Speaker 1: What's up, family, I'm to make a d. Mallory and
Speaker 1: it's your boy my son. In general, we are your
Speaker 1: host of street Politicians, the place where the streets and
Speaker 1: politics meet. Street Politicians is a thing. Number one number
Speaker 1: on podcast in a number one in our minds. Now
Speaker 1: we need to make it the arts in the world,
Speaker 1: in our hearts, in mind, but it needs to be
Speaker 1: on the charts, which means that people need to support UM.
Speaker 1: People need to share and tell your family members and
Speaker 1: friends that street Politicians is a real thing. We have
Speaker 1: tried our best over the last several shows, all our
Speaker 1: shows to bring information that people want to hear UM,
Speaker 1: to ensure that's that's important relevant communities. It's not always UM,
Speaker 1: you know, political, but I believe we believe that everything
Speaker 1: we do is political, from the food we eat, to
Speaker 1: the drinks that we have, to the fund we try
Speaker 1: to have, to the things that happen in our communities,
Speaker 1: even sexist political. So whatever we're talking about somehow or another,
Speaker 1: it circles back to how it impacts our community. Sexist political,
Speaker 1: I mean it is. You got to think about it
Speaker 1: because it's very political. But I mean, you need UM,
Speaker 1: you need UM. Somebody got to sign off. Well, you
Speaker 1: mean that consent. You need political agreement. You need to
Speaker 1: get a political agreement. Political that would be legal. Politically
Speaker 1: you said it's political, so we need political agreements. Men,
Speaker 1: get you a sign before you do anything these days,
Speaker 1: get you signed is done. And I think that even
Speaker 1: if you sign something which means that there is a
Speaker 1: contrast in the midst of it, you can say I
Speaker 1: don't want to do it, and that's it. That's like it.
Speaker 1: The protection is not to be doing stuff you shouldn't
Speaker 1: be doing. What do that mean? So just me, the
Speaker 1: only thing a man could do is just not have sex. No,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that. I'm saying that you should know.
Speaker 1: First of all, the amount of people who go out
Speaker 1: and report that there's been a rape or some type
Speaker 1: of assault is very very low. Let's just speak clear.
Speaker 1: So that's not a thing. It's not like every time
Speaker 1: or a lot of times that women have sex they
Speaker 1: say I was raped. Okay, so we're not gonna start
Speaker 1: that narrative. But but if you are having sex with
Speaker 1: a woman and at some point she decides that I
Speaker 1: don't want to do it anymore, I don't like it,
Speaker 1: you stink you're hurting me, um whatever, stop And there
Speaker 1: are many men. So there's some men. Let me not
Speaker 1: say many, because I don't know many, but I will
Speaker 1: I corrected myself. There are some men who will not
Speaker 1: stop because they feel like, hey, I'm gonna get off first,
Speaker 1: and then we can you know, you can go. What
Speaker 1: what I was saying in those situations is there's a
Speaker 1: heightened sense of tension at that point. Right, so after
Speaker 1: we've already gotten to a point and you've allowed a
Speaker 1: man to enter and you said, okay, we're good, and
Speaker 1: then mid stroke, when man feel like he about two
Speaker 1: more strokes from his completion and you like stop. He
Speaker 1: probably don't even hear you, he's so engaged. And that's
Speaker 1: what I'm trying to tell you. So there there is
Speaker 1: a very very but he has That's what I'm trying
Speaker 1: to tell you. And the reality is that most men
Speaker 1: are not hearing. But by the way, I don't think
Speaker 1: that that's most number one, but there are a lot
Speaker 1: of men that are not. Don't even they not even
Speaker 1: when you're talking to them. But see, but that that
Speaker 1: that actually lends itself to a larger problem. The problem
Speaker 1: is the idea that the woman is meat and not
Speaker 1: a human, because if you're dealing with the human and
Speaker 1: you're having sex, you are supposed to be into him
Speaker 1: with what is being said back and forth and the
Speaker 1: feeling of what is happening. Naturally, several women women who
Speaker 1: don't stop with the several ways, and I'm not saying that,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to explain to you that is a natural
Speaker 1: reaction through outside. No women that you're having said and
Speaker 1: you be like wait, wait, and they're like no, no,
Speaker 1: they get they get to a point and then they
Speaker 1: won't stop and hold you like what are you doing? No, no,
Speaker 1: don't move from there. No, no, wait, wait because I'm
Speaker 1: still trying to get off. It is very different from stop.
Speaker 1: And by the way, we as women have been trying
Speaker 1: many can I just finish my point? Because can I
Speaker 1: finish what? I don't understand what that means. You would
Speaker 1: actually let me finish my point, and then you would understand.
Speaker 1: There is a weight that is associated with don't move
Speaker 1: a different way, don't change whatever you're doing because I'm
Speaker 1: trying to get to a climax right there is that
Speaker 1: that's a different type of weight what we are now talking.
Speaker 1: Can I finish my point. And in order for you
Speaker 1: to understand, you actually have to be willing to listen
Speaker 1: than rather to speak, because you will never but you
Speaker 1: will not, but you will not. Let you don't know
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about. I'm not finished. I'm not I'm
Speaker 1: not finished. What we are attempting to do as women
Speaker 1: now is to have more conversations about what a real
Speaker 1: stop sounds like, because what has happened is that in
Speaker 1: the past we try to be nice about it or
Speaker 1: trying to you know, funago, and then you're right, it's
Speaker 1: mixed signals that's being sent in the middle of a
Speaker 1: situation that then when it's over, you serious and the
Speaker 1: person didn't recognize that you were as serious. So now
Speaker 1: we're having more conversations, especially with young girls. We're trying
Speaker 1: to have those conversations. I've been seeing it in circles
Speaker 1: about what stop really means. At what point when you
Speaker 1: when you want someone to stop, what do you actually
Speaker 1: say that means? Stop? Now, I don't want to do
Speaker 1: the same one not you know or waite or whatever,
Speaker 1: no stop, and the other person should hear stop, right,
Speaker 1: don't you think you think? Okay? So now that's what
Speaker 1: I'm trying to say if you hear when I'm to you,
Speaker 1: But you just made a hole about you talked about women. Right,
Speaker 1: my thing when you said to stop because you're in
Speaker 1: the right position. I was talking about a man, right.
Speaker 1: I was having a conversation about when a man is
Speaker 1: saying stop, and you're trying to say you in the
Speaker 1: right position, and I don't want you to stop, and
Speaker 1: he's saying to stop, right, you you equated things. I'm
Speaker 1: so glad that among our production crew, this young lady
Speaker 1: is looking like, what is he talking about? So what
Speaker 1: I was talking about I was told when when I
Speaker 1: gave you my instants, right, I said, there are times
Speaker 1: when men are having sex, right, and a man be
Speaker 1: like wait, wait, wait, they stopped because and a woman
Speaker 1: is like, no, no, no, don't stop. Right, And you
Speaker 1: said you're confused about Are you still confused about what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. I'm gonna listen, okay, no, because you look confused.
Speaker 1: I want to stop, but I don't. I don't want
Speaker 1: you to be confused. Might get to the point where
Speaker 1: so the point is when a man is saying stop, right,
Speaker 1: is their responsibility for the women to stop? Absolutely? Okay?
Speaker 1: So what I'm trying to tell you is that women
Speaker 1: don't stop. And what I am saying to you, they don't.
Speaker 1: So when I'm trying to tell you the same the
Speaker 1: same thing that you're saying, because I've been a victim
Speaker 1: of those things. I've been having sex or whoever and
Speaker 1: didn't got mad about probably something or or was in
Speaker 1: the middle of it, like now I don't feel like
Speaker 1: doing They'm like no, no, they're not stopping. And when
Speaker 1: they get to your point where they feel like they're
Speaker 1: about the climax, they're not stopping because you said stop,
Speaker 1: my son. I think that what you're what you're getting
Speaker 1: are not understanding is that it doesn't matter who's doing
Speaker 1: what you're saying, that there's a problem with the way
Speaker 1: in which people are engaging in sex that is creating
Speaker 1: a situation. I think we're problem are confused. I didn't
Speaker 1: mean it this and that. Now with somebody saying I don't,
Speaker 1: I meant I said out what what else is it?
Speaker 1: Because I have been a victim of I want you
Speaker 1: to get you and I'm not. And I don't want
Speaker 1: to disregard anything that you're saying because that is your
Speaker 1: personal situation. And if you were violated, then it needs
Speaker 1: it needs to be rectified, and you need to and
Speaker 1: somebody need to be held to come whatever the situation.
Speaker 1: I'm saying, there are situations right that the problem, what
Speaker 1: the problem is for me, is that accountability in sex
Speaker 1: seems to only fall on the man, right whenever there's
Speaker 1: a situation if too. I was listening to a conversation,
Speaker 1: if too, if we both getting drunk, me and you
Speaker 1: both drunk at the same time, not me and you,
Speaker 1: me and another one, we both drunk, we both take
Speaker 1: it the same thing. I'm gonna need read it. You
Speaker 1: would need read whose whose responsibility is to know who's
Speaker 1: too high to have the sex right or who's too
Speaker 1: drunk to have is that? Who is the response? But
Speaker 1: what happens is it always falls on the man all
Speaker 1: of these situations. If we're if we're both in the situation,
Speaker 1: we're both having sex and boom women, it gets heated
Speaker 1: and I'm hamped up and up, and you decide that
Speaker 1: that point that you don't want to do it no more,
Speaker 1: or you said no it's too much, and you put
Speaker 1: your and I and I go one too many and
Speaker 1: you're like, I didn't know, and I actually climate, because
Speaker 1: if if a man climax during it and like I
Speaker 1: didn't know, I didn't know, you wouldn't stop at that point,
Speaker 1: he's completely violated the situation, right, So who so so so?
Speaker 1: First of all, what I'm saying is that the scenario
Speaker 1: that you just laid out is generally not what's happening
Speaker 1: where people are claiming rape. What women are saying is
Speaker 1: I passed out, I was out. That's not really true
Speaker 1: that if what happened they say that they no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: What I'm trying to say, no, no, no, that is
Speaker 1: not accurate in most of the situations out here. There
Speaker 1: are situations. So you're saying that people are reporting this
Speaker 1: is what you're saying, and I would like for our
Speaker 1: guests to write in about this. Are you saying that
Speaker 1: the majority I'm not saying, but you said, just the
Speaker 1: situations that I'm hearing now most of the that I hear,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying most of the situations together that most
Speaker 1: of the situations you hear where rape is being claimed,
Speaker 1: it is two people who were immigrated the same that
Speaker 1: even actually more than one sexual account. My question that
Speaker 1: the woman says I was up, we were having sex,
Speaker 1: everything is whatever, and I now just feel he raped me. No,
Speaker 1: that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that
Speaker 1: there was a point throughout that sexual experience that everybody
Speaker 1: was involved. And I'm not saying that's not so. What
Speaker 1: I'm trying to say is at that point the woman
Speaker 1: dictates that at some point throughout me engaging with you,
Speaker 1: I lost I didn't know what happened. But that's But
Speaker 1: what I'm explaining to you is that what we I'm saying,
Speaker 1: maybe you're hearing something different. I think we hear a
Speaker 1: lot about the same situation these women are saying. Right,
Speaker 1: I was into whatever, we was hanging out or whatever.
Speaker 1: The next thing I know, I woke up and something
Speaker 1: happened that I don't feel I didn't consent to. I
Speaker 1: don't know about those situations. Those situations, those situations I'm
Speaker 1: not aware I'm aware of because there was there was
Speaker 1: for play, there was all of these things that everybody.
Speaker 1: What I'm saying is that the rules of engagement definitely
Speaker 1: are being more defined. Right, But at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, I think that it is important to to
Speaker 1: to say or to understand that for the most part,
Speaker 1: what we are hearing is women saying it was cool,
Speaker 1: we was good, whatever, and then I don't know what happened.
Speaker 1: Something else happened. And all that I'm telling you is
Speaker 1: what I try to talk to my son about and
Speaker 1: what hopefully all of us are saying. If you are
Speaker 1: having sex with a woman and all of a sudden
Speaker 1: she is not functioning at a regular but not what
Speaker 1: I'm trying to explain to you, is you giving somebody
Speaker 1: responsibility that might not be functioned at the regular same time,
Speaker 1: we both not function what I'm telling you, so we
Speaker 1: both engaged in the same we both tell me you
Speaker 1: don't know if you're you don't know, I'm asking you
Speaker 1: a question. Well, yeah, I think I know. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think I know. If I'm having sex with a man
Speaker 1: and he does this and he's not responded in the
Speaker 1: same way that he was, I think I know that.
Speaker 1: I think I know that if he's not touching and
Speaker 1: moving and saying something, that something is wrong. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: if a woman, if you are having sex with a
Speaker 1: womansation will go around, the just goes out and she's
Speaker 1: not doing anything anymore. Do you not think that at
Speaker 1: that point you're supposed to be like something is wrong. Okay,
Speaker 1: so think about this or you're just supposed to keep happing.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying. That's not even not at all.
Speaker 1: So what I'm trying to say, not at all, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't right, not of a conscious mind. But what I'm
Speaker 1: trying to say in the minute that she's no longer conscious, right,
Speaker 1: she don't know what happened after she lost conscious That's
Speaker 1: why you're supposed to say so once she stopped, right,
Speaker 1: if she made a conscious decision that whatever she did
Speaker 1: after she was sleep was wrong to her, and she
Speaker 1: don't even know what happened. We both was engaging. You
Speaker 1: fell asleep, you lost asleep when you lost consciousness, Okay,
Speaker 1: losing conscious whatever it is if you lose consciousness, was
Speaker 1: in that act. And you made a consciousnsion that something
Speaker 1: happened after you lost consciousness that you don't even know about.
Speaker 1: And I did it wrong. But that's but and see
Speaker 1: that is why again and we gotta go to our
Speaker 1: regular topic, that the idea of people heaven getting drunk
Speaker 1: or using drugs and having sex. If I was a man,
Speaker 1: I would understand just like you tell me. You gotta
Speaker 1: let me just ready, just like you told me before,
Speaker 1: and I have argued you down about this point, but
Speaker 1: I get it to a certain extent, although I still
Speaker 1: don't agree, but I understand. Do not wear your mini
Speaker 1: skirt down the alley when you know those men that
Speaker 1: are over there. Do stay raped women over there before
Speaker 1: it's a bunch of men over there. You know the situation.
Speaker 1: So if you wear your miniskirt and you go down
Speaker 1: in that alley, yes you have said, of course they
Speaker 1: shouldn't touch you. But if you you as a parent,
Speaker 1: you want to inform a woman that something really bad
Speaker 1: could happen to you if you go down in that
Speaker 1: alley way doing certain things. The same thing for our men.
Speaker 1: We could sit here and go back and forth all
Speaker 1: day about up, down, right or wrong. We need to
Speaker 1: be telling young men you have a responsibility. As a
Speaker 1: man who most of the time is stronger, you have
Speaker 1: a certain level of aggression that is different that you.
Speaker 1: If you are going to into a sexual situation with
Speaker 1: another young woman, you need to not be too high
Speaker 1: where she could say she didn't know or this, and
Speaker 1: that you don't need to It's not that serious to
Speaker 1: get it off. So what I'm trying to so I'm
Speaker 1: saying that just like you trying to tell I'm trying
Speaker 1: to be trying to tell you, you're talking about somebody
Speaker 1: versus a crime and sexual predaor and you don't think
Speaker 1: what I'm trying You tell me and me telling you
Speaker 1: to walk down to alley, we're to consent an adults.
Speaker 1: None of us is a criminal. We both like each other.
Speaker 1: We both go to the But so listen to what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. We both go to a bar, were both
Speaker 1: having the same amount of drinks. You buy a drink,
Speaker 1: I buy a drink. That's what we're talking. So let's go.
Speaker 1: We need a whole show. The whole show has to
Speaker 1: be has to be shared with no. I think accountability
Speaker 1: absolutely has to be shared. But just like we as
Speaker 1: women have been taught that we have a heavier responsibility
Speaker 1: in multiple areas. Women have been taught all our lives
Speaker 1: that we have a responsibility in a number of areas
Speaker 1: to be more conscious of how we look, what we do,
Speaker 1: how we come on to a man in certain situations
Speaker 1: because we give the wrong impression. We've been taught that,
Speaker 1: and so I'm saying that, no, it's not eliminated be
Speaker 1: in certain situations. But I think also we were talking
Speaker 1: about a certain thing, and what we have to stop
Speaker 1: doing is every time we get into a conversation on
Speaker 1: what our brothers can do better, even if there's something
Speaker 1: that women can do better. Also just and this was
Speaker 1: about both of us, it were and just about just
Speaker 1: let's let's go to the topic because this is a
Speaker 1: whole another show. We could do this as a show
Speaker 1: because it's a debate, and I think it's a healthy debate.
Speaker 1: But once again, I do want to say this. I
Speaker 1: want to state this for the record. I do not
Speaker 1: condone or believe that any man should do anything that
Speaker 1: a woman is not willing to do. Nothing at all.
Speaker 1: There's no situation where willing a woman has stopped, she
Speaker 1: doesn't want to do something that a man should move
Speaker 1: further beyond that point, I do not believe that at all.
Speaker 1: Let's get that clear. I think I want that to
Speaker 1: be clarity. You have a problem with rape culture in general,
Speaker 1: and there's certain things that we've been taught. I think
Speaker 1: sex sex culture has now turned into it. No it's not,
Speaker 1: it has not, no, no, no, rape culture. Rape culture
Speaker 1: was clearly defined. There's no clear definition. Are you serious?
Speaker 1: Do you know that women have been being raped and
Speaker 1: people didn't believe in understand it, believe it. People are
Speaker 1: beginning to actually people didn't believe what they said happen.
Speaker 1: That's what they're saying before you and get away with it.
Speaker 1: There was no never legal standard you can keep. There
Speaker 1: was not. If it needs to be, there needs to be,
Speaker 1: and if we still have not clearly defined what rape
Speaker 1: looks like, especially women are generally on the wrong side
Speaker 1: of it. But at the same time, I do agree
Speaker 1: that men are raped as well and just and and
Speaker 1: because of the way that culture and society has been
Speaker 1: set up, not enough of it as being discussed. I'm
Speaker 1: finished talking to you anyway about because we always have
Speaker 1: these conversations. This wouldn't be the first time. I mean,
Speaker 1: I hear what you're saying at all. We know that.
Speaker 1: But I have to speak from man's perspective because this
Speaker 1: is a situation. Maybe you should think from a woman's
Speaker 1: perspective and we'll have less issues. Well maybe you should think,
Speaker 1: I do. I just think when there is a situation
Speaker 1: that requires two people, then there has to be jointed
Speaker 1: responsible and I think that's true, as we've discussed many times.
Speaker 1: Why I still don't agree, but the thought of the
Speaker 1: day changes the topic. I'm trying to figure out why
Speaker 1: we are still living in a society, like why are
Speaker 1: corporations and other people still getting it wrong when addressing racism,
Speaker 1: violence against black people, violence against black women, the disrespect
Speaker 1: of our communities, and the complete like the unmitigated gal
Speaker 1: is that what they say of white women in their
Speaker 1: dangerous tears? Well, you know and that and I in
Speaker 1: my book State of Emergency, No, I know, there's a
Speaker 1: movie a movie, but there's a lot of focus on
Speaker 1: it because we're bringing attention to Karenism and I talk
Speaker 1: about it in a State of Emergency. But Karenism is
Speaker 1: super dangerous, man, It's super dangerous, gets people killed. And
Speaker 1: everyone saw in the last few days, we've been watching
Speaker 1: this video erupt um totally going viral of a black
Speaker 1: woman at a Victoria's Secrets in New Jersey. Um the
Speaker 1: video comes on, you see a white woman walk up
Speaker 1: to her and basically try to hit her or hit
Speaker 1: the front. I heard like some sound, you know that
Speaker 1: she was definitely charging her. And what goes on after
Speaker 1: that the scream and the yelling, the crying, the falling
Speaker 1: out and then chasing this black woman around the store.
Speaker 1: And what you hear in the video is the black
Speaker 1: woman like chuckling out of disbelief. I can't believe this,
Speaker 1: what what is happening here? But you watch the store?
Speaker 1: Uh and and I and I do think, my son,
Speaker 1: we're living in such a sick society. People have been
Speaker 1: indoctrinated two violence, especially violence against black folks, so much
Speaker 1: that we're actually watching the cashier still doing business, staff
Speaker 1: still working in the store, people still trying to make
Speaker 1: their purchase, even though this lady, the white woman. Let's
Speaker 1: just say you care about the white woman because she's
Speaker 1: the way she's screaming and crying and laying down on
Speaker 1: the ground. One might want to try to figure out
Speaker 1: are you okay? Like what's wrong with you? And it
Speaker 1: doesn't take long for you to realize that she's doing
Speaker 1: all of this because she has harmed the black woman
Speaker 1: and she's now having a tantrum and falling out so
Speaker 1: that she can be protected from abusive and dangerous behavior.
Speaker 1: You can figure that out quickly. But I'm just saying,
Speaker 1: let's just say, you see the black women, you don't
Speaker 1: care what she's doing. You see a white woman down
Speaker 1: on the ground. How are you still making a purchase
Speaker 1: and not stopping to say what the hell is going
Speaker 1: on here? But instead they stop for two seconds to
Speaker 1: tell the black woman, why don't you get away from her?
Speaker 1: Leave her alone? Although this white woman has attacked her first.
Speaker 1: You know what, all of that is wrong, the black
Speaker 1: the white woman's behavior, the store continuing to do business,
Speaker 1: the behave the white woman who I hope somebody finds
Speaker 1: her name, who stands there and tells a black woman
Speaker 1: to leave her alone, as if it's the black woman's fault,
Speaker 1: who has no sensitivity or understand it, even try to
Speaker 1: understand anything that's happening. Okay, all those things are wrong,
Speaker 1: But what is most important are two things? Or what
Speaker 1: the two things that are most important are this one?
Speaker 1: The police or the security the mall security. They do
Speaker 1: nothing except escort the black woman away, ask her to leave.
Speaker 1: They do nothing with this white lady, looking at her behavior,
Speaker 1: seeing what she's doing. I wonder what the black supervisor
Speaker 1: of the Victoria's Secret store is even saying and reporting
Speaker 1: to the police because she is patiently dealing with and
Speaker 1: addressing this white woman. And I see many things there.
Speaker 1: I see number one that you're very patient with her.
Speaker 1: I wonder if it was a black woman doing all
Speaker 1: of that, would you be asked patient? I see that,
Speaker 1: and I have to ask the question because sometimes our
Speaker 1: own people can be the biggest obstacle to justice. So
Speaker 1: I I see that. But even if she feels harmed,
Speaker 1: hurt or whatever, feels um saddened, frustrated by what she
Speaker 1: sees happening there, she also knows that she cannot do
Speaker 1: but so much to this white woman. So even even
Speaker 1: even even if she's like not like, even if she
Speaker 1: said back to me, no, I'm I'm you know, I'm
Speaker 1: not the one who doesn't want to see justice for
Speaker 1: this black woman. Right, And we believe her and we
Speaker 1: understand that she knows that the trauma that she's also
Speaker 1: experiencing trauma in that moment. She's trying to do her job,
Speaker 1: and yet she has to stop to deal with an idiot, Okay,
Speaker 1: a racist idiot by the way. So so that's trauma.
Speaker 1: Is so much trauma going on. So the security they
Speaker 1: do nothing except except cause more inflict more abuse and
Speaker 1: harm to this black woman. But now the next thing
Speaker 1: is Victoria's secret puts out a statement. Now we're gonna
Speaker 1: put the statement up so people can read it for themselves.
Speaker 1: But what I found to be interesting is that the
Speaker 1: statement very light. You know, we're we're we're investigating diversity
Speaker 1: and inclusion, all of this bullshit that is this the
Speaker 1: cookie cutter messages, the diversity and equity and this and
Speaker 1: that they're it's bulls. It's bullshit that that that they
Speaker 1: they it's called cookie cutter responses that pr agencies give you.
Speaker 1: So everybody deals with the situation the same way, unless
Speaker 1: you are a corporation that has somebody in there, particularly
Speaker 1: a black person who's saying that ain't gonna work. We
Speaker 1: gotta put a little bit more muscle into our messaging.
Speaker 1: That's that's what we see. We know it's already, but
Speaker 1: they used the word altercation between two people. There was
Speaker 1: one person that was attacked. I'm trying to where is
Speaker 1: the altercation. It's never an altercation is sometimes? I mean,
Speaker 1: well it's not never. I wouldn't say never. I'm saying
Speaker 1: but usually, you know, I've been watching these current videos lately,
Speaker 1: the other dad woman grabbing somebody's package, and then Mason
Speaker 1: the man because he tried to get a package and
Speaker 1: fell and said you kill me. So it's just like
Speaker 1: when you see these things, it's just it's it's the
Speaker 1: weirdest thing that you could ever see. It's like it is,
Speaker 1: it is mind boggling. You know that black people have
Speaker 1: to everyday deal with some level the white supremacy and
Speaker 1: racism that we have to deal with microaggressions, full aggressions.
Speaker 1: We have to deal and we have to keep control.
Speaker 1: We have to stay composed because when she hit the
Speaker 1: woman or charged that hall start, oh my god, she
Speaker 1: didn't she And you know, she's a better person than
Speaker 1: most of us, you know, because most of us are
Speaker 1: not gonna deal with that. But the reality situation is,
Speaker 1: you know, the Karenism and the emboldness of Karenism is
Speaker 1: at all time high. And it's like, because what's his name,
Speaker 1: Brian m hmm, what's the one's name who told who
Speaker 1: basically tried to like chastize Kevin Hart when he said
Speaker 1: that white supremacy is at all time high? Bryan, Uh,
Speaker 1: y'all know who I'm talking about him? Bryant's the one
Speaker 1: I think he'd be on HBO. H. Now, I put
Speaker 1: it in your mind, you're gonna be trying to get
Speaker 1: best to figure it out. They're gonna look it up,
Speaker 1: but go ahead. It's at all time it is and
Speaker 1: it's and it's dangerous and you know, we don't need it.
Speaker 1: We don't need we just don't need it. We hate
Speaker 1: it here, right, sometimes stop the ship. It's just too much.
Speaker 1: It's like it's like y'all for real, like you and
Speaker 1: nobody's gonna protect you. The damn, the damn, the damn.
Speaker 1: The best of corporation could do is try to come
Speaker 1: out with some ship and put it on their Twitter
Speaker 1: and hope that nobody sees it. And guess what the
Speaker 1: shade wom when it posted it after me because I
Speaker 1: posted it and they saw that I posted it, and
Speaker 1: then they rent to Twitter and got it because you know,
Speaker 1: if they had seen it before I posted it, they
Speaker 1: would have put it on their page. So, you know,
Speaker 1: shout out to the Shade room. That's all right, it's right.
Speaker 1: But but but I was the one who said, hey,
Speaker 1: did Victoria's secrets say anything? Hello? Anybody see the ship
Speaker 1: that happened? And then they said, and people started telling
Speaker 1: me in my page all they said something. Go on Twitter.
Speaker 1: You know on Instagram they are quick. They said, oh,
Speaker 1: gover there on Twitter and see the bullshit they put
Speaker 1: on the page. And I went over there and read
Speaker 1: and and said to myself, we still have so much
Speaker 1: further to travel. Well at least were traveling, but were traveling.
Speaker 1: We're gonna fight too. And now listen, all I know
Speaker 1: is I just need Rihanna to put a little bit
Speaker 1: more pattern on the bottom of the bra so I
Speaker 1: could get me a good push up and Hunt fenty
Speaker 1: will be my thing, because you know, for us, by us.
Speaker 1: And by the way, his name is Bill Mark, Bill Mar's.
Speaker 1: First of all, if Kevin Hard says white supremacy is
Speaker 1: at all, are you talking? Mind your business? You ain't
Speaker 1: gonnah to do with you, Bill build until white don't
Speaker 1: tell black people about white people doing us. You just
Speaker 1: sit there and listen. We all is yeah, like maybe
Speaker 1: men should just listen to I can say anything. Let's
Speaker 1: time go to our guests, Chico human who is going
Speaker 1: to be with us, UM you know for the next
Speaker 1: and we try, y'all. We said for six for a
Speaker 1: series of six episodes, we're going to focus very heavily
Speaker 1: on gun violence. The issue of gun violence, intervention prevention
Speaker 1: awareness is really important to us. UM not just UM
Speaker 1: here at street politicians, but also in our personal lives,
Speaker 1: based upon our experiences, based upon UM. You know, our
Speaker 1: work and our passion and our focus in terms of
Speaker 1: what our organization Until Freedom does. And so for six
Speaker 1: weeks or for six episodes, rather we're focusing our attention
Speaker 1: on all the different areas of what it looks like
Speaker 1: to address gun violence UM in our communities. There's obviously
Speaker 1: an uptick in violence. There has been a spike across
Speaker 1: the nation. We believe that big part of what we're
Speaker 1: seeing has a lot to do with the pandemic and
Speaker 1: how the pandemic has exposed multiple epidemics within our community,
Speaker 1: whether that be housing UH, poor health care UM. And
Speaker 1: when I say housing, I'm talking about the lack of housing.
Speaker 1: A lot of people found out during this pandemic that
Speaker 1: living UM in a home on top of other people
Speaker 1: that you're not used to seeing very often was problematic.
Speaker 1: People got put out of their homes because there was
Speaker 1: no real space for them. UM. You have a lot
Speaker 1: of issues in terms of unstable housing that is very
Speaker 1: serious and it's not being talked about enough. Just doing
Speaker 1: a moratorium or rent payments is not enough to address
Speaker 1: the fact that six people are living in a one
Speaker 1: bedroom home. Um, and and and also dealing with other
Speaker 1: issues in terms of you know, it just just in
Speaker 1: some unfortunately one the conversation we were just having about
Speaker 1: sexual abuse and things like that, both men, boys, girls,
Speaker 1: men and women, UM are dealing with that in their
Speaker 1: homes and don't necessarily want to be there. Um. You
Speaker 1: have food deserts, people not being able to eat properly.
Speaker 1: You have obviously education trauma the educational system. Over this
Speaker 1: recent uh pandemic time period, in the last two years,
Speaker 1: we have learned how poor our education system really really is.
Speaker 1: Many of us already knew, but we certainly have seen
Speaker 1: it play out in a very very real way. And
Speaker 1: then of course, um, you know, there's so many other
Speaker 1: issues in terms of the health care system and how
Speaker 1: we saw with the pandemic, people who have been trying
Speaker 1: to deal with health issues for so long. I mean
Speaker 1: you you're talking about pre existing conditions. The black community,
Speaker 1: we experience that at the highest rates, and so so
Speaker 1: many things have been compounded that have created an environment,
Speaker 1: um that we are now seeing the violence in our
Speaker 1: community spike. People dealing with their frustrations, the poverty, the
Speaker 1: lack of resources, and there are a lot of folks
Speaker 1: who are doing great work to address that. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you want to jump in first before we
Speaker 1: introduce our our guests. No, I just want to you
Speaker 1: know pretty much. Um, remember what you were saying. You know,
Speaker 1: we're dealing with so many different layers of trauma that
Speaker 1: are contributing to this, you know, this spike and gun violence.
Speaker 1: You know, just in the Bronx the other day, a
Speaker 1: thirteen year old, sixteen year in the nineteen year all
Speaker 1: in the same area were gunned down. You know, so
Speaker 1: they killed. They were all killed, you know, and it's
Speaker 1: like so when you sit there and you realize that
Speaker 1: that we're taking lives and losing lives at this age,
Speaker 1: you know, we all it's pretty much everybody's failing. The
Speaker 1: system is failing, the community is failing. You know, when
Speaker 1: when violence and shooting becomes recreation because there's nothing else,
Speaker 1: when the guns replacing basketballs and footballs in baseballs, then
Speaker 1: we're actually losing. So you know, this is my new initiative.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know if ye see it. It's
Speaker 1: called boycott black murder, you know, at any cost, no
Speaker 1: matter who's commandative, it's the police, is if it's people
Speaker 1: in our community. You know, we need to be boycotting
Speaker 1: black murder. So you know, that's the initiative. And now
Speaker 1: we're gonna have a conversation with another brother friend of ours.
Speaker 1: You know, we got so many friends, man, this show
Speaker 1: is just for the friends, man, you know, and um,
Speaker 1: this is somebody that I respect. The work that he's done.
Speaker 1: You know, the road he's traveled to actually do this work.
Speaker 1: You know, it's similar to minds being from the streets,
Speaker 1: and he's from the streets of some of the roughest
Speaker 1: streets in this country, from Chicago and you know, being
Speaker 1: formally incarcerated, coming home to get a PhD. To be
Speaker 1: one of those who actually started to stop the violence
Speaker 1: in the communities and intersect and be one of those
Speaker 1: positive role models that you know, what we call credible
Speaker 1: messages in our community. The brothers that we see and
Speaker 1: we know that they've been through the same thing, so
Speaker 1: therefore they have a level of credibility and able to
Speaker 1: connect with the communities. This is one of our brothers
Speaker 1: and one of the most powerful brothers in this country
Speaker 1: right now. Doctor Chico Tillman Hey, first of all I
Speaker 1: want to say, I'm humble, and it's a pleasure to
Speaker 1: being be a part of this program because I respect
Speaker 1: and appreciate the work you do day in and day
Speaker 1: out and some of the challenges that come with the work.
Speaker 1: So it's really an honor just to be having this
Speaker 1: dialogue on this platform with you. And I want to
Speaker 1: say publicly how much I appreciate the work you do
Speaker 1: and how I see firsthand all the sacrifices you make
Speaker 1: for our people to make this place, this country, a
Speaker 1: better place to live in for Indigenous people. Yeah, thank
Speaker 1: you so much, Chico. We appreciate that you know, you
Speaker 1: are certainly our brother. Um. You know, I want to
Speaker 1: make sure that folks understand who we're talking to in
Speaker 1: this series where we're focusing on gun violence. Each show
Speaker 1: has different things. Sometimes we're talking to victims so we
Speaker 1: can learn more about their experiences and how they have
Speaker 1: turned their pain into purpose. On our last show, we
Speaker 1: talked with a young sister by the name of patients Mary,
Speaker 1: who was shot in the Pulst nightclub in Florida. She
Speaker 1: had been she was living out of town and and
Speaker 1: had been in Florida on vacation and she was shot
Speaker 1: along with her sister in law, and her sister in
Speaker 1: law didn't make it patients with shot a few times
Speaker 1: in her legs. Um, but she now is over the
Speaker 1: gun violence. She's the outreach director for the Gun Violence
Speaker 1: Survivor's Foundations, and she talks so much to go about
Speaker 1: how there is really not enough resources for actual survivors.
Speaker 1: There's work being done to address those people who might
Speaker 1: be shooters. Of course, there's work being done to try
Speaker 1: to curb violence, but there's not enough that is out
Speaker 1: there to help people who have actually been impacted by
Speaker 1: gun violence as a victim and so UM and also
Speaker 1: she has a book, she's the author of Survived uh
Speaker 1: Survived to Live UH. So, folks who are listening, go
Speaker 1: out and please get that book and support patients. Married.
Speaker 1: We also have married Maggie carry our young sister on
Speaker 1: Maggie Um is an influencer. She's a TV Personnelity Putty,
Speaker 1: who was shot in a nightclub in New York City
Speaker 1: at a concert where our brother Shan Duke mcfatter, who
Speaker 1: does gun violence prevention work in New York City. You know,
Speaker 1: shand his brother was shot and killed in that shooting,
Speaker 1: and that incident that happened as well, and so we
Speaker 1: had both of them on. We wanted to also make
Speaker 1: sure we focus on women, right, you know, women who
Speaker 1: would who are victims, because the conversation often goes to
Speaker 1: men quickly because there are so many of our brothers
Speaker 1: who are either shooting or getting shot. But in this
Speaker 1: in this particular show, we talked to uh two women.
Speaker 1: And the reason why we wanted to have you on
Speaker 1: as the senior research director for the University of Chicago's
Speaker 1: Crime and Education lab um, I think and and my
Speaker 1: son and I were talking about what this series looks like.
Speaker 1: We have to have people elected officials, folks who are practitioners,
Speaker 1: folks who do mental health support because this issue of
Speaker 1: gun violence is so much bigger than just putting law
Speaker 1: enforcement in our communities hasn't worked. So that's why we
Speaker 1: wanted to have you on today. So Chico, tell us
Speaker 1: what you've been doing, what you're working on, and then
Speaker 1: of course we'll get into how people can be helpful.
Speaker 1: The first thing I want to say is thank you
Speaker 1: for recognizing that we can't arrest our way out of it.
Speaker 1: And I want to start by saying that most people
Speaker 1: don't even think critically that when a situation happens, or
Speaker 1: if a situation occurring, you don't call law enforcement till
Speaker 1: it reaches a particular point, escalates to a point where
Speaker 1: crime is being committed, and then it's too late. Somebody
Speaker 1: already shot. So one of the things I'm working on
Speaker 1: with the Crime Lab is building systems and structures throughout
Speaker 1: the United States to change the way we look at it. UM.
Speaker 1: I think we have to address the root causes of violence.
Speaker 1: A lot of it is systemic racism, UM and and
Speaker 1: and it's it's in a plethora spaces, it's not just
Speaker 1: And what it does is it allows individuals who live
Speaker 1: in these vulnerable communities to be traumatized day and night,
Speaker 1: so that when they reach conflict, they already dealer with
Speaker 1: all these microaggressions and they're at a boiling point. So
Speaker 1: something is simple as an argument escalates to somebody being
Speaker 1: um killed. So I say, first, we gotta address these systems.
Speaker 1: And I love the work that you're doing because it
Speaker 1: addresses the systems. Another huge thing we're doing nationally, I'm
Speaker 1: working with a group of great minds from all over
Speaker 1: the country on initiative called fund Peace and what we're
Speaker 1: doing is getting these resources down to the people on
Speaker 1: the ground who live in these vulnerable communities. When I
Speaker 1: say vulnerable communities, I mean disinvested communities. And I think
Speaker 1: the big problem is people want us to work a
Speaker 1: miracle with short money. If you have only a certain
Speaker 1: amount of money, somebody's gonna be left out. And they're
Speaker 1: giving us a short amount of money to work out
Speaker 1: all the kings around violence. When violence occurs for a
Speaker 1: plector of reasons which the government needs to be involved
Speaker 1: because they helped create these situations, that's exactly right, you know.
Speaker 1: So for me, it's like where, you know, how are
Speaker 1: we going about getting this money? Like what is what
Speaker 1: is the process? And I say this all the time.
Speaker 1: People hate when you say defund the police. So my
Speaker 1: my new thing is refund the community. How how should
Speaker 1: we be going about like what is your process? And
Speaker 1: what how did you going to get these resources to
Speaker 1: give back to the communities were they're right now? They're
Speaker 1: about four pathways. The first pathway, which is the lowers
Speaker 1: hanging through is the A RP money. The A r
Speaker 1: P money is the one point nine trillion that that
Speaker 1: President biden Um sent to each state county and city,
Speaker 1: and the money is supposed to be for individuals that
Speaker 1: were heavily impacted by COVID. Now we know nobody was
Speaker 1: negatively impacted more than black and brown people. And I
Speaker 1: gotta say this too, one of my biggest problems is
Speaker 1: a lot of people that's in these positions are black
Speaker 1: and won't give up the money. So that's that's a
Speaker 1: huge problem because I would think out of anybody, they
Speaker 1: would be able to um have empathy with the pain
Speaker 1: of relatives in many cases that's going through these challenges.
Speaker 1: So so one point nine you said one point nine trillion.
Speaker 1: One point nine trillion dollars. Uh. The the President Biden
Speaker 1: sent to states, cities and municipalities as a as a
Speaker 1: a COVID relief package, right, and so it is supposed
Speaker 1: to address issues that is happening in communities in the
Speaker 1: state or at the city level and the local on
Speaker 1: the local level that that um can be directly connected
Speaker 1: to the impact of COVID. That's what was supposed to happen.
Speaker 1: So you are at fund Peace are saying we know
Speaker 1: that the issue with gun violence, A lot of the
Speaker 1: new numbers and the spikes that we're seeing around the
Speaker 1: country have to do with are directly associated with the
Speaker 1: after effects of the COVID crisis, and therefore some form
Speaker 1: of those dollars should be dedicated to the grassroots efforts
Speaker 1: in the community. Perfectly stated. Okay, so now, but what
Speaker 1: if they say, well, we just want to give the
Speaker 1: money to police because we're seeing some of that happening
Speaker 1: across the nation. What we asked for let me be clear,
Speaker 1: we asked for two percent. I'm gonna make you laugh.
Speaker 1: We asked for two percent from the state and five
Speaker 1: percent from the city and municipalities. So it's not like
Speaker 1: we're asking for a lot. So we're asking for two
Speaker 1: and And the thing is, as I stated before, more
Speaker 1: police doesn't mean the violence is gonna is gonna decrease.
Speaker 1: It just doesn't. Um. I was at I was on
Speaker 1: the panel with my son in Chicago, and he said
Speaker 1: something real, real critical. If you think about affluent communities,
Speaker 1: you never see the police. You never see a police.
Speaker 1: If you see a police is at a dunking donuts
Speaker 1: and donuts. They're not riding around stopping people. So to
Speaker 1: think that that's a different form of police in the
Speaker 1: work in our community without cultural competency and cultural sensitivity.
Speaker 1: It's insane, you know what I want to actually and
Speaker 1: then we're going backwards with this. But I just want
Speaker 1: you to give a little bit of your background, like,
Speaker 1: you know, where did you come from with you know
Speaker 1: your situation, how did you get to this place to
Speaker 1: where you're dis esteemed doctor who understands our community and
Speaker 1: able to really give the solutions that's gonna change. Uh. First,
Speaker 1: I want to start by saying, I'm from the Austin community,
Speaker 1: which is, um, numerically the most violent community in Chicago. UM,
Speaker 1: it's one of the poorest communities. So I'm from the
Speaker 1: hood or the street. UM. I do have a background
Speaker 1: in a subculture group, which means I was and and
Speaker 1: in clear terms or vivid terms, I was a part
Speaker 1: of a game. UM. But I had an epiphany and
Speaker 1: I was sentenced to twenty years in prison under draconian
Speaker 1: crack sentence. But I should have only got three and
Speaker 1: a half years, So I did thirteen excessive years because
Speaker 1: of racial profiling and the criminalization of black people by
Speaker 1: the United States government. Let me start there. So at
Speaker 1: the in prison I realized what allowed me to be
Speaker 1: able to mentally go through this process was that I
Speaker 1: realized some of the things I was doing wrong and
Speaker 1: the influence I had on so many people, so I
Speaker 1: wanted to do something different and coming home, I fell
Speaker 1: in love with this process of being able to save
Speaker 1: lives because it was a conflict between two groups and
Speaker 1: I knew both of the guys and I was able
Speaker 1: to stop people from killing each other. And I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be honest, I never felt anything remotely closed to the
Speaker 1: joy and satisfaction that I got from saving the life.
Speaker 1: And I was bought into that process. But what I
Speaker 1: learned soon as I got into the process is that
Speaker 1: without education, I wouldn't be able to make any impact
Speaker 1: in terms of decision and that's what's started me on
Speaker 1: this track or this road to going back to school.
Speaker 1: And the difference from me and a lot of other
Speaker 1: people is I'm still connected to people in the street.
Speaker 1: My perception of people hasn't changed. I don't think they monsters.
Speaker 1: I think they just like me. They need pathways or
Speaker 1: opportunities to change their life, and they need to be
Speaker 1: connected to people like me to know that it's possible.
Speaker 1: So I still have relationships in my community. I still
Speaker 1: going my old community, I still love on them, guys,
Speaker 1: I'm patient with them because it was a process for
Speaker 1: me to change. And I think me having this tryotic perspective,
Speaker 1: a person that was once an individual at the highest risk,
Speaker 1: a person that was a practitioner, and a person that's
Speaker 1: now able to look at different theoretical concepts and making
Speaker 1: operational as a researcher makes me a little different from
Speaker 1: somebody who really don't understand the culture and challenges of
Speaker 1: our people. So President to you know, I'm all about
Speaker 1: cut the check. So President Biden will tell me the
Speaker 1: difference between and I know you have to go Chico,
Speaker 1: but we don't want to be disrespectful to your time.
Speaker 1: But tell me the difference between the one point nine
Speaker 1: trillion and the five point three billion that we saw
Speaker 1: at the White House trying to okay, remember I said
Speaker 1: it was four pathways. First of all, let me say
Speaker 1: something about Fine Peace. Fine Peace is a group of
Speaker 1: toil people who solve a problem and did something about
Speaker 1: it really to make it shut. And we said, we
Speaker 1: gotta get the money to the people. So we volunteered
Speaker 1: to collectively come together to get the resources to the
Speaker 1: ground because we connected to people that's dying. So fun
Speaker 1: Peace doesn't get the money. No, we don't get it done.
Speaker 1: We don't get it done. We're trying to make sure
Speaker 1: people on the ground get the money, and and and
Speaker 1: and The five point three billion is money that's in
Speaker 1: the infrastructure build. That was in the infrastructure build. But
Speaker 1: Horford and Booker have a bill that we need everybody's
Speaker 1: support to get money to people on the ground to
Speaker 1: make sure we get job placement, job training, money to
Speaker 1: violence prevention organization and all the wraparound services that addressed
Speaker 1: the trauma. I'm gonna say something interesting to Tamika. In
Speaker 1: my side, I did sixteen years three months in prison.
Speaker 1: The day I was released, the expectation was that I'd
Speaker 1: be normal, as if none of that never happened. So
Speaker 1: I never received any services to help me psychologically transition
Speaker 1: back into society. Now, I had a support system that
Speaker 1: helped me navigate. Imagine for everybody that's arrested or go
Speaker 1: through that trauma, the pressures of getting out. In the
Speaker 1: first day, the first thing people talking about is getting
Speaker 1: a job, as if nothing, none of that had ever happened.
Speaker 1: And I think that's why the five point three billion
Speaker 1: is important. We gotta we gotta work with these people
Speaker 1: and help them understand what you went through is not normal,
Speaker 1: no matter what you did to get there, and help
Speaker 1: them go through a transition period to get back acclimated
Speaker 1: to society. I say the same thing all the time,
Speaker 1: and especially you know being in prison. I didn't do
Speaker 1: as much time as you did. But just understanding is
Speaker 1: the dynamics, you know, and then being acts and just
Speaker 1: come back into a society and just you know, and
Speaker 1: resume as if you've missed time, you you missed, you know,
Speaker 1: you missed generations. Like ten years is a decade. You know,
Speaker 1: so many things happen in two or three years. In
Speaker 1: two or three years being free, things have happened to
Speaker 1: have completely changed. So ten and sixteen and I'm seven
Speaker 1: years that I did it was it was. It was
Speaker 1: a real far stretch and it took a lot of time,
Speaker 1: and fortunately for us we had those support systems and
Speaker 1: that was able to do it. So I just want
Speaker 1: to say, I commend you brother on the work that
Speaker 1: you do, you know, especially where you do it at
Speaker 1: Like you said, we just had you know, I was
Speaker 1: out there with you men and the spirit and the
Speaker 1: love that you bring to this work into this movement
Speaker 1: is needed and is appreciated. Man, So listen, fund Piece,
Speaker 1: we with you. We want to you know, we want
Speaker 1: if we wanted, whatever we can do to help you know,
Speaker 1: we with you. We're gonna make sure that we we
Speaker 1: align with you. Once again, another one of our friends
Speaker 1: and our brothers keep doing the work. Brother, you appreciated.
Speaker 1: You are definitely one of the ones that are shine
Speaker 1: and these brothers definitely need you in these streets. Man,
Speaker 1: if there's an organization out there, grassroots group that is
Speaker 1: looking for support and wants to become a part of
Speaker 1: the fund Piece program, want to make sure people understand
Speaker 1: clearly that fund Piece is a conduit to help grassroots
Speaker 1: organizers and organizations get resources so that they can do
Speaker 1: the work in their communities. And so, like you said,
Speaker 1: there are multiple pathways, but you all have the knowledge
Speaker 1: base of how to do that. At where do folks go?
Speaker 1: How do they get in touch with you? Go to
Speaker 1: fund Piece now and you can you can sign up
Speaker 1: as a partner. We don't turn anybody away. And when
Speaker 1: you go to the site fund piece now dot org,
Speaker 1: dot com, dot com, fund piece now dot com. Okay,
Speaker 1: And then you said when you go to the site.
Speaker 1: It will tell you can sign up as a partner
Speaker 1: and come on Wednesday and have access to all the
Speaker 1: material we have for free. So it's it's we're doing
Speaker 1: everything we can to try to help as many people
Speaker 1: as possible. Thank you, Chico. We appreciate you for coming
Speaker 1: on and really breaking it down for us. Hopefully we
Speaker 1: can bring you back during the six week process because
Speaker 1: we know that you've been in l A and now
Speaker 1: you're moving on to other cities, and we want to
Speaker 1: make sure people keep up with the movement and get involved.
Speaker 1: And you also talked about that bill um that I
Speaker 1: think Corey Booker and others have and we're gonna go
Speaker 1: look it up and make sure people know that they
Speaker 1: should start calling and asking for other legislators and others
Speaker 1: in our federal government to support that bill so we
Speaker 1: can get the resources out of the gate and into
Speaker 1: the community. And I'm a big supporter of until Freedom
Speaker 1: and I want thank you so much. What y'all to
Speaker 1: the end, and I thank you all for putting your
Speaker 1: life on the line each and every day. And I
Speaker 1: want to say this publicly. Everybody needs to know fund
Speaker 1: Peace is a hundred a thousand percent behind my brother
Speaker 1: and sister, and we protect our people, we love our people,
Speaker 1: and until freedom is at the forefront of getting the
Speaker 1: work done in our community. Thank you, cheek, See you
Speaker 1: soon appreciate alright, alright, thank you. So there's so much
Speaker 1: to unpack with that, um, you know, cheek or he's
Speaker 1: such a humble, humble giant, um. And what he is
Speaker 1: doing and what he's involved in, along with Pastor Mike McBride,
Speaker 1: Erica Ford and others who are at the helm of
Speaker 1: leadership in fund, Piece is really trying to trying their
Speaker 1: best to get resources and bring it down to the street.
Speaker 1: And that's not easy, you know. And I get how
Speaker 1: some black folks are really frustrated because black people are saying,
Speaker 1: why do we always have to jump through hoops and
Speaker 1: travel under bridges and cross the waters and the ocean
Speaker 1: and everything else in order to get what we need
Speaker 1: in our communities? UM. And right now, what I see
Speaker 1: and I'm and this is not fun Pieces not saying this.
Speaker 1: I'm saying it is. I see that as more more
Speaker 1: violence happens across the nation, which as you said, shared responsibility. UM,
Speaker 1: that it's a it's a it's a conversation we have
Speaker 1: to have with our own people. But as that is happening,
Speaker 1: the pressure is being applied to this administration in and
Speaker 1: also to Biden specifically to increase police presence and support
Speaker 1: for law enforcement across the nation, because there's there is
Speaker 1: a there's a false narrative that somehow police prevent violence, right,
Speaker 1: and we've never seen that happen. Right. What we understand
Speaker 1: what prevents violence is the lack of when you when
Speaker 1: you get rid of poverty, right, when you give resources
Speaker 1: and you give opportunities, like I said, right now, violence
Speaker 1: is the recreation for the children in the communities. They
Speaker 1: don't have these programs. We used to have basketball programs,
Speaker 1: We had after school programs, We had on programs within
Speaker 1: the community that you can come in and you can
Speaker 1: teach you how to cook, they teach you how to box.
Speaker 1: They had all of these things that all of this energy,
Speaker 1: these young kids could utilize it and they would they
Speaker 1: would fund certain things. You had tournaments, you have something
Speaker 1: to really keep you engaged. Now on these young kids
Speaker 1: just go outside and they're in the corner and they
Speaker 1: just want to be involved with gangs and and this
Speaker 1: is what's happening, and this is all of this is
Speaker 1: a process, right, So until we elimit those realities, until
Speaker 1: we put back resources in our communities, we cannot in
Speaker 1: any way think that violence is gonna stop. Like Chico said,
Speaker 1: I said, when you go to the affluent communities, there's
Speaker 1: no police there because there's no need to know. I'm
Speaker 1: saying I don't see them at all. I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't see any police Walmart. I mean not the police
Speaker 1: you see like the security. I see the police at
Speaker 1: the Walmart. Well, I mean the Walmart's trying to be funny,
Speaker 1: like you see them in those kinds of places, But
Speaker 1: you don't see cops the corners. When we go to
Speaker 1: our rich friend's house that we visit, you know, like
Speaker 1: when you go visit, I don't know who do we
Speaker 1: visit that's rich, We visit Pop's house. I have never
Speaker 1: seen a cop near Poff's house just hanging out. This
Speaker 1: ain't happening because there's no need because the people they
Speaker 1: have everything they need, so the the perplexity for crime
Speaker 1: is way lower. So we got to understand that if
Speaker 1: that's a simple concept, If people have resources and they
Speaker 1: have all the things that they need, the stability in
Speaker 1: the need for crime diminishing, and you know, these interviews
Speaker 1: are so short, so we don't really get an opportunity
Speaker 1: to lay out all the things that people need to know.
Speaker 1: But reading is fundamental and that's why, um, you know,
Speaker 1: fund piece now dot com is so important because folks
Speaker 1: can go there and really learn. And I get a
Speaker 1: text message from fund Piece every day that tells me
Speaker 1: if I want to be a part of sessions with
Speaker 1: that they have online, when you can actually learn how
Speaker 1: to apply for money and how to get support, how
Speaker 1: to get connected with larger organizations that can actually help
Speaker 1: you and be like your fiscal sponsor, because that's another issue.
Speaker 1: You have such small grassroots groups that they hit the
Speaker 1: ground and they're out there, they're doing real work, but
Speaker 1: they don't have their paperwork in order to be able
Speaker 1: to accept a two million dollar grant. And so if
Speaker 1: they work with some of the larger organizations, then those
Speaker 1: folks will serve as the as the umbrella, if you will,
Speaker 1: and make sure that the payroll gets paid aid and
Speaker 1: that you know, the infrastructure is there to help right
Speaker 1: it incubate these organizations. And so there's so much that
Speaker 1: you can actually learn in this process. And I want
Speaker 1: to make sure that we do, not that people don't
Speaker 1: just go out saying, oh, ain't nobody doing nothing for
Speaker 1: black folds. Oh there's nothing, No, there is something, but
Speaker 1: we all have to work together. And to to our
Speaker 1: point earlier, everything is political because while the money, yes,
Speaker 1: the money is there, but then there the process to
Speaker 1: get it is political. And now we know that there's
Speaker 1: an actual bill that is associated with the five point
Speaker 1: three million billion dollars that President Biden has already signed
Speaker 1: an executive order. He signed an executive order to send
Speaker 1: that money out. But as we know, the system always
Speaker 1: has guard rails to try to UM and and I'm
Speaker 1: not saying this is on every issue. I'm not saying
Speaker 1: this is just on gun violence, because it's on every
Speaker 1: single thing that you're trying to get out of the government.
Speaker 1: There's all these different areas and guard rails. And so
Speaker 1: there's a bill that Corey Booker has that will actually
Speaker 1: help to free up more of those resources and get
Speaker 1: them into the community, to deal with mental health support,
Speaker 1: to deal with jobs, to deal with the things that
Speaker 1: we know, just as you just laid out so UM
Speaker 1: importantly UM and so clearly, to deal with all of
Speaker 1: these issues that actually prevent us from being able to
Speaker 1: address the issue of gun violence. So we are you know,
Speaker 1: as also as a part of this series, I think
Speaker 1: what's important is while we are covering those people who
Speaker 1: have the ability to make real, like big change. So
Speaker 1: you know, someone like Chico, he is someone who with
Speaker 1: the work that fund pieces doing, they have the ability
Speaker 1: to really help support a lot of people across the nation.
Speaker 1: Absolutely um And but at the same time, what I
Speaker 1: am also very very what makes me hopeful is people
Speaker 1: like patients Mary who is a victim, Maggie Carry a
Speaker 1: victim who's turned their pain into purpose. And this brother
Speaker 1: who is joining us today. Kareem Nelson is one of
Speaker 1: those who we see at protests all the time. He's
Speaker 1: out there not just UM for you know, for the
Speaker 1: issue around gun violence. Because certainly we've seen him at
Speaker 1: in the Bronx in different places marching to bring about
Speaker 1: change and to help curb gun violence and to bring
Speaker 1: UM gangs together, but also I've seen him at police
Speaker 1: brutality protests. I've seen him in so many different spaces
Speaker 1: out there as a real advocate. His name is Kareem
Speaker 1: Nelson again, and his organization is Wheelchairs Against Guns UM
Speaker 1: and obviously the wheelchair polace is important because when you
Speaker 1: see Kareem, he is someone who's in a wheelchair, who's
Speaker 1: making it from place to place and being out there
Speaker 1: as a real advocate. So, Kareem, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for joining us today. Thank you having mean. So let's
Speaker 1: start with the personal side. Um, Kareem, what happened to you?
Speaker 1: You know, obviously your story is real and we want
Speaker 1: folks to know what you've been through. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: I was born in seventy four, forty seven, forty seven
Speaker 1: this year. Um, I came up in a in the
Speaker 1: eighties and nineties. Uh, I like it. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: very transparent. I was. I was a stupid kid, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. I talked, I talked my desistants
Speaker 1: up to having a low supersteem. Um. I had a
Speaker 1: good household. My mom took care and she had a
Speaker 1: good job with My father wasn't there. He was alcoholic. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, low Sevil state. You know, the streets called
Speaker 1: me up at a very young age. That's why I
Speaker 1: started doing those ships by seven crack claimed with guns
Speaker 1: um at thirteen, I saw I came in, came in
Speaker 1: kind of one of my first misses of dumb Valance.
Speaker 1: I saw my man Doria Dixon get murdered right and
Speaker 1: running me. He was sixteen. I was thirteen, and you know,
Speaker 1: that was my sign to get out the streets. But
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't take key to it because you know,
Speaker 1: I thought I was, you know, Bill for the two,
Speaker 1: and I can handle anything that come out direction, you know,
Speaker 1: and I just I just been through every every everything
Speaker 1: that you could imagine. And I've been through the seventeen.
Speaker 1: I got four with the Himmer. I went on the
Speaker 1: run at seventeen to Atlanta because at this time of
Speaker 1: my life, you know, I had a bunch of friends
Speaker 1: and we was just in and out of town selling drugs.
Speaker 1: And then, you know, I don't like to talk about
Speaker 1: that because I don't want to glorify that, but that's
Speaker 1: what we were doing at the time, and in the
Speaker 1: in the early nineties. Seeing my selling drugs was cool
Speaker 1: thing to do at the time, right, So I felt
Speaker 1: thinking of that. Um at seventeen, I went on the
Speaker 1: run for the gun and then I found myself in
Speaker 1: Atlanta for Mare del Valance, my man baby Jay got murdered.
Speaker 1: You know, I found myself in Bottomore and when I
Speaker 1: got to Bottomore it was rough. I've never seen poverty
Speaker 1: at such a uh high rate right from you, but
Speaker 1: I probably is made different from what they're going through.
Speaker 1: So when I got damn here, I thought I knew
Speaker 1: how to fight very well. You know, I feared well
Speaker 1: in the streets, so I was kind of I had
Speaker 1: a chip on my shoulder. I thought I was a
Speaker 1: bully um my beard across the men and the complex
Speaker 1: selling drugs. I didn't want to be anymore. You know.
Speaker 1: I just exercised my cancer. And the day that I
Speaker 1: saw him was Father's Day. You know, he was doing
Speaker 1: what he was doing, and I was totally frustrated. I
Speaker 1: had it done on me, but it was in the
Speaker 1: pushing and you know, my frustration and my stupidity allowed
Speaker 1: me to put my hands on that man and his friend,
Speaker 1: you know, shot me. That was June Fathers um my life.
Speaker 1: I never had a job. I don't know what working is.
Speaker 1: So they're putting a mid Shire. It was like, like
Speaker 1: it's foreign to me. They wanted to give me a
Speaker 1: check that was worth five hundred and eighty three dollars
Speaker 1: a month, and I had to live off there. I
Speaker 1: had to pay rent. I had to do all that, so,
Speaker 1: you know, not never having a job, a little self esteem,
Speaker 1: I believing in myself that I could do better. I
Speaker 1: see him back to the streets, and this time when
Speaker 1: I went back to the streets, UM, I put a
Speaker 1: federal federal charge for uh expiracy of the strident fifty
Speaker 1: grounds and more practical came H lost my apulmit, went
Speaker 1: to jail. UH four and a half years. God changed
Speaker 1: the crack norns for me, got me had it early.
Speaker 1: I came home still didn't learn my lesson, still thinking
Speaker 1: about the streets and trying to catch up, and my
Speaker 1: money not being the way I wanted it to be,
Speaker 1: you know, for doing dumb things and sail like gavin it,
Speaker 1: you know, and and things like that. When I came home,
Speaker 1: I was behind the ball, but I had to catch up.
Speaker 1: I went right back to what I knew. This time,
Speaker 1: I trusted mine, my family member had a family remember
Speaker 1: that was in the streets. Awesome. You know, we did
Speaker 1: this thing in thousand times between us. This one time
Speaker 1: when you know, we went to go through the business.
Speaker 1: He decided to take all the brad and all the money.
Speaker 1: Wasn't mind, you know, some killer's money. It was some
Speaker 1: good friends money and you know, the killer's money, their money,
Speaker 1: and I couldn't produce it. So that night they rocked
Speaker 1: to sleep and for me to the fan called the park,
Speaker 1: drove somewhere dark and it was about you know, calling
Speaker 1: bags out the trunk to put clubs one and I
Speaker 1: got scared. For the first half of my life, I
Speaker 1: really valued my life because I really got scared. You know,
Speaker 1: I know I played with them brothers, you know, God
Speaker 1: always with me. I called pool. Then he wasn't the
Speaker 1: only once there, no more. So that was there. They
Speaker 1: couldn't do what they had to do. I went home.
Speaker 1: I had I was funked up at the time. I
Speaker 1: had the bar, the man from my moms get these
Speaker 1: things back there brand. I gave him back their brand.
Speaker 1: And that night all the fourteen makes two thousand fourteen.
Speaker 1: I sat in my bed and I put. I finally
Speaker 1: understood why I was in and the purpose of me
Speaker 1: and his wheel Chap was to help other young gun
Speaker 1: that looked like me sound like this, you know, and
Speaker 1: come from where I come from. Donna have to ever
Speaker 1: go through this. So that's my story. I ain't proud
Speaker 1: of it, but it is real. It's real, and it's rule,
Speaker 1: and it's it is a familiar story, you know, with
Speaker 1: the with the exception of the wheelchair, I know a
Speaker 1: lot of people have that same similar story. And you know,
Speaker 1: and and and it makes me reflect. You know, right
Speaker 1: now we're dealing with such an epidemic and gun violence,
Speaker 1: you know, and just the other day a young thirteen
Speaker 1: year old was killed and you were just explaining how
Speaker 1: at that age you were deeply entrenched already in the streets,
Speaker 1: and and and and the mindset for me, right, it's
Speaker 1: what is the process? How like, dude, what who do
Speaker 1: you think was the influence? Do you feel like there
Speaker 1: could have been older people in your community that could
Speaker 1: have steered you a different way? Do you feel like
Speaker 1: they embraced you, they've seen you going on the path?
Speaker 1: Do do you think that there could have been something
Speaker 1: that could have steered you in a different direction? Or
Speaker 1: which is something that you felt like, what's gonna happen
Speaker 1: naturally because you wanted to do it? Well? In the nineties,
Speaker 1: we have this. I mean, I didn't have somebody to
Speaker 1: come in that help me. What it was. It was
Speaker 1: just you know, you can't keep willing you don't go
Speaker 1: to jail, but you know, jealous like college. So it
Speaker 1: didn't really didn't really register with me. So I really
Speaker 1: didn't have nobody. My friends really didn't have nobody, you know.
Speaker 1: I think my teacher for that time was me seeing
Speaker 1: my friend Dorian Murden, you know what I mean. I
Speaker 1: was when I was, that was the person coming to
Speaker 1: coming and talk to me like, yo, you gotta tell
Speaker 1: you might be next you telling you to get life.
Speaker 1: I think that was that was it right there, But
Speaker 1: verbally nobody really said it because I don't think nobody
Speaker 1: really knew. Everybody was all doing the same thing, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, it did. So all of these
Speaker 1: programs that that we see out here now, um, you
Speaker 1: know Wheelchairs Against Guns, uh, you know life Camp, um uh,
Speaker 1: you have g MAC, you have who else man up,
Speaker 1: you have all of these different organizations. You're saying, we
Speaker 1: didn't have access to that. You didn't have acts us
Speaker 1: to those types of organs at the time. No, not
Speaker 1: at all, not at all. It says that's why the
Speaker 1: kids that they don't realize the duty of what they got,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, they got real people that
Speaker 1: you know't done what they've done lived the life that
Speaker 1: they're trying to live coming back talking to me, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, they don't really realize that, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean that's the sad problem because you know, sometimes
Speaker 1: when I turn the news on in the mooning and
Speaker 1: I hey about all these kids then't kill I feel
Speaker 1: like I'm not doing my job. I feel like I
Speaker 1: feel you know what I mean. I left a lot
Speaker 1: of kids, remember, and limber with my neighborhood that just
Speaker 1: got that selid drugs and doing stupid. Ship's cool and
Speaker 1: I take the plane for that, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's another reason why I get back so coheartedly. We
Speaker 1: don't have no fun. Every time you see me or
Speaker 1: you see my organis actually out there on my time,
Speaker 1: you know, and I'll make it and I'll make it work,
Speaker 1: you know when gard has been doing and allowing me
Speaker 1: to continue to reach instead. You know. So wow, So
Speaker 1: you don't have the you don't you're not funded at
Speaker 1: all in the cure, in the crisis management system or
Speaker 1: any of that. Oll wow. And that's and I think
Speaker 1: that's what the issue is for me, is just understanding
Speaker 1: that the brothers like you to have a story that
Speaker 1: is relatable that the young brothers in our community will
Speaker 1: be able to relate to and you can change them
Speaker 1: and redirect them and you know, in a different direction.
Speaker 1: But yet our government and the organizations don't see the
Speaker 1: need and the necessity to fund people like yourself, but
Speaker 1: they want to spend that money to incarcerate our young kids,
Speaker 1: right you know. So I think the preventatives, the preventative messages,
Speaker 1: I mean methods, are the things that we need to
Speaker 1: focus on. You know, brothers like yourself need to be funded. Man.
Speaker 1: So I just want to say we commend you for
Speaker 1: the work that you're doing. We commend you just being alive.
Speaker 1: You know what will Chance Against Guns actually does? And
Speaker 1: then also how can people directly support you? Um? And
Speaker 1: then I want to know if you you know what's
Speaker 1: happening with the fund piece model, um, and whether or
Speaker 1: not we can help to put you together with them
Speaker 1: and maybe you know, perhaps they could be supportive and
Speaker 1: helping you get the funding that you need. So definitely,
Speaker 1: what does will what does will Chairs Against Guns do?
Speaker 1: Our so purpose is to protect children from the dames
Speaker 1: of bullying games and don mines, you know, like I'm
Speaker 1: not a children on the site but I'm really heavy
Speaker 1: in the schools. That's my main I stick with the school.
Speaker 1: We've done over two hundred schools, you know, we just
Speaker 1: spoke to over two thousand students. And I've been doing
Speaker 1: going into school since since the inception of WAG, which
Speaker 1: was two thousand and fourteen, and we've been at everything.
Speaker 1: I can't it's counting schools. We've got to countless kids
Speaker 1: whose last change you know, UM I started. I'm not
Speaker 1: good at that. You you know I'm not good at
Speaker 1: ACT because I don't know. I didn't get to getting
Speaker 1: on my own. So like just being ask you with that,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have started um a company and non medical
Speaker 1: transportation company when my company of Chance for Alderney people
Speaker 1: assess Bride, you know, assess Brian uh Term and all
Speaker 1: those things. So I have calls on the street that
Speaker 1: transport these people. And I started discompany for the sole
Speaker 1: purpose to fund my organization. If I don't know how
Speaker 1: to ask you know, so you can put me in
Speaker 1: touch with anybody that you know directly in the ACTS part.
Speaker 1: It will be a huge, you know, huge beneficial to
Speaker 1: my organization. How can we support you directly? I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, we got a website Wheel gets guns at All.
Speaker 1: You can go on there and you can make a contribution.
Speaker 1: Or if we um just twenty June, I would like
Speaker 1: for both of y'all if ya could have the time.
Speaker 1: We have a peace treaty and far Rockety. I'm from
Speaker 1: far Rockety also. I lived out there also, and then
Speaker 1: the balance out there is crazy, and we're having a
Speaker 1: peace treaty sort of like the kings King, stop killing kings. Brother,
Speaker 1: that's what we're doing. So you know, I can send
Speaker 1: you out of information, but you can directly supporters about
Speaker 1: just googling my man Karee Nelson or just going to
Speaker 1: directly while our website wills getting dounes at all sign
Speaker 1: out the program and a great against guns. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much, Thank you man for the brother. I appreciate
Speaker 1: you man. The work you're doing. This phenomenal and your
Speaker 1: story is so real and raw and you know, and
Speaker 1: a lot of times that's what these kids need and
Speaker 1: that's what they respect. They respect the rawness. They understand authenticity.
Speaker 1: You can't trick these kids. You can't make believe that
Speaker 1: you've done something that you ain't. You know, they know
Speaker 1: how to smell it on you. If it ain't on you,
Speaker 1: they know what ain't know on you. So we appreciate
Speaker 1: you coming from that perspective. Brother, continue to do the
Speaker 1: world and listen to you say that you actually have
Speaker 1: a transportation company and that that's how you fund your work.
Speaker 1: It's so important because a lot of people look at
Speaker 1: us and think that, I don't know, I guess they
Speaker 1: think money just drops off the skies, or that folks
Speaker 1: just just just donate and invest, you know, millions of dollars.
Speaker 1: That's not our situation. There's some people who have that,
Speaker 1: but unfortunately until freedom does not. And therefore each one
Speaker 1: of us, of the four co chairs of our organization.
Speaker 1: Angelo Pinto, is an attorney. He actually does his work
Speaker 1: every day as a lawyer. Linda Sarsre, she does political work,
Speaker 1: she works on campaigns, she does consulting work. I also,
Speaker 1: aside from being a speaker, um, you know who is
Speaker 1: requested to do major speeches across the country. But I
Speaker 1: also have a consulting firm and I do real work
Speaker 1: working with corporations, working with agencies. And then my son
Speaker 1: is an artist, um he also as a consultant. And
Speaker 1: so we we understand the model of doing outside work
Speaker 1: and then taking your own money. And I literally was
Speaker 1: just texting where somebody in our organization said how are
Speaker 1: we getting to some city that we're going to? And
Speaker 1: they said, how is it being paid for? And I said, well,
Speaker 1: I pay for my own ticket and then and they said, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's we ain't got the money, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: You gotta pay for you gotta pay for yourself if
Speaker 1: you want to get there. So thank you, Kareem. We
Speaker 1: appreciate you. Appreciate you any time, any time. This is
Speaker 1: it like for me, this six episode series is like
Speaker 1: really important, and it's important for people like Kareem. No,
Speaker 1: we're not glorifying his story, but his story is a
Speaker 1: story that so many having if we can. The fact
Speaker 1: that God saved him from so many different things means
Speaker 1: that he's supposed to be here to tell somebody something.
Speaker 1: And I'm that's what I want to be a part
Speaker 1: of exactly. You know, when you when you look at
Speaker 1: a brother like him and just hearing his story, it
Speaker 1: sounds so familiar. I got friends, and a lot of
Speaker 1: the things that he's talked about, I've actually been through
Speaker 1: some of those things myself, you know. So and I
Speaker 1: understand how important it is to be a credible messenger.
Speaker 1: You know, the way that I do the work that
Speaker 1: I do in our communities is I come from a
Speaker 1: prospective of where they are now, right. I don't I
Speaker 1: don't have conversations with these kids or I don't have
Speaker 1: any type of communication with them from where I am
Speaker 1: where I am right because I've overcome those things and
Speaker 1: I went through that. My conversation is understanding exactly where
Speaker 1: they are and understanding that if you do not relate
Speaker 1: to where they are, and you speak from this hierarchy
Speaker 1: and you've already done that, they don't relate to you.
Speaker 1: They don't believe, they don't believe that you've been through
Speaker 1: when you come so shine and polished and you just
Speaker 1: don't do the crime and just don't be in the
Speaker 1: streets and no, no, no understanding and telling them what
Speaker 1: I understand exactly what you're going through. I went through that.
Speaker 1: I understand what you're about to do. I understand that.
Speaker 1: Now I'm not telling you what to do. I'm just
Speaker 1: telling you what are going to be the consequence the
Speaker 1: end result, because I know that you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: and I say this all the time to my sons
Speaker 1: and all these kids. If you listen to me, I'm
Speaker 1: a cheat sheet through life. So brothers like him, cheeko,
Speaker 1: all these brothers that we have, and you know, even
Speaker 1: the sisters to their knowledge and you know the wisdom
Speaker 1: because they have experiences old necessary at this time that
Speaker 1: brings me to my I don't get it. I don't
Speaker 1: know how you cannot get you know, because no you
Speaker 1: want me to tell you why I don't get it
Speaker 1: when you have brothers like that, right, and you have
Speaker 1: so many people with knowledge in our communities, right when
Speaker 1: I and I think it's really touched me because I
Speaker 1: had a meeting with a lot of anti violence organizations yesterday,
Speaker 1: you know, in regard to this young thirteen and I
Speaker 1: think the word thirteen, right, and when what really hurt
Speaker 1: me was the article read that a thirteen year old
Speaker 1: boy was killed and he was the intended target. Right.
Speaker 1: That means that somebody intentionally It wasn't an accidental. It
Speaker 1: wasn't somebody they went out and ran down to kill
Speaker 1: a thirteen year old board So was the shooter he
Speaker 1: could have been, But I'm that's it's not even just
Speaker 1: the shooter, right, it's the the concept that either of them,
Speaker 1: if they was twelve or eleven, were in a position
Speaker 1: that somebody wanted to take their life. I don't get
Speaker 1: how we as a community allow a thirteen year old
Speaker 1: boy to be so entrenched, so engulfed in the streets.
Speaker 1: Nobody redirected him, nobody grabbed, and nobody did anything. I
Speaker 1: do not get how he did anything that warranted him
Speaker 1: to be murdered and executed by somebody that looked just
Speaker 1: like him, whether he was twelve, whether he was thirteen,
Speaker 1: whether the personal shadow was grown. I don't get that.
Speaker 1: You understand I'm saying. I thought we were supposed to
Speaker 1: protect the babies. I thought there was a code. I
Speaker 1: thought there was rules of engagement. I thought women and
Speaker 1: children were off god, I mean we're off limits, you know.
Speaker 1: And now it's at a point where the thirteen and
Speaker 1: I was having a conversation with my boy Gilly yesterday.
Speaker 1: He said, the shooters is a level and thirteen. Next
Speaker 1: they're gonna be eight. So where's the future If we're
Speaker 1: killing the babies, right, if we ain't golfing the baby,
Speaker 1: we're not good. You're you're grown man. You took it
Speaker 1: over you in this game. You and this lifestyle. You
Speaker 1: made a coneg decision as a grown man. You know
Speaker 1: what comes with this? Why would you bring these babies
Speaker 1: into that? What grown man sat there brought a little
Speaker 1: boy home quote unquote, because that's how you're getting these games.
Speaker 1: What young grown man sat there and said it was
Speaker 1: okay for this thirteen year old boy to be a
Speaker 1: part of the gang where he know he could be.
Speaker 1: Because this is what's the streets are saying. The streets
Speaker 1: are saying, the streets are saying that he was a
Speaker 1: part of the gang and he was in this lifestyle.
Speaker 1: My thing is, how how are we allowing that? How
Speaker 1: who's saying who's sitting there and saying, oh yo, you
Speaker 1: know what, this young boy right here here part of
Speaker 1: our again. You're gonna be a shooter. You're gonna be this.
Speaker 1: We're gonna bring you into this. We're gonna let you
Speaker 1: risk your life. We're gonna we're saying that your life
Speaker 1: is over right now. We're not even gonna give you
Speaker 1: the chance because we're grown man, we're here, we know
Speaker 1: what comes with this. But they say that the gangs
Speaker 1: are getting younger and younger. Right, just talked about right,
Speaker 1: the right so, and if you listen to Kaem, he's
Speaker 1: saying when he was thirteen or at that age, like
Speaker 1: he was let he was in the street. So the
Speaker 1: question is it are the older people, the older gang members,
Speaker 1: facilitating these that the younger ones are just starting their
Speaker 1: own pop ups. Now I'm asking this as a what
Speaker 1: do you call it? It's like a like Devil's advocate question, right,
Speaker 1: Like maybe they're just younger gangs that are sparks. But
Speaker 1: I remember when I was young and I lived in
Speaker 1: the projects in Manhattanville, there was a young boy who
Speaker 1: might have been eleven, maybe maybe ten eleven. I believe
Speaker 1: he started somewhere around ten years old. Now, my mom
Speaker 1: used to say that child is ten years old down there,
Speaker 1: and then you know, he could have been fourteen, but
Speaker 1: she said he was tending to make the story punch
Speaker 1: real good. But let's just say he was twelve thirteen
Speaker 1: years old. He was the one who was responsible for
Speaker 1: being down at this one particular place holding the drugs.
Speaker 1: Everybody could go down there to him and they would
Speaker 1: he would direct going the building, do this, do that.
Speaker 1: He was the one moving all the drugs. The precinct
Speaker 1: was across the street. They could look out the window
Speaker 1: and watch what he was doing right there in the
Speaker 1: center of the project all day. He stayed outside all day. Now,
Speaker 1: mice when deep today these kids be looking dingy and
Speaker 1: toe up. At that time, he was suiting. He was
Speaker 1: a clean young man that was out there on and
Speaker 1: we were passed by see him all the time, just
Speaker 1: sitting out there running operation at a young young age.
Speaker 1: So this has been going on for I'm not saying
Speaker 1: that hasn't. What I'm trying to say is, regardless of
Speaker 1: how long it's happening, it's completely wrong. As an adult one,
Speaker 1: I was blessed to have O G's around that. When
Speaker 1: I tried to get into the game at that young
Speaker 1: when I was like I wanted to, I was like, man,
Speaker 1: if you don't go to school, if you don't go
Speaker 1: play basketball, you played Basketb're gonna buy We're gonna send
Speaker 1: you to camp. We're gonna buy you. What's that that
Speaker 1: that means that they said, Richard, Yeah, she didn't have
Speaker 1: no O G. Because exactly, and that's that's what community
Speaker 1: used to look like. Right there was always the thing
Speaker 1: is we we can't allow as grown, especially as men.
Speaker 1: For me, we cannot allow these kids to be preyed upon. Well,
Speaker 1: I remember a young person came to me talking about
Speaker 1: being part of the game and somebody you love, somebody
Speaker 1: that I care about a lot, you know, And he
Speaker 1: was like, yo, I want to be a part of game.
Speaker 1: And they said, I'm good. And he was fifteen, and
Speaker 1: I'm like a gang. If you don't get out of here.
Speaker 1: I wish somebody would. I wish I would find out
Speaker 1: that's one of these. But that but that's where the
Speaker 1: problem is, because you know what you triggered me just
Speaker 1: now when you said especially as men, right, I heard that,
Speaker 1: and I know you're right because I believe men this
Speaker 1: is a this and I and you know, we've had
Speaker 1: some arguments because Erica and I and other women will
Speaker 1: be fighting with you all about men not respecting us
Speaker 1: in the gun violence space the way that we should.
Speaker 1: But as I've been listening to these stories today, I
Speaker 1: recognized that women have a role and men have a role,
Speaker 1: and the role of our men in this is deep
Speaker 1: and it's serious, right, And so what triggered me was, well, well,
Speaker 1: you said, what men, what are we supposed to be doing?
Speaker 1: And then I thought to myself, damn, I wonder if
Speaker 1: the young boy who was down there it was the
Speaker 1: call the flagpole in the project. I wonder if he
Speaker 1: had a mother. I wonder if his mother was on crack.
Speaker 1: He might have been selling drugs to his mother. Like
Speaker 1: who was there? Possibly nobody, And that's what I'm trying
Speaker 1: to say. And the fact that and if if there
Speaker 1: was nobody there, that means that those elder people took
Speaker 1: advantage of them. They put him in a position to
Speaker 1: where he already risked his freedom in his life, and
Speaker 1: they didn't kid what king with that? You know, anybody
Speaker 1: that allowed him to be out there this flagpole and
Speaker 1: and risk his life and thought it was cool. Pretty
Speaker 1: much said that I had young boys with my kids.
Speaker 1: He was a good basketball player, young dude. He was
Speaker 1: nice and basketball and a lot of He tried to
Speaker 1: do a lot of negative things. And I remember the
Speaker 1: old g s that was getting money. They took him
Speaker 1: under their wing, brought him into his house, moved him
Speaker 1: into him, started trying to send in the basketball kid.
Speaker 1: They kept him alive, you understanding, he still was doing
Speaker 1: a lot of things. They would, but they made sure
Speaker 1: that he was alive. They put him, they gave him
Speaker 1: so many different opportunities, you know, and he's still alive today.
Speaker 1: And he and at thirteen he could have lost his
Speaker 1: life even though he went through some trials, he went
Speaker 1: got in cars ray and all that. But he's still
Speaker 1: alive today. Well not really, but you know, close anyway,
Speaker 1: it could be, it could similar similars, a lot of
Speaker 1: similarities in the situation. But another great episode. You know,
Speaker 1: I want to say thank you, yes and poort episode. Man.
Speaker 1: You know, look, we've we've taken the time to go
Speaker 1: to some real, real life things. You know. Gun violence
Speaker 1: is rampant in America right now, especially in our communities,
Speaker 1: and we want to focus on that. We want to
Speaker 1: give you every aspect, you know, as part of the
Speaker 1: people who are actually being harmed, to people who have
Speaker 1: actually been a part of the harming, and those who
Speaker 1: are building to wrap around services and just just knowing
Speaker 1: what it takes to try to you know, build and
Speaker 1: say I don't know what to do when you do
Speaker 1: as boycott black murder, you know what I'm saying, And
Speaker 1: that's that's that's the movement right now. So I just
Speaker 1: want to say thank you ta Chico, you know, thank
Speaker 1: you to Kareem for for being here and and with
Speaker 1: that we're off. Man. Look like I always say, Man,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna always be right. Tamik is not gonna
Speaker 1: always be wrong, but we will both always and I
Speaker 1: mean always be authentic piece Number one podcast. That's how
Speaker 1: we own it.