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Welcome home, y'all. This is episode ninety seven, just three shy of one hundred of Natal lampid, where we give you our breakdown of all things politics and culture. We are your host, Angelo Rode, Tiffany Cross, and i'll manager Gellim. What's up, fellow co hosts, how y'all feeling.
Let's get into it. What were talking about today?
Before we get into it, I just want to remind y'all we've got a great, big, important event coming up. Native lamp Pod will be live next weekend Saturday. That'll be September twenty seventh, from five pm to seven pm at the Congressional Black Carcass Foundation's Annual Legislative Conference and Phoenix Awards Dinner. We are really, really, really honored, as we did last year, to bring you coverage interviews from our top nations leaders on the Democratic side, and other
organizations you will want to hear from. So please, please please please go ahead and put that in the calendar pencils in a date September twenty seven, five to seven PM check us out. What are we talking about today, y'all? Aside from will be at the CBC Foundations conference coming up soon, what else we got going.
There's so much happening in the world.
One of the things that I think we should definitely get to is this HBCU funding myth which is one that has followed Donald Trump since the first administration. So hopefully we can talk about that and what they do to just shift resources when it's not for billionaires, they just move the funding around.
Tiff, what's up, Hi?
There's a lot of heavy things going on, but Angela had a really great idea that I'm excited to talk about to have Sergio Hudson on the show. Today is Fashion Week running over the past few days in New York. Fashion Week is a really big deal for designers, and we're not having a flighty conversation about this. We're talking about the role that black influencers, in black celebrities play on brands and how that impacts commerce, what we wear,
and how it drives opinions. And sometimes we can prioritize that thought that white is right, and we wear white designers, but we may not put our money or our time in black designers. So we're going to get into an economic but also a social conversation about that. And so I'm thrilled that we actually have Sergio Huson joining in the show, So you guys don't want to miss that, So stick around for that.
Nice. That's good. That's good, y'all. So speaking on the heavy side, obviously, this last week in the country, we saw a political murder of Charlie Kirk and it's gathered a lot of attention and quite the how will you say, difference in reaction depending upon, frankly, the character of the person who's responding, and I'd love for us to just sort of talk a little bit about what this moment means for the country, for us, for our community, and give a little bit of reflection on that writ large.
And with that, y'all, we're going to get into this show. Stay tuned. Remember if you like what it is that you hear, we're bringing you everything that we can every week, week in and week out, as honest, as direct, as informative as we can be. And what we ask you to do simply is to subscribe, rate, review, share, invite a friend, and encourage their listenership.
I think we should get to Charlie Kirk because something that was interesting in the comments, a lot of people were saying, I'm fifty nine minutes in and you guys haven't talked about Charlie Kirk yet. And so I do want our audience to understand that the shooting death of Charlie Kirk occurred when we were wrapping up the recording of this podcast, so we were not aware and that's
why we didn't get into it. But Angela did have a conversation with Michael Harriet, whose book is almost two years old and remains on the New York Times bestseller list Black af History, in her solo pod, where they didn't necessarily focus solely on Charlie Kirk, but talked about white violence. And I think that is an important part of this conversation today, Angela. Where can they find that if they could want to check that out.
So all of our podcasts are available anywhere you get your podcasts, including our YouTube channel, So all of our podcasts can be found in the same place.
Yeah, Tiffany, I'm glad you raised that because, in truth, for the benefit of our audience, we did actually communicate after the news broke of the murder of Charlie Kirk there in Utah, and my reaction when we had finished in rap recording and then learned about what it occurred, was obviously immediate, you know, regret, you know, to see you know, political violence kind of making the kind of return that we've seen it make in the past several
months and years. Just think a couple of weeks back, the killing assassination, political assassination of political leaders who in Minnesota, who had served faithfully their state for many, many years, decades in cases, and had their lives just snuffed out.
And so of course my immediate reaction being just deep regret about that, and that I think our humanity has to triumph over most things, hopefully everything, and situations like this that you can vehemently disagree with the person and find their belief system, you know, back age and backwoods and still not rejoice, you know, at an event so tragic. But I did also like that I was glad that it didn't happen, you know, while we were in the episode and knew about it, because I'm not sure that
I could have you know, I would not. I can't feign mourning. I can certainly be honest about the loss of a life, and how tragic that is, certainly to a husband and father. For a husband and father leaving, you know, their young kids behind, they have every expectation to grow up with their dad. A spouse who you know, has every intention of spending their lives with their partner.
So at a human level, I can get it, but I didn't necessarily trust that I could in the moment really discount all the things that I know, all the things I've heard, all the things that bring me to such vehement disagreement. I hope that I could have trust my trusted myself to to balance all of that. But I'm not all the way certain My regrets still exists, and prayers for their family as they they deal with
it can exist at the very humane level. And what can also exist, or rather coexists, is that I still very much so disagree with his words, and I think the legacy that his words will will leave, and my, my, my, my hope would have been that he would have had the benefit of living out a long life, certainly one long enough where he would have benefited from not just age and living, but wisdom that could have controverted you know, many of the thoughts that he had in his thirties.
I think about myself in my thirties and the stuff I said, and the way in which I comported myself and the beauty that the gift that age gives us is the ability to I think, see more clearly, live a little bit more life, and hopefully learn something that Heck and my mid forties, I'm not the same you know, Andrew,
I was in my in my early thirties. But that being said, this debate has really taken off, you know, almost the two sides of this thing, where if you were a sympathizer and a follower of Kirk, you have the monopoly on your mourning and monopoly on grief and monopoly on sorrow for another human's life being taken, and that if you square that with his real lived legacy, what he promoted in life, that somehow you're denigrating to him just as you celebrate him for what he said.
At the same token, I can say I disagree, and I disagree vehemently with what he said in the danger
that it brought to so many people. So I just I really hate that we're in this moment so ratcheted up at the very top, starting with our president of the United States, who should have used this as a moment to bring people together instead used it as a way to divide us further, and even the possibility of weaponizing government in a way that they use it as a cudgel against their political opponent, not in the vein of memorializing Charlie Kirk, but really, you know, with the
intention of amassing more political power and really demolishing their political opponents. And there's just something deeply wrong about it at every level from my perspective. But I'm interested to hear how y'all felt and one learning the news but now having taken it in over this last week, how you how you how you sort of analyze the state of where we are.
I would just say, we have a listener question on that, so if on this topic, so if we could get to that as well and then come back, I think that would be good.
Angela is a favorite listener, Amos Cross and Amos Ry. So seeing any difference in reactions in our community, which has been a widespread of different reactions, do you believe that this is the time for us to have a good faith discussion in our community politically? I think eventually you will have to have one, but it's so who
and what can facilitate such a conversation. I have black friends who are fairly educated at either New Trolley Kirk or I actually have one friend who actually worked with him, and they are all destroyed about his assassination. So do we call these people sell offs and just move on from them? It's important to talk right because our only gains, as you know, as a community, has been.
Through the political system.
And it wasn't because a pack of senators had a heart.
It was because they wanted our votes.
So with how fragmented we are, will.
We ever see political benefits again as a community?
Have a part tim to the question, but I.
Shall thank you for the question.
I think this is a really tricky topic for me because what I have a natural disposition to do is to protect black people. This shooting occurred, and shortly after the shooting occurred, the rhetoric around what happened at Utah Valley State, and I'm saying Utah for a reason. I would encourage our listeners to go and look up the demographics of Utah and the demographics most specifically at Utah
Valley State. It was almost immediate that it was the dangerous left that was far more violent than anybody on the right, and the implication was almost that it was somebody who was black or brown and not from this country.
The vitriol and the hate field speech and the violent speech around that, the number of posts on social media that I saw calling for war is the very reason why I had the podcast that I did yesterday, because there's something in us, and we talked about this that is epigenetically tied to the history of that type of hate speech, the type of speech that resulted in the destruction of our communities, the ones that we set up
because we wanted to feel safe amongst our own. Some of those communities also include historically black colleges, which I know we're going to speak to later, but some of them were on lockdown the very next day after Charlie Kirk was killed because they were receiving threats. Just slightly under a dozen HBCUs received threats, including those that uh TIFFs Alma Mater Clark right there. There was Hampton, Alabama State,
Virginia State, Southern University, and so many others. Spellman and went on lockdown, and under us they Esport a specific
safety protocol. But I'm saying that to say that what we have to reckon with in this country, or maybe it's day at this point, have to reckon with in this country is why it is okay to hear about violence, a violent occurring, a violent death occurring, and automatically assume that that is on a When you look at the last several political assassinations, political killings, politically related deaths, those
have all been done by white people. And so that is why we had a conversation about white on white crime, about white violence, about white hatred. While we're talking about this, we're not talking about the student that was found hanged at Delta State University. We don't know all the facts around that, but it is certainly earily timed that we should call a thing a thing. I think the last thing I just want to point out here that I also think is violent. We talked about the violent speech
around war specifically and all that. What also is violent in this moment is misinformation. And there were several posts going up. One of them I even sent to a group of black media friends, like, do y'all know if this is true? I can't find anything on it, but do you see anything. There were a number of players in the NFL who they claimed we're supporting Charlie Kirk's
family after the death. After his death, and there was nobody like going in to correct the record on these young folks that they weren't in fact doing that.
If they were, that as their prerogative.
But I find it really hard to believe that someone who was so vitriolic and hate Field and calling people that we know and love dumb and saying they don't deserve to be in position, that they would then go and say we're gonna set up these funds and pay for his funeral and do all of these things. Maybe that's a Christian way I just don't understand, but what it ended up being was violent misinformation, and I think that's something we also have to be calling out at
this moment. And I apologize y'all for my voice.
I like a raspy voice.
I love when my voice sounds like that, But I you know, I have to say I would have completely trusted myself speaking in the moment about Charlie Kirk one because my aim is always to inform, and so you know, I remember being twenty two on the breaking news desk when things happen and you got to like write something really quick for an anger. So I would have been fine with it. Have been fine because my thoughts have not changed from the moment I heard about his death
to how I feel now. And that is to say this, I nobody wishes death on anybody.
I don't.
I don't.
I don't wish for anyone to be killed. And I also allow space for memorializing who this man was in life, and who he was in life is very apparent when we talk about political violence in this country, there is no debate about where it's coming from. Angeliue, you referenced the demographics of Utah, and so I just want folks to know it is nearly eighty seven percent white in Utah. The student body of Utah Valley University. Is that where
it happened. Yeah, there, they have about thirty six thousand students who are not of color and then less than ten thousand students who are, and they don't disaggregate that demographic. And so but even without knowing that, like we know, Utah's a solid red state, extremely heavily Republican, So none of us were questioning about who the shooter might be and had we been on air, we would have been
responsible enough to not speculate about that. And it was just surprising to see how the media just immediately latched on to whatever the White House said and presented it out there with very little filter. So it it's discouraging when you have to try to tell people you know, verify and the legacy media doesn't even do that. Since Charlie Kirk's death, I will say, around around the time that he was murdered, he was encouraging a lawsuit again
me for something I said. I don't need to relitigate it here, but I spoke about it at length with Michael Harriet for Contraband Camp. So I encourage you all to look at that interview if you want to see what I said. And I stand firm in what I said. I don't speak I try not to speak irresponsibly. But the death threats that not just myself, but so many people in our group chat have gotten have been extremely detailed,
extremely provocative, extremely specific. They have said to some of our friends, They've named their address, they've named their family members, they've named towns where they live.
Uh.
Someone posted h to their followers when we see Tiffany Cross out and about on the streets, make sure we treat that dumb bitch like the terrorist she is. Remember, the Constitution says we can overthrow a corrupt government, and we can also take out any domestic terrorists.
And right now all fake news are terrorists.
So the conversation around right wing violence versus left wing violence, I think is an important one for us to have today. We are seeing facts are not facts anymore, and we are seeing the destruction of that and you know various You know how sports teams had a moment of silence, schools in Oklahoma had a moment of silence, And these things are incredibly corrosive to the moral spirit of people who may not have lived through something like this before.
The DJ even scrubbed a study from its website that concluded that far right extremism has killed far more Americans than any other domestic threat. They scrubbed that study within our words of Charlie Kirk's death. There's a book God's Guns and Sedition Far Right Terrorism in America that documents
how right wing extremism has been on the rise. If we look at just the incidents that's happened the past few years, from the storing of the US Capital, to Nancy Pelosi's husband, to the two state lawmakers, to the attempted stabbing of the gubernatorial candidate Lee Zelden. Even Trump Donald Trump faced threats on his life, the kid, the
young people, the young staffers at the Jewish Museum. A majority of that violence comes from right wing I also think it's important, Andrew, that when you hear these studies, you have to ask, how are these studies conducted? You know, you might read, you know, according to the Cato Incident or according to the Cato Institute. This is, you know, the data around right wing studies according to cap or whatever. But I tend to dig into those studies. When did
you conduct this study? Well, how are you categorizing right wing extremism? How are you categorizing left wing extremism. It all still leads to the same thing that most of this comes from right wing extremists. But I just want folks to know. Oftentimes they will categorize left wing attacks as those motivated by animal abuse, environmentalism, of anti police sentiment,
and we know what that means for black people. When they talk about right wing extremism, they are including at tax motivated motivated by sentiments like white supremacy and anti abortion. So as we get into this conversation, I just want to set that tone with actual information, and just because you might quote a study or something, I think it's important to know how they gathered that data and the
story that that data might tell us. But Andrew, I know that you too think that we should memorialize him using his own words, Oh for.
Sure, which is why that's what we'll do. On the other side of this, we'll hear Charlie Kirk and Charlie Kirk's along the words comparing abortion to the Holocaust. Absolutely, I am. In fact, it's worse.
It's worse where these blacks trying to go rob her happening all the time in urban America. Prowling blacks go around for fun to go target white people.
That's a fact.
Black crime is a major issue in our country. Why are you pushing criminal justice reform?
Exactly?
Joy Reed and Michelle Obama and Shila Jackson Lee and Catangi Brown Jackson, they're coming out and they're saying, I'm only here because of affirmative action. Yeah, we know you do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person slot to go be taken somewhat seriously. Now, the southern border is, of course the great replacement they're trying to replace demographically. They're trying to make the country less white.
It is an anti white agenda. If I see a black pilot, I'm gonna be like, boy, I hope he's qualified. Taylor Swift is now engaged to Travis Kelcey. This is something that I hope will make Taylor Swift more conservative. Reject feminism, Submit to your husband, Taylor, you're not in charge. America was at its peak when we halted immigration for forty years and we dropped our foreign born percentage to its lowest level ever.
Miss Rachel.
You quote Leviticus nineteen, Love your neighbors yourself. The chapter before affirms God's perfect law when it comes to sexual matters.
In Leviticus eighteen is that.
Thou shall lay with another man shall be stoned to death. Can we get that picture up, Ryan, of that Marvel's Avenger team. Now, I don't know who the person is on the left. Is the person on the left that tray that came into the interview with Joe the TikTok. Your government is being run by freaks. Immediately, I have like a flashback to a country where weren't able to do bud light commercials. What is being trans even mean? Does it even is that even a real thing? It
means you need therapy. We must ban trans affirming care the entire country. I do think that there is a direct correlation between someone's testosterone and their politics. On young men, the lower their testosterone, the more likely they are to be democratic.
So if you had a daughter and she was ten and she got rapped and she was going to give birth, and she would wait, oh, and she was gonna give birth and she was gonna live, would you want her to go through that and carry her baby? It's no, but it's a real life scenario that happens to many people.
Answer is yes, the baby would be delivered. When blacks in America did not have the same rights they had today, were less, they were less murderous, there was less break ins.
Why is that so?
I'm sorry, are you trying to say that blacks thrive under subjecation.
I'm saying that I'm asking you the question. The data shows they were actually better. In the nineteen forties, it was bad, it was evil, but what happened, something changed. I'm done talking about Epstein for the time being. I'm going to trust my friends the administration.
So clearly y'all can hear the pure hatred, the indecency, the inhumanity, the trafficking, and just the most gutterist form of not even politics of humanity, you know that we
have to live with. But I'll tell you I worked for a civil liberties organization for the majority of my working life, people for the American Way, and part of our founder Norman Lear's, you know, real premise was the fact that even a Charlie Kirk would we have to defend his ability to say whatever the hell he thinks and believes, even if it is something that we disagree with vehemently and in truth. The right used to hold up the banner. That's you know, these liberal touchy feely
woke what is the other one, the cancel culture? And now these are the same people who are attempting to regulate what it is that we say, to redefine free speech as no freedom to speak at all. Let's hear from our top cop, top prosecutor and what she in this administration have to say about.
That there's free speech and then there's hate speech, and there is no place, especially now, especially after what happened to Charlie in our society.
Do you see more law enforcement going after these groups who are using hate speech and putting cuffs on people, so we show them that some action is better than no action.
We will absolutely target you, go after you if you.
Are targeting anyone with.
Hate speech anything, and that's across the aisle, you know.
Love it or hate it. Hate speech unfortunately is still projected speech and under the Constitution and by the Supreme Corps.
But I will say this, there's a lot troubling about what Pam Bondi said there, but I was struck first by her saying we will absolutely, especially after what happened to Charlie kurt As if she wasn't around three four five weeks ago, when legislators were struck down in their beds practically in the middle of the night, awoken by right wing extremists coming to kill them, and you know, by the grace of God, many other legislators were spare.
So I tell you it'd be one thing if you could trust the government to clamp down on quote hate speech if they were actually going to do it justly and rightly, and go to the people who are actually provocateurs of hate speech, because that would mean they'd have to clean out their own bedrooms first. But I have no
trust in it. And where I see a going now with this Attorney general slash personal counselor to Donald Trump is the weaponizing of all of the forces of government to include stripping people of their five oh one C three non tax tax status, organizations, prosecuting presidents of organizations C three C fours, and then forget about us, y'all podcasters, every day folks who are out just demanding justice in their community, who are now being accused of hate speech
because they happen to disagree with the people who happen to be in government. Now, I wonder does that ring alarm bells for y'all? And what warnings do we need to give to our community about the win which they may now use their power to subjugate us further.
You know, the thing that comes to mind is, well, it's twofold. One is there's been a lot of conversation on right versus left, But I still think this is a conversation about white versus white. The reason I'm saying that is because the Emmet Til Anti Lynching Act was just passed in Congress in twenty twenty two. Right, This
was just passed in Congress in twenty twenty two. And I'm bringing that up to say that the protection of black people against violent rhetoric and then the violent actions that are taken on the other side of that violent rhetoric was just put into law three years ago. We have to have the conversation that many have been afraid to. I don't think that this is along ideological lines. This
is a race battle. This is one where there are governors of progressive, liberal and even moderate democratic states, so left states that have flags flying at half mass, or that we're flying at half mass in honor of this man's contributions to society, even when those contributions resulted in death threats to people we love, like Tiff.
I think that is something we have to wrestle with.
Why is it that someone who can cause such great grave harm to people who look like us be celebrated
and given a hero's welcome. Why is it that the Confederate soldiers, folks who they read about with glory, even though we know the real story, get celebrated, statues, schools named after them, streets named after them, all of the things that are being talked about someone who frankly utilized Confederate ideology in his podcast regularly, right, Like, how is that something that we should protect, honor and lift up.
I think that that is something that really has to be wrestled with in this country, and it is highly problematic, and it is absolutely violent. It is the kind of thing where it felt like to me we were being gas lit for the last week literally since we walked off air on our podcast. I'm just like, what are they seeing about this human being that I do not see? When I hear what he says, it sounds harmful. When I hear what he says, it sounds like, is I
know it's a lie? You know, like talking about our brain processing power? Those are things that they did in po genetic studies for years under the guise of medical care. The way that they practiced on our bodies and experimented on us, All of those things are racist, and those are the very things racial eugenics that he's lifting up. Right, So anyway, I just it's it's not a right versus left conversation. Well, it's a versus white conversation.
I hear you, I absolutely hear you. I will say, though, I think it's different saying that a person didn't does shit. We don't celebrate or lift up the murder of people who happen to that we happen to disagree with it will be on the opposite side of us. I think that's a hardline. Period enough said, that's my statement there. But I also agree with you that this idea, the honorifics that have been extended by the American on behalf
of the American taxpayer has been mind boggling. I can agree that you should not be killed for your political beliefs, and at the same time, I can say I do not believe that American taxpayer dollars should have been used to fly a private citizen's body in an American aircraft with such dignity and honorifics that were extended by this administration that we want to.
Say issue with political beliefs. To me, what he said, well, what did you take?
I do take issue with that. The problem is is there are people who disagree as vehemently with the things we believe.
But I'm saying what he'spewed, was it political beliefs? They were?
It was it was it was a political belief to the extent that it drove them to the conclusion that that is why DEI should not exist, and that is why we shouldn't put black people on the US Supreme Court, and that is why we shouldn't have black pilots, male or female, flying commercial airliners and jets of large proportion.
So when, when when their racist beliefs lead to public policy prescripts, then absolutely it's gonna you go hear from me on all sides of it, because consequentially, I could deal with a person who hates me because of the color of my skin but don't have the power to do shit about it.
But I guess what I'm saying different, it's the person looks.
I guess I'm saying, no, no.
No, no.
I agree that it's not just political consequences. I completely agree. I think about Ruby Freeman and her daughter and the terra that they had to exist and try to survive through at the hands of the Trump presidential campaign, and they're lingering folks, So I get what it means for
us down deep. But what I'm saying, the reason why I where I take exception, where you're going to hear from me, is when your belief system, and your disparaging belief about me, my wife, my family, the conditions in which we live and the values of which we hold, is when they lead to a political outcome that then disenfranchises me, That then creates the permission structure for my murder, That then creates the permission structure for me to be
fireful without cause, with no justification, simply because of the color of my skin.
And That's what I'm saying. The ramifications are far beyond politics. I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm just saying his belief system is one that impacted nonprofit and philanthropic giving. It impacted whether or not there was DEI policy in the federal government, in state and local governments, and in corporations.
It impacted whether or not kids could be admitted to school.
And sure we can say that even a court decision is a policy based could have policy based impacts, and is therefore political. But what I don't want to do, hopefully in this conversation, is limits this man's rhetoric and dangerous impact on society to squarely political because it was so far beyond politics.
Well, as a political scientist, politics is again about the study of people, so it isn't necessarily derivative of whether or not that study has implications on public policy. So I understand that you don't want us to talk strictly in that vein all the reason I have to say why I think politics can't even begin to completely encapsulate
the danger. Yes, right, the danger presented. And that's why his murder matters is because in life, the way in which he could impact our everyday existence in this country simply by his utterances as ignorant as as as ignorant as they were. Yeah, I think it got JD elected, got Trump re elected, got you know, so on and so forth.
Yeah, I think you I understand your point, Andrew, I really do. I deeply connect with your point, Angela, and I think you both are you know, Angela, you might be starting here, and Andrew you pick up here.
But if we're both all.
Going the same direction in the same lane, I connect, I think, Angela with your point deeply because it is our humanity.
Andrew.
I think what you're saying is yes, but that policy will impact our humanity. I think because I'm looking at this strictly through the lens of humanity, I hear you Andrew that, Yes, of course we don't celebrate someone's murder, we don't uplift it, we don't encourage things like that, of course, because we are rooted in humanity. But I will be hones this with you. I do not grieve it, not for a single solitary second.
This I grieve it, right.
I don't think any of us gree but I'm just saying it's almost getting to the point where it's like you have to come out and grieve this. I do not grieve it, not for a single second. When our disagreement is rooted in my destruction, I do not grieve that death. It was not just Charlie Kirk. I mean,
he is not the martyr here. Tana Hase Coates did some amazing thought piece for Vanity Fair, and he did some really in depth reporting within this thought piece, Crystal Clanton, the group's turning point is his group turning point.
USA. She wants texted.
According to ton of Hakki's reporting, she wants to text and this is triple facts. I talked to ton of Haze about this. This is vetted and fact checked. She wants, texted a fellow Turning Point employee, I hate black people, like fuck them all.
I hate black's end of story.
One of the group's advisors, Written McIntosh, published a newsletter featuring an essay from a writer that said blacks had become socially incompatible with other races and black culture is
unfixable and a crime written mess. In twenty twenty two, after three black football players were killed at a school, Meg Miller, president of Turning Points chapter at the University of Missouri, quote unquote, joked in a social media message, if they would have killed four more niggers, we would have had the whole week off.
So this is the ilk of people who.
He followed, who the ruling class is suggesting that we mourn that we grave when really we were like, so what's y'all having for dinner tonight?
Like what's everybody doing this weekend?
You know, it was not this moment of grief for us, and I will not be scared into silence around that. I think we have every right and if not even a right, a responsibility to say that's it this is how we feel. I don't know Andrew what you're talking about. There is a pathway to a solution. I think in our politics there's a pathway to a solution.
But the not one that doesn't go through our humanity.
This is my point.
The humanity piece I do not believe has a solution. I don't know the solution around that. I don't know that there is a solution, which is why I deeply connect it with Angel's point around humanity right.
Part of where I come from on this about how they see my humanity, and it's probably built out of the fact that I live in the South. There is a polite disagree There is a polite understanding that we are oftentimes co located walking next to, standing in line, in front of, or behind somebody who doesn't respect my humanity, doesn't believe I deserve what I got and where I am, or or would wish me the worst. I almost in so many cases wish that they could just say the thing.
And part of what I appreciate in sub cases about it and Souf is someone will call you a nigger right, or will put it on their truck or fly their Confederate flag. You know, Hi, you know, loud and proud on that said truck to just remind you of where they think your place is. And so much of me has been muted to that. It's like, okay, cool, you make your way right on back down the street, the way it is you live, and what all you've earned
and accumulated for yourself and for your family. But the place where it is a non negotiable is when that thing starts to then impact where my kids get to go to school, how they get to experience their education, whether or not they can compete competitively, either for debate or for football, base or dance or ballet, whatever it is that they choose, whether it impacts my ability and
then compete on the job. And I know that it does right because a lot of these people then get to take those same attitudes into managerial positions deciding who
gets to then join this part of the workforce. But as it relates, I don't want to go on a crazy tangent, but I just wanted to say I'm less muted, I'm more muted to their respect from my humanity, and I'm much more cinched in this idea of when you're backwards ass you know, depraved beliefs, really about yourself, because I know that's what's at the seat of it all is the fact that you and I can't compete with
each other. We're not in the same league. You're absolutely correct, and you got four hundred years plus of denigration on me to have all the levels above. But unfortunately you and I found your yourself and real competition, and you cannot take.
The heart I'm not competition.
It's again if we had to be generous with the word, now you find yourself in competition with me, and you realize, well, what their parents realize is that they're back on the couch. That their parents know is they didn't got the jobs that they thought that they were going to be given off of their quality, which now they are having to compete off of the content and the quality, and they
can't pass the mustard. And so that fury is is really a rejection and in reflection of the fact that they are not prepared for this moment.
Yes they're not, but I don't think they've been prepared for a lot of moments. But I think that is the the the overwhelming evidence supports that racist, conservative white people, whatever category they fall in, the right wing extremist, maga, whatever you want to call them. The truth is they do not believe in themselves enough. Because if they believe in themselves enough, they would not have to keep the playing field.
So seesaw so.
Lots of exactly, and so because they don't, while we have so much belief in ourselves, we can look at this lopsided playing field and say, watch me, hurtle every one of these mothers, and I'm gonna go well beyond. I'm gonna reach depths that they have not even thought about. And that is something that they find infuriating, that they cannot coexist with.
And they respond in violence.
And you know the thing I will say about this violence that's so scary is I watched the video of him getting shot through through the neck more times than I care to admit, in fear because that shot was precise.
I mean, it just made me sick.
I was terrified watching that because we all speak publicly. And what frightened me about it is in the immediate aftermath, it was almost a whisper of go seek revenge. You guys like go go out and whoever did this.
It was on bullhorn and it was on every social post.
From the highest levels of I mean, that's what I mean that it was a permission structure.
That was loud, that was.
Truth social let's pull the post.
And when it was saying they.
Weren't mourning and we weren't mourning and grieving, I was morning and grief.
Follow the orders, right, because otherwise would not have had to close.
You were mourning way, So I'm mourning and grieving our ability to it feels like there are pieces of our freedom that are being dismantled every single day, sometimes by the hour. So not grieving someone who's caused pain, but grieving what is going to be the repercussions on us and our freedoms as a result of how they began to frame this narrative.
And even now when.
As soon as they found out that that little white boy killed him, it was prayers up for him. Before they realized that it was not a black or brown person, they were on our heads like we ready to put y'all back in the belly of a slave ship and send you back across the ocean, right. And then as soon as they realized who he was, the prayers up. Now the frame is about whether or not he had a trans partner who was transitioning in the fall, so they can put it back at the feet of the left.
Which is by the way, insane, right, Yes, because none of us. First of all, I've been around LGBT politics from my work professionally and also personally, and I would never connote simply a person's identity as an LGBTQ per as being less right. I don't know what you were raised in a conservative Utah household, And simply because your life partner at this time and your life might be a trans person does not tell me anything about what you think about me. Hello, thank you, And the examples
can go on and on and on. So even the trans pivot that the right is attempting to make that on square with my politics, necessarily I don't know. While I am a supporter of trans rights, what I don't know is anything about what this man believed politically. And by the way, he's never voted a day in his lives.
It's not just the right attachment that, it's the media like they are clamping onto that too.
Is there a difference because.
Responsibility like I know these people and they're on air like I know them, and just to hear them regurgitate what talking points from the White House or tap dance around what's real. It's so disappointing to see it's just a I don't know, it's just a lost cause. And I just feel like on some level at this point
I have been I feel so disconnected from politics. But I totally understand your point are and you brought it home beautifully when you were talking about impact where your kids can go to school, and those are very real, tangible things. But when I get to the humanity piece,
it just I don't know. I just feel so disconnected from this landscape and the closest thing I can compare it to I think you know about like enslaved women or just women who were trying to make it during the civil rights movement in the forties, fifties and sixties, when your spirit is in such danger that you got to huddle together and you've so far above you can't even meddle in this melee right now, It can feel like that is the devil's business to be even engaging
you in conversation and what you call a good health debate. The one thing, and I think it's even above this, but the word that you use Angela that I have been I don't know if you created this phrase or not, but I have definitely been using it as though it is my own, and that is psychological safety. Ever since you've said that, I've said that so often because that is what I feel. Every time I'm doing Abby show, I do like all day I'm tight, I feel so
just uncomfortable. When I walk in there, I feel uncomfortable. And when I feel that way in life, I vacate. I flee, like don't. I don't engage in that. And I at this point, am starting to feel that way off TV sets. I'm starting to feel that way around people. And in my spirit, something is stirring saying it is time to elevate.
It is time to in this.
The spirit inside you that is on this earth having a human experience needs to elevate. And I feel that spirit of commonality and a whole lot of other black women too. Now it could be with black men, but I talk to a lot of black women who just are We're kind of observing, like Wow, this is really happening.
And that doesn't mean we're apathetic.
It doesn't mean we're not gonna vote, doesn't mean we're not organizing, but I take very extended breaks from looking at the minutia of what's happening in this world because it weighs my spirit down in a way that doesn't feel right to me. It doesn't feel natural to me. So I don't know what other people are going through what I feel that.
That's powerful, and I know we're closing out, but well.
And just really quick, I do want to say that while this country continues to grieve so many instances of loss of life, political officials who were in states that where flags were not flowing half masks and they weren't even acknowledged by the president for losing their lives. But I also want to point out that the day after Charlie Kirk was killed last Thursday, there was another high
school shooting at Evergreen High School in Colorado. And I think it's important for us to realize that yes, people kill people, but the access to guns and the lack of gun safety in this country will continue to perpetuate all types of harm and violence if we don't get it under control. I think that is a non partisan problem. Bullets are nonpartisan, and so should our ideology be around protecting citizens.
Yeah, you know, you'd almost think our humanity would also be non partisan adviting.
How about that.
Before a search I'll comes on, Andrew, do we have time to talk at least briefly about HBCUs or do y'all want to do that in the mini.
I'd love to hear, Angela. I don't know if you feel comfortable just sort of bringing us into that real quick. I think it's important that we RaSE suspected for our community about what's happening on the funding.
Yeah, absolutely so.
First, I just want to acknowledge that our schools have been fighting for their lives since the foundation. You all as should we see you grad certainly know that you know, historically black colleges and universities have to do more with less all the time, and this is no different. So the Trump administration recently made an announcement that it was giving five hundred million dollars to historically black colleges and
universities after cutting funding for minority serving institutions. And what I wanted to do in this moment was just a flag that this was not a new grant or a new gift like what they do for rich taxpayers. It actually resulted from a taking so this administration cut three hundred and fifty million dollars that supported minority students in science and engineering in STEM fields. We know that black
students are are historically underrepresented in STEM fields. Three hundred and fifty million dollars was cut from federal grants two minority serving institutions. Again, remember that number three hundred and fifty million. There was a five hundred million dollar influx to HBCUs and to charters. Nearly one hundred and forty million was cut from teacher training programs because the administration
claims that it promoted quote racially divisive ideology. Additionally, fifteen million was cut from Magnet schools specifically created to combat school segregation and provide educational opportunity for black students. And lastly, nine million cut from Gifted and Talented programs. The administration said that these used quote racial targeting and recruitment, suggesting
they were actively working to include black students. Now here's the thing that I just want to flag, because people love to say that something was the lesser of two
evils when we talk about our politics. The difference between the five hundred million dollar transfer from minority serving institutions and programs that help black students is that under the Biden Harris administration, they invested seventeen billion over four years to historically black colleges and universities, and those were not
transfers from other minority serving institutions. I think people will often and I want to flag this for our audience because we can get a little black versus brown, black versus indigenous on here in ways that I don't like. Let me make it clear to you that one bucket I used to work for an organization that represents historically black colleges and universities. It's called NAFIO, the National Association for Equal Opportunity and Higher Education. You can look it
up to fact check me. Under Minority serving institutions and Title three funding is something called predominantly Black institutions. So it's not just Hispanic serving its institutions and Native American serving institutions that experience these cuts, it's also predominantly black institutions.
I would I appreciate that, Angela. I would also simply add that also be careful where it is that they are targeting the influx of resources, because if you've experienced being an HBC in a state like mind, like Florida, where on one hand they like to look like they're dangling these nice influxes of resources, but with the other hand, and sometimes with the same damn hand they're giving. They are taking away our professional degree programs. They are reducing
our ability to produce massterial and doctoral degree programs. They're removing research funding from US and putting it with pwis eliminating the opportunity for our kids to get our college
students to get access to that. So essentially, what they have resigned themselves to is if we're going to support blacker educational institutions, we will support them in being a bacalaureate degree manufacturing institution, but we will not put resources into their ability to become lawyers, doctors, professional degree earning seeking and earning individuals where they can earn greater resource, more money, attain higher degrees, more pay, and also ability
with certain positions to attain those positions. But we'll go ahead and give them a baculoia degree manufacturing institution, but we won't offer them the opportunity at higher levels of education, higher levels of opportunity for research where they are quickly and assiduously moving the cheese is in the direction of that level of educational performance and production and then trying to relegate us to only being baculoiate degree granting institutions.
Yeah, well, I think this is a conversation we'll pick up again and again because it's to me it seems like a coded effort to stoke a war, to have communities fighting over crumbs while.
They always steak.
So, yeah, will visit this.
Okay, native lampod vam.
Just on the other side of this break, we'll be joined by Sergio Hudson and IgA Beckham family that Tif and I and we hope that they become family to YouTube.
So joining us.
Now we have two powerhouses in the fashion industry. Many of you all may know that it is New York Fashion Week time. It's Tiffany and I's favorite time of the year. But sadly both of us we're not able to join people who will become like dear family members
to us. And they are joining us here to talk about really the role they've had as black designers, a fashion powerhouse in this industry, the many ways in which it is challenging, in all of the many ways in which they've overcome, they are inga Beckham, who is the CEO of Sergio Husband and Sergio Husband himself the creative director and co founder with Inga Beckham of this incredible brand.
Hey, y'all, we missed the shows.
I'm so bummed I can be there.
Well, you'll see on the screen pictures of Angela and I each year sitting there gawking and drooling over every dress and design coming down. We literally sit there the whole time just tapping each other. And we are very lucky and fortunate to be donned in Sergio when we were seated front row in Sergio Hudson's show, So we consider it an honor and a privilege to be on your invite list every year. So thank you both. So y'all have come through, and Inga, you know y'all have
come through for us many many times. So we love you both.
But Inga, you know we.
We we owe you drinks and dinners, I'm sure.
Yes, and all the flowers.
But I do want to just say we do appreciate y'all, And I think Tip what you said is a good place to start. Tip talked about the two of us being there, but also y'all know the machetes show up regularly to Sergio Hudson fashion shows twice a year where Fashion Week takes place.
You all have been clutch for us emotionally.
You all have been clutch for us just you know, in terms of all the ratchet things we do, cracking all the jokes, and I think that we together have built a community of encouragement. And so the expectation I have for y'all is that our community would support you all the ways in which you support the community. And I would argue, there are a lot of people that don't know all of the things you do. But I'm just gonna give y'all one quick example and then we
can get into this. As Inga sits before us right now, she is rocking Simone Simone Smith's earrings. There is not a black brand that they see as a competitor. They see them as family. And even for black entertainers A Listers, B Listers, Z listers, I'm a Z lister, They look out and take care of us right like you guys
just do. And I just I want to publicly thank you for the ways in which you show up for people when they're on top, when they're somewhere in the middle, and when they've hit rock bottom.
I'm about to get thinking about it, the way that y'all that y'all have.
Come through, and one example that comes to mind, and then I'm gonna yield on the other side of the really unfortunate, humiliating dismissal of our dear sister Joy read from MSNBC. Joy was asked to be a special surprise guest at Black Women in Hollywood in LA and I did what I normally do, text and get the eleventh hour, like Sis, there's this incredible moment Joy has and we
on a show, she's on top. And when I tell y'all, Inga and Sergio sprang into action to make sure that Joy was looking her best and filling her best And then was like, you and Tiff cannot go to that looking crazy.
Y'all gotta look y'all gotta be rocking the right thing too.
So it's just a small example of the things that y'all have no idea they do.
And I just love y'all, So I just want to lift that up.
That was a long filibuster, thank you, but it really is one thing that I think is important for all the A listers that missed out on that show, which is one of the best. I am biased, but it is also true. I just want them to know that, y'all are.
I think before we come to you, guys, I just want to say some of the people you dress, so you guys can fill in the blank. But of course, Madam Vice President Kamala Harris is a regular on your client list. Actress Blake Lively can often be seen donning your fashion on red carpets, Machete member co host of The View Sunny Houston. We actually gifted her for her birthday one year on air, Sergio fits.
So you are a I mean.
A household name in elite Hollywood circles and brands. Can you talk to us a little bit about what happened this week around fashion Week and your relationship with you know, the black community, Like, how can we support you and how have you experienced support?
So and I said, listen to my team.
You know, I'm I was raised by activists, minister who you know. Literally, I've sat outside while my mom went into crack house and got people out. I've driven hours with her to take people to rehabs. I've went in to you know, get prostitutes off the street, like I was raised like that to help my community to be better, be greater. So when I chose to go into this industry, I look at it as community as we need to be all for each other. So so you know, I'm
constantly asked questions. You know, why is this person not at your show? Why is that person not at your show? And my viewpoint on it is even from my team. You know, my viewpoint on it is who's going to be there is who's supposed to be there. And at the end of the day, I can't stress about who's not there, but I do value who is there for us.
But what I will.
Say is my issue came in you know when you see black A listers and I'm talking about black people because those are my people. I don't really care what you know, other communities do. They can do what they want to do, support who they want to support. But I'm just a black person that wants to support my people.
And if you my viewpoint on it is, if you're an A list black person, what you can do most for a brand, not just my brand, but any black brand, for the Quan's brand, for Christopher John Rogers, for any of us that are strugg striving. I mean for Rachel Scott who just became the crab director of Penza Shuler and showed had her own show at the same fashion week. She did two fashion shows in one week. And you know, it's crazy that these A listeners don't go to these
shows just to go you know what I mean. I'm not saying don't go to the other shows because we all support other designer brands. I mean, I carry a Ferragamo bag every day.
I don't.
I'm not against us buying designer pieces and supporting other designer brands.
But what I'm saying is.
If you have some celebrity, what would it be if every top tier A list black celebrity decided I'm going to go to at least one New York Fashion Week show that is by a black owned and run brand. What would that do for the diaspora of black designers out there. Because it's a lot of us, and we're all different and we're fading. You know, this season, I don't think it was but like two or three of us when a couple of season agoes like thirteen. So you know, this industry is extremely hard and if you
can't get the support from your people. Then that's that's where my post was coming from. It wasn't coming from, Oh I'm upset these people didn't come to my show. We were literally turning people away from our show, you know what I mean. I tell people all the time, the seating at the show is what I hate the most, because people it's craziness, like everybody wants to come to a faster show. But what I was trying to say was we as a people have to stop allowing the
drug of white adjacency to contaminate our psyche. And I'm saying that from a place of being intoxicated by that myself at times.
You know, I'm just being completely honest.
Sometimes when you're a designer and you dress black people all the time, when you get that one white celebrity that wears your stuff, it's like natural for your first mind going, oh my god, this is the biggest deal I've ever had. And I kind of have to sometimes talk myself down and say, you know what, this is great, but that was great too. And you know, we have to begin to train ourselves to know that we are the moment. We don't jump into a moment, and we
make the moment and if we can learn that. Then I feel like we would elevate every black brand, not just clothing brand, but every black brand.
To the next level. And that's that's where I was coming from.
It wasn't coming from a place of I'm upset, because I wasn't at all.
It's been mostly love and understand But you know, you have those people who.
Come in and they're like, oh, maybe they just theyn't want to come to your show. And then you have the people that be like, well, maybe if you put more black in your show, they would come to your show. You know, you have those people, the keyboard gangsters I like to call them, that come online and they want to get a rise out of you. But mostly it's been love and understanding. But I wanted people to understand
I wasn't talking about like just my brand. I'm like, if you come to New York Fashion Week as a top tier alist, and when we say top tier alist, we know what that means person black person, and you don't go to one show that is from a black owned brand, that is a problem for me. I'm sorry, I can't I can't even sugar coat the past that like, that's the problem.
And if you don't think about it.
That's the even bigger problem it's worth Yeah.
You know, and to this, to this point, Inga, I want to come to you because I think that people do need to see you off for who you are really are, which is supporters of black brands. Y'all are not requiring or requesting people to do anything that you're not readily doing yourselves.
You know.
So the fact that Sergio made this post and there's any controversy around it at all is really fascinating to me. Even this point you said back from the keyboard Gangsters, I'm gonna make sure we roll tape of the some of the shows where the models are walking down right before you come out to say thank you and everybody. It is a very diverse show and there are tons
of black models. I watched Inga do one at Kim's conference this year for accelerate her with the models that came in, and it was still most it was very multicultural. Y'all are very conscientious and mindful of that. And I think if there's anything I want to speak for you, Inga, but you just expect the same back from your supporters.
Yeah, I think I think that is exactly first of all, let's I want to go back a little bit. You are not a Z lister. That's number one. When you guys show up and show out in your clothes, you are fabulous. So let's just address that right there.
We are honored to have you guys.
You guys have been doing the good work for the community for a very long time. And yes you do always text me very last minute. Angela will work on that, but there's nothing my co hosts.
Will tell you then you can do it. I'm so sorry, y'all, I gots but to be.
Very clear, we are fully aware of what your.
Work is in the community, and we know that if we texted you at the very last minute, you would show up. And so I think for us, what Sergio is talking about is just reciprocal knowing that we come from that place right and knowing the hardships that we have when we are sold at Birdorf, Neiman Market, sax
Fith Avenue, blooming Dell's. We are sold at all these you know, very prominent this department stores, and we sit across from all these big brands, but we are not we don't have one hundred million dollars, but.
We are fully owned operated.
We you know, we have ownership of our brand, and so we have creative control, and we're up against a lot and we fight every.
Six months to do New York Fashion Week.
This is hundreds of thousands of dollars that we're coming up with on our own sponsors that do believe in us.
So I think, you know, Sergio coming from a.
Place of just saying, not just for us, but for all black designer brands or all brands of color that are fighting against all the funding, the people showing up. You know, what would it take, what would it take for us to get these A listers Black A listers, people of colature understand that just doing one small thing will make a big difference to a brand like ours or any other.
That is fighting this fight. It is really really hard to run this brand.
It is really really hard to come up with these hundreds of thousands of dollars to do these collections. This, this is very serious for us. This is our livelihood. Sergio, this is his dream, you know, it is my dream to support him. We have come together and we compete against these other brands, and so I think, like I know Sergio's heart so and he really wasn't.
He wasn't hurt out. We had our front roll was lit. Let me be very clear, right, we had Mary J.
Blige, we had Sunny Austin, We had so many different influencers that came and showed up and posted and do the things for us.
So we weren't.
We're not hurt, right, It just it just was his expression and any negativity around his post. It's people wanting to be negative, that are going to be negative no matter what.
You do and what you say. Right, So I think we just you know, I think we had to.
I appreciate you guys for having us, and I appreciate giving us a platform for Sergio to be able to really speak his mind and you know, let people know what we do and how hard this is because we do support, we support, and we don't only support black brands, we support other brands as well, and we show up. You know, there are so many different races that are were are closed. Our runway is diverse. We had at least I think fifteen search your black models in our show this time.
But so you know, Jenny having the question being asked, you know, or even being said, maybe if you use more black models, I don't even think about it.
But I went through the model look and I'm like, oh, there are.
Like fifteen fifteen models that are black, and then like I can't even the nationality, like between Asian and Hispanic. It was barely in the white girls. I was like, oh my god, I feel like I'm I need more white people. Like at the end of the day, it was pretty much just a show full of people of color. So I think that's a bigger thing. That's a whole other conversation when you see what do you see as
black people? Because you look at my showing, because the girl has curly hair and she has fair skin, does that mean she's not black?
I mean at the end of the day, Angela, I mean, look at me, look at my mother.
In denial.
You had it right, y'all know I'm sensitive about my call today.
I know I'm light, and you know my mom is like, you know, but I'm very black. So I don't and I don't and I don't want to be like discounted because my skin color is like and I'm not gonna just count. And at the end of the day, everything I do is strategic. I use a lot of black models and I use models across the diaspora, because what happens in fashion is we turn black models into a
trend and a type of model that you use. So if it's not just this one type of black girl, it's not a black girl, and that's just not true. Black people come in all different colors, and that's what I try to show in my show. So if you don't notice that there are different types of black girls, that's not my issue. You should just pay a little bit more attention to what's actually going on in the diaspora of black people in the world. It's not just one thing.
So yeah, Inga and Sergio, this is Andrew and I know we don't know each other, but I am adjacent to two of the women that you're dressing. So thank you for helping me to look better.
Just by standing between the two of them, I'm saying I look forward to being dressed by you withday.
But moreover, I just say, you know, first of all, congratulations on your wild success. And I think it should be very clear and I understand it clearly from you all. You aren't asking for any charity. It's sort of like what I was, what I was growing up, not growing up but as I entered politics very young, I'd be in you know, the Washington Post, in the New York Times or some publication, and my family would not give
me credit until I was in ebony. And when you were validated by your people, then you had you had ascended. It was legit. You're doing something. You and ebony, if you and jet you, you hit it right. And so I, as I understood and listen to you, I thought back to that experience and thinking, you're not begging celebrities who are a listeners to come to your show. You're saying, you know, see us, validate us, because your validation of us is important to me. It's important for our community
to see. It's important that we see each other's value. And that why does not always write in the way in which the world has to see your contribution to uh this this space celebrity a or a lister. And I just think if you're going celebrities are particular about where they go anyway, So if you're going somewhere, you have intention to be where it is you are. And I think what you ass conversation as illuminated for me is that if you're gonna move with intention, move with intention.
Don't give lip service to wanting to support our community when someone shot. But when we're at we're we're when we're at our zenith, when we are bringing wealth, value, beauty culture into the space and shaping that culture by our contributions, it would be nice to look out and see you there with a wink in or no saying I'm proud of you, brothers, sister for what you are doing, period right.
And yeah, thank you, Yeah, you know, go ahead and anyone.
Let's spread that word. Let's spread that message. These incredible creatives, yeah, are coming from a glass half full, if not running over and moreover, they're doing it with intention for our community to be seen not in a box, but with a canvas. I love that and everything that paints.
Well, Okay, I just I want to ask something because Inga you have have shared with me about the financial structure of fashion.
Sergio.
You have been so insightful and answering all of my questions. And I don't think even the fashionably aspirational you know who go out there and you know, will spend all their money on Gucci or Prada because they hear that mentioned in a hip hop song or they see you know something in and pop culture that makes them say, oh, if that's what the cool people are wearing, that's what I want to wear. And the impact it has when we do that on black brands. One the incestuous nature
of the fashion industry and its ownership. Right, so a lot of these brands, which I did not know, fall under the same umbrella company.
Also something I didn't know.
Sergio was so kind enough to take me to lunch at Bergdorf Goodman and we went into the store and I I was so excited. I was like, Oh my gosh, like, you have your own section. And then we were walking and I saw another designer with like a huge section, and I was saying, I've never even heard of this person, Like who is this person? And this person had just come out, had just become a name, like within the past year. But I'm like, but Sergio has been out for years.
What did this? I don't need to tell you all who you love to do? The white girl?
What did the white girl do to get this huge section? While Sergio, who is dress seeing everyone from the highest ranking official black women in the United States and Vice President Kamala Harris, so one of the top and first Lady Michelle Obama to one of them, thank you, keep keep them coming like we could coming. But also to some of the Hollywood's top rated actresses, I mean from Gala's to show, thank you, thank you anybody who you
guys want to name that that you dress. So, I don't know, I just think there would be if we would benefit from hearing from you both on the the financial structure of that and how these these I guess the merchants, I suppose, the people who are the buyers, how they determine who gets placement in these department stores, how your brands are promoted, and what you all have to do versus other people who fall under conglomerates to might own five of the top brands like Lvates for example.
Well, I think it really.
Does honestly come down to funding. Right, A lot of these, as you mentioned in Bergdorf Goodman, they have in stores. Right, you have an in store, you do have to have the funding you pay for in stores, which means you have a build out essentially. If you don't have all that funding behind you, then it does come down to the department store and your sales, et cetera. And you get an in store, you know, if you have the
funding for it. Essentially otherwise, truthfully, when you are in these department stores, basically it is the amount of clothing that the buyers are allotted to come into your market and buy. So you have an amount that they come in, they buy the clothing, and based upon how much they bought, that is where you have the placement in the stores.
That is how it works.
Got it? That's helpful?
And then how can folks at home support? Yeah, if they're not going to make it to Fashion Week, if they're not going to make it uh to New York City and to Burgdoff Goodman's, how can how can the person at home right now in Alabama where where my mother in love is and in Georgia, Southern Georgia where my mama is. I don't know what they person is looking like, but but how can they How can they find you, see you, access you so they can.
Go to Sergio Hudson dot com. We have a direct to consumer site and we are really great with our customer service. I have really decided that we are going to work very strategically on ourselves on our store.
We used to.
Really put the department stores first. When I say that, I mean, you know, obviously, these are the stores that are frequented the most, that are are in other states and that you can get to.
So we we love at.
Until we get our own brick and mortar, which we will be. I am claiming that it's going to happen, and so we will. We will be in states near you, but for now, Direct to consumer Sergio Hudson dot com. Come on there shop that is the place. But we are in Neiman Marcus in Atlanta.
We are in uh.
Bloomingdale's in New York and uh is it DC Sergio Sergio. Yes, So we are at different stores in different states across the country.
I love it.
Now.
The the last thing that I want to say, because I was heckled for my last minute requests, I just want you all to know that we are going to be at the Congressional black hawkt Foundation Daniel legislat the conference next week.
It's also and.
There may or may not be a very important moment, so it would be amazing if.
We could be there will be an important.
You know.
Or may not know about that moment.
Wow, Okay, well then you know more than me.
But all I'm gonna tell you is this It would be nice to be as as Biggie would say, but I'm a re quote Sergio Hudson down to the sock.
It is so if we can, if we can figure that you.
Like why you all have been so generous with your time as as we as we part with you, we want to give y'all the last word to what what?
What?
What would you have us do? What do you want the people to do? What do you want the folks to know?
Any call to action?
Basically your call to action? What would you lead admonishors to do?
Oh wow, that's a lie, but I think so here's the thing. If our brand is very specific, so we I do understand that everybody can't afford to, you know, Sergio Hudson collection, but those of you that can, and you buy designer clothes often, I'm not telling you to forfeit any of your favorite brands. All I'm saying is, you know, go in request us, ask for us, try us song, try us out, see how you like it.
And if you can just create a little section in your closet for us or for some other designer brands that might fit your taste a little bit better, and you will see how if everybody that could afford our clothes did buy it, it would help so much and you would see the growth. And what I will make a promise to you is if that you do support us, that we will give back to our community that looks like us, and we will create more opportunities for people
that look like us. That's the difference between when you purchase from us and when you purchase from a brand that doesn't look like you. I mean, it's nothing that can go back to you when you know. It's kind of like when you have a credit card and you you like there that particular cards we like better because you get cash back. I feel like when you support black brands across the board, you're getting cash back into your community. It's a way for you to help, it's
a way for you to grow. Because the reason we don't have a foothold in this interest because we don't have any ownership. Any industry that you don't have ownership in, you have no power. Power in any industry is money. And in fashion, we don't have the power because we don't have the money. And that's the why you don't see a lot of us. You know, that's why I can go from having thirteen black designers down to two
or three in a fashion week. And I think, you know, we are working on some things to where we can reach a bigger price gap of people. You know, confidentially we are doing working on a couple of things to be able to do that.
But wait a minute, Sergia, you can't break news in there.
Just all I can.
Tell you, That's all I can tell you. That's all we can tell you is we're working on something.
But yes, okay, yeah, we're working on some things to be able to reach more of a bigger audience, so to speak.
And that's all I can say is support us and you know, ask for us, and that's all we can do.
I love it.
Shout out to your amazing partner, Devine.
Yes we're going to love that. I need.
You.
Guys can take it home to just piggyback off what Sergio said. You know, if you can't afford the brand, and you know that's understandable, especially especially in this time where everything is so uncertain. You know, tag repost refer to someone you know, uplift us in some way. It's not always in a monetary where there are many things to do to show support for the brand, what you guys are doing right now. So we're grateful for it all. And I want to be very very clear, like I
said before, our front row was lit. Our supporters. We have supporters of every race I mean that showed up for us, that we love dearly and appreciate. So you know, just for our people that did show up, our A lists that did show up, that show up for us, we are eternally grateful.
We are so grateful for y'all.
Thank you for all you do for setting the standard and blazing the trail in the fashion industry and beyond.
We love you, INGA.
Every time we get together, you know, we crying, so I aren't doing it at the end of the show too.
Sarjia. We love you, brother, and to both of your partners, we love.
Thank you, Andrews. Pleasure to meet you. We want you as some men.
Sergio, I'm here there it is. I'm just trying and keep my you know, little figure together for you, you know, put me out there, bro.
Like he certainly because he put it, he put what we wanted to say in words.
Thank you so much, Thank you God bless y'all, And we're wishing you well, bless up, bless welcome. Well, that was a beautiful conversation, y'all. And and I saw their hearts.
I heard their hearts and saw their hearts, and I just sometimes think the reason why I wanted to just emphasize how you know, the cup running over and that this isn't charity, is that they I saw the more spokespeople crying out for, you know, their fellow family of black designers in this space, who were again once thirteen last year at Fashion Week and this time two or three, right, so you know, for as they said, for those of us who can, we should. And I know every I
know some of the most struggling in these people. I know who set their design on getting that, you know, being able to have that red bottomed shoe one day and they go get it. So set your design on a Sergio Htel and go that your nope, my CTA,
however is and then I'll leave Linda yours. It's simply that I was reading about, of course, the high rate of unemployment amongst black women, which again is rivaling historic low, historic highs for Black women in America in their unemployment and the rate of them that are now reaching six months without a job and in the job search, and how really debilitating and depressing and undermining it can be to the mind, to the ego, but also to the wallet.
And so for those of us who know folks who brothers and sisters who have been laid off, family members, close friends, so on and so forth. Back when I was growing up in church, you used to give love offerings where you weren't asking for anything. Nobody came up to you and said, I'm about to be in the pole house, so I need such and such and such. But folks intuitively just felt, you know what I wish.
Let me just bless this person with twenty dollars. I just want to remind us of the tradition of the fact that all of us go through something sometimes, and in fact, if we keep living, probably those ebbs and flows will happen throughout. And wouldn't it be nice if we had people without us asking looking like we're beggars, because we're proud people, especially those folks who work and
earn their living. But if you could bless folks up a little bit by twenty five to fifty dollars check you might give them might be the minimum payment they need to put on their credit card that they've been spending on to get by, to hold them over that'll keep them from a default on that month's payment. You
just never know. And so I just want to have us to expand our collective thinking and coverage and support of our community to include even when folks haven't asked, to just tap into your intuitive or your spiritual self and say, man, let me just They don't even got to know it came for me. Let me bless somebody in a way that that may pay real dividends for them and help them out of a out of a buying But I hope things will change on this economy, but it's gonna be rough. It's rough now and it
may be rougher yet. Still. So that's my CTA, TIF what you got.
You know, my CTA is really one for myself that I'll invite other people to tap in and whatever way they need. That is how I value myself. And it's changed over the years. When I was I remember coming into my late twenties going into my thirties, I stepped into a new meet and decided, this is who I am and this is what I tolerate and this is what I don't and I definitely feel like I'm going into a new era of that. Someone reached out to me this week and asked me to be a backup.
They had asked someone else to do something and that person was, you know, a little shaky on it. And they said, oh, you know, just checking to see if you might be available, and I said, I can be, but I need to know, like within the next couple hours. And you know, I won't charge you. I just you know, need your team to cover hair and makeup and transportation and I'll help you out if I can't.
And he said, well, I don't know we're doing all that. And my ego.
Said to say, I'll well, I don't know who to you think you asking men, But my spirit said to just say, oh, then you know I may not be the person for you. Let me recommend some people who might better serve this event. And just being done with it. And I'm trying to, in every iteration of life, learn how to value myself and that includes value my love that I give to people. How am I valuing this love and who I am? That includes valuing my voice.
If I'm not being listened to, then I don't need to speak if I'm talking to you and you're looking at your phone. I need to value my voice enough my words that i'm speaking that know I'm not going to repeat myself, and know I'm not going to keep talking. I can just be silent. I'm also valuing my voice in a space where you might have all the attention, but maybe you just need to be quiet.
So just be quiet.
To challenge myself to go internal and be comfortable in the home that is myself, in the home that is my spirit and the silence of my own internal world and navigating that and not jumping out there with an opinion or a thought every single time it occurs to me. I challenge everyone else to value yourself and I will say angelo about the psychological safety. That is one way
to sharpen your discernment around psychological safety. And if it makes other people uncomfortable, to be uncomfortable in that, you know, because my psychological safety should not really be a negotiation, and I have to create that for myself.
So that's my CTA.
This is gonna be the cringest ass podcast today.
I'm wearing this shirt today. This is protect your peace as an affirmation because I feel like I haven't. My voice is gone, guys, because I screamed so loud this week. I did not mean to do this on the podcast. We could just cut it.
I could cut it.
Well, we don't have to cut it.
But I will say that Angela protects other people's piece.
She is a warrior on behalf of so many other people.
So I would like to close out the podcast here and pick up because I think Angela has a soulful call to action.
That is putting a lump in my throat.
That maybe could be a good mini pod to talk about what whatever protecting your piece looks like and what Angela has gone through this week that is highlighting protecting her piece for her So Andrew, if you're on board with that, I think this would be a good place to close and invite our viewers to tune into the mini pod so we can talk about what protecting your piece looks like.
Indeed, then that's always we want to thank you for your time. You know that you time and where you choose suspend. It is a choice, and we don't take for granted that you choose us hopefully week in and week out to hear our thoughts and analysis on what's been up. As always, of course, we want you to leave a comment, subscribe, download Native lampard and of course share with all your friends, family, freenemies and others. We're
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Tune in the mini pod the ends of a Thought Action Welcome home.
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