Speaker 1: What's going on to Mika matter.
Speaker 2: Going on Listen Man, Episode two.
Speaker 3: Episode two, Season five, now Here, We love y'all. It's
Speaker 3: gonna be bigger and better every year. We're going. Shout
Speaker 3: out to the Black Effect Podcast Network, Shout out to iHeart,
Speaker 3: shout out to everybody who loves us.
Speaker 2: Oh God Lord, so sometimes you could be so sentimental.
Speaker 2: You got it is shout out we got listen and
Speaker 2: shout out to the team.
Speaker 1: Shout out to the team.
Speaker 4: I think that because of the fact that we're on
Speaker 4: the air. Excuse me, I think that, because of us
Speaker 4: being in public when you're speaking, that you should call
Speaker 4: her by her correct name.
Speaker 1: Her name is Janie, I call it.
Speaker 2: So what you should say that behind the.
Speaker 3: Scenes, Well, her name Janie, I call it Janie.
Speaker 4: So when I said thank you to the team, also,
Speaker 4: janis like you said, But it's a bunch of folks
Speaker 4: that work on this show, Armando, we have to give
Speaker 4: him some season. Season five is going to be good
Speaker 4: because everybody seems to be focused. Tisha, Toya, Trina's a
Speaker 4: bunch of people behind the scenes that's working on the
Speaker 4: TMI show. So I was going to talk about in
Speaker 4: my team and my thought of the day, which we're
Speaker 4: gonna skip for today, I was going to talk about
Speaker 4: the kids in co Op City who now have been
Speaker 4: banned from entering the mall. You have to be eighteen
Speaker 4: years old to go into the mall because they have
Speaker 4: been running through doing a flash run.
Speaker 2: They are not harming anybody.
Speaker 4: I haven't seen reports that they stole anything, but they
Speaker 4: have been running through the mall, lots of them, and
Speaker 4: then just go. And so what I was gonna say is, yes, absolutely,
Speaker 4: parents need to know where their kids are and kids
Speaker 4: need to be more responsible.
Speaker 2: These are not babies. They know what they're doing is wrong.
Speaker 4: But I was really going to get more into the
Speaker 4: issue around one that co Op City has a responsibility
Speaker 4: to help these kids have somewhere they can go run, right,
Speaker 4: So that's one thing that you know, we could get
Speaker 4: into at a different time. They have a responsibility to
Speaker 4: help these kids go to where there's no programs and
Speaker 4: co Op that really truly address the needs of the youth.
Speaker 4: So that's why they're in the mall because there's nowhere
Speaker 4: else for them to go. There's no planned activities, there's
Speaker 4: none of that. So that's a problem. But my real
Speaker 4: point was going to be that. It's so unfortunate that
Speaker 4: we can't even say that we want the authorities to
Speaker 4: be in the mall to make sure that they help
Speaker 4: get them in and out, because kids, it could turn
Speaker 4: into hell. Right, you already would have young people that
Speaker 4: will feel fear. You will have parents that will be
Speaker 4: afraid that their kids are in there, and god knows
Speaker 4: what can happen, and you can't trust that the authorities
Speaker 4: are going to go there and deal with the kids
Speaker 4: in a way to be like and I don't think
Speaker 4: that cops should.
Speaker 2: Be responsible for being mentors.
Speaker 4: But they have a way that they deal with kids
Speaker 4: that white children that they don't deal with them.
Speaker 1: It's supposed to be a process.
Speaker 3: And I've watched many of these type of situations where
Speaker 3: they slamming kids on their neck and beating them up.
Speaker 1: Like it's too aggressive.
Speaker 3: So yeah, like you said, there definitely should be you know,
Speaker 3: safety measures inside the mall so people are safe. But
Speaker 3: unfortunately we can't even you know, hope that we have
Speaker 3: law enforcement understand you just don't know we got I
Speaker 3: think that's what we need, like community situation, you know,
Speaker 3: violence interruptors and those type of organizations should be sent out,
Speaker 3: you know, to to to the mall to where they
Speaker 3: see people from their community.
Speaker 1: And sometimes it gets a look, we've always done.
Speaker 2: That flash running.
Speaker 3: No, I don't say flashmen, but we've used to go
Speaker 3: to the mall and just be a bunch of us running.
Speaker 3: Sometimes something happened. You might get into argument other kids,
Speaker 3: y'all running. It might be a little fight, but they
Speaker 3: break it up. You run off, but they just like
Speaker 3: go because that's a new thing. It is probably just
Speaker 3: to make people scared, and you know, and it's not good.
Speaker 4: It's stupid kids stupid because you could actually get hurt.
Speaker 4: And if one of those kids go fall into the
Speaker 4: ban or something like that, that would be a fall down.
Speaker 2: Escalators is just too much.
Speaker 4: And those types of things happen, right because it's those
Speaker 4: types of things that you are like, oh, shoot, I
Speaker 4: can't believe.
Speaker 2: That that happened.
Speaker 4: What would they do? Oh, they were running through the mall.
Speaker 4: So anyway, long story short, that's something you know, we
Speaker 4: have to deal with because what do we do in
Speaker 4: the Bronx and other places.
Speaker 2: About our nags.
Speaker 4: The TMI today you're doing too much or maybe you're not.
Speaker 4: And you know, I don't really have an opinion either
Speaker 4: way about this, because I don't know how I feel
Speaker 4: about what they call it Indian given, you give it
Speaker 4: and you take it back.
Speaker 2: But it's funny that.
Speaker 4: One of the French politicians, I think he's from the
Speaker 4: European Parliament, he said that he believes the Statue of
Speaker 4: Liberty should be given and back to France. Now it
Speaker 4: was given to America in eighteen eighty four as a
Speaker 4: birthday gift. So it was like, you know, I think
Speaker 4: independence thing exactly, and so he said that people in
Speaker 4: America have chosen the side of the tyrant, and so
Speaker 4: they're basically talking about the Statue of Liberty is supposed
Speaker 4: to be about liberty and justice and now you have
Speaker 4: an authoritarian government. He didn't say that, I'm saying it
Speaker 4: and that's not liberty at all. What we see happening
Speaker 4: in this nation under Donald Trump's presidency. Not that we
Speaker 4: didn't always have issues, but they are certainly worse at
Speaker 4: this moment, and so he says, give it back. So now,
Speaker 4: I just I wanted to know for you, and then,
Speaker 4: of course from our audience, do people feel that he's
Speaker 4: doing too much, like we're not taking the Statue of
Speaker 4: liberty down, you don't take it back or do you
Speaker 4: feel like I actually respect to understand his position?
Speaker 3: Well, I know Trump talking about give the Panama Canal
Speaker 3: that he's talking about all of these things. What else
Speaker 3: he said? It was the Panama Canal and something else.
Speaker 3: He's like, you know, we need to rename it and
Speaker 3: all of these things. So I guess the brother is
Speaker 3: saying to himself, well, listen, since the situation has changed, like,
Speaker 3: we gave this as a gift, and you know that's
Speaker 3: when you was our allies and we felt like we
Speaker 3: was in partnership, and now you're completely changing the dynamics
Speaker 3: of this relationship. So I don't know if it actually
Speaker 3: stands for what it stood for, you should probably give
Speaker 3: it back.
Speaker 1: The situation has changed. I'm not I'm not mad at him.
Speaker 3: I mean, the likelihood of you giving it back is
Speaker 3: not really a thing.
Speaker 1: I don't think so. But in Trump's.
Speaker 3: Administer, you never know, he'll go have it and sit
Speaker 3: back and then he'll have his a statue of him.
Speaker 3: For sure, for sure he'll have the Trump statue.
Speaker 4: Of I don't know, I like you said last week,
Speaker 4: a change, It's like the job ebody a billion dolls
Speaker 4: Elan would love.
Speaker 2: To have with the New York sound or the river. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the sound he would love to be.
Speaker 1: He would love to do it.
Speaker 3: So, you know, I don't know if it's too much,
Speaker 3: but nothing is off the table.
Speaker 2: So maybe it's not to your min but it could be.
Speaker 2: I don't know from you at all. Right, let's get
Speaker 2: into our guests.
Speaker 4: Well, we've got one of our friends on today, you know,
Speaker 4: us with our friends.
Speaker 2: We're back season five already. With our friends.
Speaker 4: You know they're gonna be like, that's why we don't
Speaker 4: like this show, because y'all only have y'all friends. Why
Speaker 4: y'all don't have people in there, y'all don't get along
Speaker 4: with you don't agree with.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because I don't want to talk to nobody that
Speaker 3: I don't like. I don't want to give you no
Speaker 3: light on my show. If I don't like it, that's it.
Speaker 3: So I'm bring to people that I reck that I love,
Speaker 3: that I think it's smart that have the same moral.
Speaker 3: At least you got to have the same more alcomplishes.
Speaker 3: If we don't got the same more accomplished, I'm not
Speaker 3: going to expose my good people to your negative energy demons.
Speaker 4: But then that means that y'all ain't talking to all
Speaker 4: black folks.
Speaker 2: Some black folks can't believe in that stuff.
Speaker 4: Well guess what, today we do have our friend and
Speaker 4: I'm very very proud to have our brother on the show.
Speaker 4: Actually not our friend, our brother Gary Chambers, who is
Speaker 4: a fighting leader in Louisiana but also across the nation.
Speaker 4: Gary is an educator. Gary is just a leader all around.
Speaker 2: I mean.
Speaker 4: And also I like to say he's probably one of
Speaker 4: the more authentic scholars in our current society, just because
Speaker 4: you know, when I say authentic, I mean that because
Speaker 4: sometimes Gary writes some stuff and I'd be like, whoa.
Speaker 3: God, my grandmother just saying he don't take no wood Nickels.
Speaker 3: He ain't taking no wood Nichols Man. That's why I
Speaker 3: love Gary Man. He gonna tell he shoot from the hip.
Speaker 3: You like it or you don't, but you know, is
Speaker 3: real and that's what I love.
Speaker 4: And that's what it is. Gary. Thank you so much
Speaker 4: for joining us. I think you in the state of
Speaker 4: Louisiana right now.
Speaker 5: I am home today. I'm glad to be with my peek.
Speaker 5: It's good to be with y'all.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you, Gary.
Speaker 4: We don't want to keep you long because I know
Speaker 4: if you are anything like us, but certainly me, You
Speaker 4: and me, we're on at least twenty five thousand chains
Speaker 4: where we're talking about black liberation with different people and
Speaker 4: different efforts. And so, you know, before they start getting
Speaker 4: on us for being for disappearing for a while, let
Speaker 4: me hurry up and get to what we are doing.
Speaker 4: And by the way, I'm so excited about joining with
Speaker 4: you and being in partnership with you and co organizing
Speaker 4: with you to put the State of the People Power
Speaker 4: Tour together, which begins in Atlanta, Georgia at the end
Speaker 4: of this month, at the end of April, and folks
Speaker 4: are going to be learning more every day about this
Speaker 4: incredible tour. But what I do love is that there's
Speaker 4: a voltron that's happening among us as black folks that
Speaker 4: come from different experiences and perspectives. But again to your point,
Speaker 4: my son, they're all people who at least are leaning on.
Speaker 2: The same side.
Speaker 4: We can't, you know, we just can't do that are
Speaker 4: too dangerous.
Speaker 1: People told me, you know, I want to hear.
Speaker 3: I don't want to hear a perspective that I know
Speaker 3: is going to be detrimental to my life, like and
Speaker 3: what happens is we deal with people so who are
Speaker 3: so misinformed and used to being misinformed that if you
Speaker 3: have a misinformed narrative that they can utilize to support.
Speaker 1: Their misinformedness, then they grab on to it. They don't
Speaker 1: want to hear the truth.
Speaker 3: So if you we bring somebody on our platform and
Speaker 3: that's misinformed, that that says something, they will take that
Speaker 3: level and they'll cut it up and make it seem
Speaker 3: like they said some see that's what I was saying.
Speaker 1: You didn't know and they don't know either.
Speaker 2: Yah, but people do know.
Speaker 4: But so Gary, thank you again for just your leadership
Speaker 4: and everything else. And I'm looking forward to seeing you
Speaker 4: on the road.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, I think this is a great opportunity for us
Speaker 5: to build community, for us to begin to really engage
Speaker 5: with our people.
Speaker 6: You know, I think a lot of what we.
Speaker 5: See in this country is twisted and tormenting a lot
Speaker 5: of folks.
Speaker 6: Folks are losing hope in certain places.
Speaker 5: But when your family comes and sees about you and
Speaker 5: tells you that there is a path forward, I think
Speaker 5: that that shall help us out.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. Absolutely.
Speaker 4: The state of the PPL dot Com, the state OFFTHEPPL
Speaker 4: dot com if anyone who is listening would like to
Speaker 4: throw down with us. There's room for volunteers. There's room
Speaker 4: for money to help support us along the way, small
Speaker 4: donations all the way up to the big stuff for
Speaker 4: the big expenses. It's all volunteer. No one has put
Speaker 4: a dime in their personal pockets. This is all work
Speaker 4: that we're doing because we love and care for our people,
Speaker 4: and because we already in the streets, and so we
Speaker 4: might as well take our efforts around the country and
Speaker 4: meet up with our folks who, as I have been saying,
Speaker 4: some of the people that are on the ground in
Speaker 4: these local communities, no more than we know, they have
Speaker 4: solutions that we need to learn, we need to hear.
Speaker 4: They know how to keep their communities safe in ways
Speaker 4: that we're trying to learn how to do. So with
Speaker 4: that being said, I think what is also extremely important
Speaker 4: is that we analyze some of the things that are
Speaker 4: considered to be wins and some of the problematic behavior
Speaker 4: surrounding our efforts and our work. And unfortunately sometimes that
Speaker 4: problematic those problematic behaviors come from our own people, and
Speaker 4: so recently in the last few weeks, Louisiana had a
Speaker 4: big victory, which is really good because sometimes Louisiana, I
Speaker 4: don't know what be going on in your state.
Speaker 2: They bugging tripping. But there were.
Speaker 4: Four constitutional amendments up for vote, and the people of
Speaker 4: Louisiana voted it down. I think I saw that twenty
Speaker 4: one percent of the people in Louisiana turned out. But
Speaker 4: of that twenty one percent, sixty four percent of the
Speaker 4: people voted no on all four constitutional amendments that Governor
Speaker 4: Landry he supported all four. And you know, I saw
Speaker 4: a whole bunch of things like, you know, criminalizing young people,
Speaker 4: and there was stuff about increasing judicial oversight. I mean,
Speaker 4: there was some real dangerous law enforcement or criminal justice
Speaker 4: system rather pieces within these constitutional amendments. And you were,
Speaker 4: you know, or rallied people to say vote no on all,
Speaker 4: which thankfully folks showed up and they you know, did
Speaker 4: what the local organizers told them to do in community
Speaker 4: one another. But then also, you you know, made another
Speaker 4: statement that I thought, and I thought you were really
Speaker 4: kind about how you went about calling in our brother
Speaker 4: fifty cent who's doing business in Louisiana, and he was
Speaker 4: supporting the governor and supporting these these amendments, and now
Speaker 4: I just want to say this one thing because I'm
Speaker 4: gonna give you the floor and let you go. But
Speaker 4: I remember a few weeks back where I on this show.
Speaker 4: One of the segments we talked about fifty cent who
Speaker 4: he had put in an I guess application or however,
Speaker 4: I don't know exactly what it was he was working on,
Speaker 4: but there was a potential there was a possibility that
Speaker 4: his proposal to the state would not go through because
Speaker 4: the electorate whoever the elected officials had voted it down
Speaker 4: or voted down the Let me just make sure I
Speaker 4: get it right.
Speaker 2: They voted down allowing.
Speaker 4: Some outside contractor to come in and do business in
Speaker 4: the state for a while, right, there was something like
Speaker 4: that that happened.
Speaker 2: You can clear it up when you speak.
Speaker 4: But I know he had an issue where he did
Speaker 4: not think he was going to be able to advance
Speaker 4: his business with Louisiana to shoot there because of something
Speaker 4: that was happening with the legislature. And then it went through,
Speaker 4: so he was able to get it done. So now
Speaker 4: the question becomes what deal was done and what was
Speaker 4: said to him in the process about what needed to
Speaker 4: happen in order for him to be able to do business.
Speaker 4: I don't know if this is relevant, but it feels
Speaker 4: relevant to me. So you take it from me and
Speaker 4: tell us all about the amendments and what happened and
Speaker 4: the people's vote and also fifty cents involvement.
Speaker 5: Well, first of all, thank y'all for highlighting the wins
Speaker 5: in Louisiana. Too often we are a part of the
Speaker 5: conversation for what we don't get right. So we got
Speaker 5: it right this time, and I'm excited about that. The
Speaker 5: key component to this is that black voters turned out
Speaker 5: it thirty seven percent in early voting.
Speaker 6: We're still going through the day to see.
Speaker 5: What the total black turnout was, but we know that
Speaker 5: black voters led this effort to kill these constitutional amendments
Speaker 5: that would have been detrimental to out of state lawyer's.
Speaker 6: Amendment Number one I would have given.
Speaker 5: The ability to create a new system to penalize out
Speaker 5: of state lawyers. So when you look at folks like
Speaker 5: our brother Lee Merrit who's come in to help on
Speaker 5: different cases from out of state or being crump, it
Speaker 5: gives them a new way to be targeted by the
Speaker 5: judiciary and other lawyers who come into Louisiana to do help,
Speaker 5: and there's already a mechanism to deal with that. Number
Speaker 5: two was going to completely change our tax system. They
Speaker 5: had a piece of that legislation that was set up
Speaker 5: to kind of trick teachers into voting for it by
Speaker 5: making them believe that they were getting a raised when
Speaker 5: it was really just making a stipend that they had permanent.
Speaker 5: There was also a whole bunch of different things that
Speaker 5: they were going to do in our tax code. Number
Speaker 5: three was the most egregious, which got a lot of
Speaker 5: attention in conversation, which would have allowed the legislature to
Speaker 5: penalize juveniles at fourteen for different crimes as adults. So
Speaker 5: Louisiana already sends juveniles to adult penitentiary for violent offenses.
Speaker 5: And what I appreciate about the rejection of that amendment
Speaker 5: is it was black voters and white voters in over
Speaker 5: fifty parishes out of sixty four that said no to
Speaker 5: the governor about putting more kids in jail.
Speaker 6: Eighty percent of the kids in juvenile incarceration in.
Speaker 5: The state of Louisiana are young and black, and so
Speaker 5: to have a unified effort that the majority of black
Speaker 5: voters and white voters said no. Ninety percent of black
Speaker 5: voters said no on all of these constitutional membis, and
Speaker 5: over fifty percent of white voters in the state of
Speaker 5: Louisiana said no to these constitutional membis. And number four
Speaker 5: would have given the ability for them to run a
Speaker 5: shorter clock on elections for the judiciary. So all four
Speaker 5: of these policies were bad. All four of these policies
Speaker 5: were killed. I want to shout out the Power Coalition,
Speaker 5: all of the organizations in our state, the grassrooms organizers.
Speaker 6: My social media was.
Speaker 5: Lit up with people posting all through early voting, posting
Speaker 5: all through the week, and what I love about this.
Speaker 5: We went to five different cities doing town halls. We
Speaker 5: went to Streamport where Fifties got his music, his movie
Speaker 5: studio that he's working on.
Speaker 6: And while we.
Speaker 5: Were in Shreveport, I would have loved to have had the
Speaker 5: opportunity to sit down with my brother before he goes
Speaker 5: out and talks about these things in a public manner.
Speaker 6: But to your point to me, the legislature had a
Speaker 6: film tax credit.
Speaker 5: That was within a limbo state with the new governor
Speaker 5: trying to make changes around November, and so those changes
Speaker 5: went through and I think what happened here was when
Speaker 5: the governor got scared after seeing that early vote numbers
Speaker 5: were up at thirty seven percent for black voters, he
Speaker 5: tried to find the only black person he could get
Speaker 5: to get on the phone and text black.
Speaker 6: People to encourage them to support it.
Speaker 5: Now, what I understand about fifty is he's somebody who's
Speaker 5: a capitalist. And I don't have a problem with people
Speaker 5: advancing themselves. I don't have a problem with people making money.
Speaker 5: I am welcoming to people coming to Streetforce specifically, which
Speaker 5: I believe has the bones to be one of the
Speaker 5: greatest cities in America in Louisiana. However, I do take
Speaker 5: issue with when you tap in with white people to
Speaker 5: tell black people what we need to do. I do
Speaker 5: struggle when you are a person who says that you
Speaker 5: won't touch politics and you don't deal with politics. I
Speaker 5: have no problem if you would have been advocating for
Speaker 5: yourself to get your taxi center, but your stuff was
Speaker 5: already approved, sir. They are resigned to inat for you,
Speaker 5: so you didn't have to go out and advocate for them.
Speaker 5: You didn't have to take that role, and you didn't
Speaker 5: have to not check in with black folk. I think
Speaker 5: that you know, that is a disingenuous position to say
Speaker 5: that you're not political and then to get all up
Speaker 5: into politics, allowing people to send a video to thousands
Speaker 5: of black voters in the state of Louisiana and then
Speaker 5: expect those same black people to be supportive with you
Speaker 5: later when you aren't supportive of the things that they're
Speaker 5: supportive of. I think it's a walking contradiction. And so
Speaker 5: I reached out to different folks that I the relationship
Speaker 5: with him that to just say, hey, can you tell
Speaker 5: dude that this is not necessarily the direction. And people
Speaker 5: shared with me that they felt that he would continue
Speaker 5: to do so because he was good for his business,
Speaker 5: and what's good for a black entrepreneur's business is not
Speaker 5: always good for the people.
Speaker 3: So I just want to be clear. So what exactly
Speaker 3: was he advocating for.
Speaker 5: So he advocated for a constitutional amendment number two, I
Speaker 5: want to be specific.
Speaker 6: He did not advocate for one to three or four.
Speaker 5: He was advocating for the tax plan that would have
Speaker 5: restructured Louisiana's tax plan, and he said that he was
Speaker 5: in agreement with the governor on the effort to bring
Speaker 5: businesses into Louisiana through this tax plan. The reality, though,
Speaker 5: is this tax plan would have increased taxes for poor
Speaker 5: people because we would have had a host of more
Speaker 5: things that we paid sales taxes for. So there's this
Speaker 5: illusion that they were going to give people a flat
Speaker 5: tax of sorts, but it's not a flat tax.
Speaker 6: It would have benefited people who made over one hundred
Speaker 6: and fifty thousand.
Speaker 5: Dollars a year, where they'd have more of their money
Speaker 5: their power, but people who make under one hundred and
Speaker 5: fifty thousand thousand years would have ended up spending more
Speaker 5: of their money in sales SAX.
Speaker 1: So that seems to be the new theme.
Speaker 3: I think America's theme now is that we're just going
Speaker 3: to give people who have more money, do you know,
Speaker 3: more tax cuts, and we're just gonna on the back
Speaker 3: of the poor people. I think that's the new theme.
Speaker 2: Well, it's not new, it's not a new thing.
Speaker 4: It's actually something that has has really been sort of
Speaker 4: baked into the existence of the nation.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 4: But what we have done as advocates, and it's not,
Speaker 4: of course just our generation. This has been going on
Speaker 4: since I am just thinking about speeches I've heard Reverend
Speaker 4: Jesse Jackson and others make. They forced the conversation one
Speaker 4: to the forefront where it would even be discussed that
Speaker 4: the people are not able to take home as much
Speaker 4: money sometimes as the damn rich people, which makes absolutely
Speaker 4: no sense that it's so imbalanced. But what they forced
Speaker 4: more than that was to ensure that elected officials that
Speaker 4: are coming to ask for our votes would go back
Speaker 4: and fight from the federal to the state level to
Speaker 4: ensure that the tax codes do not underrepresent our people
Speaker 4: and over protect rather the rich. And so that didn't
Speaker 4: just happen, you know, by happenstance, it's always what they've wanted,
Speaker 4: even and that's whether it's Democrat or Republican. We've had
Speaker 4: to address this issue multiple times, but right now we're
Speaker 4: dealing with an administration that they don't give a damn
Speaker 4: you know, so they're just like, we're gonna we're gonna
Speaker 4: force it through no matter what. So thank you for
Speaker 4: the clarification on the exact amendment that fifty supported. And
Speaker 4: the reason why that's important to me is because, you know,
Speaker 4: in the beginning, I was trying to remember what was
Speaker 4: the episode.
Speaker 2: It's been so many weeks ago. Months ago.
Speaker 4: But now it came back to me, and that's exactly
Speaker 4: what it was. It was the tax code, and he
Speaker 4: was concerned about whether or not this tax code would
Speaker 4: ultimately impact his business in a way that no longer
Speaker 4: made it beneficial for him to do business in Louisiana.
Speaker 4: Now I remember what that's exactly.
Speaker 6: That's exactly so.
Speaker 2: No, no, I was gonna say.
Speaker 4: So that that further undergirds my point about why he
Speaker 4: would come out in support of one of these amendments,
Speaker 4: which are not good for the community at all, is
Speaker 4: because this is the exact thing, exact thing that he
Speaker 4: was working with and concerned about in terms of coming
Speaker 4: to Louisiana in the first place.
Speaker 5: And listen, he's been buying up property in Streetport. People
Speaker 5: in Streetport are excited about it, But sixty percent of
Speaker 5: Streetport voted against this. Right, So when you look at
Speaker 5: the numbers, the raw numbers of what Louisiana's thought about this,
Speaker 5: the majority of people thought this was a bad idea.
Speaker 5: The other thing is this was the first time that
Speaker 5: voters got to show Jeff Landre at the ballot box
Speaker 5: what they thought about and since he got sworn in January,
Speaker 5: of twenty twenty four, there's been no opportunity for voters
Speaker 5: to tell you, we don't think any of these things
Speaker 5: that you're attempting to do a good ideas. We don't
Speaker 5: believe that incarcerating more young people is a good idea.
Speaker 5: We don't believe that taxing more old people is a
Speaker 5: good idea. We don't believe that more taxes for young
Speaker 5: people who are trying to start a family having to
Speaker 5: give more than money to sales taxes. And even one
Speaker 5: of the services that they were going to tax is
Speaker 5: like takeout services or takeout on food.
Speaker 6: Right, you're gonna tax every single thing.
Speaker 5: They just added subscriptions like Netflix and all of these
Speaker 5: other things that they're gonna tax folks on. So basically,
Speaker 5: every time you spend a dollar, Louisiana wants a piece
Speaker 5: of it.
Speaker 4: Under Jeff Landing, hmm, absolutely, that makes a lot of
Speaker 4: sense that the people rejected it, And you know, and
Speaker 4: I think I would love to hear you speak to
Speaker 4: what is kind of next, right, because once you get
Speaker 4: people in the posture of resistance, which is exactly what
Speaker 4: this is, and we keep telling folks that resistance does
Speaker 4: not have to look like being out of the protest
Speaker 4: or on the front lines. Resistance can look like a
Speaker 4: lot of things, and this particular election was one of
Speaker 4: those moments when people said, we're resisting this nonsense.
Speaker 2: So what do you think is next.
Speaker 4: In terms of helping to cultivate this attitude in this
Speaker 4: posture of the community. The thirty seven percent of black
Speaker 4: early voters, how do we funnel them or how do
Speaker 4: you funnel them in Louisiana into action?
Speaker 5: So I'm going to continue partner with the different organizations
Speaker 5: that are doing daily, organized and daily efforts to inform
Speaker 5: and educate our people. I'm also kicking off some civics
Speaker 5: for the people around the state in the next few
Speaker 5: weeks between the work that we're going to do on
Speaker 5: the tour, because I think that we've got to engage
Speaker 5: and inform our people. I think the energy that people have,
Speaker 5: though it was a twenty two percent turnout, twenty one
Speaker 5: twenty two percent turnout, it is a ricochet effect as far.
Speaker 6: As the energy.
Speaker 5: People are excited, and you all know a lot of
Speaker 5: our people like the follow a winner, and so when
Speaker 5: things are moving in the right direction, that's going to
Speaker 5: get more people to see their power. And I think
Speaker 5: once people can identify through the data that, look, this
Speaker 5: is real that black voters in this state made a difference,
Speaker 5: made an impact, and then informed them.
Speaker 6: I heard somebody say something the other day recently.
Speaker 5: And they said that they asked Jesse Jackson, speaking of
Speaker 5: rev that why are black folks so good at basketball
Speaker 5: or sports and things of this nature, and he said,
Speaker 5: it's the only place where the rules are in.
Speaker 6: The lightning don't change.
Speaker 5: When we deal with politics, the rules change often, right,
Speaker 5: The mechanisms at which the plays move are faster.
Speaker 6: Than we understand before the rules change again.
Speaker 5: And so it's important that we inform our people about
Speaker 5: the basic fundamentals of government, because if you understand the basics,
Speaker 5: no matter how much they change the rules, you go
Speaker 5: back to the constitution, You go back to the governing
Speaker 5: documents that help you in all of the efforts. And
Speaker 5: that's why we continue to win in the courts against
Speaker 5: Donald Trump.
Speaker 6: That's why we were able to educate voters around the state.
Speaker 5: About bad tax policy and bad policies that would further
Speaker 5: incarcerate our kids. But more importantly, that's how we educate
Speaker 5: our people moving forward about all of the efforts that
Speaker 5: the government is attempting to do against them, and really,
Speaker 5: once you show them that, I run trust to briariance
Speaker 5: as black people, but two people can see through the
Speaker 5: smoke screens of who is for them and who is
Speaker 5: against them.
Speaker 6: And people want more money in their pockets.
Speaker 5: They want safe communities, and they want their kids to
Speaker 5: go to a school that is safe.
Speaker 6: And giving them a quality education.
Speaker 5: They want to ride on roads that don't bust their tires,
Speaker 5: and they want to make sure that they can build
Speaker 5: a family in the community that is striving of sorts.
Speaker 5: And so that's what we are to be talking about.
Speaker 5: We should be talking about blue collar issues. Everybody's not
Speaker 5: going to be a millionaire. Everybody's not gonna be a billionaire,
Speaker 5: but people are to be able to have some stability
Speaker 5: in their households and their families.
Speaker 3: I definitely agree. You know, I've been dealing, I've been
Speaker 3: grappling with the Democratic Party and black people and the
Speaker 3: disenfranchisement because I understand how history works, right, and I realized,
Speaker 3: like every one hundred years they've seen the disenfranchised black people,
Speaker 3: and we just find ourselves going from one party in
Speaker 3: one situation to the next. What do you think is
Speaker 3: gonna take for us to get on the same page.
Speaker 3: Is the Democratic Party completely done? Do black people need
Speaker 3: to stay there? Do we need to create our own party? Like?
Speaker 3: What do you think is the next step for us?
Speaker 6: I think it has to be multi faceted.
Speaker 5: I don't think that Democrats should be comfortable with black folks,
Speaker 5: but I also think that we have to recognize the
Speaker 5: tenth that shares the majority of the values that we
Speaker 5: share today. Collectively, black folks have the ability to be
Speaker 5: attacked in a way that other folks have not been
Speaker 5: attacked in this country historically. And every piece of right
Speaker 5: that any other marginalized group has gotten they got on
Speaker 5: the backs of black people in our advocacy. And so
Speaker 5: what we have to remember is we are the moral
Speaker 5: compass of this nation, not a political party. That we
Speaker 5: have moved the Republican Party to do what is right
Speaker 5: and just, and we have moved the Democratic Party to
Speaker 5: do what is writing just. What we need to do
Speaker 5: is decide what is the collective agenda and posture of
Speaker 5: Black America and demand that whichever party it is, give
Speaker 5: us what we ask for.
Speaker 6: And I think that when we put ourselves into that
Speaker 6: position where.
Speaker 5: We are clear on two, three, five things that we
Speaker 5: want to see together that whatever entity yields to us
Speaker 5: the results that the people desire is the entity that
Speaker 5: we build powered with. I don't think that the Republican
Speaker 5: Party is currently in a posture that is welcoming to that.
Speaker 5: But I also think that the Democratic Party is in
Speaker 5: the wrong posture because I think the Democratic Party, in
Speaker 5: the advent of white voters pivoting more towards Trump, they
Speaker 5: have said, well, we need to figure out how to
Speaker 5: go fish them out of the pond, instead of saying,
Speaker 5: if we are looking at an electoral map, how do
Speaker 5: I shift to the place where the majority of my
Speaker 5: base where ninety two percent of Black women over eighty
Speaker 5: percent of black men voting for the Democratic.
Speaker 6: Ticket in Kamala Aarris and Tim Wallas.
Speaker 5: Why is there not a southern strategy focused on Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama,
Speaker 5: North Carolina, and Georgia as the new Blue Wall, as
Speaker 5: the battleground states.
Speaker 6: And we can begin shaping and determining that today.
Speaker 5: And I believe that that's a part of what the
Speaker 5: black community around this country needs to do. And that's
Speaker 5: not to diminish the places where black folks are in
Speaker 5: like you all in New York and New Jersey, in
Speaker 5: Philly and Detroit. But it is to say that fifty
Speaker 5: five percent of our people living in Deep South, and
Speaker 5: if we are strategic about the critical mass that exists there,
Speaker 5: then we can take this country and run it for
Speaker 5: the next hundred years.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, let me before you go.
Speaker 4: I love for you to react to some of the
Speaker 4: two elections that happened just a few days after the
Speaker 4: Louisiana positive vote no on the constitutional amendments. In Florida,
Speaker 4: we saw that Florida did what Florida does, which is
Speaker 4: in the congressional race the special election, they absolutely, in
Speaker 4: my judgment, I'm sure you agree, chose the wrong person
Speaker 4: to lead there.
Speaker 2: And then in Wisconsin.
Speaker 4: We saw it was the judge ship right Supreme Court,
Speaker 4: the judgeship election, and we saw that a woman. You
Speaker 4: know what, I'm gonna be honest with you. So first
Speaker 4: of all, let me just get this out that the
Speaker 4: people rejected the Republican candidate who also is a Trump
Speaker 4: supporter and was supported by Elon Musk. So it's not
Speaker 4: just being a Republican, because there's Republican and then there's
Speaker 4: Republicans that aligned with the oligarchy, right that aligned with
Speaker 4: the oligarchy, and those individuals are just a complete no
Speaker 4: for us.
Speaker 2: So there's a woman.
Speaker 4: Who was elected, and you know, we're glad that we
Speaker 4: got this woman in position. Cool, But what I'm really
Speaker 4: concerned about, and I want to hear your opinion, It's
Speaker 4: almost like when I was watching her, I watched the
Speaker 4: whole speech, and I'm glad that the other gentlemen didn't win,
Speaker 4: But I never heard her say anything that made me
Speaker 4: feel like this was going to be a judge who
Speaker 4: would go to the bench and not just be there
Speaker 4: as a blockade for what we're fighting against in terms
Speaker 4: of the Trump administration and their oppressive tactics, but also
Speaker 4: what are you fighting for, Like you know, and I'm
Speaker 4: not talking about just women's right to choose. Those things
Speaker 4: are cool, but I'm talking about the people of Wisconsin, and.
Speaker 2: You have black people who are also there.
Speaker 4: And I'm not saying that she should have called black
Speaker 4: people out, but I just never feel like we're getting
Speaker 4: somebody who is going to be an advocate for the
Speaker 4: issues of the most vulnerable populations in our states and
Speaker 4: in our society. And I just want to know, like,
Speaker 4: do you feel that or you kind of like, we
Speaker 4: ain't got time to worry about that right now, let's
Speaker 4: just block these people, which is also a strategy.
Speaker 6: I think.
Speaker 5: Two things in that one, I'm glad that she won
Speaker 5: that race is indicative. I saw a Tesla and figure
Speaker 5: rot post something while where the Republicans spent more, the
Speaker 5: Democrats spent more money in Florida, and the Republicans spent
Speaker 5: more money in Wisconsin. So Elon helped the Republican there
Speaker 5: in Wisconsin, and Democrats were trying to help the Democrat
Speaker 5: down in Florida, and the Republican won in Florida, and
Speaker 5: the Democrat won. So money doesn't always win people. Power does,
Speaker 5: and so I think that's one thing. Number two, to
Speaker 5: your point, Wisconsin is black, eight percent Hispanic, over seventy
Speaker 5: plus percent white. I don't anticipate that white people who
Speaker 5: represent majority white people will be talking about black issues.
Speaker 5: And that's as a Deep Southerner who understands how white
Speaker 5: candidates chase the white electorate, and the fewer of us
Speaker 5: there are, the less they feel they need to address
Speaker 5: our issues. And so I think that that is what
Speaker 5: we see in Wisconsin and why I am saying that
Speaker 5: Wisconsin should no longer be a battle ground state. I
Speaker 5: don't oppose people advocating for the people that they mostly represent,
Speaker 5: but that is detrimental to people like us when you
Speaker 5: especially when you're trying to inspire people in Milwaukee to
Speaker 5: get out and vote for somebody like that, right, and
Speaker 5: so I think that that is the give and take
Speaker 5: that we play in many of these places because some
Speaker 5: of us are in these communities because this is what
Speaker 5: we know, this is what we love. Some of us
Speaker 5: are there because this is where opportunity resides for us.
Speaker 5: But the reality is understanding for us as black people,
Speaker 5: that the smaller the demographics are for us, the less
Speaker 5: we are considered. The reason I believe that black people
Speaker 5: are easier to get elected state wide in a Illinois
Speaker 5: or a Wisconsin, even in New York, is because black
Speaker 5: people are less of the population than they are in
Speaker 5: the Deep South, where we are over thirty percent of
Speaker 5: the population in Mississippi, over thirty percent of the population
Speaker 5: in Louisiana, over twenty eight percent, twenty something percent of
Speaker 5: the population in North Carolina. The higher that percentage goes
Speaker 5: of the black population in the state, the fewer opportunities
Speaker 5: exist for black people to be able to get a
Speaker 5: state wide position because once your demographics are higher.
Speaker 6: The belief by some within the white community.
Speaker 5: And I want to be very clear that I'm saying some,
Speaker 5: because sometime when black folks say certain thing, they act
Speaker 5: like we all races.
Speaker 6: In April, but were tell the truth.
Speaker 5: But some white people believe that if you let these
Speaker 5: black people take this, they gonna take it all.
Speaker 6: And the proof of that is this picture behind me.
Speaker 5: The last time black people took all state a bunch
Speaker 5: of state positions in Louisiana was eighteen seventy two. Ister
Speaker 5: Done was elected as a lieutenant governor of Louisiana. Around
Speaker 5: that time, we had a black lieutenant governor. We had
Speaker 5: a black governor for about thirty days. We had a
Speaker 5: black secretary of Education and a black secretary of the
Speaker 5: treasurer in the eighteen hundreds. You know, So when you
Speaker 5: process that, that is what many in white America are
Speaker 5: trying to prevent. They don't want to see a makeup
Speaker 5: in this country where black people take the mechanisms of power,
Speaker 5: because that's how you ended up with Southern University in
Speaker 5: Granma State University, right. Those institutions came because when our
Speaker 5: ancestors got these positions.
Speaker 6: Of power, they created avenues.
Speaker 5: And institutions for us to be educated, They created pathways
Speaker 5: and pipeways for us to be on industry, and those
Speaker 5: folks saw that as an attack on them because they
Speaker 5: have always seen us as less.
Speaker 4: Than in privut And you think that that has something
Speaker 4: to do with why they overwhelmingly supported the voter ID law.
Speaker 6: Absolutely. Absolutely.
Speaker 5: I think that when you look at white voters, don't
Speaker 5: they think that these things make sense?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 6: That why are we as black people saying that this
Speaker 6: is a problem. Just don't get tried d right.
Speaker 5: They don't recognize all the hurdles that exist within our community,
Speaker 5: and quite frankly, they don't.
Speaker 4: Care, right, Yeah, And that's what I was trying to articulate.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Gary, but that's what I was trying to articulate.
Speaker 4: Like I listened to her speaking the new Judge, but
Speaker 4: I just felt like, Okay, but you also know that
Speaker 4: this other thing is happening where black folks and brown
Speaker 4: folks will be disenfranchised with the voter ID law. And
Speaker 4: I didn't hear anything that made me feel like she
Speaker 4: was going to be an advocate against or for whichever
Speaker 4: way we want to position it that as well. But
Speaker 4: I think it makes sense. I mean, the percentage is
Speaker 4: what it is. The you know, when we don't have
Speaker 4: a critical mass, we absolutely cannot expect that they are
Speaker 4: going to pay attention to us, because they don't even
Speaker 4: want to pay attention to us when we do have
Speaker 4: critical mass, and so we would be you know, fooling
Speaker 4: ourselves to believe otherwise. But I don't know, I was
Speaker 4: just watching. I was I'm you know, I'm beyond you know, obviously,
Speaker 4: we're all beyond party politics, and I'm definitely beyond the symbolism,
Speaker 4: and I'm beyond the coalition of white women and black
Speaker 4: women because I'm not you know, that has not done
Speaker 4: us well at all in many respects. And I'm not
Speaker 4: asking y'all, I'm telling you, you know, what I have
Speaker 4: experienced as a black woman. It's actually been quite plain painful.
Speaker 4: That does not mean, to your point that they always
Speaker 4: try to, you know, say that we're being hateful. It
Speaker 4: doesn't mean that there are not some important coalitions and
Speaker 4: that they are not white women who are doing great
Speaker 4: work and standing with us, walking with us, funding our
Speaker 4: movements and you know, doing the best that they can,
Speaker 4: but I'm talking about overall, it's actually pretty dangerous when
Speaker 4: we as women of color link up with white women
Speaker 4: who haven't done the work and the processing of their
Speaker 4: own bias and the pain that is caused to us
Speaker 4: with their tears. And so when I was listening to her,
Speaker 4: I just wanted to be a little bit more inspired,
Speaker 4: and I kind of fell back in my seat and said, damn.
Speaker 4: But I know if I say that, but which it
Speaker 4: is going to be said publicly. But if I would
Speaker 4: have said that at the night when she was elected,
Speaker 4: people would have been like, you being negative, Betty, when
Speaker 4: right now, what we need is to ensure that these
Speaker 4: folks do not advance their agenda any more than they
Speaker 4: already have with Project twenty twenty five and all the
Speaker 4: diabolical things that they're attempting to do. So with that
Speaker 4: being said, I do understand that we have to have strategies.
Speaker 4: Not all we're not gonna get everything that we want.
Speaker 4: But it just felt like to me, like damn, Okay,
Speaker 4: I guess thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 5: That's how I f I think the way we get
Speaker 5: to look at that is that we don't get an advocate,
Speaker 5: but we do get a vote good, Right, we don't
Speaker 5: get somebody who's gonna be voting for us, but we
Speaker 5: do hope that the votes that she cast on there
Speaker 5: as a justice on that court will be on the
Speaker 5: side of just sub equity and fairness. I believe that
Speaker 5: there are white people in positions of power in the
Speaker 5: Democratic Party that have displayed that, uh, that that are
Speaker 5: holding the line on some of the key issues for
Speaker 5: us on the bench, and it is my hope that
Speaker 5: she will do those things.
Speaker 6: What I have learned is I don't desire to spend
Speaker 6: my time.
Speaker 5: Trying to get folks to do things that I believe
Speaker 5: they don't really want to do.
Speaker 6: When it comes to people like that, right.
Speaker 5: But I'm focused more on trying to get those that
Speaker 5: do think the same to mobilize in a way that
Speaker 5: when we are on one accord, it forces them to
Speaker 5: do what is just. It forces them uh to become
Speaker 5: advocates in this moment, and I think we are at
Speaker 5: the impetus of seeing that for our generation, that there's
Speaker 5: a point where the temperature will get rised enough and
Speaker 5: the strategy will meet enough that we will be able
Speaker 5: to create the environment. I think uh that makes more
Speaker 5: of them join us in the courus that says enough
Speaker 5: is enough on these issues.
Speaker 3: Speaking of that, I want to end with this Corey
Speaker 3: Booker in his historical Full of Buster. Do you believe
Speaker 3: that it's motivational, it's going to aspire? Do you think
Speaker 3: it's going to give some energy to the people to
Speaker 3: the resistance?
Speaker 1: What do you think about it?
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 5: It inspired me in the way that I know what
Speaker 5: strom Thurman was. And strom Thurman was a hate for
Speaker 5: racist segregationist from South Carolina.
Speaker 6: Who hated black people, and he stood in the well.
Speaker 5: Of the US Senate for twenty four hours to stand
Speaker 5: in the way of civil rights.
Speaker 6: Now, my only pushback is I wish.
Speaker 5: That there would have been some piece of legislation attached
Speaker 5: to what the senator was standing for. However, him being
Speaker 5: willing to stand for twenty five hours to break the
Speaker 5: record of strong theurnment, to say that in this hour,
Speaker 5: what we are dealing with in this country, it's so egregious,
Speaker 5: so immoral, so unjust, so unequitable and wrong, I think
Speaker 5: will inspire people. I think for people who are disconnected
Speaker 5: from the process, And that's why I think that some
Speaker 5: of us that are in this work don't realize that
Speaker 5: for somebody who's disconnected from the process, tapped out, not
Speaker 5: paying attention. Because we always talk about the people who
Speaker 5: do vote, but there's a whole lot of folks who
Speaker 5: have not voted. But when they saw that brother staying
Speaker 5: there with his moral conviction and talk for twenty five hours.
Speaker 5: You don't get to three hundred million people liking something
Speaker 5: without people from all backgrounds, all walks of life, people
Speaker 5: who did vote, people who didn't vote, deciding that this
Speaker 5: was something that got my attention, made me feel something
Speaker 5: of value and may inspire more people to move.
Speaker 6: I don't know.
Speaker 5: The total impact that will come from it, but I
Speaker 5: hope that it is something that inspires more people to
Speaker 5: stand up and do something in the critical moments where
Speaker 5: that's standing up will yield us a lockage or the
Speaker 5: passage of something that advances all people.
Speaker 6: Within this touch.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, I agree, one hundred percent. I give a
Speaker 4: lot of credit to Corey Booker for what he did.
Speaker 4: It's not easy for those of us who have to
Speaker 4: talk for a living. It's not you even we run
Speaker 4: out of words to say in thoughts and you get tired.
Speaker 4: And you could tell in his eyes when he announced
Speaker 4: that he was going to do the filibuster, which you know,
Speaker 4: philibuster is supposed to be more so about blocking votes.
Speaker 4: But he did block the business of the Senate, and
Speaker 4: you know, you could see in his.
Speaker 2: Eyes that he had that fire.
Speaker 4: First of all, he is from New Jersey and so
Speaker 4: he had that look like I gotta do something because
Speaker 4: I know to do nothing is morally unjust and I
Speaker 4: must step up.
Speaker 2: I have to, I have to step up. And so
Speaker 2: I'm very proud of what he did.
Speaker 4: And if for the naysayers out there, if it wasn't
Speaker 4: important what he did, then strong Thurman would not have
Speaker 4: used the same mechanism to try to fight against our rights.
Speaker 4: So people know that what he did was impactful, it
Speaker 4: was important, and the people who do nothing have a
Speaker 4: lot to say, as you said, my son, have a
Speaker 4: lot to say about people who are actually doing something,
Speaker 4: and it's our job to push him and others in
Speaker 4: the Senate and in the entire federal government to do
Speaker 4: more to protect us in the stand up. So I
Speaker 4: just want to say thank you to you, Gary for
Speaker 4: being a very critical voice and a partner in the work,
Speaker 4: and thank you for being so brilliant because every time
Speaker 4: I talk to you, I feel like I learned something.
Speaker 4: I sharpen my skills, and that's what we're supposed to do,
Speaker 4: you know, for one another. So God bless you and
Speaker 4: thank you so much for coming on the TMI show today.
Speaker 2: We appreciate you, my brother, Thank you both.
Speaker 5: I really appreciate you both to me and my Sign
Speaker 5: and all of the work that you do.
Speaker 6: My Sign has been a brother that I have looked
Speaker 6: at from the distance.
Speaker 5: You know, to Meeka, you and I have been back
Speaker 5: and forth for years, but I never had the opportunity
Speaker 5: to tell my son how much I appreciate the way
Speaker 5: you say up as a black man, uh and the
Speaker 5: way that you are confident in your position as a
Speaker 5: black man.
Speaker 6: Brother. We need you. I appreciate you, and I look
Speaker 6: forward to all of the.
Speaker 5: Work to making masign that we're gonna do together to
Speaker 5: make this world a more just and equitable place for
Speaker 5: all our children.
Speaker 3: Feeling his mutual king, man, I appreciate you. Shout out
Speaker 3: to our brother Gary Chambers. He's always educating and speaking
Speaker 3: truth to power. I remember the first time I saw him.
Speaker 3: He was at a community meeting calling out one of
Speaker 3: the elected officials, and he was reading this lady to
Speaker 3: the point she had to walk out, you know, and
Speaker 3: it was just amazing and just watching his trajectory continue
Speaker 3: to grow, continue to educate. You know, I know he's
Speaker 3: going to be one of the figures in Louisiana very soon.
Speaker 3: We're gonna vote him, and we're gonna make sure he
Speaker 3: gets voted in.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he got going that he can't never stop because
Speaker 4: he's supposed to be.
Speaker 3: Like when you listen to him, you know, he loves people.
Speaker 3: He's for just yeah, he knows what.
Speaker 1: He's talking about.
Speaker 3: He wants what's right and equitable, and anybody who wants
Speaker 3: that is on the side of my side anyway, you know.
Speaker 3: So that brings me to a completely different subject, you know,
Speaker 3: for my I don't get them today now. It comes
Speaker 3: from just a lot of just different things, you know,
Speaker 3: just being a black man in America, you know, and
Speaker 3: you see so many different accusations you hear, you know,
Speaker 3: people being charged with sexual assault and assault. Just even
Speaker 3: last week, you know, with the young Scooter situation, right,
Speaker 3: and I don't know the whole situation, but I know
Speaker 3: a woman called the police on him and he ended
Speaker 3: up losing his life, right, and the accusations that she
Speaker 3: made at that time just weren't true.
Speaker 1: For Yeah, they weren't true.
Speaker 3: Lady called the police and said that he had drug
Speaker 3: a woman out, beating from her kids. He was doing
Speaker 3: all this stuff. She constantly called and they came over.
Speaker 3: He ran, ended up trying to climb over a gate,
Speaker 3: end up cutting his legs to the point where he
Speaker 3: died trying to run away from the police.
Speaker 2: That he dragged her.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she was saying no, she didn't say it was
Speaker 3: even herbody. She said it was another woman, and then
Speaker 3: she came back.
Speaker 2: They found out it wasn't.
Speaker 3: So they found out because this situation that never happened.
Speaker 3: So when they went to try to find there was
Speaker 3: no person at the house saying this happened. Yeah, they
Speaker 3: found out this lady she said she made calls because
Speaker 3: he had done this to her in the past.
Speaker 6: Wow.
Speaker 4: I was wondering about the leg because I saw that
Speaker 4: they said his leg turned. Then you know that he died,
Speaker 4: and I thought maybe he had like gang green or
Speaker 4: something like that. I was thinking about trying to figure
Speaker 4: it out, but you know, moving on to the next day,
Speaker 4: it never occurred to me. I never read the story.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my God, it was, you know.
Speaker 3: So they're still going to the lady has been arrested
Speaker 3: since you know, she's been arrested for false accusations leading
Speaker 3: to the death.
Speaker 1: So it's it's a situation, you know.
Speaker 3: And in this situation, it's actually been recourse in consequences
Speaker 3: for making course because he lost his life.
Speaker 4: Right, But there's gonna be some fool that's gonna say,
Speaker 4: why did he run?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean black men gonna run from the police, because.
Speaker 2: Not all black men are gonna run.
Speaker 1: There's a lot, not all. I'm not saying all.
Speaker 3: But when you come from where we come from, most
Speaker 3: of us do not want to have any police contact.
Speaker 3: So we're trying to get the word all never came
Speaker 3: on my mouth. I said, black men. They're all black men.
Speaker 3: There are a strong, you know, constituency of black men
Speaker 3: that are going to get out the way of the police.
Speaker 3: They do not want any police contact. And you don't
Speaker 3: never know.
Speaker 1: What he was doing.
Speaker 3: He pbably has drugs whatever, nobody I'm not saying anything.
Speaker 3: He probably anything, probably had a warrant, you know, he know, he.
Speaker 1: Didn't phase one.
Speaker 2: Probably he may have.
Speaker 3: He may have had you know, there's a possib Well,
Speaker 3: he just didn't want to deal with the police.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: That's I mean, that's that's also that is also a
Speaker 4: deafening reminder of what I was talking about earlier, Like, yes, absolutely,
Speaker 4: we all have responsibility, the kids that I'm you know,
Speaker 4: the whole story called O City. Yes, everybody has responsibility,
Speaker 4: but the system also has to be accountable for how
Speaker 4: people feel about interacting with police and law enforcement in
Speaker 4: the criminal justice system. That also has to be a
Speaker 4: part of the conversation, because otherwise there's no reason why
Speaker 4: he should not have been able.
Speaker 2: Man, I gotta go read not even give.
Speaker 3: My But that brings me back to my original point
Speaker 3: was what I don't get is how black men are criminalized,
Speaker 3: accused of sexual assault, accused of rape, accused of all
Speaker 3: these things, and in a lot of instances, when these
Speaker 3: accusations are found to be false, there's no recourse, there's
Speaker 3: no apology, there's no public stating the hey, this has
Speaker 3: been false.
Speaker 1: Right after you taken especially for a.
Speaker 3: Sexual assault, after you taking a man's livelihood, you taken
Speaker 3: his deals, especially when it did you are a celebrity,
Speaker 3: and they come, you get fired, You don't lost this contract.
Speaker 3: You can't get hired there, you can't did this. All
Speaker 3: of this stuff is taken from you. And then if
Speaker 3: the situation is found to be false and the charges
Speaker 3: will be dropped and all of this, they don't give
Speaker 3: you none of this back, right, you still stay and
Speaker 3: they don't even publicly. No, there's no loud admittance this
Speaker 3: was wrong, right, all of those the tmzs and all
Speaker 3: of the main blog sites and all of the main
Speaker 3: shows you want news after they do a little post
Speaker 3: in the newspaper to say, hey, you know he's fine,
Speaker 3: not good, you didn't this one was dropped, this and that.
Speaker 3: But there's never as loud as the accusations, right, So,
Speaker 3: and there's never really anything that gives you back the
Speaker 3: time you lost, you know, give you back the money
Speaker 3: you lost, give you back the opportunity as they loss.
Speaker 1: So I really don't get why.
Speaker 3: I don't get why people don't think it's important to to,
Speaker 3: you know, set the record straight and redirect the negativity
Speaker 3: from someone who you have focused the negativity.
Speaker 1: Right you, You.
Speaker 3: Was very adamant about making sure that you had the
Speaker 3: first news and you want to report it breaking news
Speaker 3: and such has been, you know, accused of assault and
Speaker 3: sexual assault.
Speaker 1: And rape and all these things.
Speaker 3: But then it's a two second, Oh, charges have been
Speaker 3: dropped and next we're on to this.
Speaker 2: No, not just sexual assault.
Speaker 3: But it's mainly sexual I've lived because listen to me,
Speaker 3: let me, let me, let me say, let me just
Speaker 3: finish this, right. I have been paying attention to Diddy's case.
Speaker 3: Now once again, I cannot confirm or to not any
Speaker 3: accusations or not. But I know in the last few
Speaker 3: weeks I've heard many of the cases that was against
Speaker 3: him dropped silently, right because I just happened to do
Speaker 3: research and I know, but I know they already had
Speaker 3: surviving diddies.
Speaker 1: They got all type of.
Speaker 3: Shit to where you're completely throwing this man through the dirt.
Speaker 3: But nobody is saying that twenty one cases have been
Speaker 3: dropped or they found that this didn't have any significance.
Speaker 3: When they was talking about the guy who Little whatever
Speaker 3: his name was, to produce a guy and they said
Speaker 3: he did all of this, and they put this man
Speaker 3: name and accusations and the shootings and all this. He
Speaker 3: had a whole thing that they put all over the world.
Speaker 3: And people saw this, right, and these things were, these
Speaker 3: things were instrumental in that man going to jail. Because
Speaker 3: I don't know all of the things, but I know
Speaker 3: I've been telling people very just very intently now that
Speaker 3: cases are built.
Speaker 1: On the internet.
Speaker 3: They're not no longer built from evidence and this and
Speaker 3: that they have Internet task force that look into these kids,
Speaker 3: that look and when you make an accusation, these people
Speaker 3: start building a case and doing an investigation based on
Speaker 3: what people are seeing online.
Speaker 1: This is a fact. This ain't something I'm thinking.
Speaker 3: Like in the last few weeks I've watched I've seen
Speaker 3: cases be built online with people just making accusations about people.
Speaker 1: There has been no connection.
Speaker 3: Even when you look at the guy Kivy D Keith
Speaker 3: D went online and talked about shit that they have
Speaker 3: no literal physical evidence about nothing he said other than
Speaker 3: what he said and it tied him to Tupac's murder.
Speaker 3: He's locked up right now with no physical evidence to
Speaker 3: cooperate anything he said, but just the words that he
Speaker 3: said because he was online just talking about.
Speaker 2: The words that you say should be no.
Speaker 3: But that's not true because people go online and cap
Speaker 3: all day.
Speaker 1: These people do things for content.
Speaker 2: But that's ignorant but that's what.
Speaker 1: But that's the world we in now.
Speaker 3: So if you sit here and if the thing is this,
Speaker 3: if I have a big enough following and I sit
Speaker 3: on this platform and say, yo, such and such shots
Speaker 3: somebody and I know he's involved, but I'm saying, I'm
Speaker 3: telling I did it.
Speaker 6: No.
Speaker 1: But what I'm trying to he said, I know who
Speaker 1: did this, and I was there when.
Speaker 2: This happened, right, So that's not saying dating.
Speaker 1: But that's just here. That's like anything. But that's the internet.
Speaker 1: The Internet. People want they want cloud but understand that.
Speaker 3: But it should have been evidence right before things were
Speaker 3: evidence based. If you said something we did, we did
Speaker 3: this is a fact. Well, because I should not be
Speaker 3: able to take you off the street and have you
Speaker 3: sitting in the cell without being able to get bailed
Speaker 3: out any that.
Speaker 2: That's just not I think that you are what I hear.
Speaker 2: Let me be careful.
Speaker 4: We ain't starting out our new season with you know,
Speaker 4: not being able to hear one another. But I do
Speaker 4: sense of conflating of a lot of different things. And
Speaker 4: one well I was I was giving you an instant
Speaker 4: and I was instances.
Speaker 2: Well you said it.
Speaker 4: I mean, if you want to say more about your
Speaker 4: original point that there's no recourse oftentimes you said that
Speaker 4: you say, most of the times these things are not true.
Speaker 4: You said most of the time when these things are
Speaker 4: not true isact there's no real recourse to address the
Speaker 4: harm that has been done to an individual, particularly a
Speaker 4: black man, who has suffered as a you know, as
Speaker 4: a as a result of it. So I think that
Speaker 4: point I support one hundred percent. I think as it
Speaker 4: relates to particular issues.
Speaker 2: And cases and what have you, that.
Speaker 4: You know, and the whole When you said that most
Speaker 4: of these cases sexual assault and other things like that,
Speaker 4: you said they, you know, most of them when they're
Speaker 4: getting a lot of them get dismissed and nothing is
Speaker 4: done about it. And what I want to say is
Speaker 4: that the stats are otherwise that most of the time
Speaker 4: when someone says that they were sexually assaulted, it is true.
Speaker 1: No, that's not you just you changed.
Speaker 2: With So maybe I did miss it.
Speaker 3: I said when those cases are dismissed, if they are dismissed,
Speaker 3: I didn't say that most of the time they're dismissed.
Speaker 4: That's that's said. A lot of the times when they're dismissed. Okay, Well,
Speaker 4: I just because I wanted to make sure that we
Speaker 4: say the stats are that the majority of the time
Speaker 4: people don't even say they were they don't even tell
Speaker 4: the truth about being sex and a lot of and
Speaker 4: a lot of times, a lot of times cases can
Speaker 4: also be dismissed. Now, I'm not so that there's nobody
Speaker 4: that's gonna go and say, oh, Tamika Mallory is saying
Speaker 4: it's this, that, and the third, because I am not
Speaker 4: speaking to any particular person's case, including puff right. But
Speaker 4: what I will say is that there are times when
Speaker 4: cases are dismissed that it does not mean that the
Speaker 4: person is not guilty of the action. It just means,
Speaker 4: like you said, to your point, and we get it,
Speaker 4: we have to in many ways depend on the criminal
Speaker 4: justice system to do the right thing in which we
Speaker 4: already know to deal with that. But that a lot
Speaker 4: of times a person is either unwilling to go but
Speaker 4: so far because your life can be ruined and or
Speaker 4: the evidence might be older, or you know, you might
Speaker 4: not be able to find the people or get them
Speaker 4: to speak up for you about what happened. And there's
Speaker 4: a whole lot of factors that go into that. So
Speaker 4: does that mean that the person who has been harmed
Speaker 4: deserves the repair. Ok So maybe, but then no, I'm
Speaker 4: just saying it makes it it's hard to have that
Speaker 4: conversation because it's kind of like, what about the people
Speaker 4: who just lost even though they were right?
Speaker 3: Well, but that's just like saying, what about somebody who
Speaker 3: was proven innocent that trial and goes home, Like do
Speaker 3: we still the consequences? Do we still say, hey, they
Speaker 3: should be in jail? Do we still sing all nout?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 3: So if we talk about due process, and we talking
Speaker 3: about the law and due process their individuals, both of
Speaker 3: our lives are.
Speaker 1: Being impacted, right, And if you accuse me.
Speaker 2: Of something, you should be able to And because at
Speaker 2: the end of the case.
Speaker 3: Because at the end of the day, once there is
Speaker 3: a case and we can't prove it, then we can't
Speaker 3: assume that somebody is lying or didn't like we We
Speaker 3: we have to go by the merit of what.
Speaker 1: The case is.
Speaker 2: So I agree with that. So I agree with that.
Speaker 4: So I agree with that, And I think that I
Speaker 4: was saying that it's conflated because it's some parts of
Speaker 4: what you're saying that I'm like, Okay, I completely get
Speaker 4: that there's some other parts that I get concerned about,
Speaker 4: just because I understand the dynamics of when people come
Speaker 4: forward with their stories and what have you. But if
Speaker 4: we focus on the overall premise of what you're saying,
Speaker 4: and it is true that I also saw that, you know,
Speaker 4: the charges were dismissed against puff, I think for a
Speaker 4: little somebody like you said, I don't know the man's name,
Speaker 4: but I saw on one place in a blink and
Speaker 4: I little something anyway something, but anyway, little Rod, little Rod,
Speaker 4: I did see that. And you're right, just using that
Speaker 4: as an example, everything in that lawsuit was everywhere, every
Speaker 4: single page of it, and I mean, it's so horrific
Speaker 4: to read that. If any of it is true, it's like,
Speaker 4: oh my god, Like this is crazy, right, And so yeah,
Speaker 4: it's everywhere, and then a judge dismisses it, and it's
Speaker 4: kind of like we might have it may have been
Speaker 4: in one place. So using a high profile case like
Speaker 4: that to make the point that it's louder when you
Speaker 4: are accused or when it's something negative or when it's
Speaker 4: in the red. But on the other side, when something
Speaker 4: has been done that is more so in your favor,
Speaker 4: you don't really hear from people because when folks have decided,
Speaker 4: no matter right, wrong of indifferent, that you are what
Speaker 4: you are and they just decided it, they don't even
Speaker 4: care to process any other information.
Speaker 2: And that's not just in his situation, that's for me.
Speaker 4: You know, that has been the case multiple times in
Speaker 4: my life when I've been slandered and told I said,
Speaker 4: you know, they label me as all kinds of things,
Speaker 4: and when a good thing happens, or when I do
Speaker 4: something to attempt to, you know, address.
Speaker 2: Whatever this looming.
Speaker 4: Narrative, you don't really even you You hardly can even
Speaker 4: find us responding on me responding. So, for instance, the
Speaker 4: whole situation with Samiria Rights, when she just you know,
Speaker 4: said that whatever, that we was taking advantage. She didn't
Speaker 4: even know your name, so whoever told her on your name?
Speaker 2: She said missy or.
Speaker 4: Something whatever, Sonnie, Sonni whatever, And you know, in saying that,
Speaker 4: you know, we were taking advantage of families and you
Speaker 4: using her child and all of that and benefiting from uh,
Speaker 4: the loss of life of our of our people. You know,
Speaker 4: when we responded to it by saying, because there were
Speaker 4: so many people were like nah, you know, y'all must've
Speaker 4: excuse me, y'all must have been working with her and
Speaker 4: you use her child. I'm like, bro, we never made
Speaker 4: a T shirt, never even met the lady, And I
Speaker 4: only said maybe we met her one time because it's possible,
Speaker 4: like we could have been at a conference or something
Speaker 4: and I don't remember, so I didn't want to say
Speaker 4: absolutely never, but I'm pretty sure that I never even
Speaker 4: met her before, just you know, after that happened, I
Speaker 4: met her, but that you would you could hardly find
Speaker 4: that if you google my name, you will hardly find
Speaker 4: where I am responding to the statements that she made
Speaker 4: against the person she never met, ever had no conversation with.
Speaker 4: So it's true. I mean that I get. I just
Speaker 4: want to make sure. It just triggers me. And you know,
Speaker 4: I think about so many things that happened to me
Speaker 4: where I didn't even feel comfortable saying it because I
Speaker 4: didn't I never even believe that there would be due
Speaker 4: process for me, let alone, when you speak about due
Speaker 4: process for us.
Speaker 2: So it's it's just it's a tough conversation.
Speaker 3: It is a tough conversation because I just the thing is,
Speaker 3: I've just like, even when we look at the situation
Speaker 3: with jay Z. Right, a lady admitted to lying, like
Speaker 3: literally admitted to lying. She did, and there's no recourse,
Speaker 3: there's nothing. This man they ran this man named through
Speaker 3: the mother about.
Speaker 1: A teenage girl.
Speaker 3: Kid, Yeah, you understand something like So he he has
Speaker 3: to and this is a billionaire, so he had to
Speaker 3: forcefully say I'm going to suit everybody.
Speaker 1: It's just not gonna go away.
Speaker 3: I know he's probably going to the press and making
Speaker 3: sure that because he realizes how this stains his life
Speaker 3: and his career. He realizes that the average person doesn't
Speaker 3: come back from even accusations of this. So if somebody
Speaker 3: admits to lying about something, if you find somebody and
Speaker 3: it's not just that, okay, it wasn't the evidence. This
Speaker 3: person was still steadfast when somebody admits to lying, when
Speaker 3: you find out a person is lying, when you find
Speaker 3: out they made something up, there should have to be
Speaker 3: some level of record. This should have to be the
Speaker 3: same people who publish that. There should be some type
Speaker 3: of media etiquette or media something that demands that if
Speaker 3: you are somebody who is on the front page posting
Speaker 3: somebody's name for twenty days straight, you need to post
Speaker 3: the recourse if you find out that there's a lot
Speaker 3: the same amount of days.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I think there's definitely a need to balance
Speaker 4: out some of what we see happening, because there's even
Speaker 4: you know, stuff where I don't know, I've been having
Speaker 4: conversations with different people who feel like celebrities also, celebrities
Speaker 4: are human people. And yes, do they have more privilege,
Speaker 4: They have more resources, which therefore makes them more susceptible
Speaker 4: to a whole bunch of things. Absolutely, But I don't
Speaker 4: think that it means that they should just be harassed into,
Speaker 4: you know, the harassment that we see some people going
Speaker 4: through and that so that's that's also another conversation.
Speaker 2: But you know, we can stay here all.
Speaker 4: Day because it's it's it's a sensitive topic, but it's
Speaker 4: a good topic to discuss because there has to be
Speaker 4: a way that people feel comfortable that right that if
Speaker 4: I do do something or if i'm if my name
Speaker 4: is clear, that it's not like it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3: Mm hm.
Speaker 2: That that's true. I should be.
Speaker 3: I mean it should be, especially when rape and sexual
Speaker 3: assault is the most egregious thing that a man could
Speaker 3: be accused of.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well it's and I just I just I'm asking you,
Speaker 4: just listening to you. I just hope that you are
Speaker 4: able to expand your argument beyond set sexual violence in general.
Speaker 4: I think I just want to expand that because I
Speaker 4: think when you when you start and kind of end,
Speaker 4: even though you did bring up some other incidents, but
Speaker 4: when you start and end with sexual violence, it's hard
Speaker 4: for people to hear. And so sometimes when we want
Speaker 4: to educate folks on issues what you're.
Speaker 3: Saying, but you don't think it's hard for men.
Speaker 2: And I'm not.
Speaker 4: I understand that That's not what I'm talking about, because
Speaker 4: the job here is to be able to bring people
Speaker 4: with you so that other folks can start to get
Speaker 4: and see the parallels, so they could be like, Okay,
Speaker 4: now I see what you're saying. But I hear what
Speaker 4: you're saying, so I just want to let me just
Speaker 4: finish it.
Speaker 2: I'm saying.
Speaker 4: So all I'm saying is sexual violence is not the
Speaker 4: only thing. And in fact, that's what I was trying
Speaker 4: to get to earlier. The number of people accused of
Speaker 4: sexual violence, especially those where it is determined to be false,
Speaker 4: it's lower than some of the other things that black
Speaker 4: men are accused of. Right, So I'm just saying that
Speaker 4: it's helpful to a person who might be triggered that
Speaker 4: they can hear it from different perspectives, so that when
Speaker 4: you are talking about sexual violence, they get it because
Speaker 4: the concept has already been cemented.
Speaker 3: And I understand what you're saying, but I want you
Speaker 3: to understand this. If a man goes on a Snoop
Speaker 3: Dogg was on trial for murder, right when he beat
Speaker 3: the murder case, he still was America's darling.
Speaker 1: You can beat a murder.
Speaker 3: Case and still go back to doing anything you want
Speaker 3: in this world. Right, people act like it never even happened. Right,
Speaker 3: you can go back. If Samiraa Wright said what you
Speaker 3: want about me, I don't really care. Right, is not
Speaker 3: gonna affect my everyday life, Like people are not gonna
Speaker 3: look at sol Samia Race.
Speaker 1: Some people might. It really doesn't affect me.
Speaker 3: But when you put that on my name, right, it's
Speaker 3: going to affect my life for the rest of my life.
Speaker 3: So if there's not no recourse to change the course
Speaker 3: of that, then that's what I'm trying to tell you.
Speaker 1: That is the most egregious thing that you put on
Speaker 1: a man.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and.
Speaker 3: This is pretty much I mean you probably I'm.
Speaker 4: Not saying that that's not terrible, and I'm not saying
Speaker 4: that it should happen, And I'm saying it absolutely needs
Speaker 4: to be addressed and it's wrong and it should not happen,
Speaker 4: and no one should be accusing a man of something
Speaker 4: like that that becomes a scarlet letter or whatever on
Speaker 4: his back.
Speaker 2: But I'm but I we have to stop.
Speaker 4: But what I'm saying is that in order for people
Speaker 4: to be able to understand it, it's very similar to
Speaker 4: how you tell me sometimes I have to educate people
Speaker 4: over here in order to get them to understand this.
Speaker 4: And so the concept, in my judgment, should not just
Speaker 4: be rooted in sexual violence, because black men have been
Speaker 4: accused of a lot of things that also have been damaging,
Speaker 4: maybe not quite as damaging as sexual violence, but there
Speaker 4: are other things that happen. So I'm just hoping that
Speaker 4: when you speak about this and I'm not here, that
Speaker 4: you can broaden the conversation to include some other things
Speaker 4: that can be very damage into a black man or
Speaker 4: a black person that is not corrected.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, other than pedophilia. I don't really see
Speaker 3: what it is, but I'll do some research on it,
Speaker 3: you know, and see what I could come up with.
Speaker 3: But you know, on that note, that brings us to
Speaker 3: the end of another episode, very powerful conversation. Shout out
Speaker 3: to our brother Gary Chambers for his insight and his
Speaker 3: knowledge and he's just love of justice and what we
Speaker 3: need to be doing at this time. And shout out
Speaker 3: to you Tamika for always giving, you know, a good
Speaker 3: conversation even though we might not agree on the particulars,
Speaker 3: but you always give me a perspective that I have
Speaker 3: to go back to the drawing board and just listen
Speaker 3: to because sometimes you know, I'm very strong on my
Speaker 3: convasion when I leave some and came to the table
Speaker 3: with it.
Speaker 1: But you know, we've on to the point where we don't.
Speaker 3: Fight, we don't disagree as much as we used to.
Speaker 3: Actually we get a little better, but we're gonna give
Speaker 3: a little pushback. We give a little push because that's
Speaker 3: how the show used is. The show started with I
Speaker 3: don't agree, I don't agree. That used to be season five.
Speaker 2: Not that we agree, but we know how to be disagreeable.
Speaker 4: We know how to how to have different perspectives without
Speaker 4: being disagreeable.
Speaker 2: So there you go.
Speaker 3: And with that said, we love you. I'm not gonna
Speaker 3: always be right, Tamika. The marriage and I can always
Speaker 3: be wrong, but we will both always and I mean always,
Speaker 3: be authentic peace. That's how we own it.