I'm Tamika D Mallory and this.
Shit Boy my Son in general.
We are your host of t M I.
Tamika and my Son's Information, Truth, Motivation and inspiration name New Energy.
What's up, my son, Lennon.
How are you doing, Tamika.
I'm doing good, doing good, doing good.
Another weeks been a It was a long week, pretty eventful. At the end of the week, we all at Until Freedom celebrated the union, the recommitment of Reverend Stephen A.
Green and Miss Brayer Green.
Green.
Such a cool story that over four years ago when we moved to Kentucky to fight for Breonna Taylor, Stephen was really responsible for helping us bring people into the movement, for going out and finding, you know, the those people who were gems in the city of Louisville, but weren't necessarily, you know, folks that we would just walk up on the street, because there were people who you could just walk up to on the street and they were automatically activated.
But Brea and some other young people were doing a great job of organizing and you know, holding activities and really just being out there fighting for Brionna, protesting and also educating the community and of course, in true Stephen Green fashion, he found the group, the organization that she was with, and you know, brought them to meet with us, and out of that came love. The two of them, you know, started dating shortly afterwards, and then next thing,
you know, we looked up and they were married. And this was one year later where they have recommitted and held a big ceremony that all of us were able to attend. And then of course the parties. We you know, nobody they party like we party. We know how to party. So it was really a fabulous occasion. It's so good to know that, you know, out of unfortunately the death of Breonna Taylor, came a few really really good things.
And it's funny because I've had that conversation with U Tamika Palmer, Brianna's mother in the past that you know, one day she and I were just we have been having us wine and we were just talking and she was crying and just going through her emotions, which you know, unfortunately happens often, and she said, you know, I said to her, there have been some beautiful things to come from even this tragic loss of your daughter, and she
was like, it has you know, those things. You know, that's some of the stuff that she reflects on when she gets sad. And so one of them is how Brea and Steven met and out of that came love, you know, the two of them fell in love and now they're married. And so their celebration, their good party afterwards. This weekend, this past weekend was really special.
It was a beautiful event. Shout out to Brea and Stephen. You know, I just love their energy because they have this youthfulness and they have this this professionalist that they balance. You know. You know that Stephen is an awesome preacher and and Breya is very intelligent and she does a lot of work with a lot of women's groups that she's I see her organize a lot of events. Is that well, But when it's time to party, they party, you know. So I just love the dynamic that they
have and you know, I'm wishing them the best. Like you said, the parties were amazing. You know that the parties were dope, and like you said, them coming out of Brianna Taylor, Like every time I look at them
like wow this. You know, I remember Stephen coming to our and be with Brea and then we were all just sitting at a table organizing and the next thing, you know, now this is his wife, you know, so Breonna Taylor's fawned and evoked, you know a lot of energy that you know, we we we want to we want to be sad because we lost her, but we have to acknowledge, you know, the things, even government officials who've been elected, and just the way the energy in
Louisville shifted. They became a lot more unified and seeing people just step into their their light to say so shout out to them.
You know.
It was my son's birthday this past week, so the festivities rolled on with him. Yesterday we played laser tag, which was I've never done before. But they beat they beat us like crazy. Him and his friends and his brother. They they dig good at these games. You know, they sit on the games all day. So I'm running around and they just keep killing me, and I'm like, why can't I shoot nobody? You know, getting thirteen and fourteen kills and I'm getting one. So I'll never lift that down.
So happy birthday, thirteenth birthday.
That's awesome, awesome, happy birthday.
And then I guess the big one for me is that I took my granddaughter to.
Her first day in school.
They you know, I call it daycare, but clearly this is not daycare anymore.
This is actual school.
They have books, they've got to set up, but they have they have to learn for certain points of the day. When I was little, daycare was literally you go to the babysitter. Maybe it was in a center, but for the most part, it was that somebody's out. This stuff is the technology homegirl just walked right up in there like it's not a big deal, like what's up?
Where's everything at?
And they have cameras where they can roll back the camera of any time of day. The cameras are in every location. When I walked up, her parents were already there with her. I walked up and they have a cold that you have to put in at the door. I mean, we literally did not have any of that stuff in the daycare back in the days, right like, we just didn't have it.
It just wasn't There wasn't no cameras and their kids up to.
No cameras, definitely none.
Having you know, maybe they kept the door locked, but you have a code that you punch in that is it is customized for each person, so they know the time of entry in and out for everybody that's associated with a particular code. You've got one section that has all the babies and the I don't know if they call it an infirmary, that's not an infirmary. I don't know,
a nursery, yep, nursery for little teeny babies. They got this class that this is very high level professional and I think the thing that's funny is that the kids were prepared, like to go and meet and talk all day and get the instructions as soon as I got there about three minutes after them, and the director was like, ah, we got it, and don't leave a pacify it because that's oldbas of today.
Whoa so. But she seemed like she's gonna do fine.
The only thing about Blair is that when you tell her to do something, I don't know exactly how that's gonna work out. So we have, you know, like I said, the weekend and the beginning of this week is starting out really good, but there's a lot of work to be done. We're gonna be announcing more about our Project Freedom, which will be rolling out all throughout the week, where we will be presenting to the world sort of our concept.
For what we believe.
The counter project of Project twenty twenty five is that is in favor of us as people who are black folks, brown folks, and also marginalizing vulnerable communities. I want to talk about something later on in terms of this idea of like when you lift black people, what happens? But I do you know, I do think or I think it was important for us to take the work that we've been doing with the people we've been working with who.
Are on specific issues, you know, for us.
One thing that the Women's March did teach me is about intersectional.
Movement building, right. I didn't.
I was not familiar with that term in a movement space, although of course we know what intersection means in the
concept of intersection. But learning about intersectionality and movement spaces came during the time of the Women's March, and it was really a lifesaver for me because I learned and began to understand that even though one issue is my issue and I'm super committed to it, it does not mean that I can't make space for other people's issues, And I think that helped me to expand the people who are around me and the types of folks that
I work with and talk to every day. The beauty of I said our Project Freedom a few moments ago, but that's actually the website, our projectfreedom dot com. The name of it, the platform is Project Freedom, Project Freedom, and I think the beauty of Project Freedom is just that.
So many different groups.
We've got gun violence awareness and prevention folks who deal with policy there. We've got people who actually do mobilizing on the ground for a lot of issues, but specifically getting people to the polls and dealing with voter suppression. We've got folks that deal with anti war advocacy. We've got people who of course support Palestinian rights and looking at how to get a cease fire in gun immediately. We've got policy folks that deal with education, had we have.
Folks that are in politics in general. So this is a broad, broad, broad base of folks.
And now when we open this up, we're going to be bringing in the voices of so many other individuals who have their own expertise. And so if you have the time, go to our Project Freedom dot com. That's our projectfreedom dot com to learn more about how we see America, not through the lens of Project twenty twenty five, where we understand the dangers, but through the lens of the people looking at legislation that's already lingering. It's already
out there. We've already committed that these policies need to be passed, and we've sort of compiled them and brought them back together, freshened them up, and said, this is how we can strengthen them, and this is how we can pass them to alleviate some of the suffering, but also to help add and and generate more success and power among our community. So Ourproject Freedom dot com.
We definitely need that man, because there's so much misinformation, Like there's a misinformation campaign that you know it's online that I constantly go to my page and I just laugh now because I realize that I've seen Applies write something on his page the other day that you know, we ain't fool that all these ain't black people that
y'all got on here. These are some box that you'll do to send here, and we know it, and I'm just so I laugh at it now because it'd be a I put a post up that they don't like they send one hundred people at a time to try to overload it with just lies and just stupidity. So I'm really, I'm really being intentional about stopping the misinformation, about educating and getting real information and getting the facts,
you know, and being able to fact check things. I went to a meeting, you know, pretty much kind of like a private meeting but not so private. But it was just a black man, couple of Hispanics just in the room about misinformation and about how do we stop the misinformation in our community, how what is the truth?
And you know, and there was a lot of different views, you know, definitely talking about this election and what it means and what they what they think happened, and what they think a person did or what they know a person did, and why person should be with this person or why a person isn't with that person. So it was, it was, it was very helpful. It was a strong
dialogue with a lot of strong individuals. I know, shout out to my brother James McMillan who invited me to the meeting, but it was a lot of very well known people in the community, you know, within the industry of music industry, within just different industries. So you know, I think that those are the conversations in the rooms that we need to be having at this time because the things that I read online, you know, the sound bite, the clickbait, the just anything so you can get your
narrative pushed, it's just terrible, you know. And knowing that a lot of people don't do the research, don't do the work that it takes to actually get real information, you realize that people are being misinformed every day and
they grabbing onto it. So I have conversations with people and they come to me and ask me, so, what about such and such and such and such did this, And I'd be like, that's not actual facts, and then I showed them there, well, but such such said this, And then I showed them and they be like, oh, I ain't even know. And it's like, damn, there's too
many of us that just don't know, you know. So I really want to be disintentional about making sure that real knowledge and real information and the true you know, information that you can actual fact check and see is out there. Yeah.
You know.
The thing about what you're saying is so important, that is so important is it also helps us to brush up on our skills making sure that we're constantly reading and finding new information. Because as I have been listening to Resi Colbert, who is an expert on a lot of political things, but she specifically has followed Kamala Harris for a while and compiled lots of facts, and she is all she's all around the Internet and around the
country dispelling myths about Kamala Harris, Vice President Harris. You know, as I've been listening to her, and then I've been reading the things that you know, she's directing me to, I find other things because you know, once you become a reader, once you become someone that is interested in knowledge and information, you automatically will continue to go forward in what you're learning so that you can pick up the next point, right, so that you can pick up
the nuance and the context for which something is buried. So I was looking at a clip the other day, and I know this individual. She's attacked me several times on the internet, so you know, I know her. This clip had pieces of words that Kamala Harris has said.
Right, words selling that they they cut different pieces, they splice it and they put another thing and it just narrative and they.
Run with that, right, and the sad part about it is that this is a person who prides herself on being realer than everybody else. She's the realist, Like you know, nobody is more real than her. Everybody else is fake. Not everybody, but there's a number of us that she claims we're fake, and yet you're you're you're actually promoting things that's not true and using little clips in order
to make a point about your position on someone. When I feel like, if you do your actual research right, you can find things about anyone, even a good person, even the person that you love, even your grandmama and your mama. If you do real research, you can actually bring forth factual information that helps to prove your point about why you don't trust or believe in a particular individual. You don't have to make up lies in order to
make your point. And that was one of the reasons why the whole Project twenty twenty five was sitting on me. It wasn't so much how the dangers of it, because we know that we understand. But what was really what I was really sitting with was the idea that people were trying to make it worse when it was already bad. It didn't need, you know, Project twenty twenty five does not need hyperbole. It does not need people to come up with what is what they think is possible, or
what they think it means. Plus some it is very clear, and it's very clear the mindset of the individuals who developed it. And so I just think that to your point, it forces us to as leaders be much more intentional about the information that we're taking in. And it also forces me to stop posting things and not have done that. Definitely have done that, to stop posting things without really knowing the full context of it as well.
And I'm not saying if I.
See a video of a man being killed or beaten by the police or something like that, or a woman or whomever, that I will not share that information and call for us to learn more, to know more, and more than likely I've already talked to somebody or I kind of know the backstory, but the clips of people's words, it has happened to me, you know, And so I'm just really really careful about that. But I think you're
right that the misinformation piece is important. It's happening, and I think our Project Freedom, I'm not sure that it's so much deals with misinformation, which it does because it really kind of dispels the myth that there are no plans.
That nobody has any And also.
Another thing that it dispels is this idea that Kamala Harris does not support legislation that is driven towards helping majority black folks, right like the gun violence intervention and prevention work they you know, it started out with people trying to lobby for mass shootings, which are generally not They don't classify the shootings that happen in our community
as mass shootings. However, now right because of the work that passed, the McBride and Erica Ford and a number of other individuals have done that, it is being.
Classified that way.
And there's a complete set aside in the gun violence prevention resources coming out of the federal government that is for our communities, specifically targeting our communities where violence and violent shootings happen the most. And so a lot of the legislation that is in this our in the Project Freedom Platform, it's things that the Vice President has already signed on to some of it. She's a co sponsor of other bills. She's been very supportive of reparations. People
say she doesn't support reparations. That's a lie, you know. So now why it's necessary for us to bring this what they say, bump it up in your inbox, is because we need to make sure there's still a commitment and we want to we want to push her on her being able to say that I'm still committed to these things that I had not sort of changed or walked away from it because it's not politically expedient, and that I'm committed to making much of what is in
these particular bills happen. At least I'm going to be a big advocate for it. So there's a lot of work to be done. I want folks to check out our project freedom dot com and you can come to TMI Underscore show and send us a note and let us know where you see some things that need to be strengthened. There may be something in your local community that we don't even know about that we should be and we should be informed so that we can look at the best ways to make it a part of
the four pillars of the policy platform. So my thought of the day, speaking of misinformation, I don't know if this goes in the same bucket. But I will tell you that I'm really like, Wow, the scammer thing is like really crazy, right, you know, on the surface, when people say that somebody is a scammer or someone or people have been scamming, I'm not sure that it connects
with us, right. Like sometimes I feel like when people say or talk about scammers, you kind of think about just like some free money that's just sitting there that folks are taking, or bags handbags or something, you know like that. But there are real people behind these situations and that are victims of this behavior.
And I was looking.
At a news article the other day where a man says that hundreds of thousands of dollars were stolen and he's a lawyer, and it was stolen from him because he believed that he was a part of some operation to catch scammers. So somebody scammed him into believing that he was helping to catch other people, and as a lawyer, still he did not know or wasn't paying attention, and
therefore his money was basically taken. Then you know, there was another incident where a woman is saying that this man that she was married to, he basically married her and was draining her bank account, took all of her life savings and emptied her out and then you know, that's it. He's off on to the next thing. And I was it came to me as my thought of the day that we have to really look out for the elders and the people in our lives that we know are not as informed, and they don't have to
end because I don't see. I do know when you go on cash app or whatever it tells you scamming, is that as all time high.
Don't do this, that and the third.
But like my parents, they don't cash app, They don't do any of that because they know that they are unaware of, you know, certain things.
They know that.
However, my mom got a phone call from somebody one day who was telling her like, you know, we're trying to check your your Social Security number because there's been fraud, and she's like given the person the information and it doesn't dawn on her for a while that wait a minute, I should not be having this conversation. So that just tells me that, you know, we're we're at a place where we have to do a lot of educating for ourselves. And if your family members, your parents or other people.
They don't go to like a community center or somewhere every day that you know, they have these conversations. They may miss it. They may not even watch the news. I know a lot of people that do not watch the news. They hate it. It's just too much for them. And so what do you do to get that information out there? And I think that as a part of the work that we do, we also need to be informing our communities about how they can lose their life saveds, they can lose their homes.
Right.
You still have people like Queen of Foua fighting for her home in Brooklyn as these people try to take her home from her. I mean, there's so many ways that people are being scammed and being you know, being being used and be and having things taken from them that belong to them. And I just I think it's just an important conversation for us to be having.
I think it's a very important conversation. You know a lot of if you if you watch this movie called I Think It's to Be Something to Be and Felicia Rashad stars and she's an older lady and somebody scams her, you know, they call her and they get she she's
holding like two million dollars for school. You know, she's an old retired teacher and she's holding this money, and they scam her and take all the money on her account with some telling her gift, just give us this past call, We're gonna fix your bank account, and this and that and and they scam And I see those things happening, like I've almost felt for it. Like they've called me and be like, hey, something's going wrong with your your your Chase account. Who when somebody scamming it?
Is this your thing? And and you be like what? Then you call? And then I had to in the middle of it, I'm like, what the fuck am I even doing? You know what I'm saying? So and I'm a I'm more technologically savvy than you know, most of our elders, and it almost got me with it. So we have to really be intentional about that. I think as some of us that are a little younger, we need to be talking to our elder body to make sure that we listen. Nobody call you about no numbers.
Don't give nobody no numbers.
Numbers.
Yeah, So I think that's something that we need to do because and it looks good.
Like all of the stuff that they send you like, it really looks good. Sometimes I'll get stuff Amazon such and such dot com, but if you don't open it, you don't know, and it'll be like click here or do this or whatever. Your package UPS and you when you look at the addresses, the ending of it, you know that it's not official. So like these they really and and you know what's interesting is every time I send something via UPS, I started getting the scamming not
ups USPS United States Post Service. Whenever I send something from them, I start getting notifications that my package is delayed because of X, Y and z. And when I look at it, I know that it's a fake account. But how they know that I've sent something? Like, for instance, I didn't send anything last week, I didn't get anything last week, But if I do this week, in a couple of days, I start getting stuff. So that means that somehow they the system knows that you have sent something.
I get them for FedEx sometimes, and then they start reaching out to you with these codes. And when people say, well, you know it's a fake fake bots, I always tell people that bots are controlled by humans. There's no such thing as a box system that just operates on its own. Maybe it goes out and does the work on its own and multiplies and they could do, you know, millions,
more than one person. But somebody has to figure out the coding for it, figure out what they're trying to do, figure out the scam to, you know, get the information. You sent something on USPS, you sent something FedEx. They have to be able to figure that out first so that they can tell the system what it's looking for and what they're trying to do. So no matter what, there's still somebody at the helm of, you know, at the set off end of making this stuff happen. And
it's actually pretty scary. I'll never forget. I think I told the story on here before that a pastor and his wife was telling me one time that the pastor is sitting in the house.
It's a Sunday afternoon.
He's trying to rest, and his wife is flying back and forth in the house, going back, got his shoes on. Somebody ringing the doorbell and she's flying back and forth in the house. He's thinking it's possibly a delivery or something like that, so he's not really paying attention. Plus, you know, men y'all be like these women. Who knows what she's doing? So you know whatever. So after a while, she was hustling so hard back and forth that he's
stopped and she is passing him. So he's sitting there and she's not telling him what she's doing, not because she's keeping it a secret, but because the situation at the door is so serious that she's got to make it happen and then tell him about it later.
So eventually he says, so what are you doing? Like who is that and what's going on?
And she's like, our grandson is locked up, and I have to give this man five thousand dollars right now so that he could go and get him.
And I'm gonna go with him.
We gotta go get the money. We need to have cash to go to the ball bondsman.
He's a bail.
Person and he and he's like, what the hell are you talking about?
What man?
And she's collecting money around house and about to go to the ATM to get the rest of the cash to go to the ball bondsman. And she know, which is true, that you need cash when you go to most of these bail people. So she knew that, so that wasn't like a line, right, Like that founded right, because you do gotta have cash when you go to bailbondsmen.
So the bailbondsmen is showing up telling her your grandson has been arrested and he couldn't reach you, so he sent me over here to get the money to go bail him out. And she was actually getting their money and their household together to give to this man without her husband. And these are people. They are pastor and first lady of a church. These people are smart. You know, she's a study woman, but her emotions took over her mind.
Yeah, I'm telling you, these scammers they know how to pull at the heartstrings. Man. You told us some of my kids and the grandkids. Yeah. Immediately they trying to figure it out what's going on, how we're going to do it, you know, And it has to be someone who's a little more leveled. They step back and be like whoa, whoa. You know, it's just like three card Moley. You remember what you told me, the story how you
went there and they got you for your money. It got to be somebody that because every time they walk up to me, I see people getting them and then they be like, yo, you want to get it. I'm like, bro, I'm from New York. Like I've been in all of them. I've been in the Brons, they say, because they know you can't run that game with me. I've been here. You know what I'm saying. I was just gone gone in seconds, and they run. They act like they lost two hundred, and they be like, yo, you can win
the next two hundred. Come on, all you gotta do is put twenty dollars right here. Just put it here here here, Oh you won. They act like you won before you pick it here?
You won?
You like, no, no, no, here, win win bet bet the.
Long, long time, long time. I didn't even know they still played that game anyway.
So I just have this, you know, a question for you as an aka. You know you hear this whole Kamala's not black. Kamala's not black. She ain't black, She ain't this, this and that, and then you know a lot of people are it don't matge that she went to APCU and it don't matter that she's an ak as an ak of your knowledge, Are there non black women who are aks?
Absolutely not.
So when you look at our charter or the documents that you see online about you know, about the sorority. It says that they do not discriminate. So what it says, and I would say they don't discriminate. But I have never in my life, not one time, have I ever met a white woman or any other type of woman, or at least someone that does not have black in them and identify with being black as a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha or any of the Divine Nine.
I'm not saying that they're not there. I'm sure that there's probably you know, a white person or two you know, or or some other uh a person who has identifies with a different race.
I'm sure that there's one or two that exists in different places.
But I can tell you that Kamala Harris is not one of them. First of all, it's not a comfortable space for people who are not black. If you ask me, I know I wouldn't want to be because everything about how we operate, everything about how we started, you know, with black women at Howard University starting this sorority, and in other spaces of the Divine Nine, still black folks starting these these institutions. You know, I've not ever ever
experienced anything blacker. I've you know, it is a place where I bring my entire self, where the culture, uh, the identity, the the the the research that we do, the conversations we have, all of It is very very clear to me that you if you are in the sorority and you pledged and you went through the process, it is ninety nine percent likely that you identify as being black and also to go to an HBCU. And it's not like Kamala Harris is a honorary member, because
see that's very different, right. I mean when you think about Alicia Keys here she is she is a woman whose mother is white, but she identifies as black. She is a black father, white mother, she identifies as black. Right, she is an honorary member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Right, And therefore someone could say, which she's you know very much so into it. And we were just talking the other day and she's like, you know, I'm getting even more excited about being a part of this sisterhood.
Right.
And so this is prior to Kamala Harris being announced as the nominee.
So she was already on the phone.
We were just kicking it about like what did you do to speak, and I was like, oh, I was around some sororities. She's like, you know what, I've been talking to some of my sisters, some of the people on her line, and she's like, you know, I'm even more excited, like we're talking about doing some really good
things together. But again, she's honorary. Jada Pinkett Smith is an honorary member, so you can look at people like them and say, well, they're honorary and so maybe you know they don't identify ads much with the culture.
They have to kind of learn it.
No, she pledged, right, So Kamala Harris pledged she was on a line, and I think for a lot of people who don't understand, I promise you that there is almost no member of the Divine Nine, even if they do not like Kamala Harris, they don't support her, they have issues with her.
I promise you you will not find one.
Maybe you know, you'll find some French person because of course we never like to speak in absolutes, but it will be very hard to find someone who will say that after she pledged to get into Alpha Kappa Alpha, that she is she doesn't consider herself to be black
that's impossible. But you know what the big thing is and the reason and my answer to why I know that she considers herself black and has always done so, is because I've met her a lot of people who are talking, people who have so much to say about what she believes in and how she is and who she is. They have no idea about anything. They don't know her, they've never seen her. They don't they have
no idea. In fact, they have. There are tapes, there's recordings, because I have received the number of them from people who are like, why do they keep saying that she doesn't identify as being black? When she said this, and she said that, and she went to HBTU and she's an Alpha Kappa ALTFHA and she's done all these things and it's funny, it's like you gotta do all that. And yeah, of course she identifies with her Indian heritage, of course she does.
I don't want to. I don't understand why people see that as something wrong. Like you, if you are a multi racial individual, if you have Indian heritage and you have Jamaican heritage, why would you just ignore the heritage that is your part of your culture? Like why would
you not say that? And if in spaces and when they talk about, you know, being an Indian and you're the first Indian in that space, why would you not gravitate to that and say, yes, I'm the first person of Indian descent to reach that space.
And that's a question, like, I don't know because I haven't heard it, but I would love to hear where she said she's Indian.
Well, she said that I'm of Indian in descent. She was, she was she was taking into an Indian group and she said, I'm proud to be one of the first people of Indian descent to reach this this plateau. And I don't see anything wrong with that. I don't think that means that you're denying that you're black, that you don't want to be black, that you don't gravitate to
being black. She was talking to the girl, the Indian girl, Mindy and on her show, The Cooking Show, and Indy Mindy is an Indian girl, and she was talking about how, yes, you look like a lot of people and my mother's my mother's sisters and all these things. Yeah, and she's talking about the recipes and mother ughsed and she was talking about things that happened a part of her Indian culture and she identified with And I don't think it's anything wrong with that.
You know, when you.
Are multicultural, multi racial individuals, is nothing wrong with embracing both parts of yourself. But when you live yourself, when you live your life like a black woman every day, you know, people can't take that away from you. And people want you to to be what they want you to be. And I think it's so unfortunate that that
people like her constantly have to prove her blackness. You know, I went back to the interview that she did on the Breakfast Club five years ago, you know, when she was doing the you know, when she was on the presidential campaign, and she was just talking about that and Charlemagne was asking her. She's like, I don't care what people think, Like you think, I've heard it all before, you know, I don't know. At this point, I'm not
trying to prove my blackness to somebody. I've been black, i am black, and I'm a die black, and that's just what it is. And whether somebody likes it or not, it doesn't matter, you know. So it's it's just I was asking that question because I keep hearing, oh, you know, you can be this and that, and I just I've never seen any members.
They might be there. Like I said, I'm just trying to.
Say I have never I have never heard of the divide.
I'm saying the culture, the culture again is very strong.
In fact, you know what, I did meet.
A white guy not long ago who was in I think he was a Kappa. I believe I might be wrong about that. Don't come for me Kappus, but I think he was. And you know, and he was blended with the group. And I saw him doing you know, their stepping and whatever, and I was like, okay, that was for me. It was like, oh, like, it's not It wasn't a natural thought, it wasn't a natural feeling. It was like, oh, okay, I'm not upset about it,
but it's not the norm. And I think, you know, like you said, the fact that she has to prove that she's black, you know, she's not the She is not the only person who has had to go through this, because when I think about young kids in schools, right that meanness that exists where just some miserable people who are very mean. That happens a lot right where a kid comes to school and they're too light for some people, so they're not black enough. They're too dark for other people,
so they don't fit into the light skin club. And it's like a constant thing where they're feeling like they don't really belong anywhere. But I think she reaffirmed for us, for herself, more so for her felt than for us, her blackness by attending an HBTU. She could have gone anywhere that she wanted to go, right, but she attended an HBTU. And then she sought out a sorority. That is a sorority that well yet well exemplifies a good word.
But I want to say something else.
She sought out a sorority that exhausts black excellence.
Like that is what it's all.
About, is lifting us up as women and displaying to the world that we're all different size of shapes. We come from political backgrounds, economic backgrounds, you know, activist black backgrounds. We come from business, we come from education, We come from so many different places. But these are beautiful, prestigious women and particularly black women.
And so and again I'm say this and I'm done.
I know Kamla Harris, I just I just I you know, there are people who are like I met with her and she said this, and I said that, and you know, whatever interactions she's had with certain individuals, that's cool.
I've actually been in space with this woman.
I have talked to her. I've been in space with her more than one time.
Right.
I have been at fundraises where you know, we raised money for her in the past. I have sat in rooms she is black, period, that's it. So if there's a culture for black people that I know that I have right the vernacular the way that I just present. And I've been in rooms where it was mixed company. It's not like I was in only rooms that were
black spaces with Vice President Harris. I've been in rooms where it was you know, about issues that there were more than just black people that were interest groups in that area. And she always represented a black woman to me. And I've heard her say out of her mouth that as a black woman, I understand, And that's been in contentious conversation sometimes when she's like, listen, as a black woman, I understand what you all are saying. I'm working through
XYZ or whatever her perspective. Maybe, So I just you know, I just think it's whack. But at the same time, to your point earlier, there's a lot of work. I decided, my son, I'm not fighting anybody. You can fight, that's what you like to do. You are a person who knows how to debate and fight and go at it.
I'm not doing it. So that's it.
If you with us, and you need access to the ballots, so you need to get there.
You need your voting, the voting roles, not to have.
Purged your name, or you need you know, whatever, you need to be able to do what you have to do because you want to see a greater future for us. And then you want to be a part of a movement that fights, whether it's Kamala Harris or whoever the hell it is. Afterwards, I'm open. I'm there to organize you. If you need information, the correct information, I'm there. But if you think that I'm fin to travel this country or go out talking to people trying to force them
and convince them, not doing it. Sorry, not even my own family.
I'm just like I tell you, I've taken on the project of stopping misinformation. It is a thing for me. I've watched us suffer from it. I watched people come online and say shit about us and say shit about people we knew, and there's nobody to combat those lives with facts, and nobody does it. And he just let it go, and he just let it go, and then it becomes it becomes facts to people. So every day
I still hear dumb shit. So I've taken on it like I'm just not gonna let you sit in my face and say shit that I know that's not true. I'm going to say, hey, that's not true. You know, I'm just gonna say it's not true.
I'm gonna I mean, I might do that, but I'm just I wasn't even so much talking about that. I just know how when we go out and we knock on doors and we organize people, you guys sometimes will get into heated arguments with folks and be you know, really going back and forth. I'm just I don't have it. I don't have it. I'm being honest, like, I don't have it anymore. We've been in this movement for different timespans.
I've been doing this for almost thirty years. I've lost a lot of friends, people that I love because our political ideology did not align and I just decided that I'm just not gonna do much of that. Even the ones that I watch promote Trump and say they be spreading misinformation themselves. I might say one or two lines, but when they write back to me trying to engage me, I don't even do it because I'm just not Like.
I'm just gonna make sure that I place a comment here that lets people know that if you want real information, you should go checks on.
So that's it. So I'm gonna do.
I mean, I get it, it makes sense. I just I take a different position. You know. I'm just gonna always speak truth about because it's so much misinformation that you know. Every now and then I'm gonna post something. It's gonna rough with feathers. But I don't care what you think about what I think. I say that all the time. Your opinion of my opinion is your business. I really
don't give a fuck. If you can take my opinion and show that my opinion is a lie or it lacks factual and then then this could be a conversation with the fact that you just don't agree with what I'm saying, or you have a different position. You need to put that shit on your page, because I don't care whether you agree. Like people get mad at me for saying I'm voting for black people because they black. I don't need no other reason. You might need another reason.
You might feel like, oh, oh, that's not small. Okay, that's not small for you. It's smart for me because I've watched white people do things for white people just because they white. The whole time I've been in America. I watch white privilege in white you know, nepotism and all of that shit. I watched that happen throughout my life.
So to make me feel bad for wanting to see black people succeed and getting positions of power and utilize a little bit of voice and vote and whatever I have to do, So you can't make me feel bad for that. There's nobody, there's nothing that anybody in the world can say that make me feel like I'm bad or wrong. So that's why.
But I would say that, and I told you this, that not all black people need to be governing our communities, right, And so if you have an opportunity to choose between a white person that actually is committed, that's doing good work, that's in the movement, that wants to see police reform that would not let offices just punch and knocked down, you know people. And then there's a black person that's all for stopping frisk.
And doin't Tim Scott, if it ain't Candice Owens, it ain't Daniel Cameron, if it ain't that the people, because I still.
Don't still I mean, I hear you, But again, it doesn't have to be as severe as a Tim Scott and all of these people. There are folks that we see every day in our communities that are black people that are not worth the the the I was getting ready to say something crazy, but they're not worth the dirt they walk on.
They're just not right.
And then there are some white people that are super committed to the work. It's like if Julian Hoffenberg, who was a white woman that we were work very closely with, if she was running for office against and I won't say names because people will get upset, but another black person in our community, I'm definitely gonna choose her. I'm not going to just choose the black person just because
they're black. So I think there has to be context surrounding that because I would not I want to vote for who I think is going to actually make the best change in the best situation for my community.
I hear what you're saying, and that makes sense in the context of what you're saying, right, But what I'm trying to say is, if it's Julian Hoffenberg, right, and it's other black people within this community right that I
know that do the same work as Julian Hoffenberg. As much as I know love Julian Hoffenberg, I understand that the dynamics of this community, Julian Hoffenberg doesn't understand it the same way that most of the black women that I know that would actually be running for office do.
I know that she loves black people. I know she kids with black people, but the dynamics and growing up in this community, dealing with the poverty and shit that had to go on this community, I know that that's not her reality.
So I hate that.
So listen, So listen what I'm saying. So if those are if the choices come between those black women, I love Jews and I want her to but I understand the dynamics of what's going on, and I also understand the dynamics of America and understand that nine times out of ten, the average white person that sees Jews is gonna vote for her just because she's white. And that's just the reality that we're dealing with in America. So I understand that in these situations, the black person is
always gonna come from behind. It's always starting at a little place, don't even matter what the qualifications they have. So these are realities that I'm dealing with. So when I'm talking about I'm voting for everybody black if it's a ticket, especially in that set, especially if it's some seventy year old white man, eighty ye old white man. There's no way that I'm ever voting for an eighty
year old white man over anybody black. Again, that's just never gonna happen in the history of I'm talking me.
I get what you're saying, but I say I think that we know as leaders, we have to be very careful with how we present information, and so what I hear you saying makes sense. But that's why we're always discussing the use of the word everybody right, because everybody black.
Does not deserve your vote.
Everybody of anything is not good for our people. I think that the better thing to say is I'm looking for the best black person in.
Every situation that I can agree with.
But to say that we're just voting for everybody black, knowing that there are people who could be more qualified from other communities, that does not make sense because, like I said, even people in our community don't deserve our vote the way that some people from outside the community may.
They just don't.
How many times has somebody that deserved our vote that was black didn't win to somebody that didn't deserve it there was white house. Does that happen?
Weis? Has somebody got.
Somebody who deserved our vote that was black, that was qualified, that was way more qualified than the white person, didn't get voted in right and lost just because the white people said, I'm voting for the white person.
How many time happens often?
So what I'm trying to say, So, what I'm trying to say is you playing by rule that nobody else is playing by, and that's why we keep losing because you having this you know, I'm I'm I'm sitting here and I'm going to vote for the most qualifier, and.
That shit is cool.
The thing is this, if we have two candidates, right, and they both they both good candidates, or both of them are bad candidates. I'm going with the black bad if I have to choose. If I have to choose, I'm going if they both got some shit, I'm going with the white person, I mean, the black person. If they both good candidates. The thing that's gonna push me to the next level with where I draw the line is Okay, that's the black person. I'm going with the
black person. So that's what I'm trying to say. I'm not gonna vote for anybody that I think is just gonna hurt me, right, But I know, I know in most of these instances when there's a black candidate that I've seen, the white candidate hasn't been better than them. They just haven't been bet at them and they've lost ninety percent of their time. So at what point do we start.
I don't disagree with that. I don't disagree with that.
I think you're right that white people they have more resources to run longer, better races, and sometimes the black person is sitting right there and they are actual they are an actual benefit to the community, and they don't even.
Get the type of screen time that they deserve.
Case in point would be Cornell West right, like he deserves much more screen time, should be in debate, should be on it, It should have been in a primary candidate, And certainly I respect that I understand what all I'm saying is I would think about the best way to message what you're saying in a way that helps the person who really does not understand, because what you never want to do is just because you know, people listen to.
Snippets, they listen to a little bit of information.
They hear you saying you voting for everybody black, You don't, it doesn't matter to you. You with everybody black, which I've seen you write it and I've heard you say it, And then they become a demise to their own community by just siding with black people all the time and not realizing that sometimes that black person is being paid by operatives they're doing with them running in.
The race, they actually are not for the community.
And you might have a white progressive candidate who really is trying to do the right thing and we should be looking at them, but they got from you that they just should vote from black for black people. So I think that that messaging has to be tweaked in a way where it comes across better to people who are not as politically inclined and don't understand the nuances of what you're saying, you know. So that's that's the only thing that I would suggest going.
To hear you. And I think when I distinguish between the candice on types and then you can and they don't always.
Let me tell you something that I said the other day when we were talking, people were online talking about Waka Flaka, and they were like, well, you know all this information out here, he could just read the information, like you know, don't tell me that he doesn't know because he can read. A lot of times people do
not even know how to understand what they read. They don't know like they they don't know when they read it because I get stuff and I read it, and I be going to other people Linda or you or somebody else like what does this mean?
Like I think I understand.
It, but I'm a little confused, right, Some people don't have folks around like that.
And I think in ten, leadership is.
Being able to bite size, as you used to tell me, because remember I would be concerned and well, I don't speak as well as these people. I don't want to go into certain spaces and you would say no, the way that you are able to break down information for the person that doesn't that doesn't they ain't read nothing, they don't know these words, they haven't been exposed in these ways. That is very important. So I'm saying all of that to say to you that you I'm trying you.
I'm saying that I understand what's in your head. But I'm telling you that as a listener to you, someone who your leadership matters to me, it needs a little bit of tweaking so that it comes across better for a person like me or somebody who has even less information than I have, because it gives the impression that we should be willing to support bad black people too, And I don't think that that is a good But.
That's never been my my point because when i'm when I I distinguish between the bad black people. Right. So if if if that's what you got, I don't know how you got that, but cool, I'll do a lot better. I'm going I'm going to say, if it's not these type of individual black people, then I'm voting with the black people. So I'm I'm a clarify I'm what you to understand. If it's not the Uncle Tom's the people that we know that stepping in fetching the the the c double O O N s those, it's not them.
I'm with the black people because I understand the dynamics. I understand that for all of these years, everybody has been with them when they when they do demographics, when they go and do the voting polls in certain places, they automatically by race, they give it to the to the white people. They say, okay, this is this is populated by majority whites on this they you.
Mean the actual systems like the machine where they with them in which community.
Know why, because they understand that these white people is gonna vote with that white man.
And I mean, I guess, I guess I hear what you're saying. And I do know that you're right that voter suppression that there is uh uh a. It is a thing that the voting poles are often not situated in the best place for black folks to get access to it, or will have like one polling location which you know it's like longer lines. And you know, when you go to the white folks in neighborhoods it's much.
Easier to vote to vote.
They make it much, you know, much more convenient for them. So I'm not disagreeing with you about that, but I don't know that. I mean, I guess white people majority vote with their own kind.
I guess that's true.
But we've seen in history where white people have crossed over Barack Obamas in New York City for Eric Adams.
I mean, and that's a recent case. There's been times you can name two in history since we've been There's been more. There's been more because.
I think about when I think about the Congressional Black Caucus, right, there are a number of Congressional Black Caucus members who their district is not black only.
It might be a lot of black, but it's not only black.
Just think about Hawking Jeffreys, Like, there's a lot of black people in Brooklyn that voted for him, but there's a lot of white people there as well, and specifically the Jewish population is it's significant, hence the reason why he has such an allegiance to his Zionist friends.
Right.
And so I'm saying that across the country, we can find examples of black elected officials that their districts are not most mainly black, which is which can be problematic sometimes because depending upon the other group of people, which is generally white folks that has helped to elect them, then their politics start, you know, wobbling, and they're not one hundred percent solid on our issues.
So I agree, But I'm just saying that's that's the thing.
You can put that on one hand to me because I'm just telling about like, I'm not saying it because there's no absolutes. There are one or two occasions where that that happens, right, But I'm just talking about of the of the five hundred elections that we've had for city, five hundred thousands, you can name five or six.
So this one no, because in New we gotta go this.
We can, we can, we should, actually, we should actually come back with hard numbers information. And the reason why I think that we should be able to do that is because New York City, just in New York City alone, and it's in a number of other cities across the country, the line up of elected officials, like basically the leadership in New York is black folks, right, They are black people who are and with gentrifications.
If you look, if you look at where the black people are. They are in the black areas, they're not.
But with that, but that's what I'm saying.
In New York, that's not really the case because Natasha Williams needed enough of a lot of white people as well as Black people to get her.
She has heavy But I'm trying to tell she has a heavy black that that is one of the strongest black communities in where.
She is at is I get it.
But but what I often find what I often find, and I you know, again, there are other people who are they they're posters, so they know this information and detail. What I often find is that yes, there will be some black people, a lot of black people that will help to get somebody over the finish line. But then there are other interest groups and a lot of times other people white folks and Asian and Indian and whoever else, they don't vote at all right in those elections, and
so the margins are very small. So I but I am saying that I know that there are many places across the country with black people, especially mayors definitely need more than black people in most big cities in order to win.
So anyway, we should definitely.
I love that look at all of those big cities, they have a big black population. So what happens is they make their population come out because and if you look at the votes that they have is mainly black people. It's not that there's no black official. They got more white votes than they got black votes. That ain't happen.
I wouldn't say none. Again, I don't like to speak in I don't like to speak.
About will in the bed. It probably didn't happen.
Yeah, I don't like to speak in absolutes because there are some black politicians that act like white people and that's.
How they got accepting. But I'm just saying they.
Might have more white people.
Vore to feel not black people too. He has black people too. But to say that none, I don't know. But anyway, like I said, they're there are posters who know the facts. Clear, it's not what we think is not like.
Because I'm talking about Republicans and Democrats, I've actually been studying the polls. You're saying, I've been studying saying like we have five Republicans, right, But.
Okay, but maus, you couldn't sit here and tell me the exact numbers of who voted because you don't write, so we don't know. We don't know, And I think that the purpose of our show is to educate people, as we said factually, so because you you believe this, and I'm not saying that I totally disagree with you.
I just think that there's more to it. And so I think that the best thing to do is to invite somebody who knows actual numbers and states and can do like real serio research about this before coming on the show, so they can talk about.
How do people vote?
Right, you talked about wanting to do a show on identity politics. I think that's a real good topic to figure out, like what is the mindset and how do people vote? And like where are some hard numbers, because it's just it's better than what you're saying is more than likely the case. But I think it's important to highlight that some places are not and where are those places so we can know what type of people are they, Like what type of community were they in?
Are they in Middle America?
Are they in just New York and like progressive more liberal cities in states looking.
Through that's.
More progressive black cities. So it's not like it's a hard thing to figure out. I'm I'm not saying some shit that you got to guess when you look at Chicago, you look in New York, you look at LA, you look at the black man's and you look at the population in those cities, this.
LA doesn't have a black man. I don't think. No, who's a.
Black man, lady, black man? They just got her.
I was maybe okay because I know there was a white man there we just talk about.
But there are so many different municipalities in LA.
So listen, we didn't get to my I don't get it this week. We'll get to it next week, you know me and to me a god into a debate, which is good and healthy because you know, we're all trying to sharpen still sharp and still So we'll get to my I don't get it next week. But I hope you enjoyed this episode. Very informative. I want you to do research. You know. These elections are very very important, you know, and when you make your decision, make your
decision based on the things that you value. Don't let anybody else tell you what you should value, what you shouldn't value. As somebody who's making their own decisions and their own votes. So go out, make sure that you vote, make sure that you're engaged, make sure that you're not getting fake news and listening into fake clips and listening to sound bites. Make sure that you're getting real information.
And with that said, I'm not gonna always be right to me, it's not gonna always be wrong, but we both always and I mean always, be authentic. So that check out the video version of TMO.
Every single Wednesday on Iwoman dot tv.
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