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Speaker 3: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
Speaker 4: Welcome home to the Native Landing on the podcast based
Speaker 4: that's a for greatness, sixty minutes or so, hit not
Speaker 4: too long for the grape shit, high level combo politics
Speaker 4: in a way that you could taste it then digest it.
Speaker 4: Politics touches you even if you don't touch it. So
Speaker 4: get invested across the t's and doctor ods kill them
Speaker 4: back to get them staying on business with Rie. You
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Speaker 2: Welcome home. You're so happy here.
Speaker 5: For those of you who Jay I remember last year,
Speaker 5: Tip and I made a breaking news announcement that we
Speaker 5: were not authorized to break it that time, but it
Speaker 5: was about this.
Speaker 2: Very podcast, Native Lamppod.
Speaker 5: So to those of you, you who were at the
Speaker 5: beginning of the home, before the home even started, we say.
Speaker 2: Welcome home, Welcome you. So we're going to be here,
Speaker 2: and before we even jump into the.
Speaker 5: Substance of the podcast, let's roll that clip. Let's roll
Speaker 5: that clip over there. I think y'all wrote that clip.
Speaker 6: We need to hear blond's beach blonde that's built body blond,
Speaker 6: bad built pleach blonde, bad built bush bodyach blonde, bad
Speaker 6: built blond that built pleach blond, bad built bush bottom.
Speaker 7: I'm curious.
Speaker 2: Hey, Hey, that's where we're up against these days.
Speaker 1: We're up against a whole lot of beach blonde, bad built.
Speaker 1: About to say, but we want to replace one of
Speaker 1: those B words, but we can't stop in ourselves. Apologies.
Speaker 8: Can you please warn the people that they are on TV?
Speaker 2: And yes, it sounds like you're warning them now.
Speaker 9: Yes, Well, Angela was supposed to give y'all a legal
Speaker 9: note that if you're in this room, you've agreed to
Speaker 9: be on TV. And so if you find yourself in
Speaker 9: our YouTube release of the show on Thursday evening or
Speaker 9: maybe Friday morning, please do not sue.
Speaker 7: Kim.
Speaker 8: Your presence is your consent, and we thank you in
Speaker 8: advance for yes.
Speaker 2: And even more so for those of you who engage.
Speaker 5: This is a town hall takeover as Brandon by our
Speaker 5: good friend Kim Blackwell. Thank you, sister for having us
Speaker 5: at this incredible conference. If you ask a question this
Speaker 5: Mike is right here in the center.
Speaker 2: Of the room. You will state your name and where
Speaker 2: you're from, and you are.
Speaker 5: Also authorizing us to record you on audio and video,
Speaker 5: so we are very grateful for that.
Speaker 1: Can I say real quick, Yeah, I want to say
Speaker 1: welcome home to the people in the audience here live
Speaker 1: with us, but also welcome home to all y'all who
Speaker 1: are listening who are not here at this conference.
Speaker 7: Come home, everybody.
Speaker 2: Yes, we are going to accelerate her in Miami. It
Speaker 2: is our first live.
Speaker 5: Show of this election season. We're going to be campaigning
Speaker 5: on our own because campaigns right now a little dry.
Speaker 5: So on that what we really wanted to talk about today.
Speaker 5: We normally spend a lot of time in politics. What
Speaker 5: we believe is that politics are everywhere, and we talk
Speaker 5: about that on every single show. And one of the
Speaker 5: things that has been very present, especially for people in
Speaker 5: this room, are the attacks on DEI.
Speaker 2: We know that there are up to eighty.
Speaker 5: Bills and roughly twenty eight states that are attacking diversity,
Speaker 5: equity and inclusion, and since January fourteen of those bills
Speaker 5: have been signed into law. We know that there are
Speaker 5: out of all the fortune one thousand, there is one
Speaker 5: Fortune one thousand CEO and she will be honored at
Speaker 5: this conference. Her name is Tashanda Decade for those of
Speaker 5: you who all do not know, and she stands alone
Speaker 5: right now, there's only one black woman CEO. Two percent
Speaker 5: of the c suite for the Fortune five hundred are
Speaker 5: black women. Four percent of board seats of companies in
Speaker 5: the SMP are black women, and eighty six eighty six
Speaker 5: of those seats were filled after the reckoning with George
Speaker 5: Floyd in twenty twenty. We also know that last year
Speaker 5: the Supreme Court had a disastrous ruling against affirmative action,
Speaker 5: and since then a lot of the companies that said
Speaker 5: black lives matter said, actually.
Speaker 2: Y'all don't matter that much. I ain't trying to really
Speaker 2: have you in here like that. So we have to
Speaker 2: face those attacks as well.
Speaker 5: We know for black women when if and how we
Speaker 5: have children is under attack, to how we wear our hair,
Speaker 5: to how and where we learn and what we and
Speaker 5: what we learn, and we also know that how we
Speaker 5: fund our businesses is even under attack. And you all
Speaker 5: will hear from Arian Simone about what she's experiencing and
Speaker 5: the fight that she's up against at this conference. So
Speaker 5: That's kind of how I wanted to to put this
Speaker 5: the context of this conversation and lay that out there.
Speaker 5: We know that we also are under tremendous attack, even
Speaker 5: in the legal field. We have spent a lot of
Speaker 5: time on our podcast recently talking about our dear sister
Speaker 5: and friend, Marilyn Moseby. I'll be leaving you all tomorrow
Speaker 5: morning to go to her sentencing in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Speaker 2: We are fighting for her every day and the reason
Speaker 2: for that, thank you. The reason for that is because
Speaker 2: Marilyn is not the only one.
Speaker 5: I've talked about it on the podcast often. Andrew, who's
Speaker 5: sitting next to us, could have been in that number.
Speaker 5: Andrew was acquitted, he had to pay a hefty legal
Speaker 5: fee to make sure that he was adequately defended. But
Speaker 5: it's not just the two of them. There was Aaron
Speaker 5: Mesayala and Monique Wordell and all of these black women prosecutors,
Speaker 5: Kim Gardner, Rachel Rollins. We are under attack on every side.
Speaker 5: And part of what we know are call to action
Speaker 5: is when we come here every year that Kim wants
Speaker 5: us to sure is that we are figuring out how
Speaker 5: we support each other so that when the attacks come TIF.
Speaker 5: We talked about your attacks last year. When the attacks come,
Speaker 5: we are ready to mount a ready defense and that
Speaker 5: is what we want to talk about today.
Speaker 1: Thank you for setting it up that way, Angela, and
Speaker 1: I know we don't have to tell y'all in the
Speaker 1: room the state of DEI, but it truly does cast
Speaker 1: a dark shadow of influence over so many sectors. And
Speaker 1: just to add to make sure you all understand that
Speaker 1: the center of this conversation, it is a conversation with us.
Speaker 1: But we're here live because we wanted to be a
Speaker 1: conversation with you, So y'all are not being talked at today.
Speaker 7: We want to talk with you all today.
Speaker 1: And as we give calls to action to our audience
Speaker 1: watching at home, we are also open and receptive to
Speaker 1: the calls to actions you all have. I want to
Speaker 1: thumbtack or add on to what Angela said about DEI.
Speaker 1: There are proactive attacks happening. Last year, thirteen attorneys general
Speaker 1: sent letters to private sector companies asking them to re
Speaker 1: examine their DEI policies in wake of the law. That's
Speaker 1: what I would call a threat. It's not a request,
Speaker 1: it's a threat. And so there are people who are
Speaker 1: responding to this. So whatever happens in politics, it definitely
Speaker 1: impacts the private sector, and it should not be incumbent
Speaker 1: upon the private sector to play a political role in
Speaker 1: upholding are just our guaranteed rights. But increasingly so, that's
Speaker 1: what's happening. And I know a lot of the people
Speaker 1: in this room, in those listening at home, you all
Speaker 1: hold the line for us. So I do want to
Speaker 1: say thank you to everybody in this room and everybody
Speaker 1: who's at home, who has stood up for someone who
Speaker 1: was their subordinate, who has supported someone who was their superior,
Speaker 1: who has opened a door for someone who looked like them,
Speaker 1: who has hired.
Speaker 7: Themselves over and over and over, because that's what it takes.
Speaker 1: And it's a lot of fear driven responses now and
Speaker 1: we have to get ahead of that as well. So
Speaker 1: thank you all for being here and enjoying the conversation.
Speaker 1: There's a microphone right there, so as y'all have thoughts, comments, questions, please.
Speaker 7: Feel free to jump in and be a part of
Speaker 7: the conversation as well.
Speaker 9: Yeah, and I'll just add and I just want to
Speaker 9: thank you all for creating this space. I was blown
Speaker 9: away by some of the background and the work that
Speaker 9: you each do. And of course my thought immediately ran to, well,
Speaker 9: who the hell is carrying a little while y'all are here?
Speaker 9: As I think about the roles that you play every
Speaker 9: single day in somebody's life. If it's not at the boardroom,
Speaker 9: it's ensuring payroll works out this month. If it's not that,
Speaker 9: it's client development. If it's not that, maybe it's home
Speaker 9: and taking care of all the things that require your
Speaker 9: attention because for some reason.
Speaker 8: Nobody else knows how to do it.
Speaker 9: And so in that spirit, I just want to say
Speaker 9: thank you, thank you for the service, and also thank
Speaker 9: you for being. What is any irrational request of any
Speaker 9: of society to have, but you all often rise to
Speaker 9: it and go above it, and that is that we
Speaker 9: expect you to be superheroes every day in every aspect.
Speaker 8: Of your life.
Speaker 9: And when that doesn't come through quite the way that
Speaker 9: you would like it too, because we on the benefactor
Speaker 9: side are like, thank you, keep it moving, and you
Speaker 9: allt to like, that could have gone better, And if
Speaker 9: I had just the second more, this is how it
Speaker 9: could have been done. I just I think it's an
Speaker 9: amazing attribute to you and it deserves and acknowledgment.
Speaker 8: And then the only other thing I.
Speaker 9: Would say is, and I learned this through my experience
Speaker 9: having gone and fought the federal government and trial, and
Speaker 9: that is, there are the people who you expect to
Speaker 9: show up for you and to have your back, and
Speaker 9: maybe even some of you expected that you might lean
Speaker 9: out in a different kind of way. And I guess
Speaker 9: to satiate that a little bit, I would say, we
Speaker 9: all have roles to play here. And the people I
Speaker 9: was mad at who didn't show up at the courtroom,
Speaker 9: I didn't consider for a moment what risks they may
Speaker 9: be putting themselves in that might impact their ability to
Speaker 9: bring home a check next month, the month after, or
Speaker 9: the month after. And so seeing those people where they were,
Speaker 9: I think it helped me to get over very quickly
Speaker 9: the fact that it isn't always about us. Sometimes it's
Speaker 9: about them, and the way they show up is how
Speaker 9: they can show up for you, because that's the best
Speaker 9: they can do.
Speaker 8: In that moment.
Speaker 9: I heard it preached one time, and I'll stop that
Speaker 9: because we may be lions, we may be folks who
Speaker 9: are going to show up squad formation every time somebody
Speaker 9: finds themselves in the crosshairs. We are expecting the people.
Speaker 8: Who we ride with to do the same.
Speaker 9: And guess what, a lot of those people have been
Speaker 9: camouflaging as lions and lionesses.
Speaker 8: And they are hyaenas.
Speaker 9: And you can't expect a hyaena to perform like a
Speaker 9: lion because it just doesn't know how. And so in
Speaker 9: the way that they perform, they're just doing what they
Speaker 9: know how to do. And I think if we have
Speaker 9: grace in that way and in our own way, keep
Speaker 9: the pressure around to show up every time that we
Speaker 9: can and the most persistent and helpful way we can,
Speaker 9: I think it goes a long way.
Speaker 8: We notice it, and the people who you stand in
Speaker 8: the gap for notice it.
Speaker 7: Can I ask you and you and Andrew a question
Speaker 7: because I take your point. You've said that a lot.
Speaker 1: Andrew counseled me when I was going through things, and
Speaker 1: you know, he said to me, you expect hyenas to
Speaker 1: be lions to our lioness and our lion on stage.
Speaker 1: I'm just curious and to the people in the audience,
Speaker 1: I kind of do expect us to be lions, you know,
Speaker 1: because it is challenging when we are ten percent of
Speaker 1: us are lions protecting ninety percent of hyaenas. It's exhausting,
Speaker 1: And I just think the more people if we all
Speaker 1: speak out, we all hold the line. If we all
Speaker 1: do something, they can't cancel everybody, they can't fire everybody.
Speaker 1: They literally can't live without us. So I'm just curious,
Speaker 1: as you say we should have grace from you all's thoughts,
Speaker 1: like where do you fall on that? Like how what
Speaker 1: is the expectation from the folks in this room, the
Speaker 1: folks who are listening, who do operate out of a
Speaker 1: righteous and understandable fear, But we're saying, no, you have
Speaker 1: to check your fear and lock arms with us.
Speaker 5: I don't even know if you have to check your fear.
Speaker 5: I think that you have to move anyway, you know.
Speaker 5: And I think the other thing is so funny that
Speaker 5: you're like, I have a question, because I was going
Speaker 5: to ask this question and I will kind of do
Speaker 5: this as a focus group whole with the audience.
Speaker 2: How many of you all are exhausted by the attacks.
Speaker 9: Like that?
Speaker 2: I mean, it doesn't give any real room.
Speaker 5: And so if you know that you're sitting next to
Speaker 5: your sister or your brother or your friend, and you're like,
Speaker 5: I know, that I'm tired, and I know that you're tired,
Speaker 5: but maybe we're not tired in the same way.
Speaker 2: How can I support you like you might find an extra.
Speaker 5: Little boost of energy and support from that, like one
Speaker 5: of the things that I'll give you all really as
Speaker 5: a testimony and to me, all of these folks are lions.
Speaker 5: I have a professional development program that I talked to
Speaker 5: you all about last year too.
Speaker 2: These young people, y'all have blown my mind.
Speaker 5: Joe Teika is nodding because when with black women, there
Speaker 5: are another source of constant strength, a source of lines,
Speaker 5: and that is a reflection of Joe.
Speaker 2: That's how she is.
Speaker 5: She doesn't expect anything else but excellence from us, even
Speaker 5: in our weakness.
Speaker 2: And the time I'm about to cry talking about I'm
Speaker 2: not doing.
Speaker 5: This, but thank you, Joe, I see you, I love you,
Speaker 5: And I'm thinking about these young women who were like
Speaker 5: Maryland Moseby could be us. They have shown up doing
Speaker 5: graphics better than any graphic I could have imagined. Kim's
Speaker 5: a testament about control. That's what we talk about all
Speaker 5: the time, like showing up like videos a social campaign.
Speaker 5: They've been like they ordered T shirts with the QR
Speaker 5: codes on like they are ready for tomorrow. And it
Speaker 5: was there were things that I hadn't even considered in
Speaker 5: my exhaustion, And in my exhaustion I leaned up against
Speaker 5: some young folks who were tired, but they were tired
Speaker 5: in a different way and got covered Maryland got covered
Speaker 5: in ways that we couldn't have even imagined.
Speaker 2: So I think the lesson in that is in your exhaustion. One,
Speaker 2: you don't have to do it all because you can't,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 5: And I think the second thing would be if you
Speaker 5: ask some one for help, it might be the best
Speaker 5: thing you could have ever done, because they probably can
Speaker 5: do it better than you do, you know what I mean,
Speaker 5: Like you really might be blown away. So not only
Speaker 5: are we lions, they might be cubs, but they're in development.
Speaker 5: Everybody ain't a hyaena. Every want a hyaena? And stay
Speaker 5: the hell away from me though, Andrew, Yeah.
Speaker 9: When I say hyenas, I don't say it as a
Speaker 9: judgment against them. I say it from some people are
Speaker 9: living their lives wherein they are accountable to somebody else
Speaker 9: for how they get paid, whether they can show up
Speaker 9: at the job site the next day.
Speaker 8: I just want to acknowledge that.
Speaker 9: Bold bodacious, incredible ways in which we try to show
Speaker 9: up for each other.
Speaker 8: There's a sense of liberation and freedom that affords that.
Speaker 8: And everyone doesn't have the same thing, but we all
Speaker 8: have something.
Speaker 9: And I guess the requests they asked would be that
Speaker 9: we lean more in to the something that we might
Speaker 9: be able to do. No, you can't stand on the
Speaker 9: corner for me, because your boss drives that way every
Speaker 9: day and if he sees you out there holding a
Speaker 9: pro sign for me, you may face some consternation. But
Speaker 9: could you write a check or at least ask four
Speaker 9: your seat mates at church to pass you with twenty
Speaker 9: five dollar check for this young man who you believe
Speaker 9: how to get there and you've got limitations on the
Speaker 9: ways that you can do that. Or could you be
Speaker 9: the CEO and instead of leading the protests, maybe through
Speaker 9: your procurement policies, you are changing rules and contract negotiations
Speaker 9: and bid agreements so that the people who then get
Speaker 9: access to the opportunity to compete, their lives are transformationally
Speaker 9: altered forever, and their children's children and their children's children's
Speaker 9: children will be the benefactors of it. So there are
Speaker 9: ways in which I think all of us have a
Speaker 9: role to play. We may not be marching today, but
Speaker 9: you might be in the in the boardroom changing some
Speaker 9: policies that then creates a whole new generation of black millionaire.
Speaker 5: That's such a great point. I want to Speaking of
Speaker 5: black millionaires, we got some in this room and some
Speaker 5: that have questions.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna call on Jewel.
Speaker 5: Jewel told me she had something she was gonna say,
Speaker 5: so I'm gonna call her up so she can come
Speaker 5: to the mic.
Speaker 2: And I'm gonna call on Britney too. I don't know
Speaker 2: where Britney and Joe Taga.
Speaker 1: I know we've talked about Y'll take Edi on this
Speaker 1: podcast a few times and she told me her question
Speaker 1: in the in the hallway, So yes, I want Y'll
Speaker 1: take her to.
Speaker 2: None of them going up to the mic. What's going on?
Speaker 5: Like I wonder if they just deep thought what Andrew
Speaker 5: said preached so good, they were just arrested in the spirit. Yes, ma'am,
Speaker 5: say your whole name and where you're from, because you
Speaker 5: are a legend.
Speaker 7: Oh wow, thank you. Hello everyone.
Speaker 1: My name is juel Burg Solomon and I am managing
Speaker 1: partner at Collab Capital, which is in the early stage
Speaker 1: venture capital fund investing in black lead innovation companies across
Speaker 1: the US. Yes, and to the points about lions and hyenas,
Speaker 1: I'm experiencing.
Speaker 7: That in my day to day.
Speaker 1: What I want to talk about and get you all's
Speaker 1: opinion on is giving away early victories. I'm seeing that
Speaker 1: where people are afraid they don't want to be the
Speaker 1: next target for some of these lawsuits, and so they
Speaker 1: are making changes. They're changing their policy, they're changing their website,
Speaker 1: they're changing their purpose. And we have made a stand
Speaker 1: that we're not going to do that. We are very intentional.
Speaker 1: We understand the need for black entrepreneurs and so we're
Speaker 1: not changing anything. But by other people giving away those
Speaker 1: early victories and making those changes, it does put us
Speaker 1: more of a spotlight on us and what we're doing.
Speaker 1: And so I guess it's an urge to people who
Speaker 1: do have control and power to not just say, Okay,
Speaker 1: Edward blooming your posse, you got it, will make the adjustment.
Speaker 1: We don't need to make the adjustment because we're on
Speaker 1: the right side. So curious about you know how you
Speaker 1: all see that? And encouragement for those of us who
Speaker 1: want to stand as lions. But maybe in an even
Speaker 1: worse spot because folks are already kind of giving the
Speaker 1: victory away.
Speaker 7: I love that question.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna just because we just talked about this, I
Speaker 1: want Joe Taka to offer some answers on that question.
Speaker 1: And while she makes her way to the mic, we'll
Speaker 1: jump in. But Angela, I think that's a good place
Speaker 1: for you because I was just thinking about your Angela.
Speaker 3: She will.
Speaker 1: Don't let her deflect. I'm gonna tell y'all, Angela is
Speaker 1: the chiefest staff to the Blacks. We always say that
Speaker 1: her because she will jump out there and be in
Speaker 1: charge of something. And with this entire Marilynd Moseby situation,
Speaker 1: like she has coordinated, she has spearheaded all of this.
Speaker 7: Then she has an ability in leadership. When she asks,
Speaker 7: people will deliver.
Speaker 1: And even asking asking hyenas to be a lion, they
Speaker 1: might not even know they were a lion, but they
Speaker 1: become a lion when you empower them. So, having worked
Speaker 1: on Capitol Hill and you know had all this, I'm
Speaker 1: curious how you get people when you call and ask
Speaker 1: they say.
Speaker 2: Yes, well, I love you. But I'm not about to
Speaker 2: answer that question. No, I'm not. I want to answer Jewel.
Speaker 2: I love Jules question Jewel.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna say something controversial and people might stage walk out,
Speaker 5: So we're just gonna have to roll with this. You
Speaker 5: know what, white folks really got us beat on strategy.
Speaker 5: They really got us beat on strategy. Why do we
Speaker 5: have to tell them on our websites, on our social
Speaker 5: media everything that we are doing that we intend to do.
Speaker 5: I think that there are things that we can do
Speaker 5: that are strategic where we still decide what businesses were
Speaker 5: going to fund, what people were going to hire, what
Speaker 5: kids are going to get the scholarship, how we're going
Speaker 5: to organize.
Speaker 2: And they don't need to know our business.
Speaker 5: For example, America First Legal that was stood up by
Speaker 5: Stephen Miller. They say on there that they are protecting
Speaker 5: our patriotic duty to do whatever bs. I ain't gonna
Speaker 5: cusco with my daddy and then listen to get mad.
Speaker 5: But like they ge to say that and beat the patriots,
Speaker 5: why can't your fund be the fun patriots?
Speaker 7: Do they have us beat on strategy or do they
Speaker 7: have US beat on power?
Speaker 2: They have us beat on both.
Speaker 7: So I hear people in the audience saying both say
Speaker 7: it to my bank, Yes, I.
Speaker 5: They can also fund their strategies. Like I'm right, we're brilliant.
Speaker 5: We're brilliant with less.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Like sometimes black folks, it's like I'm trying to figure
Speaker 1: I got some note in the mail that my mortgage
Speaker 1: company with switched.
Speaker 7: I got two kids in school and cousin JJ and
Speaker 7: need money for the prom.
Speaker 1: And on top of that, I gotta care about climate
Speaker 1: change and Trump and my local elections in.
Speaker 7: The school board, you know.
Speaker 1: And I think even when we talk about Republicans have
Speaker 1: having better messaging and strategy, it's like, no, you're just
Speaker 1: talking to a dumber crowd. We have more things on
Speaker 1: our hands, and you're the people you're speaking to. I say,
Speaker 1: are less curious about things happening? If I can lead
Speaker 1: with the racism, I'm already sold with white folks. That's
Speaker 1: how it goes with us. I think we're just a
Speaker 1: little more curious about things. Yeah, but I disagree, Okay,
Speaker 1: do you disagree with me all the time?
Speaker 8: And then it is I think.
Speaker 9: White people's power in this country, in this world has
Speaker 9: had so much time to experiment, pass, fail, reinvent itself.
Speaker 9: But what is insatiable about them is their addiction to power,
Speaker 9: and your addiction to power will allow all kinds of creative, innovative, illegal.
Speaker 8: Ideas to percolate, and you.
Speaker 9: Get to try them things out without any consequence because
Speaker 9: you own it all and for us where and we
Speaker 9: may not own it all.
Speaker 8: Every step we take may be risking at all. You
Speaker 8: don't tend to want to commit suicide.
Speaker 9: You want to exist, Your body wants to exist, You
Speaker 9: want to thrive one day, and all of that can
Speaker 9: be upended by us making just one false move. And
Speaker 9: when I say false move, it could be the right move.
Speaker 9: It could be the right move. But the person, the purveyor,
Speaker 9: the one who has the ability to give it and
Speaker 9: take it, has determined that it's the wrong move.
Speaker 8: And then that's it.
Speaker 9: And so I don't think we're less curious. I think
Speaker 9: we have less capacity for creativity because of the conditions
Speaker 9: in which we exist.
Speaker 7: I was saying they were less curious, not us. We
Speaker 7: are curious. They are.
Speaker 9: I don't know that they're less curious or that it matters.
Speaker 9: I think what they are is addicted to power, and
Speaker 9: that addiction allows them to create.
Speaker 8: All the solutions.
Speaker 9: The second, third, fourth tertiary option that don't work. You know,
Speaker 9: they can do it because there's nobody coming up right
Speaker 9: behind them that they they nearby fear losing their power
Speaker 9: to Even the rise of the majority of black and
Speaker 9: brown people doesn't scare them by itself, because the world
Speaker 9: is all always been run by a smaller group of
Speaker 9: the bourgeoisie that haves, and it's only about ten percent
Speaker 9: of them.
Speaker 8: The rest of us just on the board. The rest
Speaker 8: of us are just pieces on the board that can
Speaker 8: be moved.
Speaker 5: Okay, speaking of movie, I'm moving, where'd y'all take it go?
Speaker 5: She's like, I'm sitting down, I ain't got time for go.
Speaker 2: We're gonna go to Joe.
Speaker 1: But I just want to remind y'all, Jule's question was
Speaker 1: not about white people's powers, about how to use ours.
Speaker 7: Go ahead, Joe, Well, good evening.
Speaker 10: I'm Joe take Edie, strategist, investor and founder of hashtag
Speaker 10: Win with black women. I wanted to and I totally
Speaker 10: agree with Joel in terms of we have to be
Speaker 10: careful about pre empting the attacks. I do also want
Speaker 10: to talk about this notion of power because in these
Speaker 10: attacks that we are facing, particularly as black women, and
Speaker 10: I believe we were in a conversation. I think Britt
Speaker 10: is going to talk in a minute. But what we
Speaker 10: see over and over again, whether or not it is
Speaker 10: our sisters injustice, our sisters in corporate wherever, it is
Speaker 10: the same strategy. And it is about the allure, the control,
Speaker 10: and it's all about power and the fear connected to
Speaker 10: that desire for power leads to a very ambitious, very
Speaker 10: well funded strategy to attack and we have to be
Speaker 10: very careful. I call it the three d's. First, they
Speaker 10: will work to discredit, largely a black woman. That will
Speaker 10: be a discredit a smear campaign. Second, a detachment, and
Speaker 10: that is the most dangerous aspect of the strategy is
Speaker 10: when we are detached from our root and our base.
Speaker 10: Because once you are isolated, and you're talking about the
Speaker 10: lions and the hyenas, but anytime you are in the wild,
Speaker 10: an animal that is isolated is most easily attacked. And
Speaker 10: so once you are detached from your people and your roots.
Speaker 10: Even if you are detached from the roots of where
Speaker 10: you know you come from and your strength, if you
Speaker 10: are mentally detached, then they can destroy you. And so
Speaker 10: we have to be very careful that we cannot afford
Speaker 10: to let not any one of us be attacked, because
Speaker 10: an attack on one of us is attack on all
Speaker 10: of us, and it is an attack on us as
Speaker 10: a whole, as a people. And so that is why
Speaker 10: we always have the truth, speak truth to power, even
Speaker 10: if it's uncomfortable, even if it's not necessarily the most
Speaker 10: popular thing to do, because that is how we will
Speaker 10: remain resilient, and that is how we have to remain
Speaker 10: as a people.
Speaker 7: Thank you, Joe, Joe, Thank you Joe.
Speaker 9: You do realize you're being attacked in this way because
Speaker 9: you are being so successful in so many others. The
Speaker 9: shot has to be fired over the bow so that
Speaker 9: anybody who's looking at you, who's inspired by you, who
Speaker 9: thinks they can come behind you and have the temerity
Speaker 9: to do the same thing that they see out loud
Speaker 9: in public, for everybody to know this that if you
Speaker 9: come for that crown, this is how we level you.
Speaker 9: Some people blame Fani for everything that's happened in Georgia
Speaker 9: and the derailing of that case, and I submit, and
Speaker 9: I said it on our pod. It doesn't matter what
Speaker 9: she did or did not do. This will have always
Speaker 9: been the strategy. If it wasn't true, they would make
Speaker 9: it up. What they make up, they then go further
Speaker 9: to fabricate and to continue to perpetuate, and they they
Speaker 9: have no shame about lying left right, backwards, upside down.
Speaker 9: But it's our lives, our credibility, our community. And then
Speaker 9: too often sometimes we're the first ones to say, now
Speaker 9: you should have known better, and then we're gonna be
Speaker 9: loud about you should have known. But you should have
Speaker 9: known better is inside the house conversation. It's not for everybody.
Speaker 8: Yeah, we said about FAM. You ain't talking about FAM.
Speaker 8: You to y'all, you don't care about it.
Speaker 2: You ain't you go there.
Speaker 8: You ain't no rally, you.
Speaker 9: Don't get no money, you don't give anything, you don't
Speaker 9: pay no rent. There's no way you are occupying space.
Speaker 9: So some of our conversations have to be internal. But
Speaker 9: I just have to say, there's a poem that that
Speaker 9: one of those lines is it's when things seem worse
Speaker 9: that you mustn't quit.
Speaker 8: That's how you know. You getting close to the line,
Speaker 8: that's how you That's how you know they scared. That's
Speaker 8: how you know that they are.
Speaker 9: They are right for their existence, and the ones who
Speaker 9: are in alignment with them, are the ones who have
Speaker 9: closest proximity to them. That's how we lose white women voters.
Speaker 9: They're getting killed over here. Yeah, but because they're married
Speaker 9: to a white man and they have a white child
Speaker 9: who's maybe a son, their proximity keeps them connected to
Speaker 9: this system that doesn't love them, doesn't respect them, does
Speaker 9: nothing for them. Into the passage of those men in
Speaker 9: their lives, They're back to where they were at the beginning.
Speaker 8: Shame.
Speaker 5: And I think, Brittany, Yes, where's britt britt The bishop
Speaker 5: got a word?
Speaker 2: Bishop, We had a word.
Speaker 7: I mean I had, I had a question you want
Speaker 7: me to.
Speaker 1: I do think though, to first of all, Jule, last
Speaker 1: week I was going through the Atlanta Airport and who's
Speaker 1: face that I see on the ad yours? So I
Speaker 1: just want to honor the work that you are doing
Speaker 1: and the impact that you are making on us, our people,
Speaker 1: our communities, because even amidst all of the attacks, baby,
Speaker 1: you are shining, and we love to see it because
Speaker 1: we all shine with you when you shine. The other
Speaker 1: thing I think to this point about attacking black women
Speaker 1: is that in every era of and Angela, I want
Speaker 1: you to know. I just finished my video about our
Speaker 1: sister Maryland. So I talked about this in the video
Speaker 1: and I'm about to post it. But what we know
Speaker 1: throughout history is that in every single era of progress
Speaker 1: for marginalized people, there is a promised backlash. It is swift,
Speaker 1: it is thorough, and it is precise. That pattern will
Speaker 1: always repeat itself. Right, Jim Crowd reconstruction, right, Trump was
Speaker 1: the answer to Obama, These things consistently happen. So after
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen through twenty twenty, now we're experiencing that intense backlash.
Speaker 1: And the goal is always to make the status quo permanent, right,
Speaker 1: that the folks who hold power are able to hold
Speaker 1: it forever, and anybody who would dare try to snatch
Speaker 1: any morsel of it from their hands be damned. So
Speaker 1: if we know that that's true, and we know the
Speaker 1: backlashes promise, and we know that that's their blueprint, the
Speaker 1: good news is that we also know our ancestral blueprints.
Speaker 7: We know our history's blueprints.
Speaker 1: We know what we've written, we know the stories that
Speaker 1: we've shared with each other, we know the lore and
Speaker 1: the legacy that we are able to push through our
Speaker 1: not just and to Joe take 's point, not just
Speaker 1: through our written words and our formal leadership, but through
Speaker 1: our connectivity, through our community, through those ancestral, rooted practices
Speaker 1: that we've been doing in that white supremacy separated us
Speaker 1: from right. The function of whites premicy really is to
Speaker 1: separate us from our own knowing. And going back to
Speaker 1: our own knowing helps us sustain because the truth of
Speaker 1: the matter is they come after black women because they
Speaker 1: knows that nobody else can be taken down quite as
Speaker 1: swiftly as a black woman. They know that we're not defended.
Speaker 1: They know that we're not protected. Malcolm X already told
Speaker 1: us that, right. So if we get so impenetrable, if
Speaker 1: we get together so tight and link our arms so
Speaker 1: well that nobody and nothing can come in between us,
Speaker 1: that we are the lions that they are afraid of,
Speaker 1: permanently and perpetually, they can't come for us because they'll
Speaker 1: know they can't win.
Speaker 7: And that's the work we have to do.
Speaker 1: That's the purpose of accelerate her right, so that we're
Speaker 1: actually building those connections intergenerationally, and we're not just saying
Speaker 1: you got it, good luck, cist, but actually saying.
Speaker 7: No, I'm linking arms so that we can come along together.
Speaker 2: Come out, preacher. Thank you Brittany Pagnet cutting down the
Speaker 2: doors of the church. Now, oh geez gets to it
Speaker 2: the question again.
Speaker 1: But speaking of my question and speaking of us moving
Speaker 1: along together, to move up political for us. Second, even
Speaker 1: though the personal is political for black women, shout out
Speaker 1: to the kambah Hea River Collective. There is an understanding
Speaker 1: that I think we all have in this moment ahead
Speaker 1: of this presidential election where not only is the top
Speaker 1: of the ticket important, abortion rights are on the ballot,
Speaker 1: voting rights are on the ballot, the futures for our
Speaker 1: young people are on the ballot, guns are on the ballot,
Speaker 1: Climate change, all of that stuff is on the ballot,
Speaker 1: up and down.
Speaker 2: So we know how important this election is.
Speaker 1: And we know that we've seen some of the polling
Speaker 1: that if the election we're done today, that there are
Speaker 1: a number of black people who said they will sit out.
Speaker 1: The good news is the election is not happening today,
Speaker 1: and we still got time to engage with our people,
Speaker 1: not con to send our people into voting, but to listen,
Speaker 1: to engage, to understand, and to meet folks where they are,
Speaker 1: to invite all of us into a different way of
Speaker 1: being to move forward.
Speaker 2: So this is my question. In the era that we
Speaker 2: have right now, we know that black votes are.
Speaker 1: Consistently taken for granted, and if we are going to
Speaker 1: get our things, not only on the agenda, but the
Speaker 1: policies that truly benefit us past consistently that we have
Speaker 1: to show up, like all of these other groups and
Speaker 1: all of these other issues, with the level of force
Speaker 1: and power and fully operating that power. And we also
Speaker 1: know what will happen to us and the rest of
Speaker 1: the world if body loses.
Speaker 7: So how are you all?
Speaker 1: And we've talked about this, but I would love for
Speaker 1: the room and your listeners to hear how you all
Speaker 1: are threading that needle and having those loving, respectful conversations
Speaker 1: with our family members, with our cousins, with the folks
Speaker 1: we sit next to on the plane wherever, about how
Speaker 1: to thread that needle to say, yes, we need to
Speaker 1: stand in our full power, and we need to make
Speaker 1: sure that we engage that radical pragmatism that black people
Speaker 1: use all the time to set the conditions for our fight.
Speaker 7: Because I'd rather fight Biden than fight Trump. I love that.
Speaker 2: Feedback on this tiff.
Speaker 1: Under Hey, I'll you know what I always talk about
Speaker 1: the same thing. Thank you for that, Brittany Pacnet Cunningham.
Speaker 1: For the folks who are listening and can't see you
Speaker 1: appreciate that. So I think one of the wonderful things
Speaker 1: about our podcast is we feel avoid and so something
Speaker 1: that I take very seriously, and like you said, britt
Speaker 1: it is professional. It's my professional grooming, but also my
Speaker 1: personal commitment, and that is disrupting the narrative that the
Speaker 1: white run mainstream media puts out there. And so something
Speaker 1: we've talked about was this narrative that you know, all
Speaker 1: the black folks, but particularly black men, are running to
Speaker 1: vote for Trump. Yes, that is, there are people out
Speaker 1: there who are considering voting for him. But I looked
Speaker 1: at this in the media and I thought I would
Speaker 1: no sooner lay the failure of this democracy at the
Speaker 1: feet of black men. And you ain't said lock about
Speaker 1: the white conservative folks across every socioeconomic demographic. And you
Speaker 1: want to keep promoting this narrative and pushing that out
Speaker 1: there and pushing that out there, and the disrespect it
Speaker 1: is when black men ninety eight percent of whom vote Democrat,
Speaker 1: and of course black women do overwhelmingly, so They also
Speaker 1: will plug people who don't have a background in politics,
Speaker 1: are not well versed, not well formed. But you put
Speaker 1: this person on to be the voice of what you
Speaker 1: want to talk about in serious issues for us, and
Speaker 1: they only do that in the black community. Tell me
Speaker 1: when the last time was that you heard Joe Rogan
Speaker 1: on CNN talking about policy. Tell me when they ask
Speaker 1: Amy Schumer's opinion on what's happening in the Middle East.
Speaker 1: But you have no problem putting a comedian on, an actor,
Speaker 1: on a rapper on to talk about serious issues. I
Speaker 1: think we have to demand more respect for ourselves and
Speaker 1: support independent media, and for those of who still work
Speaker 1: in media, who are in decision making positions in media,
Speaker 1: let your voices, let our voices be heard. It should
Speaker 1: not have to be it's okay for us to speak
Speaker 1: a truth only after white folks say it. Only after
Speaker 1: white folks make it acceptable to drop a cultural reference
Speaker 1: or hip hop music on and then the rest of
Speaker 1: the black folks can do it, and now it's okay.
Speaker 7: That erodes our trust in media.
Speaker 1: And when we saw that happen in the twenty sixteen election,
Speaker 1: there was an overwhelming amount of people who started getting
Speaker 1: their news from social media, and we later found out
Speaker 1: this was the Internet Russia agency pumping false narrative because
Speaker 1: they spent two seconds here and said, oh, I know
Speaker 1: the way to mess up the election. They treat black
Speaker 1: folks really messed up over there, So let's make that
Speaker 1: our narrative.
Speaker 7: So that's my personal commitment.
Speaker 1: Every time we talk about something, I'm constantly giving pushback
Speaker 1: on what the media says.
Speaker 7: So thank you for that question.
Speaker 5: I think this is a good time for us to
Speaker 5: open up really into solutions. One thing I know that
Speaker 5: we all are clear about is the challenges that we're
Speaker 5: up against. But this is a very unique, unique space
Speaker 5: for us every year to come together, even as Jovian
Speaker 5: challenged us this morning around stating our intentions, being clear
Speaker 5: about what we want and making sure we're creating this space,
Speaker 5: it's a safe space here.
Speaker 2: Native lampod too, is a safe space.
Speaker 5: We say welcome home because we want people to feel
Speaker 5: like this is a safe space to discuss your issues,
Speaker 5: to raise your questions. But I think even beyond that,
Speaker 5: beyond this room, beyond this particular session in time with
Speaker 5: this live podcast, we want you all to feel like
Speaker 5: this convening is a safe space so there's something you
Speaker 5: need from this room. If you're under attack right now
Speaker 5: and you haven't said it out loud, you've been afraid
Speaker 5: to say it out loud.
Speaker 11: You know.
Speaker 5: If you are like I don't want to be under attack,
Speaker 5: how can I prevent That's what jul is saying. Really,
Speaker 5: I don't want that attack because my mission in life
Speaker 5: is not to be fighting them. It is to be
Speaker 5: providing a pathway for us. What is the safest way
Speaker 5: that we can ensure that? Those are the kinds of
Speaker 5: things now, with the time we have remaining that I
Speaker 5: want to make sure you all are sharing with us.
Speaker 5: I'm calling on them for help because, as I said,
Speaker 5: I've learned a remarkable lesson in this season in life.
Speaker 5: I think I know a lot of the answers I've learned.
Speaker 5: I don't have them all, and I'm good with that.
Speaker 5: You know, ye, I see your hand. I would love
Speaker 5: for you to make your way to this microphone because
Speaker 5: that is what we have, so you'll be on camera.
Speaker 5: A reminder that you stepping up here means you're on
Speaker 5: camera and you have a consentant, is that Jessica?
Speaker 7: Yes, yeah, Miss Jessica.
Speaker 2: Where you're from? For the people who can't see you
Speaker 2: on the podcast listening.
Speaker 1: Hey everyone, my name is Jessica Nabango, and I love
Speaker 1: that you brought up the idea of solutions and that's
Speaker 1: just what I want to speak to because for me
Speaker 1: in this era, in the last basically since twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: for me, I've been talking to friends about the blacklash
Speaker 1: and specifically financially because for a lot of us who
Speaker 1: are creators or you know.
Speaker 2: Work as gig workers.
Speaker 1: Essentially where gig workers looking for speaking engagements and brand
Speaker 1: deals and whatnot, it has it hasn't dried up completely
Speaker 1: hopefully like luckily for me, it's not completely dry, but
Speaker 1: we've definitely seen it scale back.
Speaker 2: And so one thing we need to discuss I feel like.
Speaker 1: More of and I'm going to work with Kim for
Speaker 1: next year for this, and I love the announcement of
Speaker 1: the venture fund is I think we have to discuss
Speaker 1: finances more but integrated, right so we know, like there's
Speaker 1: Tiffany the Budget Nesto, who's amazing, we know about the
Speaker 1: podcast that exists, but I think we need more integration.
Speaker 1: I think that black people generally don't like to talk
Speaker 1: about money. They definitely don't want to talk about debt.
Speaker 1: They don't want to talk about all of these things.
Speaker 8: But I think it's enough of it.
Speaker 2: You so what.
Speaker 1: Right exactly say it's not enough of it, But it's like,
Speaker 1: how do we take what we have and grow it
Speaker 1: without having to wait for more income?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: So I'm someone I've been investing in the stock market
Speaker 1: for a long time and I have like a variety investments,
Speaker 1: whether it's art, it's stock, it's real estate, whatever it is.
Speaker 1: I think we have to have more open conversation about
Speaker 1: that in a very practical manner, but also integrated into
Speaker 1: social justice conversation because the only way we're going to
Speaker 1: survive is if we can take care of ourselves. And
Speaker 1: in order to take care of ourselves, we have to
Speaker 1: be able to have the money we had, no matter
Speaker 1: how little or how much, we have to be able
Speaker 1: to take that money and grow it. Like I love
Speaker 1: the brands that are hearing, there's so many things that
Speaker 1: we can purchase, and I'm here to buy.
Speaker 2: All of the things.
Speaker 1: But I also want to know if I see you
Speaker 1: with a Chanel bag, I know you better have investments
Speaker 1: ten times that and if you don't, that's a conversation
Speaker 1: that we need to be having.
Speaker 7: You heard some feelings.
Speaker 2: No, it's not.
Speaker 5: It's on the podcast again as a reminder it is
Speaker 5: being recorded, but it is a family conversation.
Speaker 2: I love this so much, Jessica, in part because you were.
Speaker 5: Like, I have investments, and you listed the variety of
Speaker 5: investments for so many people who are serving as influencers
Speaker 5: and even are on shows.
Speaker 2: That is not the case.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna tell you. I hope I'll get in trouble
Speaker 5: with our with our girl thread, but we have some
Speaker 5: of the folks in here who are on it. We
Speaker 5: had to have a conversation about tax lawyers.
Speaker 2: I was just talking. I was having lunch and talking
Speaker 2: to people about tax strategy.
Speaker 1: We had to have a conversation about tax lawyers because
Speaker 1: of tax leans and tax debt and not and not
Speaker 1: knowing that once you left your job, now you're responsible
Speaker 1: for paying quarterly taxes.
Speaker 2: It feels really basic to people who grow up in business.
Speaker 2: It was not basic for some of us, or for
Speaker 2: some of us.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna put my daddy business others some of us
Speaker 5: who had dads who did businesses and still just collected
Speaker 5: the tax debt.
Speaker 2: You understand.
Speaker 5: Sorry daddy but like this is the thing. We have
Speaker 5: to have these conversations. I'm gonna come find you because
Speaker 5: I'm gonna come learn.
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, forty four.
Speaker 5: And don't know enough about this still out here reckless okay,
Speaker 5: So thank you.
Speaker 7: I'm twenty four and don't know enough about it. So
Speaker 7: thank you.
Speaker 2: I love it, Tim, It's so fun being your mentor.
Speaker 7: Thank you, thank you, my sister. I would I'll just say,
Speaker 7: this isn't a solution. This is a problem.
Speaker 1: But a lot of us, Jessica to talk about public speaking,
Speaker 1: and a lot of us our income is clunky, you know.
Speaker 1: So you may get a big load of money from
Speaker 1: January to March. And I know, for me, i'm you know,
Speaker 1: hood rich sometimes and it's not that I'm balling. I
Speaker 1: don't own a Chanel bag, I'll tell you, but I'm
Speaker 1: not giving the government my money because I'm gonna hold
Speaker 1: on to this money because I have to. I used
Speaker 1: to wait till the last minute to pay bills because
Speaker 1: I never knew when the ground was gonna drop from
Speaker 1: under me, and I need that money to eat. Twenty
Speaker 1: years later, I still have that mentality and that PTSD.
Speaker 1: Growing up poor and black in this country is traumatic.
Speaker 1: You carry it with you for a long time. And
Speaker 1: so now if I get a big pot, if I
Speaker 1: get six figures of income, I'm not giving that half
Speaker 1: to the government. I'm waiting until I get the next
Speaker 1: big income to put half of that money away because
Speaker 1: I'm nervous about when I'm going to get another check.
Speaker 1: So that's my reality. I think that's a lot of
Speaker 1: the reality for a lot of people out there. So
Speaker 1: of all the people who are in this room from
Speaker 1: financial institutions, please come find me or I will come
Speaker 1: find you.
Speaker 9: That that that fear, and I like it makes sense
Speaker 9: for all of us. But it's not just individual it's
Speaker 9: because the system is acting to protect itself. The reason
Speaker 9: why they don't worry the same way we worry is
Speaker 9: because they know about all of those safety nets that
Speaker 9: exist for them, and those same safety nets don't exist
Speaker 9: for us, the same way you misuse some funds from
Speaker 9: that recovery. I saw black folks being led through the
Speaker 9: federal courthouse in my area, Like, you know, there.
Speaker 8: Was a I ain't gonna be staff that that'd be uh.
Speaker 9: I was gonna say, like it was a fish fry,
Speaker 9: but it was my and what I was going to
Speaker 9: say about that was horribly stereotypical.
Speaker 8: But I love fish, and I'll throw a fish try anyway.
Speaker 9: But the but the point, the point is is that
Speaker 9: they were marching us through there like it was the
Speaker 9: marching one hundred a Florida and m University right on.
Speaker 9: These little puny nothing nothing, nothing, but they get the education.
Speaker 9: They fall into the loop, They fall into the whole first,
Speaker 9: and then they create a salve so that they never
Speaker 9: have to fall into it again.
Speaker 8: But for us, this no south. We were a distraction
Speaker 8: in the first place.
Speaker 2: I see Lovey walk up.
Speaker 5: And since we're and since we're in our time where
Speaker 5: we're we're getting some solutions, we're gonna get one.
Speaker 2: I know she got a good one.
Speaker 5: This sister, if you don't know, is in New York
Speaker 5: Times best selling author four times, yea four times. And
Speaker 5: Lovey is gonna be my one sister friend today. Who's
Speaker 5: gonna say her name and where she's from? Because the
Speaker 5: rest of y'all ain't following no directions. What's up with that, y'all?
Speaker 2: Like you know who I am? Look me up me ba,
Speaker 2: go ahead.
Speaker 12: So I'm loving Jay Jones and I'm an author, speaker
Speaker 12: and book advisor.
Speaker 2: I am from Chicago by way of Nigeria.
Speaker 12: And one of the things that I think is a
Speaker 12: solution to a lot of our problems as a community
Speaker 12: is vulnerability. Whether it is our community building, whether it's
Speaker 12: in finance, whether it's in books.
Speaker 2: It's about our inability to be siloed.
Speaker 12: One allow ourselves to be soilo because I think officially
Speaker 12: becomes a choice that we choose over and over again.
Speaker 2: Right, we know the ways of systems, we know the
Speaker 2: games that are being played.
Speaker 12: We see the playbook, and yet we're saying, how am
Speaker 12: I surprised that this game is being played? So I
Speaker 12: think one of the things that we need is to
Speaker 12: just start telling the truth, even when it scares us,
Speaker 12: and I mean the truth of I feel lost, I'm drowning,
Speaker 12: I'm overwhelmed, i am broke.
Speaker 2: My company is crumbling.
Speaker 12: Mine did last year shout out, and what saved me
Speaker 12: was vulnerability to my TPG sisters, to my mentors, and
Speaker 12: I was like, listen, I am drowning.
Speaker 2: I'm about to be bankrupt in three months, I'm.
Speaker 12: Firing my whole team. And as it's happening, them holding
Speaker 12: me is what saved my life. Them giving me advice, but.
Speaker 2: It started with me saying I need help.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 12: What's happened is it's been beaten out of us, it's
Speaker 12: been traumatized out of us. We've been told not to
Speaker 12: trust each other, and then we walk around walking alone
Speaker 12: when none of this.
Speaker 2: Was ever supposed to be alone.
Speaker 12: And I've had the privilege of having access to some
Speaker 12: rooms where I'm like, let me really figure out what's
Speaker 12: happening here so I can tell my people what's going on.
Speaker 12: So one day last year, I ended up in a
Speaker 12: room where it was an invite only room for best
Speaker 12: selling authors. To be in the room, you had to
Speaker 12: either have been a New York Times bestseller or have
Speaker 12: sold two hundred and fifty thousand copies of your books.
Speaker 12: In that room, there were only two black women, and
Speaker 12: the other black women there was there because I made
Speaker 12: sure she was there, and I'm sitting in this room
Speaker 12: and we spent nine hours exchanging all the tips on
Speaker 12: how we all became bestsellers. And what I realized is
Speaker 12: all of them were best sellers because whenever one of
Speaker 12: them was coming out of the book, they would all
Speaker 12: take a week and sit with this person and say, so,
Speaker 12: what are you doing for your book, and then we
Speaker 12: wonder why we are not winning. There's an intentional I
Speaker 12: need your help.
Speaker 2: Please show up for me. What do you have. I
Speaker 2: need us to really start being honest with each other.
Speaker 12: Don't flex about the Chanelle bag if you're struggling. Also,
Speaker 12: I need you to say, hey, I need your help,
Speaker 12: because when I would say personally, anybody who's coming out
Speaker 12: with the book, I'm gonna.
Speaker 2: Do a book session after this.
Speaker 12: But I have been so upset for the last year
Speaker 12: when all these books by black women are coming out
Speaker 12: and failing, and I'm.
Speaker 2: Like, why didn't you call me? Yes, I could have
Speaker 2: helped you.
Speaker 7: Like after the fact, I'm like, I could have helped you,
Speaker 7: and they're like, I.
Speaker 2: Just didn't think you would.
Speaker 12: I'm here so I need all of us to really
Speaker 12: start being honest with each other, show up for each
Speaker 12: other for real. And when somebody tells you I will
Speaker 12: help you, believe them. And I stand here today. One
Speaker 12: thing I know I can help everybody within this book
Speaker 12: and in this room books. I don't want one person
Speaker 12: to come out with a book in this room and
Speaker 12: it tanks because I have all our numbers. Now I
Speaker 12: know what every book is selling. Our books are failing,
Speaker 12: and it hurts my feeling every time. I'm like, y'all
Speaker 12: could have called me so number one solution, let's just
Speaker 12: start being honest and vulnerable with each other and know
Speaker 12: we are all here to be helpmates and that's how
Speaker 12: we shift culture, and that's how we shift everything.
Speaker 7: Thank you. I love that. Thank you for your vulnerability.
Speaker 5: Can y'all do me one favor because I think it's
Speaker 5: so important Again, Jovin, I'm still in all your material today,
Speaker 5: but can you just look at your neighbor and say
Speaker 5: I need help? That's all I need y'all to say,
Speaker 5: because we're still recording this podcast, but I think it's
Speaker 5: so important to say that, to do that because we
Speaker 5: have to be vulnerable. Lovey, you are so right. So
Speaker 5: that's a great place to start. So we know our
Speaker 5: first solution is vulnerability, being honest about your text it
Speaker 5: and your chanail bag, being honest. If you need help
Speaker 5: with your book, let me said, I'm here. That is
Speaker 5: a New York Times bestseller four times over.
Speaker 2: That's a formula. She got it figured out. Why you
Speaker 2: want to ask her? What is were talking about?
Speaker 1: Getting Angela in space is well? First of all, on
Speaker 1: the books. I just want to shout out real quick
Speaker 1: doctor Sharon Malone, who has a book out right now,
Speaker 1: girl Women's Hea Doctor Malone wa wave in there so
Speaker 1: I ain't know. Yeah, so she has a book out.
Speaker 1: I talk to Lovely if you haven't already, sare okay?
Speaker 12: Good.
Speaker 7: So I just wanted to say really.
Speaker 1: Quickly thank you to Kim Blackwell because this conference is
Speaker 1: a setting of vulnerability. And last year Angela and I
Speaker 1: were on the stage with doctor Joy, who moderated a
Speaker 1: conversation with them. That's okay, well, why you come up
Speaker 1: with something I want to say on that stage. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was really just like a conversation. And I'll shout
Speaker 1: out Angela again. She'll deflect again. I'm gonna shout out again.
Speaker 1: Angela is a kind of sister who you don't have
Speaker 1: to say I need help. She sees you and says,
Speaker 1: I know you need help, and I'm showing up. And
Speaker 1: there's something about that because if you say, well, what
Speaker 1: do you need, that's a burden to me because now
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think of it. Sometimes it's helpful to
Speaker 1: say here's what I think you need, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do it. You know I'm gonna uber eat you dinner tonight,
Speaker 1: or I'm gonna you know, I'll keep your kids, or
Speaker 1: I'll come over and cook you dinner.
Speaker 7: Whatever that is.
Speaker 1: So last year I talked about, you know, I have
Speaker 1: a lot of business in New York. I work in
Speaker 1: New York, I live in DC. I have to be
Speaker 1: there half the time. And right when I walked off
Speaker 1: the stage, Susan Chapman, wave your hair hands, Susan Chapman,
Speaker 1: she came up to me and said, I have an
Speaker 1: apartment in Brooklyn. It's yours whenever you need it, and
Speaker 1: I have not moved out since I've been there for
Speaker 1: a year.
Speaker 2: No, I'm kady, but it's beautiful.
Speaker 7: It's beautiful.
Speaker 3: The air.
Speaker 7: But I did. I took Susan up on that. I
Speaker 7: stated her her beautiful place.
Speaker 1: But that is the kind of thing where she didn't
Speaker 1: wait for me to actually just showed up and said, Okay,
Speaker 1: I heard you say this, I have this, and we
Speaker 1: have to be that for each other in ways like Angela,
Speaker 1: I will say, does it the most, but in ways
Speaker 1: that it stretches us and bends us. Now, my moment
Speaker 1: of vulnerability is when I have extended myself. I've gotten
Speaker 1: my feelings hurt a few times, I've been betrayed or
Speaker 1: somebody say something slick to me, and at this age
Speaker 1: and stage in life, I retreat, you know, And it's like,
Speaker 1: I'm insular. I'm grateful to be surrounded by women who
Speaker 1: I know, I trust. I'm you know, cocooned in that
Speaker 1: space and I appreciate it, and men who have you know,
Speaker 1: Andrew has definitely been a source of inspiration and listening
Speaker 1: ear and personally and professionally, but I have I can
Speaker 1: get to a place where it's like, if I don't
Speaker 1: know you, I don't want to talk to you because
Speaker 1: I've had too many times, or somebody I can talk
Speaker 1: to you, but I'm not. I might not share something
Speaker 1: as personal because I've had somebody say something slick and
Speaker 1: it bothers me.
Speaker 10: Uh.
Speaker 1: And I've pushed through those moments. But I know after
Speaker 1: my show was canceled, I retreated. I didn't want to
Speaker 1: hear from people. There were so many people saying things
Speaker 1: about me and speaking about me with certainty, and it
Speaker 1: had never met me before. I was under attack and
Speaker 1: it just put me in such an emotional hole. And
Speaker 1: thankfully I've been surrounded by people that I'm climbing out
Speaker 1: of that. So I just want to say, if you've
Speaker 1: been in that space, you're not alone in that space either.
Speaker 1: And when I see other people and I can tell
Speaker 1: you in that emotional hole, my vulnerability is to share
Speaker 1: mine and then extend a hand to you to lift
Speaker 1: you out of that place, because I know what that
Speaker 1: feels like.
Speaker 2: We see Bevvy. Thanks to we see Bevvy, Bevy Smith. Hi,
Speaker 2: I'm Bevy Smith. I'm from Harlem, USA. Yes you are
Speaker 2: to say I was from She's from Harlem to TV
Speaker 2: show as well, if you're.
Speaker 7: Okay, I'm a.
Speaker 2: Young actress as well. I'm an angel new But I
Speaker 2: wanted to say, Kim, what you've done here is so
Speaker 2: beautiful and it's very very powerful.
Speaker 11: But I will tell you this, I've been doing a
Speaker 11: lot of hello and hi to everyone and smiling, and
Speaker 11: I've not always received it back. So what I want
Speaker 11: to say is I want to challenge everyone in this
Speaker 11: room to say hello to every single black woman that
Speaker 11: you see. Okay, I shouldn't even have to say that,
Speaker 11: but you should. And the other thing I want to
Speaker 11: challenge us because it's a lot of us in this
Speaker 11: room who know each other. It's a lot of powerful
Speaker 11: and I'm just gonna say, it's a lot of powerful
Speaker 11: clicks up in here, but not everyone is a part
Speaker 11: of a little.
Speaker 2: Crew and a click and a club and all that.
Speaker 11: I'm very fortunate I know a lot of y'all, so
Speaker 11: I could go up in all the spaces. But because
Speaker 11: I was once a nerd girl who was bullied, I'm
Speaker 11: very sensitive when I see people that are shy, that
Speaker 11: are a little you know, insular, that are sitting at
Speaker 11: the table bull and it's kind of like along, like
Speaker 11: kind of off to the side tonight.
Speaker 2: When we see any of those people, can we bring
Speaker 2: them into the phone. Yes, that's a good life lesson.
Speaker 11: We have to do that because there's so many of
Speaker 11: us who are suffering, and chemists built this right. But
Speaker 11: if we let those little people just sit on the
Speaker 11: sidelines by themselves, they won't come back next year, yeah, because.
Speaker 2: They'll be like, yeah, it was nice.
Speaker 11: But if you don't know the people, if you're not
Speaker 11: in the crew, if you're not in the clique, it's
Speaker 11: not really good. That's what happens out a lot of conferences.
Speaker 11: So I want to make sure that folks feel welcome,
Speaker 11: and so that's my little I.
Speaker 7: Love that, Bevy. Thank you, thank you, Bevy.
Speaker 2: That's easy. We talked about vulnerability. We're talking about transparency,
Speaker 2: trusting someone to be your help when you need help,
Speaker 2: being able to say that we see. Are you coming
Speaker 2: at Nikki?
Speaker 5: Okay, Nikki, you got Nikki a boss, a real boss
Speaker 5: from my heart in the building, Nikki, tell everybody your
Speaker 5: name where you're from.
Speaker 3: My name is Nicky Sparrow. I am from Baltimore, with Baltimore,
Speaker 3: not Baltimore for the people. That's not from Baltimore. But
Speaker 3: I live in North Florida, Saint Augustine area. So I'm
Speaker 3: so glad to be here. Miss Kim, you are absolutely jewel.
Speaker 3: And as you was talking Tiffany, I was sitting there
Speaker 3: like Tiffany, I are a lot alike in the way
Speaker 3: that I'm very protected with my emotions, but I help
Speaker 3: everybody naturally. I just want to make sure everybody happy,
Speaker 3: eat and everything else. Oh, for goodness, what is tip?
Speaker 2: As I said it, But.
Speaker 3: Last year I came here kind of like not knowing anybody.
Speaker 7: I was gonna be in the corner.
Speaker 3: Melissa and I have become like this first of all
Speaker 3: the the yes, thank you, the the CMO of the
Speaker 3: Atlanta Hawks, and then also yes, looks she had to
Speaker 3: take a quick call, but she'll be back. But even
Speaker 3: from there, just the call, look at you. I'm the
Speaker 3: Melissa who I have since connected to and when I'm
Speaker 3: in Atlanta, making sure that I connect with her. And
Speaker 3: then Kim, no, I'm like him if it's anything here,
Speaker 3: this was going on, this is who and everything else.
Speaker 3: So I wanted to tell and I said this to Kim.
Speaker 3: I have never experienced sisterhood like this. I have been
Speaker 3: traditionally the only one that looked like me in the room,
Speaker 3: and that has become some of my protection of not
Speaker 3: allowing all of the sensitivit because I got to be strong,
Speaker 3: because I make sure in the room. I got to
Speaker 3: make sure Melissa get in the room. I got to
Speaker 3: make sure doctor Kee get in the room, and everybody
Speaker 3: else and making sure that I'm plugging them in. So
Speaker 3: sometimes when you don't see somebody being sensitive, it's not
Speaker 3: that they're not sensitive when inside. It's because first of all,
Speaker 3: you don't know what they have to do even to
Speaker 3: be in the room, yes, and to maintain everything that
Speaker 3: comes along with them when people don't.
Speaker 2: Want you in the room.
Speaker 3: But I'm getting a little sassy now that I'm over
Speaker 3: fifty because when people say who are you, I said,
Speaker 3: you can google me.
Speaker 2: And her support pages.
Speaker 3: That's me because I can tell they're not asking anybody
Speaker 3: else in the room who they are because they feel
Speaker 3: like they belong there.
Speaker 2: So thank you all for being you.
Speaker 3: Kim, you are absolutely a jewel, and so thank you
Speaker 3: for being you, your vision and everything else. Thank you
Speaker 3: to all of my iHeart family out here, doctor joy
Speaker 3: Derby and my Native Pot.
Speaker 2: And I wouldn't be me if it wasn't like whatever.
Speaker 3: And any of your business people that want to sponsor
Speaker 3: the Native Pot let us know.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you. We're talking about right as.
Speaker 3: You were talking about early we had these conversations like
Speaker 3: in order for them to be supported and you want
Speaker 3: to hear them talk authentically and be honest, it absolutely
Speaker 3: take the sponsorships because you have so many companies say
Speaker 3: we want that, but then we don't want that because
Speaker 3: then they don't want to be associated with that. And
Speaker 3: the part of it is is not we don't want this,
Speaker 3: we need this in order for us.
Speaker 9: To have this.
Speaker 2: It does. Let's sake sponsorships.
Speaker 3: So if you're interested, I'll be right over there, or
Speaker 3: you can talk to one of them and we can
Speaker 3: make sure that sales starts and we'll make sure that
Speaker 3: you're well taken care of.
Speaker 2: Thanks, we love you. In the last five minutes that
Speaker 2: we have, we do really.
Speaker 5: Want to open it up for folks who are feeling
Speaker 5: that kind of attack we were talking about earlier. It's
Speaker 5: not that you would be a case study, but it
Speaker 5: gives us something to work toward. Even as we leave
Speaker 5: this when we leave Native lampod our safe space, it
Speaker 5: doesn't mean that we have to walk out of safety.
Speaker 5: It doesn't mean that even after we walk out of
Speaker 5: these ballroom doors, that you're on your own. What we
Speaker 5: hope that we model from here and out of the
Speaker 5: good teaching of Jovian and brit We had two preachers
Speaker 5: with us today, that we stay in that intention and
Speaker 5: that we model that intention throughout this conference and throughout
Speaker 5: our lives. So if you are feeling attacked or a
Speaker 5: different type of pressure, we invite you to come forward.
Speaker 5: We will talk to you, and we'll also make sure
Speaker 5: that our sisters and our dear brothers, the brothers that
Speaker 5: are around here two will also surround you.
Speaker 9: I can I offer one brother on the stage is
Speaker 9: I was thinking as the women were talking in so
Speaker 9: many powerful testimonies about what keeps me from sharing of vulnerability,
Speaker 9: And part of it is is too many experiences where
Speaker 9: you've heard from other people who weren't part of the
Speaker 9: assist to you all about the assist, and then some
Speaker 9: because somebody didn't ran and told that, which.
Speaker 8: Certainly causes me to shut.
Speaker 9: Down that I don't want to I don't want to
Speaker 9: make myself available in my crisis to ask for help.
Speaker 9: Then you offer it and you do it, and then
Speaker 9: the world knows about what went down when it was
Speaker 9: never their business. And so I think part of it
Speaker 9: has to be a level of trust, one intention. If
Speaker 9: I help you, saying way I feel about loaning money,
Speaker 9: I'm almost writing it off in my head that I'm
Speaker 9: never getting that money back. But you came to me
Speaker 9: in a moment of need, and I hope to have
Speaker 9: met that need for you. And what.
Speaker 8: I ain't give you no money, you cause me problems
Speaker 8: in my house.
Speaker 9: So the the I just think if we disassociate ourselves
Speaker 9: from outcome. So the thing that I did to help
Speaker 9: you I did it because I love you, I care
Speaker 9: for you. I want you to thrive, go forth. And
Speaker 9: what if they go on and go thrive, that's great.
Speaker 9: If they go get a Chanell bag because they felt
Speaker 9: great and they needed to celebrate, then I'm not mad
Speaker 9: at that Chanell bag. The season was different when they
Speaker 9: bought that bag, and now the season's changed, and that's
Speaker 9: not an indictment on their priorities.
Speaker 8: And so I just if you're doing the if when.
Speaker 9: We go outside of ourselves to extend something to somebody,
Speaker 9: I just feel like Mother Earth wants us to be
Speaker 9: giving it as an off, not with an expectation of
Speaker 9: the return, the outcome, the well since I did that,
Speaker 9: she ought to be doing this is that in the
Speaker 9: thirty you shouldn't have no bills that are late now
Speaker 9: because it's not and all of us.
Speaker 8: Suffer from it.
Speaker 9: But it's a real inhibitor from people showing up as
Speaker 9: their full selves and their need and their vulnerability and
Speaker 9: their hurt and their absence of grace because they know
Speaker 9: you may be talking with four tongue because eventually now
Speaker 9: you're shaming me for my need.
Speaker 7: I only a gift with the receipt I want to.
Speaker 5: We have two and a half minutes remaining, and I
Speaker 5: want us to close out with calls to action.
Speaker 2: So Andrew, why don't you start us off?
Speaker 9: Release judgment? Release the judgment. It ain't got nothing to
Speaker 9: do with you, nothing to do with you. Those hateful
Speaker 9: comments that show up in the inbox. You don't know
Speaker 9: me well enough to hate me like that. Now, maybe
Speaker 9: something about my life has pricked you, and so you're
Speaker 9: getting your rocks off on me because you can't tell
Speaker 9: the person who you need to be telling. So just
Speaker 9: let the judgment go. Doesn't advantage you.
Speaker 8: I love that.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna follow up on what Lovey said, Let's make
Speaker 1: black women bestsellers. So my call to action is go
Speaker 1: by doctor Sharon Malone's book Please Girl and Women. And
Speaker 1: she's talking about stuff that we all experience in here.
Speaker 1: I'm about ten degrees hotter than everybody else. I don't know,
Speaker 1: that's what I feel like.
Speaker 2: I'm twenty four, not at twelve.
Speaker 7: I have early early perimental Paul, Okay, got it is
Speaker 7: that a thing?
Speaker 2: Doctor Malone? She said?
Speaker 7: No, Well, can I say?
Speaker 1: I was in DC and doctor Sharon Malone walked up
Speaker 1: to me and she says, you know you're Perimantal Pauls,
Speaker 1: A'm like, what hell?
Speaker 5: And I was she was looking out, She was just looking.
Speaker 5: My call to action is about these attacks that we're witnessing.
Speaker 5: Marilyn Moseby. Please get familiar with her name. If you're not,
Speaker 5: please sign the petition. If you haven't, we are requesting
Speaker 5: a presidential pardon for Marilyn Moseby. I'm telling you all,
Speaker 5: she is not the only one. I can give you
Speaker 5: a list of black women prosecutors, a list of black
Speaker 5: elected officials who have been targeted. Please get familiar with
Speaker 5: that case. My last call to action is to support
Speaker 5: what Bevy stated. I hear you, Sis, I love you.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna make sure I work overtime. This is a
Speaker 5: reunion for me, so I am so excited to see
Speaker 5: my friends, but it would be so much better and
Speaker 5: richer if my friend circle grew in this room, in
Speaker 5: at this conference, and so can. We will lift you
Speaker 5: up and honor your spirit in that way, making sure
Speaker 5: we're bringing everyone in. And as we always say on
Speaker 5: this podcast, if y'all are a wake back there, we're
Speaker 5: on a music y'all.
Speaker 2: Always say on this podcast, welcome y'all. How many days
Speaker 2: for that election.
Speaker 5: Morning.
Speaker 4: Thank you for joining the Natives intention of what the
Speaker 4: info and on little latest regulum mccross connected to the
Speaker 4: statements that you leave on our socials. Thank you sincerely
Speaker 4: for the patients reason for your choice is cleared, so
Speaker 4: grateful it took to execute roads. Thank you for serve,
Speaker 4: defend and protect the truth.
Speaker 2: Even in peace. For welcome home to all of the
Speaker 2: natives wait, thank you, Welcome y'all.
Speaker 8: Welcome.
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