Speaker 1: I'm Tamika D. Mallory and it's.
Speaker 2: Your boy, my son a general.
Speaker 1: We are your host of t M I.
Speaker 2: Tamika and my Son's Information, Truth, Motivation and inspiration, new name.
Speaker 1: New Energy. What's going on? My son, Lennon?
Speaker 2: I am black, Black and Holly favored Tamika. How you
Speaker 2: doing today?
Speaker 3: All as well as well just true m plenty is
Speaker 3: we need to be like we love just water, so
Speaker 3: we should be actually calling.
Speaker 2: We need to ask, hey, Jada, we need a few
Speaker 2: bottles of this.
Speaker 1: Jada said that Naha Brand.
Speaker 3: She said, that's Jaden Brand said Jaden, Oh, I thought
Speaker 3: you said?
Speaker 2: He said Jaden.
Speaker 3: Mama said, listen, don't call me, call the person director.
Speaker 3: You need some walked up texts Jayden to say, just
Speaker 3: so you know, we drink and love t M I.
Speaker 2: We love just just what.
Speaker 1: It's really good.
Speaker 3: So if anybody who had Just water when it first started,
Speaker 3: because remember when Just Water first came out, I started.
Speaker 3: I bought some immediately, and I didn't like the way
Speaker 3: it tastes. It tastes like a box. As soon as
Speaker 3: I had put a little bit in my mouth, I
Speaker 3: was like, oh, this is disgusting, and I, along with
Speaker 3: I'm sure other people gave some feedback, and then over
Speaker 3: time it changed, so I went back. I always drink
Speaker 3: smart water or just water, So I went back on
Speaker 3: my smart water until I don't know where I was.
Speaker 3: I think it was actually I was in the Bahamas.
Speaker 3: I was in the Bahamas and I had some just
Speaker 3: water and it was so good that I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: that's it. I'm back on just water. And then they
Speaker 3: sent us some during while we were in Louisville, Kentucky,
Speaker 3: with Breonna Taylor's family in the community there, they sent
Speaker 3: us a bunch of just water for our airbnbs, and
Speaker 3: so then we started got back into drinking it, and
Speaker 3: that box taste was gone. So whatever they put inside
Speaker 3: of it, it's like an aluminum seal. It changed the
Speaker 3: way that the water tastes.
Speaker 1: This water.
Speaker 3: For anybody who is listening, this just water is bomb water.
Speaker 3: Everyone that I know who drinks it regularly, they love it,
Speaker 3: love it gets you some just what it tastes so
Speaker 3: crisp and clean. I was walking around a festival this
Speaker 3: holiday weekend in New York City and it's the Commodore.
Speaker 3: I think it's the International African American you know, and
Speaker 3: there's a whole bunch of letters.
Speaker 1: I A.
Speaker 3: We have to make sure we put it please on
Speaker 3: the screen. It happens annually. And I was walking around
Speaker 3: in there, and it was so hot on the fourth
Speaker 3: of July in this park, but it was so wonderful,
Speaker 3: so many black people, activists, leaders, scholars, vendors, everything you
Speaker 3: could think people cooking, of course, you know, big massive
Speaker 3: lines for food, kids playing music, everything you could think
Speaker 3: of at a festival. And I had a bottle in
Speaker 3: my car that was so hot, smoking hot, and so
Speaker 3: I got some ice and mixed it with it and
Speaker 3: like shook it up and did what I had to do.
Speaker 3: When I was drinking that water in the park, I
Speaker 3: said to myself, there is no water better than this
Speaker 3: in the whole wild world.
Speaker 1: It just it was so good.
Speaker 2: You just maybe it just satisfied the need of the moment.
Speaker 1: No, no, it's not.
Speaker 3: Because I also I had a little bottle of poland
Speaker 3: spring like that was all I could get to at
Speaker 3: one point, and I was like, so I went back
Speaker 3: to the car, I got my water, So dang on good.
Speaker 1: That could have been that dirty ice that I put
Speaker 1: in there. But you know that's all different.
Speaker 3: Well, they said that the ice is dirty and swamp
Speaker 3: they said ice is disgusting. So, you know, but nah,
Speaker 3: a black woman gave it to me, so it was clean.
Speaker 3: That's it, period, point and blank. But speaking of festivals,
Speaker 3: that brings me to the target Boycott continues.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: The interesting thing about so this weekend, the reason why
Speaker 3: i was at the festival in Brooklyn, which I've always
Speaker 3: attended with my parents whenever I didn't go to Essence,
Speaker 3: which was meant, which was not often, but whenever I
Speaker 3: didn't go to Essence, my parents have been taken me
Speaker 3: to Brooklyn on Memorial weekend and then again fourth July weekend.
Speaker 3: There are festivals that happened there in Brooklyn. Shout out
Speaker 3: to Brooklyn for always maintaining that cultural expression for black
Speaker 3: people too. And so I was, you know, so I
Speaker 3: decided let me go with them because I knew they
Speaker 3: would be doing something, and so I was still going
Speaker 3: to be around our people and be at a festival,
Speaker 3: but just not the Essence festival.
Speaker 1: And there are a lot of people who I think
Speaker 1: were very confused.
Speaker 3: And in fact, I posted a statement and I kind
Speaker 3: of left out a really important thing in the statement,
Speaker 3: and so I think it may have caused some folks
Speaker 3: to be a little bit confused, but then there are
Speaker 3: a bunch of other people who were like, I know
Speaker 3: exactly what she's saying. So some folks are confused on purpose,
Speaker 3: like they want to be confused. But the bottom line
Speaker 3: was that I put out, you know, my own statement. Now,
Speaker 3: the week before Essence began the festival began, Jamal, Nina
Speaker 3: Turner and Die passed to Jamal Bryant, Nina Turner, Senter,
Speaker 3: Anita Turner and myself put out a statement pretty much
Speaker 3: saying that we weren't going to Essence and explaining why
Speaker 3: and also laying out, you know, the boycott, that it continues,
Speaker 3: how it started, just reminding people of all the things again,
Speaker 3: and we were really clear, we don't have an issue
Speaker 3: with Essence. We know that Essence was in a four
Speaker 3: year contract or four year deal sponsorship deal with Target,
Speaker 3: and in fact, the things that we called on Target
Speaker 3: to do in the demands is to make sure that
Speaker 3: they spend every single dime that they said they would
Speaker 3: spend with the black community as a part of their
Speaker 3: initial commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion. I asked the
Speaker 3: Target executive that we were working with or speaking with directly,
Speaker 3: to show us how the money was spent, all of it.
Speaker 3: If you say you've made your commitment, show it to us,
Speaker 3: show us real data and see.
Speaker 1: The thing is, these people are so.
Speaker 3: Used to getting into conversations with folks where they just
Speaker 3: tell them whatever and talk real good.
Speaker 1: And I mean they can talk.
Speaker 3: They know how to speak well, and they know how
Speaker 3: to get you caught up in the cyclone. So you
Speaker 3: when it's over, you're like, well, it sounds good this
Speaker 3: and that. And my thing was, I've been in enough
Speaker 3: of those conversations. I've been working in this space for
Speaker 3: a long time. I've sat at the feet of the
Speaker 3: best negotiators and people who were able to work on
Speaker 3: d and fight for certain things to happen and access
Speaker 3: for black businesses and all that I've done that I
Speaker 3: know exactly how it goes.
Speaker 1: So I know what to ask for.
Speaker 3: And what we want is the data to show that
Speaker 3: you've spent this billion dollar two billion dollars, how did
Speaker 3: you spend it, who did you spend it with? And
Speaker 3: if it's not all handled at this point or all distributed,
Speaker 3: what is the plan? So we understand that target is
Speaker 3: in a four year sponsorship deal with Essence, and nobody
Speaker 3: is telling Essence don't take the money or go back. Now,
Speaker 3: there's some people who said, well, that's what we would
Speaker 3: have done, and that's cool, everybody. I'm not about to
Speaker 3: sit here and debate back and forth with people on
Speaker 3: how they feel they would have handled a situation. But
Speaker 3: I understand realistically, with Essence being a massive brand in
Speaker 3: the way in which it is, and in the last
Speaker 3: this whole diversity, equity and inclusion rollback, by the way,
Speaker 3: is impacting businesses like Essence and others, organizations and people, individuals,
Speaker 3: Black people, and not get to that in a second,
Speaker 3: it is impacting all of us because we know that
Speaker 3: there are several vendors that did not have several major
Speaker 3: businesses and sponsors who did not go back to Essence
Speaker 3: this year. So when people are like, oh it was different,
Speaker 3: it felt like this, that and the third, there are reasons,
Speaker 3: multiple layered reasons why.
Speaker 1: That happened, right, and so.
Speaker 3: To tell them to give back money or to not
Speaker 3: take the money or breach a contract with Target, it's
Speaker 3: a long shot. And it's not even an argument that
Speaker 3: we want to get into because guess what, black people
Speaker 3: are not our enemy. We're not here to fight a
Speaker 3: black business, and that's not what we're trying to do,
Speaker 3: at least that it's not what we're trying to do.
Speaker 3: And so we just said, in good conscious we could
Speaker 3: not be up in essence, smiling and grinning and walking
Speaker 3: around having a good time while a big old target
Speaker 3: exhibit is in the convention center.
Speaker 1: We just can't do it.
Speaker 3: And so we said the action, the call to action
Speaker 3: is for people to walk past the target exhibit, don't
Speaker 3: go in there, don't walk around with their bag, don't
Speaker 3: take their stuff.
Speaker 1: Now, two things about that.
Speaker 3: First off, if people, if any dumb, ignorant person thinks
Speaker 3: that we thought that nobody black was going to go
Speaker 3: over to the target booth, you're dumb, right. And I
Speaker 3: saw somebody write that, and I kind of really want
Speaker 3: to call a person out, but I'm just I just
Speaker 3: get tired of fighting everybody all the time. So whatever,
Speaker 3: no one thought that people weren't going to go to
Speaker 3: the booth. Of course you were still going to have
Speaker 3: people to line up, because that's how we do, that's
Speaker 3: just how we do. We already know that one of
Speaker 3: the reasons why when folks are like, oh, we should
Speaker 3: boycott this and do this, and that. The reason why
Speaker 3: there is a hesitancy from most people who are leaders
Speaker 3: to lean into these conversations about boycotts is because we
Speaker 3: already understand that if you cannot demonstrate with numbers a
Speaker 3: significant impact, which we have done so with Target, regardless
Speaker 3: of what happened at essence, we have done so with Target.
Speaker 3: But if you cannot demonstrate that, oftentimes people do not
Speaker 3: want to put their credibility and everything else on the
Speaker 3: line by calling for something that they know more than
Speaker 3: likely people are not going to do. So we already
Speaker 3: understand that there were going to be lines of black
Speaker 3: folks that don't give two shits about a boycott or
Speaker 3: anything else. What they care about is we want the
Speaker 3: free stuff, and so they're going on over there. But
Speaker 3: the second thing is Target changed the color of its exhibit.
Speaker 3: So usually everything is big red with the big, big
Speaker 3: red bullseye that's the Target brand. This year their entire
Speaker 3: exhibit was pink, and the Target symbol was in just
Speaker 3: a few places, but not as bold as it usually is.
Speaker 3: So people were saying to us, or we got on
Speaker 3: the line and then realized it was targeting it. I
Speaker 3: don't know if they got off or not or whatever,
Speaker 3: but one thing I do know, there are a number
Speaker 3: of people, a significant number of people who wrote messages,
Speaker 3: who sent back things saying I walked right slam past
Speaker 3: it and I ain't thinking about Target. I'm never going back.
Speaker 3: So there's going to be that and we're not walking
Speaker 3: around like oh man, people who's out there Target things still?
Speaker 3: And I feel so bad. It's so much bigger than
Speaker 3: that for us. I feel like we were making sure
Speaker 3: that we stand true to what we said. We said
Speaker 3: we would not support Target in any way, and therefore
Speaker 3: we can't even be at the festival where Target is,
Speaker 3: you know, all around Now, then there are people who
Speaker 3: will say and the same person in fact anyway was
Speaker 3: talking about you know, but why were people up in
Speaker 3: arms about the National Baptist Convention taking money from Target?
Speaker 1: And what we have been very clear about is there's
Speaker 1: a big.
Speaker 3: Difference between somebody signing a four year deal and this
Speaker 3: is the last of four, even if it was the
Speaker 3: third of four.
Speaker 1: Right, they're in a contract already and you.
Speaker 3: Having a meeting with Target and taking new money from
Speaker 3: them in the middle of a boycott. And I know
Speaker 3: everybody understands that. That's why I don't even argue about it,
Speaker 3: because the reason why you see them keep writing and
Speaker 3: talking and writing and talking is because of the guilt
Speaker 3: that they know. And the people in that comment section
Speaker 3: is tearing them up. They were writing this person was right, Yeah,
Speaker 3: why they ain't saying nothing the essence?
Speaker 1: How come you know they ain't going off on essence?
Speaker 3: And it's like in the person in the comments says,
Speaker 3: so you saying both the convention and essence fest are
Speaker 3: both wrong. That's what you're saying, because it's not to
Speaker 3: say that one. You're not saying that both of them
Speaker 3: should be off the hook. You saying and Spats should
Speaker 3: have gone through the same thing. So you even in
Speaker 3: your way, you're acknowledging.
Speaker 1: The issue here. But that's not the point. It is
Speaker 1: not to me.
Speaker 3: Again, I am not going to invest my time and
Speaker 3: energy into creating or fighting with more of our people
Speaker 3: because I can clearly see who the enemy is and
Speaker 3: we know very clearly and understand very much. So what
Speaker 3: is happening with companies like Target and Target specifically Donald
Speaker 3: Trump says and Elon muss I don't care how much
Speaker 3: they having a boy and girl or a girl and
Speaker 3: boy or whatever you want to call it. Spat in
Speaker 3: this moment, I don't care how much they have in
Speaker 3: a little spat, a nasty spat, by the way, but
Speaker 3: I don't care about that. They were aligned when they
Speaker 3: decided that diversity, equity and inclusion needed to be challenged
Speaker 3: and made damn near illegal in companies. Target's physics is, oh, well,
Speaker 3: we can't defy an executive order. Well, how come Delta
Speaker 3: can defy an executive order? How come Costco can defy
Speaker 3: an executive order? You don't get a pass for what
Speaker 3: you have done? And so when people why this isn't
Speaker 3: it because we because the people said.
Speaker 2: So, Listen, I mean, and that's the reality of the situation.
Speaker 2: When we look at this whole boycott situation, it wasn't
Speaker 2: called by us. It was called by the people. And
Speaker 2: we just happened to be in a position to have
Speaker 2: the faces and follow the lead of the people. Like
Speaker 2: when you do boycouts and when you when you do
Speaker 2: fast or whatever you call them, it's you have you
Speaker 2: get it from the energy of the streets, and the
Speaker 2: energy of the streets was like Target this some bullshit,
Speaker 2: and Target got to pay for it, you know. So
Speaker 2: when we look at this situation, like you said, ess as,
Speaker 2: we all love to go to this is our favorite
Speaker 2: thing to do. But when you can't have boycott right,
Speaker 2: you can't say you stand up for something and just
Speaker 2: because my friend is doing it, it's okay. No, it's
Speaker 2: just it's not okay. Because we said we we weren't
Speaker 2: going to stand with anything. We're target was prominent, so
Speaker 2: you know, we when we gave the the marchin orders
Speaker 2: and for the most part, the people who stood for
Speaker 2: what we stood for, Like you said, we can't make
Speaker 2: everybody do it. Now, there's no way. Black people are
Speaker 2: not a mind lift. They have their own ideas. They
Speaker 2: have the things that they stand for, things that they
Speaker 2: believe in. And if you don't believe that target should
Speaker 2: be boycott, that's on you. But we made the decision
Speaker 2: that it should be boycotted for us, and there's a
Speaker 2: long list of people who agree. So when we look
Speaker 2: at the situation, and then you're gonna get the nay says,
Speaker 2: and there's gonna be people, oh, y'all ain't did nothing whatever.
Speaker 2: We know what the numbers say, we know the statistics, and.
Speaker 3: And who is now retiring. By the way, it was
Speaker 3: announced that the CEO is retiring. And it's sad that
Speaker 3: we as a people don't sit and understand that our power.
Speaker 3: They of course they're not gonna go right so much
Speaker 3: about your our power right like.
Speaker 1: These editors and these newsrooms.
Speaker 3: They're not being ready to go out there and be like, oh,
Speaker 3: the black people are taking back their power.
Speaker 1: They're not going to do this. They say a little
Speaker 1: bit about it.
Speaker 2: You know, they have to say it because the reality
Speaker 2: is is it's hurting enough to where they have to
Speaker 2: say something to acknowledge that it's happened. But what they'll
Speaker 2: do is they'll continuously try to pick us off piece
Speaker 2: by piece. They're gonna send somebody that's black like you
Speaker 2: to have a conversation with you and say, yeah, we
Speaker 2: want we want to support, Yeah, we understand this, and
Speaker 2: he's gonna individually do this. And that's why I hate
Speaker 2: what's happening with Consanat because he's a good kid. He
Speaker 2: represents the culture. Probably, But when they come to you
Speaker 2: and you have a deal and you got something that
Speaker 2: you want to come and they say, hey, we'll we'll
Speaker 2: make sure that this is the biggest thing in the store, right,
Speaker 2: and you're not really that conscious of what's going on,
Speaker 2: or maybe you don't care as much, right, So what
Speaker 2: happens is they're able to utilize us against each other.
Speaker 2: And this is what happens all the time, and it
Speaker 2: is a sad thing and I'm not And the thing is,
Speaker 2: we have to be smart enough to understand it. That's
Speaker 2: what they're doing, right, So we have to be able
Speaker 2: to educate our youth. We got to sit there, somebody
Speaker 2: gotta have a conversation with con say, look, this is
Speaker 2: what's happening. So how do we figure out what we
Speaker 2: do next instead of we have it looks like us
Speaker 2: against the younger kids and us against other black people. Know,
Speaker 2: we have to we but we have to strategically understand
Speaker 2: that that's what they're doing. They are utilizing us to
Speaker 2: pit us against each other.
Speaker 3: Well, but the thing is with somebody like Kai Sano,
Speaker 3: when you say someone needs to have a conversation with him,
Speaker 3: more than likely there are people having a conversation and
Speaker 3: that conversation is fuck that boycott. That's that's the conversation
Speaker 3: that even and maybe he doesn't know anything about it
Speaker 3: at all, but if he was informed somehow it's coming
Speaker 3: through the lens of that is not important. A boycott
Speaker 3: is not important. It's just a little thing anyway, it
Speaker 3: doesn't matter. We're gonna we're gonna move forward. You're hot,
Speaker 3: you're more important, or whatever. And that's why black people
Speaker 3: can't have nice things, because at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: we have to be in a place where no even
Speaker 3: if we don't all it. I watched I saw my girlfriend,
Speaker 3: our girlfriend l Joy Williams, who's the president of the
Speaker 3: New York State Conference at NAACP. She said, I have
Speaker 3: my questions about Target, but I know I ain't been
Speaker 3: in Target since they said there was a boycott, right,
Speaker 3: She like, I ain't know if I was all the
Speaker 3: way with it, but I know once we said there
Speaker 3: was a boycott, you weren't gonna catch me in it.
Speaker 1: Period.
Speaker 3: As long as black people are boycotting, I'm not going
Speaker 3: to cross the picket line. And that's really what I
Speaker 3: think was the message for the National Baptist Convention.
Speaker 1: I already get it.
Speaker 3: A bunch of men got to going back and forth, honey,
Speaker 3: and people put their stuff on the table and said,
Speaker 3: mine is bigger than yours, don't I'm not I'm not
Speaker 3: me and need to turner. We're not in the we
Speaker 3: don't got nothing the size up with y'all. Y'all got that.
Speaker 1: Y'all can argue all day, go back and forth.
Speaker 3: What we are saying is just keeping the conversation straightforward.
Speaker 3: Is that to your point, the people in many ways
Speaker 3: called this boycott certainly need to turn It was one
Speaker 3: of the first people out there organizing who said, you know,
Speaker 3: we need to boycott, and we're gonna put some structure
Speaker 3: and some data and some information and also build the
Speaker 3: list of black businesses who are in Target and beyond
Speaker 3: and make sure that gets out there so people can
Speaker 3: buy directly. And then of course you had Pastor Bryant
Speaker 3: to come right behind that and start some serious initiatives
Speaker 3: to help people with awareness and to get their muscles,
Speaker 3: you know, straighten out your muscles, get yourself, get yourself
Speaker 3: in the mindset that I don't need this brand. I
Speaker 3: can actually go anywhere and find other things that I need.
Speaker 3: I don't have to shop at Target. And so when
Speaker 3: you put all of that together, along with our knowledge
Speaker 3: and ability and expertise, you have a good group of
Speaker 3: people who are still being led by the people the
Speaker 3: people right, and the people are saying they ain't never
Speaker 3: going back to Target. They said, y'all can he was
Speaker 3: the word boycott. We're telling you it's canceled, it's done,
Speaker 3: it's over for us. That's just where we are. I
Speaker 3: just think that even it's important to keep saying that, Like,
Speaker 3: I don't feel and I did write. I wrote my truth, right,
Speaker 3: I just I don't need. What happened was we put
Speaker 3: the statement out together, and then I was just in
Speaker 3: my bed and thinking to myself, Wow, I'm really gonna
Speaker 3: miss my friends. Usually I got on my little outfits,
Speaker 3: we go into all the things, and I make money.
Speaker 3: At Essence Fest, I get invited to speak here and
Speaker 3: do a thing over here. Sometimes I receive awards and
Speaker 3: in the middle of a book release. Okay, I just
Speaker 3: my book was just released a few months ago. It's
Speaker 3: not like we're talking about two years or even a year.
Speaker 3: It was just February eleventh that my book was released.
Speaker 3: I need every event possible to sell books. And I
Speaker 3: know that when I'm at Essence Fest, because there's a
Speaker 3: difference between essence and Essence Fest. When I'm at Essence Fest,
Speaker 3: I am in contact with and in relationship with and
Speaker 3: standing next to people who thousands of people who support me,
Speaker 3: support my work, they love me, and I could really
Speaker 3: sell hundreds, if not thousands of books if I really
Speaker 3: set up and do it properly. And that was already
Speaker 3: worked out. Essence had already said I could come there
Speaker 3: and you know, have my book there. And I'm told
Speaker 3: that my book was displayed in a couple of places
Speaker 3: in the convention center regardless of whether I was there
Speaker 3: or not. So when I say I'm not going, it's
Speaker 3: really a sacrifice, you know, but it's one that's cool.
Speaker 3: I'm good, I'm spending time with my mom and my
Speaker 3: daddy and my sister and my friends. Was the best
Speaker 3: thing that could have happened. I saw a lot of
Speaker 3: people who also support me. And the interesting thing about it,
Speaker 3: as I didn't plan it this way, I just happened
Speaker 3: to put the statement out on Thursday. As I was thinking,
Speaker 3: while I'm not traveling there, you know, to New Orleans,
Speaker 3: and I ain't gonna get that good food, oh.
Speaker 1: Gosh, but I'll be back.
Speaker 3: And as I was kind of like thinking about it,
Speaker 3: I'm like, you know what, I want to say something
Speaker 3: to people that is really heartfelt. That's not a statement
Speaker 3: with everybody else, but it's something that's really coming from
Speaker 3: my heart.
Speaker 1: So I wrote that statement.
Speaker 3: So Friday when I'm at the festival just walking around,
Speaker 3: which I didn't even realize I'm going to the festival
Speaker 3: because I called my father Friday morning and say, yo,
Speaker 3: y'all want to go eat or you want to do
Speaker 3: what today? And he said, we're going to the festival.
Speaker 3: I said, I'm gonna go out ride out there with y'all.
Speaker 3: So that's how I got there. We were walking around
Speaker 3: and people are like, you ain't at Essence Fest, but
Speaker 3: you were at the festival with us. That happened one
Speaker 3: hundred times, so it all worked out. There was a
Speaker 3: lot of love. And people didn't say damn that Essence.
Speaker 3: They said we understand, we understand your position. So there's
Speaker 3: all of that and I just I don't know, I
Speaker 3: don't know. There's nothing else to say. We still continue on.
Speaker 1: It doesn't end, you know.
Speaker 2: We just got to understand that our collective power is
Speaker 2: so strong, like when we utilize that collective problem when
Speaker 2: we staying up for one thing and we watch different cultures,
Speaker 2: different ethnicities, different groups of people make the sacrifices, and
Speaker 2: it's nothing wrong with making it sad because everybody benefits
Speaker 2: from it. And I just wish we understood that when
Speaker 2: we all make one sacrifice, it's going to double and quadruple,
Speaker 2: it's gonna come back way more. So we just have
Speaker 2: to show Look, this is what we stand on and
Speaker 2: we're not moving from this. And once we show that,
Speaker 2: the only people gonna come back whatever you need, and
Speaker 2: that's what we got to understand. So I just hope
Speaker 2: that people understand the significance of this boycott and the
Speaker 2: historical reference of it, and understanding throughout history it is
Speaker 2: one of the biggest tools that we have utilized. We've
Speaker 2: never been able to gain anything with violence or negative
Speaker 2: but us and our collective power unifying against or for
Speaker 2: something has always got us who we want.
Speaker 3: So that brings me to my thought of today, which
Speaker 3: the target boycott could have been my thought of the day.
Speaker 3: But I have much to say today. The Texas was
Speaker 3: this is really really, really, really really tough. Really, I mean,
Speaker 3: I don't know if I really slept fully last night
Speaker 3: because it's just like it put me back in the
Speaker 3: mind of the Sandy Hook shooting when all those kids
Speaker 3: were killed, right like it turned my stomach flips over
Speaker 3: front and back. I'm just thinking about here, my granddaughter, right,
Speaker 3: she's a little girl. She's gonna be three years old
Speaker 3: one day. She'll probably go to a camp. I have
Speaker 3: so many friends whose kids are away at different camps
Speaker 3: across the country right now. To think that you take
Speaker 3: your child to a camp one or two or three
Speaker 3: or four days before and then four five days later
Speaker 3: on however many days because it was this is new.
Speaker 3: These kids just got out of school and this camp
Speaker 3: and these they just got dropped off in the recent days,
Speaker 3: and now a flood comes and takes them out. And
Speaker 3: I know that it's different with Sandy Hook, because this
Speaker 3: is a human that went in there and shot them.
Speaker 3: But I'm just saying, the mass death of young babies
Speaker 3: at one time, it is so traumatizing. I cannot imagine.
Speaker 3: I mean Sandy Hook and even Uvaldi, like the shooting
Speaker 3: that happened there, and then of course in our community,
Speaker 3: right like the mass death of people, but particularly young kids, babies,
Speaker 3: it's hard, it's hard to sit with. It's just you
Speaker 3: don't even know what to say. And when it's a
Speaker 3: natural disaster, it's even worse because you don't even know
Speaker 3: who to blame, Like, you can't. It's nobody to even
Speaker 3: like point at to say you did it, or you
Speaker 3: did it, or this one or that one in the third.
Speaker 3: It's so hard. And so I've been watching these videos
Speaker 3: for the last day or so. Especially it's been a
Speaker 3: couple from black women who are saying that it is
Speaker 3: bothering them that people are inserting political discourse into this situation.
Speaker 3: So they're like, how can you, in a moment when
Speaker 3: this horrific situation has happened, can't imagine what these families
Speaker 3: are going through. You can't imagine the worst time they
Speaker 3: want to die? I'm sure right. Even it's called Camp Mystic,
Speaker 3: where the kids were that the flood came through and
Speaker 3: took swept these babies.
Speaker 1: The man who started the camp.
Speaker 3: Right he died too, seventy years old, went behind those
Speaker 3: kids trying to save them, and he died.
Speaker 1: It is horrific. It is horrific.
Speaker 3: Even the camp two those supervisors that's in the picture,
Speaker 3: they're young girls, you know.
Speaker 1: Just it's terrible.
Speaker 3: And so the political discourse, you know, people are like,
Speaker 3: keep that out of the conversation for now, and let
Speaker 3: us not lose our humanity in this moment. And so
Speaker 3: they're like, I can't believe that folks want to talk
Speaker 3: about politics. So let me just say this, Okay, for
Speaker 3: the record, everything is political. Everything is political. Who you
Speaker 3: sleep with, where you sleep, how comfortable you're living or not,
Speaker 3: what you can eat, what you can't eat, whether or
Speaker 3: not the air is clean, in the environment or not,
Speaker 3: whether it's safe or not, all those things.
Speaker 1: Everything, whether or not.
Speaker 3: You are exposed to health issues, and also whether issues right,
Speaker 3: whether or not a flood comes through and it's taken
Speaker 3: care of properly, whether your communities are ravished or fire,
Speaker 3: whether the building codes are being properly checked, whether landlords
Speaker 3: are doing the right thing. Every single thing we do
Speaker 3: every day is political, period. And so while I understand that,
Speaker 3: and that no one should be going to a family
Speaker 3: and putting a microphone in their face right now and
Speaker 3: asking them about the flood warning system, that Donald Trump
Speaker 3: and Doge again, going back to the target conversation that
Speaker 3: we just had. Donald Trump. They can have a pissy
Speaker 3: fight all they want, a Trump and Elon Musk, but
Speaker 3: they were together. They were aligned on cutting programs, cutting divisions,
Speaker 3: saying every damn thing was waste, and they got rid
Speaker 3: of thousands of workers who were in the national weather
Speaker 3: whatever program y'all know the right name for it, right,
Speaker 3: They were in that. So they did a buyout for
Speaker 3: I think twelve hundred people and they laid off eight hundred.
Speaker 1: And something people.
Speaker 3: So again that's thousands of people who don't work there anymore.
Speaker 3: That is going to impact service. If you walk in
Speaker 3: a restaurant right now, and it used to be that
Speaker 3: there was fifty weight staff waiting on everybody, they're going
Speaker 3: to tell you that they get a different level of service.
Speaker 3: When you fire thirty of those people and only twenty
Speaker 3: people work there, it's a different level of service. So
Speaker 3: no matter what you say, there's going to be issues.
Speaker 3: And the only thing I want to say to the
Speaker 3: black women who've made the videos, I agree with you
Speaker 3: and I understand nobody should be questioning families about this,
Speaker 3: but we do have to have the conversation because we
Speaker 3: have not seen the worst of what is going to happen.
Speaker 3: If you think that which we know is terrible, that
Speaker 3: there was no sirens and no alerts that this situation
Speaker 3: took place. If you think that, imagine what's going to happen,
Speaker 3: and there are sirens that tells you that cutting billions
Speaker 3: of dollars from health care and food benefits and all
Speaker 3: the things that they are doing that they just did
Speaker 3: in this big nasty, ass ugly ass billionaire bill reports
Speaker 3: only billionaires.
Speaker 1: There's an alarm.
Speaker 3: We've been sounding it right, but still in all, we're
Speaker 3: going to see more crazy things happen. When more children
Speaker 3: are dying, more families are in jeopardy. You haven't seen
Speaker 3: the end of it yet. So yeah, we do have
Speaker 3: to insert a political discourse in the moment because it
Speaker 3: seems that people only pay attention.
Speaker 1: When shit is real, real, real, real, real, real bad.
Speaker 3: And the fact that of camp and schools and families
Speaker 3: didn't know, oh my god, something is happening, that's a problem.
Speaker 1: But guess what. Guess what.
Speaker 3: Did Donald Trump and then blame themselves for this? Because
Speaker 3: I saw DL Hughgley talking about it. He said, it
Speaker 3: just doesn't seem like they blame in themselves the way
Speaker 3: that they did. Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, and
Speaker 3: what's it in Karen Bass, mayor Karen Bass. Oh, Trump
Speaker 3: showed up there and greasy, So what you're gonna do
Speaker 3: about these other folks. I ain't even gonna get into
Speaker 3: the voting records because I've already looked it up, and
Speaker 3: I can tell you that there's a lot of people
Speaker 3: in that area that didn't vote for Kamala Harris. So
Speaker 3: you know, there may be some level of love and
Speaker 3: allegiance and more support that those people receive. I hope
Speaker 3: they get everything that they deserve, but we deserve it too,
Speaker 3: no matter who. Once you become in the government, you're
Speaker 3: supposed to govern for all people equally. But we'll see
Speaker 3: what happened. So I'm just saying the political the personal
Speaker 3: is political.
Speaker 2: It's always political. When you look at a government and
Speaker 2: you look at people who live and governed by government,
Speaker 2: these they're supposed to be protected from these things, right,
Speaker 2: That's why you pay taxes. This is why we elect
Speaker 2: government officials so that when natural disasters like this happen,
Speaker 2: they have weather channel like you exactly, we have all
Speaker 2: these things people should be evacuate. You're supposed to be
Speaker 2: protected by your government. So when people act like it's
Speaker 2: not political, and I understand you don't want to make
Speaker 2: it political, but someone has to be held responsible.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: We have to have checks and balances, and we live
Speaker 2: in cities, and we live in communities. The reason why
Speaker 2: we have elected officials and we have people that run
Speaker 2: those communities so that there is safety there. So when
Speaker 2: you take away that part, somebody has to be responsible
Speaker 2: for why our communities aren't safe, why those babies lost
Speaker 2: their life. No, the parents and the family members should
Speaker 2: not have to deal with the politics, but there are
Speaker 2: those of us who have to call out the fact
Speaker 2: that somebody failed, the fact that this government erased jobs,
Speaker 2: that took away people who could have saved lives. That
Speaker 2: has to be something that we talk about because that
Speaker 2: means that we're dealing with people who are incompetent. There's
Speaker 2: levels of incompetence inside of our government and we have
Speaker 2: to acknowledge that. So of course, no family members and
Speaker 2: people want to hear that when they just lost their
Speaker 2: lives and they but there has to be those of
Speaker 2: us with in this community and within this nation who
Speaker 2: call out those things to make sure that we don't
Speaker 2: have incompetent leaders to make sure people like Trump are
Speaker 2: constantly erasing, you know, the safety in our communities while
Speaker 2: they're making billionaires richer, and you you focusing on getting
Speaker 2: rid of immigrants and all these things, but you making
Speaker 2: our communities less safe. It doesn't make sense. You know,
Speaker 2: we're talking about government spending and wasting. All these are
Speaker 2: the things.
Speaker 3: There's no way, yeah, that's not waste. The weather and
Speaker 3: and and anyway, I don't anyway, I don't even know.
Speaker 3: Like again, just to simplify, if you had all those people,
Speaker 3: that's just you go to a place like I don't know,
Speaker 3: Row play Land or let's say Great Adventures.
Speaker 1: Most people know Great Adventures.
Speaker 3: And you have hundreds of employees, right, even an employee
Speaker 3: who's work in the bathroom can look up and say,
Speaker 3: that person put that bag down right there, and I
Speaker 3: don't know what's in it. Let me call somebody over
Speaker 3: here to look and see is their bomb, drugs or
Speaker 3: something that ain't supposed to be here? Right Because they're
Speaker 3: in the staff meetings, they're in the environment. They know
Speaker 3: they're being told watch this, watch that, know this or that.
Speaker 3: So maybe the person in the weather department whatever their job,
Speaker 3: might be something over here. But those are often the
Speaker 3: people who are like, hey, have you guys seen that
Speaker 3: there's something else bubbling up here? Maybe we should check
Speaker 3: into it. Right, and then they check into it, and
Speaker 3: like they said, now, I saw that the officials in
Speaker 3: this local community, they said that there's no way that
Speaker 3: they knew it would be anything of this magnitude, which
Speaker 3: I can see that you think it's a small storm
Speaker 3: and it turns out to be a real big storm.
Speaker 3: And they said, well, and there's no alerts that could
Speaker 3: have gone off or alarmed that would.
Speaker 1: Have fixed this.
Speaker 3: But no alarm at all is a problem because an
Speaker 3: alarm that goes off me a school or a camp
Speaker 3: or something like that. Those kids may have been saved.
Speaker 3: So somebody needs to be held accountable. And it's interesting.
Speaker 3: We'll see how it all plays out.
Speaker 2: We sure will. So now today I have the pleasure
Speaker 2: of bringing up a TMI, you know. And so I
Speaker 2: actually talked about this months ago when it was first happening.
Speaker 2: Nelly had made some comments about the presidency, about Kamala Harris,
Speaker 2: about Trump, and he got a lot of pushback, and
Speaker 2: you know, I have my own theories on his comments.
Speaker 2: Nellie's you know, he's cool with me. I think he's
Speaker 2: a dope artist. You know, we got a good rapport.
Speaker 2: But you know, like anybody else, when you are a
Speaker 2: public person and you make a public statement, then you
Speaker 2: you have public pushback, you know, and we were in
Speaker 2: a very important election like this is a very and
Speaker 2: we see exactly what's happening so here lately, you know,
Speaker 2: A Shanty and Nelly have their own TV show. I
Speaker 2: forgot what the name of the TV show is. What
Speaker 2: I've seen clips from the TV show and you know,
Speaker 2: and I'm watching and then I see this statement that
Speaker 2: he puts out about, you know, his pushback, the pushback
Speaker 2: that him and Snoop received because they performed at an
Speaker 2: event that was during Trump's He was a crypto event,
Speaker 2: and you know, him and Snoop have received some pushback,
Speaker 2: you know, rightfully. So you know, Snoop has been very
Speaker 2: vocal about people that he when they when they were
Speaker 2: supporting Trump and he didn't like it. He was very
Speaker 2: vocal about it. So you know, I guess he expected
Speaker 2: a little pushback, and you know, he said what he said,
Speaker 2: and cool, but Nelly deubles down right. First, he made
Speaker 2: this statement before after he was getting the pushback, and
Speaker 2: he stated, how how you know, he just respects the
Speaker 2: office and he would have done this performance if any
Speaker 2: president would have asked him to do it. That he
Speaker 2: grew up and you know, he was on an army, baby,
Speaker 2: and he respects just the government. He respects to all
Speaker 2: the office, the office of the Presidency, all these things.
Speaker 2: There was nothing against Kamala Harris and this and that. Now,
Speaker 2: when he puts out this statement, which I already knew
Speaker 2: because I've listened to him, shout out to Willie D.
Speaker 2: He had an interview with Willie D. And he made
Speaker 2: all of these things. He went with the rhetoric, you know,
Speaker 2: with the same Republican talking points. Man, oh, that you
Speaker 2: know she locked up all these black people, and that
Speaker 2: he you know, she's married to a white man, and
Speaker 2: if she's a black woman and he's married to a
Speaker 2: black woman, he has a black family, and he's done
Speaker 2: way more than she's done for community. All of these
Speaker 2: you know, talking points. And for me, I'm saying to myself,
Speaker 2: what is it, right? Is it that you disrespect the
Speaker 2: office or you have an issue with this woman? Right?
Speaker 2: Because I understood when you said you respect the office,
Speaker 2: I didn't agree. I didn't think that was what it
Speaker 2: was from the beginning because I kept hearing you try
Speaker 2: to point out the same little Republican talking points that
Speaker 2: they kept.
Speaker 3: On Republicans some black people, well, I mean, but definitely
Speaker 3: strategy strategy.
Speaker 2: And for me, it's just like we all have our
Speaker 2: own personal views of things, right, I just think, for me,
Speaker 2: what what do we get as black people pulling down
Speaker 2: another black person so that the white people could continue
Speaker 2: to win. The thing that confuses me is that we
Speaker 2: hold our people accountable for things that we don't hold
Speaker 2: everybody else accountable for. Right. My thing is this, if
Speaker 2: a black person is doing anything trying to to elevate
Speaker 2: and move forward, I want to see you in right,
Speaker 2: I'm not going against you for the white person. Because
Speaker 2: the white person ain't going against these people for us.
Speaker 5: We call her out.
Speaker 2: Oh she got a white husband, Well, Trump got a
Speaker 2: white wife.
Speaker 5: Right, he got whoever he wanted, like, he married who he.
Speaker 2: Wanted to marry. But that don't take away that this
Speaker 2: is a black woman that was trying to elevate, that
Speaker 2: was smarter than the person that she was running against,
Speaker 2: that was more accomplished than the person she was running against.
Speaker 2: And the fact that we use these same tropes and
Speaker 2: these same talking points to attack our people every time,
Speaker 2: it's just I don't know.
Speaker 1: And it's also not true.
Speaker 3: So that's the other thing is that it is not
Speaker 3: true that Kamala Harris, and that has been debunked completely,
Speaker 3: that she locked up all of these black men.
Speaker 1: That is not true. It didn't happen.
Speaker 3: But it also is very it's very telling that he
Speaker 3: said those things, because sometimes if you just let people talk,
Speaker 3: they'll tell, they'll tell on them else. So in listening
Speaker 3: to him, at first, he's just officer of the presidency.
Speaker 3: I respect officer of the presidency. I respect officer the presidency.
Speaker 3: And then all of a sudden he drops in all
Speaker 3: of these things again, narratives, the Fox News talking points
Speaker 3: that became the even even our own people were using them.
Speaker 3: And it's like, okay, so I know, you know, you see,
Speaker 3: and I don't care what Nelly says. He could tell
Speaker 3: the world that it's the office of the presidency. It
Speaker 3: is very clear he aligned himself with a white supremacist,
Speaker 3: and that is Donald Trump. That's who he is, white supremacist,
Speaker 3: and you aligned yourself with them. And it was not
Speaker 3: just him loved Snoop to death, but he also aligned
Speaker 3: himself with a white supremacist who literally just signed a
Speaker 3: bill that cuts the benefits we can have all the
Speaker 3: programs we want. Our organization Until Freedom runs programs every
Speaker 3: day here they are in the third place, we work
Speaker 3: with young people.
Speaker 1: Snooped that.
Speaker 3: I know Annelly does it because I look to see
Speaker 3: they do all of that. You cannot serve billions of
Speaker 3: dollars worth of healthcare and food benefits for people who
Speaker 3: are vulnerable in our society.
Speaker 1: So no matter what what these folks are trying to do.
Speaker 1: And by the way, they already told you that's what
Speaker 1: they was gonna do. So I don't say, oh, I
Speaker 1: didn't know they was gonna do that.
Speaker 3: That just came up now, No, no, no, They wrote
Speaker 3: it in a nine hundred page document called Project twenty
Speaker 3: twenty five when they said they were going to make
Speaker 3: America great again. They were going to restore this country
Speaker 3: to its original founding. Do you understand what that means?
Speaker 3: And if your black ass thinks that they mean you
Speaker 3: when they're talking about restoring the nation, you are out
Speaker 3: of your mind. It tells me that you're not as
Speaker 3: intelligent as I may have thought you were.
Speaker 2: It's actually sad. I hate to watch black people go
Speaker 2: down this thing. And when we look at where we
Speaker 2: are right now, like does it make sense? Are you
Speaker 2: able to look at me and say that what Trump
Speaker 2: is doing for America is making it great again? Are
Speaker 2: you able to look and say aligning with Trump made sense?
Speaker 2: Are you able to think say to yourself right now
Speaker 2: that what Trump has done since he's been in office,
Speaker 2: it's okay with me? And it's no way, it's it's no.
Speaker 2: If you can, then I don't even know what to
Speaker 2: say to you. I don't even know how to address you.
Speaker 2: I don't know anything. Any black person who is looking
Speaker 2: at Trump's presidency and saying that this is beneficial to
Speaker 2: us is just it's shocking and it's appalling and it's scary,
Speaker 2: you know, so hopefully you know, you know, I don't,
Speaker 2: like I said, we all have different point of views.
Speaker 2: I don't agree with anything that he has to say
Speaker 2: when it comes to Trump and Kamala, and he should
Speaker 2: just probably stop talking about it because it gets embarrassing
Speaker 2: more and more. You know, Like you said, you have
Speaker 2: a black wife and you have a black family. Focused
Speaker 2: on that black family, bro, because you're in If you
Speaker 2: focus on that black family and you focus on a
Speaker 2: black wife and you look and you realize that this
Speaker 2: is the mother of your children, and your child is
Speaker 2: growing up in Trump's America, and you aligning yourself with that,
Speaker 2: and you watching what they doing wrong to us, and
Speaker 2: you okay with that. I think you got to have
Speaker 2: a little different conversation with yourself. Man, So God bless you, man,
Speaker 2: So our guest.
Speaker 3: Today, we're doing a flashback to the pull Up for
Speaker 3: Peace conference. You all have watched the first episode of
Speaker 3: our pull Up for Peace experience. It was a collaboration.
Speaker 3: You should have watched and you should be listening to
Speaker 3: the full episode. We did a collaboration with I Love
Speaker 3: Me More, which is a podcast. The co hosts are
Speaker 3: tar Wallace, our dear sister, and also doctor Jamilli T. Davis,
Speaker 3: who was one of the incredible and lead organizers of
Speaker 3: the Pull Up for Peace conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Speaker 3: Just it's been over all week, but it feels like,
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't even know the days is just
Speaker 3: running down crazy. That was It's just the twenty something
Speaker 3: of June and now we're already headed into the middle
Speaker 3: of July. But at this conference pull Up for Peace,
Speaker 3: there were over six hundred grassroots organizers who do gun
Speaker 3: violence prevention work every day. They are looking at gun
Speaker 3: violence as a public health crisis, and so different people
Speaker 3: do different things.
Speaker 1: Not everyone is out.
Speaker 3: There just you know, trying to find guns or de
Speaker 3: escalating conflicts. Some people are doing the mental health services.
Speaker 3: Some people have food services. Some people are finding these
Speaker 3: young people housing. Some people are elected officials who are
Speaker 3: trying to look at different ways to address violence. And
Speaker 3: this conference, Pull Up for Peace brought together all of
Speaker 3: those entities to work together to meet one another, people
Speaker 3: from all over the country. So this whole oh why
Speaker 3: don't people work on the violence in the community. There
Speaker 3: were over six hundred of those practiceitioners together just a
Speaker 3: few weeks ago in Atlantic City. And the network can grow.
Speaker 3: But guess what Donald Trump said. He's cutting the violence
Speaker 3: prevention moneies that would help to keep people like these
Speaker 3: folks paid and have benefits and you know, the support
Speaker 3: and resources that they need for their families. And so,
Speaker 3: you know, while again going back to what we were
Speaker 3: just saying, everybody can say or we do services for youth,
Speaker 3: and we do, you are not helping the anti violence
Speaker 3: or the violence prevention community to the tune of hundreds
Speaker 3: of millions of dollars. That's not a thing, right, This
Speaker 3: is our tax dollars are going into a pot. And
Speaker 3: we at one point fought and worked shout out to
Speaker 3: Erika Ford and Pastor Michael McBride and Amber Goodwin and
Speaker 3: a bunch of other folks who really fought and worked
Speaker 3: hard to get the federal government under Joe Biden, President
Speaker 3: Joe Biden and Vice and Vice President Kamala Harris to
Speaker 3: a lot hundreds of millions of dollars to the Violence
Speaker 3: for the Safety at Community Safeties at so that there
Speaker 3: would be money for grassroots groups. And then Donald Trump
Speaker 3: came in and said, we don't it doesn't align. They
Speaker 3: didn't even say it was waste. They said it does
Speaker 3: not align with the agenda of the Trump administration.
Speaker 1: So there goes that.
Speaker 3: And by the way and everything and by the Office
Speaker 3: of Violence Prevention, I'm not sure exactly what it was called.
Speaker 3: But not only did they get rid of the Violence
Speaker 3: Prevention money, they also got rid of addiction prevention resources
Speaker 3: and Criminal Justice Reformed moneies to study and build organizations that.
Speaker 1: Deal with criminal justice reform.
Speaker 3: So they're directly targeting our communities and our people directly, Okay,
Speaker 3: And they wrote about it nine hundred page article, but anyway,
Speaker 3: let me get back centered. So to Pull Up for
Speaker 3: Peace conference, it deals with how do you sustain our
Speaker 3: even through these difficult times, Like how do you still
Speaker 3: keep the groups that are out there doing the incredible
Speaker 3: work that they're doing, because so many of us enjoy
Speaker 3: the violence prevention work that goes on in our communities
Speaker 3: and we don't even know. We don't even know we're
Speaker 3: not ducking from bullets and you know, getting shot accidentally
Speaker 3: in a park or walking to the grocery store. We
Speaker 3: don't even know that we're being saved from these horrific
Speaker 3: and tragic incidents by folks who are working three four
Speaker 3: five of them in a little organization that's out there
Speaker 3: finding out where the beef is and trying to help
Speaker 3: work on the issues between two groups of people or
Speaker 3: two people. They don't even know, they have no idea
Speaker 3: how it works. And so, you know, Pull Up for
Speaker 3: Peace gave us an opportunity to come together with so
Speaker 3: many incredible people. So our interview today is of two
Speaker 3: of the other organizes. So you had doctor Jimilis Davis
Speaker 3: and brother attorney Angelo Pinto, who were two of the
Speaker 3: lead organizers, And in addition, it was Lakeisha Yuri who
Speaker 3: is the Deputy Mayor, the Deputy Mayor of Violence Prevention
Speaker 3: and Intervention the Office of Violence Prevention and Intervention in Newark,
Speaker 3: New Jersey, as well as our brother at Mitchell at
Speaker 3: Mitchell Man at Mitchell Man, who is the violence Prevention
Speaker 3: Czar in New York City working in the Mayor's Office
Speaker 3: volunteer position, and he also is the CEO of man Up,
Speaker 3: which is an organization that has multiple locations around Brooklyn,
Speaker 3: the Borough of Brooklyn addressing you know, violence and really
Speaker 3: have we have data to prove that the work that
Speaker 3: Man Up and other groups are doing is like really working.
Speaker 3: So anyway, these two and Jewels, our brethren and sister
Speaker 3: and they're going to be talking with us about their
Speaker 3: lives and why they actually do this work.
Speaker 1: It's a really good interview.
Speaker 2: Yeah, really things and you need to tune in right now.
Speaker 3: We are live from the Pull Up for Peace conference.
Speaker 3: This has been incredible. For the last three days, organizers
Speaker 3: from across the country have converged in Atlantic City, New
Speaker 3: Jersey to talk about peace, but to look at the
Speaker 3: public health crisis of violence and figure out how we
Speaker 3: are interrupters and understanding that we have the solutions that
Speaker 3: we need to heal the wounds of our communities. And
Speaker 3: two people who have been a part of the day
Speaker 3: to day organizing, which has been quite the engagement, if
Speaker 3: you will, It has been quite the task. For the
Speaker 3: first time, this is the first annual Pull Up for
Speaker 3: Peace conference, and so you know, anytime we do something
Speaker 3: for the first time, it is particularly interesting. We're gonna
Speaker 3: speak positive words. It is particularly interesting, but it's also
Speaker 3: a beautiful thing to watch something that was a thought,
Speaker 3: it was imagine, dreamed about, doctor Jamilli T. Davis, Angelo Pento,
Speaker 3: attorney Angelo Pino, and a group of people coming together
Speaker 3: to say we should do this. Oftentimes we say we
Speaker 3: should do something, but we don't always get it to fruition.
Speaker 3: And to see hundreds of people at this conference is
Speaker 3: truly incredible. And two people who are responsible for helping
Speaker 3: them make this happen. As my sister, I have to
Speaker 3: say with my sister, you know, she's the deputy mayor.
Speaker 3: She's much more than my sister, but she's my sister.
Speaker 3: Deputy mayor of Newark, New Jersey, z Keisha Uri.
Speaker 4: She is the.
Speaker 3: Deputy mayor of Public Safety, which is an incredibly important department.
Speaker 1: Within the City of Newark's government.
Speaker 3: And at this point I would say that Keisha Yuri
Speaker 3: is becoming quickly a national voice for what government should
Speaker 3: be doing to protect people in communities, in particularly our youth.
Speaker 1: And so thank you Keisha for being here.
Speaker 3: And then we have our brother, brother At Mitchell Man
Speaker 3: ac Andre T. Mitchell Man, who has been our brother
Speaker 3: for a long, long, long, long time. I have to
Speaker 3: claim you first. You know these people, you know me? Now,
Speaker 3: you know all these other people. You know you' all here,
Speaker 3: big shot. But anyway, and At has a lot of
Speaker 3: positions and organization in Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: Man up now has how many offices?
Speaker 3: We have twelve locations, twell, twelve locations including a community center.
Speaker 3: And I remember when AT first started, I don't even
Speaker 3: think you had an office space. It was just you
Speaker 3: know again, hustling out the car, hustling out the house,
Speaker 3: hustling wherever you could. And now you have twelve locations
Speaker 3: in the city of Brooklyn, New York that focuses on
Speaker 3: violence interruption. Also the Czar, the Anti Violent Czar of
Speaker 3: New York, which is a volunteer yet important position in
Speaker 3: the City of New York, where he is an advisor
Speaker 3: to Mayor Eric Adams on how to deal with violence
Speaker 3: interruption in our city. And also, I would say AT
Speaker 3: has also become a national voice for training our people
Speaker 3: on how to do the practitioner work, because we have
Speaker 3: to use that language so people will know that this
Speaker 3: is not just some thing. This is actually coordinated, very
Speaker 3: strategic and professional operation across the country.
Speaker 1: You can't just go out into the streets.
Speaker 3: You can try, but if you actually want to be effective,
Speaker 3: you need to learn how to be a practitioner. And
Speaker 3: so we have again Deputy Mayor of which one day
Speaker 3: is going to be Mayor Kisha Yuri.
Speaker 1: And also.
Speaker 3: And also our brother at mitche Man. Thank y'all for
Speaker 3: joining us on the TMI show. Thank you for having us,
Speaker 3: Thank you for having us.
Speaker 6: We are incredibly grateful to co sponsor as well until
Speaker 6: Freedom on this pull up Foot Peace conference.
Speaker 1: It has been tremendous. We have, like you said, it
Speaker 1: came from a vision and to have.
Speaker 6: It manifest and to have people from everywhere, naturally our
Speaker 6: frontline people. All of the feedback has been great. People
Speaker 6: are blown away. There was a brother this morning that
Speaker 6: gotten in the war at the ball last night and
Speaker 6: he was in tears this morning because he said he's
Speaker 6: never gotten anything and he's just getting his life together
Speaker 6: and to receive an award like he was in tears
Speaker 6: this morning, and so that's the reactions that we want,
Speaker 6: that's the appreciation.
Speaker 1: How did that make you feel?
Speaker 6: It was humbling because he has taken everything that we've
Speaker 6: given him, every instruction, and he's put it into practice
Speaker 6: and he's now seeing he started a school for financial
Speaker 6: literacy for young people. But it was just his thought
Speaker 6: and so we've helped him. He went to the community
Speaker 6: practitioner class. He's a part of one hood like all
Speaker 6: of those things, formally incarcerated, and so when.
Speaker 1: They called his name last night, he was just so proud.
Speaker 6: But he didn't know he was being honor knowing that
Speaker 6: the honor reason knew we didn't tell them.
Speaker 3: People act like awards don't matter. I'm doing this for no.
Speaker 3: We should be honored, we should be acknowledged. And I
Speaker 3: think that's that's just so dope. Yes, and know that
Speaker 3: you all, because though this group of people is the
Speaker 3: least ignored.
Speaker 6: Conduits right, Their voices are not heard, their work is underappreciated,
Speaker 6: they're underpaid, all of those things and so for them
Speaker 6: to be able to see themselves, I think it's more
Speaker 6: impactful than we ever going to know. But to see
Speaker 6: them tears this morning made everything both worth it. For me,
Speaker 6: so everything, I'm sorryry so we hit that, I take
Speaker 6: all of the screw.
Speaker 1: We all talk about all of those things, right that
Speaker 1: comes with it. That right there, that moment for me
Speaker 1: was worth it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So we were very intentional about this confidence.
Speaker 4: This was a conference for them and it was for
Speaker 4: us by us, right because a lot, like we said,
Speaker 4: we've been conferencing all over the country, if not around
Speaker 4: the world, and I haven't experienced one that was dedicated
Speaker 4: for the front line, you know, And this conference, you
Speaker 4: can see the men and women.
Speaker 5: Has been set.
Speaker 4: They put their lives on the line to make our
Speaker 4: community safe and they are underappreciated, and so we wanted
Speaker 4: to recognize them. We wanted them to know that they
Speaker 4: are important during Gun Violence Awareness Month, right, which is
Speaker 4: the month of June that we have taken over for
Speaker 4: now over ten years, because right before the month when
Speaker 4: they go back, they're going back into the heat of
Speaker 4: the summer in the neighborhoods from which they come from,
Speaker 4: and we are deploying them. We're putting them right back
Speaker 4: into trauma fires and putting out fires.
Speaker 5: We wanted them this year to go.
Speaker 4: Back, rejoice, refreshed, reenergized, and as you said, you've been
Speaker 4: hearing so many sentiments.
Speaker 5: I love watching them enjoy themselves.
Speaker 4: They don't often get a chance to dress up, you know,
Speaker 4: and just really unwind, because we're trained to really stay
Speaker 4: away from those type of elements which can sometimes lead
Speaker 4: to our relapse. But when they was out these last
Speaker 4: three days amongst their peers from all over the country,
Speaker 4: the boardwalk here and Atlantic City, it will never be
Speaker 4: the same.
Speaker 5: They lit up after every night they go out there
Speaker 5: on that.
Speaker 4: Boardwalk and it's mad peace, love, and everybody is like camaraderie.
Speaker 5: They everybody's just one.
Speaker 3: They're not fighting, No, they're not fighting because we always fighting.
Speaker 2: And you know what I love about this conference, It
Speaker 2: distills certain myths, right somehow dispelled. I'm sorry, sorry. You
Speaker 2: know what I love about it is that it dispels
Speaker 2: certain myths. Like when we were young, we thought like
Speaker 2: peace was like soft it was, you know, but now
Speaker 2: it's so lit here, right, this conference is lit is
Speaker 2: you can be lit, You can have fun, you can enjoy,
Speaker 2: You can have all of those things, and he would
Speaker 2: do it in a peaceful manner, and you could do
Speaker 2: it for respect. Like we always it's so much things
Speaker 2: that we've been taught wrong in our communities, right that
Speaker 2: we just thought it was corny, peaceful and all that stuff.
Speaker 2: It's corny, but it's not nothing corny about being peaceful
Speaker 2: and being enjoyed and doing the right thing. And we
Speaker 2: can have the same amount of fun. And that's why
Speaker 2: I'm glad these young kids are here to witness this,
Speaker 2: right because they've been fled those same myths. Right, if
Speaker 2: this coach just celebrates, if it's something negative, if we
Speaker 2: down in each other and all of that, that's what
Speaker 2: we want to be around. But no, we actually having
Speaker 2: the same amount of fun in a peaceful manner for
Speaker 2: something that's actually that's beautiful, man.
Speaker 4: And that's not making the mistakes. We're talking about some
Speaker 4: heavy hitters from all across the country. These men and
Speaker 4: women have the greatest influence in the streets. These men
Speaker 4: and women are formally and concerrated possibly leaders of their groups.
Speaker 4: And these men and women have the touch point that
Speaker 4: other people do not have. So it's They're far from
Speaker 4: being soft, right, They're chosen, as we said, to choose.
Speaker 4: They choose peace now going forward, because it was a
Speaker 4: time I'm hearing that all these last three days that
Speaker 4: they were never thinking that they can be in the
Speaker 4: same space and room with individuals from a different borough.
Speaker 5: Even you know how it is in New York City.
Speaker 4: It's like sometimes the Bronx don't mix with the Queens
Speaker 4: and sometimes Staton Island on Rock with Brooklyn.
Speaker 5: But that wasn't the case.
Speaker 4: You know, from New York to New Jersey, from the
Speaker 4: East coast, all the way from the West coast to
Speaker 4: the Midwest and the South, people came together and became
Speaker 4: one man. And I'm so honored to be amongst the
Speaker 4: convening you know, committee and co founders of this of
Speaker 4: this conference because you know, we are on to a
Speaker 4: big thing. This is bigger than any of us can imagine.
Speaker 4: This is actually it's gonna em morth into a movement.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: You know what I've met since I've been walking around
Speaker 3: for I've been here two of the three days, I
Speaker 3: can calculate about one hundred and fifty years of incarceration
Speaker 3: from people who told me their stories about one hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty years of incarceration. I have encountered directly from
Speaker 3: people at this conference who said, I did fourteen, I
Speaker 3: did nineteen, I just came home.
Speaker 1: From eleven years. I was in the fence, I was
Speaker 1: in the state.
Speaker 3: And I'm saying, if I added all of them up,
Speaker 3: that I met people who here at this conference, I've
Speaker 3: met people who combine have done about one hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty years in prisons. That is significant because again, this
Speaker 3: is the group that people would say they are finished,
Speaker 3: They are cast out of our communities. They are not
Speaker 3: viewed as an important that they can play an important
Speaker 3: role and be just as influential in a positive way
Speaker 3: as someone who has.
Speaker 1: A PhD who's never been in trouble, never.
Speaker 3: Been arrested, never been And we're not saying we're celebrating it,
Speaker 3: but what we are celebrating is that with all of
Speaker 3: that time that is and it is unfortunate time that
Speaker 3: has been robbed from our community because if they can
Speaker 3: be a positive influence today, they could have been that
Speaker 3: if from a young age there was a place like
Speaker 3: this to.
Speaker 1: Invest in them.
Speaker 3: Right, So our communities have been robbed, but now they
Speaker 3: return choosing peace right, And that's.
Speaker 6: Powerful, which is powerful because I heard that message yesterday
Speaker 6: on a panel life after Life, And on the panel
Speaker 6: we had actharpre who just came home from thirty six
Speaker 6: years wow, but he had a double life sentence, and
Speaker 6: other people that was on a panel who had life
Speaker 6: sentences who were able to you know, get clemencies or
Speaker 6: commute their sentences. But they said, if I had a
Speaker 6: place like this, if I had people, and I was
Speaker 6: able to convene and see people like me, then I
Speaker 6: wouldn't have had to be who I was.
Speaker 1: Then I wouldn't have had to do all of that time.
Speaker 6: And so again, like those messages shows us that this
Speaker 6: is necessary for the next generation and how we passed
Speaker 6: that down.
Speaker 2: And I just wanted to ask you y'all a couple
Speaker 2: of things because y'all doing such amazing work in your
Speaker 2: respective positions. But I know that you guys have a
Speaker 2: book that you wrote together and talk about that book.
Speaker 1: How did you me?
Speaker 5: Oh, me and sister keishould know each other now for
Speaker 5: decades like in the streets. You know, in the streets,
Speaker 5: you know our background, our backgrounds.
Speaker 4: We you know, we come from activism, right, and so
Speaker 4: we organize this by trained trade by some of the
Speaker 4: greats from our cities and across the nation. So it's
Speaker 4: not many of us, you guys know, we are a
Speaker 4: small community. So that's how we met. And I always
Speaker 4: respected my sister and her fire and and just a
Speaker 4: commitment to her city and throughout the country.
Speaker 5: And so when we came together, of course through our their.
Speaker 4: Sister, doctor Davis, who is like that kind of sister
Speaker 4: who always knows how to put the right people in
Speaker 4: the same and and you know, all of our careers,
Speaker 4: we've been doing the work and we han't yet turn
Speaker 4: to do things for self, one of which we never
Speaker 4: wrote a book, a piece like this. This is my
Speaker 4: first book, and I'm so honored to have the opportunity
Speaker 4: to have to be co authored by this raised system
Speaker 4: next to me. Because we wanted, again, we do this
Speaker 4: for our people, and we were intentional. We understood that
Speaker 4: we didn't want others to repeat some of the mistakes
Speaker 4: that we've made, you.
Speaker 5: Know, like self care.
Speaker 4: You know, we get so dedicated to the movement that
Speaker 4: we don't take time out for ourselves. And so we
Speaker 4: decided to us put something together that we can give
Speaker 4: the masses of people in our Industry was the name
Speaker 4: of the book, but.
Speaker 1: It actually happened at a conference.
Speaker 6: We was at a conference together and they were talking,
Speaker 6: they had panelists and they were talking about people being wounded,
Speaker 6: and so he and I had been talking about we
Speaker 6: need to do something for people, you know, on the
Speaker 6: frontline that's wounded healers. And so I text him, I say, At,
Speaker 6: this is the confirmation, like we got to do it, yes,
Speaker 6: and so he was like, let's do it. So Jamilla,
Speaker 6: you know, pull it, pulled it all together. But it's
Speaker 6: called Ten Steps to Healing the Wounded Healer. And so
Speaker 6: we always talk about self care and burnout, but we
Speaker 6: don't know how to do it, and so we wanted
Speaker 6: to do a how to book.
Speaker 1: How do you do that?
Speaker 6: And so what happens is At is talking about his
Speaker 6: story for being wrongfully convicted, and so I said, At,
Speaker 6: let me use my lcs W as a therapist, right
Speaker 6: because I don't get to use it. We just know
Speaker 6: frontline work. But I'm a therapist and I have that skill.
Speaker 6: And so I begin to talk to him about unpacking
Speaker 6: some of his stuff, unpacking some of his wounds, unpacking.
Speaker 3: Some of the stuff that so you guys practiced it
Speaker 3: together so that you could get the book.
Speaker 1: The book. The book is the reading this book. I
Speaker 1: don't know why I don't have it. Is the practice.
Speaker 5: The book is a work book took.
Speaker 1: The book is the practice. Wow, that's powerful. So you're
Speaker 1: the subject a big I went there professionally.
Speaker 4: I went there and again, for people like us who've
Speaker 4: had backgrounds like me, it's difficult to as black men,
Speaker 4: for us to feel comfortable, you know, being transparent about
Speaker 4: things that we experienced, even that during our youth where
Speaker 4: a lot of things are that's what we were exposed to.
Speaker 4: And so, like she said, talking with sister Keisha, for
Speaker 4: me is natural and she's using her skillst on me
Speaker 4: without me realizing. So she's a credible clinician, and so
Speaker 4: it helped me feel more comfortable. We're unpacking a lot
Speaker 4: of this stuff that I still today, you know, still
Speaker 4: you know, deal with like PTSD right post street, you know,
Speaker 4: trauma and all that other stuff as we call it.
Speaker 4: But you know, I actually, you know, I was able
Speaker 4: to feel most comfortable and she was able to come
Speaker 4: behind it and realize that you know what the wrong
Speaker 4: that was done to me. It wasn't mind right, and
Speaker 4: I needed to stop being like blaming myself for somebody
Speaker 4: for the systems, you know, failure in my case, of
Speaker 4: giving me the justice that I thought that I was
Speaker 4: going to receive.
Speaker 1: And even telling him and helping him.
Speaker 6: He runs a huge organization with man up and you
Speaker 6: have one hundred employees easily, but every day you are
Speaker 6: showing up with all of this stuff that you're holding
Speaker 6: on too, and you're trying to pass the baton and
Speaker 6: you're trying to help them, but you haven't done the
Speaker 6: work on you. And so some of those days we
Speaker 6: talk about bleeding on people that didn't cut you right,
Speaker 6: And so we talk about acknowledging the wound and being
Speaker 6: able to name it and claim it and late.
Speaker 1: And talk about it.
Speaker 6: So as we're talking to these young people and we're
Speaker 6: trying to help them through, be able to do it
Speaker 6: in a free way that we're not still holding onto
Speaker 6: our own stuff and so passing the baton without harm
Speaker 6: attached to it, that's amazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was going to ask or you were going
Speaker 1: to ask.
Speaker 2: Question I was going to ask at because just talking
Speaker 2: about this trauma. You know, I know you've been incarcerated
Speaker 2: and I've been incarcerated too, So I understand that trauma.
Speaker 2: I just want you to give us a little insight
Speaker 2: because Samika has this shirt on. Yes, that's free AT
Speaker 2: and this is the new campaign that you started. So
Speaker 2: I want you to give us, you know, let us
Speaker 2: know about this camp.
Speaker 4: So this campaign, again, a lot of people over the
Speaker 4: many years that I've been doing the work had no
Speaker 4: real understanding of who AT was right because I did
Speaker 4: not disclose. They say, you know, real bad boys moving silence.
Speaker 4: And so I understand the stigma that we all have
Speaker 4: once we were released back into society from doing time.
Speaker 4: And so my fear was and I experienced, you know,
Speaker 4: being turned down on jobs and not in housing.
Speaker 5: I assumed all of the worst, and so I just
Speaker 5: wanted to just do the work.
Speaker 4: I wanted to get back to my community, and I
Speaker 4: wanted to prove my innocence through my work.
Speaker 2: And so I just.
Speaker 4: Recently, you know, just you know, decided that after all
Speaker 4: these years of dedicating myself volunteering all these years, that
Speaker 4: I'd like back.
Speaker 5: To the book, like I have to turn the needle
Speaker 5: on myself now.
Speaker 4: And so I had to tell my story about how
Speaker 4: I was seventeen years old when I was approached by
Speaker 4: homicide you know, detectives, and I was questioned on the
Speaker 4: homicide that I had nothing to do with, nor did
Speaker 4: I commit, And because I did not, you know, kind
Speaker 4: of like they tried to do what they did in
Speaker 4: Central Park five. You know, it p hurts me into
Speaker 4: admitting to a crime. I chose, you know, I believed
Speaker 4: in the system that again didn't believe in me. And
Speaker 4: I went to jail at eighteen and eventually went to trial,
Speaker 4: and I really put my faith in the so called
Speaker 4: system and it failed me. I got found guilty of
Speaker 4: a homicide of actually a manslaughter.
Speaker 5: And sentenced to fifteen years.
Speaker 4: And from that day forward, from going from there into
Speaker 4: maximum security prison and happened to be fos to all
Speaker 4: that trauma. I work my way out of prison from
Speaker 4: just realizing that, you know, you got to do time
Speaker 4: and don't let the time do you. And I got
Speaker 4: active inside and eventually I was released and I just
Speaker 4: continue to do the work.
Speaker 5: Brother.
Speaker 4: But now you know, the campaign is for my exoneration.
Speaker 4: The campaign is for a full parton I want exoneration.
Speaker 4: I am wrong, for I'm actually that the District Attorney
Speaker 4: office reopened and investigating my crime, my charge. Excuse me,
Speaker 4: and you know, really give me the justice that I
Speaker 4: think I deserve AT. And you know, it's not even
Speaker 4: about just At I find it. You know, I represent
Speaker 4: thousands of you know, pens of thousands of others. I'm
Speaker 4: sure that's in the same predicative here.
Speaker 3: Well exactly because you know, obviously my song was also
Speaker 3: wrongfully convicted. And I remember when he was wearing this
Speaker 3: T shirt that I didn't have, and so just now
Speaker 3: so I don't understand how that happened, but I told
Speaker 3: you I knew the first.
Speaker 1: Priority. And so my song was wearing a T shirt
Speaker 1: and I was like, what is.
Speaker 3: That and he said, oh, you know, it's AT's campaign
Speaker 3: for exoneration. And he said, and I'm so excited because
Speaker 3: wearing this shirt feels like once he gets free, I
Speaker 3: will get free. And I think that is a beautiful thing.
Speaker 3: To your point, it says free AT, but it means
Speaker 3: more than one. It's really for a community of people.
Speaker 3: And I would venture to say even people who committed
Speaker 3: the crime right and have done the time, but are unable.
Speaker 3: And you have to give you so much respect to
Speaker 3: our brother Jay Jordan, who talks about and he's at
Speaker 3: reform now. But Jay Jordan talks about the consequences of incarceration,
Speaker 3: the collateral consequences of incarceration, which means that even when you.
Speaker 1: Did the time for the thing that you did or
Speaker 1: didn't do, it's still not free.
Speaker 3: You still can't have a barbershop, you still can't be
Speaker 3: a dog walker, you still can't be on the pca
Speaker 3: F too children's school. You've been released from prison for
Speaker 3: twenty years. You could be a city council person at
Speaker 3: that point, and you still well, you can run for office,
Speaker 3: and you can run for aufice, not run because of
Speaker 3: a federal conviction.
Speaker 5: No, mine's state. So there are these exceptions that they
Speaker 5: have to the rule.
Speaker 4: Wow, that is no different than the thirteenth Amendment that
Speaker 4: says that all will be free except for those that
Speaker 4: are committed a fly. In my case, I was released,
Speaker 4: but I cannot. I have all my rights except for
Speaker 4: my right to own a possess a weapon, all my
Speaker 4: right to run for public office.
Speaker 1: Right, Wow? Which is so other people?
Speaker 3: Because I know people who have run for office, have
Speaker 3: run for office and have convictions.
Speaker 1: Huh, he said, who the president exactly?
Speaker 3: Back the President of the United States, but you know,
Speaker 3: you know, but there are people so anyway, the point
Speaker 3: is they still can't do these other things, like they
Speaker 3: can't be on their children's PTA committee.
Speaker 1: I cannot believe that.
Speaker 3: You know, you have so many and he talks about
Speaker 3: there being thousands of things that a person who has
Speaker 3: a conviction, particularly a federal conviction, cannot do after incarceration.
Speaker 3: So for me, free at it encompasses all of that.
Speaker 3: You know, and you live your life. At is a
Speaker 3: person who is not just about you. That is something
Speaker 3: that is, you know, a great attribute to who you
Speaker 3: are as a person that you are always about everybody else.
Speaker 3: And I know when you put this campaign together, you
Speaker 3: know that being free is going to clear the way
Speaker 3: for others. So I want to wrap this up because
Speaker 3: I know Akisha never really wanted to stop and do
Speaker 3: anything anyway. She is so busy running around trying to
Speaker 3: get this conference and keep it going and make sure
Speaker 3: it ends as strong as it started. But I want
Speaker 3: to talk about you had said every hit we take,
Speaker 3: you know, the criticism, the judgment, because we as a
Speaker 3: people know how to judge one another more than anybody
Speaker 3: else in the world. Pastor Freddie Haynes who's our brother
Speaker 3: and friend said to me one day and it arrested me.
Speaker 3: Choke hold. He said, my worst social justice wounds came
Speaker 3: from social justice people. So the big the wounds that
Speaker 3: I have that cut the deepest have come from people
Speaker 3: who I'm working alongside that we're supposed to actually be
Speaker 3: helping to heal one another, and yet we cut one
Speaker 3: another d And I think about some of what both
Speaker 3: of you have been through with. In fact, we've talked
Speaker 3: about it here at this conference, like in action literally right,
Speaker 3: it's happening in real time that people who are also
Speaker 3: unhealed want to lash out for various reasons, right, And
Speaker 3: I think you guys do a good job of helping
Speaker 3: to manage that, because I don't want people to walk
Speaker 3: away thinking, oh, this conference it was you know, from
Speaker 3: watching this show, they would say, oh, this conference was
Speaker 3: just so great and everything was perfect, And no, there're
Speaker 3: still challenges, but we don't allow the challenges that we
Speaker 3: have faced to stop us from pushing forward. And so
Speaker 3: I just want to talk about want you guys to
Speaker 3: talk about those wounds of being an activist, of being
Speaker 3: an organizer, of now being an elected official, which somehow
Speaker 3: makes you a sellout, like once you cross over us,
Speaker 3: like you know, they say we need people in the
Speaker 3: system and out the system. But once you go in
Speaker 3: the system, then people are like, oh, I can't Keisha,
Speaker 3: she don't understand where we come from. She thinks she
Speaker 3: better than me now and this and that. How does
Speaker 3: that impact you is there? Would you say, oh, no,
Speaker 3: it doesn't hurt, or would you be honest like I am,
Speaker 3: that it does hurt and it causes pain and trauma.
Speaker 3: And what do you think we should do? Miss doctor
Speaker 3: on your way to be in doctor your clinician?
Speaker 4: Uri?
Speaker 2: What do we do?
Speaker 1: And what is in the book? What is in the
Speaker 1: book that teaches how to deal with those womans?
Speaker 6: So in the book, one of the things we talk
Speaker 6: about setting boundaries right, and that's some of the things
Speaker 6: that we don't do right as people on the front
Speaker 6: line or people that's the givers, right, we give, give,
Speaker 6: give so much that you know, we don't even give,
Speaker 6: you know, for ourselves. And so for me being on
Speaker 6: the front line, and I talked about it yesterday. We
Speaker 6: talked about being in the streets for one hundred and
Speaker 6: fifty five weeks in a row, rallying and protesting against
Speaker 6: violence in the city, right with all of the demands
Speaker 6: and no resources, right doing it with no resources, blood, sweat, teas,
Speaker 6: the sacrifices that you make. And so as I've been
Speaker 6: moving along, coming from the streets and then coming into
Speaker 6: being in city government, I got in city government because
Speaker 6: of Mayor Baraka, and because he came from activism. We
Speaker 6: said we're going to He said, when I become mayor,
Speaker 6: we become mayor, right, And a lot of us took
Speaker 6: that sentiment on and was being the mayors, the little
Speaker 6: mayors of our little towns, and we understood.
Speaker 1: For me, everything comes from community.
Speaker 6: So I understood, but also saw I saw my brother
Speaker 6: get shot by the police. I saw my brother get
Speaker 6: shot by somebody in the community. I had boyfriends that
Speaker 6: was shot and killed family members. And so for me,
Speaker 6: the passion that I have comes from that place of
Speaker 6: wanting to do something about it. And so the criticism
Speaker 6: can't be bigger than the mission, right, All of the
Speaker 6: scrutiny that we take can't be bigger than the mission.
Speaker 6: And so because I know the mission, my passion is deep,
Speaker 6: and I say all of us do this work from
Speaker 6: a place. I lost my mother and my father eight
Speaker 6: months apart when I was eighteen and nineteen, and so
Speaker 6: life becomes different when that happens. Your life is a
Speaker 6: different place, no security, no safety. You're figuring it out
Speaker 6: on your own. So every decision has to be the
Speaker 6: right decision, because there's no going home wow to mommy
Speaker 6: and daddy when you don't make the right decision right,
Speaker 6: and so you got to work two and three jobs.
Speaker 1: You got to always figure it out.
Speaker 6: So my level commitment and dedication comes from because I
Speaker 6: want my mother and father to be proud. So all
Speaker 6: of the scrutiny can't be bigger than what my mother
Speaker 6: and father feel and think in the other side. So
Speaker 6: for me, you're not going to outwork me because I
Speaker 6: got wings on my back from the ancestors, right, I
Speaker 6: got wings, and I got people that showed us that,
Speaker 6: and I need them to be proud, and so all
Speaker 6: of that stuff, then they say, is the jealousy, the hate,
Speaker 6: the envy.
Speaker 1: I have so many folks that don't.
Speaker 6: Believe that I deserve what I got, right, they don't
Speaker 6: believe that I should have it. But they don't see
Speaker 6: the word. They didn't see the sacrifice. I don't have
Speaker 6: a husband because I sacrificed. I don't have any children
Speaker 6: because I sacrifice. Come on, right, And so they don't
Speaker 6: know the sleepless nights, they don't know the days that
Speaker 6: I know how I'm going to wake up and make
Speaker 6: it that they don't know. And so because they don't know,
Speaker 6: I can't care. Yes, and so it's hurtful when you
Speaker 6: sacrifice everything. And so it's a movie and it said
Speaker 6: I do the impossible for the ungrateful?
Speaker 5: Can I just can?
Speaker 2: I just can? I just ask you?
Speaker 5: She ain't want to come in, but I would just
Speaker 5: add to all of what my sister just said. Is
Speaker 5: the word yet right? You know, right, I have not
Speaker 5: that's right. I haven't been able to marry yet.
Speaker 4: Right, These things are still part of your future, right,
Speaker 4: these things like with the criticism, to me, it's confirmation
Speaker 4: that we're doing the right things.
Speaker 5: Think about it, right next to love's hate?
Speaker 4: Right, and so how do we know that we are
Speaker 4: on the right path if we don't got some hate first?
Speaker 5: Right, that's nearby, right, And I'm not.
Speaker 4: Welcoming criticism because, like I said, it gives us fuel
Speaker 4: because it reminds us that we are doing the right
Speaker 4: things and we're rubbing some of them and their spirits.
Speaker 4: We're rubbing them in a way where they're uncomfortable because like.
Speaker 5: We here, we are on a pull up for peace conference.
Speaker 4: You can't come to a pull up for peace conference
Speaker 4: with anything in your body or soul unless it's peace.
Speaker 5: Because we're the dominant, you know. I mean again, this
Speaker 5: is for us.
Speaker 4: It's our time, and now it's our time to take
Speaker 4: advantage of things. This conference was for us, by us, right,
Speaker 4: and we are relaunching this movement throughout the nation with
Speaker 4: a lot of our attendees are on board alongside all
Speaker 4: of our I have never seen this amount of heavyweights
Speaker 4: come together in three days, the way that we have
Speaker 4: come together.
Speaker 5: I've been, like I said, I've been pri to be
Speaker 5: in certain rooms.
Speaker 4: I've been privileged to go to certain places, but I
Speaker 4: haven't lost my mind.
Speaker 5: Right, this is unique.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: We just came in from the peace walk that they
Speaker 4: celebrate out here in Atlantic City. And we've done walks,
Speaker 4: we've done marches together, but this walk, this walk was different.
Speaker 5: It was right.
Speaker 4: It was so many of us participating in the walk.
Speaker 4: It was different, and it was to me, it was confirmation.
Speaker 4: So I'm excited to be a part of this movement.
Speaker 4: But I'm ready, like you with my wings. I'm looking
Speaker 4: forward to the next level.
Speaker 5: Though, yes, you deserve deserve.
Speaker 2: I just want to think. I want to say that
Speaker 2: I appreciate both of you. I love both of you.
Speaker 2: Which you represent is strength, resilient to always tell you
Speaker 2: you like the big brother. I never had a brother,
Speaker 2: and I.
Speaker 5: Admire you.
Speaker 2: I aspire to be like you. Guys. I watched Keisha
Speaker 2: work all the time, regardless of what she's kissing hands,
Speaker 2: hugging you. She's whatever job. She's not too big to
Speaker 2: do any jobs. And I noted that she's great, but
Speaker 2: she doesn't. She just treats you with the level of
Speaker 2: humility and humbleness and love that's just phenomenal, you know.
Speaker 2: And you definitely have been ordained. Both of you have
Speaker 2: been ordained by God to continue to do God's work.
Speaker 2: So the naysay is, like you said, it's confirmation that
Speaker 2: you're doing the right things. Denzel told will Smith, at
Speaker 2: your highest point, that's when the devil comes, so you know,
Speaker 2: we just got to know that. And then the minister
Speaker 2: told us, if you look the devil in his eyes,
Speaker 2: he's gonna flee so just keep looking him in his eyes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's y'll. Thank y'all. I appreciate you saying that.
Speaker 3: When we're doing the work and people start, they're a
Speaker 3: little uncomfortable and being pulled to their higher selves. And
Speaker 3: so that's the way we look at it. That's why
Speaker 3: we keep coming back no matter what, because I try
Speaker 3: to leave. I'm like it was a transferable I could
Speaker 3: go work somewhere else. But the truth is my mouth
Speaker 3: that's so big that I really can't go work anywhere
Speaker 3: else because now they can google me and say she's
Speaker 3: too controversial. So I'm back here with y'all. I love
Speaker 3: y'all so much. Thank you so very much. TMI Show today, question.
Speaker 5: Honor, thank you, don't let go.
Speaker 1: You don't go because I got an idea.
Speaker 3: Okay, sorry, I think we need to do that again
Speaker 3: because we didn't get enough out. So let me say again,
Speaker 3: thank y'all so much for joining the tm MY Show today.
Speaker 1: Thank you. We love y'all so very much. Thank you
Speaker 1: for having us, Thank.
Speaker 5: You for having us.
Speaker 2: It's been amazing, man, you know.
Speaker 5: Shout out to Jamilli T.
Speaker 2: David, shout out to Tara Wallace, Shout out to at
Speaker 2: Mitchell shout out to Lakeisha Yuri. It's just been an
Speaker 2: amazing labor of love here at the Pull Up for
Speaker 2: Peace conference, and it's nothing else to say.
Speaker 3: I love the fact that it's in Atlantic City too,
Speaker 3: because I never ever, ever, ever ever come down this
Speaker 3: far in New Jersey. But it's also environment Like, you
Speaker 3: can do a conference anywhere. You could do it in Manhattan,
Speaker 3: they could have done it in Brooklyn, they could have
Speaker 3: done it in a different city, but to take it
Speaker 3: to a boardwalk where there's a beach, and it just
Speaker 3: so happens to be like, what is it the heat
Speaker 3: wave the most hottest days and scorching whatever, one hundred
Speaker 3: degrees every day. So people at pool parties and they
Speaker 3: get to experience the water and the environment. That changes
Speaker 3: the way you think, especially if you're a person who
Speaker 3: lives in a place like Chicago or you live in again,
Speaker 3: in Manhattan or Brooklyn. You hardly ever get to the
Speaker 3: fringes where the water is. That's not your experience, especially
Speaker 3: if you're in this work. You spend so much time
Speaker 3: walking the concrete where you don't even get the sunlight
Speaker 3: that you deserve, and so that you need to survive
Speaker 3: and so I'm really really, really really grateful to our
Speaker 3: organizers for choosing a place that is a different experience
Speaker 3: for our people.
Speaker 1: Hopefully they didn't gamble too much, so hopefully not.
Speaker 2: And you know, and another thing is, since it was
Speaker 2: a big heat wave, right, it was actually cooler here
Speaker 2: right because we're right by the ocean.
Speaker 5: Like it was way cooler.
Speaker 2: Like when I came from New York two days ago,
Speaker 2: I was on fire, like there was no level of
Speaker 2: when there was no breeze, it was just hot, hot,
Speaker 2: And here it's been cool. It's like actually feels like something.
Speaker 2: They don't feel like hell, Like the heat is on
Speaker 2: hell in New York, but out here it's actually summertime.
Speaker 2: So I just enjoyed every minute of it. Man, just
Speaker 2: watching young people, older people, just everybody just in community,
Speaker 2: united and just in love and giving back resources like
Speaker 2: dropping game and giving real game and not gatekeeping or
Speaker 2: it's no little eyes and big eues. It's just everybody
Speaker 2: here is just one community. So I just had a ball.
Speaker 1: Amazing pull up for peace. And we thank y'all for
Speaker 1: joining the tm MY show.
Speaker 3: We are trying to bring you all more live experiences,
Speaker 3: you know, as we travel the country, and we are
Speaker 3: around so many dope people. What often happens is kind
Speaker 3: of like you know, we know it and we feel it,
Speaker 3: but it's hard to get this type of information to
Speaker 3: the rest of the world, and the tam My podcast
Speaker 3: on the Black Effect Podcast Network gives us an opportunity
Speaker 3: to do that. So hopefully you appreciate the live shows
Speaker 3: that we've been bringing you from the State of the
Speaker 3: People Power Tour to now Pull Up for Peace and
Speaker 3: for the rest of the summer, it is our intention
Speaker 3: to do the same to let you experience what we experience.
Speaker 2: And with that said, we come to the end of
Speaker 2: another episode of TM. We appreciate you, We love to love.
Speaker 2: Let us know what you want to hear. Let us
Speaker 2: know who you want us to interview. Tell us you
Speaker 2: love us, tell us what you don't like. We want
Speaker 2: to hear all your feedback. I'm not going to always
Speaker 2: be right. To make a dmaid is I could always
Speaker 2: be wrong both always and I mean always be authentic