Speaker 1: What's good family, it's your girl to make a d
Speaker 1: mallory and it's your boy my son in general. And
Speaker 1: we are your host of street politicians, the place with
Speaker 1: the streets and politics. Me going on, Mr Lennon, I
Speaker 1: am blessing a Holly favorite on this Tuesday morning. Her youth.
Speaker 1: It is another day is too. That's why we're taping
Speaker 1: on a Tuesday. I want a Tuesday. It is another
Speaker 1: day of being alive. Thank god we above above ground man,
Speaker 1: because a lot of people won't make it man. And
Speaker 1: speaking of being above ground, also need to be making
Speaker 1: sure we are taking care of ourselves. And I um
Speaker 1: am on my way to get my annual physical today
Speaker 1: and I realized that so many of us are not.
Speaker 1: In fact, it's been two years. I hated my doctor.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie like, I just have to tell
Speaker 1: the truth. She just didn't get me, and she just
Speaker 1: didn't spare time, like she just didn't care. Really, she
Speaker 1: just didn't um And so I was very very unhappy.
Speaker 1: And it takes time to find a good doctor, to
Speaker 1: find a different doctor. And I really wanted to be
Speaker 1: with a black woman. Now that's not to say that
Speaker 1: I'm I'm against other races being your doctor. Because prior
Speaker 1: to the doctor that I don't, I don't love. I
Speaker 1: had another woman doctor who was a white woman that
Speaker 1: I love so much. She was amazing, amazing, but she
Speaker 1: moved to a different thing and out of the network
Speaker 1: and that, you know, and so I ended up with
Speaker 1: this woman, and you know, and I don't like her.
Speaker 1: So now I have a new doctor. I'm starting all
Speaker 1: over and today is the beginning. And I'm you know,
Speaker 1: people just need we all need to be taking care
Speaker 1: of ourselves, right because you know, all the stress and
Speaker 1: what not that we're under. Like I was saying that
Speaker 1: I feel extremely exhausted. Yes, I do run a lot
Speaker 1: and all of that, but I also know that some
Speaker 1: of the things that I'm consuming is slowing me down.
Speaker 1: So you know, I'm gonna today, i'mna be using all
Speaker 1: the benefits. I want the nutritionist information and anything so
Speaker 1: I could take care of myself. I'm up here to
Speaker 1: the bottom of my people. I mean, that's a good thing.
Speaker 1: I gotta get on. You know, Black men we don't
Speaker 1: like doctor's period. I don't care what doctor you got,
Speaker 1: we just don't like it. It ain't something that we're
Speaker 1: into and you know, we have to change that cycle
Speaker 1: because a lot of us find out we're sick late.
Speaker 1: You know, we feel like we're just invincible. You know,
Speaker 1: we don't want to like I remember just being I
Speaker 1: always wanted one of those people. I don't want to
Speaker 1: hear bad news, like I don't need to go there,
Speaker 1: and then you tell me something wrong with me, and
Speaker 1: and from in my perspective, you know, and there's a
Speaker 1: lot of us as men, we feel like the minute
Speaker 1: that you start telling people that they sick, they get sick, right,
Speaker 1: because it would be like for years, you'll be good,
Speaker 1: and did you go to doctor? And then like, hey
Speaker 1: you got two days to live? They could be like,
Speaker 1: what the funk you're talking about? I was good, I
Speaker 1: ain't got no next you know, he's losing weight, hairfalling
Speaker 1: out all of the ship. Because a lot of sickness
Speaker 1: is mental. You know, a lot of body physically thinks
Speaker 1: it's physical things, the ailments that definitely affect us. So
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that, but nine I think fifty uh,
Speaker 1: sickness is inside the mind. Right when your mind is defeated,
Speaker 1: your body don't fight right when your mind tells you
Speaker 1: that you're not well, when you're sick. You watch people
Speaker 1: who ain't even sick mentally think they sick and they
Speaker 1: start to look sick. So, you know, I think it's
Speaker 1: because it's stress. Stress causes you know, damage to your body.
Speaker 1: So I think as black men, we have to get
Speaker 1: over that hurt. I think that's a hurt. A lot
Speaker 1: of black men be like, yo, I'm just gonna deal
Speaker 1: with it all. Hear A no bad dude, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go along. So you know I'm moving forward and that
Speaker 1: I'm working on my physical and getting my stuff together,
Speaker 1: you know, making sure a part of it, a part
Speaker 1: of it. I will say this on we we have
Speaker 1: to always be mindful that a lot of our behavioral
Speaker 1: patterns are not just things that oh, you know, you're saying, well,
Speaker 1: we're nervous about the doctor. We don't like the doctor
Speaker 1: because it makes us feel It's not just that, it's
Speaker 1: that we've been taught from childhood, I mean, excuse me,
Speaker 1: from childhood, from from from being enslaved that we were
Speaker 1: super strong and we didn't have any medical care. We
Speaker 1: had to figure out how to hustle up a little
Speaker 1: bit or whatever, you know, use the live off the
Speaker 1: land in order to deal with some of our ailments.
Speaker 1: Now that made us extremely great. You know physicians, if
Speaker 1: you will, that we created all the things that you
Speaker 1: could think of to heal problems. But nonetheless, we never
Speaker 1: had a culture of going to the doctor or being
Speaker 1: taken care of a certain way because the doctor in
Speaker 1: the community wasn't for us. They didn't give a ship
Speaker 1: if we die in the fields. So I think a
Speaker 1: lot of what you know, these issues are things that
Speaker 1: have we have to be depro ran from from being enslaved.
Speaker 1: So that's my thoughts on that. But sday we are
Speaker 1: moving UM and accordingly to accommodate the fact that I
Speaker 1: have to go to the doctor. Actually today I have
Speaker 1: to go to UUM rally. You know, there there's a
Speaker 1: there was a building in the Bronx with these elderly
Speaker 1: ladies and men were talking my how teenagers are beating
Speaker 1: up on them, hitting them with sticks, robbing um just
Speaker 1: pretty much terrorizing the community. And it actually brought tears
Speaker 1: in my heart and I have posted it and a
Speaker 1: couple of my guys that worked within the UM the
Speaker 1: Cure Violence Network, have reached out to me because they
Speaker 1: found the address and they were already you know, saying
Speaker 1: that they're gonna go over there around four o'clock, so
Speaker 1: you know, we're gonna rally over it. But just it
Speaker 1: just really broke my heart to hear what's going on,
Speaker 1: and I don't as a young man, you know, I
Speaker 1: always retorted spect and take care of the elderly and
Speaker 1: make sure they was comfortable, and don't let them carry
Speaker 1: bags upstairs, and hold the door open and make sure
Speaker 1: that you straighten up, you know. So to hear that
Speaker 1: teenagers are terrorizing elderly, I don't even know how we
Speaker 1: got here. I don't know what in the hell is
Speaker 1: going on, but I know it can't stay like that.
Speaker 1: So you know, a lot of us, concerned individuals and
Speaker 1: people from the community are gonna be over there doing
Speaker 1: what we have to do in that community. And next
Speaker 1: week I'll give an update on what happened. You know,
Speaker 1: hopefully we'll be able to bring the you know, some
Speaker 1: clarity and some unity to the community. A lot of
Speaker 1: these young kids are really just being misinformed man and
Speaker 1: being and being taught a culture of violence and a
Speaker 1: coach I call a coward culture that doesn't do anything
Speaker 1: for them, and it's because they've learned it They're not
Speaker 1: naturally like this. It's what they've been taught and what's
Speaker 1: been being insensivized in today's society. So you know we're
Speaker 1: gonna do that. Well, you know, I think that it
Speaker 1: is true that there is a changing culture. But I
Speaker 1: will say that even when I was young, while there
Speaker 1: was much more protection for elders and children there we
Speaker 1: have always been. There's always been an element of our
Speaker 1: community that terrorized everybody, right they robbed the elders. I remember,
Speaker 1: um it was a thing going on in the projects
Speaker 1: where they was throwing old people down the stairs, trying
Speaker 1: to rob them first to the mind. In fact, I
Speaker 1: had a neighbor who, between her own children who were
Speaker 1: addicted to crack and other people you know, that was
Speaker 1: like out there hunting at the first of the month.
Speaker 1: She used to give all of her money to my parents.
Speaker 1: It was more than one person in our building that
Speaker 1: did that. They had to give their money to other
Speaker 1: people that they think, you know, thought would protect them.
Speaker 1: So there's always been an element of it. But it
Speaker 1: seems like it's become cool, because that wasn't cool if
Speaker 1: you got caught doing it. Just like you guys are
Speaker 1: going to the community today, people really approach you and
Speaker 1: it could be a real, real serious situation. By the way,
Speaker 1: you don't know who's grandmother or mama or a friend
Speaker 1: or whatever you are offending or harming, and people add
Speaker 1: to deal with that like seriously when we were young.
Speaker 1: So you know, I'm glad to see that you guys
Speaker 1: are going out there making sure you find a way
Speaker 1: to figure out what is wrong with these kids, Like
Speaker 1: what exactly is the issue? What is it that you need?
Speaker 1: Or do you think this is fun? Because if you
Speaker 1: think it's fun, we're gonna let you know it's not fun.
Speaker 1: It's not gonna happen. But if you have a need,
Speaker 1: if something is wrong, then let's try to figure out.
Speaker 1: And I'm glad you're violence will be out there with you.
Speaker 1: What exactly is it that you are trying to accomplish.
Speaker 1: So anyway, so I have been for the last several
Speaker 1: hours in a long debate with a number of individuals,
Speaker 1: um you know, privately about an incident that happened in
Speaker 1: that Atlanta just yesterday. So by the time people here, uh,
Speaker 1: this podcast will be on Wednesday, so Monday. A woman
Speaker 1: in Atlanta. In Atlanta sounds like she she's from the Islands.
Speaker 1: I don't know which one, but she certainly sounds like
Speaker 1: she maybe of Caribbean descent, but a black woman. Um.
Speaker 1: She uh killed two individuals and injured one person shot them. Um.
Speaker 1: And of course, you know, at first, the speculation was
Speaker 1: just kind of like what happened, Like everybody's like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, you know, the woman just goes wild and
Speaker 1: just shoots people. But then, uh, it became clear that
Speaker 1: she actually targeted these individuals after going to the police
Speaker 1: to report that the two people she killed, one a
Speaker 1: building manager and second, uh, the engineer in the building
Speaker 1: she lived in, that they broke into her apartment and
Speaker 1: they broke into her safe and took some of the
Speaker 1: things that she needed for a lawsuit that she had
Speaker 1: been very public. I'm hearing that on LinkedIn. She was
Speaker 1: talking about this lawsuit and um, you know, she had
Speaker 1: been out there pretty much saying that she had she
Speaker 1: was a whistleblower and was reporting some individuals, and she
Speaker 1: had all of this stuff on a hard drive. Sounds
Speaker 1: like some of it may have been connected to the
Speaker 1: same building. I don't know, but nonetheless, she had been
Speaker 1: you know, she tried to go get the police. Two
Speaker 1: first of all, take her situation seriously with the robbery
Speaker 1: of her home, but also to change the police report
Speaker 1: from just you know, a dispute to a robbery to
Speaker 1: an actual robbery. The officer that she so she videos
Speaker 1: this encounter with the officer. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: had a chance to see this, but so she she
Speaker 1: she videos the encounter with the officer, but she's anxiously
Speaker 1: trying to exp playing to the office, and the officer
Speaker 1: very very passive aggressive, is like, you know, you uh,
Speaker 1: you just have to you know. But basically, one thing
Speaker 1: that the officer is saying that I completely understand is
Speaker 1: that she can't just go change the report. It doesn't
Speaker 1: work like that. Again, it's what we've been saying. These
Speaker 1: officers also are caught up in a system where they
Speaker 1: are they are the way in which they are told
Speaker 1: to handle things is dangerous. Like it doesn't it's not
Speaker 1: helpful for them, it's not helpful for the civilians or anybody.
Speaker 1: Because they're telling her that she needs to go call
Speaker 1: a phone number for the burglary department, and we already
Speaker 1: know what that looks like to try to get somebody
Speaker 1: to listen to her to potentially fix the you know,
Speaker 1: come and investigate the situation and determine whether or not
Speaker 1: a survivory. They said, well, we didn't. The lady said, well,
Speaker 1: i'm you know, the report doesn't say they was breaking
Speaker 1: an entry. She's like, but they have keys. It's the
Speaker 1: building manager and the engineer, so they have keys to
Speaker 1: my apartment. There's no breaking an entry. So she's explaining
Speaker 1: this and anxiously going on. The officer takes a phone
Speaker 1: call right in the middle of her talking. Then the
Speaker 1: officer is frustrated because the lady is cutting her off
Speaker 1: trying to explain herself, and the officer basically you know,
Speaker 1: starts writing on her paper and and you know, finally
Speaker 1: she responds to the lady and she's like, you know, listen,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say to you one more time. I get it.
Speaker 1: She don't told the lady the same thing over and
Speaker 1: over again. This is just what it is. You gotta
Speaker 1: talk to the burglary department. The woman turns around then,
Speaker 1: so there's another lady there, Mike who she is. Obviously
Speaker 1: this woman had been trying to talk to first, and
Speaker 1: they went and got this sergeant. So she turns around
Speaker 1: and I see the lady behind the desk say to
Speaker 1: the sergeant, thank you, like you know, let's get this
Speaker 1: lady out of here. But it's one thing that the
Speaker 1: woman said, she said, I will um what did she say?
Speaker 1: She said? I She said, I'm gonna go talk to
Speaker 1: the burglary department, and whatever happens happens. So she says
Speaker 1: to the woman. The officer goes on about her business.
Speaker 1: It's done. As far as she concerned. This lady left
Speaker 1: and became the law, which is completely wrong, outrageous, there's
Speaker 1: no excuse for it. But she went and shot and
Speaker 1: killed these individuals and injured another person. From my perspective,
Speaker 1: and I think, you know, for today, my thought of
Speaker 1: the day is why do we Why are we so
Speaker 1: insane that we keep doing the same thing over and
Speaker 1: over and over again. It is very clear that this woman,
Speaker 1: either because of other things in her past and or
Speaker 1: the stress of the current situation was aggravated and she
Speaker 1: is not in her mental complete stability because she went
Speaker 1: to the airport with the same clothe is on with
Speaker 1: the gun, so obviously she's not right. This officer is
Speaker 1: unable to either identify it or doesn't care, but the
Speaker 1: woman is with her trying to solve the problem and
Speaker 1: nothing happens. America is crazy because now people are dead,
Speaker 1: either because they went in her house or not. She
Speaker 1: still did not have the right to kill them. But
Speaker 1: this is what people are going to do if they
Speaker 1: feel like they can't get help, especially with the mental
Speaker 1: health crisis that we're dealing with in our society. I
Speaker 1: don't know, I don't know what we are going to do,
Speaker 1: because that woman could kill any one of us if she,
Speaker 1: you know, whatever the situation, and it's not just her,
Speaker 1: but people are going to the police and not one
Speaker 1: one is not the place, unfortunately, to get help for
Speaker 1: too many things, and certainly if you have a mental
Speaker 1: health crisis going on at the same time while you're
Speaker 1: trying to deal with somebody potentially breaking in your heart.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a lot people, you know, you get
Speaker 1: the more it's it's it's like pretty much, we'll happen more,
Speaker 1: O Jack like, but he didn't kill the people, like
Speaker 1: those people stole stuff from him and had his stuff
Speaker 1: and he wanted to get his stuff back, like people
Speaker 1: are at some point, right, human nature kicks in, right,
Speaker 1: people are their emotionally, they're not trained to deal with
Speaker 1: certain ships. They don't, you know, they just figure out,
Speaker 1: I gotta protect myself. Somebody belong to me. This is
Speaker 1: why we live and we live in where we have
Speaker 1: to have law and we have to have things to
Speaker 1: establish things because we know that human nature that if
Speaker 1: you're not giving a boundary that the average person will
Speaker 1: cross it. If if there was no if there was
Speaker 1: no penalties for violence and all that, it'll be a
Speaker 1: lot more people getting stabbed and killed. A lot of
Speaker 1: people just don't want to deal with the consequences. So
Speaker 1: what happens when you deal with individuals who don't give
Speaker 1: a funk about a consequence, who had made up in
Speaker 1: their mind that you've done something wrong with it and
Speaker 1: they're not able to either discern or understand, or mental
Speaker 1: health gets to a point where they they you know,
Speaker 1: they've blacked out, they've they've left and in absent the consequences,
Speaker 1: then you have these situations, right, So what happens is
Speaker 1: the police and all of these people have to be
Speaker 1: skilled enough to understand that I have to make each
Speaker 1: individual level of priority because when somebody's losing their things,
Speaker 1: their lives, you know, women come in saying they've been hurt,
Speaker 1: this and that when they don't see that you take
Speaker 1: them seriously or you you prioritize their situation, then at
Speaker 1: that point they take matters into their own hands. This
Speaker 1: is this is not anything new. This will can consistently happen.
Speaker 1: And I think police officers have to do a lot
Speaker 1: better job and understanding the situation and looking and and
Speaker 1: prioritize and looking and making people feel like because you're
Speaker 1: supposed to protect and serve and when you're not doing
Speaker 1: either one of those things. But yet and still you
Speaker 1: wanted the highest pay entity in the world. It doesn't
Speaker 1: make sense. It doesn't make because why do I have
Speaker 1: to call the burglary department. I'm standing here, right here,
Speaker 1: right now, and you might and she might have said
Speaker 1: to her, you know what, ma'am, Right at this moment,
Speaker 1: we don't have anybody that can deal with it. But
Speaker 1: if you go back to your partner within twenty four hours,
Speaker 1: we're going to send somebody there, or don't vote to
Speaker 1: your apartment, so you don't have fingerprints to whatever it is.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't taken seriously. So your point is a
Speaker 1: hundred percent right. So you know, as we come up
Speaker 1: on our topic today, there was another news story that
Speaker 1: you know that pretty much made me think about it, right,
Speaker 1: because I always get a lot of flak about voting
Speaker 1: in all these things. Who's this lesson tweets and Trump
Speaker 1: and buying all this bullshit that we we we hear
Speaker 1: old top and I understand, I kind of get it.
Speaker 1: You can't say it's bullshit. Bullshit. The reason why I
Speaker 1: say it it's bullshit because I think in the situation
Speaker 1: that we would talking about, it was clear what we
Speaker 1: were saying, right, And I think when we were talking
Speaker 1: about Biden and Trump, there was a clear understanding of
Speaker 1: why we said we were voting against Trump, that we
Speaker 1: we made it clear that we were voting for a
Speaker 1: better opponent. We made it clear that we didn't trust anything,
Speaker 1: but we we just didn't feel that Trump we had
Speaker 1: anything positive for us at all. We made it clear
Speaker 1: that we wasn't the biggest Biden fans, we wasn't on
Speaker 1: the Biden but we made all of those things clear.
Speaker 1: But people just wanted to just have something to say afterwards.
Speaker 1: So I think that's why I says bullshit. So now
Speaker 1: there of two former judges who sent kids to jail
Speaker 1: for kickbacks. They were getting paid two block kids up
Speaker 1: for low level crimes and send them to these private prisons.
Speaker 1: And this was in form. It was in Pennsylvania, and
Speaker 1: they were ordered to pay over two million, two million
Speaker 1: to two hundred million, two hundreds of people that they victimized,
Speaker 1: you know. And and I'm saying to myself, and these
Speaker 1: were democratic elected judges, they were elected by Yes, So
Speaker 1: the FAGA continues because this is something we knew about
Speaker 1: the pay what was the kids for cash? Yeah, this
Speaker 1: is this is this was this was just this was
Speaker 1: just this decision was just handed down where they had
Speaker 1: to pay over two million, you know, on the eighteen
Speaker 1: so and it made me think, you know, a lot
Speaker 1: of people are saying, doesn't even make sense to vote.
Speaker 1: Should we be voting? You know? And if we're saying
Speaker 1: we should, why should we write? And I have a perspective,
Speaker 1: And I'm not mad at anybody at this point, right,
Speaker 1: I'm not And I still share my thing. At this point,
Speaker 1: I'm not mad at anyone who's completely be fed up
Speaker 1: with the system. Right. We look at everything and there
Speaker 1: are you know, everywhere you look, it doesn't seem like
Speaker 1: anybody's doing anything for black people. You know, I understand
Speaker 1: why black people saying fun a vote, I'm just out
Speaker 1: here doing this. But then again, for me, you know,
Speaker 1: when I when I look at the situation, I always say,
Speaker 1: we have to live in America, right, and if you're
Speaker 1: somebody who actually pays taxes, has a job, are going
Speaker 1: to be affected by the laws that are handed down
Speaker 1: by these government officials, right, then you will want to
Speaker 1: be able to say, Okay. It's like for me, I
Speaker 1: want to be able to say, all right, this, this
Speaker 1: policy that this one candidate has is something that I
Speaker 1: know can benefit me and my family and my people, right,
Speaker 1: so I'm willing to vote for this because of that,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna look at both candidates to say how many
Speaker 1: policies are they um are trying to pass that can
Speaker 1: accurately and positively affect me and my people, and then
Speaker 1: I can weigh both of them. It's not about I'm
Speaker 1: not choosing my best friends. I'm not choosing allies, you know.
Speaker 1: And I think that's where a lot of people don't understand.
Speaker 1: It's like when you do business and in personal is different.
Speaker 1: Right when I go into a business situation, I'm not
Speaker 1: doing business with the person that I want to go
Speaker 1: out and hang out with at the ball the person
Speaker 1: that I think is cool. When I'm sitting down and
Speaker 1: I'm doing business with somebody, I'm saying, what is the
Speaker 1: person going to do to accurately affect me? And I think,
Speaker 1: you know, I think that's what people miss inside voting
Speaker 1: and whether or not to vote, because you're going to
Speaker 1: be affected anyway, You're going to be So if you
Speaker 1: don't like either one of the candidates, then you got
Speaker 1: to find something that the candidate is passing or proposing
Speaker 1: the past that you like it, or the push for it,
Speaker 1: or you have you have to push, and you and
Speaker 1: and then you have to find a candidate that you
Speaker 1: feel that you have the better opportunity to push to
Speaker 1: do the things you want. Right. But some of them,
Speaker 1: sometimes both candidates are complete trash, right, And I get that,
Speaker 1: and and my thing is that I also understand. But
Speaker 1: there are people, and there's some of them are our
Speaker 1: friends who believe that they are living outside of the system,
Speaker 1: especially in the sort of finance space. Um and you know,
Speaker 1: in some of ours, some of the pockets of our movement,
Speaker 1: they're like, none of that stuff matters. I'm not I'm
Speaker 1: not concerned about and we've talked about this before. They're like,
Speaker 1: I don't I'm not concerned about voting for any of
Speaker 1: these people. To hell with everybody. Fine. My thing is
Speaker 1: that's actually not true because even if you're in crypto,
Speaker 1: if you're in find uh real real estate, if you're
Speaker 1: in anything it, whatever business you're in, they have tax codes,
Speaker 1: they have laws that are being put in place to
Speaker 1: govern even those things. And in fact, the more that
Speaker 1: people are getting into sort of online trading and crypto
Speaker 1: and all of that, the government is looking for ways
Speaker 1: to put more stipulations around it. Now. They've been doing
Speaker 1: it a lot lately to right now, if what you
Speaker 1: want to say, because some of some people don't want
Speaker 1: to say it. But the truth is that under a
Speaker 1: Trump presidency there was much more flexibility and sort of
Speaker 1: really willingness going on in terms of how this stuff
Speaker 1: was handled, right. I mean it benefited I think I
Speaker 1: think when it benefited wealthy people. I think people are
Speaker 1: trying to become wealthy, yeah, I think. And if you
Speaker 1: you're in the note, but I think the people, the
Speaker 1: common people, the average every day individuals. It wasn't. It's
Speaker 1: no trickle down the whole like that's what I heard
Speaker 1: this the other day that the theory of trickle down
Speaker 1: is not it's not realistic. Well, and and that's our thing,
Speaker 1: and I think that's what puts us in two different
Speaker 1: positions with some of our counterparts in this movement. It's
Speaker 1: not that what they're trying to do is not important,
Speaker 1: because if they're able to find ways for us to
Speaker 1: be more financially stable as a community, it helps. It
Speaker 1: does help us because you can hire more people, you
Speaker 1: can open more businesses, you can clean up the community
Speaker 1: and what happened, But there's still has to be people
Speaker 1: that are holding down the four in terms of what
Speaker 1: the masses is experiencing in the moment. So if you
Speaker 1: have elected officials that are allowing the projects to go down,
Speaker 1: rats running around people's houses, what a lead poisoning in
Speaker 1: the water. You're not with your your new project or
Speaker 1: your long term project around real estate and and crypto
Speaker 1: and whatever other finance things and some of the other
Speaker 1: you know, important things that people are doing. You cannot
Speaker 1: solve for X. For you know, I'm just making up
Speaker 1: a number the three hundred thousand people who are living
Speaker 1: in Nightsha. You can't do that, not in that quick second,
Speaker 1: so somebody has to be focused on making sure that
Speaker 1: we have people in office who are not putting Supreme
Speaker 1: Court justices on the bench that are going to overturn
Speaker 1: every single law that we have that was progressed in
Speaker 1: some ways, at least in in in some ways for
Speaker 1: our communities. If you're not going to, uh, we don't
Speaker 1: want to have a president in place that is allowing
Speaker 1: federal courts to be packed with conservative judges who are
Speaker 1: also in line with some of those Democrats that sending
Speaker 1: our people to prison. So we have to have folks
Speaker 1: who are working on multiple tandems. And it's not easy,
Speaker 1: of course, the situation. It's a difficult thing. And then
Speaker 1: in terms of what you said about the Democratic judges,
Speaker 1: it's people in our own family, right, It's people in
Speaker 1: our families that have I share our last name, people
Speaker 1: we love or people we are close to, people we
Speaker 1: would die and fight for and ain't ship. They ain't
Speaker 1: no good. They kill, they sell drugs to our people,
Speaker 1: they harm our people. You've got people who are sexually
Speaker 1: abusive or or physically abusive to women and children. It's
Speaker 1: all of that. So of course, within Democrats, independence, Republicans,
Speaker 1: whatever you can't trust everybody nowhere. It's always gonna be
Speaker 1: people that go against the grain and do things that's
Speaker 1: harmful to our community. It doesn't mean I'm saying, oh,
Speaker 1: we can only vote for Democrats. But to the point
Speaker 1: that you keep making show us the the the the
Speaker 1: Republican agenda that is aligned with the things that out
Speaker 1: that we need for our community. Because every bill that
Speaker 1: we have supported or been a part of trying to
Speaker 1: get past the Republicans have shut down in terms of
Speaker 1: progressive for our communities. So you know, that's just we are.
Speaker 1: And I'm not. That doesn't mean it I'm happy with
Speaker 1: the Democrats because they know I'm not. But I still
Speaker 1: know what it is that we're looking and I think
Speaker 1: building another party is going to be extremely important. Listen,
Speaker 1: what do y'all think about this topic? You know, what
Speaker 1: do you think should we be voting, should we not
Speaker 1: be voting? What should we be looking for? And you know,
Speaker 1: is trying to pick between two parties that we know
Speaker 1: really don't align with Black America's agenda? Is it? Is
Speaker 1: it useless? Like? Tell tell us what you think. We
Speaker 1: want your input, want your feedback, let us know how
Speaker 1: you feel. So speaking of this topic on whether or
Speaker 1: not we should be voting um, which is it's a
Speaker 1: sticky topic. I mean, you know, since you invited people
Speaker 1: into the comments section to tell us how they feel
Speaker 1: about it, I think that it will be a spirited conversation.
Speaker 1: You know, the comments will be uh very very uh interesting. UM.
Speaker 1: But we are being joined by um our friends. You know.
Speaker 1: Our running thing is that we've got a lot of
Speaker 1: great friends and great places doing great things for our
Speaker 1: people and our communities. And Teslain Figuo is no different. Now.
Speaker 1: I like to say she is not just a political analyst,
Speaker 1: but she's also a political architect right political commentator, and
Speaker 1: she also bust down on people every single day and
Speaker 1: helps them understand what the hell is going on in
Speaker 1: the world from the language that's that our folks know
Speaker 1: how to understand. So she is, um what I think
Speaker 1: who has giving her the title okay, gave her the
Speaker 1: title the Hood Whisperer. But we are being joined by
Speaker 1: our dear sister Teslin of Straight Shot No Chaser, which
Speaker 1: is also a podcast on Black Effect Network at our
Speaker 1: brother Charlemagne the Guy is giving us the opportunity to
Speaker 1: run out of mouths and try to educate the people.
Speaker 1: So thank you Teslin for joining us today. Always, thank
Speaker 1: you for being is always great to be in my family.
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me. Hey, so what do you like?
Speaker 1: What do you think? You know? We wanted we that's
Speaker 1: how we had a topic of the day and we
Speaker 1: were talking about should we be voting a lot of
Speaker 1: people saying black people just should just see through the
Speaker 1: elections out. We shouldn't be voting. And we know you
Speaker 1: know how your perspective, I know how in depth and
Speaker 1: organized and what it is that you actually represent and
Speaker 1: inside of this culture and how once you bring to politics.
Speaker 1: So first give us your opinion of that. Well before
Speaker 1: she said that, though, I think we need to tell
Speaker 1: her about the story that you were basically okay, so well,
Speaker 1: I know you've probably seen it. There was these Pennsylvania
Speaker 1: judges who were just um told it. They had to
Speaker 1: pay two hundred million back for families that they had
Speaker 1: locked up their kids and they were selling them to
Speaker 1: private prisons for low level crimes, some of them for jaywalking.
Speaker 1: They even had a video. It was actually a Caucasian
Speaker 1: young boy who went to jail for something I think
Speaker 1: drug possession, and they locked him up messed his whole
Speaker 1: life of it. He came in and committed suicide within
Speaker 1: five months. So and these were democratic elected judges who
Speaker 1: who did this right, So a lot of people are like,
Speaker 1: what do what do we voted for? Like, it don't matter, Democratic, Republican,
Speaker 1: they're all doing the same ship to us. So you know,
Speaker 1: that's that was the basis of the topic. So just
Speaker 1: want to get your input. Well, one, um, judge as
Speaker 1: judicial seats are not Democrats, are Republicans. So even though
Speaker 1: they may have leaned that way or identified as a
Speaker 1: Democrat in something different, I don't know in this particular case,
Speaker 1: but just overall, most judges across the board don't run
Speaker 1: as partisan seats. Doesn't mean they're not Democrats or Republicans,
Speaker 1: but overall they're usually not partisan. We have to look
Speaker 1: more at that case to give, uh, you know, to
Speaker 1: give a precise answer on that, but it is important
Speaker 1: that we understand the difference between nonpartisans seats, your city
Speaker 1: council seats, and most cities are nonpartisans, some are, some
Speaker 1: are not. Uh, Some mayor seats are nonpartisans, some are,
Speaker 1: some are not. Your county commissioner seats, your elected positions
Speaker 1: that could be precinct share or Soil and Water commission.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of seats school board seats for example,
Speaker 1: that do not lean partisan Democrat, Republican. But yes, these
Speaker 1: are still real people with thoughts and ideas, and you
Speaker 1: can find out how if they're registered as a Democrats,
Speaker 1: you can find out if they voted as a Republican.
Speaker 1: So when I say nonpartisan, it's not that we're pretending
Speaker 1: as if they're not partisan, because they do. But it
Speaker 1: is important as we're educating our people to understand that
Speaker 1: there are not nonpartisan local seats that affect your everyday life.
Speaker 1: And when people say, hey, you know, I don't do politics,
Speaker 1: always say you don't have to do politics, but politics
Speaker 1: most certainly does does you. So if you don't have
Speaker 1: an understanding that everything, uh that you do is politics,
Speaker 1: I mean literally everything you know, we always like to
Speaker 1: say we outside. If you literally go outside and look around,
Speaker 1: everything is affected by politics. If you don't like how
Speaker 1: they put restrictions on running your water, there's an actual
Speaker 1: commissioner in most cities that that take care of soil
Speaker 1: and water. If you feel like you don't have enough
Speaker 1: stop signs in your community, if you feel like there
Speaker 1: should be more street signs. If you don't like the traffic.
Speaker 1: There's a metro plane board that talks about the traffic.
Speaker 1: So there's always elected positions and appointed positions that are
Speaker 1: managing our everyday lives. So I try not to uh
Speaker 1: criticized folks of my son and to Maka who have
Speaker 1: gotten so disenfranchised, so fed up, so over it that
Speaker 1: they say, you know what, I just don't see how
Speaker 1: it's making a difference. I feel that, I get that.
Speaker 1: I try to spend more time on people who actually
Speaker 1: say I want to do something to change the system,
Speaker 1: because me trying to convince folks you gotta vote, you
Speaker 1: gotta vote, you should be a part of process, Be
Speaker 1: a part of the process. I find that my time
Speaker 1: is more productive with like hosting the training that I'm doing,
Speaker 1: you know, upcoming in Atlanta, more productive when people will say, what,
Speaker 1: you know what, I am tired of it. I don't
Speaker 1: want to chase them. I want to replace him. And
Speaker 1: how can I get involved? Should I be a candidate?
Speaker 1: Should should I be an organizer? Or should I be
Speaker 1: an operative? So me myself, I try to be a
Speaker 1: part of the solution. Still talk about the problem as
Speaker 1: a commentator. But but obviously you know, provide the solution.
Speaker 1: That's the most important thing to me. And so I
Speaker 1: will say this. I've worked on campaign state, local, and federal,
Speaker 1: and and this is very important that people understand this.
Speaker 1: When folks are out there, you know, trying to get
Speaker 1: what we call their win number, they're going after the
Speaker 1: super voters, those uh, super voters. So when you know
Speaker 1: that only a hundred people are coming to the polls
Speaker 1: and a hundred and fifty people are saying I'm gonna
Speaker 1: sit out, you're actually giving them more favor to only
Speaker 1: have to try to galvanize those one hundred voters to
Speaker 1: come to the polls. If you look at those local
Speaker 1: elected a position, city commounts, a city commissioner. I was
Speaker 1: working looking at one race, so over eight hundred thousand
Speaker 1: people that were registered to vote in that district, only
Speaker 1: eleven hundred actually showed up at the polls. So you're
Speaker 1: actually doing a favor when they're able to just galvanize
Speaker 1: just that small group of their circle, their church members, uh,
Speaker 1: their their coworkers, you know, they're the folks that go
Speaker 1: to school with their children to allow them to get
Speaker 1: these seats so I tell people that if you want
Speaker 1: to get out of the process and you say I
Speaker 1: don't want to vote, well, then are you at least
Speaker 1: running somebody in that seat. Are you at least causing
Speaker 1: some type of disruption? Are you giving people a second option,
Speaker 1: because just sitting out, we've done that and that's not
Speaker 1: working either. So I think it's a action of those things.
Speaker 1: But I also think it's my my sound important that
Speaker 1: we have we hear some people say, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna vote for you. Politicians hear that they
Speaker 1: hear that, and they should be responding because I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's just positive to keep saying we're just
Speaker 1: gonna vote no matter what. Because our ancestors died for it,
Speaker 1: we have to create some opposition to at least give
Speaker 1: them something to fear. So it's a it's a collection
Speaker 1: of all of those things that that makes sense, makes
Speaker 1: a hundred percent sense to me, Tessa, and I say
Speaker 1: that all the time, And it was a real important
Speaker 1: thing you said, and and and and that's what it
Speaker 1: is for me understanding that when I don't vote, it's
Speaker 1: not so much that it affects any part. What it
Speaker 1: does is I'm not somebody that they have to get
Speaker 1: a vote from. Right, they moved me out of the pool.
Speaker 1: Like you said, there's eight hundred thousand people there, and
Speaker 1: if they only know they after appeal to eleven thousand,
Speaker 1: then all the seven hundred the rest of those people,
Speaker 1: they don't matter because the vote is gonna be designed
Speaker 1: by these eleven thousands. It's not like it's being decided
Speaker 1: by the age of When you take yourself out of
Speaker 1: the number and you make it easier for a certain
Speaker 1: demographic to appeal to just one or two recific groups
Speaker 1: and they can just win a whole election with six
Speaker 1: thousand votes, then you're doing a disservice because now nobody
Speaker 1: really has to work that all because now you're not
Speaker 1: even involved in that number. So, like you said, when
Speaker 1: you start saying King, I'm I was a part of
Speaker 1: this and I'm not gonna vote, and we start saying
Speaker 1: that publicly and I'm moving towards doing this, and I'm
Speaker 1: having action items towards doing this, and this is what
Speaker 1: we're collectively gonna do with our votes, with our our power,
Speaker 1: then that makes more sense than just saying you're just
Speaker 1: not voting. I think it's important also for us to
Speaker 1: be very honest, there are people who are righteously indignant.
Speaker 1: They just tied, right, they just tired and it ask
Speaker 1: people that's just lazy, and they don't want to do it,
Speaker 1: and they're looking for an excuse not to participate in
Speaker 1: the process. Because to your point, there are people test them.
Speaker 1: We talked about this all the time running for office,
Speaker 1: like Anina Turner and others who we know might not
Speaker 1: agree on everything, but we know they're gonna go there
Speaker 1: and fight. Is like hell for many of the things,
Speaker 1: majority of the things that we know we need in
Speaker 1: our community in this country. And guess what did you
Speaker 1: give them? Some money did you give did you help
Speaker 1: being alternment at all? Did you help Jamanni Williams who
Speaker 1: was running for governor in New York money support knock
Speaker 1: on doors. So when we do have the potential with
Speaker 1: certain candidates, some of those same I just I'm not
Speaker 1: don't believe in politics. I'm not gonna vote those same
Speaker 1: people don't show up. So I think what you're talking
Speaker 1: about and I want to hear, We want you to
Speaker 1: tell us more about something that you're working on right
Speaker 1: now that is super important. What you're talking about is
Speaker 1: none of us get to stay out of the process.
Speaker 1: There is going there's a process when that when those
Speaker 1: eleven thousand people decide on behalf of a community of
Speaker 1: whatever a hundred thousand, two hundred thousand, eight hundred thousand,
Speaker 1: you as the one the other folks that did not vote,
Speaker 1: You're still gonna live by whatever is being decided by
Speaker 1: the small majority of folks who most of the time
Speaker 1: don't look like you. Right because in these communities, like
Speaker 1: in the community I live in, there are there's a
Speaker 1: lot of diverse folks here. And guess what, when I
Speaker 1: go to the polls, most of the time the white people,
Speaker 1: the Asian community, and some of the other community members
Speaker 1: are there. They are the ones who are deciding school
Speaker 1: board elections all the way up district leaders. In my community,
Speaker 1: I'm sometimes the only black person in the in the
Speaker 1: polling location, unless it's obviously running for president and things
Speaker 1: like that. But on super local elections, those people are
Speaker 1: making decisions. So being a part of the process does
Speaker 1: not have to be just the vote. I got it.
Speaker 1: Votes are really important, but it's also supporting people financially,
Speaker 1: helping people run for office, knowing how to organize campaigns
Speaker 1: right you might it might not even be that this
Speaker 1: person is the the you know what, Well, let me
Speaker 1: say this. There are candidates that don't have the resources
Speaker 1: to run a strong campaign. And if you are at
Speaker 1: home and you have two or three hours to donate,
Speaker 1: why not do that, you know, so that you can
Speaker 1: help them and volunteers so we can have strong electans
Speaker 1: in position. So that's my position. And I think what
Speaker 1: you're doing right now is working on helping people understand
Speaker 1: there's more than one way to slice the cake, right,
Speaker 1: So tell us more about what you've got going on,
Speaker 1: because I think it's something that's extremely powerful. Something you've
Speaker 1: been working on is something that is so needed for
Speaker 1: our people. H Well, I have always UH come from
Speaker 1: the recruiting UH industry my corporate side. I was a
Speaker 1: branch manager at the Deco and Robert had as the
Speaker 1: first and third largest staff in from the world. I
Speaker 1: ran my own staff in from with three hundred employees
Speaker 1: in Orlando. I have all always use that recruiting model,
Speaker 1: that matrix driven recruiting model in the political space. UM
Speaker 1: is one reason why in Orlando I was able to
Speaker 1: get so many different volunteers in three weeks time. Three hundred,
Speaker 1: five hundred, a hundred and fifty overnight because I've always
Speaker 1: had that matrix driven recruiting model, which means that people
Speaker 1: are not going to recruit themselves. You have to actually
Speaker 1: go out and get people and bring them into the fold.
Speaker 1: And so by using that model, having the masses an
Speaker 1: adult education, I'm saying that because I want people to
Speaker 1: understand that when I'm building curriculum, I'm building real curriculum
Speaker 1: with real program objectives that you're actually leaving with substitutive information.
Speaker 1: And so I trained all throughout the year. I train
Speaker 1: and consult. I do that far more than I am
Speaker 1: on TV. Being on TV is great, commentary is great,
Speaker 1: but I'm about rolling up my sleeves and actually doing
Speaker 1: the work. But I wanted to do something then this year,
Speaker 1: and particularly um with offering something free for folks to
Speaker 1: one understand that yes, they have a part that they
Speaker 1: can play push the line politics until something happens. If
Speaker 1: you look at my logo, you see each person is
Speaker 1: pushing one person pushing the p to you, the s,
Speaker 1: the h and it's a child standing beside this watching.
Speaker 1: And I do that because people, if you look at
Speaker 1: the logo, people are doing what they can to push
Speaker 1: You have two people in street clothes, two people in
Speaker 1: business clothes, and they're not looking on the side of
Speaker 1: them to say, well, what is Tamika doing? Well, what
Speaker 1: is my sign doing? Why you ain't doing it? No,
Speaker 1: you need to be focused on what you can do
Speaker 1: to move the process forward. So by doing that training
Speaker 1: politics until something happens. Offering a nonpartisan training we did.
Speaker 1: I did one in the summer. We had two hundred
Speaker 1: and forty six people that came online. I did a
Speaker 1: second one we had over two hundred people. Now our
Speaker 1: goal is to get a couple hundred people in the
Speaker 1: room in Atlanta for September ten, totally free, all day long,
Speaker 1: seven am to seven pm, back to back to back,
Speaker 1: core curriculum, nonpartisan training, not a summit, not a panel,
Speaker 1: not an interview. I do all of those wonderful things.
Speaker 1: But there's been a missing to me, there's plenty of
Speaker 1: great trainers. I've been to them. I've been to CBC,
Speaker 1: I've been to P Triple C, ABC one, two, three,
Speaker 1: you name it. I probably more than likely it's send
Speaker 1: that the training I thought there there is obviously not thought.
Speaker 1: I know that there's a missing component that can allow
Speaker 1: people an opportunity to truly train nonpartisan. Um. Although I
Speaker 1: went to a congressional that Caucus boot camp in two
Speaker 1: thousand and ten and they said it's nonpartisan, I still
Speaker 1: left feeling like, uh, this is how to be a
Speaker 1: good Democrat. I went to Pack Triple C that's a
Speaker 1: progressive Caucus boot camp. I was a trainer on crisis Calm,
Speaker 1: and it was still about how to be a good progressive.
Speaker 1: This is a training that is designed for you to
Speaker 1: pick a tract, a candidate, an operative, or an organizer.
Speaker 1: An organizer to to me, can be anything. Do you
Speaker 1: want a new park in your community? Do you want
Speaker 1: to organize a protest? Do you want to organize to
Speaker 1: get an issue like reparations or whatever it is insert
Speaker 1: the blank. It is so critically important to me that
Speaker 1: people understand when I say nonpartisan and non agenda motive.
Speaker 1: Uh focus, that's exactly what that means. And I've reached
Speaker 1: out two different allies in the movement to say, hey,
Speaker 1: I am given you my word as a woman that
Speaker 1: there will not be any agenda pushed on this, because
Speaker 1: I want to see if those folks are willing to say,
Speaker 1: you know, what. I'm not just gonna complain online. We're
Speaker 1: gonna start running our own candidates. Even folks who make
Speaker 1: we may have different opinions on things. There's been black
Speaker 1: conservatives ever reached out to me, far right, folks, far left,
Speaker 1: far be in the middle of whatever you want to
Speaker 1: call it. They say, hey, I want to be a
Speaker 1: part of it. How can I be a part of
Speaker 1: it and show by partisan support? And I said, you
Speaker 1: can't show by partisan support because it's nonpartisan. So I
Speaker 1: tell people that if you want to make sure that
Speaker 1: your issue is pushed, then come to the training and
Speaker 1: let's give people a challenge. To me. People contact you
Speaker 1: all the time. We talk about this all the time.
Speaker 1: People don't know what to do, want what to do.
Speaker 1: And I pushed back on that because people do know
Speaker 1: what to do, they just simply don't do it. But
Speaker 1: there there is a group of folks that I believe
Speaker 1: truly don't know what to do. But we know how
Speaker 1: to do everything else. We share leak photos, which I
Speaker 1: love by the way we share leak photos. We know
Speaker 1: how to get concert tickets, we know how to find
Speaker 1: the v I P. We know how to get on
Speaker 1: the list, we know how to find everything else that
Speaker 1: that that motivates us. We find trash online all day,
Speaker 1: comedy and and gossap. So do we really want to
Speaker 1: believe that people just don't know how to go to
Speaker 1: a city council meeting, or how to go to a
Speaker 1: state board meeting, or how to get you know. And
Speaker 1: so I'm putting the challenge out there that this is
Speaker 1: an opportunity for you to learn the steps literally. Step one,
Speaker 1: this is how you feel at your paperwork. Step two,
Speaker 1: this is what you do with your paperwork. Step three,
Speaker 1: and you insert the blank. And I'm not going to
Speaker 1: allow folks to come and get on a soapbox about
Speaker 1: how we need to be this and how we need
Speaker 1: to be that we already know what we need to
Speaker 1: be and how we need to be. This is an
Speaker 1: opportunity for you to learn. Take those tools back, and
Speaker 1: you organize around whatever you feel is important in your community.
Speaker 1: And so will this will get a chance to see
Speaker 1: are we really about that or are we just wanting
Speaker 1: to talk and create more chaos online? More of the
Speaker 1: clown caucus opposed to the action caucus that actually wants
Speaker 1: to put it, uh, put some skin in the game. Well,
Speaker 1: first of all. You know, I love I love the
Speaker 1: way you get at them. You know, I watch I
Speaker 1: don't even watch Fox that much because I just don't
Speaker 1: watch it much, but whenever you're on there, I like,
Speaker 1: I love your perspective and it's always nonpartisan. It's always
Speaker 1: just coming from the realist perspective. And I'm sure that's
Speaker 1: what we're gonna get with this training. When exactly is
Speaker 1: the training, where is it located? How can people you
Speaker 1: know get involved with it? Absolutely? Text? Push the line
Speaker 1: all one word. Push the line to six six eight
Speaker 1: six six. The training is September ten in Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker 1: When you text, all of the information comes directly to you,
Speaker 1: how to register the fa ques, any questions that you have.
Speaker 1: Uh it has been very highly organized. I've sent out
Speaker 1: several several surveys confirming or confirming or confirming. UH. So
Speaker 1: people have been getting the information that they need. All
Speaker 1: they have to do my sign and text that number.
Speaker 1: But if you are not, then what's the number again?
Speaker 1: X Push the line to six six eight six six.
Speaker 1: If you're not in Atlanta and you say I want
Speaker 1: to be a part of this in the future, are
Speaker 1: you doing an online training? Yes, I am I'm doing
Speaker 1: one in November. Still get on that mailing list. I
Speaker 1: would like to have the next one in New Jersey
Speaker 1: in person in January or February. I am committed to
Speaker 1: making sure that two thousand and twenty four people have
Speaker 1: set in some type of training one way or the
Speaker 1: other by two thousand and twenty four. That's what I'm
Speaker 1: doing at my own personal commitment, not a pack and
Speaker 1: out of organization, out of what my own skin in
Speaker 1: the game, to show people that you can still do
Speaker 1: something just one person. How do you take that talent
Speaker 1: and bring other people into the fold. And so it
Speaker 1: is open to anybody. It is truly nonpartisan, for real.
Speaker 1: It is open to anybody. Text push the line six
Speaker 1: six six, but get on the mailing list. Because we're
Speaker 1: gonna continue this online training. We're gonna do deep dives
Speaker 1: into subject matter training. For example. I would love to
Speaker 1: have you, guys, if somebody wants to talk up you know,
Speaker 1: talk to you about this down the road. Hey, we
Speaker 1: want to learn how to protest. I know Linda office
Speaker 1: at training with you guys all the time, would love
Speaker 1: for her to tap in. You don't do an online training,
Speaker 1: you know, so folks have access to that. So I'm
Speaker 1: trying to make my sign to build. I don't want
Speaker 1: to say institute are an organization, but some type of
Speaker 1: way that we can streamline people to be able to say, hey,
Speaker 1: when we want to get something done, there's a place
Speaker 1: that we can learn. And it's also important if you're
Speaker 1: a candidate and you want to run, you're gonna need
Speaker 1: an operative. Come to this training, if nothing else, just
Speaker 1: to organize and see who else that you can work with,
Speaker 1: and they don't have to live in your city. I've
Speaker 1: worked on campaigns long distance. Regina Hill, who want in Orlando, Florida.
Speaker 1: I managed her campaign from Oklahoma City at the time,
Speaker 1: working on the House Clock case, and she was in Orlando, Florida,
Speaker 1: and she was arrested twenty one times, y'all twenty one times,
Speaker 1: and she this was her first time running for office.
Speaker 1: She won. She won by landslide, first time, beat seven
Speaker 1: candidates because she was out there knocking on those doors.
Speaker 1: And it was just a handful of us to help
Speaker 1: her get elected. So it does not require a huge team.
Speaker 1: You just need two or three right soldiers exactly, people
Speaker 1: who are dedicated and you know, when we was I
Speaker 1: was saying earlier, and you also said it's some folks
Speaker 1: just lazy, don't want to do what other people, um,
Speaker 1: you know, they say they don't know. But you know,
Speaker 1: we figured if you can figure all these other things out,
Speaker 1: you can also figure this out. I've been saying that
Speaker 1: for a long time. But also I think that a
Speaker 1: lot of people just haven't been introduced to it, right,
Speaker 1: Like your mama talked about gossip and trash all the time,
Speaker 1: or your you know, it was fun in the community
Speaker 1: to hear about who who, you know, who zooming who.
Speaker 1: So you've been exposed to that. You've been exposed to
Speaker 1: your Christianity, You've been exposed to you know, the way
Speaker 1: we cook so full different things, good hair, whatever. But
Speaker 1: you have not necessarily been exposed to being a politically
Speaker 1: a stooped individual. And that's something that I think you're
Speaker 1: now going to provide for the average Joe an opportunity
Speaker 1: to touch and feel it. I remember when Yandy and
Speaker 1: I first started working together, she would say she had
Speaker 1: not been invited to the rooms with you know, Melanie
Speaker 1: Campbell and all the women who are working on um,
Speaker 1: you know, political issues from a black woman's perspective. She
Speaker 1: hadn't been invited to those spaces, so she didn't even
Speaker 1: know that she could go into those rooms and and
Speaker 1: participate and add value. Now that I introduced her to
Speaker 1: those spaces and made her comfortable, she's going on her own. She's,
Speaker 1: you know, has started sort of moving in that direction
Speaker 1: on her own. And I think that's what you're now
Speaker 1: providing is an opportunity for people to touch and feel
Speaker 1: it so that they know there is room for them
Speaker 1: and they are valuable in those But I want to
Speaker 1: put the I wanna throw this in the game because
Speaker 1: a lot of times to me, when they hear us
Speaker 1: say that, they use that as an excuse. Well, I'm
Speaker 1: waiting on to somebody to be invited and I ain't
Speaker 1: ever been exposed. Well, I sent you in box, went
Speaker 1: to make a go. Let me be crystal clear. I
Speaker 1: was never exposed to any of this. Nobody in my
Speaker 1: family's in politics, and nobody's in my family in law.
Speaker 1: Nobody he set me down. I didn't go to no
Speaker 1: community meeting. I was never a part of this. I
Speaker 1: was exposed to the strip club. I was exposed to
Speaker 1: the hustlers. I was exposed to the ballers. I was
Speaker 1: exposed to gang banging. That's what I was exposed to.
Speaker 1: So for those who are listening, let's not use that
Speaker 1: ain't been exposed. Somebody invite you bullshit, That brings to
Speaker 1: a good point. Why did you get in? I had
Speaker 1: to give a damn. I had to give a damn
Speaker 1: enough to know that it just because they didn't invite
Speaker 1: me in the room don't mean I'm not gonna bust
Speaker 1: the door down and walk in. So it had nothing too.
Speaker 1: I was exposed to having confidence as as a as
Speaker 1: a woman. My mother worked at a television station, but
Speaker 1: she was a secretary. She wasn't on TV, and even
Speaker 1: then that was traditional TV. It wasn't like it was
Speaker 1: opinion TV or what I what or what you know
Speaker 1: I do? But nobody was in politics and my family
Speaker 1: both with my parents right now in the grave. I
Speaker 1: started my staff and firm with a three month old
Speaker 1: baby on unemployment, making two hudred and fifty dollars a
Speaker 1: week on unemployment in Orlando, Florida, in a city with
Speaker 1: no family, no friends, no nothing. This is called hustle period.
Speaker 1: And I never got a loan. I never got anybody
Speaker 1: to put me on and introduced me every room that
Speaker 1: I've walked in, I had to bust my ass to walk.
Speaker 1: That's why I talked with the bravado that I do
Speaker 1: because when people trying to push back and say, well
Speaker 1: you that got a play. I had to build this.
Speaker 1: Had to go on talk radio for free for years,
Speaker 1: and had to go on blall talk radio for thirty
Speaker 1: nine dollars a month. I got this from the hustle
Speaker 1: to the muscle. So anybody that say what you can't
Speaker 1: do and to give a damn enough about it. So
Speaker 1: because I had enough homies that got locked up from
Speaker 1: the ninety four crime bill, I got louder and louder
Speaker 1: and louder about that because I went to go see
Speaker 1: spund and went and put money on commissary and went
Speaker 1: fift miles to sit, you know, in the penitentiary to
Speaker 1: find out what does it really look like when the
Speaker 1: first time nine violent offender does fifteen sixteen years away
Speaker 1: from their family. Because I'm involved in that, I had
Speaker 1: to use my voice. I knew that God put me
Speaker 1: in position. This was a calling. This was not exposing
Speaker 1: enough any room I've been in. I knocked the door
Speaker 1: down on that beach. So we want to be here
Speaker 1: for those who are saying because I it, it bothers
Speaker 1: me when people, well, you know you, it's easy for you.
Speaker 1: Show me where it's been easy. Show me what part
Speaker 1: of the ground has been easy. I tell people, what
Speaker 1: if I told you right now that for twenty years
Speaker 1: you're not gonna make a dollar, would you still do it?
Speaker 1: What if I told you right now that you're gonna
Speaker 1: have everybody against you, would you still do it? What
Speaker 1: if I told you you had to move in five
Speaker 1: different cities, would you still do it? What if you
Speaker 1: had to be homeless, would you still do it? What
Speaker 1: if you had to move four teen times? Would you
Speaker 1: do it? If you had to stop and start your
Speaker 1: business three or four times, would you do it? I
Speaker 1: did it home me. So we don't want to get
Speaker 1: no confused about getting invited. No damn. We're we're looking
Speaker 1: for people that that got the balls to bust the
Speaker 1: door down, to walk in the door and claim your
Speaker 1: rightful position. And if you don't have that level of energy,
Speaker 1: no problem. Just support somebody else, then, says somebody, file
Speaker 1: dollars or ten dollars. Everybody don't ride the same way.
Speaker 1: But when we talk about those rooms and to walk
Speaker 1: into a baby, and that it's very few even now
Speaker 1: when we just look at just the inner circle of
Speaker 1: people that just really rock with me. I've been looking
Speaker 1: at who've been sharing this flyer. Yeah, I'm keeping names
Speaker 1: and receipts. I want to know you're gonna share it
Speaker 1: or you ain't gonna share it because next time, because
Speaker 1: it's too small of us to not, at least if
Speaker 1: nothing else, just share the flyer. Why you can't share
Speaker 1: the flyer? You know you're gonna need me to share something.
Speaker 1: And you better believe when these people who said they're
Speaker 1: gonna share it and ask me something I wish they
Speaker 1: will make sure. No, remember when I asked you to chack.
Speaker 1: That's the accountability that we have to have because this
Speaker 1: ship is too hard to me to be around here
Speaker 1: playing when all it takes, all the take is a
Speaker 1: simple share you know that, right? We deal with it
Speaker 1: all my song. You go ahead and you speak. I mean,
Speaker 1: is it like everything you listen? You know I said
Speaker 1: get him test because you ain't doing enough but preaching
Speaker 1: the gospel. Man, this ship is about only this, the
Speaker 1: strong surviving this like you know, like this was a
Speaker 1: colon on my life, like nobody in the world thought
Speaker 1: I'd be doing I didn't think i'd be doing this.
Speaker 1: You know, I was, like you said, we was in
Speaker 1: the streets, and you know, I had to sit down
Speaker 1: for a while. I had to understand how the system
Speaker 1: was actually plaguing us and taking us over to come
Speaker 1: up with a different mind frame and say, yo, I
Speaker 1: got a different voice. I know I have a level
Speaker 1: of power and strength, and I have platforms, and I
Speaker 1: have people to actually respect me in a manner in
Speaker 1: the streets that I know that I can shift the
Speaker 1: mind state, because one if we don't shift the mind state,
Speaker 1: we're gonna die or be in these prisons forever. So
Speaker 1: that was my mind state. And a lot of people like, oh,
Speaker 1: this and that and this, do it? You know you
Speaker 1: ain't doing this? Why you ain't talking about this? Why
Speaker 1: you because why you ain't talking about it? Because I'm
Speaker 1: talking about the ship I feel passionate about. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: use my platform, my voice to speak about whatever I
Speaker 1: feel passionate about, and I suggest you do the same thing.
Speaker 1: But if you're coming on my page to look for
Speaker 1: me to talk about what you think I should talk about,
Speaker 1: then you wasting your time. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: so I understand exactly what you're coming from, and you know,
Speaker 1: and it's not easy, but we got to support one
Speaker 1: another in this fight, you know, because we all do
Speaker 1: it different ways, but we all do it authentically. And
Speaker 1: when you know you do it authentically and you see
Speaker 1: somebody else that does it authentically, you gotta give him
Speaker 1: that support. So that's why you know, you always gonna
Speaker 1: get my support. But I wish we had more time
Speaker 1: to sit and talk to you today, but I am
Speaker 1: going to get a physical um and I'm very excited
Speaker 1: to tell everyone that today I'm getting my annual I'm
Speaker 1: going to be checking myself from the top of my
Speaker 1: head to the bottom of my feet, and I'm suggesting
Speaker 1: that everyone do the same. And as a result of that,
Speaker 1: we are um not able to stay and talk as
Speaker 1: long as we want. But I really want you to
Speaker 1: come back to as because I want to. I want
Speaker 1: to ask you this question. We're not gonna answer it today,
Speaker 1: but this is what I want us to answer. Together
Speaker 1: with the attacks that we have been through, why would
Speaker 1: anybody want to put themselves in our position? Right? Like?
Speaker 1: Why would anybody want to walk in the fire that
Speaker 1: we've had to walk in just because we dare to
Speaker 1: speak up, to speak truth and not to back down
Speaker 1: when um, when the when the attacks come for us.
Speaker 1: And I want us to talk about that, and I
Speaker 1: think there's some other people that we should invite to
Speaker 1: be a part of that conversation as well, even though
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you I don't know many women. I
Speaker 1: don't know many women who have gone through what we've
Speaker 1: been through. Specifically, I'm not talking about people in political
Speaker 1: positions who have been hit. I'm telling about folks who
Speaker 1: are just trying to do what's right. And we're taking
Speaker 1: punches left and right, and a lot of times nobody
Speaker 1: is there to support us. So that's why I love you.
Speaker 1: I want to say this, and I know you gotta go,
Speaker 1: but this is really important because I want to end
Speaker 1: on this, you know, and especially we're here in hip
Speaker 1: hop a lot the goat, the goat, the goat, and
Speaker 1: I always try to end my messages with this. And
Speaker 1: in the Bible they talk about the weed in the terror,
Speaker 1: or hear people say the weed in the tear, but
Speaker 1: the New International version talks about the goat and the sheep,
Speaker 1: and this is very important. So while folks are saying, oh, man,
Speaker 1: you to go to to go to the greatest all time,
Speaker 1: I want to be crystal clear that when you say oh,
Speaker 1: they haven't been introduced to it, and maybe somebody got
Speaker 1: to introduce them, and maybe they just don't know. Let
Speaker 1: me tell you when you're gonna have to know. And
Speaker 1: I'm only talking about the believers. If I am wrong
Speaker 1: about it to me, then guess what, I just disappear
Speaker 1: into existence. But let's just let's just pretend for just
Speaker 1: a moment that I'm right about it. There's gonna become
Speaker 1: a time where you're gonna have to answer. And when
Speaker 1: you go to the most high, the question is going
Speaker 1: to be asked. They are going to separate the goats
Speaker 1: from the sheep, and the sheep is not about going
Speaker 1: along to get along. The sheep is about the shepherd's business.
Speaker 1: So either you're gonna be about the shepherd's business for
Speaker 1: the least of these, or you will be the goat.
Speaker 1: So it doesn't matter you the greatest of all time
Speaker 1: on earth, whatever it is that you're doing, there will
Speaker 1: become a time that you are gonna have to answer,
Speaker 1: and the answer will not be well. I sent to
Speaker 1: mek An inbox. They never responded, well, I was waiting
Speaker 1: on my side to talk about it. The question is
Speaker 1: gonna be what did you do for the least of these?
Speaker 1: So either you're gonna do it, and I'm putting that
Speaker 1: calling out there right now that everybody who's listening. You
Speaker 1: can't say you ain't been told, because I'm telling you
Speaker 1: right now you have been told. You have been challenged,
Speaker 1: hopefully inspired, but more so challenged. What are you going
Speaker 1: to do for the least of these? And I'm glad
Speaker 1: to come back and have more in depth conversation because
Speaker 1: that answers your question. We've been called for this meeting
Speaker 1: all we have been called and you know and I
Speaker 1: hear you acent. You just gotta do what you gotta do.
Speaker 1: It's not about being introduced. But I do think that
Speaker 1: your training is an obviotunities to introduce some people and
Speaker 1: get them closer to the water. So but they're gonna
Speaker 1: have to drink on their own, and I think that's
Speaker 1: the point that you are making. Thank you, Test, and
Speaker 1: we love you. We appreciate you so much for being
Speaker 1: with us today. Thank you, love you. Test. Get him
Speaker 1: Tests So as I get ready to go for my
Speaker 1: physical appointment that I have to use. You got to
Speaker 1: get your physical test. Always gonna give you a world.
Speaker 1: She was, she was Reverend Test today, the mental physical.
Speaker 1: I got my mental physical and then I'm going to
Speaker 1: get my body physical. Yeah. That was that was. That
Speaker 1: was Reverend Test today. She gave us a word. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, and I'm I definitely make sure
Speaker 1: that you're signed up for that course. She said, push
Speaker 1: the line dot com. You can go on there and
Speaker 1: get the tickets and sign up and register whatever it
Speaker 1: is that you do what you need to be. You
Speaker 1: need to be there because it's a lot of us
Speaker 1: who are not politically savvy, who do not understand why
Speaker 1: politics even matter, saying they don't do politics. And like
Speaker 1: she said, if you don't do politics, they'll do you.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna end on that note. I had a
Speaker 1: ball to me. Did I listened? I was listening to
Speaker 1: the Reverend Test. She was listening. She'd be dropping scriptures.
Speaker 1: So I'm just sitting there like as she dropped it.
Speaker 1: You know. But what I don't get it's why y'all
Speaker 1: always worried about us. That's how I gonna ended. I
Speaker 1: don't get how you're always worried about us. Instead of
Speaker 1: worrying about you, work about what you can do, work
Speaker 1: about you your Instagram page, worry about how you using
Speaker 1: your Facebook followers, work about how the videos that you're doing,
Speaker 1: your work about with you outside. Because we outside, we've
Speaker 1: been doing this work. We're gonna keep doing this work.
Speaker 1: So leave us alone. Do your part. If you don't
Speaker 1: got a part, to get out the way. Because they
Speaker 1: want us to be accountable and accountable. Listen, I'm accountable
Speaker 1: every day of my life. I know what I do
Speaker 1: with my twenty four hours. Do you know what you
Speaker 1: do with yours. I'm not gonna always be right to
Speaker 1: make and marriage is not gonna always be wrong, but
Speaker 1: we both always and I mean always, be authentic. Listen
Speaker 1: to Street Politicians on the Black Effect Network on I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio and catch us every single Wednesday for the
Speaker 1: video version of Street Politicians when I Women Dot TV