Speaker 1: What's up, family, it's your girl to Mika d. Mallory,
Speaker 1: finish your boy.
Speaker 2: My son a general and.
Speaker 3: We are your host of street politicians, the place where
Speaker 3: the streets and politics. Me. What you've been doing, my son,
Speaker 3: other than being on the internet edge of mccayton.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna leave it there for now.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, sometimes people need to be educated.
Speaker 4: Man. I tell people I'm Malcolm. I'm not mar you know,
Speaker 4: I'm a war I got a warrior spirit. It's different
Speaker 4: for me, not saying it's different type of warriors. I'm
Speaker 4: not to turn the other cheap warrior. I'm the one
Speaker 4: that's gonna you know, you put your hands on me,
Speaker 4: you're gonna lose it. So anyway, but my weekend was
Speaker 4: filled with educating. Actually, you know, shout out to Patterson,
Speaker 4: New Jersey. They had their second annual mental health what
Speaker 4: would you call it? It was a mental health conference
Speaker 4: and concert. You know, this is the second time that
Speaker 4: I've been invited there. It's always a good time. They
Speaker 4: bring all the kids from you know, from different schools
Speaker 4: in Patterson and different areas in Patterson, and they come
Speaker 4: out shout out to the young boy. D's Sturdy Roddy Rebel.
Speaker 4: DJ Bobby Trenz was there. It was a dope event.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 4: They had panels and they broke him up into men
Speaker 4: and women, and they had mental health panels, three different
Speaker 4: mental health panels where I learned a lot, you know.
Speaker 4: Then I had my own segment and where I talked
Speaker 4: about gun violence and trauma to the young boys.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: I felt like it resonated with a lot of them,
Speaker 4: you know, So it was really dope. It was a
Speaker 4: really dope event. Shout out to my young boy Robbert,
Speaker 4: who was with me. Who's my young men tea right now.
Speaker 4: I've been dealing with him and he's he's coming up, young,
Speaker 4: small young kid. Him and my youngest son, Keston. He
Speaker 4: was holding Keston down. Keston gets hungry every five seconds,
Speaker 4: you know, and he was like, Dad, when't we leaving?
Speaker 4: He wanted to go play video games? But they wolf
Speaker 4: enjoyed themself. So that's what my weekend was for.
Speaker 1: So you had your mentee with you at your event
Speaker 1: or was he a part of the event.
Speaker 4: He was just with me. He came, he rode out
Speaker 4: with me. You know, he likes he knows about the
Speaker 4: Philly Golds. He's dester. He knows about all them, so
Speaker 4: he's hype.
Speaker 3: But it's funny that young people do have their own
Speaker 3: underground thing going on because they be knowing each other,
Speaker 3: like they know before there was you know, before people
Speaker 3: knew Lola what's the name Lola Brooks and certain ones
Speaker 3: my makeup artists who may.
Speaker 1: Not be that young. She's younger than me.
Speaker 3: She was like, oh, you gotta know your Lola Brooks
Speaker 3: and this, and then I was like, who is Lola Brooks?
Speaker 3: And then Lola Brooks appeared, so you know, they know
Speaker 3: one another. They follow the underground. So let me see
Speaker 3: what have I been doing boxing? That's my thing. You
Speaker 3: know I've been telling you. We talking about it all
Speaker 3: the time. And you know what, my boxing coach said
Speaker 3: something to me that like really it clicked for me,
Speaker 3: like this is where I'm supposed to be. He said
Speaker 3: that I was. So I was having this problem with
Speaker 3: my finger. It was hurting every time. It still hurts, actually,
Speaker 3: so I think it was like right before being jammed,
Speaker 3: like almost there but not really. So it's been hurting
Speaker 3: on one side. So he tells me to tell him
Speaker 3: about my h and shout out to coach Eddie. He
Speaker 3: tells me to tell him when things bother me, so
Speaker 3: he knows, like maybe the raps are too tight, maybe
Speaker 3: they're not tight enough, maybe different things. But never do
Speaker 3: we really deal with the things that I said hurt.
Speaker 3: It's like he hears me.
Speaker 1: He's like, okay, cool.
Speaker 3: So anyway, I told him about my finger and he's
Speaker 3: kind of like, you got a punch, right, like that's
Speaker 3: what it is. So when we were punching again after
Speaker 3: I've told him about the finger, I kind of like
Speaker 3: pick and move back too quick instead of like pushing
Speaker 3: all the way through a punch.
Speaker 1: And so he looked at me and he's like, you can't.
Speaker 3: You can't hit your problem or your obstacle and be
Speaker 3: afraid and snap back like you gotta go all the
Speaker 3: way through the problem, like all the way, punch all
Speaker 3: the way through it. And I was like, damn, okay,
Speaker 3: these are the life skills that have absolutely nothing to
Speaker 3: do with boxing, but it has to do with your
Speaker 3: approach to life.
Speaker 1: And I see how.
Speaker 3: And it's been like five or six other things that
Speaker 3: he said to me, like you know, when I'm doing
Speaker 3: my situps and it's the work, Oh my god. The
Speaker 3: worst thing ever, and he's like, ain't nothing free, Like
Speaker 3: you just ain't gonna get it free. You might as
Speaker 3: well love the pain because the pain is everywhere. It's
Speaker 3: at every turn. It's nothing you do in this gym
Speaker 3: or out there in your life that's just gonna feel
Speaker 3: free and easy if you want it to have results.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, damn, I see the connection. So I
Speaker 3: really really loved my boxing lessons and this boxing journey
Speaker 3: that I'm on.
Speaker 4: Boxing is a thing. It's like it's a full body workout.
Speaker 4: It's mine is b soul is everything. Shout out to
Speaker 4: my boxing coach, who hasn't seen me in life three
Speaker 4: weeks since I, you know, sprained my shoulder. But you know,
Speaker 4: my man g a Ka gave Briel Vargus. You know,
Speaker 4: he's my coach and now he changed. He trains the
Speaker 4: boys and they love they love boxing. So boxing is
Speaker 4: always been one of those things. I actually started doing
Speaker 4: boxing when I was young. My father used to train me,
Speaker 4: and then when I went to prison, I was doing boxing.
Speaker 4: So it's it's always like you said, your fingers, like
Speaker 4: you break fingers. Most of the people who box, they
Speaker 4: break fingers, they break knuckles, like that's that's a common thing,
Speaker 4: so get used to it. It's gonna get as as
Speaker 4: you do it. It's gonna make your hand stronger, so
Speaker 4: it's not gonna really hurt as much.
Speaker 3: And so many young kids in the gym, wow, like
Speaker 3: they've got.
Speaker 4: We need the kids in the gym. You know, boxing
Speaker 4: teaches you level or discipline. They teach you level of humility.
Speaker 4: You know, it teaches you how to to target and
Speaker 4: sent to anger, not to be overwhelmed by anger. So
Speaker 4: you know, that's one of the things that I want
Speaker 4: to I want to focus. I want to start like
Speaker 4: a boxing program for the kids.
Speaker 1: It's I think it's also like.
Speaker 3: It's kind of it really teaches you to think and
Speaker 3: move or think and stay where sometimes people are just
Speaker 3: like just moving without purpose or direction. But boxing slows
Speaker 3: you down just enough to be able to think about
Speaker 3: your next step. But you still got to move your feet,
Speaker 3: like you constantly have to be in movement and still
Speaker 3: enough mentally to see what's coming and what's all around
Speaker 3: you and that and that's something that a lot of
Speaker 3: people don't know. Like as soon as there's danger, people
Speaker 3: get they get frazzled. They can't think, you know, and
Speaker 3: that's that's a lot of while people make bad decisions
Speaker 3: like going to get a gun or running, you know,
Speaker 3: being afraid in the movement, you know, because once the
Speaker 3: danger comes, it's like, oh, I hear police sirens. So
Speaker 3: now we're about to get arrested. It's time to run
Speaker 3: off the protest line, you know. And it's a lot.
Speaker 3: So I'm with it. But sports seems to be the
Speaker 3: thing of the weekend because I'm not allowed to talk
Speaker 3: to my father. I can't talk to my son. I
Speaker 3: can't talk to nobody. No man in my life can
Speaker 3: I even communicate with. Can't call you can't call nobody.
Speaker 2: It's playoffs, man, you can't you can't call nobody doing
Speaker 2: the playoff.
Speaker 4: This is a this is a good week. The Knicks,
Speaker 4: you know, they made it to the playoffs. They lost,
Speaker 4: I mean the second round. They lost the first game
Speaker 4: to Miami, but it was a good game.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: I'm still rooting for the Knicks. You know, we we
Speaker 4: need we need y'all, come on now, get get us
Speaker 4: out this second round, man, come on, nixt and me
Speaker 4: and Chef Curry, though, I still put.
Speaker 1: So much faith and I mean the next and I'm
Speaker 1: a Knicks fan.
Speaker 3: I don't even like best. I mean, well, I'm not that.
Speaker 3: I'm let me, let me go backwards, let me go backwards.
Speaker 3: I cannot say I don't like basketball, because actually I
Speaker 3: love basketball. But I am not a sports officionado. I
Speaker 3: don't know all the things, but I do like the
Speaker 3: next it's my home team.
Speaker 1: I get it. But y'all be swimming. They gonna do
Speaker 1: something every time that.
Speaker 4: But they look like they can do something, you know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying. Jimmy Buckets was him and cal Lowry
Speaker 4: was tough yesterday, but they still look like, you know,
Speaker 4: hopefully we get Julius Randall back. You know, Brunton is
Speaker 4: playing at a high level. You know, they playing. They
Speaker 4: just need they just need to be a little bit
Speaker 4: more focused.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: I think Jimmy Butler wants to win more than they
Speaker 4: do at this point, so that has to change. Like
Speaker 4: I was about to say, Steph Curry yesterday in the
Speaker 4: game seven game against Sacramento was just phenomenal. I wasn't
Speaker 4: even able to watch the game because I was a
Speaker 4: soccer dad yesterday, so I was at the soccer game
Speaker 4: and I had my kid's soccer game. Mind you is
Speaker 4: porn raining porn like this.
Speaker 2: She was just unbelievable.
Speaker 1: I don't even know why they New York.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't even know why they had these kids
Speaker 4: out there playing soccer. But it got to the point
Speaker 4: where the field got so flooded they had to stop it.
Speaker 4: But I still had my headphones on, just listening to
Speaker 4: the game in my pocket and just listening to Steph
Speaker 4: Curry just keep scoring. Was just hearing it. I wasn't
Speaker 4: even watching the game. And they was like, and Steph
Speaker 4: scores again, and it hits another three. And it went
Speaker 4: from the Sacramento being up five to next you know,
Speaker 4: you know, Golda State was up by twenty for a
Speaker 4: quarter and I was like wow, and then he and
Speaker 4: then look he finished.
Speaker 2: With fifty points. It was just like, so, shout out
Speaker 2: to them.
Speaker 4: So they played the Lakers favorite team.
Speaker 3: Yes, okay, good because godless, I'll be feeling wait.
Speaker 4: I know he's I know he was probably probably bet
Speaker 4: money everything. He can't wait. And I told him the
Speaker 4: text because usually he'll say he'll be like, yeah, you're
Speaker 4: talking about my team. He'll text me randomly and just
Speaker 4: say some shit about his team. So, but shout out
Speaker 4: to them. And they did good.
Speaker 2: And now they played the Lakers in round two.
Speaker 3: And I was gonna say I called my mom during
Speaker 3: the game because she ain't she liked me.
Speaker 1: She ain't watching it.
Speaker 3: She's just sitting up there, just trying to be smile
Speaker 3: when asked. And I can hear my father yelling at somebody,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, Mom, who's that some of your son?
Speaker 1: Your son and your father's.
Speaker 3: Don't be here going back and forth about whatever they're
Speaker 3: doing on that basketball and and I figured he was
Speaker 3: winning and losing.
Speaker 1: His tree.
Speaker 2: He was winning. They had a big win yesterday.
Speaker 4: So now they play the Lakers in the second round,
Speaker 4: which is probably gonna be one of the most view
Speaker 4: series because everybody want to see the Brown against Curry.
Speaker 4: That's like Monumentals. So that starts on Tuesday, so that's
Speaker 4: gonna be a dope. So we probably first game will
Speaker 4: be over by the time we watched this.
Speaker 3: Well, I hate to bring bad, a bad overtone to
Speaker 3: this good conversation, but I heard you say that the
Speaker 3: gold that Golden State was playing the Sacramento Kings.
Speaker 1: Now some news on that.
Speaker 3: It's just it is so in line with this tragedy
Speaker 3: of last week where miles cars grow.
Speaker 1: The officer who.
Speaker 3: Has gone the FBI believes that his bullets actually killed
Speaker 3: Brionna Taylor, and we know that in that case. Attorney
Speaker 3: Daniel Cameron, Attorney General of Kentucky, did not present evidence
Speaker 3: to the grand jury for the murder of Brionna Taylor.
Speaker 3: He presented evidence for the bullets that went.
Speaker 2: Through the wall.
Speaker 3: The jurors themselves were angry about it because they were
Speaker 3: never presented with information or with a case that would
Speaker 3: have allowed them to indict or not the officers. They
Speaker 3: were never It's never done, and that is a regular
Speaker 3: thing that district attorneys do.
Speaker 1: This is not.
Speaker 2: Was just that's the going line.
Speaker 1: So don't get it twisted.
Speaker 3: They do this where they have made a prejudicial decision
Speaker 3: that I don't you know, we're not looking to charge
Speaker 3: or to get you know, these officers or these people indicted.
Speaker 3: And therefore they present the case that is very narrow
Speaker 3: that people do not have the opportunity to say, well,
Speaker 3: wait a minute, what about this?
Speaker 1: And so the jervors came forward.
Speaker 3: To say it so so I so anyway, because I
Speaker 3: get so excited about this, I got to stick with
Speaker 3: my point.
Speaker 1: So he was.
Speaker 3: Fired from the Louisville Metro Police Department because of our
Speaker 3: work until freedom, the Kentucky Alliance, all the groups, the organizers,
Speaker 3: the people who slept outside, the people who protested, the
Speaker 3: Urban League of Louisville, Sadiqua Rentals attorney, Lennida Baker, Attorney,
Speaker 3: Ben Crump, Attorney, Sam Agyard, Breonna Taylor's family, the list
Speaker 3: goes on.
Speaker 1: You know Bianca and of course her mother.
Speaker 3: Everybody fighting every single day, the Breaway, the streets fought
Speaker 3: every day, and that's the reason why the officers were fired.
Speaker 1: Miles Cosgrove was fired.
Speaker 3: Now a sheriff's department in another part of Kentucky an
Speaker 3: our so away has hired him. It is disgusting. So
Speaker 3: here we go back to the Sacramento Kings. The officer
Speaker 3: responsible for shooting Stefan Clark. If you all have don't
Speaker 3: know this case, you should look into it. He was
Speaker 3: trying to get into his grandmother's house, jumped over a
Speaker 3: gate in the backyard, which is not an unusual thing.
Speaker 3: Police officers came. They claim he had a gun, which
Speaker 3: later on they found out he didn't. They shot him
Speaker 3: to death in his grandmother's yard.
Speaker 1: Okay, now that.
Speaker 3: Officer who killed him is working the games as a
Speaker 3: security person, maybe even a police officer, because he wasn't fired,
Speaker 3: wasn't even charged. He is now working the games for
Speaker 3: the Sacramento Kings in their stadium, and it's not working
Speaker 3: no more games.
Speaker 2: He ain't. First of all, those games is over.
Speaker 1: So well the games.
Speaker 3: I was about to say, it is possible that he
Speaker 3: will now be shifted over to concerts and whatever else.
Speaker 1: They have going on during the you know, the off season.
Speaker 1: So he but he's the.
Speaker 3: Point is he's still employed and now he's moving on
Speaker 3: to other things. And my thing is that, listen, we
Speaker 3: are not safe. We are not safe when a violent
Speaker 3: person who's a shooter, who has access to a weapon,
Speaker 3: and actually what is it called free reign, you know,
Speaker 3: where it is sanctioned, is in open public space with
Speaker 3: black and brown people, has already demonstrated that they have
Speaker 3: the ability to kill one and make really bad choices,
Speaker 3: you know, not gonna say mistakes, choices and decisions.
Speaker 1: Now somewhere else.
Speaker 3: So people just need to know when you're going to
Speaker 3: the stadium what is whatever it's called where the Sacramento
Speaker 3: Kings play, there's an officer in that particular stadium who
Speaker 3: is dangerous.
Speaker 1: So that's and and and and again.
Speaker 3: Tying it together with what happened to now Brionna's family,
Speaker 3: another slap in the face. And that's why legislation is
Speaker 3: so desperately needed now. People ship all day. The Democrats
Speaker 3: ain't no good. No, the Democrats have mad issues.
Speaker 1: I agree. I call them out all the time. I
Speaker 1: see it. Some of them don't deal with me. I
Speaker 1: get it. So you're not gonna you can't.
Speaker 3: Are you what the Democrats should be doing and aren't
Speaker 3: doing more than me? Because I could get in that
Speaker 3: argument and go But I know one thing. The Republicans
Speaker 3: are the ones blocking the ability to pass legislation. And
Speaker 3: it's not just let me go back. The Republicans are
Speaker 3: overwhelmingly blocking our ability to pass legislation that would stop
Speaker 3: these officers from being in getting fired from one place,
Speaker 3: or being involved in the shooting of an unarmed individual
Speaker 3: or some other egregious act and then going to a
Speaker 3: different county and working in another place. That is something
Speaker 3: that we want to see pass. And currently there's no
Speaker 3: legislation even on the books. The overwhelming majority of Democrats
Speaker 3: in the Senate and in the House support legislation that
Speaker 3: would fix some of the police and issues.
Speaker 1: That we currently face.
Speaker 3: Is there more that needs to be done, Absolutely, but
Speaker 3: still you have to call a spade so we can
Speaker 3: go and and and I know some people say, we
Speaker 3: don't care about that. Oh, So what you're saying is
Speaker 3: you're cool with the fact that the officer who you
Speaker 3: who killed Breonna Taylor now works in your county somewhere
Speaker 3: else and has the potential to shoot and kill you two.
Speaker 3: You so uninvolved in politics that you okay with the
Speaker 3: shift of power going in that direction where your children
Speaker 3: playing in the yard, or your children who are doing whatever,
Speaker 3: going to school, driving back and forth, or even you
Speaker 3: as a grown person, you're unpop political ass where you
Speaker 3: could actually die because this same officer is running wild
Speaker 3: and hasn't been stopped.
Speaker 1: No, you can't.
Speaker 3: It doesn't mean it changes policing entirely, but certainly we
Speaker 3: have to have some guardrails and we don't even have
Speaker 3: that at this time.
Speaker 1: So that's all I'm saying.
Speaker 4: I just think for me, and I'm gonna say this
Speaker 4: real quick, that this whole thing is doesn't change policing,
Speaker 4: and guns kill people, not I mean people can your
Speaker 4: people not gun those things. These narratives are just so
Speaker 4: false because we can we can point out in different
Speaker 4: countries where policing is done differently. We can point out
Speaker 4: different countries where with lack of access or less access
Speaker 4: to guns to people who don't deserve or even qualify
Speaker 4: to have them results and less depths.
Speaker 2: So we can point these things out.
Speaker 4: So when people keep saying there's no universal thing that
Speaker 4: makes you think that police aren't gonna change or this
Speaker 4: and that, and they are gonna change when legislation makes
Speaker 4: them change, you know, there's consequences for poor acts. You know,
Speaker 4: people are gonna stop shooting people when they can't get
Speaker 4: a gun. When you're angry and you can't get a
Speaker 4: gun because you don't qualify to get a gun because
Speaker 4: you haven't passed the mental health part, or you don't
Speaker 4: meet the criterias to get a gun, or somebody who
Speaker 4: has a gun who's doing monthly check ins and doing
Speaker 4: mental health you know.
Speaker 2: Whatever, or by them, especially if you have certain certain guns.
Speaker 4: I think you should be going to get a test
Speaker 4: every other month because people deal.
Speaker 3: With message auditions, but you should definitely have criteria.
Speaker 4: No, yeah, it should fifteen I got an AAR fifteen
Speaker 4: in this house, and I'm dealing with shit all the time,
Speaker 4: and nobody's checking on me to see if I'm all right.
Speaker 2: And I walk outside one day and be like.
Speaker 4: Fuck, I'm gonna take my life because people kill theyself
Speaker 4: every day and a lot of what's happening in these
Speaker 4: killings is killing suicide, right, so they plan on I'm
Speaker 4: already looking. I'm ready to take me out now. I
Speaker 4: got this AAR fifteen. I could take about fifteen twenty
Speaker 4: more people out with me. And that's what's happening.
Speaker 3: Well, we're about to, you know, by the time our
Speaker 3: show airs, hopefully we will find out whether or not
Speaker 3: the Texas shooting that happened. I think it was Cleveland, Texas,
Speaker 3: where just this past weekend we saw a family go
Speaker 3: next door to a man's house and ask him to
Speaker 3: stop shooting in the yard because their child was sleeping,
Speaker 3: and he ended up shooting and killing five people of
Speaker 3: the ten individuals that was in the house. I saw
Speaker 3: the father speaking on the news earlier this morning. It
Speaker 3: is so painful, and you know, we don't know we
Speaker 3: did him. He's at large. The killer is at large.
Speaker 3: They say he threw his cell phone down, took his
Speaker 3: clothes off, left all his stuff somewhere in a wooded area,
Speaker 3: and they didn't know.
Speaker 1: Where he is.
Speaker 3: So hopefully by the time I show airs, we will
Speaker 3: learn whether or not it is killer suicide, whether he's
Speaker 3: killed himself or done some other things. Some people said
Speaker 3: he may have made it to Mexico, but it's thirteen
Speaker 3: hours away from where he was, so I don't know
Speaker 3: how you get there unless my friend, our friend Jamie, said, well,
Speaker 3: you know, they think all of us look alike because
Speaker 3: he looks like he's a brown person.
Speaker 1: You know, he's not white.
Speaker 3: He looks like he's Latino, right or something like that,
Speaker 3: something of the Hispanic descent. So yes, I don't know
Speaker 3: if they just assume because he's got a cap on
Speaker 3: and he's moving around looking normal, and let him bust
Speaker 3: bus bus bus bus to Mexico. But I don't think so.
Speaker 3: Usually when they put that app out on you, baby,
Speaker 3: they catch your ass, so.
Speaker 1: Might be dead. Somebody gonna get you.
Speaker 3: Well, it's Mental Health Awareness month. These are the first
Speaker 3: few days. And you know you said you spent the
Speaker 3: weekend in a space dealing with young people on mental health,
Speaker 3: and you know we can't focus on health and wellness
Speaker 3: is the biggest topic of a lifetime. Finance is important,
Speaker 3: social justice is important, civil rights is important. But we
Speaker 3: just came from talking about you can't even go to
Speaker 3: the neighbor's house and say, yo, could you please, you know,
Speaker 3: keep it down. You're shooting in your yard because we
Speaker 3: you know, we got a baby in here sleep.
Speaker 1: You can't even do that because you can be.
Speaker 5: Murdered.
Speaker 1: I mean, a massacre can happen to you.
Speaker 3: So many people are dealing with mental health challenges, and
Speaker 3: by the way, I'm not saying they still should not
Speaker 3: be held accountable for their actions. It's not an excuse,
Speaker 3: but it certainly is a reason the whole country has
Speaker 3: gone stark, raving mad. People are out of control, and
Speaker 3: I'm seeing it every day, every single day.
Speaker 4: Every day, every day I hear that somebody is dealing
Speaker 4: with mental health issues. I'm watching young young kids are
Speaker 4: dealing with mental health at rise and rate, or maybe
Speaker 4: they've always, but I just think it's different my awareness
Speaker 4: and me just paying attention and hearing you know what, stories,
Speaker 4: stories and seeing what they're dealing with and just understanding
Speaker 4: how these things are impacting them and how serious. They're
Speaker 4: taking certain shit that I've never taken it serious before. Like,
Speaker 4: I realize there are a lot of mental health things
Speaker 4: going on in society right now. And I'm saying spiritual.
Speaker 4: I think it's spiritual warfare, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: Because the mental health and a lot of these things
Speaker 4: are it's like they have demonic twists to them. You
Speaker 4: know a lot of the things that when you when
Speaker 4: you listen to what is controlling the minds of our kids,
Speaker 4: what they don't have, fine clothing and this and that,
Speaker 4: and being better than people, these things are mentally.
Speaker 2: Impacting these babies. Man.
Speaker 4: It's just like, yo, when I want to listen to
Speaker 4: them and I see what they did with I'm like, yo,
Speaker 4: you can't put that much stress on yourself like you
Speaker 4: got you have to. You gotta give yourself some level
Speaker 4: of grades. You gotta calm down. You a kid, You can't.
Speaker 4: You can't think that you're gonna own the world today.
Speaker 4: Like there's a process to these things. And I just
Speaker 4: you know, I'm praying for these kids.
Speaker 3: I hear you me too. Well, let's get into mental health.
Speaker 3: Our guest today is a mental health expert, and I'm
Speaker 3: looking forward to what she has to say. Doctor Laurene
Speaker 3: Josephs is joining us today.
Speaker 1: She is a social behavioral scientist black women.
Speaker 3: This is like so big, and she's also the CEO
Speaker 3: of Visionary Vanguard Group, which is a concerting a consulting
Speaker 3: firm that that does research and evaluations on the outcomes
Speaker 3: of under resource communities. So that's a big, powerful, powerful title.
Speaker 3: And when we're talking about mental health, it seems to
Speaker 3: me like even when a community is under resource, if
Speaker 3: you're doing your research, you got to be finding out
Speaker 3: that there's some mental health challenges that.
Speaker 1: Come with that.
Speaker 3: And so we're excited to have doctor Lauren Joseph to
Speaker 3: join us on Street Politicians today.
Speaker 6: Thank you, it's a pleasure to be here. Thank you
Speaker 6: so much for having me.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you for being doctor Joseph.
Speaker 4: So on this first week of mental you know, mental
Speaker 4: Health Awareness Month, like I'm I'm obviously I was just
Speaker 4: having this conversation with Anika. I've experienced that I will
Speaker 4: use are dealing with mental health at rates that I
Speaker 4: didn't even know existing.
Speaker 2: You know, according to the statistics, is it worse than
Speaker 2: it was? Is it better? Like statistically, what do you
Speaker 2: think is happening. Is it worse or better?
Speaker 6: Actually, the statistics have been similar over time. One in
Speaker 6: five percent, one in five individuals experiences a mental health
Speaker 6: concern over the period of a year. What has happened, though,
Speaker 6: is with the COVID pandemic, with social isolation, with children
Speaker 6: not being in school for a period of time, and
Speaker 6: just different ways of socialization being interrupted.
Speaker 5: That has caused some concerns.
Speaker 6: We don't really know the statistical impact of that yet
Speaker 6: because the data typically is three to five years behind,
Speaker 6: So what we're experiencing now we won't know.
Speaker 5: We won't have the.
Speaker 6: Accurate statistics to say this is a shift, but what
Speaker 6: we feel and what we see in our practices suggests.
Speaker 5: That there is.
Speaker 4: So basically, what we're dealing with right now is a
Speaker 4: result of things that happened three or four years ago.
Speaker 4: So we ain't even really the data hasn't even come
Speaker 4: out for the last couple of two years.
Speaker 5: So wow, no.
Speaker 6: No, there's preliminary information, but we don't have the whole picture.
Speaker 3: Well, that is very very important what you just said,
Speaker 3: and I don't want it to go over people's heads
Speaker 3: because you picked up on it too, Masan immediately. What
Speaker 3: you are saying is that every three to four years,
Speaker 3: scientists and analysis or analysts rather do work to you know,
Speaker 3: sort of examine what's been happening in a time period
Speaker 3: and they come out with studies that provides data that
Speaker 3: you people use for medicine or whatever, for even policy
Speaker 3: all of that. And at this point, the pandemic doesn't
Speaker 3: even fall into the time period where we know the
Speaker 3: full extent of what damage has been done to people mentally.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, because we take retrospective looks, meaning that we look back.
Speaker 6: It's very rare that we can prospectively examine concerns.
Speaker 5: That are being addressed.
Speaker 6: And what that just what that means in research talk
Speaker 6: is that we're not looking from today forward. We're looking
Speaker 6: and examining what has occurred.
Speaker 5: So you're exactly right.
Speaker 2: So how long have you been doing this work?
Speaker 6: I have been a licensed psychotherapist for twenty three years
Speaker 6: and I have been a behavioral scientist since two thousand
Speaker 6: and five, so that's probably eighteen years if my math
Speaker 6: is correct.
Speaker 5: So for a long.
Speaker 3: Time, what was the driving force for you to get
Speaker 3: into this type of work?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 3: What was your background in your personal life like that
Speaker 3: led you to this work?
Speaker 6: You know I'm from Jamaica if you hear an accent,
Speaker 6: and so being raised in Jamaica there, I didn't have
Speaker 6: the framework or the language of mental health. It's it's
Speaker 6: emerging in treatment in Jamaica at this time, but there
Speaker 6: wasn't a really solid foundation. When we saw people on
Speaker 6: the streets who I now know were experiencing mental illness,
Speaker 6: we would say it's a mad man or a mado man.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 6: So I knew that I had a deep interest in
Speaker 6: impacting change for for people who look like me, especially
Speaker 6: come into the United States and very quickly learning what
Speaker 6: it meant to be black in America. So I started
Speaker 6: my career as a psychotherapist, working with youth who were
Speaker 6: involved with the juvenile justice system and doing home visits,
Speaker 6: and all of that led me to start making the
Speaker 6: connections between the children who were incarcerated and were the
Speaker 6: ones who I was seen and have learned since were
Speaker 6: predominantly members of racial and ethnic minority groups. And so
Speaker 6: I wanted to work more broadly to impact change in
Speaker 6: societal outcomes. And so I returned to school to become
Speaker 6: a researcher and social and behavioral scientists, and so I
Speaker 6: was able to delve more deeply in the cross sections
Speaker 6: of challenges that that certain segments of our population phase.
Speaker 6: So's it just was my desire to impact change.
Speaker 4: That's amazing. And what is the process? What is the
Speaker 4: school in process? How many years did you have?
Speaker 5: Yeah, there's a lot of times.
Speaker 6: So I went to the University of Florida as an
Speaker 6: undergraduate student, So that's four years. That doesn't count for anything.
Speaker 6: You do that before you go to graduate school. So
Speaker 6: I went to graduate school and earned a master's and
Speaker 6: specialist degree also at University of Florida, and then I
Speaker 6: attended the University of Central Florida to obtain my doctoral
Speaker 6: degree in public Affairs, which is an interdisciplinary program that
Speaker 6: helped to prepare me to address social problems.
Speaker 5: So overall, it's four and three steps. Like a lot
Speaker 5: of years out of my life, more than probably ten
Speaker 5: to twelve years.
Speaker 1: Did your family members think you were crazy?
Speaker 5: Like?
Speaker 1: What did they say that? They're like too.
Speaker 3: Much schooling or you come from you come from a
Speaker 3: Caribbean background, a Jamaican family, so I would assume that
Speaker 3: there were some people pushing you along. But it seems
Speaker 3: like when we're studying mental health, sometimes our family members
Speaker 3: feel I don't know, it's like this, it's like it.
Speaker 3: They don't know it, so they feel a little nervous
Speaker 3: about are you trying to say?
Speaker 1: We crazy?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 6: You know, And so you're exactly right, you know, I'm Jamaican,
Speaker 6: like Jamaican Jamaica, which comes with a lot of things,
Speaker 6: and and you're exactly right. But my family has always
Speaker 6: been supportive. They I knew that education was not an option.
Speaker 6: It wouldn't have been an option if we stayed in Jamaica,
Speaker 6: and it certainly wasn't an option when we came here.
Speaker 6: But what I had to do was to educate my
Speaker 6: family and bring them along.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 6: It's like, you know, sharing terminology the way we we
Speaker 6: we we talk about people who are experiencing mental health
Speaker 6: concerns so that we're not ostracizing them and authorizing them
Speaker 6: and so and so, because that's a that's a whole
Speaker 6: for those who are close to me, that there there
Speaker 6: was a fair share of work that had to be
Speaker 6: done done.
Speaker 1: And still content say like you can't go out people retarded? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I did. I want to This is kind
Speaker 2: of a serious question.
Speaker 4: We're dealing with a lot of mental health, and we're
Speaker 4: dealing with a lot of suicide and actual homicide.
Speaker 2: Have you dealt with anyone.
Speaker 4: Who's either lost their life but taken a life or
Speaker 4: taken a life that you would particularly dealing with one
Speaker 4: of your patients, None.
Speaker 5: That completed that.
Speaker 6: Many who had suicidal ideation, meaning that they had considered it,
Speaker 6: considered it. And you know, there's a whole host of
Speaker 6: other people who are not actively seeking means to end
Speaker 6: their lives, but they what what what comes across and
Speaker 6: what has come across in therapy is that I wouldn't
Speaker 6: mind if I got hit by a bus.
Speaker 5: I just wouldn't go through that.
Speaker 6: So there's there are people who have suicidal ideation, There's
Speaker 6: there are people who have attempted suicide and people who
Speaker 6: have died by suicide.
Speaker 5: And then there's a whole host of.
Speaker 6: Other people who just wouldn't mind if a brick fell
Speaker 6: on their head and ended their life.
Speaker 5: And and it's very sad. So it's and it's it's not.
Speaker 5: Sometimes what I see.
Speaker 6: Is that people think that individuals who are experiencing that
Speaker 6: level of sadness or disconnect or sense of hopelessness are
Speaker 6: remarkably different from us.
Speaker 5: The one, but but that's not the case. We What
Speaker 5: what I found.
Speaker 6: Is that we all have a certain capacity, right and
Speaker 6: we we oftentimes don't have the appropriate outlets to address
Speaker 6: the difficult emotions that we're having.
Speaker 5: And you know, it's it come, it compounds over time.
Speaker 6: And what there was a study that that came out
Speaker 6: a few years ago which which showed that, you know,
Speaker 6: because in years past we used to think that people
Speaker 6: who ended their lives were depressed for a long period
Speaker 6: of time, and then it led to that what there's
Speaker 6: there's bodies of research that also showed that people in
Speaker 6: the moment of something specific happening, that they make a
Speaker 6: choice that ends up being a final choice. So that
Speaker 6: it just is a whole host of.
Speaker 5: Factors that we have to be mindful of.
Speaker 6: It's not just the one look of a person, one
Speaker 6: set of experiences.
Speaker 5: It's very broad.
Speaker 3: When you say that, it makes me think of Twitch,
Speaker 3: the guy who was the dancer sort of the hype
Speaker 3: man on the Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Speaker 1: How they show you.
Speaker 3: Pictures of him and his family the day before, like dancing,
Speaker 3: his you know, family members. They didn't really have an
Speaker 3: idea of him being suicidal, and then boom, this just happens,
Speaker 3: and it's and I get your point that sometimes in
Speaker 3: the moment, I've seen this actually with young girls who
Speaker 3: are either choice trying to show the boyfriend how angry
Speaker 3: they are, or they're so upset about a breakup or something.
Speaker 3: And even I guess it happens with men, but I'm
Speaker 3: saying my personal experience then with young women that in
Speaker 3: the moment, they're like, I'm gonna, you know, slit my
Speaker 3: wrists so he knows how much he hurt me, or
Speaker 3: I'm gonna do it, and then boom, they could either
Speaker 3: be dead or they could be really close to death.
Speaker 3: That's just and it's something that some of us can't fathom.
Speaker 3: But when I simplify it like that and talk about
Speaker 3: young women that I have seen in those situations, I'm
Speaker 3: sure that there are other women that's like, damn, I
Speaker 3: remember when I was sixteen and I was so angry
Speaker 3: that he left me or I caught him with another
Speaker 3: girl that I thought about doing something to get attention.
Speaker 6: Absolutely absolutely, And you know the thing, when we hear
Speaker 6: about suicide, we see a lot of men complete suicide.
Speaker 5: And so I'm glad you brought up the topic of women.
Speaker 6: And girls, because it's not that women and girls are
Speaker 6: attempting less it's that less lethal methods are used in
Speaker 6: the attempt So with with men, there are more firearms
Speaker 6: that are used, which is more deadly. With with with girls,
Speaker 6: like you were talking about teenage girls, you'll see, you know,
Speaker 6: you'll you'll see less lethal methods, so like trying to
Speaker 6: overdose and things of that nature. So that is one
Speaker 6: reason for the discrepancy in the or the disparity in
Speaker 6: the numbers of suicide depths between genders. It's the lethality
Speaker 6: of the method that's used in the in the attempts.
Speaker 4: So you know what, you know what, I was sitting
Speaker 4: here thinking, we do a lot of work and we
Speaker 4: deal with a lot of trauma, Like we deal with families,
Speaker 4: and we take on trauma daily. We see death, we
Speaker 4: see pain all the time, and it's a lot for us. Yeah,
Speaker 4: So do you have a therapist and how is it
Speaker 4: that you do you take on the trauma of your patients.
Speaker 4: Do you feel like you personalize it and you take
Speaker 4: it home sometime and you have to find ways to release.
Speaker 5: That's an excellent question.
Speaker 6: There's this phenomenon called vicarious trauma and it's you get
Speaker 6: vicarious trauma by being in situations where you are where
Speaker 6: there's a lot of trauma that's present in others. So
Speaker 6: there's death, there's so the work you do, right, it's
Speaker 6: it's the same in therapists that are working with highly
Speaker 6: traumatic cases. Not all therapy is about addressing trauma. There
Speaker 6: are a situational and adjustment things that happen in people
Speaker 6: like that they also seek therapy for. But it's important
Speaker 6: to know that when we think about trauma, we think
Speaker 6: about death, we think about you know, all those you know,
Speaker 6: we think about rape, we think about all of those
Speaker 6: things that are classified as trauma. What's important to note
Speaker 6: is that those toxic, toxic levels of stress compounded over
Speaker 6: time impacts our brains in the same way that major
Speaker 6: trauma does.
Speaker 5: So we're we're so for.
Speaker 6: For for you or people therapists who are working with
Speaker 6: with individuals who are living through traumatic experiences and and
Speaker 6: are don't don't process that well, that's one side.
Speaker 5: Of the burden.
Speaker 6: The other side of the weight is the toxic level
Speaker 6: of stress. So it's like from from both sides, from
Speaker 6: both from both sides. So you asked the question about
Speaker 6: do I have a therapist. What I have is when
Speaker 6: you're when you are a mental health practitioner, you have
Speaker 6: a cadre of individuals who are mental health practitioners who
Speaker 6: you you have the benefit of debriefing and and and
Speaker 6: addressing concerns in a in a way even when you
Speaker 6: have large caseloads. I don't anymore. A lot of the
Speaker 6: work that I do is in in research. But when
Speaker 6: you have caseloads, you you you there's a part of
Speaker 6: the process that requires you to consult with other mental
Speaker 6: health practitioners to so that you're not absorbing all of
Speaker 6: all of that because if you don't have a way
Speaker 6: to address that that's coming in, like I said, we
Speaker 6: have a threshold and you know, we can end up
Speaker 6: collapsing under the pressure.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: I mean it's so deep that it's like a pause.
Speaker 3: It's a cause for a.
Speaker 1: Pause just to think through.
Speaker 3: As you said, it's a stressful thing to even hear
Speaker 3: the stories constantly and to take to bed with you.
Speaker 3: How do I advise this person or what more can
Speaker 3: I do? Or am I showing up the right way?
Speaker 3: It's true, you know I experience it and it took
Speaker 3: me to a very dark place between the years of
Speaker 3: trauma that I've been taking on by dealing with families
Speaker 3: and working with people who have been through unthinkable pain
Speaker 3: or who are experiencing unthinkable pain, and then also having
Speaker 3: my own trauma all sort of colliding.
Speaker 1: It's a lot, and you know, I think therapy.
Speaker 3: Is probably one of the most helpful things that I
Speaker 3: do now.
Speaker 1: And then there are some people who need their medication.
Speaker 3: Like I know Wes say, we don't want to take medication,
Speaker 3: try natural remedies.
Speaker 1: I get that. I support that.
Speaker 3: I try my best if something is wrong with me,
Speaker 3: not to go straight to a pill or whatever, a cold,
Speaker 3: you know, any of those things. But some people need
Speaker 3: to be on prescribed medication that is under a doctor's
Speaker 3: kid to keep their levels together. Talk about that, because
Speaker 3: there is a stigma that if you get on medicine.
Speaker 1: You are you know, you just are out, You're just insane,
Speaker 1: and there's a the stigma.
Speaker 3: Is embarrassing, right right, People don't want you to know
Speaker 3: that they are on medication.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, And if you really think about it,
Speaker 6: there has been an evolution over time of what illnesses
Speaker 6: have stigma attached to them. Decades ago, people didn't want
Speaker 6: to say that they had cancer. You know, I remember
Speaker 6: people it's like being and this was when I was
Speaker 6: very little, of there's a family member. Nobody wanted to
Speaker 6: say cancer. Now, when we think about it in twenty
Speaker 6: twenty three, that sounds like wild, right. But medication is
Speaker 6: an important part of treating mental illness, particularly persistent and
Speaker 6: pervasive mental health disorders. It's important, though, to know that
Speaker 6: the research shows that medication and therapy works best for
Speaker 6: those who require medication, because while the medication can you know,
Speaker 6: as you said, you know, just let's just say colloquially
Speaker 6: balance your levels out or whatever, it doesn't teach you
Speaker 6: how to deal with your mental health disorder. It doesn't
Speaker 6: teach you how to deal with the difficult emotion, It
Speaker 6: doesn't teach you how to cope. And so it needs
Speaker 6: to be a too promped approach for individuals who who
Speaker 6: need medicines. We wouldn't say, you know, there's no shame
Speaker 6: if somebody has to take medicine because they have high
Speaker 6: cholesterol or heart disease or you know a host of
Speaker 6: other chronic conditions. For individuals with persistent and pervasive mental
Speaker 6: health disorders that are chronic, it should be no more
Speaker 6: shame than addressing our physical health needs, because it's, if
Speaker 6: you want to think about it, it's.
Speaker 5: A brain based disord. So it is you know, we're treating.
Speaker 6: The basis of that when we use when prescriptions are involved.
Speaker 3: But do you believe in lifetime medicine or are you
Speaker 3: the type of behavioral scientists who believes that it's possible
Speaker 3: for people to move off of it, Because I think
Speaker 3: that is one of the concerns of our people, of
Speaker 3: black folks, that once you're put on medicine, especially by
Speaker 3: white doctors, it's like they're upping the dose, right they're
Speaker 3: telling you. Because I was being told when I was
Speaker 3: having my mental health issues that I needed to be
Speaker 3: on Ridlin.
Speaker 1: And a couple other like psychees. I don't know how to.
Speaker 3: Do psychotropic medications exactly, psychotropic medications when in fact I
Speaker 3: take something now twice a day that is not that
Speaker 3: it literally helps me just not be excited and nervous.
Speaker 3: It helps me with things and I'm doing I mean,
Speaker 3: I think my son knows from knowing my struggle and
Speaker 3: watching me over all these years.
Speaker 1: Don't do that, my son, but watching.
Speaker 3: Me over all these years, he knows if I'm not
Speaker 3: if I have not taken my medicine. It is very
Speaker 3: clear to him and other people around that, hey, you
Speaker 3: all right, you know you strang do you need to
Speaker 3: you know, did you get your medicine today or whatever?
Speaker 3: And that accountability helps me. And I know I'm talking
Speaker 3: a lot, but this is important because this is a
Speaker 3: big topic for me. It actually makes me very emotional
Speaker 3: because there are times when I am mad at everybody,
Speaker 3: including God, that I have to take medicine twice a day,
Speaker 3: and so sometimes because of the fact that for the
Speaker 3: initial hour, so it can make me tired, right like,
Speaker 3: I feel like I need to maybe rest, so I
Speaker 3: have to take my medicine before I get moving, so
Speaker 3: I can, you know, get that part off of me.
Speaker 1: It's not always convenient. I don't always want to deal
Speaker 1: with it, you know.
Speaker 3: If I don't want to go to sleep yet tonight,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying, And so sometimes I fight it,
Speaker 3: but then the next day it is so clear that
Speaker 3: I didn't take my medicine.
Speaker 1: I'm anxious and whatever.
Speaker 3: So do you believe in helping people to work towards
Speaker 3: getting off of it or do you think that once
Speaker 3: you're on something, you should just stay there until.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Well, anyone who says that when you're on something you
Speaker 6: should stay there forever is not informed.
Speaker 5: I cannot speak to.
Speaker 6: You know, as a licensed practitioner, I cannot speak to
Speaker 6: a specific issue if I'm not the person who's providing
Speaker 6: the intervention for that person. What I will say is
Speaker 6: that in many cases, depending on the diagnosis, it might
Speaker 6: be situational, right, and so it's important to be under
Speaker 6: the care of a mental health practitioner to so so
Speaker 6: that the symptoms can be addressed and the medication modified
Speaker 6: over time with the treating physician. So and I'll also
Speaker 6: say with respect to children, and you mentioned rittilin, which
Speaker 6: is is one of the older classes medicines that that
Speaker 6: that were used for ADHD. Good physicians will tell parents
Speaker 6: that there are certain times when the child is not
Speaker 6: to take the medicine for a couple of days on
Speaker 6: a weekend or so or so, to see what the
Speaker 6: symptoms are like, because that's how you recognize.
Speaker 5: If there change is being made.
Speaker 6: The brain is very malleable, and particularly in younger children,
Speaker 6: the brain is trying to work itself out, and so
Speaker 6: there are opportunities given for children who are on various
Speaker 6: medication to to make adjustments and ultimate ultimately stop taking
Speaker 6: medications if the symptoms resolve itself. For adults, the same
Speaker 6: is also true because not in all cases is the
Speaker 6: underlying cause of the mental health concern which is the
Speaker 6: basis of the medication. In In not all cases is
Speaker 6: it chronic. It can be something acute based on factors
Speaker 6: that have popped up over the past six months or
Speaker 6: a year, and which can be resolved with a.
Speaker 5: Plan that's developed by those.
Speaker 6: Who are participating in the treatment plan development process.
Speaker 2: So do you do you have children?
Speaker 5: I have one son. He is in third grade.
Speaker 6: He's doing well, and so yeah, you know you asked
Speaker 6: about medicines. He's had to take medication and so you know,
Speaker 6: I've seen where he has been weaned off medicine. So
Speaker 6: I know that not only us from the role of
Speaker 6: the the.
Speaker 5: Therapists and as a person who's who's.
Speaker 6: Participated in the development of treatment blends, but the one
Speaker 6: who as a parent of a child who's had to
Speaker 6: take medicine. Specifically in this case for ADHD is one
Speaker 6: of his his concern, not his special need, but that's
Speaker 6: he's also ADHD.
Speaker 1: The ADHD. They didn't have ADHD. That's what I had.
Speaker 1: We all like, I had.
Speaker 3: ADHD and it was undiagnosed. And by the way, or
Speaker 3: half of my cousins have it too. And I say
Speaker 3: had because we still today have issues where people suffer
Speaker 3: from hypertension or hyper whatever activity and not being able
Speaker 3: to focus and all of that. But they've never And
Speaker 3: if you would have tried to tell our parents that
Speaker 3: we had something called ADHD, they would have said, I'm
Speaker 3: on ADHD, your ass, that's what I'm going yep, yep, yep,
Speaker 3: you know, and they would not have even tried to learn.
Speaker 1: You had to come out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you had to come You had to be born
Speaker 3: and lived with something that was so far on the spectrum,
Speaker 3: like you had to have a you couldn't talk or
Speaker 3: you looked a certain way that it was clear that
Speaker 3: there was an issue for them to actually engage in
Speaker 3: trying to figure out a mental health plan or any
Speaker 3: kind of plan, a medical plan. But to for you
Speaker 3: to just tell a parent of our time that the
Speaker 3: kid had ADHD and they were functioning and could sing, knew.
Speaker 1: The songs, could you do all this stuff?
Speaker 3: They were like, man, I don't yeah, yeah, yeah, you know.
Speaker 6: And the thing is what happens because and it's still
Speaker 6: happening today when when children are not diagnosed, what you
Speaker 6: see is that they're mislabeled as problem children. You know
Speaker 6: they're they're you know they're because it interferes with how
Speaker 6: you learn. And so you see children who are being
Speaker 6: classified as having learning disorders, or you see children who
Speaker 6: are misclassified as emotional behavioral disorder, which it takes. It's
Speaker 6: a it's a pipeline in a lot of senses to
Speaker 6: to the juvenile justice system in many schools, and so
Speaker 6: it's really important for us to be open to having
Speaker 6: our children assessed. If we if we if if if
Speaker 6: someone has approached us with what they see from their
Speaker 6: professional lens and so not just to cut them off,
Speaker 6: then you're right.
Speaker 5: There was a there was.
Speaker 6: A point in time, and it's still persists today, particularly
Speaker 6: in some segments of our population where some parents are
Speaker 6: not trying to hear it. And then there's a whole
Speaker 6: other side of the population that wants to get their
Speaker 6: kids what's called a crazy check.
Speaker 5: So you know, it's it's there's a dichotomy.
Speaker 3: My son, I didn't mean to cut you because I
Speaker 3: know you had a point, but doctor Joseph as a
Speaker 3: Caribbean woman, would you say that in the Caribbean community specifically,
Speaker 3: there are those issues where there are people who don't
Speaker 3: want to hear it. Absolutely, absolutely, But j Maican came
Speaker 3: out all the way.
Speaker 5: It's it's true.
Speaker 1: It's none wrong.
Speaker 2: No, no, my dumb son, It's like, yeah, it's like.
Speaker 5: Well, I'm deal, but it's it's it's so true, and
Speaker 5: it's it's it's a problem.
Speaker 4: You want to ask two questions because I know we
Speaker 4: have to go so the two things that won't ask.
Speaker 4: Do you think because what it seems to me is
Speaker 4: what I've been hearing is that there are mainly black
Speaker 4: boys being diagnosed with ADHD. A lot of I think,
Speaker 4: are we over diagnosed with it? Is it proper or
Speaker 4: every are they just over using just the term? And
Speaker 4: two the stigma that's around mental health with.
Speaker 2: Just black men period. Yeah.
Speaker 4: No, do you have like any advice how do we
Speaker 4: get black men to just want to open up, want
Speaker 4: to just talk about the things that they're dealing with
Speaker 4: because a lot of us, like as a young man,
Speaker 4: I was taught that we were supposed to just deal
Speaker 4: with what we had to deal with, you know, Nobody
Speaker 4: wants to hear you crying.
Speaker 2: Nobody wants all of that. So what is it?
Speaker 5: I think, And I'll start with that question first. I
Speaker 5: think that it's.
Speaker 6: Up to us, those who are in the process of
Speaker 6: raising black boys, to this is where prospectively, we can
Speaker 6: do something where we're not.
Speaker 5: We can choose today to.
Speaker 6: Allow our children, particularly and it's for girls too. But
Speaker 6: you ask a question about black males, but for black
Speaker 6: boys to be able to articulate how they're feeling without censoring.
Speaker 6: A lot of times we are expected to be robotic,
Speaker 6: like we are only expected to only a small range
Speaker 6: of emotions is viewed as acceptable. Anything outside of that
Speaker 6: is we And what we're doing is setting up our
Speaker 6: children to become men who, first of all, don't have
Speaker 6: the language to communicate what they're experiencing, because that's half
Speaker 6: of it.
Speaker 5: We don't have the emotional.
Speaker 6: Vocabulary to talk about what we're feeling. And I think
Speaker 6: it starts there to help our children to identify what
Speaker 6: is it this, This is anger and to recognize anger
Speaker 6: is not there's nothing wrong with anger, it's how we
Speaker 6: respond to that anger and.
Speaker 5: That we we don't we don't do.
Speaker 6: Well with with helping our children to recognize and process
Speaker 6: the difficult emotions they're feeling, and so as children we
Speaker 6: grow up into adulthood with the absence of that emotional intelligence.
Speaker 5: The other question on over.
Speaker 6: Diagnosing, I don't necessarily think that that's a broad problem.
Speaker 6: What has happened is that there's more awareness. Whenever you
Speaker 6: see more awareness, you think that there is that it's
Speaker 6: happening more right. You can some people talk about that,
Speaker 6: you know, in terms of there seems to be a
Speaker 6: lot of violence against like police violence.
Speaker 2: And so on.
Speaker 5: Was it not happening before? Are or do we are
Speaker 5: we now?
Speaker 6: Do we now have an awareness of what has been happening.
Speaker 5: So the same is true.
Speaker 6: With with the diagnostic process with the absence of data.
Speaker 6: You know, I'm a scientist, so you know, questions like that,
Speaker 6: which feels simple, tend to be hard for me to
Speaker 6: understanding the absence of data. I don't necessarily think that
Speaker 6: there's an overdiagnosis. I think there's an increased awareness of
Speaker 6: what the challenges are and now there's a now people
Speaker 6: know what to do in more cases, although we have
Speaker 6: a waste to go.
Speaker 4: So why do you think black males seem to experience
Speaker 4: it more based off.
Speaker 3: The perceive in she says she don't have the day
Speaker 3: she wants you to tell her.
Speaker 1: Where there is a finding.
Speaker 3: That says that that's difference because I'm going to tell
Speaker 3: you something. This is my personal belief, and doctor Joseph,
Speaker 3: we want to let you go, but here's my personal belief.
Speaker 3: I don't think that there's a difference. I think that
Speaker 3: it's on both sides. The issue of ADHD, right, I
Speaker 3: think it's on both sides. I do think that people
Speaker 3: don't necessarily take their children or themselves to the doctor
Speaker 3: to figure these things out. And when you're dealing with boys,
Speaker 3: it can get to be so out of control with
Speaker 3: the school and the calling and the fighting and the whatever,
Speaker 3: that after a while they're forced to go somewhere to
Speaker 3: figure it out and then they tell you it's ADHD.
Speaker 3: Whereas the girls, just because of the nature of us,
Speaker 3: we can kind of control it, like not control it.
Speaker 1: But it's just different.
Speaker 3: The way that it is expressed is not always the
Speaker 3: fighting and the whatever. We might have other things going
Speaker 3: on that don't show up until later, like hypersexuality. We haven't,
Speaker 3: you know, doing things like that, And I think it's
Speaker 3: just that even in the professional field, we just haven't
Speaker 3: wrapped or maybe it's like in a mental health profession, you.
Speaker 1: Haven't wrapped your arms.
Speaker 3: The community hasn't wrapped his arms around how to talk
Speaker 3: about the differences and how these things show up.
Speaker 1: That's what I think is.
Speaker 6: And also it's important to know that sometimes what we
Speaker 6: see as these angry outbursts that are viewed as hyperactive
Speaker 6: are also symptoms of depression and children because it's manifested differently.
Speaker 6: So some of these things. What I would do if
Speaker 6: I were a parent with a child who was experiencing
Speaker 6: some of these challenges in schools would be to speak
Speaker 6: to a professional to get them assessed, not just draw
Speaker 6: the conclusion off the ADHD, but to rule out other
Speaker 6: factors as well.
Speaker 1: Listen, let me just tell you something.
Speaker 3: Listening to you, your vocabulary.
Speaker 1: The way that you speak.
Speaker 3: At ease about these issues, and it's almost like poetry.
Speaker 3: You are truly an incredible, incredible intellectual scientists doctor professional.
Speaker 1: I have been I am intrigued by.
Speaker 3: This conversation and I have been thoroughly educated from you.
Speaker 1: I felt comfortable and you just.
Speaker 3: Have you have a skill set that is lacking in
Speaker 3: your field, even for people who are at the highest levels,
Speaker 3: they are not as graceful and powerful as what you
Speaker 3: have presented to us today.
Speaker 2: My god, you're definitely a jewel.
Speaker 4: We appreciate you. We gotta have you on. You might
Speaker 4: have to be my therapist because on the way that
Speaker 4: you make me feel so comfortable.
Speaker 2: Man, So that's that's one of the things.
Speaker 4: You don't feel comfortable, you can't really express things, So
Speaker 4: I definitely might have to listen.
Speaker 5: So much that that really warmed by heart. I'm brought
Speaker 5: to her to my eyes, I'm truly grateful. If I
Speaker 5: can ever be of support, please let me know. I
Speaker 5: really admire your work.
Speaker 2: Both of you.
Speaker 3: Get people data on him that we need the data
Speaker 3: on my son Lennon that he's got the nerve to
Speaker 3: do this about me. The data is on you you
Speaker 3: if you want to get the data so that you
Speaker 3: can know what's going on in the minds of some people.
Speaker 3: Thank you, doctor Laurence. Doctor Lauren Joseph's a social and
Speaker 3: behavioral scientist. Give black women their credit and their flowers.
Speaker 3: I appreciate you so much for joining us today. Follow her,
Speaker 3: check her out, Listen to the jewels that this woman
Speaker 3: is dropping on us.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: It's mental health awareness monk, y'all. It's an important month.
Speaker 3: It's a time not to fix all of your issues,
Speaker 3: not to know it all, but to get in touch
Speaker 3: and in tune with what's going on within and figure
Speaker 3: out a plan for where and how to go forward.
Speaker 1: Thank you, doctor Joseph.
Speaker 5: Thank you my pleasure.
Speaker 4: Oh man, Doctor Joseph is amazing. You know, like you said,
Speaker 4: she is eloquent, she is learned. She is an expert,
Speaker 4: and you can tell that she you know, she is
Speaker 4: very well versed in her field. She's taking the time,
Speaker 4: and she just has the energy and demeanor that's necessary
Speaker 4: to be a psychotherapist.
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm, Yes, she has it.
Speaker 4: Anybody don't. She just makes you feel comfortable. She just
Speaker 4: has an energy you know, doesn't feel judgmental. It's it
Speaker 4: feels welcoming, you know, and.
Speaker 1: It's don't she's a serious Jamaican woman.
Speaker 2: Mine. Yes, you can tell she has a good and
Speaker 2: she got a void, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: She's a little cute to that ding. You know, you
Speaker 4: gotta you gotta have all the things you need the thing.
Speaker 4: You gotta have the thing.
Speaker 1: Go ahead on, doctor Joseph.
Speaker 4: Man so my I don't get it is completely off
Speaker 4: the record. I've been dealing with a lot of different things.
Speaker 2: You know. I take my criticism. I deal with certain things.
Speaker 2: You know. I'm a person that comes have a certain background.
Speaker 2: So look, I.
Speaker 4: Come from the streets, you know, and I'm a rapper.
Speaker 4: I started out as a hip hop artist. I'm competitive,
Speaker 4: I played basketball, I am a warrior.
Speaker 2: I box.
Speaker 4: So this is the nature that I come to spirit,
Speaker 4: that I come to this space with. You know, when
Speaker 4: I entered into the space of activism and civil rights
Speaker 4: is because I wanted the voice of people like me
Speaker 4: to be heard. I didn't see what it is that
Speaker 4: I represented in this movement. I didn't see somebody who
Speaker 4: had an edge from hip hop, who had an edge
Speaker 4: from the streets, who was in tune, was formerly incarcerated,
Speaker 4: who had so many different elements that I didn't feel
Speaker 4: was represented in this movement. So when I got into
Speaker 4: it at first, I didn't feel welcomed. You know, I
Speaker 4: didn't feel like it was even a place for me
Speaker 4: because I wasn't I didn't have the language that people had.
Speaker 4: I wasn't learned in certain areas, and I didn't look
Speaker 4: the same you know. So throughout the years, I believe
Speaker 4: that I've created my own space here, you know, I've
Speaker 4: created my space where the people that I represent field represented.
Speaker 4: There's people that's from the hood that you would never
Speaker 4: I don't like to say the hood no more the neighborhood,
Speaker 4: because we took the neighbor out of the hoood and
Speaker 4: that's where the disconnect came. Some people from the neighborhood
Speaker 4: who you never would have seen in the movement or
Speaker 4: never even thought about it, say that I've brought them
Speaker 4: to the movement. And they have voices, and they in
Speaker 4: hip hop, and they in the strip clubs, and you know,
Speaker 4: and they're still evolving, you know, some of them haven't
Speaker 4: evolved all the way to where they're all the way righteous,
Speaker 4: but they're moving into that realm, you know. And so
Speaker 4: I speak on things in the culture of the streets,
Speaker 4: you know, and and it seems to bother people. And
Speaker 4: what I don't get is me speaking on issues you
Speaker 4: know that like especially snitching. Snitching for me, like I
Speaker 4: said all the time, it's something about integrity. It's not
Speaker 4: about a street thing, it's not about criminality. It's about
Speaker 4: a man being able to deal with the accountability of
Speaker 4: his own actions, a man making decisions, whether they're right
Speaker 4: or wrong, and being able to deal with those consequences. So,
Speaker 4: you know, over the last week or probably two, there's
Speaker 4: been you know, I've been going, I've had.
Speaker 2: A situation and which I've chose the address.
Speaker 4: Normally, I've been ignoring it because for years there's been
Speaker 4: this you know, this individual, Roland Collins, who's been attacking
Speaker 4: me and saying things about me, and and the history
Speaker 4: of it goes I'm not gonna get into the history
Speaker 4: of it, but you know where the history comes.
Speaker 2: From, you know, years ago. But now it's resurface.
Speaker 4: He's finally went to court and you know, he's testified
Speaker 4: at the trial, which I have no issue with. All
Speaker 4: I wanted, what I made a statement about was the
Speaker 4: lack of being willing to deal with accountability. You know,
Speaker 4: I wanted people to understand that in the streets there
Speaker 4: are consequences. And the people saying, you can't say that
Speaker 4: you boycomm black murder, but you against snitcher, and I'm like,
Speaker 4: well I can because what happens is in snitching, there
Speaker 4: are two people who are guilty of crimes. Right, That's
Speaker 4: the street element means when you snitch that you are
Speaker 4: more people that are guilty of crimes, sometimes just you, right,
Speaker 4: So what happens is the person who is the snitch
Speaker 4: is also guilty of crimes and have committed crimes, but
Speaker 4: since they don't want to be held accountable for what
Speaker 4: it is they've done, they tell on someone else so
Speaker 4: that they're held accountable. So my thing is who tells
Speaker 4: on the stitch, and the stitch is the most low
Speaker 4: level individual, because the snitch not only tells on an
Speaker 4: individual to get out of the crimes, they also go
Speaker 4: back to the communities and repeat those same crimes and
Speaker 4: influence people to continue on the crimes. So you're not
Speaker 4: really saving the community. You're not stopping anything from happening
Speaker 4: when you glorify the snitch, like for example, sam Me
Speaker 4: the Bull told on John Gotti. Sam Me the Bull
Speaker 4: was actually more of a dangerous person than John Gotty was.
Speaker 4: John Gotty was divorced, but sad me to good. Bull
Speaker 4: actually took more lives in his time than John Gotti did,
Speaker 4: but he was able to go and live his life
Speaker 4: after John Gotti died in prison and come back out
Speaker 4: to society and commit more crimes and engage in more
Speaker 4: crimes and get more people to do more crimes. And
Speaker 4: so you not stopping crimes by supporting snitching. If we
Speaker 4: acknowledge that the snitch, if we stop rewarding snitches for
Speaker 4: being weak and they still had to deal with their consequences,
Speaker 4: then you will see less crimes.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: You will see that if the snitch understood I can't
Speaker 4: get away from this by telling on somebody else, I
Speaker 4: should I just shouldn't do it. I'm not gonna be
Speaker 4: involved in the streets because I'm gonna want to do
Speaker 4: forty or fifty years.
Speaker 2: There's no escape route for me.
Speaker 4: Right, you will see a lot less people engaging when
Speaker 4: when there's real accountability in something, then you would see
Speaker 4: more people saying I don't want to deal with those
Speaker 4: consequences and whatever I tell people all the time. I'm
Speaker 4: not saying that crime is good, right, I'm not saying
Speaker 4: that I'm for a crime. But I respect a man
Speaker 4: who's made a mistake and made a decision. Some of
Speaker 4: us in the streets, you've made decisions and you've committed
Speaker 4: crimes out of desperation. You made you know, you felt
Speaker 4: like you didn't have anywhere out. You might have been
Speaker 4: defending yourself and you had to deal with those consequences.
Speaker 4: And when you sat down and you did your time
Speaker 4: as a man, you thought about it, you came home
Speaker 4: and you informed yourself, and you moved on.
Speaker 2: Those are honorable individuals. To me. Some people think that.
Speaker 4: If you ever committed a crime that you know you lost,
Speaker 4: you lost your honor and can't be honorable.
Speaker 2: I don't believe that, you know, I just don't.
Speaker 4: I don't believe that narrative and I will never believe
Speaker 4: that narrative. So I am so confused and why people
Speaker 4: think that there's an issue for me, as an activist
Speaker 4: and someone who is a hip hop artist to confront
Speaker 4: things that I believe is detrimental to this culture.
Speaker 2: In a hip hop form or even speaking on it.
Speaker 4: I don't glorify negativity, but at the end of the day,
Speaker 4: I'm a warrior.
Speaker 2: I'm a competitive spirit, so I don't want violence for nobody.
Speaker 4: I'm not going to get into no physical altercation Roller.
Speaker 2: I don't want to see that man dead.
Speaker 4: But I know you can't outrap me, and I know
Speaker 4: the message that you spread in this detrimental to these babies.
Speaker 2: So I'm going to dispute your message. I'm going to.
Speaker 4: Refute it, and I'm going to outrap you on it,
Speaker 4: and I'm going to bring people to the cause and
Speaker 4: show them what just looks like.
Speaker 2: What righteousness looks like, what real looks like.
Speaker 4: So if people have I don't understand why people have
Speaker 4: a problem with that.
Speaker 2: I really don't.
Speaker 4: I never let me sit finish when I've never portrayed
Speaker 4: myself to be Martin Luther King. I'm not Malcolm X.
Speaker 4: But I know that Malcolm X called out a lot
Speaker 4: of leaders he by name. He called them fake, this, this,
Speaker 4: and that y'all leading our people. He literally said that,
Speaker 4: I've watched a lot of these leaders that you talk about.
Speaker 4: They have called out other leaders because they felt that
Speaker 4: the message that they had was detrimental to our people.
Speaker 4: That we've had debates with the biggest scholars, have sat
Speaker 4: on stages and disputed against other scholars who who were
Speaker 4: just as you know, and they were positive people. When
Speaker 4: I think that something that's detrimental or negative, I believe
Speaker 4: that it is my duty, as a worry of God
Speaker 4: to speak up against that. I believe that's my purpose,
Speaker 4: that's my calling. It's not everybody's calling. Everybody's not gonna
Speaker 4: get it, just like I don't get everybody else's calling.
Speaker 2: I don't get why people.
Speaker 4: Talk about certain shit that I don't care about or
Speaker 4: I think doesn't make sense. But every individual has his
Speaker 4: own road to travel. And every time that I feel
Speaker 4: that something is detrimental to the kids and the communities
Speaker 4: that I come from, or somebody is perpetuated a lifestyle
Speaker 4: or narrative a reality that's detrimental to them, I'm going
Speaker 4: to speak up.
Speaker 3: So I don't have much to say on that, because
Speaker 3: I think it's good that you made this point, because
Speaker 3: there are a lot of people who, which is my point,
Speaker 3: don't understand. Sometimes I don't understand until we have conversations.
Speaker 3: In this situation, I do understand. And by the way,
Speaker 3: I also am a child of hip hop, and I
Speaker 3: know how hip hop is supposed to work. You are
Speaker 3: supposed to have and sometimes and I guess since I
Speaker 3: come from a family, I was just with my family
Speaker 3: recently when my cousin died, you know, and.
Speaker 1: One of the things, like, even in the middle of a.
Speaker 3: Traumatic situation, we were snapping on each other, like you
Speaker 3: walk right in, like don't even come in here with
Speaker 3: that crime because you know, you know you pitif your
Speaker 3: nose to snotty?
Speaker 1: What's wrong with your stomach? You too fat.
Speaker 3: My cousin is wilch Bound, the one who passed away
Speaker 3: his brother who many people who've been to my birthdays
Speaker 3: and seen pictures of me. That's one of my closest cousins.
Speaker 3: He's wheelchair bound since he was a child forty something
Speaker 3: years old, never been able to use anything from his
Speaker 3: neck down, and we still be asking him like, so what.
Speaker 2: You're gonna do.
Speaker 1: You're gonna get up, like you're gonna fight us, like
Speaker 1: what are you gonna do? Right?
Speaker 3: Which he actually will bite you, so you gotta be
Speaker 3: careful and his kick is no joke. But I come
Speaker 3: from a snapping culture, and the shit it don't feel good.
Speaker 3: Sometimes it kind of normalized things to make you not
Speaker 3: feel so bad about it because you got hit by
Speaker 3: your own which meant that later on when people said
Speaker 3: the things to you outside and didn't feel as bad.
Speaker 3: And sometimes it was things that might have hurt your feelings,
Speaker 3: it made you want to fight, like you just be mad.
Speaker 3: So I guess because I come from that, I don't
Speaker 3: see the battle of rappers or entertainers or the competence
Speaker 3: as such a bad thing.
Speaker 1: So I don't get as.
Speaker 3: Sensitive about those things because you know, when I don't
Speaker 3: like something, I'm on you like mice.
Speaker 1: I don't think you need to be doing this, this
Speaker 1: and the third.
Speaker 3: And we all need people that's in our corner to
Speaker 3: pull our coattel when we're.
Speaker 1: Traveling too far down one road to the other.
Speaker 3: The only thing that I have said to you is
Speaker 3: that because there are so people that they don't come
Speaker 3: from those backgrounds either, they don't understand. They hear snitching
Speaker 3: and they think about violence that's going on, and they
Speaker 3: want the killers, the murderers to you know, be caught
Speaker 3: or be exposed. When what you're saying is very different.
Speaker 3: It's a point that has to be constantly reinforced that
Speaker 3: if people believe I can go out rob a bank, rob.
Speaker 1: People, shoe kill, scam.
Speaker 3: Do whatever, and all I have to do is tell
Speaker 3: on somebody else or give up a bigger or more
Speaker 3: or a criminal that is more of a person of
Speaker 3: interest or whatever in order to reduce my time. It
Speaker 3: does not make it does not deter me from doing
Speaker 3: the negative action. That is something that is very clear.
Speaker 3: So it is not to say, you know, if you
Speaker 3: if you're out there and you doing dirt, then just
Speaker 3: keep your dirty yourself and let another man walk free
Speaker 3: or whatever or however you want to say. It's not
Speaker 3: a glorification of violence. But it is to say, which
Speaker 3: I hear you say all the time. Crime does not pay,
Speaker 3: and we cannot create a lane of just telling on
Speaker 3: somebody else, which makes it the crime that you committed.
Speaker 3: Either go away or be lessened so you feel more
Speaker 3: comfortable participating in such crime.
Speaker 1: I get it. So I just want it to be
Speaker 1: clear because people who have called me and like, yo,
Speaker 1: what is my doing?
Speaker 3: I can't believe in you gotta da da da da
Speaker 3: da da da and they and sometimes they get a
Speaker 3: rise on of me.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I call them.
Speaker 3: I've called you many times, like you gotta call your
Speaker 3: brother because I can't talk to him. He's not listening
Speaker 3: to me, and da da da da dah. Sometimes he's
Speaker 3: like I'm with him on this one. Sometimes he's like, now, okay,
Speaker 3: I might say something, so either way, right, we need
Speaker 3: a kitchen cabinet of people that provide guardrails.
Speaker 1: For when we are so deeply.
Speaker 3: Engaged in something we believe in that we start losing
Speaker 3: the message. Let me put that out there, so folks
Speaker 3: already know in this situation we wanted to I'm with you.
Speaker 3: Some of it was funny, some of it was necessary.
Speaker 3: All of it has been educational on one way or
Speaker 3: the other. The question becomes what's next and what is
Speaker 3: the evolution from the point where we are, because sometimes
Speaker 3: the people we're leading don't understand that it needs to
Speaker 3: stay in the place where it started, and they've become
Speaker 3: engaged in something that travels beyond what we're actually looking
Speaker 3: to do.
Speaker 1: So that's the question that we all have to ask ourselves.
Speaker 3: It's not something we get to answer today or tomorrow,
Speaker 3: but it is something that goes on.
Speaker 1: I never forget one after I told you.
Speaker 3: About a member of an elected official who had done
Speaker 3: something to me, pissed me off, whatever. So the elected
Speaker 3: official comes in the room to speak in front of
Speaker 3: an event and you lean over to me and go
Speaker 3: like it make us stay m not even gonna say
Speaker 3: what you said about this elected official, but I was
Speaker 3: kind of like over it, but to mere fact that
Speaker 3: I had told you about it, and you know, the
Speaker 3: shit she did with some bullshit that you reminded me
Speaker 3: again in the moment, and I laugh to myself that
Speaker 3: when you tell your people who love you how you
Speaker 3: feel about something and they see that it hurt you
Speaker 3: or to upset you, or even they take it personal, you.
Speaker 1: Don't even care.
Speaker 3: Right, they can take things to a place that their
Speaker 3: emotions are not where yours are.
Speaker 1: So that's the question.
Speaker 4: I think for me, is that I understand that right,
Speaker 4: And that's why I respond in a man that I do.
Speaker 2: I don't. I don't respond with.
Speaker 4: Disrespecting your family, you calling me names and talking about
Speaker 4: my mother who's passed away, and saying my whole family
Speaker 4: can do this, and that. I don't respond with those things.
Speaker 4: I don't because that's I don't. I don't do that.
Speaker 4: What I do is deal with the facts, and I
Speaker 4: want to educate you, and I want you to know
Speaker 4: every time that you're not my enemy.
Speaker 2: I want you to know that I'm not trying to
Speaker 2: kill you.
Speaker 4: I'm not beefing with you. I'm not gonna shoot you.
Speaker 4: You know, I'm none of those things is there. But
Speaker 4: I'm not going to allow you to spread a message
Speaker 4: or send a narrative that's not real.
Speaker 2: And I'm and I'm willing to stand on that. You
Speaker 2: understand I'm saying.
Speaker 4: So when I respond that way, it gives it takes
Speaker 4: some of the pressure because what happens is now the
Speaker 4: people who love me see, okay, my fighting back. We
Speaker 4: don't gotta fight for mice, right. Mice is strategically fighting back.
Speaker 4: He's just not fighting the way they fight because he's
Speaker 4: bigger than that. I'm not gonna fight that. So the
Speaker 4: next DAYE for me. It's my book, Raising Kings, the
Speaker 4: twelve Principles of Manhood. It shows what manhood is, it
Speaker 4: shows how what de escalated this is. This is a
Speaker 4: master class. And we can have debates, we can have disagreements.
Speaker 4: I still don't want to kill you, right, And we
Speaker 4: cannot like each other. We cannot even want to be
Speaker 4: around each other. We don't have to all get along
Speaker 4: and we can disagree, but we ain't got to kill
Speaker 4: each other.
Speaker 2: I don't want to kill you.
Speaker 4: I could really, I can actually not like you and
Speaker 4: don't want you dead. That's what I want you to
Speaker 4: move me. I literally just don't. I don't agree with
Speaker 4: nothing about the man. I really don't like him, but
Speaker 4: I don't want to see nothing happen to I don't
Speaker 4: want him to get nobody else hurt though, right because
Speaker 4: he came back out of here and he's continuing the
Speaker 4: same cycle, and he's grabbing friends that I know, people
Speaker 4: that I love who not as far removed from the
Speaker 4: streets as I am. You understand saying, and I know
Speaker 4: how this can end up. So me, I have to
Speaker 4: talk to them. I have to have conversations with them
Speaker 4: and talk them out of things of that nature. I
Speaker 4: have to talk my friends and family like, NA, we're
Speaker 4: not doing that. We're bigger than that, but we're not
Speaker 4: gonna let this message go.
Speaker 2: We're not scared, no smoke when it comes to this rap.
Speaker 3: But that's but that is why it is also important
Speaker 3: to recognize that you know, the thing, the thing, my son,
Speaker 3: that I've learned in life, which is a painful lesson.
Speaker 3: And it's not just a painful lesson, but it's been
Speaker 3: the conflict of my my entire existence, uh doing this
Speaker 3: thing or being labeled as a leader, which is a
Speaker 3: high honor to me. It's a high honor and sometimes
Speaker 3: a tall order. And the thing that I have recognized
Speaker 3: is that oftentimes what I want.
Speaker 1: To do and even what I think is.
Speaker 3: The right thing to do has to be adjusted because
Speaker 3: I'm now in a position where I'm speaking to the
Speaker 3: whole and not the feure. And so as a leader,
Speaker 3: my only advice to you, right in front of the
Speaker 3: the the world of street politicians that listen to me,
Speaker 3: is that everything we do as humans has a least
Speaker 3: a little bit of ego driven ness to it. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and so and and and ego is important because ego
Speaker 3: is the thing. Right when people try to say ego
Speaker 3: is all bad, it's not. My old boss, Reverend Sharpton,
Speaker 3: used to tell me that ego sometimes is the thing
Speaker 3: that helps you get up and be courageous enough and
Speaker 3: bold enough to speak out when you're when you're shaking
Speaker 3: in your boots. But your ego says, oh, so and
Speaker 3: so ain't gonna speak better than me, or you know,
Speaker 3: they not gonna try to look like I don't know
Speaker 3: the issues and can't step to the mic. But that
Speaker 3: same ego has to be examined on the other side.
Speaker 3: So you just have to always walk that line. And
Speaker 3: so and to your point, you said, the most powerful thing.
Speaker 3: Every man and woman has to walk their own path
Speaker 3: and their own journey.
Speaker 1: So that's it.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying. Look, I ain't got nothing
Speaker 4: else to say. Man, We done say it all. Integrity
Speaker 4: over income. We outside man. Thank y'all Street Politicians for
Speaker 4: supporting us. Shout out to Lauren Joseph for being here. Doctor,
Speaker 4: Doctor Lauren Joseph, the immaculate Yes psychotherapists that was here
Speaker 4: with us today. She is amazing. Look her up, follow her.
Speaker 4: She's amazing. Shout out to the Street politicians. Family will
Speaker 4: continue to support us, you know, for letting us know
Speaker 4: that you love us, letting us know what you don't like.
Speaker 4: Continue to do that his story Politicians, give us some ideas.
Speaker 4: Who you want to see on the show, what you
Speaker 4: want to see us talk about number one show in
Speaker 4: the whirlwind.
Speaker 2: We appreciate y'all for making us some more.
Speaker 4: We're keeping us some more again. I'm not gonna always
Speaker 4: be right, but I was right today, Tamiga d Malories.
Speaker 4: I can always be wrong. We will both always and
Speaker 4: I mean always, be authentic.
Speaker 3: Listen to Street Politicians on the Black Effect Network on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 4: And catch us every single Wednesday for the video version
Speaker 4: of Street Politicians on eyewomen dot TV.
Speaker 2: That's how