That's how that's what's up.
Family. Is your girl, Tamika D. Mallory, and it's your boy, my son and general and we are your host of street politicians, the players, streets and politics. Me what's up my story?
Oh man, I'm blessed the Holy Favorite on this beautiful day. You know, over here, I'm alive, blood flowing. You know, I'm feeling good, are you? I'm good?
You know, it's been a real whirlwind for It's been a whirlwind for several years. Honestly, Like I can't really point to a time when I was like not feeling
the pressure of like life in years. I don't know, like I think about it, you know, because I went from as you know, working for the National Action Net fourteen years to build my own business to going into the Women's March, and before that it was Justice League and gathering for justice, and then of course the Women's March, and after the Women's March until freedom and in all
the stuff in between that happened. So I just feel like, you know, I'm blessed also, But it just seems like we have these big peaks and of course some low valley, so you know, it's good to be alive for sure, and to you know, feel blessed, and I don't feel depressed or anything. So I thank God for that. This has been a good week when I haven't been feeling depression. Well actually it's just the middle of the week, but hey, two or three days blessed you not feel depression?
Well, that's you know what it is. I always have the conversation with people when people talk about depression on and I don't really know if I ever had pressure, right because I don't I don't think I know how identify. I know I've been through then without feel stressed. I know, you know, I've been confused and all I've been through. But I don't know if I would ever say that I've experienced what depression is, you know, and there'd be times like you know, during this week just you know,
this week has been kind of a lot. You know. That's why I say I'm blessed because I've seen so much death this week and you know, and and just been in taking a lot of that. You know, I intake a lot. I think like I'm more of an impath, Like I found myself randomly being tough for me. I found myself randomly in the house is in teared, like seeing shit that just you know, disturbs my peace, you know. And but I don't know if I've ever experienced depression.
I don't know, you know, I don't. I am not really the person who who deals with mental health in the capacity that you know it's been projected lately. You know, I'm not a person who has a therapists and other things, So I don't know. I talked to one or two people that have talked to that are feel comfortable talking about certain things. But for the most part, you know, I've just been dealing with life on life turn taking bumps and buz cry, get up, move, wipe your knee,
you know, just do live like that way. So you know, when I hear people sneaking depression, and I'd be like, I don't know if I've ever been depressed. I know I've felt pained. I know I felt stressed. I know
I felt trauma. I know I'm dealing with things that having trauma for me in my life, you know, being formally incarcerated, going through that process, losing you like walking into your house and your father's dead on the couch at twelve with drug overdose, like you know, experiencing your mother on drugs and just having to go through that and then going to jail. Lif I know, I'm dealing with trauma, and I don't know how I deal with it. I don't know if it's made me depressed. I don't know,
so I can't really sneak to that. I was, you know, a type of the conversation the other day, and I was actually who was I speaking to talking about this? I was talking about who was I come, stay sure. I don't know what who it was, but I know I was talking about sports, right, And I used to play basketball all through like junior high school, all the
way through high school, like that was my thing. And and I'm and I never really thought about this, but my mother knowing my father, ever came to any basketball game I ever played in my life. Never was there one time that they ever came to see me play basketball at a tournament anything. I never seen them on
the side. It just never happened, you know. And I and I say to my I say that and say that I make sure, and I don't know, and I don't know if it just any time that I can, like I do everything possible to make sure I met all of my sons they play soccer game that I made sure my son was playing basketball, that I was
at every one in his basketball games. So I don't know if it was subconsciously I did it because I understood, you know, I never had it for me, But this was the first time I ever actually recognized that, you know, And that was just the other day. That's a forty push, you old man say to itself, Yop, you never had that. So you know, we deal with trial love and you know, but I just say that mistake. I don't even know if I ever had depression.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know how to tell anybody else how to identify it, because obviously I'm not a medical person doctor, not medically trained, and so if you have never experienced it, God blessed, like that's a beautiful thing to be able to claim that. But I could tell you that from my perspective, depression has been crippling to me more than once throughout my life, you know, especially starting out probably mainly when I had my son
at a very very young age. That was a really really difficult time because I just I'm talking about even before his father died, just in trying to figure out what to do with this new life that I had, you know. And then when his father and I separated, which was before he died, it just was so many things. And that's what the first time in my life when I knew I was going through something that made me feel not so much. I wasn't crying or any of that, but I felt I felt weird, very weird, and I
didn't know exactly how to explain it. As time has gone on, though, I've learned through therapy and just through conversations, through listening, the more that mental health becomes a part of the daily discords. I learned that depression is something It goes up and down, It comes in different shapes, and for some people get it for you know, various reasons. And I certainly certainly have experienced it in some real, real rough times and some real, real real difference kuw
waves and it. You know, I've never wanted I've never wanted to die by suicide, but I will say that I have at least thought to myself, maybe once I take these pills or whatever, I won't wake up, you know, doing things like you're taking the pill with the alcoholic beverage, knowing like I'm drinking alcohol to take down the pill instead of the water. And I didn't think I was. I didn't, you know, I didn't ever think, oh, I'm
trying to do this to die. But I certainly have thought maybe today I just won't wake up with to have to continue to deal with all this craziness. But I'm so glad. I'm grateful to God for my experiences. I tell you, because now that I've gone through a lot of different things, I'm beginning to realize what really like, I understand what matters today more than ever before. So that's you know, just where I am with that. But so, you know, a lot of a lot of things happening.
When you talked about seeing death, you know, I felt like a chill up my spine because the last week I have been extremely focused on two projects that I've been working on, and I had to get through these things and not be distracted and not have my.
Words or my.
Words, my position, my whatever be a distraction for positive things that I was doing for black women, that I was doing for our community, and just also doing for myself and my friends. I've been working on these projects for a minute and it's particularly one, and I had to be disciplined enough to really step back from the discourse of what's happening in the media, and not just in the media, but in the world, like real life stuff, and remember that even though yes, these things are important,
so are the other things that I'm working on. And there was no void of voices people out there speaking to specifically the devastating crisis that it's happening in Israel Palestine. And I felt my heart was heavy because I wanted, you know, I'm so used to being out there and being in the conversation around important issues, and I wanted to do that. But I was so I was, I was, I was. My heart was warm that I'm trying. I was. I won't even say content, but I certainly felt some
level of stylish, if you will. And I don't even know if that's the right word, but you get my point by watching all of you, including of course Linda of including Mark lemont Hill, Angela I mean, excuse me, a man, the Seals, Uh, Sean King, and the list goes on. Jamal Briant, Freddie Haynes. You know, as I said, you already really speak truth to power, Uh and get out there and make sure that the story is being told in a balanced way. I've watched the news and
I see I see several things at once. I see one where there is certainly some truth, like you know there is, there is there is a very real and very raw attempt to honor is really lives that were lost and the hostages who are held or being held right now, and that's happening, and you see it. But I also see an imbalance and information and I see lies flat out lies being told at times depending on which network, and all of them have selective storytelling and
the way in which they speak. And that's why I said earlier that I'm so glad that I've been through the things that I have gone through because throughout the Women's March and other situations and issues that have come up in my life which were truly controversial where the media was involved, I got to see how they play games with words. I got to see how they will present some information and they'll present some facts and it will be embedded. It's even in the context and the direction,
it's in the imagery. It's in so many things that they intentionally misinformed people or try to force people to only see one way, and in this particular moment, I feel like it is better because we have forced you all. Really, I mean, obviously people already know where I stand right and so, but you all, and the marchers, the protesters, the people who are rising up, the Jews that are rising up around the world, to say, not in my
name will you slaughter babies? Will you slaughter babies? Continuously we don't want our babies slaughter, which is the right thing to say, because it is heart wrenching to know that people, families, men, women and children died on October seventh in the attack against them.
It is all.
It is horrible. I am not and I said this before and I'll say it again.
I refuse.
If you are looking for me as an ally to be someone who either celebrates and or lacks the empathy or the ability to acknowledge all death, all deaths, all murder, all of that, then you got the wrong person. And I'm okay with that because I can go home to my Savior knowing that I'm standing in the right in
my right mind and in the right shoes. When I can look around and say I don't want you to die, and I don't want you to die, and we do that every day because even in the gun violence prevention work that we do, we look at the person who's the shooter and the person on the other end of the gun as being equally important, because both sides of
the gun have a story. And I think that, to me is what informs our passion and our defiance and our calling for there to be an absolute cease fire and an end not just the ceasefire, but an end to the brutality that it's happening in the Middle East, and of course, which we've been calling for even before October seventh, is the end to the occupation of the Palestinian people, which I believe will ultimately keep Israeli citizens, or it's the citizens of Israel as well as Palestinians safe.
I think that the focus on Hamas and trying to take them out by bombing and shooting people is the wrong Killing people, killing babies and allowing those images to be out there, I think it is the wrong strategy. I'm not saying that I don't know good and damn well that if there is an attack against you, they're
will be a response that violence begets violence. I am not ignorant to that, but I do understand that a cycle must be broken, and in order for the cycle to be broken, because we could make an excuse for one side, this side, this side, that side, back and forth.
We can keep doing this for forever until more and more people and more and more bloodshed, or we could go back to the root of the problem and deal with it so that there will be a really so that the citizens, the people themselves, will have a will have a lack of interest, a lack of need, a lack of vulnerability for any type of terrorism, whether it be from the IDF or harmon, it won't need any of it. People will understand, and it will people will feel free to move about and feel true security in
their birth place, in there on their land. And that's that's just it. So any news outlet that it's not speaking to that, that's not talking about it straightforward as far as I'm concerned. I quote Linda Sarsaw, our sister, our Palestinian sister from Brooklyn, our partner. I quote her, and I stand one hundred percent by that. If you don't tell the truth about what's going on in this moment and support an ending to the occupation of Palestinian people.
Then you cannot possibly care about Jews and the people of Israel or anybody else, because the only way I see to go forward is to end this occupation and to make sure that people feel safe and free to exist all over the Middle East.
My whole mold compass was shifted through this, just watching, you know, the death of babys to me, you know, just see it, literally see it bathing die under rubble, just father's holding their children, mother's holding their children, fathers. My father had the remains of his children's in bag. You know, there was rubble. They was digging babies out of rubble like these were this or really happened, you know.
And I don't know, I don't know what type of human being, right, And because I consider myself a warrior, right, I consider myself a warrior, and I'm willing to die for what I believe in. I'm staying for my family this and that I personally couldn't be involved with another human being and savagely murdered their kids and their thing and feel some type of some type of success or feel like I have a complished my moral compass would be okay with me? As a warrior, and somebody I
believe I'm a warrior. I don't think any real warriors soldier for willing to die for its country as people's life, would look at a baby dying and feel like he accomplished. So if you don't have a level of empathy or regard for that type of life, or just understanding that that's not okay to you, then there's something that you have to do. Right. The fact that people are angry with people who have the humanitarian mold combers to look
at himan beings, mainly babies and women dying. You know, a quote unquote war that is supposed to be had with soldiers, right, so when nobody said and there are people who were able to justify it and feel as if it's really like an eye for either and for me it's that I don't want to see none of it. And anyone who would kill innocent people and kill children is wrong. It's horrible, it's terrific, and I do not stand by it, and I understand anyone who will speak
against it. But if you can see that I have and on one side and and vehemently and adamantly speak up against it, and then you can see it happen on the other side and remain silent. To me, it's just wrong. It means that you're you're you're you're okay with certain people being murdered and certain children being murdered. You're just not okay with others, or you're too weak or scared to say that you're not okay with it. And that's to me, it's just not it's not it's
not humane, you know. And it really pains me to watch black leaders and black people in positions of power who can take the position to say that I stand with Israel and if you should, you should stand against what moster is done. You should, you should absolutely stand against. But if you can't use that same breath to say, what is happening to the Palestinians in all, and I stand for them to be free, then I don't understand
where your moral compasses. I can't, of good nature be able to see things they've been done every day for the last eighteen days, just dying every day and not say anything.
And it's here's all, sorry, oh dare a. But here's here's one point that I keep hearing people say, right, they keep saying and not my friends who are Jewish. I was having a conversation with one of my very very close Jewish friends who said, they said, it was so soon, you know, where people expected Jews and the world to just immediately turn their attention to the Palestinian people and begin, you know, automatically fighting for other rights
and protecting other individuals. And she said, it was so soon, and it just felt so raw, and it's like they didn't have time to grieve properly, and they wanted the world to grieve with them. And I sat with that. It hit me so hard at length because that I feel that, I feel like when you know, that's a real thing that we didn't get to greed. And so it took me a few days or maybe overnight to respond to her, and then I said, here's the thing.
Black folks have been doing that bad bum Like, I understand what you're saying, because we have to constantly.
Harmed.
We're harmed and tell people don't bomb the buildings, so you the families be out there. How many times li you'll talk about it? How many times have we been at a George Boord or somebody is shot to death, they killed, the blood is still on the streets. The people are angry, and as soon as folks get ready to go tear up the buildings and the preset the next day or the night of we have no choice. The lawyers, the family members, saw ask the people, the organizes, and.
That's just but that's that's just property though, right, because it ain't it ain't like it's it's it's not like we we have to you know that we have to deal with the cartage of it. And did we have to just tell people not to deal with We gotta be so we gotta watch blood be spilled. And then we have to protect property. We told about protecting light, right, that's just the next level. We we can't even say, yo, fuck that that building. Can't you know what they done?
Kill this man in that building, don't deserve to be in the more fucking We don't even have that right. We don't even have that. So when it comes to them like we would, we would never even say take innocent people clouds, Okay, they shot somebody, so you know what, we're gonna go bomb the whole building in Milwaukee because the police shot somebody in the WORL. That wouldn't even
make sense. That that's not something that I can fathom in my mind right if my if this is just me and and because I don't deal with hate and vengeance, I don't deal with that. I don't even know what that looks like. If you took of a life of my take, if somebody shot and killed one of my family members, I couldnot sit there and be happy to see a baby get killed because they shot one of my things. I just couldn't do it. I couldn't be silent. I like, I don't know. I don't know what that is.
And that's other people's things. I'm just saying there are people who feel that way and some people that say fuck that, you're killed as some period. I don't have that that type of moral compass. That's not who I am. I don't think that's what any warrior who warriors is. I can understand the medias of ben who sitting here, and if you lost your your your loved one, maybe
you maybe you do. Look, maybe there is a level of vengeance, But I don't see how that vengeance, you know, equates to babies a woman and I just don't see how that vengeance equates it. I don't I personally don't
see that, and I can't. There's nothing that nobody could tell me that makes me feel like I should be quiet or I should understan there why people feel like the depth of one side is it's horrific, but the death of the other one is something to be solid and well, I just don't understand it, and I never will.
A nonoether of it is just that none of it is None of it is right, None of it is right, None of it is right. All the killing is bad. All the killing is terrible. All the killing is horrible. And you must acknowledge that even before October seventh, Palestinians were dying. We know we were there, we saw what happened, so we must we must say knowledge brutality before October seventh. So how do you in the cycle? That's the question.
It's the only question, you know. President Obama wrote a letter and you and I and others spent some time really reading yesterday, and there's still some stuff in it that I still consider parts of the letter to be propaganda. I think to not be ten toes down for a ceasefire is trash, period. I don't care who you are, President Obama, the Queen Mother whoever, President Biden, you name the people, just put them out on anybody you bring
me anybody. I don't care who it is. My mama, my mama and daddy, my granddaughter who I love everything, I give my life right now if she said, well, I don't believe in the cease draw so to me, his whole letter unfortunately misses the mark, because we must be calling to in what is happening there and to stop at least at least for humanitarian aid. But beyond that this point, a ceasepy is a small thing. There's much more that needs to be done. So I have
to say that. But I also know and understand that one he was the president of the United States of America, and he ain't gonna go but so far against the position of the new president who he supports, right, and also the country and the politics and the things we know and don't know, the things that are seen and unseen. Right,
he's not gonna go much further than that. And I am I am, I am politically astute enough to understand that half of it is said, the other half isn't said, and then there's still some shit that's left out or that we don't. We're not We're not pretty too. I understand how the talks happened. I understand the games that's played. I understand all of it. So as I read the letter, I read it knowing that I wasn't gonna get a radical.
Uh you know, he wasn't gonna be Malcolm X. I know that, but I am looking for him to include important things. He said some things that were really important, and I wish I had it so I could read it at this moment, but I don't want to. I want people to go because that's one of the things we about to talk about next. It's people don't read enough from start to finish to understand and then check
the source and do it and get another source for information. Right, But he talks about how long this conflict, and some people don't like the use of the term conflict. So for those who don't like that term, we're not gonna be perfect. And nobody should be looking for, especially people who are not either from Israel or Palestine, or Israeli or Palestinian, to say it exactly perfect every single word. That's just not realistic. So I understand some people say,
will stop saying conflict. Well, It is a conflict to me when people, all kinds of people are dying. But I understand, you know, of course, the occupation and all of those things. And he talks about the history of how it happened and how we got to this place.
He talks about the fact that the huge, the the the the that Israel needs to follow the guidelines of the United Nations and all the other you know, powers that be that set the tone for what is a humanitarian effort and what is violating law like war crimes. He talks about that and says that they need to be careful not to turn global the global world or global society against them, and they need to be you know, careful about uh, you know, what they do and how
they go about protecting themselves in this situation. Then he talks about the settlements, right, and he talks about how the settlements are and set learn which are people who have gone to Israel and the Jews who have shown up in Israel and in Palestine and decided this is my land. And the government backs them, taking people's land, throwing them out their homes. He talks about that, and he said the settlers have gone unaddressed. They have been.
The displacement is a problem, and that and and and and I thought that was powerful talking about using the word the terminology displacement, you know, And and I said to myself, it's not that people don't know the truth, it's that they're unwilling to say it.
There is this false narrative and people have to deal with it, right And there's the false narrative that when you speak and you have a different opinion about a situation like this, you know that somehow this word anti semitic is for you. And what it does is it scares people from having a conversation and makes people say, I don't want to be labeled. That you can have a disagreement. And that's one of the things that Obama said in his speech that was really really touched me.
In a letter that he said, he said, it is possible for people of goodwill to champion Palestinian rights and the poll certain Israeli government policies in the West Bank and guys are without being anti semitic. Perhaps most of all, it means we should choose not to always assume the worst in those who we disagree. In the age of constant Ranker troubling in misinformation on social media at a time when so many politicians and intention seekers see an
advantage in shedding heat rather than light. It may be unrealistic to expect respectful dialogue on any issue, and that that's what that's what it comes down to. There's so many people who have you watched people just have disagreements and you just say, okay, they disagree. It doesn't mean that our anti youth. I can be anti oppression, right. I can think that what the Israeli government is doing in guys that is oppression. And I can say that
and it doesn't mean that I'm anti Semitic. It doesn't mean that I hate Jews or I don't like Jews. It can mean that I disagree with something and it's it's it's it's actually horrible that we have to do that, that that people have to be quiet or don't want to say it because they don't want to be laid with something that they're not right. We have love for we have love for Jews. We on the front line with Jews all the time. In this movie, this movement
is comprised with mainly Palestinian Jews, Blacks. It's all of us. We fighting against oppression people who are pressed. So when people, when people have to fear the fact that they say something that disagrees with somebody, they can be label something. It's just not fair and it's just not fair what it does. It doesn't lean space for real dialogue, for honest dialogue, for people to honestly express how they might
about something. Whether you disagree or not. We can disagree on something, and I don't think that you anti black because you don't agree with what I am. I don't think that you're a racist person because you don't agree on my position with something. You know, And it's just not I just don't understand how you know.
I guess you know, people do label, but people do label folks who question, you know, police brutality or whatever. People do label white folks who have questions or pushback or whatever as being anti black, And I think that is something that we need to examine, right because sometimes they are and sometimes people are straight up anti Semitic, and there is anti Symthitism. It exists, and it has existed and people have been harmed as a result of it.
I don't think anybody can sing here and say different that that's not the point of the conversation.
That's never bring a coil of the car conversation. The point is that every every disagreement about a political stance that that has to do with this situation is not antisemitic, and it shouldn't be labeled that. You know. It's it's
just like somebody was saying the other day. So up to all this point, the same people that you thought were the best leaders in the world, that followed the believe in everything that you've been with, that been hand in hand with the Jewish community, to be fighting against all these things now that they believe, like, you know what, I don't think maybe should be dying in God them right. I think that that doesn't make sense. I think that you know, there should be a ceasefire. I think the
palace city is you know what, you'd be free. I don't think they should live in concentration. Came the open air prisoners. I don't think anybody should live because you have that position. That doesn't that doesn't take back all of the ship that you've been doing in community with the Jewish community for years. So it's it's it's this unfair that some people do it, like just like it'll be unfair with some people who if a person said, well, I think you know this police forwards, that was right.
In this situation, I don't agree with the way this person and you might not agree, but it doesn't mean that person is anti black. It doesn't mean that person is racist. I've had we've had a conversation and dialogue with people who don't agree with us on police's If black people don't agree with us all or it doesn't mean you anti black. It means that we have a
different position in this situation. It means that we don't agree, and we might not never agree on a subject, and we can still love each other and I can still think you a dope person. I can still want you to live and fight for your rights every day, but I cannot agree with you on a particular issue that has to do with Israel and Ganda.
That's real, what Israel and power sn I just want to make sure because one thing that is very very very very very important is that we stop allowing the media to make this Gaza because it is not just Gaza, it's the Palestinian people all over the region and even in the West Bink. We are seeing protests we're seeing
people being brutalized, we're seeing people being arrested. We're seeing the internet and the stories the news sources controlled that the people can even watch and listen to because they don't want ol Jazeera and others that are telling a balanced story about the situation to exist in that area. So it's important because people are still even in this moment, with all that has happened, they're still dealing with a level of oppression, and therefore we have to make sure
we call it out. And I, you know, I think we can end this just again reviving people that if you put a dog in a cage for a certain amount of time and you don't feed it, you treat it a certain way, you beat it, you brutalize it. When you open that cage or if that dog is able to get out of there, they are going to attack whatever is first and foremost, and when they attack it, it is not going to be pretty. That's what we
learned about pit bulls. Don't play with them, don't be beating them up or making them, you know, or or confining them, mistreating them, because when you do that, you turn them into animals, You turn them into something that you don't. I mean what they already animals, but you know what I'm saying, you turn them into something that you're not prepared to deal with, that they get into a situation where they are able to you know, retaliate or reactor or initiate or whatever, you know, since you
want to put it in. And so the best thing to do is to treat all people and all and all things that have life, that have a heart, that is a breathing, living organism, to treat it with respect, because the more you respect it, then you have the right to demand respect from it. Doesn't mean that terrorism won't always exist, because we know that, you know, people do bad things to folks and they've done nothing, nothing
at all. You know that that happened. And of course, even in this situation on October seventh, there were people who were killed who some of them were actually defenders of the Palestinian people. They were folks who at least this is what I've been told by watching news interviews that listening to some things online, that there were people who were very liberal, that they were out there and they believed in Palestinian rights right. And so there's casualties
all the time. When there's war. But you got to get to the rule of the war so you can end that. You can't just think that because you've taken out people that you're not actually just developing more of the same. They might change the name from Hamas to
Tou Tou. You don't know what the new and improved version will be, but promised but best and believed that what will not change is that the images that will be in the next generation mind will be that of a time when blood bodies, piece bits of bodies in bags, mothers, babies, fathers, families, blown up their community level. There is no way that that brings about the peace you claimed you want. It's
no way. It is no way. And do I understand that wars war, absolutely, but they What I know is that you have a military that goes out into a place where there is other military And maybe this is just on the movies, but in the movies, what I see is there are military people that's out there in the middle of other military space or whatever you wan on the lay in or whatever they're fighting for, and they shoot and kill one another people who are signed up to be there. So nobody should be going and
taking some innocent life. Nobody should be doing that and in order for us to stop it. I don't think it's that difficult of an answer. I think if you are a person who truly wants peace, it's not that difficult. But if you are someone who already who already committed war crimes, and who wants land, and who wants power, unconditional and unending power, then you will use anything as
an opportunity to continue the plan you already had. And we're not gonna see him latelight, that's not the situation. How does net and y'allhoo become a hero?
Who are we serious?
Always curious? Janni was great during nine to eleven, and guess what, he's still a rasist. He was a racist then and he's still erasist. And it didn't change my parents' opinion of him. Even Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York I, was getting in so much trouble online because during the pandemic he was up there on TV and they all manned. The people love Andrew Cuomo, Baybay. They thought he was the best thing walking. They were so and I was the only one dropping up there. Let
me tell you the truth about who Andrew Cuomo. Is him doing this good thing during the pandemic, is in the way that he speaks and how he's charismatically mesmerizing you.
Has nothing to do with the havoc that has been reaped over our communities because of his policies, because he has played games and been able to divide the Democrats or the Democrats don't have power, so he can allow the freaking Republicans to impose their will on a people that have voted overwhelmingly for different policies for in a
different direction. Okay, I know who Andrew Cuomo is, and I didn't stop telling the truth about him just because, oh now, all of a sudden, he's the dear sweetheart of the nation. So you know, that's that's my thing about it. And there's more to be seen. I think we ought to be out in the streets even more, and you know, I'm ready to go.
So.
Also in the news, Revolt TV has announced that Baltimore parents are outraged as no high school student passes the math proficiency test. No high school student in the whole city of Baltimore past the math proficiency test. Now there's a lot of things with that. I mean, there have been a lot of studies that talk about those proficient proficiency exams and how they are are not in the
best interests of all children. Her racist has been used, but I don't know enough for me to add my lend my voice to that, So I would just say that there has been absolutely studies and talks about those proficiency exams and why they are not in the best interests of our you know, of young of young black people, you know, especially when you are teaching to test coming off of a pandemic.
However, though.
We still I'm hearing from educators, especially young black boys, have not fully returned to school since the pandemic. We know that many of these students lost two now almost three years of the proper foundation in terms of their edgy cation, and so it is not difficult for me
to believe these results. But it can't be that everybody failed the test, except that the system is completely broken, completely broken, because even the kid who who is not studying, some of them are brilliant enough to be able to take tests and past. So if everybody failed, the system is so broken that it's actually very scary because it means if we can't handle this, this thing he if none of our students can handle it, where we're going as a people is a real sad sad sad sad sad sad.
Please, no, it really is. You know when I when I heard that story, I'm not surprised. You know, I'm really just not surprised because not only is the system, you know, just failing our kids in general. And I speak about this all the time. You know, a lot of curriculums in schools that I there, especially like young boys, young men, and we have the lowest Black Black male have the lowest graduation in high school. Right, we have the highest drop out rate and and and when you
think about it, it's it's for me. I put myself in the position of being a young black male in school and I was actually intelligent, right, but there was there was very little that kept me engaged. Right, There was very little in the curriculum and the style of teaching and everything that kept me engaged. I didn't really want to be there. I did it because you know, I wanted I wanted to be able to say that I could pass the test. I wanted my mother to
be proud. I wanted those days have it. So you know, I pushed myself to do it, but it wasn't like the classes were engaged me. That kept me engaatey. You know, I speak about this all the time. I remember my son, who was nine or ten as old at the time, to start crying when I was taking them to school, and it was like, I don't want to go to school because you know, it pretty much hinders my creativity. Like I sold to be learning. I learned off life.
When I'm outside, it's find of learning. I learned things and there you just sit there and you take tests and they just want you to pass the tests, and it's not it doesn't really work for me. And he was crying, and I thought about this shit. I'm like, damn because I remember feeling that way, you know. And so when we look at the structure and the system that we set up, especially for our children, they're not set up for us to be too excel. You know. There are some of us who are some of us
are able to fit within the system. Some of us you know, were trained within you know, our households and the way that we were brought up that they gave us this certain level of you know, able to ability to adapt to this destructure, it's too and then some of us didn't most of us, but for the most part, especially in our communities at risk. When you talk about Baltimore, you know, you know the demographic. You know most of them are living in.
Poverty, strict and communities and situations like that. You know what they're dealing with every day, and you know that the current curriculum instructure it doesn't engage them.
You know. So if we, if we, if we, if we want to be intentional about giving our kids the best opportunities to excel, you know, and and and be able to win, we have to we have to say ourselves, yo, we got to create the structure that that fits us. You know, every culture, when you look at cultural when you look at school system throughout the world, they are culturally competent, right and and that's why their kids are
able to accel. Like even if there was once like I think last year, they would talk about how in New York that the Jewish schools they weren't they weren't given they weren't making their kids take these to them, right, they were saying that they weren't even giving it to them because they didn't like commit We're not giving our kids because this shit, First of all, it must have
not been culturally competent to them. They didn't feel like it was relevant to their level of intelligence and the ship that they needed to do in their community to be successful. You know. So if we're not intentional about having that same level of cultural competence in our community, in our school to make our kids feel like they have they enjoying learning, that they have an opportunity like
we're not. We're not creating systems that say, hey, this is the best way that black and brown people learned inside of school. This is the best way for us to get the best, you know, the highest level out of that. And if we're not doing that, we're gonna keep having these conversations. We just gonna keep having them. I tell them you. I remember I was in seventh grade.
And my teacher you know, I was in eighth grade actually, and we was having standdized tests and we we was one of the smartest classes inside the school.
Uh, one of the smartest classes in the school. And we had a teacher and she looked at when she gave the tests of she was looking through it and she realized that none of the ship that we was
learning was in this test. And what she did was the lady, I'll never forget that she went inside the room, pulled the curtain down, and started giving us the answers, literally started giving and writing the answers on the board and the race and looking making sure none of the people because she realized that we weren't prepared, that whatever they was teaching us didn't prepare us for these tests
that they was giving us. And I was even though I felt like most of the edswer she gave me I had anyway, but there was a lot of people in the class that was lost, like what the fuck he did? You know, we weren't properly prepared, they.
Weren't giving And I think that, and I think that I think that, you know, there's something to be said about the fact that we cannot accept mediocrity right and we have to succeed, excel and then succeed and excel again. So I don't, you know, I don't want to give the impression that we think it's just okay, or you know, black children should just have something different or be treated differently. But I know for a fact that in Baltimore, they're
from super super super smart kids. Everybody in Baltimore is not an uneducated or unable to pass that test. There's something else going on, and I hope that they take the time to figure it out. And I also hope that parents, while they can be upset with the system, but that they also look at themselves and to know how much are they helping their children to focus so that they can be prepared beyond the test, you know,
beyond tests. I'm not even talking about the test. I'm talking about just making sure that our kids are properly prepared. But I knew that they would be some ramifications of the pandemic, and I think this is one of them showing up, and it's going to be even more because our ability to compete in the global society is really really it's it's a it's a very sensitive topic and it's also a uh, it's a gloomy conversation because it's
not We're not where we should be. But I do think that when we speak about Baltimore, we should shift to the next conversation quickly. And and I want to give my thought of the day and year related to the issue that we were just talking about. I'm really watching this next topic unfolds, and I'm realizing that reading and comprehension is becoming real difficult for folks. I was driving the other day and I was gone into a place in New Jersey or root for and I've been
going to this place for several years. I go there all the time. I got ready to put on my GPS the address, and I said to myself, why are you using that GPS to get to somewhere where you know how to go? Yeah, I'm sure there's a couple turns that you know sometimes you kind of when you're going to something. It's not my everyday drive. So when you're going it from New York into New Jersey and you don't know what you're doing, you could go past something and then you gotta go all the way back,
and that's not always easy. So it's definitely simpler to put your GPS on and to take me straight there. But I rejected the idea that I can't figure this out on my own with my own brain, and I don't need the phone, the internet and the lady talking to me to tell me exactly how to get to where it is. And I'm going I need to open pay attention stop talking on the phone so much or doing whatever else that I'm doing that's distracting me from
using my own brain. So I just started driving, and you know what, when it was time for me to turn into the entrance to where I was going, which, by the way, it is a very it's kind of dangerous because if you don't big no early enough and then turn into the parking lot, you can really you could cause an accident because it's people right up on you behind. And I wasn't paying attention that well at that time, and so I went past it right And then I've started for a few seconds being like, damn,
I went past it. I should have put the GPS on, have another conversation with myself, like it's not that serious. You need to get off here, either go around the back way and come around to it. This ain't ain't like I'm in a different community. I'm not in the next state. You know, I'm ok here, or just go
this way, do this, do that. It took me next of seven extra minutes to find my way around, and the next thing you know, I was at my location and I said to myself one of the things about this cell phone and the conveniences of information that is largely misinformation in some instances and in other instances overloaded information is that it is dumbing people down from being able to read, discern, and understand underlying context and facts.
And the reason why this happened is because with all of us last week or the week before, when we were traveling together to go to our coworkers mother's funeral service. As I was driving, I was having issues because the GPS wasn't catching up with me to go different turns or whatever, and I started and because I was relying so much on the GPS to tell me things, the
style was right there and I wasn't paying attention. So I said to myself, when going to Jersey from New York City, I'm not going to focus only on this phone, because if the phone goes dead or something happened, right.
No, the phone, we can focus on that fall work.
That's what I'm saying. It is become the endoor be all, and it just can't be that way. It just can't be that way. So you know, there's some people who will probably say, whatever, do what you want to do, and that's fine. I respect that too, but I personally have decided that I have to do a lot more without the cell phone guiding my every move because it is truly taken away from I remember before my parents had cell phones, they used to read books all day long,
that's what they love. Then be reading three books at the same time, both of them sitting there either reading the same book and discussing it or reading one read one book and pass it to the other one the other word like they used to read all the time. And I'll never forget my father saying that since he picked up the cell phone, because they didn't have cell phone, they waited maybe a year and a half or so, two years after people or everybody had a phone, they
still was on the back end of that. I remember my father saying to me, since he picked up the cell phone, has it has cut back on the amount of reading because he can't necessarily focus on reading as much as he used to. And I realized that that's part of the problem with this generation, is that we are so focused on the cell phone and focused on the information coming through the line coming through the You know everything, you see everything, you know your full understanding.
It's based upon a post or something that you read on the Internet, which is through two sentences and maybe a caption, maybe a caption, maybe even ten words that somebody said when the extra part is in word eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen. But all you heard is up to ten and therefore you make a full assumption. You're not even a person to sit back and say, well, let me go see a little bit more about that. And it brings me to my thoughts on Jada Pinkett and this book.
I've already put a statement out there and you know, and talked about it. But now this week we had a beautiful, amazing event. I just want to thank you, my son, and James Bond and Angelo Pinto and all the other brothers who were there to assist the women
and make sure that our event went well. All the help that you all were putting in, and the hands and the drinks and this and that and just everything y'all did to accommodate us holding phones, taking pictures, you know, making sure that we had everything that we needed as a team. But it's interesting to me that I see so many people making comments about the posts have been going up for the last two days where people are saying positive, beautiful, things about the energy, about Jada, about
the book, about what they learned. There are still people, there's a few that I'm like that I see this, like really, like that's your impression, because I was thinking something different. Even people who came to the event said, you know, outside eye on y'all because I ain't even understand it. But I can't because my girls invited me. And now I'm leaving well totally different understanding a totally
different feeling. And I after sitting with that and looking at how there were people and there are people in the comment sections that even though I or someone else is saying, Wow, you can't judge a book by its cover. Wow, I heard some powerful things.
Wow.
I was so glad to hear Jada's story and to read, you know, to hear things in a book or wow, read the book and it's amazing. And I got to see the energy. I feel this, and that they're still in there, Like, no, I can't believe you would say that, Oh my god, this world is going, Oh my god, how can you support you this? And that the third meanwhile, you ain't read the book. You've never been in a room with the woman and we had and you telling
us based upon a social media post. You're giving us your opinion based upon a social media post or seven or eight words that you heard the sisters say. And we're telling you that we sat there for hours and heard all of it. And people have read the book and listened to long form two three hour podcasts where she is speaking in fall sentences, where the book you can read the paragraphs to know the story. They're like, oh, she's changing the story now, No, the story in the
book is exactly what she is saying. But you are hearing a clip or somebody's impression of it and making a determination and telling folks who are actually doing due diligence about a black woman. Here, you are a black woman tailing down somebody you don't know, never sat down with, having read the book, having listened to a long form interview of any sort. I haven't heard anything past a
few words. And you got the nerve as a black woman and even a black man to sit up there and try to tell somebody who didn't do all of that that they are crazy or they are wrong, or Jada, ain't this or that and the third And you ain't spent more than six minutes listening to what she's saying. This to me is the most ridiculous thing ever, And it's telling me that the cell phone is dumbing people
down because the cell phone helps you form opinions about things. Meanwhile, meanwhile, the in person interaction that we had with Jada and Will and their family for years says something completely opposite of the shit that you see online. And yet you think, because you read it in a clip, that you know more than we know.
I think, for me, right, it's it's the hypocrisy. It's it's this, you know, I get. I get called the sympth every day. Oh, you're not the whole black woman accountable? Why you never do this? And in my my my reaction and reply to that, it's simple. I've never been a black woman my whole life. I've never been a black woman. I've been a black man in my whole life.
And I was raised on what men should do. I was raised by other men, and they say, hey, men should be carrying themself like me, and men should be doing this, and men should be doing this, and this is what a man does. Well, I wasn't. I wasn't taught about what a woman should be doing and what a woman should do. I know what the woman that I want you right, so I can I'm able to pick that woman. That doesn't mean that they're what my my expectation of what a woman should do for me,
it's what a woman should be all together. That I don't want to put my expotensions on all women, but I do believe that there are certain activities and certain shit as men that we should be doing in ways that we should be carrying ourselves. And I'm going to
always be vocal about those things. So when we talk about this situation, the fact that to me that there are so many men that someone has to say about with Jada done what Jada saying right, and they are ignoring the fact that her husband, the man that she's with, hasn't said many of the ship that you're saying, isn't angry about the shit that you anger by. You are sure because you have a criteria and expetition for your woman to be a certain way, and that's why you're
not in the relationship with Jada Pinjin. That's why your relationship is not their relationship. They've been walked together for over twenty seven years in a relationship, in a marriage for all these years and it's working for them because of the thing that you might not he be like, you know what, I could never do that I can never Oh man, it is y'all of y'all is in relationship. Were women the nigga that got four or five baby ruppers and had baby white y'all. A lot of y'all
is when women that that got babies woined you. A lot of y'all have been a lot of y'all are products of those relationships. A lot of y'all just come from this more high ground ship that y'all be talking because it's the Internet. Because you don't think nobody knows what you've been dealing with or what you put up with, and if it was okay for you, that was your relationship, the ship that you you you probably put up in
your relationship. Jada and Will probably wouldn't do what they put up with what they put up in their relationship. You don't understand the dynamics of someone else in the relationship to be able to have such full judgment on it.
It is actually corny to me that I watched men always do the oh j I watch a lot of men talking about with Jada's this, and she's this and that, and I watched niggas all of like, I had this conversation the other day and I'm like, Yo, the ship that I re seeing blue faith due to them girls. That shit is crazy. Ain't no man gonna be like that shit is whack, bro, Like those are your being mothers. But have a level of respect or you know, fuck it,
I wonture for what you go through. Just talk this like we watch it, Like they say, YO, will respect Jada enough to not say even if you whatever you think is going on, you know, there's a level of respect for that that will let right that a man has. He's killing himself like a man in every situation. When we look at the situation that he was gonna do, and when the reason why they had to be a red told you know why, because it was a sucker ass nigga that would disposed what he had to talk
about in their family. He want, he want. He He opened his mouth about a relationship with another woman that she never said to the body, and that man decided I'm gonna go public about me and me in a relationship. This is what's sucker. This is the something shit that y'all, don't say nothing about nobody ain't saying that stuff, and that that brings me to my eye. Don't get it. You know, we can continue over, but it's this is
just a perfect segue from me. I don't get It's like even when I would listening to Blueface talk about he has sex with Megan and this other person talking about who they has, when did men start doing this clown shit? Like? When did men just start saying yo, I had said to the woman and I need to publicly talk about it. That shit is so corny to me, Like to me, like the men, yo, we never did shit like that. Women wanted to talk about them having
sex with it. I never wanted to to brag and publicly talk about who I had sext with because they were something like this shit is so corny. When did niggas get this corny like it used to be real men and be like, nah, that me me with me and that woman did it personal to us? You know, I'm not gonna devote the information if that's not something that's public knowledge already. I'm not publicly going up and devote a private situation I had with a woman. Y'all,
niggas the fuck the game. But when did y'all get this week? Intended that you y'all need to get props for having a woman so wants to give props for having sex with you. When your niggas got this week, man, when your mouth start opening up and talking about shit like that. So we look at this whole situation that brought us to a red table talk. It was a nigga.
It was a nigga that decided, oh, you know what, my feeling is so hurt, and I'm going to go on public TV and I'm gonna talk about how this woman did me bad when when we're in a relationship and now she decided to talk and she explained to y'all what was going on in her marriage on how they were separated, and y'all didn't want to hear that part. Y'all just want to villainize that woman. And just to me and just watching men like I don't, I don't
really talk about when women say the other women. That's your decision, y'all, y'all know what y'all going through. Y'all can have y'all dialogue, that's your thing. But to me, this kid constantly watching men have something to say about Jada when her man ain't saying nothing about it. It's just corny and nigga read to get a life, bro, I know it shit that we you dealing with in your household. That of an no nigga like that, I probably ain't gonna deal with that. We all have, We
all dealt with other people. They gonna deal with any old relationship. And you have just to mind your mother fucking business man.
On the thing that, well, you know what, I don't. I don't why that's what said. This whole mind your business thing, because when people put their business out there, then folks are gonna speak on it. So I'm cool with that.
If you're going to say, when they put their business out there, say the right business, right, don't.
You don't even know because.
If you if you're not informed, if you just making it just like I don't what I don't do right right when I said your group Faith said that he had sex with mag this, I didn't get that off a blogs I watched. I watched the interview and I heard him say that his mouth right, I didn't say this person said that this is going on and saying it was all new they said it was all. Now,
this is what I'm trying to say. So when I when I make this, uh, when I make my opinion on something, it's something that that individual personally said they did and personally and literally, and then I can I'm basing it off that alonee I'm not basing it off. Oh she cheated or real she did this. He ain't say that. He ain't never said that.
Well, he never said that. He never said that. I mean, you know, she admits, which, by the way, no one is perfect and no situation is gonna be perfect, right, So she admits that the whole thing, the whole red table talk people that don't want them to do it, because as they were getting ready for it, the only right thing to do would have been to tell people at that time that they were separated. And she says, Will wanted to go to the table with her. He didn't want her to go by herself. So she went
to the table. They sat together, and then she knew, based upon the way in which you know, the communication was going, he wasn't ready. He wasn't ready to tell people that they weren't together. And it's a lot of things about that. It's a lot of things about that we could sing it analyze, but we won't. But you can rea between the lines. Number One, when people say, oh, he looks so hurt and this and that, I know.
I know from living life, not from being their friend or knowing Jada and being around and seeing them, because I've never seen anything other than honorable behavior and them being so loving towards one another. But me being a woman and living life, we know that Jada and Will didn't just separate in twenty sixteen because they woke up the sin Oh I don't like shit happened. Some things went on, right, and I'm sure some things went on
that he did. Like she said, he ain't perfect noise she so wherever they ended up, whatever they came to when they got to the red table. When you start talking about exposing to the world that we're not really we've been separated for a while, people have to really think about the fact that Will Smith has in many ways lived a perfect life publicly a perfect life. You don't know much about anything that he has going on.
It has been publicly pretty much perfect. Everything else is hearsay and salacious headlines and whatnot, but it's been pretty much perfect. So when people start unveiling and pulling apart that perfection, it's not easy for everyone to deal with for many different reasons. So she says that people didn't want her to do the Red Table, but she was ready, she was ready to talk. She was ready. And sometimes our egos drive us in a lot of ways to
be like y'all. Like she said, I wasn't gonna be emotional, held hostage emotionally. I wasn't gonna let people know something about me and try to hold it over my head or use it and talk about me as it. No, I'm not doing that. I'm gonna tell my own story. And I think the story is powerful. But I appreciate the one thing she said that is the best part. I mean, she said a lot of things at that event, a lot of things that were so powerful, and it was so moving all the way to your stomach. You
could feel it because she's so dope. But it was the one thing that I think sums up this conversation, and that is when that woman said, me and will be laughing at everybody together. And she said, she said, and because the question that Kim Blackwell, who was an incredible moderator, conversationalist with Jada, Kim Blackwell did an awesome job.
And the question Kim asked her was, how do you you know, how are the kids and how is all of this working out for the kids and with all the noise and whatever, And Jada said, one, this is old folks problem because my children, for the most part, when I'm talking to them, they don't even know. They're not even they in a whole different world. They don't know, they're not seeing this every day. This is not something that's coming up on their timeline all the time. But
beyond that, my family has been through this. I'm telling y'all the story on the back end, they already been through it with me, so they know the deal. They understand the dynamics of the relationship between their father and me and this and that they know all of that. And she said, if my family wasn't good, I would not have written this book. I wouldn't even be doing
this if my family wasn't good. But we're in such a solid place as a family that it gives me the freedom to speak and to tell my story.
And I thought that was beautiful.
And we know even at the times when they may have been going through things that we didn't know. We were in space with them, and we can honestly attest and anybody who doesn't believe it or this and that that's on you. We can honestly attest that the Smith family is one of the most solid, down to earth, beautiful and loving families that I've ever experienced in terms
of these Hollywood relationships. Those people are solid and whatever they but they solid and real, so real shit has happened, and I think that Jada and the way of which she's telling her story and all that it means, I just feel sorry for anyone that's so foolish that they're caught up in the headlines and they missed the opportunity to learn something and to experience what this woman is offering to us in this time, because we know. We had a conversation with one of our friends who said,
I came here and thinking y'all was all crazy. I can't believe it. But now I'm leaving here feeling inspired, feeling empowered, feeling like wow, like damn, like what can we do to make sure how truth is really out there? Because this stuff that's out there that ain't that's not matching up with what is actually in the book. That's that with me, and that's pretty much it.
Man. You know, that's on period.
Man.
Shout out to Jada, shout out to will tell her to the Smith family. You know, I look forward to reading the book, is you know, because I, you know, just having a relationship with both of them and just want to get correct right, just not just want to expul shit like people just be on the end of the internet, just such a cesspool for dumb shit. People just spew anything and say whatever they think. They don't have no facts to back it up. They just throw
all type of random bullshit out. Read the book, understand exactly what's going on. And then if you make a decision that you don't like Ja, you you think she did all the ship baits on the fact and cool, then that's your opinion. That's good.
But I just I don't want to read the book. They're gonna say, I don't want to read book. If you don't want to read the book and you don't want to get the real owner leadership, quiet.
You should just be quiet. And that's how we go end this show. Man. Once again, we appreciate y'all for support and Street Politicians Man, it's been three seasons, three seasons the Street Politician Man. We love y'all. Keep on this us number one podcast in the world. Shout out to our heart, shut out to Black Effect Network for all the love and support. You know, we really appreciate y'all. Keep on giving us ideas. Man. Hit us up at Street Politicians part on Instagram. DM must let us know
what you want to hear. Tell us how about you love us? How much you hear us? We want all the feedback. We truly appreciate you. We're gonna keep doing what we do. I'm not gonna always be right till we get the matteries, and I canna always be wrong both always and I mean always always always be authentic. Hello.
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Listen to Street Politicians on the Black Effect Network on iHeartRadio.
And catch us every single Wednesday for the video version of Street Politicians on Eyewomen dot TV.
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