One Step At A Time with Congressman Carson and Bevy Smith

I'm saying. I gotta give my own shame this plug never so much soul. You know them both we love black men to make sure that Georgia turn blue. So we got to give and those things embodied Mike like, yeah, that's him that I should better have my until freedom had it would have properly like plot planing, strategized, organized, and mobilize until freedom. Well, so we got tell it's abran until freedom had. He'll probably say send him some stuff like everybody else, So let's not talk about that

right now. But I was thinking, because there's a lot of stuff going on, but we still have to live our regular lives, like you know, we cannot just allow all of this craziness that's going on to suck up so much energy that we're not like working and planning, plotting, strategizing, organizing,

mobilizing um within our communities. And I've been trying to check in with my young inns and and you know, some of them are my mentees and others are just folks I talked to, and I recognized that there is a common thread among many of the younger people I talked to. They get so frustrated about the journey, the process towards where they're going. They're on it and they're badass.

So I'm not trying to say in any way, shape or form that they're not going to accomplish, because they will, but they're real frustrated, much more than we were, at least than I was. Um. You know, working with our dear sister Rachel nord Linka, we worked at the National Action Network for fourteen years. She's been there even longer than that. It was a process. We've worked all night long. At times we didn't get a chance to you know, to a party as much and to enjoy as much.

We had to make those things a part of the daily experience because we were on most of our lives, the majority of our lives, and there were a lot of nose, a lot of doors closed in our faces. You know, there were a lot of moments when we were chastised and strictly um addressed because we weren't doing things as we should be, not showing up on time,

just things like that. It just wasn't tolerated and I noticed, and I think some of the failures that they go through, it just gives people a meltdown, like they just can't they don't know how they're going to make it. And I'm constantly saying yo, because I was thinking with my thoughts that you have to trust the process. The journey is a part of the story. And I'm so excited that later when we could be talking to one of

our guests that is going to help us. And that's one of the questions that I have for her, um. But that process, that's where all the good stuff is made. And it doesn't mean that it won't hurt, because it certainly will. But when it breaks you down to the point where you just don't think you can make it anymore, what does that say about like what's happening to our young people. I want to see our young people because first of all, they have so much more than we had,

so many more opportunity. But we didn't have social media to give you a false sense of reality, right, we we actually dealt we've seen the people, or we didn't see them every day. Right, so we we aspired to be like stars that we've seen on TV. Right. When we see those stars, they was actually doing their craft and they were doing things. So it made you like, I want to be better at that. I want to learn how to do And when you go to social media,

you get sixty seconds of the best moments of someone's life. Right. So they got all they change on, all the money on the bed and you look at that and it's a recurrent picture on everybody has this picture. They got the best cards, they got all the money. Every second you post on social media is everything good. There's no process. They don't show you, you know, they don't show you how they got the money. They don't show you what the process was. They just show you that they got it.

So these young kids are looking at social media saying, damn, I'm failing. I don't have all of those things. I don't have this car, don't have all this money. I need to figure out how I could get that and live that life right now, not knowing that that's not real. That most of those people some of that money ain't there's, the cars ain't there's and how they the process that they took to get to that money was real long, you know what I'm saying. Some of them risking their freedom,

some of them is going jail them all. So it's so many different things that's not being told to our children, but just being showed to our children that makes them believe that they're feeling and they want the microwave answer to everything. They want the microwave, but they get it with like you said, everything is in the palm of their hands, so they do get a sort of microwave

approach to everything in life. Um, even with school being online and I'm not talking about pandemic, I'm talking about colleges, students are going to school on the internet. They don't have to necessarily trek to the classes the way that I know I had. This it's a lot of different, But I don't know if that's good for us. Because

it is um developing more entrepreneurs. It is giving people the opportunity to be more creative, which will hopefully benefit us to control our environments more, to be able to hire our own people and not have to work for others and make them ridy. But what do we sacrifice? Because for me, right, as we evolve with technology and we see those situations grow, I think we lose communication and interactions with one another. And also look at the

murder rates of people don't know how to communicate. People are so angry or they know how to do his fight. They don't know how to have dialogue with someone that you don't agree with, Like immediately when you don't agree with somebody turns into this big thing because people have not learned communicators and they haven't learned they haven't interact with people, so and they can't take failure or the slightest bit of uncomfortable criticism or anything. So like I

was having a conversation with one of my brothers. He called me and I have wrote soon about I thought somebody was a better rapper than somebody else. You're like, yo, just can turn into something. I'm like, people can't have an opinion. You can't say that you think some money.

I'm not saying I want to fight you I'm not saying, but why why my opinion that you might not be as good as a rapper as somebody else makes it to where we might have a beef like a beef to where we're at odds with each other because communication is to me, people's who are supersensitive. People are supersensitive, and you know, sometimes I think that that that's that is also a part of this this thing that I'm saying that younger people um have sort of lost a sense.

I don't know, maybe they never had it, Maybe we didn't teach it to them, Maybe we gave them too much too quickly. You know, when I think about my own child, although he's a very hard worker, and when Tarka is on a job, he's on the job. You don't gotta wake him up. But he also loves the money at the end of the week, so he's on it. However, even when I'm getting when he and I are in conflict with one another, he just loses his mind like he he and I guess he probably says, I learned

it from you. So perhaps there there are some things that we have sort of passed down that we have to take responsibility for. But the hustle and the grind that I saw my parents do and that I now am a part of and in my own hustle. I get worried that many of the very the younger, like I'm talking under twenty those younger people, I'm scared. I'm under twenty five. I'm nervous about whether they are going to be able to deal with the trials and tribulations. Um.

You know, suicide rates are up. There's a lot that's happening, and I don't know, I don't I'm worried. I'm really worried about it, mice, because I know that you're gonna get knocked down and fail so many times on this journey called life that if you're not able to handle just you know, somebody telling you that you can't be late to the office all the time, or that you didn't do a job properly, and it gives you a mental breakdown, like a meltdown, and you want to quit.

I don't know how you're gonna make it. Yeah, it's gonna be tough, man, But the only thing we can do is pray from give them insight. You know, a lot of I have a lot of young boys that I mentored that I sit down and I mentor and I prepared them. You know, when I was in prison, right a lot of people had this mind state because I was a rapper. I was gonna go home and I was gonna be the biggest rapper. Oh, you got it all set. And I was like, that's not true,

you know, I said. The reality is I haven't been home in several years. Life changes, things are changing. I might have to start from zero, and I'm okay with that. You know, I prepare to fail. You know, when you when you have an expectation, and that expectation is just that you're going to be successful. Without the process of failure, it can diminish you, it can destroy you. So I always even know I'm very adamant and believe that I'm gonna win, I believe that along the path, I'm going

to fail, and I'm okay with that. I'm okay with the first time that I try to do something, somebody gonna tell me no. But I know I'm gonna ask a hundred thousand people because i know I'm supposed to get it. So I'm not gonna let the one person that said no, we don't want you the two or the ten person because I believe in me so much that is nothing gonna determ me. So I think that's what we have to teach these kids. We have to teach them self determination and self you know, resilience. Well,

one thing I will say is that they're smart. They're smarter than we work. They know how to you utilize networking and relationships and uh their equipment in ways that we didn't have. So if they just mix a what we had work and that ten toes down mentality with the level of intellect and intelligence and just amazing. Some mean when I look at just something as simple as how these young women know how to apply makeup like

this is not something you care about. But I can tell you that the way in which these young girls know how to highlight an eyelash and this, and that they can they can do their own eye press. We never we didn't know how to do all of that, But they have skills. And those skills shouldn't just be used for good Instagram pictures. They should be used so that you can make a little side money and be a part of your hustle and also to build brands in business. So that's my opinion, and that's what I

was thinking about in my thought of the day. Always comes across as what you were thinking. But the streets is talking. Sts always talk. Always. Yes, I would love to know what's impeachment? Impeachment, but impeachment, what impeach? The impeach president? Oh? That was dope. That is dope though that you had one president school. It doesn't really mean anything. I mean, I don't know. It doesn't it it doesn't, it doesn't and it does you know what it does.

It destroys the legacy the name. You know, it makes sure he ain't getting no perks. Well that's not true, no, no, because in order for them to ensure that he can't run for office, that he doesn't have as much presidential security. I think he does get something. For a long time, even before this happened, I remember hearing that they change the Secret Service for presidents, like lifetime secret service, and

I think that has sort of been rolled back. I think Obama may have been the last one to receive lifetime the other presidents. I think now it's like twenty years or you know, something like that. Um, but I think we're guardless he will get some type of security however it's reduced. And then there are other things that happened that he don't think. He gets a museum and

you know, sort of those things. But in order for I don't know, that's a good question, but remorded for all of those things to happen, I believe he has to be convicted. That's the the second step. So you impeach, and that's what happened the first time, and also with Bill Clinton. They were impeached, but then they were not convicted at a trial. I guess of the federal government that allow everyone to vote and say that he should

now experience the worst consequences of impeachment. So that's what I'm saying. It's like, what are we doing? And they only have a few days to do it. Listen, man, you don't you cannot allow a tyrant, yea brother to stay in the White House. This man is running the White House like them all Like we said that, right, So the people are getting locked up that quote unquote committed the insurrection as they said, right. They people went into the capital and did what they did. Somebody pretty

much ordered them to do this. All of them are saying, hey, Trump told me to be here. Trump said to come here, if you look at these people's past history, even though obviously these are there, they're suffering from the sickness of white privilege and white supremacy. That's an obvious situation. But these were quote unquote upstanding citizens. They have regular jobs. These people have regular jobs. They worked for government, they

worked for the state. Like they don't have all, right, but they didn't have was prior criminal history, right, And just because they haven't been arrested for their criminal activity doesn't mean they don't have private crier. Criminal history history means that is that is dated and noted and recorded. That what makes you a criminal. That No, that's what

probably criminal history, It doesn't make it. That's but I'm just what I'm trying to say is this these people felt it's like it's like pretty much like a cult, Like I was really sitting in like this. They drank the kool a. This was some Jim Jones type ship that they had going on. And these people were in front of camera saying we're going we're you know, we're taking over the We're taking over the capital. So they felt like that they felt like they were supposed to

be doing these things. So if you're gonna rest the people who committed the act, but you ain't gonna even impeach the president that told him to commit to act, then I don't understand how what kind of justice we go because I always give this example of you know, if I if you and I are hanging out together and I say, let's go down to Billy Bob's house and get my stuff, similar to oh Jack, oh Jay and and his homies, that was his stuff. Where did you get their stuff? But this is this is the know.

But these white folks that were out there that stormed the capitol, they believe that this is their stuff. America's their stuff. So O Jay and then they went to go get their stuff from down and down the hall in the hotel or whatever. And we're going there and we beat people up because that's what they said that the people said, oh J and up came and they aggressive, they had guns. They pulled guns on them. Nobody died. They said they had something. It was weapons. It was weapons.

And those people said they felt threatened, okay, and they went in it and they locked O J up because that's what they posed to do because because it was because he got away the first time and they had an opportunity. I hear you. But I'm just saying nobody gets locked up for retrieving their own ship. That's not true. That's not true because there's a way that you go

about it. If you and I go if right now, I tell you, Pooky got my chain and me, and you're gonna go get my chain, and when we get down there, we're back to everything else we get you, they're gonna convict you if if Pooky get hurt, because you're supposed to call the pole lea. Yes, I know you don't deal. I know you're going. I know you. I'm just telling you the way let me full transparency. If you take my things, my items whatever to belong to me, I'm not calling no polish. I'm not saying

that you will. I'm going I agree with you that we're gonna go get our stuff. Your love you with all the ships, because I'm gonna call you like, yo, they got my stuff? You who got your stuff? We're going to get your stuff, A getting your stuff that. But I'm just telling you the way the law is designed, you can't go down there to get Joe Pookie's house with the bat and everything else and then beat Pookie up. Maybe somebody dies and say, what it's because Pooky took

my stuff. They don't do that, So you're right. I'm affirming your point. The man is supposed to build a jail. That's it. This is the man who called it h He put the hit out exactly the mom this is. This is a classic example of the rico lord, right do rico lord means that you did something to further enhance a criminal enterprise, further the growth of a criminal. This man has created a criminal answer with white supremacy is a criminal question? Are you supposed to get the charge?

So I asked you this before, but I don't know if you really answer. Answer me. If you and I go to get the stuff from Pooky and you stay outside in the car and say, all right, I'm going down here with you, though I'm gonna take you down, and you put the bats and the thing, you do everything, And you said, but now when we get down there, you got to go in there and talk to Pooky yourself, because I ain't gonna go in there. They got cameras

and stuff is your stuff. You go in there. I go in there, and somehow or another Pokey, his mom and his cousin. Die. Aren't you getting charged with me? And what I did? You know what? It's called felony murder and it's called acting in concert. See what I'm saying, Acting in concert. That's what I'm trying to figure out. Why acting in concert don't apply to Trump. I guess that's why the impeachment. That's what I'm trying to say. But don't but we need criminal charges, criminal charges. Yeah,

we need to have this conversation. We have a guest that's coming on today. Because I'm trying to understand what I don't. I don't don't get it. You listen, I don't any impeach depeach man, Like, how does the process of the full impeachment, not just some charges brought up, not just this and that, what is going to be the process? I'm taking on. I'm with you, right, I'm

taking your piece for today. I don't get it because I want to see that if everybody's running around talking about impeachment, impeach, and then I hear that it's possible, Well, first of all, they don't have enough senators to agree to impeach the man. And I think I mean to impeach. No, No, they didn't have enough. They didn't even they had enough to impeach him, but they don't have enough of those

individuals that would help to convict him. So it was like ten I think Republican senators that agreed with the impeachment portion, and they're saying that they don't have enough. I think they need sixteen to twenty or something, which we're gonna find out from our guests today that would actually help to get him out of the White House exactly. That's what I'm saying to you. We got to talk to Congressman Carson. Let's ask him because I'm not clear this, but that's why I said on my page, take it

talking about it. You you create a law, right, and you don't follow the law because we if we think that it's acting concert because back to the thing we have been talking about four weeks, they're not trying to convict Mama and papaw. He falls in the Mama and Papa and they want together. And in fact yea. And in fact, in fact one of the officers, the one that was being crushed in the blood was coming out of his mouth. That was probably one of the worst

images it's bad enough. They beat somebody with the flag. But the man who was being crushed, I thought that man was dead. I thought he was bleeding because his bones were just being crushed. He thank god, did not sustain any injuries, and he said he was shocked. But I saw him on the news saying that as the insurrectionists, the criminals, the terrorists, the thugs were there, they were

telling him the militia, they were telling the ghettos. They were telling him, we're with you, don't you know, you don't need to fight us, like come with us. Basically, they he said, they thought that he and other officers because they said we support you. We're against the Black Lives Matter. The people were saying to him, we have been supporting you as police against the Black Lives matter.

So he they thought, he said, they thought that he would put his weapons, I guess in a different position and turn his hat around basically to say I'm going in here with you. And he said, no, I will never do that. White supremacy is a very strange thing, man. It's really unbelieving. It's really bad. Before we go to the next segment and have our special guests joint we're gonna take a quick break for our sponsors. This is our great brother Idea friends. Good to see you, Congressman Carson,

thank you so much for being with us. Tell us what impeachment means? We are unclear? My crew, my crew, my crew, my family, you know what it is. You know, it's it's good to see everybody. My song is looking really style. Don't don't talk about don't tell him he looking, don't do that, don't do that. Don't know. Man, Good to see you too, Man to man, you know Tomka's over looking like she's ready for the biopics. We gotta figure out who we're going to be a player though,

you know. Yeah, man, So what is it? I mean, really, where are we and what are we doing? Is all of this for pomp and circumstance or is it real? And what kind of weight does this impeachment piece hold? Well? I think it. I think it holds a lot of weight. You know, these impeachments, obviously they have a lot of symbolic value, and symbols matter right now. Um, I think it also has some some teeth. I think one hoping that the president doesn't try to run again. Now, the

social media platforms I commend them for blocking him. But one wonders is it is it too much, too late? He's on the way out now you want to get bold when you're partly responsible for creating this monster who is Donald Trump? But not But you know, Donald Trump was able to leverage his celebrity, he was able to use the platform of the White House. I think that he gravely endangered the security of the United States. He threatened the integrity I think of the democratic system. He

he interfered with the peaceful transition of power. I think that he effectively imperiled, in many ways a co equal branch of government. He really betrayed his most fundamental trust as a president. And I think that alone warrants impeachment. I think it warrants a trial. I think it even warrants removal from office. I mean, it's almost it's really too late, effectively, but it's certainly meets the test that is qualify him to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust,

or even profit under the US. So what I want to know is what is the chances of him actually getting convicted? Because me and to me was having a discussion and she was saying, there's a certain amount of Republicans that have to agree that some of them have agreed to the impeachment, but now they won't agree to

the conviction. And what does that process look like? We we did it in the House, I mean, now it's really in the Senate's hands, and if it if it fails in the Senate, because even though we have a slim it looks like we're gonna have a slim margin

of the majority in the Senate. But that doesn't mean all senators will be in an agreement universally, because senators represent the entire states, and the more we get into Biden's administration, I think he's going to see people with less of a less of an appetite quite frankly, to

pursue an impeachment. Especially a third of them will be on the battle in two so a lot of them are not gonna want to deal with this impeachment question when many of their states have huge Trump supporters, particularly of the strand that we saw the other day. And a lot of these senators happen to be moderate senators, and I don't think that I don't think they want to take that political risk because if I were running against them, I would certainly use it to unseat them.

So it's a political calculation they're going to have to make, and quite frankly, some of them philosophically feel like it's unnecessary. We need to go forward. Joe Biden has already said that he's not going to pursue any investigations against Donald

Trump once he's in office. Um, some of us have been critical of that, but you know, I think that he's looking at his own legacy and and and Joe Biden is uh, he's a Democrat, but he's also a centrist as well, So he's still having to appeal to senators that he's going to have to talk to when it comes to time for his his infrastructure bill that

we're hoping for. So now, am I right that you need a trial and conviction in order for the things that you mentioned, you know, for him not to be able to run in and for there to harsh uh circumstances that are applied to the impeachment. Is that correct? That is correct? That is correct? So the question becomes

who will have the stomach. You know, it's the popular thing to do right now, and you know what this new cycle, things change very rapidly so when it becomes unpopular, when it becomes a thing of the past, I don't think a lot of people will have the stomach the trial can happen after Joe Biden is in office in the White House. We still have a trial and a procedure and investigations and hearings that many people still plan on holding after Trump was out of office. Um, my

hope is that we will still move forward. But there are even new Democrats who are in very marginal districts

who just don't want to deal with it. I mean, there are folks who didn't want to deal with the impeachment in the first place over a year ago who were Democrats, And now, um, under the year of reapportionment, where you have a lot of general assemblies and state legislators who are redrawing these congressional maps, A lot of people don't want to be vocal because they don't want to piss off their state senators and state representatives who are gonna be drawing these maps in the next few months.

Quite frankly, because depending on the state, I know, I think we're gonna get our maps in like April. A lot of people are gonna get their maps and their new districts, and they don't want to piss off anybody, uh and that environment, especially if they barely want by a certain percentage depending only depending on the makeup of they don't want to do it political expediency. So basically what's going on is Trump has gangster the whole system

pretty much. It's like like this, like when you sit there and thinking about this is really like when you watch our camponent j'all guard. What they've done have created a structure that says you can't touch us. Like when you say untouchable, they've created an untouchable Like, Okay, if you go against Trump, you have to really worry about losing your livelihood, you have to be worried about being ousted. You actually have to worry about your life. Like this

is really serious. This is when I'm sitting here listening to this. People know that he did something wrong, they know he should get impeached, They know what he did as a crime. But people that they're supposed to uphold the constitution and laws, and he got so scared to say, yo, you did something wrong that people are just want just

wanted to go away. And then when they think it's gonna go away, he actually can run again and and regain the same seat again, And people and now people actually saying, you know what, I'd rather just let that happen. You know, I think it's I think you're on the right track. I think that there are people like Liz Cheney, and there are other people who have spoken out about it, uh Kims and dirt. But I have seen people who come from Ivy League institutions. I've seen people who have

been generals. I've seen people who in their communities their viewed as being decisive leaders, as bold leaders. When dude walks in the room, and I've only met him twice, he's he objectively, he's likable. But I grew up in the hood. I go up around sociopaths and psychopaths, and I grew up around kats who and and I didn't let them bar me, you know what I mean. So

I'm not letting dude bar me. So it just it shocks me that these people who are supposed to be so about our democracy and so about uh making sure that we have separate, coequal branches of government. I mean, people who were reckless when it came to Obama, people who were bold and even disrespectful when it came to their critiques of President Obama. They were shaking up when Trump was in the room. They just wanted him to wave at him if he would do an ad for him.

They were so afraid that he would come into their districts, do a rally and say, well, you know what, I love your state, but your commiss woman, your congressmen, they suck. That alone could jeopardize somebody's reelection effort. So the limit of that kind of reality, I think it's it's sad. And then you had Republican leadership who wouldn't back him up.

So if Trump said that and a chief party candidate wanted to run against the city Republican, you would have a fear from the from the RNC not dumping money into your campaign to help you block against being primary. And so to your point, it was a very gangster and manipulative. But but but I wonder, man, I think that this is such a case study in the human behavior.

You know, in the in the seventies and eighties and nineties, there was a big effort in the mental health community, particularly with psychologists of de programming people who came from so called cults. And I know that's a controversial term or or the more believe me, I definitely applies here precisely. But you know, you you you look at you look at cats like Trump or or somebody like Jim Jones or David Koresh. I wonder, and I raised this question the other day. I was on a zoom with Dame

Dash and some pastors. I wonder, if people start off like this and then they become corrupt, or was it already in them in the environment brought out. I think the people think it's a combination of both. I think being someone who's very I consider myself to be cerebral and a thinker who constantly thinks and strategizes, I'm able to see these things right and I am I'm able to realize that if I was somebody who was for evil, I can utilize this ability to think for evil. I realized.

So when I watch other people do it, like I noticed a sociopath, I can look at the sociopath easily, but they know exactly what they're doing because when you, when you are a thinker, you know exactly what you're doing. So I think it's a mixture of both. I think people they start off, they start to realize that they have this gift, They have this power that a lot

of people don't tune into. A lot of people don't understand that they're the strength that they have in their conviction and their thoughts actually become things, right, A lot of people don't notice that. It's about how you utilize you know, It's like Obama has the same ability, right, but he never wanted to utilize it for what it is that this is. It's like two polar when you look at this, right, I was watching the Matrix the other day, So this is like Neo and Smith, right,

They was actually this Mr Smith and Neil. They was actually the same person. It was just like the opposite. He was his opposite twin. You know, Neo was trying to figure out how to save everybody and Smith was trying to figure out how to take over everything. You know. That's why Trump bothered Obama so much, right, because he's

seen the power he had. But he was bothered by I mean, he's bothered by Obama so much because he had He's seen this man who had the most charisma, was loved by everybody, and he couldn't understand what he wanted the same power, but he wanted it for negativity. So it's like a polar opposite, right. So I think your to your point, it has it's something that you're born with, but then when you realize it, it's which

way you take it. And I think Trump has realized that he wanted to take it to control everything, not to try to make things better. So we always knew this about Trump, right, because we're New Yorkers, and so

we know him and Juliani, all these individuals. We know them from many many years ago, from decades ago when he was being a slum lord and a you know, a terrible employer, a racist, a bigot, especially in the way that he handled the Central Park five when he took out the advertisement in the New York Times paiper full page ad calling for their execution, and still to this day, knowing that they have been exonerated, he has never ever apologized in or said that he now knows

that he was wrong. So this is his behavior. But I don't want to lose you before for hearing more from you about what happened in your situation, because I don't know if we're talking enough about what these insurrectionists these thugs, right, I call them ghetto, all of them. Right. I don't know if we talk enough about what particular congressional members have suffered as a result of them being in that building. Corey Bush's tweeted the other day something

I thought was so powerful. She says, we're building a perimeter around the outside of the capital to keep people out, but the real threat is on the inside with us. And there they were setting y'all up inside the building. So now we know that there was a letter that was found by one of these individuals with your name on it, and it is a national security threat? Can you tell us about that? Yeah? You know, I was very um disappointed. I don't want to say shock, uh.

And I found out about this indicted terrorists that he had the means, the opportunity to carry out plans to violently attack, injure and destroy government officials, government property. And you know, these weren't just idol threats. These were planned and organized measures to take my life, my colleagues lives, and to destroy our government. And you know, I think it's especially disappointing to see the failure by law enforcement officials,

especially the Capitol police, to notify people like myself. I get death threats all the time, and a few times the FBI reached out. We always contact the Capitol Police and the Sergeant at Arms, and they have failed miserably. I had colleagues criticized me because for the past decade, I've been openly critical of the Sergeant at arms, because every time I've gotten a death threat, they've been very dismissive. He had my name on the list of good guys

and bad guys. And you know, first of all, as a black man and as a Muslim, you know, I've been on the corner as a teenager and dudes have pulled up and shout out the block looking for somebody else, and I've not been hit, and I was. I mean, I feared for my life. And I would expe actually as an as a as a middle aged man, as an adult, to at least be safe on Capital grounds.

You know what I have. I have even my experience having been arrested at seventeen outside of a mosque and and and charge with battery on the police officer resisting the rest in fleeing, certainly not the experience that my brother my son has gone through. But then having even

been in law enforcement for a few years. You know, I've I've won my colleagues about the serious threat to national security by white nationalists, domestic terrorists, and seeing these additionists rampaids to the capital with their Confederate flags, and and learning that many of the attackers had affiliations with police agencies, not a shocker, and and and some of

these guys were part time military and active military. And you know, I don't think that there should be any doubt that white supremacy is the largest threat to our internal security. The FBI restrict least to report five years ago verifying that white supremacists pose the greatest threat to our internal security. When you hear terrorism, it has a Muslim face, and Islamic face, a brown face, certainly a black face, but you don't deal with the whiteness that

exists within terrorists. Right now, there is no federal charge for domestic terrorism home grown I call it homegrown terrorism, homegrown terrors. So that's why they're looking at vandalism suddition to these kinds of charges. But I think that we have to approach domestic terrorism now. There's a school of thought that says, if you have established a federal domestic

terrorism charge. Then you're gonna have law enforcement and federal agencies target black lives, matters, target other organizations with these charges. So it's a tricky situation, but I think we have to develop language that has a specificity to attack these groups. So we have the opportunity, I believe in this moment to get the work done if if ever, And I

trust individuals like you, Congressman Carson. You also our friends, so we also call you Andre, but we are We appreciate you for coming in and speaking with us today and kind of giving us more insight, and you have so much more to offer. We can hear it. Like you know, we definitely need to have you back on definitely, man. You know your family to us. Man, we just God bless you that you know that while you inside there that you know nothing happened to you guys in your

life is safe. You know those threats havening't been have materialized into anything. Man. But we just want to let you know you in our prayers, we appreciate the work that you do brother, in the way that you represent us properly in those buildings. So thank you continue to do what you do, man, Thank you man. I appreciate you both. Man, what an honor to be on the platform, and I'm so proud of you all. Keep up the bit work man. But it's still dre you know what

it is. That's right. Appreciate you man. Before we go to the next segment and have our special guests joint, we're gonna take a quick break for our sponsors. Still dread even though he got his little suit on. You know, he's always got love for Drake Man. He was the first person that brought me to the Legislative Conference, you know what I'm saying, first panel when I was just getting my feet wet into activism, and you know, he recognized it, had me spriped some bars and all that there.

So it's always love and just hearing him and understanding this process. I just don't think we're gonna get that was that was what from. But he's gonna be But I can't. I think though, I think though we have to keep things, this is really important. We gotta keep things on very specific tracks. We cannot let what Donald Trump is doing allow us to forget right that we just won the White House up against these same people because they went they went to war it's not like

they were cool. But you gotta think about this, right, we want the else, right, But when you think about how scared these people are still with Trump after we won, Like it's not like we lost, right if we was lost and Trump was still like moving going to the next level and people were scared, and he'd be like, Okay, this man is losing. Got impeached and they still scared to like this. But he didn't have to say it to me, because this is what I was thinking, because

I'm really watching. When I watched the Republicans talk about Trump, right, and they said, don't divide the country anymore, Like they're literally scared, right, well to hold somebody. Listen to me, when you are scared to hold someone account, Like we know he did it wrong, but we just we want to ignore it because he's so strong that him being mad at us can completely divide this country and we just don't want to deal with that. But I don't know if they're just scared. I think that they are

him and he is them. I think we have to stop giving them excuses for why they're doing what they're doing. These people want their power, their way, But right now, the most fabulous woman that I most fabulous soul. And you know this is my stand out all the fabulous because I'm a fabulous Harlem girl. There is my fabulous Harlem sister. We've just been talking about impeachment and it's it just feels so good to turn and look at you.

You always gotta smile, so we don't have some energy, look at all, look at all that background around you? Did that? You did that. We love you so much, Betty Smith. I love you guys so much. And you know when I reached out to you to Mika, I wanted to be on this show because it's so important what you guys are doing and all the my show, I mean, my my book is about transformation and remixing your life and and and making changes in your life.

I do have to address racial politics in it because there's no way that I could be I could have had the careers that I had UM and with stood all of the micro and macro racial aggressions that I experienced UM if I didn't have a strong, solid foundation that you personally have experienced exactly in your personal life. Because you're a very bold woman and you've been out here.

You look amazing amazing thirty years old tops. But I know Betty Smithson's I was a young girl, and I have a great deal of respect for your career and the path that you have chartered. I know that you walking into the room as bold Betty didn't work everywhere. Yeah, well you know what they're honestly to Maka, I made it work because I refused to ask for permission. You know, I stood very strong on and the fact that I

was from a cultural legacy of black greatness. So when I was in Milan and Powers and sitting back in French um front world of fashion shows, and people say, well, where are you from, I would tell them harm not Manhattan, you know what I mean. I would tell them harm because that's where I'm from, and that's what gave me the ump and the zest and the zeal in which to get things done. It really was harm. So actually, the last acknowledgement in my book is actually to Harlem

the Hamlet. And I also point out something else. Even when I started making good money, probably in my late twenties, and I chose to stay in my community because I knew it was important for people to see me. I knew it was very important for black girls to see me. So on any given day, you can find Betty, this international superstar in her listen to me. She's so connected.

Like I've known Bevy for so many is and she's been you know, there's a lot of people in this industry that the industry changes them or they're not accessible. They they industry play these little industry games. Bevy has never been that person. She's always a phone call away. I call up, she called me. She we can have a regular conversation. We meet up, we see each other out of state. We said that the bar have a drink.

She's still having the same conversation. Like you are one of the most down to earth people and watching you grow constantly reinvent yourself and be successful in so many different ways, Like knowing that you came through the same industry and you was doing all these things. I met you in fact Joe's trailer, you know, after I came home from prison and you was in there and me and you just started building and you've just been the same person. Like how do you continue to reinvent yourself?

Like what is the secret sauce? The secret sauce is really not ever being complacent complacent, never resting on your laurels, and you know, always being up for the chat range and always wanted to experience something new, you know what I mean. Like, I think that one of the saddest things is that, you know, so many times in our community we don't even dare to dream. We stifle our dreams.

And it's not our fault really, it's that that's kind of been and bred in us a lot of times to um, you know, have dreams, but make sure they're sensible, right. So you could have a dream to be a lawyer or a doctor, but you can't have a dream to be an author or to be a TV personality or you know what I mean. And so a lot of

times they put a cap on our dreams. Also, we're not giving the exposure even though like when I was a kid, I came up through advertising and I started as a receptionist and it was only working in the environment that I learned about becoming a media director, which is what I did in my twenties. And I started

this career in fashion advertising. But I didn't know that as a little girl growing up in the hood, that I could even have a career and advertising and certainly not in fashion, do you so are you a big ment for yes, you know that now you have a bunch of babies. I know I have a bunch of babies. That's the mother part of the book, you know, it really does come from my L G. B. T qu

I A family that called me mother. That that um Derek J and Ms Lawrence, my co host from Bravo's Fashion Queens, they started calling me mother on set and then it just kind of carried on. And then the auntie part is really about the young women. And I will say young under forty, the forty really under thirty five.

I might give y'all something like your thirty six and thirty seven, and you've seen you on TV, and you think of me as your cool auntire, you think of me as all the times I get the rich auntie. And then also the best tie part is for me and my girlfriends to contempor reveries. You know, we're gonna

been through some things. We know a few things. We're gonna we're gonna share war stories over cocktails and batuliss trips, and you don't doing the things and the things right, and we can learn and let me ask one more can you notice. I'm sorry, I know you've got questions, but learn right. So I was earlier today and every show that we do, I have my thought of the day, and I've talked about the journey and the fact that so many of these young people think things are gonna

happen quickly. They're just gonna get up and have all the money, and there's no strategy to it, you know, they just expect someone to give them something. And I am constantly talking to my babies because now I am forty and so i have a bunch of babies and I'm constantly talking to them about that journey and that grind. Why don't you talk to us about that from from your perspective? And when I asked you about having the babies, I know from us, and I'm sure you experienced the

same thing when we had mentors. Sometimes it wasn't that they sat with you and talked to you every day. You just had to watch the work and figure out the lessons along the way. It was through osmosis, and we sat down and we looked, and we watched, and we paid attention and we did try and show both when when brown folks were talking, we were quiet because we knew they were gonna drop some gems and some jewels when we was gonna catch them, and then we was gonna go and and get a chain made out

the jewels, you know, I mean, that's what we did. Um. But you know, for me, one of the greatest gifts that I've ever had is my journey. So when I quit my job at Only Someone magazine at the age of thirty eight, I had no idea would take seven years to actually secure the TV job that I was going after. Took seven years. That's when the hell of a journey. And honestly, if I had known it was gonna take seven years, I may not have quit. That's

a really long time. I mean, obviously I'm rever be happy that I did it because it worked out really great. But in the meantime, in between time. In my book, the chapter that I talked about is Broke but Blissful, And that's when I went broke. That that's when like threifty thousand dollars a year and then two years later two three to thirty five thousand dollars. So one tempt of what I used to make and what did that

look like? Will that look like? Housing court. Will that look like stretching meals, that look like having to borrow money from my old parents, having to borrow money from one of my dear friends who lived all the way in communist China, and she had to find a way to wire me some thousands of dollars so I wouldn't get evicted, you know. So there were all these trials and tribulations. But along the way, there was so much bliss going on. Like, for instance, I just had Prell

on my radio show. He was my first guest ever on Revelations, and he came back to celebrate the launch of this book and he talked about the dinner parties said I created. So I created a business when I was broke called Dinner with Beby, and I took what was at my hands. And this is the important part for your audience. We all have innate gifts and skill sets, and it's about us taking what we have at our hands. As black folks and it's brown folks. We have that gift.

We have the tenacity, we have the resilience, and we have the ingenuity to take with this at our hands and create something. That's what we did with hip hop. That's what I did with dinner with you know what I mean, We're gonna take We're gonna make nothing into something all day every day. That's what we're gonna do. You're gonna make lemonade and we're gonna spike it because you you're gonna spike it. You definitely. I'm gonna tell us about the book, like what is the name of

the book? Ok we need to get the relations lessons for my mother auntie bestie. So all right, I broke down with the mother. The auntie. The bestie is about I called the unholy trinity um and so to me, you would be a bestie to me, but to so many people you are auntie, and to other people you're also a mother. Now seeing my son, you are bestie

to a lot of people, a lot of people. But then you also have aunties in your life ahead you got well, sir, Okay, And so the book is really about um my trials and tribulations from finding out that I was miserable even though I had a dream job. Obviously only black person in management et wonman Stone magazine. They had a writer to Ray. He was there, but he was on the crem on the editorial side. I was on the business side, a k a. The money,

with the money. I was. I was residing with the money, Okay, I was with the money aside of that and UM, but obviously only one. And this is in two thousand and five and and and to me, that's just ridiculous that even in two thousand and five there was still the only one conversations going on. UM. But when I quit my job, I quit with the idea that I wanted to do TV. I want the DJ I want to be a photographer. I wanted to be a para sailor. I want to be a writer. I want to be

an actor. I want to do whatever my creative spirit led me to do. I quit for freedom. But this book is about how anyone can do it. I get

practical tips on how to build your son. Before you finish that, let me say to our audience, I to Maka Mallory, I'm going to go purchase twenty books today and I am going to send these books to young women who I work with across the country that I think me to read and know more about this young woman who came up in Harlem, who is now the mother, the auntie and the bestie of us as black women,

but so many people around the world. And so I'm gonna buy twenty books and all of my young mentees and friends will receive those books, but I gotta get them signed by you. So I gotta drop a meta door man. Have you signed a minute? Pick him up? Because you know it's still COVID. And I learned on your Instagram page that the way to talk to you is from downstairs outside your balcony. I love it. I'm like Juliette Romeo. Yeah, I like that. Well, listen, we

love you so much and we gotta make sure. I'm gonna see if I can get me a couple of books from my little sisters, my mom's. You got to get those, Like do you know what it is? Ever since I met you, you give me like Petty Libell is like my favorite person in the world. And you give me like that vibe. You got that Patty vibe, and it's just so dope. So that's why when you when I'm looking at this book in the name of it, everything fits, Like I'm telling you, this is exactly who

Bevy is. She is the best friend, Auntie, the mother, She she embodies all that. So I'm just so proud of you, man, for real. We love you so much, and I just want you to know that I started pumping up my mid area here and wearing it out a little bit in because you told me you don't got to cover it all up all the time. Just because you in social justice doesn't mean you can't be sexy. And so you definitely rocking my saying. And you kill it and you kill it, and you are so sexy.

You have incredible legs, you have, you lookful little tiny feet. You are a sex shot and a social activist. I mean, now, don't guess. I gotta deal with it when you leave it. But you know you're sexy, Okay, baby, you tell me more what it's true? Yeah, we love try to keep it, you know, because my grandmother always says, no matter what you're going through, getting that mirror, put that lipstick on, bruce yourself up and feel good about you even if

no one else does. Don't look like what you've been through. There you go. That's us. So thank you guys so much. We love you, We thank you for coming to I would show you whenever you want to come you here, belations. Yes, thank you guys. Man, She was like just getting warmed up. You know, we know she's really really just um dope, and I know I'm learning from her. Not enough of our young people understand how important some of what she was talking about. She said one thing that I know

a lot of younger folks don't necessarily like that. We said we sat in rooms and we were quiet. I did that for many years in my career. I sat in rooms where I did not speak. They always said you'd be seen and not heard. And I know that, you know when we you know, it's not something that you want to pass around freely, right because we don't want to be stifling our younger people and not allowing them to have a voice. But there is a process,

and it is important to listen. It's important to taking a lot of information and to be a fly on the wall, especially when you're coming up. And so if I go out right now with you know, Bev Smith and Tradasse from Sylvia's and other women um that I look up to and that I respect. When I'm out with them, I listen, you know, and of course they respect me and I can have a voice. But I listened. I'm listening to bed with I was like intently listening

to what she has to say. And I'm gonna read this book with intention as well to learn and to pass them. Definitely, gotta go get relations, relations, revelations, bevelations, Go get it man, you know, and I remember that sentiment, you know, as a young boy. I guess that's why I always had like a lot of older friends, because I would listen, because I was a sponge and I paid attention, like they would love to sit and talk to me when everybody else was trying to do a

lot of things. I wanted to get information. I was sitting around people, especially people that I've seen that were successful with the things that I wanted to do. I would sit around and just listen and ask questions and then just take in, not just debate. Even if I didn't agree with something, I would just take it in after and then when I when I didn't agree, but when I didn't, you do you still do that. I

don't agree with you because you're crazy. But at the end of the day, you know, when I didn't agree, I would think about the way to say okay, to to relate that I don't agree without being being compared. And I think a lot of these kids. You know what I'm saying you because you're very argument You don't realize no, no, I watch you in your communication with other peoples, go back to your lives. All I'm saying is that, well, I didn't say I wasn't I'm saying

I am. But I what I will say is that that's something that I think is actually an attribute of yours. Even though sometimes you're a little nuts and we have to bring you down, calm you down, but you definitely will listen to people's perspectives. And then one day I hear you repeating what you heard in either the affirmative or not, saying this is what I think about it.

But you won't necessarily say it in that moment because one thing that I think, um that I've noticed about you is you don't want to like to be wrong. That's a man thing, but you know that's another day, I guess women is. But but also what I think you don't want to do is to sound stupid in the room about something you don't know. So I think that's a good thing. It's a good thing. Well sometimes I just don't know it, and sometimes I don't get it.

That brings me to I don't get it. So we've been talking about all of this with impeachment Trump and how this looks right and this is young there's a he's not a young boy anymore, but it's a boy by the name of Dante. Mit you a man actually forty one year old man who's been in prison since he was seventeen years you know, and he was heartbreak. It's heartbreak. He's been in prison since he was seventeen.

He was arrested for robbin and McDonald's. He walked into McDonald's with a gun, shot in the air, told people to go in the back, locked the little room, took the money. No, he was injured, nobody was hurt. He didn't hit anybody, nothing. Seventeen year old, reckless, just being, you know, improperly influenced by just things. His mother was on drugs. He was dealing with so much different trauma, trauma that I've experienced myself. I know people going through it.

And because of this, Crowning Man was sentence to thirty five to seventy years in prison. But somebody could have gotten hurt, Okay, it could have. And then I'm not saying he didn't deserve to have to go to prison, like I'm not saying that, but thirty five years at seventeen for comming a crime that nobody was hurt. Thirty five years. The man has been in jail for the

last twenty four years. So what I don't get is how you can cause insurrections, but you can stom the capitol when intent to kid home like with intense you know, and people die in all of this, and and and the charges that you give these people or charges that they might do maybe four or five years, but you you're charging this man at seventeen year old, a kid thirty five or seventy years. We got a people that don't even want to impeach a president that caused insurrection,

that caused the cool against this nation. They don't even want to impeach him. They want to give him the opportunity to be the president again. In But a seventeen year old boy, poverty stricken, dealing with drugs, dealing with trauma and communities, not even understanding the ramification of his actions. You were sentenced thirty five to seventy years and he's

still in jail twenty four years after. You know, they're supposed to be acting in New York City, where they are acts where sixteen to seventeen shouldn't be charged as adults, where there were clemency situations that Governor Cromwell had promised to give consideration to, and this man fits the criteria for that. So I really just don't get what are we doing? What? Why are we over criminalizing our youth,

especially black and brown youth. Why are we were so quick to throw the key away, you know, for young black boys who are definitely experienced in trauma. But white supremacists who planned to murder, who are grown and who understand the ramification and acts a president who causes and directs people to take over this government. We we barely

go impeach him. We listened to you know, you know counsel I mean, Senator Carson explained to us how he doesn't even really believe that he's gonna get any conviction. But this young boy is sitting in jail. I'm looking on my phone to find the name of this woman, another woman that we've been talking about, Gloria Taylor. She confessed to selling a handful of cocaine and they gave her. She's been in prison now for thirty years or something and I don't know, nine hundred and nine nine years,

nine years. It is the sentence for this woman. This is the time that she's serving for selling a handful of cocaine. The sentence and laws have got to be changed, the sentences laws and the people who you sentencing. You have to know, we have to notice. And this is why a lot of people were critical a Biden and this and this is why, and this is why I

pledged to make sure that they held accountable. You know, a lot of those laws, these crack laws that were put into order, they affected black and brown people, and they're still they were targeted and they're still affecting black and rown people. And we want this administration to understand that they have done harm to our communities and they have an obligation to try to write those wrongs. So when you look at Gloria Taylor, when you look at

Dante Mitchell, you know you can. This is a good faith basis to start with making sure that you write these wrongs. And then as we go down the line and we look make these lords retroactive. Because people, when you think when I when I talked to this young man who was now in solitary confinement because he started organization for young black and brown youth and they called his organization a gang anything that you do inside the prison. Is he the one that they started making like clothes, No,

he's not that guy. But that's another there's another guy. They started making clothes out of just you know, sheets and scraped something and they created like fashion and they and they locked them up because they said it was against the rules. So they stifle your your creativity, They styckle your your your ability to evolve and to grow.

But eight clothes for corporate core craf. You can make the core crap, make the clothes Victorias, Victoria's Secret and all these you can make their clothes, but you can't work on your skill sets. So that if when we turn to to return to society at right, and so with Deante his name is Dante Dante and Gloria Taylor, these can't be situations that we just look at and say it's so bad. We actually have to do some work.

And they have the ability to they can, they can, they can get clemency, like Dante is actually working on clemency and you know he's doing everything you can, so you know, we're looking at this administration, We're looking at people of influence, like, let's talk about this, let's make sure that these things are you know, rectified, and that these people actually have a chance to come home now and live productive lives. Absolutely, I agree with that said episode.

We had a great conversation with both of our guests today. You can tell that they have a wealth of knowledge. Um, you know, Congressman Carson, I'm looking forward to us working with him. I'm sure that is a different swag that some of our congressional members have now that they know there's a White House. Um that they can call and get somebody with good sense on the phone. Doesn't mean they're always gonna do the right thing, but at least

they can call up and have a conversation. They know that there's now going to be a Senate because I I can't imagine if I was a congressional member, how how after a while you just like you don't even

want to be there anymore. Where every time you work hard to pass something, it goes to the Senate and it gets shot down that no one wants to operate at work in that type of environment all the time when you know that you're doing all this work and you're so invested, and it's not going to actually become law because there is another body that has more power than you. And so now they know that there's a

fair shot. And so I would imagine that they're walking around because listen AOC and ilhan Omar and Rashida Talib and uh Corey Bush and Jamal Bowman. I mean, I can Yvette Clark and the names go on and on and on, and of course Andre Carson. We're looking for them to do some big things, big things, popping little things stuff hopefully hopefully big. Then listen, I'm not gonna always be right, Jamika Mallory will not always be wrong most of the time, she folding to d Mallory. But

we will both always be that's the fact. Thanks for joining street Politicians. Peace Peace as