Speaker 1: What's going on, y'all. It's your boy, my son, and
Speaker 1: this is Street Politicians, the place with the streets in
Speaker 1: politics meet and I'm Tamika D. Mallory and welcome to
Speaker 1: another episode. It'll be packed as always, there's a bunch
Speaker 1: to talk about. What's going on, mice like lots happening
Speaker 1: at a long weekend. Man, I want to shout out
Speaker 1: to My Brother's Keeper. I did an event with such
Speaker 1: brilliant young men and I was inspired, motivated, um um.
Speaker 1: It was in Albany, Albany, my Brother's Keeper Foundation. They
Speaker 1: take young educated boys, black and brown boys, and they
Speaker 1: you know, they joined this organization in which they take
Speaker 1: them on trips and they educated them. They give them
Speaker 1: leadership classes and you know, and they have to maintain
Speaker 1: a certain g p A. So it was just dope
Speaker 1: to see young brothers like that. That's what's up. That
Speaker 1: was during the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus up in Albany,
Speaker 1: New York this weekend. A lot of great stuff happened
Speaker 1: up there. So this week we wanna talk about fashion week.
Speaker 1: You know, fashion week is probably something we wouldn't really
Speaker 1: be discussing on this show, except there were more claims
Speaker 1: of racism within the fashion industry. A model, you know,
Speaker 1: a model has said that she was asked to wear
Speaker 1: some things that she didn't like and didn't feel we're appropriate.
Speaker 1: So we'll talk about that. Bloomberg has entered the race, um,
Speaker 1: and he's coming fools. No, yeah, but that's not no,
Speaker 1: we're not going to do that. Mini, just absolutely outrage.
Speaker 1: But anyway, no, seriously, we should not be named calling um.
Speaker 1: But anyway, he's he's in the race now. And there's
Speaker 1: been a lot this weekend on this Bloomberg thing, and
Speaker 1: I want to definitely unpack it all you want to
Speaker 1: unpack the Bloomberg. There is then a day on Mississippi
Speaker 1: the Parchment prison situation. Uh, there have been more deaths
Speaker 1: in fact to this weekend, the total that the state
Speaker 1: has been has sort of agreed to, if you will.
Speaker 1: And reason why I say that it is because there's
Speaker 1: a different number coming from the streets. The streets say
Speaker 1: more people have died, but the state has released about
Speaker 1: nineteen people who have died under their care. And this
Speaker 1: has been over the last like two or three months,
Speaker 1: so it's really a crisis. Um. And then of course,
Speaker 1: you know, I give my update on the coronavirus, because
Speaker 1: I watched the coronavirus like I'm watching a storm. I'm
Speaker 1: watching it every single day. Uh, eighteen thousand, Lord, excuse me,
Speaker 1: let me get that right. Eighteen hundred people have died,
Speaker 1: and that does not diminish in all the number, because
Speaker 1: eighteen hundred, eighteen thousand whatever. It is a virus that
Speaker 1: is going thripping through UM any particular country and and
Speaker 1: now spreading into other places. Is is dangerous, and it's
Speaker 1: something that we have to be vigilant about and pay
Speaker 1: attention to. UM. You know, as I was watching MSNBC
Speaker 1: this morning, they were talking about the flu, regular influenza flu,
Speaker 1: and how many more people have died this year from
Speaker 1: the flu than the coronavirus. So when you put it
Speaker 1: in perspective, what they've said is that most people who
Speaker 1: get the coronavirus, they just have regular symptoms, like they
Speaker 1: have a cold, and so long as they don't have
Speaker 1: other health challenges, you know, elderly or very very young,
Speaker 1: you should be okay. So it's not a cause for
Speaker 1: us to panic and be super concerned. But I never
Speaker 1: believe anything that anything that spreads this fast, uh, can
Speaker 1: be quite dangerous, just to reiterate that when you put
Speaker 1: it in perspective in terms of the regular influenza flu
Speaker 1: that all of us are subjected to every day as
Speaker 1: we travel about, go to work, go to school, your
Speaker 1: kids go to school, and all of that. Actually, pe
Speaker 1: for are dying more from the flu than they are
Speaker 1: from this. However, this particular virus has come forward in
Speaker 1: a shorter period of time and it's you know, and
Speaker 1: and the numbers are pretty high, so you know, be vigilant,
Speaker 1: because I'm certainly being vigilant. Oh and guess what they
Speaker 1: said on MSNBC today as the number one thing that
Speaker 1: any individual should do is to wash their hands. How
Speaker 1: did you know? Because I'm on the guys around me
Speaker 1: all the time about just washing their hands. That's it,
Speaker 1: just washing hands. But it brings me to my thought
Speaker 1: of the day. My thought of the day is around
Speaker 1: a comment on an Instagram post, so I talked about
Speaker 1: parchment prison. I posted that another man died over the weekend,
Speaker 1: and a young woman wrote to me in the comments
Speaker 1: I thought jay Z was handling this. And I sat
Speaker 1: and really pondered on that, like, Wow, I thought that
Speaker 1: jay Z is handling the jail people to keep dying
Speaker 1: in the prison. So she thought jay Z was handling
Speaker 1: it because she's seen yeah I And I responded to
Speaker 1: her and said, one man cannot help or cannot solve
Speaker 1: four hundred plus years of oppression, and she wrote back
Speaker 1: to me, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm talking about Parchment prison,
Speaker 1: Like what are you talking about? And it just totally
Speaker 1: went over her head. And then I felt bad because
Speaker 1: I realized that one I did not invest enough in
Speaker 1: that conversation. I probably should have had more dialogue with her,
Speaker 1: because I think I lost after that because she never
Speaker 1: came back. But the only thing is so many of
Speaker 1: our people. I looked at her profile and she's and
Speaker 1: you know what, today, since I did look at her profile,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go DM this sister and fix my error.
Speaker 1: And the teacher and an educator and carr in and
Speaker 1: not out um. But I thought about how so many
Speaker 1: of our younger people. I really think that there is
Speaker 1: an elevator to justice and an elevator to success in general,
Speaker 1: and there is none. Like you have to take the staircase.
Speaker 1: It's the long hard way. And everything that we're talking
Speaker 1: about today, from the Fashion Week piece to presidential politics
Speaker 1: to Parchment Prison. It's a process. It's a process. There
Speaker 1: are steps to move forward for us to just always
Speaker 1: diminish any level of growth and evolution that we make
Speaker 1: in progress that we make. We we we we shortend ourselves.
Speaker 1: We don't give ourselves an opportunity to grow. We don't
Speaker 1: we look for the microwave answer to everything, and that's
Speaker 1: not really I think social media has kind of created
Speaker 1: that where people want to see something go from start
Speaker 1: to completion quickly. But I also understand it, which is
Speaker 1: why I want to go back to that young system
Speaker 1: and have a conversation with her. I also understand that
Speaker 1: people kind of feel like this so much bullshit happening
Speaker 1: in the world that it's like, yeah, show me to
Speaker 1: nitty gritty, like get me quickly to what what's the
Speaker 1: plan here? Right, because folks don't necessarily feel invested or
Speaker 1: confident about what Jay's doing with the NFL, what you
Speaker 1: and I may be doing in Parchment Prison, what they're
Speaker 1: just not and they don't feel like they're the comfort
Speaker 1: of their living room has gotten any better. And I
Speaker 1: get that. It's like people are looking for the tangibles.
Speaker 1: So if people are still dying in Parchment prison, Then
Speaker 1: what the hell are we all excited about when these
Speaker 1: moments come where we do have uh, where we we
Speaker 1: we tout success. So for instance, on the updates, right,
Speaker 1: the first thing that happened was Unit twenty nine is
Speaker 1: closing down now by the way, keeping it all in perspective,
Speaker 1: and I want to make sure that I write down
Speaker 1: so we go back to your point about the P
Speaker 1: S A s and what what they've done, um one
Speaker 1: jay Z. But to keep it all in perspective as
Speaker 1: it relates to you. In the twenty nine it was
Speaker 1: never supposed to be open in the first place. It
Speaker 1: was not. It was actually a condemned building where prisoners
Speaker 1: were moved because things were happening in the unit that
Speaker 1: they were in and they were trying to get control.
Speaker 1: I believe that they were in more of like a
Speaker 1: um like a dormant, a dorm when you call it
Speaker 1: a dorm status, dormitory status, right, yeah, a dormitory status.
Speaker 1: It was more communal, and because of a couple of
Speaker 1: incidents that took place, they moved people to an older
Speaker 1: jail that was more secure. So they say, because there
Speaker 1: were more cells and what have you, UM and so
Speaker 1: they and so that building was already condemned, hadn't been
Speaker 1: open in many, many years. Someone says, at least a decade,
Speaker 1: that's what I heard, that it had not been open.
Speaker 1: And so the fact that they put prisoners in that
Speaker 1: building in the first place was asolutely wrong, crazy outstand
Speaker 1: it just out just ridiculous. All the words you want
Speaker 1: to think of to describe wrong, and a crime should
Speaker 1: never They should never have moved prisoners there. So when
Speaker 1: they come out and say we're closing down you and
Speaker 1: it's incremental, it's like, you know, it's incremental, It's like, okay,
Speaker 1: but the reality is, actually it was supposed to be
Speaker 1: closed and it really wasn't and y'all just used it
Speaker 1: for the time being because you didn't have any will
Speaker 1: to put it. So it's kind of like a little
Speaker 1: bit of fools go. It's it's a little bit of fools.
Speaker 1: But the reality situation is is something that wasn't happening
Speaker 1: the day before, right, So that's what we have to
Speaker 1: be able to explain the nuance in all of this.
Speaker 1: To our we don't feel like, you know, it's having
Speaker 1: a conversation with my brother David Banner, like we have
Speaker 1: real conversations. He'll call me and just check on me
Speaker 1: from time to time, and he was like, a people
Speaker 1: are jaded, like we need a win, he said, they
Speaker 1: want to see wins, like we have to give them
Speaker 1: something as tangible. We have to we have to make
Speaker 1: the goal. We have to set a goal, and we
Speaker 1: gotta win that goal and say, look, we got the
Speaker 1: goal that we said, right, because they want to fight
Speaker 1: and they know that we need justice, and they know
Speaker 1: they wanted quality and equity and all of those things,
Speaker 1: but they haven't seen a real win. They don't even
Speaker 1: know where the wind looks like. And we're not presenting
Speaker 1: it like, look, we want this. So I think I
Speaker 1: think that's them, and I think also it's you know.
Speaker 1: And then and then if you don't feel like you're
Speaker 1: winning the larger fight, then you just gotta win in
Speaker 1: your little box. So it's like I go to work,
Speaker 1: I take care of my kids. We're not havn't you know.
Speaker 1: We're not trying to cause any problems. We don't want
Speaker 1: any problems. We're doing the best we could do right
Speaker 1: here and this little this little area. And so since
Speaker 1: we can't win the larger battle, let's just focus on
Speaker 1: our our home and our you know, our little four
Speaker 1: square miles around us. So on the Parchment piece, the
Speaker 1: other update is that because of the lawsuits that jay
Speaker 1: Z filed, they now are able to go into the
Speaker 1: prison with inspectors, so people who are able to look
Speaker 1: into the sewage system. That's another it's incremental. They're going
Speaker 1: in to be able to look at the jail and
Speaker 1: be able to assess what the prison and assess what
Speaker 1: is happening there, what the conditions are, and how the
Speaker 1: prisoners are living. That's important because you need that for
Speaker 1: your lawsuit. You also need that so you're able to
Speaker 1: continue to have conversations with the local government to talk
Speaker 1: about why things need to happen now, not waiting for
Speaker 1: a lawsuit that's in ten years and five years, but
Speaker 1: right now there has to be steps taken to deal
Speaker 1: with the humane the humanity of those people who are
Speaker 1: locked up inside of Parchment prison. Um and so you
Speaker 1: know that that also was another big step. But again
Speaker 1: someone wrote on my Instagram page there was a report
Speaker 1: that was like three hundred pages that came out five
Speaker 1: or six years ago that basically condemned the prison. So
Speaker 1: why are we here now? And I think that why,
Speaker 1: you know, like, why now all of a sudden are
Speaker 1: we talking about a new report. It seems like it's
Speaker 1: just basically a merry go round, go round and round.
Speaker 1: But the thing that folks have to understand is that opportunity, timing,
Speaker 1: and and and and and and circumstances all have to
Speaker 1: sort of meet, right, So you could have a report
Speaker 1: out from five years ago, but then five years ago
Speaker 1: they may not have been as much movement on the ground,
Speaker 1: you know, they may not have been as much energy
Speaker 1: where people are out there calling for justice around this
Speaker 1: issue or or bringing attention to the outrage. And then, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: which is what I wrote in my post yesterday, when
Speaker 1: you're fighting, you're in a major fight against this system.
Speaker 1: People get hurt, people even die. And in this moment,
Speaker 1: the components that are coming together is that you have
Speaker 1: someone like Jay Z and Rock Nation Team Rock that's
Speaker 1: out there suing the Department of the well not Department
Speaker 1: of Justice, but they're suing the Department of Corrections, suing
Speaker 1: the state on behalf of these prisoners. Then at the
Speaker 1: same time you also have us, all of us out
Speaker 1: there bringing attention to the local fight where Ms. Sharon
Speaker 1: and Lukia Mamamba and Leah Campbell and Danielle Holmes Um
Speaker 1: the Poor People's Campaign, the Mississippi Prison Coalition, they're out there,
Speaker 1: so that you have those two things coming together and
Speaker 1: then unfortunately you have loss of light, so you have
Speaker 1: more attention on the situation and therefore you may be
Speaker 1: able to move uh towards exactly. And that's what. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I just want to march and rally, and I'm trying
Speaker 1: to march and I try to explain to him it's
Speaker 1: about bringing awareness. It's about bringing awareness and also unifying
Speaker 1: people with like minds. The people that you know are
Speaker 1: gonna be by the side to see how many people
Speaker 1: actually share a frustration from one subject. When when the
Speaker 1: government officials see that and when we put that on
Speaker 1: the news, it makes them say, Okay, we don't need
Speaker 1: some type of uprising from our people because the people
Speaker 1: are not happy. So if we don't deal with their
Speaker 1: issues and talk about what they they're angry about, then
Speaker 1: we're gonna have a problem. So when people cant, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't know about launching, No, it's definitely necessary. Like
Speaker 1: you said, you know, these things bring awaitness and because
Speaker 1: it's highlighted because Jay Z is talking about it because
Speaker 1: you know, um, the people are dying and we're able
Speaker 1: to put this on national news because those things that
Speaker 1: happen is it moves the need of a lot faster
Speaker 1: than situations that are happening in other towns of other states.
Speaker 1: Who where we putting together departments. It happens and this
Speaker 1: this right here, Unfortunately, the life, the lives that have
Speaker 1: been lost in this situation, it is probably gonna pay
Speaker 1: the way so other lives don't have to be there's
Speaker 1: a sacrifice. And unfortunately, just like years ago in the
Speaker 1: Attica it's when those brothers low state life because they
Speaker 1: was being treated in humane, you know, and the change
Speaker 1: the New York justice system, correction system, a lot of
Speaker 1: things that they weren't able to get, you know, visits
Speaker 1: and packages and things of that nature. They fought and
Speaker 1: died for those things. So we look at a different,
Speaker 1: different time in a new moment to recreate what justice
Speaker 1: looks like with prison reform looks like, and even imagine
Speaker 1: someplace where that is in prison. But in the process
Speaker 1: there's going to be reforming real Yeah, you know, I
Speaker 1: got a call from a woman, um the other day
Speaker 1: and our our co founders, Linda Sarsoo and Angelo Pene
Speaker 1: attorney Angelo Pinto. But with me and I just happened
Speaker 1: to put the call on speaker phone. Didn't even know
Speaker 1: who was calling. In fact, it was a nine oh
Speaker 1: one number that I get calls from often, but I
Speaker 1: don't answer because I don't know who it is. But
Speaker 1: this day I answered the phone. I put the lady
Speaker 1: on speaker phone, and she says to me, Hi, uh.
Speaker 1: You know. She was an older countrywoman and she said
Speaker 1: that she was trying to get someone to check on
Speaker 1: her son and Parchment that he told her he didn't
Speaker 1: even have clean water, that the water is brown, and
Speaker 1: she's trying to get on the visiting list, but no
Speaker 1: one will answer the phone for her. She's worried about
Speaker 1: her son, doesn't know what's going on. And then she said,
Speaker 1: and do you know why he's in there? And I said,
Speaker 1: I said, well, what happened to him? Man? She said,
Speaker 1: he supposedly, you know whatever, So less than a hundred
Speaker 1: dollars worth of drugs to an undercover cop. And do
Speaker 1: you know how much time they gave him? Sixty years?
Speaker 1: Because that's how the justice system, the injustice system plays.
Speaker 1: You know, I know so many individuals who have lesser crimes,
Speaker 1: who have done non violent crimes and a servant life
Speaker 1: in prison, who have life in prison. So I've seen
Speaker 1: you know, the most drastic and you know, inhumane sentences,
Speaker 1: sentences for situations that most of are done out of
Speaker 1: poverty and confusion. You know, these are poverty is crimped
Speaker 1: and itself. That's something we say all the time. And
Speaker 1: you know, and the system should be on traal for
Speaker 1: for making us living poverty to continuously live in poverty,
Speaker 1: from not providing opportunities in space to where people able
Speaker 1: to live above poverty. So you know, when you when
Speaker 1: you criminalize, over criminalize, you know, people who commit crimes
Speaker 1: out of poverty stricken conditions. It's just it makes no sense.
Speaker 1: And that's what we're seeing in parture and that's what
Speaker 1: we most of those jails are, especially in those racist towns,
Speaker 1: because the laws are designed to completely cripple and the
Speaker 1: track black black and brown men. But you know, it's
Speaker 1: like who what men and women? You know, do you
Speaker 1: put the cart before the horse? What they say, the
Speaker 1: chicken all the egg, Because on one hand, you know,
Speaker 1: I want to say, regardless of of the poverty, no
Speaker 1: matter where it is that I come from, what it
Speaker 1: is that I've been through, Choosing to knock a old
Speaker 1: lady over the head, or shoot a cop, or you
Speaker 1: know the different things we know of sell drugs and
Speaker 1: all of that should never be an option for us.
Speaker 1: And there are so many people who were able to
Speaker 1: navigate poverty, navigate all of these things. But there's a
Speaker 1: way more people than weren't. So you're talking about the exception,
Speaker 1: not the rule. And I have that conversation with people
Speaker 1: all the time, not making it an excuse, but there's
Speaker 1: a reason. You know, if you look, if you look
Speaker 1: at trajectory, if you look at the real statistics, ninety
Speaker 1: more ninety plus people don't get out of those conditions.
Speaker 1: You know, the amount of people that actually overcome those
Speaker 1: situations and pull itself abody own bootstraps, it's very low.
Speaker 1: And we look at them and we celebrate them, like
Speaker 1: when we celebrate the rich black people, and we look
Speaker 1: at it. We aspired to do that, and you know,
Speaker 1: and a lot of times people say, look, you can
Speaker 1: do this, and you can do this. Everybody doesn't have
Speaker 1: those opportunity means. A lot of these people is what
Speaker 1: what it takes to be successful in wealthy in America.
Speaker 1: There's a culmination of things. There has to be skilled,
Speaker 1: there has to be dedication, there has to be luck,
Speaker 1: you know, and then it has to be some lessons.
Speaker 1: All these things got to happen at the exact same time.
Speaker 1: For those things that happense, opportunity is most important. If
Speaker 1: you look at most of our successful blacks in our culture,
Speaker 1: they were seconds away from losing their freedom or their life.
Speaker 1: A lot of people have aspirations to have the skill
Speaker 1: and even have the wanting to do things with the
Speaker 1: opportunity just han't caught up to, you know, their urge.
Speaker 1: So that's what we're looking forward to, actually see some
Speaker 1: opportunities to present them. Well, yeah, opportunities. Well, a woman
Speaker 1: had much opportunity. She has been a model for fashion
Speaker 1: Week for a long time. I think she said many
Speaker 1: years she's been doing fashion Week, but she never experienced
Speaker 1: something like what happened to her, uh this particular year
Speaker 1: fashion week. She says she was asked to wear um
Speaker 1: some airrings that were like big red lips. And when
Speaker 1: you say big red lips, you have to think about
Speaker 1: what black face looks like and understand the red lips
Speaker 1: was a huge part of the black face representation. UM.
Speaker 1: And then the other thing was some other accessories that
Speaker 1: were monkeys, and they asked her the way that's a
Speaker 1: black woman to wear this during a show and she
Speaker 1: said no, she refused to wear it, UM and she said,
Speaker 1: you know it was It was a very difficult moment
Speaker 1: for her, probably the worst that she's ever experienced while
Speaker 1: doing these shows. But they went on even though they
Speaker 1: did not make her wear them, well, they could not
Speaker 1: make her wear them, uh, and the issue was dropped.
Speaker 1: They still allowed other people to wear them. So you
Speaker 1: still see pictures in the New York Times, the Daily
Speaker 1: News of other models wearing these very very hurtful and
Speaker 1: racist symbols. But you know, she didn't participate in it.
Speaker 1: Are we surprised, No, it's not about being surprised. And
Speaker 1: another thing that I remember that she said that one
Speaker 1: of the people told her and the story that it's
Speaker 1: okay to be uncomfortable for I bet you a white
Speaker 1: person like just just to sit there, just think about that.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you that something is making me uncomfortable that
Speaker 1: I don't want to wear it because it's going to
Speaker 1: get something that I feel and they look, don't worry
Speaker 1: about it. Just be It's okay to be uncomfortable seconds
Speaker 1: somebody's moral compass. You know, that's an insult to their
Speaker 1: racial you know, heritage, and you tell them just be
Speaker 1: uncomfortable for seconds, but okay, continue, No, no, you you continue.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just it's just people tell us that
Speaker 1: all the time. I just want to say for the
Speaker 1: sister that I I really appreciate the fact that her
Speaker 1: career be ruined because now she's a troublemaker. She's too
Speaker 1: difficult to deal with as a black woman, she's too aggressive,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure all the stereotypes are being thrown around
Speaker 1: in the industry to describe her for making this taking
Speaker 1: this stance. But we as black women, let me speak
Speaker 1: as a black woman, are so proud that she stood
Speaker 1: up and said no. And sometimes that's what it takes
Speaker 1: is to just say no, I won't do it. So yeah,
Speaker 1: just say no. And I mean that, like, don't allow
Speaker 1: people to make you feel uncomfortable for a few moments.
Speaker 1: But at least she knew there was something to feel
Speaker 1: uncomfortable about. Because I'm so I'm sure some people slap
Speaker 1: them ear rings right on and put those stories on
Speaker 1: them with like bring it on. They don't have a
Speaker 1: clue because they don't know their history. And obviously she's
Speaker 1: been exposed and knows what these symbols mean. So lots
Speaker 1: of love to the sister, thank you was standing up
Speaker 1: and doing what she needs to do. But it just
Speaker 1: makes me think about last year around the Gucci black
Speaker 1: face sweater, and you know, I just sometimes my people,
Speaker 1: my people, my people. It makes me feel so just
Speaker 1: worn out right because there were people who really tried
Speaker 1: to argue with me last year when Gucci released their
Speaker 1: their sweater um and the sweater again it was like
Speaker 1: half a face, a black face sweater. You can find
Speaker 1: it all on online. There was major outrage about this sweater.
Speaker 1: I think it was like eight hundred and something dollars
Speaker 1: they were selling. This sweater was on the wrong way
Speaker 1: and it was a big thing for them. They thought
Speaker 1: they had done something good and until people saw it
Speaker 1: and said what the hell is this? Like, you know,
Speaker 1: it was it was totally inappropriate and it was clearly
Speaker 1: a re enactment or if you will, or redesign of
Speaker 1: black face. And there were people who tried to argue
Speaker 1: that we were making too much of a big deal
Speaker 1: out of it. It was just a sweat. It didn't
Speaker 1: necessarily look like black face. Why are we always trying
Speaker 1: to bring up old things in our history? And it's
Speaker 1: almost like we don't understand how stuff is connected, Like
Speaker 1: we think that things happened just by you know, just
Speaker 1: it just sort of like just happens. It's not Moses, yeah,
Speaker 1: bias Moses. It's not connected to other issues. So now
Speaker 1: what we see, because remember the most thing about it
Speaker 1: is I don't want to but if we can be right,
Speaker 1: then why I even deal with it? If it's possible,
Speaker 1: If it's possible, if we look at this and said,
Speaker 1: and this is really really too similar to something that
Speaker 1: resembles black face, it triggers a lot of people. So
Speaker 1: since we can be right and it could actually be
Speaker 1: based on that, let's just not do it at all. Right,
Speaker 1: resemblance that was the word I was looking for earlier, exactly.
Speaker 1: But but it wasn't just Gucci during that time. Product
Speaker 1: maybe a few months before that had some like black face,
Speaker 1: Hea Rains, Montclair had something, and then Burberry had a
Speaker 1: few incidents and I love Burberry, uh, and they had
Speaker 1: a few incidents with racist things. I think the one
Speaker 1: that really was like just oh, it was a noose.
Speaker 1: The woman at a fashion show last year fashion week
Speaker 1: was asked to wear a noose with her outfit as
Speaker 1: a part of a Burberry display during fashion Week, and
Speaker 1: that that model said no, she wouldn't wear it. So
Speaker 1: it's like, why do people not understand that all of
Speaker 1: this stuff. Somewhere along the line, a decision has been
Speaker 1: made and these designers are playing into it that they're
Speaker 1: going to try to bring back an error that was
Speaker 1: extremely demeaning. What that was, an error that was extremely
Speaker 1: demeaning and oppressive and racist and violent towards black people.
Speaker 1: Like that's what they're doing, they're testing. So when we
Speaker 1: made the claims last year, you know about what Gucci
Speaker 1: had did and what product had did, and we took
Speaker 1: that sting in a lot of people saying we were trublemakers.
Speaker 1: But there's a trend. You know, it hasn't stopped it. Understand,
Speaker 1: it's not gonna end because they didn't see a big
Speaker 1: enough outrage and people didn't make them feel like it
Speaker 1: was completely off right. And see Gucci's uh, their stocks
Speaker 1: fell by third last year. Their sales were down by
Speaker 1: a third last year. During this time that the black
Speaker 1: face issue happened because people actually were protesting. The whole
Speaker 1: thing was that Gucci was going to that They hired
Speaker 1: a chief diversity officer, a woman who I think is amazing,
Speaker 1: but I'm not even sure that the woman is black.
Speaker 1: And the issue was about there, uh there, what they
Speaker 1: had done to offend black people. Um, so that's one.
Speaker 1: Then second, they're supposed to be distributing five million dollars,
Speaker 1: which is nothing. That's no money, period. But nonetheless they
Speaker 1: were supposed to be distributing in five million dollars to
Speaker 1: organization is that do social justice work. I have checked
Speaker 1: with all the people I know, and no one has
Speaker 1: received the five million dollars. Maybe out you know. Trust me,
Speaker 1: I have a box full of belts and things that
Speaker 1: I want to wear, and that a bunch of other
Speaker 1: Gucci stuff that I would never be able to put on.
Speaker 1: I'll never wear it again in my life ever. And
Speaker 1: that because we don't need that one brand. It's very
Speaker 1: we don't. We don't need them at all. We could
Speaker 1: just say if you disrespect us one time, we're done
Speaker 1: and we're moving on. And and the fact that their
Speaker 1: stocks was down during the time that we were protesting,
Speaker 1: is a good sign for our people. We probably would
Speaker 1: not be at the point today where a model is
Speaker 1: being asked to wear monkey ear rings and monkey lips.
Speaker 1: But if Yo and I can't wait for us to
Speaker 1: get into the Bloomberg thing, and I hope I can
Speaker 1: even get my words out properly because I'm so frustrated.
Speaker 1: Do we want to be free or we just want
Speaker 1: master to be nicer? That's the question we have to
Speaker 1: because getting free would mean that the entire industry is
Speaker 1: so shaken by what happened, that no one has a
Speaker 1: fashion show with black face and and monkey ear rings,
Speaker 1: and that no more nooses and body chains whatever. That
Speaker 1: would be freedom, because true freedom would say that every
Speaker 1: single fashion house we know we have to hire, do
Speaker 1: whatever is necessary to have diversity and sensitivity to racial concerns,
Speaker 1: and that these things cannot ever happen again. But because
Speaker 1: of the fact that they see, just give a little
Speaker 1: five million dollars, hire a little you know, person, one
Speaker 1: or two people here. And I don't want to say
Speaker 1: little as it is relates to a woman who I
Speaker 1: believe is qualified. But let's just hire someone and that's
Speaker 1: all we gotta do. So even if we get in trouble,
Speaker 1: it goes away because once we get a few Nigros
Speaker 1: that are willing to stand with us, it'll be cool. Now,
Speaker 1: mind Judis is some of the same people who refuse
Speaker 1: to ever talk to Jay Z again exactly Bloomberg. So listen,
Speaker 1: please don't be Trump because I can't. I don't think
Speaker 1: that's cool. And well it's not because it's not necessary.
Speaker 1: It's very similar to the same thing that Snoop did.
Speaker 1: The conversation changes from the actual issues to name calling,
Speaker 1: and it's not necessary. Listen to me, I think name
Speaker 1: calling and um cursing somebody that you say Doomberg and
Speaker 1: you say many, But why okay when you say many, Mike,
Speaker 1: what you're doing is basically trying to point out something
Speaker 1: that some people see as a shortcoming of someone, and
Speaker 1: it's insulting. And I'm just trying to figure out how
Speaker 1: we get ourselves to the place where we can actually
Speaker 1: talk about the issue without having to de need or degrade.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something that's a beautiful in ideology,
Speaker 1: you know, in theory, what you're saying is so beautiful.
Speaker 1: But we have a president in the White House, who
Speaker 1: has shown you that your theory doesn't work. It does
Speaker 1: work for the people that I don't. I'm not gonna ever,
Speaker 1: don't compare me to him. But what I'm trying to
Speaker 1: tell you is this, we are in all gloves off
Speaker 1: error and you still playing by the political correct situation,
Speaker 1: morally correct. This ain't going to do it does because
Speaker 1: I don't need Yeah, and I was I have been
Speaker 1: wrong when I said it, But even still, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna sit up here on a on a national platform,
Speaker 1: international platform and start calling people out there name. But
Speaker 1: so you do it on a regular platform, I think
Speaker 1: there are different conversations. That's where the problem we are
Speaker 1: at it. We are at a time in America with
Speaker 1: the people that's voting, the young kids, they want to
Speaker 1: hear somebody that that that that's talking the language. Are
Speaker 1: you serious? Serious? That's why we got the world people,
Speaker 1: though we did not get Trump in the White House
Speaker 1: because of what he says. Because then you're putting yourself
Speaker 1: in the same bucket as the element of folks who
Speaker 1: voted for him. What do you mean I know who
Speaker 1: did not vote for Trump? Who are the people that
Speaker 1: I work with, the people I love the people who
Speaker 1: who we are in the struggle every time they get
Speaker 1: you know, why do we have to resort to the
Speaker 1: same stuff that those people who we don't agree with
Speaker 1: because we didn't vote for that process. What I'm trying
Speaker 1: to tell you is I understand your premise. I'm just
Speaker 1: saying it's not that big of a deal and it's
Speaker 1: not that serious because people are gonna laugh and sometimes
Speaker 1: you gotta have you gotta joke about something funny. And
Speaker 1: I and you know, I'm like totally not a supporter
Speaker 1: of Bloomberg's, but I still don't think it's funny to
Speaker 1: call people many and and Doomberg Dooomberg. Why it's as
Speaker 1: hilarious Michael Doomberg, because if we will be doomed, That's
Speaker 1: exactly what I had to say. Okay, well, there's some
Speaker 1: people that say that's not of that. He's got great platforms,
Speaker 1: he's got a lot of money, and everybody was saying
Speaker 1: that we got a lot of money, and he's got
Speaker 1: a lot of money. He's gonna give us money, and
Speaker 1: he's giving us money to say these things that we're
Speaker 1: saying because he's got money. But the whole point, we
Speaker 1: got changing because he's got money. Because he's got money
Speaker 1: and he can and he can stand up, he's gonna
Speaker 1: and call him names. Yeah, he's gonna make the same
Speaker 1: back and forth. So people can't have this moral code
Speaker 1: right and say that Trump is the most disgusting person.
Speaker 1: And when you look at Bloomberg over the history of
Speaker 1: what he's done in New York, his policies, his rhetoric,
Speaker 1: the way he's talked about people. If you listen to
Speaker 1: the tape that they have out now when he says
Speaker 1: you can pretty much zerox. You know what what the
Speaker 1: criminal look The description of a criminal is when he's young,
Speaker 1: he's black, between fifteen and this and four, I think,
Speaker 1: and you just throw them up against the wall, and
Speaker 1: you get the guns, and you get whatever, and and
Speaker 1: you just keep throwing them against the wall. So when
Speaker 1: you can have a conversation about somebody who said that,
Speaker 1: who a year ago sat there and praised the ninety
Speaker 1: four crime bill, who has never apologized until he decided
Speaker 1: he was running for election for what he did with
Speaker 1: stopping FIRS, you know, when we can sit there and
Speaker 1: praise somebody like that, we have lost that way. We've
Speaker 1: been gone. No, no, no, no, we've been gone, but
Speaker 1: this right here is the ultimate because you're voting you
Speaker 1: you're telling me that you're gonna replace Lucifer was saying,
Speaker 1: because that's that's what this is exactly. You You are
Speaker 1: pretty much going to vote a multi billionaire into office
Speaker 1: who has less allegiance than the multi millionaire that we
Speaker 1: just vote. And you see what that means. Why why
Speaker 1: do you think Trump has any elite And he doesn't.
Speaker 1: But I'm just trying to tell you he has less money,
Speaker 1: so he might need a couple of people to donate
Speaker 1: here and there that they might have to act like
Speaker 1: I like you people, and I needed you to do
Speaker 1: this more. Michael bloom Work has changed the laws in
Speaker 1: New York State to fit him. He had three terms
Speaker 1: and then when he voted to get him a term,
Speaker 1: changed the laws. Then't got out of office and got
Speaker 1: this and change the law back so nobody else can
Speaker 1: do it. What you The things that you're naming are
Speaker 1: so traumatizing to me as a New Yorker who not
Speaker 1: I wasn't just I'm not just a regular New Yorker
Speaker 1: who just goes about work every day. I literally was
Speaker 1: in the belly of the fight against Bloomberg and his policies.
Speaker 1: At the time, I worked for Revenew Sharpton, who was
Speaker 1: one of the leading voices um again stopping frisk in
Speaker 1: the city. And we worked alongside a lot of folks,
Speaker 1: the eight the in the New York Civil Liberties Union,
Speaker 1: unions in general, like eleven ninety Knot the Black Zeo,
Speaker 1: the current mayor uh An in double A, CP Hazel Dudes,
Speaker 1: Marvin byng Um, I mean, you name it. We were
Speaker 1: working together to fight against Bloomberg and the stopping FRIS policy. Yo,
Speaker 1: when I listened to people on the news, It's like
Speaker 1: I'm living in the twilight zone. Ended stopping FRIS. No,
Speaker 1: he didn't just end stopping FRIS. First of all, he
Speaker 1: went to court and spent millions of dollars trying to
Speaker 1: fight against the end of stopping frisk, even after a
Speaker 1: judge ruled it unconstitutional. And he didn't just he didn't,
Speaker 1: and and all of those things didn't just happen. We
Speaker 1: put fifty thousand people in the street down Fifth Avenue
Speaker 1: to his house on Father's Day in order to get
Speaker 1: the real attention of of of New Yorkers and people
Speaker 1: across the country. This didn't just happen. And I remember
Speaker 1: because I said blood, sweat and tears, and some people like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, you're being dramatic, and sometimes we are a
Speaker 1: little dramatic. But whatever, they're like this, we're being dramatic. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: I remember in the midst of the Sean Bell March.
Speaker 1: During the Sean Bell March, I remember there being so
Speaker 1: much confusion and tension between the police and the protesters
Speaker 1: and all of that that people got cut and bruised
Speaker 1: and they were literally bleeding because I had on a
Speaker 1: white jacket and the blood was on my jacket when
Speaker 1: I got home. And Sean Bell, for those people who
Speaker 1: don't know, he was shot um when police fired forty
Speaker 1: bullets at his car on his wedding day. Joe Guzman
Speaker 1: was hit seventeen times in that shooting. Uh and Trent
Speaker 1: Benefield was also shot in the car. And Sean Bell
Speaker 1: died before his wedding. Okay, this this happened under the
Speaker 1: Bloomberg era. It's not like I just don't and and
Speaker 1: so they're like, well, he apologized, but to your point,
Speaker 1: he apologized right before running for president. Jud just show
Speaker 1: up because you need something. And now of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you're sorry, and then people don't even give you a fight.
Speaker 1: Like I thought we were in a primary season. So
Speaker 1: in the primary season, what I thought happens is that Okay,
Speaker 1: Bloomberg wants to run. He apologized. Cool. Now we sit
Speaker 1: here and we look at the different campaigns and the
Speaker 1: different candidates. We asked some questions, We do the work.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that we decide that as soon as
Speaker 1: somebody jumps in the race that more that a hundred
Speaker 1: black mayors that uh, you know, all types of prime
Speaker 1: and the figures would just decide to crown someone that
Speaker 1: the Black delegation has not has not considered. And I'm
Speaker 1: gonna tell you there are a lot of people who
Speaker 1: are coming at me saying and there. People are respect
Speaker 1: their people. I respect. Most of them are much older,
Speaker 1: and I do listen to them when they come to
Speaker 1: me and give me advice. But I think that they
Speaker 1: are making there's a miscalculation that's going on here that
Speaker 1: we're just gonna deliver the black vote to Bloomberg without
Speaker 1: making sure that he has had to court this community.
Speaker 1: That's not gonna happen. My thing is this, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna tell you this. I don't listen. I'm telling you
Speaker 1: on National TV. I would not vote for Bloomberg if
Speaker 1: God came down and told me. If God came and
Speaker 1: said it, that's the only way I would do. Listen.
Speaker 1: If God came and told me I had God might
Speaker 1: send me to hell Michael Bloomberg. It's a lot of
Speaker 1: people that said Michael Bloomberg could not get a vote
Speaker 1: for me if he was the last candidate, and a
Speaker 1: lot of people say didn't have anything else if he
Speaker 1: was he had the Last Drop award, and I was
Speaker 1: thirsty for me. The calculation that because a black mayor
Speaker 1: or a black influencer has decided that to crown Bloomberg
Speaker 1: does not necessarily translate to people on the ground. It doesn't.
Speaker 1: And that's and that's what That's what I'm trying to
Speaker 1: tell you, that Bloomberg is trying to buy the election.
Speaker 1: And when you look at the support from people, because
Speaker 1: as people are swayed by the media, and that's what happened.
Speaker 1: He is a media you know, a media tycoon, pretty
Speaker 1: and he knows how to speak, he knows how to
Speaker 1: spend the media. So what happened is over a short
Speaker 1: period of time he has been able to train people
Speaker 1: to say brush and train people say, well, Bloomberg is
Speaker 1: the person everybody is saying, so let me go with that.
Speaker 1: It's become familiarity. And he knows that when you put
Speaker 1: something everywhere all over the media, if you control the media,
Speaker 1: you control the people. And that's what's happening at this time.
Speaker 1: But the people don't haven't really brought into they thinking
Speaker 1: that they don't have a day like, oh well, people
Speaker 1: are saying this or they don't support because most of
Speaker 1: them don't even know what he's talking about or what
Speaker 1: he's done, so they just seeing something. It's just been
Speaker 1: thrown at them at once. So that's what the word is.
Speaker 1: But the reality is he does not have the support.
Speaker 1: He has not courted this this committee. Well, he's supposed
Speaker 1: to drop a criminal justice criminal justice platform and dropping
Speaker 1: his to be one of the best platforms because he
Speaker 1: obviously has some strong people, people who I love. I'm
Speaker 1: very hurt and disappointed. Uh in there seems like blind support.
Speaker 1: What I'm saying is, don't try to come and tell
Speaker 1: me about all these wonderful things about Bloomberg. Don't do
Speaker 1: that to me, because that's insulting. It's insulting. Let's let's
Speaker 1: just be real and say we want to beat Trump
Speaker 1: and we don't really care about his past, we don't
Speaker 1: care about anything. We just want to beat Trump. I
Speaker 1: can respect that, have that conversation with me, But just
Speaker 1: to give you a comparison, like you said about the
Speaker 1: media and how the media is so powerful, and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: knows this his advertisement and the announcements that he's been
Speaker 1: putting out, the endorsements, just like you were saying that,
Speaker 1: look at what's happening with Elizabeth and Bernie, And that's
Speaker 1: somewhere because most folks are like, well, what do you
Speaker 1: think we should do? If it's not Bloomberg? Then what
Speaker 1: as if he's like the only other choice and is
Speaker 1: nobody else running? But whatever, I'm somewhere between Elizabeth and Bernie.
Speaker 1: I haven't decided. I have very serious concerns with Bernie
Speaker 1: Sanders and his ability to be able to articulate his
Speaker 1: plans that are great policies that I see on his website,
Speaker 1: that what he's talking about, what is Sarah gets are
Speaker 1: talking about, is great, but how it is translated when
Speaker 1: it comes to black people and black women specifically, I
Speaker 1: don't hear it. Elizabeth does a much better job to me,
Speaker 1: in particular dealing with black women, she doesn't. Although those
Speaker 1: are very strong issues, I think I have got so
Speaker 1: tired of people knowing how to say all the right
Speaker 1: things to black people and never doing them that I
Speaker 1: understand what's happening. All these people that that have been
Speaker 1: saying that proper things about black people have taken pretty
Speaker 1: much everything that Bernie has actually lived, he's been talking about.
Speaker 1: He ran on this campaign four years ago, and his
Speaker 1: platform he's he's been, he's been living, actually showing these things.
Speaker 1: And now they've they've said, Okay, Bernie has a floor.
Speaker 1: He doesn't actually talk to black people. We need black people,
Speaker 1: So we're going to take all the ship he's doing
Speaker 1: and we're gonna pander. Listen, what we're going to do
Speaker 1: is pander because this is not It is because Warren
Speaker 1: was not saying all of the ship. She wasn't. She
Speaker 1: took that man's whole medical, informed prison, everything that he's did,
Speaker 1: she took his whole platform, and then she just put
Speaker 1: let me talk to black women in front of it
Speaker 1: because somebody in her camp told her to do this,
Speaker 1: and I've watched it specifically, just like when you think
Speaker 1: at Mike Blue, when you look at Mike Bloomberg's campaign,
Speaker 1: he got Mike for blacks. Like this ship is so
Speaker 1: even with Trump, Trump, everybody is pandering too black people.
Speaker 1: Trump had a whole speech where he just did nothing
Speaker 1: but getting black people. No, I don't want that. That's
Speaker 1: not what I want. I want people to actually no, no no, no,
Speaker 1: no, no no, no, no no no. I want people to
Speaker 1: do ship because I've watched this happen for years. I've
Speaker 1: I've heard people say black ship, this is gonna have
Speaker 1: a black people, We're gonna do this with black people.
Speaker 1: This is gonna have I'm telling you black people, black people,
Speaker 1: black black people, and eight ship happening. I want somebody
Speaker 1: that's actually going to do something. See, we get so
Speaker 1: comfortable in the words and people lying to us and
Speaker 1: pander into us. And you know, Hillary had motherfucking hot
Speaker 1: source in our bag. Like I don't want to hear that.
Speaker 1: I'm tired of that. Ship don't work for me. I'm
Speaker 1: looking at Burnie and I'm looking over his history. What
Speaker 1: he said and what he's done shows me that he
Speaker 1: actually wants to make real change, or I don't feel
Speaker 1: that there's anything wrong with me wanting both. I want
Speaker 1: you to have a platform that will address my issues
Speaker 1: and be able to articulate it. Because, by the way,
Speaker 1: when we talk about Bloomberg, what we've said is he
Speaker 1: doesn't owe us anything because he that he's he's the
Speaker 1: one we're gonna owe him. By the time he finished
Speaker 1: paying off everybody, not everybody, because there's some people who
Speaker 1: ain't gonna take a dime from him, but yet they
Speaker 1: still support him because they want to see Trump out
Speaker 1: of office. But by the time he finished sprinkling his
Speaker 1: money around, buying all the ads, driving up the damn
Speaker 1: the damn rates for TV ads and everything else that
Speaker 1: he's doing, paying Ray Ray Keisha, everybody across the hood
Speaker 1: to go out and where they bloom Mike for Black
Speaker 1: America's Tommy finished doing all of that, we're gonna owe him.
Speaker 1: He's not gonna owe us anything. And that came out
Speaker 1: of his mouth right because he stated he said whenever
Speaker 1: he said, I'm doing the same thing that everyone else
Speaker 1: does in terms of his his money and how he's
Speaker 1: paying for his campaign, he said, but the only thing
Speaker 1: is that other people need to take donations for people,
Speaker 1: and then they will owe them something later. Those people
Speaker 1: have expectations. I'm just not going that route. So he's
Speaker 1: telling you already his mind state is I'm buying everybody
Speaker 1: and then they don't owe me anything. Then when you
Speaker 1: go back to the situation with Elizabeth and all of
Speaker 1: these other individuals who you just said that there's issues there,
Speaker 1: I want you to be able to tell me, hey,
Speaker 1: I need your vote. These are of things I'm gonna do.
Speaker 1: And as black folks who are who's one of the
Speaker 1: biggest voting polls, here's why. I understand what it is
Speaker 1: that you're dealing with. I need you to be committed
Speaker 1: to me. I need just like he's saying he doesn't
Speaker 1: need to be committed, I need you to say I
Speaker 1: am committed. I'm committed to your issues. I understand black women,
Speaker 1: what it is that you're dealing with raising children. I
Speaker 1: understand infant mortality, so and as it relates to healthcare,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to address those issues. I understand criminal
Speaker 1: justice reform. I understand your issues. That's okay, because as
Speaker 1: a black woman who votes ninety plus percent during the
Speaker 1: on the Democratic line, we deserve to hear our names called.
Speaker 1: Don't just tell me go read define print on the website.
Speaker 1: That has not worked. No, that's not No, it hasn't
Speaker 1: because no, let me tell you why. Let me tell you.
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you why I'm wrong. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tell you why you're wrong. Tell tell you why you're wrong.
Speaker 1: Because Number one, there's been nobody. Bernie is the first.
Speaker 1: Let me let me, let me finish in what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: There's been no one like Bernie, and now Elizabeth as
Speaker 1: she has moved to the left because Bernie, definitely, Bernie
Speaker 1: has absolutely pushed people to the left. They have had
Speaker 1: to be more liberal if you will, and more progressive
Speaker 1: if you will, in their approach. So there's never been that.
Speaker 1: So you've never had anyone to make these types of
Speaker 1: concessions for our communities, and not even so much concessions,
Speaker 1: I take that back, but to have platforms and plans
Speaker 1: that address our needs in the ways in which I
Speaker 1: see in their platforms. Right, you've never had that, and
Speaker 1: people committed verbally committed. At the same time, what you've
Speaker 1: had is folks saying, you know, we're gonna do stuff
Speaker 1: that's pretty much centrist. You know, it's things that it's
Speaker 1: gonna be good. We're going to make more, get more homeowners,
Speaker 1: you know, we're going to make more, make sure more
Speaker 1: people happy. We're gonna know. I'm telling you they've been.
Speaker 1: They have not been extremely progressive platforms. They have not been.
Speaker 1: They just haven't been. So you never had this moment
Speaker 1: in what I'm trying to explain to you is Bernie
Speaker 1: Sanders has the most transformator, transformative platform of policies and everything.
Speaker 1: They all going to dramatically change black Okay, so boom,
Speaker 1: this is what I'm trying to tell you. So what's
Speaker 1: happened is since he's done that and he's gained the people,
Speaker 1: he didn't go and pander to nobody. He's gooting. No,
Speaker 1: he didn't everyone listen to me. And and the problem
Speaker 1: is that he still won't pander everyone. You don't listen
Speaker 1: to me. I'm telling you what this issue is. The
Speaker 1: problem is that he still won't go up there and say, look,
Speaker 1: I'm running this platform because I just want all black
Speaker 1: people to do this. And black people, well, okay, litt
Speaker 1: what I'm trying to tell you is that's the rest
Speaker 1: of them are doing. Every one of them, the people
Speaker 1: that you're saying it has been doing it, I think,
Speaker 1: but I'm telling you, let me just let me finish
Speaker 1: my thing. He has a platform that is the most
Speaker 1: transformative platform of all of the candidates, and it has
Speaker 1: ran on that before. When he was going to get
Speaker 1: Trump from the beginning, he came out with this, this
Speaker 1: is what I want to do. He's going to get
Speaker 1: Hillary Clinton, regardless of who he was going against. He
Speaker 1: came out, he made his claim he would completely opposite everybody.
Speaker 1: They thought he was crazy. That man galvanized millions of people.
Speaker 1: He galvanized them because he showed them that He told him,
Speaker 1: you're not crazy. You're supposed to get free health kid,
Speaker 1: you're supposed to be able to go to college. These
Speaker 1: are things that are naturally supposed to do. The justicism
Speaker 1: is supposed to to make sure that things like this
Speaker 1: don't happen. This is not no I'm not outside the box.
Speaker 1: This is happening in other countries every day. But they
Speaker 1: try to make you think that we're crazy. And he
Speaker 1: galvanized people with that, and everybody said, you know what
Speaker 1: Bernie is doing. Listen to everybody that's that we we
Speaker 1: feel is relevant, everybody that we feel that we're actually
Speaker 1: gonna give a vote to So tell me, so tell
Speaker 1: me the people that you go both for that that
Speaker 1: haven't gone with. But I don't understand what you say.
Speaker 1: You say everybody, we all looked at it and basically said, no,
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about us. I'm talking about the candidates.
Speaker 1: That candidates looked at this platform and said, this man
Speaker 1: is galvanized more than anybody. We need to change and
Speaker 1: adjust ours. And they pushed their ship to to mirror
Speaker 1: his right, and that's a mirror. But to get closer.
Speaker 1: You don't listen to me. I'm telling they've been still
Speaker 1: I agree with you. They are stealing it. They've been stealing.
Speaker 1: Let me explain to you what they added to it is.
Speaker 1: You know what, we understand that the black base is
Speaker 1: the strongest base. So what we're gonna do is people
Speaker 1: who have never we never told to you, we never.
Speaker 1: First of all, we've never never been as progressive, none
Speaker 1: of us when we ran on any any political office before.
Speaker 1: He's mad, he's governor, accouncil whatever, We've never been as
Speaker 1: progressive before. So we're gonna make it and see like
Speaker 1: we are now. Because Bernie didn't and he gathered as
Speaker 1: the people we never talked about black people. We never
Speaker 1: give a funk about what black people wanted or kid
Speaker 1: But now that we realize this moment quotes for us
Speaker 1: to talk about black people, We're gonna say whatever black
Speaker 1: people want us to say. Trump ran on a campaign
Speaker 1: of racism. Now that he realized that the black vote
Speaker 1: is the one of the strongest. That man had a
Speaker 1: whole motherfucker thing with the black person and we got
Speaker 1: black Trump, now we got this ship. Is so sad
Speaker 1: that we go for this. I know you can say
Speaker 1: you I still don't think. I think that that is
Speaker 1: what's happening. I think what you're saying makes sense. But
Speaker 1: I don't think that all of us who are asking
Speaker 1: for Bernie to be more clear about his position as
Speaker 1: it relates to race are just people who want to
Speaker 1: be pandered too, and we just want somebody to just
Speaker 1: come and tell us all these things a lot to us.
Speaker 1: I think that it is good most of all are
Speaker 1: I'm telling you that, But I'm telling you I don't
Speaker 1: believe none of it. But I didn't believe. I didn't
Speaker 1: tell you, I didn't say any of that. I'm saying
Speaker 1: that I think that it is a real problem when
Speaker 1: any particular candidate is unable to articulate his because guess what,
Speaker 1: when he speaks to the teachers, he knows how to
Speaker 1: talk to teachers. When he speaks to average he knows
Speaker 1: how to talk to But I don't believe. But then
Speaker 1: you're so what you're saying is so, what you are
Speaker 1: saying is that you support and all Lives matter strategy
Speaker 1: because I don't. I don't because I don't, because that's
Speaker 1: what that is. That means. That means that when I
Speaker 1: speak to an audience, I'm speaking to everybody. And I
Speaker 1: hope that the black people who are sitting here who
Speaker 1: vote at a higher level than anybody else, because guess what.
Speaker 1: Some of the same white women who people thought were
Speaker 1: with them, they were with the Democrats, and they thought
Speaker 1: they were gonna vote for Hillary Clinton, they went and
Speaker 1: voted for Trump. So guess what. And those people are
Speaker 1: some of them are teachers. So you know what, when
Speaker 1: you come to talk to a group of white folks,
Speaker 1: I mean a group of diverse people and they're black
Speaker 1: people in the room, talk to the ones that you
Speaker 1: know have the ability to put you in office. Speak
Speaker 1: straight to me, don't you don't ignore? But that's beautiful
Speaker 1: don't ignore me. Don't ignore and don't expect me to
Speaker 1: go read the fine print somewhere and then send your
Speaker 1: black surrogate out now. And again, my son, I'm not disagreeing.
Speaker 1: That's why I said, I'm somewhere between Elizabeth and Bernie.
Speaker 1: And I do believe that moments in history will will
Speaker 1: stretch people, and it will make people have to lean
Speaker 1: in directions that they wouldn't have leaned in before. And
Speaker 1: so I think that Elizabeth has been doing some leaning,
Speaker 1: but I also can see where she's shaking on a
Speaker 1: few issues. To your point about the media, however, it
Speaker 1: is very clear and this is what makes Bernie more
Speaker 1: And I haven't decided because specifically as a black woman,
Speaker 1: I have issues and challenges with it. But nonetheless, what
Speaker 1: I do know, and I'll say this and you can
Speaker 1: say whatever you want to say and I'm done, is
Speaker 1: that the enemy of my enemy is my friend in
Speaker 1: and it seems to me that people are not just
Speaker 1: running against Donald Trump, they're running against Bernie Sanders. That's
Speaker 1: what I see. I see that there's an attempt to
Speaker 1: ensure that Bernie Sanders, and also Elizabeth Warren more so
Speaker 1: because of gender, with her and with Bernie there's a
Speaker 1: whole lot of other issues with socialism and all of that,
Speaker 1: but it seems to me that this whole thing with
Speaker 1: with with the bum rush of Bloomberg is about making
Speaker 1: sure that Bernie Sanders does not become the nominee. And
Speaker 1: if that is the case, if the system is working
Speaker 1: against someone, it makes me question the motives of what
Speaker 1: is it? What is it and what and the reason
Speaker 1: why I was saying everyone is not leaning towards Bernie
Speaker 1: his platform because Bloomberg's platform, while I'm sure there's gonna
Speaker 1: be great pieces of it, will probably never ever address
Speaker 1: some of the things He damn sure ain't gonna deal
Speaker 1: with capitalism in the way that Burnie Bernie Sanders is
Speaker 1: because he's a billionaire and wants to obviously remain that
Speaker 1: way and and make more billionaires like him. And so
Speaker 1: I I you know, I'm I'm I'm with you, I
Speaker 1: hear you. But I know that the sentiments that I
Speaker 1: shared that I feel are shared by many. There are
Speaker 1: many black folks sat and they waited. I'm sorry I'm
Speaker 1: talking too long, but let me say they sat and
Speaker 1: they waited. And people can take a page out of
Speaker 1: Bloomberg's book. They sat and they waited, and Bernie Sanders,
Speaker 1: from what I can see, and the preachers that the
Speaker 1: preachers that I know, has never called a meeting with
Speaker 1: the type of high profile preachers across this country and
Speaker 1: sat down with them and allowed them to tell him
Speaker 1: some of their fears and concerns. Certain left, certain black folks,
Speaker 1: certain black women have never had an opportunity to get
Speaker 1: in the room with Elizabeth Warren. She met with a
Speaker 1: group of women that I respect, but there were others
Speaker 1: that don't. I'm just saying because I'm talking about people
Speaker 1: that respect. So you try to tell me that the
Speaker 1: preachers that that that Trump sat with medly don't respect,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you when I say respect, I'm not talking
Speaker 1: about they just love them as a preacher. I'm talking
Speaker 1: about people who they believe, who they've seen on the
Speaker 1: front lines with them and struggle. And No, those preachers
Speaker 1: have not None of your friend's husband, he wasn't one
Speaker 1: of the preachers that he's not on the front line
Speaker 1: of any issue. Okay, what I'm gonna saying, what I'm
Speaker 1: going to because this doesn't every right, but start let
Speaker 1: somebody whispering your ear sweet nothings and playing to give
Speaker 1: you nothing. I'd rather you don't wish in my ear
Speaker 1: at all, and talk to me and look me in
Speaker 1: my eyes and tell me something I might not all
Speaker 1: the way agree with, and know that it's true. We
Speaker 1: have been caught in the whisping you end, rub your
Speaker 1: head and pander the black people ship for too long.
Speaker 1: If you look at this the reality, if you look
Speaker 1: at these people that we keep putting in office because
Speaker 1: they said the right things to black people, they never
Speaker 1: did the right things to black people. And that is
Speaker 1: a fact. That is a fact. So I don't need
Speaker 1: you to say the right ship to me. I need
Speaker 1: you to say the right ship that's gonna ultimately affect me.
Speaker 1: Don't talk to me because you think that I'm the
Speaker 1: person that can get you to vote. Talk to me straight.
Speaker 1: I want to hear straight words. Talk to me straight words.
Speaker 1: I don't want to hear black people beautiful. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: that's not what that's not if that's not how you
Speaker 1: feel like, that's what I used to respect about Trump.
Speaker 1: Because Trump came in here saying everybody, I don't really
Speaker 1: care what you know. Now he realized I need to
Speaker 1: black vote. So my black American and and you know blacks.
Speaker 1: This country is built on blacks. You know this is
Speaker 1: now he's saying Patform that he's done, he's running, he's running,
Speaker 1: but he ain't did ship And that's not true. That's
Speaker 1: not true. What is not true? On the next episode,
Speaker 1: did you see you see? What did you see? Did
Speaker 1: you see what Obama put up today for President's Day?
Speaker 1: The order that he signed to get the jobs that
Speaker 1: this man is trying to tell you, not the jobs.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm come on the jobs. What did he do?
Speaker 1: But the First Step at has absolutely freed some people
Speaker 1: for Obama had an act all the I'm not saying
Speaker 1: that the First Step Act has been sweeping and that
Speaker 1: and Angelo, our partner, always talks about the issues with
Speaker 1: the First Step Act. All I'm saying to you is
Speaker 1: that he has things empowerment zones and other issues and
Speaker 1: other and other policies and amazos work for me because
Speaker 1: I got money, and other policies that he is touting
Speaker 1: that he has that some people will agree with. I
Speaker 1: didn't say, I'm saying there are some people and we
Speaker 1: have to be able to speak to them. Anyway. Super
Speaker 1: Tuesday is coming up on March three, that's when Bloomberg
Speaker 1: is actually going to be on the ballot. Uh And
Speaker 1: at that point people have the right to go and
Speaker 1: vote for Bloomberg if that's what you want to do,
Speaker 1: is look on the nominee. But I think you know,
Speaker 1: anybody that forces it down your throat and done doesn't
Speaker 1: really have a real conversation with you about who this
Speaker 1: man really really is. The the the the allegations of
Speaker 1: of sexual harassment in the workplace, where sixty women are
Speaker 1: telling their stories. It's been all out there this weekend.
Speaker 1: His comments on redlining, and guess what, when we talk
Speaker 1: about his comments on redlining, they're trying to spend it
Speaker 1: his campaign and say that's not what he meant. But
Speaker 1: if you look at gentrification in New York City and
Speaker 1: how many homeless people have are as a result of
Speaker 1: his policies where he allowed the sweet favors to be
Speaker 1: given to the developers and took away from public house
Speaker 1: and and people who just lived in little, everyday tenement buildings,
Speaker 1: his red line and comments really are not that far apart.
Speaker 1: I believe that everything that Bloomberg has ever said is
Speaker 1: what he actually means. So that's where I stand. I
Speaker 1: don't support Bloomberg, you know, and I don't believe there's
Speaker 1: anything that's going to happen from now until it's time
Speaker 1: for me to vote in New York that's going to
Speaker 1: change my mind. Yeah, good luck with that. Um. Even
Speaker 1: though I don't get nothing that just happened with Bloomberg,
Speaker 1: I'm going to go into another thing I don't get.
Speaker 1: So this is my segment. I don't get it, you know.
Speaker 1: And it's two things. And it's sad that we got
Speaker 1: to keep talking about one of these things. And the
Speaker 1: first thing is, you know, um, Charles Barkley, Charles Walkley
Speaker 1: made some comments about Kobe Bryant during the interview. You
Speaker 1: know that once again with this class list, and and
Speaker 1: you know, he was talking about how, you know, Kobe Bryant,
Speaker 1: we're not trying to make him into a hero. Kobe
Speaker 1: Bryant quote unquote has some flaws that we all know about.
Speaker 1: We know what happened in Colorado. We we understand that.
Speaker 1: So we're not trying to make him into a hero.
Speaker 1: We just want to talk about his basketball. For the
Speaker 1: life of me, I don't get while black people don't
Speaker 1: see the need to protect the integrity and legacy of
Speaker 1: our icons and leaders. Why do we feel the need
Speaker 1: to lend our voices platforms in our own star power
Speaker 1: to give validity to allegations and claims not proven facts,
Speaker 1: not undeniable preponderance of evidence, or even consistent with what
Speaker 1: we may know about that individual. What is the obsession
Speaker 1: with speaking down and diminishing other blacks, especially after they've
Speaker 1: passed on. Why don't we see someone's death as sacred
Speaker 1: and as a time to reflect and respect a person's
Speaker 1: legacy in their family. Are we so damaged as a
Speaker 1: people that we don't even understand the need to lift
Speaker 1: each other in these times? There's definitely needs to be
Speaker 1: a family meeting because everything isn't for public consumption, But
Speaker 1: we have to do better. We can screen Black lives Matter,
Speaker 1: but if those black lives don't matter the black people,
Speaker 1: they're not gonna matter to nobody. And the second one,
Speaker 1: this young six year old girl was admitted to a
Speaker 1: mental institution because she was unruly and for two days
Speaker 1: she had to do a mandatory two days. I just
Speaker 1: don't get it. I don't get why would someone tell
Speaker 1: you because of six year old girls and you she
Speaker 1: already they had said that she had behavior issues. She
Speaker 1: was UM diagnosed with a d h D and UM
Speaker 1: did she also had behavior disorder and she became unruly.
Speaker 1: No one called the girl's parents, no one called to
Speaker 1: see nobody. And when you see that, the police actually
Speaker 1: came to get us, she was calm. She walked off
Speaker 1: with them. The officer had a good conversation with her.
Speaker 1: Who made this rule? You know? I'm just understand. It's
Speaker 1: called the Baker Act, which allows the third party um
Speaker 1: physician to determine if a child is a danger to
Speaker 1: themselves or others around them, and based on that opinion,
Speaker 1: they can legally admit kids to mental institutions without parental
Speaker 1: consent or notification, and there's a mandatory two days stay.
Speaker 1: I just want to how is that a law who
Speaker 1: sat down decided that six year old should be placed
Speaker 1: in mental institutions? How do people not realize that this
Speaker 1: is way more harmful than it is helpful. We are
Speaker 1: in such a morally absent time in this country that
Speaker 1: laws reflect m things like this. They should reflect the
Speaker 1: well being and safety of the people, and I can
Speaker 1: honestly say that this doesn't. And there are so many
Speaker 1: that aren't effective and sanctioned by the people, but taking
Speaker 1: disruptive kids to mental institutions is probably number one on
Speaker 1: my list. And the mother said that she sent her
Speaker 1: daughter to the school because the teachers they were supposed
Speaker 1: to be able to deal with her disability. That's the
Speaker 1: reason why chose this school. And the school is saying
Speaker 1: that they did everything right. And the law itself, to me,
Speaker 1: is just wrong that a six year old is mandatory
Speaker 1: sitting in a mental institution without parental consent. Like what
Speaker 1: are we saying? Where where have we gotten in America
Speaker 1: that these things are okay? Well, at one point in
Speaker 1: America it was it was legal to be a slave,
Speaker 1: so slavery was lead so exactly, so we actually might
Speaker 1: be doing better, and that's crazy. We just I think
Speaker 1: we think a lot of things have changed, but really
Speaker 1: the balls have just been moved around. It's the three
Speaker 1: car Molly, it's not under this experiencing so much trauma,
Speaker 1: you know, the young girls, And it's like I almost cried,
Speaker 1: like I couldn't believe it. I looked it up. Somebody
Speaker 1: saidn't to me. Then I looked it up and said,
Speaker 1: this really happened. But like I said, man, in these
Speaker 1: situations I just don't get it. Well, that's the end
Speaker 1: of this episode of treet Politicians. We hope that you
Speaker 1: enjoyed yourself. Once again, if you have any topics you
Speaker 1: want to see us discussed, please leave us d m
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Speaker 1: We just want to make sure that everybody is getting
Speaker 1: what they want on the show, and we want to
Speaker 1: hear your input and we want to give you ours.
Speaker 1: And once again, we may not always be right, and
Speaker 1: we definitely not gonna always agree, but we always gonna
Speaker 1: be That's how we own it.