1
00:00:01,880 --> 00:00:03,960
Speaker 1: It could have been an eighteen bedroom house.

2
00:00:04,800 --> 00:00:07,880
Speaker 2: If ain't no love being passed out, that don't mean

3
00:00:08,680 --> 00:00:09,280
Speaker 2: you go on, man.

4
00:00:09,280 --> 00:00:12,040
Speaker 3: I'm kids looking for love. When I hit the screech,

5
00:00:12,160 --> 00:00:14,880
Speaker 3: I was looking for love. When I joined my gang,

6
00:00:14,920 --> 00:00:17,400
Speaker 3: I was looking for love. I was looking for acceptance.

7
00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:20,680
Speaker 3: I was looking for people that wanted me to be

8
00:00:20,800 --> 00:00:24,840
Speaker 3: around you. If you men selling weed or blowing your ass,

9
00:00:25,720 --> 00:00:26,080
Speaker 3: I just.

10
00:00:26,040 --> 00:00:29,120
Speaker 2: Wanted to praise. I wanted to feel good about myself.

11
00:00:29,160 --> 00:00:32,720
Speaker 1: I wanted to belong. That's all these kids want. That's

12
00:00:32,720 --> 00:00:33,800
Speaker 1: what anybody wants.

13
00:00:33,960 --> 00:00:36,680
Speaker 3: That's why we joined for Turning is that's why we

14
00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:38,479
Speaker 3: get these good jobs, and why we get all in

15
00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:39,559
Speaker 3: these social groups.

16
00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:41,519
Speaker 1: Because what in the end of the day, everybody want

17
00:00:41,560 --> 00:00:45,960
Speaker 1: to belong. That's our biggest thing. Get period. Man, Before

18
00:00:45,960 --> 00:00:47,360
Speaker 1: we do anything, we're gonna love on you.

19
00:00:52,840 --> 00:00:56,000
Speaker 4: Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.

20
00:00:56,400 --> 00:00:59,280
Speaker 4: I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, I'm a father,

21
00:00:59,640 --> 00:01:03,400
Speaker 4: I'm an entrepreneur, and I've been a football coach in

22
00:01:03,400 --> 00:01:06,880
Speaker 4: inner City Memphis. And the last part it unintentionally led

23
00:01:06,880 --> 00:01:09,559
Speaker 4: to an oscar for the film about our team that's

24
00:01:09,640 --> 00:01:14,319
Speaker 4: called Undefeated. Guys. I believe Our country's problems will never

25
00:01:14,400 --> 00:01:16,759
Speaker 4: be solved by a bunch of fancy people in nice

26
00:01:16,760 --> 00:01:20,759
Speaker 4: suits talking big words that nobody understands on CNN and Fox,

27
00:01:20,800 --> 00:01:24,920
Speaker 4: but rather an army of normal folks US, just you

28
00:01:24,959 --> 00:01:29,680
Speaker 4: and me deciding, Hey, I can help. That's what Melvin Cole,

29
00:01:29,760 --> 00:01:33,080
Speaker 4: the voice we just heard, has done. Melvin is straight

30
00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:36,640
Speaker 4: from the hood in Memphis, and he has a truly

31
00:01:36,800 --> 00:01:40,200
Speaker 4: wild story of drug dealing and gang banging. But thankfully

32
00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:45,080
Speaker 4: he has an even wilder redemption story to get out

33
00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:47,880
Speaker 4: of the one of the most desperate situations you could imagine,

34
00:01:47,920 --> 00:01:50,240
Speaker 4: he made a deal with God that he'd pour healthy

35
00:01:50,280 --> 00:01:53,960
Speaker 4: love into kids who grew up just like he did today.

36
00:01:54,120 --> 00:01:59,000
Speaker 4: His inner city boarding school, Pure Academy has graduated around

37
00:01:59,040 --> 00:02:03,000
Speaker 4: fifty kids in twenty of them have received full athletic

38
00:02:03,040 --> 00:02:06,680
Speaker 4: scholarships to play college football. I cannot wait for you

39
00:02:06,800 --> 00:02:10,240
Speaker 4: to meet Melvin. Right after these brief messages from our

40
00:02:10,360 --> 00:02:30,880
Speaker 4: Jenner sponsors, Okay, everybody, before we go any further, I

41
00:02:30,880 --> 00:02:35,079
Speaker 4: felt compelled to share warning about this particular episode. As

42
00:02:35,080 --> 00:02:38,399
Speaker 4: you know, we've covered a lot of really heavy topics

43
00:02:38,440 --> 00:02:40,600
Speaker 4: on the podcast, and I'm going to tell you something.

44
00:02:40,639 --> 00:02:44,200
Speaker 4: I think this one may be the heaviest, as you know,

45
00:02:44,240 --> 00:02:46,760
Speaker 4: if you've listened a lot. We usually try to edit

46
00:02:46,800 --> 00:02:50,160
Speaker 4: out occasional swear words out to respect for families that

47
00:02:50,200 --> 00:02:52,679
Speaker 4: may be listening and those of you who may be

48
00:02:52,720 --> 00:02:57,880
Speaker 4: put off by that kind of language. But frankly, in

49
00:02:57,960 --> 00:03:05,160
Speaker 4: Melvin's story, there is so much detail and there are

50
00:03:05,240 --> 00:03:09,240
Speaker 4: so many swear words it would sound really, really weird

51
00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:14,400
Speaker 4: to edit it that way, So fair warning. This is

52
00:03:14,480 --> 00:03:20,800
Speaker 4: an unbelievable deep topic. It's explicit gangs, drug dealing, prison

53
00:03:21,800 --> 00:03:26,160
Speaker 4: in very explicit detail, with very raw language, and if

54
00:03:26,320 --> 00:03:30,720
Speaker 4: that is going to bother you, I'd recommend listening to

55
00:03:30,760 --> 00:03:33,680
Speaker 4: a past episode of the podcast you may have missed,

56
00:03:34,280 --> 00:03:38,640
Speaker 4: or just skipping this one altogether. But if you can

57
00:03:38,720 --> 00:03:42,120
Speaker 4: make it through all of that, the story of redemption

58
00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:46,120
Speaker 4: in this episode is worth telling, and it's why we're

59
00:03:46,120 --> 00:03:49,400
Speaker 4: putting it out there. Melvin's an amazing guy who's been

60
00:03:49,440 --> 00:03:52,360
Speaker 4: through more than most and has come out on the

61
00:03:52,360 --> 00:03:57,520
Speaker 4: other side to give so much of himself because of

62
00:03:57,560 --> 00:04:01,960
Speaker 4: a deally made with God. But to get there, it's

63
00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:05,800
Speaker 4: a bumpy road with a lot of rough language, and

64
00:04:05,920 --> 00:04:09,160
Speaker 4: I just want to warn you that's what this podcast.

65
00:04:09,400 --> 00:04:11,120
Speaker 4: If you listen to it. That's what you're in for.

66
00:04:11,840 --> 00:04:14,640
Speaker 4: So if you're okay with it, roll with us. If

67
00:04:14,680 --> 00:04:18,719
Speaker 4: you're not, we'll see you next week. So let's begin

68
00:04:18,760 --> 00:04:26,159
Speaker 4: with Melvin on what his upbringing was like in South Memphis.

69
00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:29,640
Speaker 3: The biggest, the biggest thing for me is I like

70
00:04:29,680 --> 00:04:31,599
Speaker 3: to tell people all the time that I think it

71
00:04:31,640 --> 00:04:32,240
Speaker 3: was typical.

72
00:04:32,839 --> 00:04:33,640
Speaker 1: H yeah.

73
00:04:33,640 --> 00:04:35,080
Speaker 3: I mean, because that's why I grew up and that's

74
00:04:35,080 --> 00:04:38,120
Speaker 3: why I was around. So for me, my grandma was

75
00:04:38,120 --> 00:04:40,240
Speaker 3: a hair and attic, and my other grandma was an

76
00:04:40,240 --> 00:04:44,440
Speaker 3: angry drunk so and all my uncles and cousins were

77
00:04:44,480 --> 00:04:50,120
Speaker 3: drug dealers. So from there, that became my reality from

78
00:04:50,240 --> 00:04:52,520
Speaker 3: day one, you know what I mean, watching my grandma

79
00:04:52,520 --> 00:04:55,680
Speaker 3: and get fucked for hair, run guys going in and

80
00:04:55,680 --> 00:04:58,720
Speaker 3: at the house my grandma. I used to tell people

81
00:04:58,720 --> 00:05:01,080
Speaker 3: all the time when I first got to school, when

82
00:05:01,080 --> 00:05:03,720
Speaker 3: they called my name, I didn't respond cause I was used.

83
00:05:03,640 --> 00:05:06,200
Speaker 2: To motherfucker, niggas, sit your ass down and all of that.

84
00:05:06,400 --> 00:05:09,960
Speaker 1: So that became the norm to me.

85
00:05:10,080 --> 00:05:12,640
Speaker 3: On listen, that's how you talk a lot of people say, man,

86
00:05:12,640 --> 00:05:13,520
Speaker 3: why you cut someone?

87
00:05:13,600 --> 00:05:16,479
Speaker 1: That's how I grew up. I mean, I didn't see

88
00:05:16,480 --> 00:05:20,960
Speaker 1: anything different. That was our norm. The drugs, the violence,

89
00:05:21,040 --> 00:05:21,880
Speaker 1: the gangs.

90
00:05:23,400 --> 00:05:25,640
Speaker 3: That's what we saw. I mean, that's what we saw.

91
00:05:25,680 --> 00:05:26,640
Speaker 3: That's where we lived.

92
00:05:27,160 --> 00:05:28,479
Speaker 1: I remember my grandma was.

93
00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:30,320
Speaker 3: Telling me make sure you wash your hands or the

94
00:05:30,400 --> 00:05:32,839
Speaker 3: rats weren't nibble on your fingers when.

95
00:05:32,640 --> 00:05:33,360
Speaker 1: We stayed there.

96
00:05:33,440 --> 00:05:37,279
Speaker 3: I mean, so that was that was my reality. That

97
00:05:37,440 --> 00:05:40,279
Speaker 3: was my like I like to tell people, that was

98
00:05:40,400 --> 00:05:42,080
Speaker 3: my first introduction to the world.

99
00:05:42,960 --> 00:05:50,359
Speaker 4: I mean, I read that your mother and father could

100
00:05:50,360 --> 00:05:53,080
Speaker 4: not handle the death of your sister when you were

101
00:05:53,160 --> 00:05:53,640
Speaker 4: very young.

102
00:05:54,720 --> 00:05:56,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a.

103
00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:01,920
Speaker 3: I'll be honest with you, that drew a wedge between everybody.

104
00:06:02,600 --> 00:06:06,159
Speaker 3: And when I say everybody, from my mom, my dad,

105
00:06:06,480 --> 00:06:10,000
Speaker 3: my brother, nobody knew how to cope with it.

106
00:06:10,520 --> 00:06:12,599
Speaker 4: And how old were you and how was your sister?

107
00:06:12,720 --> 00:06:15,320
Speaker 3: So I was two and my sister was four and

108
00:06:15,360 --> 00:06:20,080
Speaker 3: so so. But I think more importantly what kind of

109
00:06:20,120 --> 00:06:22,680
Speaker 3: got me that I learned at the early age later

110
00:06:22,800 --> 00:06:25,719
Speaker 3: on in life that my parents couldn't cope with it

111
00:06:25,760 --> 00:06:29,200
Speaker 3: Because so my mom was a teenage parent, she was

112
00:06:29,279 --> 00:06:31,880
Speaker 3: kicked out of her house at the age of sixteen

113
00:06:31,880 --> 00:06:34,839
Speaker 3: when my brother she worked three jobs, and my father

114
00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:38,600
Speaker 3: had a daughter before my sister who was killed by

115
00:06:38,640 --> 00:06:43,159
Speaker 3: the baby Mama put her next to a window in Boston,

116
00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:46,200
Speaker 3: and she got caught pneumonia and died because.

117
00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:47,320
Speaker 1: They wasn't seeing eye to eye.

118
00:06:47,480 --> 00:06:50,400
Speaker 3: My my father didn't choose her, so with him with

119
00:06:50,480 --> 00:06:54,720
Speaker 3: his second death, it drew a wedge between everybody. Father

120
00:06:54,880 --> 00:06:59,280
Speaker 3: came drunk and just kind of sorrowed in his own thing.

121
00:06:59,360 --> 00:07:02,880
Speaker 3: My mom, she really can She she couldn't process life.

122
00:07:03,360 --> 00:07:07,440
Speaker 3: So that that left me kind of creating my own

123
00:07:07,640 --> 00:07:10,440
Speaker 3: image of life. That kind of helped me shape my

124
00:07:10,520 --> 00:07:14,880
Speaker 3: own feelings and different things like that, because growing up

125
00:07:14,960 --> 00:07:17,680
Speaker 3: I didn't understand why I was left out, you know

126
00:07:17,720 --> 00:07:21,920
Speaker 3: what I mean. That was the biggest thing that frankly

127
00:07:21,960 --> 00:07:24,400
Speaker 3: pissed me off. I mean it was times when my

128
00:07:24,440 --> 00:07:26,520
Speaker 3: father get drunk and he be like, why the fuck

129
00:07:26,600 --> 00:07:28,840
Speaker 3: God didn't take you instead of the girls. I was like,

130
00:07:28,880 --> 00:07:31,600
Speaker 3: I don't fucking know, want you die and ask them.

131
00:07:31,960 --> 00:07:37,160
Speaker 3: So growing up I didn't understand, dude, I don't fucking know.

132
00:07:37,440 --> 00:07:39,600
Speaker 3: I don't know why they died, you know what I mean.

133
00:07:39,760 --> 00:07:43,920
Speaker 3: So and my mom she couldn't, she couldn't process it.

134
00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:47,360
Speaker 3: I mean she my sister actually died in the bed

135
00:07:47,440 --> 00:07:51,160
Speaker 3: with her, so she was she wasn't able to process it.

136
00:07:51,240 --> 00:07:53,760
Speaker 3: And now when we talk about it, that was kind

137
00:07:53,760 --> 00:07:58,360
Speaker 3: of why she pushed me into a teenage father, because

138
00:07:58,400 --> 00:08:01,240
Speaker 3: my daughter and her mind were the replacement of her.

139
00:08:01,240 --> 00:08:04,880
Speaker 1: Daughter, not realizing I it fucked me up.

140
00:08:05,600 --> 00:08:11,120
Speaker 4: So the grandmother, you got one angry drunk and one

141
00:08:11,160 --> 00:08:15,000
Speaker 4: heroin out of your words, right, one of those was

142
00:08:15,040 --> 00:08:19,200
Speaker 4: your mother's mother, correct, till your mother grew up the

143
00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:20,040
Speaker 4: same trauma you did.

144
00:08:20,400 --> 00:08:24,800
Speaker 3: Absolutely, So the angry drunk was my grandma, my mother's mother.

145
00:08:24,960 --> 00:08:29,840
Speaker 3: So when my mom became pregnant at fifteen, my grandma

146
00:08:29,920 --> 00:08:32,880
Speaker 3: gave her an ultimatum, have abortion or get the fuck out,

147
00:08:33,120 --> 00:08:35,200
Speaker 3: and my mom chose to get the fuck out.

148
00:08:35,320 --> 00:08:36,720
Speaker 4: She worked three jobs.

149
00:08:36,360 --> 00:08:40,280
Speaker 3: And my brother's dad left her and went to the

150
00:08:40,480 --> 00:08:43,520
Speaker 3: army and never looked back. I mean, so she grew

151
00:08:43,600 --> 00:08:45,600
Speaker 3: up with her own chip on her.

152
00:08:45,480 --> 00:08:50,640
Speaker 4: Shoulder, which you inherited. Yeah.

153
00:08:50,800 --> 00:08:54,880
Speaker 3: So the thing about it is shit fucking heroded. I

154
00:08:54,920 --> 00:08:58,120
Speaker 3: mean I it was passed down to me. It was

155
00:08:58,160 --> 00:09:00,079
Speaker 3: basically shoved.

156
00:08:59,720 --> 00:09:01,240
Speaker 1: Down thro So.

157
00:09:04,679 --> 00:09:07,040
Speaker 4: You told me this when we first met, and then

158
00:09:07,120 --> 00:09:09,959
Speaker 4: you won't remember this. But when we first met, I'm

159
00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:12,920
Speaker 4: skipping ahead to pure which we'll get to down the road,

160
00:09:13,360 --> 00:09:15,080
Speaker 4: and we were talking about all that you're doing. And

161
00:09:15,120 --> 00:09:18,000
Speaker 4: I was walking around looking at this place, going what

162
00:09:18,280 --> 00:09:23,240
Speaker 4: am I seeing here? I remember you saying that you

163
00:09:23,320 --> 00:09:26,520
Speaker 4: knew at a very early age, preteen, that you had

164
00:09:26,559 --> 00:09:29,959
Speaker 4: a choice. There were two tracks. You either be an

165
00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:32,800
Speaker 4: addict and a junkie, or you'd be a dealer.

166
00:09:33,720 --> 00:09:36,200
Speaker 1: Clear, it was it was, It was simple.

167
00:09:38,040 --> 00:09:38,880
Speaker 4: That's what you saw.

168
00:09:39,120 --> 00:09:41,800
Speaker 1: That's what I saw. This where I lived, that was

169
00:09:41,840 --> 00:09:42,319
Speaker 1: the talk.

170
00:09:43,040 --> 00:09:44,600
Speaker 4: So when did you decide you were going to be

171
00:09:44,600 --> 00:09:45,800
Speaker 4: a dealer not a junkie.

172
00:09:46,160 --> 00:09:49,000
Speaker 2: I think I was like eight or nine, nine, you

173
00:09:49,080 --> 00:09:49,800
Speaker 2: know it, eight or nine.

174
00:09:49,840 --> 00:09:52,960
Speaker 4: You're supposed to be reading Curious George and going to

175
00:09:53,360 --> 00:09:55,320
Speaker 4: incredible pizza and driving go karts.

176
00:09:55,960 --> 00:09:58,599
Speaker 3: No, not in poverty. That may be your life, that

177
00:09:58,679 --> 00:10:01,440
Speaker 3: may be the life for your kids, but in privacy.

178
00:10:01,080 --> 00:10:02,640
Speaker 4: It was in my life, but it is the life

179
00:10:02,640 --> 00:10:03,200
Speaker 4: of my kids.

180
00:10:03,280 --> 00:10:03,760
Speaker 1: But you ain't.

181
00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:06,600
Speaker 3: Ain't no fucking incredible pizza. You just open to get pizza.

182
00:10:07,160 --> 00:10:10,319
Speaker 3: But I'll never forget. I was walking I walked in

183
00:10:10,360 --> 00:10:13,440
Speaker 3: on my grandma fucking and the guy says, get.

184
00:10:13,280 --> 00:10:16,120
Speaker 1: The fuck out of here, you nickt. The guy said

185
00:10:16,160 --> 00:10:17,760
Speaker 1: that to you yet and I knew right there in

186
00:10:17,760 --> 00:10:18,319
Speaker 1: no way.

187
00:10:19,720 --> 00:10:21,520
Speaker 4: Meaning I ain't gonna be the junkie.

188
00:10:21,640 --> 00:10:23,840
Speaker 3: I ain't gonna be the junkie. I'm not I'm not

189
00:10:23,880 --> 00:10:26,880
Speaker 3: gonna I'm not gonna be the victim. If anything, I'm

190
00:10:26,880 --> 00:10:27,960
Speaker 3: gonna be the guy in power.

191
00:10:28,080 --> 00:10:30,720
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be controlling this. That's not gonna happen to me.

192
00:10:31,800 --> 00:10:35,120
Speaker 4: So I don't know if you know a guy named rs. Cooper.

193
00:10:35,200 --> 00:10:40,120
Speaker 4: He was a guest some months ago. He's from West

194
00:10:40,120 --> 00:10:44,800
Speaker 4: Side Chicago. He is from the same you put what

195
00:10:44,840 --> 00:10:47,440
Speaker 4: you're from in Memphis and put in Chicago or Chicago here,

196
00:10:47,880 --> 00:10:55,800
Speaker 4: same same world. And he describes his environment like this.

197
00:10:57,240 --> 00:11:00,360
Speaker 4: In his apartment, they had a fan because the air

198
00:11:00,400 --> 00:11:05,040
Speaker 4: didn't blow very cold in their project, and the fan

199
00:11:05,200 --> 00:11:07,480
Speaker 4: had a blade a little ht of balance, and so

200
00:11:07,640 --> 00:11:10,080
Speaker 4: every time it rolled around it clicked. So it was

201
00:11:10,120 --> 00:11:13,520
Speaker 4: like just this fan click click, click, click click click

202
00:11:13,559 --> 00:11:17,160
Speaker 4: when it ran. Well, it did that all the time.

203
00:11:17,280 --> 00:11:19,520
Speaker 4: So when you lived there, you didn't even hear the clicking.

204
00:11:19,559 --> 00:11:21,959
Speaker 4: You got used to it, right, But if you walked

205
00:11:21,960 --> 00:11:23,640
Speaker 4: in their apartments, the first thing you'd hear is that

206
00:11:23,679 --> 00:11:26,440
Speaker 4: air take and click. But it was so common to

207
00:11:26,520 --> 00:11:31,040
Speaker 4: them that the clicking of that fan was, you know,

208
00:11:31,520 --> 00:11:33,600
Speaker 4: no big deal. They didn't hear it. It was just common.

209
00:11:34,480 --> 00:11:42,640
Speaker 4: And he said, drugs, junkies, drug dealers, murder, gunshots, blood

210
00:11:42,679 --> 00:11:46,440
Speaker 4: on the street, the wells of yet another mother, losing

211
00:11:46,600 --> 00:11:53,160
Speaker 4: a son to gunfire, crime, beatings, jail. All of that

212
00:11:53,640 --> 00:11:56,640
Speaker 4: was so common in his environment that it was like

213
00:11:56,679 --> 00:11:59,440
Speaker 4: the clicking of that fan in his apartment. You just

214
00:11:59,480 --> 00:12:01,200
Speaker 4: didn't even hear it anymore.

215
00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:05,800
Speaker 3: Absolutely, I mean you gotta think in terms of you

216
00:12:05,880 --> 00:12:08,200
Speaker 3: only think some foreign if you go to a foreign place.

217
00:12:09,320 --> 00:12:10,040
Speaker 1: I mean, so when you.

218
00:12:09,960 --> 00:12:13,120
Speaker 3: Start looking up, man, your auntie getting that ass kicked

219
00:12:13,160 --> 00:12:16,640
Speaker 3: by boyfriend. So she called you and your brothers and

220
00:12:16,679 --> 00:12:17,960
Speaker 3: your cousins to come over.

221
00:12:18,040 --> 00:12:21,560
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, it's all part of it. It's all intertwined.

222
00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:25,199
Speaker 3: I mean, from every part of the family. You're gonna

223
00:12:25,200 --> 00:12:27,440
Speaker 3: get this dysfunction.

224
00:12:29,559 --> 00:12:34,120
Speaker 4: It's hard for our listeners to understand or even maybe

225
00:12:34,160 --> 00:12:38,920
Speaker 4: even believe it. But I'm gonna ask you a question,

226
00:12:39,240 --> 00:12:42,400
Speaker 4: and I want you to just did you not know

227
00:12:42,520 --> 00:12:44,640
Speaker 4: all that was wrong? No?

228
00:12:45,559 --> 00:12:47,680
Speaker 1: So here's the thing. Here's the thing.

229
00:12:48,720 --> 00:12:51,160
Speaker 3: The one with the biggest gun determines what is right

230
00:12:51,200 --> 00:12:54,200
Speaker 3: and what is wrong. If somebody walks into this building

231
00:12:54,280 --> 00:12:56,120
Speaker 3: right now said get the fuck down, and he got

232
00:12:56,120 --> 00:12:58,839
Speaker 3: a Draco guess what, everybody's gonna get their ass down

233
00:12:58,880 --> 00:12:59,800
Speaker 3: because that's what's right.

234
00:13:00,559 --> 00:13:02,920
Speaker 1: You do right and wrong is what determines to save

235
00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:04,640
Speaker 1: your life, not a law.

236
00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:09,120
Speaker 3: So what perceived to be wrong to somebody else is

237
00:13:09,240 --> 00:13:12,600
Speaker 3: right to somebody else that's fighting for their life.

238
00:13:14,760 --> 00:13:21,360
Speaker 4: So there is no respect for the law, the police,

239
00:13:21,720 --> 00:13:26,880
Speaker 4: what society norms are because none of those survival.

240
00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:28,800
Speaker 3: How are you gonna respect something that don't respect you.

241
00:13:31,080 --> 00:13:34,200
Speaker 3: Ain't nobody, Ain't nobody coming to the hood checking on you,

242
00:13:35,520 --> 00:13:39,560
Speaker 3: ain't nobody trying to help you out. So I mean,

243
00:13:40,040 --> 00:13:43,280
Speaker 3: that's a learned behavior. If it's fucked me, it's fuck

244
00:13:43,360 --> 00:13:47,320
Speaker 3: you like, it's a learned it's a learned behavior, it's

245
00:13:47,400 --> 00:13:51,520
Speaker 3: not the law. So look at the law like this,

246
00:13:52,920 --> 00:13:55,679
Speaker 3: I'm selling coke to provide for my family and the

247
00:13:55,800 --> 00:13:56,920
Speaker 3: law is coming to stop me.

248
00:13:58,280 --> 00:13:59,000
Speaker 1: The fuck.

249
00:14:00,360 --> 00:14:02,800
Speaker 3: Like, how can I respect that You're not coming in

250
00:14:02,840 --> 00:14:06,200
Speaker 3: with an application from from Medtronic?

251
00:14:07,440 --> 00:14:07,760
Speaker 1: Come in?

252
00:14:07,840 --> 00:14:10,200
Speaker 2: What are you saying? Get the fuck down? So where's

253
00:14:10,240 --> 00:14:11,120
Speaker 2: the respect there?

254
00:14:12,880 --> 00:14:17,040
Speaker 4: I'm gonna play a Devil's advocate. Free school. You can

255
00:14:17,080 --> 00:14:19,600
Speaker 4: get breakfast in the morning, you get lunch in the afternoon,

256
00:14:20,600 --> 00:14:24,520
Speaker 4: you can get an education. Uh, Society is trying to

257
00:14:24,560 --> 00:14:28,760
Speaker 4: provide for your basic needs. You can get government assistant housing,

258
00:14:29,400 --> 00:14:31,800
Speaker 4: you can apply for if you're a mother with children,

259
00:14:31,880 --> 00:14:34,000
Speaker 4: you can apply for a wick or whatever they call

260
00:14:34,040 --> 00:14:34,680
Speaker 4: it now, And.

261
00:14:34,880 --> 00:14:37,040
Speaker 3: All of that's cool, But tell me what a kid

262
00:14:37,040 --> 00:14:43,680
Speaker 3: can do. Like, yeah, if your mom, if she go

263
00:14:43,760 --> 00:14:46,400
Speaker 3: and get that, then yeah cool. But what if she's

264
00:14:46,400 --> 00:14:49,080
Speaker 3: a fucking junkie and she's selling the food steps, Well

265
00:14:49,080 --> 00:14:50,280
Speaker 3: then you ain't got that meal.

266
00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:52,720
Speaker 1: You see what I'm saying.

267
00:14:53,200 --> 00:14:57,840
Speaker 3: Oh, like like so, yeah, that's that's cool for the adults,

268
00:14:58,040 --> 00:14:59,920
Speaker 3: But I always try to tell people what about the kids.

269
00:15:00,120 --> 00:15:01,720
Speaker 2: The kids can't sign up a week.

270
00:15:02,440 --> 00:15:04,040
Speaker 1: I mean, the kid.

271
00:15:03,840 --> 00:15:07,480
Speaker 3: Can't stop the mama boyfriend from a lessen them, can't

272
00:15:07,520 --> 00:15:10,040
Speaker 3: stop that shit like I mean, so when you look

273
00:15:10,040 --> 00:15:10,560
Speaker 3: at it.

274
00:15:10,680 --> 00:15:12,320
Speaker 1: The kids are powerless.

275
00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:15,440
Speaker 3: Yeah, we can put in all these government assistance, but

276
00:15:15,480 --> 00:15:18,080
Speaker 3: it's still based on what the adults that grew up

277
00:15:18,280 --> 00:15:20,960
Speaker 3: in a bunch of bullshit, so they don't even know

278
00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:23,400
Speaker 3: how to take advantage of the opportunity in front of them,

279
00:15:23,680 --> 00:15:26,240
Speaker 3: so that opportunity never meets the kid.

280
00:15:31,080 --> 00:15:33,840
Speaker 4: And now a few messages from our general sponsors. But

281
00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:37,560
Speaker 4: first I hope you'll consider becoming a Premium member of

282
00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:41,960
Speaker 4: the Army at normalfolks dot us. By becoming one for

283
00:15:42,040 --> 00:15:44,520
Speaker 4: ten bucks a month or one thousand dollars a year,

284
00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:48,280
Speaker 4: you can get access to cool benefits like bonus episodes,

285
00:15:48,400 --> 00:15:51,600
Speaker 4: a yearly group call, and even a one on one

286
00:15:51,640 --> 00:15:56,000
Speaker 4: call with me. Frankly, guys, premium memberships also help us

287
00:15:56,000 --> 00:15:59,880
Speaker 4: to grow this army that our country desperately needs right now.

288
00:16:00,160 --> 00:16:02,520
Speaker 4: So I hope you'll think about it. We'll be right back.

289
00:16:15,760 --> 00:16:18,080
Speaker 4: One thing I learned of a Nassis that floored me.

290
00:16:19,040 --> 00:16:22,880
Speaker 4: I am the son of a five times divorced woman.

291
00:16:23,760 --> 00:16:28,880
Speaker 4: My struggles throughout my forties stemmed around favolessness for me.

292
00:16:30,520 --> 00:16:34,800
Speaker 4: I dealt with the truth is I still deal with

293
00:16:34,840 --> 00:16:36,360
Speaker 4: some of it at fifty five years old.

294
00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:38,320
Speaker 1: Man, Never go the way.

295
00:16:39,640 --> 00:16:46,720
Speaker 4: Not that level hurt. You start to ask yourself, you know,

296
00:16:46,880 --> 00:16:49,040
Speaker 4: why do I lack so much value that not a

297
00:16:49,080 --> 00:16:52,600
Speaker 4: single grown ass man will invest in me? And you

298
00:16:52,680 --> 00:16:55,960
Speaker 4: start to think of yourself as broken and then self

299
00:16:56,000 --> 00:17:00,040
Speaker 4: fulfilling prophecy takes over and you do broken shit. And

300
00:17:00,080 --> 00:17:04,360
Speaker 4: that was my reality. Having said that that, I'm a

301
00:17:04,400 --> 00:17:08,760
Speaker 4: big father, stay in kid's life guy. I think it's

302
00:17:09,240 --> 00:17:13,960
Speaker 4: paramount for our society and our civilization. I think a

303
00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:18,160
Speaker 4: lot of what ails our children today is folowlessness. It's

304
00:17:18,160 --> 00:17:20,320
Speaker 4: a multitude of problems, but I think it's a big one,

305
00:17:20,640 --> 00:17:23,520
Speaker 4: especially since it's very personal with me. I got straightened

306
00:17:23,520 --> 00:17:28,040
Speaker 4: out one day by a mom who had three kids,

307
00:17:28,800 --> 00:17:33,280
Speaker 4: and the father of those three kids was SAMN and

308
00:17:33,320 --> 00:17:35,919
Speaker 4: they lived in the apartment together, and I was like,

309
00:17:36,560 --> 00:17:38,840
Speaker 4: why don't you show your kids what marriage looks like.

310
00:17:38,880 --> 00:17:41,720
Speaker 4: Why don't you actually go down the courthouse, get a

311
00:17:41,760 --> 00:17:46,000
Speaker 4: marriage license, be married, and start to do the things

312
00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:49,879
Speaker 4: to break that proverbial chain. And she looked at me

313
00:17:49,960 --> 00:17:51,800
Speaker 4: like I was half out of my mind, and she said,

314
00:17:51,800 --> 00:17:54,960
Speaker 4: you don't know nothing. And I'm like, She's like, don't

315
00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:59,440
Speaker 4: you know that if I get married, I lose all

316
00:17:59,480 --> 00:18:05,879
Speaker 4: my government support. So what I learned was, on the

317
00:18:05,920 --> 00:18:10,560
Speaker 4: one hand, our national narrative is we've got to do

318
00:18:10,640 --> 00:18:13,640
Speaker 4: things to support the organic family and keep families together

319
00:18:13,720 --> 00:18:17,520
Speaker 4: and and and that'll help. And then on the other hand,

320
00:18:17,880 --> 00:18:22,920
Speaker 4: we incentivize women with children to not get married because

321
00:18:22,920 --> 00:18:26,080
Speaker 4: if they do, they lose their assistance, and that's all

322
00:18:26,080 --> 00:18:31,359
Speaker 4: over the inner city. Seems to me like that makes

323
00:18:31,440 --> 00:18:33,040
Speaker 4: government a little paternalistic.

324
00:18:35,840 --> 00:18:37,840
Speaker 1: It depends on how you look at it.

325
00:18:37,920 --> 00:18:38,280
Speaker 4: Help me.

326
00:18:38,640 --> 00:18:44,320
Speaker 3: So in terms, that's how she grew up, So that's

327
00:18:44,320 --> 00:18:48,160
Speaker 3: how she knows, right, That's how her mom grew up, right,

328
00:18:48,320 --> 00:18:49,480
Speaker 3: So that's how she knows.

329
00:18:50,560 --> 00:18:52,080
Speaker 4: So like your mom.

330
00:18:52,119 --> 00:18:56,000
Speaker 3: So in terms, government assistant is the way to go.

331
00:18:56,240 --> 00:18:59,080
Speaker 3: So we'll all right, we can go down hand and

332
00:18:59,160 --> 00:19:03,160
Speaker 3: get married. This motherfucker still make twelve dollars an hour, though,

333
00:19:04,160 --> 00:19:06,800
Speaker 3: so we're gonna get mad to be get married, to

334
00:19:06,840 --> 00:19:09,800
Speaker 3: be in a fucked up a situation because you got

335
00:19:09,880 --> 00:19:11,800
Speaker 3: to think about that shit with him starting when he

336
00:19:11,840 --> 00:19:15,040
Speaker 3: was six seven years old. So all he doing is

337
00:19:15,040 --> 00:19:18,040
Speaker 3: the best he can now. So in terms, she's looking

338
00:19:18,080 --> 00:19:22,800
Speaker 3: at it from a strategic self preservation mode. Yeah, we

339
00:19:22,880 --> 00:19:25,880
Speaker 3: love him, he's down, but what's the realization of.

340
00:19:25,880 --> 00:19:27,119
Speaker 2: He can't take care of us.

341
00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:31,520
Speaker 1: I can't take care of us. So that's been passed

342
00:19:31,600 --> 00:19:36,840
Speaker 1: down generation of generation of generation. So now that woman

343
00:19:36,920 --> 00:19:40,480
Speaker 1: and many women women, and my mom and the.

344
00:19:40,440 --> 00:19:42,000
Speaker 2: Same rest of them, they look at it as a

345
00:19:42,040 --> 00:19:42,920
Speaker 2: survival tool.

346
00:19:44,760 --> 00:19:47,960
Speaker 4: I get it. I didn't. I get it now. I've

347
00:19:47,960 --> 00:19:50,639
Speaker 4: got that for a while. But I wanted our, I

348
00:19:50,680 --> 00:19:54,920
Speaker 4: wanted our I wanted our audience to hear it and

349
00:19:55,000 --> 00:19:57,520
Speaker 4: we can stand it because most people don't really get

350
00:19:57,560 --> 00:19:58,199
Speaker 4: that loving.

351
00:19:58,400 --> 00:20:01,200
Speaker 3: But here's the thing about it, because the reason most

352
00:20:01,200 --> 00:20:05,200
Speaker 3: people don't get it is two reasons. The shoe always

353
00:20:05,280 --> 00:20:09,240
Speaker 3: fit different when it's on your foot, that's first and foremost.

354
00:20:09,440 --> 00:20:12,480
Speaker 3: And what people feel to understand is the same knowledge

355
00:20:12,520 --> 00:20:15,080
Speaker 3: that you have access to that I have access to.

356
00:20:15,640 --> 00:20:19,359
Speaker 3: It's not guarantee that person in North Memphis, South Memphis,

357
00:20:19,400 --> 00:20:23,760
Speaker 3: Orange Mound, or Stoney Island in Chicago, they don't have

358
00:20:24,040 --> 00:20:27,119
Speaker 3: access to that same information. So it's like, why you

359
00:20:27,119 --> 00:20:31,320
Speaker 3: can't get up and get a fucking job. Okay, how well,

360
00:20:31,359 --> 00:20:35,600
Speaker 3: den Lee, Well we got this program across town, all right,

361
00:20:35,680 --> 00:20:38,359
Speaker 3: But the mentality has been embedded.

362
00:20:38,440 --> 00:20:40,480
Speaker 1: So this is what a lot of people didn't understand

363
00:20:41,400 --> 00:20:42,080
Speaker 1: about women.

364
00:20:43,200 --> 00:20:47,359
Speaker 3: Women carry their kids when they're born, so their kids

365
00:20:47,359 --> 00:20:51,200
Speaker 3: are going through trauma as those moms are growing up.

366
00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:53,919
Speaker 2: They don't just automatically at.

367
00:20:53,680 --> 00:20:55,280
Speaker 1: Thirty, Oh, I got a fucking egg.

368
00:20:55,320 --> 00:20:58,439
Speaker 2: Now I'm about to spit something out. Those eggs was

369
00:20:58,520 --> 00:20:59,200
Speaker 2: born with.

370
00:20:59,160 --> 00:21:02,320
Speaker 3: Them, So through those years of trauma, what do you

371
00:21:02,359 --> 00:21:03,480
Speaker 3: think those eggs are doing.

372
00:21:04,600 --> 00:21:06,520
Speaker 2: They're ingesting it too. It's the same thing if you

373
00:21:06,560 --> 00:21:07,240
Speaker 2: smoke weed.

374
00:21:07,320 --> 00:21:09,399
Speaker 3: The whole pregnancy you mean, you're gonna come out with

375
00:21:09,400 --> 00:21:10,320
Speaker 3: a fucking pie head.

376
00:21:10,720 --> 00:21:12,080
Speaker 2: You're gonna come out with a crackhead.

377
00:21:12,680 --> 00:21:17,520
Speaker 3: What's the same thing that trauma is embedded inside of them?

378
00:21:17,800 --> 00:21:20,160
Speaker 3: I mean, because the baby is a part of them,

379
00:21:20,359 --> 00:21:22,000
Speaker 3: the trauma is a part of them.

380
00:21:22,400 --> 00:21:25,520
Speaker 1: Trauma it shapes your decision making.

381
00:21:26,240 --> 00:21:27,400
Speaker 2: Why the fuck would he do that?

382
00:21:28,040 --> 00:21:29,159
Speaker 1: Look what he was up against.

383
00:21:29,880 --> 00:21:32,480
Speaker 3: I mean, like I said, it's easy to say, oh man,

384
00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:33,240
Speaker 3: I wouldn't have done that.

385
00:21:33,320 --> 00:21:35,080
Speaker 1: How you know how you know?

386
00:21:35,119 --> 00:21:37,199
Speaker 3: That's why I tell people all the time, how you

387
00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:39,240
Speaker 3: know what you do if your family will starving?

388
00:21:39,359 --> 00:21:39,840
Speaker 4: You don't know?

389
00:21:41,359 --> 00:21:44,280
Speaker 1: You stick bill l ass up if your family will start.

390
00:21:46,560 --> 00:21:49,480
Speaker 3: I mean, that's the reality of what's the what's the

391
00:21:49,600 --> 00:21:51,600
Speaker 3: What's the first thing a baby does when they'rehunger?

392
00:21:51,640 --> 00:21:52,080
Speaker 2: They cry?

393
00:21:53,119 --> 00:21:57,600
Speaker 1: So it's self preservation. It's the same way. It's nothing different.

394
00:21:58,080 --> 00:22:03,080
Speaker 3: It's just that these are the things that's been put

395
00:22:03,720 --> 00:22:06,680
Speaker 3: into the hood to call it survival mode.

396
00:22:07,119 --> 00:22:08,280
Speaker 2: And then let's be honest.

397
00:22:08,359 --> 00:22:09,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, you.

398
00:22:09,080 --> 00:22:11,760
Speaker 3: Got people living off the government and this, this and this,

399
00:22:12,560 --> 00:22:15,120
Speaker 3: but those budgets are so big, somebody's getting a kick

400
00:22:15,200 --> 00:22:17,280
Speaker 3: back cause you know, just like I know, wherever.

401
00:22:17,119 --> 00:22:18,719
Speaker 1: There's property it's fucking profit.

402
00:22:19,880 --> 00:22:21,159
Speaker 2: Poverty equals profit.

403
00:22:23,560 --> 00:22:27,960
Speaker 4: So uh, that's what you grow up in. Now you're

404
00:22:28,040 --> 00:22:30,879
Speaker 4: eight and you decide, I ain't gonna be no junkie.

405
00:22:30,920 --> 00:22:36,080
Speaker 4: I'm gonna be a dealer. And you you've you've got

406
00:22:36,080 --> 00:22:38,399
Speaker 4: a built in training model how to do that because

407
00:22:38,400 --> 00:22:40,880
Speaker 4: all your cousins and uncles are dealers.

408
00:22:41,160 --> 00:22:42,640
Speaker 1: I got the manual right there.

409
00:22:43,400 --> 00:22:46,560
Speaker 4: The instruction manual and the trainer.

410
00:22:46,520 --> 00:22:48,560
Speaker 1: What to do, what not to do?

411
00:22:48,920 --> 00:22:49,919
Speaker 4: So tell you what you do?

412
00:22:50,640 --> 00:22:51,040
Speaker 1: You know what I mean?

413
00:22:51,200 --> 00:22:55,439
Speaker 3: Hey, hey, listen, I don't want to do that. I

414
00:22:55,480 --> 00:23:01,480
Speaker 3: wanna do what y'all do. Then, for you know, what's

415
00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:02,360
Speaker 3: the best way you learn?

416
00:23:03,400 --> 00:23:04,119
Speaker 1: Look and listen.

417
00:23:06,800 --> 00:23:08,080
Speaker 2: You ain't gotta teach me nothing.

418
00:23:09,119 --> 00:23:11,719
Speaker 1: Just put me around and I'm gonna look and listen.

419
00:23:12,280 --> 00:23:15,880
Speaker 3: Okay, that's how he could get Okay, so he get

420
00:23:15,880 --> 00:23:17,000
Speaker 3: the money first in it.

421
00:23:17,960 --> 00:23:18,640
Speaker 1: Well, there you go.

422
00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:24,640
Speaker 4: No different than a kid growing up in suburbia watches

423
00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:26,320
Speaker 4: their DDE being accountant.

424
00:23:26,680 --> 00:23:28,440
Speaker 2: No difference. Hey dad, where are you going to work?

425
00:23:28,480 --> 00:23:31,119
Speaker 2: See you like a journey or a doctor?

426
00:23:31,720 --> 00:23:32,560
Speaker 1: Doctor? What you doing?

427
00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:36,399
Speaker 2: Hey, I say three lives today. I delivered four babies today.

428
00:23:36,600 --> 00:23:39,280
Speaker 4: So when I'm sitting around the house talking with a

429
00:23:39,320 --> 00:23:42,240
Speaker 4: couple of my old fraternity brothers from Ole Miss and

430
00:23:42,320 --> 00:23:45,399
Speaker 4: my eight, nine, ten eleven twelve year old sons are

431
00:23:45,440 --> 00:23:47,840
Speaker 4: here just and all of that. He's thinking, Oh, you

432
00:23:47,880 --> 00:23:50,680
Speaker 4: go to college, you join attorney, you make good friends,

433
00:23:50,760 --> 00:23:52,960
Speaker 4: you graduate, you get a job, you get a nice

434
00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:53,600
Speaker 4: house and a car.

435
00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:58,040
Speaker 2: Because that's what you see, that's what he see or me.

436
00:23:58,440 --> 00:24:00,560
Speaker 4: You grow up in the hood. Your uncle was dealing

437
00:24:00,600 --> 00:24:03,600
Speaker 4: crack and weed, your grandmother's a junkie. You make a

438
00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:05,760
Speaker 4: choice to be a drug dealer, and that's what you do.

439
00:24:06,680 --> 00:24:10,800
Speaker 3: You think about, so you think about like this, you

440
00:24:10,800 --> 00:24:12,280
Speaker 3: can pick the best person in the world.

441
00:24:12,760 --> 00:24:15,399
Speaker 2: And he said, hey, what the fuck you want to be?

442
00:24:15,440 --> 00:24:16,960
Speaker 1: You want to be a junkie or you're gonna be dealer.

443
00:24:17,680 --> 00:24:19,320
Speaker 4: I'll never gonna pick what I picked.

444
00:24:20,920 --> 00:24:22,480
Speaker 2: Who want to get fucked for drugs?

445
00:24:23,880 --> 00:24:25,720
Speaker 4: You want to be a doctor or a drug dealer?

446
00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:26,480
Speaker 2: Doctor?

447
00:24:26,600 --> 00:24:27,160
Speaker 1: Sign me up.

448
00:24:28,080 --> 00:24:29,320
Speaker 2: That's what Eric kidd in the hood?

449
00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:32,879
Speaker 1: But how how what's the resources?

450
00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:37,159
Speaker 2: Who's gonna show me? But more importantly, who asked that question?

451
00:24:37,480 --> 00:24:41,000
Speaker 1: All right? You can easily say, all right, Bill, you

452
00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:41,600
Speaker 1: want to be a doctor?

453
00:24:41,640 --> 00:24:43,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, of course I want to be a doctor.

454
00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:45,160
Speaker 1: But if you.

455
00:24:45,119 --> 00:24:48,400
Speaker 3: Don't provide me with the resources, if you don't put

456
00:24:48,440 --> 00:24:51,120
Speaker 3: me around the people, if you don't give me access

457
00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:53,359
Speaker 3: to the knowledge, if you don't give me access to

458
00:24:53,440 --> 00:24:57,400
Speaker 3: these things, well, all you did was waste my time.

459
00:24:58,440 --> 00:24:59,639
Speaker 1: That's all you did. Are you so?

460
00:24:59,840 --> 00:25:00,000
Speaker 4: Are you?

461
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:03,480
Speaker 3: What you did was if we talked for sixty minutes,

462
00:25:03,480 --> 00:25:05,200
Speaker 3: if we talked for forty five minutes, all you did

463
00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:09,639
Speaker 3: was blow smoke, made yourself feel good. Because the reality

464
00:25:09,680 --> 00:25:11,959
Speaker 3: of it is, until you turned me on to a

465
00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:14,439
Speaker 3: doctor or showed me the pathway, there's no way I'm

466
00:25:14,440 --> 00:25:15,479
Speaker 3: gonna be a fucking doctor.

467
00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:21,040
Speaker 2: It's not rocket it's not rocket science.

468
00:25:21,080 --> 00:25:21,920
Speaker 1: I didn't.

469
00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:25,760
Speaker 3: I was born in March fourth, nineteen eighty five, and

470
00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:28,200
Speaker 3: I can assure you when I came out and said, hey, God,

471
00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:31,040
Speaker 3: turn me into a killer and drug dealer. That's what

472
00:25:31,119 --> 00:25:32,879
Speaker 3: I choose to be, and I want to dodge the

473
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:34,960
Speaker 3: Feds and niggas and bullets.

474
00:25:34,520 --> 00:25:37,800
Speaker 1: All day long. No, that ain't what I said. That

475
00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:38,919
Speaker 1: ain't with no kids?

476
00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:41,040
Speaker 4: Are you saying? The zip code at the time of

477
00:25:41,080 --> 00:25:45,840
Speaker 4: your birth doesn't necessarily persuade you toward drug dealing.

478
00:25:48,119 --> 00:25:50,119
Speaker 3: It absolutely does because you don't have a choice. But

479
00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:55,680
Speaker 3: it shouldn't tell me why, let me tell you you about.

480
00:25:56,160 --> 00:25:59,359
Speaker 4: My children were born into the same zip code that

481
00:25:59,400 --> 00:26:01,560
Speaker 4: you were born in to in that same environment, it'd

482
00:26:01,600 --> 00:26:03,959
Speaker 4: be just like highly unlikely they'd be where they are

483
00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:04,360
Speaker 4: to done.

484
00:26:04,400 --> 00:26:05,439
Speaker 1: Correct, that'd be just like.

485
00:26:05,480 --> 00:26:08,800
Speaker 4: But it doesn't mean that genetically those children are predisposed

486
00:26:08,800 --> 00:26:11,479
Speaker 4: towards drug dealing or whatever because of the zip CUD

487
00:26:11,520 --> 00:26:14,000
Speaker 4: at the time of their birth. It's not a genetic thing.

488
00:26:14,359 --> 00:26:18,159
Speaker 4: It is an environment thing. I think it's both. I

489
00:26:18,160 --> 00:26:21,359
Speaker 4: think it's both. Tell me how in terms of.

490
00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:26,560
Speaker 1: You know, how you breed a horse or you breed

491
00:26:26,560 --> 00:26:26,960
Speaker 1: a dog.

492
00:26:27,240 --> 00:26:33,720
Speaker 3: Yeah, you breed gang members the same way. I know, guys,

493
00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:35,960
Speaker 3: my granddaddy was a vice lord.

494
00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:38,439
Speaker 1: My dad it was a vice lord. I'm gonna be

495
00:26:38,480 --> 00:26:41,000
Speaker 1: a vice lord. My son gonna be a vice lord

496
00:26:41,720 --> 00:26:42,480
Speaker 1: this generation.

497
00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:46,000
Speaker 3: So you gotta think about some of those kids that's

498
00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:49,600
Speaker 3: born into gang families from from get up.

499
00:26:50,640 --> 00:26:51,480
Speaker 2: This is what we do.

500
00:26:51,520 --> 00:26:52,560
Speaker 1: So this is what you do.

501
00:26:58,640 --> 00:27:14,720
Speaker 4: We'll be right back. So you're honing your skills at

502
00:27:14,800 --> 00:27:18,000
Speaker 4: drug dealing at eight nine years old, falling around your

503
00:27:18,080 --> 00:27:23,640
Speaker 4: uncles learning the trade, and you find out that, uh,

504
00:27:23,720 --> 00:27:26,360
Speaker 4: you might like football too. How that happened?

505
00:27:26,840 --> 00:27:29,720
Speaker 1: You know? The crazy part about it is football always

506
00:27:29,720 --> 00:27:31,600
Speaker 1: got everybody around around the TV.

507
00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:36,320
Speaker 3: Yeah, no matter where you go, the drug dealers are

508
00:27:36,359 --> 00:27:39,800
Speaker 3: coming people. Everybody everybody love football, so you know, even

509
00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:42,080
Speaker 3: the junkies, everybody.

510
00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:43,960
Speaker 1: Everybody won't be a Cowboys.

511
00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:47,159
Speaker 4: Pat Yeah no, don't even bring that Cowboys stuff over here,

512
00:27:47,200 --> 00:27:47,680
Speaker 4: but go ahead.

513
00:27:48,320 --> 00:27:51,320
Speaker 3: So when you look so back then, yeah, you know

514
00:27:51,560 --> 00:27:55,160
Speaker 3: Notre Dame was always on five. So when people were

515
00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:59,399
Speaker 3: crowd around the TV, though, like, fuck, I want to

516
00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:02,640
Speaker 3: be celebrated. Like anybody you find that say they don't

517
00:28:02,640 --> 00:28:04,320
Speaker 3: want to celebrate, there be a damn line.

518
00:28:04,640 --> 00:28:06,040
Speaker 1: So I said, okay, well.

519
00:28:07,480 --> 00:28:12,680
Speaker 3: Football make people happy and celebrate you, and people celebrate

520
00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:13,919
Speaker 3: drug dealers as well.

521
00:28:14,720 --> 00:28:15,760
Speaker 2: Well shit, there you go.

522
00:28:17,280 --> 00:28:20,320
Speaker 1: And I knew it from there. So even with my

523
00:28:20,520 --> 00:28:22,359
Speaker 1: parents they liked football.

524
00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:25,560
Speaker 3: Everybody's liking football, so I said, that's the coming ground.

525
00:28:26,200 --> 00:28:28,200
Speaker 3: I said, well, I can make people like me and

526
00:28:28,280 --> 00:28:29,399
Speaker 3: I can provide.

527
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:32,240
Speaker 1: For me and my daughter. So that's what I wanted

528
00:28:32,280 --> 00:28:32,439
Speaker 1: to do.

529
00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:34,960
Speaker 3: Well at the time my family, so I was like, well,

530
00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:35,960
Speaker 3: this is what we're gonna do.

531
00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:37,919
Speaker 4: You skipped to your daughter, howld were you?

532
00:28:38,520 --> 00:28:41,240
Speaker 1: So I was fourteen, So that was that was That

533
00:28:41,360 --> 00:28:46,720
Speaker 1: was kind of my stay in of it all. But

534
00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:50,080
Speaker 1: growing up, it was just like, this is what we're

535
00:28:50,120 --> 00:28:50,480
Speaker 1: gonna do.

536
00:28:50,920 --> 00:28:56,120
Speaker 4: Like, howd was your daughter's mother? So she was fifteen,

537
00:28:56,520 --> 00:28:59,760
Speaker 4: you're fourteen, she's fifteen pregnant yea, And now you're a

538
00:28:59,760 --> 00:29:00,880
Speaker 4: fourteen year old father.

539
00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:04,640
Speaker 1: And now now my hustling done turned up. Now I

540
00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:05,920
Speaker 1: got an even bigger reason.

541
00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:09,800
Speaker 4: Because you you do feel a responsibility to provide for

542
00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:10,320
Speaker 4: your daughter.

543
00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:14,120
Speaker 3: So the thing about me was I had grown up,

544
00:29:14,160 --> 00:29:16,360
Speaker 3: I had so much resentment for my father.

545
00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:18,200
Speaker 1: I wanted to be shit like him.

546
00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:20,760
Speaker 3: So I wanted to pour all my efforts into being

547
00:29:20,760 --> 00:29:25,360
Speaker 3: a father because I didn't understand at the time why

548
00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:27,200
Speaker 3: he can't give me what I needed, what I wanted,

549
00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:29,440
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, Why I couldn't get that love,

550
00:29:29,440 --> 00:29:31,960
Speaker 3: why I couldn't get that support. Was so I figured

551
00:29:31,960 --> 00:29:34,800
Speaker 3: I said, well, I'm gonna I'm gonna be the father

552
00:29:34,880 --> 00:29:37,120
Speaker 3: that I wish I could be. And at the time,

553
00:29:37,880 --> 00:29:41,680
Speaker 3: my child mom, she was poor, she couldn't afford clothes

554
00:29:41,720 --> 00:29:43,200
Speaker 3: that she was going through the pregnancy.

555
00:29:43,440 --> 00:29:46,000
Speaker 1: And at the time, my best friend, he was already hustling.

556
00:29:46,560 --> 00:29:49,240
Speaker 3: And so it was it was a simple way, like

557
00:29:49,320 --> 00:29:51,760
Speaker 3: I had the best friend that was hustling. I had

558
00:29:51,760 --> 00:29:54,640
Speaker 3: my uncles and cousins that was hustling and all. And

559
00:29:56,680 --> 00:30:00,240
Speaker 3: the decision was was across the board. He you got

560
00:30:00,240 --> 00:30:02,160
Speaker 3: a kid, you gotta step up. This is the way

561
00:30:02,160 --> 00:30:03,040
Speaker 3: you step up, no.

562
00:30:03,040 --> 00:30:04,520
Speaker 4: Matter you can't well about school.

563
00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:05,400
Speaker 1: School.

564
00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:08,840
Speaker 3: School ain't paying bills. I mean we're gonna show up

565
00:30:08,880 --> 00:30:13,160
Speaker 3: so they won't call. But school ain't paying no bills. Yeah,

566
00:30:13,200 --> 00:30:15,200
Speaker 3: man for me, how did you?

567
00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:18,440
Speaker 4: How did you get promoted from one grade to the next.

568
00:30:18,520 --> 00:30:20,360
Speaker 1: Shit, you have been to a Memphis public school.

569
00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:22,960
Speaker 4: I'm yeah, Oh yeah, letting you tell the story.

570
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:24,800
Speaker 1: Are you gotta do a show up and say? Here baby?

571
00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:26,280
Speaker 3: That is it?

572
00:30:27,120 --> 00:30:28,320
Speaker 1: No, shad I left behind.

573
00:30:28,400 --> 00:30:31,160
Speaker 4: I'm here. One of my biggest surprises my first year

574
00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:33,600
Speaker 4: is manasis. When I walked in, there was a class

575
00:30:33,600 --> 00:30:37,560
Speaker 4: that had five periods of history and each class had

576
00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:40,400
Speaker 4: about thirty kids in it, and there were thirty textbooks.

577
00:30:40,480 --> 00:30:42,960
Speaker 4: Now thirty times five's one hundred and fifty kids, meaning

578
00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:44,960
Speaker 4: there should be one hundred and fift textbooks. So kids

579
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:47,640
Speaker 4: can take their books home, do their homework, bring aback

580
00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:51,720
Speaker 4: those books sat on the desk. Kid came in, book

581
00:30:51,840 --> 00:30:54,880
Speaker 4: was on the desk. Teacher did whatever teaching they call

582
00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:59,440
Speaker 4: themselves doing bookshut kid left no way to do homework,

583
00:30:59,560 --> 00:31:01,959
Speaker 4: no way to study outside the hour in the classroom.

584
00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:05,760
Speaker 4: And as long as the kids showed up, shut up,

585
00:31:05,880 --> 00:31:10,120
Speaker 4: didn't cause too many problems, and was able to kind

586
00:31:10,160 --> 00:31:12,840
Speaker 4: of pass rudimentary tests, they're promoted.

587
00:31:13,640 --> 00:31:15,760
Speaker 1: What's the first letter in attendance.

588
00:31:15,720 --> 00:31:17,840
Speaker 4: First letter in a sentence.

589
00:31:17,520 --> 00:31:20,840
Speaker 2: In attendance A show up?

590
00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:21,720
Speaker 1: We get you A.

591
00:31:23,520 --> 00:31:24,320
Speaker 2: That's how you gotta do.

592
00:31:25,560 --> 00:31:33,600
Speaker 4: Show up, which perpetuates the poverty, perpetuates the helplessness, perpetuates

593
00:31:33,600 --> 00:31:37,160
Speaker 4: the hopelessness, and perpetuates the feeling that I got to

594
00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:40,080
Speaker 4: do something. I ain't got an education, now to go

595
00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:42,600
Speaker 4: get a job. Nobody cares, so I got a hustle.

596
00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:46,719
Speaker 3: You just by giving me an a by showing up,

597
00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:49,840
Speaker 3: you just showed me the value of an education.

598
00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:53,440
Speaker 4: That's a great point. Say that again. That's really good.

599
00:31:53,920 --> 00:31:57,080
Speaker 4: You show this school system itself gives you an a

600
00:31:57,240 --> 00:31:57,960
Speaker 4: for showing up.

601
00:31:58,160 --> 00:32:00,600
Speaker 2: You just showed me the value of education.

602
00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:06,680
Speaker 4: Nothing. You're just shown to be present. And so or

603
00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:10,520
Speaker 4: do you have? Teachers have employed people who show up

604
00:32:10,560 --> 00:32:13,800
Speaker 4: every day for six months and do a pretty average job.

605
00:32:13,880 --> 00:32:16,200
Speaker 4: They just get through the day. Take two or three

606
00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:18,760
Speaker 4: bathroom breaks. Now I got I got a break, a

607
00:32:18,840 --> 00:32:20,920
Speaker 4: lunch break, and a break in an eight hour shift.

608
00:32:21,240 --> 00:32:23,680
Speaker 4: And in addition to those, three or four more lunch

609
00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:26,200
Speaker 4: breaks or breaks during the day, go the bathroom, whatever.

610
00:32:26,400 --> 00:32:28,400
Speaker 4: And after six months say I want to race good

611
00:32:29,360 --> 00:32:34,240
Speaker 4: and I at first I might why you haven't earned anything?

612
00:32:34,320 --> 00:32:36,840
Speaker 4: And they're like, I'm here, I'm here, I showed up.

613
00:32:38,480 --> 00:32:41,080
Speaker 4: So where does that mentality come from? Well, it's learned.

614
00:32:41,720 --> 00:32:42,360
Speaker 1: It's learned.

615
00:32:42,840 --> 00:32:46,840
Speaker 2: Everything is learned, all behavior is learned.

616
00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:50,760
Speaker 4: Been somewhere along the lines. You decided you wanted to

617
00:32:50,800 --> 00:32:53,240
Speaker 4: play football. I did, and.

618
00:32:54,840 --> 00:32:56,960
Speaker 1: It just came from wanting to be accepted.

619
00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:01,600
Speaker 3: So I knew if I can be a football player,

620
00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:03,560
Speaker 3: people will cry around the TV and watch me.

621
00:33:06,640 --> 00:33:13,080
Speaker 4: Do you realize that fewer than one one hundredth of

622
00:33:13,280 --> 00:33:16,280
Speaker 4: one percent of the people playing high school football today

623
00:33:16,320 --> 00:33:19,000
Speaker 4: will ever make a living play in the game. You

624
00:33:19,080 --> 00:33:20,719
Speaker 4: realize just one in ten thousand.

625
00:33:21,160 --> 00:33:24,600
Speaker 3: You realize only one percent of kids and Memphis that

626
00:33:24,680 --> 00:33:26,480
Speaker 3: lives in property going to be successful.

627
00:33:26,680 --> 00:33:28,240
Speaker 1: So I still got to be at a chance of going

628
00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:29,040
Speaker 1: to the NFL.

629
00:33:30,640 --> 00:33:34,080
Speaker 3: So I'm taking them onds all day long and twice

630
00:33:34,120 --> 00:33:34,800
Speaker 3: on Saturday.

631
00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:39,240
Speaker 4: Okay, So you wanted to play football. Did you love

632
00:33:39,280 --> 00:33:41,600
Speaker 4: the game or did you love what the game might

633
00:33:41,680 --> 00:33:42,000
Speaker 4: give you?

634
00:33:42,680 --> 00:33:44,840
Speaker 3: In the beginning, I love with the game I give me,

635
00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:46,560
Speaker 3: and then you fall in love with the game. Then

636
00:33:46,560 --> 00:33:48,880
Speaker 3: I fell in love with the game. But the game,

637
00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:51,000
Speaker 3: the game.

638
00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:54,760
Speaker 4: Was hard, game is hard. There's a difference of being

639
00:33:54,840 --> 00:33:57,680
Speaker 4: hurt and injured. And you're hurt every play, yeah, I

640
00:33:57,680 --> 00:33:59,640
Speaker 4: mean just unless you played. You don't know what I

641
00:33:59,720 --> 00:34:01,000
Speaker 4: just said, right.

642
00:34:00,840 --> 00:34:05,480
Speaker 3: And then you're sitting there and you're trying to figure out, like, man,

643
00:34:05,840 --> 00:34:08,560
Speaker 3: I'm being held accountable for all these things.

644
00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:11,200
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? And you're sitting there like

645
00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:14,879
Speaker 1: and then on top of football is a business, no.

646
00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:16,799
Speaker 3: Matter if you're in middle school, you're in high school,

647
00:34:16,840 --> 00:34:18,799
Speaker 3: you're in college, you in the national for It's still

648
00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:19,920
Speaker 3: a business.

649
00:34:20,480 --> 00:34:24,560
Speaker 1: So when I started to understand that, it.

650
00:34:24,560 --> 00:34:27,120
Speaker 3: Was like okay, like, so this is what the world

651
00:34:27,160 --> 00:34:31,840
Speaker 3: looks like, no matter what. So in my mind, football

652
00:34:32,160 --> 00:34:34,960
Speaker 3: was just like weed and cocaine. It was only a

653
00:34:35,040 --> 00:34:36,680
Speaker 3: vehicle to get me where I was trying to go.

654
00:34:37,640 --> 00:34:38,120
Speaker 2: Period.

655
00:34:38,680 --> 00:34:41,920
Speaker 3: If them motherfuckers had been sitting around watching soccer, I

656
00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:45,960
Speaker 3: would have dreamed of being a soccer player. I was

657
00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:49,080
Speaker 3: only trying to get out of my situation. That's the

658
00:34:49,120 --> 00:34:52,200
Speaker 3: biggest thing, That was the biggest thing of me growing up.

659
00:34:53,760 --> 00:34:59,480
Speaker 4: Situation. Let's talk about that when your three top options

660
00:35:00,280 --> 00:35:04,480
Speaker 4: are dealing drugs, planing a professional sport, or becoming a musician,

661
00:35:04,800 --> 00:35:07,480
Speaker 4: which is the same. See I didn't even have that option,

662
00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:11,680
Speaker 4: but that's in the same world that we're talking about.

663
00:35:11,719 --> 00:35:18,840
Speaker 4: Correct once again, Hollywood is not called the City of

664
00:35:18,880 --> 00:35:21,239
Speaker 4: broken dreams because everybody that goes out there to be

665
00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:25,879
Speaker 4: a musician succeeds. It's because most fail. Most will never

666
00:35:25,960 --> 00:35:32,680
Speaker 4: have the requisite talent, character, commitment, and ability to make

667
00:35:32,719 --> 00:35:36,480
Speaker 4: a living plan of sport. Absolutely, and dealing drugs is

668
00:35:36,520 --> 00:35:38,000
Speaker 4: going to lead you to jail or death.

669
00:35:38,520 --> 00:35:39,160
Speaker 1: Absolutely.

670
00:35:39,719 --> 00:35:43,359
Speaker 4: So if you aren't the one in ten thousand that

671
00:35:43,440 --> 00:35:49,480
Speaker 4: make it in music, the arts, or football, where do

672
00:35:49,520 --> 00:35:49,719
Speaker 4: you go?

673
00:35:50,760 --> 00:35:52,200
Speaker 3: What do you mean you're one of these guys that

674
00:35:52,320 --> 00:35:57,880
Speaker 3: keep the private prisons feel Because that's what So you

675
00:35:57,960 --> 00:36:01,600
Speaker 3: got to think in terms of that's what everybody glorified.

676
00:36:02,320 --> 00:36:06,320
Speaker 3: Ain't nobody glorifying the Black Doctor, Ain't nobody glorifying Johnny

677
00:36:06,320 --> 00:36:09,919
Speaker 3: Coxy the hood? Yeah, we were talking about Lebron, It's

678
00:36:09,960 --> 00:36:15,359
Speaker 3: about Jordan and Kobe. We're talking about Gotti, So in kids' mind,

679
00:36:15,440 --> 00:36:21,759
Speaker 3: that's reality because what they're able to see them through

680
00:36:21,840 --> 00:36:24,919
Speaker 3: social media, it's able to glorify when they're not able

681
00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:27,400
Speaker 3: to see these other messages being glorified.

682
00:36:27,719 --> 00:36:29,960
Speaker 4: Do kids in the hood know who Ben Carson is?

683
00:36:30,600 --> 00:36:30,680
Speaker 1: No?

684
00:36:32,239 --> 00:36:34,880
Speaker 3: And the only reason the boys and the only reason

685
00:36:34,880 --> 00:36:36,719
Speaker 3: I know being Carson because they said he was the

686
00:36:36,719 --> 00:36:38,919
Speaker 3: first black man to do surgery, but he was only

687
00:36:38,960 --> 00:36:40,120
Speaker 3: standing in the room and never.

688
00:36:40,040 --> 00:36:40,760
Speaker 1: Really did it.

689
00:36:40,920 --> 00:36:43,759
Speaker 4: What about w de Boce shit, I think he got

690
00:36:43,760 --> 00:36:47,520
Speaker 4: a few schools, but most kids I don't.

691
00:36:47,320 --> 00:36:48,520
Speaker 1: Even know who he is. I just know he got

692
00:36:48,560 --> 00:36:49,120
Speaker 1: some schools.

693
00:36:49,719 --> 00:36:53,719
Speaker 2: So and nobody teaching that.

694
00:36:55,480 --> 00:37:01,319
Speaker 3: Ain't nobody teaching that I might come in here, Cordney here,

695
00:37:02,239 --> 00:37:06,400
Speaker 3: got them make sure all the kids come in so

696
00:37:06,480 --> 00:37:09,080
Speaker 3: we can get they headcount for the state funding.

697
00:37:09,960 --> 00:37:12,160
Speaker 4: I chuckle behind a broken heart.

698
00:37:12,840 --> 00:37:14,160
Speaker 1: Because I mean that's what it is.

699
00:37:14,560 --> 00:37:17,239
Speaker 3: So all the principals and all these people want to

700
00:37:17,239 --> 00:37:19,160
Speaker 3: make sure that their head count is up so that

701
00:37:19,280 --> 00:37:21,759
Speaker 3: school can get the money that comes out of Nashvia,

702
00:37:22,320 --> 00:37:23,680
Speaker 3: no matter giving a fuck about the kid.

703
00:37:25,760 --> 00:37:28,480
Speaker 4: What you just said is really important to understand that

704
00:37:28,520 --> 00:37:31,040
Speaker 4: the vast majority of large urban school.

705
00:37:30,760 --> 00:37:33,120
Speaker 1: Districts based off attendance.

706
00:37:33,600 --> 00:37:39,279
Speaker 4: Right. So at a graduation, most every graduation I've been

707
00:37:39,320 --> 00:37:42,920
Speaker 4: through from an urban school district, the guidance counsel, the

708
00:37:42,960 --> 00:37:45,440
Speaker 4: principal get on stage and they brag about all the

709
00:37:45,480 --> 00:37:48,040
Speaker 4: scholarship money that the graduating class is getting.

710
00:37:48,200 --> 00:37:48,560
Speaker 1: Bush it.

711
00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:55,719
Speaker 4: And what you find out is it's accumulation of a

712
00:37:55,840 --> 00:37:58,040
Speaker 4: bunch of pel grant money.

713
00:37:58,360 --> 00:38:00,400
Speaker 3: If you left hand, it will give you a dollarship

714
00:38:00,440 --> 00:38:03,279
Speaker 3: for five thousand dollars. If your mama was in World

715
00:38:03,280 --> 00:38:05,840
Speaker 3: War two would give you ten more thousand dollars.

716
00:38:05,880 --> 00:38:08,600
Speaker 4: And then many of these kids go off to what

717
00:38:08,680 --> 00:38:14,520
Speaker 4: I call pel grant processing centers, which is some school

718
00:38:14,600 --> 00:38:15,640
Speaker 4: that you've never heard of.

719
00:38:15,960 --> 00:38:16,200
Speaker 1: Yep.

720
00:38:16,960 --> 00:38:22,560
Speaker 4: The kid enrolls, the state sends the institution the pel

721
00:38:22,600 --> 00:38:26,520
Speaker 4: grant money. The kid can never pass any work because

722
00:38:26,520 --> 00:38:29,360
Speaker 4: he's not educated, because he's never been taught anything. He

723
00:38:29,480 --> 00:38:32,839
Speaker 4: falls out. The school keeps pel grant money. And then

724
00:38:32,840 --> 00:38:35,680
Speaker 4: here comes another crop every year, and it is year

725
00:38:36,040 --> 00:38:40,120
Speaker 4: after year after year, and it starts in the high

726
00:38:40,120 --> 00:38:43,759
Speaker 4: school level and permeates through the college level, and it

727
00:38:43,800 --> 00:38:45,160
Speaker 4: is a money grap Yeah.

728
00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:48,240
Speaker 3: Or you got those guys that go off to school,

729
00:38:48,280 --> 00:38:51,120
Speaker 3: and then let's say you want those one or two percent.

730
00:38:51,200 --> 00:38:53,239
Speaker 3: You do graduate, then you look up four years and

731
00:38:53,320 --> 00:38:55,120
Speaker 3: then him colleges and lost their accreditation.

732
00:38:57,440 --> 00:39:01,839
Speaker 2: So now you're looking like, ah, what now what now?

733
00:39:01,880 --> 00:39:01,960
Speaker 1: You know?

734
00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:04,960
Speaker 3: I mean down there you turn into resume and you're

735
00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:09,600
Speaker 3: getting Google with it. His college got shut down five

736
00:39:09,640 --> 00:39:11,400
Speaker 3: years ago, so they let you know what's coming out

737
00:39:11,440 --> 00:39:11,680
Speaker 3: of there.

738
00:39:13,480 --> 00:39:14,719
Speaker 1: And it turns we're back in the.

739
00:39:14,719 --> 00:39:18,320
Speaker 4: Who So you get pretty good at football? Yeah, and

740
00:39:18,400 --> 00:39:20,560
Speaker 4: I think you end up at White Station And for

741
00:39:20,640 --> 00:39:25,400
Speaker 4: our listeners, it's a national show. White Station is a

742
00:39:25,680 --> 00:39:30,000
Speaker 4: city school part of the City School District in East Memphis,

743
00:39:30,719 --> 00:39:34,279
Speaker 4: which is a nicer part of the city. It is

744
00:39:34,400 --> 00:39:38,719
Speaker 4: actually considered still a pretty good public school that has

745
00:39:38,920 --> 00:39:44,520
Speaker 4: nice facilities and is usually pretty competitive in all of

746
00:39:44,560 --> 00:39:47,360
Speaker 4: the sports. And they actually have a back laureate program

747
00:39:47,719 --> 00:39:50,160
Speaker 4: where a lot of kids go to school there and

748
00:39:50,360 --> 00:39:54,839
Speaker 4: get great grades and then they have the normal population.

749
00:39:55,040 --> 00:39:59,000
Speaker 4: But in large part it's a good school, correct, And

750
00:39:59,120 --> 00:40:00,800
Speaker 4: you end up there. I think as a junior in

751
00:40:00,880 --> 00:40:04,560
Speaker 4: high school, sophomore, sophomore, how's that experience?

752
00:40:06,239 --> 00:40:06,719
Speaker 1: Hated it?

753
00:40:08,040 --> 00:40:09,759
Speaker 4: Why?

754
00:40:10,480 --> 00:40:13,759
Speaker 3: I was already into my life, which was man I

755
00:40:13,800 --> 00:40:16,320
Speaker 3: had already had a daughter and she had already turned

756
00:40:16,360 --> 00:40:19,880
Speaker 3: on I mean, I was already heavily into the drugs

757
00:40:19,920 --> 00:40:20,560
Speaker 3: to gangs.

758
00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:21,879
Speaker 1: I mean my life.

759
00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:24,799
Speaker 3: I didn't even play my ninth grade year, and after

760
00:40:24,840 --> 00:40:27,480
Speaker 3: my eighth grade year, I was kicked out of school

761
00:40:27,600 --> 00:40:28,680
Speaker 3: for gang fighting.

762
00:40:28,960 --> 00:40:31,399
Speaker 1: So I spent the latter part of my.

763
00:40:31,360 --> 00:40:34,919
Speaker 3: Eighth grade year expelled, and then my ninth grade year,

764
00:40:34,960 --> 00:40:37,680
Speaker 3: all I did was sell drugs to kind of we're

765
00:40:37,719 --> 00:40:39,239
Speaker 3: going through the pregnancy.

766
00:40:38,800 --> 00:40:42,439
Speaker 1: With with my baby mom. So it's like that time

767
00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:44,600
Speaker 1: had passed me, you know what I mean.

768
00:40:44,600 --> 00:40:47,720
Speaker 4: It's like, so by your sophomore year, you're grown.

769
00:40:48,280 --> 00:40:49,799
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm doing the shit you do.

770
00:40:51,040 --> 00:40:54,399
Speaker 3: And that was that was the argument that I had

771
00:40:54,440 --> 00:40:55,600
Speaker 3: with my high school.

772
00:40:55,280 --> 00:40:57,080
Speaker 4: Coach at White Station.

773
00:40:57,239 --> 00:40:57,399
Speaker 1: Why.

774
00:40:57,640 --> 00:40:59,279
Speaker 2: I said, dogs, me and your daughter the same age,

775
00:40:59,280 --> 00:41:00,000
Speaker 2: what are you gonna tell me?

776
00:41:01,440 --> 00:41:01,520
Speaker 4: Like?

777
00:41:01,600 --> 00:41:04,359
Speaker 3: He was telling me all this good shit, and I

778
00:41:04,360 --> 00:41:07,080
Speaker 3: appreciate him from we still stay in contact to this day.

779
00:41:07,120 --> 00:41:11,160
Speaker 3: But the advice he was giving me, it didn't master

780
00:41:11,200 --> 00:41:12,759
Speaker 3: the situation that I was going home to.

781
00:41:15,560 --> 00:41:18,680
Speaker 1: It wasn't any good. I couldn't use it.

782
00:41:19,080 --> 00:41:20,280
Speaker 4: Told you play that year.

783
00:41:20,520 --> 00:41:22,919
Speaker 1: So I did. I p I played that year.

784
00:41:23,280 --> 00:41:26,239
Speaker 3: I I battled, I wasn't back and forth, and I

785
00:41:26,320 --> 00:41:28,920
Speaker 3: was eventually bored suspended, kicked out of the white station.

786
00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:30,560
Speaker 4: Then what.

787
00:41:32,040 --> 00:41:36,040
Speaker 1: So the coach ops, He says, he takes another.

788
00:41:35,800 --> 00:41:40,320
Speaker 3: Job out of coature and he says, I got his friend.

789
00:41:41,040 --> 00:41:43,480
Speaker 3: I'm saying, he said, ma'am, but I'm telling you this

790
00:41:43,640 --> 00:41:46,320
Speaker 3: football thing can change your life, like you got talent

791
00:41:46,360 --> 00:41:48,359
Speaker 3: where it can change your life. And I kept telling him.

792
00:41:48,360 --> 00:41:51,200
Speaker 1: I was like, coach, I agree, but what about the now?

793
00:41:51,960 --> 00:41:57,400
Speaker 1: Like my daughter needs food now? Like what about now?

794
00:41:58,120 --> 00:42:02,560
Speaker 3: And so he orchestrated where I go to this private school,

795
00:42:02,680 --> 00:42:05,920
Speaker 3: the private school it was, it was great.

796
00:42:06,200 --> 00:42:09,799
Speaker 4: What was it called brick Chris And the fact for

797
00:42:09,920 --> 00:42:14,040
Speaker 4: our listeners, Briarcrest is a very nice private school out

798
00:42:14,080 --> 00:42:20,880
Speaker 4: in the suburbs, large private school, and candidly, it's famous

799
00:42:20,960 --> 00:42:24,880
Speaker 4: because it is where Michael Orr went to school. The

800
00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:28,799
Speaker 4: story of Michael Orr and the twoies, and it's called

801
00:42:28,800 --> 00:42:35,080
Speaker 4: Brockcrest Christian High I think, and if you've ever seen

802
00:42:35,080 --> 00:42:37,280
Speaker 4: The blind Side, this is the high school talking about.

803
00:42:38,239 --> 00:42:40,000
Speaker 4: And were you there before after Michael?

804
00:42:40,040 --> 00:42:41,680
Speaker 1: So I was before Mike. I'm the one that told

805
00:42:41,719 --> 00:42:42,480
Speaker 1: Mike it was cool.

806
00:42:43,920 --> 00:42:48,480
Speaker 4: So you go to Briarcrest And the craziest part of

807
00:42:48,520 --> 00:42:51,160
Speaker 4: this story of this football part of The story is

808
00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:54,640
Speaker 4: Hugh Freese, who is now the head coach at Auburn,

809
00:42:54,719 --> 00:42:57,520
Speaker 4: was the head coach at Liberty, was the head coach

810
00:42:57,560 --> 00:43:01,320
Speaker 4: at Ole Miss, was the head coach at Arkansas State,

811
00:43:01,400 --> 00:43:07,760
Speaker 4: and before that, they head coach at Lambeth. Actually got

812
00:43:07,800 --> 00:43:11,680
Speaker 4: his start as an assistant coach at ole Miss under

813
00:43:11,760 --> 00:43:17,480
Speaker 4: coach ed Orgeron because Michael Orr and Hugh Freese went

814
00:43:17,520 --> 00:43:21,120
Speaker 4: to Ole Miss together and that's how Hugh Freese broke

815
00:43:21,200 --> 00:43:26,640
Speaker 4: into college football coaching. But back then he was your

816
00:43:26,719 --> 00:43:28,320
Speaker 4: head coach at Rockcrest High School.

817
00:43:28,600 --> 00:43:32,480
Speaker 3: He was my head coach at Kombweeni State Championship. He

818
00:43:32,560 --> 00:43:36,080
Speaker 3: had lost four years in a row. Ecs used to

819
00:43:36,120 --> 00:43:40,440
Speaker 3: beat that booty. He couldn't get over to Hump and he.

820
00:43:40,560 --> 00:43:42,520
Speaker 1: Got him reinforcements. We got him over there home.

821
00:43:47,200 --> 00:43:51,640
Speaker 4: And that, my friends, concludes part one of my conversation

822
00:43:51,719 --> 00:43:55,960
Speaker 4: with Melvyn Cole. And if you thought that was compelling,

823
00:43:56,280 --> 00:43:59,400
Speaker 4: you do not want to miss part two that's now available.

824
00:44:00,160 --> 00:44:04,760
Speaker 4: We dive deeper into Melvin's excelling at football and drug

825
00:44:04,800 --> 00:44:08,959
Speaker 4: dealing empire until he didn't and what he's doing now

826
00:44:09,000 --> 00:44:12,080
Speaker 4: to serve inner city kids. But if for some strange reason,

827
00:44:12,160 --> 00:44:14,960
Speaker 4: you do miss Part two, make sure to join the

828
00:44:15,200 --> 00:44:18,239
Speaker 4: Army of Normal Folks at normalfolks dot us and sign

829
00:44:18,320 --> 00:44:21,279
Speaker 4: up to become a member of the movement. By signing up,

830
00:44:21,360 --> 00:44:24,759
Speaker 4: you'll also receive a weekly email with short episode sum

831
00:44:24,840 --> 00:44:26,880
Speaker 4: reason in case you happen to miss an episode or

832
00:44:27,480 --> 00:44:31,200
Speaker 4: if you prefer reading about our incredible guests. Together, guys,

833
00:44:31,239 --> 00:44:34,439
Speaker 4: we can change this country and it starts with you.

834
00:44:34,960 --> 00:44:42,960
Speaker 4: I'll see you in Part two.