Speaker 1: Yip yip. You know boys is back and reloaded all
Speaker 1: in your mind. Yeah, now deep throating. This is for
Speaker 1: the streets, the real, the real goading, the distenfranchise, the.
Speaker 2: Truth, escapegoating, and they ain't know when we speak the truth.
Speaker 2: So they quoted because we wrote it. The North South
Speaker 2: East coaches. The ge be mocked for keeping your head, Bobby,
Speaker 2: it ain't no stopping and wants to be drops head
Speaker 2: by then the system is so corrupt they threw the.
Speaker 1: Rock out their heads and then blame it on us.
Speaker 1: Don't get it twisted on coding. We danced to put
Speaker 1: no butterment biscuits. It's Willie d y'all ghetto boys in
Speaker 1: the house back with another episode of information and instructions
Speaker 1: to help you navigate through this wild, crazy, beautiful world
Speaker 1: in the studio. Visionary of the Year candidate for the
Speaker 1: Leukemia and Lymphoma Society jas Man Terry, I love, congratulations.
Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you somebody else.
Speaker 1: What an honor to be doing something that helped saved lives?
Speaker 3: Absolutely right?
Speaker 1: How long have you been involved with this?
Speaker 3: So? I was nominated early part of the year from
Speaker 3: a friend, Maggie Noell. She participated last year fundraiser, and
Speaker 3: we prepped I guess for a few months on you know,
Speaker 3: the direction and if you're serious about it, and so
Speaker 3: I was like, you know, I'm all in. You know,
Speaker 3: leukemia actually is something that runs in my family. So
Speaker 3: it was my great grandmother. So it was something that's
Speaker 3: really personal to me because no one in my family
Speaker 3: knew what happened to her. We like, we literally didn't know.
Speaker 3: I was at the age of three at the time,
Speaker 3: but my grandmother passed away within a week and a
Speaker 3: half time period. So my family was like, what is this.
Speaker 3: It's cancer, but you know, the culture wise of not
Speaker 3: sharing if there's health issues and if there's information, she
Speaker 3: didn't really know what's going on. So by the time
Speaker 3: we found out, she passed away the following week. So
Speaker 3: there was a lot of testing in the family, like, okay,
Speaker 3: you have Liukemi or her kids, my grandmother and my aunt,
Speaker 3: to my mother and now to myself, just to make
Speaker 3: sure you know it's a bloodline. Especially with a lot
Speaker 3: more research, you know, it's definitely more evident and it's
Speaker 3: a lot more prominent. You know, there's resources to actually
Speaker 3: go to. So when I was asked to be a
Speaker 3: part of this and to be nominated to be a
Speaker 3: Visionary of the Year. I was highly honored, honestly to
Speaker 3: be a part of such an amazing organization and to
Speaker 3: give back, you know, and learn in this process as well.
Speaker 1: How old was your grandmother when she died she passed away?
Speaker 3: I would say she was in her sixties.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, I'm sorry.
Speaker 3: She was actually your great things.
Speaker 1: This was your great grandmother.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I passed away three I mean, my god, not
Speaker 3: I passed away. She passed away when I was three
Speaker 3: years old. So she passed away in eighty nine and
Speaker 3: my my mother was living. So this is my grandmother's mother.
Speaker 3: So yeah, she passed away in her late fifties. I'd
Speaker 3: say early sixties to be honest.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so and to do to pass away and there's
Speaker 3: no information, so she didn't give us an information.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: My family's from my mother's side is from Louisiana, so
Speaker 3: you know, when it comes to medicine, right, my family
Speaker 3: don't believe in medicine. You know. My great grandfather, my
Speaker 3: great grandmother is everything is in the pantry, you know,
Speaker 3: from honey to everything that comes from the farm. So
Speaker 3: trusting doctors, trusting physicians, that's been a and even as
Speaker 3: a child, that's a knug something's wrong. Let me fix
Speaker 3: this for you, focusing on your gut, you know, and
Speaker 3: things of that. So this was her in real time
Speaker 3: that she had no control of what's going on and
Speaker 3: the remedies that she was possibly doing for herself. It
Speaker 3: didn't help the situation. And so by the time she
Speaker 3: let the family know I have leukemia, she passed away
Speaker 3: shortly after, you know, so it was very devastating. Of
Speaker 3: course I was a kid, but I remember as a
Speaker 3: child my mother and my grandmother. I remember the funeral,
Speaker 3: I remember my grandfather, and I'm like, what happened to granny?
Speaker 3: You know, like, you know, because we had such a
Speaker 3: close connection. You know, even now you know, family, you
Speaker 3: look so much like your great grandmother. You know, y'all
Speaker 3: are similarly the same, you know, just like you know
Speaker 3: all these things, and you know, to know that she
Speaker 3: passed away without any research really being available to her,
Speaker 3: you know, was it's it's a disconnect, you know.
Speaker 1: So I'm tripping a little bit on you being able
Speaker 1: to remember at three years old. Oh yeah, I think
Speaker 1: my earliest memory is somewhere around five, maybe four and
Speaker 1: a half five.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I remember, you know, for me energy, I
Speaker 3: can't I remember smells, I remember feelings, and I think
Speaker 3: that's that's energy is so important, like connecting, Like I
Speaker 3: can't tell you at three years old what the conversation was,
Speaker 3: but I remember what I felt. I remember the smell,
Speaker 3: I remember the touch. I remember kind of these small memories.
Speaker 3: But it was really like her energy that more any
Speaker 3: more than anything, you know, So yeah, I do.
Speaker 1: Do people in your family typically live to be a
Speaker 1: long you know?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, honestly, on both sides of the family,
Speaker 3: they do. And I think that's a that's a beautiful
Speaker 3: thing to have because growing up as a kid, I
Speaker 3: had my great great grandfather, I had my great grandfather,
Speaker 3: I had my great my great grandmother passed away, but
Speaker 3: I had my great aunts that lived to like one
Speaker 3: hundred and five one hundred. In my I believe man
Speaker 3: free to live was the longest maybe one hundred and
Speaker 3: six mothers.
Speaker 1: By your grandma, your great grandma died at sixty.
Speaker 3: You know, And no, no, not really, because I mean
Speaker 3: I had such an older with like an older group
Speaker 3: of family members to kind of connect with, you know. Now,
Speaker 3: my grandmother heard my grandmother's uh, my great grandmother's daughter,
Speaker 3: my mother's mother. She passed away fairly early. She passed
Speaker 3: away in her fifties from some issues. She was depression
Speaker 3: and other things. But she passed away fairly early. But
Speaker 3: along those lines, my family lives like a pretty long time,
Speaker 3: to be honest, and with everything that's going on in
Speaker 3: the world right now, I think about because everyone's like, oh,
Speaker 3: my god, you had your great grandfather. Yeah, like y'all
Speaker 3: didn't have it great aunts and they were like nineties
Speaker 3: and eighties, and you know, I think even me growing
Speaker 3: into a woman and understanding now how important information is that,
Speaker 3: even on foods and like knowing your culture, you know,
Speaker 3: knowing different things. It's a lot of people know nothing
Speaker 3: about their grandmothers, their grandparents or didn't have the opportunity
Speaker 3: I can go back to like my great grandparents, you know.
Speaker 3: And then that's my mother's side, my father's side, even
Speaker 3: with my great great grandfather being Jack Yates and to
Speaker 3: see like the legacy here in Houston of what he created,
Speaker 3: you know. And my grandmother now my great my my
Speaker 3: grandmother and my father's brother. She's in her mid eighties,
Speaker 3: you know. So I've always had that type of blessings
Speaker 3: actually to have family around, and you know it's like
Speaker 3: older family.
Speaker 1: So yeah, you mentioned your great grandfather, John Henry jack Yatates.
Speaker 3: Yeah that dude.
Speaker 1: Yeah what a legacy, what a claim? Yeah yeah, it's
Speaker 1: how proud are you of being you know, a part
Speaker 1: of that bloodline?
Speaker 3: You know. Honestly, growing up, I kind of shied from it.
Speaker 3: I didn't really you know, I attended Jacky's High school.
Speaker 3: You know, I know about my great grandfather, but I
Speaker 3: wanted to be cool. I didn't want anyone to be like, Okay,
Speaker 3: you know this is you know, this is school is
Speaker 3: name and yeah you know.
Speaker 1: It is my great grandfather school to do. I ain't
Speaker 1: going to I ain't coming to school.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you know, to have that knowledge, right, It
Speaker 3: was just kind of like I don't want aboudy know,
Speaker 3: you know. And school was different than you know, like
Speaker 3: you're like, yeah, this school name after my great grandfather and.
Speaker 1: It's a trip. How we how we trivialize things that
Speaker 1: are mine and we we elevate these things that are
Speaker 1: really important, Like we shy away from things like things
Speaker 1: that we should be proud.
Speaker 3: You know, you can't tell me now like I tell everybody,
Speaker 3: even in in bios, you know that is that is
Speaker 3: a part of that is historic, not even for Houston,
Speaker 3: but just for me and my bloodline. The power, you know,
Speaker 3: and think about who you are as a person, like
Speaker 3: what makes you who you are? And I think about
Speaker 3: myself like being an entrepreneur, being an advocacy, you know,
Speaker 3: just how we connected just from talking about aggovacy, you know.
Speaker 2: What I mean.
Speaker 3: And and to be able to it's something that's rooted
Speaker 3: in me. It's actually something that's actually it's in my blood,
Speaker 3: like to create and to want to help others. And
Speaker 3: how connected I am to my culture as Black culture
Speaker 3: and my seeking of like where does all this energy
Speaker 3: come from? You know, like what makes you you? And
Speaker 3: then you have like this information to go back to.
Speaker 3: You know. It's like it's powerful, you know, and it's
Speaker 3: actually a great feeling, like a blessing. You know.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I first saw, I think at first came across
Speaker 1: you on the Isaiah Factor Show and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: she got something. She was talking about some type of
Speaker 1: social issue. I can't remember exactly what it was. The
Speaker 1: way you articulated yourself. I was like, oh, yeah, she
Speaker 1: shocked and you stood on it. It was something controversial.
Speaker 1: You wasn't dancing around.
Speaker 3: Oh no, oh no, that's not me. I wasn't raised
Speaker 3: to be that way. And you know, I you know,
Speaker 3: to be able to talk about culture, black culture, there's
Speaker 3: no shyness about that. That's no change in my tone.
Speaker 3: There's no when I'm around a certain group, you know,
Speaker 3: being proud of who you are, you know, that's that's
Speaker 3: that's in my blood, you know, and you stand on it,
Speaker 3: you know, in any space. And so if it's something
Speaker 3: dealing with health care, if it's education, if it's something
Speaker 3: dealing with the financial systems, you know, advocacy is important.
Speaker 3: It's in me and I have That's what I feel
Speaker 3: connected to do you know, even with my travels around
Speaker 3: the world that I do. You know, this is all
Speaker 3: a part of a learning process, you know. And I
Speaker 3: don't know where it comes from, but I know.
Speaker 1: From your great grandparents, great great grand perhaps.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, just his story alone, you know, being a
Speaker 3: slave in Virginia, to be free and to come back
Speaker 3: to be with your wife in Texas and become a
Speaker 3: slave again, you know, to not only that, to kind
Speaker 3: of lead the way through the mascipation to build, teach
Speaker 3: your people how to build homes and with the importance
Speaker 3: of land and how to read and you know, to
Speaker 3: be a minister to minister to people. And this is
Speaker 3: how we create our own economic systems. We don't have
Speaker 3: to be a part of these systems that that we
Speaker 3: were given.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: So this is a person that's been out of was
Speaker 3: a slave, out of slave, came back into slavery, the
Speaker 3: massurpation happened. Then create when it land where we have
Speaker 3: our own land. We don't want, we don't need to
Speaker 3: participate with you. We're going to create our own you know,
Speaker 3: these different struggles, you know, the fights that in order
Speaker 3: just to be yourself and so to know the legacy
Speaker 3: that not only my great grandfather, my great grandfather's children.
Speaker 3: We know what my grandmother has done with my five,
Speaker 3: with my family, just who we are. It's innately in us,
Speaker 3: you know. So to get on Isaiah Factor show, and
Speaker 3: I'm gonna say what I gotta say, because this is
Speaker 3: something that's like, you know, it's important to me, you know,
Speaker 3: and it's carrying information you know, So it is you know,
Speaker 3: and I'm a proud I'm definitely proud. Now I'm not
Speaker 3: saying I wasn't proud as I was immature. Then I
Speaker 3: didn't want to tell people, you know, this is my
Speaker 3: great grandfather, this is the school was after you know,
Speaker 3: I was like, I don't need to do that. You know,
Speaker 3: pretty modest, you know, but that's roalsy, you know, in
Speaker 3: your area.
Speaker 4: So Little Boys reloaded podcast right after spot.
Speaker 1: When you look at the racial climate in this country, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of division and there are a lot
Speaker 1: of people that are in high positions, especially politicians who
Speaker 1: are flaming the hire. Yeah, considering your your lineage, considering
Speaker 1: what we've been through historically, do you what's your concern
Speaker 1: level that slavery could actually happen again?
Speaker 3: Slavery is happening right now.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm talking about I'm talking about slavery. You know,
Speaker 1: they actually like actually having black folks in physical change,
Speaker 1: not the mental change, the change, but the physical change
Speaker 1: and you know everything that came with that.
Speaker 3: In certain parts of the world, that's happening still, right,
Speaker 3: we're just talking about America.
Speaker 1: Talking about right, I don't think I don't.
Speaker 3: Think that's going to happen, right. I think there's these
Speaker 3: systems around us, and I know you said about like
Speaker 3: physically happening. You know, I don't. I don't really think
Speaker 3: that's going to happen. I know, I'm not getting no chance.
Speaker 3: I don't. I don't see it. I mean, what do
Speaker 3: you think you think? I don't see?
Speaker 1: I can, I can, I can. I can't say what
Speaker 1: can and what will and won't happen, because some things
Speaker 1: are happening now that I never thought would happen.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, you know, hell.
Speaker 1: Donald Trump became president. We wanted the dumb as motherfuckers
Speaker 1: in the United States of America, you know. But I can't.
Speaker 1: I don't know, you know, but I do know this.
Speaker 1: I'm killing everything. I'm not going to be a.
Speaker 3: Slave, you know.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to be a slave, especially knowing what
Speaker 1: I know, knowing what they did, that information, especially knowing
Speaker 1: that what I know, knowing that there is no get back,
Speaker 1: knowing that there is no mercy, knowing that there is
Speaker 1: no there is no there will be no conversations of rationalism.
Speaker 3: Though, absolutely it's not.
Speaker 1: I don't see no rationalizing, you know, Like, I'm not
Speaker 1: na man. I already know I'm man.
Speaker 3: I'm killing everything, walking everything, you know. I had a
Speaker 3: conversation with a friend about how do we get out
Speaker 3: of these systems? Right?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 3: How you know? Who are well? Who are we uninterrupted?
Speaker 3: As a culture? And when I say uninterrupted, meaning without
Speaker 3: the trauma, without your back, your record, and you know this,
Speaker 3: this poverty and all these things, who are we as
Speaker 3: a culture? Uninterrupted? We are royal buildings? I know who
Speaker 3: you are? Right, So it's you have to interrupt. You
Speaker 3: have to interrupt in order to shake it up, right
Speaker 3: I can't And so you I'm gonna interrupt you in education,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna interrupt you in the financial system. I have
Speaker 3: to interrupt you in so many places because the moment
Speaker 3: you're uninterrupted, you train, your energy transcends. You're a whole
Speaker 3: nother you are Who are you? You know what I mean?
Speaker 3: In my mind I heard something like that. I was like,
Speaker 3: who is Jasmine uninterrupted? You know, if I'm not worried
Speaker 3: about bills, I'm not worried about walking around, if the
Speaker 3: police is this, and what? Who am I? Uninterrupted? And
Speaker 3: that's from now on, That's how I see myself. I'm uninterrupted,
Speaker 3: you know, as a culture. So when we look on
Speaker 3: the news and you see prime example, you know the
Speaker 3: guy that raised two million dollars you know, for now
Speaker 3: and the GoFundMe.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I ain't worth for d penny.
Speaker 3: So so you know what does that look like? Right?
Speaker 3: And the media would show the music. We're so interrupted
Speaker 3: in so many ways, right, the things that we're listening to,
Speaker 3: the foods that we eat. It's a it's a part
Speaker 3: of a system. Right, How do we get uninterrupted as
Speaker 3: a culture? And I hate to say it, the only
Speaker 3: I don't know other way but to fight, to be honest,
Speaker 3: And my friends like fighting, you know, and we love
Speaker 3: and you know, I I love Martin Luther King that
Speaker 3: that was a he's a great man. But I also
Speaker 3: unders sand with Malcolm X felt right as a culture
Speaker 3: and I just feel that, you know, we're gonna have
Speaker 3: to fight. It's going to be a point where sorry,
Speaker 3: it's a point where you know, I'm uninterrupted period, And
Speaker 3: so by any means, in any way necessary, I will
Speaker 3: not be interrupted. I don't want to hear so even
Speaker 3: listening to news and sometimes with social media and all
Speaker 3: these different things, right, that's interrupted. That's interrupting, like your
Speaker 3: mind to think, you know what I mean, the foods
Speaker 3: we're eating, it's interrupting our systems. The healthcare, all of that,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. So if I can be
Speaker 3: in a place as simple as being uninterrupted, you can't
Speaker 3: stop me. You can't stop nothing. It's nothing that you
Speaker 3: can do to do that. And so as a people,
Speaker 3: if we can figure out ways how we are uninterrupted,
Speaker 3: meaning if it starts with the children and education, we're
Speaker 3: teaching our own right, if it goes into building our
Speaker 3: own hospitals, creating our own willness cities, you know, creating
Speaker 3: our own military, because we will be uninterrupted because everybody
Speaker 3: has their hands on our culture, everybody, you know. So
Speaker 3: for me, back to what you're saying about slavery, I
Speaker 3: don't see it going that far, as far as chains
Speaker 3: and all of that. I think as a people and
Speaker 3: at this point in time in life, that we have
Speaker 3: a conscious that it's awakening, that is beyond just what
Speaker 3: we see right, and it's happening. So therefore, the world
Speaker 3: is shifting, the earth is purging, it's you know, I'm
Speaker 3: into nature. I mean, I don't know if you know
Speaker 3: that really, but so for me, the mountains, so for me, you.
Speaker 1: Know, walking down walking on the beach in Morocco.
Speaker 3: So for me, you know, that's a lifestyle that comes
Speaker 3: with lifestyle, and that's something that you teach others, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean, looking in different directions, you know.
Speaker 3: So I don't don't see that happening. It's putting us
Speaker 3: into being slaves and all of that, you know. And
Speaker 3: I don't think every other culture is bad, but I
Speaker 3: am focused on my culture and my goal is to
Speaker 3: help us be in you know, uninterrupted period, you know,
Speaker 3: the mind and to do that. And so with that,
Speaker 3: I don't see it happening.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: That's your ministry.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's my ministry.
Speaker 1: That's your ministry. Your ministry is helping people service. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's your ministry because even when you do it with
Speaker 1: your event center, your event center is not just you know,
Speaker 1: fuck you pay me, it's it's yo. We're going to
Speaker 1: provide a superiod experience, absolutely, you know, and we're going
Speaker 1: to create a beautiful space for you to come. It's
Speaker 1: going to be it's going to be a warm and
Speaker 1: welcoming space and you're going to feel it. You're going
Speaker 1: to feel that personal touch. I mean I felt it myself,
Speaker 1: and I.
Speaker 3: You know, the reason for me opening Lace Chateau. And
Speaker 3: of course all of this is energy for me, everything
Speaker 3: is energy. So it was to create a safe space
Speaker 3: for creatives, right I complain, an't nowhere to go in Houston.
Speaker 3: At some points it was like the clubs, it was like,
Speaker 3: you're gonna tell me what I can We're I see
Speaker 3: you profiling by the clothes or you know, just certain things.
Speaker 3: I want a space where we can be safe and connect,
Speaker 3: grow and learn. So it's not just opening a bar,
Speaker 3: you know, lay Chatau. Houston for me is a space
Speaker 3: where we can be safe and also connect. So we
Speaker 3: can have greade eats, we can have music where creatives
Speaker 3: from all of the world. Because Houston being such a
Speaker 3: big city, there's not like a place a platform where
Speaker 3: indie artists just really come in. You have like your
Speaker 3: warehouse lives, and you have like these other places, but
Speaker 3: there's no hub of like this is where talent is made,
Speaker 3: you know. So I wanted to be able to participate
Speaker 3: in creating that rhythm in Houston. And it doesn't have
Speaker 3: to be just a club and your normal live music shows.
Speaker 3: But there's so many forms of art that you that
Speaker 3: I want La Chautaud to be able to display, you know,
Speaker 3: So from theatrical art to musicians to dancers, you know,
Speaker 3: singers like all of that into the space and even
Speaker 3: art of networking with other people. How do you get
Speaker 3: into a room and connect. A lot of times we
Speaker 3: want to I want to go talk to really th man,
Speaker 3: I want to, you know, how do you do that?
Speaker 3: How do you when you have that opportunity, how do
Speaker 3: you connect? You know? So it's really like a like
Speaker 3: you said, I guess a teaching space right to having
Speaker 3: a safe space for culture, and then you also having
Speaker 3: these different you know, different places I visit around the world.
Speaker 3: I was like, I gotta I want to bring it
Speaker 3: back to Houston, and if you didn't go with me,
Speaker 3: I want you to be able to see through my
Speaker 3: eyes what I saw. And so whether it's in other
Speaker 3: countries and we come back in these different performers of
Speaker 3: sounds and music to place it into the space. That's
Speaker 3: what Lai's Chateau is about, you know, to create whatever
Speaker 3: you want. You know. So what I initially opened, that's
Speaker 3: the plan I closed during COVID and then from there
Speaker 3: I reopened. And I'm like, you know, the bar industry
Speaker 3: is a lot. You know, it was a lot on me,
Speaker 3: and I don't know how I maintained for three years
Speaker 3: kind of solo. This is I've never owned a bar before,
Speaker 3: never worked in the bar, but I was like, okay,
Speaker 3: I have this vision, and everything just happened. You know,
Speaker 3: even the guys would earn your leisure.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: I created one programming of lais Chateau, which is the office,
Speaker 3: which actually today there is an event, a networking event
Speaker 3: to just kind of connect with people professionals and entrepreneurs
Speaker 3: in Houston and really engaging, going how do we you
Speaker 3: know when you're in the room, this is not just
Speaker 3: looking at each other, really get to know somebody, not
Speaker 3: just being around the people that you're close to, actually
Speaker 3: getting in and connect. So I was able to reach out.
Speaker 3: They reached out to me, Actually, hey, we like what
Speaker 3: you're doing in Houston. We want to come down and
Speaker 3: to see where they started from with this financial literacy,
Speaker 3: even him and shout out to my guy Wall Street
Speaker 3: Trap as well, that talking about the market, the stock
Speaker 3: market with nineteen keys like all of them. Well, Wall
Speaker 3: Street Trap met earned your leisure in my space and
Speaker 3: to see where they were then and where they are now.
Speaker 3: And we all are cool in these relationships, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean. Lace Shatau is a place that you
Speaker 3: were able to connect and to see that and then
Speaker 3: to have them come out and then to not just them,
Speaker 3: just different people, musicians and artists. So you know, for
Speaker 3: me as a visionary, I just want to create rooms
Speaker 3: and spaces and energy where things evolved, you know, so
Speaker 3: instead of having a bar, now it's a creative space.
Speaker 3: You know. So you bring your creativity and we hope
Speaker 3: you make it happen, you know, and it's all about
Speaker 3: you know. When I open Lace Chateau, then I had
Speaker 3: a lady because I'm in sophomore SANDERSONO, so I'm in
Speaker 3: the museum district. It's their reward. I had a lady,
Speaker 3: a white lady. Her name is Karen. Also. Karen came
Speaker 3: in and said, oh, you're opening up a jazz bar.
Speaker 3: And I was like, yeah, I'm excited to tell her.
Speaker 3: And you know, she came in as if she wanted
Speaker 3: to help me with the you know, I want to.
Speaker 3: I want to help you, you know, I want to.
Speaker 3: I want to. I want you to be successful. Now,
Speaker 3: she don't know that my great grandfather helped cultivate this
Speaker 3: whole area where you living with your husband. That's not
Speaker 3: too far from a massipation. My grandfather created that space, right.
Speaker 3: But she doesn't know me. So she's coming in and
Speaker 3: she's like, well, you know, I want you to be
Speaker 3: successful in this area. And the food is great, the
Speaker 3: music is great, but I think the artwork in here,
Speaker 3: I think you should make it about everybody. I think
Speaker 3: you should make this space not just about Black culture.
Speaker 3: It should be about Asian culture. It should be about
Speaker 3: all these different cultures. You know, it should be about
Speaker 3: every you know, because that's the way the world is.
Speaker 3: And I let her talk, and I was so thankful
Speaker 3: that I handled her with grace, because who are you
Speaker 3: to come into my business and tell me how I
Speaker 3: should make space for everybody. Did you go to Papito's
Speaker 3: and you see all of these pictures of these other
Speaker 3: cultures on the wall, and they have no black people.
Speaker 3: Did you tell them you should make this about black
Speaker 3: people too. I said, that's the problem. I should be
Speaker 3: able to be proud and you should be of my
Speaker 3: culture and the legacy of Arika Franklin and Ray Charles
Speaker 3: and mal Davis, and you should be in here, be
Speaker 3: excited to see this experience because this is a part
Speaker 3: of my culture. It's not because it's only for black people.
Speaker 3: She said, Well, when you have things like that, it
Speaker 3: makes it seem like only black people are welcome. I said,
Speaker 3: you're the only one feeling and uncomfortable. Why making what
Speaker 3: my culture is doing and me promoting and wanting a
Speaker 3: safe space for my people, you feel uncomfortable and for
Speaker 3: you to have the balls to come into my business
Speaker 3: and smile at me and to tell me be black,
Speaker 3: but just don't be too black. Make it black. This
Speaker 3: is this area is for everybody. You know, there's black
Speaker 3: people here, there's Asian people here, even more reasons where
Speaker 3: you should be want to welcome and understand my culture
Speaker 3: and understand the legacy. It's more than just music. You
Speaker 3: comeing to eat our food and our great like understand this,
Speaker 3: come in and connect with people. And I think her
Speaker 3: husband was from Brooklyn, and so he was you know,
Speaker 3: he was really nice, but he could feel like he
Speaker 3: was like, I think you were out of line. The
Speaker 3: next day, the opening she sends like a flood of flowers.
Speaker 3: She said, she said, you are so highly aware and
Speaker 3: with the way that you handle me with care. In
Speaker 3: that moment, I had no idea what I was doing,
Speaker 3: Like for me to come in to tell you don't
Speaker 3: make your space about your culture is insensitive. And I
Speaker 3: didn't even realize this because I mean, I have black friends.
Speaker 3: That was one you know, I have. I've traveled around
Speaker 3: the world, and the way that you broke it down
Speaker 3: to me, I didn't even realize that was me and
Speaker 3: my form of not being able to connect. And so
Speaker 3: even with that, you know, leys Chateau, it was just her.
Speaker 3: They always came after that, you know, and I forced
Speaker 3: her to connect with other people. This is what life
Speaker 3: is about. It's about connecting, you know, Like you can't
Speaker 3: come in my business and help me to be black.
Speaker 3: WI just don't be too black because you make me
Speaker 3: uncomfortable with your blackness.
Speaker 4: The boys revoting podcasts will be right back after sport.
Speaker 1: Imagine going to a Mexican restaurant and being offended that
Speaker 1: there's only Mexicans on the wall. The people who started
Speaker 1: the restaurant, you know, like these are the people who
Speaker 1: started the generations of people who started the restaurants where yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you should add more diversity here because to
Speaker 1: make me comfortable, make me comfortable. But that but they
Speaker 1: only do that to us. That's that they only I
Speaker 1: know that for a fact, they only do that when
Speaker 1: a black person owns a restaurant something. And like now
Speaker 1: you put whoever you want to put on the walls,
Speaker 1: if you if a person likes the product or services,
Speaker 1: they they patronize the business or they don't. It doesn't
Speaker 1: matter to me one way or the other. It's like
Speaker 1: my music. I make my music for the people and
Speaker 1: if you get it, cool, If you don't, that's cool too.
Speaker 1: But I am not about to acquiesque to your style,
Speaker 1: to your preference to make you feel comfortable. Fuck you
Speaker 1: straight up, right straight up like uh, and I'm unapologetic
Speaker 1: about that. You know. Why why do we have to
Speaker 1: change who we are? You know? I mean, but you
Speaker 1: know it's like you like our talents, like what we do,
Speaker 1: but then you want to take it and then you
Speaker 1: want to make it the way you want to make it,
Speaker 1: and so that you can be comfortable with it.
Speaker 3: Like I said, you want to interrupt it.
Speaker 1: You want to interrupt it, right, and.
Speaker 3: So you don't leave us uninterrupted. You want to interrupt
Speaker 3: in any form because I want you no, no, no, no,
Speaker 3: it can't be too good, you know. And I think
Speaker 3: and to go back to your point, what you just
Speaker 3: said about here in America. It's a mentality. So as
Speaker 3: a person that has traveled in different places around the world,
Speaker 3: I didn't realize with this whitewash mentality that I've had,
Speaker 3: right that when I went to other places, when I
Speaker 3: went to France, went to Paris, I'm so used to
Speaker 3: America has programmed us that we are the center of
Speaker 3: the world and we're not. We are behind, right, but
Speaker 3: we are so great, like a concept about branding and marketing,
Speaker 3: right that we go around, Oh, I'm American, you know,
Speaker 3: the dollar is American. What is the dollar tied to?
Speaker 3: You know what I mean? Like all of this to
Speaker 3: not until I went to China, not until I went
Speaker 3: to Europe and I'm seeing like, you know, I'm American,
Speaker 3: you know, I go there and I think you don't
Speaker 3: speak English, like we have been programmed honestly, so not
Speaker 3: only are we as black people, right and just thinking
Speaker 3: as humans, I mean just a culture of people. We're
Speaker 3: American also, And when I've gone to other places, like
Speaker 3: this is not in English, you know, everything is English
Speaker 3: and French English, Like we have this type of supremacy
Speaker 3: around the world to being like these this is it
Speaker 3: and we're not, and I had someone tell me in
Speaker 3: China when I was in it was a program which
Speaker 3: seen what Africa and China's doing in Africa. That's the
Speaker 3: whole thing. I seen that back in twenty fourteen. But
Speaker 3: maybe you are in another country. I know America were
Speaker 3: popular with the entertainment and you know we have this.
Speaker 3: That was the first time a slap in face. I
Speaker 3: was like, we are behind. I am behind right, Like
Speaker 3: the kids here are making the games that my children
Speaker 3: will play. They're creating the technology that I will use.
Speaker 3: What are we doing? I went there. My friends were like, oh,
Speaker 3: see if you can get us some hair, will you
Speaker 3: connect or some boutiques, some clothes And I'm like, yeah, girl,
Speaker 3: I got you. I'm in China. I'm gonna be here
Speaker 3: for a while. Not until I joined the Africa to
Speaker 3: Business Council that Asian a Chinese girl asked me to
Speaker 3: join that I realized the conversations were different, and I
Speaker 3: was quiet because I'm not Africa. I'm not from Africa,
Speaker 3: but there was people from Nigeria and other places in Africa.
Speaker 3: They were brokering deals and China, the government in twenty
Speaker 3: fourteen was creating this Chinese to Africa Business Council, which
Speaker 3: I have photos to show where you know, and still
Speaker 3: a part of this group. We want to do business
Speaker 3: in Africa. And so while I'm looking that of how
Speaker 3: can I get to connect on some clothes to start
Speaker 3: a boutique, and some hair, maybe some makeup, and you
Speaker 3: know these smaller things, these are people my age brokering
Speaker 3: big world deals, meaning creating room for tomato paste companies,
Speaker 3: rice farms, you know. And I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 3: this is like on a bigger scale. You know, I'm behind.
Speaker 3: I'm thinking I'm American and you know all of these no,
Speaker 3: I'm behind, you are we are. America is a small
Speaker 3: part of what the world is. And we made this
Speaker 3: Donald Trump mentality to be like this this thing that
Speaker 3: we are not, we are falling. I saw this in
Speaker 3: twenty fourteen. I'm like, my god, this is where we
Speaker 3: are on a scale of what the world. The conversations
Speaker 3: are happening around the world, so right now to where
Speaker 3: we understand where the dollar is. And I saw this
Speaker 3: in twenty fourteen and to see how China has created
Speaker 3: these alliances around the world. They're in Africa and I'm
Speaker 3: brokering deals because they think I'm from Nigeria. I didn't
Speaker 3: say I wasn't. I just you know, I'm trying to
Speaker 3: understand what's going on and to see this and I'm like,
Speaker 3: my gosh, I am really behind. I'm worried about weave.
Speaker 3: My friend want to start a makeup line and a boutique,
Speaker 3: you know, And these are real life, these are global
Speaker 3: impacts around the world, you know. So as a culture
Speaker 3: and I say, as an American, so not only being black,
Speaker 3: but then you have to get outside of the world
Speaker 3: and we've been programmed to think, oh, we big, we
Speaker 3: big shit.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, sometimes they do behaveing on us though,
Speaker 1: because I was I lived in Paris for I lived
Speaker 1: in Paris for they do. And I remember going into
Speaker 1: the grocery stool once, yeah, and I asked for, uh,
Speaker 1: a shaver, you know, a razor, yeah, and it's like
Speaker 1: a shave, right. So I'm asking about the razors and
Speaker 1: it's like maybe like it's like six cash registers, about
Speaker 1: three cashiers and they're all women and so and they
Speaker 1: got people standing in the line and I'm asking about
Speaker 1: the razors and she's like she's talking to me like that,
Speaker 1: like like really like talking down on me like, huh
Speaker 1: what And she's frowning up. Why she asked, and I'm
Speaker 1: I'm I'm the tourists, but I'm in the tourists area.
Speaker 1: I'm in a tourist. I know that they want us
Speaker 1: to try to speak French. I got that they want
Speaker 1: us to make an effort to speak French. But I
Speaker 1: ain't got time to be making the damn efforts to
Speaker 1: speak French. Man. I got stuff to do. I'm not
Speaker 1: here trying to vacate. I'm trying to I'm trying to
Speaker 1: kill man. So the woman was like, what say you,
Speaker 1: And so the other lady h she She's looking at
Speaker 1: the other lady, and I see them laughing about it, right,
Speaker 1: So I said, do you have any razors, bitch? And
Speaker 1: the other one like, oh, they're right there, like ma,
Speaker 1: you know, like that. But you know, excuse my French
Speaker 1: apartment of vernacular. But I ain't usually like that with women,
Speaker 1: you know. But I mean, she just she tried to
Speaker 1: make and she was insulting me, you know. And but
Speaker 1: you know what another thing was feeling that at all.
Speaker 3: Not until an understanding, like and she was don't get
Speaker 3: me wrong, they can't be people of the culture to
Speaker 3: be rude. The reason why as Americans as a totality,
Speaker 3: not just you and what you mean, when we go places,
Speaker 3: we think we are the ship. Yeah, we think we
Speaker 3: are the ship. You go to you're in another country,
Speaker 3: you go to Mexico. We have had this mentality of
Speaker 3: you know, I'm better than you.
Speaker 1: I'm American collectively because because I've never been that.
Speaker 3: Way, so right, and so many people like, eh, your food,
Speaker 3: like what is this? You know, because we have been
Speaker 3: pro that we are the center of the world and
Speaker 3: we're not. We're behind education, our health is bad, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. Our dollar is crappy, and we
Speaker 3: we it's bullshit. Not even just Europe. You go to Mexico.
Speaker 3: We feel as though we're better than other people, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. It's a mentality.
Speaker 1: Families have been decimated.
Speaker 3: Listen, listen, and so and I'll say this and I
Speaker 3: you know, my experience, Like for me, I'm going to Ghana.
Speaker 3: So I went to Ghana January. I plan on in
Speaker 3: June to be there all the way through December. I'll
Speaker 3: come back and forth. But I want to plant my
Speaker 3: roots in Africa. Right, And I'll say this, it's not
Speaker 3: the thing of you know, I'm black and I'm you know,
Speaker 3: I want to go back to Africa because that's a
Speaker 3: whole other topic of we're not the same people as
Speaker 3: far as because we're Black African, it's completely we're different.
Speaker 3: We're the same of same genes, right, but we're different.
Speaker 3: And me being in Africa and to not just Africa,
Speaker 3: but places I've been right to go to places when
Speaker 3: you see people that look like you, right, and you
Speaker 3: know in America, we have always been in this capitalist
Speaker 3: kind of mentality, right, money, money, money, you know, it's
Speaker 3: a pressure. But yeah, there's places where they're poor. You know,
Speaker 3: they don't have but we have a poverty, but they
Speaker 3: have something way more powerful, which is community.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: If somebody's out there selling chickens and eggs, it's such
Speaker 3: a it's such a community based culture that is beautiful
Speaker 3: to me. You know, we can come here and yeah,
Speaker 3: money and all this we're so disconnected on who we
Speaker 3: are and the things and the soil is bad. You know,
Speaker 3: so my experience and being there and you're welcoming another feeling.
Speaker 3: You know, I went to Nigeria and Nigeria was cool.
Speaker 3: You know. I had some instance with some of my
Speaker 3: friends I went to college with, you know, because I
Speaker 3: didn't feel even though I love the culture of the
Speaker 3: African Nigerian culture, to learn about it and I thought like, oh,
Speaker 3: you know, my ancestry say, I'm forty percent Nigerian, so
Speaker 3: you know, I'm like, I didn't feel connected. But they
Speaker 3: and again I am a spiritual person. It's it's what
Speaker 3: felt calm to my spirit. I felt like I just
Speaker 3: didn't think that these are my people. You know what
Speaker 3: I mean?
Speaker 1: I love did they make you feel welcome?
Speaker 3: Very welcome? Even the people here, my Nigerian friends that
Speaker 3: are here barrier. It's not even the language barrier. I honestly,
Speaker 3: I lived in so much afrobeats and I've talked to
Speaker 3: so many people in Houston. Houston alone has a lot
Speaker 3: of Nigerians and people culture. I love the food. I
Speaker 3: just thought I did not feel like home to me.
Speaker 3: When I went to Ghana when I was seven years old,
Speaker 3: I was a turning elementary. Bush created HIZ created program
Speaker 3: the Multicultural Program, and it was a turner elementary where
Speaker 3: you could pick Europe, Africa, China and all these other
Speaker 3: countries that your study was in and the mine was
Speaker 3: mine was France and mine was Africa, and the focus
Speaker 3: in Africa was Ghana. And so I met the president
Speaker 3: Jerry Rawlins. It's a picture of me seven years old.
Speaker 3: I met him. They had me and this can take clothing.
Speaker 3: And I remember asking him a question why are Africans poor?
Speaker 3: Like why are everybody poor? And he just looked at me.
Speaker 3: He looked at me and said, Africa's not poor. Baby.
Speaker 3: He said it's not poor. And he explained, there's so
Speaker 3: many because I had no idea when I thought of Africa.
Speaker 3: We looked on the television. It was flies, kids, big bellies,
Speaker 3: you know, like, oh they're poor. He said, it's not poor,
Speaker 3: you know. And he was telling me the food is
Speaker 3: so we had these tastings of like different types of food.
Speaker 3: That was my first exposure.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: So here I am at thirty six years old. Well,
Speaker 3: I went to Africa at thirty five, but at thirty
Speaker 3: six I was in Ghana and to be able to
Speaker 3: connect as soon as immediate. When I was in Nigeria,
Speaker 3: Nigeria felt like everybody's chasing money. That's what the feeling.
Speaker 3: It's a beautiful place, don't get me wrong, but I'm
Speaker 3: energy right and I felt like this is beautiful as fun.
Speaker 1: And I'm going back on the cities in America.
Speaker 3: It was just like the energy was just it was money,
Speaker 3: like everything was like about money. But the minute I
Speaker 3: landed in Ghana, it's a feeling of it was like
Speaker 3: you know, it was a feeling of just peace, a
Speaker 3: feeling of peace, like seriously, and it wasn't because and
Speaker 3: I was like, all right, maybe it's my psych of
Speaker 3: like I have always wanted to go to Ghana, so
Speaker 3: I'm gonna look at it different, the air, the different,
Speaker 3: it's a different feeling, right, It's not it's different. It's different.
Speaker 3: Men to go somewhere and you see money with people,
Speaker 3: the faces that look like you right to go to
Speaker 3: the museum and this is their history. Not all it's
Speaker 3: not as beautiful or you know, as as big buildings
Speaker 3: as the States, but it's a quality that you can't
Speaker 3: get here. It's a feeling of like, man, this is peaceful, right,
Speaker 3: like this is this is to me what life feels like.
Speaker 3: And I feel like I've experienced some highs and being
Speaker 3: around but these people, it's in community, rooted in community,
Speaker 3: you know, and you know you have these markets and
Speaker 3: people are exchanging foods and you know it's not as
Speaker 3: it's not as wealthy in some areas, right, but that
Speaker 3: is up to have peace and to have happiness. That
Speaker 3: is something that that money you and to arrive back
Speaker 3: in America and you feel it's like automatics. Soon as
Speaker 3: you got to the plan, you feel pressure, anxiety. Everybody's
Speaker 3: like it's this, it's this thing, like I got the money.
Speaker 3: Oh you know, it's this, it's the news. It's it's
Speaker 3: so much pressure. But to be able to go a
Speaker 3: place that you just feel like, oh my god, this
Speaker 3: is peaceful.
Speaker 1: And I'm assuming that it's the same way when you
Speaker 1: walk into a store. You you feel like you feel
Speaker 1: that the person is grateful that you're there and not
Speaker 1: that you feel some type of burden.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's a welcoming it's a welcoming feeling. It's
Speaker 3: a welcoming feeling that you feel. And also let's get
Speaker 3: to the food that is live soil. The soil here
Speaker 3: is dead. You know, when I was in Israel back
Speaker 3: manufactured listen, food, it's dead. The food here is not food.
Speaker 3: When I was in Israel back in twenty I think
Speaker 3: it was like two thousand and eight, I was in Galileabo.
Speaker 3: I went to Tel Aviv. I never taste fruit before,
Speaker 3: like I love fruit, but it was tastes and I
Speaker 3: see why they're fighting over the soil. It was a
Speaker 3: whole nother taste. The food was different, the food in Ghana.
Speaker 3: It is different. The tastes like I'm telling you, it tastes.
Speaker 3: It was great immediately what you think a great strawberry
Speaker 3: tastes like and you have it in another place, You're like, man,
Speaker 3: this is dead. Even your stomach right. You know, your
Speaker 3: gut is really like the mouth of your soul. So
Speaker 3: if your gut is the mouth of your soul, what
Speaker 3: you put it in replenish the body. If we're putting
Speaker 3: in fake foods and eating dead corpse and all this craziness,
Speaker 3: our minds were interrupted. We're interrupted within our minds. But
Speaker 3: to be able to eat vibration, high level, like vibrating foods,
Speaker 3: like it feels different. You're not tired. You know you're
Speaker 3: not big because and I eat, I'm greedy.
Speaker 1: Are you vegan?
Speaker 3: I'm not vegan, but I think I eventually kind of pescatarian.
Speaker 3: The scents and sometimes I don't eat pork, I don't
Speaker 3: eat any port, but you know, I still have these slips.
Speaker 3: I love chicken, even chicken. Listen, I don't eat chicken.
Speaker 3: I try not to eat chicken here in the States.
Speaker 3: I'm telling you, And that's mark my word. Jasmin Terry
Speaker 3: said that chicken, the antibodies, the things that are in
Speaker 3: these chickens really mess with your brain. I love Pope's
Speaker 3: it hands down't care how much money I have in
Speaker 3: the world. You eat it, your mind is messed up
Speaker 3: gold Like, really do with a cleanse and go eat
Speaker 3: something that's like that, like the chicken. It throws your
Speaker 3: mind off. So if you have some imbalances, hormonal imbalance,
Speaker 3: mental balance, depression, anger, the foods we put in our
Speaker 3: body really affects that.
Speaker 1: So you still eat pop No, man, you cut it
Speaker 1: all the way out.
Speaker 3: I cut it out when it's been a while, and
Speaker 3: I'll try it and every now and then I'll be like, oh,
Speaker 3: let me my mind. I'm telling you, like your mind
Speaker 3: is clear.
Speaker 1: Like, how long has it been since you've eating Popeyes?
Speaker 3: Man, it's been like a few years, because you know.
Speaker 1: Me, I bust left in the papies quick.
Speaker 3: Really. I love listen. I love Popeyes, I listen, but
Speaker 3: the hormones and the stuff in that chicken and in
Speaker 3: that food, and you go somewhere else and you eat
Speaker 3: and you still feel different. The chicken sizes aren't the same.
Speaker 3: The wings we have here, these big chicken breasts. And
Speaker 3: then you see what the chicken because I'm like, this
Speaker 3: is chicken, this is fish. Yeah, but it's it's uninterrupted me, right,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean? Like nothing, this is you know,
Speaker 3: this is food, your stomach, your your time to go
Speaker 3: to the party is. It's a different experience and it's
Speaker 3: the body. So that's why the plan is, we can't
Speaker 3: get y'all want to come over here to Africa. The
Speaker 3: minute you are, we have to interrupt you to not
Speaker 3: want to be in these places because the minute you
Speaker 3: go to these places, what's happening. The best thing the
Speaker 3: government did and gone in twenty eighteen was do the
Speaker 3: return of homecoming. As amazing as Nigeria is, Ghana is
Speaker 3: the right Black Americans are. I mean homes there are
Speaker 3: people by laying are like crazy. If you see how
Speaker 3: fast is going to the market is up and down,
Speaker 3: but it's going really fast, and you have that experience
Speaker 3: and then you think I'm going to come back here
Speaker 3: and listen to this absolutely, so moving to go. I
Speaker 3: do want to I do want to live family behind.
Speaker 3: So this is the thing. I want to be able
Speaker 3: to have experiences in other places. Right I do. But
Speaker 3: like I said early on about not feeling like that's home,
Speaker 3: you know, I believe we are in the indigenous people
Speaker 3: of America. We are the indigenous people. I do believe
Speaker 3: that the Moors were already here and they these that's
Speaker 3: our family, like black people were already here in America.
Speaker 3: I don't believe though, because I'm black, I'm from Ghana,
Speaker 3: and I'm from Nigeria, and I'm from these other places.
Speaker 3: I do believe that we are indigenous people of America
Speaker 3: and it is very important for us to get our
Speaker 3: land here by any means.
Speaker 1: So do you believe, So you don't believe that Africa
Speaker 1: is the cradle of civilization, then I but know, I
Speaker 1: do believe all civilization started.
Speaker 3: All civilization does start in Africa. I do believe that.
Speaker 3: But even when I was in Ghana and I went
Speaker 3: to and I've toured Cape Coast, the Door of No Return,
Speaker 3: that's where the last place the Africans were, and they
Speaker 3: shipped them to the States they shipped them to Jamas,
Speaker 3: the Caribbean areas all over. I'm just saying that I
Speaker 3: believe black we were already here and I know what
Speaker 3: I feel like, and whether people believe it or not,
Speaker 3: this is our land. We were already here. The story
Speaker 3: of Africa just try all these slaves, millions of slaves.
Speaker 3: It just came through America. Brown black people were here.
Speaker 3: Their mores were traveling all over the world before the slaves,
Speaker 3: before this even happened. So you're telling me my great
Speaker 3: great grandparents people were Black people were already here, right,
Speaker 3: And the idea wasn't that the Europeans the ones that said, hey,
Speaker 3: let's make black people. You know, slavery was a former
Speaker 3: technology where it's wrong, right. What they did to us
Speaker 3: in America is like the worst, right, But it was
Speaker 3: a former technology. The Middle Easterns came with were some
Speaker 3: of the ones that influenced the Africans to rally up
Speaker 3: the black people to ship them off in this slave trade.
Speaker 3: Because we were able to stay outside. White people were coming.
Speaker 3: They had white slaves too that came into Africa because
Speaker 3: they wanted to take and the they were dying, they
Speaker 3: were dying. They couldn't survive there the heat. You know,
Speaker 3: their bodies were not a lot of the Middle Easterns
Speaker 3: that were in Africa, right, you need to get more
Speaker 3: black people. And yes, Africans were. They were selling off
Speaker 3: other Africans for trade for money, right. But my point,
Speaker 3: what I'm saying is that in America, black people were
Speaker 3: here already, not Christopher Columbus. And I'm not just saying
Speaker 3: the Native Americans. Those are still a part of indigenous people.
Speaker 3: There are indigenous Black people here that were already here.
Speaker 3: They needed more in order to do what they were doing,
Speaker 3: you know, So does that make sense?
Speaker 1: Like I just feel like where were You're seeing something
Speaker 1: that I that I have knowledge of already. I just
Speaker 1: wanted to hear.
Speaker 3: You said, yeah, I think we were already here. Honestly,
Speaker 3: I don't think that, and I don't think that we're
Speaker 3: the same people. I think what they're doing right now
Speaker 3: in these forms, they're trying to turn us against each other.
Speaker 3: And the job rolls in Black Americans and Africans. So
Speaker 3: because right now, you think about in music, think about
Speaker 3: what's happening right now, think about in jobs like even
Speaker 3: with Black Panther, these movies, right you just think about
Speaker 3: what's going on in this moment. It's to steal, to
Speaker 3: keep black people at a lower level, yes, perpetuate the
Speaker 3: lit and to turn instead of us bridging the gap
Speaker 3: between Black Americans and Africans. Oh no, no, no, we
Speaker 3: got to turn, y'all. Y'all are better than them. Think
Speaker 3: about what's happening when there's job rolls and in healthcare,
Speaker 3: and yes, a lot of African people are more well,
Speaker 3: often edgy that we are the opportunities here in America
Speaker 3: as black people. When you think about, they're turning us
Speaker 3: against each other. Even with this music situation right now,
Speaker 3: of course we connect with music. Oh I want to
Speaker 3: go to Africa. Oh, afrobeats and all this. Think about
Speaker 3: how fast this is going right and where is black
Speaker 3: people at this moment, even with this whole immigration thing
Speaker 3: that's happening with what is it Florida about the immigrants
Speaker 3: that can't work, You can't be with your families and
Speaker 3: all of that. I mean, because I'm for my people,
Speaker 3: this is the perfect time for black men that need
Speaker 3: jobs and need, you know, to have different trades. Go
Speaker 3: get those jobs, Go get your land. That's what other
Speaker 3: people are doing when they come here. You know, why
Speaker 3: why are we like, oh, I'm not gonna do that.
Speaker 3: I'm not cleaning up toilets. I'm not gonna go build.
Speaker 3: I don't want to do those jobs. This is the
Speaker 3: time for us to wake up and to focus and
Speaker 3: go get those jobs. I'm not knocking any immigrants. I'm
Speaker 3: not saying about the my Mexican friends or not, but
Speaker 3: I am about my people at this point. Go get
Speaker 3: those jobs up, you know, go get its time, like
Speaker 3: in order to have the revenue and some power, because
Speaker 3: that's what's happening in other cultures. We're still asking people
Speaker 3: to help us, help me, help me, help me, serve me.
Speaker 3: We're so in this slave mentality, like you said, and
Speaker 3: those people will be in change. Possibly that would be
Speaker 3: the case, because we're so like, tell me what to do.
Speaker 3: These people from Mexico coming here, they're not teaming tell
Speaker 3: me what to do. They coming in here, like we
Speaker 3: gonna live together in this house together, we're gonna build,
Speaker 3: we're making money, then we're gonna own the small company.
Speaker 3: Then we're gonna eventually create the consulting company and you
Speaker 3: work from there. And we're still asking. So I just said,
Speaker 3: it's a deference in everybody's against us, you know, as
Speaker 3: black people at this point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we gotta know that, we gotta know that we
Speaker 1: on own. We all we got Let's talk about let's
Speaker 1: talk about leukemia and lymphoma. Both of both leukemia and
Speaker 1: lafhoma are a blood cancers. But what's the primary difference
Speaker 1: between the two.
Speaker 3: Honestly, I would have to have somebody I'm still learning
Speaker 3: about what's the big difference to be honest, I I
Speaker 3: don't want to give a medical to say exactly what
Speaker 3: it is. My only focus with leukemia. It is a
Speaker 3: blood disease and there's so many different levels of it,
Speaker 3: and I honestly, I can't say exactly what the difference is.
Speaker 3: And I'm still learning.
Speaker 1: Forms of it. And you know it it uh, it
Speaker 1: attacks the body at different stages.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well it's good that you're that you're doing it.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a worthy cause. It's good to see
Speaker 1: you involved in that. I did want to ask you
Speaker 1: this about your your tranquil persona. Yeah, yeah, tranquil persona.
Speaker 3: You know, my friends, my friends always say.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, you know, like you you you have like
Speaker 5: a persona where it's like like you know, an unbothered persona.
Speaker 1: It's like you're unbothered, and it's hard to find that
Speaker 1: these days. Everybody's so angry. Everybody is very angry. But
Speaker 1: you have this, this persona. But you alluded to it
Speaker 1: a little earlier about the club business. The club business
Speaker 1: is a very brutal business. I used to own a
Speaker 1: bunch of clubs, and so it's a very very brutal business.
Speaker 1: And to see you in the bar business. You're in
Speaker 1: the bar.
Speaker 3: Business and skincare business too, yea.
Speaker 1: But but but I want to talk about I want you.
Speaker 1: I want to mention the skincare business, but I want
Speaker 1: to talk about the bar business, particularly in particular, that
Speaker 1: is a very brutal business. How do you maintain your
Speaker 1: sanity in a business like this?
Speaker 3: So when I first arted, I died the first year.
Speaker 3: I know what. I knew nothing about the bar business.
Speaker 3: You know, I had to figure out how it was
Speaker 3: going to protect myself from people from stilling. Oh man,
Speaker 3: these bartenders are cold. I mean I had people they're counting,
Speaker 3: they count ways, you know, to count the liquor, and
Speaker 3: then you know the money and their friends are taking money.
Speaker 3: Like it was so much to learn in a year.
Speaker 3: But I did it. I did it, and then when
Speaker 3: I tell you, it made me so sharp, like as
Speaker 3: far as now I can go in and identify. That's
Speaker 3: the whole reason. Now I don't want to have like
Speaker 3: a full offering. You need a really really good team,
Speaker 3: you know. So I have to understand what's my strengths.
Speaker 3: I like to create, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 3: the bar was just the small part of it. And
Speaker 3: I was just like learning as I go. But the
Speaker 3: first year I died, I mean, seeing people steal, people
Speaker 3: complaining fraudulent money, you know, people that it was hurtful
Speaker 3: to me because I'm like, man, you're not see that
Speaker 3: I'm doing this for us. Why would you come in
Speaker 3: here and try to give me counterfeit money?
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I'm literally getting into it with guys like really, like
Speaker 3: you know, what is this? You know? So it was
Speaker 3: a it broke me down. But in that breakdown, I
Speaker 3: was so strong. Oh my god, I honestly, and I
Speaker 3: mean just working in and banking in general when it
Speaker 3: come to count money, like I could count money with
Speaker 3: my eyes closed, you know, and all of that, but
Speaker 3: to actually know and to have a system, I did it,
Speaker 3: you know, and I don't know. I just knew that
Speaker 3: was a way of getting people to connect socially. We
Speaker 3: like to drink in Texas, and I wanted to get
Speaker 3: people in the room. You know. I had a therapist
Speaker 3: asked me that. She asked me what my mom did
Speaker 3: and what my father did. And because at the time
Speaker 3: I was like thirty when I opened the bar in
Speaker 3: third Ward, rent about twelve thousand dollars a month for
Speaker 3: this huge space right there on Sophomore Center. Just saying, now,
Speaker 3: it was a big house. It's a pink house, that's
Speaker 3: what's called. It was called chateau like back in the day,
Speaker 3: but it has been the other names. But it was
Speaker 3: a huge like mansion the state that was a bar
Speaker 3: right there on that corner. I just went for it.
Speaker 3: I think in my mind, I think I'm unstoppable, to
Speaker 3: be honest, and I know that I feel like I
Speaker 3: have this magic, which I call it my magic, that
Speaker 3: if I think of something, everything else is gonna connect
Speaker 3: with it. I mean, I know how I'm gonna pull
Speaker 3: it off or what I'm gonna do, but I know
Speaker 3: that my mind, if I think of something is gonna happen,
Speaker 3: and then everything else just kind of codes along with it,
Speaker 3: and it connects the dots. I had never owned a
Speaker 3: bar before. I didn't even know how to make drinks,
Speaker 3: to be honest, So I'll just and then I called, uh,
Speaker 3: one of these I ain't gonna say his name, but
Speaker 3: you know, in a male dominant industry, these promoters and
Speaker 3: all these guys with these bars, like, hey, can you
Speaker 3: help me? I want to learn how to you know,
Speaker 3: how do I get a look at license? Oh? Man,
Speaker 3: you can't get a look at like you need attorney
Speaker 3: to get a liquor license. You need all of this.
Speaker 3: And then it was like nobody wanted to really help me.
Speaker 3: You won't come just promoting in my space. You know,
Speaker 3: you can come in when I say that, even the
Speaker 3: people that I thought we were cool, that these promoters
Speaker 3: and you know, and you know, I'm on the corner
Speaker 3: of Sophomore just Santa Cino at the time, and so
Speaker 3: this almeta, you got fifty fifteen, you got a turkey
Speaker 3: leg hut, you got all these places. And I'm like, man, y'all,
Speaker 3: I want to learn. Can you see nobody? All right,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna do it. So I didn't get attorney, get
Speaker 3: a local license. I didn't even have all the stuff
Speaker 3: to uh open the bar. I literally had to learn,
Speaker 3: like literally just kind of learn what do I need
Speaker 3: the permits? You know what is this? And I had
Speaker 3: one guy who had a prominent live music venue who
Speaker 3: was calling the City of Houston on me because he
Speaker 3: didn't understand how I got the building that I got
Speaker 3: and how it passed all the codes. White guy here
Speaker 3: in Houston been making money off he was making money
Speaker 3: off of.
Speaker 1: Man, Let's put him out there, let's exposure. Come on, Jed,
Speaker 1: give me the name, do the rest.
Speaker 3: You know, I ain't gonna put him out there like that, man,
Speaker 3: but I will say that I even went to him
Speaker 3: and was like, hey, you know, I want to open
Speaker 3: a lot of music video You know you had this
Speaker 3: place for a while ago and musicians and stuff. Can
Speaker 3: you you know your bar is closed? You know, Oh,
Speaker 3: you ain't gonna be able to get that building. That's hard,
Speaker 3: That's that's just too much. You're you're not going to
Speaker 3: make it a year there, And I did. I made
Speaker 3: it three plus years, and then the pandemic came until
Speaker 3: I closed.
Speaker 1: And now you're back at it again, and you're.
Speaker 3: Going again and again. We're gonna run it in. You
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying, I'm backing better downtown right across
Speaker 3: from the Toyota Center.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, great, great location. Thank you from great hospitality,
Speaker 1: great service. I attested that how do somebody get in
Speaker 1: touch with you if they want to reach.
Speaker 3: Out, So they go to the website which is Blaschateau
Speaker 3: Houston dot com, where they can locate when we have events,
Speaker 3: if they want to book the venue, they can also
Speaker 3: email us at info at Blayschateau Houston dot com as well. Yeah, Jasmine,
Speaker 3: Terry ya, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 4: This episode was produced by a King and brought to
Speaker 4: you by
Speaker 1: The Black Effect Podcast Network at iHeartRadio