Speaker 1: I'm Tamika D.
Speaker 2: Mallory and this shit boy my son in general.
Speaker 1: We are your host of TMI.
Speaker 2: Tamika and my Son's Information, Truth, motivation and inspiration.
Speaker 1: New energy. What's going on, my son, Lennon, I am.
Speaker 3: Blessed in Holly Favor. How you doing today, Tamika D.
Speaker 1: Mallory, I'm doing really good. I am feeling a little
Speaker 1: reallye I'll tell you I am.
Speaker 3: And why are you feeling relieved too?
Speaker 1: For the last few days since the rally that took
Speaker 1: place in Madison Square Garden on this past Sunday, I
Speaker 1: received a lot of messages from people, and I've also
Speaker 1: been watching some of the social media profiles or pages
Speaker 1: where they have a lot of people, not just black people,
Speaker 1: but just people in general with who have expressed their
Speaker 1: either support for Trump or just their desire to stay home.
Speaker 1: It's probably probably been more people who have expressed that
Speaker 1: they're not going to vote at all. And the last
Speaker 1: few days I really have been watching that turnaround. I
Speaker 1: received a number of text messages. By the time I
Speaker 1: woke up on Monday morning, there were at least three
Speaker 1: people that text me saying, Hey, you know this is crazy,
Speaker 1: Like I was thinking about voting for Trump. Now I'm
Speaker 1: not and or I'm definitely going to the polls. And
Speaker 1: then I saw on a few people's pages in the comments,
Speaker 1: they were like, you know, I wasn't going to vote.
Speaker 1: I'm tired of it all. You know, the same things
Speaker 1: and by the way, things we agree with, you know,
Speaker 1: things that people just feeling like this whole thing is
Speaker 1: a clown show. They just don't feel, they don't feel
Speaker 1: or see how it will impact their lives, and even
Speaker 1: though we know it will, and they weren't planning on voting,
Speaker 1: and now they're like, yeah, we can't let these people
Speaker 1: take control back of the country. And so I think
Speaker 1: I feel good about that. I had said to you
Speaker 1: from you know, months and months ago when we were
Speaker 1: it was during the Joe Biden time, I think it
Speaker 1: was Joe Biden was still the nominee, and I remember
Speaker 1: saying to you. You were like, I just don't know
Speaker 1: what's going to happen, And I said, one of the
Speaker 1: best things that could happen in this election, or that
Speaker 1: happens every time, is Trump speaking. When he talks, when
Speaker 1: he talks, when his sarrogates talk, when he has people
Speaker 1: around him talking because they talk their way out of
Speaker 1: people having any sort of you know, feeling of I
Speaker 1: don't want to say affinity, but people seeing them as
Speaker 1: anything other than what they are, which is raging racist.
Speaker 1: And so you know, I as an organizer for thirty
Speaker 1: years of my life, I am always incredibly grateful when
Speaker 1: the opponent gives me something to work with that I
Speaker 1: don't have to try to figure out on my own
Speaker 1: or try to clip everything together to show people what
Speaker 1: we're talking about. It's just all right there. The media,
Speaker 1: everybody every day has been talking about what happened at
Speaker 1: that rally.
Speaker 3: It's been it's been very interesting. You know.
Speaker 2: The Trumpers were trumping this weekend, as I say, and
Speaker 2: it was really just mind boggling, you know, it was.
Speaker 2: It was so mind boggling. First of all, I had
Speaker 2: heard about this rally, like probably the day before it
Speaker 2: was happening.
Speaker 3: They said it. I didn't even know.
Speaker 2: And then to see a lot of people down there,
Speaker 2: so and I seen it on a black guy's face.
Speaker 2: He was like bragging he was outside. So when you
Speaker 2: listen to just the rhetoric that was going on in there,
Speaker 2: just in the last couple, like the last couple rallies
Speaker 2: that he had. You've seen the doctor phil statement, the
Speaker 2: other guy's statement about Americas for America, and then they
Speaker 2: compared it to you know, the statement that was made
Speaker 2: by Hitler, you know, the Germany is for Germans, so
Speaker 2: and then it was comparing it to the actual meeting
Speaker 2: and rally that it had in the garden in.
Speaker 1: The thirties, in the thirties.
Speaker 2: So it's like it was reminiscent, and it really felt
Speaker 2: the same kind of energy. You know, I just I
Speaker 2: sat there and I said to myself, this is just
Speaker 2: really wild. Yeah, you know, it was just so wild
Speaker 2: just to hear those sentiments and just hear the even
Speaker 2: the crowd like agree with certain things. It's like, damn,
Speaker 2: how do we live in America? Excuse me? The current
Speaker 2: day of America. There are people that have this mind state,
Speaker 2: like how do you how do you still share that
Speaker 2: type of mind state as we've grown, like you you
Speaker 2: would believe that.
Speaker 3: America should have grown, right, you should.
Speaker 2: We know there are pockets, right, we know there are
Speaker 2: pockets of racism, but racism was so prevalent in that
Speaker 2: room and in that space. The energy of it was
Speaker 2: just like it's like unhinged, it's un bridged, is unhidden
Speaker 2: KKK with no robes. It was just crazy to me
Speaker 2: that a person that was running for presidency in a
Speaker 2: race that people were saying is so close, that would
Speaker 2: utilize that time for rally to cause that level of
Speaker 2: dissension and division.
Speaker 3: It just didn't make any sense to me.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I would say that one of the
Speaker 1: things that was really disturbing for me was that during
Speaker 1: these speeches where people are saying the most vile, disrespectful, racist,
Speaker 1: ignorant lies by the way stating lies, you didn't see
Speaker 1: a mass exodus of people leaving either, by the way,
Speaker 1: if you're even in the room, if you're even in
Speaker 1: the room, if you even take the time to go
Speaker 1: to the rallies understanding who Trump is. You know, that
Speaker 1: for me is problematic. But I still keep trying to
Speaker 1: give people the benefit of the doubt that perhaps they
Speaker 1: just you know, I don't know, maybe they're misinformation disinformation,
Speaker 1: Maybe they're confused, you know, maybe they just think it's funny.
Speaker 1: I still try to give people some benefit of doubt.
Speaker 1: I know I shouldn't, but nonetheless, something has to give
Speaker 1: you the ability to coexist in the society where people
Speaker 1: standing to your left and right that might be a
Speaker 1: supporter of Trump or have been to a rally, and
Speaker 1: you still got to like walk around through the world.
Speaker 1: So I try to say to myself, they just ignorant
Speaker 1: or whatever. But you didn't see a mass exodus of
Speaker 1: people walking out the building once those words were being stated,
Speaker 1: and what Well, no, but it's not them, because remember,
Speaker 1: the media is not just Fox News. Okay, it's all
Speaker 1: media in these spaces like right, If there was a
Speaker 1: mass exodus of people leaving, it would have been reported
Speaker 1: because you have every media outlet in the press pool,
Speaker 1: So it's not just a Fox News network. Now. Fox
Speaker 1: might have the best spot, they might be able to
Speaker 1: get all the interviews afterwards and all of that, but
Speaker 1: you have a lot of media outlets that are in
Speaker 1: the presspool that are able to report, and there is
Speaker 1: there was no mass exodus. There are not people online
Speaker 1: today saying we left, we left, we left, we left,
Speaker 1: or at least I haven't. I've not witnessed that, right,
Speaker 1: But this is what I want to say. I don't
Speaker 1: know how many people. I guess Madison Square Garden probably
Speaker 1: holds like thirty five thousand people or something like that.
Speaker 1: I probably all the way off on the numbers, but
Speaker 1: they hold tens of thousands of people. Then they say
Speaker 1: that there was another ten thousand people outside waiting to
Speaker 1: get in. I just want people to know. These folks
Speaker 1: are on the restaurants that cook food, They are teachers,
Speaker 1: they are doctors, They are people who you see every
Speaker 1: single day. So the folks who were at that rally,
Speaker 1: the maybe fifty thousand people that were down there at
Speaker 1: Madison Square Garden on last Sunday, those are people who
Speaker 1: provide service for you. They're bankers, they are not These
Speaker 1: are not people who live in the bottom of a
Speaker 1: barrow somewhere. These are folks who are walking around every
Speaker 1: single day with you. Again, doctors, lawyers, teachers, people educating
Speaker 1: your children, people providing you services, people cooking your food,
Speaker 1: people who absolutely hate you. And so I just, you know,
Speaker 1: just want to make sure that that's out there for folks,
Speaker 1: so that people are not confused what you're looking at.
Speaker 1: You are looking at fellow citizens who believe things about us,
Speaker 1: things about our communities, things about people of color. That
Speaker 1: it's vile and it fuels the hate that allows us
Speaker 1: to oh, oh, oh, I left out a major category.
Speaker 1: Some of them are police officers. So let's be clear
Speaker 1: that when we're saying, oh, we're being killed disproportionately, or
Speaker 1: we're being mistreated, or when we get to the hospital
Speaker 1: we can't get the type of care that we're supposed
Speaker 1: to have, that black infant mortality is an issue, that
Speaker 1: there are other health concerns that our communities are people
Speaker 1: are not being treated properly. The folks at the store
Speaker 1: treat you disrespectfully. All of that is in the hearts
Speaker 1: and mind of folks who went to that rally.
Speaker 3: So just know that, I mean, I'm very clear of that.
Speaker 2: I just don't understand why people haven't been knowing these,
Speaker 2: you know, and it's sad that it's taking this time
Speaker 2: and some people still, you know, they're gonna drink the
Speaker 2: kool aid man. I said it on my Instagram page
Speaker 2: yesterday that I really believe that this is an experiment.
Speaker 2: You know, me and me and the producer. I'm not
Speaker 2: always having this conversation. A few minutes ago that somebody said,
Speaker 2: I can prove to you that we can pick the
Speaker 2: violenst lowest vibrational individual and put them out here disrespect
Speaker 2: do everything and people still following both absolutely and because
Speaker 2: there's no there's no other common sense answer for what
Speaker 2: we're dealing with right now. There is absolutely, Like I
Speaker 2: I'm so perplexed that the things that's happened, and it's
Speaker 2: like it has to be this has to be an experiment.
Speaker 2: Somebody's gonna have to come out and say punk or something.
Speaker 1: Because it does not America.
Speaker 2: America is is no way that America is just bad
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: It's just can't it is, And to some degree it's
Speaker 1: gotten worse. And I think that President Obama's presidency was
Speaker 1: like the beginning of a all out war on people
Speaker 1: of color. That you know, we are still dealing with
Speaker 1: the backlash of President Obama being elected to office and
Speaker 1: having that black, strong black woman and those black daughters
Speaker 1: and a black mother in law in the White House.
Speaker 1: We are still dealing with the backlasher that I saw.
Speaker 1: Eric Holder was at a rally for Kamala Harris the
Speaker 1: other day, the black Attorney General who started and still
Speaker 1: to this day talks about, uh, the issues of police
Speaker 1: accountability and police violence in this country, dealing with criminal
Speaker 1: justice reform. I mean, these are these are things that
Speaker 1: they never wanted to see happen, and they were asleep
Speaker 1: at the wheel. They believed that they had unmitigated power
Speaker 1: and control, and then all of a sudden they woke up, like, oh, ship,
Speaker 1: we let this hope and this we let this hope
Speaker 1: and this energy get into our youth. This is why
Speaker 1: they're targeting. And this is not just by the way,
Speaker 1: Let's be clear, this is not just about Democrats and Republicans.
Speaker 1: This is white supremacy which exists in both parties, but
Speaker 1: one party has it upfront out and it's it's the
Speaker 1: exactly and it does not have space for any balance.
Speaker 1: It is just what it is.
Speaker 3: Started out, it started out in that form.
Speaker 2: Like people always want to talk about the history of
Speaker 2: the Republican Party, how it started out, the history, you know,
Speaker 2: the party of Abraham Lincoln that was for civil rights,
Speaker 2: and we know all of that, but people actually act
Speaker 2: like they forget when the parties flipped. They act like
Speaker 2: they forgot when they decided that we're no longer going
Speaker 2: to focus on civil rights anymore, and they started to
Speaker 2: be way more conservative and started to fight against civil
Speaker 2: rights and advancement of blacks, and therefore blacks shifted away
Speaker 2: from that party. They pretty much pushed us out of
Speaker 2: the Republican Party and we've rebuilt ourselves inside the Democratic
Speaker 2: Party on our principal started electing our own government officials.
Speaker 2: Now we have over two and three hundred elected officials
Speaker 2: inside of a party that we've put into Like a
Speaker 2: lot of us have literally been on the ground putting
Speaker 2: these people into office.
Speaker 3: We voted.
Speaker 2: We know people that's been on the front line with us,
Speaker 2: that have started out as activists, being in the same
Speaker 2: trenches with us, that fought against that we've actually been
Speaker 2: able to vote into power that we actually can go
Speaker 2: to the office say these things are going on our communities.
Speaker 3: It ain't know what's going on communities, and it's still.
Speaker 1: A lot of work to get what should be happening
Speaker 1: from those individuals to become realized. I mean, even our
Speaker 1: guest today is someone who uh you know, because of
Speaker 1: the pushback on him speaking about issues, Uh, he lost
Speaker 1: his election. Also, Corey Bush lost her re election. Bid.
Speaker 1: You have the pressure, the the the unfortunate. What's the
Speaker 1: word that I'm looking for, the the violence against threats
Speaker 1: there you go to threats against people like aoc Rashida.
Speaker 1: I mean, the list goes on and on right, and
Speaker 1: so we know that there are people. There are good
Speaker 1: people and people even before the squad, when you think
Speaker 1: about Maxine Waters, Barbara Lee, Uh, these are people, Evett Clark,
Speaker 1: these are people what's our brother's name from Indiana, good brother. Uh,
Speaker 1: Congressman Andre Carson, these are good people. And I'm sure
Speaker 1: I'm missing a bunch of folks. Jasmine Crockett, these are
Speaker 1: people who are They take fighting for black people and
Speaker 1: brown people and marginalized communities very serious, but they are
Speaker 1: often fighting against the wind because white supremacy has a
Speaker 1: hold in all of these political parties, including the Green
Speaker 1: Party right. And so as a result of you of
Speaker 1: being or having this kind of like trifecta of you know,
Speaker 1: it's not just in politics, but it's just like the society,
Speaker 1: the politics, every little area, everywhere you go, everywhere you
Speaker 1: time great, you're fighting against white supremacy, and that makes
Speaker 1: it really difficult to get things done. We have to
Speaker 1: figure out what it looks like to respond to this
Speaker 1: stuff and really fight and tear down the these walls
Speaker 1: that have been built around us that are literally choking
Speaker 1: the life out of our communities. And that brings me
Speaker 1: to my thought of the day. So, you know, over
Speaker 1: these last few days, the big takeaway up from the
Speaker 1: rally is that three individuals endorsed Kamala Harris. So it's
Speaker 1: Bad Bunny, j Loo and Ricky Martin. Now, Bad Bunny
Speaker 1: has forty five million followers, Jalo has two hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty million followers, and Ricky Martin has let's see, eighteen
Speaker 1: million follows. This is a lot of people that they
Speaker 1: have now you know, come forward to try to influence
Speaker 1: to vote for Kamala Harris. I have a serious problem
Speaker 1: with that. Well, for one, I'm trying. I get that
Speaker 1: in the last days that's when you really really win elections,
Speaker 1: like right, and that final stretch, those last two to
Speaker 1: three weeks and those last days, that's when the pressure
Speaker 1: is really on. All the ads are on TV, people
Speaker 1: are endorsing, rallies are happening, right, And that's why it's
Speaker 1: so good that this MAGA rally took place when it did,
Speaker 1: because it's the last few days and as people make
Speaker 1: those final decisions or people who were like, oh I
Speaker 1: ain't even I ain't even thinking about oh shoot, oh
Speaker 1: that's right, I gotta go vote. So it's always good.
Speaker 1: But there has been misinformation, disrespect, racism, vileness, and every
Speaker 1: hate happening for a long time, and these three individuals
Speaker 1: have now decided that they want to come forward. And
Speaker 1: my issue is that I don't like the fact that
Speaker 1: we can sit back and only make a move when
Speaker 1: something happens to our people, when we don't see the
Speaker 1: humanity in other people enough to say, well, I don't
Speaker 1: like it when they was talking about black women, so
Speaker 1: I was going, I'm gonna make an endorsement. Now, I
Speaker 1: don't like the fact that they're run around on Kamala
Speaker 1: Harris names, saying that she's a whore, that she's a count.
Speaker 1: All of this stuff was going on prior prior. Just
Speaker 1: so we're clear, this stuff was happening prior to the
Speaker 1: moment when Puerto Rico became an issue, which for me
Speaker 1: that like, it really hurt me to hear them speak
Speaker 1: about the people of Puerto Rico and the island of
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico the way that they did. That hurt me.
Speaker 1: But just like, I stand up for the Palestinian people
Speaker 1: because as we see they're being demonized, there was a
Speaker 1: target put on their back in this same rally. As
Speaker 1: we see that for us, our humanity tells us that
Speaker 1: I'm there for every single community that is being mistreated,
Speaker 1: or if people are speaking about these people in a
Speaker 1: way that puts a target on them, I feel it's
Speaker 1: an issue for me. I may not be a member
Speaker 1: of the lgbtqi A community, but guess what, I still
Speaker 1: hear and feel and understand when people are targeting them immigrants.
Speaker 1: I see that. So I'm just trying to understand what
Speaker 1: was happening for the last several months as we saw
Speaker 1: these people pick off the Haitians, was eating dogs. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's been so many things and I just feel like
Speaker 1: we need to be more responsible. Sure, I'm glad that
Speaker 1: they endorse. I'm of course i am. I'm so glad.
Speaker 1: It was so good to see. Okay, these are powerful
Speaker 1: individuals in a community that really needs the information, and
Speaker 1: I know that these are people they follow, So I'm
Speaker 1: glad that they did. That's not the point. But my
Speaker 1: thing is we got to stop waiting until our name
Speaker 1: is called specifically and not seeing the humanity of the
Speaker 1: other person sitting right next to you who's being demonized.
Speaker 1: Because the one thing that we know is that white
Speaker 1: supremacy does not have limits and bounds. It is only
Speaker 1: for white men for the most part. Right it is
Speaker 1: to uphold the power of white men. So guess what,
Speaker 1: white women who are losing their rights in terms of
Speaker 1: their physical autonomy to make just decisions about their body,
Speaker 1: guess what, Ricky Martin and bad Bunny, I need you
Speaker 1: to care about that. Now. Perhaps I didn't hear before
Speaker 1: that they had already said things for Kamala. Perhaps you
Speaker 1: know I missed it, But it seems that after the
Speaker 1: statement about the Puerto Rican people and the island of
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico, now the whole world is seeing what black
Speaker 1: women have been saying. We've been on the top of
Speaker 1: buildings going yo, yo, check them out. The racists. They're dangerous.
Speaker 1: They coming for all of us. So I just hope
Speaker 1: that we can find a way to say when I
Speaker 1: see you disrespect my sign, then I'm not gonna let
Speaker 1: you get to me. You're not even gonna get to me.
Speaker 1: And I just wanna say one thing. It's very similar
Speaker 1: to the whole thing that happened with us at American Airlines.
Speaker 1: Right then I see all these people being like, oh,
Speaker 1: American analyzes is the worst They did this to me?
Speaker 1: They did that to me. Well, guess what we told y'all,
Speaker 1: what they did to us, We told you, and you
Speaker 1: ran on over there act ignoring what we went through
Speaker 1: and just going on about your business. We told you
Speaker 1: Gucci was out here being racist with that sweater that
Speaker 1: they put out there. We done told you that Nike
Speaker 1: had they severed their relationship with Kyrie Irvin and for
Speaker 1: no reason at all, just disrespected this black man. For
Speaker 1: no reason at all, We told you these things, and
Speaker 1: guess what people be like. That's not my problem. I
Speaker 1: got nothing to do with that. And you keep on
Speaker 1: until eventually the pendulum swings in your direction.
Speaker 3: And that's that's just a reality that we deal with.
Speaker 2: You know, I was having a conversation with some I
Speaker 2: don't want to bring up the individual's name, but individual
Speaker 2: was talking about how they came forward and said that
Speaker 2: they were supporting Kamala Harris, Kamala Kamala Lah and the
Speaker 2: individual came forward until how they was taught they was
Speaker 2: going to support Kamala Harris and when they said it,
Speaker 2: they lost five to six thousand followers instantly. And the
Speaker 2: person said, they just got quiet because you know, I
Speaker 2: didn't want to deal with that, and then they was like,
Speaker 2: I commend you for being able to do that.
Speaker 3: And I've lost followers.
Speaker 2: I've lost probably about eight nine thousand followers, and that
Speaker 2: made me more.
Speaker 3: That made me.
Speaker 2: I love it because now I just I don't want
Speaker 2: you all to follow me anyway. Whoever, everybody who unfollowed
Speaker 2: me because I was I was ten toes down for
Speaker 2: a black woman. I said, this is who I stand for.
Speaker 2: Everybody who un follow me, you wasn't supposed to be
Speaker 2: it anyway, because obviously you thought I stood for something
Speaker 2: that I didn't stand for anyway, So you was actually
Speaker 2: following the wrong person. So that was perfect for me.
Speaker 2: But everybody's not willing to do that to me because
Speaker 2: you know, when we're talking about they said, Michael Jordan said,
Speaker 2: you know, when he was they was asking about things,
Speaker 2: he said, well, Republicans buy shoes too, right, So this
Speaker 2: is how people feel. And a lot of these people, look,
Speaker 2: you said, one hundred million followers, their publicists is telling them,
Speaker 2: don't get.
Speaker 1: Involved in politics, stay away from politics.
Speaker 2: And because at the end of this is a reality
Speaker 2: of situation. So what happens is it becomes when it
Speaker 2: starts to get personal. For them when they see the
Speaker 2: direct attack on them, even if they was on the
Speaker 2: edge before, they were sitting there and saying I didn't
Speaker 2: want to do it.
Speaker 3: Now they personalize it.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, that's the world we live in, you know, And
Speaker 2: and we have to I say all the time, don't
Speaker 2: wait till somebody do something to your kids to be
Speaker 2: out here protested in Marshall and say something that because
Speaker 2: you gonna want us, because there's a lot of people
Speaker 2: that say, you know, I don't do those politics, this
Speaker 2: and that. Unfortunately we talk about we're talking about young thug,
Speaker 2: Young Doug is facing the system right now, right and
Speaker 2: he's and everybody saying yo, this and that Young Doug. God,
Speaker 2: when they were saying, yo, what's going with Black Lives matter?
Speaker 2: Young thusts, I don't. I don't want to. I' gottahe
Speaker 2: to do with that, you know, So I don't. And
Speaker 2: that's how he felt. But I guarantee right now he
Speaker 2: wants black people to stand up for him and see
Speaker 2: the injustice that's did with them. And unfortunately, that's what
Speaker 2: we deal with in society. So because we've dealt with
Speaker 2: this and we know exactly what's come with it, we've
Speaker 2: made out. We made a decision, and this is the
Speaker 2: calling on our life to make sure that we send
Speaker 2: up for people. We see things through a different lens,
Speaker 2: and unfortunately everybody's not gonna see I just hope that
Speaker 2: they see it before it's too late, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying, Because it's.
Speaker 1: Gonna be too late. Yeah, And in this situation, I
Speaker 1: hope because a lot of people have voted already. So
Speaker 1: when you, as a you know, a j LO, you
Speaker 1: come out days into early voting, that's dangerous because people
Speaker 1: have already been out there casting their ballots or somebody
Speaker 1: who didn't have an opportunity to see all of the details.
Speaker 1: Like I really did think it's no way that everybody
Speaker 1: doesn't know who these people are. But I'm realizing a
Speaker 1: lot of people don't know, Like they don't see it
Speaker 1: because their algorithm. A lot of people follow stupidity, right.
Speaker 1: The algorithm picks up on the type of stuff that
Speaker 1: you stop them. So when you're scrolling, I told you
Speaker 1: I used to be scrolling all the time looking at rats,
Speaker 1: like trying to understand what's going on with the rats
Speaker 1: in New York City and other places. I was really
Speaker 1: deeply trying to figure out what do we do to
Speaker 1: conquer this issue on rats, and my algorithm started pushing
Speaker 1: the craziest videos to me. I had to change it.
Speaker 1: By as soon as I see it, I just keep going,
Speaker 1: I don't share it. I don't do any of that anymore.
Speaker 1: And now it's out of my algorithm. So if you
Speaker 1: out there following you know, Kevin Samuels, right, if that's
Speaker 1: your main type of person. And I'm not saying I
Speaker 1: am not here today to get into a debate about
Speaker 1: Kevin Samuels, but I'm just saying, if you are a
Speaker 1: person who follows somebody like Kevin Samuels, God rest his soul.
Speaker 1: And then you start, you know, getting a lot of
Speaker 1: other podcasts and whatnot where they're saying things about women,
Speaker 1: and that may not be favorable, it is coming because
Speaker 1: the algorithm has decided this is the content you want now.
Speaker 1: And now you're at the point of an election, and
Speaker 1: maybe you're not that seri into it, but you do
Speaker 1: feel like women don't ever admit when they're wrong, and
Speaker 1: some of these women think that they so fly and
Speaker 1: man nine and you might have some of those thoughts,
Speaker 1: and then you watch a little bit, a little bit.
Speaker 1: So now you up to the point where Kamala Harris
Speaker 1: isn't black. She slept her way to the time, she
Speaker 1: this and that like anything, she's stupid. Look at her,
Speaker 1: because now your algorithm has decided, it's determined that this
Speaker 1: is the type of feedback that you want. So no,
Speaker 1: it's not going to push to you that Trump said
Speaker 1: something about whoever, or that he was throwing paper towels
Speaker 1: at the Puerto Ricans. It's not going to show you that,
Speaker 1: you know. So anyway, it is what it is. It's
Speaker 1: very very very interesting out here. So let's talk about
Speaker 1: CMI today. What was too much? The rally was all
Speaker 1: the way too much, right. I didn't even want to
Speaker 1: get into comedians because somebody tried to say to me, well,
Speaker 1: you all, this is my social media. You all have
Speaker 1: black comedians that say things that hurt people, are so
Speaker 1: disrespectful whatever, whatever. They don't get to speak at the
Speaker 1: rally for Kamala Harris or any other political person, except
Speaker 1: they don't get an invitation or allowed to speak in
Speaker 1: those types of spaces. Right, this was a rally for
Speaker 1: somebody who's supposed to be running for president of everybody,
Speaker 1: not just one group. Of people. So you would not
Speaker 1: have a comedian like XYZ, black person, brown person, anybody
Speaker 1: else on the stage at Kamala Harris's rally because they're
Speaker 1: not going to allow you to either go off script
Speaker 1: or even for who you are to be associated with
Speaker 1: them and their campaign. They wouldn't have me and you
Speaker 1: up there speaking. Why because we are extremely prop pro Palestinian, right.
Speaker 1: We have challenged the Democratic Party. They know that we have.
Speaker 1: We fall out with them all the time, so they're
Speaker 1: not gonna put us up there to speak. They're gonna
Speaker 1: have certain types of people because they know that they
Speaker 1: have to contained the message exactly at their rally. So
Speaker 1: I'm not even gonna get into the comedian piece, right,
Speaker 1: but I will say that Giuliani, right, the former mayor
Speaker 1: of New York, who also has to turn over his
Speaker 1: apartment and whatever assets he has because he doesn't have
Speaker 1: enough money to pay the black women that he targeted
Speaker 1: in Georgia, the two women who were pole workers who
Speaker 1: started getting death threats because of this vile nature of
Speaker 1: how he spoke about them at rallies and in other places.
Speaker 1: They were being harassed. And it was because of Giuliani
Speaker 1: that this happened. By the way, Giuliani has done this,
Speaker 1: not just to those women, but he's done it as
Speaker 1: the mayor of New York City. We know him if
Speaker 1: it were not for the fact that nine to eleven
Speaker 1: happened while he was mayor, right, that is what basically
Speaker 1: saved him, because while he was mayor and nine to
Speaker 1: eleven took place, he had no choice, just like Andrew
Speaker 1: Cuomo when COVID happened. And everybody's sitting there watching TV
Speaker 1: to all, we love Andrew Cromo. He's amazing. No, no,
Speaker 1: you don't know his politics prior to this natural disaster,
Speaker 1: which has required him to have to step up and
Speaker 1: do what he needs to do on behalf of all
Speaker 1: New Yorkers. But prior to that, Andrew Cromo was playing
Speaker 1: a game with black and brown people, causing division amongst
Speaker 1: us in our community. And let's not talk about what
Speaker 1: these women are saying took place in the office space, right.
Speaker 1: So same thing with Giuliani. He was a race a
Speaker 1: raging racist as mayor of New York City. I remember
Speaker 1: my parents were out there fighting against Giuliani. So now
Speaker 1: you know too much, too much. He could have went
Speaker 1: out there and said a whole bunch of racist things.
Speaker 1: What would make you especially this is so crazy to me.
Speaker 1: This is so crazy to me. You want your candidate
Speaker 1: to win, and y'all clearly have worked up a scheme
Speaker 1: to get Arab people, some folks in the Arab community
Speaker 1: to stand with your guy. Just a couple of days ago,
Speaker 1: there were Arab people standing with him. Why would you
Speaker 1: come out on stage and say that two year old
Speaker 1: Palestinian children are taught to kill Americans And it might
Speaker 1: be a few of them, but I'm not taking any
Speaker 1: chances they they basically are taught to kill us, and
Speaker 1: they're evil. What would make like this?
Speaker 3: This?
Speaker 1: This was so dumb.
Speaker 2: It's not even just dumb, it's it's who you are.
Speaker 2: You can't you can't hide who you are at the base,
Speaker 2: at the core of who you are. You can do
Speaker 2: you know, you can hide it for a little while,
Speaker 2: you could try to be quiet, but at the base
Speaker 2: in the court, especially when you're in a room and
Speaker 2: you feel comfortable, right, that's what happens when you feel
Speaker 2: comfortable in the space and you see the energy and
Speaker 2: energy is this is what the people feel. When he
Speaker 2: said that, you see how the peoples like, yeah, they
Speaker 2: cheer because that's how they feel. This is how they feel.
Speaker 2: This is a room full of people that feel that
Speaker 2: that is the sentiment that they have. And they said,
Speaker 2: this is what Trump feels, and that's why they follow
Speaker 2: Trump because they know that's what Trump feels. So the
Speaker 2: reality is God was just doing God's work. He was
Speaker 2: exposing the person before you so you can see. Don't listen.
Speaker 2: A snake has a split tongue. So when you listen
Speaker 2: to the split tongue snake, they might they might woo
Speaker 2: you with a little bit. They gonna show you exactly
Speaker 2: who they are. And that's what that was. Julianni was
Speaker 2: being exactly who he was, exactly who he's always been.
Speaker 2: And I hope that everybody's seen it. But you know,
Speaker 2: we got the you know, the kool aid sippers that's
Speaker 2: still gonna say, no, he don't, he ain't Trump, That
Speaker 2: ain't what Trump think. Yeah, the whole the whole audience
Speaker 2: when he said this is what Trump think. He said,
Speaker 2: this is how Trump feels.
Speaker 1: And everybody screaming, I wasn't even paying yea.
Speaker 3: He said that, he said Trump, this is how Trump feels.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you know, like the reason why I'm giving
Speaker 1: them TMI for today is because as a political strategist,
Speaker 1: as a movement.
Speaker 3: Strategy, it was just it was just inso much.
Speaker 1: But as a political strategist, as a movement strategist, you're
Speaker 1: supposed to know. You're supposed to know. We got days left,
Speaker 1: no reason to go upset it. Kamala Harris is already
Speaker 1: dealing with her own support for Israel and the fact
Speaker 1: that you know her, the administration that she's a part
Speaker 1: of is continuing to drop bombs on the people of
Speaker 1: Palestine now, the people of Lebanon, Like she's already up
Speaker 1: dealing with that. She already damn ned didn't get our
Speaker 1: support because of it, right, so they didn't need to
Speaker 1: do any work. So that was just too much, Like
Speaker 1: it was TMI too much for Juliani to set which which,
Speaker 1: by the way, it must be stated that what he
Speaker 1: said is a damn lie. We know Palestinians. We have
Speaker 1: been working with Palestinian woman Linda Sarsour, who has an
Speaker 1: incredible family of Palestinians. We've been to family occasions, we've
Speaker 1: been to Palestine. Ain't no two year old child learning
Speaker 1: to kill Americans. That is a bold face lie. So
Speaker 1: that's that. That's why it's t m I first of all.
Speaker 1: But beyond that, you should have tucked your racism because
Speaker 1: you only have a few more days that you would
Speaker 1: have been able to maybe keep some people around that issue.
Speaker 2: You help yourself. Man, Racism gonna is gonna bust out
Speaker 2: at the scene. White supremacy isn't the is the It
Speaker 2: is the ideology that you are so superior to everybody
Speaker 2: that you don't have to value them right so that
Speaker 2: you can actually say what you want.
Speaker 3: That's why it shows up.
Speaker 2: You can't really hide weiser from because they made up
Speaker 2: in their mind that they can go unchecked right right there.
Speaker 3: And when you in a room with otherwise and premise
Speaker 3: it just.
Speaker 1: Like that's like, yeah, you gave them. They had so
Speaker 1: much energy in there and that happened. Yo. That is
Speaker 1: a real things. I have been at rally's before when
Speaker 1: I had talking points that I know I'm supposed to
Speaker 1: stick to, but it's still other stuff in my mind,
Speaker 1: like other stuff that I know I'm not supposed to say,
Speaker 1: and because the energy is so crazy. In fact, I
Speaker 1: talk about one incident that took place when I was
Speaker 1: working at National Action Network as a younger activist. It
Speaker 1: was during the time of Trayvon Martin. I got so excited,
Speaker 1: and you have to read it in the book to
Speaker 1: know exactly what I did. A baby. My tongue was
Speaker 1: ready to go because people were standing on their feet,
Speaker 1: screaming and yelling, and then it was just coming out
Speaker 1: because that's how I really felt. But it was inappropriate,
Speaker 1: more more than likely. I mean, I still think I
Speaker 1: should have been able to say that and more. But
Speaker 1: I do know that it was the wrong environment because
Speaker 1: it wasn't my rally right, it's not my mic. And
Speaker 1: the problem is that my boss at the time, Reverend Sharpton,
Speaker 1: had already been involved in another incident where he was
Speaker 1: charged with inciting violence, and it became a whole thing.
Speaker 1: And so when you speaking on somebody else's microsphone where
Speaker 1: they're paying the bills and they're doing you know, they're
Speaker 1: in charge, and the heat will come to them, you
Speaker 1: gotta be careful. You got to have your own mic
Speaker 1: to speak how you want. So you know, I don't
Speaker 1: think what I said was wrong, but the time and
Speaker 1: the place for where I did it, it definitely caused me.
Speaker 3: It was it was politically incorrect.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a little well, you got to read
Speaker 1: the book.
Speaker 3: What's the name of the book again, I live to
Speaker 3: tell the story.
Speaker 2: It should be out, yes, yes, So my real music Spotlight,
Speaker 2: it's based on something that you sent me, right, you know.
Speaker 2: I you know, I've always liked a lot of Little
Speaker 2: Dirk's music. I've watched him evolve as an artist, you know,
Speaker 2: I've studied him, I've watched him.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, in last week, we've seen that he just was
Speaker 2: arrested on federal indictment for actually attempting to pay somebody
Speaker 2: conspiracy mur murdifa Hi, conspiracy for murder for hind We
Speaker 2: just seen that.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: It's it's very unfortunate because I've been watching Dirk evolve.
Speaker 2: I watched him go from one of the main drill
Speaker 2: rappers who is you know, connected to all types of
Speaker 2: negativity to you know, transformed, transformed to.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: I watched him going from a drill rapper who was
Speaker 2: involved in everything, a young boy who was procerated, you know,
Speaker 2: who had a track record for a lot of things,
Speaker 2: to evolving and actually converting to Islam. You know, his
Speaker 2: father had that Big Dirk had did a bunch of
Speaker 2: times came home and you had seen him on a
Speaker 2: proper trajectory, you know, him speaking properly, say he didn't
Speaker 2: want to be associated with anything negative, and to see
Speaker 2: you know, this happened to him at this time, which
Speaker 2: it usually does, you know, karma catch up.
Speaker 3: I don't know, I can't speak what happened.
Speaker 2: I don't know specifics, but I just know it's really
Speaker 2: unfortunate just to constantly just keep watching these young boys
Speaker 2: going to jail and be a young boy. It's supposed
Speaker 2: to be in jail for guncharged, and they just had
Speaker 2: their thing, and then you know, just all this negativity
Speaker 2: around these young artists.
Speaker 3: It is just it is deflating. And I've been saying
Speaker 3: it a.
Speaker 2: Lot that you know, I hate the fact that these
Speaker 2: artists only get the spotlight or get people to pay
Speaker 2: attention to them because they're talking about beef, you know.
Speaker 3: In the drill scene. That's what it takes.
Speaker 2: You know, if you're not talking about real beef that
Speaker 2: you have, you're not describing a real shooting or killing,
Speaker 2: if you're not smoking on the ops, if you're not
Speaker 2: doing that negativity, they're not even grabbing you. That's where
Speaker 2: the buzz comes from now, And I hate that because
Speaker 2: that only ends up one way, and we see it
Speaker 2: constantly happen, you know, young Floer k Flock and all
Speaker 2: these people just constantly what you know, we talk about
Speaker 2: the six nons and we just constantly keep seeing the
Speaker 2: same train wreck happen over and over for these young boys.
Speaker 2: But you sent me a song, I guess when you
Speaker 2: heard about you and you started listening, and I had
Speaker 2: heard the song before, but it really resonated now, right,
Speaker 2: and it was Federal Nightmas. I think you should everybody
Speaker 2: should listen to it. It talks about the reality of
Speaker 2: when you in these streets and things have happened and
Speaker 2: you have a nightmares that the Feds are gonna come
Speaker 2: get you. And it's pretty much like he spoke this
Speaker 2: into existence, the reality he was talking about how his
Speaker 2: friend couldn't even look at him on his stand, has
Speaker 2: he beene told on him? And you know, and allegedly
Speaker 2: one of his close friends who he actually gave money
Speaker 2: he came home and brought them houses and did things,
Speaker 2: who was a friend for him, was being a wire
Speaker 2: for about two years, you know. And he's the person
Speaker 2: that you know, ultimately got him arrested. You know, I
Speaker 2: don't know what he did. You know, you know, at
Speaker 2: the end of the day, we have to be held
Speaker 2: accountable for our actions and those realities. But it's just
Speaker 2: so unfortunate to just constantly watch our youth, our young stars,
Speaker 2: up and coming stars. Because Dirk was a star. Like
Speaker 2: he was speaking and he was you could hear the evolution.
Speaker 2: And that's what I always talk about. They talk about
Speaker 2: these young kids, and I'm like, you have to give
Speaker 2: us an You got to give us an opportunity evolved.
Speaker 2: You know, I came into this game as mice an
Speaker 2: left the gun and the right pomp and this evolution.
Speaker 2: You know, Malcolm X was Detroit Red. Like, there's a
Speaker 2: process of evolution, and it's so unfortunate that as these
Speaker 2: kids constantly evolve, they get snatched out of their prime
Speaker 2: and they get snatched out of the world.
Speaker 3: So, you know, I'm hoping the best. You know, Dirk
Speaker 3: keeps his head up.
Speaker 2: But I need everybody listen to this Federal nightment, especially
Speaker 2: if you're a young kid in these streets involved in
Speaker 2: different things and you don't understand the ramifications and the
Speaker 2: realities of what's going on in this lifestyle. This is
Speaker 2: something I need you to listen to because it's a
Speaker 2: real thing, and it actually came to exactly how he
Speaker 2: spoke about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I heard that song as I was
Speaker 1: laying in the bed. I wanted to learn more about it.
Speaker 1: I went down a rabbit hole, and you know, I
Speaker 1: don't listen to a lot of drill music. I'm sure
Speaker 1: you know, I don't even really know what drill music is.
Speaker 1: That's different from some of the other stuff. I guess
Speaker 1: I do, but I really don't enough that I can say, oh,
Speaker 1: that's drill. But you know, I wanted to just understand
Speaker 1: what happened to this young man. That's just something we
Speaker 1: have to keep our fingers on, right, Like we're so
Speaker 1: caught up in what's going on with the politics in
Speaker 1: this nation, but a lot of the politics are local,
Speaker 1: and we need to know what's happening with our people.
Speaker 1: So I just was doing a little bit of research
Speaker 1: and I just happened to come across this song Federal Nightmas,
Speaker 1: which literally, as you said, is laying out what I
Speaker 1: learned as I read articles I was on Twitter. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm all the way down in the rabbit hole looking
Speaker 1: my hairstyl is. One of her other clients was giving
Speaker 1: me some information, so I was googling names. I didn't
Speaker 1: know who King Vaughn was, and now I see that
Speaker 1: he's at the center of a lot of this and
Speaker 1: supposedly all of this stuff is to avenge people killing him.
Speaker 1: But he killed all these people before he turned nineteen,
Speaker 1: and you know, I mean, it was so much. I'm like, dude,
Speaker 1: these people think they in a movie, Like this is
Speaker 1: not a movie. This is real life. And the sad
Speaker 1: part for me is, I don't know if King Vaughan
Speaker 1: killed people. I'm just telling you what I saw. But
Speaker 1: here we are, this young man, if you did take
Speaker 1: these lives, these are people's children, grandchildren, fathers, mothers, Like damn,
Speaker 1: like we just we don't have any sensibility around, like humanity,
Speaker 1: and you can't just be out here killing people. It
Speaker 1: doesn't work like that. And now this situation, and then
Speaker 1: I saw a little Dirk has all these children. And
Speaker 1: then I know this girl in the Royal that I've
Speaker 1: watched her. She's a real, real pretty girl. I just
Speaker 1: liked the fact that she's supernatural right her face, she
Speaker 1: just looks like she's just like a real pretty like.
Speaker 1: She looks like somebody that I grew up with, right,
Speaker 1: like somebody who lived in the community with me, the
Speaker 1: pretty girl, and I just I knew her already, but
Speaker 1: I didn't know the connection with him. So I've listened
Speaker 1: to that song and I thought it was deep. But
Speaker 1: then I went on ahead and listened to some of
Speaker 1: his other music, and I was like, Okay, I really
Speaker 1: like some of his music. And what hit me was
Speaker 1: seeing that his father was in prison for all of
Speaker 1: those years, as you said, and then came home and
Speaker 1: his son, the other son, died, and now his other son,
Speaker 1: who became a huge success, is under a federal indictment
Speaker 1: or probably not indicted yet, but certainly Okay, well now
Speaker 1: you know, been picked up by the Feds. And I
Speaker 1: was like, this, there has to be a better story
Speaker 1: for our young people. It has to be. I pray
Speaker 1: for all our kids. I pray for our actual sons
Speaker 1: that are in that age group that listen to this music.
Speaker 1: I pray for them. I pray for my friends children,
Speaker 1: I pray for family members, I pray for them. I
Speaker 1: was literally a weeping mother on Sunday morning when I
Speaker 1: read and listened to all of this because our children
Speaker 1: are if there's like a to me, it feels like
Speaker 1: there's a fishing pole that's out there just trying to
Speaker 1: catch one and hooking and then wheel them on. And
Speaker 1: the sad part about it is that when they will
Speaker 1: you in, they're not taking you to a better fishing pond.
Speaker 1: They're not taking you to a beautiful fishing bowl where
Speaker 1: you're gonna be fed. They're taking you to slice you up,
Speaker 1: cut you open, and fry you up so somebody else
Speaker 1: can eat you. And I just I just burst into
Speaker 1: tears that you know, I don't know what he did.
Speaker 1: So then I saw that another rapper that this is
Speaker 1: all supposed to be. I think the hit was supposed
Speaker 1: to be on him. Kwondo Rondo. You know, he came
Speaker 1: out with a statement saying, I like, I forgive everybody.
Speaker 1: I don't even want no problems. I don't want any
Speaker 1: beef because I'm gonna tell you there's something about traveling
Speaker 1: the world, getting to see other experiences, being able to
Speaker 1: walk out of the bounds of the hood you grew
Speaker 1: up in and going to other places, seeing other successful
Speaker 1: black people, seeing how they're living, seeing people making investments
Speaker 1: and community development and all of that eating different foods
Speaker 1: that gets into you, right, and it starts making you,
Speaker 1: like you said, evolve and think to yourself, well, damn,
Speaker 1: there's more than what I've known for my entire life.
Speaker 1: And this young man is like, don't even worry about it,
Speaker 1: like I wish everybody's success. That's just let this stuff go.
Speaker 1: And I pray and hope that his attitude, that spirit
Speaker 1: that came into him spreads to these other young people
Speaker 1: who are out here watching this because all we're doing
Speaker 1: is dying and here we are. And then somebody wrote
Speaker 1: in the comment section, and I will let it go
Speaker 1: at this because our guest is here and we want
Speaker 1: to talk to him about this too. Somebody wrote in
Speaker 1: the comment section, it's the only news. The real enemy
Speaker 1: things right. The real enemy was at Madison Square Garden
Speaker 1: with thousands of people who want to see you day. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: they don't even have to do the killing because we're
Speaker 1: willing to do it for ourselves. So you know, our
Speaker 1: running joke around here is that our friends are doing
Speaker 1: so many powerful things that our show is full of friends.
Speaker 1: We have so many people who come by to our
Speaker 1: new digs. Now, by the way, we have new digs
Speaker 1: and you are truly our friends with somebody that we love.
Speaker 1: We reach out to you when we're angry, when we're happy. Everything.
Speaker 1: You are in that inner circle for my son and
Speaker 1: me too. Yeah, you do what we've been with you
Speaker 1: in the trenches and you with us and so we
Speaker 1: are very very excited to have back today. Uh, this
Speaker 1: is probably the third or fourth time that you've actually
Speaker 1: done our show, Congressman Jamal Bowman, JB sixteenth Congressional District
Speaker 1: in the Bronx Mount Vernon and neuro show right and
Speaker 1: Yonkers and also okay, and a former principle, which you know,
Speaker 1: I don't think enough people know that you were a principal.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Are you going to go back to
Speaker 1: being a principal.
Speaker 4: No, I don't think so. I may go back to
Speaker 4: like coaching rising not just a principal actually open school, wow,
Speaker 4: district school charge, the school district schools.
Speaker 1: Wow. Wonderful, wonderful.
Speaker 3: So I knows that. Yeah, it was in my school
Speaker 3: definitely working with the kids. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think that's what makes you so authentic
Speaker 1: is that you've been doing this work and being an
Speaker 1: activist in your own right for a long time. So
Speaker 1: first of all, start out by telling that's how are
Speaker 1: you feeling now that, uh, you know, I don't want
Speaker 1: to I'm not gonna get you in trouble today, and
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna get myself at Joe. I was getting raised,
Speaker 1: I call names of people and everything. But now that
Speaker 1: you were not re elected to Congress for the next term.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so feeling pretty liberated. That was the first feeling
Speaker 4: I had after.
Speaker 3: Light. It's over. Not because I don't want to be
Speaker 3: in Congress anymore.
Speaker 4: It's just because I can't be in a place that
Speaker 4: just originalizes it humanized. I just can't function, Like literally,
Speaker 4: I feel sick going to work in the place that
Speaker 4: value certain lives over others. So, you know, ever since
Speaker 4: October seventh, it just got to the point where everyone president,
Speaker 4: down to our local city council people, you know, only
Speaker 4: felt the need to uplift Jewish lives and rarely lives
Speaker 4: and they weren't Palestinian lives slaughtered. And so you know,
Speaker 4: I couldn't abide by that, and that's why I didn't
Speaker 4: change my position during the race. So you know, we
Speaker 4: ran a tough race, and I think we exposed to
Speaker 4: a lot of people in terms of who a pack
Speaker 4: is and what is about and how special interest can
Speaker 4: get involved in our politics and come in and just
Speaker 4: spend records amount of money to turn communities upside down.
Speaker 4: So I think we exposed that, but liberated also in
Speaker 4: a sense that now, like you know, kind of the
Speaker 4: handcuffs are off a bit and I get to god
Speaker 4: willing work in a lot of different sectors with different
Speaker 4: people of different industries and and continue to do good work.
Speaker 4: You know what I mean, The mission for liberation continues,
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying, So that is that is
Speaker 4: never going to stop. So I'm feeling feeling pretty good,
Speaker 4: pretty liberated, learning a lot, you know in terms of
Speaker 4: you know, technology and AI and opportunities there, and you know,
Speaker 4: excited for what the next chapter is going to be.
Speaker 2: People always say you need to run for office this
Speaker 2: and that, And I see you as an activist that
Speaker 2: was posing as a politician, right.
Speaker 3: Because you you have the same spirit that I have.
Speaker 2: Like we were staying on business writing for people, We're
Speaker 2: not going to we're not going to.
Speaker 3: Beat around the bush. We're not going to half step.
Speaker 2: We're going to stand firm and we're going to stand
Speaker 2: for our communities, even when it's against the powers that
Speaker 2: be and just watching you, like when you became the congressman,
Speaker 2: it gave me some hope. Okay, we got one of
Speaker 2: us in the building, you know, But then seeing how
Speaker 2: it was you fighting against a whole structure that should
Speaker 2: have been supporting you, you know, even people that I
Speaker 2: believe your own people that didn't really give you support.
Speaker 2: It just it just it demoralizes a lot of us
Speaker 2: at times, you know what I'm saying. And it's like,
Speaker 2: are people like us actually supposed to be in those positions?
Speaker 3: Because I think we should be.
Speaker 2: I think there should be people who have the same
Speaker 2: mind states and who have the same strength and the
Speaker 2: same you know, energy that we have in those positions.
Speaker 2: But I don't know if you know politics is actually
Speaker 2: ready for you know, it's very it's very far between
Speaker 2: that you see brothers like yourself, especially brothers strong men
Speaker 2: who are affirmed and strong in their conviction, who stand
Speaker 2: on what they stand for, speak for their communities unabridged,
Speaker 2: you know, unapologetically, So speak to that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think we have to be in those positions,
Speaker 4: and I think we should continue to run for office
Speaker 4: and do what we can to get into those positions.
Speaker 4: I think the context really matters. So the district in
Speaker 4: twenty twenty that I won changed dramatically by twenty twenty
Speaker 4: four when we lost. So in twenty twenty the district
Speaker 4: had two hundred thousand additional black people in the district.
Speaker 4: Then because of redistricting and fighting in the courts and
Speaker 4: the special mass exactly. Yeah, So every ten years when
Speaker 4: there's a census, the census comes out, people complete the census,
Speaker 4: and then based on population, population growth or loss, the
Speaker 4: district's changed. So in twenty twenty, we lost. The population
Speaker 4: went down because we never did an accurate count, and
Speaker 4: we lost the congressional seat. So because we lost the
Speaker 4: congressional seat, they had to redraw the lines and withdraw
Speaker 4: the district maps. And so the initial map that was
Speaker 4: drawn in twenty twenty kept the district majority black. It
Speaker 4: went through the legislature, they voted on it, Governor signed
Speaker 4: into law dund it. All of a sudden, Republicans challenged
Speaker 4: the map, said it was jerry manner, and then that
Speaker 4: challenge went to the first level of course, the second
Speaker 4: level of courts, the third level of courts. The challenge
Speaker 4: was upheld at every level, and the final court, which
Speaker 4: I believe is the Pellicourt State, sent it to a
Speaker 4: special master who didn't know nothing about New York City,
Speaker 4: didn't understand the contexts, drew some maps that took two
Speaker 4: hundred thousand black people out of for the first time ever.
Speaker 4: So now my district was no longer majority black, still
Speaker 4: majority minority, but no longer majority black, and the white
Speaker 4: population in the district was more likely to the primary.
Speaker 4: I won the first reelection because they threw out two
Speaker 4: tomato cans. And then twenty twenty four they brought in
Speaker 4: like the best candidate they could find, someone that people
Speaker 4: people like. They spent record amounts of money and we
Speaker 4: had two hundred thousand less black people, and so so
Speaker 4: we weren't able to win that reelection. But let's say
Speaker 4: you or someone like us is in a situation anywhere
Speaker 4: in the country there's a majority black district that needs
Speaker 4: proper representation.
Speaker 3: People should absolutely.
Speaker 4: Run for office in those districts if they think they
Speaker 4: because you know, in Congress is the.
Speaker 3: Most high profile I guess of government.
Speaker 4: But man, someone like you could get in the state House,
Speaker 4: someone like you could get in a county.
Speaker 3: Someone like you get.
Speaker 4: City council or or village trustee, whatever, there's a lot of.
Speaker 3: Power in those positions.
Speaker 4: And for our collective liberation, which is our mission, we
Speaker 4: need power. We need political power, we need economic power.
Speaker 4: And then the last thing I'll say on that is
Speaker 4: just going back to the special interest piece. If if
Speaker 4: we're not there, people like us are not there, then
Speaker 4: the people who are there are going to be manipulated
Speaker 4: to maintain the power structures that are influence right now, which.
Speaker 3: Are power structures rooted white supremacy HM.
Speaker 4: And so because they're not people and they're ready to fight,
Speaker 4: they don't have no, they don't have the character, they
Speaker 4: don't have they they're they're the bourgeoisie. They're just in
Speaker 4: there for the title and the position. And then the
Speaker 4: last thing I say is historically, take the Civil rights
Speaker 4: movement for example, those leaders you know, Fred Hampton, Quam Toy,
Speaker 4: Doctor King, Malcolm X.
Speaker 3: They were not elected officials.
Speaker 4: So we have a lot of power on the outside
Speaker 4: to continue to push elected officials to do.
Speaker 3: What got to be done.
Speaker 4: And I think that's our calling and that's what we need.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm in the Blackish, yes, yeah, yes, I'm absolutely
Speaker 1: apart and and I think that's the duality of some
Speaker 1: of us that I mean, I'm in organizations like the Links,
Speaker 1: like the you know a KA is like absolutely, I
Speaker 1: mean we're we're in the black.
Speaker 4: I was like black people who are like elected CEOs
Speaker 4: whatever that's just there for like the titles or whatever
Speaker 4: those to maintain that structure.
Speaker 1: I would call them. I would call them like black
Speaker 1: faces that are kind of like sellouts, right like I
Speaker 1: would say that. I mean, you didn't say that, but
Speaker 1: I would. But and I wasn't even about to say
Speaker 1: I wasn't even going to try to defend being because
Speaker 1: because there are people who are part of the black
Speaker 1: boutheuasi that are willing to stand up, they fight. I
Speaker 1: mean I think about like just this weekend coming up
Speaker 1: right now, Uh you know, I'm traveling with Links a Ka's,
Speaker 1: Deltas and others down to Philly. We are looking for
Speaker 1: the low propensity, which we believe or high opportunity areas
Speaker 1: to go into the buildings where you stepping over the
Speaker 1: stuff and you in there, like with the community, where
Speaker 1: somebody comes to the door with they joint out like hello,
Speaker 1: like what you want, Like that's what we said that's
Speaker 1: exactly where we want to go. There's some people who
Speaker 1: is a bunch of us that are going. Then there
Speaker 1: are some people who can't go for various reasons. They
Speaker 1: doing something else, they texting, their calling. But then there
Speaker 1: are other people who would never ever, ever, ever go.
Speaker 1: So there is a mixture of folks that are in
Speaker 1: all these groups. And I'm okay with whatever. I'm okay
Speaker 1: with you being. I don't care what you are. You
Speaker 1: could be a stripper, you could be in the bourgeoisie,
Speaker 1: you could be whatever you want to be. But you
Speaker 1: still have to have a social justice lens, right. You
Speaker 1: still have to have something about you that says I'm
Speaker 1: not just here to give scholarship to kids, which is good,
Speaker 1: we want that, but I'm also going to speak out
Speaker 1: about the conditions that make these children need scholarships. And
Speaker 1: that's a that's a challenge that I have in some
Speaker 1: of these places. When I be showing up in my
Speaker 1: bourgeois with my Saint John suit on, and I still
Speaker 1: want to bring these things up. They like here and
Speaker 1: she come with this, but it has to be said.
Speaker 1: And that's why we got to be in all of
Speaker 1: these spaces. But no running for running for office is
Speaker 1: not something that I'm I don't think I'll ever do it,
Speaker 1: but I'm certainly not anywhere you're ready for it, And
Speaker 1: I know that as you get older, it is probably
Speaker 1: not a good idea to go try to run for office,
Speaker 1: because one, you don't have the stamina to deal with
Speaker 1: all of this craziness, and then you kind of get
Speaker 1: set in your ways. You really need younger people who
Speaker 1: have their finger on the pulse of the youth, and
Speaker 1: also the intelligent intellect to be able to look at
Speaker 1: things from you know, various positions and compromise and all
Speaker 1: of that. I don't think fifty five, six, seven, eight
Speaker 1: nine years old starting out in politics, you don't think so.
Speaker 4: That's going to be time. I mean, I'm forty eight
Speaker 4: and i'd be tired. I had to get back in
Speaker 4: the gym to make sure I was ready for my
Speaker 4: own campaign. But you're right about the youth piece and
Speaker 4: the older piece. And again, everybody has differents I.
Speaker 1: Sent your start out. I'm not saying you should be continue.
Speaker 1: I'm saying to get started.
Speaker 4: In one hundred percent. Everyone has different lanes. But whatever
Speaker 4: your laying, you just got to be about liberation. Man,
Speaker 4: and I'm in part of my frustration also to the
Speaker 4: point that I was made earlier. There's a lot of
Speaker 4: black elected officials who are not about liberation. There's there's
Speaker 4: a lot of black caucuses who I don't feel about liberation.
Speaker 4: And so for me, we need to be unapologetic about liberation.
Speaker 4: That means our education, that means our healthcare, that means
Speaker 4: our food security, that means jobs, that means entrepreneurship, that
Speaker 4: means all of it. Like you want to call it reparations,
Speaker 4: you want to call it something else. We got to
Speaker 4: be about liberation.
Speaker 3: Whe Are our.
Speaker 4: Kids reading, who's teaching our kids, how we engage in parents,
Speaker 4: how we engage in community. The fact that certain parts
Speaker 4: of my district, usually the black and brown, usually the poverty,
Speaker 4: don't have community. Since it's crazy, like you don't have
Speaker 4: a community sent So I was very lucky, Like I
Speaker 4: lived in East River until I was about eight. My
Speaker 4: grandmother passed and I moved to like Upper east Side,
Speaker 4: right Yorkville.
Speaker 3: Two different worlds.
Speaker 4: Man like East River projects right in the project, that's it,
Speaker 4: that's all you got. You go to Yorkville ninety second
Speaker 4: and second. Now I could walk to Central park. I
Speaker 4: could walk to the museums and just be in the
Speaker 4: museum looking around like I had. There was asphalt green,
Speaker 4: there's a playstreet here, there's a little park, kid, there's
Speaker 4: a big park kids mad just space for kids to
Speaker 4: beat kids.
Speaker 3: And just how we got elected officials who are.
Speaker 5: Mayors, senators, you know what I'm saying, Like like Congress
Speaker 5: people Assembly, people in our communities that they represent don't
Speaker 5: have community centers and parks for kids.
Speaker 3: What are we talking And this ain't even a lot
Speaker 3: of money, right, it's not even mad money the community.
Speaker 1: Let me say something to you. I don't want to
Speaker 1: cut you off. But we this past weekend were in
Speaker 1: Georgia knocking on doors in South Fulton County and other
Speaker 1: places around the city of Atlanta. And we went to
Speaker 1: this one community. There was a bunch of us. It
Speaker 1: was a bunch of celebrities and others, and a lot
Speaker 1: of them, like Killer Mike and others, are people who
Speaker 1: do community work all the time. So when like we
Speaker 1: showed up, Jadakiss was with us. You know people who
Speaker 1: always you can call on them to be involved in
Speaker 1: issues and you know they really get or have a
Speaker 1: connection to the streets. So we show up there, and
Speaker 1: you know, we get out and everybody's getting ready to
Speaker 1: go into the buildings. Now we're talking about like something
Speaker 1: that's actually called a condominium. It's called condominiums, but it
Speaker 1: is it's sort of set up like the projects. Like
Speaker 1: we go inside of a building it's three levels or
Speaker 1: whatever to get in there, and they point us to
Speaker 1: team one, team two, team to hit all of these doors.
Speaker 1: And as soon as we start approaching the doors, I'm looking,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't know if we're supposed to be
Speaker 1: going in these buildings. One they look they're falling up,
Speaker 1: literally falling apart. I don't mean like falling apart, I
Speaker 1: mean falling apart. No glass in the windows, no glass
Speaker 1: in the sliding doors. But people are living there. People
Speaker 1: have sheets up to the windows, people have mattresses up
Speaker 1: to the windows. Dogs all looking out, pit bulls looking
Speaker 1: out because that's their only form of protection. One building,
Speaker 1: they told us not to go in it because the
Speaker 1: staircase is basically needs to be demolished and you have
Speaker 1: to know how to walk around certain things in order
Speaker 1: to walk up the stairs without making it tumble down.
Speaker 1: Like this is how black people and there are elected
Speaker 1: officials that are responsible for this area and people live
Speaker 1: like that, and they're saying this is condiment, and people
Speaker 1: own some of these places in this neighborhood. And eventually
Speaker 1: it's funny because when you work closely with people, you
Speaker 1: can feel them even when you're not looking. So I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to these people doors. I dare not
Speaker 1: ask you to vote for anybody. I did not. I
Speaker 1: did not, even though even though I know you need to,
Speaker 1: but I still me personally that just showed up hearing
Speaker 1: a black suv coming from New York. I dare not
Speaker 1: knock on your door and say vote.
Speaker 2: But I did get peoples, right, But.
Speaker 1: I did get people's phone numbers so that I could
Speaker 1: follow up with the mothers in the neighborhood to see
Speaker 1: what we can do and how until freedom can go
Speaker 1: back and support them. And one of the mothers was
Speaker 1: like standing out there yelling and screaming, these people need help. Right.
Speaker 1: So election time is called, and again you got it.
Speaker 1: You have to participate. But but I was gonna say
Speaker 1: about the feeling people. I turned around and I'm looking
Speaker 1: for my team because I want to say to them,
Speaker 1: I'm not knocking and I see my son Angelo and
Speaker 1: Linda kind of walking down the side. They're not not
Speaker 1: going to do us either, because we are we already
Speaker 1: know we need a different We should have been bringing.
Speaker 2: Food, yeah, and resources, and you know, the communities needed something.
Speaker 2: The guy was explaining to me how you know how
Speaker 2: it's garbage everywhere and if they've been doing the best
Speaker 2: they can and they try to provide, like he said.
Speaker 2: The lady came out and she was just talking about
Speaker 2: how this he has been abandoned and people have been arrested,
Speaker 2: the person who was running. But it was just and
Speaker 2: it felt like that we were don't.
Speaker 1: Cut that off. She said. The people running for or
Speaker 1: already in office were arrested literally for corruption in the neighborhood.
Speaker 2: They were taking the resources and things like that. So
Speaker 2: I just felt like that we were imposing upon these
Speaker 2: people and we didn't bring nothing, were asking them to do,
Speaker 2: and they needed more than that.
Speaker 4: You were the bourgeois in that context, Like you are
Speaker 4: the bourgeoisie, like you coming here asking for my vote, Like.
Speaker 3: My building is falling apart, my staircases fall about. We hungry, like.
Speaker 4: We may not have jobs, and if we do, we
Speaker 4: don't have good jobs, it's hard for me to pay
Speaker 4: my bills. Like that was the ultimate lesson for me
Speaker 4: with my race as well, because we were asking people
Speaker 4: who struggled through povardy year in and year out for years,
Speaker 4: maybe even decades, to come out and vote, like, yes,
Speaker 4: I am the kind of elected official who is going
Speaker 4: to fight for all of that. Right, I'll turn over
Speaker 4: build to fight for that. But if they don't see
Speaker 4: change in their community after an election, they're not gonna
Speaker 4: come out the next election. And that's what I'm saying, Like,
Speaker 4: we do a lot leading up to an election, but
Speaker 4: what's gonna happen on November sixth? Right, So we got
Speaker 4: the fifth new Congress, new House, new Senate, new president
Speaker 4: right on the six These people ain't gonna hear from
Speaker 4: us again until the next election cycle.
Speaker 3: And that's the problem.
Speaker 4: And so for me, again, my big takeaway, big learning
Speaker 4: was why do we only have twenty five percent turnout?
Speaker 3: Is because we weren't.
Speaker 4: Engaging the people and literally feeding the people.
Speaker 3: For the last two years, and now we're asking them
Speaker 3: to go.
Speaker 1: And it's not we as just in you, it's not
Speaker 1: we just we, it's the system.
Speaker 4: The system is allowing one in five children to go hungry.
Speaker 4: The system is allowing wealth to be concentraint in the
Speaker 4: hands up point zero one percent of Americans. The system
Speaker 4: is allowing massive conserration, system is allowing police brutality, systems
Speaker 4: allowing food and security. The system and the people within
Speaker 4: that system are allowing us. One of the first big
Speaker 4: losses when I got to Congress is the loss where
Speaker 4: we were trying to raise the federal federal minimum wage
Speaker 4: for fifteen thousand hours. I learned during that fight is
Speaker 4: it's still seven to twenty five hour. The federal minimum
Speaker 4: wage is still seven to twenty five hour twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4: And so you know, when you see people beside themselves
Speaker 4: and frustrated and they don't care, there are reasons for that.
Speaker 3: And so my hope in my prayer is as I
Speaker 3: work on.
Speaker 4: The outside, we deal with this issue of poverty in
Speaker 4: a real direct way, and whoever the president is, we
Speaker 4: got to hold them in every other elected official accountable
Speaker 4: to deal with that issue of poverty.
Speaker 3: And it's not only the president.
Speaker 4: So all these people talking about like, oh, you know,
Speaker 4: Kama ain't gonna do this, she ain't gonna do that.
Speaker 4: It's not just her, yo these same people don't even
Speaker 4: know who they're member by Congresses. They don't they don't
Speaker 4: even know how they engage the US Senate. They don't
Speaker 4: know how to engage local like there's a lot of them.
Speaker 4: And so that education on that engagement, but also the
Speaker 4: organized and mobilizing day to day to deal with the
Speaker 4: issue of poverty, of the poverty of the pocket, of
Speaker 4: the stomach, and of the mind. That's what we got
Speaker 4: to deal with, man, And we ain't doing that. We
Speaker 4: we just we're not even serious about what we mean
Speaker 4: serious about liberation.
Speaker 3: And you're one hundred percent right.
Speaker 2: So based on that, I just want to you know,
Speaker 2: we we have conversations offline all the time and we talk.
Speaker 3: About the climate of the election. Black men in this election.
Speaker 2: You know, I've seen you very vocal, just as I
Speaker 2: am online about how we need to be moving and
Speaker 2: you know, we heard Obama talk about black men. We've
Speaker 2: hed media, you know, we've heard different you know, conversations
Speaker 2: on black men need to be doing this, and then
Speaker 2: they are a conversation that you're not going to put
Speaker 2: this on black men's back, We're not going to make
Speaker 2: them response with there so many different conversations you know.
Speaker 3: I heard you have as I did. We watched Lord.
Speaker 2: Jamal came and was, you know, called Kamala out of
Speaker 2: her name, and we responded to that, and you know
Speaker 2: he actually called you say he wants to have a
Speaker 2: debate or whatever. Just all of these things with black men, Like,
Speaker 2: what is your take on how this in general black
Speaker 2: men are dealing with this election in this whole cycle? Yeah, man,
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, I get that black man a lot,
Speaker 2: not a monolith. You know, we have different perspectives and
Speaker 2: different opinions about politics and about people.
Speaker 3: Know, I get all of that.
Speaker 4: I'm not here to force black men to do one
Speaker 4: thing or another thing, right, but there are certain elements
Speaker 4: to this election in particular that had.
Speaker 3: Me bugging out very early.
Speaker 4: On in terms of how black men were attacking you know,
Speaker 4: Kamala Harris in support of Donald Trump, Like that that dichotomy,
Speaker 4: that that that.
Speaker 3: Those that polarization there didn't make sense to me.
Speaker 4: Like I was just bugging off of that, right, Like,
Speaker 4: so we got a black woman and someone with a
Speaker 4: history rooted in white supremacy and racism.
Speaker 3: Just on that alone, what are we talking about?
Speaker 4: Like I'm voting for Kamala Harris, Right, Like, just on
Speaker 4: that alone, you dig one layer deeper. Let's look at
Speaker 4: you know her, her her history, right, you know, district attorney,
Speaker 4: attorney general, US senator, vice president, soon to be president,
Speaker 4: god willing. Uh, someone who was a was a scabbed
Speaker 4: business owner. Uh, you know, got the donation from the pops,
Speaker 4: went and let black people rent in his homes.
Speaker 3: Sexual abuser, right Like, So just the resumes to me
Speaker 3: left no doubt.
Speaker 4: And then when you look at the policies, right, opportunity agenda,
Speaker 4: overall opportunity agenda for black men, help with home ownership, investments,
Speaker 4: in healthcare, investments, and entrepreneurship for everyone, but particularly black man.
Speaker 4: He has no agenda like that. And by the way,
Speaker 4: when he was president before the incited insurrection, h called
Speaker 4: the election sitting the election was stolen and behaves like
Speaker 4: a middle school child most of the time. And again
Speaker 4: an abuser. So just on the who they are resume reputation,
Speaker 4: black men, what are we talking about. There's no way
Speaker 4: we're not going to vote for this black woman. But
Speaker 4: then it's deeper than that, right, it goes into like,
Speaker 4: it goes into us as a people. And in my position,
Speaker 4: which is there's no circumstance ever where we should be
Speaker 4: calling black women bitches in private or in public in
Speaker 4: front of white people. No, that should never happen, right never.
Speaker 4: But to go even further, man, this is rooted in history.
Speaker 4: We haven't been allowed to really stand up for and
Speaker 4: protect our women historically because of slavery and Jim Crow.
Speaker 4: Our women were raped, forced to have children from their
Speaker 4: slave master, weren't allowed to mother, they children, sold away
Speaker 4: from their husbands, and families, experimented on when it comes
Speaker 4: to gynecology lynched. This is what happened to our Black
Speaker 4: women historically and what's happening to them now in terms
Speaker 4: of you know, equal pay for equal work that's not happening,
Speaker 4: bodily autonomy being taken away, in terms of you know,
Speaker 4: reproductive rights, reproductive freedom, not chosen to be CEOs, very
Speaker 4: few Black women on the hill in Congress as chiefs
Speaker 4: of staff and leadership positions.
Speaker 3: This is what our black women go through every day
Speaker 3: and historically in this country.
Speaker 1: And that's the reason why they want to say she's
Speaker 1: not black, because you gotta be able. And it was
Speaker 1: a very smart it was a very smart It was
Speaker 1: a strategic move from the opponents, the whatever people want
Speaker 1: to call it. On the other side, the Republicans, the
Speaker 1: mag I don't know where it came from, but it
Speaker 1: was a very smart move to try to remove her
Speaker 1: ethnicity so that they can isolate that issue and not
Speaker 1: have people feel a level of commitment to her because
Speaker 1: she is in.
Speaker 4: Black men, right, black men, no hesitation. We went to
Speaker 4: an event early after she was made the nominate. You
Speaker 4: and I ended up at the same event together, all
Speaker 4: black men. We disagreed on certain things from a policy perspective,
Speaker 4: but I don't remember anyone in that room being on
Speaker 4: some she ain't black anyway, but it was a whole
Speaker 4: It was real black men in this right again.
Speaker 1: I remember that.
Speaker 3: Again, disagreed on.
Speaker 4: Different policy things or whatever, but in terms of is
Speaker 4: she black or not and are we standing for our sisters, there.
Speaker 3: Was no question. So real black man, it's no hesitation.
Speaker 1: But are being paid?
Speaker 4: Literally there's people being paid, and it's like, you know, man,
Speaker 4: I don't know, man, And maybe I'm biased because I
Speaker 4: know a little bit of the history, but also like
Speaker 4: I'm raised by a single mom and I got four sisters, right,
Speaker 4: So when you know a very well regarded, well respected activist.
Speaker 4: A couple of weeks ago, as a black woman called
Speaker 4: me and said, she don't feel safe around black Where
Speaker 4: are we as black men? If that's I think.
Speaker 2: That's what that's me is that, you know, being around
Speaker 2: black women and hearing that constantly and always being I'm
Speaker 2: always giving pushback, Well, we love black women, love and
Speaker 2: then over the years I constantly see it show up
Speaker 2: in ways that this didn't make sense. I was on
Speaker 2: a live conversation years ago during the pandemic while he
Speaker 2: was fighting for Breonna Taylor, and as God got on,
Speaker 2: the black man explained to me how that it was
Speaker 2: false that black men weren't protecting black women, and I said, well,
Speaker 2: black women are beating He said, if I beat my woman, right,
Speaker 2: you know this is what he's a swear, you can
Speaker 2: go along. He said, If I beat my woman and
Speaker 2: I don't let let somebody else beat him, I'm still
Speaker 2: protecting I said, so if you don't realize that you're
Speaker 2: the issue who's protecting her from you? And he was
Speaker 2: dead sitting there, and there were people, there were other
Speaker 2: black men that came on there and said he was right,
Speaker 2: and they were making him feel like what he was
Speaker 2: saying so then and and and the fast forward to
Speaker 2: now four years later to see somebody that we respect,
Speaker 2: like Lord Jamal get up there and just for no reason,
Speaker 2: somebody that I've been in close proximity with, someone that
Speaker 2: I would consider to be a friend, to come up
Speaker 2: there and call her name strictly because you might not
Speaker 2: agree with a policle or whatever the issue was it is,
Speaker 2: it just didn't merit that.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm glad that he, as a man, apologized,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that.
Speaker 3: I appreciate you can't take I hear what you're saying.
Speaker 1: It's hard to take once it's out there because we're
Speaker 1: going to hear the apology or.
Speaker 4: That's how a white man calling me a nigga, calling
Speaker 4: us a nigga and then trying to apologize to me,
Speaker 4: it's the same thing.
Speaker 1: But we appreciate the fact that he did apologize because
Speaker 1: when called.
Speaker 3: Him out, like if people weren't calling him out, we
Speaker 3: have apologized.
Speaker 1: But that's what I was going to say.
Speaker 3: I'm not saying that we corrected him so he called himself.
Speaker 1: But that's what I was going to say. Not only
Speaker 1: did he apologize, the part that I appreciate is when
Speaker 1: he said all of the criticism that I'm receiving is warranted.
Speaker 1: So he wasn't out there like he's saying it's warranted.
Speaker 1: And so I appreciate that because he called himself right,
Speaker 1: like we all have biases. I remember one time I
Speaker 1: was out with a friend of mine. We were at
Speaker 1: Grace Baptist Church actually, and we went an event and
Speaker 1: she's a Jewish woman, white facing Jewish woman, and she
Speaker 1: and we were talking about something. Told my raising money
Speaker 1: for something, and I said, well, my friend so and
Speaker 1: so is Jewish. No, I didn't say that. I said
Speaker 1: she knows the money, she could control the money. And
Speaker 1: later on she said to me, let me break down
Speaker 1: for you why this is an anti semetic trope, right,
Speaker 1: And so it wasn't that she was saying I am
Speaker 1: anti Semitic. She's just saying. We all have heard things,
Speaker 1: or you pick up on attitudes, you say things that
Speaker 1: you shouldn't be saying, and sometimes it comes out. Now
Speaker 1: it's not as harmful as calling this person. But to me,
Speaker 1: it's not as harmful because I'm a black woman. And
Speaker 1: so hearing him call Kamala Harris a B word right,
Speaker 1: but listen, listen to me, it is more harmful. But
Speaker 1: to her understanding the history of the Jewish people, what
Speaker 1: they have suffered, and how dangerous that trope is and
Speaker 1: how it pretty much demonizes them. From her perspective, it's
Speaker 1: equally harmful because when you have by when you say
Speaker 1: things and you don't know the history of it, where
Speaker 1: it came from. That's something I probably picked up from
Speaker 1: somebody in the community, or a church person, or somebody
Speaker 1: a long time ago that has been with me. And
Speaker 1: of course my parents is like, where did you get
Speaker 1: that from? Because that's not how they speak. So we
Speaker 1: pick up more from outside of our homes than we
Speaker 1: do sometimes inside.
Speaker 4: You're absolutely right, it was just to your point about
Speaker 4: you know what, Lord Jamar represents you a black man,
Speaker 4: godbody hip hop that should never come across your limit
Speaker 4: in my opinion, and to be very transparent, I was
Speaker 4: young and dumb and stupid at one point in my
Speaker 4: life as a black man trying to holler at chicks.
Speaker 4: And I've used that word as a young man trying
Speaker 4: to because of some shit I heard of n w
Speaker 4: A or so whatever it was. I don't even know
Speaker 4: what got it in there. But the point is I
Speaker 4: was young and a kid trying to holler at chicks
Speaker 4: and use all kind of words.
Speaker 1: You know, a girl, we were.
Speaker 3: A word all day, you know what I'm saying. But
Speaker 3: like we're older than that.
Speaker 4: We grow up and we learned and we evolved, and
Speaker 4: we should not be doing that. As I'm forty eighty, fittes, No,
Speaker 4: we should, you know, we gotta we gotta grow up.
Speaker 1: A young girl just told me it was she was young.
Speaker 1: She's a friend of ours. I can't remember who it is,
Speaker 1: but it's worth telling the story that she's she got
Speaker 1: to be forty five something. She's our friend, and she
Speaker 1: said she was out somewhere the other night she turned
Speaker 1: down a guy who started out cool, cool, but then
Speaker 1: after a while he just started calling her dirty beads.
Speaker 1: I can't remember who it was, and I'm like, what
Speaker 1: is it in us? But as I told my son
Speaker 1: the other day, there are a lot of men, not
Speaker 1: just black men, but men in general. Wool's mama hurt them,
Speaker 1: The ex girlfriend hurt them. When they were a kid,
Speaker 1: the teacher talked to them and told them they wasn't
Speaker 1: gonna never be nothing, And that may have been a
Speaker 1: black woman or you know, some woman, and a lot
Speaker 1: of that stuff is coming up because it's not been
Speaker 1: addressed because black men don't focus enough, and men in
Speaker 1: general don't focus enough on self help.
Speaker 4: And patriarchy, misogyny. It's all a part of American culture,
Speaker 4: right to your point. And so yeah, man, it's it's
Speaker 4: it's wild. But when this high ranking activist told me
Speaker 4: she don't feel safe around black men she's a black woman,
Speaker 4: that hurt me to my core, right because like, now,
Speaker 4: you know, we could fight back, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: We could stand up for our sisters, We could be
Speaker 4: there for them, we could work together, we can make
Speaker 4: sure they are centered, right and if we're not doing
Speaker 4: that now in this moment, And again, you don't have
Speaker 4: to vote for just because she's a black woman. She's
Speaker 4: a better candidate and she happens to be a black woman,
Speaker 4: and she has a better vision for the country in
Speaker 4: my opinion, than this guy, Donald Trump. And just to
Speaker 4: slide to the political piece after, you know, just moving
Speaker 4: on to the political piece, and what are we gonna
Speaker 4: do November sixth or whatever, the day after the election
Speaker 4: to hold her accountable and ourselves accountable? And that's the thing,
Speaker 4: ourselves accountable. There's no savior in the White House. It's
Speaker 4: on us as people participating in this democracy. So we
Speaker 4: got a lot of whack ass elected officials right down
Speaker 4: the street from us who sit on our city council,
Speaker 4: village state. They trash, they're not doing nothing, and they
Speaker 4: have money and influence that they could be using. We
Speaker 4: got to put pressure on them next day after the
Speaker 4: election and keep that going.
Speaker 2: I agree one hund what I want to say before
Speaker 2: we close, because I know you got a lot to do.
Speaker 2: First of all, are you guys going to have this debate?
Speaker 2: Because I see, well, I don't know.
Speaker 4: We we told them Friday and and they went dark.
Speaker 4: They ghosted us. So we love to see this. So
Speaker 4: we followed up to see if we could do it
Speaker 4: this week. I said Wednesday. Then I realized Wednesday wasn't good,
Speaker 4: So we we're gonna try for Thursday. And notice how
Speaker 4: they framed it, right, because they already know what I'm
Speaker 4: coming with. Notice how they framed it. It was like
Speaker 4: not a debate, a conversation. Listen, because those are those
Speaker 4: are those are imperative. I want to sit in rooms
Speaker 4: with other black men.
Speaker 2: We have to do that and have real dialogue, because
Speaker 2: to do that, I think that's where we are. We
Speaker 2: are in this space right now where there has to
Speaker 2: be real conversations. It has to be intentional because when
Speaker 2: when when I'm online, because I don't actually I just
Speaker 2: don't believe that the end is a real place. So
Speaker 2: a lot of these people are boxed. But there are
Speaker 2: a couple of people that actually know that, people that
Speaker 2: close to me, and they say things that are very
Speaker 2: strange and confusing to me, and I don't I don't
Speaker 2: know when this narrative, You know what I'm saying, it's
Speaker 2: very strange, But I don't know when this narrative of
Speaker 2: a man standing up to protect and stand for the
Speaker 2: honor of a woman became made you lessons This is,
Speaker 2: this is, this is this is on the internet when
Speaker 2: they calling you simp, they call you this and that,
Speaker 2: when I don't even.
Speaker 3: Know because I've never been that. I've been. I've been.
Speaker 2: I've been a man my whole life, and I always
Speaker 2: knew that women should feel comfortable and safe around me.
Speaker 2: When I walked in my community, the old ladies felt
Speaker 2: safe when they see me from right. That's that's what
Speaker 2: that's what quote unquote gangster used to be in our community.
Speaker 3: Little girls who felt like they can go to school safely.
Speaker 2: They weren't gonna be this expected when they see me,
Speaker 2: When mothers seeing me, they feel like my kids are
Speaker 2: gonna be safe.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: I got a d M from a young girl that
Speaker 2: was hanging with us all week and her mother said,
Speaker 2: I know my daughter is safe with you. That's what
Speaker 2: men who looks like.
Speaker 3: But it's not. But I'm trying to tell you.
Speaker 2: If we live in Colward culture, culture shows something else
Speaker 2: is how you can impose your will and your energy
Speaker 2: and you're strong and you can make people feel less.
Speaker 3: And that's why that's why Donald.
Speaker 2: Trump even has a leg to stand on me because
Speaker 2: that culture is what's being embraced now.
Speaker 3: So I just want to say that. But before we leave,
Speaker 3: just tell me, tell us what is next for Jamal Bone.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I guess we got to do more work
Speaker 4: around Colward culture because that's crazy kind of what you
Speaker 4: just shared with me.
Speaker 3: So again, right now I'm finishing out my term which
Speaker 3: ends the ends the end of this year.
Speaker 4: I'm going to be looking at a variety of opportunities
Speaker 4: public sector, private sector, education, healthcare, technology. I'm not ruling
Speaker 4: out a run for off again. At some point it
Speaker 4: probably won't be Congress. There will probably be something in
Speaker 4: the executive seat.
Speaker 1: Listen, not only that, right, And so I don't even
Speaker 1: know why I said it, because I have too many
Speaker 1: good friends in New York City. So I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take it back. I'm gonna take you back
Speaker 1: because I don't know who's gonna do what. But I
Speaker 1: know one damn thing, y'all better get on the same
Speaker 1: page about who's running and who everybody is gonna support,
Speaker 1: because I do not have the stomach to deal with
Speaker 1: you running. This one is running, that one's running, and
Speaker 1: then it turns into a whole thing.
Speaker 4: Correct, I'm not running for mayor, just to make that
Speaker 4: real clear. But but the biggest thing I'm really interested
Speaker 4: in we have incredible people, brilliant right hard in the
Speaker 4: right place, doing incredible work all over the country. I
Speaker 4: want to work on and figure out what does unity
Speaker 4: and collaborateation really look like?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 4: What if we figured out how to bring together? You know,
Speaker 4: we've already done it and I've actually seen it happen,
Speaker 4: And I want to point to the Woman's not to
Speaker 4: trigger anything for Tamika, but the Woman's March movement at
Speaker 4: that particular moment when Trump won.
Speaker 3: And I think it was a day after it was
Speaker 3: a mass march and it wasn't. I'm sorry I messed
Speaker 3: it up.
Speaker 1: The day after it was a call for a mass
Speaker 1: mark got it. When did the big march happened?
Speaker 3: Thank you?
Speaker 4: But that moment and with Tamika and Linda and Carmen,
Speaker 4: what was on was on was on breakfast that moment
Speaker 4: that combined with when George Floyd was Lynch and everybody
Speaker 4: in the street, that energy, that's that's what they think,
Speaker 4: That's what I want on the harness, That's what we
Speaker 4: got to hont That's because that moment, that's when I
Speaker 4: first was introduced.
Speaker 3: I knew Linda before the first introduced to Tamika, and
Speaker 3: it was just like this is the ship we need.
Speaker 3: Like that was the movement, right.
Speaker 4: So part of my work in the next chapter is
Speaker 4: to figure out how to bring that together, in addition
Speaker 4: to the friends and supporters I've made across the country
Speaker 4: as it relates to Palestine specifically, because this black Arab
Speaker 4: South Asian, just Jewish justice and humanity unity that's possible.
Speaker 4: I think, I think is the thing that's gonna that's
Speaker 4: gonna defeat white supremacy and.
Speaker 1: People white people who feel marginalized.
Speaker 3: Body fighting for justice and humanity.
Speaker 4: Like that's what we got to be on because I'm
Speaker 4: really clear, and I think we all are really clear,
Speaker 4: like white supremacy is real, alive and well we are
Speaker 4: colonized people, uh, and our brains and in our spirits.
Speaker 4: And my focus is on decolonization, liberation and collaboration, and
Speaker 4: if we get that right, we change the world. So
Speaker 4: I'm gonna just keep trying to change the world.
Speaker 1: Congressman Jamal Bauman, my forever, forever Congress Yeah, absolutely, and
Speaker 1: our friend, we love you, We thank you for joining
Speaker 1: us today. You know, I thought we were getting ready
Speaker 1: to talk about the rally, the MAGA rally, because you
Speaker 1: said something earlier that uh, you know, we talked about
Speaker 1: people who's educating our kids, and I was going to
Speaker 1: say that at the MAGA rally it was people there
Speaker 1: that educate your children right this past weekend. But our
Speaker 1: conversation evolved even from what we thought when you came
Speaker 1: through the door to be in so much more about
Speaker 1: vision and I appreciate that.
Speaker 3: Of course, let's keep it going.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Shout out to our brother Jamal Bowman, Congressman Jamaal Bowman
Speaker 2: for always coming with vision, with enlightenment. We're just things
Speaker 2: that we need to talk about and it's coming from
Speaker 2: the hip, being real and raw. So there's always a
Speaker 2: dope interview when we have him.
Speaker 1: He's too too as you always say, like too masculine
Speaker 1: or they want you to be like go along to
Speaker 1: get along, I mean, And the public Advocate Jamini William
Speaker 1: spoke about that a week before last in the interview,
Speaker 1: about that masculine masculinity factor and how that in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways is sort of missing from what is celebrated.
Speaker 1: Not that they are not people within the Democratic Party
Speaker 1: who are masculine, but what is celebrated, what is Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I think in some ways that's something that has
Speaker 1: been a strike against him, but it's always been what.
Speaker 2: I love about him because when I hear him, it
Speaker 2: gives me the energy that I want to give forward.
Speaker 2: And he speaks the same way I would. He's weeks
Speaker 2: matter of factly, you know, and he doesn't bite his tongue,
Speaker 2: he doesn't care if you agree with him or disagree,
Speaker 2: he's made a position and he's an educated individual, and
Speaker 2: it doesn't come from a place of this emotion or irrationality.
Speaker 2: It comes from a place of just knowing what you're
Speaker 2: talking about and just being able to understand right from wrong,
Speaker 2: being on the right side of history all the time.
Speaker 2: So once again, to loot to Jamaal Bowman for his service,
Speaker 2: you know, and his his authenticity.
Speaker 1: And you know what, you gotta lose, lose for the
Speaker 1: right reason. So I think that the way that he lost,
Speaker 1: he was standing on principle. So that's the way you're
Speaker 1: supposed to.
Speaker 2: Be standing on principal. That brings me to my I
Speaker 2: don't get it today. And there was an issue this week.
Speaker 2: You know, I've seen Chris Cromoll has a new podcast
Speaker 2: that he's doing, and well, I've never seen it before.
Speaker 2: I didn't know he was doing the podcast, and he
Speaker 2: was talking about Kamala Harris, you know, he was he
Speaker 2: was receiving some flak about him being critical talking about
Speaker 2: her in a way and a lot of people, you know,
Speaker 2: were giving him feedback that he didn't really agree with,
Speaker 2: and he chose to respond.
Speaker 3: Now, I've never you know really ever had an issue
Speaker 3: with Chris Cronmore.
Speaker 2: I thought, usually he has a fair take, but I
Speaker 2: think just watching his new podcast or the podcast that
Speaker 2: I just found that he had, I've seen that his
Speaker 2: take is taken a little bit of a turn.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I think he's way more unhinged. And a lot of
Speaker 2: times when people are unhinged and they're not tied to networks,
Speaker 2: you just actually get to hear exactly how they feel,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: And Angela Rai spoke about when she talked about the
Speaker 1: text message that she had with somebody on from CNN
Speaker 1: and she felt disrespected.
Speaker 3: I'm just well, I'm saying, you get I do kind
Speaker 3: of remember that she did say something about that.
Speaker 2: And so when I'm when I'm listening to him, you know,
Speaker 2: there was the original podcast that they say that he
Speaker 2: was speaking on. I was listening, I was like okay.
Speaker 2: You know, at first, I was like, okay, I had
Speaker 2: seen this statement on a lot of different pages about
Speaker 2: what he said, so I was let me, I said,
Speaker 2: let me listen, because I don't like to just take soundbites.
Speaker 2: So I listened to the whole interview and I was like, okay,
Speaker 2: I hear interview I didn't even hear the part that
Speaker 2: I was talking that they were talking about. But this
Speaker 2: was the prior interview that he originally did that people
Speaker 2: were responding to, and in his response to people critique.
Speaker 2: In his critique, he decided to make a statement talking
Speaker 2: about Kamala and he stated that quote unquote, you people
Speaker 2: didn't even want her, you know, and she's not the
Speaker 2: black female Jesus, and Obama is not the black Jesus.
Speaker 2: And I was so confused at this content text, and
Speaker 2: when I'm listening to it, I'm like, what would make
Speaker 2: him say that?
Speaker 3: You know? So I put I responded.
Speaker 2: I posted on my page like unfortunately, you know, when
Speaker 2: you give people the opportunity to speak freely, you get
Speaker 2: to see how they really feel, what they really think,
Speaker 2: you know. And a lot of people came and WAT said, oh,
Speaker 2: you need to hear the context, and I had already
Speaker 2: heard the context.
Speaker 3: I listened to the full interview.
Speaker 2: Then I listened to the response, and he was he
Speaker 2: was basically saying that they weren't above critique right, that
Speaker 2: these individual But the racist part of it was you
Speaker 2: saying that you people, first of all, you people is
Speaker 2: a racist trope. We know what you people mean. It
Speaker 2: means black people. It means pretty much your lesson, and
Speaker 2: you're in this category. And then when he said she's
Speaker 2: not the female black Jesus and Obama is not black Jesus,
Speaker 2: that's directly to black people. Because if you're saying you people,
Speaker 2: and then you say she because you don't need to
Speaker 2: tell white people that she's not black Jesus because they
Speaker 2: don't believe in black Jesus anyway. So you're not talking
Speaker 2: to anybody else other than black people. So this was
Speaker 2: a racist comment, and it showed that it was racist.
Speaker 2: And there's no way that you can go around this being.
Speaker 1: Racist, right Tabat Swan Bishop taverts Swan tore him up too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so same thing and he told Swan, oh, it's shameful
Speaker 1: or something like that, and Swan ate him alive.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and he tried to come into my DM.
Speaker 2: So I wake up this morning and I see him
Speaker 2: in my DM saying that he's an ally and I
Speaker 2: got this wrong and it's shameful, and I said shameful.
Speaker 2: I said, no, I didn't get this wrong. And if
Speaker 2: you an allied, right, you would understand that you can't
Speaker 2: use the term you people and then refer to her
Speaker 2: as black female Jesus and refer to Obama as black
Speaker 2: Jesus if you're talking to the Democrats, because this was
Speaker 2: his position. I was talking to the Democrats. You know
Speaker 2: you weren't talking to no Democrats, Chris. You know exactly
Speaker 2: who you were speaking to. You know there's cold language.
Speaker 2: You know exactly what you were talking about. If you
Speaker 2: were allied, then you wouldn't know that those terms weren't
Speaker 2: were off the table. You wouldn't know that you wouldn't
Speaker 2: have to refer to them as black anything. Because Jesus
Speaker 2: is Jesus. You didn't have to say to black Jesus.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: You could have just said they're not Jesus Christ. She's
Speaker 2: not Jesus, and he's not Jesus either. They're not above
Speaker 2: somebody critiquing them, and people would have been able to
Speaker 2: say whatever they wanted to say. But you made it
Speaker 2: very clear that you were speaking to a black demographic.
Speaker 2: And when you speak to a black demographic and you
Speaker 2: call them you people, it's racist. It is a racist trope.
Speaker 2: It's no way around it. And then when I gave
Speaker 2: you the opportunity and I said, I took what you
Speaker 2: said and if you made a mistake, then you could
Speaker 2: as a man apologize, right, And then he came back
Speaker 2: and said, no, I'm not going to apologize because I
Speaker 2: said what I said and I didn't mean those what
Speaker 2: you taking my world out of context and it's a shame,
Speaker 2: and he continued to double down.
Speaker 3: So what I don't understand. What I don't get is
Speaker 3: how if.
Speaker 2: You're an ally quote unquote, why would it make you
Speaker 2: feel any lesson a way to apologize to people that
Speaker 2: the black people that you insulted. Right, if you're an ally,
Speaker 2: you would say okay, as a white man, it is
Speaker 2: not my place to tell black people how they need
Speaker 2: to feel about being insulted. As as a white man,
Speaker 2: if I'm an ally of black people, then I should
Speaker 2: acknowledge that I did something wrong to those black people.
Speaker 2: I didn't ask you to do anything other than to
Speaker 2: say that I apologize for a mistake that I made.
Speaker 2: But that means that you didn't make a mistake, Chris,
Speaker 2: because you refuse to apologize. So as a white man
Speaker 2: not being willing to apologize for insulting and disrespecting black people,
Speaker 2: you are not an ally. You are nowhere near ally,
Speaker 2: And I need you to understand that because we don't
Speaker 2: need those kind of allies. You can't be an ally
Speaker 2: to me when you can't even acknowledge and respect that
Speaker 2: you disrespected me. We need you to go home and
Speaker 2: look at what allyship looks like, Chris and understand that
Speaker 2: what you did is not allyship. It is disrespect and
Speaker 2: it's just racist. And until you acknowledge that, until you
Speaker 2: make amends for that, I'm going to double down and
Speaker 2: make sure that you understand that the terms and the
Speaker 2: words that you use were racist.
Speaker 1: About that.
Speaker 2: And with that said, we've come to the end of
Speaker 2: another beautiful episode of TMO. Shout out to Jamal Bowman,
Speaker 2: my forever Congressman. That's my guy, stand firm brother. We
Speaker 2: always got you. Shout out to our fans for continuing
Speaker 2: to keep us going, to making us number one in
Speaker 2: this podcast business because we are definitely number one.
Speaker 3: People that love us.
Speaker 2: We truly appreciate you continue to follow us, Send us
Speaker 2: what you need us to talk about, let us know
Speaker 2: what guests you want to hear. We cannot wait to
Speaker 2: get your feedback. We love you forever. I'm not gonna
Speaker 2: always be right to me. Get the maverages and I
Speaker 2: could always be wrong. We will both always and I
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