Speaker 1: What's your family. It's your girl to make a d. Mallory,
Speaker 1: and it's your boy general, and we're your hosts of
Speaker 1: Street Politicians, the place where the politics. Wow, there is
Speaker 1: so so much happening, my slege, I feel like, you know,
Speaker 1: we're like like I don't know. It's like the world
Speaker 1: is just moving and there's so much stuff happening. At
Speaker 1: one time, when we talked about the COVID precautions, precautions
Speaker 1: and staying six ft apart, you were saying that a
Speaker 1: lot of people are sort of just fighting to remain
Speaker 1: to have some communication and contact like some Yeah, like
Speaker 1: people are fighting to maintain some level of normalcy or
Speaker 1: whatever is normal. But I was thinking to myself, it's
Speaker 1: really we're not it's not normal, Like we're just not
Speaker 1: Things are just not normal, and um, you know everything
Speaker 1: I think from politics to uh, what's happening in our communities.
Speaker 1: Our dear sister Leslie Redman, who's been a guest on
Speaker 1: Street Politicians. She also was the just the immediate past
Speaker 1: president of the n double a c P chapter in Minneapolis,
Speaker 1: one of the organizers there during George Floyd, even before
Speaker 1: before George Floyd was murdered, and after um, you know,
Speaker 1: with other activities that she has going on. Now, she
Speaker 1: has her campaign, don't complain. Activate this a powerful young sister.
Speaker 1: She's out there doing the work. And yet her brother,
Speaker 1: who was in his thirties, was killed just this past weekend. Um,
Speaker 1: he was shot and killed by someone that more than
Speaker 1: likely looks just like us. And uh, you have that happening.
Speaker 1: You have young people being killed. I think we just
Speaker 1: had another shooting where a child was harmed in New York. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, you had the school shooting where young black
Speaker 1: kid went and shot up a school. Some say kids
Speaker 1: in New York was a bron a ten year old
Speaker 1: shot a thirteen year old. That ten year old. Wow,
Speaker 1: I didn't even know that ten old kid shot a
Speaker 1: thirteen year old. Wow. A ten year old shot at thirteen. Again,
Speaker 1: you know, just crazy things. And then you have the
Speaker 1: the the guy who shot people at a school, a
Speaker 1: young black man. We don't often hear of major school shootings, UM,
Speaker 1: where black kids are the ones shooting up at school.
Speaker 1: But his family talked about bullying. UM talked about you know,
Speaker 1: him being attacked. Uh. So you know, and of course
Speaker 1: there's still no excuse for picking up a gun and
Speaker 1: taking the lives of a number of individuals, putting people
Speaker 1: in harms way, causing that type of trauma. But yet
Speaker 1: there are some serious things happening in society around the
Speaker 1: issues of bullying, the issues of trauma that have to
Speaker 1: be dealt with, and it's finding the balance between all
Speaker 1: of these things to still be able to maintain home,
Speaker 1: maintain home and family and what have you. It's a
Speaker 1: lot happening. It's a whole lot happened. And then you
Speaker 1: got um John Gruden, who was the the Los Angeles
Speaker 1: Raiders head coach, who's they found these emails from years
Speaker 1: ago from about two eighteen before two eighteen of him
Speaker 1: just saying racists and homophobic and just like every level
Speaker 1: a white supremacy. He just possessed it. It wasn't he didn't.
Speaker 1: He wasn't just mad at black people. He didn't like
Speaker 1: gay people, he didn't like he didn't like nobody. Everything.
Speaker 1: He had an issue with everything, and usually smacist work.
Speaker 1: So you know that that's been something like me and
Speaker 1: eat your cb D candies. That's what I do. This
Speaker 1: is my CBD candies. I found this. I was riding
Speaker 1: and I was like, stop, this is a story that
Speaker 1: has CBD candies and this is what I eat during
Speaker 1: my day keep my nerves together. This is supposed to
Speaker 1: be this is legal. You know candies. Are you looking
Speaker 1: at me like a crazy that's what you got in CBDs? Lord,
Speaker 1: that get you fall asleep? Now, don't get that doesn't
Speaker 1: make you go to sleep. It takes the edge for
Speaker 1: you're saying. And it's supposed to be better than having
Speaker 1: a midday drink, which I am not above. But I'm working,
Speaker 1: so I don't wanna have a drink. So I pulled
Speaker 1: out my candies for my CBD in the You know,
Speaker 1: you gotta get you some stuff. You know, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get you some CBD cands unless you see I'm enough.
Speaker 1: You're never in your life smoke weed one time? One time,
Speaker 1: that's right. You tell the story is when you was
Speaker 1: with DMX and you had a trip. You were tripping.
Speaker 1: Everybody has a trip like the first time they smoke weed, yea,
Speaker 1: And then you was like, I never want to go
Speaker 1: back to it. It wasn't for me. Why you just
Speaker 1: didn't like the feeling or you didn't like the fact
Speaker 1: that experience. I didn't like it. It wasn't for me.
Speaker 1: But the thing is you have been around marijuana enclosed spaces,
Speaker 1: so you probably have felt high. And after that, yeah,
Speaker 1: I have, Like you know the time we was in
Speaker 1: the studio and we had a huge chicken that did
Speaker 1: happen to us and you know, two hundred pounds and
Speaker 1: I was moving slower in thethargic and I'm like, nah,
Speaker 1: the same for me. But there's some people that just
Speaker 1: smoke weed all day night and I don't know, they
Speaker 1: can't wait, You'll never catch them. Not smooth. That is
Speaker 1: so true. I forgot about that story. But anyway, that's
Speaker 1: one another day. We have to have the people who
Speaker 1: who are a part of that to be a part
Speaker 1: of the conversation so it will not be like we're
Speaker 1: a scandalous when we tell it about anyway. So so
Speaker 1: I was taken. I was thinking, how does how does
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party intend to win mid term elections without
Speaker 1: voting rights? Confused? I don't think. I don't think the
Speaker 1: Democratic Party attends to win anything. No, they they intend
Speaker 1: wasn't that will is something different. You can't, you can't,
Speaker 1: they can't. It's good. There's no way that they expect
Speaker 1: those good old people that they would have voted that
Speaker 1: they didn't private things that ain't got nothing else, people
Speaker 1: that saved them. There's no way they expect those good
Speaker 1: old people to like you as CBD candy. What do
Speaker 1: you want? They know, them good old people. They're going
Speaker 1: back out there to vote again after this. Now they ain't. No.
Speaker 1: Come on, now, you're gonna have to pull another rabbit
Speaker 1: out the hat for this one. Because you Because but
Speaker 1: I'm saying that voting right specifically, let's just say, I
Speaker 1: get your point, right, I get your point from our perspective,
Speaker 1: it's almost impossible to believe it disrespectful. It's actually disrespectful
Speaker 1: to even to even to even not just assume, but
Speaker 1: to request stand the people that they belief right that
Speaker 1: they vote for um, anyone who has not fulfilled any
Speaker 1: of the promises that were made. Right So that I
Speaker 1: agree with I agree with you a hundred on that,
Speaker 1: But I'm speaking of something different. I'm saying that because
Speaker 1: what happens is even when you say I'm not engaging
Speaker 1: myself in this election, I don't believe, I don't trust right.
Speaker 1: We have that position, and that's okay. But the thing is,
Speaker 1: then you have to start listening to the people who
Speaker 1: are running against these folks, and when you start listening
Speaker 1: to them and understanding their agenda, it may encourage a
Speaker 1: lot of people to say, you know what, I'm going
Speaker 1: to the post, right, I'm going to the post. Now.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying everyone, and I'm certainly not talking about
Speaker 1: ray Raids and Keysha's and others. But I'm saying there
Speaker 1: are there is a there there is a there are
Speaker 1: a group of people people want to kill me. Man.
Speaker 1: I know I agree with you need to I'm on
Speaker 1: the attack about it all the time, and I still
Speaker 1: would make the same decision if I had to do
Speaker 1: it all over again. But I'm not even I'm speaking
Speaker 1: of something even differ, friends. I'm saying there are some
Speaker 1: folks in our society that, when approached and they are
Speaker 1: listening just because you're watching the news, or you're at church,
Speaker 1: or you're reading the paper, you're in your community, when
Speaker 1: you hear the other side of what you may be
Speaker 1: looking at, and you're listening to someone who absolutely wants
Speaker 1: to take away your right to having abortion so you're
Speaker 1: right to choose, and or they want to open more prisons,
Speaker 1: or you know they want to um, I don't know
Speaker 1: you know they want to they want to close more
Speaker 1: schools or you know, take more funding from the communities
Speaker 1: in order to invest more in punitive measures and support
Speaker 1: police and uh, you know they bleed the blue. When
Speaker 1: you hear that rhetoric in that tone, right, it may
Speaker 1: encourage you to say, I don't think that these other
Speaker 1: folks is worth the damn either, but I know I
Speaker 1: have to block this individual from becoming whatever its senator
Speaker 1: or whatever they're voting for in their community. What I'm
Speaker 1: speaking of is, now you're on your way to go
Speaker 1: vote and you find out that your vote is actually
Speaker 1: being suppressed by way of the laws in that particular state,
Speaker 1: just just forget it. I'm saying everything they could have
Speaker 1: done it all right, and this that I'm something about voting, right,
Speaker 1: it's going to vote. The people that want to vote
Speaker 1: that civil believe and say, you know what, I'm going
Speaker 1: to vote, and they get there and realize they can
Speaker 1: the name has been purged. They need this, you know,
Speaker 1: their I D has to be updated there. You know
Speaker 1: they've been voting knowing that you got elderly people who
Speaker 1: have been voted for years with one little letter misspelled
Speaker 1: on their identification versus their voting record, because when we
Speaker 1: were coming out of enslavement and I we never had
Speaker 1: the appropriate records. A lot of people have continued through
Speaker 1: life with things that's not one accurate, but it's it's
Speaker 1: Mama Mad's leaves information, you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 1: so to have this, this this situation where it seems
Speaker 1: like people are fumbling and now we're at the administration
Speaker 1: and others are fumbling on fighting as hard as hell
Speaker 1: to get voting rights accomplished. I'm trying to figure out
Speaker 1: when you're already failing at all getting the policy in place,
Speaker 1: and then you're not even giving people who might just
Speaker 1: still want to be with you the ability to go
Speaker 1: to the post like you. They can't be planning on
Speaker 1: winning anything. They don't plan on winning I'm trying to sell.
Speaker 1: They don't have any plan on They're just at this
Speaker 1: point like it's just going through the motions. And it's
Speaker 1: disappointing because you know, you want as somebody who wants
Speaker 1: things to be good, you want things to be right.
Speaker 1: You know, you actually praying on it and all that.
Speaker 1: You want to believe that there is some side or
Speaker 1: some individuals that are in power to some certain degree
Speaker 1: that actually want to do right, you know, they want
Speaker 1: to do that, are willing to do whatever necessary to
Speaker 1: do right. So I'm not saying I don't I don't
Speaker 1: believe they don't want to do I think they're not.
Speaker 1: What they haven't come to the stage in the mind
Speaker 1: frame of that they have to do was ever necessary
Speaker 1: to do right? Not doing right. It's just not an option.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna allow you to delay justice and delay
Speaker 1: things that are right. I have to do whatever it
Speaker 1: is within my power to make things right, you know.
Speaker 1: And that's even though we hope for that, that's not
Speaker 1: where we are. So, you know, if people can't even
Speaker 1: go to the polls, and then the people that ain't
Speaker 1: never going to the polls, and the people on obviously God,
Speaker 1: so I've got people going to the polls and they reinvigorate,
Speaker 1: you know, Chap. They're going to the polls for their
Speaker 1: own agenda, and their agenda is either they're gonna get
Speaker 1: some things that they want done that open communities, or
Speaker 1: just stop that community from being able to progress in
Speaker 1: any way they can't get gain anymore ground into um,
Speaker 1: you know, sort of breaking down systems of oppression and
Speaker 1: so they vote for different reasons. They vote because you
Speaker 1: might be somebody who maybe you're not as radically conservative
Speaker 1: UM as I want you to be, but I at
Speaker 1: least know that you're not going to support a progressive agenda.
Speaker 1: That's right. We have people that are on both sides
Speaker 1: that think similarly. But I think the the issue with
Speaker 1: us as black people at this point is that we
Speaker 1: are no longer in a position to just like we've
Speaker 1: already stopped. Some people can't just keep kicking, you know,
Speaker 1: we just want the shoffing and dry ki ki and
Speaker 1: go alone and get along. So you know, we're just
Speaker 1: in a different space. You know, We've We've got like
Speaker 1: a really really dope show today, two amazing guests that
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take us deeper. You know, I'm all about
Speaker 1: going deeper and getting deeper into like who I am
Speaker 1: and where I need to be in lining up all
Speaker 1: of the aligning all of what is going on inside.
Speaker 1: There's a lot happening with all of us. And we've
Speaker 1: already talked about um at the beginning of the show,
Speaker 1: just the stresses and the pressures and just how life
Speaker 1: is just not what has been considered normal. And I
Speaker 1: guess even what was normal should not have been accepted
Speaker 1: as normal. So we're gonna be learning from two people today,
Speaker 1: really really learning. Um. And so we're right off of
Speaker 1: the heels of International Mental Health Awareness Day just this
Speaker 1: past Sunday and our that's a lot. I didn't even
Speaker 1: know they had something like that. They do. They have
Speaker 1: a month, they have a day. There's a lot of stuff,
Speaker 1: you know. You know, you got to be learned. That's
Speaker 1: why we're about to learn. I'm here to learn. We're
Speaker 1: gonna learn from our two guests today, Anita co Catch
Speaker 1: and also sent to Chay friend Sella. I love her name.
Speaker 1: I can't wait for us. These people got dope names.
Speaker 1: So I hope they've got the dope energy because I
Speaker 1: need some. I need to get my my mind right. Well,
Speaker 1: we're gonna bring Anita into the studio, if you will,
Speaker 1: and find out what type of dope energy she has
Speaker 1: right now. That's so, so we have a new friend
Speaker 1: on street politicians today. We we always joke about the
Speaker 1: fact that all of the guests that we have come
Speaker 1: up here doing such powerful work. Our friends, people we know, UM,
Speaker 1: people who we admire. This sister is someone who I
Speaker 1: absolutely admire and have been watching her. And you know,
Speaker 1: we've all introduced one another to some really incredible people.
Speaker 1: My son, you introduced me to Charlomagne some time ago,
Speaker 1: and now Charlemagne has introduced us to this wonderful woman
Speaker 1: who was who was our guests, um, Anita co Patch,
Speaker 1: who is a spiritual psychologist and a sex therapist. And
Speaker 1: you know, I'm all about that. I'm getting ready to
Speaker 1: like get all into the details. She also just published
Speaker 1: her best selling book, Shallow Waters, and we are sort
Speaker 1: of like siblings under the Black Privilege publishing brand. UM
Speaker 1: with Charlemagne the God as our I guess he's like
Speaker 1: the boss man. I tell him he's boss all the time. UM.
Speaker 1: And she also just finished a real deep mental health
Speaker 1: taken a spiritual of mental health awareness conference that Charlottamagne
Speaker 1: just held. And so there's a lot going on with Anita.
Speaker 1: And I'm so so grateful that you took a little
Speaker 1: bit of time to come on street politicians and talk
Speaker 1: to my town and us and me today. It is
Speaker 1: such a deep honor for me to be here with
Speaker 1: both of you. The work that you do for our community.
Speaker 1: I'm tearing up now. You can tell I'm already emotional.
Speaker 1: The work that you do for our community is so
Speaker 1: important and it is just such an honor for me
Speaker 1: to be sitting here right now. I just love the phone.
Speaker 1: It's just it just gives you healing vibes, like you
Speaker 1: can just tell like everything and here it goes with
Speaker 1: the the comforter and the world. Just look, everything is
Speaker 1: just beautiful. Now. We appreciate you. Thank you for her.
Speaker 1: I've been having us on our show. Thank you for
Speaker 1: having you got him like all twisted around. But that's
Speaker 1: all good, you know. I I just want to drop
Speaker 1: this little note in to say that before you and
Speaker 1: I ever laid eyes on one another, we were already
Speaker 1: supporting one another's books, um, and just supporting and by
Speaker 1: sharing content and and being there to say hey sis,
Speaker 1: you know, love to you. And so this idea that
Speaker 1: people need relationships that span over years in order to
Speaker 1: support one another, I think we've debunked that just by
Speaker 1: already having a sisterhood from a distance and you know,
Speaker 1: and so that's what makes today incredible. And I have
Speaker 1: you know, been listening and reading and you know, really
Speaker 1: deeply um, paying attention to you and your spiritual advice
Speaker 1: and support, and I already see why Charlemagne and folks
Speaker 1: like Angela Ry and others are attracted to you. And
Speaker 1: so tell us a little bit about the work that
Speaker 1: you do and why you do it. Absolutely so um
Speaker 1: I you know, first of all, I always share this first.
Speaker 1: I believe that the black woman is God, and so
Speaker 1: I do everything that I can to um bow to
Speaker 1: black women and to support black women, and to support
Speaker 1: those who are supporting black women. And so that is already,
Speaker 1: um just a part of my mission. I was the
Speaker 1: editor in chief of Heart and Soul for five years
Speaker 1: and so within that I was able to get a
Speaker 1: lot of information, uh disseminated out into our communities about
Speaker 1: different ways of getting health and wellness into our hands.
Speaker 1: And what I do as a spiritual psychologist and um
Speaker 1: A certified contra coach sex therapists, I work with people,
Speaker 1: mostly people who have experienced sexual trauma. And the interesting
Speaker 1: thing with sexual trauma, especially within our community, is that, uh,
Speaker 1: pretty much everyone is touched by it because if you
Speaker 1: haven't experienced it, your mom has, or your grandmother has,
Speaker 1: or your great grandmother has or your father has. You know,
Speaker 1: like there's it's it's very prevalent in our communities. And
Speaker 1: what happens is that trauma can be passed down through
Speaker 1: the generations, which we all know this, and and so
Speaker 1: sometimes you can be walking around with the with the
Speaker 1: symptoms of having been raped or molested, but you're like, wait,
Speaker 1: I haven't been molested, Like why am I feeling this way?
Speaker 1: Why can't I connect? And it's because it's happened somewhere
Speaker 1: down the line. And so with the work that I do,
Speaker 1: I do a lot to try to normalize the healing
Speaker 1: of it, the speaking of it, especially for men. I've
Speaker 1: talked to Charlemagne about this as well. Um that that
Speaker 1: you know, one in six men have been molested between
Speaker 1: the ages of one and eighteen zero and eighteen and um,
Speaker 1: and that's reported. You know, most people are not reporting
Speaker 1: that ship right you know, Um, I forgot to ask
Speaker 1: if I'm able to we say, shit, Dan, every around
Speaker 1: good gets the you know, gets the point of exactly.
Speaker 1: And so and it's one in three. So it's one
Speaker 1: in three for women, and so it's it's very prevalent
Speaker 1: in our communities. And and well that's actually not even
Speaker 1: just our community, that's for everyone. Okay, Well, I was
Speaker 1: sitting here. When do you when did you notice? Because
Speaker 1: this is not like a to me right when I'm
Speaker 1: listening to you and the understanding that you have to
Speaker 1: I don't think this is something that you just go
Speaker 1: to school to study. I think there's like a calling.
Speaker 1: It's a feeling, like when you call yourself with healing
Speaker 1: all this, Like when did you feel like this was
Speaker 1: something that you was supposed to be doing? Yes? So
Speaker 1: when I was around eighteen, I started hearing voices right.
Speaker 1: And what most people would say is like, oh, she's crazy,
Speaker 1: you know, like go to uh you know, like I
Speaker 1: would have to go to an institution. But what what
Speaker 1: happened was that, UM, I started listening to what the
Speaker 1: voices were saying and when I would hear them, and
Speaker 1: my thing, I was actually just sharing this at the
Speaker 1: Mental Wealth UM expo with Charlemagne. I was sharing that, UM,
Speaker 1: I feel like black privilege to me means that we
Speaker 1: have the access to the voice of God and and
Speaker 1: a lot of times we think we're going crazy because
Speaker 1: all of this information is coming to us and we
Speaker 1: don't know what to do with it. And so for me,
Speaker 1: when I was eighteen, I start I start hearing these voices,
Speaker 1: the voices I was hearing. It was not the voice
Speaker 1: of God. These were these were not not good voices
Speaker 1: that I was hearing. And so what I realized was
Speaker 1: that when I would walk by people, the voice would
Speaker 1: get louder, and then I had pass and the voice
Speaker 1: would go away. And so I'm wait, am I hearing
Speaker 1: what people are saying or thinking? And so I started
Speaker 1: asking them. I was eighteen, I didn't have very much discernment,
Speaker 1: and so what would happen was that people would get
Speaker 1: freaked out because I would tell them what they were
Speaker 1: thinking and they were like, how did you know? And
Speaker 1: this one the last person that I did it too.
Speaker 1: Um It was this older man and he's like talking
Speaker 1: to me and smiling, and all I could hear was
Speaker 1: I don't know where my wife and kids are. And
Speaker 1: I was like, look, I know you don't know where
Speaker 1: your wife and kids are. And he grabbed me up
Speaker 1: and he was like, where are they? What do you mean?
Speaker 1: You know? Like like I was feeling like I was
Speaker 1: going to be attacked, and so I like ran home.
Speaker 1: I ran upstairs and I just started praying to God.
Speaker 1: I was like, listen, if this is supposed to be
Speaker 1: a gift. I don't want it. I can't handle it.
Speaker 1: And um, just if there's something that that you feel
Speaker 1: like I might be able to handle, show me how
Speaker 1: to do that, but please take these voices away. And
Speaker 1: and so I woke up those voices were gone, and
Speaker 1: then I had this dream that I was like throwing
Speaker 1: rocks and reading them for people. Which back, that's more
Speaker 1: than twenty years ago, so there wasn't really very many
Speaker 1: people doing those type of things around, so I didn't
Speaker 1: know who to ask, so I just started doing it.
Speaker 1: And so that's how it started. I started giving readings
Speaker 1: to people, and what I realized is that I didn't
Speaker 1: know what tools to give them to continue on their
Speaker 1: healing journey, and they were getting addicted to reading and
Speaker 1: they would come back and you know, like so it
Speaker 1: was I was just like, okay. So that's when I
Speaker 1: decided to get my masters in spiritual psychology. And what
Speaker 1: did your family members say? So? Okay? So I was
Speaker 1: raised in the church, so I was super scared. Once
Speaker 1: I realized I could um see the future and those
Speaker 1: type of things, I was like, oh no, So I
Speaker 1: you know, I asked my mom. I was like, Mom,
Speaker 1: you know, like am I a demon, right right, And
Speaker 1: she was like anything that comes out of you as
Speaker 1: God m And for her to say that to me,
Speaker 1: being a churchwoman, I was just like because that was
Speaker 1: actually probably one of the the scariest person to come
Speaker 1: out to as a you know, as a psychic, as
Speaker 1: a healer. And my mom when she said that, I
Speaker 1: was like, I don't care what anyone else thinks. My
Speaker 1: mom knows I'm divine, you know. Wow, wow, So what
Speaker 1: did you? She's supported in a way, But were there
Speaker 1: other folks around who were like either you're were you
Speaker 1: labeled as crazy or were you always were people just
Speaker 1: clear in your family and your close friends that this
Speaker 1: is really a gift. So so with my close friends,
Speaker 1: they they were very clear that it was a gift.
Speaker 1: It was most the people who would label me as
Speaker 1: and and what I heard it wasn't necessarily crazy. They
Speaker 1: just were like they did they called me a demon
Speaker 1: because they were like, how could you know this? And
Speaker 1: this was people who would come to me for advice
Speaker 1: and then I would tell them something that they wouldn't
Speaker 1: think anybody would know and they would just say that yeah,
Speaker 1: and so I you know, it's you know, the work
Speaker 1: you do you both do it's it like comes from
Speaker 1: a place where you have to do it, you know, Matt,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter what the funk anyone is saying. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like I still have to wake up and do it.
Speaker 1: And that's what would happen. Is like it didn't matter
Speaker 1: what anyone was saving it saying. Even though I was
Speaker 1: so young, it was like, Okay, I just have to
Speaker 1: because it's it's it's album. That's that's amazing, you know,
Speaker 1: just listening to you, I've always felt like I had
Speaker 1: like certain like you said, like when I do this,
Speaker 1: doing this work, I didn't feel like it was a choice,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Like I just felt ever
Speaker 1: since a kid, I always felt like I had to
Speaker 1: help people. Always felt like I had to be the
Speaker 1: one that stood up against the bullies I had. Like, oh,
Speaker 1: so you just as you grow, you realize that certain
Speaker 1: things just lead you to your calling. So I'm just
Speaker 1: thinking about this, is that what I haven't read your
Speaker 1: book and I'm just so like I have to read
Speaker 1: it now, Like I'm just so enamored, Like I definitely
Speaker 1: have to get this book. So what what is the
Speaker 1: book based on? What is it? Yeah, So the book
Speaker 1: is actually about yem Yeah and yemy Yea or Yema
Speaker 1: She is a goddess in the Europe of Panthea and
Speaker 1: of gods and goddess is she's a black mermaid from
Speaker 1: Nigeria and uh. Around that same time, when I was eighteen,
Speaker 1: I learned that yem A Yeah was the goddess that
Speaker 1: watched over our ancestors as they went over the Middle passage.
Speaker 1: So there was a black mermaid that watched over That's
Speaker 1: what That's what is said. They watched She watched over
Speaker 1: us as we went over the Middle passage and watched
Speaker 1: over the souls that um were either thrown overboard or
Speaker 1: decided to jump overboard. Right. So when I learned of that,
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, who is this, who is this goddess?
Speaker 1: And why don't we all know who she is? And
Speaker 1: so the first time Charlemagne read the book, you know,
Speaker 1: he loved it and he was like telling me about
Speaker 1: it and I was like, well, you you know who
Speaker 1: yem A Yah is, right, and he was like, oh,
Speaker 1: the main character of your book. I was like, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: she's a She's the goddess. And he was like, I've
Speaker 1: never heard of her, and I was like, I bet
Speaker 1: you have. I was like, have you do you remember?
Speaker 1: Do you remember the poem from Love Jones? M hm.
Speaker 1: He's straight up like he knew the poem by heart.
Speaker 1: He starts saying the poem right, and then he goes,
Speaker 1: are you Yem? Yeah, no, you must be o'shoon right,
Speaker 1: Like he was like, oh my gosh, I've been saying
Speaker 1: her name, like you know what we were saying, no
Speaker 1: idea what I was what I was talking about. And
Speaker 1: then and then you know, Beyonce came out with black
Speaker 1: parades and her baby's sister Reppin Yem. Yeah, So it's
Speaker 1: like she's she has been here this whole time. I mean,
Speaker 1: she has been here the first written accounts of Ye
Speaker 1: we're um in it's I believe the fifteen hundreds or
Speaker 1: fourteen hundreds when um when the first enslaved Africans came over,
Speaker 1: but the information was passed down orally before, so we
Speaker 1: don't even know how old along these parables have been around.
Speaker 1: And the representation of mermaids we know are like white, redhead, blonde,
Speaker 1: you know, like that's what we and it's all about,
Speaker 1: like I don't know sensuality more than spirituality, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: and so so when the story started coming through, um So,
Speaker 1: to your question about about the you know, the healing
Speaker 1: that's in it, m M, I wrote, so, so there's
Speaker 1: words that are written, but the intention behind it all
Speaker 1: is um So, this is my love letter to black women,
Speaker 1: and it is so that we remember who we really
Speaker 1: we are. We were cut off from our African spirituality,
Speaker 1: from our mother tongue, from all of these things as
Speaker 1: daughters and sons of the diaspora. But we if we
Speaker 1: quiet ourselves and go inside, we have that connection because
Speaker 1: we are the ancestors. You're literally made from that. And
Speaker 1: so this book is my activation of that. And for
Speaker 1: me it was my healing of my ancestral wounds um
Speaker 1: from chattel slavery and um it was. It was intense.
Speaker 1: You've written a book to make a you know, you
Speaker 1: know process, and so has my son, and it's you
Speaker 1: have it's insanity. He's actually writing another one right now.
Speaker 1: Oh so it's you know the process like it's it
Speaker 1: is an emotional process. Emotional it lets you know you're
Speaker 1: crazy because you're like, who came up with this idea?
Speaker 1: And and and it takes on so many different shapes
Speaker 1: and forms, and you find yourself. I know that you
Speaker 1: are probably just like we are, perfectionists, like wanting to
Speaker 1: get it right, wanting to make sure that the information
Speaker 1: you're putting in the world is real and true and
Speaker 1: true and true, which is a different thing because now
Speaker 1: you've got to decide between what's the old you know,
Speaker 1: the folk tale that we tell in the family to
Speaker 1: make a point versus what is true? Um that will
Speaker 1: actually you know, will will will will not just sound good,
Speaker 1: but will like be good, like for the soul. And
Speaker 1: so that's a whole. It's a it's a lot that
Speaker 1: goes into writing, and I suggest that people do it
Speaker 1: because it disciplines you, you know, it also gives you
Speaker 1: an opportunity to learn and see yourself coming to life
Speaker 1: within this document. And so there's so much about it,
Speaker 1: but it definitely is for insane people. Jamal Hill told
Speaker 1: me one day, people who write books are crazy. I said,
Speaker 1: is that me? Because I've been trying to te out
Speaker 1: what is it that's right? And you know this being
Speaker 1: being a musician and writing music, it's sort of always
Speaker 1: like writing a book, right, because it's always when you
Speaker 1: write albums and you write songs is it's from self
Speaker 1: reflections ideas that you come up and you want them
Speaker 1: to be perfect, like I find myself in the studio.
Speaker 1: So writing the book it's just a longer elongated process
Speaker 1: of writing music. Like right, So I go in the
Speaker 1: studio and I put down lyrics and then I like,
Speaker 1: this don't sound right. I gotta change this a little bit,
Speaker 1: and I don't like this beat. Let me put this
Speaker 1: ad live here and you until it just sounds always perfect,
Speaker 1: and then you still have critiques and you're all right,
Speaker 1: we let me just I just gotta get rid of
Speaker 1: it because people like, look, you gotta put this out
Speaker 1: right now exactly. The one the thing about music that's
Speaker 1: really amazing is that it's it's one of the the avenues,
Speaker 1: or I would say channels that connect us to the divine, right,
Speaker 1: Like we can literally use music to connect us to
Speaker 1: the divine. And so I like, I have so much
Speaker 1: respect for anybody who knows how to do that. I
Speaker 1: music for me is to dance to Like I can
Speaker 1: dance to it, I can't sing or dance with it. Well,
Speaker 1: speaking of dancing, I would say the other thing about
Speaker 1: finishing a book, finishing the project because people probably listen
Speaker 1: to us talk about all the emotional you know, ins
Speaker 1: and outs, and they're like, well, why the hell would
Speaker 1: I want to do it? But I would say that
Speaker 1: the finishing product is like a beautiful orgasm. That's the
Speaker 1: way I saw finishing my book. I was like, this
Speaker 1: is amazing. Why did I have a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: to the sex therapists, I'm over here given my truth? Well,
Speaker 1: that brings us to the next se true. So you
Speaker 1: you said that, um, you know, you deal with sexual trauma,
Speaker 1: and I have this question that I've been wanting to
Speaker 1: ask somebody for a long time. Would you say, and
Speaker 1: this may be on a small scale, but let me
Speaker 1: just go with me for a second, Okay, would you
Speaker 1: say that the denial of truth within sex is a
Speaker 1: part of is a trauma a form of trauma. I'll
Speaker 1: explain to you what I mean. Many women don't really
Speaker 1: experience sexual pleasure, right, A lot of women And I'm
Speaker 1: well beyond that now in my life, and you know,
Speaker 1: in my life at this stage, but I know a
Speaker 1: lot of women who lie their way through because they
Speaker 1: have been told that their only responsibility, or their only
Speaker 1: um their role is to please don't worry about being pleased,
Speaker 1: and therefore you have to lie, faith, do whatever to
Speaker 1: just get the man through it and to give yourself,
Speaker 1: but never to actually receive the pleasure and the desire
Speaker 1: that you also or be able to reach your desires.
Speaker 1: And what happened? And I wonder is that something that
Speaker 1: we've passed down? Is it all communities? Is it some
Speaker 1: black women learned? Like what is that? Because to me
Speaker 1: it feels like trauma when I hear so many women
Speaker 1: say and I also have done it, you know, say,
Speaker 1: you know, we're faking it through just to be able
Speaker 1: to get the man off and let him get get
Speaker 1: away from me. Basically, yeah, that's colonized sexuality for sure,
Speaker 1: because there you know, if you think of tantra and
Speaker 1: even ancient Egyptian tontra, that um, it's pleasure is for
Speaker 1: both right, and Tantras actually means the balance between the
Speaker 1: masculine and the feminine. And you know a lot of
Speaker 1: people are like, oh, you know, it means like the
Speaker 1: different sexual positions, But that's what the meaning is, is
Speaker 1: the balance between that. And when you when you study tontra,
Speaker 1: you first work with yourself, so I I work with
Speaker 1: women to be able to find pleasure themselves. And you
Speaker 1: are so absolutely right. I mean, there there were so
Speaker 1: many women that I talked to who had never even
Speaker 1: experienced an orgasm, whether it was with themselves or with
Speaker 1: a man, or with another woman or whatever. You know,
Speaker 1: their their preferences and and so oh, it's it has
Speaker 1: absolutely been passed down from uh. I would say any
Speaker 1: any patriarchal society. It has been you know, like we
Speaker 1: have been there to please the man, and there there
Speaker 1: definitely are a lot of people like waking up to it.
Speaker 1: But there was just last week there was this whole
Speaker 1: TikTok thing that went down that was like this guy
Speaker 1: had asked women what does sex feel like, and that
Speaker 1: all of their answers were like, oh, it's like the
Speaker 1: itch that you can't scratch, like all these things that
Speaker 1: sex is horrible to women, and we are literally here
Speaker 1: too experience pleasure like that is what we are here for,
Speaker 1: and most of us run away from it. Most of
Speaker 1: my life I ran away from it. I you know,
Speaker 1: the reason I'm even in this work is because when
Speaker 1: I was seven and I was molested, and so most
Speaker 1: of my adult life I was scared of pleasure because
Speaker 1: for me, my experience as a child was that it
Speaker 1: was very pleasurable, and the last time that it happened,
Speaker 1: I had asked the man to do it to me,
Speaker 1: and so I, in my head made it my fault.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my gosh, you know, like I
Speaker 1: like this and you know, like I can't tell anyone,
Speaker 1: and like I'm asking for it now, and like it
Speaker 1: was just this whole confusing thing. And a part of
Speaker 1: my healing was to really look at a picture of
Speaker 1: my seven year old self and I'm a baby, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. Like I'm just like, okay, you know,
Speaker 1: I was so young. This was not my fault, you know.
Speaker 1: And even though we know that when we've gone through it,
Speaker 1: it's hard to make that separation because I am a need, right,
Speaker 1: Like I still feel like Anita and um, but like
Speaker 1: to actually look and be like, oh, yeah, I was
Speaker 1: a baby. I was a baby and this wasn't my fault.
Speaker 1: And that is a part of why um sexual crimes
Speaker 1: are so nuanced, because even even someone who is raped
Speaker 1: and they're like, oh, but you got wet, your body
Speaker 1: is going to make you wet to protect you. It
Speaker 1: doesn't mean you're turned on all the time, and so
Speaker 1: it's just such a nuanced um. It is, it's very nuanced.
Speaker 1: Just listen to it. So that's that's triumph. A lot
Speaker 1: of the do you deal with men a lot of
Speaker 1: men or more? You probably deal more men? Or what
Speaker 1: do you think you? I deal with more women, but
Speaker 1: I've I've worked with a few men, and uh, it's
Speaker 1: it's it. I feel like for men, they have a
Speaker 1: whole another thing having to deal with society. And I
Speaker 1: think the work that Charlemagne is doing with the Mental
Speaker 1: Wealth Alliance and UM normalizing emotions, you know, hugging it
Speaker 1: was there was this powerful moment at the end of
Speaker 1: the the Men and Mental Health panel where all the
Speaker 1: men came together and gave each other a group hug.
Speaker 1: And it was just so powerful to see that because
Speaker 1: as as the divine feminine is rising, we're learning what
Speaker 1: the divine masculine is because all of us men and
Speaker 1: women have been I would say, victim to the the
Speaker 1: the toxic masculinity, and so it's really beautiful to see
Speaker 1: people who are ready to step into that right like,
Speaker 1: step into those roles and as we learn and as
Speaker 1: we talk about it, sharing it because when we share,
Speaker 1: I mean, I know you both know this because you're
Speaker 1: always shared. No, but I'm being educated. Yeah, But as
Speaker 1: we as we share and as we heal, we heal
Speaker 1: so many people with us. So so when I when
Speaker 1: I heal my issues with um sexual molestation, and I
Speaker 1: actually say it and speak on it right and say
Speaker 1: things like at this at this one event, I spoke
Speaker 1: about how, you know, my experience was pleasurable, and this
Speaker 1: woman walked up to me and she was like, if
Speaker 1: someone held a gun up to my head and set
Speaker 1: asked me to admit it that when I was a child,
Speaker 1: that my experience of sexual maliks molestation was pleasurable, I
Speaker 1: still would have said no. She's like the fact that
Speaker 1: you said that and that was her experience. But she
Speaker 1: was like, I would never admit to that. And I
Speaker 1: was actually only able to say that because when I
Speaker 1: was ten years old, I was watching Oprah and she
Speaker 1: said that, and I remember I hadn't told anybody what
Speaker 1: had happened to me yet, and so when Oprah said it,
Speaker 1: my whole body started sweating. I was like, Oh, everyone's
Speaker 1: gonna know she's talking about me, you know. But what
Speaker 1: that moment did for me was like, oh, if Oprah
Speaker 1: can go through that and still be on this stage
Speaker 1: and still be such a support to everyone, I can
Speaker 1: keep going. I can do this. My son, You've got first.
Speaker 1: And then I don't know, I was just sitting here thinking,
Speaker 1: you know, there's so any these different layers. You know,
Speaker 1: there's there's levels of molestation and men have dealt with
Speaker 1: like the young boys that we've dealt with, and we
Speaker 1: never we never considered it as being molested, right, And
Speaker 1: so when you your teacher, your teacher. Yeah, that's what
Speaker 1: I'm trying to say. So we had when when you
Speaker 1: when you have these conversations and you were admitting, like, okay,
Speaker 1: we actually liked it. And that's why. And I think
Speaker 1: that was the part of that differentiated with y'all what
Speaker 1: y'all described as being molested as well and what we
Speaker 1: described right, because we we felt like, exactly like you said,
Speaker 1: we got lucky. We scored with an older woman. I
Speaker 1: was twelve and thirteen and she was like one. I
Speaker 1: was eight and nine and she was like eighteen nineteen.
Speaker 1: So those things for us was things that we bragged
Speaker 1: about and we talked about amongst each other, and that
Speaker 1: we never didn't think that it affected us, but we
Speaker 1: became so hyper sexual, you know, after those things like
Speaker 1: sex became like so focused in our mind that we
Speaker 1: didn't even realize that the trauma that that the trauma
Speaker 1: that came from that, because that's every every relationship and
Speaker 1: everything became about sex. It was that was the at
Speaker 1: the forefront of everything. You know, we never really realized
Speaker 1: those things. So just listening to that and you and
Speaker 1: you're able because I've always like I've never I've never
Speaker 1: heard the interview that over did. So this is the
Speaker 1: first time that I've ever heard somebody admit a woman
Speaker 1: admit that when they were being molested at a young
Speaker 1: age that they actually enjoyed it and they wanted it
Speaker 1: and they I never you know, that was never really
Speaker 1: something that I've actually ever heard. So that was just
Speaker 1: enlightening just to hear that. Yeah, yeah, wow, I mean
Speaker 1: so let me see it here now. I just want
Speaker 1: to ask one question. This is gonna be a debate
Speaker 1: because me and to me to have this conversation on time.
Speaker 1: Is there such thing as toxic femininity? Yeah? Okay, well
Speaker 1: people a lot of people don't seem to believe that
Speaker 1: that I don't. I never disagree with you that I
Speaker 1: think that it does exist, but I've never heard I've
Speaker 1: never heard it explained or you and I had a theory.
Speaker 1: Because so let me just break down my theory that
Speaker 1: me and to me had this theory, right, and and
Speaker 1: I know you're probably not gonna ge me, so let
Speaker 1: me just give that before I said so, I believe
Speaker 1: that masculinity and femininity in itself can't be toxic and
Speaker 1: my and just my right. I think I think that
Speaker 1: for me that when someone masculinity is perfect, in femininity
Speaker 1: is perfect, I think that there's an excess of something
Speaker 1: else that comes into you that that's toxic. Right. I
Speaker 1: think in men right for me is what what I
Speaker 1: realized is energy. To men and women have uh combined energy.
Speaker 1: There's a there's a masculine and in femininity in both
Speaker 1: of us. I think the toxicity is when the opposite
Speaker 1: is more dominant. Mm hmm. Right. I think for me,
Speaker 1: when I see when I watch a lot of men
Speaker 1: that I feel a toxic and it's not being it's
Speaker 1: not being dispected, or watch women that I feel a toxic,
Speaker 1: I think they exhibit more male traits than they do
Speaker 1: women traits. When I see a lot of men that
Speaker 1: I think are toxic, I think they exhibit more women
Speaker 1: traits than they do men traits. That's just that's a
Speaker 1: observation that I've had, So I don't think either. To me,
Speaker 1: I don't think either one of those can be toxic
Speaker 1: mascular feminity. I just think it's the opposite. I think
Speaker 1: when I see men doing things, I said, that's more
Speaker 1: toxic femininity to me, And when I see women doing things,
Speaker 1: I say, that's more toxic masculinity. But the debate comes
Speaker 1: for me, and this is what my son and I
Speaker 1: always talk about, is my I believe it is his
Speaker 1: unconscious desires to associate negativity with the female side in
Speaker 1: a man, rather than to take responsibility for the fact
Speaker 1: that some manages toxic is fun period, right, but instead
Speaker 1: to be able to say, well, now, that's because you've
Speaker 1: got too much feminine energy and that feminine ship is whack,
Speaker 1: like that's what. But that's what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 1: That you may not feel that you're saying that what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. The reason why that can, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: is that I'm saying the same thing on the other
Speaker 1: side about I'm not saying I'm not saying. I'm not saying,
Speaker 1: and I'm saying, if I watched a woman I feel
Speaker 1: like has too much masculine energy and it's coming off,
Speaker 1: I be like, you're doing too much masculine. That's But
Speaker 1: what I'm saying is that there are people who exist
Speaker 1: in the world. Right There can be a woman who's
Speaker 1: extremely feminine and she just argues all the time time
Speaker 1: and just wants to fight every day and you know,
Speaker 1: doesn't trust and can't lee. How does that just get
Speaker 1: associated with the main Like, I don't that that's just
Speaker 1: the ship about the woman. And I'm not saying it's
Speaker 1: toxic femininity because I'm not an expert in this area.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying that I wouldn't sit here and say
Speaker 1: this chick is just toxic. Every time she comes around,
Speaker 1: she's starting problems, gossiping, you know. I'm just thinking of
Speaker 1: things that people automatically classify with women, you know, clossip
Speaker 1: and going back and forth between people, starting stuff, and
Speaker 1: therefore there's fights that's happening, or she's you know, whatever,
Speaker 1: whatever those things are. I'm not gonna sit there and say, well,
Speaker 1: that's because she's got more male traits. She just might
Speaker 1: be dealing with some toxic feminine ship. So go ahead.
Speaker 1: I think what what what just like came up for
Speaker 1: me from what you both are saying. Um you know, uh,
Speaker 1: my son, am I saying your name right? Perfect and awesome?
Speaker 1: When you said you don't believe that masculinity and femininity
Speaker 1: can be toxic. That actually made sense to me because
Speaker 1: when you think about um, any element in the world, water, fire, right,
Speaker 1: even spirit, we can't really say that they're toxic. It's
Speaker 1: either right, like water, we can drink it and it
Speaker 1: can be life for us, but it can also drown us,
Speaker 1: right and so or fire it can warm us or
Speaker 1: burn us, right. And so this is actually the first
Speaker 1: time that I'm thinking about it in this way. So
Speaker 1: maybe you're right that there is not a such thing
Speaker 1: as um masculinity or femininity being toxic. But there are
Speaker 1: people who are super out of balance, and um you know,
Speaker 1: I mean there there are women who are are amazing,
Speaker 1: women who are very masculine. So I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's if it's in that way, but um, it's I
Speaker 1: feel like they're just not connected to spirit. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think it's all in how you use it. And I
Speaker 1: hate that we have to actually wrap up. But um,
Speaker 1: but I think it's all you're supposed to be, like
Speaker 1: a two hour special man has to be, has to be.
Speaker 1: We have so many folks that we've got to bring
Speaker 1: back on our show. Um, and you certainly have joined
Speaker 1: that crowd of those who have to come back so
Speaker 1: we can dig deeper into things because there's a lot
Speaker 1: that you know, I think you that most of us
Speaker 1: have been afraid to approach. That you are head first,
Speaker 1: inn like a mermaid. You're and then like a mermaid.
Speaker 1: And and I understand that it's time for us to
Speaker 1: bring our communities along. We've been in survival mode for
Speaker 1: so long that we haven't even been able to get
Speaker 1: to the development of so many elements of ourselves that
Speaker 1: can make us a stronger community. And and and and
Speaker 1: that's not in any um, that's not any fault of
Speaker 1: our own. But it's what white supremacy does, you know,
Speaker 1: and what it is and what it is and so
Speaker 1: I just need the first on I just want to
Speaker 1: say thank you because your time is super valuable, super valuable. Um.
Speaker 1: You know you probably said, well, no, I'm you know,
Speaker 1: love to be you understand, but I love to be here.
Speaker 1: Should either be resting, reading, working, laughing the son, healing
Speaker 1: your own issues and needs. Um. But I want to
Speaker 1: thank you for what you're putting out in the world.
Speaker 1: And I'm so glad that the stars and moon and
Speaker 1: all the things aligned that would bring you into our
Speaker 1: lives so that we can ask these safe questions of
Speaker 1: you know, what is toxic femininity? Masculiney doesn't exist? What
Speaker 1: does it mean? Because that's a real soft or a
Speaker 1: real vulnerable discussion, if you will, within our communities that
Speaker 1: we're trying to work out, because I think this idea
Speaker 1: of toxicity in general has been used to divide us
Speaker 1: into separating us rather than us figuring it out so
Speaker 1: we can come closer together. To appreciate you, my son,
Speaker 1: from bringing that up today. Yes, I appreciate you, you know,
Speaker 1: always debating and always being you know, we we don't
Speaker 1: usually realize, you know, we just you know we we
Speaker 1: we disagree on a lot of things, we agree on principle,
Speaker 1: we agree on our mission and we are aligned in that. So,
Speaker 1: you know, is it dope? Is dope even being able
Speaker 1: to converse about these things? But you, Anita, are amazing
Speaker 1: your energy. As soon as I came on I was like,
Speaker 1: this is some some energy is here man like you.
Speaker 1: It's some energy man, you know, so I appreciate you
Speaker 1: continue to do what you do. I gotta get that
Speaker 1: book now because I gotta get in tune. Dollo Water Water,
Speaker 1: Go get the book, got it because I'm going to
Speaker 1: get it. Yes, go get it. This is my publishing
Speaker 1: published sibling from Black Privilege Publishing. Shout out to Charlemagne
Speaker 1: the God for bringing us together. I need a co patch.
Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us and we aren't you
Speaker 1: definitely going to have you back. Awesome, thank you. Wow
Speaker 1: like wow, Like Anita is just amazing. Like as soon
Speaker 1: as she came on the screen, the whole like you
Speaker 1: could just feel that some people are just going to
Speaker 1: do as you know, and just listening to her story,
Speaker 1: you can just tell that this is her calling this
Speaker 1: a purpose. You just feel comfortable just having a conversation
Speaker 1: with her. You feel like everything she says is right.
Speaker 1: Like you're just shaking your head, like you find yourself
Speaker 1: just engulfed in what she's doing. That's amazing. So I
Speaker 1: don't even know it's very high energy, man, It's just
Speaker 1: it just illuminates if center Chaz, it's anywhere near needed,
Speaker 1: and we can probably have run of our best shows ever,
Speaker 1: you know. So I'm looking forward to what's going on
Speaker 1: with cinter Shame. That's how we are so off of
Speaker 1: the hills of Mental Health Awareness Day ten tent, which
Speaker 1: was just this past Sunday, UM and we know that
Speaker 1: Charlemagne and God hosted a mental health awareness weekend. There
Speaker 1: are many people, including our last guest, I needed Copet.
Speaker 1: You are a part of the activities that were held
Speaker 1: during this weekend, and I think we all agree that
Speaker 1: it is time for Black votes particularly to really dig
Speaker 1: into our mental health and spiritual wellness. And so we
Speaker 1: have been joined by another guest today, Uh, someone who
Speaker 1: were just sort of getting acquainted with and getting to
Speaker 1: learn more about what she is doing in New York,
Speaker 1: in the country and of course in the world. Uh
Speaker 1: centenche friend Sella is her name. She is such a
Speaker 1: beautiful name, and we're so happy to have on street
Speaker 1: politicians this bold sister, who is a yoga instructor and
Speaker 1: coach and the founder of the first black owned yoga
Speaker 1: studio in Queens. She also has a new initiative called
Speaker 1: the Man Child Project. And we're about to learn so
Speaker 1: much about what Center Chay does every single day in
Speaker 1: the space of mental healing and awareness. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for being with us today, Sis, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for having me. I'm so honored to be here,
Speaker 1: so grateful. Thank you. Yes, that name, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm a stiggler for names because being my name, being
Speaker 1: my son, I didn't always love my name, like people
Speaker 1: always messed it up. I used to get in fights
Speaker 1: they called me my son and all type of stuff.
Speaker 1: So I want to I want to ask you that first, like,
Speaker 1: did you always just love your name because it's a
Speaker 1: dope name? Now as an adult, like, have you always
Speaker 1: thought it was amazing? I hated it? Thank you? So
Speaker 1: first of all, I remember, I have this distinct memory
Speaker 1: of sitting outside the bathroom door. My mother was a
Speaker 1: nurse and she was in the bathroom. She had just
Speaker 1: come from work. I'll never forget it, and I was like, Mommy,
Speaker 1: tell me again how to spell my name, And she
Speaker 1: was in the bathroom and I'm outside the door and
Speaker 1: she was like yes, and I'm I'm writing it, and
Speaker 1: I distinctly remember it. And she would always say and
Speaker 1: that accent on the eat. So I appreciate your story,
Speaker 1: because even though folks may say it right, oftentimes they
Speaker 1: spell it wrong. Same like you know, seeing your name
Speaker 1: and it's like, but that's not my name, you know,
Speaker 1: um and all other things. Yes, yes, well let me
Speaker 1: tell you my name story. My name is Tamika. And
Speaker 1: then the projects, everybody's name was Tamika. But I was
Speaker 1: like mine, you win, and name me the blackest name
Speaker 1: you could come up with. Until I read in a
Speaker 1: book with African names that it actually means a princess,
Speaker 1: an African princess. So we all have a story around
Speaker 1: these names. Tamika, princess, queen all that I never even
Speaker 1: know that, okay with it, but it's still it's still hood.
Speaker 1: It's still Tamka. And tell us about tell us about
Speaker 1: what it is that you do, Like, what is your expertise?
Speaker 1: Where do you come through? Explain breaking down to us.
Speaker 1: So in the beginning, Um, in the beginning, I was
Speaker 1: an educator. I started as a classroom principle, became a dean,
Speaker 1: worked my way up a system principle, then was an
Speaker 1: ap in the city, and then came to the suburbs
Speaker 1: and thought I landed right, like I had the parking
Speaker 1: spot I had the six figures and I was good, right,
Speaker 1: I thought, tenure, you know what I mean? And then
Speaker 1: I got diagnosed with PTSD, and and I knew what
Speaker 1: it was. It was me walking around in this abnormal
Speaker 1: world not being able to process my ship, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, between the school shootings and going back into
Speaker 1: my building and then there's lunch, right like you hold
Speaker 1: that right, Um, that's deep, that's deep. That's deep. I
Speaker 1: mean that that requires a moment like I almost burst
Speaker 1: out in tears just now, because that is such a
Speaker 1: truth for our young people that you can be in
Speaker 1: the morning time with your friends today maybe two, and
Speaker 1: then another day the friend is gone, there's a shooting,
Speaker 1: something happened, and the school system just goes right on
Speaker 1: back to normal, or or the school shooting is in Connecticut.
Speaker 1: Teachers running to your office saying I have to go.
Speaker 1: There was a shooting at my kids school, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? And and and I thought, well, I'm
Speaker 1: not in New York City anymore, right, so you know,
Speaker 1: verdicts are happening all over the world, right and I'm
Speaker 1: supposed to act likely with my son at the bus
Speaker 1: stop is normal. And one day, um, when he was
Speaker 1: at the bus stop, and I parked like up the
Speaker 1: hill and I just watched him because I was afraid,
Speaker 1: And and he got on the bus and I went
Speaker 1: to work. I think I was gonna cry. And I
Speaker 1: was like this, she's just not normal. We're not supposed
Speaker 1: to live like this. You know. I don't want to
Speaker 1: talk about progress supports, you know what I mean. I
Speaker 1: want to know is my son gonna come home on
Speaker 1: that fucking school bus today? And so, you know, all
Speaker 1: of that fueled my PTSD and and finally after my
Speaker 1: father transition, I was like, you know what, I'm not
Speaker 1: doing this no more. I'm not gonna kill myself taking
Speaker 1: care of other people's kids. I can't even feel safe
Speaker 1: about my old life, let alone my son. And I
Speaker 1: left to end. I opened up a yoga studio in
Speaker 1: South Queens and it was, as my understanding, little did
Speaker 1: I know at the time, the first black owned yoga
Speaker 1: studio in South Jamaica, Queens, with which was it's my
Speaker 1: old stomping ground, That's where I grew up. And so
Speaker 1: I opened up the yoga studio. Then the studio transition,
Speaker 1: and then COVID happened, and then it's like the fuck
Speaker 1: you know, you know what I mean, like, now what
Speaker 1: do I do? I have no pension, I have no tenure,
Speaker 1: and and everything stopped and and then everything hit me,
Speaker 1: you know, like I was having physical reactions to all
Speaker 1: the stress that I have been carrying, all the stress
Speaker 1: we all have been carrying, individually and collectively. And then
Speaker 1: I was just like, I had to do something. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna lose it. And I struggled with I'm a mom.
Speaker 1: My son is now nineteen, and I struggled with the
Speaker 1: story that I felt wasn't in between, the in between
Speaker 1: between so much tragedy and struggle and success and excellence
Speaker 1: and being an educator. You know, my kids came back.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yo, miss, I took the stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: the sanitation tests, and I got the job, or you know,
Speaker 1: I went into law enforcement, or I'm going into the military.
Speaker 1: Oh I got married. These are my kids, you know,
Speaker 1: And now I'm doing this thing and I'm doing that thing,
Speaker 1: and all of these seemingly ordinary stories that were untold,
Speaker 1: and I just wanted my son to be able to
Speaker 1: scroll through the internet and see ordinary greatness, which is
Speaker 1: to be extraordinary ship, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 1: I and it wasn't there, So I was like, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do it. So I called some friends and I
Speaker 1: was just like, let's just do this man Shop project.
Speaker 1: And it was called the man Shop project because that's
Speaker 1: what he was when he was born. His name is Judah.
Speaker 1: He came out with a two fist, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. And I was like, Okay, he's the man child.
Speaker 1: And that's what he did. And and we just reached
Speaker 1: out to a couple of friends and was like, yo,
Speaker 1: just share your excellent story, Like if it's ordinary, it's extraordinary.
Speaker 1: What are you here? Like are you kidding me? You
Speaker 1: brush your tea today? You win in my nigga you know,
Speaker 1: I watch you ask because it be is like that
Speaker 1: sometimes and I really wanted to just create space to
Speaker 1: just celebrate that and see it regularly, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. Like I had this vision like when you
Speaker 1: when you looked up hashtag black excellence, like all you
Speaker 1: saw was like a million black man Like motherfucker's would
Speaker 1: just have to just put the phone down because they
Speaker 1: couldn't stop scrolling, you know what I mean? Like that
Speaker 1: ship that's what I wanted. Just sell Britton a black
Speaker 1: man for being a black man. No particular accolades, just
Speaker 1: being black and alive. Yeah, and and thinking about life
Speaker 1: and thinking about not thinking about life like you here,
Speaker 1: like what is your story, sir? Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for Sharon. What are your dreams? Sir? Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for Sharon. Mm hmm. Wow. It's a lot of process.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I'm uh daughter of a black man. My, Um,
Speaker 1: I have black brothers, I have you know, my black uncles. Um.
Speaker 1: I've worked with many black men, and then i have
Speaker 1: a black son, and of course I've had black men
Speaker 1: as my partners. And I feel like my whole life
Speaker 1: is about black men. A lot of people don't think that.
Speaker 1: You know, there are people who just because I dare
Speaker 1: to speak to the power of black women and or
Speaker 1: talk about our issues, and of course to speak about
Speaker 1: what black men do to harm us, because we are
Speaker 1: harmed oftentimes by the people who are closest to us,
Speaker 1: it makes folks say, oh, you know, you're you're a
Speaker 1: male basher. But the truth is, I spend probably eighty
Speaker 1: percent of my life focused on the needs of black
Speaker 1: men because I believe that the strength of the black
Speaker 1: man is the strength of our families. Um, and so
Speaker 1: listening to what you're saying, I feel like that's exactly
Speaker 1: what we need to be doing more of, which is
Speaker 1: to pour into black men because they are not enough
Speaker 1: spaces where black men are not just celebrated, but that
Speaker 1: they can just be themselves without having to put on
Speaker 1: for the world. There's not enough spaces. And if I
Speaker 1: could just you know, make an offering to that comment,
Speaker 1: you know, part of the mental health piece, especially, let
Speaker 1: me make an eye statement. The struggle that I had
Speaker 1: that I was also working through is that the both
Speaker 1: are true, right, Like I and a daddy's girl was
Speaker 1: a daddy's girl, you know what I mean. And I
Speaker 1: love my father beyond words. There are no utterances, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. And he was profoundly abusive. Both
Speaker 1: were true, you know what I mean. And and I
Speaker 1: would want him a part of the project. I would
Speaker 1: want to have shared his story, him to share his story,
Speaker 1: because oftentimes that's the struggle, like thinking that it has
Speaker 1: to be one or the other, you know what I mean. Like, brother,
Speaker 1: I can celebrate you and you can go heal that ship.
Speaker 1: You know, you can celebrate me, and I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: heal that ship, right and not waiting for this point
Speaker 1: of arrival before before I celebrate them, before we celebrate
Speaker 1: them because the moment is now the moment. Yeah, this
Speaker 1: this one of episodes that you got me here thinking
Speaker 1: too much. I don't need to think this much. But
Speaker 1: it's a lot, you know, just listening. You know, I've
Speaker 1: been watching Charlottagne along this mental health thing. He's been
Speaker 1: very intentional, but he's somebody that you know, I respect,
Speaker 1: and I see it's a good friend. So I listened
Speaker 1: to it. But today just listening to my black sisters
Speaker 1: just talk about it in a different light. It's just
Speaker 1: it tapped in a little more, you know. So what
Speaker 1: do you think we need to do to close this
Speaker 1: wellness gap? What? Like, what is the wellness gap? To you?
Speaker 1: What is it? So the Healing Station was created to
Speaker 1: really bridge the gap between what we know and what
Speaker 1: we think we know and then what else is out there? Right?
Speaker 1: Like we're not from here, Like that's really the premise.
Speaker 1: We're not from here. This is not our native tongue,
Speaker 1: we're not wearing our native clothes, we don't have our
Speaker 1: native smells, and there is a genuine energetic disconnect we
Speaker 1: on occupied territory. All of that ship impacts our nervous system,
Speaker 1: it really really does, right, And so the Healing Station
Speaker 1: is about honoring indigenous Black culture, people of culture, right,
Speaker 1: honoring that, and then closing the wellness gap by sharing
Speaker 1: information through trainings, through workshops about what it is our
Speaker 1: people actually did. So we look at what what some
Speaker 1: may call alternative medicine or alternative forms of treatment, but
Speaker 1: we take that ship back. It's not alternative. It's actually
Speaker 1: quite natural and it's an option. Right, you want to
Speaker 1: take prozac, but guess what, you can use a piece
Speaker 1: of hie, right, you know what I mean? Like you
Speaker 1: want to hold your crystal to get your piece, you
Speaker 1: could do that. You can take a tablet, you can
Speaker 1: walk barefoot, you can go for a hike. You know
Speaker 1: what I mean. You can't go see that psychiatrist. But
Speaker 1: really giving access to information to persons of color, to
Speaker 1: persons of culture, so that we can heal ourselves, you know.
Speaker 1: And then the other piece is offering scholarship, whether it's
Speaker 1: for the different trainings that we offer or different trainings
Speaker 1: within the wellness community, so that people of color can
Speaker 1: have those careers. Right, like a ralfer, I don't know,
Speaker 1: do you guys have you ever heard what we're all
Speaker 1: think about ralphing no tea, so raw it's amazing. So
Speaker 1: rawling is an energy uh and energy working right, So
Speaker 1: you heard of m acupuncture of course, right, so it's
Speaker 1: it's not similar. But just pull back a little bit
Speaker 1: and you're talking about energy and how energy moves through
Speaker 1: the body and raw thing helps move energy through the
Speaker 1: body by by pressing into the deeper tissues, into the
Speaker 1: fascia and literally literally you can heal trauma out of
Speaker 1: the body. Literally you wake up different. Ralph, First, make
Speaker 1: anywhere between a hundred seventy five to three hundred fifty
Speaker 1: for an hour to a ninety minute session. What would
Speaker 1: a ralf what would a training look like from a
Speaker 1: brother that got released or s just that I got released.
Speaker 1: But they could go through that six month nine month
Speaker 1: training and take that ship right back conto their community
Speaker 1: and have their own wellness. That do you see what
Speaker 1: I'm saying? That's that ship Because the wellness industry is
Speaker 1: our industry. Because we're paying other people to get ourselves well, well,
Speaker 1: why don't we just go ahead and flood the fucking
Speaker 1: ship heal our own selves and in our own communities.
Speaker 1: Talk about this you said you could use prozac or
Speaker 1: you could use something else. Hill right, give it again, please? Hi? Right?
Speaker 1: So it's power like a piece of crystal. It's it's um.
Speaker 1: It's like um. It used to be called it's also
Speaker 1: called fools gold. And you know it's just it's just
Speaker 1: a crystal. I mean crystals, you know, um amesist and
Speaker 1: rose um rose courts and clear sports. All of those
Speaker 1: crystals have energy and in some wellness spaces, right, that
Speaker 1: is an available tool to use as well. And so
Speaker 1: when we talk about wellness, it's really about what do
Speaker 1: you want to prescribe for yourself? Like that's my work
Speaker 1: when I have my private practice. You know, I'm not
Speaker 1: here to tell you what to do. We're here to
Speaker 1: co create your users manual and you figure out what
Speaker 1: works for you. And that's what we put in together.
Speaker 1: And so that your wellness is your own. This is
Speaker 1: your tool kit and and you and you do the
Speaker 1: work and you hear your own selves because we can't,
Speaker 1: we really really can't. Wow, you're all about well you said,
Speaker 1: co creating a toolkit. Uh. So there may be someone
Speaker 1: who feels they need a tablet, but there are others
Speaker 1: who may feel like I don't want to put those
Speaker 1: things into my body, and therefore there may be other
Speaker 1: ways to go about helping to stabilize, um, you know,
Speaker 1: your mind. Like so, for instance, with me, being on
Speaker 1: a plane can be very very very stressful. I UM,
Speaker 1: at one point in my life was a serious pill popper,
Speaker 1: and I had addiction issues. UM you know, when to
Speaker 1: rehab did a lot. And so I want to get
Speaker 1: to the point that I take as little pills as possible,
Speaker 1: which is the way that I was actually raised. UM.
Speaker 1: And so listen hearing you say that there may be
Speaker 1: other things that I can do other than having to
Speaker 1: take a pill at the onset of a flight to
Speaker 1: help deal with my anxiety issues. That's so powerful. But
Speaker 1: I can imagine that there are black folks that don't
Speaker 1: have access to these conversations and don't have access to medication,
Speaker 1: and they're just like all over the place, call them crazy.
Speaker 1: And you could do a breathwork in your chair on
Speaker 1: a yoga map for ten minutes and reset your whole
Speaker 1: nervous system, like the whole thing. Yeah, they say breathing right,
Speaker 1: but this it's technique right, and but but we can
Speaker 1: do it, and that's what the healing station. Does you know,
Speaker 1: we just we just teach folks like here's the information,
Speaker 1: here's where you could get more information on the information, right,
Speaker 1: which is also the other thing, right, like building our
Speaker 1: own knowledge. Right. So it's not because since that it's
Speaker 1: because you experienced it. It's because you know, that's just
Speaker 1: the experience to that brother experienced it. And that's how
Speaker 1: we each one pool one and I always walking side
Speaker 1: each one pool one. So can you just what are conductors? Oh?
Speaker 1: So I'm a New Yorker, um, and I felt like
Speaker 1: a big girl with my mom let me take the
Speaker 1: train up time for the first time, right and um,
Speaker 1: you know, first generation Jamaica, Jamaican parents will let you
Speaker 1: go nowhere. So the fact that my mom's let me
Speaker 1: go on the train by myself and then let me
Speaker 1: go to Hallam, I was a woman. You're doing a
Speaker 1: lot what so you know, just just the New York
Speaker 1: City transit system, all of it is just magic to
Speaker 1: me because I never understood it. Right. I took the
Speaker 1: F train to the E train and that was it,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? And I always thought that
Speaker 1: the transit system was confusing to me. And so that's
Speaker 1: who kind of inspired even the logo just letting wellness
Speaker 1: be a simple stop. Just come to the wellness station
Speaker 1: and get what you need. And so the conductors was
Speaker 1: real of course, UM inspired by Harriet Tubman because I
Speaker 1: do live on a path on the underground railroad, so
Speaker 1: she is always, uh always with me, and it just
Speaker 1: felt appropriate because it's project based. So as a conductor,
Speaker 1: you come, you help lead the project, you get it
Speaker 1: to where it needs to go, and if it's something
Speaker 1: that you want to continue to work on, you have
Speaker 1: that space to do so, and if it's not, it's
Speaker 1: all good. But it gives people space to come in,
Speaker 1: to serve, to leave um, because we're energetic beings and
Speaker 1: nothing is supposed to be forever, you know, and um,
Speaker 1: you know this project can be medicine for some people
Speaker 1: and they want to step away, and so conductors have
Speaker 1: the space to kind of work until they feel nourished
Speaker 1: and then do what they need to do. Well. You
Speaker 1: certainly are a change maker. We have a SEGMENTUM every
Speaker 1: week where we talk to people who are making a
Speaker 1: difference in our society and everything that I hear you
Speaker 1: saying is all about change making, UM, and specifically for
Speaker 1: our people and our coach, So how do you how
Speaker 1: can people help you to do more of what you're
Speaker 1: doing and and to to really broaden even your reach
Speaker 1: within our community, especially to our young people and of
Speaker 1: course again looking at the idea of specifically targeting our men.
Speaker 1: Great question. Well hmmm, I think mm hmm. The best
Speaker 1: way folks can support the work is is twofold one.
Speaker 1: There is always donations, right UM, going to the healing
Speaker 1: station and why dot org and making a donation so
Speaker 1: that we can increase our scholarship program. We UM started
Speaker 1: our first let's go back, so the healing station dot org.
Speaker 1: The healing station, the healing station and why dot org?
Speaker 1: Healing station and why dot org? Thank you? UM. So
Speaker 1: there's donations so that we can increase our scholarship program. UM.
Speaker 1: The vision was to always have one in and one out,
Speaker 1: so I meaning one UM, one full paid script person
Speaker 1: and then a full scholarship person UM and we did that.
Speaker 1: We have six cohort members for our Trauma Informed BIPOC
Speaker 1: Yoga teacher training and UM women from all over the
Speaker 1: country are doing a trauma informed yogic approach so that
Speaker 1: they can hold space for their own bodies and hold
Speaker 1: space for the community, UM when they do this work
Speaker 1: and also UM copying us, modeling us like start your
Speaker 1: own man child projects, start your own teacher training, start
Speaker 1: your own movement training, UM, start your own healing circles
Speaker 1: like just you you like the idea, then go ahead
Speaker 1: and do that too, you know. UM, it's like the
Speaker 1: direct sales of healing, you know, like steal it all,
Speaker 1: you know, take it. It's it's there for the healing, UM,
Speaker 1: because that's the only way that we're gonna heal when
Speaker 1: we do it ourselves and when we do it in community.
Speaker 1: Like that nice giving you it. Well, I just want
Speaker 1: to say, you know, we really want to thank you
Speaker 1: for the work you do and and the way you
Speaker 1: make it plain like you know what I'm saying, You're relatable,
Speaker 1: Like that's what I love about I love about everything.
Speaker 1: I love about us as black people, Like we're able
Speaker 1: to break some because I've heard a lot of Europeans
Speaker 1: talk about mental health and I've never really felt connected.
Speaker 1: But just listen to you talk. It sounds like somebody
Speaker 1: that's from my block, you know, breaking it down to
Speaker 1: me and making me feel like this is for us,
Speaker 1: this is something that we need to be involved, and
Speaker 1: we don't have to lose our culture. We don't have
Speaker 1: to be stiff. We can have the same hip hop culture.
Speaker 1: We can talk like we want to talk, look like
Speaker 1: we want to look. We can have dope names that
Speaker 1: nobody can pronounce. We're young three degrees, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. And we can just be dope man, and
Speaker 1: we can we can be fabulous and brilliant at the
Speaker 1: same time. So I just and hell we are. We
Speaker 1: are fabulous, we are healed, we all go, we are
Speaker 1: all those things for being with us today. We appreciate
Speaker 1: you for all that you've been parted on us and
Speaker 1: certainly you are a friend at Street Politicians. Anything that
Speaker 1: we can do to be of assistance to you, this
Speaker 1: is your home. I appreciate. Thank you so much. Many
Speaker 1: blessings are Look, these interviews were so amazing today, Like
Speaker 1: I've learned so much, and and the thing about it
Speaker 1: was too completely different personalities and energies, but they both
Speaker 1: gave you that feeling like you wanted to talk to them.
Speaker 1: M M. You know what I'm saying. You both you
Speaker 1: wanted to talk to Nita was just amazing. Her whole
Speaker 1: energy just she seemed like a healer. Like she seemed
Speaker 1: like she was actually literally born to do this work.
Speaker 1: Just just everything about her and the way she just
Speaker 1: communicated just make you feel comfortable talking to her. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I found myself like like we could that maybe she
Speaker 1: could help to process some of the confusion and concerns
Speaker 1: that we have about just the world. Like me, I
Speaker 1: really do. And I like say, he just found like
Speaker 1: the girl from the block to all the stuff. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, that break it down to you,
Speaker 1: And like, okay, that's what they were saying. You know
Speaker 1: all the stuff, you knew, all the stuff, and she
Speaker 1: just broke it down to and she and she brought
Speaker 1: it back to the hood and gave it to the
Speaker 1: hood the way that they can receive it. You know,
Speaker 1: there's so many different entry points and all of them,
Speaker 1: you know, serve a real purpose. Man, And that brings
Speaker 1: me with black people, you know, we have we need
Speaker 1: lots of different ways to capture our attention when you
Speaker 1: start talking about healing, because we run away from that.
Speaker 1: Other communities and particularly the white community, white society, if
Speaker 1: you will, Um, they really have adopted the idea of
Speaker 1: self care and healing and it's not something that black
Speaker 1: people have been taught and or and I guess the
Speaker 1: stigma of it is on us. But we're starting to
Speaker 1: break it down. You're starting to hear more men talking
Speaker 1: about going to therapy, and I think you know, to
Speaker 1: your point, the work that Charlemagne is doing today, it
Speaker 1: seems like, Okay, this is something cool. He's our friend
Speaker 1: and it's cool. But later in life he's gonna have
Speaker 1: deep deepoc chopra sort of uh, what do you call it? Um?
Speaker 1: There will be people that will remember him, that's the word.
Speaker 1: He's going to be one of the um. He's gonna
Speaker 1: be one of the innovatives of mentor better culture. That's yes,
Speaker 1: and that brings me to our So it's I had
Speaker 1: like a two prong I don't get it because that
Speaker 1: was one of it that I just don't get why
Speaker 1: and how we've allowed ourselves to separate from mental health
Speaker 1: for so long, to not acknowledge mental health, just not
Speaker 1: acknowledge that we actually deal like we we of all people,
Speaker 1: should know that we're dealing with mental health issues, right
Speaker 1: because all of the things that we've dealt with throughout history.
Speaker 1: There's no way that we can be a hundred percent
Speaker 1: saying it is impossible, impossible, you know, and just listening.
Speaker 1: Just over the last few months, I've been taking the
Speaker 1: time to just assess myself, you know, just listening and
Speaker 1: then saying, damn, I never even knew that was trumpa.
Speaker 1: I never even knew that. I just felt I had
Speaker 1: to be strong, I had to go through it. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm good. I'm always good. And I never really identical
Speaker 1: five with just what I went through in prison, what
Speaker 1: I went through and solitary confinement, what I went through
Speaker 1: the process to get to prison, what I went through
Speaker 1: coming home from prison, trying to you know, rebuild life.
Speaker 1: It's so many different This is my childhood and things
Speaker 1: I went through, and my family just understanding those things
Speaker 1: now and seeing, damn, I really have to have some
Speaker 1: level of mental health issues, and you know, and that
Speaker 1: was one of the things, like how I just don't
Speaker 1: get how we've we've allowed ourselves to not understand that
Speaker 1: for so long. And I'm glad that we get into
Speaker 1: where it's becoming something that you know, is um focused
Speaker 1: upon in our communities and in our culture right now.
Speaker 1: But I really just was really confused, like, damn, we
Speaker 1: should have been got this. You know, And then the
Speaker 1: second thing was something that you said, you know, and
Speaker 1: it's and it's a thing, and and and I also
Speaker 1: and it goes along with the same thing. I don't
Speaker 1: get how we've allowed ourselves as black men and black
Speaker 1: women to be divided by our enemy. Right, there are
Speaker 1: people who focus on certain things and and different different things.
Speaker 1: It's not even different things like how are we allowing
Speaker 1: the fact that a black woman wants to speak up
Speaker 1: about black women issues make men feel like it threatens
Speaker 1: our existence, right, and and vice versus sometimes so it
Speaker 1: goes both ways. I don't even understand how those things
Speaker 1: or even a problem, right, Like, I don't even understand
Speaker 1: how we can't see that. You know, we we all
Speaker 1: dealing with the same exact problems. We're dealing with the
Speaker 1: same struggles. We're in the same communities dealing with everything, Like,
Speaker 1: how are we allowing ourselves to be divided by the
Speaker 1: same things that's tearing each of us part individually? How
Speaker 1: do we don't see that those are things that we
Speaker 1: need to unify. How do we don't see that? Well,
Speaker 1: a black woman sees that something is harming her, something
Speaker 1: is detrimental to her, she speaks up about it that
Speaker 1: our job as black men is to make sure that
Speaker 1: that right there, that she's safe in that space, right
Speaker 1: and and vice versa. When black men say here, we
Speaker 1: feel this way, why do why is there this level
Speaker 1: of just like tugger war, You know, I just really
Speaker 1: don't get it. You know what. I think it's it's
Speaker 1: for another show, right to talk about the debt of
Speaker 1: all of the things that we are experiencing. I think
Speaker 1: it is if this show and it's of itself is
Speaker 1: not um we need many different types of people to
Speaker 1: help us understand the backlash, if you will, and sort
Speaker 1: of like the residue of of being enslaved and what
Speaker 1: that has done to our people, our communities, our minds,
Speaker 1: our culture, um our relationship between the man and woman.
Speaker 1: None of this that you're expressing is by chance. All
Speaker 1: of it is a part of a design. Because if
Speaker 1: we are mentally whole, if we have a sense of stability,
Speaker 1: if we have unity in terms of our understanding of um,
Speaker 1: of of of what has happened to us and where
Speaker 1: we need to go and how we need to operate
Speaker 1: in order to go forward, if we can stop and
Speaker 1: listen to one another and respect our individual issues and
Speaker 1: then the collective need for work and reconciliation. And we
Speaker 1: can do all of that, we would be the most powerful.
Speaker 1: I want to say entity. Perhaps being black is an
Speaker 1: entity of thing um in our society, and there are
Speaker 1: forces that know it. They know it, and that's why
Speaker 1: our music, um, you know, it keeps the The things
Speaker 1: that celebrated about our music are things that keeps us
Speaker 1: dumb down. Um. You know, our schools, the way that
Speaker 1: we're educated, the way that our communities are designed. It's
Speaker 1: been done that way because there is a force that
Speaker 1: understands the power of this thing that's on our skin,
Speaker 1: this melanin, this this this color um that other people
Speaker 1: do not have, and so you know it is it's
Speaker 1: always for me fascinating when we try to hone in
Speaker 1: and and begin to focus on our differences not from
Speaker 1: a place of difference, but from a place of love.
Speaker 1: So I think that's why. But it takes people who
Speaker 1: are bold, like Anita, like censorship, to step out and
Speaker 1: say I'm gonna start the process no matter whether you
Speaker 1: know when when you hear Anita saying I knew I
Speaker 1: heard voices and my mother affirmed me rather than made
Speaker 1: me feel guilty or negative. Wow, like what that would
Speaker 1: be like for so many young black girls and boys
Speaker 1: who have a talent that their parents feed it rather
Speaker 1: than tear it apart because they don't understand it. That's
Speaker 1: what I think. That's an amazing thought. I share those sentiments,
Speaker 1: which is rare. You know, we usually don't agree. We
Speaker 1: do agree a lot more than we don't. No, more
Speaker 1: than we don't you know lately, but you know, process
Speaker 1: so much bullshit we're dealing with you, I think. I
Speaker 1: think also we've agreed that there are certain things that
Speaker 1: we should just not even deal with. So therefore we
Speaker 1: don't have those issues and we don't agree with We
Speaker 1: found the ship we're on and we lead the rest
Speaker 1: of you along. And with that said, we come to
Speaker 1: another And with that said, we've come to the end
Speaker 1: of another show. Thank you all for making us the
Speaker 1: number one show in the world. We appreciate it. Tree
Speaker 1: Politicians makes me laugh, but it's better be real. It's
Speaker 1: real because we listen. We ain't taking nothing else. We're
Speaker 1: moving into our second season on the Black Effect Network.
Speaker 1: So we want to thank you all for continuing to
Speaker 1: support us. If you have any ideas for shows, if
Speaker 1: you want to tell us all if you hate us,
Speaker 1: you love us. I listen, I need feeling listen few.
Speaker 1: I need the few. So just let us know. You
Speaker 1: can follow us on Instagram at Street Politicians Pod. You
Speaker 1: on our YouTube page. Make sure that you go to
Speaker 1: our Women TV to watch the show. You can find
Speaker 1: us on a Black Effect Network or anywhere else. Will
Speaker 1: you want to hear your favorite podcast. So with that said,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna always be right to me. It's not
Speaker 1: gonna always be wrong. We will both always be authentic,
Speaker 1: always always, always peace. Peace. Listen to Street Politicians on
Speaker 1: the Black Effect Network on I Heart Radio. Catch us
Speaker 1: every single Wednesday for the video version of Street Politicians
Speaker 1: for I Women dot tv