Speaker 1: What's going on, y'all one? And I'm Tamika D. Mallory
Speaker 1: and this is Street Politicians, the place where the streets
Speaker 1: and politics meet. It's good to be back, you know.
Speaker 1: Since we have started our new journey, our podcasts on
Speaker 1: the Black Effect Podcast Network, our brother Charlemagne decided that
Speaker 1: he wanted to put together some god king black black,
Speaker 1: black black black back back spot. And you know, having
Speaker 1: this opportunity to talk to so many incredible people over
Speaker 1: these last few weeks has just been really good. It
Speaker 1: feels good to make sure that Street Politicians arrived, arrives.
Speaker 1: We are arriving. We are, We are gradually slowly growing
Speaker 1: into something I just think is needed, you know, because
Speaker 1: that's the reason why I got into activism. That's why
Speaker 1: I got in because I didn't see where it messed
Speaker 1: for me. I didn't see where I fit into it.
Speaker 1: I didn't see, like somebody from my communities, actually from
Speaker 1: the streets, how did politics and activism and civil rights
Speaker 1: even you know. So I think that's what we're trying
Speaker 1: to provide, you know, and as we move on, you know,
Speaker 1: hopefully we'll be in the Hall of Fame, you know, well,
Speaker 1: if it has anything to who has been, you know,
Speaker 1: inducted into the Hall of Fame. Yeah, I don't know,
Speaker 1: because I was thinking about the Hall of Fame. That's
Speaker 1: what made me think. When I thought about what I
Speaker 1: thought about Charlotte Magne, I thought about them being inducted
Speaker 1: in the Hall of Fame, right, and our good friends
Speaker 1: DJ Envy and yes anyway, but in order to get
Speaker 1: us to the Hall of Fame, you know, there's some
Speaker 1: people that worked really hard at making this happen, and
Speaker 1: we have to always give a shout out to our
Speaker 1: producer producer, that's right, the executive producer, executive producers Kathleen Trigg,
Speaker 1: Cat Skate Productions and I Woman TV. And then of
Speaker 1: course always working creative directing is our dear sister Janice Rodrigues. Janice,
Speaker 1: you keep it up. You're doing a good job. You know.
Speaker 1: People are really out here putting it down, like really
Speaker 1: really fighting so hard. I was thinking, just you know,
Speaker 1: not too long ago, the million Maga March happened in Washington,
Speaker 1: d C. Some people say it wasn't a million. I
Speaker 1: don't care if it was two people out there. The point,
Speaker 1: the theory, the concept in general of this whole uh
Speaker 1: million Maga March and what it represents is what's so dangerous.
Speaker 1: This is the seventy I think it's seventy three million
Speaker 1: people who voted for Donald Trump. This is that, this
Speaker 1: is that crowd. And why and the reason why I
Speaker 1: bring up that folks are putting it all on the
Speaker 1: line is because I think about a young she she
Speaker 1: are not pretty old at this point, but you know,
Speaker 1: we still like to say we're young. Um, but my
Speaker 1: sister from Black Lives Matter d C, Nini Tay, Now
Speaker 1: y'all know if you don't know, and you should do
Speaker 1: some research, Nini te is off the chain, right. This
Speaker 1: is a This is a black woman who does not
Speaker 1: play at all period. She I mean, first of all,
Speaker 1: the way that we came into contact with her was
Speaker 1: because she challenged us as leaders within Women's March, Carmen,
Speaker 1: Linda and myself to sit down at the table and
Speaker 1: make sure that when we go into d C with
Speaker 1: these major events, that we also think about the local organizers.
Speaker 1: You know, people go to d C to do marches
Speaker 1: and protesting other things because it is the state, the capital,
Speaker 1: the nation's capital, but there's still a local community there.
Speaker 1: And when you and I and many helped me to
Speaker 1: see that when you go into Washington and you get
Speaker 1: these permits or not to do these mass demonstrations, they
Speaker 1: move the homeless community. Which are these folks are being supported.
Speaker 1: They're not just like out on the street. There are
Speaker 1: people in grassroots organizations that do work. They have routes,
Speaker 1: they have conversations with these folks. They know where to
Speaker 1: find people who may have mental health challenges and whatnot.
Speaker 1: So it's not like when you move them it's just
Speaker 1: a simple, you know, movement. Now it's actually dislocation for
Speaker 1: the work. So you know, she was like, listen, our
Speaker 1: homeless community gets impacted. Y'all leave the streets dirty, people
Speaker 1: don't clean up, and then our communities, our parks and
Speaker 1: other things are not um you know, sanitized properly for
Speaker 1: our children. Also, resources are being taken thing, businesses are
Speaker 1: being closed. People are not able to work on their jobs.
Speaker 1: So this these are things I never even it never
Speaker 1: came to my mind, but men say made sure that
Speaker 1: I know it. And in this last in this million
Speaker 1: Maga March, one of the most important things for UH
Speaker 1: for for Black Lives Matter d C was to ensure
Speaker 1: that these people did not destroy Black Lives Matter Park,
Speaker 1: the plaza where people there are monuments or memorials there,
Speaker 1: you know, uh, pictures of people who have died, messages.
Speaker 1: It's like it's it's really like a It is a memorial.
Speaker 1: It is a memorial for the movement for black people
Speaker 1: who have lost their lives in many different ways. And
Speaker 1: they wanted to make sure that it was not damaged
Speaker 1: and that you know, it was respected, because why not, right,
Speaker 1: And of course the opposite happened. People from the march
Speaker 1: part of the delegation, if you will, went to the
Speaker 1: park and begin to deface it, destroying the park, and
Speaker 1: of course the police officers who were there, they kind
Speaker 1: of fake intervened, but you can see on the video
Speaker 1: on Nini's videos very clearly they didn't really do anything
Speaker 1: to try to stop and preserve this part. And when
Speaker 1: I see Nini says, people that were with her got stabbed,
Speaker 1: there were fights, and that to me is the idea,
Speaker 1: you know, of risking it all because this is a
Speaker 1: black woman who stands really really strong in her square
Speaker 1: and they've been arrested a bunch of times. We've been arrested.
Speaker 1: People think it's cool, like they think it's like a
Speaker 1: party when you go inside of I know, when we
Speaker 1: were in Kentucky, I was like, oh, this is different,
Speaker 1: you know, I think I think for me, you know,
Speaker 1: actually be being on the front lines and really doing
Speaker 1: this work. I had to appreciate the danger in the
Speaker 1: risk that we actually put ourselves in every time, you know,
Speaker 1: when we face to face with these police. When we
Speaker 1: were in Kentucky, you know, I remember the last pretty
Speaker 1: much the last march that we had when the police
Speaker 1: came and started to surround us, you know, and they
Speaker 1: let all five I mean flash flash bombs. And it
Speaker 1: was a peaceful march. It was a nonviolent mark because
Speaker 1: we don't use the word peaceful because we don't get
Speaker 1: no justice and there's no peace. So it wasn't peaceful,
Speaker 1: but it was a non violent march. We were people
Speaker 1: were you know, expressing their frustrations, the anger that Brianna
Speaker 1: Taylor hadn't got justice and we were just marching and
Speaker 1: they cut us off in the way that they met us,
Speaker 1: you know, they met us with a level of energy
Speaker 1: and anger and aggression that any moment something could we
Speaker 1: couldn't have made it home. Yeah, something could have gone
Speaker 1: It could have gone wrong. So when they met us,
Speaker 1: because there was kids out there, there were kids who
Speaker 1: was crying, who was screaming, her ears were damaged by
Speaker 1: the flash bombs sound. And it was for no there
Speaker 1: was no reason at all. We hadn't done anything aggressive.
Speaker 1: We just marched. We were actually heading back. We're on
Speaker 1: our way back to Brianna Square, you know where they
Speaker 1: called freeway. We're on our way back there, and matching
Speaker 1: that the block and they just cut us off from
Speaker 1: every block and sealed us in. And you know, and
Speaker 1: understanding those moments and other times that we've actually been
Speaker 1: face to face were officers on the bridges when they
Speaker 1: met us there, you know, and we understood that there
Speaker 1: could have been a level of danger and aggression and
Speaker 1: you know, physical interaction with officers that couldn't could have
Speaker 1: ended us either hurt, deeply hurt or actually dying, you know.
Speaker 1: And then we go to prisons to where it's freezing,
Speaker 1: you're in there for hours, you're hungry. Well, I mean
Speaker 1: not prison jail, you know, in the county, in the
Speaker 1: county facilities. Yeah, I've been in prison prisoners definitely, you know,
Speaker 1: but we've actually been in facilities that that you know,
Speaker 1: our lives were could have been in danger. You know
Speaker 1: a lot of people we're traumatized. There were a lot
Speaker 1: of people who actually went to prison that were traumatized
Speaker 1: but his experiences and didn't want to go back. So
Speaker 1: when you talk about that, more people that came out crying.
Speaker 1: People inside really frustrated. You know, when you're in near
Speaker 1: twelve thirteen four, people call it bullpen therapy. You always
Speaker 1: talk about this bullpen therapy. What is that? Bullpen therapy
Speaker 1: is exactly what you experience. You know, when you're sitting
Speaker 1: in that cell and you started to get hungry, you
Speaker 1: started to get cold, you started to see the hours
Speaker 1: go and you're like, okay, when am I going home?
Speaker 1: And nobody has no real answers, you started to get frustrated.
Speaker 1: You know, everybody in there is frustrated that the tension
Speaker 1: is mountain. You're like, damn, I don't want to be
Speaker 1: in here. You experienced in Clausrophobia is dirty. It's all
Speaker 1: type of things going through your mind, and it makes
Speaker 1: you say to yourself, I don't never want to be
Speaker 1: in this situation again. So what it does is it
Speaker 1: prohibits you from wanting to be on the front line
Speaker 1: of the movement again because you don't want to go
Speaker 1: through that, you know, experience again. So it's bullpen thirds like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you want to do this, We're gonna make sure that
Speaker 1: you're sitting there for sixteen and twenty four in twenty
Speaker 1: eight hours and being the coal and have a you know,
Speaker 1: bologney sandwich or a ham sandwich that tastes like garbage
Speaker 1: and in water that don't even taste like juice that
Speaker 1: tastes like you put two paces. Yeah, we had. So
Speaker 1: in New York City, I've never been fed, and I've
Speaker 1: been in four between four to six. I think the
Speaker 1: most was probably about seven hours for a day without
Speaker 1: a woman where we were arrested outside the Trump Towers
Speaker 1: um with the women's march, and so I think that
Speaker 1: was about seven hours. I didn't have any food period
Speaker 1: um and so New York. I don't know how it
Speaker 1: works in different places, but I will say that in Kentucky,
Speaker 1: there was a black man who was in the kitchen
Speaker 1: working in the kitchen, but he's also an officer, clearly,
Speaker 1: and he came and was like, you know, I need
Speaker 1: to make sure y'all get something. So he slapped some
Speaker 1: kind of turkey cheese something together that was just disgusting.
Speaker 1: And let me just tell it. I have to tell
Speaker 1: and Yandy, I think both of them ate the hole, y'all.
Speaker 1: I didn't even Linda Sarso definitely ate the sandwich and
Speaker 1: said she actually enjoyed it. I did drink his little
Speaker 1: crystal like water thing, but I listened. I was thirsty.
Speaker 1: They said drink water if nothing else. And then you
Speaker 1: got to use the bathroom. So the bathroom, yeah, we
Speaker 1: had to put up like a her. But the crazy
Speaker 1: thing is that the glass the window is right next
Speaker 1: to the toilet, so you could put up the sheet
Speaker 1: or whatever. The blankets which are like wool literal wool
Speaker 1: like not like nice wool that you wear, but I'm
Speaker 1: talking about woolf from like the actual animal. Um. They
Speaker 1: put that up to try to block you, but the
Speaker 1: officers walking by can see right through the window the
Speaker 1: glass as you use the at them. I mean, the
Speaker 1: whole thing is not at all. And the crazy thing
Speaker 1: that happened to us is that while you're in the cell,
Speaker 1: you call you know whomever we're calling outside here and there,
Speaker 1: and they're actually talking about you got a felony, like
Speaker 1: what like now people as you said, everybody's getting frustrated
Speaker 1: the tensions arising. It's something my job. They were teachers
Speaker 1: principles and they're like, felony, that's not what they thought
Speaker 1: this was about. But Kentucky is very different, you know.
Speaker 1: And I think all of these places, unfortunately that I've
Speaker 1: been arrested have been have been different and difficult in
Speaker 1: their own ways. Because the tuns in New York is
Speaker 1: no joke, and I've been in there is dangerous. It's
Speaker 1: very dangerous. That's the one thing. It's very dangerous at least.
Speaker 1: And I've had fights in the tuns. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1: I've gotten into numerous fights in the tumbs. In Kentucky
Speaker 1: they separate you where it's just you and whatever group.
Speaker 1: But in New York, I've been in the tumbes with
Speaker 1: other women that I have in there because of the situation.
Speaker 1: But in most facilities they don't really separate you. They
Speaker 1: didn't have to separate us. I guess they put us
Speaker 1: in certain selves because they know we all came together,
Speaker 1: and they separated a certain people. For the most part,
Speaker 1: as you come into the system, they're supposed to just
Speaker 1: feel up these selves and it could be very dangerous.
Speaker 1: And the last thing that I'll say on it is like,
Speaker 1: you know, I think people they see us smiling and
Speaker 1: and and and they don't know that sometimes in those
Speaker 1: cells you build camaraderie, right, Like you've become closer, you
Speaker 1: sort of become family with the people who are in
Speaker 1: there with you, and you come out feeling victorious, like, listen,
Speaker 1: you know we did this. We we believe in our struggle,
Speaker 1: We believe in our fight. But every single person who
Speaker 1: goes in there, there's a moment when you know you
Speaker 1: your freedom has been taken from you as somebody else
Speaker 1: is in charge. They're in control of what may or
Speaker 1: may not happen to you on that day. That's right,
Speaker 1: And I think the more that those of us who
Speaker 1: do it daily, you know, we put ourselves in more
Speaker 1: risk because there's no guarantee that they're gonna let you
Speaker 1: go home today, and there's no guarantee that you're not
Speaker 1: going to have a fell in each other. There's no
Speaker 1: guarantee that you're gonna make it out of yourselves. You know,
Speaker 1: we've seen san Jibland pulled over for a traffic and
Speaker 1: never made you understand I'm saying, So we understand that
Speaker 1: what we're doing risking at all, but we understand hownnecessary
Speaker 1: it is in this time. You know, we understand that
Speaker 1: our voices, our platforms, you know, are very important to
Speaker 1: uplifting this moment. So I'm letting people understand what we
Speaker 1: got to do it this moment. We have no choice.
Speaker 1: We got to do it. But I'll tell you this.
Speaker 1: So in d C. When I got arrested with the
Speaker 1: White ladies, I was able to sit on the grass
Speaker 1: and be on my cell phone and all types of stuff.
Speaker 1: But that's a conversation for another day. And it brings
Speaker 1: me to the thought of the day, My thought of
Speaker 1: the day. You know, I'm always thinking, which might be
Speaker 1: about thematic, right, but for my thought of the day,
Speaker 1: I just want to ask the question, should we be
Speaker 1: relying on the activism of entertainers and athletes and other
Speaker 1: influencers as part of our movement, Because then you have
Speaker 1: people like little Wayne and little I don't know these
Speaker 1: people's names, but these pumps, and you know, and and
Speaker 1: Donald Trump called him pimp, little pimp on purpose. As
Speaker 1: far as i'm he didn't even vote. So anyway, these
Speaker 1: because any sword that you pull has two sides, right,
Speaker 1: So you're gonna have the side that we want, which
Speaker 1: is for people to stand with us, But then you're
Speaker 1: gonna have the side of folks who are gonna go
Speaker 1: against us and actually stand with the oppressor. So is
Speaker 1: it better to just say just let's you know, just
Speaker 1: don't talk at all to entertain this, or are we
Speaker 1: saying we'll just take both and fight the battles as
Speaker 1: they go along as they come along. I think I
Speaker 1: think for me, it's you know, just being on the
Speaker 1: right side of truth, you know, because the facts are
Speaker 1: the facts, you know, So whatever position that you take,
Speaker 1: if it's contradictory to the facts, then people are gonna
Speaker 1: let you know it. You know, when we talk about
Speaker 1: Little Wayne and we talk about the situation with Little
Speaker 1: Pump and these people who advocated against what it is
Speaker 1: that we knew was right, you know, right is right
Speaker 1: all the time. When you when Little Wayne talks about,
Speaker 1: you know, a platform and a platinum plan and really
Speaker 1: not having any knowledge of the legal system, understanding what
Speaker 1: the government does, understanding really what that Platinum plan really states,
Speaker 1: in opposition to what other documents people have put together
Speaker 1: that really give you know, some type of transformative justice
Speaker 1: and and so many other you know, when you don't,
Speaker 1: when you are not away of those you know, those
Speaker 1: documents who have that have been created to give real
Speaker 1: equity to black people, and you don't and you don't
Speaker 1: have anything to compare it to, and you just make
Speaker 1: a statement. Then you gotta figure out what you gotta
Speaker 1: ask what is that based on? You know, we we
Speaker 1: we heard I hear certain things. I don't know that
Speaker 1: little Wayne had a gun charge and he had, you know,
Speaker 1: certain charges that he wanted to get dismissed. So he
Speaker 1: does it for that. You know, when you look at
Speaker 1: a little pump. We're in a we're in an era
Speaker 1: of what they call cloud chasing, you know, and trolling.
Speaker 1: So they want they just want any level of notoriety
Speaker 1: at any costs, and they don't even care if they're
Speaker 1: compromising or jeopardizing people. So we have to be able
Speaker 1: to call that out. We we we understand they have
Speaker 1: a platform in the voice, but we also need those
Speaker 1: who are on the right side to combat that. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. Karen Sivil said that trolling it's
Speaker 1: all about personal ego, right, It's all about you doing
Speaker 1: things for yourself. UM and not for the greater community.
Speaker 1: And I think that that's what we saw with this election.
Speaker 1: This this past election, there was a lot of trolling.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of people trying to position themselves
Speaker 1: as being the savior for our communities without engaging some
Speaker 1: of the community. You know, even though I believe wholeheartedly
Speaker 1: that ice Cube was trying to do and it's going
Speaker 1: to continue to do the right thing for our communities,
Speaker 1: really trying to find a way to UM to force
Speaker 1: these politicians to do something for us, to give us
Speaker 1: something for our votes. I believe in that. But I
Speaker 1: also I read a tweet that he put out where
Speaker 1: he said, don't tell me like I didn't talk to
Speaker 1: people from the community or good solid people to put
Speaker 1: this plan together. And he names a bunch of individuals,
Speaker 1: all of which I respect very much. These are people
Speaker 1: who are in the economic development space for the most part,
Speaker 1: and they are incredible, incredible strategies. Not one black woman
Speaker 1: was on the list, at least it wasn't in the
Speaker 1: tweet that he put out. And if he did talk
Speaker 1: to a black woman, he didn't feel that she was
Speaker 1: important enough for him to include the names of those
Speaker 1: who he mentioned, So That tells me there's a big
Speaker 1: gap there because if you didn't see if, first of all,
Speaker 1: in this moment, if you don't have a black woman
Speaker 1: sitting at the center of the dialogue about communities, I'm
Speaker 1: not I understand now unless he says, well, I was
Speaker 1: going to try to work on black men. Okay, that's
Speaker 1: a different conversation, and it should be room for that.
Speaker 1: Just like President Obama has the black Mail initiative. There
Speaker 1: should be room for and space for dialogue that is
Speaker 1: just about saving black men, just like we have spaces
Speaker 1: that are for black women. But if you say that
Speaker 1: you're representing the community and you don't have a black
Speaker 1: woman like Alicia Garza, like you know, I mean, I
Speaker 1: could go on with and on, I won't even get
Speaker 1: myself in trouble. You know, name these individuals. If you
Speaker 1: don't have them in the conversation, then what are you doing?
Speaker 1: I think what it is is, you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: a level of entitlement. It's a level of ego that
Speaker 1: we as black men have a lot of time, but
Speaker 1: we have a level of fans. But that's that's you
Speaker 1: know what it is. Our ego is our biggest asset
Speaker 1: in our biggest you know, liability. At the same time,
Speaker 1: because our ego pushes us to our greatness, it makes
Speaker 1: us feel like we can't fail. It makes us tell
Speaker 1: ourselves that despite what America has then to us, and
Speaker 1: how we are marginalized and criminalized and demoralized every day,
Speaker 1: that we continue to drive on. But it also tells
Speaker 1: us that we don't need to deal with other people.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we don't need to confer, we don't need to
Speaker 1: sit down in community and get opinions of other people.
Speaker 1: And that's that's the floor that we have. And it
Speaker 1: also means that sometimes, um, you don't see the value
Speaker 1: of women and black women at the table. Well, I
Speaker 1: don't know if we say we don't see the value.
Speaker 1: I just sometimes I just think that patriarchy in himself
Speaker 1: and what we've dealt in this country has has taught
Speaker 1: us that we have to make the decisions. We have
Speaker 1: to be the leader, we have to be the strong one.
Speaker 1: We have to provide and protect. So sometimes we do
Speaker 1: that and we we we just say we're gonna make
Speaker 1: sure that we got you. We we go in there
Speaker 1: with your intentions and all we say, we know what
Speaker 1: you need. And sometimes we don't but nothing about us
Speaker 1: without us. We know that. And I just want the
Speaker 1: cameras to zoom in on you using language, using words
Speaker 1: like patriarch. You have come a mighty long way. And
Speaker 1: the life is about evolution, is about growing. It's about listenings,
Speaker 1: about paying attention. And as you grow and you learn
Speaker 1: and you hear things and you start to do self assessment,
Speaker 1: you know, you have to do self reflection and say, well,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe that right there I could have done better,
Speaker 1: Maybe that I can still do better, you know. And
Speaker 1: I think in this time we talk about activism and
Speaker 1: people having voices, you know, I think as men, as
Speaker 1: black men, definitely, we just have to be more conscious
Speaker 1: of how we show up, especially in spaces that we
Speaker 1: don't normally show up in. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Even though we have notoriety, we have you know, position,
Speaker 1: we have finances, we have all those things. But it
Speaker 1: takes time, It takes respect to confer what people are
Speaker 1: actually doing the work. Like you should have sat down,
Speaker 1: Like we've had a bunch of calls when when the
Speaker 1: thing when situation, you know, the situation happened with George
Speaker 1: Floyd and what Brianna Taylor. They were calls from the NBA,
Speaker 1: from the NFL where they want to sit down and
Speaker 1: have conversations with you and say, hey, what should we
Speaker 1: be doing right now? We you know, we want to help.
Speaker 1: We we have platforms, we have voices, we have finances.
Speaker 1: What is it that you need us to do? How
Speaker 1: do we uplift the work that you already doing. I
Speaker 1: ain't trying to cut you off. I never said anybody
Speaker 1: had to talk to me because you know that don't
Speaker 1: be the story that But listen to me. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying there aren't many women, but I'm saying you are
Speaker 1: one of the many women who have been on the
Speaker 1: front lines, who have proven leadership, who have proven understanding,
Speaker 1: and have led in this movement for years. So if
Speaker 1: people are having conversations with like you said, Alicia Garza,
Speaker 1: there's Angela Rides, There's Nina Turner. There's so many different
Speaker 1: black women that you could sit down and have conversations with,
Speaker 1: and you didn't talk to Nina Turner. Yeah, have a conversation.
Speaker 1: And in order for us to get back to our
Speaker 1: natural positions in this world, as the protector, as the provider,
Speaker 1: as kings, we have to do the work. We have
Speaker 1: to do the necessary work to listen to our queens,
Speaker 1: because that's where the counterpart is. We have counterparts and
Speaker 1: together we're gonna take over everything. Yeah. Well, I'm happy
Speaker 1: again to hear you speaking so eloquently about it's about evolution,
Speaker 1: and it is about evolution, and I appreciate um the
Speaker 1: fact that you even want to evolve and that you're
Speaker 1: being a voice because there's so many young men, young
Speaker 1: black men, who are coming up that need those examples
Speaker 1: of what it looks like to protect black women. And
Speaker 1: guess what protecting a black woman is actually protecting the nation.
Speaker 1: Oh and protecting a black woman is protecting a black man.
Speaker 1: Like you know, we had this conversation the other day
Speaker 1: and what we were saying, like we just both we
Speaker 1: the reality is America. The world has always tried to
Speaker 1: divide us because they know when we are connected and
Speaker 1: we are united, how strong we are. That's a fact.
Speaker 1: Stronger together, Stronger together. Before we go to the next
Speaker 1: segment and have our special guests joint, we're gonna take
Speaker 1: a quick break for our sponsors. So who's your next
Speaker 1: guest list? Is super excited next guest and when we
Speaker 1: talk about putting it all on the line. You know,
Speaker 1: this is a young brother who is an NBA basketball
Speaker 1: player who had a situation you know that we've seen
Speaker 1: on We've seen the video, We've seen the interaction with
Speaker 1: him and the police and he was tased, you know,
Speaker 1: and just recently he received the seven hundred fifty dollars
Speaker 1: settlement you know with Milwaukee and they realized that his
Speaker 1: rights were violated. So we have sterling DeMarco. What's going on?
Speaker 1: We need that. How are you feeling today, Brother, I'm good,
Speaker 1: I feel great, Man, blessed, be alive man, man man
Speaker 1: especial especially, you know that brings us being alive. Man.
Speaker 1: We look at the situation that happened with you, and
Speaker 1: now we see that you reached the settlement of seven
Speaker 1: hundred fifty thousand dollars with the Milwaukee you know, police
Speaker 1: department after you were tased. Was that like an awakening
Speaker 1: for you when it happened to you, like I know,
Speaker 1: because we see it on the videos all the time,
Speaker 1: and we see it it's in the far away place
Speaker 1: and we hear about it. But when you actually were
Speaker 1: a victim of this, didn't really open your eyes to
Speaker 1: the injustice that we all we all deal with. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't say it opened my eyes. It was just more
Speaker 1: confirmation for me, you know, because I'm from Chicago, maggot.
Speaker 1: You know, homies and friends and family that's you know,
Speaker 1: been out there, um, and you know they targeted every day,
Speaker 1: you know, and in the league. You know it's guys
Speaker 1: that you know going through similar situations. But it just
Speaker 1: doesn't go as you know, public or as viral as mine.
Speaker 1: So it wasn't really, you know, an awakening like it was.
Speaker 1: It was just confirmation. I mean I didn't. I've been
Speaker 1: studying my history. I know my history a little bit,
Speaker 1: and uh, I know, you know how everything operation in
Speaker 1: the country and you know what you know, the system,
Speaker 1: how they try to target us. So, um, it wasn't
Speaker 1: It wasn't awakening like I said, It was just confirmation
Speaker 1: for me. Like you're you're first of all, Sterling, it's
Speaker 1: good to see you. We've been kicking it a lot
Speaker 1: behind the scene talking about these cases that's popping up.
Speaker 1: I mean one of the obviously, Brianna Taylor was an
Speaker 1: issue that brought us all together. You know. I remember
Speaker 1: being on the conference call with Brianna's mother to Mika
Speaker 1: Palmer Um and you and Chris Paul and many of
Speaker 1: the players who were trying to figure out how can
Speaker 1: we get involved, what more can we do? This has
Speaker 1: been a summer or this the previous summer was one
Speaker 1: that really made us focus. If never before, if people
Speaker 1: weren't paying attention to police abuse and just um white
Speaker 1: supremacy and all those things in the past, they certainly
Speaker 1: during this this previous summer began to see it crystal clear. Uh.
Speaker 1: And it it brought us together. But the next incident
Speaker 1: that happened that really got us talking was in Kenosha,
Speaker 1: um in Wisconsin where Jacob Blake was shot by those
Speaker 1: officers and has been paralyzed. And then immediately follow on that,
Speaker 1: Kyle Rittenhouse. Uh, the white kid that I think travel
Speaker 1: from Illinois from your home state, went to Wisconsin and
Speaker 1: too Kenosha shot to protesters, well, shot three and killed
Speaker 1: two of them. Um. And and as you said, it's
Speaker 1: more like confirmation we already know that we're actually at war.
Speaker 1: And it's for me, I'm proud to see that there
Speaker 1: are so many players, led by individuals like yourself, who
Speaker 1: are willing to risk it all and put everything on
Speaker 1: the line to say that we have our communities have
Speaker 1: to have justice, you know, and I know it. It's
Speaker 1: probably not the most comfortable spot to be in, but
Speaker 1: you're doing it. I got to, I feel like, you know,
Speaker 1: I have to just you know, being a black man first,
Speaker 1: you know. Um. I mean, you know, I can, you know,
Speaker 1: being a league or whatever I'm doing, you know, to
Speaker 1: get an income from my family, Like that's cool, and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make sure my family good regardless. But at
Speaker 1: the end of the the day, I still got to you know,
Speaker 1: stand up for who I am and you know what
Speaker 1: I represent in the people that you know surround that's
Speaker 1: around me. I mean, I'm gonna have kids one day.
Speaker 1: I gotta make sure that it's a little smooth out
Speaker 1: here for them. You know. I got nephews, Um, I
Speaker 1: got cousins and everybody you know that that's out here,
Speaker 1: you know, walking the streets every day, you know, and
Speaker 1: they can they can be the victim of any type
Speaker 1: of situation. So for me, I just you know, got
Speaker 1: to do my part whatever I can do. You know,
Speaker 1: I gotta use my platform, use my voice, hues, whatever
Speaker 1: it is to you know, try to make an impact
Speaker 1: and make some change. But I mean, I I'm not letting,
Speaker 1: you know, a job title or a dollar amount, you know,
Speaker 1: stop me being a black man at the end of
Speaker 1: the day. Amen, you know when when I watched that video,
Speaker 1: what I what I identified with so much of that.
Speaker 1: You know, as a black man, you know, we have
Speaker 1: to always try to listen ourselves and capitulate. They want
Speaker 1: us to not be Mainly they want us to be afraid.
Speaker 1: They want us to bow down. And watching that video,
Speaker 1: you know, I've seen it. They addressed a man. You know,
Speaker 1: you you you, you still your ground, you are a man,
Speaker 1: you and and that somehow it's threatening because you conduct yourself,
Speaker 1: especially as a black man, when you conduct yourself as
Speaker 1: a man and somehow threatens them. You know. So we've
Speaker 1: seen the video, but I just want to know, I
Speaker 1: want you to take us through that situation too, so
Speaker 1: we can get a view of it from exactly how
Speaker 1: you felt at that moment, what was going And people
Speaker 1: will say the video, but we need to call it
Speaker 1: exactly what it is. It's an incident with the police department,
Speaker 1: um where we believe police brutality happened to you. And
Speaker 1: obviously the city of Milwaukee agrees because they now have
Speaker 1: to pay you, even though I think the settlement is
Speaker 1: too low. But that's a different days conversation. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we get to that in a little bit. But I mean,
Speaker 1: as far as you know, that night, you know, I
Speaker 1: was in and out Wall Grange, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: double parked in the handicap and everything. But when I
Speaker 1: came out, you should have just been a simple ticket,
Speaker 1: you know. And you know we both go our separate ways.
Speaker 1: But um, when I approached the car, the officer kind
Speaker 1: of you know, nudged me back a little bit. So
Speaker 1: I told him, like, you know what I'm saying, don't
Speaker 1: touch me. He just off back. I guess, you know,
Speaker 1: felt like since he had a bad job, he can
Speaker 1: you know, treat the city or take control of the
Speaker 1: situation pretty much. And he, you know, say some I
Speaker 1: owned this, and right off back, I knew what it was.
Speaker 1: That's why I told you to back up. But because
Speaker 1: you're gonna try and get in the car, I'll do
Speaker 1: what I want, all right, I own this right here.
Speaker 1: So after that, you know, he called his back up
Speaker 1: and everything about five six, seven squad carts came. Um,
Speaker 1: I mean, and I'm standing out there, I'm waiting on them.
Speaker 1: To go back to his vehicle right at ticketing everything,
Speaker 1: as all the squad carts come, the officers they started
Speaker 1: getting out and they just start surrounding me, like they
Speaker 1: just start standing by, you know, as we just standing
Speaker 1: that time, going back, I got my hands in my
Speaker 1: pockets a little code outside. So one of the officers
Speaker 1: tell me to take my hands out of my pocket,
Speaker 1: you know right. You know, after he telled me a
Speaker 1: second time, he grabs me, and then all of them
Speaker 1: started grabbing the opposite that ended up tasting me. He
Speaker 1: had his gun drawn initiative. So if I would have
Speaker 1: pushed one of them off for me, it would have
Speaker 1: been a wrap for me. I wouldn't be here talking
Speaker 1: to y'all today. So in the midst of that, I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know, he just I gave in, and you know,
Speaker 1: I got to the ground. Um, they got me to
Speaker 1: the ground, and they still tased me. And you know
Speaker 1: why they tased me. One of them got his knee
Speaker 1: and my neck face to the ground, scars and all
Speaker 1: of that. One of them got his ankle, his foot
Speaker 1: stepping on my ankle the entire time I'm on the ground,
Speaker 1: handcuffs and all of that, and it was like, man,
Speaker 1: during that whole situation, it was just get to the house, man,
Speaker 1: Get to get get back home, get to your family.
Speaker 1: You know you got more you know going on for you,
Speaker 1: Like don't don't let it in right here? Why why
Speaker 1: they try to justify what they did? It was crazy,
Speaker 1: you know, saying I was, you know, double park that
Speaker 1: looked like I was robbing the place. Like if you
Speaker 1: robbing the store, Like your car is not gonna be
Speaker 1: parked towards the you know what I'm saying, the entrance,
Speaker 1: like you're gonna park it away like it's just little
Speaker 1: little things. They was trying to, you know, justify their
Speaker 1: case where and none of them added up, Like none
Speaker 1: of them made that you was trying to rob the store.
Speaker 1: You know, it's unfortunate, but we live in a society
Speaker 1: where we just you know, we are automatically criminalized for
Speaker 1: being black man. You know, and when you when you
Speaker 1: came out there and you you have a presence, you're
Speaker 1: you know, you're a stocky toll individual, they just feel intimidated.
Speaker 1: And and we deal with this all the time. And
Speaker 1: you know, and I say all the time, I'm not
Speaker 1: willing to lessen myself as being a man to make
Speaker 1: you feel comfortable, you know, and we shouldn't have to.
Speaker 1: We should be able to if you if you're giving
Speaker 1: me a ticket, in your officer, you should understand that
Speaker 1: nobody wants to get a ticket. That that should be
Speaker 1: part of your training. If you're giving me a ticket,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be a little frustrated. I'm be like when
Speaker 1: you give me to take alright, cool, It's not gonna
Speaker 1: be just cool. They have to be trained in the
Speaker 1: level of de escalation and dealing interacting with individuals who
Speaker 1: might not be happy about getting a ticket. And that's
Speaker 1: part of life. Nobody's in that when they deal with
Speaker 1: other communities, because we see white people go completely crazy
Speaker 1: when they're getting a ticket. They could be wrong as hell,
Speaker 1: and they go off. They the ticket in their face
Speaker 1: and all the times they do all type of stuff
Speaker 1: they do. Let's talk about what we get. Absolutely not
Speaker 1: at all. But let's talk about the bubble. Uh real quick.
Speaker 1: I don't know anything really about sports. I'm trying to learn,
Speaker 1: but I do know there was a bubble um And
Speaker 1: the reason why I know there was a bubble because
Speaker 1: the pandemic created the situation. But while being in that bubble.
Speaker 1: You all were very very much as I said earlier,
Speaker 1: connected to what was happening in the community. Do you
Speaker 1: feel like the pandemic caused some of your college leagues
Speaker 1: to sit still and really see the world and like
Speaker 1: see how serious the trauma is that black people and
Speaker 1: black men particularly are dealing with. And when I say colleagues,
Speaker 1: I'm not just talking about other players. I'm talking about coaches,
Speaker 1: you know, people in the back office, because it seemed
Speaker 1: like everybody was involved. Yeah, no, it definitely, uh you know,
Speaker 1: um raised, you know, a different alert level to a
Speaker 1: lot of guys in the league, like you said, coaches, referees,
Speaker 1: you know, front office people like it definitely because they
Speaker 1: ain't they ain't have nothing to do at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the pandemic, but you know, sit at home, work
Speaker 1: out there now and then and see what's you know,
Speaker 1: the latest on the news. And then George Floyd's situation,
Speaker 1: you know, Brianna Taylor situation, Like it was a lot
Speaker 1: that was going on that they had no choice but
Speaker 1: to you know, um, you know, look at and see
Speaker 1: you know, and for everybody that did, you know, use
Speaker 1: their platform with voice to peak up and you know,
Speaker 1: try to um, you know, help you know, families and
Speaker 1: you know, trying to reach out and you know try
Speaker 1: to do what they can. You know, I salute them
Speaker 1: and respect them because like you, like we were talking
Speaker 1: about earlier, that will put a different you know, stamp
Speaker 1: on somebody's image, Like if you you know, trying to
Speaker 1: stand up and you're going against some of your leagues,
Speaker 1: you know, policies or some things that you know owners
Speaker 1: might not be for or you know, it's just a
Speaker 1: lot that comes with it, you know, and a lot
Speaker 1: of guys not willing to you know, take that stand
Speaker 1: and you know, use their voices. Um, some guys you
Speaker 1: know sitting in the back and they you know, quiet
Speaker 1: about it. But I salute you know a lot of
Speaker 1: the guys that were stepping up, and you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's a lot that you know happened during that you know,
Speaker 1: pandemic bubble, you know, time timing for us. But a
Speaker 1: lot of guys still out here doing stuff. A lot
Speaker 1: of guys still out help fighting. You know. Georgia, Uh,
Speaker 1: George Hill on my team, you know, for what he's
Speaker 1: doing and what he's been, you know, continuing to do
Speaker 1: in the community in Milwaukee, in Tonio in Indiana. You know,
Speaker 1: he got a lot going on. You know, he always
Speaker 1: out there looking out for the people. Man. And I
Speaker 1: talked to him a lot, you know, I try to
Speaker 1: pick his brain a lot. George like to talk, so
Speaker 1: I'm not listening. Man, George is my guy. Man, George
Speaker 1: is definitely he supported me all the time, and he's
Speaker 1: always been that way, very vocal about what's going on. Man.
Speaker 1: But we just want to really salute you because you
Speaker 1: know you're young. You know, you fresh into the to
Speaker 1: the league, and you could have it could have got
Speaker 1: worse for you, you know, you being standing up and
Speaker 1: speaking out, you know, speaking against a lot of you know,
Speaker 1: like you said, a lot of these coaches and a
Speaker 1: lot of these owners they don't want they don't want
Speaker 1: this type of problem. They don't want you to be vocal.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of players who have bigger platforms than you,
Speaker 1: that have more things happened, that don't want to be vocal,
Speaker 1: that don't speak out. You know. So we want to
Speaker 1: just to say, continue to do the work. You got
Speaker 1: your back, man, and you know, hopefully we'll get back
Speaker 1: to the league and we could be back in them
Speaker 1: stands Man come to I need a couple of tickets. Man,
Speaker 1: You know I got what I'm here tickets. Look, I
Speaker 1: don't have no shame. This is the show tickets. But
Speaker 1: you show Grace his time putting a shameless plug to
Speaker 1: try to get some basketball tickets. That's the least I
Speaker 1: could do making it happen. Y'all out here doing what
Speaker 1: y'all gotta do for us man, for the people, day
Speaker 1: in and day y'all y'all on the ground, actually doing it.
Speaker 1: So the tickets, that's the least I do. We gotta
Speaker 1: get you out that too to me. But but you know,
Speaker 1: you gotta teach about how it works. First of all,
Speaker 1: this is one I'm to say. This is all cat
Speaker 1: right here. She used to be front row at the
Speaker 1: next game on my cell phone. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: She was that she had front road tickets at the
Speaker 1: next game, season tickets. So don't let her like she
Speaker 1: don't know nothing about what's going on at the bund Yeah,
Speaker 1: she was right there. We're throng yea. And the way,
Speaker 1: the only time I used to pay attention was when Carmelo,
Speaker 1: you know, when he was in the basket. That was
Speaker 1: my moment but I was really there for the fashion.
Speaker 1: I was there to see La La and others line
Speaker 1: up with the fashion. That's that was my first right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a plethora thing. You blast telling she come fashion,
Speaker 1: I come for the game. You know, everybody come to
Speaker 1: see their favorite players. So you know a lot we
Speaker 1: appreciate you, man. Call my man George here. We need
Speaker 1: to bring George on the show too. You know, hit
Speaker 1: him up, tell him hit me up. Man. We're gonna
Speaker 1: set that up. But once again, man, we salute you
Speaker 1: man for taking that sting and not being afraid in
Speaker 1: this moment. You know, we know that a lot of
Speaker 1: people do things for trends. We know that it's training
Speaker 1: to be black lives. You know, it's gonna be people
Speaker 1: that do it. But you know, we could tell that
Speaker 1: you really do it from the heart. And we could
Speaker 1: tell that from your upbringing when you I'm from and
Speaker 1: identifying with the struggles that we deal with every day
Speaker 1: that it's authentic for you, man. So once again, I
Speaker 1: want to salute you and you know what you left
Speaker 1: on the next season, hopefully we get back in the tickets.
Speaker 1: I'd be right there with you guys, And I appreciate
Speaker 1: you all man, salute, thank you, shout out to my
Speaker 1: boy sterling. He got some tickets. Don't listen, listen, don't
Speaker 1: hate all my tickets. Man, dope, do good energy man,
Speaker 1: and he got some tickets for us. Man. So now
Speaker 1: he is, he's dope. I see his light. It's there,
Speaker 1: you can see it shine. And you know, he's super cool.
Speaker 1: But he's very, very determined. And it really kind of
Speaker 1: like broke my heart a little bit when the two
Speaker 1: of you were talking to one another and you said,
Speaker 1: you know, as a black man, they want us to
Speaker 1: lessen ourselves, like we have to sort of capitulate, bow down,
Speaker 1: whatever it is to these folks who think that their master.
Speaker 1: You know, he said, somebody this, this officer is telling
Speaker 1: him something about ownership, like I own you, I own
Speaker 1: this moment, and and and it just kind of broke
Speaker 1: my heart that this is what black men are dealing
Speaker 1: with every single day across this country. And you know,
Speaker 1: and and and to see Stirland saying he had to
Speaker 1: make decisions in the moment, like am I gonna defend
Speaker 1: myself stand up for myself rightfully? So because all I
Speaker 1: did was part I know what was wrong. I'm not
Speaker 1: you know, he didn't say, well, you know, I should
Speaker 1: have been allowed to park there. He said, I'm supposed
Speaker 1: to get a ticket, because that's what you do. You
Speaker 1: give people a ticket who part in the handicapped and
Speaker 1: and and and for him to get to the point
Speaker 1: where he's on the ground, somebody stepping on his ankle
Speaker 1: and his neck punching him, it's just way too much.
Speaker 1: It's what we deal with all the time. And so
Speaker 1: shout out to him. Man. Unfortunately he was able to
Speaker 1: leave with his life, not really injured, and get paid
Speaker 1: for their wrong doing. So said that you know, it
Speaker 1: was a tasting, not a gun. And you know, he
Speaker 1: even talked about that, and that really resonated with me
Speaker 1: that it could have been a guy. He said, it
Speaker 1: started out a gun merely first you was gun and
Speaker 1: then he drew to taser. So you know, before we
Speaker 1: go to the next segment and have our special guests joint,
Speaker 1: we're gonna take a quick break for our sponsors. So
Speaker 1: listen now, will we Who we have? It's somebody who's
Speaker 1: family to us, like really family to us. She is
Speaker 1: one of the most intelligent. You know, she has an
Speaker 1: energy that fills a room. You know, she has a
Speaker 1: spirit that she has an old soul, but she has
Speaker 1: young energy, you know, and we love her dearly. She
Speaker 1: is prolifically, prolifically that she is prolific in every sense
Speaker 1: of the word. You know, she is graceful and peaceful.
Speaker 1: You know, she is the past president, is the immediate
Speaker 1: immediate past. Okay, let me let me get that set.
Speaker 1: I don't even know. I just know that my sister
Speaker 1: was the president of the Minneapolis and she was and
Speaker 1: she was doing a damn thing out there. You know.
Speaker 1: We met her when we went down there to do
Speaker 1: on George Floyd, and she became family ever since. She
Speaker 1: is my sister and we love her. This is Ms.
Speaker 1: Leslie Redman. Leslie. See that smile is worth a million
Speaker 1: dollars and she has a million dollar smile. And it's
Speaker 1: always like that. So it's not just for the cameras.
Speaker 1: And you know what, And you said, my stead, Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, you said that we went down there,
Speaker 1: went to Minneapolis to do George Floyd. We didn't go
Speaker 1: to do it. I mean, we went down there for
Speaker 1: George exactly on behalf of George Floyd and we mat
Speaker 1: and so everybody knows how recent George Floyd Um was
Speaker 1: murdered and we met this young sister, Leslie Redman, who's
Speaker 1: now like she's a mentee to me. Maybe I'm being
Speaker 1: mentor mentored by her some days, just depends on what
Speaker 1: the situation is. We met her then and she literally
Speaker 1: has become family. We don't move without calling Leslie redmansh
Speaker 1: and getting her involved in everything that we do. For
Speaker 1: some reason, I guess she thought that she needed to
Speaker 1: work in Minneapolis during the election because she didn't come
Speaker 1: with us on our non day tour. She was missing.
Speaker 1: Grace and peace was paid off in this election because
Speaker 1: Minnesota was super close four years ago and it wasn't
Speaker 1: close at all this year. Yeah, that's what's up. That's
Speaker 1: what's up. So that's that's right. That's something to congratulate.
Speaker 1: And we know how hard you work on the ground.
Speaker 1: You are the immediate past you title. She's the boogie
Speaker 1: people out there. I was also the youngest president in
Speaker 1: the history of the Chapters. Oh, I'm twenty eight now
Speaker 1: twenty five years old. Two. For three years you were
Speaker 1: president of the Chapter of the Inn Double A c P.
Speaker 1: They love you. I know, President Derek Johnson loves you.
Speaker 1: I've been on calls when he's when he you know,
Speaker 1: shows his confidence in you, and we also see your grind,
Speaker 1: you know. I what I think is so great about you,
Speaker 1: Leslie outside of your organizing skills and the work that
Speaker 1: you I've seen you do for George Floyd and and
Speaker 1: and you'll talk about some of the other cases, but
Speaker 1: it's also the fact that you didn't just say, Okay,
Speaker 1: I did the I ran for president. I'm done. You
Speaker 1: have another campaign that you were actually running simultaneously with
Speaker 1: your work for n double, a CP called Don't Complain Activate.
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. Tell us a little
Speaker 1: bit about what that is and thank you, says and
Speaker 1: you know, God really gave you Don't Complain Activate. I
Speaker 1: took my first internet your trip in two thousand and
Speaker 1: sixteen to India and actually to make when you all
Speaker 1: were doing the Women's March protesting, I was actually flying
Speaker 1: back in town during the inauguration, and so I created
Speaker 1: Don't Complain Activate doing President's to Day. And the idea
Speaker 1: was that everyone is an activator, right, whether you're a
Speaker 1: mom or a dad, whether you're a teacher, whether you're
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur, we are all activate in the community in
Speaker 1: some way. Right, you don't have to be President Barack
Speaker 1: Obama or Beyonce in order to activate the community. Right.
Speaker 1: People get discouraged sometime when this negativity going on. But
Speaker 1: I recognized that we have the power. Right, I recognize
Speaker 1: that all things are working for our good, and so
Speaker 1: don't complain activators while shining light on in the community
Speaker 1: and activators in the community. And so it's grown into
Speaker 1: a brand. We now have a clothing line that's launching
Speaker 1: at the end of this month. I'm super excited about it.
Speaker 1: People saw me wearing the gear on CNN and on
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of different platforms when I was protesting
Speaker 1: for Brother George Floyd, and people wanted it. So I'm
Speaker 1: giving to people what they want. And I got a
Speaker 1: word to President Trump, and I want to make sure
Speaker 1: y'all get this word to him. I think that it's
Speaker 1: crazy that we're in the middle of a global pandemic
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen and you haven't sent a man or any
Speaker 1: resources to the black people in Minnesota, but she were
Speaker 1: quick to send your troops to kill us. We already
Speaker 1: been saying this open season all over the nation. If
Speaker 1: you just open it up even more. You need people
Speaker 1: to help you because you're trying to do something specific
Speaker 1: that I was getting ready to give you some money
Speaker 1: the other night about but I didn't give it yet
Speaker 1: because I need to understand what I'm doing. And man, yeah,
Speaker 1: so let me break it down for you again. If
Speaker 1: you know me, you know I'm all about the community.
Speaker 1: I'm all about black liberation. I'm all about all of us, right,
Speaker 1: And so before I really launched it to the public,
Speaker 1: one of my goals was to give two hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty the black activators in Minnesota and forty allies and
Speaker 1: not just white allies, but Latina Allies, Native Allies, Monk
Speaker 1: allies right with activated boxes. A lot of people see
Speaker 1: me on the front line and they you know, we'll
Speaker 1: get caught up in this. This is the leader or
Speaker 1: they are dub leader. But I believe that we are
Speaker 1: all leaders. I believe we are all activators. And I
Speaker 1: quickly made a list of tow hundred and twenty people.
Speaker 1: There are over thousands of people in Minnesota activating the community.
Speaker 1: But I just want to show them that I see you,
Speaker 1: that I appreciate you, that we made it through, right,
Speaker 1: you all, we made it through a global pandemic. We
Speaker 1: made it through a global uprising, right that is something
Speaker 1: to celebrate. And what even we don't complain activate And
Speaker 1: so I'm going to be gifting these activator boxes out
Speaker 1: with Our goal is to make fifteen th dollars. We're
Speaker 1: not quite there yet. How much have you raised so far?
Speaker 1: We're almost at the four thousand, all of mark. We
Speaker 1: gotta go. We gotta plug that. We gotta plug that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I gotta make my donation. A man, I
Speaker 1: would greatly appreciate it. Well, we we We just want
Speaker 1: to say, you know, the work that you do does
Speaker 1: not go unseung, It does not go unnoticed. You know
Speaker 1: the value that you brought to our organizations. You know
Speaker 1: the thoughts, processes and the ideas that you've said at
Speaker 1: the table as we organized for Brianna Taylor in Kentucky.
Speaker 1: You know, we we definitely appreciate you, and we were
Speaker 1: not gonna complain. We're gonna keep on activating. Grace and
Speaker 1: peace to you before you go. And that was such
Speaker 1: a good close and so it's I really should just
Speaker 1: say grace and peace and we love your sister. But
Speaker 1: there is another gentleman that you guys have been fighting
Speaker 1: for and I just want to make sure that we
Speaker 1: say his name because everyone was talking about George Floyd.
Speaker 1: But you continue to remind me, Yes, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for saying as JaMarcus Clark Jr. Mark Clark, Jamal
Speaker 1: Clark right. And you know it's funny that you mentioned
Speaker 1: that because two days ago was his five year anniversary
Speaker 1: when he was murdered, right, And we actually just sponsored
Speaker 1: some shirts to get made for his sister and then celebrate.
Speaker 1: And that was really my introduction to advocacy in Minnesota.
Speaker 1: And I believe you that's why God play enity in
Speaker 1: Minnesota to receive my law degree in my NBA, because
Speaker 1: we needed to activate. And that is why I have
Speaker 1: so much appreciation for until freedom to make a demllory
Speaker 1: my son, Lenda Angelo. You all have really blessed my
Speaker 1: life in ways that you don't even know. You encourage
Speaker 1: so many of us to keep going. You remind us
Speaker 1: that it's bigger than us for you all to leave
Speaker 1: your homes and go out into actually activate Louisville. It
Speaker 1: matters right for me to stay in Minnesota when I
Speaker 1: can go back home in BC. That matters. We are
Speaker 1: one thing we are one community, and I just really
Speaker 1: appreciate you all and thank you for giving me this platform.
Speaker 1: Thank you. We love you, Leslie. Take care, We'll see
Speaker 1: you soon. Don't complain. And that's period, activate, period, period, period. Yes,
Speaker 1: that is our sister, Leslie. I hope you. I hope
Speaker 1: you don't. You haven't missed it. But if you see
Speaker 1: that energy, that's what she brings it to every room.
Speaker 1: She comes of a peaceful word, and she comes with
Speaker 1: this joyful energy that is enlightening, inspiring to everybody she
Speaker 1: comes in contact with you. She's a strategy, she is
Speaker 1: and she is smart as hell, you understand I'm saying,
Speaker 1: like you see her and she's smiling, and then she
Speaker 1: sits down there and she says, listen, this is what
Speaker 1: we need to do, you know. And she's on the
Speaker 1: front line. Really, she knows a lot about policy and legislation.
Speaker 1: She works alongside um Our co founder Until Freedom, Angelo Pinto,
Speaker 1: attorney Angelo Pinto. It's some smart young attorneys out here,
Speaker 1: and they're in the legacy of many attorneys who have
Speaker 1: come before who have really helped to shape policy and
Speaker 1: public opinion for decades, and so I love having them around.
Speaker 1: They make me smarter, and that brings me to what
Speaker 1: I don't do, and what I don't get is why
Speaker 1: don't people who have bigger platforms and bigger voices and
Speaker 1: more resources and everything that we have see the need
Speaker 1: to risk, to take that risk to make it better
Speaker 1: for everybody else? Like why don't they see that this
Speaker 1: is the moment? Like why are people still scared in
Speaker 1: this moment to stand up and talk about real issues
Speaker 1: to say, you know what, we're not going back to
Speaker 1: business as usually the whole world wants to screen Black
Speaker 1: lives matter. I'm a black man, I'm a black woman.
Speaker 1: I'm someone of power, I have stature, I have all
Speaker 1: the things I need and now want to utilize that
Speaker 1: to make sure that the people who don't are at
Speaker 1: least lifted up, who have a have an opportunity to
Speaker 1: do better, who are treated with equity, who are treated
Speaker 1: with levels of justice and respect, Like why don't people
Speaker 1: see that need? Why don't people feel that in their
Speaker 1: soul that right now that they need to be able
Speaker 1: to risk everything, like you know, you know, and even
Speaker 1: though we talk about the basketball like I was, I
Speaker 1: was hurt, you know, because I was when when the
Speaker 1: NBA said you know, we're not playing based on what
Speaker 1: happened to Jacob Blake, you know when they said we're
Speaker 1: not playing and and then they went back a day later,
Speaker 1: well to that. But it was like, you had the
Speaker 1: opportunity to say, you know what, we're not playing into
Speaker 1: some charges abroad. We're not going to be the cash
Speaker 1: cow for city for state that is going to allow
Speaker 1: a black man to just be shot in the back
Speaker 1: and the police officer and to have no you know,
Speaker 1: accountability for that. We we we we refused to bring
Speaker 1: money to this town as long as those things that happened.
Speaker 1: They had the opportunity, and it's like, why did they
Speaker 1: not say, you know what, we have to sacrifice right now,
Speaker 1: we have the sacrifice to something because we we know
Speaker 1: that we we have that power. Yeah, I think you're
Speaker 1: using all the terms that makes it so hard risk sacrifice.
Speaker 1: Not everyone is ready for that. And you know, Sterling
Speaker 1: was saying something that resident need it with me. He's like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take care of my family regardless. That's a
Speaker 1: part of the decision making factor for many individuals in general.
Speaker 1: I'm not just talking about in the NBA, because you know,
Speaker 1: I was one of the people that was like, this
Speaker 1: is pitiful, Like were right there. And I think that
Speaker 1: if Lebron and Carmelo and others who, like you said,
Speaker 1: have the major platforms and they are, uh, the they
Speaker 1: are the stars, but it's not just the stars, they're
Speaker 1: the leaders, right. I think if they had said, you
Speaker 1: know what, we're we can't play a game in the
Speaker 1: midst of all of this that's also happening where it's
Speaker 1: not a game at all, because I didn't really after that.
Speaker 1: You do, but I didn't even feel the need to
Speaker 1: even engage in the NBA. And I'm one of the
Speaker 1: biggest NBA fans. You know, I'm talking about next season maybe,
Speaker 1: but I was so dishearmened that damn we couldn't We
Speaker 1: couldn't even give. But but but the thing about it
Speaker 1: is there's a lot of forces that's in their pulling,
Speaker 1: and unfortunately we have to call a spade a spade
Speaker 1: and say that a part of the pulling that was
Speaker 1: happening was that President Obama also was out there saying, hey,
Speaker 1: let's use this platform, which I get he his opinion
Speaker 1: was use your platform to get to help with the
Speaker 1: election process because we know how serious this election. But
Speaker 1: we could have done all of that. It could have
Speaker 1: been a part of the demand President Obama. And people
Speaker 1: got real mad at me for speaking on it because
Speaker 1: I said, this is pitiful, and I also wrote in
Speaker 1: in parentheses, um that I was specifically speaking to President Obama.
Speaker 1: He knows good and damn well that just because we
Speaker 1: vote in the election, the issue that made the players
Speaker 1: not want to play is not going to be solved.
Speaker 1: That's not gonna happen. Now. Do we have to do
Speaker 1: more inside the system, outside the system, absolutely, but great
Speaker 1: sacrifice is going to have to be made. It's gonna
Speaker 1: come around at some point that people are going to
Speaker 1: have to be willing to risk it all in order
Speaker 1: to get what it is that we want. And guess
Speaker 1: which is which is justice? Right, that's one part of it.
Speaker 1: It's justice, but it's also equity in our communities, and
Speaker 1: it's also accountability. I think that's really the bottom line
Speaker 1: is like, you're never gonna stop, You're never going to
Speaker 1: rid the world of racism, You're never going to be
Speaker 1: able to completely uh dismantle white supremacy. But what you
Speaker 1: can do is have accountability measures for people who hurt us,
Speaker 1: for people who hurt our communities. And my issue with
Speaker 1: President Obama in that moment is that you know that
Speaker 1: these guys were so close to doing something that would
Speaker 1: have been so historic and life changing that I believe
Speaker 1: that I don't know if he should have encouraged him,
Speaker 1: because he shouldn't, because you know, that's not his role.
Speaker 1: Probably would have said, don't ask me because I can't.
Speaker 1: I'm not, I'm not. I don't want to advise you
Speaker 1: in this. I think you should go with your heart. No,
Speaker 1: but I don't agree with that. I believe he should
Speaker 1: have said he should h Yeah, but and that's what
Speaker 1: my issue is. The president he understand, but you understood.
Speaker 1: You have to understand that whatever we got in this
Speaker 1: country is because we fought for, because we sacrifice for.
Speaker 1: We didn't get anything by saying, okay, let me just
Speaker 1: go along with the system, you know, even when if
Speaker 1: you didn't have a strategy, like even in the selection,
Speaker 1: the strategy for me was like, we gotta get Trump
Speaker 1: out and then we gotta pick somebody else that we
Speaker 1: can fight that we got a better chance of winning.
Speaker 1: We can't allow him to get a level of power
Speaker 1: that too with dictatorship, you know. And so that was
Speaker 1: a strategy, and we still fighting whoever's in the White
Speaker 1: House because the system that they are brought into does
Speaker 1: not fit us. And we understand that we need some
Speaker 1: in different So there's a strategy with that. But when
Speaker 1: we start telling people that are in the midst of protesting,
Speaker 1: who are in the midst of going against the city,
Speaker 1: you know, who have them right there, like dag we
Speaker 1: need these funds that they bring in. We need these athletes.
Speaker 1: You know, we need to make some changes. We're gonna
Speaker 1: make some calls because you know those we get it.
Speaker 1: But these officers have to be held accountable because this
Speaker 1: is taking away millions and billions of dollars from its
Speaker 1: bigger than these officers. So you know, when we when
Speaker 1: we understand that that's the power that we have, then
Speaker 1: we're gonna make substantial change. And Obama has to understand
Speaker 1: that he knows that he he said it all the
Speaker 1: time about even in his election, that we were supposed
Speaker 1: to do a lot more to help to push him
Speaker 1: to you know, to push the Senate to do certain
Speaker 1: things that was needed to be done. So him making
Speaker 1: that decision, I understand where it comes from, you know,
Speaker 1: just trying to be politically correct, but it wasn't the
Speaker 1: right decision at that time. I agree, I agree. It's
Speaker 1: not much more to be said. So once again we
Speaker 1: another great episode. Politicians, you know the places for the
Speaker 1: streets in politics meet and once again we don't always agree.
Speaker 1: We're getting a little better. Those getting better is trying
Speaker 1: to make us corner, trying not to argue about everything.
Speaker 1: Not everything. You know, We're still gonna have our disagreement.
Speaker 1: But I'm not always right. You're not always wrong, even
Speaker 1: though I'm more right then then you are. This is
Speaker 1: where the problem comes in. Every single time. I'm not
Speaker 1: always right, she's not always wrong. But we are always
Speaker 1: gonna be a thing big. That's how we own it.