Targeted Attacks: We Must Move Together

I'm Tamika D. Mallory and it Shit Boy my Son in general, we are your host of TMI.

Tamika and my Son's Information, Truth, Motivation and Inspiration.

New Energy.

What's up, Tamika D. Mallory. How you doing today?

I'm doing good, my SONA now.

You I am doing better.

It has been a rough week, but now I'm coming to terms with the reality of what we're dealing with. You know, I got my mojo and I'm ready to go.

You know, yeah, me too. I'm good.

You know.

I feel like I am putting into practice things that I've learned since that horrific burnout.

That landed me in rehab.

Right, and you know, the trauma and everything that I experienced. I talk about what I learned and how I came out of it. But often times, as time goes on and you have different experiences and you live in life, we often forget about things. It's like when you drink too much and then you're like, God, I promise you, if you would just help me get over this, I promise I won't drink as let next. Oh no, that's it,

Yes, I live to tell the story.

I live to tell the story, and that's the real thing. I live to tell the story. And the story goes and I say that I'm going to fight for freedom until I die, but this time freedom includes me, right. And so with that being said, I cannot allow my self to go back to where I was in twenty nineteen to ninety eight pounds, even though I wish I could get to ninety eight pounds now shoot on my own.

Without being stressed out.

But that's a whole different day's topic, not ninety eight pounds.

But you get my point.

I guess, let me get my point.

So I can't allow that to happen. So I'm not going to allow myself to drown.

I feel it.

I know where we are, and I think what is very frustrating is watching people wake up knowing that like we said this, we said all of this and had been saying it before an election. Yeah, that's the other thing. I just want to make sure that. That's clear. We've been saying a lot of this stuff before an election.

Definitely way before election. Well, listen, how do people get this book? When does it drop? Like this is our show?

People already know.

They already know because I'll be telling them every other day. It's February eleven. Yes, first event is February sixth in Louisville, Kentucky. It is extremely humbling and it's such a proud moment for me to go to Louisville and have my friends Sadiqa Reynolds and attorney Leanita Baker to be the host of my first public event. It's actually before my book comes out. It's a pre event. It's the first event, and it means so much because you know what we

Louisville was right before I.

Came out of rehab, right, because twenty nineteen, and then we went there in twenty twenty. I was still a mess. I was still trying to piece myself back together. I was still dealing with shit. I you know, didn't know exactly what I was gonna do which direction to go in.

I had so much.

Going on, And when Ben Crump called me, all of that's in this book about you know, Breonna Taylor, we went and so these are people that we've only known for five years, but it seems like we've and it's not even five years yet, but it seems like we've known them for a lifetime. And they became our sisters, you know, to Meeka Palmer, she excuse me, she's one of the hosts as well of the event. And so I'm just like, wow, you know, this book has.

Been I love to cover like show like show to.

This is the uh, the this is my vision.

It's the duality, all right.

It's the duality from you know, the braids to the long here and it's just and this.

Is actually the housing projects that I grew up in.

People probably, oh, I can't even realize that and projects.

Yep.

So anyway, is this book was a lot to get out. I always say that it's like I'm at the right now. I'm in the delivery process. Like I already have my date scheduled. It's February eleventh. I know we're gonna have the baby that day. It's coming out, and all the terrible things, the what do you have with morning sickness? You nauseous, can't eat, can't rest, can't whatever. Most of those things have subsided at this point from this book, except you know, trying to get the tour done and

So I'm in that stage.

But it's pretty much I'm in the sailing part. We know the baby is coming and win. But it was a lot to get this done. The stories that I'm telling in this book, I wish I could take like five of them out because I don't know what I must have been like, I don't.

Know, just telling you tell your business.

Or something that day and just went the little bit. So but I'm glad that it's out here. I know that this book is going to help somebody.

Well, I look forward to reading it today, you know, because I got my little copy and I'm gonna read it. But I'm proud of you. And please make sure that you'll go out pre order. Make sure that you at every event on the tour, show out, show up, make sure that you support this woman because the way she fights for black people is undeniable.

Yeah.

Well, and also make sure that you get my son's book I got a couple of years.

Last one is.

Called it's called Echoes in the Streets.

Echoes in the Street, and it's.

About gun violence, the stories about gun violence within the inner communities in the cities, and it breaks down different ways and strategies that community and you you can come together and stop gun violence. So there's really really strong stories inside. So shout out to my partner and publisher Heed Yes.

Right cool.

So, so you know wherever, first of all, wherever you buy books, Black bookstores very important, Barnes and Nobles. Also, please pick up a pre order copy. I know how we as black folks, especially how we are, we got to we want to touch the thing. We don't want to buy anything and wait for it to come. I remember when we were out getting people to the polls and I was like, you're not gonna early vote, Like you could go vote today.

They be like our own vote early. I want my vote on the day. I'm like, but you gotta stand online. I don't care.

I want my vote on the day. That's sometimes how we are, that's how we operate. But in the publishing world, and shout out to my publisher, Black Privilege Publishing, CHARLEMAGNEA god Atria, and the Simon and Schuster family.

But in the publishing world, authors need pre sales.

That's very helpful in terms of how their books get out the bond.

You know.

It's like when you know when you in a race, you don't try to like take off slow. You coming out moving. You're coming out moving. So that's what we need. So you can go to Tamika D. Mallory dot com. That's Tamika D. Mallory dot com and you can find out all the things how to purchase the book.

Where the tour is going.

The sixth we're in Louisville, Kentucky.

The ninth, I'm.

At Jamal Bryant's Church, New Birth Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.

The eleventh, well, actually the thirteenth.

The eleventh, I got something going on, but I ain't really talking about it too much. If you know me and you want to come to what I'm doing on the eleventh, holla. But on the thirteenth, We're at the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. I'm gonna be with Jimani Williams, the Public Advocate, and Janelle Aggie, who is the executive director of editing at Ebony Magazine. I mean, then we're in that's the thirteenth. The eighteenth, I'm in Washington, d C. At Politics and Pros. Then

I didn't get to do this with my first book. We were at home.

Although I had a star studded release for my first book, we had everybody. We had panels and discussions online that included everybody from Taraji p Henson to Tiffany Hattis. Of course, Charlemagne was helping to hold some stuff. You held to host things. Linda Sarsour was invo I mean I could go on. Alicia Keys, you know, did panels and discussions with me. So it's not that we did not have a good amount of people who were supportive, but everybody was at home. It was now going outside.

Now you outside with it, man.

So I definitely I know it's gonna be a good book, and I know that people are gonna love it because it's so authentic and raw, like every time you talk about it, you got a team your eyes, and everybody that's read it so far has tears in it. So I make sure make sure that you go out and

So I enjoyed that.

I just you got three sons and grandson.

I'm a g from the gipop, but Kessen is like he's a very he's an impact. He's a very intelligent young boy and he picks up on everything like he knows what you're thinking, he knows how you're feeling. You know. He's very passionate about things. He messed up his foot last weekend, you know, playing soccer, and he had a game the next day he couldn't make it to. So he was up all night.

Trying to heal itself together.

He was soaking his ankle, he was putting alcohol, he put vics on his leg, anything you could think of. He was trying to make it to that game. He did not want to let down that team. He woke up at eight o'clock in that morning, was like, tried it again. He was just like, nah, Dad, he's still been living. So I made a little joke. I've been calling him young peg Leg and he hates that, but I played with It's.

A joke, a joke. What God? Yeah, listen, everything is not so serious.

No, But it's not that.

It's that injuries sometimes makes people feel already, especially like you said, he can't play.

He already is feeling.

A way about that, and then you over here putting a label on him, and.

They feel he laughed it up.

Sometimes he doesn't like it. Sometimes he likes it. Sometimes Young peg Leg is fine.

He's he'll be good for you know that there are people who really have peg legs. And it's kind of like you saying that to him.

It's like saying, you know what, the reason why I call him because he limps like he has one. He looks like it looks like he has like a little pirate sometimes when his legs starts hurting very much. Disregarding these it ain't got nothing to do with I'm talking about my son. You're talking about these people. This ain't got nothing to do. This is not to offend anybody else. It's a joke that I have with my son.

Right so please call somebody who actually has a peg leg a peg leg, although he probably won't do that.

Because I will do that, because I would never do that.

I made a joke with him about his little foot being hurt.

I'm going to once again, happy birthday. I love you.

Listen if my granddaughter was being pushed in the swing and when she said something, but her father was also talking to our whole family on face time, because we literally have everybody possible on a FaceTime. Whenever he wants to show Blair and he hit something and then everybody goes.

In and go, hi, Blair, we love you. She's the star of the show.

So he was pushing her, and he pushed her one time and she said and she said something, but he doesn't he didn't know what she said.

And her mom was there also, so he said, what did you say? What does she say? So her mom.

Says, she said do it again or put or do it one more time or something like that, and so he goes, she didn't say that.

Now, she was probably.

Talking kind of baby gibberish, but a mother's gonna understand her child.

We don't care.

You could be talking backwards and a mother is gonna be like, I know exactly what that means. So he said, she didn't say that, and Blair goes, yes, she's old too. She said, yes, like mommy is right, I can do it again.

I might not have said it exactly, but.

Listen, she wants you to understand, and she knows what she wants for herself, and she wants you to understand that she's expressing herself.

And her mama understood exactly.

That's exactly right. That's why I love my mother, because my mother she knows she's they are they are.

We talk about this all the time. These kids parents are amazing. It's not like when we was parents.

That's one thing I say about these kids. My son is serious about being a father to his son. These kids, they do not play about his son.

Now. They can have all.

Kinds of they're crazy otherwise, but.

Them kids, they serious about them kids. They go.

So that's a testament to you know, parenting that they see they either you know, they feel like something didn't happen that they want to happen, or they've seen something happen that they want to.

Continue to Later on, they're going to realize we weren't as bad as.

They That's what I think.

What happens is they realize it now because they realize all of the pressure and stuff that they're under, and then they're like, damn, I didn't even know you went through this.

I just because it's hard.

It's hard.

Is very very very hard. It's very hard. It's very hard.

And speaking of hard things, there's a lot of hard things happening in our world.

Love and I.

You know, I've only made one post maybe two about the target situation and and just overall diversity, equity and inclusion, and I am committed. I've only made two posts maybe about it, maybe one and then also I only said one thing like on camera. But I thought about it and I listened for the last few days.

I just listened.

I was taking in all the different aspects, because you know, we follow and are followed by all different types of people. We got the super radical blacks, we got the Pan African blacks, we got the the the bougie black, we got the conservative blacks.

We had we every.

Kind of person, black person, we have somebody who is a part of that Republicans of course, Democrats or whatever, black women, black men.

Troll we got trolling, pntroll we have the trolls. We have the ignorant.

We have all kinds of young, we have young, we have different age groups. So we see a lot of things, and I follow a lot of different types of people, and I just want to I just listen.

I said.

The one thing that I have learned in my leadership position is that I now don't where I used to need to respond. I don't have to as quick because the more information that I gathered before speaking, I think it makes my voice more effective, more powerful. So I just sat back and I kind of listened to people sending me everything.

Every body sending me something.

And I know that part of the reason why so many people are sending me so many different things is because folks know that I have not said this is what I think we should do, and they want to try to not so much influence in a negative way, but just put their perspective into mind.

In my in my thought process.

And so speaking of thoughts today, in my thought of the day, I really want to take the time. And we don't have a guest for this show because it just we just couldn't fit it with what we want to discuss. So I want to just start off by saying that. So I want to put this at the beginning in the end as a bookmark to Meeka Mallory personally will not be shopping at Target. That's not going to happen. I won't be going to Target. I have

I didn't even take.

The time to do bus so much research about whatever that was.

But it just didn't feel right to me.

I don't like the way it looked, and I didn't have anything to do with this side it packed up a bunch of Balenciaga stuff and just gave it away. I might I have like two sweaters, maybe three sweaters, and these little sock sneakers. So that's where I'm at with it. But I'm probably never going to be caught. And when I say caught, I don't mean like gotcha, but me personally walking into a store purchasing something from Balenciaga.

That's just me.

I gave up Gucci and the blackface sweater. I did not like it. I felt, first of all, the impact to me, it was very very disrespectful for people to even try to make the excuse that they did not know or that it wasn't exactly what we saw. And so I just decided that I was done with it. But then even if I even if I would have said, well, maybe I'm overreacting or maybe we need to educate them and it's going to get better, the way in which things rolled out after that I didn't appreciate at all.

I cut Nike.

So you cut Kyrie, I cut you. That's it, simple, one hard decision. First I was kind of like, what we're doing. Everybody wears Nike. Then I realized it's not that serious. I don't have to wear Nike. There's a number of black brands, actively black being one of them, there's other.

They just hit me a couple of Piers Niggas new.

Dope, sigh of collected.

I mean, they go get Kyrie's the answers he got all kinds of flavors.

So there's a there's a million things we can do, and we're gonna talk about that because distribution is very important, which is why this target piece is so serious.

Wiffle House ain't been back. The waffle house.

She was on my page ten somebody up this morning talking about me, So she don't she don't play.

Shakisha Clemings was attacked, brutally attacked and dro in a waffle house because a white woman wanted to try to charge her for a plastic four.

And they and and and they.

What they did to her was something that it wasn't acceptable. But what was worse was that waffle House response wasn't even to respectfully say, we apologize for what took place, and we you know, we don't condone the way in which our employee and the police officers came in here. They doubled down and acted like Squisha Clemings was some type, like she was in there doing a robbery.

And then she took her to trial.

Right, and then tried to exactly the police took her the trial to say she did something to them. So waffle House been off my list. Okay, so I'm saying Starbucks.

Some airport you go in. All they have is a little Starbucks.

Count and you know what I do, Get me some water from a store and keep it moving.

I don't go in Starbucks. I'm saying all of this to say to you all that I know that I'm different.

I know I was cut from a certain cloth that is very, very different from most people. I know that when a school calls me up, or a corporation calls me up, and they get in touch with Toya and they say they want me to speak at a conference, or they want me to participate in some type of program.

You know.

I've had people say that to me, Hey, just you know for now, but that's not who I am. So I have to take that into consideration whenever I'm out here speaking to other people that we are not all at the same place, we're not all on the same level, and we're not all committed in the same way. Our sister,

It is so true.

Most people don't want to be free. Most Black people don't want to be free. They want to be rich, That's what and that's the fact. And sometimes being rich looks like freedom. But if we know anything about that, jay Z said, still nigga, OJ and all everybody. You can have lots of money and still be treated like a nigga. And so not to say we should not acquire wealth, because we should, but wealth and freedom are not the same thing.

It should it should be a balance, right, and it should be real conversations like you said, you know, when we when I looked at this hotel, good situation, when I'm just looking at the last one hundred executive orders, right.

And hundred Yeah, there's been a hundred.

Executive orders signed in in the last week. And when I'm looking at how these things actually roll back civil rights that have been established for the last fifty sixty years, you know, And you really just sit there and think about this, And I say to myself, what are we willing to say? And I've heard all these people you know there are you know, we have we have black scholars and black leaders that say that's good. We don't need d you know, we need to separate anyway, We need to do our own.

I don't know too many scholars they're saying, well.

I mean, I don't know, Okay, well these are this is what they say. Doctor Claude Anderson has said that we need to separate, and we need and that's what's going to take for us to do is to build our own.

And I do not disagree with those things. Right. I do believe that we need to separate.

I do believe that we need to build our own, but I do not believe that we should build it while we are experienced injustice. I don't believe that we should make it okay for them to do negative things to us. I don't believe we should be okay since we need to separate. You don't have to give us what you owe us, right, we don't deserve the amount of reparations and things that we've earned in America. I

Now?

As I'm trying to from my freedom, I know that America still owes me. So sure, I want reparations, I want repair, I want You know what has been owed to our ancestors who built America on his back, It was never compensated for it. You know, we have built our own economies time and time through our history, and they have destroyed it. They've burned it down, they've disenfranchised us over hundreds and hundreds of times.

This is documented.

So I don't I do not, you know, subscribe to the fact that we what we actioning for is a handout. We're not asking for handout. We're asking for we old. But in the meantime, we should be building what you know, our own economy should we should be building.

Our own structure.

We should try to separate and build out because everyone else has done that. But what I say when people say that to me is what are you willing to sacrifice for it?

Right?

Because the same people that are saying, yo, we don't want nothing from the white man and we don't want this with the same people that's saying, well, we got a stimulus check, right, and they wanted to make it seem like that was okay. But that's not a hand though, right, the same people that say they aren't willing to boycott, they aren't willing to stop spending their money with the

Well, it just depends, okay, because I just want to make sure we put these things in little buckets. Because first of all, when you said, they say, doctor Claude Anderson and others have said that we need to separate, right, And I don't know, Like I know that doctor Claude Anderson teaches a lot about independence and all of that, but I would love for somebody to just show me where doctor Anderson has said that black people do not deserve a seat at corporate tables, a seat in institutions,

The whatever.

I do believe building our own is important and I want to see us continue to do that because I believe that there are a lot of people who are in They're building sustainable communities, They're building you know, black banks. You got Greenwood, which is Killer MIC's bank. You have people that are doing all of these things, and so we don't want to conflate them because I know that's a group.

Then of course you have.

The stimulus check, it was more money in my pocket.

People.

But those people in these people are not the same people. And then you have the people who are in the middle who are like, the hell with everything, we don't need them for anything.

Here's my thing.

Even with that, Okay, I've been asking people all weekend.

They said, well, we.

Don't need you know, we don't need anything from the white man. And by the way, I think anybody who's telling you that this moment, the executive orders and the things that's happening in this nation are not going to impact you. Any black person that says that to you, that it doesn't have to impact you, or that it doesn't impact you at least, they are ignorant, just and not ignorant in a negative way, but they don't know.

All policy are local, all politics.

Are local, and they affect everyone, and.

They impact all of us.

If you drive, you got to have gas, Okay, if the gas price is high, that's.

Going to impact you.

You want to put your children in schools, and all the things that you are doing every single day. Even if you only do a little bit and you're more self contained, you still will if you breathe the air that's outside, if you don't have your own air, it is impacted by whatever chemicals are being put into the atmosphere or all of that.

So I don't want to say that.

I don't want people to tell you that policies don't impact all of us. But we also have to keep in mind that as we move about building our own So you say, we don't need targets and walmarts in all of these places, right, we don't need that. The average person in our community is not going to build our own.

There's only gonna be a few.

People who do it, and then people who funnel into it and help it to thrive. Right, That's how it works. So if you live in a food desert and you don't really have transportation.

While we're on a five to ten year.

Process to building our own, which we should focus on rather than focusing so much on being on the internet telling everybody else, all of us what we're doing right, wrong.

This, that, and the third.

But if you building something five ten years, then how is Jojo going to eat? Where is he going to work right now?

And that's a That's another conversation that I'm having when we have this conversation about boycotts and we talk about Target. You know, there's been this long, large conversation about there are black people who vendors, who have vendors who have contracts with Target, and if we boycott Target, then it's

Their families are going to suffer.

There are people who are in d oppositions in major you know stores and Target and all that they're gonna their families are going to be completely wiped out. Right, These are this is a right reality. They are people who are in positions. I'm just saying everywhere. So I'm saying Target because when we talk about were Target and Target, there are they were d I departments in Target that these workers were working and that no longer existed.

So I don't know they also whole departments that have been But I don't.

Know if Target has fired a bunch of people, Well.

If you scaling, if you deciding that you no longer are invested in d I, then what is the department?

Where's the department gonna be at? Well?

Because I mean I don't know, I mean we we we shouldn't. I don't know that they had a specific department where people are going to be let go. They may have reassigned people, giving them new titles or whatever. I don't know if that has happened, but I can tell you that in government offices, right, that is definitely happening. In educational institutions, that is happening. So I can't say in Target.

Just based off the policy, the culture, the culture of dismissal exactly.

It's going to disenfranchise thousands of black.

People more maybe and probably million.

Probably millions.

So what I'm trying to say is, are we saying that the one or two hundred people who are important that we're not saying they don't have value but their finances to proceed the cause of the many. Are we saying that we're willing to sacrifice the millions of people's lobbihoods and just the law and establishing something that.

Is all the respect of the respect.

Of the mass is in the lord, just the impact that it's going to have, right, because once, if you don't stand for something, then you're gonna fall for anything. And if they can say, okay, you know what, we're just gonna take that from y'all, and that's it, and there's no response, there's nothing for us to sacrifice.

Nothing.

There's not enough of us that's willing to sacrifice so that two hundred people can continue to thrive, or maybe three hundred, but I know it's in the hundreds.

It ain't in the thousands they're saying.

So they saying that Target has contracts with thousands of black people.

It's not just black people.

Because diverse, I'm not saying I don't ever want to use the word the turn DEI I want to say it completely diversity, equity, and inclusion, because when you say those words, it makes it clear what somebody is saying that they're they're model no longer fits diversity, equity and inclusion.

So to your point, but I'm tak you a thousand and might be a thousand, might be fifteen hundred.

Okay, I don't, but it's still not.

Maybe it's a thousand, but based on what I've been hearing, it's been hundreds. So a few hundreds of people. So what I'm trying to say is, I think I'm willing to sacrifice. I've sacrificed all time. But like you said, I know that I'm built different. I know that there's a level of revolutionary in me that most people don't have. That's not like I was willing somebody did so uner Kyrie, who's somebody I had never met prior to that, but just that I identify with him in his struggle.

I said that these hundreds of pairs sneakers.

That I have, I no longer need them, and I'm willing to throw them away because that's how strong I am in my conviction about saying fuck you, because that's how I feel. Everybody is not going to do not understand that. But if we're not willing to, at the drop of a dom say we're willing to stand on principle and lose whatever it takes to establish a level of respect amongst our culture, then we're going to find

We gotta do that.

And I'm all for strategy, but I understand that the longer we take to strategize, right, the longer we take the longer, the the more ground we lose, the more.

Energy we lose.

Right now, people are fired up, They're looking and saying, damn this is this is happening in real time. So if what our leadership has to say in our leadership, we have to say, listen, we gotta understand who's with us and who's not with us, because you sometimes you lose time trying to bring somebody to your cause that ain't gonna come with you anyway.

Well, I mean, I have multiple feelings about that. I think that yes, we do have to move with the time. When you hear a cry from the community, or if you hear just to give a better example, if you hear a cry from a baby, you want to go at least and look and address whatever it is.

But if you know that the.

Baby is crying out in the moment because they're hungry and the food is not prepared, you have to go let the baby cry for a little while while you.

Prep pair a meal that is going to nourish.

The problem is the baby won't cry for too long in these situations what we deal with in our communities, people have outrage for one week until weeks.

But that's what.

Happened is the news cycle changes.

Somebody talks about that this happened mc carty b and this and that people's is on that this week.

But the thing about this time, Mice, I want to say to you that those people are gonna drop off anyway. So that means that the people you're talking about are people who we would never be able to sustain anything with because they're not serious about or committed to it anyway. Right, the purpose of planning and strategizing is that, especially in this particular time period, they are not gonna stop doing the things that they're doing.

It's gonna get worse.

So there will be a need for a response that is not just about target, but a response that is about all this shit that's happening, and how do we use our economic power to be our voices in the midst of a fascist government that is attempting to take away our rights and to make us second class citizens.

That's what we have to be thinking about.

And so yes, target is now, and I and one of those people just like you, they ain't never got to call me since they don't want diversity.

Damn it, I'm diverse. They don't want equity.

I believe in equity, and they don't want inclusion, no problem, I don't. You don't need well, I mean, but even talk about but even when we talk whichever one is your thing. Whichever one is your thing, the diversity, the equity, or the inclusion, whichever one is your thing. Because again, we are not asking white people to give us money, right, We're not saying inclusion means we want white people to give us money. We're saying, I made a product. I

This is not a.

Product that needs pity, it needs whatever. And guess what black people shop at Target. So we're saying we want to be in the shelf, on the shelf, in the place where our people are walking past it. That's what inclusion, men means. It means that you can't have black people walking up and down these aisles and the only thing they can find on the shelves are your things that

When we were in whatever.

Country in South Africa, people were like buying them, people were walking around in them. So we know that he's gonna do well. But the distribution is different, and that's why people are making sure they getting target in the big box stores. Because the corner store sneaker store, that's cool. You want to be there too, just like Nike is in there too, just like New Balance is in there too.

And so so I get the point.

I get the point of why we want diversity, equity, and inclusion because.

We are the engine that fuels these companies.

But I just want to say this because I know that there are people who want to know how I feel about the video that Tabbit the Brown, who I absolutely adore. I love tab With the Brown. I share her videos, I talk about what she's said everywhere because she is so authentic and beautiful and Courtney out of La love Courtney. Courtney has supported us in the past. I've been in space with her. She has the main

One.

It is not not smart because I heard that somewhere.

Let let's be smart.

It is not not smart to take your money and put it in your pocket when you feel you being disrespected.

That is very smart.

So it is not not smart to say I don't want to spend my money.

And I'm gonna tell you another thing. If you are.

Spending your money in a store with a brand, or you are going into places and spaces and doing business with people and they disrespect you, damn it, you should be emotional as a motherfucker. When people keep talking about don't be so emotional, it's too much emotions. I am extremely emotional about the blood, sweat and tears that I put into every dollar that comes into my bank account,

Between me and my resources.

Right, so when you disrespect me, I emotionally can respond and say you won't get a dime.

Now, should leaders be strategic.

Absolutely, but consumers have the right to decide. As has been said, Both Courtney and Tabitha and others have said, do what you think is right.

So nobody has said don't do it.

But when we said we were going to boycott Gucci, they told us, but Dapper Dan is there and he has a partnership with them. We don't want to abandon Dappadan. When we said we were going to boycott waffle house, they said, but what about the employees?

We don't know, it might create this, that and the third.

The point is that every time we get ready to say we're not going to spend our money somewhere, we are told, but what about this?

That, and the third? And brothers and sisters, ladies and gentlemen.

I want to tell you today that I understand the challenges because, as Angelo said to us when we were meeting yesterday and whatever, that, black folks are always in the catch twenty two. We always in between a rock and a hard place, trying to figure out how we're

You got people who are saying they're gonna do all types of things.

But for us to have the impact necessary to show these people that we're not playing with them, we're going to need to come together, to sit down, to talk through what our steps are, what our goals are, and what it is that we're attempting to accomplish, and then make a move that our people can get behind and understand. Because right now, all this confusion, everybody's this one says this, this one says that you lose.

People in the middle of it.

And then I'm saying this last thing, and I promise I won't say another word.

You're talking good though, No, But I just want.

To say one last thing.

It is I and I I struggle because the last thing that I want is.

To be.

At odds with our people. We've got enough, we got division, we have so many things that pulls us in different directions, and people just struggling, people just and people. People are just trying to figure it out as we go along. All of us have those moments, and so I want to be conscious of that because most of the people that I see involved in this truly love black people like we love black people, and so I want to

And the idea that some of us are.

Gonna walk into Target and say, I'm just gonna purchase the black brands. Perhaps some people might do that. I think it's a lot of people that's gonna do that, but the majority of our people will easily slip back into what they got the paper towels on sale today, they got this.

A boycott is a boycott.

If we say we don't shop at Target, we don't shop at Target. So we do e commerce. We figure out how to support people, but we cannot be walking in and out the door. Because another thing I said I was gonna say us. But another thing is that your presence is also a part or lack thereof is a part of a boycott.

Your presence.

Okay, So when you when you come through the door, that in and of itself is a sign that in and of itself shows.

Places other people.

Because the reality of the situation is there are people who are saying, I'm not going to the store, I'm gonna boycott, and they and they watch you walk into that store and they just see.

Like, damn, I need to go to targeting that I have anywhere, and people, people, you.

Need people to hold us to keep us strong, like you know, because a lot of people are this is Shopping is addictive, you know, especially when you when you go to your Target and that's your favorite store. You going every hour and it got what you want, and you used to that, and you you you're fighting against that urge and you see somebody else that you know has that same urge and say, look, I know it's hard,

And that's what history has told us.

When we talk about Operation Break Basket and we talk about Doctor King and the boycotts they had, it's because they were willing to sacrifice for a year. They were willing to say I'm not going to do this. The majority of us, ninety nine percent of us are not going to Sure, there was people who back, and there.

Are people right now who need the bread and they only have a Walmart or they only have a Target.

And we understand, and you know we have to do in our organizer, we have to figure out how do we get them some bread and how do we get them to another store? You know, as as thoughtful leaders. This is what I want to talk about. I want to talk about, Okay, we're boycotting, right, We're gonna go outside and we're gonna pick it in front of it. We're gonna pick a target today that we're gonna go out and we're gonna explain why we're not going to target.

Because if they think that they.

Can do whatever they want to to you, then they will do whatever they want to to you. So this is what it is at this moment right now. There are a lot of people who are feeling confused. They're watching on the news, you see all these type of things. I'm telling you, take a deep breath, Take a deep breath, and say, the only thing that's gonna win is our unity.

In his eyes.

Absolutely absolutely well, I think there's you know, I have a whole bunch of more stuff here, but I think that we have covered it all, you know, And I would I would circle back to my point that I am completely understanding and aware of how challenging and how complex these moments are in these situations because they get us wrapped.

Up in different ways. You know, you get you all. But I know that.

A boycott is a boycott. I know that everybody's not gonna do it. I know that the people who are involved, these black businesses who can be substantially hurt, they love black people, at least the ones I know they love black people.

And I also know that.

We are not I personally in the position that I'm in, I cannot sit by and not at least tell us where we are and make sure that people understand what's happening. Yeah, I know, you can't just take your product off the stand, off the shelf, but there ought to be a morality.

Clause for you too, that's right.

They ought to be if you are my partner. Because Target was supposed to be these people's partner. They never said that Target. They never said that Target was the employer of XYZ Black Brands or XYZ Women own brands. They said they were partners, right. That's why one of the things that we've been told that's a big risk is that if you don't sell your product, you either owe them money or you end up with all the product and no money. Right, So, because that's what partnerships

So already there's a breach.

In terms of what that partner looks like, because they should have been sitting with you, saying we're doing this new thing, were.

Trying to figure out how we're gonna go about it.

We want to tell you that this is gonna impact you because there are people that.

Since I'm doing what I'm doing, they not gonna work with you no more.

How do we know that that's the case, because we've discussed that in our board meetings all the time for Until Freedom.

And other organizations that I'm a part of.

In fact, when I went to Savior's Day and was called anti Semitic for being a supporter of the Nation of Islam, there were people who stopped working with me, People pulled their money, and there were people I was on boards that I was asked to resign from because the morality clause is that if you do something in this partnership that we have that harms the brand of another person, then how does that impact met and my organization, my company.

This is what these people said to me.

So if Target is your partner, why did they not even have the respect to pick up the phone and have a meeting with people and say, hey, this is what's going on so that you could get prepared for what is to come. It didn't happen. It didn't happen. So the partnership has been breached. Okay, not wanting diversity, equity and inclusion should at least be something that lawyers can look at to see if there's a morality clause

We need to figure that out.

I'm not going to Target, but I understand that there are some people who will say, well, this is my product or these are people that I respect, and I'm going to do that. In the meanwhile, however, we as leaders need to come together to figure out what our people can do collectively, collectively to address what we know is an onslaught that if other people in America have a cold, even the flu, we as black people are

Homie, they gonna do to you.

One hundred times.

So there's that.

On that note, we'll end this show without mine. Don't get it, and I had a lot of stuff to say about it. I don't get it. But I think this boycott, in this situation where Target was extremely important for us to speak about, well, please let us know how you feel. We want to hear all sides, especially from our people who are going to be impacted by what's going on in Target.

Just let us know.

Once again, I'm not gonna always be right, Tamika d marriages and I can always be wrong, but we will both always and I mean always be authentic.

Pace that's how we own it.