Speaker 1: Hey, fam, I'm Jada Pinkett Smith and this is the
Speaker 1: Red Table Pop podcast all your favorite episodes from the
Speaker 1: Facebook watch show in audio produced by Westbrook Audio and
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. Please don't forget to rate and review
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts. So it's June tenth, also known as
Speaker 1: Freedom Day. On June eighteen sixty five, the last remaining
Speaker 1: African American slaves were set free. On this June nineteen,
Speaker 1: Black America is in a crisis. Two women who I
Speaker 1: love and respect are here for real talk about the
Speaker 1: urgent time you're living in right now. They are freedom
Speaker 1: fighters from two different generations. Dr Angela Davis is a
Speaker 1: legend an iconic civil rights activists and one of the
Speaker 1: most brilliant women that I know. And we also have Ms.
Speaker 1: Tonka Mallory, who's been fighting passionately for our black brothers
Speaker 1: and sisters for over twenty five years. The events of
Speaker 1: the last four weeks are unlike anything we have seen,
Speaker 1: and it's all been triggered by this horrific video. My face,
Speaker 1: do you know what do you want? And then breathe, Pas,
Speaker 1: I can appreciate it. Bro get up getting the car man,
Speaker 1: I will get up, get in the car. I've been
Speaker 1: wiping the whole You don't get any car. Get up
Speaker 1: and get it right. I can't throw up now. Bro.
Speaker 1: Look at what he got made. He got made. You guys, okay,
Speaker 1: check your quas checking, check your balls. Check. The man
Speaker 1: ain't moved yet. Bro, Bro, he's not even moving. Get
Speaker 1: off of Nick. Bro. You know movies over? Are you ceriously?
Speaker 1: Are you seeing? It's still really m upsetting. Thank goodness
Speaker 1: for social media because we could at least film it.
Speaker 1: But you just think about all the times that has
Speaker 1: happened over and all the cases that we don't know about.
Speaker 1: Dr Davis, When you first saw that video, how did
Speaker 1: you feel that video represents what black people have experienced
Speaker 1: for generations and generations, over and over and over again.
Speaker 1: When I saw that white cop with his hands in
Speaker 1: his pocket, nonchalantly murdering this black man, and we're collectively
Speaker 1: mourning the fact that we have not brought about shape
Speaker 1: our own failure to stand up and say never again,
Speaker 1: never again. I feel like right now the first time
Speaker 1: I've ever seen so many people on the same page.
Speaker 1: On one hand, that's really inspiring and and gives me
Speaker 1: a lot of hope, And on the other hand, it
Speaker 1: kind of feels like just now, just now, right after
Speaker 1: all this time. I don't watch these videos, so I
Speaker 1: can't anymore because I find myself being paralyzed by the
Speaker 1: constant trauma, you know. And I get videos that most
Speaker 1: folks will never see. People text me videos all the time,
Speaker 1: the kids being beaten, people being abused, women being attacked,
Speaker 1: and it's a lot. It's heavy. But I definitely heard
Speaker 1: him calling for his mother, and when he says, Mama, Mama,
Speaker 1: get up, it strikes a nerve because from my own son,
Speaker 1: to have him say mama calling for me. But I
Speaker 1: think about Eric Garner, you know, saying I can't breathe
Speaker 1: eleven times and people stood around and watched it happen.
Speaker 1: And that's what I see in this video. Not only
Speaker 1: do I see the man who's in his kneeling in
Speaker 1: his neck, I also see another person standing there protecting
Speaker 1: him and trying to block people from stopping it from happening.
Speaker 1: There's just so many people complicit in this moment. When
Speaker 1: I watched the George Floyd video, just the amount of restraint,
Speaker 1: just for me to just the mainsteady, I just don't
Speaker 1: think that people understand the amount of pain and then
Speaker 1: the anger that goes along with it. In the trauma.
Speaker 1: There was a meme on social media, thank God, we
Speaker 1: just want justice and not rove the day. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tell you something else too. I was telling a friend
Speaker 1: of mine. I was like, hey, check it, um, let's
Speaker 1: be glad that the guns in the hood are not
Speaker 1: organized and less be glad that it didn't have to
Speaker 1: go to that, because I'm gonna tell you what, if
Speaker 1: we want to take it back to the late sixties,
Speaker 1: there was a lot of bloodshed, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: And that's one of the reasons why I'm like, hey,
Speaker 1: we gotta get moving and i gotta make it change.
Speaker 1: We've been warning these folks. We've been marching, we've been crying,
Speaker 1: We've been going to Congress, We're on the hill, We're
Speaker 1: doing all of this. So at what point do people
Speaker 1: begin to see that there is the frustration that's building
Speaker 1: up that we can't we can't control it anymore. After
Speaker 1: George Floyd was murdered to Mika gave what is being
Speaker 1: called the most powerful speech of a generation. We are
Speaker 1: in a state of emergency. Black people are dying, in
Speaker 1: a state of emergency. That and they're an easy way
Speaker 1: to stop. Charge all the cotton, not just some of them,
Speaker 1: not just here in Minneapolis, charge them in every city
Speaker 1: across America where our people are being murdered doing what
Speaker 1: you say. This country is supposed to be about the
Speaker 1: land of the free for all. It has not been
Speaker 1: free for black people. And we are tired. Don't talk
Speaker 1: to us about looting. Y'all are the luders. America has
Speaker 1: a looted black people. America alluded the Native Americans when
Speaker 1: they first came here. The violence was what we learned
Speaker 1: from you. So if you want us to do better,
Speaker 1: then damn it, you do better. Yes, yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: that was an absolutely incredible speech you made right. It's inspiring.
Speaker 1: Just one week ago, this heartbreaking video was public Another
Speaker 1: black man, twenty seven year old race Sharp Brooks, is
Speaker 1: dead at the hands of the police. Can you step
Speaker 1: out with me place from yes Siday? He said, Okay,
Speaker 1: if I pat you down to make sure you any weapon,
Speaker 1: just turn off face away for a real quick I
Speaker 1: can just go along. I had my daughters there right now,
Speaker 1: my three. My daughter birthday was yesterday. Trying to make
Speaker 1: sure man, you're staying to drive that song. I know, man,
Speaker 1: I know, I know, you're just doing your draw Just
Speaker 1: take a deep breath, then get your mouth with an
Speaker 1: off piece. But it's hards you can't tell'll tell you stop.
Speaker 1: Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah bla stop.
Speaker 1: Very good, I've said a few drinks. I see it.
Speaker 1: I think you've had too much to drink to be
Speaker 1: driving chance when your back to win. Can't put chance
Speaker 1: when you back seem real agree, what do you want
Speaker 1: to Oh? I got right, dude. I think one of
Speaker 1: the most painful things for me is that the idea
Speaker 1: that black men are the most dangerous creatures on the planet,
Speaker 1: so that if he's drunk in a drive through at Wendy's,
Speaker 1: that justifies him being murdered, or everyone talking about whatever
Speaker 1: George Floyd's rap sheet might have been, as if any
Speaker 1: of that has anything to do with his rights to
Speaker 1: be treated as a human being, and the fact that
Speaker 1: we are still dealing with that issue. Well, you can't
Speaker 1: even be twelve years old in a park because to me,
Speaker 1: a rice was shot in a park. Yes, a toy
Speaker 1: gun that is sold in the store that any other
Speaker 1: child would be able to play with, especially if they're
Speaker 1: not a black child in this situation, within seconds to me,
Speaker 1: or Rice is shot twelve years old because they see
Speaker 1: black boys all so as being black men. As we
Speaker 1: are criminalized from very young, black men are demonized. The
Speaker 1: whole history of racism is full of images of the
Speaker 1: demonization of black men. But let's not forget that black
Speaker 1: women also suffer as a result. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: black we think or lenched. The worst examples of lynching
Speaker 1: consisted of a pregnant but who are being lynched and
Speaker 1: the fetus being cut out of the stilla. So let's
Speaker 1: also remember Brianna Taylor all the women who have suffered
Speaker 1: as a result of this racist violence. As long as
Speaker 1: this violence continues to be inflicted on black people, no
Speaker 1: one to say the older white man who was the
Speaker 1: protester in Buffalo, New York, he also suffered. Y. Yeah.
Speaker 1: One thing that I heard you say, Dr Davis that
Speaker 1: I thought that was very interesting is diversity and inclusion.
Speaker 1: Enough as far as white people going, well, I'm doing
Speaker 1: my part by making sure that I you know, I
Speaker 1: love black people. I'm I'm I'm employing, I'm employing more
Speaker 1: black people. You know, I'm giving money to more community
Speaker 1: services for black people, which I think is great. I
Speaker 1: think it's good that we're seeing so many white people
Speaker 1: out in the street. Yes, I want to talk about
Speaker 1: Roger Goodell taking a knee. When people like that engage
Speaker 1: in such behavior, it's actually a good thing because it
Speaker 1: represents their sense that they've got to find their way
Speaker 1: to the right side of history. That's what they really think,
Speaker 1: what they really feel, what they're committing to doing. It
Speaker 1: represents of the fact that they want to be included
Speaker 1: in those movements that are moving in the direction of progress.
Speaker 1: But let me say why inclusion and diversity it just
Speaker 1: don't work, not by themselves, and it has to deal
Speaker 1: with the fact the powers that we are constantly seeking
Speaker 1: ways to deradicalize our demands. Every single university has an
Speaker 1: office of a Diversity and Inclusion That simply means including
Speaker 1: black people within a racist institutions without rooting the structural
Speaker 1: racism out of the institution itself. So diversity and inclusion
Speaker 1: are okay, but only when they are paired with justice,
Speaker 1: only when they're connected to transformation. The institution as a
Speaker 1: whole has to be transformed. Me I've on a small
Speaker 1: level and just my own industry, you know, with the
Speaker 1: whole diversity inclusion and just seeing how you're right, just
Speaker 1: as far as the how the infrastructure itself, the very
Speaker 1: foundation is not changing. So I've had to learn the
Speaker 1: hard way. So that really resonated for me. Police lat infrastructure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's the same thing, exactly the same thing. Diversity and
Speaker 1: inclusion means quotas, it means numbers. You know, we're giving
Speaker 1: X amount of dollars we hired this number of people.
Speaker 1: White people have to be responsible for deconstructing white supremacy.
Speaker 1: It is your people started it. It's what you are.
Speaker 1: You're privileged enough to enjoy the benefits of it, so
Speaker 1: you have to actually deconstruct it. So Karen who works
Speaker 1: in the corporation, who's always looking for a reason to
Speaker 1: report other black women because you know, she came in
Speaker 1: this morning, she wasn't nice enough to me. When she
Speaker 1: calls to human resources to complain about something that is silly,
Speaker 1: there should be a stop right there that this will
Speaker 1: not be tolerated and it should be called out. That's
Speaker 1: deconstructing white supremacy within the industry. You will not terrorize
Speaker 1: our employees because the person just wasn't nice enough to
Speaker 1: you today, and and and now she's making me feel
Speaker 1: threatened and I'm running around the office with white tears.
Speaker 1: That has to stop. And most people don't want to
Speaker 1: do that. They'll they'll say, well, you know how she is. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: a black woman who may come in, she may be frustrated,
Speaker 1: she's going through a lot. Yes she's got the job,
Speaker 1: but she feels under pressure at every moment she's sitting there.
Speaker 1: She can't in any way get upset in a meeting.
Speaker 1: You can't. You can't even show that you don't like something.
Speaker 1: You actually have to go along to get along. So
Speaker 1: deconstructing white supremacy is to deal with the Karens that
Speaker 1: work on your job, the Karens that are in your family.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, your mama who's telling you that she's going
Speaker 1: to vote for somebody that is harmful to people of color,
Speaker 1: Because that's Billy that we love, you know, I know,
Speaker 1: Billy Bombson, he was the kid. Billy Bob is a racist,
Speaker 1: and that has to So don't worry about so much
Speaker 1: coming to our movement. Yes we we we we welcome you,
Speaker 1: but that's part two. Part one is how are you
Speaker 1: getting uninvited from Thanksgiving, from the Christmas party and from
Speaker 1: the activities where you know white supremacy flies around. In
Speaker 1: case you don't know, Tom could tell us what does
Speaker 1: it mean to call someone a Karen. It's the mindset,
Speaker 1: you know. First of all, Black Twitter is a place
Speaker 1: where you can find love, where you can find something else.
Speaker 1: You don't want to get caught in black Twitter on
Speaker 1: the wrong side for black people because of everything that
Speaker 1: we've experienced. Coming up with names and ways to describe
Speaker 1: the pain and the insult and the injury is all
Speaker 1: we had. So you at least have to be able
Speaker 1: to call it out. So Karen is a part of that.
Speaker 1: Karen and Becky, these are names that people have. You
Speaker 1: is to describe a certain behavior. And what happened with
Speaker 1: Amy Cooper in the park in Central Park in New York,
Speaker 1: she would be considered a character. Please don't come post me,
Speaker 1: Please don't come close to me. Please please call the cops.
Speaker 1: Please call the cops. I'm going to tell them there's
Speaker 1: an African American man threatening my life. Please tell them
Speaker 1: whatever you like, there is an African American man. I'm
Speaker 1: a seperate Park. He's recording me threatening myself and my
Speaker 1: dog I think, threatened by a man in the ramble.
Speaker 1: Please sell the cops in any HI, I'm asking you
Speaker 1: if this is your property, because it's private property. Because
Speaker 1: it's private property, are you defacing private property? And you
Speaker 1: don't know if I live here or if this is
Speaker 1: my property? Absolutely, do you know that's my Really, don't
Speaker 1: call the cops. And that people, is why black lives matter.
Speaker 1: I've been hearing about Karen, but I haven't watched the tape.
Speaker 1: It's a real thing, and we make the joke, but
Speaker 1: the truth is if the police showed us, Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: dangerous because Karen is a direct connection. It goes from
Speaker 1: her to the knee and the net to the I
Speaker 1: can't breathe to the Brianna Taylor being shot. And so
Speaker 1: in order to be a white person who's like, what
Speaker 1: do we do, you've got to actually deal with that
Speaker 1: being This is really historical though, and I want to
Speaker 1: touch on this for a moment, how white womanhood has
Speaker 1: been protected by racism and and and white supremacy. Is
Speaker 1: the idea that Karen knows to say that a black man,
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell the police that you're a black
Speaker 1: man who is threatening my life. And it goes all
Speaker 1: the way back to MTL was represented as a response
Speaker 1: to black male rapists, and of course it was the
Speaker 1: southern white womanhood that had to be safeguarded by lynching
Speaker 1: black men. It wasn't about sexual assault. Lynching was necessary
Speaker 1: in order to preserve white womanhood. One can look at
Speaker 1: so many cases, the case of the Scotsboro Nine. These
Speaker 1: black men ended up spending decades of their lives behind bars,
Speaker 1: and many of them were sentenced to death because of
Speaker 1: the false claim on the part of white women and Scotsboro, Alabama,
Speaker 1: that they had been raped by these men. But what
Speaker 1: I want to say is that they've also been white
Speaker 1: women who resisted this, and I think it's important point
Speaker 1: that out as well. UH. In ninety three, an organization
Speaker 1: UH against Lynching was created by Southern white women. There
Speaker 1: are white women who genuinely want to participate in what
Speaker 1: is happening right now, but a lot of them aren't
Speaker 1: educated around the issues. So how can we help with that?
Speaker 1: When we started the Women's March, was four co chairs
Speaker 1: and one white woman, and we're sitting together one day
Speaker 1: and she said, I don't understand what racism and women's
Speaker 1: issues have to do one another. We have a commonality
Speaker 1: and we can just focus on this and then leave
Speaker 1: the black thing over there that's separate them. And I
Speaker 1: was like, first, I was angry. This is one of
Speaker 1: the things that I just have a difficult time with
Speaker 1: my white sisters. Okay, it's like you were fighting sexism, Okay,
Speaker 1: you were fighting for your equal rights. So if we
Speaker 1: talk about all the isms that are tools that are
Speaker 1: used to oppress groups of people, I just have a
Speaker 1: very difficult time why racism cannot be recognize as a tool,
Speaker 1: a fierce tool of oppression that sits right there and
Speaker 1: is the sister to sexism, is the sister to misogyny,
Speaker 1: is the sister to all of those tools that are
Speaker 1: used to oppress groups of people. Right, So, if you
Speaker 1: are a freedom fighter as a white woman, I can't
Speaker 1: understand for the life of me why it is so
Speaker 1: difficult to understand how racism is a tool that's used
Speaker 1: to oppress people. And as long as there's any old
Speaker 1: pressed person on this planet, your fight will never will
Speaker 1: never end, right, And I think that's the thing that
Speaker 1: we need to get our white sisters to understand. You
Speaker 1: can't separate your isms from ours. That's the privilege though,
Speaker 1: that that some of them had or some of them recognize,
Speaker 1: and they want it. They want to maintain power and position.
Speaker 1: Can we honestly, honestly Dr Davis and to Maka expect
Speaker 1: white people to dismantle white supremacy because they're giving up
Speaker 1: their power if they do that, Like, how do we
Speaker 1: expect that? And I'm just asking a very honest question
Speaker 1: when we talk about getting to the core mhm okay,
Speaker 1: the deep question, when we talk about core infrastructure that
Speaker 1: we know we don't hold the keys to writ can
Speaker 1: we honestly expect I think there's something white people that
Speaker 1: will There's some that have devoted their lives to fighting it,
Speaker 1: but it's not widespread enough. But maybe this is the
Speaker 1: moment when we're beginning to see people from all over
Speaker 1: the world, not just white folks in America. We're saying, hey,
Speaker 1: this is too much. Maybe it's the generations to come,
Speaker 1: because when I look at Willows generation, they have a
Speaker 1: different mindset. They really do. We're not even sure. It's
Speaker 1: like my boy, my girl is like we're blurring the colors.
Speaker 1: We're making you know what I mean between gender where
Speaker 1: it's very blurred and kids are growing up with this
Speaker 1: understanding that you can be whatever you want and and
Speaker 1: you're not defined by your oppression, or your gender or
Speaker 1: your color. You know, what are your thoughts? Dr Davis?
Speaker 1: You know, I think that we can't underestimate the gravity
Speaker 1: of this moment. So the changes that we're seeing young
Speaker 1: people have given us the capacity to question that which
Speaker 1: is considered normal. Yes, the fact that was in such
Speaker 1: a short period of pot people begin it seems to
Speaker 1: get it. People are waking up. I won't say that
Speaker 1: whoa winking right way? Right? So let me ask another question,
Speaker 1: and just in regards to the idea within our own
Speaker 1: community of getting the black community to understand, now, listen,
Speaker 1: we can't be fighting racism and practicing sexism and massage.
Speaker 1: And you know, I think that we don't understand that
Speaker 1: that all goes hand at hand. I see that as
Speaker 1: a huge issue that we need to deal with at
Speaker 1: some point. I don't know if today is it, because
Speaker 1: we have some very pre pressing issues at hand, but
Speaker 1: I do know that to press on that is something
Speaker 1: that we have to have to do, that we have
Speaker 1: to deal with because for this momentum to continue. I
Speaker 1: do believe that there has to be a deeper sense
Speaker 1: of unification within our community. And we exist in a
Speaker 1: patriarchal society where we uphold our men, the man as
Speaker 1: being the center, and I don't disagree with that. I
Speaker 1: think that we should make sure if we respect our men.
Speaker 1: You know, my father is the head of my family's household.
Speaker 1: You know, he is the man. But he will say
Speaker 1: to you in a moment, if I want to get
Speaker 1: anything done around here, I gotta let your mom. Like
Speaker 1: white people have to deconstruct white supremacy, men have to
Speaker 1: deal with patriarch that's right, and specifically in our community,
Speaker 1: because we can't do it without them, and they cannot
Speaker 1: do it without us. And I sometimes think that through
Speaker 1: all of the anger that they experienced, they sometimes come
Speaker 1: back and it's directed towards And I think that that's
Speaker 1: another thing that would need to be addressed, because that's
Speaker 1: so real, you know, And when you look at why
Speaker 1: racism exists and why sexism, it's all around power, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, And so we have to kind
Speaker 1: of change our ideas around that. Is, Well, you beat
Speaker 1: up because you can't beat up the cop. You can't
Speaker 1: beat your boss up at work. You can't. So now
Speaker 1: you come home and there's a vulnerable black woman there
Speaker 1: who's willing to take it all. We're gonna take it.
Speaker 1: We're like, give it to me, I'll hold it so
Speaker 1: that you could go back out there into the world
Speaker 1: and be productive. Let me say this too, that even
Speaker 1: back in nine eight, Stokely Carmichael says, we're not strong
Speaker 1: enough to fight each other and the enemy. Not take
Speaker 1: our eyes off the prize and what the real issues
Speaker 1: really are. And that's real talk right there. I think
Speaker 1: the mantra is all black lives matter. That's so important,
Speaker 1: and not even I have had to work on unlearning
Speaker 1: some of the things that I have learned from family,
Speaker 1: from childhood. Things you hear when people didn't necessarily understand
Speaker 1: or respect the l g B t Q I a
Speaker 1: community properly. And now you know, I have through first
Speaker 1: of all, being humble enough to know that I didn't
Speaker 1: know a lot and I needed to learn. I've come
Speaker 1: to a place when I'm like, we have to protect
Speaker 1: black trans women. This is real. And so I posted
Speaker 1: on my page, and let me tell you, in the beginning,
Speaker 1: when I first started posting it. I was like, oh Jesus,
Speaker 1: look watch just watch the comments, and people were like
Speaker 1: saying the craziest things or now I'm posting it and
Speaker 1: I'm like, hey, if you don't like it, I'm followed.
Speaker 1: That's all you have to do. Because that's what everybody
Speaker 1: can't go. Everyone is just not gonna be with us.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about cancel culture that is so prevalent right now.
Speaker 1: I'm seeing people shaming others, like saying really terrible things,
Speaker 1: shaming people for what they're choosing to say, or shaming
Speaker 1: people for not saying anything at all. If we really
Speaker 1: want change, shaming doesn't lead to learning. Cancel culture is
Speaker 1: a little dangerous. I'm expected if you if you don't
Speaker 1: get if you're canceled time. If you're not canceled, you
Speaker 1: ain't really doing it like you know you want to
Speaker 1: be it. You gotta get canceled. It's a space that
Speaker 1: is a little difficult to maneuver because you do have
Speaker 1: to leave people room to make to make me some
Speaker 1: really important aspects to our new social media technologies that
Speaker 1: we can organize and mobilize. But the tendency to shortcut
Speaker 1: everything and to assume that everybody has to know everything already,
Speaker 1: you know what about the conversation, and this is a
Speaker 1: moment in which we can share and learn and sing
Speaker 1: and come first. People should not be afraid of being
Speaker 1: canceled because they make a mistake that process. I have
Speaker 1: to agree, agree, agree, because this is the time for conversation,
Speaker 1: and of course people are going to say something wrong.
Speaker 1: People are going to have different views about a whole
Speaker 1: lot of stuff, specifically in these times. And I was
Speaker 1: talking to some friends of mine. I'm like, don't be
Speaker 1: in the fight if you don't want to be in
Speaker 1: the fire, because everybody's been able to play a safe meddle.
Speaker 1: There ain't no safe meddle here, right, And so I'm
Speaker 1: telling everybody you just gotta know your position and you
Speaker 1: gotta just be steady, you know, ten toes down, because
Speaker 1: if you're in this conversation and you're in this movement,
Speaker 1: fight is coming your way and it's oh okay. And
Speaker 1: that goes for black people, that goes for white people
Speaker 1: who are trying. I would say to white people who
Speaker 1: are trying, keep trying, you know, but make sure it's
Speaker 1: genuine right And yet you're gonna get bit up. You're
Speaker 1: gonna get bit up. There's no way around it, and
Speaker 1: it's okay, keep moving because it's tough and you're gonna
Speaker 1: get burned. You're gonna get burned. You are, there's no
Speaker 1: You're gonna get canceled. Okay. I want to talk about
Speaker 1: you hear all of this about how Hollywood should be
Speaker 1: involved Black Hollywood, white Hollywood. Everybody's just trying to like
Speaker 1: figure it out. For me personally, it's like, I want
Speaker 1: to be connected to somebody who's boots on the ground
Speaker 1: right And I feel like that way we can really
Speaker 1: know and understand what position we played, and so what
Speaker 1: can people who have platforms do to help the movement
Speaker 1: that is happening right now? So I don't think people
Speaker 1: are connected enough. I think influencers unfortunately, you know you're
Speaker 1: gonna get me in trouble for telling the truth on
Speaker 1: this show. It's a vest the managers and the pr
Speaker 1: people and the agents and all those folks get in
Speaker 1: the way of you, as an artist and as an influencer,
Speaker 1: getting right to the core of what you need to
Speaker 1: be at. Your freedom is not going to be determined
Speaker 1: because your agent find you the best organization that has
Speaker 1: all the bells and whistles, and I tell folks all
Speaker 1: the time, I can't work with the assistant on your freedom.
Speaker 1: I need your phone to talk to you. In order
Speaker 1: to do the Brianna Taylor campaign, I was on the
Speaker 1: phone with Alicia Keys myself at two o'clock and then
Speaker 1: Alicia and and and and Kelly Rowland and mc light
Speaker 1: and all these folks. Cardi b and I were on
Speaker 1: the phone like what do we do? You know? And
Speaker 1: she's super brilliant because she was the one to say, Hey,
Speaker 1: we should do it like this, we should say these things.
Speaker 1: Here's the script. I mean, that's what you need. You
Speaker 1: gotta go out there, you gotta hit the ground. Luckily enough,
Speaker 1: we were able to help get Brianna's law pass. What
Speaker 1: are the next steps? We have an election coming up now.
Speaker 1: We may not all be excited about how things are
Speaker 1: turning out, but there is an election coming That means
Speaker 1: we have to rend stir and ensure that younger people
Speaker 1: and other folks are at the polls because we're going
Speaker 1: to have some issues there. You have voted suppression that
Speaker 1: we're dealing with across the country. We see people standing
Speaker 1: online in Georgia just in the latest Democratic primary people
Speaker 1: were standing online for five and six hours trying to
Speaker 1: vote in America and also encouraging people who otherwise wouldn't
Speaker 1: vote to vote. I know so many young people who
Speaker 1: feel like democracy doesn't exist. Not people, though, it's so
Speaker 1: many people that don't believe in the process anymore. How
Speaker 1: are you because right now I don't feel like either
Speaker 1: party is servicing the communities. Here's what I'm tired of.
Speaker 1: I'm tired of that party acting as if they are
Speaker 1: servicing our community and when they are not. But yet
Speaker 1: they know we have no other place to go. So
Speaker 1: what can we do? We can ask ourselves, but candidate
Speaker 1: can be most effectively pressure, and we know we can't
Speaker 1: do that. Was the current occupant of quite right. The
Speaker 1: only reason to vote for the Democratic candidate is because
Speaker 1: we may be better able to generate our protests and
Speaker 1: our power and to pressure that candidate and to moving
Speaker 1: in a more progressive diverge. And what that means is
Speaker 1: I love the protest sides at say, defund the police.
Speaker 1: We have to abolish policing as it how dontly exists
Speaker 1: because it is so saturated with racism and violence that
Speaker 1: there is no way to truly before police. I think
Speaker 1: we begin there. I agree. I don't think you can
Speaker 1: reform a institution that was designed to be slave catchers, right,
Speaker 1: that's the history of the police. People get really afraid
Speaker 1: of words, you know, and everybody's like, oh, don't say defund.
Speaker 1: You know, you have to say defund. So explain what
Speaker 1: defund the police means. So when you think about defunding
Speaker 1: the police, what you're saying is that it's not working
Speaker 1: and you're not hearing us because we're still dying. So
Speaker 1: now we've got to start messing with your budget. Police
Speaker 1: officers are being given a terrible job, Jada. They're being
Speaker 1: asked to go to a mentally ill person's home and
Speaker 1: now you become the doctor, and you're asking them to
Speaker 1: move into those situations without the proper tools. And they
Speaker 1: also don't have the sensitivity for our people in our communities.
Speaker 1: That's just something that you can't be taught. So when
Speaker 1: they approach a drunk man on the street, what's gonna
Speaker 1: happen is what they do use a force versus taking
Speaker 1: some of the funding from that and putting it towards
Speaker 1: mental health experts and people who know how to approach
Speaker 1: situations and de escalate the problem. There is no reason
Speaker 1: why we are sitting here and Rachard is dead to
Speaker 1: be handled in a totally different way. So basically, what
Speaker 1: you're saying is defunding the police does not mean the
Speaker 1: police will not show up when you dial nine one one,
Speaker 1: but that we need to use some of that funding
Speaker 1: for other services. I also believe in abolishing the police,
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna say that here. I don't want to
Speaker 1: walk away not being honest. Right before I got here,
Speaker 1: people will calling me like you not say that, Like
Speaker 1: you just can't because it's no. I want to have courage.
Speaker 1: I want to be politically courageous. At some point, we
Speaker 1: need to get to a place where we do not
Speaker 1: need police officers with heavy, you know, machinery in our communities.
Speaker 1: But at this point, what is being discussed so then
Speaker 1: people can woo is that yes, you will be able
Speaker 1: to call the police. Right? Is there anything I want
Speaker 1: to say before we leave the table. People need to
Speaker 1: stay in the street, Jada, don't go home. Hey, we
Speaker 1: can't go back because guess what, since we've been in
Speaker 1: the street, folks are moving it. So don't go home
Speaker 1: because when you go home then it's quiet. And people
Speaker 1: can go back to business as usual, right. I totally
Speaker 1: agree with them. This is the most exciting moment I
Speaker 1: have experienced in my entire life, and I wanted to continue.
Speaker 1: Never seen anything like it in my lifetime. The ain't
Speaker 1: gonna be no justice, ain't gonna be no peace, justice,
Speaker 1: no peace. I just want to thank you both. This
Speaker 1: was an awesome conversation. We are beyond honored that you
Speaker 1: both blessed us with your wisdom, your power, your strength,
Speaker 1: and just thank you, thank you, thank you. So yeah,
Speaker 1: after Davis, maybe you'll come back and share with us. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you, thank you. I love her so much. Yes,
Speaker 1: she's just brilliant to join the Red Table Talk family
Speaker 1: and become a part of the conversation. Follow us at
Speaker 1: facebook dot com slash red table Talk. Thanks for listening
Speaker 1: to this episode of Red Table Talk podcast produced by
Speaker 1: Facebook Watch, Westbrook Audio, and I Heart Radio.