1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:29,840 Speaker 1: Hmmmm, hellaj solo recorder Lalas. Then let's us stay USA, Runzula. 2 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:39,239 Speaker 2: Quesome. 3 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:50,479 Speaker 3: Welcome back to Good Mom's Bad Choices, and welcome to 4 00:00:50,680 --> 00:00:55,200 Speaker 3: our part two of our Sean and Ray King episode. Now, 5 00:00:55,240 --> 00:00:57,680 Speaker 3: if you listen to part one, you know we ended 6 00:00:57,680 --> 00:01:02,040 Speaker 3: it quite abruptly, so let's take it back so you 7 00:01:02,080 --> 00:01:05,000 Speaker 3: can remember where we left off and get straight into 8 00:01:05,240 --> 00:01:05,640 Speaker 3: part two. 9 00:01:05,880 --> 00:01:08,960 Speaker 4: You have children, children, and I think you know, like 10 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:11,160 Speaker 4: I know, there was a comment recently about you telling 11 00:01:11,280 --> 00:01:13,920 Speaker 4: saying about Kim like she likes being on camera. I 12 00:01:13,959 --> 00:01:15,600 Speaker 4: didn't think there was anything wrong with that comment. 13 00:01:15,920 --> 00:01:18,760 Speaker 5: I thought it was a little mad when I thought 14 00:01:18,800 --> 00:01:19,520 Speaker 5: you said that, I. 15 00:01:20,040 --> 00:01:21,200 Speaker 2: Thought that it was true. 16 00:01:22,480 --> 00:01:25,560 Speaker 6: I think, like, I'm not a Kardashian fan by any means, 17 00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:27,479 Speaker 6: but if she's gonna use her platform as a way 18 00:01:27,520 --> 00:01:28,720 Speaker 6: to help people, then okay. 19 00:01:28,959 --> 00:01:31,279 Speaker 7: You know, I think the day I said that comment, 20 00:01:31,319 --> 00:01:36,319 Speaker 7: I says, like, on the Monday they stopped Rodney's execution 21 00:01:36,440 --> 00:01:39,280 Speaker 7: on Friday, and on that Monday, she was on all 22 00:01:39,319 --> 00:01:42,080 Speaker 7: the TV shows, which I had no problem with. But 23 00:01:42,160 --> 00:01:45,920 Speaker 7: I kept being asked Sean why she on these TV 24 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:49,000 Speaker 7: shows and not you, and I said, because she likes 25 00:01:49,040 --> 00:01:51,360 Speaker 7: being on TV, and I like doing the work well. 26 00:01:51,240 --> 00:01:54,320 Speaker 5: And let's be honest, because mainstream media was done with 27 00:01:54,360 --> 00:01:55,680 Speaker 5: you a long time ago. 28 00:01:55,640 --> 00:01:59,320 Speaker 7: Right, Yeah, but not just but I think I regretted 29 00:01:59,440 --> 00:02:02,200 Speaker 7: saying it probably a few hours after, if one, I'm 30 00:02:02,440 --> 00:02:06,680 Speaker 7: generally not mean spirited in my comments. I was already 31 00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:09,040 Speaker 7: frustrated that day because I think that was the same 32 00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:13,400 Speaker 7: day a lot of stuff was going on with Amanda. Again, 33 00:02:13,520 --> 00:02:16,920 Speaker 7: I wasn't so bothered by Amanda as I was concerned 34 00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:20,400 Speaker 7: about the impact it would have on Rodney, on Rodney's 35 00:02:20,440 --> 00:02:23,760 Speaker 7: family and on his case. Like we had grown to 36 00:02:23,880 --> 00:02:27,880 Speaker 7: feel that the public sentiment about Rodney mattered, and so 37 00:02:28,160 --> 00:02:31,519 Speaker 7: seeing something that could harm that, I felt I could 38 00:02:31,600 --> 00:02:34,320 Speaker 7: harm this man's life. And so when somebody asked me that, 39 00:02:34,400 --> 00:02:38,760 Speaker 7: I was kind of in a mood, and several people 40 00:02:38,760 --> 00:02:41,440 Speaker 7: reached out to me and said, like, actually, sewing behind this. 41 00:02:41,520 --> 00:02:44,240 Speaker 7: I know what you've seen on TV, but behind the scenes, 42 00:02:44,680 --> 00:02:48,360 Speaker 7: she's been doing more work, even on Rodney's case, research 43 00:02:48,440 --> 00:02:51,760 Speaker 7: and some other things. And so I just said, like, hey, 44 00:02:52,680 --> 00:02:54,960 Speaker 7: what I said. I said, I think the facts of 45 00:02:54,960 --> 00:02:57,280 Speaker 7: that are true. She does like being on TV. I 46 00:02:57,360 --> 00:02:59,560 Speaker 7: do like doing the work, but I didn't mean it 47 00:02:59,560 --> 00:03:03,320 Speaker 7: in that meant it as a backhanded compliment, and a 48 00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:04,959 Speaker 7: few hours after I said it, I was like, ah, 49 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:06,760 Speaker 7: that's not my best, that's not my best. Look. 50 00:03:06,919 --> 00:03:08,720 Speaker 6: So with all I mean, all the work you do, 51 00:03:09,120 --> 00:03:12,320 Speaker 6: all the criticism that you get, both of you get, 52 00:03:12,800 --> 00:03:15,760 Speaker 6: how what is how do you decompress? What is your 53 00:03:15,760 --> 00:03:17,960 Speaker 6: self care routine? Because that's what I want to know. 54 00:03:18,080 --> 00:03:21,520 Speaker 6: How do you step away from all of this? Because 55 00:03:21,560 --> 00:03:24,080 Speaker 6: you know your Instagram and I've seen before you've said, like, 56 00:03:24,120 --> 00:03:25,160 Speaker 6: you know, I know a lot of you think that 57 00:03:25,200 --> 00:03:28,600 Speaker 6: all I do is post about all like the injustices 58 00:03:28,960 --> 00:03:32,480 Speaker 6: that are happening. I'm going to start posting things about 59 00:03:32,520 --> 00:03:34,440 Speaker 6: like little things I do with my family to show 60 00:03:34,440 --> 00:03:36,360 Speaker 6: you that, yes I do. I am a normal person 61 00:03:36,520 --> 00:03:39,120 Speaker 6: and I don't just like post about this stuff all day. 62 00:03:39,160 --> 00:03:42,320 Speaker 5: Well you do, but this is not my whole existence. 63 00:03:42,400 --> 00:03:45,480 Speaker 6: Like, how how do you kind of come down and 64 00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:48,160 Speaker 6: decompress from all of it? 65 00:03:48,600 --> 00:03:51,000 Speaker 7: I think we both have different ways that we do it, 66 00:03:51,120 --> 00:03:55,880 Speaker 7: Like right now, like I'm in a fantasy basketball league 67 00:03:55,880 --> 00:03:58,400 Speaker 7: with my son, Okay, right, and so I'm and we're 68 00:03:58,480 --> 00:04:01,920 Speaker 7: checking our scores several times a night to see who's winning. 69 00:04:03,560 --> 00:04:05,520 Speaker 7: We take the we take the kids to the movies. 70 00:04:05,880 --> 00:04:08,920 Speaker 7: We we go on trips. We're going on a trip, 71 00:04:09,280 --> 00:04:12,960 Speaker 7: you know, with the family for Thanksgiving. Like we like, 72 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:16,000 Speaker 7: there are things that we do, Like I also try 73 00:04:16,080 --> 00:04:19,040 Speaker 7: not to take my work late into the night, Like 74 00:04:19,680 --> 00:04:22,080 Speaker 7: I try to cut my work off even as early 75 00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:25,559 Speaker 7: as eight o'clock, where I'm trying to flip the switch 76 00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:28,279 Speaker 7: off in my mind where I'm not thinking about injustice. 77 00:04:28,960 --> 00:04:31,000 Speaker 7: Little things like we try not to have our phone 78 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:33,200 Speaker 7: at the dinner table. We try not to use our 79 00:04:33,240 --> 00:04:35,920 Speaker 7: phones wor out on dates. There's little things like that 80 00:04:35,920 --> 00:04:39,080 Speaker 7: that we try to do. But but it is, I mean. 81 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:40,599 Speaker 5: It's a lot of I think we could use a 82 00:04:40,600 --> 00:04:44,280 Speaker 5: little more decompressing. Like I think these last six months 83 00:04:44,360 --> 00:04:47,200 Speaker 5: or so, in particular, it's been hard to kind of 84 00:04:47,279 --> 00:04:51,440 Speaker 5: keep up a self care routine. You know, you don't 85 00:04:51,480 --> 00:04:56,320 Speaker 5: watch nearly the TV or the Netflix or something that 86 00:04:56,400 --> 00:04:59,120 Speaker 5: you would normally watch. I don't work out anymore. I 87 00:04:59,200 --> 00:05:01,920 Speaker 5: used to love zoom book and just have not had 88 00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:05,360 Speaker 5: been swamped. Yeah, we've been swamped just like every day, 89 00:05:06,080 --> 00:05:08,280 Speaker 5: back to back to back. But I think like when 90 00:05:08,279 --> 00:05:10,720 Speaker 5: it's not like that, you know, we like to go 91 00:05:10,720 --> 00:05:13,159 Speaker 5: out on a date once a week. We have a 92 00:05:13,160 --> 00:05:15,919 Speaker 5: favorite restaurant in Manhattan that we that we go to 93 00:05:16,160 --> 00:05:18,840 Speaker 5: stuff like that, just like we go to Broadway. 94 00:05:18,880 --> 00:05:22,520 Speaker 7: We go to Broadway musicals when we can. Yeah, I 95 00:05:22,520 --> 00:05:26,960 Speaker 7: mean so there are I shop too much? Yeah, so 96 00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:28,920 Speaker 7: we didn't. We have little things that we do. Like you, 97 00:05:29,680 --> 00:05:34,080 Speaker 7: Ray is a podcast officionados, She's probably listened to this 98 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:38,000 Speaker 7: point into the thousands of episodes at this point. So 99 00:05:38,400 --> 00:05:41,320 Speaker 7: you listen to podcasts and audio books and and there 100 00:05:41,320 --> 00:05:43,279 Speaker 7: are other little things that we do. Like for me, 101 00:05:44,080 --> 00:05:48,800 Speaker 7: I everything I do I love. And so even as 102 00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:52,919 Speaker 7: hard as fighting for Rodney Reid is, I choose to 103 00:05:52,960 --> 00:05:55,640 Speaker 7: do that, even as I talked to you all earlier 104 00:05:55,839 --> 00:05:58,280 Speaker 7: how hard it is to do a daily podcast. As 105 00:05:58,360 --> 00:06:00,400 Speaker 7: hard as it is to do it daily, I love 106 00:06:00,480 --> 00:06:02,680 Speaker 7: being able to share that information and break down the 107 00:06:02,720 --> 00:06:03,480 Speaker 7: news for people. 108 00:06:04,360 --> 00:06:06,320 Speaker 5: But it does get hard for you, Like I think, 109 00:06:06,640 --> 00:06:08,560 Speaker 5: you know, that's one thing. I don't know if it's 110 00:06:08,560 --> 00:06:11,000 Speaker 5: because you're a guy, you know, and you're just not 111 00:06:11,120 --> 00:06:15,320 Speaker 5: necessarily in touch with your feelings or whatever, so he's 112 00:06:15,360 --> 00:06:17,440 Speaker 5: not want to be like, you know, oh man, I'm 113 00:06:17,440 --> 00:06:20,240 Speaker 5: depressed or all this, or that I've learned to look 114 00:06:20,279 --> 00:06:24,000 Speaker 5: for other signs and clues that you know that he's 115 00:06:24,120 --> 00:06:26,479 Speaker 5: reaching a point, you know what I'm saying. And I 116 00:06:26,520 --> 00:06:30,240 Speaker 5: think this past week, in particular, one you've been writing 117 00:06:30,279 --> 00:06:33,840 Speaker 5: the never ending book. Good Lord, it just won't It's 118 00:06:33,839 --> 00:06:35,960 Speaker 5: the book that won't be written. It just won't be done. 119 00:06:37,080 --> 00:06:39,400 Speaker 7: The book is finished. It's the editing process. 120 00:06:39,839 --> 00:06:42,480 Speaker 5: Man, it's terrible. But I think over this last week, 121 00:06:42,839 --> 00:06:44,720 Speaker 5: you know, I heard you say for the first time 122 00:06:44,760 --> 00:06:47,000 Speaker 5: on Monday, I need a day off, and I don't 123 00:06:47,040 --> 00:06:50,040 Speaker 5: know I've ever heard him say that before. And I 124 00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:53,960 Speaker 5: was like, oh, okay, like something's wrong. He's just like, 125 00:06:54,279 --> 00:06:56,120 Speaker 5: I don't know what it is, he said. I think 126 00:06:56,320 --> 00:06:59,640 Speaker 5: I just went for so long, so hard for Rodney read, 127 00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:02,039 Speaker 5: and I think it's just caught up with me. 128 00:07:02,279 --> 00:07:02,479 Speaker 3: You know. 129 00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:04,600 Speaker 5: It's like you work your work, your work to get 130 00:07:04,640 --> 00:07:07,560 Speaker 5: this stay and then it happens and then you're just like, 131 00:07:07,600 --> 00:07:09,680 Speaker 5: oh my god, Like, how did I just spend the 132 00:07:09,800 --> 00:07:13,000 Speaker 5: last three weeks of my life? And I think you have. 133 00:07:13,160 --> 00:07:16,040 Speaker 5: I think the amandacials thing, the reason that Kim Kardashian 134 00:07:16,080 --> 00:07:20,160 Speaker 5: comment happened, which is so out of your character, is 135 00:07:20,200 --> 00:07:22,680 Speaker 5: because you were you were I think you're exhausted, Like 136 00:07:22,760 --> 00:07:26,760 Speaker 5: I really, I think you're exhausted. I think that, you know, 137 00:07:26,960 --> 00:07:31,040 Speaker 5: like speaking of decompressing, Like I don't engage on the internet. 138 00:07:31,080 --> 00:07:33,440 Speaker 5: I have no idea what people say about me. So 139 00:07:33,560 --> 00:07:35,520 Speaker 5: you all say, you know, like, oh, the way they 140 00:07:35,520 --> 00:07:37,800 Speaker 5: criticized me too, I was like, really do they you know? 141 00:07:38,200 --> 00:07:40,440 Speaker 5: Because I don't know, Like I don't. 142 00:07:40,680 --> 00:07:43,640 Speaker 7: I hardly see I hardly see any criticism of myself. 143 00:07:43,680 --> 00:07:46,280 Speaker 7: I don't. I hardly look at the comments. I don't. 144 00:07:46,480 --> 00:07:49,840 Speaker 7: I don't have Google alerts on. I have had to 145 00:07:49,880 --> 00:07:53,080 Speaker 7: block the good noise and the bad noise out. 146 00:07:53,400 --> 00:07:56,920 Speaker 5: And that's a form of decompression. I think it's just 147 00:07:57,080 --> 00:08:00,680 Speaker 5: like making that because you live on the internet, in 148 00:08:00,720 --> 00:08:04,600 Speaker 5: your work, just like making that world as small as 149 00:08:04,640 --> 00:08:07,960 Speaker 5: possible when it comes to like what we take in is. 150 00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:10,360 Speaker 5: I think one of my girlfriends even said she was 151 00:08:10,440 --> 00:08:13,200 Speaker 5: telling me, she was like, get a separate phone, and 152 00:08:13,240 --> 00:08:16,160 Speaker 5: one phone is like your personal phone where people you 153 00:08:16,240 --> 00:08:18,280 Speaker 5: know and love and trust reach you, and the other 154 00:08:18,320 --> 00:08:20,200 Speaker 5: one has all the other stuff on it, and the 155 00:08:20,240 --> 00:08:22,160 Speaker 5: ones with your social media, Like don't even bring it 156 00:08:22,240 --> 00:08:25,120 Speaker 5: into your bedroom, like literally leave it out there. You 157 00:08:25,120 --> 00:08:27,240 Speaker 5: don't like those people, you don't know those people, don't 158 00:08:27,240 --> 00:08:30,320 Speaker 5: invite them into your right right, And I was like, oh, 159 00:08:30,360 --> 00:08:33,080 Speaker 5: that's kind of deep. And so just like limiting our 160 00:08:33,120 --> 00:08:35,520 Speaker 5: social media I think is another kind of self care 161 00:08:35,600 --> 00:08:36,160 Speaker 5: thing we do. 162 00:08:36,640 --> 00:08:39,560 Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean the work you do, you have so 163 00:08:39,600 --> 00:08:41,840 Speaker 4: many people have access to you, you know, and you 164 00:08:41,880 --> 00:08:45,320 Speaker 4: know what in preparing for this interview, obviously we know, 165 00:08:45,360 --> 00:08:47,559 Speaker 4: we know who you are, but we did some research 166 00:08:47,600 --> 00:08:49,440 Speaker 4: and there's you know, there's just I was just like 167 00:08:49,480 --> 00:08:53,160 Speaker 4: calling Eric like, oh my god, people are crazy. Yeah, 168 00:08:53,559 --> 00:08:57,400 Speaker 4: I'm like everything, every every crevice of this man's life. 169 00:08:57,600 --> 00:09:00,559 Speaker 2: If you're black, are you black enough? You know, are 170 00:09:00,679 --> 00:09:02,080 Speaker 2: all the kids yours are? 171 00:09:02,480 --> 00:09:02,680 Speaker 7: Are? 172 00:09:02,840 --> 00:09:03,040 Speaker 8: You know? 173 00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:05,959 Speaker 2: Did you have did someone hurt you? Was was it 174 00:09:06,040 --> 00:09:07,240 Speaker 2: was racially. 175 00:09:06,880 --> 00:09:09,920 Speaker 4: Motivated, you know, people having to go back and account 176 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:14,479 Speaker 4: from the eleventh grade. And I'm like wow, And you know, unfortunately, 177 00:09:14,559 --> 00:09:16,280 Speaker 4: I mean obviously I see it from the other side, but. 178 00:09:16,880 --> 00:09:20,160 Speaker 2: I see from black people. Yeah, And that was like. 179 00:09:20,400 --> 00:09:22,839 Speaker 6: That's the most That's what's so just that's what That's 180 00:09:22,920 --> 00:09:23,880 Speaker 6: what gets disappointing. 181 00:09:24,040 --> 00:09:26,720 Speaker 4: There is not a lot of people doing this work, 182 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:30,880 Speaker 4: and it's needed more than ever. So I'm perplexed at 183 00:09:31,040 --> 00:09:34,480 Speaker 4: why and how us Well. 184 00:09:34,280 --> 00:09:37,600 Speaker 7: I know, I think I understand it. I mean, black 185 00:09:37,640 --> 00:09:46,760 Speaker 7: folk love, shade, jokes, rumors, like there's no place rumors 186 00:09:46,880 --> 00:09:51,079 Speaker 7: and lies and stuff spread faster than in our own communities, 187 00:09:51,200 --> 00:09:54,680 Speaker 7: Like it could be just a pop culture rumor, like 188 00:09:54,720 --> 00:09:57,480 Speaker 7: I remember, like I remember it was the top trending 189 00:09:57,520 --> 00:10:00,800 Speaker 7: topic that that Rihanna was pregnant and it was like, 190 00:10:00,920 --> 00:10:04,320 Speaker 7: I mean, it was like a real like it had 191 00:10:04,520 --> 00:10:07,079 Speaker 7: caught on in a major way, and it was just 192 00:10:07,120 --> 00:10:09,920 Speaker 7: like all of a sudden, people at people knew it 193 00:10:09,960 --> 00:10:12,400 Speaker 7: and knew that it was true. And it's like stuff 194 00:10:12,440 --> 00:10:14,559 Speaker 7: spreads in our communities, like well, I. 195 00:10:14,520 --> 00:10:16,240 Speaker 5: Think some of us just like the history of like 196 00:10:16,320 --> 00:10:18,160 Speaker 5: playing the Dozens, you know what I'm saying, Like we 197 00:10:18,280 --> 00:10:22,079 Speaker 5: cracked jokes and we we can like really drag anything, 198 00:10:22,080 --> 00:10:24,679 Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying, And it's beautiful when it's funny, 199 00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:27,560 Speaker 5: you know, and it's interesting, and that's why I think 200 00:10:27,600 --> 00:10:29,679 Speaker 5: we have the best comedians and stuff like that. But 201 00:10:29,720 --> 00:10:32,959 Speaker 5: I think that social media takes it a couple of 202 00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:34,719 Speaker 5: steps too far, you know what I'm saying. Like I've 203 00:10:34,760 --> 00:10:42,280 Speaker 5: seen means about Sean that I giggle that to be honest. 204 00:10:39,720 --> 00:10:40,360 Speaker 2: We're funny. 205 00:10:40,679 --> 00:10:42,920 Speaker 5: Even what I took over his Twitter account, somebody opposed 206 00:10:43,040 --> 00:10:45,720 Speaker 5: a meme. It was like some movie and I was 207 00:10:45,800 --> 00:10:48,320 Speaker 5: holding Shine and they had like put his face on 208 00:10:48,360 --> 00:10:51,599 Speaker 5: a baby and on somebody else's with a gun. I 209 00:10:51,640 --> 00:10:53,640 Speaker 5: thought that was hilarious, you know, even a couple of 210 00:10:53,679 --> 00:10:57,000 Speaker 5: the nicknames, like we're crafty as a people, you know 211 00:10:57,000 --> 00:11:00,160 Speaker 5: what I'm saying, Like, we're funny and we're interesting, and 212 00:11:00,200 --> 00:11:03,040 Speaker 5: so I can appreciate that. But when it turns into 213 00:11:03,160 --> 00:11:07,599 Speaker 5: like just outright hate, outright you know, meanness, you know 214 00:11:07,679 --> 00:11:10,360 Speaker 5: what I'm saying, Like, it takes a turn. And that's 215 00:11:10,400 --> 00:11:13,400 Speaker 5: a lot of what I've seen happened with Sean. Like 216 00:11:13,440 --> 00:11:16,120 Speaker 5: people have told us people in this movement been like, 217 00:11:16,160 --> 00:11:18,560 Speaker 5: you know, I think it's jealousy. And that's hard for 218 00:11:18,600 --> 00:11:21,320 Speaker 5: me to wrap my mind around. I'm like jealous of what, Like, 219 00:11:21,360 --> 00:11:24,080 Speaker 5: do you know how hard this is? If you knew, 220 00:11:24,559 --> 00:11:26,680 Speaker 5: you would know you don't have anything to be jealous of. 221 00:11:26,880 --> 00:11:29,280 Speaker 5: And so I don't know if it's jealousy. But I've 222 00:11:29,280 --> 00:11:33,319 Speaker 5: had really credible people say like when things are really crazy, 223 00:11:33,400 --> 00:11:36,120 Speaker 5: like it's jealousy, like they're upset about well. 224 00:11:36,200 --> 00:11:38,800 Speaker 6: I was telling her, like, it's just like in any 225 00:11:39,280 --> 00:11:43,080 Speaker 6: arena of success entertainment, you know, you want to be 226 00:11:43,320 --> 00:11:45,560 Speaker 6: the number one rapper, you want to be the number 227 00:11:45,600 --> 00:11:48,640 Speaker 6: one actor, You want to be the number one activist, 228 00:11:49,360 --> 00:11:51,760 Speaker 6: you know, and like you want, whether or not you 229 00:11:51,840 --> 00:11:55,520 Speaker 6: realize it or not, like there's always someone that's trying 230 00:11:55,559 --> 00:12:03,679 Speaker 6: to be number one, you know, And yeah, any arena 231 00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:05,760 Speaker 6: I mean because even I mean when we when we 232 00:12:05,800 --> 00:12:07,760 Speaker 6: announced that we were having On as a guest, we 233 00:12:07,760 --> 00:12:09,560 Speaker 6: had so many people just so excited. 234 00:12:10,320 --> 00:12:11,680 Speaker 2: And then there were also people that were. 235 00:12:11,520 --> 00:12:13,920 Speaker 5: Like, I need you to ask the hard questions. And 236 00:12:13,960 --> 00:12:15,400 Speaker 5: I'm like, okay, first of all, ask. 237 00:12:15,240 --> 00:12:18,040 Speaker 4: Him about the black women and the LGBTQ community. So 238 00:12:18,080 --> 00:12:21,319 Speaker 4: I'm like, during research, I'm like, so one black girl 239 00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:27,160 Speaker 4: made false accusations about him allegedly stealing money from a nonprofit. 240 00:12:27,679 --> 00:12:30,000 Speaker 2: She happens to be gay, So now. 241 00:12:29,880 --> 00:12:32,600 Speaker 4: He doesn't like black women or the lgbt don't even 242 00:12:32,640 --> 00:12:34,960 Speaker 4: know that story, Like who, I mean, I don't know, 243 00:12:35,080 --> 00:12:38,360 Speaker 4: I don't know. But it's just these these huge masses 244 00:12:38,400 --> 00:12:41,240 Speaker 4: of people believing something because one single person. 245 00:12:40,960 --> 00:12:44,480 Speaker 5: Or like or like when he stole money from who 246 00:12:44,520 --> 00:12:48,040 Speaker 5: is this Saintoya Brown? And you know, like that really 247 00:12:48,080 --> 00:12:50,599 Speaker 5: blew up right And John was like, wait what And 248 00:12:50,920 --> 00:12:54,120 Speaker 5: now you have Saintoya Brown, who literally retweets him. You 249 00:12:54,120 --> 00:12:56,000 Speaker 5: know what I'm saying. As Dacy said, we literally went 250 00:12:56,040 --> 00:12:58,400 Speaker 5: to her book signing last week where you know, we 251 00:12:58,440 --> 00:13:02,200 Speaker 5: took pictures with her, and but this is the same woman. Like, look, 252 00:13:02,240 --> 00:13:04,520 Speaker 5: I'm going a tangent about this this kind of stuff 253 00:13:04,520 --> 00:13:07,400 Speaker 5: because it just doesn't make sense. Sean bullies. 254 00:13:07,440 --> 00:13:09,240 Speaker 4: I'm like, hey, bullies, or he knows that if you 255 00:13:09,320 --> 00:13:10,240 Speaker 4: say some things that's not. 256 00:13:10,320 --> 00:13:12,400 Speaker 2: True, there's a repercussion. 257 00:13:12,640 --> 00:13:12,959 Speaker 7: How is that? 258 00:13:13,880 --> 00:13:15,880 Speaker 4: I know that I don't care who you are. You 259 00:13:15,920 --> 00:13:17,760 Speaker 4: say something about me that's not true, I'm not coming 260 00:13:17,800 --> 00:13:18,280 Speaker 4: to your house. 261 00:13:21,320 --> 00:13:26,280 Speaker 7: Real talk. I loathe bullies like my entire life. And 262 00:13:27,520 --> 00:13:32,360 Speaker 7: you know, it's a struggle because if a person who 263 00:13:32,400 --> 00:13:35,959 Speaker 7: is otherwise a good person tells a lie about you, 264 00:13:36,520 --> 00:13:39,280 Speaker 7: and that lie is damaging, what happens. 265 00:13:39,360 --> 00:13:41,200 Speaker 5: That's another thing. I'm sorry I interrupt you, but like 266 00:13:41,200 --> 00:13:44,160 Speaker 5: people don't understand it actually matters. So people say stuff 267 00:13:44,200 --> 00:13:46,680 Speaker 5: to us like you don't have to respond to those haters, 268 00:13:46,840 --> 00:13:48,400 Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying, Like you don't, don't even 269 00:13:48,440 --> 00:13:51,760 Speaker 5: give them any attention, but we have to, Like it 270 00:13:52,160 --> 00:13:55,520 Speaker 5: literally affects your life, it does, and our. 271 00:13:55,559 --> 00:13:58,480 Speaker 7: Kids, listen, our kids get confronted on this, like when 272 00:13:58,520 --> 00:14:02,280 Speaker 7: people tell these stories and life, our teenage daughters get 273 00:14:02,280 --> 00:14:05,720 Speaker 7: asked about it. Even our younger kids get confronted about 274 00:14:05,800 --> 00:14:09,640 Speaker 7: these things. And so when somebody tells a lie and 275 00:14:09,679 --> 00:14:14,320 Speaker 7: it does damage in my world, how am I supposed 276 00:14:14,360 --> 00:14:18,120 Speaker 7: to confront it? And so, you know, the conclusion for 277 00:14:18,240 --> 00:14:21,840 Speaker 7: people was because I have such a big platform, if 278 00:14:21,840 --> 00:14:25,360 Speaker 7: somebody who doesn't have that platform tells a lie about me, 279 00:14:25,520 --> 00:14:29,920 Speaker 7: they basically don't want me to confront the person. But again, 280 00:14:30,040 --> 00:14:33,680 Speaker 7: many of those lies have been retweeted thousands of times. 281 00:14:34,520 --> 00:14:37,200 Speaker 7: I had to talk to my book publisher who was like, hey, 282 00:14:37,240 --> 00:14:41,240 Speaker 7: can you clarify this for us? And so when people say, again, 283 00:14:41,280 --> 00:14:44,200 Speaker 7: it's so foolish when people say that I've stolen money 284 00:14:44,240 --> 00:14:47,920 Speaker 7: from anybody or any charity, when there's no person or 285 00:14:48,040 --> 00:14:49,360 Speaker 7: charity saying that, right. 286 00:14:49,240 --> 00:14:51,760 Speaker 5: Like why don't the families so the charities that like 287 00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:55,160 Speaker 5: have to come out and say he took our money, Like, 288 00:14:55,280 --> 00:14:57,440 Speaker 5: wouldn't they be doing the number one? 289 00:14:58,080 --> 00:15:00,760 Speaker 6: I mean exactly, And that's and that's what I was 290 00:15:00,760 --> 00:15:03,880 Speaker 6: telling Jamila. I'm like, he has such a big platform, 291 00:15:04,720 --> 00:15:07,640 Speaker 6: wouldn't one of these charities have said hey? 292 00:15:08,200 --> 00:15:10,280 Speaker 2: Yep? It was like I just don't. 293 00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:12,280 Speaker 5: In jail. 294 00:15:12,800 --> 00:15:14,880 Speaker 7: It's a crime. And that's what people understand is it's 295 00:15:14,960 --> 00:15:20,200 Speaker 7: not Stealing from a family or charity is not just dirty. 296 00:15:20,400 --> 00:15:24,000 Speaker 7: It's a crime. It's it's a whole crime. If you 297 00:15:24,080 --> 00:15:27,160 Speaker 7: do it on gofund me, if you do it anywhere. 298 00:15:26,680 --> 00:15:29,280 Speaker 6: Even if you started on profit, you have to you 299 00:15:29,360 --> 00:15:31,360 Speaker 6: have to go through you have to submit these papers 300 00:15:31,360 --> 00:15:32,120 Speaker 6: to the I r S. 301 00:15:32,200 --> 00:15:33,880 Speaker 2: You have to nine nights. 302 00:15:33,920 --> 00:15:36,440 Speaker 6: And isn't it is it open to the general public too? 303 00:15:36,520 --> 00:15:39,120 Speaker 5: Like what do all the people that hatean do you 304 00:15:39,200 --> 00:15:42,280 Speaker 5: not think that the government would have come for him already? 305 00:15:42,440 --> 00:15:45,200 Speaker 4: Uncle Tom, don't get don't let nobody take his money. 306 00:15:45,400 --> 00:15:46,520 Speaker 2: That private I r S. 307 00:15:46,600 --> 00:15:49,120 Speaker 4: They're on it every step of the way, right And 308 00:15:49,160 --> 00:15:51,520 Speaker 4: if you're advocating for people they don't even fuck with 309 00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:54,320 Speaker 4: like that, they're going to be looking through your ship 310 00:15:54,480 --> 00:15:56,440 Speaker 4: like pins and needles. 311 00:15:56,000 --> 00:15:56,240 Speaker 7: You know. 312 00:15:56,360 --> 00:16:00,840 Speaker 4: So it's strange to me that you know, and when 313 00:16:00,840 --> 00:16:03,560 Speaker 4: there's the irs, when there's these forms and you know, 314 00:16:03,600 --> 00:16:07,360 Speaker 4: obviously I've had a multiple nonprofits and that's a shit. 315 00:16:07,440 --> 00:16:08,280 Speaker 2: That's a business man. 316 00:16:08,680 --> 00:16:10,320 Speaker 4: You see what works and that doesn't work, and then 317 00:16:10,360 --> 00:16:12,080 Speaker 4: you do something different or you know whatever. 318 00:16:12,120 --> 00:16:14,280 Speaker 2: But at the very end, of it. 319 00:16:14,400 --> 00:16:17,280 Speaker 4: Your efforts are for the greater good. 320 00:16:17,320 --> 00:16:20,480 Speaker 5: And always when that's the thing that's always been able 321 00:16:20,560 --> 00:16:25,440 Speaker 5: to help me keep rocking with him. You know what 322 00:16:25,480 --> 00:16:28,120 Speaker 5: I'm saying, because I know it's heart and through all 323 00:16:28,160 --> 00:16:30,800 Speaker 5: his nine lives that he's lived and all the different 324 00:16:30,800 --> 00:16:33,840 Speaker 5: things that he's decided to try and start or whatever, 325 00:16:33,880 --> 00:16:35,840 Speaker 5: and I get frustrated and I'm just like, you're not 326 00:16:35,840 --> 00:16:38,120 Speaker 5: going to run that thing. You know, you're not gonna 327 00:16:38,120 --> 00:16:40,760 Speaker 5: see that thing through. It's because he goes after Like 328 00:16:40,800 --> 00:16:42,920 Speaker 5: what I can appreciate about him is he can have 329 00:16:42,960 --> 00:16:46,440 Speaker 5: an idea. I've never seen anybody take an idea to 330 00:16:47,480 --> 00:16:50,720 Speaker 5: being a thing like he does. I think what he's 331 00:16:50,880 --> 00:16:54,120 Speaker 5: learned over time over the last ten or fifteen years 332 00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:56,920 Speaker 5: or so is where his strengths are. Like, that's his strength. 333 00:16:57,080 --> 00:17:00,840 Speaker 5: He can start a thing like that running it. That's 334 00:17:00,840 --> 00:17:04,240 Speaker 5: a different story, and I think it probably it is. 335 00:17:04,720 --> 00:17:07,600 Speaker 7: I think the main pivot I've made over the past 336 00:17:07,640 --> 00:17:11,240 Speaker 7: few years is just to surround myself with people who 337 00:17:11,400 --> 00:17:15,320 Speaker 7: love doing the day to day, the hard slog and 338 00:17:15,440 --> 00:17:20,000 Speaker 7: day to day management of managing the organizations, of managing 339 00:17:20,040 --> 00:17:23,879 Speaker 7: the finances, of making sure that we're legally compliant like 340 00:17:23,960 --> 00:17:27,440 Speaker 7: all of that stuff is tedious and detail oriented. It's 341 00:17:27,520 --> 00:17:29,200 Speaker 7: just stuff I'm not generally good at. 342 00:17:29,320 --> 00:17:31,440 Speaker 5: But it took you a while to understand me. 343 00:17:32,119 --> 00:17:34,159 Speaker 7: I mean, it took me a while to even find 344 00:17:34,359 --> 00:17:39,080 Speaker 7: the people and the team to surround myself with to say, ah, 345 00:17:39,240 --> 00:17:41,800 Speaker 7: there are people who love the things that I'm not 346 00:17:41,880 --> 00:17:42,719 Speaker 7: good at. 347 00:17:42,920 --> 00:17:45,840 Speaker 5: And like he watched me lead a staff meeting, a 348 00:17:45,920 --> 00:17:49,640 Speaker 5: leadership meeting today and he was like, that was amazing, Right, 349 00:17:49,760 --> 00:17:52,879 Speaker 5: But I love that stuff, Like I'm into the details 350 00:17:53,040 --> 00:17:54,960 Speaker 5: and he's not. And I think we've gotten to a 351 00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:57,080 Speaker 5: place where we're like we're okay with that, and we 352 00:17:57,160 --> 00:17:59,680 Speaker 5: see it. And my thing that people is just failure 353 00:17:59,840 --> 00:18:02,760 Speaker 5: is fraud, you know what I'm saying, Like you fail, 354 00:18:02,920 --> 00:18:06,160 Speaker 5: you start something, you fail you start something that that's 355 00:18:06,200 --> 00:18:09,359 Speaker 5: not necessarily fraud. I did have to get to the 356 00:18:09,359 --> 00:18:11,240 Speaker 5: place with him where I needed him to learn from 357 00:18:11,240 --> 00:18:14,439 Speaker 5: his mistakes and stop making the same mistakes over and 358 00:18:14,480 --> 00:18:17,280 Speaker 5: over again, just as his wife. The toll of that 359 00:18:18,320 --> 00:18:21,199 Speaker 5: and what it allowed people to say got to a 360 00:18:21,240 --> 00:18:23,720 Speaker 5: point where it was just like, Okay, we're not doing 361 00:18:23,720 --> 00:18:25,760 Speaker 5: this anymore. Like you're gonna have to do something different 362 00:18:26,119 --> 00:18:28,200 Speaker 5: or you're literally never starting anything again. 363 00:18:28,440 --> 00:18:29,240 Speaker 2: Right, Well, I. 364 00:18:29,200 --> 00:18:32,159 Speaker 6: Want to think as you as as as his wife 365 00:18:32,160 --> 00:18:35,239 Speaker 6: and you having to you know, support him. Was there 366 00:18:35,480 --> 00:18:37,639 Speaker 6: is there any ever a time where you're like I 367 00:18:37,640 --> 00:18:39,480 Speaker 6: don't want I don't want to do this anymore? 368 00:18:39,520 --> 00:18:44,199 Speaker 5: Oh one? An time absolutely like this is not the 369 00:18:44,320 --> 00:18:47,240 Speaker 5: life I envisioned, you know what I'm saying, Like it isn't. 370 00:18:47,280 --> 00:18:50,040 Speaker 5: And we talk about this on our new podcast that'll 371 00:18:50,080 --> 00:18:52,800 Speaker 5: be released in a couple of months. Like when we 372 00:18:52,880 --> 00:18:55,000 Speaker 5: got together and I was fifteen and he was seventeen. 373 00:18:55,119 --> 00:18:57,600 Speaker 5: We met in church and he was like a wonder 374 00:18:57,680 --> 00:19:00,680 Speaker 5: kid preacher, you know, and I was like, I'm gonna 375 00:19:00,680 --> 00:19:02,800 Speaker 5: be a pastad's wife, you know what I'm saying. So 376 00:19:02,880 --> 00:19:06,560 Speaker 5: I'm like wearing the hash you know, accompanying him on 377 00:19:06,640 --> 00:19:09,399 Speaker 5: his preaching engagements and stuff like that. Like that's the 378 00:19:09,520 --> 00:19:12,760 Speaker 5: life I thought I was preparing myself for. And so 379 00:19:12,840 --> 00:19:15,760 Speaker 5: when he started becoming an activist and he started becoming 380 00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:18,920 Speaker 5: well known, I mean you all probably know you didn't 381 00:19:18,920 --> 00:19:22,280 Speaker 5: see me for years, Like I just now opened a 382 00:19:22,280 --> 00:19:24,840 Speaker 5: public social media account like a month ago, and that 383 00:19:24,960 --> 00:19:27,320 Speaker 5: was just because my teenagers were just like, Mom, we 384 00:19:27,440 --> 00:19:29,960 Speaker 5: need you to be They called hashtag sponsor like that 385 00:19:30,119 --> 00:19:34,320 Speaker 5: was I'm not hashtag sponsored by anybody, but that's what 386 00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:36,760 Speaker 5: they were, you know, And I was like, okay, But 387 00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:39,040 Speaker 5: really it got to the point where I felt like 388 00:19:39,119 --> 00:19:44,560 Speaker 5: my silence kind of in a way contributed to people's 389 00:19:44,640 --> 00:19:47,760 Speaker 5: ability to be able to say these things without a 390 00:19:47,880 --> 00:19:50,720 Speaker 5: counter narrative. And I felt like I wanted to be 391 00:19:50,760 --> 00:19:53,159 Speaker 5: able to have a platform where if there was something 392 00:19:53,160 --> 00:19:55,359 Speaker 5: I wanted to say, something I wanted to clear up, 393 00:19:55,680 --> 00:19:57,840 Speaker 5: I could have that platform without having to take over 394 00:19:57,840 --> 00:19:58,919 Speaker 5: his Twitter account, you know. 395 00:19:58,920 --> 00:19:59,440 Speaker 2: What I'm saying. 396 00:19:59,680 --> 00:20:02,359 Speaker 5: So that's when I became public. But yeah, there have 397 00:20:02,440 --> 00:20:05,360 Speaker 5: been so many times where I was just like, can 398 00:20:05,440 --> 00:20:09,280 Speaker 5: you just like do something quiet, Like can you just 399 00:20:09,480 --> 00:20:13,360 Speaker 5: start a little country church somewhere and go back to Kentucky? 400 00:20:13,440 --> 00:20:16,560 Speaker 5: Right like, let that be our lives. I don't want this. 401 00:20:16,760 --> 00:20:19,000 Speaker 5: I don't want to be stopped on the street. I 402 00:20:19,040 --> 00:20:21,480 Speaker 5: don't want to be stopped when I'm shopping at Macy's 403 00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:23,080 Speaker 5: and I don't have no makeup on and you want 404 00:20:23,119 --> 00:20:26,280 Speaker 5: to take a picture and I'm loaded down with clothes, 405 00:20:26,320 --> 00:20:29,720 Speaker 5: you know, Like, I just want to be I don't 406 00:20:29,720 --> 00:20:31,320 Speaker 5: think of myself as famous. I don't even think of 407 00:20:31,400 --> 00:20:34,399 Speaker 5: Shawn as famous. I just I say, like well known, maybe, 408 00:20:34,440 --> 00:20:37,800 Speaker 5: but that's just people find it hard to believe. But 409 00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:41,159 Speaker 5: you can literally not desire that life. It's it's not 410 00:20:41,200 --> 00:20:43,320 Speaker 5: the life I ever want it. I don't want it now. 411 00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:45,560 Speaker 5: And so yeah, there have been times where I've just 412 00:20:45,600 --> 00:20:48,720 Speaker 5: been like, I can't do this, you know, especially when 413 00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:52,880 Speaker 5: the hate and things just escalated to a point where 414 00:20:52,920 --> 00:20:55,800 Speaker 5: I couldn't even live my private life anymore. I couldn't 415 00:20:55,840 --> 00:20:59,720 Speaker 5: have a job when this last stuff happened. I want 416 00:20:59,760 --> 00:21:03,359 Speaker 5: to say, maybe back in September when he got the 417 00:21:03,400 --> 00:21:06,439 Speaker 5: award from Rihanna and people just lost their shit over it, 418 00:21:06,600 --> 00:21:10,040 Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying. It was probably the hardest 419 00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:14,080 Speaker 5: moment that I've ever had dealing with this movement and 420 00:21:14,119 --> 00:21:16,800 Speaker 5: his you know, level of fame in it. And I 421 00:21:16,800 --> 00:21:19,159 Speaker 5: didn't go to work for three weeks. I just I 422 00:21:19,200 --> 00:21:22,919 Speaker 5: couldn't show my face in the office because people knew. 423 00:21:23,280 --> 00:21:25,879 Speaker 5: I had a woman who works with me who literally 424 00:21:25,960 --> 00:21:31,680 Speaker 5: retweeted like the thing that Deray put out. She literally 425 00:21:31,720 --> 00:21:34,120 Speaker 5: reposted it, and everybody at my job follows each other 426 00:21:34,160 --> 00:21:36,919 Speaker 5: on social media, so it was like everybody that I 427 00:21:36,960 --> 00:21:40,040 Speaker 5: work with in this office saw you say that thing, 428 00:21:40,359 --> 00:21:42,399 Speaker 5: and her thing was well it didn't have anything to 429 00:21:42,440 --> 00:21:45,000 Speaker 5: do with you. I'm like, everything to do with me, 430 00:21:45,280 --> 00:21:48,639 Speaker 5: everything to do with me, right, So like, if he 431 00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:49,920 Speaker 5: did it, I did it right. 432 00:21:50,040 --> 00:21:53,639 Speaker 4: If he's corrupt, I'm corrupt, right, I'm co signing one 433 00:21:53,720 --> 00:21:55,000 Speaker 4: hundred because I spend the money. 434 00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:57,560 Speaker 5: He don't spend it down like I spend it all. 435 00:21:57,640 --> 00:22:00,399 Speaker 5: And so, yeah, it had everything to do with me. 436 00:22:00,480 --> 00:22:03,320 Speaker 5: And I literally felt like I couldn't show my face 437 00:22:03,800 --> 00:22:06,320 Speaker 5: in the office. I was embarrassed, I was hurt. I 438 00:22:06,320 --> 00:22:08,639 Speaker 5: didn't know who was for me and who was against me, 439 00:22:08,800 --> 00:22:11,879 Speaker 5: just like crazy stuff, right, And I was just like, 440 00:22:12,119 --> 00:22:15,560 Speaker 5: there have been so many times I cannot do this anymore. 441 00:22:15,680 --> 00:22:17,840 Speaker 5: Like I need you to have an exit plan? What 442 00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:20,679 Speaker 5: is what is your exit strategy? Can you be a 443 00:22:20,680 --> 00:22:23,679 Speaker 5: professor somewhere? Can you just get a little you know? 444 00:22:24,400 --> 00:22:26,960 Speaker 5: And right, like can we do that? Can we move? 445 00:22:27,040 --> 00:22:29,119 Speaker 5: Can we not be in New York? Like I would 446 00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:32,600 Speaker 5: still do that to this day, because I mean I 447 00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:33,200 Speaker 5: don't like it. 448 00:22:33,440 --> 00:22:37,080 Speaker 6: Yeah, with your and having kids too, how because I 449 00:22:37,359 --> 00:22:40,520 Speaker 6: think about this too with with your with your children. 450 00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:41,040 Speaker 2: How do you. 451 00:22:42,960 --> 00:22:46,639 Speaker 6: Obviously educate them because they're black children about you know, 452 00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:48,679 Speaker 6: what's happening in the world. But also allow them to 453 00:22:48,680 --> 00:22:51,760 Speaker 6: be children, you know, because you want them to be 454 00:22:51,880 --> 00:22:54,399 Speaker 6: armed with the knowledge, but you also want them to 455 00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:56,240 Speaker 6: be pure and as long as. 456 00:22:56,160 --> 00:22:59,560 Speaker 5: They can and free. And how do you we have. 457 00:22:59,520 --> 00:23:01,760 Speaker 7: A lot I get that question all the time. I 458 00:23:01,760 --> 00:23:06,320 Speaker 7: think we both get it. But I mean, first, we 459 00:23:06,359 --> 00:23:09,320 Speaker 7: don't have a one size fitsole policy for our kids. 460 00:23:09,359 --> 00:23:15,000 Speaker 7: So our kids are seven, ten, thirteen, seventeen, and twenty, 461 00:23:15,520 --> 00:23:17,920 Speaker 7: and so what works for the seventeen and twenty year 462 00:23:17,920 --> 00:23:21,320 Speaker 7: old is totally different than what works for the seven 463 00:23:21,320 --> 00:23:25,159 Speaker 7: and ten year old. And so sometimes parents feel like 464 00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:28,879 Speaker 7: they're doing their kids a service by exposing them to 465 00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:31,320 Speaker 7: all the issues of the world. And we've never felt 466 00:23:31,320 --> 00:23:35,159 Speaker 7: that way. So we've our young kids. We've always tried 467 00:23:35,200 --> 00:23:40,040 Speaker 7: to shield them from actual videos of police violence or 468 00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:43,679 Speaker 7: horrible stories of white supremacy or bigotry. Like they understand 469 00:23:43,720 --> 00:23:49,040 Speaker 7: that these issues exist, but the young developing brain literally 470 00:23:49,080 --> 00:23:52,399 Speaker 7: cannot process that, Like it'll cause them to think of 471 00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:56,680 Speaker 7: themselves in certain detrimental ways. It'll cause them to even 472 00:23:56,760 --> 00:23:58,920 Speaker 7: kind of internalize it and think that they are inny 473 00:23:59,040 --> 00:24:02,920 Speaker 7: media danger. So we kind of have a sliding scale, 474 00:24:03,240 --> 00:24:05,680 Speaker 7: you know, from the twenty year old all the way 475 00:24:05,680 --> 00:24:07,320 Speaker 7: to the seven year old in terms of what we 476 00:24:07,440 --> 00:24:10,880 Speaker 7: exposed them to, like only for the very first time 477 00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:14,359 Speaker 7: a couple of weeks ago did the three younger kids. 478 00:24:14,359 --> 00:24:16,280 Speaker 7: I think that's the first time they'd ever seen me 479 00:24:16,400 --> 00:24:19,320 Speaker 7: at a rally, So they don't even they don't. We 480 00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:22,639 Speaker 7: generally I go do that stuff and the family is 481 00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:26,200 Speaker 7: at home safe and I go out. We rarely when 482 00:24:26,200 --> 00:24:30,360 Speaker 7: I do events, we're rarely even together sometimes for safety. 483 00:24:30,359 --> 00:24:33,040 Speaker 7: In some ways, we're rarely even in the same place 484 00:24:33,080 --> 00:24:35,800 Speaker 7: at the same time. And so there, I mean, lots 485 00:24:35,800 --> 00:24:38,800 Speaker 7: of things we do to protect the kids, but you know, 486 00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:43,480 Speaker 7: I think it's just important not to over expose even 487 00:24:43,520 --> 00:24:49,040 Speaker 7: as adults, Like even Ray doesn't see, like I shield 488 00:24:49,119 --> 00:24:52,040 Speaker 7: her from even a lot of the horrible things that 489 00:24:52,119 --> 00:24:54,880 Speaker 7: go on in the world. Our minds, our brains were 490 00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:58,719 Speaker 7: never meant to see some of the awful things that happening. 491 00:24:58,760 --> 00:25:00,960 Speaker 5: So, like I knew a long time ago, I could 492 00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:04,119 Speaker 5: not watch those videos. I could not. I couldn't be 493 00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:06,439 Speaker 5: so engrossed in every news story. So if you go 494 00:25:06,480 --> 00:25:09,920 Speaker 5: to my Instagram, it's mostly any other mom's Instagram. You 495 00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:12,280 Speaker 5: know what I'm saying. It's my kids, it's my day 496 00:25:12,320 --> 00:25:14,639 Speaker 5: to day it's they're messy rooms, it's whatever. And then 497 00:25:14,680 --> 00:25:17,280 Speaker 5: I post about my work because I do work that 498 00:25:17,359 --> 00:25:20,199 Speaker 5: I care about, and I talk about that sometimes. But 499 00:25:20,720 --> 00:25:24,080 Speaker 5: you know, like we have all the same trepidation that 500 00:25:24,240 --> 00:25:27,479 Speaker 5: any black parents have with the raising black kids. Like 501 00:25:27,760 --> 00:25:30,680 Speaker 5: the conversations that we have with our son, like they're heartbreaking. 502 00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:33,440 Speaker 5: I wish that because you know, we were in this 503 00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:36,800 Speaker 5: space we had some you know, magic wisdom, you know 504 00:25:37,080 --> 00:25:39,280 Speaker 5: about how to butt. 505 00:25:40,560 --> 00:25:44,040 Speaker 2: The book. Everyone knows they do. 506 00:25:44,320 --> 00:25:47,320 Speaker 5: No, we don't, like I wish we did. It is hard, 507 00:25:47,600 --> 00:25:50,880 Speaker 5: you know, like the conversations when my son he's thirteen 508 00:25:50,960 --> 00:25:55,000 Speaker 5: now in New York, kids just go all over the city, 509 00:25:55,040 --> 00:25:57,080 Speaker 5: all buy themselves from the time they're like nine or 510 00:25:57,080 --> 00:25:57,800 Speaker 5: ten years old. 511 00:25:57,840 --> 00:25:59,760 Speaker 7: I have school buses in New York, in the New 512 00:25:59,840 --> 00:26:02,520 Speaker 7: York or No, it's not tissue. 513 00:26:02,960 --> 00:26:05,439 Speaker 2: This is post for one more thing. 514 00:26:05,520 --> 00:26:07,840 Speaker 7: Okay, Okay, I'm a quarter. We can start. 515 00:26:07,840 --> 00:26:10,119 Speaker 6: However you want to start speaking of not having a 516 00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:14,280 Speaker 6: magic you know answer for that, I really because you 517 00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:19,359 Speaker 6: have a son and you know, unfortunately, you know, we 518 00:26:19,480 --> 00:26:21,639 Speaker 6: have to educate our black boys on how to deal 519 00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:24,159 Speaker 6: with what's the protocol when you get pulled. 520 00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:25,080 Speaker 2: Over by a police officer. 521 00:26:25,119 --> 00:26:25,520 Speaker 7: What is that? 522 00:26:25,640 --> 00:26:26,560 Speaker 5: What is that protocol? 523 00:26:26,960 --> 00:26:29,240 Speaker 6: How have you had I'm assuming you've had that conversation 524 00:26:29,280 --> 00:26:30,879 Speaker 6: with him? How did that conversation go? 525 00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:33,359 Speaker 7: Like? What did you what would say? You know, the 526 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:37,159 Speaker 7: one We've even had those conversations, even with our girls. 527 00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:41,280 Speaker 7: Of course, while I think the threat and the risk 528 00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:44,520 Speaker 7: may be different for for boys and girls, the threat 529 00:26:44,560 --> 00:26:48,919 Speaker 7: is still there. And you know, it was more painful 530 00:26:49,359 --> 00:26:53,400 Speaker 7: and hurtful than we anticipated, sure, because it's one thing 531 00:26:53,480 --> 00:26:56,080 Speaker 7: to read about the talk and hear about the talk, 532 00:26:56,119 --> 00:26:57,320 Speaker 7: and one is not a talk. 533 00:26:57,440 --> 00:27:04,280 Speaker 8: It's every other day basicly of you know, because in 534 00:27:04,359 --> 00:27:08,000 Speaker 8: New York kids there are school buses here and so 535 00:27:08,200 --> 00:27:11,920 Speaker 8: kids at their schools literally get subway passes, and so 536 00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:14,200 Speaker 8: kids get themselves all over the. 537 00:27:14,160 --> 00:27:17,680 Speaker 7: City and so kids are literally out and about in. 538 00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:20,040 Speaker 5: New York, and so in New York the threat is 539 00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:22,320 Speaker 5: a little different. It's not like if you ever get 540 00:27:22,320 --> 00:27:27,280 Speaker 5: pulled over, it's stopping frisk. It's don't ever go to 541 00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:32,000 Speaker 5: the subway and skip, you know through like always pay. 542 00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:34,960 Speaker 5: And so I'm obsessed with making sure that he has 543 00:27:35,080 --> 00:27:37,080 Speaker 5: a subway pass every time he leaves the house. Do 544 00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:39,640 Speaker 5: you have your subway pass? Doesn't have money on it, 545 00:27:39,800 --> 00:27:42,239 Speaker 5: because I know what can happen if you go, if 546 00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:44,640 Speaker 5: you duck under you know what I'm saying, then you're 547 00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:48,080 Speaker 5: drawing attention to yourself. So those kind of conversations And 548 00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:50,920 Speaker 5: for me, I actually wrote a blog post about this 549 00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:56,280 Speaker 5: with Mommy Nation. I talked to his friends too. He 550 00:27:56,400 --> 00:27:59,840 Speaker 5: goes to a school where it's predominantly white, and he's 551 00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:03,080 Speaker 5: hanging out with these white boys, and I know how 552 00:28:03,119 --> 00:28:05,119 Speaker 5: white boys can be, I know how kids can be, 553 00:28:05,720 --> 00:28:08,200 Speaker 5: and I had to have a conversation like I need 554 00:28:08,240 --> 00:28:10,680 Speaker 5: you to talk to your son and when he's out 555 00:28:10,720 --> 00:28:13,359 Speaker 5: with my son, I need him to understand that there's 556 00:28:13,400 --> 00:28:18,480 Speaker 5: a different level of responsibility there in terms of if 557 00:28:18,520 --> 00:28:21,240 Speaker 5: you get caught stealing and you do something crazy that 558 00:28:21,359 --> 00:28:24,840 Speaker 5: kids do, like the consequences for your son are very 559 00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:26,919 Speaker 5: different than they are for my son. And I just 560 00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:28,879 Speaker 5: want to know, like, are you having these conversations with 561 00:28:28,960 --> 00:28:33,360 Speaker 5: your child so that he knows and he's not putting 562 00:28:33,359 --> 00:28:35,760 Speaker 5: my son at risk? And ways like I dare you 563 00:28:35,840 --> 00:28:38,080 Speaker 5: to do that? Or how about we go do this? 564 00:28:38,360 --> 00:28:40,760 Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying, Like, are you talking to 565 00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:41,720 Speaker 5: your son about that? 566 00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:43,960 Speaker 2: Were those parents receptive of what you had to say 567 00:28:44,040 --> 00:28:44,440 Speaker 2: they were. 568 00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:47,320 Speaker 5: Actually they were really receptive. I mean, we live in Brooklyn, 569 00:28:47,480 --> 00:28:50,640 Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying, so super gentrified. You know, 570 00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:55,240 Speaker 5: full of white people who consider themselves woke to a degree, 571 00:28:55,360 --> 00:28:58,719 Speaker 5: but who also, to be fair, really do engage with 572 00:28:58,800 --> 00:29:01,960 Speaker 5: these topics in ways their their parents and predecessors weren't 573 00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:04,640 Speaker 5: doing so. I was lucky enough that they were open 574 00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:06,880 Speaker 5: to it. But I remember one time my son said 575 00:29:06,880 --> 00:29:10,600 Speaker 5: something to me and this broke my heart. I literally cried. 576 00:29:11,080 --> 00:29:13,600 Speaker 5: He said that he was out with his friend and 577 00:29:13,640 --> 00:29:16,360 Speaker 5: they were, you know, just horsing around having a good time. 578 00:29:16,680 --> 00:29:18,440 Speaker 5: And he said, you know, they were kind of chasing 579 00:29:18,440 --> 00:29:20,440 Speaker 5: each other. And he said, Mommy, I want you to know, 580 00:29:20,480 --> 00:29:22,520 Speaker 5: and he was so proud. This is what really broke 581 00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:24,880 Speaker 5: my heart. I want you to know that I never 582 00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:27,400 Speaker 5: ran behind him. I always made sure I was in 583 00:29:27,400 --> 00:29:29,440 Speaker 5: front of him because I didn't want anybody to think 584 00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:36,200 Speaker 5: I was chasing him. Oh right, I mean, my heart, 585 00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:39,680 Speaker 5: it just it broke into a million that. 586 00:29:39,640 --> 00:29:43,200 Speaker 7: He already knows that the rules that apply to them 587 00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:48,400 Speaker 7: proud of him, and it sucks in a painful way. 588 00:29:48,680 --> 00:29:50,920 Speaker 5: And because he was so proud, he was like, you know, 589 00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:52,520 Speaker 5: I did the thing I did the right thing. 590 00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:54,040 Speaker 4: But it's like, as a child, those are not things 591 00:29:54,080 --> 00:29:56,360 Speaker 4: that you should even have to consider. But the truth 592 00:29:56,400 --> 00:29:57,920 Speaker 4: of the matter is is that we do. 593 00:29:58,080 --> 00:30:00,760 Speaker 5: Yeah, I had an incident. He and I were on 594 00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:04,320 Speaker 5: the ferry together, and you know, he's little, like my son, 595 00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:06,880 Speaker 5: he's very tiny. He wants to be tall so bad, 596 00:30:06,960 --> 00:30:09,400 Speaker 5: but he's not. I think he's gonna take after me. 597 00:30:10,360 --> 00:30:11,960 Speaker 5: But we were on the ferry and he and I 598 00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:13,760 Speaker 5: were getting off and we just had a great time, 599 00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:16,240 Speaker 5: like you know, taking pictures on the water. So we're 600 00:30:16,280 --> 00:30:19,120 Speaker 5: walking off and there's this white lady in a corner, 601 00:30:19,280 --> 00:30:21,080 Speaker 5: like you know, looking out at the water, and I 602 00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:24,640 Speaker 5: noticed her turn around. She noticed my son, who did 603 00:30:24,640 --> 00:30:26,960 Speaker 5: have a cap and a hoodie on, and her eyes 604 00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:30,000 Speaker 5: immediately went down to look at her purse, and I 605 00:30:30,120 --> 00:30:33,160 Speaker 5: was like, it was like a split second cutter, but 606 00:30:33,280 --> 00:30:35,440 Speaker 5: I caught it, and I was like, oh my god, 607 00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:41,680 Speaker 5: my child, my baby. Right, she looked down at her 608 00:30:41,720 --> 00:30:43,680 Speaker 5: purse and then looked up at me and then you know, 609 00:30:43,760 --> 00:30:45,760 Speaker 5: went on about our business. But I'm like, I saw that. 610 00:30:45,960 --> 00:30:49,040 Speaker 5: I saw that, and it hurt me, and it scared 611 00:30:49,120 --> 00:30:52,880 Speaker 5: me because I'm like, already, you know, here he is 612 00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:55,160 Speaker 5: this tiny thing. I mean, I don't even know if 613 00:30:55,160 --> 00:30:58,560 Speaker 5: easy ways one hundred pounds. He's tiny and already you 614 00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:01,520 Speaker 5: saw this little black boy his baseball cap and is 615 00:31:01,560 --> 00:31:04,320 Speaker 5: hoodie on, and your eyes immediately went down to make 616 00:31:04,360 --> 00:31:06,520 Speaker 5: sure your purse was still there, you know what I'm saying. 617 00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:12,040 Speaker 5: And so it's like how I'm just now really contending with, like, 618 00:31:12,160 --> 00:31:16,520 Speaker 5: how do I release him out into the world without 619 00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:18,000 Speaker 5: losing my mind? 620 00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:22,040 Speaker 4: I don't think you can. Yeah, I don't think you can. 621 00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:23,800 Speaker 4: Like as a mom, I don't even have a son. 622 00:31:23,880 --> 00:31:26,320 Speaker 4: My child is only four. Just as a black woman, 623 00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:30,000 Speaker 4: like I was just selling Erica, I'm like so much 624 00:31:30,200 --> 00:31:33,320 Speaker 4: like even growing up not very in a black community, 625 00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:36,560 Speaker 4: I've been so aware my parents. My middle name is Asada, 626 00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:39,680 Speaker 4: I was named after a black panther, so like it's 627 00:31:39,720 --> 00:31:42,920 Speaker 4: always been an ongoing conversation in our household. But I've 628 00:31:42,920 --> 00:31:46,320 Speaker 4: always felt super passionately about my people. To the point 629 00:31:46,320 --> 00:31:48,200 Speaker 4: like you're telling me these stories, I could cry, I'm emotional, 630 00:31:49,600 --> 00:31:53,479 Speaker 4: but I just I don't think it ever becomes easy, 631 00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:55,720 Speaker 4: like no matter what. That's why I appreciate you guys 632 00:31:55,720 --> 00:31:58,239 Speaker 4: so much for being transparent, for being honest, and just 633 00:31:58,280 --> 00:32:00,440 Speaker 4: for being you know, doing the work that you're doing, 634 00:32:00,480 --> 00:32:01,040 Speaker 4: but I don't. 635 00:32:01,160 --> 00:32:01,840 Speaker 2: No matter what. 636 00:32:01,760 --> 00:32:05,520 Speaker 4: You're doing, I don't think it becomes easy to just 637 00:32:05,640 --> 00:32:09,080 Speaker 4: explain to children that you're to other people, they may 638 00:32:09,080 --> 00:32:11,280 Speaker 4: not see you as a child, they may not see 639 00:32:11,280 --> 00:32:11,960 Speaker 4: you as human. 640 00:32:12,200 --> 00:32:14,280 Speaker 5: Yeah, you're just you're just a criminal. 641 00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:16,400 Speaker 2: Yeah, Like that shit is unreal. 642 00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:19,200 Speaker 4: And like you said, as parents, when we read these 643 00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:22,400 Speaker 4: comments or we see these hateful these hateful things, even 644 00:32:22,520 --> 00:32:25,520 Speaker 4: racist white people, I'm like, how can you be somebody's mother? 645 00:32:26,280 --> 00:32:29,560 Speaker 4: When you give birth? Everything else goes out the window. 646 00:32:29,600 --> 00:32:33,000 Speaker 5: You're like, damn, yeah, this is just an innocent child 647 00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:34,560 Speaker 5: of the heavens. 648 00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:36,800 Speaker 4: I don't know where you came from, but it's so 649 00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:40,840 Speaker 4: pure and for you to birth a child or you know, 650 00:32:40,920 --> 00:32:42,560 Speaker 4: to you know, have the baby, and then you can 651 00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:45,080 Speaker 4: look at somebody else's child as anything less than human. 652 00:32:45,200 --> 00:32:48,760 Speaker 4: I literally can't understand the disconnect. 653 00:32:48,920 --> 00:32:52,239 Speaker 5: Yeah, I can't, even in the equity work that I do. Like, 654 00:32:52,280 --> 00:32:54,600 Speaker 5: what I understand is that a lot of it is 655 00:32:54,760 --> 00:32:58,320 Speaker 5: just unconscious bias, you know, like that white woman who 656 00:32:58,400 --> 00:33:01,560 Speaker 5: knows she probably you talk about. I forget what you 657 00:33:01,680 --> 00:33:05,760 Speaker 5: call them, like internet activist or something a word that 658 00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:08,440 Speaker 5: you had. It's the activists, you know, like I know 659 00:33:08,720 --> 00:33:12,080 Speaker 5: several of those types of people. You know, some of 660 00:33:12,120 --> 00:33:15,760 Speaker 5: them that I care about deeply, but their their activism 661 00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:18,720 Speaker 5: only goes as far as their next retweet, right and 662 00:33:19,120 --> 00:33:22,000 Speaker 5: that and there it stopped. And so that woman, I 663 00:33:22,040 --> 00:33:25,120 Speaker 5: would not be surprised because she was so walk online. 664 00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:25,840 Speaker 2: Right, you know what I'm saying. 665 00:33:26,760 --> 00:33:29,400 Speaker 5: Second that second, as my son was walking in front 666 00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:32,160 Speaker 5: of me and she saw him first, she she wouldn't 667 00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:33,880 Speaker 5: walk anymore. Now, when it's the one, it's the real. 668 00:33:33,920 --> 00:33:36,360 Speaker 6: When you're confronted with it, it's a little different, right, 669 00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:37,400 Speaker 6: it's a little different. 670 00:33:37,480 --> 00:33:40,120 Speaker 2: I mean shit, I think as a black woman. 671 00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:42,520 Speaker 4: The other day, I was leaving your house and it 672 00:33:42,560 --> 00:33:44,240 Speaker 4: was late and I was putting my massage shape on 673 00:33:44,240 --> 00:33:46,680 Speaker 4: my trunk and I saw a man and she was 674 00:33:46,720 --> 00:33:48,520 Speaker 4: like on a quiet street, a black man walking down 675 00:33:48,560 --> 00:33:50,280 Speaker 4: the street. And I was my trunk was open, and 676 00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:52,280 Speaker 4: I thought he could put me in this trunk with 677 00:33:52,320 --> 00:33:52,760 Speaker 4: this table. 678 00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:53,920 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I saw it. 679 00:33:53,960 --> 00:33:57,160 Speaker 5: Like I got scared, right, because we're not exempt from dealing, 680 00:33:57,240 --> 00:33:58,520 Speaker 5: like we've also swall. 681 00:33:58,800 --> 00:33:59,640 Speaker 2: We've been programmed. 682 00:34:00,440 --> 00:34:01,440 Speaker 4: And I don't know if it was because he was 683 00:34:01,440 --> 00:34:03,040 Speaker 4: black or it was a man there's all this like 684 00:34:03,320 --> 00:34:06,760 Speaker 4: human trafficking, you know. But I caught I've caught myself 685 00:34:06,800 --> 00:34:09,359 Speaker 4: in mid thought in mid and he was he had 686 00:34:09,360 --> 00:34:11,000 Speaker 4: to share Joe's shirt on he was walking by. 687 00:34:11,040 --> 00:34:13,000 Speaker 2: He was mine business, you know. 688 00:34:13,120 --> 00:34:14,799 Speaker 5: But I didn't like he's good. 689 00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:15,120 Speaker 2: He's good. 690 00:34:15,200 --> 00:34:18,200 Speaker 4: Yeah, I love it goes, but he was I was. 691 00:34:18,520 --> 00:34:22,440 Speaker 4: I got scared and I thought, Okay, well ericonos, I'm leaving. 692 00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:24,600 Speaker 4: Someone's expecting me. I can only be missing for so long. 693 00:34:25,520 --> 00:34:28,440 Speaker 4: But I realized how, how deeply, how you know if 694 00:34:28,440 --> 00:34:32,080 Speaker 4: it's if it's somewhere like programmed in myself, I can 695 00:34:32,080 --> 00:34:34,680 Speaker 4: only imagine for people who don't even like, who feel 696 00:34:34,719 --> 00:34:40,360 Speaker 4: even more removed removed. Yeah, but my other question is, Sean, 697 00:34:40,640 --> 00:34:42,839 Speaker 4: what was the what was the defining moment for you 698 00:34:42,920 --> 00:34:44,000 Speaker 4: when you're like, this is what I. 699 00:34:43,960 --> 00:34:44,359 Speaker 2: Have to do. 700 00:34:45,560 --> 00:34:48,160 Speaker 7: Oh, I've had I've had a few defining moments. But 701 00:34:48,880 --> 00:34:52,360 Speaker 7: we were actually living in southern California. This was in 702 00:34:53,280 --> 00:34:57,000 Speaker 7: the summer of twenty fourteen, and I was working at 703 00:34:57,239 --> 00:35:00,840 Speaker 7: an environmental charity called Global Green. This was in Santa Monica, 704 00:35:01,560 --> 00:35:04,960 Speaker 7: And it was not like I was not an organizer, 705 00:35:05,040 --> 00:35:07,879 Speaker 7: not an activist. I had spoken out against police brutality 706 00:35:08,680 --> 00:35:11,799 Speaker 7: a lot during my adult life, but this was a 707 00:35:11,840 --> 00:35:15,880 Speaker 7: time where in twenty fourteen, there had never been a 708 00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:18,839 Speaker 7: viral video of police brutality, not on the internet. I mean, 709 00:35:18,840 --> 00:35:23,080 Speaker 7: there was Rodney King in the early nineties, but on 710 00:35:23,120 --> 00:35:25,040 Speaker 7: the Internet, there had never been a viral video of 711 00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:28,439 Speaker 7: somebody being killed by police. And a buddy of mine 712 00:35:28,440 --> 00:35:30,279 Speaker 7: that I went to morehouse with, who actually lived here 713 00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:34,200 Speaker 7: in New York sent me a video of Eric Garner 714 00:35:34,719 --> 00:35:36,439 Speaker 7: and at the time we didn't even know his name. 715 00:35:36,520 --> 00:35:40,000 Speaker 7: It was still on YouTube. It had not made the news. 716 00:35:39,480 --> 00:35:43,400 Speaker 7: It was it had like five thousand views on YouTube, 717 00:35:44,040 --> 00:35:46,759 Speaker 7: and it was he knew the guy Ramsey Order that 718 00:35:46,880 --> 00:35:51,799 Speaker 7: actually posted it. And I was sitting there at a 719 00:35:51,880 --> 00:35:55,719 Speaker 7: cubicle at my desk, and I waited until a lot 720 00:35:55,719 --> 00:35:59,319 Speaker 7: of my colleagues left for lunch, and I clicked on 721 00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:02,520 Speaker 7: this video watched a man who was fully alive at 722 00:36:02,560 --> 00:36:05,759 Speaker 7: the beginning of the video be fully dead by the end. 723 00:36:06,520 --> 00:36:10,359 Speaker 7: And in that moment, this is like July seventeenth of 724 00:36:10,520 --> 00:36:14,680 Speaker 7: twenty fourteen, I'm just at my cubicle thinking like, oh 725 00:36:14,719 --> 00:36:17,759 Speaker 7: my god, I just watched a man die. Now, in 726 00:36:17,800 --> 00:36:21,600 Speaker 7: those five years since, we've watched a lot of people die, 727 00:36:22,200 --> 00:36:25,520 Speaker 7: but in that moment, I was really shook up by it, 728 00:36:26,200 --> 00:36:30,640 Speaker 7: and I just asked myself a simple question, like who 729 00:36:30,800 --> 00:36:33,439 Speaker 7: do I know that might be able to help? What 730 00:36:33,520 --> 00:36:37,000 Speaker 7: can I do that might make a difference, And I 731 00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:41,640 Speaker 7: just started sharing that video on social media and trying 732 00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:43,600 Speaker 7: to break it down and explain it in a way 733 00:36:43,640 --> 00:36:46,360 Speaker 7: that I didn't see anybody else doing. It was on 734 00:36:46,400 --> 00:36:50,560 Speaker 7: the news the next day, but I saw my job 735 00:36:50,600 --> 00:36:55,800 Speaker 7: initially as just trying to tell the story of that victim, 736 00:36:55,920 --> 00:36:59,080 Speaker 7: of that family. But it was a pivotal moment for 737 00:36:59,200 --> 00:37:03,040 Speaker 7: me where I kind of see my life as existing 738 00:37:03,160 --> 00:37:06,160 Speaker 7: before I got that video and after I got that video. 739 00:37:06,960 --> 00:37:09,359 Speaker 7: And I only worked at that job for a few 740 00:37:09,400 --> 00:37:13,239 Speaker 7: more weeks until I quit and started writing and organizing 741 00:37:13,320 --> 00:37:15,799 Speaker 7: or working full time. A few weeks later, Mike Brown 742 00:37:15,880 --> 00:37:18,800 Speaker 7: was killed in Ferguson. A young brother in Los Angeles 743 00:37:18,880 --> 00:37:22,000 Speaker 7: name Eazel Forr was shot and killed by police. Guy 744 00:37:22,040 --> 00:37:24,640 Speaker 7: in Ohio named John Crawford was shot and killed. All 745 00:37:24,760 --> 00:37:28,680 Speaker 7: the span of about twenty days or so. A few 746 00:37:28,680 --> 00:37:32,080 Speaker 7: months later, almost five years ago to this day, a 747 00:37:32,120 --> 00:37:34,360 Speaker 7: twelve year old boy named Tamir Rice was killed. It 748 00:37:34,360 --> 00:37:37,480 Speaker 7: would be five years ago on Broad it's five years. 749 00:37:37,600 --> 00:37:39,480 Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't even believe it's been that long. 750 00:37:39,760 --> 00:37:41,840 Speaker 5: From Eric honestly, Yeah. 751 00:37:41,600 --> 00:37:46,680 Speaker 2: That shit shook me too. Yeah, I mean it's it's 752 00:37:47,200 --> 00:37:47,920 Speaker 2: they choked. 753 00:37:47,800 --> 00:37:50,160 Speaker 7: Me here to think about it. A man was literally 754 00:37:50,280 --> 00:37:53,680 Speaker 7: choked to death camera on Broad in broad daylight, big. 755 00:37:53,680 --> 00:37:58,759 Speaker 4: Strong man, and no one did anything, even me as 756 00:37:58,800 --> 00:38:02,640 Speaker 4: a ninety eight pound woman. I can't imagine being witnessed 757 00:38:02,640 --> 00:38:03,719 Speaker 4: to that and not being like, what. 758 00:38:03,640 --> 00:38:04,640 Speaker 2: The fuck are you doing? 759 00:38:05,480 --> 00:38:09,040 Speaker 4: I might have been arrested because my instinctual reaction would 760 00:38:09,040 --> 00:38:09,440 Speaker 4: have been like. 761 00:38:09,360 --> 00:38:10,320 Speaker 2: Are you like stop? 762 00:38:10,640 --> 00:38:13,920 Speaker 7: Well, people were yelling. It's a different when you're there 763 00:38:14,719 --> 00:38:17,600 Speaker 7: in the presence of police, and New York police know 764 00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:23,120 Speaker 7: how to be intimidated. No, just on that scene. And 765 00:38:23,160 --> 00:38:26,520 Speaker 7: I part of what I do is I sometimes have 766 00:38:26,560 --> 00:38:29,360 Speaker 7: to study these videos so I can really unpack and 767 00:38:29,400 --> 00:38:32,719 Speaker 7: explain and see clues and you know, just try to 768 00:38:32,760 --> 00:38:35,319 Speaker 7: be able to break it down to catch the details. 769 00:38:36,040 --> 00:38:39,080 Speaker 7: People on the scene were highly upset, I mean, they 770 00:38:39,080 --> 00:38:43,440 Speaker 7: were irate, but it didn't deter them in one in 771 00:38:43,560 --> 00:38:46,680 Speaker 7: one way, I mean outside of people have learned a 772 00:38:46,719 --> 00:38:49,719 Speaker 7: hard way that if you if you jump on the 773 00:38:49,760 --> 00:38:51,799 Speaker 7: police or something like that, you can get yourself shot 774 00:38:51,840 --> 00:39:00,080 Speaker 7: and kill. Yeah, so's it's a very difficult position for 775 00:39:00,200 --> 00:39:03,360 Speaker 7: people to be in. Like in that actual video, you 776 00:39:03,400 --> 00:39:06,120 Speaker 7: could tell that people wanted to go in there and intervene, 777 00:39:06,760 --> 00:39:10,560 Speaker 7: and but it causes a lot more fear than you 778 00:39:10,640 --> 00:39:11,600 Speaker 7: know until you see it. 779 00:39:11,920 --> 00:39:17,800 Speaker 4: You know, I know that recently Eric Gardner's daughter past 780 00:39:18,040 --> 00:39:19,960 Speaker 4: and I know you posted something about her having a 781 00:39:19,960 --> 00:39:22,120 Speaker 4: broken heart. 782 00:39:22,760 --> 00:39:24,440 Speaker 2: I'm a conspiracy theorist. 783 00:39:26,080 --> 00:39:30,239 Speaker 4: And living in the United States, which has always been 784 00:39:31,440 --> 00:39:37,799 Speaker 4: rather tricky, and they've always done flick shit specifically to us, 785 00:39:37,880 --> 00:39:40,680 Speaker 4: specifically to people who are aware of their rights and 786 00:39:40,760 --> 00:39:42,799 Speaker 4: aware that shit is fucked up. 787 00:39:45,600 --> 00:39:47,759 Speaker 2: I've read a lot of articles. 788 00:39:47,280 --> 00:39:51,240 Speaker 4: About I mean, we're just talking about about Gary Webb 789 00:39:51,440 --> 00:39:56,480 Speaker 4: and about Eric Gardner's daughter, and about there's been some 790 00:39:56,520 --> 00:40:01,120 Speaker 4: really active people at Ferguson who have mysteriously died. I'm 791 00:40:01,239 --> 00:40:05,600 Speaker 4: hung in trees and it was ruled a suicide and 792 00:40:05,680 --> 00:40:11,360 Speaker 4: with very little media coverage. I don't put shit past 793 00:40:11,440 --> 00:40:14,600 Speaker 4: the United States government because I know they're fucked up 794 00:40:15,360 --> 00:40:18,080 Speaker 4: and I know they don't care. But in your line 795 00:40:18,080 --> 00:40:22,040 Speaker 4: of work and seeing what you see, like you do, 796 00:40:22,080 --> 00:40:25,759 Speaker 4: you feel like the conspiracy theorist, like it's there's some 797 00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:28,080 Speaker 4: truth to it. Do you feel like our government is 798 00:40:28,080 --> 00:40:29,719 Speaker 4: that corrupt? I mean, if you don't want to speak 799 00:40:29,719 --> 00:40:30,720 Speaker 4: on a understanding. 800 00:40:30,360 --> 00:40:32,520 Speaker 7: No, no, no, I'm not. No, I'm an open book and 801 00:40:32,560 --> 00:40:35,960 Speaker 7: so I'm always so. My heart and mind is always 802 00:40:36,040 --> 00:40:41,560 Speaker 7: open to any possibility. So, yes, this government and in 803 00:40:41,680 --> 00:40:44,719 Speaker 7: this government, like we call it, it's an empire, and 804 00:40:44,800 --> 00:40:48,560 Speaker 7: it's an empire if it's Obama's empire, Trump's empire. The 805 00:40:48,640 --> 00:40:53,400 Speaker 7: government and its agencies are problematic. No matter who is 806 00:40:53,440 --> 00:40:57,080 Speaker 7: at the head of the empire, it's always problematic. But 807 00:40:57,160 --> 00:41:00,560 Speaker 7: each of those cases in Ferguson, and I knew Eric Garner, well, 808 00:41:01,120 --> 00:41:05,720 Speaker 7: each of those cases you have to look at individually. 809 00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:11,200 Speaker 7: There's sometimes I have close friends who still still live 810 00:41:11,280 --> 00:41:14,200 Speaker 7: in Ferguson and knew many of the people who died there. 811 00:41:15,320 --> 00:41:18,200 Speaker 7: Ferguson was the street that Mike Brown was killed on, 812 00:41:18,400 --> 00:41:22,200 Speaker 7: Canfield Drive that went right down the middle of this 813 00:41:22,239 --> 00:41:26,719 Speaker 7: apartment complex, and the people who came out to protest. 814 00:41:27,120 --> 00:41:32,080 Speaker 7: A lot of the protesters lived rough lives on the margins. 815 00:41:33,040 --> 00:41:36,359 Speaker 7: And if any one of those people that we now 816 00:41:36,400 --> 00:41:39,520 Speaker 7: know as Ferguson protesters, if they had died in twenty 817 00:41:39,520 --> 00:41:42,120 Speaker 7: fifteen or twenty sixteen or twenty seventeen, and there had 818 00:41:42,160 --> 00:41:45,640 Speaker 7: never been Ferguson protests, nobody would have known about it. 819 00:41:46,320 --> 00:41:50,000 Speaker 7: But there were shootings and deaths and murders happening in 820 00:41:50,040 --> 00:41:53,600 Speaker 7: and around Saint Louis and Ferguson all the time. It 821 00:41:53,800 --> 00:41:57,280 Speaker 7: just from the people that I've talked with in Ferguson, 822 00:41:58,040 --> 00:42:02,000 Speaker 7: you would struggle to find a single person in Ferguson 823 00:42:02,760 --> 00:42:07,920 Speaker 7: who thinks it's a deep conspiracy theory of the KKK 824 00:42:09,040 --> 00:42:13,880 Speaker 7: or the FBI. Most of the people that knew those individuals, 825 00:42:14,400 --> 00:42:17,440 Speaker 7: several of them have horrible health problems, several of them 826 00:42:17,560 --> 00:42:22,359 Speaker 7: had deep struggles with depression, several of them have been 827 00:42:22,360 --> 00:42:27,120 Speaker 7: involved with multiple incidents of violence before the protests. And 828 00:42:27,160 --> 00:42:31,600 Speaker 7: so I actually don't think, in the case of Ferguson 829 00:42:31,640 --> 00:42:36,520 Speaker 7: that it's a deep ugly conspiracy theory. I've been around 830 00:42:36,520 --> 00:42:40,040 Speaker 7: long enough to know it's not impossible, but I think 831 00:42:40,080 --> 00:42:43,960 Speaker 7: it makes for better conversation to call it that. I 832 00:42:43,960 --> 00:42:50,800 Speaker 7: think it's just the deep cost of poverty and life 833 00:42:50,960 --> 00:42:52,680 Speaker 7: in Black America and. 834 00:42:53,719 --> 00:42:57,040 Speaker 5: The stress of this movement. You know, I think that 835 00:42:57,160 --> 00:43:01,400 Speaker 5: had as much to do with Erica Garner's death as anything, 836 00:43:01,560 --> 00:43:04,480 Speaker 5: you know, but also you know, she was someone living 837 00:43:04,520 --> 00:43:06,480 Speaker 5: life on the margins as well, so it was like 838 00:43:06,560 --> 00:43:11,319 Speaker 5: the perfect storm of all those all those different things. 839 00:43:11,360 --> 00:43:12,320 Speaker 5: People don't understand. 840 00:43:12,400 --> 00:43:12,600 Speaker 7: You know. 841 00:43:12,640 --> 00:43:15,080 Speaker 5: There have been times when you know, people that we 842 00:43:15,200 --> 00:43:18,880 Speaker 5: worked with have called crying, like activists whose names that 843 00:43:18,960 --> 00:43:22,280 Speaker 5: you know, have just been on the phone boohoo, crying, 844 00:43:22,440 --> 00:43:27,200 Speaker 5: breaking down because this shit is so heavy, so heavy, 845 00:43:27,239 --> 00:43:29,560 Speaker 5: and when you're getting it, like you expect it from 846 00:43:29,560 --> 00:43:33,000 Speaker 5: white supremacists, right, but to you All's point earlier, when 847 00:43:33,080 --> 00:43:35,239 Speaker 5: you see black folk and they're coming for you and 848 00:43:35,280 --> 00:43:38,360 Speaker 5: you're just kind of catching hell on all sides, like 849 00:43:38,400 --> 00:43:41,120 Speaker 5: that shit is heavy. You don't there's no such thing 850 00:43:41,160 --> 00:43:44,600 Speaker 5: as being so big, having so many followers that it 851 00:43:44,719 --> 00:43:47,360 Speaker 5: never touches you. That's not that's not a thing. 852 00:43:47,880 --> 00:43:53,120 Speaker 7: Right, Yeah, I mean it's a corrupt society. But like 853 00:43:53,920 --> 00:43:59,279 Speaker 7: even with Erica, the problem of having a family that 854 00:44:00,320 --> 00:44:04,520 Speaker 7: this is her father who was who was murdered in 855 00:44:04,600 --> 00:44:08,360 Speaker 7: a video that went viral. Erica told me and I 856 00:44:08,400 --> 00:44:13,440 Speaker 7: became friends with Erica, her sister, Emerald, Erica's mother, their grandmother, 857 00:44:14,320 --> 00:44:18,239 Speaker 7: their children. You know, the trauma that they had to 858 00:44:18,280 --> 00:44:20,920 Speaker 7: deal with and relive over and over and over where's 859 00:44:21,000 --> 00:44:24,800 Speaker 7: you down the fight for justice in this country? Where's 860 00:44:24,840 --> 00:44:29,560 Speaker 7: you down? And then you compound that with people who 861 00:44:29,719 --> 00:44:34,000 Speaker 7: already had real hard struggles, and then you put this 862 00:44:34,040 --> 00:44:38,319 Speaker 7: difficult struggle for violence, I mean struggle for justice. What 863 00:44:38,480 --> 00:44:42,560 Speaker 7: happens is you begin to neglect your personal health, your 864 00:44:42,560 --> 00:44:47,160 Speaker 7: well being, your mental health. Literally, people start stop taking 865 00:44:47,200 --> 00:44:51,400 Speaker 7: medicines they're supposed to be taken. Like Erica had been hospitalized. 866 00:44:51,520 --> 00:44:53,799 Speaker 7: Unbeknownst to a lot of people, she had been hospitalized 867 00:44:53,800 --> 00:44:57,799 Speaker 7: a few times before her final hospitalization. You don't post 868 00:44:57,880 --> 00:45:02,120 Speaker 7: that on Instagram, like you don't you know, you post your. 869 00:45:02,080 --> 00:45:04,040 Speaker 5: Highlights, you don't have the whole picture. 870 00:45:04,200 --> 00:45:06,160 Speaker 7: Yeah, And so what happens is all of a sudden, 871 00:45:06,360 --> 00:45:10,239 Speaker 7: you just learn on the news that she's died, and 872 00:45:10,280 --> 00:45:12,759 Speaker 7: it's like you didn't notice she was she was struggling, 873 00:45:13,560 --> 00:45:17,600 Speaker 7: and people didn't know that. And the same is true 874 00:45:17,640 --> 00:45:21,520 Speaker 7: in Ferguson or in Chicago. There there have been several 875 00:45:21,560 --> 00:45:24,640 Speaker 7: activists around the country who committed suicide. And what happens 876 00:45:24,760 --> 00:45:27,719 Speaker 7: is people who didn't know those activists and didn't know 877 00:45:27,719 --> 00:45:33,120 Speaker 7: the communities they were in, always think is it's like 878 00:45:33,160 --> 00:45:36,600 Speaker 7: a targeted assassination. And I get it. I think that 879 00:45:36,719 --> 00:45:43,200 Speaker 7: denies the humanity of of these people who, like, there 880 00:45:43,239 --> 00:45:47,600 Speaker 7: was a judge here in New York who committed suicide 881 00:45:47,680 --> 00:45:47,960 Speaker 7: and it. 882 00:45:47,960 --> 00:45:49,120 Speaker 5: Was off the bridge. 883 00:45:49,400 --> 00:45:49,600 Speaker 4: Yeah. 884 00:45:49,719 --> 00:45:52,960 Speaker 7: She It was this older black woman who was a judge, 885 00:45:52,960 --> 00:45:56,560 Speaker 7: and she had many controversial cases. And because she had 886 00:45:56,600 --> 00:46:00,360 Speaker 7: these controversial cases and Trump had just been elected, people 887 00:46:00,440 --> 00:46:03,560 Speaker 7: swore that this woman was assassinated because she was a 888 00:46:03,600 --> 00:46:06,439 Speaker 7: black judge, or assassinated by the mob or something like that. 889 00:46:06,960 --> 00:46:09,879 Speaker 7: And it come to find out she had very very 890 00:46:10,000 --> 00:46:14,400 Speaker 7: deep mental health problems that almost nobody knew about, and 891 00:46:14,440 --> 00:46:20,480 Speaker 7: she jumped off that bridge. For months, people had deep 892 00:46:20,680 --> 00:46:23,000 Speaker 7: thoughts on who did it and why they did it. 893 00:46:23,719 --> 00:46:28,160 Speaker 7: And one of the fastest growing communities of people who 894 00:46:28,239 --> 00:46:32,160 Speaker 7: are attempting and committing suicide are young black folk, you know, 895 00:46:32,200 --> 00:46:36,839 Speaker 7: and it's like, we don't talk about some of our 896 00:46:36,920 --> 00:46:40,799 Speaker 7: issues well enough to give people space, Like, no, she 897 00:46:40,960 --> 00:46:42,040 Speaker 7: jumped off that bridge. 898 00:46:42,160 --> 00:46:44,640 Speaker 5: It's one of the reasons I really, as much as 899 00:46:44,640 --> 00:46:48,239 Speaker 5: I can try to talk about mental health and you know, 900 00:46:48,480 --> 00:46:51,680 Speaker 5: trying to do my part to help destigmatize it in 901 00:46:51,719 --> 00:46:54,160 Speaker 5: the black community. I grew up with the mom who 902 00:46:54,239 --> 00:46:56,560 Speaker 5: was just like all I need is Jesus, you know 903 00:46:56,600 --> 00:46:58,279 Speaker 5: what I'm saying, all you need is Jesus, all we 904 00:46:58,280 --> 00:47:00,360 Speaker 5: gotta do is pray about it, you know, all that 905 00:47:00,440 --> 00:47:03,759 Speaker 5: kind of stuff, and then just like actually, no, you know, 906 00:47:03,920 --> 00:47:06,880 Speaker 5: like maybe not. You know what I'm saying, It's fine 907 00:47:06,920 --> 00:47:11,239 Speaker 5: if we need to talk to somebody else and you know, 908 00:47:11,400 --> 00:47:16,160 Speaker 5: get help, and we're not beyond that as a community. 909 00:47:16,360 --> 00:47:20,680 Speaker 5: You know, Unfortunately it's not very accessible to a lot 910 00:47:20,680 --> 00:47:24,200 Speaker 5: of black and brown folks. It's expensive, insurance doesn't cover it, 911 00:47:24,560 --> 00:47:26,000 Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying, and so there are all 912 00:47:26,040 --> 00:47:30,560 Speaker 5: these other obstacles in the way. But yeah, I agree 913 00:47:30,600 --> 00:47:33,319 Speaker 5: with you. Like sometimes I'm like, he committed suicide from 914 00:47:33,320 --> 00:47:33,680 Speaker 5: a tree. 915 00:47:34,120 --> 00:47:35,040 Speaker 2: I don't think so. 916 00:47:35,440 --> 00:47:39,280 Speaker 7: Black people, it's hard to it is hard to believe, 917 00:47:39,800 --> 00:47:41,640 Speaker 7: you know, Like I think. 918 00:47:42,200 --> 00:47:43,600 Speaker 5: Just trust, That's what it is. 919 00:47:43,640 --> 00:47:46,080 Speaker 6: There's so much distrust that we don't we don't know 920 00:47:46,120 --> 00:47:47,040 Speaker 6: what to believe anymore. 921 00:47:47,200 --> 00:47:48,799 Speaker 7: I think, I think what you have to do, like 922 00:47:48,840 --> 00:47:53,080 Speaker 7: so say, in that particular case, let's pull his story 923 00:47:53,239 --> 00:47:58,520 Speaker 7: out from the rest of those stories. And I think 924 00:47:58,719 --> 00:48:02,239 Speaker 7: though the when you combine all of them that it 925 00:48:02,280 --> 00:48:06,359 Speaker 7: looks like a like a real deep, dark story that's 926 00:48:06,400 --> 00:48:10,920 Speaker 7: going on. Maybe that individual case is one, but I 927 00:48:10,920 --> 00:48:14,680 Speaker 7: mean I knew at least two of the guys who died, 928 00:48:15,520 --> 00:48:18,520 Speaker 7: and I mean they were living life on the edge, 929 00:48:19,280 --> 00:48:27,600 Speaker 7: and you know they they had they had multiple enemies, 930 00:48:27,920 --> 00:48:32,240 Speaker 7: and they were living in communities where people did crazy stuff. 931 00:48:32,560 --> 00:48:35,399 Speaker 7: And you know one of my friends who passed away, 932 00:48:35,440 --> 00:48:39,680 Speaker 7: and Ferguson, I mean, he had serious chronic health problems 933 00:48:39,680 --> 00:48:43,160 Speaker 7: and drug addictions. And I people keep throwing his name 934 00:48:43,280 --> 00:48:46,760 Speaker 7: in that group of names of Ferguson activists and it's like, listen, 935 00:48:47,560 --> 00:48:51,759 Speaker 7: guy had major health problems and drug addictions. And that 936 00:48:51,920 --> 00:48:55,840 Speaker 7: takes people out every single day. And so we just 937 00:48:55,880 --> 00:49:00,320 Speaker 7: had to give everybody the space to be to be human. 938 00:49:00,400 --> 00:49:04,239 Speaker 6: Yeah, I have one last question, or do you have 939 00:49:04,280 --> 00:49:07,600 Speaker 6: any No, Okay, I have a question because we have 940 00:49:07,640 --> 00:49:10,280 Speaker 6: a lot we do have white like white followers. Shout 941 00:49:10,280 --> 00:49:14,040 Speaker 6: out to Nellie, hey girl who ask us how they 942 00:49:14,080 --> 00:49:15,000 Speaker 6: can be allies? 943 00:49:15,440 --> 00:49:17,640 Speaker 2: You know how no word, how you worded it when 944 00:49:17,640 --> 00:49:20,480 Speaker 2: you text me. She was like, I have this question please. 945 00:49:20,840 --> 00:49:24,040 Speaker 6: I said, how can non people of color be better allies? 946 00:49:24,080 --> 00:49:26,480 Speaker 6: And how can white people use their privilege to help 947 00:49:26,480 --> 00:49:27,400 Speaker 6: the marginalized? 948 00:49:27,680 --> 00:49:28,440 Speaker 5: Yeah? 949 00:49:28,480 --> 00:49:30,200 Speaker 6: And she thought it was funny, but I'm serious. 950 00:49:30,239 --> 00:49:32,000 Speaker 2: How can my people use their privilege to help. 951 00:49:32,280 --> 00:49:35,120 Speaker 6: Yeah, because let's be real, they got the privilege and 952 00:49:35,280 --> 00:49:38,520 Speaker 6: they have the space to do that more so than us. 953 00:49:38,719 --> 00:49:41,040 Speaker 5: Right. What I always say, because this comes up a 954 00:49:41,080 --> 00:49:43,720 Speaker 5: lot because when you do diversity work, you're mostly talking 955 00:49:43,719 --> 00:49:45,799 Speaker 5: to white people, you know what I'm saying. And so 956 00:49:46,160 --> 00:49:48,839 Speaker 5: even when you all said white women and I said problematic, 957 00:49:49,160 --> 00:49:51,480 Speaker 5: I was just like, you know, maybe not. One of 958 00:49:51,480 --> 00:49:53,600 Speaker 5: my best friends is white. So I don't mean to 959 00:49:53,680 --> 00:49:58,799 Speaker 5: like say all white women are problematic, but I think 960 00:49:59,000 --> 00:50:04,040 Speaker 5: enough of them are, and particularly the liberal ones who 961 00:50:04,040 --> 00:50:07,120 Speaker 5: think they've all they've arrived, they've done the work. They're 962 00:50:07,120 --> 00:50:11,080 Speaker 5: so woke, like they can't be this or that. And 963 00:50:11,160 --> 00:50:13,759 Speaker 5: so that's why that's probably why problematic came to mind, 964 00:50:13,760 --> 00:50:16,759 Speaker 5: because I work with a lot of those types. But 965 00:50:17,040 --> 00:50:19,040 Speaker 5: I think the best thing that white women can do 966 00:50:19,160 --> 00:50:23,320 Speaker 5: is talk to white people, like go get your friends. 967 00:50:23,200 --> 00:50:24,600 Speaker 7: You know, like. 968 00:50:28,960 --> 00:50:33,040 Speaker 5: Seriously, when you're around the Thanksgiving dinner table or you're 969 00:50:33,120 --> 00:50:36,279 Speaker 5: you're hooking up with people for Christmas or whatever. Like 970 00:50:36,600 --> 00:50:39,960 Speaker 5: I know, some white people to get along with their families, 971 00:50:40,040 --> 00:50:43,160 Speaker 5: kind of hold their tongues and you know, don't speak 972 00:50:43,200 --> 00:50:45,719 Speaker 5: their peace and don't challenge. But that's where you're going 973 00:50:45,800 --> 00:50:49,120 Speaker 5: to be most useful as white people is to check 974 00:50:49,160 --> 00:50:49,960 Speaker 5: your own people. 975 00:50:50,040 --> 00:50:54,319 Speaker 7: In my opinion, well, yeah, yeah, I think they do 976 00:50:54,400 --> 00:51:00,240 Speaker 7: need even instructions, even on what that means instruction. 977 00:51:02,560 --> 00:51:03,000 Speaker 2: Emails. 978 00:51:03,000 --> 00:51:06,880 Speaker 6: With instructions, I'm like, yes, step one, you're going you're 979 00:51:06,920 --> 00:51:08,200 Speaker 6: going to hear my voice. 980 00:51:09,800 --> 00:51:16,200 Speaker 7: I try to make sure you talk to Yeah, yeah, 981 00:51:16,239 --> 00:51:20,239 Speaker 7: you know. Well, well, first off, I try to communicate 982 00:51:21,440 --> 00:51:24,440 Speaker 7: all of us have some level of privilege, and so 983 00:51:24,480 --> 00:51:27,759 Speaker 7: when people I try to communicate this, even when I 984 00:51:27,800 --> 00:51:30,719 Speaker 7: travel a country and speak, I often speak to white 985 00:51:30,800 --> 00:51:33,920 Speaker 7: audiences as well, and how I try to help them 986 00:51:34,000 --> 00:51:38,160 Speaker 7: understand that they have privileges that all of us, particularly 987 00:51:38,200 --> 00:51:40,680 Speaker 7: in the context of the world as as Americans, we 988 00:51:40,760 --> 00:51:44,160 Speaker 7: have privileges that and levels of privilege that people around 989 00:51:44,160 --> 00:51:47,799 Speaker 7: the world might not have. As people who can you 990 00:51:47,880 --> 00:51:50,839 Speaker 7: all traveled from Los Angeles to New York, as as 991 00:51:51,239 --> 00:51:55,240 Speaker 7: cross country travelers, we have privilege. You know, the access 992 00:51:55,239 --> 00:51:57,720 Speaker 7: to the technology we have as a privilege. All people 993 00:51:57,760 --> 00:52:00,520 Speaker 7: have levels of privilege. Instead, in this country, there are 994 00:52:00,560 --> 00:52:04,440 Speaker 7: certain people that have like a whole toolbox full of privilege, 995 00:52:04,960 --> 00:52:08,359 Speaker 7: and it's trying to help people understand, well, how can 996 00:52:08,440 --> 00:52:13,360 Speaker 7: you use those things and there are a few things 997 00:52:13,360 --> 00:52:16,719 Speaker 7: that I see and it's a complaint that I hear 998 00:52:16,800 --> 00:52:23,840 Speaker 7: often from black organizers and activists who find white people 999 00:52:23,880 --> 00:52:28,840 Speaker 7: to be flaky in their commitment to justice and because 1000 00:52:28,880 --> 00:52:32,680 Speaker 7: they have the privilege of checking in and checking out, 1001 00:52:33,200 --> 00:52:35,880 Speaker 7: because it may not the issue may not be a 1002 00:52:36,120 --> 00:52:39,160 Speaker 7: bigotry or racism or white supremacy or whatever the issue 1003 00:52:39,200 --> 00:52:42,480 Speaker 7: is police brutality. The issue may not impact them the 1004 00:52:42,520 --> 00:52:46,239 Speaker 7: way it impacts us. So whereas we don't have an 1005 00:52:46,280 --> 00:52:51,520 Speaker 7: option to check out, people often find white people's commitment 1006 00:52:51,560 --> 00:52:56,880 Speaker 7: to these causes to be some timing. And you know, 1007 00:52:56,920 --> 00:52:59,160 Speaker 7: one of the biggest pieces of advice, and I talk 1008 00:52:59,200 --> 00:53:02,600 Speaker 7: about this in my book, is to just have a 1009 00:53:02,800 --> 00:53:06,719 Speaker 7: long lasting commitment to whatever it is the cause that 1010 00:53:06,800 --> 00:53:09,839 Speaker 7: you are going to commit yourself to. If you're going 1011 00:53:09,880 --> 00:53:12,759 Speaker 7: to commit yourself to racial justice or social justice or 1012 00:53:13,360 --> 00:53:18,760 Speaker 7: ending mass incarceration, whatever that is, make a lifelong commitment, 1013 00:53:18,840 --> 00:53:20,879 Speaker 7: Make a long term commitment, and. 1014 00:53:20,880 --> 00:53:24,800 Speaker 5: A long term commitment to checking yourself, like never allow 1015 00:53:24,880 --> 00:53:27,720 Speaker 5: yourself to believe that you have arrived, that you're learning 1016 00:53:28,040 --> 00:53:30,560 Speaker 5: gets to stop and you know what you need to know, 1017 00:53:30,800 --> 00:53:32,279 Speaker 5: like commit to that as well. 1018 00:53:32,360 --> 00:53:36,480 Speaker 7: Yeah, and then also the other I get several complaints 1019 00:53:36,520 --> 00:53:41,839 Speaker 7: from well meaning black activists who are trying to make 1020 00:53:41,920 --> 00:53:45,160 Speaker 7: space for white people and they're organizing. One is that 1021 00:53:45,560 --> 00:53:49,200 Speaker 7: they're flaky and not committed. That when stuff gets weird, 1022 00:53:49,880 --> 00:53:53,440 Speaker 7: when stuff gets messy, if there's a confrontation or moment, 1023 00:53:54,000 --> 00:53:57,960 Speaker 7: at the first hint of tension or difficulty, they bail. 1024 00:53:58,560 --> 00:54:01,279 Speaker 7: So just be so admit it that you'll see your 1025 00:54:01,360 --> 00:54:06,759 Speaker 7: way through problems or fallouts or disagreements. The second thing 1026 00:54:06,760 --> 00:54:11,160 Speaker 7: that I would say is I get the complaint that 1027 00:54:12,600 --> 00:54:17,040 Speaker 7: like white folk are often overbearing in black spaces, like 1028 00:54:17,320 --> 00:54:21,680 Speaker 7: sometimes over communicative, like when you first enter these spaces, 1029 00:54:22,320 --> 00:54:26,719 Speaker 7: like talk less and listen more, like commit yourself to 1030 00:54:26,920 --> 00:54:32,600 Speaker 7: learning how these spaces really operate. And like I'm not 1031 00:54:32,640 --> 00:54:35,440 Speaker 7: saying just completely shut up. There'll be a place for 1032 00:54:35,480 --> 00:54:39,480 Speaker 7: you to talk, but like, don't come in and expect 1033 00:54:39,520 --> 00:54:44,719 Speaker 7: to be vice president of whatever the work is, Like no, 1034 00:54:44,800 --> 00:54:56,560 Speaker 7: I mean come bring refreshments there early, Like it make 1035 00:54:56,600 --> 00:54:59,400 Speaker 7: your commitments so real that you show up early and 1036 00:54:59,480 --> 00:55:02,920 Speaker 7: leave late, Like do things that are gonna build real 1037 00:55:03,080 --> 00:55:06,719 Speaker 7: credibility where people have been doing the work since long 1038 00:55:06,760 --> 00:55:11,840 Speaker 7: before you showed up. And that's not that's that's not magic. 1039 00:55:11,960 --> 00:55:16,040 Speaker 7: It's just being consistent and doing the hard work. It's 1040 00:55:16,600 --> 00:55:21,600 Speaker 7: it's chip chipping in financially. I mean, there's just lots 1041 00:55:21,600 --> 00:55:26,480 Speaker 7: of practical things that people can do. And and then 1042 00:55:26,800 --> 00:55:30,560 Speaker 7: you know, be quick to acknowledge if you've made a mistake. 1043 00:55:30,960 --> 00:55:35,719 Speaker 5: Yeah, that's so big. Like, don't shut down because you're 1044 00:55:35,800 --> 00:55:39,640 Speaker 5: afraid of saying the wrong thing or you're uncomfortable. 1045 00:55:39,800 --> 00:55:42,560 Speaker 6: Yeah, it's going to be awkward, right, Okay, Like if 1046 00:55:42,600 --> 00:55:48,400 Speaker 6: you did acknowledge it, acknowledge it. Friend, don't say the 1047 00:55:48,560 --> 00:55:51,000 Speaker 6: N word number step number one right. 1048 00:55:53,040 --> 00:55:57,480 Speaker 4: Hard, don't try to be two down relaxed, right, Yeah. 1049 00:55:57,880 --> 00:55:59,200 Speaker 4: I mean I think at the end of the day, 1050 00:55:59,680 --> 00:56:03,400 Speaker 4: we're the we are the people that it's happening to. 1051 00:56:03,680 --> 00:56:06,520 Speaker 4: So you do have to sit back and relax and listen. Yeah, 1052 00:56:06,520 --> 00:56:10,279 Speaker 4: because you can't. You can't navigate from this space no 1053 00:56:10,320 --> 00:56:11,759 Speaker 4: matter how many black friends you have. 1054 00:56:12,120 --> 00:56:14,600 Speaker 5: Oh my gosh, I had to have a conversation with 1055 00:56:14,680 --> 00:56:17,520 Speaker 5: a white woman in a space because we were talking 1056 00:56:17,520 --> 00:56:23,400 Speaker 5: about Tannahikats's new book, The Water Dancer, and you know, 1057 00:56:23,480 --> 00:56:25,440 Speaker 5: we were just you know, saying, oh, yeah, you know, 1058 00:56:25,560 --> 00:56:27,560 Speaker 5: let's do a book group where let's you know, put 1059 00:56:27,560 --> 00:56:29,200 Speaker 5: it out there and talk to people about it, and 1060 00:56:29,280 --> 00:56:32,080 Speaker 5: this white woman like super woke, you know. It was 1061 00:56:32,160 --> 00:56:35,319 Speaker 5: just like yeah, but I have a problem with him. 1062 00:56:35,600 --> 00:56:38,239 Speaker 5: And I was like, oh, really, like what and she 1063 00:56:38,400 --> 00:56:41,560 Speaker 5: was just like, you know, in his last book, he 1064 00:56:41,680 --> 00:56:44,919 Speaker 5: said some things and I was just so offended by 1065 00:56:44,960 --> 00:56:48,640 Speaker 5: the things that he said, you know, about black women. 1066 00:56:48,760 --> 00:56:53,000 Speaker 5: And I was like, you listen, you were offended like 1067 00:56:53,200 --> 00:56:56,600 Speaker 5: on behalf of black women, Like are you serious right now? 1068 00:56:56,640 --> 00:56:59,960 Speaker 5: Like here we are black women in the room having 1069 00:57:00,080 --> 00:57:03,120 Speaker 5: a conversation about this man, and listen, think whatever you 1070 00:57:03,239 --> 00:57:05,880 Speaker 5: want whatever. Like we as black women, I feel like, 1071 00:57:06,239 --> 00:57:09,359 Speaker 5: have the space to fall on different sides about that 1072 00:57:09,560 --> 00:57:12,000 Speaker 5: or what have you. But you, as the lone white 1073 00:57:12,080 --> 00:57:16,960 Speaker 5: woman in the room, shouldn't be introducing your feelings about 1074 00:57:17,200 --> 00:57:20,000 Speaker 5: this man on behalf of black women, Like it's just 1075 00:57:20,040 --> 00:57:22,160 Speaker 5: not necessary, you know, just there's. 1076 00:57:22,040 --> 00:57:23,240 Speaker 2: Enough of us to speak. 1077 00:57:23,000 --> 00:57:26,640 Speaker 5: Up, support our fight, don't start the fight. 1078 00:57:27,440 --> 00:57:30,560 Speaker 4: And don't try to compare whatever you've gone through to 1079 00:57:30,680 --> 00:57:31,160 Speaker 4: this fight. 1080 00:57:31,520 --> 00:57:33,120 Speaker 2: Yes, I don't like if I bring. 1081 00:57:33,000 --> 00:57:35,800 Speaker 4: Up something historical, that doesn't mean you have to bring 1082 00:57:35,840 --> 00:57:36,600 Speaker 4: up the Holocaust. 1083 00:57:36,920 --> 00:57:38,560 Speaker 2: That doesn't mean you have to bring up. 1084 00:57:38,520 --> 00:57:41,760 Speaker 4: You know, if there was a group that was called 1085 00:57:41,800 --> 00:57:43,880 Speaker 4: black women that I mean white women, da da da, 1086 00:57:43,880 --> 00:57:47,120 Speaker 4: everybody be offended. You don't have to be in competition 1087 00:57:47,320 --> 00:57:48,000 Speaker 4: with the fight. 1088 00:57:48,560 --> 00:57:49,840 Speaker 2: Yeah, you don't have one. 1089 00:57:49,880 --> 00:57:50,840 Speaker 5: A pression Olympics. 1090 00:57:50,920 --> 00:57:55,440 Speaker 4: Yeah, it's not a pression Olympics that irritates me. You know, 1091 00:57:55,680 --> 00:57:58,280 Speaker 4: Like sometimes like I've had conversations and it's just like, well, 1092 00:57:58,520 --> 00:58:00,840 Speaker 4: you act like this, and it's just like a very 1093 00:58:00,840 --> 00:58:03,720 Speaker 4: different it's a very different thing when we live in 1094 00:58:03,760 --> 00:58:06,320 Speaker 4: the country where the ship has taking place, where it's 1095 00:58:06,360 --> 00:58:09,120 Speaker 4: been systematic, where there's all these things in line, like 1096 00:58:09,160 --> 00:58:12,480 Speaker 4: I don't want to hear about your white delicate feelings 1097 00:58:12,560 --> 00:58:13,400 Speaker 4: in this conversation. 1098 00:58:13,600 --> 00:58:18,080 Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, that's all. 1099 00:58:19,160 --> 00:58:23,000 Speaker 2: Well it's very late, yes, and we appreciate you. Guys 1100 00:58:22,520 --> 00:58:24,360 Speaker 2: said your baby's out there. 1101 00:58:28,000 --> 00:58:30,240 Speaker 5: She's drawing something really cool. What is that? 1102 00:58:30,280 --> 00:58:31,320 Speaker 2: I was like, what's she looking at it? 1103 00:58:31,680 --> 00:58:33,080 Speaker 5: Let me find out she's also an artist. 1104 00:58:33,560 --> 00:58:35,200 Speaker 2: This is creative and after. 1105 00:58:36,800 --> 00:58:38,600 Speaker 5: Ya might be seeing her in a commercial s. 1106 00:58:40,120 --> 00:58:43,560 Speaker 2: Going to put that out there. It's happening to be famous. 1107 00:58:44,400 --> 00:58:45,920 Speaker 5: She needs an agent in l A. I got her. 1108 00:58:47,040 --> 00:58:48,480 Speaker 2: America is the agent hook up? 1109 00:58:49,040 --> 00:58:49,640 Speaker 5: Oh really? 1110 00:58:50,040 --> 00:58:53,840 Speaker 4: Okay, thank you guys, so very very very very much. 1111 00:58:53,960 --> 00:58:55,880 Speaker 2: We look forward to your book coming out in. 1112 00:58:55,880 --> 00:58:58,000 Speaker 5: March and your podcast. 1113 00:58:58,200 --> 00:58:58,800 Speaker 2: I can't wait. 1114 00:58:59,000 --> 00:59:02,040 Speaker 5: Oh, we'll see I mean, no, it's coming. No, it's 1115 00:59:02,040 --> 00:59:04,480 Speaker 5: definitely coming when we're halfway down with it already. But 1116 00:59:04,840 --> 00:59:07,360 Speaker 5: I just again going back to the thing about, you know, 1117 00:59:07,520 --> 00:59:11,400 Speaker 5: not wanting to be well known or whatever. I'm still 1118 00:59:11,440 --> 00:59:13,960 Speaker 5: like taking baby steps with this whole you know. 1119 00:59:14,120 --> 00:59:17,280 Speaker 4: Yeah, but it's important. The conversation is important. And even 1120 00:59:17,360 --> 00:59:19,720 Speaker 4: like with us, this was a mistake. We weren't supposed 1121 00:59:19,720 --> 00:59:21,280 Speaker 4: to be doing this. It just was like something that 1122 00:59:21,320 --> 00:59:25,360 Speaker 4: fell in. But it's necessary. Yeah, our black women's voices 1123 00:59:25,360 --> 00:59:27,680 Speaker 4: are necessary. What we have to say is important. And 1124 00:59:28,560 --> 00:59:30,880 Speaker 4: you know, I commend you guys for putting putting yourselves 1125 00:59:30,880 --> 00:59:31,600 Speaker 4: out there, and. 1126 00:59:31,800 --> 00:59:34,560 Speaker 5: Same to you. You all do some brave stuff all 1127 00:59:34,600 --> 00:59:38,000 Speaker 5: your social media media. Seriously, I was like scrolling through 1128 00:59:38,000 --> 00:59:40,840 Speaker 5: and I was like, wow, Like they just they went there, 1129 00:59:40,880 --> 00:59:43,000 Speaker 5: they did that, they said that. You know what I'm saying, 1130 00:59:43,000 --> 00:59:46,960 Speaker 5: and I appreciate that you all don't feel bound by 1131 00:59:47,080 --> 00:59:51,880 Speaker 5: society's expectations of us as black women and mothers and 1132 00:59:52,360 --> 00:59:55,040 Speaker 5: all that kind of stuff. So same to you, Thank you, 1133 00:59:56,360 --> 00:59:57,240 Speaker 5: thank you so much. 1134 00:59:58,160 --> 01:00:00,360 Speaker 2: Where can they find Where can the listeners find you? 1135 01:00:01,400 --> 01:00:06,840 Speaker 7: Of several places, I'm all over the internet. Don't Google me, 1136 01:00:07,680 --> 01:00:12,160 Speaker 7: and don't look at my Wikipedia page. 1137 01:00:13,320 --> 01:00:14,080 Speaker 2: I don't know what it says. 1138 01:00:14,120 --> 01:00:16,600 Speaker 7: No, no, no, you really can't. You really can't edit the 1139 01:00:16,640 --> 01:00:19,360 Speaker 7: Wikipedia page that's up. No, like you have to be 1140 01:00:19,400 --> 01:00:24,640 Speaker 7: an approved Wikipedia editor to do that. But I'm at 1141 01:00:24,680 --> 01:00:29,720 Speaker 7: Sean King on all the social media platforms. But we 1142 01:00:29,760 --> 01:00:31,840 Speaker 7: have a company that we've started, the north Star, so 1143 01:00:31,840 --> 01:00:34,960 Speaker 7: people can go to the Northstar dot com. We have 1144 01:00:35,320 --> 01:00:38,400 Speaker 7: articles and podcasts and more. We have a new website 1145 01:00:38,400 --> 01:00:40,360 Speaker 7: that will be coming out in a couple of weeks, 1146 01:00:41,040 --> 01:00:43,520 Speaker 7: and we have a podcast that's coming out. And you 1147 01:00:43,560 --> 01:00:48,400 Speaker 7: can find Ray on Instagram. What's your handle, Ray King? 1148 01:00:49,000 --> 01:00:53,160 Speaker 5: Yeah, r Ai yeah, r Ai yeah yeah. 1149 01:00:53,280 --> 01:00:55,840 Speaker 7: And so we're gonna keep doing the work. But yeah, 1150 01:00:55,880 --> 01:00:58,440 Speaker 7: we enjoy talking with you all and glad to spend 1151 01:00:58,440 --> 01:00:59,080 Speaker 7: some time with you. 1152 01:00:59,440 --> 01:01:04,640 Speaker 5: Thank you you guys. Next barbecue let us know main 1153 01:01:04,760 --> 01:01:05,400 Speaker 5: turkey burger? 1154 01:01:05,560 --> 01:01:06,040 Speaker 2: Oh really? 1155 01:01:06,160 --> 01:01:07,600 Speaker 5: Yeah? I likes to eat. 1156 01:01:10,880 --> 01:01:12,960 Speaker 6: All right, y'all, Well, you know where to find us 1157 01:01:12,960 --> 01:01:15,320 Speaker 6: at Good Mom's Underscore, Bad Choices. Make sure to join 1158 01:01:15,360 --> 01:01:19,680 Speaker 6: our newsletter at Good Moms, Bad Choices dot com. 1159 01:01:19,200 --> 01:01:21,120 Speaker 5: And we will see you guys next week. 1160 01:01:21,480 --> 01:01:34,080 Speaker 4: Bye.