Black Love Brown Pride

appropriate song right here. It's city of angels and constant dangel. You know what I'm saying, Like, Uh, we might fight amongst each other, but I promise you this burning bitch down, get us piste to live and die in l A my angels soon. It's just it's only POC right now. And I'm landing on this last quote. It wouldn't be l A without Mexican kids, Black love brown right in the sets again, it's l A. It's been a long forty years to figure out how to really live on

top of each other and to live well. And in one fail swoop, we saw streets, immigration, and politics merge into one nasty ass. Tape from the l A City Council. Let's talk about it hood politics, y'all. All right, So obviously this particular story hits home in ways that many of these stories don't, because this is my hood, this

is my home, this is not far away. When directly connected to these people, to these cities, to these areas, and to the power of these people, were brokering if you don't know, which is crazy, because I can't believe how this mug has really made national news. So l A City Council Chair Nouri Martinez was on this call with Gil Sadillo and Kevin de Leone, who was like, and Kevin de leon was really hurts it like he's

he's he's the like quasi progressive one out year. You know what I'm saying was on this tape that were secretly recorded, and we could do another thing about like was this snitch in appropriate? Important? But um, when they were just speaking freely about consolidating Latino power and Latino votes, and you know when you speaking freely. Now, look, this's gonna sound like I'm giving her a pass, but I trust me, I am not. Because of how personal I have no choice but to take this. But you know

when you with the hums. Sometimes you kind of put a little extra southside on your tacos, you know what I'm saying, Like my mom will say, ask some mustard, you know what I mean to your story, and you might speak a little more reckless than you normally would when you just know, you know what I'm saying, You just with the homies, and you know they're supposed to know you don't mean it, or even if you do, they're supposed to go, uh, you are? Are you nasty?

You're supposed to just laugh it off, you know what I'm saying, But no, for real and not saddio like. But it's cool because it's like, you know, you would never say this stuff in public because that would blow the whole ship up. But maybe it is inside your heart. Who knows. But anyway, they were discussing their plans about if you haven't heard this already, their plans about consolidating

Latino votes in South Allet. Right, they're bringing up certain people, and Miss Nourri Martinez made a couple offhand comments about other council members who you know, one dude, she was like, funk that guy, Like he's with the blacks, right, And this man has adopted a young young black bands to which she called a unito, which is like a little monkey. And then she made these other comments about indigenous people

in Mexico, like what howking uh? Indigenous people? And I don't know if, again you're not from this part of town, so maybe you don't know. I don't know how often you've been in Mexico. But like they are in fact very little, like just just in stature they are. They're just small. But there is and I'm gonna get into a lot of this this later because again I've been around this culture from like anybody else in that like

for around our whole life. But there is a lot of like colorism and racism towards the more indigenous looking Mexicans. Among Mexicans, you know what I'm saying. There's even a phrase called, oh, it's Indian proof, Like it's Indian proof, which basically means it's like it's like a child safety lock, like it's too hard to been basically like Indians are too stupid to be able to open this, so it's like it's Indian proof. Like that's just a saying among them,

there's something that's obviously there's like an internalized racism. Now, don't get me wrong, I ain't gonna poke only a them, because black people got our own colorism we gotta deal with. But she used a bunch of terms that unfortunately are not unheard of among the Mexican community. You know, the thing about this and then being with the blacks. Anytime you say the blacks, it's like, nig you're right. There's no way to cut that one yo, say it like,

because that's just this is right anyway. So it leaked, and to my joy, my absolute joy, the l A Latino community went ham and was like, nah, homie, fuck that nigga. Fuck do that's an old Kendrick reference. Uh section you say, But they were just like, nah, fam she gotta go all y'all gotta go that shi. We don't let that ship ride no more. We've evolved, which is like such an amazing thing to say that l A Latinos confronted their own racism among this okay future

me here. So for most of this recording, I don't do a lot of like switching between Latino Latina Latina Latina. Yes, I don't switch that because mainly I was just kind of just talking. I don't mean anything by it. I want to make sure I'm speaking to y'all with the respect level that y'all deserved, as far as your gender neutral terms. Also understand and obviously the same no excuse

that there is still discourse around what you'll prefer. My wife says that, like, if you're a native Spanish speaker, Latin X just doesn't dramatically make sense, like it don't roll off things. It's a much more academic term. That being said, Yeah, you you you tell me what you'll prefer. But anyway, I just wanted to point that out here. And she stepped down as chair, which means she ain't

lead the council. The thing about you gotta understand again, going back to Tupac, we might fight amongst each other, but I promise you this. She he was making a reference to the l A riots. We will burn this bit down when I tell you the city rolled up to that city council meeting and was like one of my favorite or my favorite clips is this chill. I was like, I just would like to say basically like fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, you're cool, fuck you. Like she just lit them all up and was like

this whole ship is a sham. How dare you talk about our community like this? You only got the power we gave you. She just lit them nigs up because you have to understand, I won't play that ship no more so anyway, the tape league city and the uproar calling them to resign, but it brought up a number

of things. That is the perfect cross section of the Black and Latino coalition that has taken a good thirty or forty years to develop, and really just how fragile it is, how far we gotta go to make this thing really crack. So that's the context of this. Let's talk about black love, Brown pride. All right, let's go So obviously I'm black, but I don't know how familiar you are with my work and my backstory. Maybe this

is the first podcast you jumped into. But my wife first in Mexican, grew up on you know, Huntington Park, which is South l A on the east side. I also born in South Central, but on the east side of South Central. I grew up on the borderlands of the Black and Latino neighborhoods, and then I moved to an area called the San Gabriel Valley city called Valenda.

It could have you could have called it Valenda La Poente City if you're familiar with l A. It's like, basically, I grew up in a when I say, one d percent Mexican space, sprinkle with a Filipino community like I just like the part of town I was in was it was. I grew up in a Mexican environment, you know, that's just it's where I'm from. You know, I did high school in the suburbs, you know, which was very diverse,

very multicultural. But then my parents were split by then, and I kind of lived half the time with my dad back in La One, and you know, my grandmother was still in South Central, still on the east side. Either way, the point I'm trying to make is this is coming from lived knowledge and marital experience and historical I wanted to have my wife come out here and actually do this part, but she's on a hike and she just got promoted, uh at her job, so she's like,

I'm busy, But anyway, here we go. I'm trying to give context to history for these types of statements that Miss Martinez had made. When you come from Los Angeles, like the experience as a person who's non Latino looking at the Latino community in relation to the rest of the world, if you will, Like there's no strata of class, education power that Latinos not in. It's not like they're

only poor, does that make sense. It's like sometimes you go to places and it's like the only ones, like they are not the only ones working, but they don't leave working class, like in the sense that, for example, the dude standing out in front of the home depot that are down to be a day laborer, the people picking the strawberries, but also your school principle, but also your college professor. There's an area and Downey you know what I'm saying, which is mostly Cuban, if you will,

But like that's like Hollywood level, Beverly Hills Latinos. You know, you have East l A Latinos, gang banging, cholo low rider, you know what I'm saying. You have that, But then you also have Mona Bello, you know what I'm saying, which is right next to East l A, which is on a hill, and their doctors. Like, so you have this full stratification of Mexico, and so you don't just they're not just these hidden migrant farm workers in l A. There everybody that's just there, are just a normal part

of your society, like as it should be. That being said, if you black, that's the same as black people. It's like, yo, majority of us are poor. We know we're facing racism. But also miss Williams was my third grade teacher. But also you got the King Drew Center, you know what I'm saying. You also got Thomas Dorsey, you got all these like other examples of where we have stratified culture. But we know we've done it because it's our own experience in spite of all of the hindrances and history

of redlining and racism. But we're like, but but because of that, we know why we're in South Central. We know why we're in Watts Like we understand that. I'll get to that. Let me stay here and talk about the Latino experience. So outside looking in their gang bang and they corporate just like us. So day in jail, right next to us, day in the projects, right next to us. You feel me. They do the jobs that don't nobody else want to do. You know what I'm saying.

You were looking out and you're like, yeah, nobody work harder than Mexicans, like you know that. So when you hear stuff about like them stealing your jobs, like when you black, you like, ain't still in nothing. You don't want to do that job. Nick, Neither do I though. So you're looking again, I'm gonna going through history here, right, so you you you this is your this is your

experience with them. Now, what you don't realize if you're not in their culture is that first of all, all of them ain Mexican, some of them nigging itself Salvadorian. You just don't know that because if you again, if you outside, you know, if you outside of their culture, they just look the same, speak the same language. You don't know, no difference. You don't realize that the pop Saudia,

that's a whole lass other country. You feel me like you yo know that, right, I'm laughing because it's funny in the sense of from a black perspective where you're like, oh, y'allre different. You know, I'm saying it's ridiculous. Of course there are and also some of m R first gen immigrants now again visually speaking, you know, and sonically again, if you're looking into the community, it's like in in.

In your experience, you usually growing up with somebody. If you my age, the person you're growing up with is like second third, fourth Gin. They speak Spanglish you know ya, which are like phrases that don't exist in Mexico, or or your homies don't even speak Spanish, but they understand it. You feel me because their grandmama only speak Spanish because

their grandma was the one that migrated. Or they got a cousin, you know what I'm saying, who dressed a little funny and it's a little funny to us because he's not American. And because they pour, you feel me like so so, and they have a different sense of style. These foods don't listen to like low riders. They don't listen to low rider. They don't listen to old soul. They're not listening to Oh these you know, rest in peace are lebau. You feel me like you do your googles. Right.

So they're not singing I'm your puppet, you know what I'm saying, They're not from that. They're singing China there into Gloria Tevine because they from Mexico. And on top of all that, your homie make fun of his own cousin. He called him trunthy and pice side. You know what I'm saying, like they got their own jokes about people who like, you know, who's just recently here and then

and talk like a little more Mexican and culture. You feel me like I'm saying that he's a pye side, you know, you know, like Whi's like this food's got like a cactus on his forehead, basically like he just got here, like y'all got your own jokes. So there there's this full sort of gambit of type of Mexican if you will, that exists in California, and unless you out there with him, you kind of just don't know.

Now within that community is you know, you got Telemundo television stations, you got Vicon and if you add as anybody who's got a little bit of social awareness or consciousness among the Latino community whose family had that TV on those channels on all day, those channels are full of colorism. They're remarkably prejudice. They only got they put

the light skinned ones up front. They make they they're understanding and and my wife attested this, the way that they're covering the news, especially about black people is from an outsider perspective, So all they know is the stories that are piped into them from mainstream American media. Right, and when they come here as a people Mexican, when they come here as a people, they land in the projects.

So they only understanding of black people is this. So they begin to map on their understanding of American black people to the same colorism that come from their own country. Because again, anti blackness is a global situation here, so you map on a lot of those prejudices that come from Mexico, like you do. You remember the slave trade was went everywhere, it went all over up and down the America's Mexico and Central America got black people, of

course it does. And again you're indigenous Mexican Maschka, you feel me Like I said earlier, the Wahak and Jalisco, like these natives, they're very small and they're very dark, right, So they already have this colorism that exists in their culture that they come from, and it's easy to map that colorism onto the black community when they get here. Is that I'm checking up for understanding as if you

actually uh in the room with me. But I'm a pause for a second to see if that makes sense to you now having said that, when you're the again, your mama, your grandmama come in here and they land in the Imperial Courts projects and Watts on the border of Watson Compton. You know what I'm saying. When you got here in the sixties, in the seventies, like understand that Los Angeles, especially South Central, was eighty percent black.

This was a hub for us. Now get to why that was in the next segment, because I'm still speaking about the Latino community. But when you get here, you know, they had to work their way through and had to deal with their own internalized colorism and racism and stuff like that, and no signs in their language. And people who who were here already, you know, Latinos who were here in Mexicans who were here already, who are now fourth and fifth generation that don't speak their language, you know,

don't speak the language of a mother tongue. You feel me and on purpose because again going back to you know again with the Latino experience, if you had an accent, just because this was a white dominant world, if you had an accent, you were treated like a second class citizen. So they didn't want their kids to have accents, because why the hell do you come to America anyway except

for you to have greater opportunities. You're gonna lose your opportunities if you sound like you can't speak the language. So parents would purposefully not teach their kids Spanish, you know what I'm saying, to give them a leg up. Not only that, so they could keep talking amongst themselves freely, you feel me, and their kids don't know what they're talking about, you know what I'm saying, So like you can talk about your children and talk right in front

of them. They don't understand the language, which feels like a superpower. You know. I see why they did it. But you know, full five generations later, you know, you have people that they're like, we're Chicano, like we are from Los Angeles, Like Chicano is a whole different experience that is Mexican American. You feel me, So it's the same and the same to me. It's like black people in Africans like y'all are different people. I know we are the it's the diaspora. I know I come from that,

but let me not pretend. You know what I'm saying Black people used to pick a language like it's Swahili. Okay, that's one everything at Swahili. Dog that's one region in Africa. Well, no, we're just giving y'all our best guests as to where we are, where we're from in Africa. You know what I'm saying, Like your people may not even speak Swahili. It's a cante cloud. What part of the can'tec cluth? What part of Africa that from? You don't know? You

know what I'm saying. It's because we don't know, like we're so separated from our history. It's not it's different than Mexican experience, which is like a lot closer unless you like four or five generations later, you know what

I'm saying. Then you you know, you may know your great great great great grandma from Dudogo, but you ain't ever been unless you have because probably your cousin is still there and he come every song or to come work right, or you mess around get in trouble, which is having all the time you mess around, start getting in trouble, they send you to stay with your theo in Chia. You know what I'm saying, And so the

homie Poco be gone all summer. Why because he got to go back to Mexico to work with his because he start getting like this, this was our experience, you feel me. Um. So that being said, they already have their colorism in there. So when you go back to the statement that miss Martinez made about the Natives for that generation, for like our parents, our grandparents generation, they say racist ship like that, yeah, ship like myat just rolls off these food's tongue which is more like a

cuss word. And then ship like this like I vivid memories of foods, you know, referring to me like in the streets as like Yanta, which is tired. Why do you call him tired? Because you black like this, Like it's wild, man, Like real racism used to sit like for real, be in their community, you know what I'm saying. Like they do it, and they have for a while.

It's taken just like white people, it's taken generations to be like man, y'all can't like that's some bullshit, like you can't be talking about your own people like that, you know, And and it's and it has, like I said, it has changed. That's some ship. They're like my wife and our kids. They don't stay for ship like that. It's a whole other conversation about Mexican people saying nigger. That's a whole other conversation. That's about hip hop and

stuff like that's a whole other talk. You know what I'm saying, Like, that's that's different. This isn't which is it's also different because this ain't New York where you have Puerto Ricans and Afro Latinos like we that that's not something that happens in l a Dominican like, that's not something that happens out here. That's different anyway, a whole other conversation. Now as far as the Chune thaw,

which just means again little monkey. Now when me and my wife got married, calling your kids in Mexican culture like oh a little it's it's a ko meaning it's just a sweet thing you would just say to your children and you call them that because they're ripping and running like black people say, bouncing around off the walls, just bouncing around, getting in the mischief, like acting like little monkeys. You know what I'm saying. It's even it

even hurts me. My my stomach just jumped even saying it, right, So separate from the African American slave experience them on their own is something that they call their children. I tell my wife before we had kids, if you ever refer to my child as a jungle as we fight. Obviously not physically, of course, but I'm like, that's gonna be you. You are not allowed. You gotta let that die. Baby, that's got it. She's like, that's our culture, that's not mine.

You are not allowed. You cannot call my child a little monkey. And I had to explain to her, these are racist. These are these are racialized terms among black people.

So you might hear among Latinos like they call their kids gorda gorda like you know what I'm saying it, and go like they're talking to their own children in a sense that it's it's it's ambiguous because in a sense that like that's just a term of endearment that they use for each other, right, Like how we would say like hardhead, you know, a little hardhead, where it's like, um, you know, big head, hey, big head, Like you know, it's a little less racist, but uh, it's a term.

It's a term of endearment for them, and they're calling us monkeys. So in this scenario, she's using the term knowing full well you know you're talking about monkeys, you feel me. But the reason why it can roll off your tongue so easy is not as well, she's just openly racist. You're not certain words, uh, and phrases just sound like either harsher or less harsh, depending on the language you use. Like it's just you know what I'm saying.

Some stuff just sounds worse when it's translated. There's there are those moments kind of happening among like like you know, shagging like this, just what does that mean us? You know what I'm saying. It's like it's a carpet, you know, unless you and you know, learning fancy a fact, you know what I'm saying, like you're talking about a cigarette, like it just you know, obviously it's not a cuss word. But like this, the context can either make something more

or less offensive. That being said, you might have an argument that would say that given just that phrase, it sounds worse in English, and I don't. I mean, I'm not a native Spanish speaker. But given the rest of the context, Nah, she knew what she was saying. She

was being racist, don't get it twisted. But the thing is, if you're not careful, you might miss, especially if you're mom Latinos, you might miss what was being said around there, unless you've been around enough black people to know that, like, Yo, this is this is unacceptable. Now if you Kevin del leone, do you check her if this is supposed to be like an off Mike discussion about coalition, do you be like yo, or do you know? All right? Whatever? She

just she being an extra. I don't know. There's been times that I've been in situations where some of the homies is being an extra and I'm like, I feel like I know you better at the same time, like you can't be saying this. In my scenario, it's when the homies be making like homophobic statements and it's like, all pause, you know I'm saying where anything you do? Pause, It's like, all right, nig you know we have to

like let that die on me. Like you can't just be like, I know it's slang it, Like I need to start being like hey, homey, like what if it is gay that you know what I'm saying? Like I have to learn how to like retrain the group text to be like, you can't just be ayo. You can't just be making like these inferences to like gay stuff. That's like, uh, that's gay. I'm not gonna do that, Like nigo, we can't talk like that no more. We've evolved,

you feel me now? So you have this uh misunderstanding I'm trying to get into, like the tensions among black and brown communities, have this misunderstanding of these people don't understand us. We don't understand as Latinos. You like, I don't understand why y'all y'all figured it out yet, you know what I'm saying. You got all these opportunities here and you're still in these projects. You know what I mean. They're like, we nigga, we can't speak the language. That's

why we stuck, you know what I mean? From their perspective, And at home, you're watching this television also that's clearly colorist and racist, and it's only reporting on black people in a certain way. And if you live in the projects when you're working outside, it's like that's all you see in too. And then on top of that, you bringing your own colorism that came from you know, Mexico.

You know, have you ever heard the phrase, like it's basically it's called advance the race, Like, you know, I didn't see that side, Like, so it's the idea of like you have to marry white, you marry light, light skinned. That is among one of latinos because it advances the race. You feel me. So because again, anti blackness is global,

you know what I mean. So, like this is already in their community and at the same time, somebody's gonna have enough sense to say, how is it, you know, Malcolm X and stuff like how is it like power? Or have you thinking that another poor person is your problem? You feel me? Did you wake up and you go, wait a minute, y'all can't possibly be the problem because you struggling the same way we're struggling. Maybe we should

work together. You're getting beat up by the police. People started seeing the way we started getting treated by the police, the way it was like, damn, they treat you'all like they treat us, and we're stuck in the same Its the Willie Lynch theory. You know what I'm saying. You you're stuck in this and we're fighting over the same little mud pies. This ship ain't working this can't work.

But then they also see how black people organized. You have to remember, like I'm going back thirty forty years. You find out about the Civil rights movement, you find out about the Black Panther Party, and then you get the brown berets. You know, you see what's happening all over the world. How the way we was talking was a lot more like listen, black, brown, Indigenous. You're seeing on the other side of the country. You know, the way the Puerto Rican community was bonding. You feel me.

You seeing how we're organizing and we're getting rights for everybody, because it seemed like all the power and privilege was only going to the white and the wealthy. At some point, you like, okay, this ship, this this starting to make sense. These black people telling us, hey, nigg they're not gonna sell to you. You start seeing signs around the community, which was true during segregation. At this time, it would

say in this restaurant, Black Mexican and Jews prohibited. You started seeing like, oh, ship, they think we them, oh that were getting treated the same. Maybe we should do something about this. But before you were fighting over the same resources. Right now black perspective after this, so the black migration into l A. Uh, post civil rights movement.

You know, I've mentioned this before. My family came because of the Watts Towers projects, because of things like redlining and laws around city zoning and who would sell the black people. All kinds of prejudice created this mecca in south central Los Angeles. And I mean like Harry Belafonte had a house over you gotta remember that was Hollywood.

You got Earth the Kid, you had Lena Horne. All these people had houses in l A. You know what I mean, right, Obviously they were mega stars, So that's different, you know, And that actually what's crazy. It's like that black community now is where the ten Freeway is, which is you know what they do. But this hub of black culture was developing because people post Jim Crow specifically from Texas. You know, Oklahoma and Arkansas all came west, right.

And if you know black people, most of our families from l A. Our families are usually if you're in San Diego in l A, you in the Bay like our families are oftentimes you know, they're from Texas. Just like statistically, so for the most part, south central Los Angeles South l A was black right eighty and it

was hard fought. Like you have to think about how hard we fought to gain political power, right, power in the streets, power in this you know, our own issues that we had among poverty and you know, and just just just street life like this is l A like it was black. Now South l A is eleven black. Like we just whether it was gentrification that did the housing vouchers because we got priced out, or it's just so many of them, like and I don't say this

is like a disk. I'm saying no, literally, there are so many Los Angeles, South l A. Los Angeles, the percentage of Latino is fifty Latino. That means everybody else is split among the other fifty. There's just so many of them. So these areas, whether it was a fluent all the way down again because black people stratified the entire things of class two was you know, from from nikoson garden projects all the way to Beverly Hills. Were in every part of culture. Also, we was in the streets.

We created this sound, We made treasure out of trash. What black people do everywhere we go, you know what I'm saying. And then you get this influx of Latinos and you're in the same hoods we are. At first we was fighting over the same again, fighting over the same resources, fighting over the same jobs. And then eventually we started realizing in like, damn, they just like us right now, that wasn't happening in the streets. Here's where

the streets meets the politics. Who's fighting for power, who's fighting for space representation, who gets to control the street corners? And a lot of that spilled out, spilled into and back out of from jail, right, because you know, jail if you, if you, jail is very racially divided. Right. A lot of our relationships in the streets were symbiotic in the sense that, like the weight comes from Mexico, It's coming from whether it's the Cocaina or the Mary Jojana,

it comes from down South. So it's like, well, I mean, we can make money together, you feel me, But I don't trust you. I don't sunk with them, like you see some of these O g s they like, oh well, don't funk with the essays because they their own world. That's day side of town. There's our side of town. And that's how you kept the peace. You know what I'm saying. We just lived segregated at first, but there's just so many and black people started seeing our space shrink.

And you have to remember, like how long it took, whether it was redlining, zoning, all this stuff to finally have space and political power, Like it was hard fought only to finally get to the table. To see now that the PTA meetings is in Spanish, and it's like, nigked ship, Like what have we been going through? So now we can't get no jobs? Now everybody talking about

y'all situation, It's like, I mean, I get it. And then y'all got the nerve and then for black people, y'all got the nerve to be racist against us too. It's like, well, ship man, how the funk you got something to say about us? Nicky? You just got here. You don't even know what you don't even know what we've been through, Like you want the same projects it's us where you think you better than us because it

just wasn't working, you know what I'm saying. So like you had this these tensions that like forty years of coalition building behind the scenes to create the type of beginnings of unity that here I'm gonna argue, had a

lot to do with the l A Riot. You know, the LA riots created the peace treaty among the crips and blood for a little bit, and of course it fell apart, of course, right, but there was a light bulb that turned on among our communities that was like, oh, you know why that lightbulb turns on because watch this. Because the police they put their cars right north of

the Tian Freeway. Because once you get north of the Tian Freeway, you where the money is at least if you if you're looking at South Central Corridor, you on your way to Melrose in the Hollywood. So they was like they could burn themselves down. People not stupid. You start realizing, like we are underrepresented. Now you fast forward to now it's true the majority of local government is black. We're we are now what you would call by the

numbers overrepresented. We're only but we make up two thirds. Like we make up most of the political power in Los Angeles. Why nig it took us a hundred fifty years man, but by sheer numbers of Latinos while they only make up one third of political power. And so the question was how do they get equal representation but not at the cost of black people. Right. There's a story in the l A Times about this young man who, uh, dude, this is Gorge Yeah, Jorge Nuno. He was gonna run

for city council representing the ninth district. It was actually he built this like graphic design business really close to where I'm from, Vernon and Maine. It's it's long story anyway, that's the side that my family is from. But when he decided to run for the ninth district, you know, a Latino dude grew up on that side of town. He heard a resounding you can't run for that district.

And who he heard it from was from his own O geez, the Latino power brokers, like the power brokers inside the city and say now you can't run for that. He was like why, and there was like we have an agreement to keep South l A black, which is like what it's because over forties years, this coalition building of understanding that listen, we need each other. The city is both of us, and you understand that, like our

places to live or shrink y'all everywhere. Joe said, and there's this understanding again because black people are now overrepresented though we understand end that it can't just be about us. You know what I'm saying. Our liberation is connected to everybody's right, not to say that these black people are altruistic in this situation. We ain't always innocent, you feel me, But historical places like look in my own watch this, dude. When I first started dating my wife, there's a city

called Lynnwood that's in south Gate. It's this uh sort of the Southern Corridor, right next to Compton that, from what I knew, was a black neighborhood. Yeah, I hadn't been there in a lot of years. And when I started dating my wife, she said she was gonna introduce me to her nephew. I was like, where does he live? It's like Lynnwood. I was like, Yo, we live and live Wood with all those black people. She was like, what did you talking about. I was like, we're talking

about the st Lynnwood Dog. I got off that freeway. It was a Cardoon sal it was a north Gate, it was an else Supair grocery store. Like there was no signs in English. It was. I was like, when did this place? And for her, she was like, it's always been like this and I was like, no, it hasn't this was a black neighbor hood. She was like when I was like, yeah, I thought my whole life

just it's just numbers. Right. So for these things to work and for us to have like equal rights and say among Los Angeles, we had to build these coalitions and listen, the same thing happened in the streets. This was crazy, Like we built these networks of like, yo, you messed with them, We messed with this, that's yours part of town, that show it is, and then spilled into hip hop right into music and the culture like listen,

it is embodied in Tupac. I hate to say it like this, but Tupacs our patriots, saint like he just we all love him. We share Tupac in in styles and cultures like listen. I can't tell you who got what from who, just even down to the way we dress. Nike Cortez them shoes right, the dope man shoes, I think they're Mexican, right, dickies who wore dickies first, I think the polos, white teas, But who had the flannels, who had the gloves on their hand? Like easy he

had the gloves on their hands? Did he get those from the Vatos? Vatos get that from us, like our whole style addressed decreased Denhams. You know, the the Levi jeans. I think those are the brothers. Those are the black dudes. We got the dickies from them. They got to this. I don't know. It's symbiotic. Who knows who got what from because we've merged our cultures. We outside at the taco stand with the Homie Peppe, you know what I'm saying, Like our our cultures, I don't know who got what.

Looks here's here's what's funny when you listen to again all these like you know, the shy lights and all this stuff that like all these Vatos was listening to and a Low Riders. I bet you a million dollars they didn't know all the bands was black people. Because my wife didn't know. She was like, they're all black. I was like, yes, that is soul music. It's all black music that's bumping out of these Low Riders and

that crazy. Like our cultures over the years have had this beautiful exchange all to get blown up up under the surface. Now finally, let's talk about what this means for our survival and especially in this election time. These are things we have to really think about. It's difficult. I I you know, there's a publication out here called

l A Taco. It's an independent uh journalism. This is a difficult story to cover because you have to be like yo, just because you're Latino, just because you latina, Latino, Dad, I've been really bad on my pronouns here. Don't mean you ain't racist. Down't me, you ain't got some stuff you've gotta deal with, right At the same time, you should have more presentation, you feel me. But how do you do that? That is not at the cost of

other underrepresented people. But here's where it's complicated. Black people aren't underrepresentative, at least in Los Angeles. It's complicated. So what did you do? Well? You did what l A has attempted to do for the last forty years. Build coalitions, do black and brown community community service things. Understand that whatever you're provided for us, you provide for them, and vice versa. That's why when you always hear me, it's

always both of us, because that's the experience here. And when you look in the streets, a lot of that gangship that's from jail, that's the old dude these young niggas don't play that unless they just still on their ignorance stuff. But there there's an understanding that this coalition building has been very fragile and very difficult and very hard, hard fought. A lot of blood has been shared physically

and metaphorically. But the way forward, if you were watching this, could not have been just black people going to city council and being like, yo, I can't believe y'all doing this now. From a black perspective, it was hard. It was heartbreak. We thought we was cool. Matter of fact, and listen, listen, I'm gonna speak black people period. Like when you when you're looking up and down the uh, when you're looking up and down the ballot, and you

don't know who the person is. If you don't know if that person black, you just look for the Spanish surname. You look for the Rodriguez. You're like, oh, you're probably cool. You know what I'm saying, because we're like, well, I mean, at least you get it. That's our perspective. It's like, well, you know, it's not the same, but I'd rather have one of them if it ain't gonna be one of us.

And this this put all that in question, but it also gave us a chance to revisit the types of unity among suffering people that could only lead to our success. And again, it couldn't have just been black people in the uproar. It's been dope to see the Latin community come together and say we will not stand for this ship. Black love, Brown pride to live and die in that lane. Yeah, this is the thing was recorded by Me Propaganda and

East Low Spoil Heights, Los Angeles, California. This mug was mixed, edited, mastered, and scored by Matt Osowski. I can totally say his name, guys, it was it was a stick. He's going by Matt now again because he got into legal situations with the name Headlights. Y'all know, common used to be called common sense. You know, Tip t I was tipped Sometimes it happens.

Executive produced by the one and only Sophie Lichtman for a Cool Zone Media and the theme music by the one and only Gold Tips Gold Tips d J Shawn p. So y'all just remember listen every time you check in. If you understand city living, you understand politics, We'll see you'll next week