History and Future

Politicians gonna cover a few different topics. Number One, I want to talk about some things that we've seen on the internet around Dwayne Wade's son daughter, excuse me, Zia UM. And we won't necessarily talk about Dwayne Wade and Zia, but it's also brought up some other conversations about UM children and and lgbt I lgbt I A No, it's lgbt q I A plus expressions and experiences for children. Uh. Talking about that, We're gonna cover a little bit of

the Harvey Weinstein situation. Obviously, he's been found guilty. I'm so excited about that because I am so tired of hearing people say, but what about Harvey Weinstein. When we want to talk about r. Kelly and Bill Cosby and other incidents where black folks have been found to do inappropriate things to women. Uh. The anniversary of the Selma Jubilee, which is the bridge crossing that happens in Selma, Alabama

every year. If you watched the movie Selma, you saw where John Lewis and Dr King and others attempted to walk across that bridge. They finally got over the bridge. A battle for voting rites down in Alabama. Mu Uh, And it's a it's a part of our history that is extremely powerful. We're gonna talk about it's anniversary action Bloody Sunday, bloody because many were beaten. John Lewis when we look at him right now, he has a visible scar that came Congressman John Lewis, the Great um and

and it came from Bloody Sunday. So we're gonna be there this weekend and we'll talk a little bit about that, and then my son's gonna tell you about what he doesn't get because he doesn't get anything at all. You don't get into me. I don't get it. Some stuff I just don't get right. But you know, I had thought of the day um as I was just thinking, like centering myself for the conversation around the gender and

lgbt q I A plus expressions dialogue. The thought that came to me is that there has to be spaces for black and brown, but as a black person and as a black mother of a black son, safe spaces for us to have some real conversations, like we really need to get in rooms where we have people who come from all the different identities, um, black men who are feeling attacked, um and and and also feeling just unsure about this moment because I think that just as

we say we don't want to have division between black women and black men, we also don't want to have division between black men based upon who loves who, or who lives a certain way or who has a certain expression. But I can understand how on all different sides people feel extremely offended and also afraid of what is coming, what's happening around us that we don't know. UM. So I think there has to be spaces where there's real

safe dialogue because we're not gonna always agree. Have three very important friends, Yandy and I share these friends, very special people to me and in conversation that we were having just this week, I saw the different levels of pain and experience. They're all three different men who identify as gay, um, and they are just and and everyone. In the conversation that we were having, it was it was really powerful and there was a lot there, a lot of pain, a lot of expression, a lot of laughter.

But what I appreciated the most is that they allowed me to be ignorant enough to learn. So I asked stupid questions, I probably made stupid statements, um, And they helped to educate me. And when I walked away from it, I knew more. I felt empowered, And I also felt that I could go out now and encourage and inspire another person who may be in the walking through life unsure about these topics, not just because they're gay, but because they just might not even understand where they fit

in the dialogue. So I just think, you know, the thought of the day today is if we really love all our people, we have to find a way to have conversations where all our people feel safe in those in that dialogue. And I agree with that on you know, like I have, I share a couple of those friends that you're speaking of and a lot of times we don't we especially as black men, coming from where we

come from in our communities. Um, there are so much confusion, you know what I'm saying, Like they say that that black community is just homophocus, and I don't know if that's the exact term. I just sometimes it might be ignorance. You know a lot of times people are ignorance and they say things out of ignorance. You know, we were raised a certain way, and you gotta unlearned to learn sometimes,

you know. So when you start to embrace people and you realize that the reality is that everybody has um different ideologies, different beliefs, different understandings, and you can agree to disagree. You don't have to um want to harm somebody. You don't have to think something is crazy with them. You don't have to see them as some type of

foreign object or some type of foreign person. And I think when you sit back and you unwrap and you unpacked these things that most of the time people are just human beings, you know, And I think that's most of the people people, I mean all the time. You basically we just all human beings, and we just everybody wants to exist. You know what I'm saying. I think the fight to exist is where where we you know, we find this this tug of war, and I think

we've got to have safe spaces. You know. Um, I went to my social media, you know, and me and you was having this conversation and I posted so and it has nothing to do with sexuality. Well, you know, I mean, but I don't really think that. I don't think because at the end of the day, people have the right to exist as their full selves. I'm saying, if you're gay, if you're lesbian, if you're training, whatever it is, that your reality is. That is your reality,

and you should love yourself. You should love whoever you love. But it's not even Somebody had a comment on your page that I thought, let me finish, but I was just gonna say. Somebody had a comment on your page that said, the reason why a lot of folks who are gay or who come from that community. And by the way, I have my someone very close to me told me that the use of l g B, t q I A doesn't also represent everyone as well. So there's a lot of learning that we all can do.

But someone wrote on your page that the reason why people who come from these communities feel a way is not because they don't love themselves, but because the world doesn't love them. The world treats them a certain type of way. Well, that's and that comes from ignorance. It comes from learning, you understand, I'm saying, when you start to identify something that is new to you, people fear what they don't understand, you know. So that is comes

from learning. And I think we're at a different time. I think we're in a different space where we're learning more every day. I think, you know, the l g B, t q I A plus community is becoming something that's way more visible. You know that we have to have conversations about we have to educate ourselves about the realities of the situation. And I also think it also it brings up different topics like the one that on my page.

It's like, I'm for me, you know when I look at this, when I look at the topic that I put on my page. What is the lady's name again? Celebrity woman And if people want Shelie Stern, Yes, she has um. She has two adopted black children, one is a young girl. And I want to stay first. The post states that she has two young black boys that she identifies that she had died and identify as as girls. But it's the only one one of them was born a girl. And then the other one she identifies, she identifies.

See that's what I'm saying about the education child, not the mother and the mother. The mother said that, okay, And this is what this is what my issue is, and that is the whole question. Right. So this the article states that at three years old, sure at least realize, yes, please look it up. You can look it up. It's not can we get some help from the producers? Look up the article that talks she talks about it, and you know, at three years old, how do you identify

as any gender? You know? And and that that's what my concern is. My concern is that at three, I don't even remember what I was thinking. At three, I don't. I don't, I don't. I didn't have the ability to discern information that was pretty much common sense at three. So how as a parent do you give the ability of to a child to identify agenda that is different

then there? Genitel is? How do how do you how do you give because you're not gonna say If the child says, you know what, I don't want to go to school, you look like what what what do you mean you don't want to go to school. If the child says I want to drive a car, you're not gonna say You're gonna be like, I'm not letting you drive a car. But all those things. See, this is why, this is why I think, this is why I feel

like we have to be able to sit. It's nothing about us without us, right, and I think we have to special. You want to tell you what you want me tell you why in this situation, it's not the same because we are What we're saying is that, um, gender, these are normal things, right we we were saying this

is normal. It's just a difference right where and when we have a conversation with every normal individual like LGBT and trans are normal people, right, This is not This is not something that is any type of dysfunction or anything. This is normal. Is just different. Right. When we have a conversation with headal sexual people, they will tell you not not a tend of them or probably tendor A tend them will tell you that at three years old they were not able to identify gender somebody had to,

they learned that. They will tell you that it's not it doesn't even make sense to be able to identify we're saying that if we're saying that the trans that the trans community has a different level of understanding, it's not a different level of understanding. It's an experience that only a person who has been through it understands and or who is experience who is going through it only they And I think I think that common No, it is. But what I'm saying is that it's not common sense

to us because we haven't been through it. Just like we just know what I'm trying to say as a man. But it's not about identifying your gender. It's not about

identifying that. It's about the fact that just like at three years old, two years old, you can look at your child and say, this child is going to be a great artist, or this child is going to be a great uh you know, singer, or or or look at how they build things already you can see their handwork and eye coordination with a ball and and they jump.

They already have it. It's something about the child that exists that gives you the impression or gives you a feeling that you know what this this child has something that is maybe and and also who pool constructed normal because that's another thing that I think we're in the process of confronting right now, that normalcy to us has been defined a certain way that does not make room

for people's differences. And no, but but what I'm saying is that there are people who made from the child time that a child is three years old or four years old, feel that they see in their child something that that they know is very different from maybe even what they experience. And as a result of that, you have parents who watch it and don't try to suppress it.

But I understand that there are some people who said, well, how far do you go to push the child or the person towards when ever you believe that they should be. There are people out here that train their child from two years old. They read certain types of books to them to help them on the journey towards being a lawyer or a doctor or whatever it is. Especially if they see in their child something that's like, oh, maybe

this is gonna be let's work on this. Then maybe when they get older the like, uh, I don't know, maybe that wasn't it or maybe it is. Let's see what I'm trying to tell you that that right there, you can't do that with a kid, because what I'm trying to tell you you you you don't that. To me, that borders on child abuse when you when you decide that you see something in the child that you might just be wanting to see that in the child. Right, that goes that goes this. I'm just saying, I'm just

asking this is a question decided what is right? What I'm saying, it's not about right as a boy. That's what I think the big debate is around and why we need to have this conver sation with other individuals who come from different types of gender expressions because I don't even do this decision that the way we've been doing it all our lives is right. But that's what I'm trying to say, and I'm not saying and if if the way we've been doing it is wrong, then

then we're wrong. Right, then we're wrong if we if we've been raising you know, but I think is this there are certain if it's not, it's different, right, if there's certain genitalia on you that you don't identify with, right, that's worn that way. Listen to me, but just listen

to me. It is because if you identify with a woman, if you identify as a man and you identify as a woman, if you're born a male and you find that you identify as a woman, that you feel as a woman, then your penis is something that you're not really comfortable that that's not true. That's what I'm so, how could you so that's what? That's what But that's what I'm what I'm trying, that's been saying. That's why

it is important when we have these conversations. No, because I have heard, when speaking directly to people who are trans, people who have gone through through this or who live in this experience every day, their genitalia is the last thing that matters in terms of what it is that they're experiencing and what they're going through and what they're feeling. And we're so caught up on if you have a penis, then you're this and if you have a vagina, then

that's not you. But if you are the one who brought up genitalia, And what I'm saying is that what I've heard, and that's why I think again, I think I think it is I'm in a different I'm in the wrong body. This is right, So listen, So listen to what I'm saying to you. If you're telling me you're in the wrong body, is your genitalia and in parts of your body that are specific to a man not they're not. They don't have something that. Don't say

I'm necessarily in the wrong body. They just say that I know that the way that I feel most comfortable is an address or more feminine being, more expressing more of my feminine side and my feminine traits. And again, I think the larger conversation because the point of me opening this up is not to say that, uh that I agree or don't agree, or no, or don't know,

because I don't know. But what I do think is that as leaders who have multiple types of people following us, believing in us, wanting to fight alongside us, I think that it makes sense that when we're having these conversations that we have the people who experience these these different feelings, whether it be the one who feels I'm in the wrong body, the one who feels that it's not so much about my body. But but white folks should never sit down and analyze race and issues about black people

without having black people as part of the converse. I hear what you're saying. What I'm trying to say is it's like everything right. When something becomes normalize, when something comes common, it becomes the new topic that people are talking about. There are situations where it is pushed. There are situations where people grap onto the normal. They want to be a part of what's popular. There are situations

where that happens. And I'm asking, how do we protect children from being trained no, they want to be a part. Maybe they want to be a part of being comfortable in the trans community. Maybe they want to be a part of making their children, or maybe they wanted to have a girl and decided they had a boy. How do we protect children against things like this? Is what

I'm trying to say, because how do we know? How do we when when when we start saying that a three year old is capable of deciding that there is different than the one that their bodies. This is what the woman said. She said at three years old, that the woman told her she was a boy. I mean she was a girl, yes, or she's still a boy, yes, right know, she's she's she exactly, so this is what she said. Okay, so what I'm asking and this is

my total thing. It has nothing to do with adults, even teenagers, because at teenage, at teenage, I was aware of my own sexuality. I was comfortable with who I was, I identified with what I was. I was able to make decisions based on learning and feeling like, you're this same really for me. So in that space at a teenage years you you you come to in to understand

your gender, your sexuality, your body. There things that you you identify and you say, well, this is what I like, this what I don't like, and that's what I'm what I'm saying. That's why I consistently said that there may be a person who is twenty years old right now who says, since I was that small, these are the things that I experienced that let it be known to me that I was different, or that I may be

trands or whatever. And I wish that my parents would not have tried to force me into whatever else they felt was a norm, because maybe when I was three and four, I was already saying I don't like uh, you know, I don't like basketball. I want to play with dogs I don't like. But that's not really true, because at three or four I was playing with dogs and I had a sister, and I still play with the basketball and when she came with her dolls, I

played with the dogs, but the children. And what I'm trying to tell you is that we also have to protect children from their parents forcing their truth or their from every part of the spectrum, not just from why are you going to allow her to wear a dress, but also why would you force her in the pants? If that's why do you force him to go to school? Why do you why do you force him to listen to you? Why do you force him? But listen to me,

And this is a conversation. I'm glad you said that because every person that is from the LGBT community, a lot of them tell me that the life that they were boring into is a painful life. If they could have chosen, most of them said, this is not the life that I've chosen. This is how it's born, So

listen to me. So if you make a decision based on a person who's living in a life that's telling you that they've been dealing with turmoil in pain their whole life right, And you look at a three and a four year old and you've made a decision that this three or four year old said something to you, and you're deciding that I'm going to let a three year old who has no ability to discern yes, let because you you're in charge of this, this child. You

you're in child in charge of a child. If a child says I'm not doing this, you have as a parent, you have a parental abilities, you have parental responsibilities. So when do we give when do we give the parents some level of control over how they interact with a child who's telling them at three years old that they're not the sex that they I'm going to I mean to say this to you again. That means that you've decided, first of all, that a certain way of life is

harmful or that it's bad. It's not. That's not what's because I don't want you to. But you can't say that. Let me finish saying what I'm saying. The reason why I'm saying that you've decided that is because that's not what I've decided. I'm saying that if you have having based on conversations, and the conversation is exactly what I just told you was on your page, the person said, as a trans person. It's not me, it's the way

the world treats me. So what Alicia Keys was saying when she was talking about her her beautiful son and him wanting to wear nail polish, what she was saying is I wish he could live in a world where people just wouldn't judge him. It's not I want to change him. It's not that I want to stop him from being who he is. It's not that I want to stop that child from being free. I want you,

not you, but you people to stop judging him. It'sn't so to the way in which we look at it, what we're what you're saying without maybe you don't recognize it, but what you're saying is we need to suppress the child, or let me just finish, Let me just finish. Can but can I can? I? Can I just finish saying what I'm saying because raising the child maybe that I'm allowing my child to wear a girl clothes. That's me raising my fucking child. It's not your child. I'm not

askin you to put fucking dresses on your son. I'm not asking you to put pants on your son. I'm not asking you to do anything. I'm saying what my say again once again, First of all, that's adopted child, that ignorant, So why don't you just know to me? Okay, so listen to me so you can adopt the child and decide, you know what, I want to raise the child as a girl. No, that's not what she That's not what she said. So what is to find what

I'm hearing? At least maybe I'm not educated, but what I heard her say was the child gave them the impression or told her that this is how I feel. Okay, So here's what Here's what I'm saying to you when I walk in this is the world that we want to live in or the world that I also want to live in. Now, I don't know, and I need, I need to process and deal with my own internal issues and biases and things that I deal it. So I'm not I'm gonna put that out there off the back.

But what I am saying is that we're walk into a store. If I walk into a store with my child, boy or girl whatever they whatever, whatever boy or girl genital, you're wise when we walk into the store. If my child, as a boy runs towards the girl clothes, that's what the funk I'm gonna let you put on. Maybe you don't go over this way where the boys go. Maybe three years old, but that's what we're trying to figure out.

To me, that's the whole question. So if you're making a decision that at three years old that a boy, that you're gonna raise the boy, that boys clothes have to be a certain way, just listen to what I'm saying. Listen to what I'm not saying, boy's clothes. She said that I'm not this. It's not a boy, it's a girl. Is not this is what she said. I'm not I'm not I'm not saying boys close or whatever has to

be a certain way. What I'm trying to say is if you made a decision that a three year old came to you and said, I'm not a boy, I'm a girl, and you honored that decision and you're going to raise that child as a girl. With a child who has no ability that you wouldn't give the ability to make discernment about way less um life. Listen to me, just just but it's not about Okay, So listen to me. If you decided you won't let your kids stay up

to eight o'clock is right? A wrong? Or you decided to let them get some sleep, that's harmful because if you like you said, if I said, and make you go to school, Yeah, if you don't go to school, you're not going to be educated. What is going to and you go to jail as a parent for not putting your child in school? Exactly? That means that. So that's what you asking you. So what is the right way? What is the right way? Since sending a child in school is the right way to do it, then what

is the right way to raise a child? What do you mean? I don't I don't know. I'm asking you and I'm I'm giving okay, So my right way to raise the child is what I believe is this As a parent, the parental your parental duties are to raise your child into they have discern Okay, so listen to it, and you're okay. Raising your child is not allowing them to make decisions that are life changes. Two and three. If you are a boy, if you're boy with a

penis then what is the right decision? And and the bigger question that I have is who decided what that decision is? Who decided what the framework is? Because you're saying that the boy should be living in a certain framework. That means that your son is going to wear pants, he's going to uh, you know, uh, you do certain things that boys do. He's not going to be let's just say a ballerina. But instead he's going to be, you know, a hip hop dancer or a basketball player.

We're not gonna send him to all girls sleepovers. We're not gonna we're gonna we're gonna raise him as a boy. I'm asking you who defined what raising a child as a boy means? Well, raising a child as a boy first means that you identify that child as a boy. That is the first thing that you do when you have a boy at Okay, so listen to me. The parameters are you identify your son as a son? Until the son explained to me the son of a son? What do you mean? There's no norms of a son.

You're raising your son as a son. I don't know what the norms look like. You might decide if you decide that you're raising your son. Okay, he's going through a phase. He wants to wear clothes. He believes that this would he's supposed to believe and you think he believes that he's supposed to wear these clothes. He likes these clothes best. If that's how you want to raise your child, and that's your that's your personal thing. Cool, But allowing a three year old to tell you that

they're not a boy, there's a girl. I think there is a power rental. And I think I believe what I think is the as the mouth feces. And we can end this here because we have other stuff to talk about and you can say whatever you want to say after this, But um, what I think is the mouth feces is that we are so stubborn that we are well, we refuse to understand that somewhere along the line, somebody told us what these things are supposed to look like? What the son and the daughter in the way and

theness and that how people are supposed to operate. And I think that the mouth feces is that we just we we we are making decisions for a child based upon what we feel at what society? What do you do? What is what is what is parenting? Do you let your child run into the middle of street because they want about something that is very personal, And I'm talking about, how does it personal? And it's not gender. Listen to me.

Listen to me. The ability to discern knowledge, information, These are things that have to be present when you make a decision. A three year old does not have enough of those things to make a decision about its own gender. There is there is for you. Listen to me, that is for you to nurture. That is for you to nurture.

And if you're if your child, if your son comes to you, why is it not Also and again, I raised my son as what I believe the norms are for a young man, okay, And I don't believe that if if I had another child that was three years old that told me that he thinks he's a girl, I don't know that I would be like, oh, let's go buy dresses and do all of this and that I don't know that, and I don't know if that's right or wrong. And I don't know if I would have to be your question, and I also don't and

that's the whole question, is the thing. I also don't know if I had a child that had certain types of things going on and certain types of expressions and feelings and things that I identify with as a parent, things that I can see, and they say, I'm a girl or I'm whatever I am. I don't know what that feels like because I've never experienced it, and I think that a person who was a parent, who was experienced it. Because we also here to your point about

all the things that have been said. We've heard from fathers who have said, you know what, I was against it, I tried to beat my child. But no, no, no, no, But that's that right there. But listen to me, but right there, because I don't want I don't want you to. I don't want you to. I don't want you to even but let me just the two things, the two different. Get your point after mind, and then okay, whatever I've heard people say, I tried to beat them, I tried

to change them, tried to do all these things. But at some point I realized that they were who they were and that we knew, but not at three. But but but that's that's the bottom up. That's why I'm telling you that the conversation needs to also be with parents who have a different They don't feel that way. They like no at three and I and as a

listen to me. They tell you that by the age of three, you can tell whether or not a child is going to go to prison, whether or not they're gonna do all types of things, what type of greatness they would have. By the age of three, that's my third grade they do all of that by third grade. Three, that's that's when you're learning. The age of three is when you start to day the school to pison pipe. Yeah, because they're able to tell where he's going to three

years old, they are able. My kids are completely different kids as they were at three. You're gonna tell me that is that is not true, That is not true, that that is not true. Because there are things about your sons that you will all of us have been talking about kids. They have remained Your son. Cameron has remained one of the most creative children since he was very small. When I first met you all as a family, one thing we all knew was that Cameron was extremely

creative with his hands. He was an extremely creative child, and he's only gotten better, He's only gotten greater. Act the creative stuff. He used to always want to come and make a creator. He don't do none of that now he plays sports, but with the parents that the two of you are the great family that you are. When he was three and he said he and he felt creative, y'all boor and more all the right things

to allow him to get into that. And then at the point that he made change to his sports that he's in now now we as a family shift to be able asking you. So I'm asking you, and this is this is because I wanted okay, so listen to okay. So mye thing is this. Are you doing the right thing? Are you making it your child happy by allowing your child who is not hasn't once again, doesn't have any knowledge, wisdom, or understanding of his who he is. Do you listen

to me? No, they don't. At three, I didn't have no wisdom. There was no wisdom at three, the bottom mine. At three, I had no ability to discern it. I don't even know what the fun was or anything. I couldn't even tell you the difference between any But kids don't notice. Raised. They don't know. And at three years old, nobody's coming to you why this person is life skinned darkskin?

They don't know they're just enjoying life. So if a kid comes to you that might have seen something on TV or the best person they like is a girl, she says, I'm a girl. Somebody told her a girl, and they're identified and they said, I'm girl too. And you're going are you going to nurture that in your child because you think it's gonna make them comfortable. Now, I think I'm going to not be so stressed over

it and worried about them. And I think I think that based upon the education that I have today, not the education of the past. And I also think I'm gonna make big mistakes and I'm gonna mess up, and that my own biases and my own ego and my own feelings and everything else is gonna be there. And so there's gonna be times when I'm not gonna do

the right thing. But what I want to hope for myself and the education that I've had and and all that I've learned the people that I've been exposed to, is that when my child comes to me and says something like this, not I don't want to go to school, not things like that. Those are things that we have to be able to move and by the way, it used to be I gotta go, you gotta go to college.

And now in society, we're finding out that sending a kid directly to college, like imagine a president's child not going to college after the first year. That wasn't happening. And now you see President Obama and then said, you know what, you can sascha and I think it was sasho. Malieve. Sometimes I get them confused. You know what, you can stay home for the first year. And that's something that that has become a new thing that people are doing.

And used to be that there was only a certain type of education that you could get and say, my death, So what I'm what you no, you bought up school. So what I'm saying is that the education that I have now, I would want to hope that I've become the type of parents that when my child comes to me, especially not if my child has been a certain way and then all of a sudden he goes around a group of friends and he comes back and he's acting

like something different. That's different. But I'm trying. I I want to believe, and I ain't talking about white folks adopting black children. That's a different conversation. We could talk about that all day. There's all kinds of issues with white people adopting black children and doing different types of things. Some of them do great things, some of them do not so great things, some of them do terrible things.

So that's different. But I'm saying, as a black parent, I want to be able to look at my child and not prevent them from being their full selves and from being happy their entire life. And that means that we're gonna have to walk an uncomfortable road together, especially the road about a three year old you, because up to three lit to me, you are, you are guiding

every move. So listen to you, gonna god everything else to child, Everything else that that child comes to you that goes disaccording to what you know, You're gonna say no, don't you. But listen to me. Just listen to me. Everything else that they come to you that goes disaccording to what you feel or learn, You're going to say no.

But that's what I'm saying. That's what is. That is the conversation that I think we're being forced to right now, is that maybe some of that is not right, but we can't we can't tell you why because I watch you and your children. I watch my best friend Jane and hurt her son, and different people whose kids have

grown up very different. Like when I think about how I was raised and then how I raised to read, I can see where there are some challenges with my son and I based upon as I was raising him. I believe a child shouldn't speak. You you you what they asked if you have to, you know, just certain things, traditional things that I was taught. And that don't mean

that we didn't turn out well. But today, as I watched your parenting, as I watched the parents and of other friends that I had, there's much more expression for these kids. They're being allowed to be much more open. They can have they can talk, they can do this. When I was little, I used to get beat. I used to have to stay in the house and and and and my school treated me a certain way because I ran my mouth too much. All you alway, you talk too much, You talk too much, you talk too much,

And I I went through hell. I still deal with what they put me through because I was a kid that was too talkative. But look at me, I was freaking spoke before five million people in this world. And I ran my mouth. I ran my mouth for change. I ran my mouth to make a difference in society. And if somebody had fostered when I was little, that maybe I wouldn't have gone through half the ship that I've been through in my life if they would have allowed me to be who I was at that time.

And I think that we as a society are developing to a place. We're coming to a place where people are beginning to understand that some of the ship that we were taught, we pushed on our kids and it hurt them, it didn't help. But that makes sense to me. And I'm all four nurturing attributes and kids and seeing where they have attributes. But I'm not. I do not believe that a three year old is enough knowledgeable, as enough wisdom understanding about self, about life, about anything to

make a decision about his gender. I don't. I just don't, especially when it's contrary to how their birth anonomy. I just I personally believe that you were as a a parent, you have the right, you have the responsibility to to tell that child you your boy until until until he is able to discern for himself, we're going to live this way. But I don't know that you have the right to tell somebody, but you have the right to

tell them what to wear. Every day they wake up, you put the clothes on, You tell him what the eats. But what do you mean it's not so different because they would choose to eat other food. Did you feel like did you feel as nutritional fool or you feel it's best for them? You cook food and you said this movie we got to eat you and that's even more important? That is not How are you going to say that you're serious more important than their gender? Are you?

So you're telling me that what I eat is more important than who I am when I wake up in the morning. Nothing, it's not, That's what I'm trying to tell you. That's what I'm saying. Don't who you are? That's what I tell you. Who you are is way more important. Exactly, that's important you can control. But the thing is that are more important Exactly, you're seriously so for a child and things that are most important for a three years. I just want to say, I'm gonna

I'm getting off of this. But you're telling me that the most important things in a child, a three year old child's life. You don't have any control, right, that's what I'm saying. Okay, that's what that's right. That's the key word to me. I think I have influence, but I do not know if I have control. But that's but it's not about you, right. The word is influence in nurturing. You're supposed to as a parent. Your job is to nurture your child, right, and to leave the child.

And if a child comes to you at the age of three, at the age that ten, why do you have to say no, you're not And the child says, I'm a boy and they only remember when you told them they wasn't like and they don't feel comfortable. But at that okay, But then at that at that age, then you start to make you start to make understanding, You start to look and say, let's figure this out. But at three years old, you don't lets some money just change agenda. It just doesn't. It's just not it's

not parenting. You are You don't because you don't get You don't let a three year old decide the agenda. You just don't my sign. You just don't my sign. You just don't decide your gender. And that's what I'm talking about you don't decide your gender, but you're trying to tell you so can question? Can I ask you

a question? Do you think it was ever a three year old that thought that said I'm a girl and a boy that that put on some girl though said I'm a girl that wasn't a girl at all, that grew up to be a head of your sexual board. As your question, I'm asking this question, do you think that happened? Do you think that happened? And sexual assault? The ones that he was not convicted of was pre Tory sexual assault, which would have given him life in prison.

But he did get convicted of rape and sexual assault. And of course there's been uh, you know, been trying to change the subject. So another topic, um here, Okay, well, so let's go backs. So we have a lot more and I think again we should make sure if we bring other people as a part of the dialogue who have experienced these issues or experienced this this, these different uh expressions in life, so that we could have a more full conversation and allow other people to speak from

lived experience. Um, Harvey Weinstein is a big topic today. Well, some people, like applies says, it's not that big of a topic at all because he feels like it's not on the news. He wants everybody in the world to know that Harvey Weinstein was uh convicted of two counts of rape. So I saw somewhere it's at four, and then I saw somewhere else that said too, but I know that he definitely was convicted of rape and sexual assault. Um.

It's involving two women. And he was not guilty on predatory rape predatory sexual assault, which would have given him life in prison. The other charges would give him somewhere between five to ten years on each charge, these two charges, and of course now that he's in prison, he would in jail. He was remanded immediately to Rikers Island, which is where people go when you're in New York and you found guilty of um these types of uh crimes. Uh. He now has chest pains and has had to be

moved to the hospital. He's not feeling well. And you know that has just set the internet on fire. Um. And and there's been some conversation about whether he will receive lighter sentencing because he's the first time offender, which also applies said he don't agreed it. Mm hmm. You know, I mean, ain't really much to talk about that. Harvey Weinstein is conversation talking, well, I didn't really wants to talk about you know, Harvey want Steen as a predator.

You know, he's he's always been a predator. I mean, it's it's been documented for for years. There's so many Like I heard the tape of the lady when he was trying to pull her into the room and she was like please, and he was like, don't like this was this was a predator. This was a man who was literally taking woman's body. So I don't I don't have any remorse. You know, whatever he gets, you know, that's his own karma. He has to deal with it.

I mean, I think, like like APPLY said, it probably hasn't been um plastic all over the news as much as you know, Bill Cosby was, or you know, even as much as we heard of or Kelly you know. But the reality is, you know, I just hope they do the right thing, you know, and send him in to jail, and he just needs to go on and you know, deal with his own demons and you know, and maybe we'll see the Harvey win Seen story. Maybe Gail will interview him hey, maybe, oh, so that people can.

But don't you think it's time for Oh sorry, y'all, sorry, I got all stuck. Oh my god. Um, but don't you think it's time now for the conversation about like the comparison between Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby and R. Kelly And I know that's not what you were saying. You're comparing media the media and how the media has

portrayed it. But don't you think it's time for us to stop comparing the two or bringing up Harvey Weinstein every time we talk about Bill Cosby and R. Kelly Because, by the way, both are Kelly and and Bill Cosby were not convicted in the beginning when women started making accusations, they both were able to pay their way and wiggle their way out of uh, you know, jail time or

being convicted in court of crimes. So when it happens with Harvey Weinstein, it's like it's something different, but actually he really it's all really the same standard, and the standard is that women are often not protected. I mean, I think I think um, from a perspective of our community, it's that we feel like it's highlighted when it's black man like, like you said, it's all plastered all over the news is everywhere you can't turn from a channel.

Black women are outraged corne rapists this, and that, they're so outraged in the world the worst, But they don't have the same vitriol and outrage for the white creditor and and and that's just how black men see it. You know, maybe maybe we're looking from a closed lens. Maybe it's different with it just doesn't seemed the same way. That doesn't seem the same anger from black women about a white rapist as it is from about a black man. So that's that's I don't know if that's going to change.

I don't know if it's gonna do anything that he was found convicted. I don't know because when, like you said that, the same media coverage is not it's not happening. It's not the same applause and people saying good, he need to go, and all of your timeline ain't good. Good for Harvey Wain and said it ain't happen when when having to build Cosby and having it or Kelly, it was all of your timeline. Everywhere you turned you looked, it was fucked them. They need to die and anybody

saying him there's apologist. It was just it was a bunch of it was a bunch of real you know, plastered everywhere. So I don't know if that's going to change based on this situation. But then the question is who we follow. I don't know that I know that if you go into say pant Suit Nation or maybe like the Women's March chats, I believe white women are saying, maybe been crying, that they finally got him. Um, they're they're,

they're they're having the same expression of feeling. I saw a lot of different comments saying, you know, I feel vindicated. I never was able to get my rapists or the person who assaulted me, but this time I feel like they got one on all our behalfs. But we follow black people, so and then and then, and the bigger question is why do black women have to go after white men about stuff that they did to white people?

But that's not But that's not accurate though, because it's not this is not the stuff they did the white people. This man was raping black women. It was it was like two black women. That's what I'm trying. What I'm it was a lot of whites. Is that this what I'm trying to tell you. This is what I'm trying to tell you. So it's the same, it's the same situation, and and and but that's what we're trying to say.

If he's a black man and you are so you want him to die, but listen to me, they who said it, so you so what you're trying to tell me that people to say you need to rot in jail, you need to do this, Okay, So if you rot in jail, that means you, if you rot in jail, you're dying. They want you to die in jail. So I'm just beingion is an expression because they want your

has to die in prison, That's what it means. So when when black women are so adamant about him dying in prison, but nobody has no type of anger or don't really care that a white man that black woman is gonna rot, why do you keep saying nobody cares?

Is it possible that just the same way that the media is not necessarily exploiting him today being or yesterday being convicted, perhaps the media is also not giving life to all the women, black, white, or whomever, Asian, everybody who's out here, who's out there advocating for him to go to prison for him to convinced that maybe the media is not showing that, but but instead the messaging

the way we hear it. You know how you just said this how it feels to black men, the way we hear it is, why won't white women Black women get just as upset with Harvey Weinstein as they do with Bill Cosby? And this is not the third and one. The man who raped me looks more like Bill Cosby and R. Kelly, Right, that's who was in my bed in my house, not me personally. But I'm saying this is some women's experience, right, they don't look like Harvey Weinstein.

So that's that's number one. But also, why isn't the conversation, Why won't the media show how outraged women are? Because when you say that, and in our own homes, in our own circumferences, we're not having to come Nobody's outrage. All we hear when it's a black man people in your ear all day about this ship on your own phone, So I hear what you're saying is out about the media.

It's in real life, in real lifetime. People in our community is not outraged about Harvey Weinstein and they don't give a funk, but they're outraged and want to see the black man rotten jail. Who does it? So, this is what I'm trying to say, Like we Kobe Bryant, who is dead. They're talking about rape allegations and now to get more fucking publicity than Harvey Weinstein. Who? So what? This is what I'm trying to tell you. So it

gets more of a conversation. It's more people. But what it's not just the media, it's also the media is reporting with people seem to be attracted to. That's what the media. The media does that too. Listen to me. They do it. They do it because they know that you're gonna pay attention to it. And there is not enough. If there was a when there is a when black Twitter is going crazy about something, media is gonna reported

that black Twitter is not reporting about. First of all, black twitter was going crazy about the Tatiana Jefferson and other cases of police brutality and things that happen to black people that never showed up. Want to see in it or anywhere else black people. Black Twitter was going crazy about Parchment Prison and I can tell you right now that most of these different networks probably showed it once.

If that okay, it was? But no, But and so has Harvey Wine seen and the marches where they have been a rainbow of women out there, there's been on there one time, right, But there is the media. No. But I'm saying the media, as we all know, is engaged. Did you see the front of the courthouse when Bill Kazu is going to court man there was women out there for both sides. You think it was okay? So let me ask your question. Did you see images of the march that the women other women held of all

races for Harvey wanting Okay, they were there? Though I saw it, it was on my timeline because it's the people I followed. Zakia not Zakia, Rikiya, No, Zakia on Sarry was there? Who was our sister Rikia Um? What's our girl? Rikia's last name? Rikia Maze? She was out there. So there were strong black women out there as well. But the media is not trying to show it, just like they're not going to give you every day Harvey Winstein was convicted. They also won't necessarily cover when people

are out there standing up. So I think that we challenge us instead of challenging Now, okay, what I'm just asking so you what you're saying is that you can honestly say that you see the same outrage for black women when white rapists and predators of being you know, um held accountable. Do you see the same outrage just honestly. I just if you could tell me you're okay, so cool that that's that's the problem. So that's the problem. That's it. It ain't nothing doing whatever it is. It

is a problem. It's a problem for black men. It's a problem for black men. It is you know, well whatever, I mean, you know what, I think we should keep the same energy. But I also think that some people are and they're not getting the type of attention that they deserve. So that's what I think. So this weekend we head back to someth some Alabama. It's such a you know, for people that don't go, they just don't

know like what it is that they're missing. If you are black in America and your lineage comes specifically from like because you know, there a lot of people that's black Afroatina. Uh, you know, you have people who who identify as being black or a part of black culture who don't necessarily come from a certain our roots in a certain type of way. So if you um understand that story of like the South, your family members coming from the South, your big mama living in Alabama, Mississippi.

To know that the birth of the civil rights movement was there as well, and that our own family members could have been a part of it is a real special kind of thing. And I'm sure people from other cultures have that too, things that are real special to them that the rest of the world may not understand. And I think Solma is one of those places and we should are to take their children in definitely need to go to Selma. Do the bridge crossing Edmund Pettis Bridge.

It's an experienced families, you know, you need your children probably need to go across once. I mean, it ain't really a lot of children, like really young children out there. They have mostly teenagers, you know what I'm saying. You don't really see a lot of young children. I think at some point during your child, your child's life, you probably should take them and give them the history lesson and as they cross and they read some of the things and some of the people who you who historically

were there. They have some of them what they call them the Oh God, I forget and I can't remember their names, but they like the people. But she wasn't there. I don't think Fire Rose who's down in in some Alabama and her husband Hank. They keep it going there in the Civil Rights Museum. But there are people who cross the bridge. They were there, they were with they were there, they crossed the bridge. They let them cross first, you know. It's it's a beautiful it's a beautiful thing, man,

you know. So and then most of the the elected officials are there. Especially it's the presidential elections, so most of the elected officials will probably be there, you know. So you know it's gonna be. It's gonna be. But it's they treat the town they do and and and that's one thing we need to talk about. They have to start the town for it to be such a historical reference in our history. It's very poor, you know, and it's it's sad that they don't pour into it.

A lot of these politicians and rich people coming in. They cross this bridge and they go and they buy some food, and they buy flag or something but they don't pour into the community to make sure that that community is still strong and standard. So I think that's that's very like desolate and just you know when I when I when I go to Selma, I always have this sense of pride and deep sadness because even though the community is wonderful, they will tell you themselves that

it's a struggle the town. They hardly have stores. I mean, you would think, since this is a historic site, that everything would be there, not gentrified, but bustling successful, and instead, you know, it's it's a it's a tough it's tough there in some shout out to sim see y'all this weekend, we'll be there. So you don't get it. I don't get it all of what we decis. I don't get nothing to happen today. But that's a whole another topic. I just don't get a lot of stuff, but today's

topic of I don't get it. Um the young boy pop Smoke m He was gunned down in in Beverly Hills and Beverly Hills, you know, Beverly Hills home that he was staying in. Um. First they said it was a robbery. Some people said that he accidentally gave out his UM address on Instagram in the picture. Then they said that it was a hit, that somebody had gave his address to somebody for some reason, that it was

a playing hit. Um. I just don't get why we just keep killing our young black boys, man, Like, I really don't, and I want to and I want to have this conversation with us. You know, these are young artists, these are young people coming from our communities. And why don't we value our own lives? Why? Why are we taking our own lives? You know? We protest so much when our lives are being taken by the police, you know, but injustice, you know. And I just really don't get

why we don't value ourselves. Why we don't see ourselves as the kings that we are. Why aren't we fighting to live? Why we targeting each other? Why are we taking out people like why are we taking up people who are are coming up in our community? Why aren't we celebrating each other? Why aren't we uplifting each other? Understand the communities we come from. Why? But the reality is when one of us makes it, we all should

see it as we make it. You know, I understand that we've been taught to hate each other, Understand that we've been taught to envy each other, Understand that we're dealing with poverty, Understand that we come from marginalized communities, and understand these things. But I just will never understand why do we see some level of comfort or accomplishment and taking our own brothers lives, you know. And I just don't get it. And I hope somebody can try to explain it to me one day, but until then,

I just don't get it. M hm. Well, I do think people are engaged in trying to curb violence and bring more healing and peace to our communities. And you say don't get it, but I think you do get it. I think you know exactly what it is about. Uh. You know our history here, the violence that was done to us, we perpetuated, and we really haven't healed as

a community. We have so many things that we don't agree on and um and and so many of our people are struggling just to get by every day that when we do see someone make it out, it almost feels like no one else will ever have that opportunity. So why you would not need And I think that the work that we have to do is gonna start very very young, with our very very small babies, before

they can even read. They're gonna need to have instilled in them certain types of principles and qualities that it's not about just taking them out of the community, because I think that's what some parents feel like if I move him or her, then I don't have to worry about them being a certain way. But really, even within our communities, we need to be able to teach our children about love and respect and compassion and pride, uh

and honoring and uplifting each other. You know, I think if you as a child, watch your parents behave the same way they don't. They always on the telephone talking about how who they hate, excuse me, how they don't like someone so, and you know, tearing each other down. Then that's what you're going to also be. But even that parents, I don't believe it is doing it just

because they're ignorant. It's a pain that a lot of people are suffering with, and I think, you know, as we work every day, we have to get down to the root cause of that pain and then figure out how we reverse and retrain and relearn some of the

things that we um feel and do. Yeah, But for me, it's just looking at Pop Smoke, looking at Nipsey Hustle, looking at young Snoop, and just seeing how we constantly see this cycle of us trying to evolve, us, trying to get out, us, trying to do better for ourselves, and us constantly killing us, you know, And as much as I can see and hear certain things and we know the trauma exists, I just I just really just

I just don't get it. And there we have it, And thank you for tuning into another episode of Street Politicians where we fight and we discussed, and we've come up with real ideas and real opinions, and we we want anything that you have to talk about, any ideas you have, any subjects that y'all want us to talk about. We're gonna have some some real guests up here soon. But right now, yeah, I feel like I'm the guest because I'm always getting tore down. You are here trying

to kill men, not trying to kill you. We were having a very shary dialogue and you had your opinion, so I can't have mine. No, no, no, no, it's not opinion because you cut me off in the middle of my opinion. We'll get we'll get back to that. I cut you off. You know you cut me off too, And the taiple just wash the tail. Listen to me. We may not always be right, and we damn shouldn't always agree, and we cut each other off. We're always going to be all things. That's how we owned it.