Speaker 1: Love he laugh. If you watch Coffee Time the baby
Speaker 1: you know the name Flame, my role also known as
Speaker 1: my role Flame. Come in with last and come in
Speaker 1: with you love luds. Baby, you better catch it when
Speaker 1: you can't drop a knowledge from Fatherhood of politics shouting
Speaker 1: out comics just paying homics. What's up? Tip? Yeah you
Speaker 1: know she read shot towns on speaking to the grown
Speaker 1: a second, we're gonna laugh, cut of the kicking, and
Speaker 1: at the end we leave it with just a lift. Dispirite.
Speaker 1: But do you want to revisit? So your first like
Speaker 1: a list at kill folks for your sp all folks
Speaker 1: that we dig it. No, you do train, No do
Speaker 1: what you do? No kiss? Do what I do? Well? Hello,
Speaker 1: good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good somewhere good. So
Speaker 1: come to Laugh and Learn. We were supposed to be
Speaker 1: on another page, but guess who couldn't get it right.
Speaker 1: Y'all know I'm not technically savvy, So yeah, I was
Speaker 1: supposed to be on the Laugh and Learned podcast page.
Speaker 1: But girl, I don't know what this new tablet is
Speaker 1: doing because my my girl ain't here to help me
Speaker 1: out with my stuffy stuff today. Y'all don't like my hair.
Speaker 1: They said, my week is given disaster. My week is
Speaker 1: looking this is fly. This is called wind blown. I've
Speaker 1: been in a wind I was. Let me tell you something.
Speaker 1: I was distracted this morning because I was watching the
Speaker 1: news and prayers to the people in Brooklyn, New York
Speaker 1: who were on the subway. I would hate to be
Speaker 1: a short, fat black man in Brooklyn right now, because baby,
Speaker 1: you know, the police is on high alert looking for
Speaker 1: whoever the man was, because they did not catch the
Speaker 1: suspect that released the smoke bomb and then just started
Speaker 1: shooting in the subway. This is just to show you
Speaker 1: that people are really, really, really on edge right now.
Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen. You know, that's just showing that people
Speaker 1: are human. This pandemic had more effect on more people
Speaker 1: than we know. I e. Will Smith if you're already
Speaker 1: to throw Well Smith up under the bus. But Will
Speaker 1: is human. He's a human being, and it just happened.
Speaker 1: It happened. I'm glad you guys joined me today. My partner,
Speaker 1: Long Hogan could not be here today. Her other job
Speaker 1: has up to a way. She's really really busy, and uh,
Speaker 1: but I'm here. Y'all don't like my hair, y'all like
Speaker 1: my hair. It was cute when I put it on.
Speaker 1: I do know what happened. It's still cute. I felt
Speaker 1: being blond today. Um, this week, we did get the
Speaker 1: appointment of Katagi Brown Jackson. Yea, we got our first
Speaker 1: black female to be appointed to the Supreme Court as
Speaker 1: a justice. So I'm proud of that. This was a
Speaker 1: great week for black women. Uh, it was also a
Speaker 1: scary week because so many people in Congress and so
Speaker 1: many people that were there have tested positive for coronavirus.
Speaker 1: I'm hoping that y'all did not think that Corona was gone.
Speaker 1: I hope y'all think that Corona was done. She's not done.
Speaker 1: She's still around. So you still have to take the precautions.
Speaker 1: Were your masks, wash your hands, social distance all that
Speaker 1: they relaxed the rules, But that don't mean that the
Speaker 1: Corona gut relaxed. Baby, let me tell you something. I
Speaker 1: go on my my scarecrow hair today. But the conversation
Speaker 1: today is gonna be so great. Kendall was here, Hey, Kendoll,
Speaker 1: It is going to be the most magnificent conversation today
Speaker 1: because not only is my very special guest I'm a
Speaker 1: fan of, but I met her uh, well via zoom
Speaker 1: with UM. When I was working with Karen Hunter doing
Speaker 1: the Karen Hunter Friday shows, Foolish Fridays with Karen Hunter.
Speaker 1: And we all know Erica Alexander. We know her from
Speaker 1: as Maxine Shot attorney at law, from Living Single, we
Speaker 1: know her from The Cosby Show. But there is a
Speaker 1: passion project that she's working on. She's a director, she's
Speaker 1: an actress, she's a lot of things. Um. I mean,
Speaker 1: I just found out today that her birthday is the
Speaker 1: same as my dragmother, Sherry Paine's birthday, which is eleven nineteen.
Speaker 1: That's my dragmother's birthday. So she's gonna be my very
Speaker 1: special guest, and she's gonna come on. I want you
Speaker 1: flame mess to weigh in with questions. I want you
Speaker 1: all to be respectful. I want you to ask questions
Speaker 1: that's important. Don't come on here with b s because
Speaker 1: you know I do not play b S and there's
Speaker 1: an X at the top. I will block your ask
Speaker 1: for generations. You know I don't care. You know mother
Speaker 1: does not care. So yeah, we're gonna have a great
Speaker 1: conversation with her. I'm just mortified at what's going on
Speaker 1: in the world. And that people do not see other
Speaker 1: people's humanity. Because no, I do not agree with this
Speaker 1: man shooting up the subway in Brooklyn, but it just
Speaker 1: goes to show you that everybody who lives in the
Speaker 1: world who's been affected by the effects of the pandemic,
Speaker 1: the death, the numbers of death, and also being stuck
Speaker 1: in the house, the financial crisis, that it has caused,
Speaker 1: the ostrogization, the loneliness, It is coming out in ways
Speaker 1: that we have not would not believe. I think Will Smith.
Speaker 1: I don't know if the pandemic got to Will Smith,
Speaker 1: but I think it was a build up of things
Speaker 1: and now people are exploding. This man went in there
Speaker 1: and release the smoke bomb, and when people started running,
Speaker 1: this food started shooting. So before I go any further,
Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna talk about some other things.
Speaker 1: But I want to get to this because she has
Speaker 1: other stuff to do, and I really appreciate that she
Speaker 1: took the time to come on with me, and we
Speaker 1: spoke months ago. I told I was going to get
Speaker 1: a chance to interview with her. So I'm glad we
Speaker 1: had a conflict. We had a conflict scheduling conflict yesterday,
Speaker 1: but today we don't, and she is here, so I'm
Speaker 1: going to bring her own. The Great, the one and only,
Speaker 1: the beautiful Miss Erica Alexander, the Maverick, Miss Maxine Shall,
Speaker 1: attorney at Guy used to love when used to say that, lady,
Speaker 1: and please help me. Welcome my special guests, the beautiful
Speaker 1: Miss Erica Alexander. Hello, Erica the Great Hello Monroe played
Speaker 1: the most daring and beautifulest thing. How are you, beautiful?
Speaker 1: How are you doing? I'm pretty good, I'm good. You
Speaker 1: know what I gotta I gotta quick quit. I gotta
Speaker 1: quick a story for you about that shooting. Okay, I
Speaker 1: was on our train last night going to the Poor
Speaker 1: People's campaign over Um, Reverend Barbera was here, and um,
Speaker 1: I went out to support him and and do the
Speaker 1: rally in the march, and I took the our trade
Speaker 1: and that's the our train that I took. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that God protected you and keept you
Speaker 1: off of the train. You know, I would hate to
Speaker 1: be a short, fat black man in Brooklyn right now.
Speaker 1: As you know, the police are on high alert. And
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that as a joke, but they're not
Speaker 1: gonna see a face. That description is a five by five,
Speaker 1: heavy set black man. So all black men in Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: if you five by five, stay in the house, please,
Speaker 1: because maybe they're just gonna go crazy. Yes, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's scary. I am so glad that you. I'm so
Speaker 1: sorry about the mix up yesterday. We had a schedule
Speaker 1: in Climflict. She thought I was on the East coast.
Speaker 1: I thought she was on the West coast. But we're
Speaker 1: here today, and I'm telling you, all week and all weekend,
Speaker 1: I've been catching up on my old Living Single episodes
Speaker 1: and will you know what I made me fall in
Speaker 1: love with you? Not only your character on Living Single,
Speaker 1: but when you got married. You got married in a
Speaker 1: pair of sneakers. I thought that was the cutest ship ever.
Speaker 1: I remember seeing your wedding photos. I know you know
Speaker 1: what it was, so thank you. I got an addressed
Speaker 1: and I didn't want to wear white, and everyone said
Speaker 1: I wanted to wear red. Get the same dress, but
Speaker 1: beat it and red and people are like, no, you
Speaker 1: have to wear white, and I vowed to the pressure.
Speaker 1: And I hated that. So at the end, the designer
Speaker 1: of the dress sent me a couple of pair of
Speaker 1: his shoes if he had just done a line for kids,
Speaker 1: and they had this sort of golden peacock print on it,
Speaker 1: And I said, I didn't like any of the shoes
Speaker 1: they got me for the dress because my assistantt helped
Speaker 1: me get in shoes. They were back in the day's
Speaker 1: shoes for wedding dresses. So awful. Anyway, long story short,
Speaker 1: I put those shoes on and that was my defiant
Speaker 1: move and it also made me feel like me. But
Speaker 1: when I I figured, no one's gonna see my feet anyway.
Speaker 1: But when I came down the step, I picked up
Speaker 1: my dress and everyone saw my shoes and started laughing.
Speaker 1: So it was actually a really good moment for me.
Speaker 1: That was great. You know, you always had to find
Speaker 1: you in the in the midst of everything else. A
Speaker 1: whole lot of chaotic stuff can be going on around you,
Speaker 1: but you always have to find you. And I love
Speaker 1: that you found you at that moment. That was great.
Speaker 1: Let's get to live. Let me get to living single
Speaker 1: because let me tell you something. That show was such
Speaker 1: a popular show and and and older than you a
Speaker 1: couple of a couple of years. Uh. Look, but that show,
Speaker 1: that show taught me, Um how to roommate if I
Speaker 1: had to roommate, because you guys had disagreements. You had,
Speaker 1: you know you had, but at the end you always
Speaker 1: sound solid because your friendship was more important than the
Speaker 1: disagreement you had. I loved that that show taught that
Speaker 1: because you know, they love to say that a bunch
Speaker 1: of black women can be in a room together, it's
Speaker 1: always gonna become chaotic and and disastrous. But you guys,
Speaker 1: show love, you guys show support. The show was so
Speaker 1: much fun. We almost felt like we were a part
Speaker 1: of the show that we watched it every week. You
Speaker 1: that's how engaging you all were to us. And I
Speaker 1: knew the whole backstory with the whole free and things
Speaker 1: and all that, because that show you that we ain't
Speaker 1: changed much in this country. That show that last week
Speaker 1: when Katagi Brown Jackson got fifty three to forty seven,
Speaker 1: and in nineteen thirty four thirty five when h third
Speaker 1: Gradmasha was put on, he was sixty one, plug four
Speaker 1: and eleven against are we going back with Erica? Sixty
Speaker 1: years ago? So when that show came to an end,
Speaker 1: how did you feel about it? Because the character of
Speaker 1: Maxine schal Attorney allowed how close to that character is
Speaker 1: Erica Alexander. Well, you know, we bring yourself to every
Speaker 1: role you play, even though that is not ideal for
Speaker 1: someone like me, because I think I'm quite boring. I'm
Speaker 1: not certainly don't have a law degree. Come home, miss Lam,
Speaker 1: I don't have a law degree. I'm high school graduate
Speaker 1: of a very good school, Philadelfinie High School for Girls.
Speaker 1: I did get accepted into the like you, but I
Speaker 1: left after two weeks because I got a role on
Speaker 1: a in a world tour with the Royal Shakespeare Company
Speaker 1: and it was to grow around the world. And I
Speaker 1: asked my mother, uh if that was cool, and she said,
Speaker 1: you know, that's his own education, you to see the world.
Speaker 1: So I I left and then um, after that time,
Speaker 1: my father passed away and my I figured I was
Speaker 1: working since I was fourteen and and getting some shil
Speaker 1: work and TV and stage. So I thought I'd helped
Speaker 1: my mother continue to work and bringing an inn come
Speaker 1: and that's what I did. So I'm not like my
Speaker 1: character in that way. She's highly educated, she's but but
Speaker 1: everything else definitely, And we were taught expect to mentors
Speaker 1: with five emism and and all sorts of other people politically.
Speaker 1: I didn't know how much I'd get in the game.
Speaker 1: But Max is to me that she's a She's a
Speaker 1: uh real pastiche of the women I met and the
Speaker 1: women who raised me and the people I admired. She's
Speaker 1: also the house that Fox. The Red Fox was one
Speaker 1: of my comedy mentors. I didn't know I be such
Speaker 1: a comedic actress, but Red Fox, Um, Michael J. Fox,
Speaker 1: I love Fox, I was on Fox Network, and I
Speaker 1: love Sherman Helmsley. Those are the types of people you
Speaker 1: see in Max. Those are the people I was watching.
Speaker 1: Oh when you were Maxine Shall attorney and law and
Speaker 1: slept with all the men you wanted to. I never
Speaker 1: looked at that character as being a thought. I always like, y'all,
Speaker 1: let men do it. I love that you were so
Speaker 1: dominant as a woman in that role, and it shows
Speaker 1: so much male aggression, or not aggression, that's not the
Speaker 1: right word. It shows so much male dominance because you
Speaker 1: know me and could sleep with twenty five women and
Speaker 1: nobody looks at him like he's a whore. But Max
Speaker 1: Thin was like, I want this one, this one, and
Speaker 1: I'm I'm good with you. Go home. Girl. That made
Speaker 1: me like, oh, I would be like that. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I was like that already. That was And so when
Speaker 1: the storyline went and you and Kyle hooked up with
Speaker 1: all the bickering because y'all had the greatest one liners
Speaker 1: at each other, those one liners that you guys will
Speaker 1: go back and forth with how much of that was
Speaker 1: rehearsed and how much of that rolling off the top
Speaker 1: of your dome because some of that looked just too
Speaker 1: organic for it to be rehearsed, really or absolutely, you know,
Speaker 1: it's chemistry is everything. I'm telling you, we're in comedy
Speaker 1: that if you have people who you know able to
Speaker 1: throw you the ball, the point the only thing you
Speaker 1: have to be aware of that throw that, but don't
Speaker 1: decide how it has to be tossed back all the way.
Speaker 1: You have to be stuck in those decisions. And so
Speaker 1: the key is to remain open to your urges and reactions.
Speaker 1: So what's true in the moment is how we reacted.
Speaker 1: But true in the moment are there's things that we
Speaker 1: do with our eyes, our hands, and sometimes every now
Speaker 1: and then addatives that work. I mean, PC and I
Speaker 1: would go back and forth with that, but he would
Speaker 1: always seem to get me because he's so nasty. He
Speaker 1: goes and do all that I you could see when
Speaker 1: Eric is there and Max is not. But event Lee Bowser,
Speaker 1: to her credit, not only the commission knew the girl
Speaker 1: like I'm physical, so they had to play to my physicality.
Speaker 1: They had to play to the fact that I was unsentimental.
Speaker 1: That's very Erica, where I'm there to have a lot
Speaker 1: of empathy and love, but I'm not the person who's
Speaker 1: gonna be olverly like girls. You know, you can do
Speaker 1: it unless that's the joke, you know, because that's not me.
Speaker 1: What they did was put me from in their character
Speaker 1: that she created, which by the way, is event Lee Bowser.
Speaker 1: She is Max. She was the person who was a
Speaker 1: way to Standford, to be a lawyer and all that
Speaker 1: mess not me. She has She married man named Kyle Bowser,
Speaker 1: not Barker, but that's her. What they what they got
Speaker 1: right was um allowing me to be free. So all
Speaker 1: that physicality is all that girl. You brought so much
Speaker 1: life to that role. Eric, I'm telling you I loved
Speaker 1: all the characters on the show, but for some reason
Speaker 1: I resonated with Max. I'm telling you Max to me
Speaker 1: because you know, my first drag name was Maxine, my
Speaker 1: very first drag name. That was it was my prostitute name.
Speaker 1: It wasn't my show girl name. It was my whole
Speaker 1: name when I was the other girl, but that was
Speaker 1: that's the name of my car. My name of my
Speaker 1: new car is Maxine because that name that's so I
Speaker 1: was like, oh my god, I thought I was the
Speaker 1: only Maxine. But so many of those episodes, the leaching
Speaker 1: when you were just walking the house and just take
Speaker 1: what you wanted. And the episode that I watched this
Speaker 1: week in that really just took me over the edge
Speaker 1: was the one with you and the girl who played
Speaker 1: Kim on a Different World when she was Cadian's best
Speaker 1: friend and she was freeloading. You kept trying to tell
Speaker 1: Kadiji because I've been in that instant so many times
Speaker 1: we're trying to tell another friend that another friend was girl,
Speaker 1: that she's not the one. But when I watched the
Speaker 1: episode this weekend, I was like, yea, it was just
Speaker 1: the greatest chemistry of all of you ladies on the
Speaker 1: show and the guys. Because I've never met the other
Speaker 1: comedian what's his name, um, John Hinton. I never met
Speaker 1: John Hinton on the road doing stand up at not
Speaker 1: not as of yet, because I met him. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: worked with Kim Fields actually before with Sherry Shepard at
Speaker 1: the Comedy Union a few years ago. Kim is just
Speaker 1: a bubbly I'm like, girl, do you turn off? Because baby,
Speaker 1: she was all over the place. I'm like, do you
Speaker 1: turn off? But that show was so popular, and I
Speaker 1: hate that the country that we live in would put
Speaker 1: two of the same at almost the same identical twin
Speaker 1: shows with one black, one white, and the one white
Speaker 1: went catapulted to the at stratosphere and the one black
Speaker 1: kept stay black famous. Even though y'all crossed over some y'all,
Speaker 1: that show should have been still on TV to this
Speaker 1: day because the rules that you all taught and the
Speaker 1: love that y'all have for each other in the show
Speaker 1: resonates with so many of the audience members. That's why
Speaker 1: we stayed tuned to that damn show every week. It
Speaker 1: wasn't because it was Queen Latifa and Kim Fields and
Speaker 1: Eric Elizon. It was because we knew these I know
Speaker 1: this bitch, I felt like, I know this, that's my sister.
Speaker 1: I know. That's what made it so genuine for us
Speaker 1: as audience members. And I hate that show in a way.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you, Eric because I know you
Speaker 1: won't never been on TV. It's well, yeah, it had
Speaker 1: to end, yeah yeah, And we cast those episodes, We
Speaker 1: cast those reruns every chan. Let me Chell you something.
Speaker 1: It ain't nothing for me to take an edible and
Speaker 1: have a bowl of popcorn and watch Living Single all day.
Speaker 1: But you know, well, I wish somebody would call me
Speaker 1: and put me in one. You know what my problem
Speaker 1: is with acting, Erica. They always want me to play me.
Speaker 1: I don't know how to play me. I just know
Speaker 1: how to beat me. When you tell me go and
Speaker 1: say be flame, I'm like, what do I do? You know,
Speaker 1: I don't know what to do. I just be flame.
Speaker 1: I don't know how to be somebody. But it's coming.
Speaker 1: Just because you said it is coming, we got we
Speaker 1: got we in talks for some stuff, so we shall see.
Speaker 1: But I want to ask you, because I know you
Speaker 1: were on The Cosby Show. How many seasons were you
Speaker 1: on the Cosby Show? Just too when they when they
Speaker 1: when they scandal came out about Bill Cosby. Because I
Speaker 1: don't think I've ever heard you comment about I don't
Speaker 1: think that you would ever put in that space because
Speaker 1: you were so young. How did you feel about that?
Speaker 1: Because you know a very different deal Cosby than what
Speaker 1: we know. We know Bill Cosby the America's dad and
Speaker 1: what we've seen, but then when we hear about this
Speaker 1: other side you've worked with him, did you ever get
Speaker 1: any inclination about that or how did you feel about
Speaker 1: that whole situation. I don't think anyone could have never
Speaker 1: imagine that the types of allegations and um uh stories
Speaker 1: that came out could ever exist, not about anybody I knew,
Speaker 1: let all about um, Mr Cosby. What I always say,
Speaker 1: because I have been asked, is that do I'm a
Speaker 1: woman's advocate um UM My mother was molested when she
Speaker 1: was younger, and my sister who was raped. UM. I
Speaker 1: speak an advocacy of women and believing them UM, and
Speaker 1: so I believed that the women who came out UM
Speaker 1: needed to have their stories told, and it needs to
Speaker 1: be told from their mouth. I did not experience that
Speaker 1: type of behavior, and I'm grateful for that. It doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that, UM, I have nothing more word to tell
Speaker 1: the stories within selfie did and things like that. I'm
Speaker 1: since these women weren't always in the position to be
Speaker 1: not only heard but believe, and things have changed. They
Speaker 1: were things that they didn't believe when children told them.
Speaker 1: And there's laws that changed because people broke through. But
Speaker 1: people think who are always living in this world and
Speaker 1: that they don't even know what a feminist is FEMINESSI
Speaker 1: feminist is a person who believe that females should have
Speaker 1: the same rights as men. That's simply it. But that
Speaker 1: wasn't always the case. We didn't even have right to
Speaker 1: our own credit people black black people, but women had
Speaker 1: to be signed a credit and a man had to
Speaker 1: sign with you. And Nate Holden was a young counselman
Speaker 1: in l A was one of the people who changed
Speaker 1: it and then became all of the land. So yeah,
Speaker 1: we need to learn our history to understand that things change,
Speaker 1: change change because people helped change them. That what you
Speaker 1: need to know is that before you cast the stone,
Speaker 1: look at the atmosphere and look at how far we
Speaker 1: had to come for even those things go forward. So
Speaker 1: I wish my best to all the people who are
Speaker 1: advocating for those types of changes in the world. That
Speaker 1: is great information, Erica, thank you for that. I didn't
Speaker 1: even know that. But I am a woman. I'm an
Speaker 1: advocate for women as well because I'm a female impersonator.
Speaker 1: Let me say that one more time. I am a
Speaker 1: female impersonator. I impersonate women because I admire and adore
Speaker 1: and love women, and I'm much more comfortable working as
Speaker 1: a woman than i would be dressed up as a man.
Speaker 1: I get a lot of backlash from my own community
Speaker 1: because of that. To Erica, because I see women for
Speaker 1: the role that they positioned that they are in our
Speaker 1: lives as female impersonators, I would not know how to
Speaker 1: be a girl if I had to watch a guy
Speaker 1: to learn how to be a girl, That is crazy
Speaker 1: to me. Women are givers of life. Women bring everybody
Speaker 1: to the earth. At my joke on stages, if straight
Speaker 1: people stop sucking, won't be the more l G B
Speaker 1: t Q. I'm just saying, because you can't get pregnant
Speaker 1: in the booby. That's a horrible joke to say publically,
Speaker 1: but I see it right now. You know, I don't
Speaker 1: care as a female person that I didn't realize that
Speaker 1: I was studying women as a kid. You don't realize
Speaker 1: that you you watch your mother, your sisters, your Auntie,
Speaker 1: your cousins, you're best friend because you're learning how to
Speaker 1: be a girl. But you didn't know this. Subsequently, I'm
Speaker 1: studying how to be feminine without knowing that I was
Speaker 1: actually in class. So I always admire women and uphold
Speaker 1: women to a higher standard than I would. You know,
Speaker 1: one of us, Plus my difference is a female impersonator,
Speaker 1: and a trans woman is a trans woman, and a
Speaker 1: woman is a woman, and the only differences between them
Speaker 1: besides the sexual organ is a heart and mind. Because
Speaker 1: a man does not think like a woman, he does
Speaker 1: not have a hard man of a woman a heart.
Speaker 1: A woman's hard mind is so different from a man's.
Speaker 1: But you have to understand women to know that, and
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of people don't understand women.
Speaker 1: I don't always understand. You're crazy help us all the
Speaker 1: tame me, But but I deal with it because I
Speaker 1: like it. Yes, of course, as an observe a woman,
Speaker 1: what do you feel that you see that's consistent? And
Speaker 1: I know that we're all the things consistent about women
Speaker 1: because you're talking about that. I'm just fascinated. It's a
Speaker 1: fact to be an observe a woman. And then also
Speaker 1: translated and filtered through your own experience? What that what
Speaker 1: is consistent? When you feel the strength and the loyalty
Speaker 1: of women. Men don't have that. Men don't have a strength.
Speaker 1: And I'm not talking about a physical strength. I'm talking
Speaker 1: about an emotional strength that women have. Women will stay
Speaker 1: in a fight way longer than they should. Their loyalty
Speaker 1: and dedication to somebody, especially when they have children or
Speaker 1: a certain statue that they want to keep. Women will
Speaker 1: tolerate way more than a man. A man will I'm
Speaker 1: going to get a loaf for bred, and they'll never
Speaker 1: come back, you know, And when demanding me, when I'm
Speaker 1: done with it, I will walk away from it. But
Speaker 1: women will stay in it to a fault almost to me.
Speaker 1: And I love the dedication and loyalty that women give
Speaker 1: to their families, to their husbands, to their to their children,
Speaker 1: you know. And I've always wanted to be able to
Speaker 1: do that. I always want to be able to say
Speaker 1: my kids drive me crazy, Erica, especially my daughters. I
Speaker 1: got two teenage daughters. I'd like to throw both of
Speaker 1: mamfa train. Let me just be honest right now, but
Speaker 1: watch I watched my grandmother with my mother and her
Speaker 1: and her sisters, and they took my grandmother over the
Speaker 1: river and through the woods, and I listened to so
Speaker 1: many life lessons from my grandmother. When she said there
Speaker 1: will be some years that you will hate your children,
Speaker 1: I said, you never hate your kids, And she didn't
Speaker 1: me hate when like you would really hate them, although
Speaker 1: it's it's real close. But she meant there would be
Speaker 1: some trying times that you will have to remember that
Speaker 1: these are your kids and you love these people, so
Speaker 1: you have to stay in it. That is what women
Speaker 1: are to me. And the prime example of that was
Speaker 1: I hate that they put black people in the pigeonhole.
Speaker 1: All black people act the same because two black men
Speaker 1: recently were in the same instident, Will Smith and Chris Rock,
Speaker 1: they handled it very differently. That shows you that we
Speaker 1: are not a monolith. Just and black women, black women,
Speaker 1: black black woman. Becautani Brown said for four days in
Speaker 1: front of her mom and dad, her children, her her husband,
Speaker 1: and the world, and was humiliated, disrespected, picked apart. Made
Speaker 1: if they asked this woman, what does being a woman
Speaker 1: mean to you? I thought that was the most preponderous
Speaker 1: shit I have heard in my life. But she sat
Speaker 1: with her temperament, with her mind, with her heart, her spirit.
Speaker 1: She remembered her ancestors, She breathed, She answered the question,
Speaker 1: she gave them what they need, and when it was
Speaker 1: something that was unimportant to her, she said, I don't
Speaker 1: even understand that question. To me, that spoke volumes as
Speaker 1: being a woman, a black woman, but a fucking woman.
Speaker 1: So I will always uphold women in a higher regard. So,
Speaker 1: my sisters that don't like that I hold women in
Speaker 1: high regard, you know how I feel about it, don't
Speaker 1: you don't make me take my wig off and show you.
Speaker 1: So I know that you are women's advocate, and I
Speaker 1: know I want to talk about your passion project Erica,
Speaker 1: because I talked about this on the panel recently, because
Speaker 1: I think it was like sixty four trans women came
Speaker 1: up dead last year, and any death is a death.
Speaker 1: But there's ninety four thousand black and brown women in
Speaker 1: this country missing and it goes unreported and disregarded. But
Speaker 1: Becky's still go missing for an hour and she just
Speaker 1: in the playground. Y'all, stop the world. I want to
Speaker 1: hear about your project. I want to hear about what
Speaker 1: you're doing, because this was when I heard you speak
Speaker 1: about it on I think on the Breakfast Club. I
Speaker 1: was like, damn, you know, it hit me like a
Speaker 1: ton of break That could be my sister or my
Speaker 1: mom or my auntie. Uh, girl, you got the floor.
Speaker 1: We want to know, we want to know what you know.
Speaker 1: I want your brain. Oh well, you know, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for bringing that up, because the truth is
Speaker 1: um and we need to start talking about fans, women
Speaker 1: and all sorts of things that are going on. Because
Speaker 1: they had a conversation with miss Freda, Big Frieda and
Speaker 1: um about just violence overall in the in the trans
Speaker 1: community and how disagree one will elive and anathering I'll
Speaker 1: never hear from. And it's Gwen Iford called business and
Speaker 1: white when women syndrome. The fact that we will go
Speaker 1: as you say, two damned undistress blonde the wide usually
Speaker 1: um um person who by the way, if they go missing,
Speaker 1: they deserve the activity to be found. That's not what
Speaker 1: the problem is. The problem is that we do it
Speaker 1: to the exclusion black and brown and indigenous women, people
Speaker 1: who are differently able. Any of these people just go
Speaker 1: missing and it's just what it is. And so um
Speaker 1: Tamika Houston is the young woman that we do the
Speaker 1: uh the Uh. It's an audible series, an audible original.
Speaker 1: Sharomagne to God as a one of the producers, and
Speaker 1: Kevin Hart I love Schadowmagne I know you know and
Speaker 1: and loves him. He's done so much to uplift and
Speaker 1: support and produce these types of things give people down.
Speaker 1: He produced the podcast, the Reparations Podcast. But what we
Speaker 1: did is we did the story about Tomka Houston, not
Speaker 1: physically just about her death which people could look up
Speaker 1: on Google and find out. She but missing in two
Speaker 1: thousand five, just short of her twenty fifth birthday and
Speaker 1: eventually was found fifteen months later in a clearing in
Speaker 1: the in in the forest. She had been mutilated, her half,
Speaker 1: her head cut off, and um Um the man had
Speaker 1: gone back that killed her and took off things that
Speaker 1: he thought would identify people identify her, and through the
Speaker 1: rest of that those pieces in the in the dumpster,
Speaker 1: so not even the full piece of her was there.
Speaker 1: But the point about Tomika's story was um telling the
Speaker 1: story to Miko, who became a poster child, or the
Speaker 1: change that happened when people started to start decided to say,
Speaker 1: why are we accepting that there's anything like a called
Speaker 1: missing white women's syndrome and why doesn't national media pay attention.
Speaker 1: Why does Gabby Petito bless her who goes missing suddenly
Speaker 1: get all the air time? And we haven't heard of
Speaker 1: any of these women that she was kind of the
Speaker 1: opposed to child for the change. Her auntie, Rebecca Howard
Speaker 1: is the person that I um that David person met,
Speaker 1: the person I met when I was doing a women's
Speaker 1: event in Alabama, remembered me and said, Hey, are you
Speaker 1: interested in this story? And I said, of course I'm interested.
Speaker 1: What can we make something a podcast or audio thing
Speaker 1: about it? We went around and we started asking about it,
Speaker 1: and long story short, m Charlemagne was like, Yo, I
Speaker 1: just got a new deal with Kevin at All a
Speaker 1: goal and I think we can do it there. And
Speaker 1: we ended up doing that there. James T. Green was
Speaker 1: our executive producer. He co wrote with me. He brought
Speaker 1: the Sonic team there. Ben are non Color Farm is
Speaker 1: my UM co founder, and we had our producers with
Speaker 1: Rebecca Houston and David Persons and s pH which is
Speaker 1: Charlemagne and Kevin's company and all the and we did it,
Speaker 1: and it took all of us in it to do it.
Speaker 1: We had to do interviews. I had to do the interviews,
Speaker 1: had to do the co wrote the thing, UM had
Speaker 1: to call. The skills I didn't even have, but I learned.
Speaker 1: We tried to do our best to tell the story,
Speaker 1: but also there was a ghost story there playing when
Speaker 1: we got there. Sneka was showing up as a ghost
Speaker 1: in her family's life and in stranger's life and still communicating.
Speaker 1: So we did it as in the war story, a
Speaker 1: neo no war story, because I think the things have
Speaker 1: to be entertaining beyond the value of just the tragedy
Speaker 1: or the thing, you know, the the thing that makes
Speaker 1: you look, which is a lot of scandal, and that
Speaker 1: kinde of stuff. We needed to tell her story and
Speaker 1: also lifted up out of that into what you might
Speaker 1: do if you had to spoiling your hands and missed it.
Speaker 1: You tell a full restory who that person was. How
Speaker 1: can we or you as a woman and me as
Speaker 1: a trans woman, black trim, how can we get more
Speaker 1: young women involved in this project? And this because young
Speaker 1: women are the ones that get snatched up the most, honestly,
Speaker 1: because they seem like they're invincible, they seem like they
Speaker 1: don't pay attention and I got a flame at Her
Speaker 1: name is t J. And we call it perfectionately, we
Speaker 1: call it t t J. And she always says, keep
Speaker 1: your head on the swivel. We need to get more
Speaker 1: young sisters involved in the missing of black and brown
Speaker 1: women in this country because they always think that it
Speaker 1: can happen to them until it happens to them or
Speaker 1: somebody they know. So that's my question, how can we
Speaker 1: get more sisters involved in this education and awareness of
Speaker 1: danger and evil out there. The truth is people don't
Speaker 1: want to say those words, but we know it to
Speaker 1: be true and what we do and part of what
Speaker 1: Tamika learns and I think one of her downfall was
Speaker 1: she thought she was a hustler. She thought she could hang.
Speaker 1: And often we think we can hear, we put ourselves
Speaker 1: the positions where we shouldn't that we think, oh, we
Speaker 1: can work this out, and you don't know what realized
Speaker 1: that these people have different intentions. They're not just gonna
Speaker 1: get mad at you, They're gonna take your life. And
Speaker 1: we talk in a good game in the music and
Speaker 1: in the culture about getting the bag and all this stuff.
Speaker 1: That is a wrong message because what it does is
Speaker 1: it makes women, especially feel like they have to put
Speaker 1: themselves out there and leverage their position to attract our status.
Speaker 1: Are you really you have to talking hold? And then
Speaker 1: they go missing because I I often say, do we
Speaker 1: see black? Black girl does not have to go missing
Speaker 1: for us not to see her. These people, they're walking
Speaker 1: down the street every day. We need to have neighborhood
Speaker 1: watches and people say I saw her she You know,
Speaker 1: people can step out and say I see the children,
Speaker 1: I clark who's supposed to come in, you know around
Speaker 1: the twelve blah blah blah. And maybe people who are
Speaker 1: coming home late. In sports and that's let it, athletes
Speaker 1: are tutoring who's watching them and then have some kind
Speaker 1: of we have phones and acts. We can build things
Speaker 1: to me like your children. We can build things to
Speaker 1: monitor um college students and people going to party, tell
Speaker 1: people where they're at, check in things like that. We
Speaker 1: need to take advantage of this stuff. We have to.
Speaker 1: We also need awareness and education and we need to
Speaker 1: also be honest to say, sometimes we put ourselves in
Speaker 1: a position and we do not realize that it is out.
Speaker 1: It has outranked us in terms of danger and UM,
Speaker 1: you cannot learn that you don't play with these people
Speaker 1: out there, then it's not a game. No it's not.
Speaker 1: And you you could lose your life. And and the
Speaker 1: moren look like that guy had the ladies in the
Speaker 1: basement in that house in Ohio. He had them there
Speaker 1: for ten years and did whatever he wanted to do
Speaker 1: with them. And they're so something to do. The way
Speaker 1: they get you is they they they grab you and
Speaker 1: they tie you up and then they'll give you a
Speaker 1: little bit here and there. They make you feel like
Speaker 1: they love you or they care about you. You're the
Speaker 1: only person who will and they just use you and
Speaker 1: make a fool out of you. Times have changed so much,
Speaker 1: Erica from when I was a kid, because, like you said,
Speaker 1: the neighborhood did watch Ms. Jones gonna look out how
Speaker 1: window and say, Marcus, don't you do that. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: call your mom because we did that. You know they
Speaker 1: did that when we were young, and you knew Ms.
Speaker 1: Johnson was watching Miss Jackson on the third floor. All
Speaker 1: the way was always was in the window. We had
Speaker 1: somebody to treat. We had Dad's in the neighborhood or
Speaker 1: me and in the neighborhood that would grab you and say, hey,
Speaker 1: don't talk to those ladies like that, watch your mouth.
Speaker 1: We don't have that anymore. Social media. To me, the
Speaker 1: internet has made all of that go away. These kids
Speaker 1: feel so entitled now and so powerful because they think
Speaker 1: they know everything because of Google. First of all, Google
Speaker 1: is a liar. Let me just say that Google said
Speaker 1: I'm worth eight hundred thousand. Somebody got about three hundred
Speaker 1: thousands of my money. Let me just because of the world.
Speaker 1: That's all that back. And and people just said, suck
Speaker 1: it up. It is what it is. Don't tell nobody.
Speaker 1: We've been um lifted and done in by neighbors at um,
Speaker 1: aunt uncles, brothers, fathers, all sorts of people. And that
Speaker 1: doesn't seem to be a need to movement for black women.
Speaker 1: That sort of gives infermission to tell the truth about
Speaker 1: how how devious and scandalous it is just to live
Speaker 1: a basic life. And and and I'm not talking about
Speaker 1: someone who's going out and doing all sorts of things
Speaker 1: that people deem um dangerous and can make you vulnerable.
Speaker 1: Just live in your life. And so I like to say,
Speaker 1: I'm glad that you're talking about this subject. I'm glad
Speaker 1: we can have awareness, but we need to go in
Speaker 1: high schools, middle schools and everywhere, and people like you
Speaker 1: and me going there and talk about what it is
Speaker 1: to um to um be vulnerable, and how we can
Speaker 1: be much more helpful to each other. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: you made a very valid point. And I always say
Speaker 1: this when I talk about when they tell me somebody
Speaker 1: get killed or something happened to somebody, I always say, well,
Speaker 1: what part did you play in your demise? And what
Speaker 1: you said is very true. Sometimes you could just be
Speaker 1: walking home from the store or walking home from school.
Speaker 1: But a lot of times we put ourselves in precarious positions.
Speaker 1: That's anybody, not just women, just you each other. And
Speaker 1: then you you You see what happened with the outcome
Speaker 1: unpacked the suitcase. Had I not been there, had I
Speaker 1: not been putting myself in that situation, that possibly could
Speaker 1: not have happened to me. Now, something, your life is
Speaker 1: already blueprinted. God is an architect. Your life is already blueprint.
Speaker 1: You have to go through the motions. Hopefully you have
Speaker 1: a fate and a strength where you will survive it
Speaker 1: and come through it and be able to help and
Speaker 1: teach somebody else. But a lot of times people don't
Speaker 1: pay attention because we feel like we're invincible as especially
Speaker 1: when you're young or I can do anything. Ain't nothing
Speaker 1: gonna happen to me, but something can happen to you.
Speaker 1: And sometimes something does happen to you, and it's scary.
Speaker 1: I got two daughters. I tell them all the time,
Speaker 1: don't rab with these people, don't be put in situation.
Speaker 1: And they're black, and I remind them all the time,
Speaker 1: and they bunch. You got a bunch of white girlfriends.
Speaker 1: If you're in a car and some ship go down,
Speaker 1: you are the suspect. Just because you wear your badge
Speaker 1: of honor on your arm, you are the suspect. And
Speaker 1: the helps will throw you up under the bus. We
Speaker 1: get into it all time. They love me, they do
Speaker 1: love you, but they will throw you up under the bus.
Speaker 1: Understand that you have to remember that you are black
Speaker 1: woman in this country. I teach my daughters that all
Speaker 1: the time. You Minister Lewis fair Con, because I'm aware
Speaker 1: of what has happened in this country to my people
Speaker 1: and to me. Because I watched I listened to Minister
Speaker 1: fair Coon. I like that, man. Thank you. I might
Speaker 1: become a I might become a Muslim. Can I wat
Speaker 1: this weak? Please lets that happen. Now, that's that's not
Speaker 1: a sitcom, that right there is. It's a whole achology,
Speaker 1: a Muslim training, you know. That would be some ship
Speaker 1: right there is? Erica, Oh my god, please do it
Speaker 1: not Lord please? So what what's next? What's the next
Speaker 1: project for you? Because when I met you through Karen Hunter,
Speaker 1: Thank you Karen Hunter, you were in Chicago family project.
Speaker 1: What were you? What's your next big project? That's right,
Speaker 1: you got a good memory. Okay, So I was in
Speaker 1: Chicago filming Shining Girls. It's out in like unless in
Speaker 1: a few weeks. That's the Elizabeth mar and um and
Speaker 1: Wagner More. That's going be great. It's a it's a
Speaker 1: series and eight part series about women to go missing
Speaker 1: and it's funny. But there's a whole piece to it.
Speaker 1: So there's a twist on this. Yeah, that's gonna be good.
Speaker 1: Go check out seed. I love to see you, um no,
Speaker 1: no serious. I can see them the age progression, you know,
Speaker 1: because young since it was a beautiful black woman when
Speaker 1: she was young. But I can see them making you
Speaker 1: all the way through. I can see them doing the age.
Speaker 1: I can see you doing the Sincily Tyson life story.
Speaker 1: I see that. I really, I'm looking at you right
Speaker 1: now with your hair pulled back and you I see
Speaker 1: I can see that. My my, yeah, Well, thank you.
Speaker 1: That's a great compliment. It's one of the greatest. It's
Speaker 1: one of the things I was told when I first
Speaker 1: started acting that people said you were mind as a
Speaker 1: specially Tyson. I was like, really, And if we actually
Speaker 1: played in Mama Floor's family, she was the older version.
Speaker 1: I was the younger version of her. And the last
Speaker 1: Route A series I played young Floor, she was older Floor.
Speaker 1: So I did him. I did a whole mini series
Speaker 1: with with with Sethie Tyson. We played each Oh. I
Speaker 1: can definitely see you doing her life story and going
Speaker 1: through all the change. I want to see you do
Speaker 1: a woman called Moses. They should first of all, they
Speaker 1: should remake that. You should be the one they remake
Speaker 1: that with. That should be that should be remade to
Speaker 1: this day. Oh oh, I love I love everything about her.
Speaker 1: But thank you. That's a great, a great thing. So
Speaker 1: I want to ask you a question. But let me
Speaker 1: tell you also a couple of things that I'm getting
Speaker 1: ready to do my reparations documentary that we've been feeling
Speaker 1: for the past three years. Okay, I remember you talking
Speaker 1: about that on camera Hunter. Yeah, yeah, it's been except um,
Speaker 1: it's going to be out soon and um, everybody should
Speaker 1: pay attention for a big uh you know, announcement and
Speaker 1: so um that's going out. And then also Swimming with Sharks,
Speaker 1: which is on Roal Coup. That's on real Coup. So
Speaker 1: check that out. Well, you know it's safe for about
Speaker 1: you know, it's safe for black people to swim with sharks.
Speaker 1: They don't like us. Sharks are racist, they don't bite us.
Speaker 1: Will last time you heard about a black person getting
Speaker 1: back shark. Okay, I'm just gonna let you marry it
Speaker 1: on there for ASA. Sharks and aliens don't like us. Funny,
Speaker 1: you know. I want to ask you though, Erica. You
Speaker 1: um in the movie The Long Walk Home. I remember
Speaker 1: you play Whoopy's daughter in that. I wanted to come
Speaker 1: through that movie. You were so good in that movie.
Speaker 1: I wanted to come through that TV screen and wring
Speaker 1: your neck. But being old, hard headed as black girl
Speaker 1: and your mama told you not to get your black
Speaker 1: ass on that bus when you were doing that and
Speaker 1: they were doing that scene when they beat your brother
Speaker 1: and all of that that had to real emotions had
Speaker 1: to come through you watching that, even though you were
Speaker 1: part of you knew it was an acting scene or whatever.
Speaker 1: How did you feel at that moment when they were
Speaker 1: kicking him and stumping him and it was it was
Speaker 1: your fault. You did know. It's awful. Um, it was awful.
Speaker 1: And by the way, during that time, and all my
Speaker 1: first acting gigs, because I think it was nineteen at
Speaker 1: the time, were either foster children, uh, civil um slaves
Speaker 1: process it was. They were all heavy rolls and they
Speaker 1: picked you because you could play the drama and so
Speaker 1: you had to be in it. I didn't know at
Speaker 1: the time that I didn't have to bring my own
Speaker 1: experience to it because I hadn't experienced anything like But
Speaker 1: I had experienced um uh somebody um holding you back
Speaker 1: and beating on you and you can't do anything about it.
Speaker 1: Everyone knows what that feeling is and um and so uh,
Speaker 1: when you're there, you don't have to fake it. There's
Speaker 1: real people in front of you. Afterwards, they when they
Speaker 1: turn on you and you're doing your close up, they're
Speaker 1: beating a pillow, you know what I mean. And and
Speaker 1: the the young man. We were you know, we played,
Speaker 1: we played together outside. I was a kid and I
Speaker 1: was a teenager, and so there's nothing, no imagination. You
Speaker 1: just gotta get out of um up in triangle with
Speaker 1: my mother, um every after. I didn't need Erica being
Speaker 1: influenced by Whoopee and then the Max character showing that influence.
Speaker 1: And that's just how we come through life. That we
Speaker 1: read you flame Monroe, and the next thing, you know,
Speaker 1: it gives us courage to things we wouldn't normally do.
Speaker 1: And you know, and you have given permission, and so
Speaker 1: I would give a permission to change my hair and
Speaker 1: do whatever I want. But in that thing, yes, you
Speaker 1: you you're there and it's dramatic, but you just try
Speaker 1: to remain Yeah see, I would think that me after
Speaker 1: the fact, I would be like, well, I need to
Speaker 1: drink and I don't even drink because seeing that and
Speaker 1: knowing what people went through, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: would be like, oh my god, oh my god, oh
Speaker 1: my god, Erica, I just and I love Whoopie. Thank
Speaker 1: you for acknowledging will be I fucking love Whoopi Goberg
Speaker 1: as a as a comedian, as an actress. I don't
Speaker 1: always agree with what she said on the view. When
Speaker 1: I get on that one day, IM gonna let her know, girl,
Speaker 1: I don't agree with that, but it's gonna be in
Speaker 1: a good way because I admire and love with me
Speaker 1: some Whoopie Goberg. I want to bring on a flame
Speaker 1: man to speak with you, Erica, because I got the
Speaker 1: greatest God Damn, I got the greatest fans you've ever
Speaker 1: met in your life. My they my people, like the
Speaker 1: old bed if the bee had was old, those are
Speaker 1: my fans. We won't fight you, but we're still your medication. Jane,
Speaker 1: where you at. I want to bring on the young
Speaker 1: Lady day t t J and who I told you
Speaker 1: who said keep your head on sweep. But she's very worldly,
Speaker 1: she's smart. All my things. All my people love you, Erica.
Speaker 1: First of all because they were they were listening to
Speaker 1: Karen Hunter when I was working with Karen Hunter and
Speaker 1: you were on, so they were all listening. So when
Speaker 1: I told them that you were coming on, they was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, we love Maxine. Show Attorney at Law.
Speaker 1: You know that's your name, Mexicine Show Attorney a Law.
Speaker 1: I don't see you, Jane, you gotta sit where you
Speaker 1: at the Maverick that she is right there. Somebody said
Speaker 1: they're gonna follow you. Now you're gonna get all they
Speaker 1: they're real crazy too, but they love you for real.
Speaker 1: Hello Jane, Hello, Hello queen, and thank you for everything
Speaker 1: you do. Everything you do, because there was a topic
Speaker 1: of our conversation in the past where we were talking
Speaker 1: about Indigenous women um go and missing alarming numbers as well,
Speaker 1: and so that made me kind of delved into my
Speaker 1: sisters because if they're not being sought out or um
Speaker 1: about their they're missing. I know that they weren't seeking
Speaker 1: out black women as well, but I wanted to ask you,
Speaker 1: have you, um in your experience are you getting that
Speaker 1: these women um have been sold to like sex trafficking
Speaker 1: or for their organs um If they're missing, then we
Speaker 1: don't know, But have you gotten any kind of film
Speaker 1: that that's is greatly what has happened to them? Um?
Speaker 1: Thank you first of all for your beautiful compliment. I
Speaker 1: appreciate that, and thank you for all that you're doing,
Speaker 1: and that the fact that aware and you're asking these
Speaker 1: questions is a great thing. You know, don Darling, I
Speaker 1: really don't know what's happening overall with these women. There
Speaker 1: are huge sex trafficking networks that are real in America.
Speaker 1: They got geraped very heavily in the Atlanta area d C.
Speaker 1: That is true. What they're doing with them or their
Speaker 1: bodies afterwards is anyone's guest. I can imagine that the
Speaker 1: abuse and the mutilations may be very real. What the
Speaker 1: problem is, it's, like I say, the data analysis of people,
Speaker 1: they're not looking for them, so they already answers for
Speaker 1: what's happening with the one Amrath another. There's no uh
Speaker 1: Liam Neeson to come and like taken and suddenly burst
Speaker 1: in and saved them or do any of these things.
Speaker 1: That's why it's unacceptable. And I did think about that question.
Speaker 1: If they're missing, we don't know. It was always body Cool,
Speaker 1: you know, saw that as a good job to bring
Speaker 1: them whoever to you know, it was just and you know,
Speaker 1: some people thought it was a scare tactor. But you
Speaker 1: you're talking about people who have money on top of
Speaker 1: money on top of money, you know, So I am like,
Speaker 1: you know, I've always thought about that. It has to
Speaker 1: make some national news. This has to be like brought
Speaker 1: to the forefront of an attention, like often because like now,
Speaker 1: we're talking about it now, but then you might not
Speaker 1: hear about it again for three or four or five
Speaker 1: months until somebody comes up missing. This needs to be
Speaker 1: talked about regularly, Erica, I love that you got that
Speaker 1: new movie coming out where you're talking about missing when
Speaker 1: you said you're talking abou missing girls. Because they make
Speaker 1: a little documentaries about it all the time. But to me,
Speaker 1: it's never genuine. They never give you the whole story,
Speaker 1: like you said about the one you were doing earlier
Speaker 1: about Tamika. You have to get the entire story. They
Speaker 1: only give you the tragic part. They don't never tell
Speaker 1: you about the part about this was a wonderful person.
Speaker 1: She was somebody's mom or sister. She had a job,
Speaker 1: she had dreams, she had goals, she had a life
Speaker 1: to live. Y'all talk about that, y'all. Just but she
Speaker 1: was at the wrong place at the wrong time. It's
Speaker 1: not always that. It is not always that. This is
Speaker 1: it's scary looking. I want to be a woman, But
Speaker 1: if you're right about me, I'm stronger than some of
Speaker 1: these other women. I'm telling you, if I grab you
Speaker 1: to give you back much trouble blames. Let's be like,
Speaker 1: let's go, we would we would come get you too.
Speaker 1: That I appreciate that my sisters coming like power warries. Eric.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you a question. I want to
Speaker 1: because you've said you've been working since you were fourteen?
Speaker 1: What is your what is your goal of success? What
Speaker 1: is success to you? Because everybody's a measure of success
Speaker 1: is different, So what is success to you? Happiness? Um,
Speaker 1: having a good sense of humor about life. Everything is difficult.
Speaker 1: How need to tell you that the industry is difficult,
Speaker 1: no more difficult than any corporate structure. UM. That the
Speaker 1: hand part is that you're you're the instrument. You're putting
Speaker 1: yourself out there. And there's so many systemic race and
Speaker 1: gender and all these problems that we deal with when
Speaker 1: we tell stories and storytelling. But I believe it's the
Speaker 1: most noble um Um mission you could be on because
Speaker 1: storytelling is how we tell the history of the world,
Speaker 1: and the fact that it's been filtered through a white male,
Speaker 1: um mostly UH point of view is one of the
Speaker 1: reasons why things are so fucked up. That police officer,
Speaker 1: when he was kneeling and putting his knee on George
Speaker 1: Flord's neck, has been told the story that only he
Speaker 1: could do it, he could do it with impunity, that
Speaker 1: no one was holding accountable, that he wouldn't be responsible
Speaker 1: for anything. But if we start showing those stories where
Speaker 1: they are held accountable, people think twice, they start showing
Speaker 1: that you can't do what that woman did in the
Speaker 1: till they're more than things. Twice, they won't do these
Speaker 1: things as much because there's always to be issues. But
Speaker 1: I believe the storytelling and who we tell stories through,
Speaker 1: like Hugh Monroe, is important because somethingly we're expanding Fullman
Speaker 1: once sitting, we've done more to expand not only the
Speaker 1: history of the world, but to tell how we can
Speaker 1: be human. And So when I'm when I'm thinking about
Speaker 1: what I've learned the Four Teams, um, what I've learned
Speaker 1: is to just remain in my own body and try
Speaker 1: not to let my ambitions drag me um um in
Speaker 1: a mental space where I can't enjoy what I do
Speaker 1: because it's so difficult to do any of the things.
Speaker 1: It's so it's so I have to teach myself in
Speaker 1: new skill sets, writing and directing and producing all these
Speaker 1: things just to do the one thing I was good at,
Speaker 1: or I thought I was good at which was was acting.
Speaker 1: But it turns out I'm good at a lot of things.
Speaker 1: I'm a good entertainer and I can tell stories. So
Speaker 1: there you go. Thank you for that, Thank you for
Speaker 1: saying what you said. Stay in your own body. Everybody's
Speaker 1: level of success is different because I don't want to
Speaker 1: be this the most famous training or the I just
Speaker 1: want to be happy being Flame Monroe and I want
Speaker 1: to continuously work now. I don't have to have an
Speaker 1: Oscar Emmy or not. I just I want to be
Speaker 1: to Sam Jackson, Sam always mess success to. I just
Speaker 1: need that. Thank you for that. You know, Erica, that
Speaker 1: whole situation us being black in Hollywood, and woo I sell.
Speaker 1: I see that Will Will showed us that he was human.
Speaker 1: Thirty five years. Will has been the good house Negro.
Speaker 1: He has played by every rule they asked him. He
Speaker 1: made one minor infraction, nobody died, nobody lost the limb,
Speaker 1: nobody went to jail. And I'm telling you we, as
Speaker 1: a people I'm talking about black people, are ready to
Speaker 1: just discard this man. I don't like that. I don't
Speaker 1: like that, but it's ingrained in our DNA. Just like
Speaker 1: you said back from the slavery days. The only reason
Speaker 1: they caught us, let me go right way back. The
Speaker 1: only reason we got caught was because they caught one
Speaker 1: of us that told on all of us. Because we
Speaker 1: are such an ingenious people. We were hitting in the woods.
Speaker 1: The dogs couldn't even send us, couldn't smell us. We
Speaker 1: were smart people. But you caught chicken, George, and gave
Speaker 1: that nigga a piece of chicken, and say wait, they
Speaker 1: at he brought you to us, y'all gave y'all took
Speaker 1: the chicken back, took us and took that nigger. I'm
Speaker 1: just telling you we do each other in more than
Speaker 1: they do us in real talk ship. But the point
Speaker 1: of the black and brown women missing Erica, thank you
Speaker 1: for caring, Thank you forward speaking, Thank you for using
Speaker 1: your platform to make a bring awareness because a lot
Speaker 1: of people don't know and a lot of young black
Speaker 1: sisters need to understand that because you think that they're
Speaker 1: you're free, and they will set you up. They had
Speaker 1: a van here riding around and Long Beach a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago, a white van, and they will have
Speaker 1: a one white girl coming to ask you questions why
Speaker 1: the van was close so then she would grab you
Speaker 1: and pull you to the van. The van will come
Speaker 1: up as nasty girls up. Oh. I walked around with
Speaker 1: my hand jewelry all day long with my daughters because
Speaker 1: hear me when I tell you, I will go to
Speaker 1: prison for man, I've been there before anyway. Plus they
Speaker 1: kick me out anyway. But it was such a scary situation,
Speaker 1: and more people need to You need to enstave of
Speaker 1: fear in your children. Not fear that something can happen,
Speaker 1: but not fear that something will happen. Did but something
Speaker 1: can happen to them. So I scared the ship out
Speaker 1: of my I did. I scared the hell out of
Speaker 1: my daughters. But like Jane says, they keep their head
Speaker 1: on the swivel. Now they're very aware of what's going
Speaker 1: on around them because it's not right in front of you.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's behind you, it's on the side of you.
Speaker 1: Oh that's boom, there it is. I'm gonna put that on.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna put that tattoo right on my titty. Things
Speaker 1: can be closer. This is laughing, Leert. We still gotta laugh, y'all. Ship,
Speaker 1: we still gotta laugh. Erica, do you have any children,
Speaker 1: I don't. I've got children, don't not of my own? No,
Speaker 1: did you ever want children? I did. I did at
Speaker 1: some point, and I had issues, you know, five ways
Speaker 1: and all sorts of other issues. But you know what
Speaker 1: I got. My friends gave me their children. So well,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, since you're taking is wait wait a minute,
Speaker 1: since you're taking kids. I got a fifty year old
Speaker 1: I'm just she partty trained and everything. You who don't
Speaker 1: be girl? If I showed you all this gray up
Speaker 1: under this blonde, good god, this this was This was
Speaker 1: so important for people to hear and understand that just
Speaker 1: because you're an actress, just because you're a celebrity, things
Speaker 1: that that resonate with their farm a celebrity before they
Speaker 1: are here from their own parents, because they will trust
Speaker 1: it more because you're your star, your celebrity. So I
Speaker 1: love the fact that you are transferred this information, which
Speaker 1: is what laugh and learning is about. We transfer information
Speaker 1: on this page, and you gave us so much information
Speaker 1: and so much inside Erica, and I just I just
Speaker 1: love you. Let me just say that, I just love you.
Speaker 1: I loved you from the day we interview. Don't care
Speaker 1: a hunter though, what I love you too? Quote I
Speaker 1: love you, but actually, you know what, I'm not even kidding.
Speaker 1: I've seen all your breakfast club I've been Um, I'm
Speaker 1: saying for real. I know you won't believe me what
Speaker 1: I hope you do. And I and I look forward
Speaker 1: to not only success, but I just I just love you.
Speaker 1: But I think that you are absolutely one of a
Speaker 1: kind energy, just so smart, so smart, you know, and um,
Speaker 1: amazing just power. But also there's such a beautiful gentleness
Speaker 1: about you that I just adore. So I just think
Speaker 1: that you're gorgeous in every way. And thank you so
Speaker 1: much for introducing laying to the world. Girls. Stop talking,
Speaker 1: keep going, girl, keep going to order. You're with a
Speaker 1: doctor order. You're like to me, You're like to me
Speaker 1: this centuries new sort of like, um, you know, if
Speaker 1: somebody's not a bad signal, flame to the rescue with you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Erica, and I hope that one day we
Speaker 1: can work on a project together, because I would love
Speaker 1: to be like Maxine Shaw's the big brother. I could
Speaker 1: be the big adopted brother. Your mama gave me up
Speaker 1: and then you came to a club and saw me,
Speaker 1: and I realized, girl, that's my mama. Wait a minute, Oh,
Speaker 1: that would be a dope. Eric could because of beautiful
Speaker 1: women like yourself, Beautiful Black women like yourself inspires me,
Speaker 1: It up lifts me to be a better and I'm
Speaker 1: a suit did they always want if you take the time,
Speaker 1: you have a joining me too. You just because he's
Speaker 1: antipa spay here that they eat there for it today,
Speaker 1: a little wherever you can for the poor People's campaign.
Speaker 1: Reverend Barber joined that they're gonna be June eight. Can
Speaker 1: I say this please, superposition of black, brown, white, every
Speaker 1: color in the world to change the politics on the ground.
Speaker 1: Let's not just dog our politics it's supports them. Let's
Speaker 1: get out there and do something about it. Because we
Speaker 1: can't just look and then just be critical. We have
Speaker 1: to make sure we put ourselves out there in order
Speaker 1: to change things. Together, we can do it. I appreciate
Speaker 1: the time yere also the opportunity. Before you leave, I
Speaker 1: want to ask you, because now you just open up
Speaker 1: my man to ask you a question. Have you ever
Speaker 1: considered jumping into the world of politics. We need more
Speaker 1: black sisters. We need more black people period, but we
Speaker 1: definitely need more black sisters. Well, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. You know, a couple of people have
Speaker 1: asked me and honestly about it, and expect one of
Speaker 1: my mentors, Hillary Clinton. She said, I love Hillary politics.
Speaker 1: I love her. I love her. People don't even understand.
Speaker 1: They'd be like, you don't know, I said, know, you
Speaker 1: don't know because you can never back. Don't debate me
Speaker 1: about Hillary. I'm like, I'll be like, I'm one of
Speaker 1: her most travel surrogates. And I even um I designed
Speaker 1: her campaign poster that she used in both cycles, the
Speaker 1: Hillary poster. But what I have, what I love about her,
Speaker 1: and what I love about anybody like her, is the
Speaker 1: fact that people don't think the strong women need support.
Speaker 1: And I say strong women need most support. That they
Speaker 1: take it all on themselves, and they make it seem
Speaker 1: like it's all like what it's like what they're doing.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, I don't possibly do it. Show
Speaker 1: what I've loved out because a lot of people need. You.
Speaker 1: Tell my girl Hillary that I said she would have
Speaker 1: want if she had showed her a little more cleavage.
Speaker 1: All she had do with show a little bit of cleavage, hey,
Speaker 1: and tell her I know that she think that she
Speaker 1: was the strongest white woman in the strongest woman the world.
Speaker 1: But tell her she learned the great value of lesson
Speaker 1: about how to stand by her man from from Corretta.
Speaker 1: Cause Corretta knew all Martin's bull bs and she's still
Speaker 1: about her man quietly. That's what Hillary learned. I see
Speaker 1: it to tell her. I see it yourself now, you
Speaker 1: know I would love that, Eric, Eric, Ladies and your
Speaker 1: mix the noise for my wonderful guest today, Miss Erica Alexander,
Speaker 1: Erica the Great Alexander Maxine Shaw Attorney. Girl, Let me
Speaker 1: tell yourself. Was that your booty on the show or
Speaker 1: did you stick your booty out because that booty used
Speaker 1: to be high and stuck out. Was that your booty?
Speaker 1: It was at your walk? That was my booty. That
Speaker 1: wasn't good. Don't be over here testing turning on my chime.
Speaker 1: You know I'm a boy up under here. You better stop.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take this week off with her to a player.
Speaker 1: You better not get off. Erica, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: You are wonderful. You are a wonderful woman. You are
Speaker 1: an inspiring woman, and we appreciate you. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for me and my flame match, We appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining me for laughing. We'll talk. I
Speaker 1: love you, appreciate you. Bye, lady Jim. Y'all makes a
Speaker 1: noise for my very special guest, Erica Alexander. She was
Speaker 1: so wonderful. I missed my Lauren today, but she will
Speaker 1: be back next week. I want you guys to follow
Speaker 1: Erica the Great Alexander on her page on Instagram and
Speaker 1: listen to all her projects. I hope you guys took
Speaker 1: in all that she was sharing with us, especially as
Speaker 1: far as young black and brown sisters missing in this
Speaker 1: country and black and brown women period. Because everybody is
Speaker 1: somebody's mom or sister or cousin or somebody that was wonderful.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you Flame Mess for being and thank you Jane.
Speaker 1: You guys know I could not do the show without you.
Speaker 1: Thank you my boy Kenda. Y'all, y'all send up some
Speaker 1: hards for Kendall. I appreciate you. I will see you
Speaker 1: all on Love Lounge tonight. Thank you for joining us
Speaker 1: for laughing, learned. The tickets for d C for my
Speaker 1: birthday Laugh the Live, Laugh and Learn are still on sale.
Speaker 1: Go to the DC Comedy Level website, which is July fourteenth. Also,
Speaker 1: we're doing four comedy shows on the fifteenth to sixty
Speaker 1: Jamaica Joy and hopefully will be joining me on the fourteenth,
Speaker 1: So I appreciate you. Shout out to Charlemagne for giving
Speaker 1: Erica and and Kevin Hartford giving her a space and
Speaker 1: a platform to get out this information to teach, to
Speaker 1: show the world what's missing because we don't make the public,
Speaker 1: we don't always make the news, but we can make
Speaker 1: the news with each other. Lady, this is laugh and
Speaker 1: learn and the well this show. We are not here
Speaker 1: to change get you to change your man. We are
Speaker 1: simply trying to get you to use your man, because
Speaker 1: in order to use your man, you have to have
Speaker 1: a mind. Independent and critical thinking falls on you. You
Speaker 1: cannot let nobody else make a decision that is going
Speaker 1: to impact your life on you. It has to be
Speaker 1: your decision. So thank you so much for joining me today.
Speaker 1: My name is Slaymon Bro. My co host Lauren Hogan
Speaker 1: is not here today, but she will be back next week.
Speaker 1: Please follow her on Lauren Hogan on YouTube or on
Speaker 1: Our Money h on Instagram and I am at Monroe
Speaker 1: Flame on Instagram and Flame mon Role on YouTube. But
Speaker 1: download the audio on Under the Black Effect Network on
Speaker 1: I Heart Apple, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your podcast. This is what we want you to do.
Speaker 1: We want you to listen to the audio because that's
Speaker 1: where we get our money at. But we do the
Speaker 1: video because we want you to see who we're talking
Speaker 1: to and see the voices that's coming out the faces.
Speaker 1: So thank you guys so much. I appreciate you here
Speaker 1: at Laugh and Learn. I will see you out next week.
Speaker 1: I'm going to fix my glen Close head. Don't look
Speaker 1: like I get on the glen Close hair from uh
Speaker 1: fatal attraction at the Michael, what's the name? Beat our
Speaker 1: ASSU tell I'll call your wife? And then he snatched?
Speaker 1: Oh I got the snatch. Look. Thank you flame, Matt.
Speaker 1: I love you guys. Peace. Don't miss an episode of
Speaker 1: Laugh and Learn. Listen and subscribe on the Black Effect
Speaker 1: Podcast Network, I Heart Radio, app or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts. Laugh and Learned podcast is a production of
Speaker 1: the Black Effect Podcast Network and I Heart Radio. Our
Speaker 1: ejecutive producer, It's Tiffany Hattish. Our theme music is by
Speaker 1: the one and only Christie Payne. Thank you guys. This
Speaker 1: is Flaming Roe. Don't forget to laugh, listen and learn