Speaker 1: What's up? Family? Is your girl to make a d
Speaker 1: Mallory and is your boy and we are your host
Speaker 1: of street politicians, the place with the streets and politics. Me,
Speaker 1: what's going on my son Lennon? You had a rough
Speaker 1: few days? Yeah, it's a man. Well, let me just
Speaker 1: say to you that the entire Street Politicians and until
Speaker 1: Freedom family, we want to send our deepest, deepest condolences
Speaker 1: to you and the Lennon family in this time of loss.
Speaker 1: Your mother, Patricia Lennon a very very very special woman
Speaker 1: who I had the privilege of calling a friend and
Speaker 1: getting to meet her at all of your functions, especially
Speaker 1: Miriam Day, where we all learned about feisty Patricia. Uh.
Speaker 1: And she really has taken so many of us on
Speaker 1: as her children, friends, sisters, um, and so over time,
Speaker 1: you know, I've learned how beautiful she is as a
Speaker 1: woman in just such a strong, worried spirit. And it
Speaker 1: also helps to give me a real close understanding of
Speaker 1: who you are and how you came to be the
Speaker 1: feisty man that sometimes you are. That gets on my nerves,
Speaker 1: but you know that's for a different show, um, And
Speaker 1: so just want to say that we love you, we
Speaker 1: support you, uh, and I know that this is not
Speaker 1: a time that you know, it's even you can't even
Speaker 1: understand it. You know, I hear people talk all the
Speaker 1: time about when they lose their um parents. It is
Speaker 1: you know, most undescribable. UM. But we as your village
Speaker 1: will continue to be here to walk you through what
Speaker 1: this new life looks like without your mom. And and
Speaker 1: I think the last thing I'll say is that we know,
Speaker 1: at until Freedom particularly and also the street politicians family,
Speaker 1: we've watched you leave meetings, rooms, adjust schedules, have to
Speaker 1: try not travel at times, um, you know, change things
Speaker 1: around so that your schedule would accommodate you being there
Speaker 1: to take care of your mom, being there to walk
Speaker 1: her through these last very difficult two years of her life. UM.
Speaker 1: And we know that you know, even if sometimes it
Speaker 1: doesn't feel that way to you, that you really showed
Speaker 1: the rest of us what it's like to take care
Speaker 1: of a parent when they are in need. So shout
Speaker 1: out to you and salute to you for being a
Speaker 1: star wars in your family in terms of taking care
Speaker 1: of your mother and mom Patricia Lynn, Thank you man.
Speaker 1: It's not allowed to say, you know, I don't want
Speaker 1: to get really emotional, but that was my favorite girl
Speaker 1: to energy. The strength and belief she gave me about
Speaker 1: myself in life, it is un watched and you know,
Speaker 1: watching her fight for the last two years with a strength,
Speaker 1: with a smile looking at me, you know, looking in
Speaker 1: my eyes, just wanted me to know that she was
Speaker 1: fighting was just something that was phenomenon. And I was
Speaker 1: dere with her on our final moments, you know, and
Speaker 1: I told how proud I was, and you know, I
Speaker 1: couldn't ask for anything. I'm just happy and honored to
Speaker 1: have been to still be her son. You know, I
Speaker 1: hope that you know I did something that made up proud.
Speaker 1: You are sleep in peace. You make us all proud.
Speaker 1: You still a scrub, but you make us all proud.
Speaker 1: We love you. You know, we're going one thing about
Speaker 1: Patricia's She always had a laugh, and so we're gonna
Speaker 1: continue to make sure we keep it light for for
Speaker 1: for you and for all of us. You know it
Speaker 1: depth that makes me think about this whole idea of
Speaker 1: elder care man and how we also as a part
Speaker 1: of um Street politicians, we really and and just our
Speaker 1: organizational efforts, we really gotta get people our age and
Speaker 1: before our age to start thinking about taking care of
Speaker 1: their parents. Because I learned even before Patricia was, you know,
Speaker 1: got sick. I learned from my mother's experience that WHOA,
Speaker 1: we're not prepared, you know, we're not really ready for
Speaker 1: what it takes to care for and all the things financially, emotionally,
Speaker 1: what happens if they need to live with you or
Speaker 1: you gotta figure out how to be with them, what
Speaker 1: happens at night when they're sick. It's so many things
Speaker 1: that goes into taking care of your older loved one,
Speaker 1: and not to your parents, because you become the parent,
Speaker 1: and not to mention, there are not a lot of
Speaker 1: resources out there to help you take care of them,
Speaker 1: you know, And so I learned that with my family.
Speaker 1: Thank God, my father is still here and able to
Speaker 1: take care of my mother every day, which means that
Speaker 1: the burden of that work is not on my sister
Speaker 1: and my brother, my siblings and me, But yet and
Speaker 1: still it wears and tears on him, like we really
Speaker 1: should probably be doing even more, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So it is really just watching you looking at what
Speaker 1: happened in my situation and what continues to happen there
Speaker 1: and just our friends and others who are trying to
Speaker 1: care for their parents. We have to be more educated.
Speaker 1: Nobody ever taught us that, you know, nobody told us
Speaker 1: what to do. We always was were the ones being
Speaker 1: taken care of. It's a lot, man, it's it's it's
Speaker 1: it's a heavy you know, it's a heavy um cross
Speaker 1: to bear, you know what I think. But you want
Speaker 1: to you know, I think we have children. I think
Speaker 1: they had us. They said, you take care or your
Speaker 1: children so eventually that they can take care of you.
Speaker 1: And it was an honor for me, man, just to
Speaker 1: be able to be somebody that she needed to, you know,
Speaker 1: to feel that she needed me. And I had to
Speaker 1: come through for her all the time and be able
Speaker 1: to have a smile and and know that when she
Speaker 1: seen me there she felt safe. You know. Every time
Speaker 1: I would be with her doctor's appointments, anything, no matter
Speaker 1: what it was, she wanted me to be there because
Speaker 1: she felt that she was safe every time I was there.
Speaker 1: And I remember being a kid, and you know what,
Speaker 1: you don't care what you're going through. You just want
Speaker 1: to hold your mommy's hand, you know, your daddy's hand,
Speaker 1: because it made you feel safe. She would do that
Speaker 1: to me, So I was just I was blessed to
Speaker 1: there and be there for Yeah, yeah, that's right. Well
Speaker 1: it is a blessing and you're right, you know when
Speaker 1: when my mom was in the hospital, we just picked
Speaker 1: up and just jumped into it. Even if nobody ever
Speaker 1: taught you, which we do need those that information. What
Speaker 1: do you do about their finances and you know all
Speaker 1: of that. But at the same time, I think it
Speaker 1: is natural because you have learned from your parents. It's
Speaker 1: like a spirit that gets in you that you want
Speaker 1: to help them. You're gonna fight, You're gonna make sure
Speaker 1: people take care of them properly. But I do think
Speaker 1: that there's so much more to uncover um and and
Speaker 1: break down in terms of what other steps that people
Speaker 1: need to know, like what documents need to be signed,
Speaker 1: power of attorneys, you know, paper and shoot, these are
Speaker 1: things people are like, what is the PO I didn't
Speaker 1: even know what that was. I had no idea that
Speaker 1: I needed a form so I could have the ability
Speaker 1: to speak on my mother's behalf. I had no idea.
Speaker 1: You I thought, I'm my mother's child, that's it. This
Speaker 1: is my mother's husband, my sister, this is my mother's daughter.
Speaker 1: That's it. It doesn't actually work that way, It really not.
Speaker 1: It doesn't not that it doesn't actually working with it
Speaker 1: does not work that way. There are literal documents that
Speaker 1: people have to have so that they can have conversations
Speaker 1: with doesn't otherwise on behalf of parents. So the elder care,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get into that and make sure that we
Speaker 1: cover and you know, in in memory of Patricia Lennon,
Speaker 1: we want to make sure we cover that and and
Speaker 1: help people to know what do they do when their
Speaker 1: parents is in distress. So again, R I p to
Speaker 1: your mom and we love and support you so much.
Speaker 1: So there's so many things that's happening in the midst
Speaker 1: of you know, you dealing with your situation. There is
Speaker 1: um you know, the news, it doesn't and nothing stops.
Speaker 1: The cycle doesn't stop of craziness going on around us. Um.
Speaker 1: Just a couple of days ago, I saw a video
Speaker 1: of the young people or I don't even know if
Speaker 1: they were young, but they had nask and whatnot. So
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna put this on young people, but some
Speaker 1: folks who look like our people because their skin look
Speaker 1: dark running into the Louis Vutton store, which is in
Speaker 1: the mall that I frequent and actually I've been in
Speaker 1: that Louis Vuitton store a million times. It's been there
Speaker 1: for years. And they were doing a smashing grab and
Speaker 1: I'm like, wow, this is still happening. Maybe the media
Speaker 1: is not covering it as much, but it's still happening.
Speaker 1: I'm trying, you know, and I know that we all minds.
Speaker 1: We want to say, well, you know the system and
Speaker 1: it's the sign of the times and whatever. But I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to figure out, how do we make that
Speaker 1: stop before somebody gets killed? Because I saw the the
Speaker 1: people doing the smashing grab, but there was staff members,
Speaker 1: clerks or you know, salespeople excuse me, who chased the
Speaker 1: security guard stepped back. I watched this video. The security
Speaker 1: guard got out of the way, but the sales people
Speaker 1: followed and chase these folks around them all. I just
Speaker 1: feel like, what if somebody would have fell down to escalated?
Speaker 1: Like what happens if somebody gets harm? And it makes
Speaker 1: me so scared every time. I could care less about
Speaker 1: the bags, the shoes, the clothes or whatever, but the
Speaker 1: like the life, whether it's the robber or the salesperson
Speaker 1: or whatever. I just don't know where this ends. And
Speaker 1: and it's easy for us to say, well, you just
Speaker 1: gotta you know, they need to do better as inflation,
Speaker 1: because it is inflation, which is very serious, like people
Speaker 1: can't even afford groceries, clothes, anything. But is it enough
Speaker 1: that because there is the problem of inflation, that people
Speaker 1: are now going out just deciding they're going to take
Speaker 1: what they want. I don't think it's just inflation. I
Speaker 1: think it's glamorization, right. I think when you go on Instagram,
Speaker 1: when you're going YouTube and everybody who is a status symbol, right,
Speaker 1: when everybody has on Louis Vuitton and they're saying this
Speaker 1: Louis course this much and I got the Louis Is
Speaker 1: and every song is talking about that, right, And you
Speaker 1: you're you're something. You're from a community and from a
Speaker 1: household where you can't afford that, right, So you you
Speaker 1: feel like you need these things to validate you. You
Speaker 1: have these things, and you are in the end crowd.
Speaker 1: You you can be accepted. You can put it on Instagram,
Speaker 1: you can say look what I got. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. And I say that about most of these brands.
Speaker 1: These brands are status symbols. They're not because most people
Speaker 1: don't buy these brands, be like, oh this just look
Speaker 1: so dope, right you I watched Loui some of the
Speaker 1: ugliest Louis Vuitton should I've ever seen, you know, some
Speaker 1: of the ugliest goodies. Like it's some of the stuff
Speaker 1: that people wear. You know, those Blissia can sneakers, they
Speaker 1: look like orthopedic shoes. I just would never wear them.
Speaker 1: But people say, oh, they course a thousand dollars. And
Speaker 1: these they got jenes that be so ugly that they
Speaker 1: course a thousand dollars And they say, oh, these are
Speaker 1: your marries. You don't they don't care you're looking like, damn,
Speaker 1: I just don't really look good. Like you look at
Speaker 1: those boots that shout out to fact Joe that he
Speaker 1: had a right and you look it said, I'm just
Speaker 1: not gonna wear those, right, But they but they kind
Speaker 1: and of course this amount of money. Now, you know,
Speaker 1: since people can go into these stores and they've seen
Speaker 1: it happen on YouTube, they've seen a little smashup rap.
Speaker 1: People are taking their trial. Man, so that it's so serious.
Speaker 1: It's not like funny like it's really serious. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, it scares the hell out of me. And
Speaker 1: I think you write Instagram and all of that, it
Speaker 1: does make it and I don't And listen, I'm not
Speaker 1: wanting to tell people that they shouldn't wear their their
Speaker 1: Pucci Tucci and Louis. That's fine with me. I support
Speaker 1: it because I wear some of it as well. But
Speaker 1: like this right here was like twenty nine dollars. Like
Speaker 1: if you don't have to always have the highest brands,
Speaker 1: and you either have, you got a phenomenon of either
Speaker 1: people buying fake stuff trying to keep up, or people
Speaker 1: buying or people stealing in order to keep up. And
Speaker 1: I just you know, like I said, I hope nobody
Speaker 1: gets hurt. So listen. The last thing in our little
Speaker 1: news segments it because you know, we try to do
Speaker 1: a little bit of news on on street. Politician. Mass
Speaker 1: mandates are being lifted in a lot of places, and
Speaker 1: there's certain people that are bugged out, um who are
Speaker 1: okay with that. And I say that I was really
Speaker 1: talking about you, But I'll give you opportunity to tell
Speaker 1: me how you think on your own, because I think
Speaker 1: we should be wearing masks twenty four seven. Sometimes you
Speaker 1: catch me, I'll be having my mask on in my car,
Speaker 1: which is kind of crazy, but and I mean, I
Speaker 1: know that's a little bit extra, but I kind of
Speaker 1: find myself trying to wear my mask as much as possible.
Speaker 1: And I don't always do it when I should, but
Speaker 1: I try so. Now that the mandates are being lifted,
Speaker 1: people are gonna get even more laxed. Hopefully we have
Speaker 1: passed the point of COVID being this big bad thing,
Speaker 1: and now we're getting to a point where we understand
Speaker 1: we gotta live with it. We need to be healthy,
Speaker 1: we need to eat right, take care of ourselves. You've
Speaker 1: got many people, especially but who are vulnerable, who are
Speaker 1: vaccinated um and and hopefully that's the direction we're traveling in.
Speaker 1: But I can't lie and say that I don't feel
Speaker 1: a little concerned that you've got people out here, a
Speaker 1: lot of them nasty asses anyway, who won't have their
Speaker 1: masks on. I think for me, the word man that
Speaker 1: has always been the issue for me. Right, I think
Speaker 1: people such as yourself who don't like to be around Germans. Right,
Speaker 1: you can get you can get a in ninety five mass,
Speaker 1: you can wear two mans, right, you can protect yourself.
Speaker 1: They have things that actually protect any level anybody else's
Speaker 1: breath from getting to you. And that's that's something that
Speaker 1: you shouldn't be able to do, right, and and and
Speaker 1: those things. Just like when you walk in a restaurant,
Speaker 1: if you don't want somebody next to you, you can
Speaker 1: move places. Right. There are people who have been traumatized
Speaker 1: so much by the pandemic that they never want to
Speaker 1: be around other people. Right, They're never going not wear
Speaker 1: their masks. It's just a reality that we deal with.
Speaker 1: You know. For me personally, I don't see. I don't think.
Speaker 1: I think there are so many different you know, viruses
Speaker 1: and diseases that that are as contagious and have can
Speaker 1: have addive adverse effects that we've been living with without
Speaker 1: mass for a long time. Everybody doesn't agree with that,
Speaker 1: And I understand some people think that they wanted They
Speaker 1: feel that the mass is the most safest thing for them.
Speaker 1: And I think you can still wear masks. It's just
Speaker 1: that it's not mandated, right. You know, everybody doesn't want
Speaker 1: to wear masks. Everyone doesn't feel that they were quietly
Speaker 1: wear masks. That's an individual's choice. I think when you
Speaker 1: start when we live in America and you start taking
Speaker 1: away individual's choice. You know, when the science and the
Speaker 1: numbers show you that COVID is just as effective as
Speaker 1: pretty much what do you mean? I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: know what that means. Well, it affects people in a
Speaker 1: manner that just about any other virus that we've ever had.
Speaker 1: It has the same It has the same, isn't I'm
Speaker 1: just trying. I'm trying to explain something to you. At
Speaker 1: the same mortality rate, it actually has lower mortality rates
Speaker 1: than most viruses. What what are you talking about? Six
Speaker 1: hundred people died in months. But that's what I'm trying
Speaker 1: to tell you. And if you look at more the
Speaker 1: rate of mortality, right in the rate of something is
Speaker 1: the amount of people who have been affected by something
Speaker 1: in comparison to the amount of people who have recovered
Speaker 1: and people who have actually died. Right, So, if you
Speaker 1: look throughout any historical any virus that we've had, the
Speaker 1: rate of mortality, the rate of recovery is pretty much
Speaker 1: even to all of the viruses we had. This is
Speaker 1: not so that I'm thinking, this is what the CDC says,
Speaker 1: This is what this the thing says you can challenge it.
Speaker 1: So what I'm trying to say is the reason, and
Speaker 1: that's the reason why the mandates are coming off, because
Speaker 1: the science shows that it's safe enough to do so.
Speaker 1: And if you director said, she don't think we out
Speaker 1: of the woods. But you know what, I don't even
Speaker 1: know why I said that, because I don't even know
Speaker 1: why I said that, because what they say every two days.
Speaker 1: So the situation is nobody knows. And you gotta make
Speaker 1: yourself as safe as you you feel that you need
Speaker 1: to be. You need to wear three masks. With three masks,
Speaker 1: you feel like you need to stay home and don't
Speaker 1: go to indoor dining, don't do it. You know, people
Speaker 1: just you make sure that you're comfortable in your safe anyway.
Speaker 1: So moving on, let me tell you about how we're
Speaker 1: about to be done. We have talked way too long
Speaker 1: already because our guests are ready to join, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna have to go to them. My little thought of
Speaker 1: the day was gonna be about Black Lives Matter donations,
Speaker 1: and I really wanted to talk about whether or not
Speaker 1: all black people look the same. That was gonna be
Speaker 1: my thought of the day, Like do people really think
Speaker 1: that all of us are the same exact uh person right,
Speaker 1: because that's the ba all. Everybody looks the same. So
Speaker 1: I wanted to break that down, but we don't have
Speaker 1: time today because our guests are already waiting. I'm super excited.
Speaker 1: Let's go to this great conversation, um, and it's gonna
Speaker 1: be actually two different conversations today with people that we
Speaker 1: love that are just super dope. So mine we've got
Speaker 1: friends as usual on on Street Politicians is a very
Speaker 1: friendly place because we have such great friends that do
Speaker 1: such incredible, incredible work and it's just super super super
Speaker 1: super dope in the two individuals that we have today
Speaker 1: are our friends, our dear dear brother and brother and sister. Um.
Speaker 1: I think you know as we it seems like we
Speaker 1: try to do our one Valentine's Day show, and then
Speaker 1: it was just so much more that we talked about
Speaker 1: that needs to be covered about, not just people in
Speaker 1: relations and ships. From a love perspective. We've been talking
Speaker 1: about polyamorous relationship, We've been talking about traditional relationships, but
Speaker 1: there's so much to be said about folks just working
Speaker 1: together and being in a relationship. How much is too much?
Speaker 1: How much time is too much? Time? To spend together. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, how much is not enough? Like, you know,
Speaker 1: how do you really be a great helpmate? And I
Speaker 1: think one of the things that um, Derek grades excuse me,
Speaker 1: Derek Grace said in his interview was that his helpmate
Speaker 1: has helped to really change his reality and helped him
Speaker 1: to grow his business and his potential. That's one of
Speaker 1: the things that you know, as I as I try
Speaker 1: to find my husband, my king, that is one of
Speaker 1: the things that I really want to make sure is
Speaker 1: that we have we're invested in one another's growth from
Speaker 1: a business perspective as well, because that's what I like
Speaker 1: to do. I like to get my hands in and
Speaker 1: I like to, you know, help to in any situation,
Speaker 1: make whoever I'm working with, whoever I'm even with, loving
Speaker 1: and or just good friends with help them to be better.
Speaker 1: And you helped me to be better. And I don't
Speaker 1: know if enough people are invested in that. And so
Speaker 1: I think that our next our guest, that they exemplify
Speaker 1: what it is to support one another and to be
Speaker 1: helpmates but also still carrying on a very very successful relationship.
Speaker 1: So we are talking to Jay Morrison and Ernestine Johnson
Speaker 1: Morrison the great. Um, let me just tell y'all quickly
Speaker 1: about these two individuals separately, are really dynamic individuals. Um, Ernestine,
Speaker 1: you are an actress, you are a filmmaker. You are
Speaker 1: an incredible poet, which is how I was introduced to
Speaker 1: your amazing talents. You're an entrepreneur, you're a mom, You're
Speaker 1: so many things. You are so many different titles, your fashionista.
Speaker 1: And then Ja, who I've known for a long time.
Speaker 1: J and I have sort of grown over these lasts
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe ten years together, trying to find
Speaker 1: our space in this quest to make our communities better,
Speaker 1: to build, you know, a future for our children and
Speaker 1: for generations to come. And so Jay is an educator.
Speaker 1: That's how I met Jay, teaching classes with a white boy.
Speaker 1: Give j a white boy, he could do anything. Um,
Speaker 1: a business mogul, a real estate expert. Uh, the founder
Speaker 1: of the Tulsa Real Estate Fund, of which I am
Speaker 1: also and you, my son, Um, we are invested in,
Speaker 1: we're partners of. Look, I always say it wrong and
Speaker 1: Jay gets me right every time. So he's gonna fix
Speaker 1: it when it's time for him to speak. A dad
Speaker 1: of three beautiful beautiful women, their women and the baby
Speaker 1: girl because the big girls are women now from when
Speaker 1: we first met to now, these are you know, our
Speaker 1: our women. So you guys separately are amazing, but together
Speaker 1: y'all are the dynamic duo, the powerhouse couple. So listen, guys, y'all,
Speaker 1: these are our friends and we're ready to kick it
Speaker 1: with y'all about the doing business as a couple. Yes, well,
Speaker 1: thank you for having us, Thank you for that grand introduction,
Speaker 1: Thank you sis, thank you street politicians. Man. We uh,
Speaker 1: we're happy to be here. Yeah, I'm happy. So what's
Speaker 1: the secrete? This is the secret to your success as
Speaker 1: a couple of success as business people? Like what what
Speaker 1: do you think is the core thing, like the major
Speaker 1: things that you have to look for to have that
Speaker 1: level of success. In both theories, I start by saying,
Speaker 1: purpose alignment I think is really the secret and also
Speaker 1: what we found as we're now going without a third year,
Speaker 1: going our fourth year married, I think July four years
Speaker 1: already four years wow. So um, also knowing that we
Speaker 1: don't know everything, but we don't got it all figured
Speaker 1: out and understand accepting that it is a journey, right,
Speaker 1: and so we're constantly evolving as individuals, like spiritually and
Speaker 1: business professionally. Um, obviously I'm a visionary, so I always
Speaker 1: got different ideas and I want to be the best
Speaker 1: CEO of our last name right, leader and visionary of
Speaker 1: the family. I think just understand that we don't got
Speaker 1: it all figured out, and that we're doing this thing
Speaker 1: called life together and we're UM, so it's important for
Speaker 1: me to make sure that I'm cleaving to her and
Speaker 1: being patient as she's being patient with me. Is I'm
Speaker 1: figuring myself out, still still growing as a person, as
Speaker 1: a man, I don't even know fully what I'm supposed
Speaker 1: to be all the way right, So I'm still figuring
Speaker 1: that out. But she's still figuring herself out and momhood
Speaker 1: for the first time and all that which is being
Speaker 1: patient with each other as we figured out together. To
Speaker 1: piggyback off what King Jay said, UM and my son,
Speaker 1: I don't think that there are any short set, So
Speaker 1: if anyone out there things that there is a short cut,
Speaker 1: there's not. Like I think that on top of what
Speaker 1: King j said, the shortcut is the secret really is work,
Speaker 1: Like it's really putting in the work, Like everything that
Speaker 1: you want to do whether it's business, whether it's relationship,
Speaker 1: it all takes work. There are no shortcuts. There is
Speaker 1: no like secret mac magic potion that you can drink
Speaker 1: and it just your blossom and you arrive. I think
Speaker 1: everything takes work. And Jay and I are both very
Speaker 1: intentional about we're working on ourselves individually. We're very intentional
Speaker 1: about working on our marriage. We read books together, we
Speaker 1: do marriage counseling together. Even when it's challenging, when it hurts,
Speaker 1: when it's icky and sticky, um, we face it and
Speaker 1: we've dissected and we do the work like we do
Speaker 1: the work necessary to be the best versions of ourselves,
Speaker 1: which in turns makes us the best version for each other.
Speaker 1: So I think the secret sauce, the short the shortcut
Speaker 1: is just putting in the work, putting in the work. So,
Speaker 1: you know what, I want to go backwards because I
Speaker 1: remember when you talked about purpose alignment, Jay, that struck
Speaker 1: for me and just reminded me of how you guys started.
Speaker 1: Um where it seemed and I may be wrong, but
Speaker 1: it seemed that Jay was you know, he was out
Speaker 1: there like you know, the corner classes, the whole thing.
Speaker 1: He was out traveling with his white board around with
Speaker 1: the vision, and you seem to be very supportive of
Speaker 1: that earnest scene, like as if you know, and and
Speaker 1: then I would watch as we would be, you know,
Speaker 1: out on the streets or watching you guys out around
Speaker 1: the country, and you would come and and do poetry
Speaker 1: during the middle of a street, you know, gathering of
Speaker 1: people learning about financial security and what and and really
Speaker 1: how we go from the block and the corner to
Speaker 1: like sustainable communities, um and and you know, and you
Speaker 1: found your your messaging was into twined. So it's that
Speaker 1: kind of like what made y'all say, okay, this can
Speaker 1: work because you guys were able to mess so well
Speaker 1: in the very beginning when you were trying to like
Speaker 1: figure out how to expand yes, I would absolutely say
Speaker 1: that the connectivity in the beginning, that our purposes were
Speaker 1: so aligned, the vision, the messaging was so aligned that
Speaker 1: it made it easier for us to work together. It
Speaker 1: made it easy for us to ligne because the vision
Speaker 1: was the same, The vision was the same, the purpose
Speaker 1: was the same. And although Jake may have had um
Speaker 1: and his individual walk and I had my individual walk,
Speaker 1: it was like when God brought us together, it was
Speaker 1: like this is how you can take your individual vision
Speaker 1: and purpose and your individual vision and purpose and combined
Speaker 1: the two because they were almost like in the game,
Speaker 1: and they went, they went hand in hand with each other.
Speaker 1: M yeah, yeah. And I would say, like, um, we
Speaker 1: often say and I grew up the same way you said,
Speaker 1: used the term help me, right, And I've always thought
Speaker 1: of it like that till a few years ago. Actually,
Speaker 1: Ernestine's grandfather rest in Peace, Uh explained to us that
Speaker 1: the Bible actually says help me. You read it, it
Speaker 1: says if I to help meet because she used to
Speaker 1: help you meet your vision and as I've been studying later,
Speaker 1: and help you achieve your goals. Right. So God created
Speaker 1: me and right depending on this perspective. But this term
Speaker 1: helped me or helped me comes from the Bible really,
Speaker 1: and it's is God created man, and he created a woman,
Speaker 1: so the man was not alone, and God gave man
Speaker 1: a purpose and a woman was help help that man
Speaker 1: meet his purpose, right, and that man was to love
Speaker 1: and sacrifice for that woman. And so I think like
Speaker 1: as I was out when the corner classes, um, you know,
Speaker 1: on your tail at protests and demonstrations all over the
Speaker 1: country and just trying to offer myself of service to
Speaker 1: our community. Um. You know, I was like in the
Speaker 1: dating game, it was all about like what looks pretty
Speaker 1: and what's fly and you know, all the physical attraction
Speaker 1: and those things. And when I'm at Earnesty and it
Speaker 1: was like great energy, great vibes. Um. And when I
Speaker 1: did a corner class here in Atlanta, and I've seen
Speaker 1: her like perform a Black Love and Dear Black Man,
Speaker 1: and it was just something magical because it was like
Speaker 1: she was in her own element and space. She wasn't
Speaker 1: like trying to like be in my space, but with
Speaker 1: her own talents and give they just complimented the exact
Speaker 1: community repair that I want to try to you know,
Speaker 1: contribute to or achieve. Um. And so yeah, I think
Speaker 1: we have the alignment of purpose. As she said, it
Speaker 1: just made it easier. I was like, look this so
Speaker 1: right here that can in a different way, helped me
Speaker 1: meet what I believe is my purpose and my goals. MS.
Speaker 1: You know, I've been along this road with you guys,
Speaker 1: you know, both of you my good friends. And you
Speaker 1: know I've watched you when you started this relationship, watched
Speaker 1: the evolution, was at your wedding, you know, seeing Yeah,
Speaker 1: bring forth a beautiful child together. Is there anything about
Speaker 1: marriage that you thought before that has changed? Like how
Speaker 1: long have you been married? Now? It will be four
Speaker 1: years in July. Is there any ideologies of things or
Speaker 1: just visions about marriage that you thought prior to being
Speaker 1: married that have changed evolved? You were like, you know
Speaker 1: they evolved? Was just changed, like, well, I thought this
Speaker 1: was marriage? Was I thought this? So I thought that
Speaker 1: has has a change for you anyway? Yeah, absolutely, I
Speaker 1: can definitely say marriage is ever changing. I think it's
Speaker 1: ever evolving. Um, I think I had an idea of
Speaker 1: marriage in my head as a woman, like a little
Speaker 1: bit of the fairy tale, not all the way, because
Speaker 1: I'm not a fairytale person. I'm very realistic, but I
Speaker 1: think there was a sector of the fairy tale marriage
Speaker 1: and married life. What it what it looked like in
Speaker 1: a little piece of it in my heart. And then
Speaker 1: I think when you get into it, you realize these
Speaker 1: are two different people from two different walks of life,
Speaker 1: with different habits and kinks and corks and personality traits
Speaker 1: that have now combined into one. And you don't think
Speaker 1: about it that way. You're like, wow, like you have
Speaker 1: to learn to live with this person in their behavior
Speaker 1: and their traits in there and their their little habits,
Speaker 1: and like get to learn this person. It's like it's
Speaker 1: like becoming family. It's almost like if you were a
Speaker 1: brother or sister who had a sibling and then a
Speaker 1: new sibling and at the home, it's like you have
Speaker 1: to get to know this this person in your atmosphere.
Speaker 1: So I think you don't really think about it like
Speaker 1: that when you when you think about marriage, But I
Speaker 1: think now that I'm in it, I'm like, Okay, well
Speaker 1: you have to learn this person. You have to grow
Speaker 1: with this person, you have to evolve with this person.
Speaker 1: This person has to evolve with you. And you know,
Speaker 1: they say you change every seven years, but I feel
Speaker 1: like we're always ever changing. I think we're changing daily.
Speaker 1: So I think it's a it's a very serious commitment
Speaker 1: to say I want to be on this journey with
Speaker 1: you through the evolution, through the changes, through the personality changes,
Speaker 1: through the behavioral traits. I want to be on this
Speaker 1: journey with you. Yeah. And I think when I heard
Speaker 1: Jane talking about, you know, because I was on the
Speaker 1: dating uh whatever, on that trail with Jay two, we
Speaker 1: watched a few no stuff happened, right, And you know
Speaker 1: you talked about being attracted to a certain thing. It
Speaker 1: was what the person looked like. But I'm sure that
Speaker 1: it helped that when you saw Ernest and it was like,
Speaker 1: she's dope, she's the poet, she got all this going on.
Speaker 1: But that thing also be thinging back there because you
Speaker 1: can't if not see it. It didn't just it doesn't
Speaker 1: disappear things. So so Mike don't know because my brothers
Speaker 1: don't look right, man, I wouldn't. That's my sister. I've
Speaker 1: never seen. All I ever seen was ernestin is facing
Speaker 1: a smile to listen. Yeah, right. What y'all always say
Speaker 1: is nobody wants the person that no one else wants.
Speaker 1: Everybody want to look at their person and say, I know,
Speaker 1: y'all know, I got a bad woman. So I'm sure
Speaker 1: that was also a part of how you were like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I found you. It seemed like at some point you
Speaker 1: kind of find everything, like if you get satisfied in
Speaker 1: so many different ways, it's almost like God's way of
Speaker 1: being like I can give you what you need if
Speaker 1: you would be open to receive it. Mhm, right, I
Speaker 1: do agree with that, and I think like the beauty part.
Speaker 1: I agree, Right, that's a foundational we all like you know,
Speaker 1: I mean you want Tobo you attracted to, right, So
Speaker 1: that's a foundational thing. That this thing. There's so much
Speaker 1: of that out there, right, there's so much you know,
Speaker 1: like it's going through the gram. It's like it's a
Speaker 1: million girls that look good. But now we get the substance.
Speaker 1: It's like I'm a substance person, so I can't do
Speaker 1: shallow right. And then I come from the old school.
Speaker 1: I'm not like this new school thing of like we
Speaker 1: just passed them around and everybody got who everybody's been with.
Speaker 1: That's the cool thing, Like I don't want somebody to
Speaker 1: everybody been like yo, that was that was a girl
Speaker 1: last week and that was my girl, but she got
Speaker 1: a bigger followers will be cool. Like I'm from, Like
Speaker 1: I want somebody that everybody can't talk about, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So a virtuous movement. So um, all
Speaker 1: those things did like compiled to like, Okay, what does
Speaker 1: like what do I need? What do I want? Like
Speaker 1: to your point, what do I want? And then what
Speaker 1: do I need? We're really kind of combination like for
Speaker 1: for me, so it's like a lot of times as men,
Speaker 1: we just said of what we want. I'm like, I said,
Speaker 1: be thanking, and that's what I want and that's good enough,
Speaker 1: but did not get down to like what do you
Speaker 1: need though, so and and saying that right and correct
Speaker 1: me of go wrong. But I remember that y'all well
Speaker 1: on this abstaining from having sex with each other? Right?
Speaker 1: And how long was this process? Because I remember he
Speaker 1: was like, well, we don't even that's you know, that's
Speaker 1: not what we're doing. And I was like yeah, really,
Speaker 1: Like I was really like, this is what I knew
Speaker 1: that he was in love because I'm like, what ain't No,
Speaker 1: this is spiritual. We love each other and we building
Speaker 1: So tell me about that question. A lot of people,
Speaker 1: I'm not done that. Yeah. I think that we were
Speaker 1: both very adamant about you know, if you want something,
Speaker 1: you never had to gonna do something you haven't done,
Speaker 1: and I didn't. We both didn't want our relationship to
Speaker 1: the basis the foundation to be based on sex because
Speaker 1: like Jay said, you can get that anywhere and we
Speaker 1: can all have sex, um. But I think we were
Speaker 1: very intentional coming out of relationships. We wanted to find
Speaker 1: something of substance and we were said, hey, let's substain
Speaker 1: for ninety days and we did ninety days. We were
Speaker 1: like like ninety days was a long day, long long time.
Speaker 1: It was allowed, like they still doing that that last
Speaker 1: like three days, like two more days were like. But
Speaker 1: it was times cool because it was like, Okay, I
Speaker 1: know you like if if sex fell off or you know,
Speaker 1: God forbidden one of us can have sex anymore, would
Speaker 1: we still have a connection And we do because the
Speaker 1: spiritual connection to friendship connection. We got to know each
Speaker 1: other without you know, sex um influencing our our whole
Speaker 1: our whole relationships. I think it was a pretty cool thing. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I know, like four men like to me, that
Speaker 1: just seemed the whack of face value right like and
Speaker 1: probably most of us in the culture right now. But
Speaker 1: I don't think for me, like I don't want to
Speaker 1: cut you up. You don't see what it just seems
Speaker 1: like wow, like you know what I'm saying, Like why
Speaker 1: because to come to that ideology, to come to that
Speaker 1: point in your mind, like, it has to be a
Speaker 1: lot of different factors, right, You gotta challenge yourself, You
Speaker 1: gotta look at this person, you gotta actually like this person.
Speaker 1: You gotta want to build, you gotta want to do
Speaker 1: something that's so outside the norm. So when you when
Speaker 1: you said that, I was like, okay, none, this is serious. Yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe I think like it's easy to fall in lost
Speaker 1: mm hmm. You feel me and so a lot of times.
Speaker 1: And I know myself right, like I'm a scorpio, like
Speaker 1: I can falling less quick, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So it's easy to fall in us and thank you
Speaker 1: in love. And I just was at such a high
Speaker 1: frequency in my life at that time. It was like
Speaker 1: I just I don't even want to risk that because
Speaker 1: you could have a lot of fun with somebody and
Speaker 1: they know that's just your lock then, because y'all just
Speaker 1: have so much fun, Like actually, actually it should cut buddy,
Speaker 1: But like I just wanted to bring some different to
Speaker 1: the table. It's like, so to your point, it was
Speaker 1: like a wild thing. It's like, Yo, can I like
Speaker 1: this person? And can I not get bored of this person?
Speaker 1: If sex ain't will entertain us? M hm hm. But
Speaker 1: so let me just ask this question as we go
Speaker 1: to the business part. But bright reported, do you think
Speaker 1: y'all were ready ready for what to get married? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I do you were ready? Yeah, I think so. I
Speaker 1: think that I think that having been married now, um,
Speaker 1: I appreciate all accounts and that we did and like
Speaker 1: the pre marrit work that we did. Um, I think
Speaker 1: that we also could have dug deeper at the same time.
Speaker 1: So is it is marriage hard or is it easy?
Speaker 1: Be honest, it is marriage easy or hard? Because understand
Speaker 1: is she got let me let me just see something.
Speaker 1: Because being married, I understand that the dynamics of it,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people will look at relationships right
Speaker 1: and and and and since we live in the social
Speaker 1: media error, right, they only see Jay and Ernestine when
Speaker 1: they're perfect and they're loving each other and they're kissing
Speaker 1: and they're hugging and they got the African golf and
Speaker 1: then they're doing something like this is what the relationship is. Right,
Speaker 1: So when they can see that, and then you if
Speaker 1: you were able to tell them something that makes them realize, like, really,
Speaker 1: we've gotta work because if this person is saying that,
Speaker 1: then it gives me a different understanding of what I
Speaker 1: have to do, how you have to go through marriage
Speaker 1: and with the processes. So can you tell me what
Speaker 1: do you do you think marriage is hard. I think
Speaker 1: marriage is absolutely hard, but I think it's also like
Speaker 1: any relationship I was talking about. I was talking with
Speaker 1: this with my girlfriends having a girlfriend. It's a regular
Speaker 1: batonic girlfriend. It's hard. So a marriage is definitely hard.
Speaker 1: I think any too, humans to designed to be connected.
Speaker 1: Any type of relationship is hard because it came you
Speaker 1: have two different people from two different walks of life
Speaker 1: aligning together and joining to build a ship, during to
Speaker 1: build a relationship. So I definitely think marriage is hard.
Speaker 1: I do agree with jay Um. I still I still
Speaker 1: know that I was ready. I think we were ready,
Speaker 1: and I know we were ready. I do agree with
Speaker 1: Jay though we did a lot of work, like we
Speaker 1: read this book his needs, her needs before we got married.
Speaker 1: I read it together. We did it with our marriage coach,
Speaker 1: We did all the marriage coaching and all that. But
Speaker 1: I do agree that you could go deeper. But I
Speaker 1: think you could always go deeper. Even if we went deeper,
Speaker 1: there was still another layer of paper we could have
Speaker 1: went from there, because again, you meet someone at thirty forty,
Speaker 1: that's thirty or forty years of layers that you have
Speaker 1: to break through. So I don't think the work is
Speaker 1: ever deep enough. I think you need to go deep.
Speaker 1: You need to ask each other the hard questions, the
Speaker 1: religious questions, of spiritual questions, of finance questions, all your
Speaker 1: sexual desire questions, like all of those things. I think
Speaker 1: you have to dissect and break down when you were
Speaker 1: deciding you want to marry someone, because all these things
Speaker 1: come up. Stuff comes up, and you don't even think
Speaker 1: about you like, oh wow, I didn't I didn't even
Speaker 1: think to even ask about this. So I definitely think,
Speaker 1: I definitely know marriage is hard. It is. It is work.
Speaker 1: It is it's like a job. It's but it's a career.
Speaker 1: It's not a job, but you clock in and clock
Speaker 1: out his career and it's like you're an entrepreneur. You know,
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs You never stopped. There is no clock out. So
Speaker 1: married is like entrepreneurship at the at the highest level.
Speaker 1: That's real. That's I was saying that when I called you,
Speaker 1: I said, I want to specifically know what it's like
Speaker 1: when Jay decides that he's gonna do something and makes
Speaker 1: decisions and then all of a sudden, you have to
Speaker 1: become a part of trying to help deal with whatever
Speaker 1: has happened, because lifting it ain't just they're like, hey,
Speaker 1: we're going to the story. No, it's listen, we're about
Speaker 1: to start this and we're gonna be invested in this
Speaker 1: for the lext ten years, so let's get it gone gone.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you guys something. This is how I
Speaker 1: know I meant to be Jay's wife. And j could
Speaker 1: be crazy all he wants to, but there is not
Speaker 1: many women who could stand here unwavering the way I
Speaker 1: stand here unwavering because my husband is one. He's a
Speaker 1: Scorpio two. He is a freaking large visionary. When I
Speaker 1: say the biggest efficient Jay has, and he knows that
Speaker 1: he can do it, he's like, yeah, we're gonna we're
Speaker 1: just gonna do this. It could be something astronomical. He's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're just gonna go do it. We're gonna we're gonna
Speaker 1: do it tomorrow. And everyone will be like, wait, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, tomorrow, like we hold on, wait, we gotta
Speaker 1: we gotta grab stuff we needs to and he's like, no,
Speaker 1: we're doing it tomorrow. We're doing it next week. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, but we all just said we've all
Speaker 1: been working diligently to go left. Now of a sudden
Speaker 1: out of the clear blue. You want to go right,
Speaker 1: but we've been working for the last eight months to
Speaker 1: go left. I got all the preparation, the road map, everything,
Speaker 1: and then he'd like, mom my spirit, God just told
Speaker 1: me we're supposed to pull it right now. And I'm like, God,
Speaker 1: she I'll be telling you a lot because it's all
Speaker 1: got told him. But I think that I know that
Speaker 1: I'm equipped to stand with Ja because we have we
Speaker 1: have been through so much already, positive things, negative things.
Speaker 1: We have been so much to where he Ja is
Speaker 1: ever changing, and I think that's what comes. Like I've
Speaker 1: been studying it late because I'm like, why is this
Speaker 1: my huskin and saying or see a genius? And I
Speaker 1: think if you study most geniuses and most visionaries, I mean,
Speaker 1: if you maybe look at the ditties with Tyler Perry's,
Speaker 1: I mean they're they're always getting broad ideas, big ideas,
Speaker 1: and it's up to the team around them to either
Speaker 1: to be on board with it or not. Because one
Speaker 1: thing about Jay and true visionaries and leaders are gonna
Speaker 1: do it anyway, and it is hard. We have literally
Speaker 1: gotten to arguments and almost fights, Like, dude, you said
Speaker 1: we were going left now, it's not going right. I
Speaker 1: put my whole lot, I put my whole being and
Speaker 1: body and and ingenuity and resources and relationship to going left,
Speaker 1: and now you want to go right. And it's There's
Speaker 1: been times where I'm like, oh my god, am I
Speaker 1: cut out for this man in this big huge mind
Speaker 1: and his big huge brain. And I remind myself, like, yes,
Speaker 1: God put you here for a reason. There was a
Speaker 1: very very specific assignment on this man's life. And there's
Speaker 1: a very specific assignment on your life. So you have
Speaker 1: to run the storm, baby girl. And it always, it
Speaker 1: always works out, but it's not always easy. Sometimes I
Speaker 1: wanted this come upside the dog. Sometimes I just want
Speaker 1: to oh, you know so? And in marriage, right, like
Speaker 1: what I realized with people, it's hard, like being honest,
Speaker 1: Like is it do you do you find the times
Speaker 1: that you want to say things or you're thinking about things,
Speaker 1: either sexual, just the way you things that have changed,
Speaker 1: you don't like this anymore? Do you find it hard
Speaker 1: to like have those conversations with each other because you
Speaker 1: don't want to offend, you don't want to make them
Speaker 1: feel bad? Is that a hard space for you, you you
Speaker 1: guys to do? I would honestly say, I would give
Speaker 1: us a nine and a half on the scale. Often
Speaker 1: you know we've had we probably will discuss it year,
Speaker 1: but you've had some of the toughest conversations of honesty
Speaker 1: of like, yo, I'm here right now, I'm on this
Speaker 1: right now, I'm believing that right We've had some very
Speaker 1: very honest, tough, like real friend type conversations like y'all
Speaker 1: need you know I mean, like, I don't need you
Speaker 1: to be my cliche wife, I don't need the princess
Speaker 1: fairy tale group Cinderella like, no, I need you to
Speaker 1: be my friend right now. And I want to be
Speaker 1: able to tell you what I would tell my homeboy,
Speaker 1: like the same that conversation I would tell my man's
Speaker 1: and then I want to be able to tell you
Speaker 1: and you accept it as my truth as opposed to
Speaker 1: me living in a lie and left vice versus for her.
Speaker 1: So I think we've done an excellent job. And it's challenging, right,
Speaker 1: you don't mean that work to come behind it and
Speaker 1: all that, But I think we've done a pretty good
Speaker 1: job out of all of our different components of marriage.
Speaker 1: I think we like constantly bringing our truth and our
Speaker 1: honesty to the table. And this seems like from the
Speaker 1: conversation with Derek Grayson his beautiful woman Elsie Um, what
Speaker 1: we learned and what we keep hearing, at least me,
Speaker 1: is that that honesty component is what actually is keeping
Speaker 1: people going like it's the it is the work. It's
Speaker 1: deep digging enough to say, I have to be able
Speaker 1: to tell you your idea is crazy. I don't like it.
Speaker 1: It doesn't feel like this is gonna work. It's gonna
Speaker 1: get us in this problem that we already were in before.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to break you down or you know.
Speaker 1: And and that's difficult because when I think for us
Speaker 1: as women, I don't know if you shared this earnest scene,
Speaker 1: But for me in in in in my past relationship,
Speaker 1: I wanted to just be supportive all the time. I
Speaker 1: never wanted it to feel like I didn't believe in
Speaker 1: whatever idea or whatever it was that um he came
Speaker 1: up with. But then there was some stuff that just
Speaker 1: felt like it was unrealistic. And one of the things
Speaker 1: that my mom told me one day is never wait
Speaker 1: to say it until you blurt it out in the
Speaker 1: moment of anger, sit down and have the conversation. But
Speaker 1: that's hard because you you you need the anger is
Speaker 1: your courage. You sometimes what I mean, so you can
Speaker 1: so you can say, but but doing it calm and
Speaker 1: when somebody isn't expecting it and feeling like, wow, you're
Speaker 1: hitting me from left field, it's it's difficult. And I
Speaker 1: another thing I'll say is that I also have felt
Speaker 1: that my word wasn't value either because oh, I've done
Speaker 1: this before and you don't know what you're doing. You
Speaker 1: don't you know, I'm more experienced in this area. But
Speaker 1: yet I could see a disaster coming. And sometimes I
Speaker 1: feel like our men don't necessarily listen to us or
Speaker 1: or or value what it is that we feel, or
Speaker 1: the or the insight that we have. Do you think
Speaker 1: the day that you do value what I mean? Know
Speaker 1: you value what earnest and says, But you have there
Speaker 1: been moments when you sat back and said, damn, I
Speaker 1: really should have listened to her. A ton of moments, right.
Speaker 1: I think that's probably one of the one of the
Speaker 1: large argument the largest argument points of our relationship is
Speaker 1: has been that I and I still do what they understanding, like, um,
Speaker 1: as a man, the head of the household, UM, you know,
Speaker 1: my job is to uh, you know, protect and provide
Speaker 1: and to make sure that like I'm leaving the family
Speaker 1: forward and I'm responsible, accountable to God right for what
Speaker 1: happens within the family. And so like I hear my
Speaker 1: my wife, um, and I've tried to remind her that
Speaker 1: and am most people have all made right now just
Speaker 1: because we don't do what y'all say does not mainly
Speaker 1: don't hear y'all or don't value your advice. We take
Speaker 1: the information, we assess the information, and then we do
Speaker 1: what we feel that is the best thing to do.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's a whole run. Sometimes do what you want
Speaker 1: to do, regard the day, what we feel is the
Speaker 1: best thing to do right, which is the thing that
Speaker 1: right we weren't doing that situation that we're guided to
Speaker 1: do that situation. So we have to as family units
Speaker 1: and a couple of units is understand Like it's like,
Speaker 1: for instance, you can't put your best your best baseball
Speaker 1: batter up and celebrating when we hit the home run
Speaker 1: and a triple with a double, but then when you
Speaker 1: strike out or you know what I mean, when you
Speaker 1: say your curdball coming, current ball coming, but he don't
Speaker 1: think so he go with his gut and now he
Speaker 1: strike out, and I was like, oh, I told you so,
Speaker 1: right he I don't know han hand ray hand raid.
Speaker 1: Well we let the woman speak, Let the woman speak,
Speaker 1: but yeah, but you know, just no, sorry, because here's
Speaker 1: the thing we're saying that we can see that didn't
Speaker 1: work before either, Like we know, we're like, listen, this
Speaker 1: is not the best swing for you. I have watched you.
Speaker 1: I've studied your games. I've watched your moves. Like I
Speaker 1: put it, I'm watching the tapes right so you you're
Speaker 1: playing the game, you're moving, but I'm studying what's happening.
Speaker 1: I'm watching out every time you go up to bed
Speaker 1: and you get in that position. I'm the one that
Speaker 1: can see what the other team is saying and doing
Speaker 1: because they're preparing to create the same ship this time
Speaker 1: that was that happened last time. So this is okay, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: I want to pick you back off. Qing Toka. Yes,
Speaker 1: everything that she said, it is true. We either study
Speaker 1: the playbook, we know your moves. However, there's also something
Speaker 1: else called discernment. Just like you know that you are
Speaker 1: blessed with certain Hanily powers, women, we are blessed with discernment,
Speaker 1: and I am blessed with triple discerpment and just passed
Speaker 1: out for my mother if I get so, I've jay
Speaker 1: those this and I've explained to him several times I
Speaker 1: have been less with the gift up the sermons. So
Speaker 1: sometimes I gives you the curveball coming, even if it's
Speaker 1: not in the playbook. Even if I didn't study the
Speaker 1: other team, I did, God or showed me that the
Speaker 1: curveball was coming. So I think when you get to
Speaker 1: a level of trust what your partner and understand your
Speaker 1: partner's gift up the sermon, we should probably start following
Speaker 1: that gift, just like I followed your gifts. M At
Speaker 1: the end of the day, that is wonderful. I know
Speaker 1: you have the sermon, I know you started to playbook.
Speaker 1: I get all that, and I processed all that information.
Speaker 1: And you have to ask yourself, is is my man
Speaker 1: the the despite if he hits his head multiple times
Speaker 1: or whatever, is he capable? Is he smart? Is he wise?
Speaker 1: Even if he screws up and he's hard headed or
Speaker 1: doesn't listen to me or my discernment or my gifts
Speaker 1: or whatever whatever whatever. At the end of the day
Speaker 1: he preserves the right. He's earned the right because the
Speaker 1: same man that will get up in the middle of
Speaker 1: the night if there's somebody coming to the house and
Speaker 1: sacrifice his life in the family, it's the same man
Speaker 1: that to get up and go outside and make sure
Speaker 1: everything's okay. It's the same man that I stand up
Speaker 1: that he has earned the right to be able to
Speaker 1: make that call and make a decision on regardless of
Speaker 1: what the outcome is. Now, as men, we want to
Speaker 1: always become more wiser and pay attention and look at
Speaker 1: that best counsel. We're always growing and evolving. But it
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that we get some kind of like uh,
Speaker 1: tarnish or some kind of blemish or some kind of
Speaker 1: months of I told you so because you're right about
Speaker 1: something to be decide to do opposite, Like you gotta
Speaker 1: be in a trust your leader. It's it's a it's
Speaker 1: a very slippery slope, you know, being in relationship, especially
Speaker 1: being in marriages, especially as men, we look for a
Speaker 1: level of belief from our wife, our wilds. Right, you
Speaker 1: want your wife to believe in you. You want your
Speaker 1: wife to give you this energy that that you can't lose. Right,
Speaker 1: I remember when I used to watch Rocky and I
Speaker 1: always say I would have never married Adrian. Adrian would
Speaker 1: just never have been my wife. But every time Rocky
Speaker 1: is about to fight, she like, you can't win. You
Speaker 1: see you can't win you And that used to be like,
Speaker 1: what kind of wife is that? But I don't want that.
Speaker 1: Right as man, we want to look at our wife
Speaker 1: and said, listen, I'm about to go climbing that hill,
Speaker 1: and you like you got it baby? What you need?
Speaker 1: You need me to get some water, what you need
Speaker 1: to do? You need to get on my shoulder, My
Speaker 1: my man, gonna do it. And it's because when you
Speaker 1: speak that energy into us, we can do anything. When
Speaker 1: we look in your face and we see that you
Speaker 1: believe in us, there's nothing in this world we're not
Speaker 1: going to accomplish. So when when that, I think, when
Speaker 1: you when you give you a man that and one
Speaker 1: or two times you might come and say we'll be
Speaker 1: maybe we shouldn't. I don't you know, I believe in anything,
Speaker 1: you anything, but maybe we should try to not do
Speaker 1: this because something about this doesn't look right to me.
Speaker 1: It ain't about you but to me. So when you
Speaker 1: once you poured in him, to him that way he's
Speaker 1: able to receive that, or hold hold on. Wife must
Speaker 1: also hit some game for the queens, or say, Babe,
Speaker 1: my discernment, my spirit I saw on the playbook. I
Speaker 1: don't think you should go with it, and we should
Speaker 1: go with it that way, but it's your choice however
Speaker 1: you rock. I'm rocking with you anyway, but I just
Speaker 1: don't think that we should go that way because of
Speaker 1: how I feel inside or whatever you do. Baby, don't
Speaker 1: rocking with you, because that's gonna make us feel like
Speaker 1: you believe in me. But you've given me some just
Speaker 1: it don't make us feel like you just don't believe, right,
Speaker 1: And I gotta prove because the world don't believe in us.
Speaker 1: We've we've we've been told by everybody in the world
Speaker 1: that you're gonna lose. I came from jail. They said
Speaker 1: you ain't gonna be nothing, You're gonna do this, and
Speaker 1: I had to prove them wrong every time. So when
Speaker 1: I start to sense a little bit of that in
Speaker 1: my own home, it makes me feel like I gotta
Speaker 1: prove to you too, like I gotta prove to everybody else.
Speaker 1: And we don't want that. We always want to feel
Speaker 1: like this is my favorite, my best seeming right. I
Speaker 1: always want to feel like you. It's like when Jordan
Speaker 1: was on the court, it wasn't nobody like you don't
Speaker 1: give one in the boat. That's why he was able
Speaker 1: with every shots. Which when you see teams like watch
Speaker 1: your Westbrook right, it's his confidence right now and in
Speaker 1: his game, his confidence in media that made him feel
Speaker 1: like he can't hear the shot. His team is looking
Speaker 1: a little crazy when he does something wrong. Once that
Speaker 1: confidence goes from you, it's a lot harder. So we
Speaker 1: know that we can't let our confidence be taken. So
Speaker 1: have the have the ability and discernment to say this
Speaker 1: message that I gotta give it to my husband. I
Speaker 1: just gotta give it to him in a way that
Speaker 1: I know he's gonna know that I still believe in him.
Speaker 1: But I just have a feeling in me, and then
Speaker 1: he's gonna want to trust me a little more. This
Speaker 1: is a little bit of game. It's a little bit
Speaker 1: I understand because that sounds it's it's a lot of work.
Speaker 1: That's as you said, it's a lot of work. And
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that our brothers always understand our King's
Speaker 1: always understand how much work it is because also were
Speaker 1: out of time. Um, I next, because I what I
Speaker 1: wanted to also get into because I know you guys
Speaker 1: are so vulnerable and transparent and everything that you are,
Speaker 1: because it is what it is. If we can't learn
Speaker 1: from one another, and what are we doing? And I
Speaker 1: was gonna ask you to two questions, so maybe we'll
Speaker 1: wrap this up this way, y'all talk about these two things.
Speaker 1: Number one is earnest and do you think that Jay
Speaker 1: is as supportive of your career and your goals as
Speaker 1: you are of his ideas, his goals and his things
Speaker 1: like or is he so busy he can't always focus?
Speaker 1: Because that's the thing too, write like it doesn't mean
Speaker 1: you're a bad person, but if you've got a lot
Speaker 1: going on, it's kind of hard. And often times I
Speaker 1: find that because I've been in relationship with a very
Speaker 1: busy man who was extremely supportive financially and everything else.
Speaker 1: But when I was trying to explain the whole story,
Speaker 1: he was like, huh, like what happened? I lost you somewhere?
Speaker 1: So that's one. And then too, the public critique that
Speaker 1: we are all like we deal at you day with
Speaker 1: people attacking us, and this and that and the third
Speaker 1: and it hurts, you know, to walk into a situation
Speaker 1: anybody that gets in a relationship with my son Jay me.
Speaker 1: Then the list goes on with all of us, right
Speaker 1: of those people who are out here, Shaun King, you know,
Speaker 1: you go on with the list, Ben crimp Lee, merit
Speaker 1: the partner, y'all's wives and husband, they are going to
Speaker 1: experience the pain of the brutal abuse that goes along
Speaker 1: with that. So what has that been like? And then
Speaker 1: I'm done? And then I got one more questions we
Speaker 1: gotta go. I feel like I feel like we're gonna
Speaker 1: need a part two for this, but I will start
Speaker 1: with the first question you asked, is Jay as support
Speaker 1: of my career as I am his? And I would
Speaker 1: say this, So the answer is yes. But there's there,
Speaker 1: there's there's two parts. So in the love languages, in
Speaker 1: the Book of the Five Love of Laguatism, sure we're
Speaker 1: all familiar worth of our thread. You know, people have
Speaker 1: different love languages, and my love language is quality time
Speaker 1: and words for words of affirmation. I knew that before
Speaker 1: the book. I've always this that I've always known that
Speaker 1: I'm attracted to so Jay is absolutely one percent supportive, um,
Speaker 1: financially supportive, making sure stuff is lined up for me.
Speaker 1: Like there have been times where I just want him
Speaker 1: to be there, Like the entertainment seeing the acting world
Speaker 1: is not really his world. So like he'll show up
Speaker 1: if he finds with that forever. I really want him to.
Speaker 1: But like there have been times Whe'm like, I just
Speaker 1: want you to be there, like, yeah, when you paid
Speaker 1: for it, I when you sent the driver. I know
Speaker 1: we I'm straight, but like, I just want you to
Speaker 1: be there. So there have been times so I'm like,
Speaker 1: I just want you to present um in the moment
Speaker 1: with me, but in his love languages, acts of servers.
Speaker 1: So he's like, I'm gonna make sure I'm gonna serve
Speaker 1: and make sure the stuff has done. So Ja's one
Speaker 1: supportive of my career. Um, I just produced my own show,
Speaker 1: Petty Planes Court. He was there, he showed up, he
Speaker 1: was an extra in the audience. I don't know, I
Speaker 1: don't know if you guys watched Petty Planes Court, but yes,
Speaker 1: he was there in the courtroom. He's totally there and
Speaker 1: showed up. So that made me really happy that he
Speaker 1: was there. And yeah, he's he's extremely supportive of what
Speaker 1: I of what I do. I think that I um,
Speaker 1: as a woman, I'm so career driven, and I think
Speaker 1: I wanted to add this to my answer earlier about
Speaker 1: what changes in marriage. Um, I am a very career
Speaker 1: driven woman, and I didn't know how being married as
Speaker 1: a woman and you when you're married to a powerful man,
Speaker 1: it makes you getting your bad a little bit even more,
Speaker 1: like it makes you like, okay, like I definitely gotta
Speaker 1: go hard for my career because I worked so hard
Speaker 1: to build this, whereas you know, I probably should have
Speaker 1: been thinking, okay, let me, let me, let me focus
Speaker 1: on being married instead of just focusing on the career.
Speaker 1: Like I'm not focused because I've always been focused but prioritizing,
Speaker 1: let me prioritize the family, let me prioritize my marriage.
Speaker 1: But career driven women, we were always constantly thinking about
Speaker 1: our our career and how to incorporate it into the
Speaker 1: family and everything else. So that's that's a whole another
Speaker 1: part two, um, part of your second question in the scrutiny,
Speaker 1: the negativity, the comments, the and I know we all
Speaker 1: have gone through it, but I think that what Jay
Speaker 1: and I have been through was a level I I
Speaker 1: never really witnessed or seen and it was very hard
Speaker 1: for me. I'll let Jane answer for himself, and I
Speaker 1: think it was a little bit easier for him, but
Speaker 1: it was very hard for me because I've never been
Speaker 1: through anything like that. I mean, we we had attack
Speaker 1: after attack after attack after and still do and I
Speaker 1: had to go through the run of it pregnant, which
Speaker 1: being pregnant already you feel like you're under atacked. Your
Speaker 1: whole body is under attacked. You're birthing something really big
Speaker 1: um as you know your mother Tomita. But going through
Speaker 1: that pregnant, it made me fall into a very deep
Speaker 1: depression and made me fall into a very deep depression
Speaker 1: to where j and I purpose or what I thought
Speaker 1: was my purpose started to disalign because I was like,
Speaker 1: f this, F black people. I'm done with everybody. I
Speaker 1: don't even want to do it. They can do what
Speaker 1: they want to do, leave me alone. Like that's the
Speaker 1: mentality that was growing into because I was just like
Speaker 1: the same people that we are fighting for are the
Speaker 1: people are the same people who were fighting us. I
Speaker 1: was like, I'm gonna admit myself from the equation f everybody,
Speaker 1: Like I'm out of here, I'm not dealing with this.
Speaker 1: I was in a very very dark, dark, dark place
Speaker 1: over all of the all the scrutiny that we went
Speaker 1: through it, and God, thank you God that I made
Speaker 1: it out of that and I burned my baby and
Speaker 1: she was healthy. And because it was times during the
Speaker 1: brunt of all of it, the height of all of it,
Speaker 1: where I thought I wasn't gonna make it. I don't
Speaker 1: think my baby was gonna make it. I cried myself
Speaker 1: to sleep. I was depressed. I deleted my Instagram page
Speaker 1: and turned off my comments. I'm just like, yo, like
Speaker 1: these people are crazy, Like these are the same people
Speaker 1: that we are pulling love into and resources and education into,
Speaker 1: and the same people who will put you on damn
Speaker 1: crucifi like crucify you. And so that was very hard.
Speaker 1: It's still very hard. And I think it also made
Speaker 1: me just get more into my career. I'm like, a, alright,
Speaker 1: col I'm gonna this acting thing and my my career,
Speaker 1: my poetry, my speaking. I'm gonna pour all of that
Speaker 1: I was pouring into y'all. I'm gonna pour it into
Speaker 1: my into me because I know that this is not
Speaker 1: going to fight me it's not gonna fight me back.
Speaker 1: This loves me over here. You guys are not loving me.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna go over here where there's love being served.
Speaker 1: Still and that Yeah, that was very hard. Go with
Speaker 1: the love is being served. Go with the love is
Speaker 1: being served. Yes, m hm ja. Yeah, I mean there's
Speaker 1: something honestly answered it. Well. I mean my my perspective, um,
Speaker 1: is my new perspective. It's really simple as a sinct
Speaker 1: is when we go through these attacks abuse you called
Speaker 1: it right, Um, it's just confirmation at you in a
Speaker 1: good company like I mean, you could go back through history,
Speaker 1: every revolutionary person, every person that was a change agent
Speaker 1: and all that, um have been through it. There's not
Speaker 1: been you know, we could go down names right from
Speaker 1: from recent day to President Obama to Malcolm X m
Speaker 1: okay r V right, you chunk everybody. So Moses, uh,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Joseph Jacob Aarond like Jesus
Speaker 1: call it so to me, it just means like you're
Speaker 1: just a good company like you just got to accept that. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, that's the calling got put on your life
Speaker 1: and had you not been walking that call and you
Speaker 1: took an easier route. You know, you wouldn't have been obedient,
Speaker 1: and you know you would be in different kind of companies.
Speaker 1: So I just I've learned and involved to to to
Speaker 1: to embrace it. And where does it write to passage
Speaker 1: and a badger hunter? You said you have another question.
Speaker 1: Now I don't really have no other questions. Man, I
Speaker 1: think you have pretty much summed it up. It was amazing.
Speaker 1: You know, I've always be to your alone and we
Speaker 1: and we and we build all the time. And I
Speaker 1: love both of you. I love which you are, all
Speaker 1: of what you're grown into, I love what you represent,
Speaker 1: and we just appreciate you. Man. It's good to be
Speaker 1: able to talk talk to people who are all align
Speaker 1: the same purpose that you are. Man, you know because
Speaker 1: we know that I've people with some people hard and
Speaker 1: fightful and they trying, they're trying to shoot you while
Speaker 1: you trying to take the knife of the back. So
Speaker 1: you know this is our calling, you know, Let's keep
Speaker 1: me keep on winning man. The Morrison's yeah, one of
Speaker 1: the couples do to the motto Morrison's thank you, thank
Speaker 1: you guys for joining Street Politicians. Today's your first time
Speaker 1: on the show together that you guys have to come
Speaker 1: back separately because there's so much more that I think
Speaker 1: you can contribute to all of the conversations that we
Speaker 1: have on this show. We love y'all, appreciate you all,
Speaker 1: and kill babies the whole all of the children that
Speaker 1: for me, I love you for having us. So I
Speaker 1: think you know that was a really good interview. I
Speaker 1: knew that though, and I think we both know it.
Speaker 1: And I think what happened was while we were talking
Speaker 1: to on Derek Grayson Elsie, in my mind, I was thinking, Wow,
Speaker 1: there's so much more to explore, but we didn't have
Speaker 1: two hours because we talked to them for a long time.
Speaker 1: We didn't have two hours to stay in that conversation,
Speaker 1: and it was really coming to me that, um, there
Speaker 1: are other couples that we know that that working together
Speaker 1: component is so important. I do think that this idea
Speaker 1: of love and relationships, like everything else in our society,
Speaker 1: is evolving. That is also just the ideology and and
Speaker 1: the path forward for like sustainable relationships. I don't know
Speaker 1: if I want to say it's changing, because I do
Speaker 1: think the traditional ideas of marriage and love works for
Speaker 1: a lot of people, but there has to be something more, uh,
Speaker 1: that we can do, like to be more honest or
Speaker 1: whatever about where we are, so that we could keep
Speaker 1: more black families together. And I know there are people
Speaker 1: who probably say, why are they talking about this? But
Speaker 1: you know, first of all, we stay current. It is
Speaker 1: the love see is in um Black Love Black History Month.
Speaker 1: But I see so many of my friends any as
Speaker 1: single women out here trying to sort of navigate and
Speaker 1: figure it out. And I think oftentimes it's because we
Speaker 1: have been told something is supposed to be a certain way,
Speaker 1: and when it's not that way, it throws off our
Speaker 1: ability to be able to see a broader picture. So
Speaker 1: I think you know understands saying Yo, it's hard, but
Speaker 1: it's a career and it is work, you know. I
Speaker 1: think that for me was probably the most powerful point.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, just being married to understanding the dynamics,
Speaker 1: understanding the ups, the downs and everything. I think when
Speaker 1: you when you look at marriage, you have to view
Speaker 1: it as a business, right like love can be a foundation,
Speaker 1: can be one of the foundations that is built on
Speaker 1: It has to be built on communication, that has to
Speaker 1: be built on respect. I think you have to have
Speaker 1: a friendship, right and I think when you see real
Speaker 1: friends do business properly, they're they're very they're able to
Speaker 1: build together. Right, you can build on your own right,
Speaker 1: and you can and you can meet business partners outside
Speaker 1: of your own that once you've already established your building out,
Speaker 1: your business model and your structure, that you're able to
Speaker 1: be successful. But it's almost impossible to be in a
Speaker 1: marriage with someone where you're not equally yoked and you're
Speaker 1: not moving and you're not you're not building on a
Speaker 1: business model and structure, like everything that we do is
Speaker 1: going to build and give our foundation stronger. Right, it's
Speaker 1: almost impossible to do that. Separate, you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's not so if you don't see that your marriage
Speaker 1: is a business and the mind state that your your
Speaker 1: spouse has, you know, you have to continue to encourage them.
Speaker 1: You've got to support them emotionally, physically, financially. They've got
Speaker 1: to be able to sleep good cause they've gotta be
Speaker 1: able to think. They gotta be able to eat so
Speaker 1: they can go to work so they can come back
Speaker 1: in these bills. If you don't view your marriage as
Speaker 1: in that manner, then there's no way for it to
Speaker 1: actually prosper and so when you when you listen to
Speaker 1: both of those couples, even though one was polyamorous and
Speaker 1: one was traditional, it's it's basically just the same thing,
Speaker 1: right They both they both view understand how important it
Speaker 1: is for us to support each other, value each other,
Speaker 1: and to build Jayson's all time. You know, we we
Speaker 1: this is for our family's last name. Everything's gonna do
Speaker 1: it for my family's last name. And if both people
Speaker 1: don't see that, then it's it's almost impossible to grow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So that's that, Um, you know, until next year. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure because now it seems that this is such
Speaker 1: a popular topic. We're gonna be talking to couples and
Speaker 1: people throughout the course of of you know, the year
Speaker 1: that come from different perspectives on how to keep maintaining
Speaker 1: all types of relations ships. So that's a good thing.
Speaker 1: But we're gonna shift gears and invite a yet another friend.
Speaker 1: Tory actually has been with us before. Um My brother,
Speaker 1: our brother, Tory Russell for the International Black Freedom Alliance
Speaker 1: in Missouri and St. Louis where real black blackly black
Speaker 1: black black people fight and do business and organizing everyday.
Speaker 1: Tor is a freedom fighter. Um. He is one of
Speaker 1: the leaders of the Ferguson movement that stood tall continues
Speaker 1: to stand tall for um our falling brother, falling soldier,
Speaker 1: Mike Brown Jr. And um And Also, you know, I
Speaker 1: think the thing that that for Tori, that that is
Speaker 1: most significant in my life is he is you, Tori,
Speaker 1: because you're already here being an incredible strategist um And
Speaker 1: And how so many in the movement don't give you
Speaker 1: credit for being the think tank and the brains behind
Speaker 1: a lot of things that we see out there. Because
Speaker 1: if I say, oh, you know, I want to do this,
Speaker 1: I want to move to Kentucky for Brianna Taylor, I
Speaker 1: want to do these other things. It's really the conversations
Speaker 1: with you where we process how it's gonna work, what's
Speaker 1: the pros and cons that helps to advance us forward. So,
Speaker 1: Tori Russell, we want to say thank you for joining
Speaker 1: the Street Politicians for your second time. You are one
Speaker 1: of the only people, maybe you and maybe two other
Speaker 1: people who've been on our show more than once. So
Speaker 1: there you go. Flavors. Yeah, feel feel privileged, King Black King.
Speaker 1: So Tory, we want to talk about this whole crack
Speaker 1: pipe pipe issue that we've been hearing about. And I
Speaker 1: was thinking, I was like, Mice, who do you think
Speaker 1: is the right person to come on to talk through?
Speaker 1: Because it's it's not funny. It's not funny at all.
Speaker 1: It's not funny, but it's hilarious. Like it's it's not funny,
Speaker 1: but it's hilarious. How like everything we've been fight we
Speaker 1: say we want right were don't said. We want voting
Speaker 1: rights to be secured. We want reparations, we want marijuana
Speaker 1: legislation pass. We want people to free from prison. We
Speaker 1: want political prisoners freed. We want our abortion rights. We
Speaker 1: want George Floyd Justice Police and Act. We want all
Speaker 1: that in the racial justice context. But somehow what ends
Speaker 1: up coming to us is June Team holiday, and I
Speaker 1: don't know some stuff. I'm not gonna say nothing because
Speaker 1: you know, somebody showed me the other day. The administration
Speaker 1: done a few things here and then, and whether you
Speaker 1: want to I know, but if whether you want to
Speaker 1: believe it or not, the Infrastructure Bill has some important
Speaker 1: things in it terms of people get back to work.
Speaker 1: And now you have the drug or the what is
Speaker 1: it harm reduction strategy, which is an important thing. But
Speaker 1: like my son said, what did you say, Mike, It
Speaker 1: ain't what we asked for. Joe. When you go, come on, Joe,
Speaker 1: it's like Tory tell me, like you you're watching you
Speaker 1: to you on the internet. You're scrolling down, you know,
Speaker 1: and you see the Joe Boden approves the distribution of
Speaker 1: crack pipes and paraphernalia and drug paraphernalia for racial equity
Speaker 1: and any any say it in the interests of racial equity.
Speaker 1: Like what do you think at that moment he playing
Speaker 1: in our face, he keeps planing our face. Fam It's like,
Speaker 1: you know, let my people go. You know how you're
Speaker 1: gonna give us the crack pipe without freeing the crack dealer.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. You know, my cousin, I'm
Speaker 1: still locked up behind some loss that you put in
Speaker 1: place where they at um if you can give out
Speaker 1: crack pipes or paraphernalia or horm reduction because you know,
Speaker 1: Neil Liberal's like to talk about horm reduction, why are
Speaker 1: you being horn you know, like less harm is okay,
Speaker 1: I want all the horn gone you So it's like
Speaker 1: you can have sent a big mama, uh, some free
Speaker 1: incident for that kind of budget there's a lot of
Speaker 1: people come on out now if you're gonna give that out,
Speaker 1: And what about the incident? What about some things that
Speaker 1: I know in my community we need um. And even
Speaker 1: when we talk about like Junior Team, you know, before
Speaker 1: Junior Team they came kneeling with KNTE cloths. UM. So
Speaker 1: all we get a symbolism and not substance um. You know,
Speaker 1: And that's the problem. You know, what's the point of
Speaker 1: putting Harry telling on my engine or on some dollars
Speaker 1: and they ain't gonna be in black people pockets? You
Speaker 1: know what's interesting if we you say, the insulin and
Speaker 1: other things like that, what immediately hit me is, first
Speaker 1: of all, I do believe in harm reduction. I do
Speaker 1: believe that. I understand that there are people who use
Speaker 1: drugs who are out here spreading disease, and there is
Speaker 1: a need to have safe housing where once you get them.
Speaker 1: I guess the point of safe housing this if we
Speaker 1: can draw them here and letting them know that there's
Speaker 1: a safe place, we can keep them cleaned up and
Speaker 1: hopefully get them the help that they need and get
Speaker 1: them back into society. I'm with all of that, but
Speaker 1: yet and still that's a small segment of the population.
Speaker 1: I not walk in my family. There are not ten
Speaker 1: people on crack and you know in one one, one
Speaker 1: area or whatever. Right, it's not That's just not my
Speaker 1: that's not our situation. So why do I need more
Speaker 1: focus on that than I do the fact that I
Speaker 1: know I have at least twenty people who have diabetes
Speaker 1: heart issues, and yeah, and I think for me, you know,
Speaker 1: just going through this situation that I just went through
Speaker 1: with my mother and just watching how resources are so
Speaker 1: scarce for people who are actually dying, like from diseases
Speaker 1: like cancer, Like you know, medication was CosIng like three
Speaker 1: hundred dollars and immediately when she was sick, they was
Speaker 1: trying to take away her insurance, you know, so I
Speaker 1: had to physically by medication that she needed for three
Speaker 1: hundred dollars every time I was going to the doctor. Right.
Speaker 1: But you can give out crack pipes, but you can't
Speaker 1: give this medication to people who are eternally ill, this this,
Speaker 1: and all they need is certain things to just to
Speaker 1: make them comfortable. You don't want to you you don't
Speaker 1: want to make people that you know eternally ill comfortable,
Speaker 1: But you want to give us crack pipes, and you
Speaker 1: want to give us safe havens place that you can
Speaker 1: go and and and put insulin and put them heroinness
Speaker 1: side veins and all these things. And it's just like
Speaker 1: what do you what are you actually trying to say
Speaker 1: to us? Like what what what are we thinking that
Speaker 1: we don't see that when people are not outraged by this,
Speaker 1: when we're not sitting here saying yo, this has gotta stop.
Speaker 1: When when our voices are not loud at these times,
Speaker 1: what is it actually saying? What are we saying? Mhm?
Speaker 1: You know, as I look at I said, was like
Speaker 1: like I get harm reduction too, you know, but you
Speaker 1: know what more addictive um than crack sugar? Right? Food?
Speaker 1: So harm reduction would look like putting some grocery stores
Speaker 1: in the hood, look like gardens and forms in the hood,
Speaker 1: look like some healthy food choices. I mean, if we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about horm reduction UM and being healthier, then
Speaker 1: you know, the school launcher should look like something UM
Speaker 1: that I would actually buy on with my own money.
Speaker 1: And that's the problem. It's like they don't think about that.
Speaker 1: I don't know who in the White House, you know,
Speaker 1: we might wanna Uh, you know, I don't know what
Speaker 1: Samone doing in the back that Simone might want to
Speaker 1: tap him on the shoulder and be like, yeah, Simon
Speaker 1: is no longer the white Okay. So you know that's
Speaker 1: the thing. Maybe it ain't enough connected to the struggle.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe that's the biggest problem. I think it's that too.
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of them got in these
Speaker 1: rooms and realize, oh, these people ain't trying to change nothing,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying me standing next to him. Eventually,
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm just a token black, you know. So
Speaker 1: I think our our approach to the system has to
Speaker 1: be different, right, I approached to it has to be
Speaker 1: very intentional. Like everything that we do have to be intentional.
Speaker 1: We gotta say this is exactly what we want. We're
Speaker 1: not doing nothing else until we get this, and if
Speaker 1: we don't get this, we're willing to do this like
Speaker 1: this has it has to be very serious because I think,
Speaker 1: you know, watching playing this political game that they're playing,
Speaker 1: all the Damns want to do this, but the Republicans
Speaker 1: don't want to do it. Okay, the Republicans aren't gonna
Speaker 1: do it. One mom boom, then we get a republican thing,
Speaker 1: and then they give you one tempt for what you do.
Speaker 1: And then they say, look we did we tried to
Speaker 1: help you. Look the damns they want to do nothing,
Speaker 1: but no, the damn's wanted to get this done. And
Speaker 1: you knew they wasn't. You wasn't trying to free us.
Speaker 1: So you said, we're gonna let three people go and
Speaker 1: we're still gonna keep the million people. And the three
Speaker 1: people gonna say, well, he let me go. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Look look what he did for me,
Speaker 1: the three people. What I'm saying, But you ignore that
Speaker 1: Obama was trying to give retroactive laws that would have
Speaker 1: freed all the people. And then y'all said absolutely not.
Speaker 1: And then y'all let ten people go, and they said, look, Trump,
Speaker 1: let the people go. Oh why mayn't let nobody go?
Speaker 1: Because they play this game. It's a game that everybody's
Speaker 1: playing it, and we gotta be tired of playing the game.
Speaker 1: I think ain't the only solutions. And this go back
Speaker 1: from Fergus and the Baltimore to us pulling up in Louisville,
Speaker 1: Kentucky kind of chopping it up, seeing um with Daniel
Speaker 1: Cameron and something, even the white so called Allied Democrats
Speaker 1: and people on the City Council. It's like for black people,
Speaker 1: we need three full steps and it ain't it ain't
Speaker 1: there this first and foremost, the activists, advocates organizes, the
Speaker 1: community leaders, and those people who are reluctant leaders. We
Speaker 1: need to band together and get them to run. We
Speaker 1: need um, you know, we need less really and I'm
Speaker 1: just you know, I gotta call it like it is.
Speaker 1: We need less Corey Booker Democrats, and we need more
Speaker 1: Gary Chamber of Democrats. I mean, we need some centators
Speaker 1: that's gonna speak their mind. You did it wrong, you
Speaker 1: did it wrong. We need less Corey Book of Democrats.
Speaker 1: And listen, the thing is, the thing is and Corey
Speaker 1: Corey my my, you know, see my congresswoman. So you
Speaker 1: know one is Gary going to he want to go
Speaker 1: to the Senate and Corey is in the in the House.
Speaker 1: So we need both. It's not good enough to have
Speaker 1: them just one and the other. Because you know, it's
Speaker 1: a thing about the Congressional Black Caucus for black people.
Speaker 1: We have to you know, not flip people and flip
Speaker 1: seats from Democratic Republican or its move people. We need
Speaker 1: to remove some of these House negros in the Congressional
Speaker 1: Black Caucus. And so that's our first issue. Our second
Speaker 1: issue is a black agenda. And so what my sign
Speaker 1: is talking about is, yeah, you know, it's it's not
Speaker 1: enough to have you know, simone of Karen Pierre and
Speaker 1: other people going there and being one black person in
Speaker 1: the room talking to Kamala talking to Biden. We need
Speaker 1: some black people to say, look, this is what the
Speaker 1: agenda is, and we have to shout it out. Shout
Speaker 1: out to ice Q for being more politically correct than
Speaker 1: most Apple political leaders and pundence on TV while everyone's
Speaker 1: shotting them down, he was saying, let's sit down with
Speaker 1: both sides and see who can get the best deal
Speaker 1: from ice Q to kill a Mike. And then third,
Speaker 1: if if, if we can't get our people in, UM,
Speaker 1: if they want to kind of go against like they
Speaker 1: did Charles Booker at hand, the right white girl run
Speaker 1: against him in the primary, and now he can't get
Speaker 1: in and we can't get our black agenda, listen to
Speaker 1: the black people locally, UM in districts all across the country.
Speaker 1: We need our own political party. So I see the
Speaker 1: things that West talking about and see the things that
Speaker 1: did he doing. But we need our own black political party,
Speaker 1: funded by everybody, on our one agenda and run this thing,
Speaker 1: not only not when it shiny. Now when we're talking
Speaker 1: about the president or the Senate of the Congress, we're
Speaker 1: talking about mayors, we're talking about governors, we're talking about
Speaker 1: attorney generals. But we also talking about city councils and
Speaker 1: school boards. And so we can debate about critical race
Speaker 1: theory is this and that, But if we run the
Speaker 1: school board, we can teach the real history. And it
Speaker 1: ain't gonna be um that it started um in eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty or that black people didn't do this. We're gonna
Speaker 1: see the whole history from Africa all the way to today. Yeah. No,
Speaker 1: I agree with you, and I think that there is
Speaker 1: a need for um an entire shift in focus that
Speaker 1: in terms of where our movement is in general, I
Speaker 1: think we've gotten so caught up in who got what,
Speaker 1: who looked like this, you know who, who's close to Biden,
Speaker 1: who can get a meeting, who can't, that we sort
Speaker 1: of have lost the point that all of us are
Speaker 1: in the same struggle, even if you got a little
Speaker 1: extra few dollars in your pocket. You still can be
Speaker 1: a rich dead negro. Your child can be killed on
Speaker 1: the way to the basketball game at Harvard or wherever else.
Speaker 1: And guess what, what is even more likely and frequently
Speaker 1: happening is that while you may not be shot down
Speaker 1: by a bullet, there is a a destruction of our
Speaker 1: minds based upon the aggression that we have to deal
Speaker 1: with every day. Uh, the idea that you have to
Speaker 1: go to work and be something that you are not
Speaker 1: just so that you can make master happy, right, make
Speaker 1: masters stay off your back. That is killing us, probably
Speaker 1: at a far more a far higher rate than just
Speaker 1: being shot and killed by a police officer or you know,
Speaker 1: or something so graphic. And so I agree that at
Speaker 1: this point there has to be a refocus, and I
Speaker 1: support a thousand percent what West and Um and uh
Speaker 1: Ditty and others are doing to try to put the
Speaker 1: pieces together of what our own party would look like.
Speaker 1: And I've been saying over and over it may not
Speaker 1: start with us having our own can' the dits and
Speaker 1: and leaving the system. It may start with us, of course,
Speaker 1: having our own candice. But you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: We're not running totally on a separate political line right
Speaker 1: on one ticket like an independent situation. Right, we may
Speaker 1: have to grow to that, but when we start out
Speaker 1: with the basic agenda where again to your point about
Speaker 1: ice Cube, because I've been saying it over and over,
Speaker 1: I don't think that ice Cube was wrong at all, period,
Speaker 1: not at all. We all support and agree with what
Speaker 1: he was saying and what needs to be done. What
Speaker 1: we said was the timing of this is off because
Speaker 1: we are now talking to Lucifer and his cousin. Right,
Speaker 1: We're in a situation here where this is a very
Speaker 1: it's a very difficult thing because no matter what you
Speaker 1: could say, Trump, I don't care, you know, we we
Speaker 1: want Trump, we want well, we'll take Trump. That's what somebody.
Speaker 1: People say. They don't say they want them. Most people
Speaker 1: they say, we'll take it. It all looks the same.
Speaker 1: It actually doesn't of the same because the policies that
Speaker 1: are being presenting by this administration, whether it actually gets done,
Speaker 1: whether we which we don't with half the ship that
Speaker 1: they do. But nonetheless it looks very different. What the
Speaker 1: Democrats are, their agenda is and what they're fighting for,
Speaker 1: then what they are doing on the conservative side, on
Speaker 1: the Republican side, if you look at what just happened
Speaker 1: in Alabama with the regis districting laws, where the Supreme
Speaker 1: Court has upheld their right to go and redraw the
Speaker 1: districts in Alabama which will draw out black folds. Those
Speaker 1: are conservative strategies that will ultimately allow them to take
Speaker 1: over this nation and do and fascism become at its
Speaker 1: at its strongest right. So we know that. So my
Speaker 1: position with ice Cube was, my brother, let me help
Speaker 1: you first of all. And now when we got twenty
Speaker 1: nine eleven people running for Democratic nomination, this is the
Speaker 1: perfect time to slam them all and say what you got?
Speaker 1: What's her name? Mary? And Williamson? Because that's who I like.
Speaker 1: But but I was, I was, I was, I was,
Speaker 1: you know obviously with um what's her name? Elizabeth Warren?
Speaker 1: A little bit, Burnie a little bit. You know, we
Speaker 1: was up and there, but we were, we was courting.
Speaker 1: We need it. We need to just not nothing's wrong
Speaker 1: with ice Cube, anybody happen. We have to up our strategy.
Speaker 1: We gotta up our strategic game. Yes, we know now
Speaker 1: what we want to demand, we know how to make
Speaker 1: the demand. We know our power. But now we gotta
Speaker 1: get focused, like they are so we can get on
Speaker 1: a real timeline of when to strike, and the time
Speaker 1: to strike is when we can actually scare even the
Speaker 1: Republican side because now they know we got options and
Speaker 1: our people are focused on the fact that we're gonna
Speaker 1: choose not just Joe Biden who thinks he's our friend.
Speaker 1: Fuck Joe Biden. Fuck Clyburne telling us that we gotta
Speaker 1: go with Joe Biden. Were the people decided we were
Speaker 1: Boom boom boom, boom boom. So I'm just saying all
Speaker 1: of that. I know I'm talking long, but it's so
Speaker 1: much too undressed in order to get us to where
Speaker 1: we're going. And I personally think we're actually getting there
Speaker 1: because people are now sitting back saying, wait, what the
Speaker 1: hell happens? Yeah, how do we get here? How we
Speaker 1: how we get to Biden and Climb Brown talking about uh, well, reparations,
Speaker 1: who need that? Like you know, like what you black, sir,
Speaker 1: You ain't gonna answer. You're in the deep south of
Speaker 1: you in South Carolina. You're in a corridor, shame family.
Speaker 1: So it's it's it's pragmatic, but at the same time,
Speaker 1: you know me, I'm for I'm for black people are
Speaker 1: coming together when gotta breathe. We gotta have different tactics
Speaker 1: and strategies, but we gotta come together and have some
Speaker 1: unification on what we're gonna do and how we're gonna
Speaker 1: operate with one enough if some people, I'm probably more
Speaker 1: you know, wrap and then I like it that, but
Speaker 1: other people might not take it that way. But we
Speaker 1: do have agreement on that. Big Mama should have our instant.
Speaker 1: We have agreement on it. Everybody should have mass. We
Speaker 1: do have agreement on the the curriculum in my school
Speaker 1: be an early childhood K through twelve or the HPCU
Speaker 1: should be fully funded and they should be teaching us
Speaker 1: the truth right. And we have some unified ways that
Speaker 1: we can connect. But this secular thing or like you said,
Speaker 1: if ice you would have you know, when we was
Speaker 1: trying to hit him up, if you would have hit
Speaker 1: us up and say, hey, look, I said, bro, you
Speaker 1: about five or six months off, okay, but love it
Speaker 1: you're a little off, sir. I don't know if he
Speaker 1: was in the back on the yard or making another
Speaker 1: you know, movie or something out. Yeah, and then us
Speaker 1: and so this the thing is, like you said, I'm
Speaker 1: not really a classes person in that way, I understand
Speaker 1: that any Negro from any class can sell you out.
Speaker 1: I didn't poor negro sell you out. I've seen rich
Speaker 1: Niggas sell you out. But I've seen Richard Niggas get
Speaker 1: me out of jail, and I've seen Richard Niggas come
Speaker 1: down to the ground. So we just need to unify
Speaker 1: effort between the rappers, the actors, um, the techies, the educators,
Speaker 1: the activists and advocates, and the lobbyists to come together,
Speaker 1: have one conference, bang this out, spread the money around
Speaker 1: so people can get everybody in our community. Because we're
Speaker 1: building black agymnas and I get it. But unless we
Speaker 1: have the resources and the platform shure to take it
Speaker 1: to the people in the projects and and you know,
Speaker 1: in the public housing and why they're working at the
Speaker 1: at the at the job, then we are never gonna
Speaker 1: get it to the masters of people to even get
Speaker 1: a voting block to do what we did in Georgia.
Speaker 1: Just imagine what Georgia could be if we was moving
Speaker 1: that block for Stacy Aprims or for candidate they say, look,
Speaker 1: my number one thing I'm running for is reparations for
Speaker 1: black people. All My number one thing is I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna go for tip, you know, tip for tattle, go
Speaker 1: for symbolism. I need some concrete we get done. It's
Speaker 1: some districts that's doing some of that, but I think
Speaker 1: the connections are not doing So I think that's our
Speaker 1: job is moving leaders, and we're not to do that.
Speaker 1: The phone for well, I know, I know we're doing this.
Speaker 1: The National black On Political Convention in Newark. This cream
Speaker 1: coming up. So it's it's it's geared towards that. It's
Speaker 1: um gonna be Chokeway is gonna be one of the
Speaker 1: sponsors of it, him and maybe Rock So it's it's Baca,
Speaker 1: I apologize, Ma Brocka. So well, I'm gonna I wanna
Speaker 1: complain a committee for that now. So I think that's
Speaker 1: gonna be something that everybody. I think that's one of
Speaker 1: the major discussions, like how do we move forward, how
Speaker 1: do we unify, how do we get one agenda, how
Speaker 1: do we get one motion, how do we get like
Speaker 1: this like the ocean, move like the ocean to get
Speaker 1: where we need to go. Man, So these conversations are needed. Man,
Speaker 1: we definitely not think I feel like these conversations in
Speaker 1: public and many black On from BNC, from Revoked TV
Speaker 1: to to everybody from breakfast club, everybody having these conversations.
Speaker 1: If we have the conversations in the back room when
Speaker 1: we come out in public, then that's the only thing
Speaker 1: that we can talk about is what we're talking about
Speaker 1: in our agenda. And I cele bring anybody to try
Speaker 1: to hold the Democrats or Republicans responsible because both of them,
Speaker 1: you know, they're just two different brands and white supremacy.
Speaker 1: Most of them are not Corey Bush. They ain't gonna
Speaker 1: be Ayana Presley, They're not gonna be Gary Chamber. And
Speaker 1: so until we get the majority of the Congressional Black
Speaker 1: Caucus to do with uh, you know, mansion and cinema
Speaker 1: doing for for white supremacists, When the Congressional Black Caucus
Speaker 1: want to set down the country for reparations for health care,
Speaker 1: for education and h C for the so and so forth,
Speaker 1: then we have something strong. And until the end, we're
Speaker 1: gonna use our platforms, we're gonna use our social media,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna door knock and get to the people.
Speaker 1: Well that's all there is to be said. So I am.
Speaker 1: I just want to say I appreciate your perspective. I
Speaker 1: think you definitely. As you said, you're much more radical,
Speaker 1: um and you you you have helped to even sort
Speaker 1: of stretch the bounds of what we as leaders are
Speaker 1: capable of, just because we're able to see sort of
Speaker 1: outside of the framework. So you know, we can all
Speaker 1: sometimes get the playing inside of a box and it's
Speaker 1: time to move outside of it. And I appreciate the reason.
Speaker 1: One of the things that I think makes me a
Speaker 1: greater leader is being around people like my son and
Speaker 1: yourself who and a lot of people they probably look
Speaker 1: at me and they're like, you know, why are you
Speaker 1: doing that? Like why don't you go and be around
Speaker 1: some of our other brothers that are super polished, you know,
Speaker 1: super dope educated, they got all the things. You guys
Speaker 1: have the exact same attribute, but the additional component is
Speaker 1: actually experiencing the issues, like really experiencing it, but living
Speaker 1: it every day, and also working very closely with those
Speaker 1: people who are still experiencing these issues. So that's what
Speaker 1: I'm attracted to. And I just want to say to
Speaker 1: both of y'all, love y'all, and you guys really do
Speaker 1: make me better. Okay, Okay, I got my flowers and
Speaker 1: there you hear that. Mine a little bit your little
Speaker 1: flower of that little flower. We got our flowers and
Speaker 1: appreciate you know, that was nice. I would say the
Speaker 1: same back to you to make it because what happens
Speaker 1: is is we before the movement or in the beginning,
Speaker 1: people would say things like, would have Malcolm and more
Speaker 1: than could work together? What if the Black Panthers could
Speaker 1: work with nig and the s c l C. And
Speaker 1: what I see more times than not is that's what
Speaker 1: we do. So you know, from you know, from the
Speaker 1: boulevard to the Borough Um to Capitol Hill back to
Speaker 1: the Hood to the college campus, if you can have
Speaker 1: all these people from us, from me to Tamika and
Speaker 1: Linda with my sign to Tina, Tiffany befaul like, we
Speaker 1: can go get people that's not traditionally ever gonna be
Speaker 1: in the room, come out in the room, slug it out,
Speaker 1: debate because go all up, no, no, Nigga, this ain't
Speaker 1: Glenna not And then we come out unified and we
Speaker 1: still get things done from Brianna Taylor to Mike Brown
Speaker 1: and Song and so forth, and we're doing our job.
Speaker 1: And I think we just have to kind of figure
Speaker 1: out how we can duplicate this, how we can find
Speaker 1: our younger sales, older sales, and and and the people
Speaker 1: in the grassroots and kind of you know, solidify this
Speaker 1: process so people can know in history that in our
Speaker 1: real time and our generation, we're doing things like they did,
Speaker 1: but we're doing something different because we expect something different,
Speaker 1: because it's our time. We need some different. We appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Can't keep doing the work. You know, we're gonna call
Speaker 1: you when we need you. A good Trump. Good Trump
Speaker 1: always caused love rugge and hit me up on them
Speaker 1: on the Black Political Convention. I can plug you into
Speaker 1: some people and some things that people working on. UM
Speaker 1: can't wait till y'all come back up. If not, I'll
Speaker 1: probably pull up on y'all. Yeah, you know, drinks on y'all. Right.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you for joining street politicians today, Tori Russell,
Speaker 1: our brother, Thank you for being with us. Appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Peace to and shout out to your brother. Tory Man
Speaker 1: always giving us a perspective from you know, people don't
Speaker 1: know that Tory is an educator. He's not just a strategy.
Speaker 1: He's actually a teacher, you know, and I didn't know that.
Speaker 1: So when he was he always has historic facts that
Speaker 1: I never even knew though he will be talking about something.
Speaker 1: But you know, in sixteen fifty two, out of nowhere,
Speaker 1: he was like, we'll be talking about walking down to
Speaker 1: black You know what this building right here, it was
Speaker 1: built in and it was about these people. He breaks
Speaker 1: it way down and you know, he's very very astute
Speaker 1: in that manner. So his perspective, in his perspective on politics,
Speaker 1: it's coupled with his knowledge of history and understanding where
Speaker 1: we are in this time and him just being from
Speaker 1: the hood you can buy and all of that. Man,
Speaker 1: you got you got real education. So I always like
Speaker 1: to hear tories perspectives, and you know, he always gives
Speaker 1: me more of some fuel to continue to do what
Speaker 1: I'm doing because I know I'm on the right road. Man.
Speaker 1: So appreciate Tory and I And we didn't even get
Speaker 1: a chance to talk about how you know, I've also
Speaker 1: had the challenge story like, it doesn't mean that any
Speaker 1: one of us has it all figured out. You know,
Speaker 1: we all are if every day we're trying to be
Speaker 1: sort of like where you say, dog dodging and weaving,
Speaker 1: and sometimes we have to pull one another's coattails and say, hey,
Speaker 1: how you're approaching this thing. Let me give you all
Speaker 1: the ways in which this is going through impact our
Speaker 1: people and impact our community. So anyway, it's good to
Speaker 1: have Torrey on today. I think it's been uh an
Speaker 1: insightful conversation in general, and that kind of brings me
Speaker 1: to my I don't get it, you know, as I
Speaker 1: know it's a topic that's a little old. You know,
Speaker 1: I've been a little back off of social media for
Speaker 1: a few days, you know, in light of what's going
Speaker 1: on my mom. But this whole Joe Rogan situation, you know,
Speaker 1: and in comparison to Woopy situation, and it's just crazy
Speaker 1: to me, you know. I hear how Indie Iria Um
Speaker 1: originally wanted to pull her mood her music from Spotify
Speaker 1: based on, you know, the comments that Joe Rogan made,
Speaker 1: you know, with the nigger comments and also the monkeys
Speaker 1: and plane of the Apes comments they made. And and
Speaker 1: did I hear recent the league that she accepts his
Speaker 1: apology and and no longer wants to do that. And
Speaker 1: it's just like, I don't understand that, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't understand how people don't see the difference. I've heard
Speaker 1: a lot of different people speaking up and saying that
Speaker 1: Joe Joe Rogan is not racist. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: He's not racist. I don't understand why people are calling
Speaker 1: racist this and that, and he's spoken up, But I
Speaker 1: haven't heard those same people who spoken and said those
Speaker 1: things about Joe Rogan say that, Well, what he said,
Speaker 1: there's nowhere near racist. It's actually just somebody who has
Speaker 1: has a different perspective or understanding itself. Even if she
Speaker 1: was wrong or right of what she thought race meant
Speaker 1: to her and how she expressed it, there was no
Speaker 1: ill intentions, There was no intentional harm. There was nobody
Speaker 1: making fun of anybody. There was no one trying to
Speaker 1: make light of something that happened to somebody. There was
Speaker 1: no one using the right thetory names that historically have
Speaker 1: been you know, derogatory and used to harm someone. Nobody
Speaker 1: did that. You know, Joe Rogan used the word nigga
Speaker 1: that historically has been used to harm black people by
Speaker 1: white people. That every time it's been said by white
Speaker 1: people has been said that it's not to be said
Speaker 1: by white people called black people monkeys. Plan of the apes,
Speaker 1: he he said that, you know, they laughed about it.
Speaker 1: They thought it was a joke. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And we we know that the reference from black white
Speaker 1: people to black people call them apes and monkeys is
Speaker 1: a racist comment. There's no nothing to say about it.
Speaker 1: You like Joe Rogan, you like a lot of things
Speaker 1: you do there. They are right, racist white people that
Speaker 1: you would like. Right there are racist white people who
Speaker 1: they don't they don't do something to harm you, but
Speaker 1: they just see you as a monkey. They just see
Speaker 1: you as a nigger because that's what they've been taught,
Speaker 1: that's what they've learned. They don't see you as the
Speaker 1: same level value in statue that they have. And you
Speaker 1: might actually like that person because everything else they do
Speaker 1: outside of that, it's cool with you. They say a
Speaker 1: bunch of other good ship that you like, and you
Speaker 1: go to anybody, Oh this person is dope. But they
Speaker 1: say some racist ship and you might have your racist friend.
Speaker 1: That's okay with you. But if you but you can't
Speaker 1: say that it ain't racist. Don't say that it ain't racist.
Speaker 1: Don't say that what that the sky ain't blue where
Speaker 1: we can see the skies, say that you don't mind
Speaker 1: that the skies blue? You would rather be purple or
Speaker 1: something else, but acknowledge that is blue. Right. So when
Speaker 1: we look at Whoopie situation, black people say, she ain't
Speaker 1: said nothing wrong, Say she ain't intentionally say something to
Speaker 1: harm somebody, Say that even if she was missing from
Speaker 1: or she wasn't educated properly, or you don't agree with
Speaker 1: she said, you know that there was no intent to
Speaker 1: harm someone, right? Do she You know that she didn't
Speaker 1: think that when she said that, that someone would feel
Speaker 1: like they were harmed, and that she intensely tried to
Speaker 1: disrespect somebody. Right, When we know when the world is
Speaker 1: nigger as used every time it is used by a
Speaker 1: black white person, black people are disrespected. We know when
Speaker 1: you refer to black people as monkeys and apes, they
Speaker 1: are disrespected. I don't get, however, anyone because see something
Speaker 1: wrong with one and not seeing them something wrong with
Speaker 1: the other. Right, and and and not had the same
Speaker 1: figor to utilize their platforms or their voices to say, hey,
Speaker 1: this ship that's happening. We don't even make sense to me.
Speaker 1: I don't understand how we're doing this. But you could
Speaker 1: say something about Joe Rogan and I'm saying that about
Speaker 1: black people. I'm saying black people who know the historic
Speaker 1: context of apes and monkeys used by black used by
Speaker 1: white people, and nigga used by black people, I mean
Speaker 1: by white people. So I just don't get how we constantly,
Speaker 1: you know, we get on our our horse and we
Speaker 1: we cat for white people, but we don't utilize to
Speaker 1: save the same energy to save and speak up on
Speaker 1: behalf of our black people. And I don't think I'm
Speaker 1: never gonna get it. I know that it happens, I
Speaker 1: see it happened every day, But I don't think I'm
Speaker 1: never gonna get it, and I'm never gonna be okay
Speaker 1: with it. If we don't think nothing should happen to
Speaker 1: Joe Rogan and we think that it's okay, then we
Speaker 1: should have made sure that there's no way that will
Speaker 1: be got no suspension for two weeks for saying something
Speaker 1: about race in a perspective that she thought not something
Speaker 1: that was negative, not something that was harmful. She didn't
Speaker 1: say what happened to the Jewish community was right. She
Speaker 1: didn't say oh, she didn't use derogatory terms to talk
Speaker 1: about Jews. She said it wasn't racist. She didn't think
Speaker 1: that she thought color blacks and white schools race like
Speaker 1: most people do. Most people are not aware. Most people see, oh,
Speaker 1: we thought that Jewish was a religion. We didn't know
Speaker 1: that it was a race, right, so it's not. It's
Speaker 1: not it's not a race. And I think that what
Speaker 1: we learned together, the educational component, was that the what
Speaker 1: happened to the Jewish people was based upon other individuals
Speaker 1: who want to be, or wanted to be, the more dominant,
Speaker 1: powerful race. So therefore you understand why racism plays a
Speaker 1: role because the social construct struct and the mental um,
Speaker 1: the dominance of one group over another is what we
Speaker 1: see happen with white supremacy all the time. So we
Speaker 1: learned the issue, and I think with Whoop we also
Speaker 1: learned the issue. Nonetheless, the way in which she was
Speaker 1: chastised for her comments, which I agree with you were
Speaker 1: not there was no in intent. I don't think there.
Speaker 1: I don't think anybody really has said there was ill intent, however,
Speaker 1: and there was an immediate apology, right, and there was
Speaker 1: an apology. Well, one thing I will say that I've
Speaker 1: also heard many people, not just Jewish people, but black
Speaker 1: folks and others say, is that what you may not
Speaker 1: mean to be harmful can still hurt other people. Right,
Speaker 1: So that's why an apology is necessary, and that's why
Speaker 1: she did what she did to apologize immediately, because whoa,
Speaker 1: I didn't know, I was educated. I apologize. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: that wasn't it wasn't my intention to harm her whatever, Okay,
Speaker 1: cool to me? To me, right? That was very sincere
Speaker 1: because she immediately corrected herself for making a statement and
Speaker 1: then being educated that actually the way you're seeing it
Speaker 1: is from a very narrow perspective and less broadened your
Speaker 1: understanding so you could see it from a different perspective.
Speaker 1: I think that was very important. But I do see
Speaker 1: the disparity in the way in which a corporation can
Speaker 1: listen to a man using language that, as you said,
Speaker 1: has been identified one to be offensive, to be disrespectful,
Speaker 1: to be all the harmful everything else intentionally right, How
Speaker 1: they could see that behavior and not find reason to,
Speaker 1: at least, if nothing else, suspend him for two weeks.
Speaker 1: You know what I think is it is interesting and
Speaker 1: I'll really leave this here. It's interesting to me that
Speaker 1: even even though this happens in the same exact time
Speaker 1: period as whoopee, this is just days of heart. If
Speaker 1: if it were the other way around, just because Joe
Speaker 1: Rogan was um um, excuse me, just because Joe Rogan
Speaker 1: would have been like suspended if it was the other
Speaker 1: way around, same scenario the other way around. Just because
Speaker 1: he was suspended, that would have set the tone for
Speaker 1: Whoopie coming behind him. She would have had to be
Speaker 1: suspended just because it already happened as Spotify with a
Speaker 1: white man. But it did not go that way, based
Speaker 1: upon the fact that a black woman at ABC was
Speaker 1: just chastised and reprimanded for what she did, and then
Speaker 1: a couple of days later something that was way more blatant.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to be clear, because you know they'll
Speaker 1: go and say and recreate what we're saying. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying that they are not folks that hold heard what
Speaker 1: be speaking and said, oh my god, like she doesn't
Speaker 1: get it. Just hurt me. She raised my experience or
Speaker 1: my understanding. We're not saying that. We're saying that in
Speaker 1: these two situations, you had someone who was clearly ignorant
Speaker 1: to what we have now learned to be different right
Speaker 1: from what some people knew or what Whoopie understood. Now
Speaker 1: you go to a situation where We know that Joe
Speaker 1: Rogan was not ignorant because he said when he made
Speaker 1: the statement about the planet of the eggs, that's real.
Speaker 1: He said that, so he knew what he was saying
Speaker 1: was wrong, but he did it anywhere, and you can't
Speaker 1: tell me he didn't think. He even challenged whoever his
Speaker 1: co host store, the other person to guess that was
Speaker 1: on the show with him. He challenged that person, I
Speaker 1: bet you won't say nigga. You don't want to say it.
Speaker 1: You don't want to say it, Say nigga, say nigga.
Speaker 1: He did that, He challenged him. So he was there
Speaker 1: playing a game. And even though Whoopee was reprimanded, he
Speaker 1: has not been He's his apology. The white man's apology
Speaker 1: was accepted with no further concert. Black people came with
Speaker 1: the kid just like this, Yeah, rescued, he ain't that's
Speaker 1: my ain't so what he said nigga and called his monkey.
Speaker 1: He ain't racist. He works with black people. Black people
Speaker 1: don't ever could you listen, he can call us monkeys
Speaker 1: and plans the apes. It's not racist. Moving right along
Speaker 1: and with that said, another Dope episode. Shout out to
Speaker 1: King Jay and King Queen. Understand on their Dope interview. UM,
Speaker 1: I just want to say to my angel, to my queen,
Speaker 1: to my mom, I love you. You know you thought
Speaker 1: one of the biggest fights I've ever seen. And I
Speaker 1: know why I am the King because you are a Queen.
Speaker 1: And I will continue to live on this earth and
Speaker 1: make you proud. A ipy to the Great Patricia Lennon.
Speaker 1: Listen to Street Politicians on the Black Effect Network on
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio, and catch us every single Wednesday for
Speaker 1: the video version of Street Politicians on I Women Dot Tv.