Speaker 1: Calls media.
Speaker 2: All right, if you knew here, you know this isn't
Speaker 2: normally how we move. This is going to be a
Speaker 2: vastly different episode, kind of like I'm gonna get a
Speaker 2: little meta, you know, pull pull the curtain back, not
Speaker 2: just sort of like do what we normally do, which
Speaker 2: is like, you know, translate politics to the lingo that you.
Speaker 3: And I talk.
Speaker 2: And it's also like so close to the election to
Speaker 2: just let me just pause for a second, because god
Speaker 2: dog has been a year now. If you're not into
Speaker 2: none of the meta stuff, you want to get back
Speaker 2: to the Blase black woo wool and shall skip this one.
Speaker 2: It's all good, but I'm gonna keep it the buck
Speaker 2: with y'all today.
Speaker 3: Hood politics, y'all.
Speaker 2: All right, first ever into the politics history trigger warning.
Speaker 3: I don't know why I never thought about.
Speaker 2: Ever doing these, because I figure y'all knew what y'all
Speaker 2: signing up for you. So you're gonna hear some hard
Speaker 2: r in words in this episode, but also a lot
Speaker 2: of West Coast representative because I mean, what a glorious
Speaker 2: time to be from California. We got the Doyers in
Speaker 2: the in the super Bowl. The Lakers are actually winning games.
Speaker 2: Shout out JJ, thank you so much, you actually call
Speaker 2: timeouts like this is glorious. Brownie's gonna go to the
Speaker 2: G League because he does not belong on the You
Speaker 2: did it, you did it, You did your thing. You
Speaker 2: guys played together.
Speaker 3: It was cool.
Speaker 2: Now let the boy become a pro at the pace
Speaker 2: he needs to become a pro. Anyway, we had the
Speaker 2: east Side Classic with which is the two East LA
Speaker 2: Boyle Heights schools, the Boyle Height schools called Roosevelt High,
Speaker 2: which is where will I am went to, which is
Speaker 2: the neighborhood I live in. And then you have the
Speaker 2: East LA school Garfield High. Now, if you saw Stand
Speaker 2: and Deliver with ever James almost you got ganas that
Speaker 2: took place at Garfield High. So the east Side Classic
Speaker 2: is just a legendary tradition between the two Torolo schools
Speaker 2: in on the East side of LA. And that happened
Speaker 2: the same night that the Dodgers was Game one in
Speaker 2: the World Series, the same night the Lakers played, which
Speaker 2: was the same night that USC played, which was the
Speaker 2: same night that the Forum and SOFI and the Hollywood
Speaker 2: Bowl all had concerts going on probably the worst traffic
Speaker 2: day in history but I tell you what. We hit
Speaker 2: a trifecta Lakers one, Dodgers won USC one. But the
Speaker 2: beauty is the fact that we won against the Yankees.
Speaker 2: I mean, can you just it? Can it be more?
Speaker 2: Can it be a Can this be a more beautiful moment? America?
Speaker 2: This is your gift La versus New York Tims versus Chucks,
Speaker 2: the Air Force Ones versus Cortes, I'll be cool versus
Speaker 2: what's aft fool like bacon, egg and cheese versus tacos? Like,
Speaker 2: come on, can anything be more American than this? And
Speaker 2: I have this haunting feeling that this was God's gift
Speaker 2: to us to have some sort of joy before this
Speaker 2: election goes off a week I think away from electing
Speaker 2: a new president. And I'm not gonna hold you. I'm
Speaker 2: feeling nervous, not so much about the election, but what
Speaker 2: the election implies and how the rest of the holiday
Speaker 2: season is gonna go. I already feel my lizard brain,
Speaker 2: my fight or flight getting activated, and part of that
Speaker 2: came from this situation.
Speaker 3: Last week.
Speaker 2: I think it was Wednesday, I took the train up
Speaker 2: to Universal Studios like Believe or Not, Like I live
Speaker 2: in East Lost, mostly off from Cali that listen to
Speaker 2: this show anyway. So took the train from East Los
Speaker 2: E Line to you can take the E Line to
Speaker 2: seventh Metro and then you take that whether.
Speaker 3: You take that to the B.
Speaker 2: Right that goes north and it gets off on at
Speaker 2: Universal Studios to meet one of my homeboys, who was
Speaker 2: Mihaomie L. Craig, who was having a little studio sessh
Speaker 2: you know, which is like my usual. He's in town,
Speaker 2: go see the homie. You know what I'm saying. Listen
Speaker 2: to pick out beast bug out like that's my dog's
Speaker 2: There's a cool thing about being friends with musicians, like
Speaker 2: whenever they're in town because I need the same thing.
Speaker 2: Like whenever I'm in town, like there's a few hommies
Speaker 2: I I tap in with that.
Speaker 3: I'm like, what's up.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to you know, trying to see what's up,
Speaker 2: and most of the time they'll drop what they're doing
Speaker 2: to make sure that I'm having a good time in
Speaker 2: the city. I try to do the same for them.
Speaker 2: So world up there, we took a break to do
Speaker 2: the blackest thing ever was you know, walk to the
Speaker 2: liquor stuff. But we knew we the new version black dudes,
Speaker 2: because we both got cambouches, you know.
Speaker 3: Anyway, I mean, this is North Hollywood. We're on Kuwanga, like.
Speaker 2: This is across the street, across the freeway from Universal Studios.
Speaker 2: It's like there's just mansions behind us, like it's it's
Speaker 2: North Hollywood. And as we're walking, what I thought was
Speaker 2: like one of those like Kia little SUVs, but what
Speaker 2: Chray saw as like a Lexus suv. We hear top
Speaker 2: their lungs fucking nigger as the guy drives by. And
Speaker 2: I've been called a nigger before, but like and it's
Speaker 2: always like the drive by niggering, like nobody ever really
Speaker 2: want to smoke.
Speaker 3: And for a second, it took me a second to
Speaker 3: register of what happened.
Speaker 2: Because I thought, sometimes you know, when people do to
Speaker 2: drive by yelling, you can't really tell exactly what they
Speaker 2: were saying. But then you started figuring it out and
Speaker 2: you're like, I was like, yo, did he just then
Speaker 2: you're looking at this where we are. This is North Hollywood.
Speaker 2: This is North Hollywood, like what we're street from Universal Studios?
Speaker 2: The hell is happening? I'm just bewildered. Craig completely goes
Speaker 2: into fight mode. Now, at some point I thought maybe
Speaker 2: maybe it was one of the homies who was just
Speaker 2: being stupid and was gonna pull into gas station and
Speaker 2: then jump out and be like, man, you know, I
Speaker 2: thought like it was just gonna be some joke, but like,
Speaker 2: that's not funny, boy, as you almost got stomped out
Speaker 2: right now.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: But no, of course coward keeps on to the freeway
Speaker 2: entrance and drives off. And I don't know what in that,
Speaker 2: first of all, what you're doing in this part of
Speaker 2: town to be able to say something like that. We
Speaker 2: started to see who was playing at the Greek Theater?
Speaker 2: Who at the Who's at the Hollywood Bowl? It was
Speaker 2: apparently it was an imagine Dragon's concert happening there. Hopefully
Speaker 2: that wasn't one of y'all fans. I just we just
Speaker 2: couldn't figure out, like, who in the hell would.
Speaker 3: Be that bowl? And why why are you that bold?
Speaker 3: Why now? Man?
Speaker 2: And then to end this week with I just something
Speaker 2: that can't I'm trying not to describe this thing as
Speaker 2: a clan rally. It's just so hard to not see
Speaker 2: it as such. The last few your your closing arguments
Speaker 2: as a candidate for presidency, This this rally at Madison
Speaker 2: Square Garden, which normally is like, look, man, that's their thing,
Speaker 2: Trump being Trump, y'all like that. It's not my cup
Speaker 2: of tea at I don't understand what y'all see in him,
Speaker 2: but it is what it is. This one was just man,
Speaker 2: this one got to me. And then you couple that
Speaker 2: with my Lord just auntie, Like, why can't you just
Speaker 2: why is this God's a thing so hard for you?
Speaker 2: Why can't you just how come you can't just like
Speaker 2: what you got yourself to say that Trump's are fascists.
Speaker 2: I just don't understand why you can't why I do understand,
Speaker 2: but God, dog is so why can't you just denounce
Speaker 2: this war? Why can't you just why can't you just
Speaker 2: promise you gonna divest? Like what who got like who
Speaker 2: got your mama tied up? So that you can't say
Speaker 2: what we all know you need to say. Oh and
Speaker 2: you know what else, homie, This little Dirk thing, you know,
Speaker 2: he's facing murder charges off, a murder for hire, this
Speaker 2: drill music stuff like I've never like like these kids
Speaker 2: is dying and going to prison and just it's a
Speaker 2: great article in Rolling Stones.
Speaker 3: No the Rolling Stone. That's what the bar magazine is called.
Speaker 2: By andre g I got put onto and by the
Speaker 2: Homi ray Neutron and incredible visual artists about just drill music.
Speaker 3: Drill rap is truly.
Speaker 2: A dead end, Like we need to have the conversation
Speaker 2: about this, and it just got me really like, I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm all in my feelings right now, y'all.
Speaker 3: So this episode is just for us.
Speaker 2: I just want to encourage you to take care of yourself.
Speaker 2: So here's some ways that I take care of myself
Speaker 2: and I plan on taking care of myself, and I
Speaker 2: encourage you to do the same. So with this being
Speaker 2: so close to the election, that's no reason to try
Speaker 2: to bring up a whole new topic. Like you know,
Speaker 2: like I said, everybody making their closing arguments and I
Speaker 2: just feel like on the brink of exchange. But the
Speaker 2: thing is like when you grow up poor. Now I
Speaker 2: say this not to like undermine the efforts and the
Speaker 2: success that my parents had in my lifetime, that the
Speaker 2: poverty for which we started in and the poverty that
Speaker 2: was before my time pales in comparison to where we
Speaker 2: ended up. My parents like even when they split, both
Speaker 2: of them really ascended a ladder of financial security.
Speaker 3: That was a lot of ups and.
Speaker 2: Downs in my childhood, like realizing that like we had well,
Speaker 2: you know, it was it was more like instability. It
Speaker 2: would be like, you know, one month we buy in
Speaker 2: like shrimping salmon and lobster is another month it's like
Speaker 2: fried baloney sandwich.
Speaker 3: We just couldn't forget it.
Speaker 2: It just we was never really like cool, which is
Speaker 2: probably why I saved money so well. But I did
Speaker 2: not have it like a lot of my friends or
Speaker 2: even Alma had it, you know, first immigrant, you know, textiles,
Speaker 2: sweat sweatshop, you know, or Mama worked in like they
Speaker 2: had it worse than us as far as like socioeconomically.
Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, the point I'm
Speaker 2: trying to make is a lot of times you don't
Speaker 2: know you in the hood till somebody tell you. You don't
Speaker 2: know you poor until somebody pointed out to you somebody
Speaker 2: I forget, like it was a joke running around my
Speaker 2: little social feeds, was like, hey, when did you know
Speaker 2: you were poor?
Speaker 3: Like what was what was the thing for you?
Speaker 2: I could tell you a few the moments for me
Speaker 2: where I realized, like I said, it wasn't that bad
Speaker 2: for us? You know, it could have been worse. I
Speaker 2: think a few things happened with me. One was when
Speaker 2: I had told somebody wherever I was that I was
Speaker 2: going to go to my grandmother's house. And I told
Speaker 2: them where my grandmother lives, you know, at this time,
Speaker 2: seventy thirty San Pedro, you know, south central LA. And
Speaker 2: this was me being out of like not in that
Speaker 2: neighbor hood anymore. We we had moved to San Gebol
Speaker 2: Valley at the time. Who still, I'm like, this is Belinda, Like, y'all,
Speaker 2: it's I'm like, it's bullet holes in our garage door,
Speaker 2: like you know what I'm saying, Like, I don't understand what.
Speaker 3: The issue is, you know.
Speaker 2: So when I told them I was going there, and
Speaker 2: the way that they kind of class they pearls was
Speaker 2: like it was just a little shocking to me because
Speaker 2: I'm like, well, first of all, we used to live there,
Speaker 2: like before we was here.
Speaker 3: Number one, and number two.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I spent my first five years because my
Speaker 2: grandma baby sat us and my cousins and I played
Speaker 2: outside all the time. I don't know what you're talking about, right,
Speaker 2: And then and of course you knew. You know, there
Speaker 2: was Dwayne and Dwight that lived because street I wasn't
Speaker 2: allowed to play with because they was you know, lim
Speaker 2: limo outside than we were, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 2: like and you know the kids down the street, and
Speaker 2: you know, later on, you know, after this experience was
Speaker 2: when I saw my first gun and you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying, like stuff like that, you know, but like
Speaker 2: again you just think it's normal.
Speaker 3: But then I'm like, I don't understand what y'all.
Speaker 2: So was like my grandmother like this old lady, Like shit,
Speaker 2: this is her, she lives there. And then my cousin's
Speaker 2: grandmother lived down the street, you know, on on his
Speaker 2: his father's side of the family. Like they're you know,
Speaker 2: cause I'm related to his mother, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: So like I was like, bro, like this is what
Speaker 2: do you like? This is our name? Why what are
Speaker 2: you talking about? Like it just took threw me off
Speaker 2: kind of like really they were so freaked out that
Speaker 2: I spend my weekends in South Central Like it was
Speaker 2: just it was that shock.
Speaker 3: That was one of the ways.
Speaker 2: Another ways was when I realized my neighbor after the
Speaker 2: neighbors that were there when we moved in, when they
Speaker 2: moved out, that it ended up being a crack house.
Speaker 3: Like I did, didn't.
Speaker 2: I just thought they were camping, like they just didn't
Speaker 2: turn to life cause they just like camping and they
Speaker 2: cooked with candles.
Speaker 3: It was like fun, Like, no, nigga, that's a crack house.
Speaker 2: Like I just I like realize we lived next door
Speaker 2: to a crak I didn't know, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: And then eventually they moved out to and then somebody
Speaker 2: you know, moved into the house and like took care
Speaker 2: of it again.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: But yeah, like stuff like that. When we left the
Speaker 2: San gab Valley, my parents got a tax returned, moved
Speaker 2: to the Inland Empire, and then shortly after my parents
Speaker 2: split and joint custody whatever.
Speaker 3: Right, So uh, but going back to my old neighborhood.
Speaker 2: And seeing that, yeah, our garage door was riddled with bullets.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh my gosh, this house gets shot up.
Speaker 2: And then just realizing like, oh, that's not normal. Everybody
Speaker 2: don't go through that. You feel me like stuff, you know,
Speaker 2: just writing letters to my cousins in jail and putting
Speaker 2: together packages like realizing that that's not like everybody don't
Speaker 2: do that, Like I just I didn't know.
Speaker 3: We went to go have dinner.
Speaker 2: With another one of the families from my church, and
Speaker 2: I remember my dad preparing us like, Okay, now when
Speaker 2: we go to their house, I don't want you acting
Speaker 2: all weird because they house is real, it's a lot
Speaker 2: bigger than ours. I was like, what, I ain't worried
Speaker 2: about they house? Like what are you talking about? And
Speaker 2: then we walked into the house and I was like, god,
Speaker 2: syu'all you have an upstairs and then just like just
Speaker 2: an in ground pool, like just all these like cues that.
Speaker 3: I'm like, Bro, we're like, we're in the same Sunday school.
Speaker 3: I see y'all all the time. That's how y'all live.
Speaker 2: Like just what I'm trying to say is there are
Speaker 2: moments that you don't realize you're in a heightened sense
Speaker 2: of danger, and you just get used to it. So
Speaker 2: we found joy in ways for which we learn to
Speaker 2: take care of ourselves, even living among some very violent
Speaker 2: in neighborhoods and very precarious times.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: I have a lyric in one of my songs what
Speaker 2: I call serp sandwiches, the delicacies of the disadvantage, making
Speaker 2: greatness without anything inside our pockets.
Speaker 3: Understanding that like, yeah, it's a syrup sandwich.
Speaker 2: You know, you ever had a serp sandwich, then you
Speaker 2: probably wasn't poor, you know what I'm saying. I realize
Speaker 2: now like struggle meals for white people as casse role. Now,
Speaker 2: I know, I'd never thought about it like that, Like, oh, y'all,
Speaker 2: just whatever's in the cabinet, you just put it. You
Speaker 2: put it in the thing and make it crunchy on
Speaker 2: top of that cheese. It's fine, It's oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: I was like, I realized, like I'll never eat it,
Speaker 2: But I realize I actually appreciate struggle food.
Speaker 3: I had no idea. I really had no idea.
Speaker 2: But the point is we found joy even in the
Speaker 2: midst of the wildness that we lived in. We found
Speaker 2: ways to find joy. So that's what I want to
Speaker 2: do right now, because I feel like it's about to
Speaker 2: be crazy.
Speaker 1: Find ways to find joy.
Speaker 3: All right now.
Speaker 2: The guiding principal for is that you know, joy is resistance.
Speaker 2: The phrase comes from a poem called Joy is an
Speaker 2: Active Resistance by toy Derricott. She like was born April
Speaker 2: nineteen forty one, professor at a professor of writing at
Speaker 2: the University of Pittsburgh. Now, of course, like all the
Speaker 2: other things that black people make, that we created for
Speaker 2: our survival, ends up getting its teeth taken out of
Speaker 2: it and becomes a platitude, especially in the era of Trump.
Speaker 3: But I'm doing this.
Speaker 2: I'm bringing this up to like refang, like put the
Speaker 2: fangs back into what we're trying to say right now.
Speaker 2: And what that tradition comes out of is if you
Speaker 2: can think back to the songs sang on, plantations, dances,
Speaker 2: created the Chitlin circuit, the creation of blues and jazz, this.
Speaker 3: Is the tradition. The tradition is we are unbreakable.
Speaker 2: We are unbreakable in a way that it sometimes can
Speaker 2: even compound the hate towards us, because even in your
Speaker 2: ability to wield power and stamp us out and segregate,
Speaker 2: once you built that, you, as in the system, built
Speaker 2: this fence to block us in. You looked over into
Speaker 2: the fence and realized we made it work. And now
Speaker 2: you want what we created in there, jazz, blues, hip, hop,
Speaker 2: all of it. So I say that to say when
Speaker 2: I look at videos in Palestine of kids doing parkour,
Speaker 2: skaters skating over rubble. When I see stuff like that,
Speaker 2: hear me because us singing Negro spirituals in the slave
Speaker 2: ships or in the Nigga quarters doesn't mean that.
Speaker 3: That made Chattow slavery.
Speaker 2: Okay, It didn't mean that we didn't stop fighting with
Speaker 2: all of our heart, mind and soul to end that
Speaker 2: type of oppression. I don't mean that at all. It
Speaker 2: just meant that there were parts of us that were untouchable,
Speaker 2: that remained solely belonging to us. And I think this
Speaker 2: is why a lot of times, outside of just the
Speaker 2: continuation of this happening, like why I think a lot
Speaker 2: of times Black people are so protective about their culture
Speaker 2: is because it's like, this is what we create, because
Speaker 2: we're finding joy, you know. So my first thing I
Speaker 2: do is I find things that truly give me joy
Speaker 2: for me, my children. I really enjoy my children. I
Speaker 2: like audio books. A lot of times there are things
Speaker 2: that I have to, you know, learn for this that
Speaker 2: are be deeply disturbing. But then some stuff just be
Speaker 2: I stuff I just like learning, you know, and things
Speaker 2: that I just think are interested. A lot of times
Speaker 2: it be around like science and preservation. My wife she
Speaker 2: likes apocalyptic fiction. That's like visionary fiction. Somehow or another,
Speaker 2: I became an old man and I really became a
Speaker 2: plant dad, which started over the pandemic, which is funny
Speaker 2: because my wife bought a gang of plants. She let
Speaker 2: him die and I was like, man, not on my watch.
Speaker 2: So then I got really good at that. I'm a
Speaker 2: city boy, so I didn't even own a drill until
Speaker 2: twenty twenty, until we bought a house. When we bought
Speaker 2: the house in the pandemic as the first drill ever owned,
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 3: I didn't.
Speaker 2: I was like, I, Oh, my daddy's a city boy.
Speaker 2: I talk about daddy all the time. He's city boy,
Speaker 2: intellectual ladies man, black panther. Like that's one. We don't
Speaker 2: build stuff. We pay people to build stuff. But like
Speaker 2: when that money start getting funny. I also grew up
Speaker 2: with Mexicans. I grew up with old school Mexican me,
Speaker 2: and that was like, you better learn how to when
Speaker 2: you when it's your place, you better learn how to
Speaker 2: take care of it, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 2: I got that work ethic from now, I just started
Speaker 2: calling the theals like, hey, what do I need for?
Speaker 3: What do I need?
Speaker 2: And it was on some like I'm glad you asked, buddy, like,
Speaker 2: let's let's get it cracking. So now, like man, I
Speaker 2: started taking a part, like our fence was falling apart us,
Speaker 2: you know, put the fence back in. You feel me
Speaker 2: like those things bring me joy? What? And I realized
Speaker 2: what brings me joy ultimately in that is like it's
Speaker 2: a job well done. I enjoy completing completing something makes
Speaker 2: me smile. I had to find something that made me
Speaker 2: unplugged at a mentor tell me once, have something in
Speaker 2: your life as a hobby that you can afford to
Speaker 2: suck at so it's not tied to like your family's
Speaker 2: income or safety, and you just it's okay if you
Speaker 2: suck at it, you know, and just take your time
Speaker 2: and teach yourself, you know. And I found that that
Speaker 2: helps me get into flow state too. It started off
Speaker 2: as coffee, and then coffee became a job. So I
Speaker 2: had to find something else and plug completely into something else.
Speaker 2: So I don't know what what gets you in the
Speaker 2: flow state? For me, it's I believe it or not.
Speaker 2: Yard work, which used to be punishment, like what I was.
Speaker 2: When I was a kid, you had to do yard
Speaker 2: work because you was cutting up in school. Now I'm like, well,
Speaker 2: it's my yard. So I found that. You know, you
Speaker 2: gotta find you something that puts you into the flow
Speaker 2: state that just brings you joy, and then at the
Speaker 2: end of it you're like, yo, this is this is dope.
Speaker 2: But as we know, all of the time, you can't
Speaker 2: just put your headphones in, put your earbuds in and
Speaker 2: do things that make you happy. Sometimes you got to
Speaker 2: talk to other people. Now I can't like, I can't
Speaker 2: tell you how bad it grieved me. Like there's some
Speaker 2: things that enrage me. This this Madison Square garden thing
Speaker 2: grieved me for a number of reasons. Well I'm pretty
Speaker 2: sure you know most of them, one of which is, like,
Speaker 2: just somebody just be loud and wrong. Rudy Giuliani talking
Speaker 2: about Palestinians are taught when they're two to kill Americans.
Speaker 3: Bro, what the fuck are you talking about? Like not
Speaker 3: a not a fact checked anywhere?
Speaker 2: Man? What you got the comedian out there making the
Speaker 2: joke about Puerto Rico that there's this you know, there
Speaker 2: is a big old floating pil of trash in the
Speaker 2: middle of the ocean.
Speaker 3: That is true. He's like, I think it's called Puerto Rico.
Speaker 3: You did this in New York.
Speaker 2: Also, God, you know Puerto Rico's American, right, it's an
Speaker 2: American territory.
Speaker 3: God like you.
Speaker 2: You could be like, racism is dumb, but you can't
Speaker 2: be racist and dumb. Trump talking about taking care of
Speaker 2: the Kaldan Christians. I'm like, nigga, they're Iraqi, they're Iraqi.
Speaker 3: You want to deport them? What do you.
Speaker 2: So you make that joke? He points out the black
Speaker 2: dude and he says, nah, he cool. You know, we
Speaker 2: was carving watermelons for Halloween. Now y'all made a miss
Speaker 2: that one. But there's a history around black people in watermelon. See,
Speaker 2: everybody like watermelon. But what what black people used to
Speaker 2: do to make a little money is we used to
Speaker 2: sell them. They ain't like that because we was getting
Speaker 2: some financial security off of our watermelon. So that's how
Speaker 2: the racist trope around black people and watermelon started happening,
Speaker 2: because we were selling watermelon making money.
Speaker 3: Everybody watermelon. It's delicious.
Speaker 2: So outside of that just being an old, not funny joke,
Speaker 2: like just it's such a low hanging fruit. And then
Speaker 2: just continuing with the enemy within mass deportations and just
Speaker 2: they're poisoning our blood just like and again, just just
Speaker 2: for review, Puerto Ricans are American. Trump got an immigrant wife,
Speaker 2: and so does JD.
Speaker 3: Evans.
Speaker 2: They don't count though, No, they don't count. And I
Speaker 2: think you know why this stuff be so egregious that
Speaker 2: I'm even mad that I'm talking about it.
Speaker 3: But the thing that gets me the most is y'all
Speaker 3: all stayed in there, y'all. Y'all really that all that
Speaker 3: was okay for you? You was cool with all that.
Speaker 3: Y'all was cool with y'all was really cool with all that.
Speaker 2: I have friends who are truly my friends, who I
Speaker 2: love and respect. I'm thinking of two of them right
Speaker 2: now who I admire in some ways, who are totally
Speaker 2: bought in with Trump. And I don't know how to
Speaker 2: broach this because they're both Latino, and I just I
Speaker 2: don't know how you can be okay with this.
Speaker 3: Now my next point, I need.
Speaker 2: Y'all to hear me, because I can already hear y'all
Speaker 2: pushing back, like, well, black people make white jokes all
Speaker 2: the time. Well, we also didn't build a time machine
Speaker 2: and colonize the entire you know, northern hemisphere and bomb
Speaker 2: them back to the Stone Age every couple hundred years.
Speaker 2: We're not we aren't the oppressors. We're not the colonizers.
Speaker 2: Power dynamics different. So and for you to not know that,
Speaker 2: to me is like disingenuous. But put that to the
Speaker 2: side for a second. Here's the reality. And if you
Speaker 2: ever clip if you're gonna clip, clip this, this this
Speaker 2: pot clip this part, give us the respect to know
Speaker 2: that we can tell a joke and we can take
Speaker 2: a joke. I know some listen, some people make some
Speaker 2: very hilarious black jokes, Like I can take a racist
Speaker 2: joke when I know it's a joke. I'm gonna invoke
Speaker 2: Dave Chappelle right now, which I know might bother some
Speaker 2: of y'all. But Dave Chappelle talked about when he stopped
Speaker 2: doing The Chappelle Show that he was working on a
Speaker 2: skid and I don't remember the skid, but he was
Speaker 2: telling this interview that as everybody was laughing, there was
Speaker 2: a moment when he looked around and he was like,
Speaker 2: the way you're laughing doesn't feel the same. That is
Speaker 2: white people and the staff whatever you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 2: and it's not so much. We can't you know, make
Speaker 2: jokes about ourselves and live, you know, among each other
Speaker 2: and just it's cool, like it's.
Speaker 3: Fine when I know it's fine. We know.
Speaker 2: When a joke is a joke and when it's low
Speaker 2: key not. I'ma I'm gonna push you further. That fellas
Speaker 2: that girl that you say all lighting up, it's just
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying. It's just it's compliment, it's innocent.
Speaker 2: She know the difference you getting mad where you're like, oh,
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna get me, I'm gonna get canceled. Well,
Speaker 2: how come he doesn't get canceled? Well because she could
Speaker 2: tell the difference. Now, of course, the exceptions of you know,
Speaker 2: things that people have existed, you know, on the on
Speaker 2: the spectrum in some ways where social cues are an issue,
Speaker 2: that's a neurological something.
Speaker 3: You know that.
Speaker 2: Of course, that's the exception I'm talking about. But generally,
Speaker 2: if you have a neurotypical brain, you can tell the difference,
Speaker 2: especially if you're a person of color.
Speaker 3: We know, believe it or not.
Speaker 2: We know when we're window dressing, we know when we're
Speaker 2: feeling quotas. We know if we're DEIHI you think that's
Speaker 2: a disc We know when we are and we know
Speaker 2: when we're not. We also know when you're just a
Speaker 2: trash human being racist. You could say, oh, lighten up,
Speaker 2: it's just a joke. We can tell the difference. Just
Speaker 2: let you know right now, we can tell the difference.
Speaker 3: So here's what I do.
Speaker 2: So last year I put out a conversation guide about
Speaker 2: your racist uncle Dave over the holidays. I fortunately don't
Speaker 2: have a racist uncle Dave, but I got an incredibly
Speaker 2: homophobic uncle Mumsey.
Speaker 3: Not really my uncle Mumsey, he's passed away, rest in peace.
Speaker 2: But the homophobic, you know, anti tran stuff be it'd
Speaker 2: be real in the hoods. Sometimes I'll be hearing stuff
Speaker 2: that like, hey, nigga, that shit is not funny type vibe,
Speaker 2: and then I'm the weird though. So I think for you,
Speaker 2: you know, white folks who have just a shred of
Speaker 2: decency when you have to just you know, giggle with
Speaker 2: your uncle.
Speaker 3: Mark like it's hard, and I vibe with you.
Speaker 2: Here's what I learned is that people's minds are convinced
Speaker 2: by how they feel. In New York Times just did
Speaker 2: a study about Maricopa County in Arizona about them and
Speaker 2: then people feeling like Trump won that election.
Speaker 3: Despite how.
Speaker 2: Many times this has been debunked, it has been proven,
Speaker 2: no matter how many times the cases were thrown, there's
Speaker 2: no amount of evidence that's going to change how they
Speaker 2: feel about this. I don't understand that, but I can
Speaker 2: relate to it because we have a joke running around
Speaker 2: here that's like, hey, hey, what's not racist? But feel
Speaker 2: like it's racist? And to me, there's them sunglasses, them
Speaker 2: Rayven kind of looking sunglasses that attached to the back
Speaker 2: that had a strap that go behind your back, like
Speaker 2: they just sunglasses.
Speaker 3: They just feel racist to me. I know they not,
Speaker 3: they just sunglasses. It just feel racist. The Boston Celtics,
Speaker 3: it's just a basketball team. It just feel racist. So
Speaker 3: I get it when some just feel so.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, in this scenario, you have to be the spaceholder.
Speaker 2: There are certain things that are obviously non negotiables. All
Speaker 2: ideas are obviously not equal, and you don't have to
Speaker 2: participate in every conversation. So one way that I take
Speaker 2: care of myself is when there is no entrance into
Speaker 2: actually getting somewhere good from a conversation. I try to
Speaker 2: find my way out of it by understanding what their
Speaker 2: problem is, what are you feeling? So I found that
Speaker 2: with the trans situation, the math isn't mathing to them.
Speaker 2: They feel confused, like they don't understand why this is
Speaker 2: so hard for the rest of us. They like, I
Speaker 2: don't you either got a penis or a vagina. I
Speaker 2: don't understand why this is so hard for y'all. And
Speaker 2: even if you chop your dick off, you still a dude.
Speaker 2: Like in their brain, it just it seems so simple
Speaker 2: to them, and they don't understand what we don't understand, right,
Speaker 2: So what I've had to learn, and of course this
Speaker 2: is just one example, what I've had to learn is
Speaker 2: to say it seems is to understand that they feel disoriented.
Speaker 2: And a lot of times when you just feel disoriented,
Speaker 2: you just want the thing that disorients you to go away,
Speaker 2: and they're not gonna go away, so you just gonna
Speaker 2: have to learn to live with it. So I try
Speaker 2: to find a way to relate to the idea of
Speaker 2: feeling disoriented when just math doesn't math, And then if
Speaker 2: opportunity presents itself, show a way to just even just
Speaker 2: crack the door open to being like, well, I mean,
Speaker 2: I I know trans people like you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 2: and it's I mean, it's not. It don't have to
Speaker 2: be weird, like you don't have to you don't have
Speaker 2: to think about their genital like it just be that
Speaker 2: simple to me, Like I don't think about their genital.
Speaker 3: I'm having a regular conversation.
Speaker 2: With another and I found again because we you know,
Speaker 2: with Lamo Edgy, I could say stuff like that like well,
Speaker 2: I don't know, I don't I'm not thinking about his
Speaker 2: dick or lack there. I'm not thinking about it like
Speaker 2: that's that man's life or that girl's life.
Speaker 3: It don't make me.
Speaker 2: You want me to call you baby pooky like that,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna call you base own like that's you.
Speaker 3: That's what you want me to call You's fine. They
Speaker 3: live on the same planet, you.
Speaker 2: Dude, so like to me, if I could get to
Speaker 2: the like, oh you feel disoriented, let's let's deal with
Speaker 2: that now. Of course, there is, like I said before,
Speaker 2: there's boundaries. There's lines I'm not gonna cross. Well, I'm
Speaker 2: just like, I'm not even finna talk to you if
Speaker 2: you're gonna be a level of disrespect that's like just intenable.
Speaker 2: Then I'm like, all right, nah, we done. I mean,
Speaker 2: like there's you're tripping you know what I'm saying. Of
Speaker 2: course you know there's that line, but you know, I'm
Speaker 2: I'm assuming a situation where this is a really this
Speaker 2: relative that I love. You know, they're just vehemently, violently wrong.
Speaker 3: Yep. Then to me, that gets to.
Speaker 2: A place that won I don't have to be frustrated
Speaker 2: because I clearly can't make you feel something that none
Speaker 2: of these facts or information can make you feel because
Speaker 2: you see in the opposite of it, but you already
Speaker 2: believe what you believe. Clearly, there is nothing we can
Speaker 2: tell these people in Maricopa County that would convince them
Speaker 2: otherwise that man Trump lost that election. I just they
Speaker 2: just gonna have to take that one today. Grade I'd like,
Speaker 2: there's nothing I could do about that. But I understand
Speaker 2: what it feels like to feel like you're not being
Speaker 2: listened to.
Speaker 3: I understand that.
Speaker 2: I feel like I understand what it feels like to
Speaker 2: feel disenfranchised, even though they are factually not disenfranchised. I
Speaker 2: just don't he just didn't get enough votes. That's not disenfranchisement, nigga,
Speaker 2: that's the system. I don't know how to explain that
Speaker 2: to him, and I'm pretty sure they understand it, but
Speaker 2: they feel disenfranchised. I can understand that sometimes you just
Speaker 2: gotta save your breath. It's not a tough subject. Changed
Speaker 2: that's just let me get to this and you can
Speaker 2: do that. You can empathize without agreeing. Another thing I suggest,
Speaker 2: which again this is what I do is I mean,
Speaker 2: it seems as corny as it's gonna sound, even in
Speaker 2: my own head, but like diet and exercise, I like,
Speaker 2: I work out three times a week, you know, for
Speaker 2: a good forty five minutes to an hour. Now I
Speaker 2: understand I'm checking my privilege, but you know what, you
Speaker 2: know what workout can be sometimes parking at the furthest
Speaker 2: parking lot spot and walking that can count when you
Speaker 2: need to run to the store, get some milk, walk
Speaker 2: like little things like that that gives you that space.
Speaker 3: I got to pick up my kids. I feel you
Speaker 3: bring them with you, you know.
Speaker 2: Like there are ways that I used to call context
Speaker 2: embedded exercise.
Speaker 3: If you ain't got one of them, gigs.
Speaker 2: Where you can join a gym or like hit the park,
Speaker 2: and be like be at the hood. You know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying on the pull up bars. You know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying, like beer to be a part of be
Speaker 2: programming out there, which you can do too if you like. Look, man,
Speaker 2: I can't be doing them two in the morning, you know,
Speaker 2: twenty four hour fitness joints. I feel you, you know hey,
Speaker 2: but look while your lunch break at work again, walk
Speaker 2: to the shop, you know hey, and look, you know,
Speaker 2: get a salad every once in a while. I know
Speaker 2: how I sound, but you be surprised how better your
Speaker 2: mood be when you ain't got bubble guts, when you
Speaker 2: ain't on the top of that word about high blood
Speaker 2: pressure and diabetes. You'd be surprised how much better you
Speaker 2: feel when you not fighting a hangover.
Speaker 3: The world? Just feel way better, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: When you got a good night's rest, Nigga, go to bed,
Speaker 2: like that's another thing.
Speaker 3: I like, listen, just go to bed.
Speaker 2: I just I don't know, I look, I just sometimes
Speaker 2: you just got to be like, you know what the
Speaker 2: day's done. We going to bed, you know, to charge
Speaker 2: your phone in another room. That's another thing I do.
Speaker 2: My phone's plugged up somewhere else. What you're staying up for?
Speaker 3: Do you really need to watch another episode? Just gets
Speaker 3: to sleep. We have this scale in our family.
Speaker 2: I may have said this before between me and the
Speaker 2: preferred to her by her prefix my wife doctor Alma.
Speaker 2: Where when we first started dating, well, no, we were
Speaker 2: first married one of my best friends, one of my
Speaker 2: day ones, like tenth grade best friend. I'm officiating his wedding.
Speaker 2: He was like, yo, I want to officiate away. He's
Speaker 2: had one girlfriend besides this girl and started dating her
Speaker 2: his senior year high school. Only girl you have loved
Speaker 2: and the other girlfriend he had that was like for
Speaker 2: a week. And that was mainly because we told we
Speaker 2: made him. We was like, y'all should be cute together,
Speaker 2: you know, ninth grade stupid. Anyway, Alma was hungry and
Speaker 2: I'm like, all right, it's all the way in Santa Monica. Again,
Speaker 2: I'm from the east side, so I'm like, oh, we
Speaker 2: got plenty of times, so tell me where you want
Speaker 2: to stop, and you know, if you see something you want,
Speaker 2: we'll pull over, we'll grab it. I'm suggested all kind
Speaker 2: of stuff. She's like, no, no, that's not it. That's
Speaker 2: not it. That's not it. I was like, all right,
Speaker 2: well I kind of got to be there, so maybe
Speaker 2: there's something at the hotel. So we go to the hotel.
Speaker 2: It ain't got but those like pre wrapped sandwiches, right,
Speaker 2: see all of that. So she was like, all right,
Speaker 2: I'll wait for the reception. The reception was all like
Speaker 2: or dirb kind of like or dirt plate finger foods,
Speaker 2: so it wasn't enough food for it. Now I am
Speaker 2: on ten. This is my best friend, y'all, my best
Speaker 2: friend's wedding, and like I like, I'm officiating it. I'm
Speaker 2: on he's he had he had dated her since like
Speaker 2: we were. He started dating her when he was seventeen.
Speaker 2: We were thirty one, Like, so what they had been like,
Speaker 2: I'm on ten. I am was like, I got a headache.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna sit in the lobby.
Speaker 2: Now what I look like, you know, shirt off slinging
Speaker 2: it over the head with like me and my nine
Speaker 2: best friends just super lit over my boy finally getting
Speaker 2: married and my wife is downstairs in the lobby Like
Speaker 2: this is just just a bad look. So I'm like, well,
Speaker 2: we gotta go, and she's like, no, really, I understand
Speaker 2: he's your best friend. I'll just be down here, and
Speaker 2: I'm like, part of me is like, girl, it's your fault.
Speaker 2: We had you had all these times you hungry. How
Speaker 2: many times did I suggest to you to stop at
Speaker 2: certain places? Here's what I learned. What I learned is
Speaker 2: now y'all in relationships take notes. Now what I learned
Speaker 2: is this is our scale on the scale of one
Speaker 2: to Holden's wedding. Holden is his name, How hungry are you?
Speaker 3: So? Because that is the top tier.
Speaker 2: She gets to a place where or she can't make
Speaker 2: a decision on what she wants to eat, so I
Speaker 2: just have to get food in her.
Speaker 3: Like I should have just made the decision.
Speaker 2: I know that now, but at the time I needed
Speaker 2: to develop a way for which at the time I
Speaker 2: didn't know. So now I have a scale to know, Hey,
Speaker 2: we're going to need to stop this now. So self
Speaker 2: care in that situation was just get some food in
Speaker 2: your body. You'd be surprised how much better your day
Speaker 2: is if you got good food in your body.
Speaker 3: And here's my last two pieces of advice.
Speaker 2: One is, you know, just keep the news to a
Speaker 2: minimum in a way that we like you already know
Speaker 2: it's chaos.
Speaker 3: You can keep up.
Speaker 2: There is a way to keep up with what's going
Speaker 2: on in the world and not get you know, privilege
Speaker 2: and unplugging and having the privilege of being able to
Speaker 2: turn it off.
Speaker 3: You can do both.
Speaker 2: You can keep that diet of chaos to a minimum
Speaker 2: or to a level that's not going to burn you out.
Speaker 2: Because we need in works of in the act of resistance,
Speaker 2: in the work of making the world better, we kind
Speaker 2: of need you. Okay, you know your star player can't
Speaker 2: play all forty eight minutes, like you gotta sit down,
Speaker 2: like you could turn the TV off for a second.
Speaker 2: Which leads me to the last part, which is this
Speaker 2: is a collective effort, and you have to remind yourself
Speaker 2: that seeing the world to become better is collective you, yourself, You,
Speaker 2: the whole world isn't dependent only and solely on you.
Speaker 2: You can take a break sometimes, we all want to see.
Speaker 3: This world better.
Speaker 2: So like, it's not all on your shoulders, Okay, it's
Speaker 2: the whole hood. I know this is a different episode,
Speaker 2: especially after having all these eyes on us now after
Speaker 2: the fire in Fury and the Garson Hayes. Obviously this
Speaker 2: is not a normal episode. But this ain't normal times,
Speaker 2: and I just wanted to step in and be a
Speaker 2: big homie with y'all for a little bit and just
Speaker 2: kind of pull pull back and just be like, Hey,
Speaker 2: real niggas need to break some time too.
Speaker 3: All right, keep your head up, little Politics, y'all.
Speaker 2: All right now, don't you hit stop on this pod.
Speaker 2: You better listen to these credits. I need you to
Speaker 2: finish this thing so I can get the download numbers. Okay,
Speaker 2: so don't stop it yet, but listen. This was recorded
Speaker 2: in East Slows, boil Heights by your boy Propaganda. Tap
Speaker 2: in with me at prop hip hop dot com. If
Speaker 2: you're in the Coldbrew coffee we got Terraform Coldbrew. You
Speaker 2: can go there dot com and use promo code hood
Speaker 2: get twenty percent off get yourself some coffee. This was mixed, edited,
Speaker 2: and mastered by your boy Matt Alsowski killing the beat softly.
Speaker 2: Check out his website Matdowsowski dot com.
Speaker 3: I'm a speller for you because I know m A T.
Speaker 2: T O S O W s ki dot com Matthowsowski
Speaker 2: dot com.
Speaker 3: He got more music and.
Speaker 2: Stuff like that on there, so gonna check out the heat.
Speaker 2: Politics is a member of Cool Zone Media. Executive produced
Speaker 2: by Sophie Lichterman, part of the iHeartMedia podcast network. Your
Speaker 2: theme music and scoring is also by the One and
Speaker 2: Overly Mattowsowski. Still killing the beat softly, so listen. Don't
Speaker 2: let nobody lie to you. If you understand urban living,
Speaker 2: you understand politics. These people is not smarter than you.
Speaker 2: We'll see y'all next week.
Speaker 1: Traditional Chi
Speaker 3: Edition one