn sure holds a very serious grudge against this country,
Speaker 1: first of all, for what what it has allowed and
Speaker 1: how we built it, and then what has continued to
Speaker 1: happen to us. And still there's been no reckoning. There's
Speaker 1: been nothing done as far as I'm concerned, to really
Speaker 1: truly address the harm and the trauma that was caused.
Speaker 1: And I'm not and you don't have to, and nobody should.
Speaker 1: So nobody should be telling you no, I was gonna say.
Speaker 1: And that's why nobody can't tell the Jewish community to
Speaker 1: get over hitmer. You bugging like you can't say that too.
Speaker 1: That's crazy. It's just crazy. So it is what it is.
Speaker 1: Another day, another day, another episode. Shout out to turn
Speaker 1: Out Loud and his EXCLUSI City. You know, hopefully he
Speaker 1: gets what he wants. Dope interview, Dope brother, brilliant young brother.
Speaker 1: Continue to do what you do, y'all, go support him,
Speaker 1: follow him. You know, we gotta support all of our
Speaker 1: brothers and sisters in this work in every aspect. You know,
Speaker 1: I've been on my black owned business support black owned
Speaker 1: business thing for a while. Shout out to um Bungee brand,
Speaker 1: Bungee the brand who just sent me some dope sneaker.
Speaker 1: Shout out to my Boy Goods with slip walks, Shout
Speaker 1: out to Sire so many different other ones. Man, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be wearing black owned shoes right now. If you've
Speaker 1: got some clothes, let me know so I can see.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start purchasing things right now. I got I
Speaker 1: got a clip of things that have been just sent
Speaker 1: to me because of the support. You know, when I
Speaker 1: started supporting these businesses, um a lot of people, their
Speaker 1: sales went up tremendously, so they was like, y'all want
Speaker 1: to send you this as a you know, as appreciation.
Speaker 1: So right now I've got a lot of stuff that
Speaker 1: I still want to brand. I want people to see it.
Speaker 1: And now on since I say fun Nankee, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be purchasing from exclusively from these brands. So
Speaker 1: I appreciate y'all. Make sure y'all follow me. Follow all
Speaker 1: of the brands that's on my page. I put up
Speaker 1: different brands. Make sure you follow support and bye bye
Speaker 1: bye bye. And with that said, thank you for another
Speaker 1: Dope Episode Tim. Because I'm not gonna always be right,
Speaker 1: She's not gonna always be wrong, but we will both
Speaker 1: always and I mean always, be all the peace. Listen
Speaker 1: to Street Politicians on the Black Effect Network on I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, and catch us every single Wednesday for the
Speaker 1: video version of Street Politicians when I Women dot tv.