The Business of Love

Your mother, Patricia Lennon a very very very special woman who I had the privilege of calling a friend and getting to meet her at all of your functions, especially Miriam Day, where we all learned about feisty Patricia. Uh. And she really has taken so many of us on as her children, friends, sisters, um, and so over time, you know, I've learned how beautiful she is as a

woman in just such a strong, worried spirit. And it also helps to give me a real close understanding of who you are and how you came to be the feisty man that sometimes you are. That gets on my nerves, but you know that's for a different show, um, And so just want to say that we love you, we support you, uh, and I know that this is not a time that you know, it's even you can't even understand it. You know, I hear people talk all the time about when they lose their um parents. It is

you know, most undescribable. UM. But we as your village will continue to be here to walk you through what

this new life looks like without your mom. And and I think the last thing I'll say is that we know, at until Freedom particularly and also the street politicians family, we've watched you leave meetings, rooms, adjust schedules, have to try not travel at times, um, you know, change things around so that your schedule would accommodate you being there to take care of your mom, being there to walk

her through these last very difficult two years of her life. UM. And we know that you know, even if sometimes it doesn't feel that way to you, that you really showed the rest of us what it's like to take care of a parent when they are in need. So shout out to you and salute to you for being a star wars in your family in terms of taking care of your mother and mom Patricia Lynn, Thank you man. It's not allowed to say, you know, I don't want to get really emotional, but that was my favorite girl

to energy. The strength and belief she gave me about myself in life, it is un watched and you know, watching her fight for the last two years with a strength, with a smile looking at me, you know, looking in my eyes, just wanted me to know that she was fighting was just something that was phenomenon. And I was dere with her on our final moments, you know, and I told how proud I was, and you know, I couldn't ask for anything. I'm just happy and honored to

have been to still be her son. You know, I hope that you know I did something that made up proud. You are sleep in peace. You make us all proud. You still a scrub, but you make us all proud. We love you. You know, we're going one thing about Patricia's She always had a laugh, and so we're gonna continue to make sure we keep it light for for

for you and for all of us. You know it depth that makes me think about this whole idea of elder care man and how we also as a part of um Street politicians, we really and and just our organizational efforts, we really gotta get people our age and before our age to start thinking about taking care of their parents. Because I learned even before Patricia was, you know,

got sick. I learned from my mother's experience that WHOA, we're not prepared, you know, we're not really ready for what it takes to care for and all the things financially, emotionally, what happens if they need to live with you or you gotta figure out how to be with them, what

happens at night when they're sick. It's so many things that goes into taking care of your older loved one, and not to your parents, because you become the parent, and not to mention, there are not a lot of resources out there to help you take care of them, you know, And so I learned that with my family.

Thank God, my father is still here and able to take care of my mother every day, which means that the burden of that work is not on my sister and my brother, my siblings and me, But yet and still it wears and tears on him, like we really should probably be doing even more, you know what I'm saying. So it is really just watching you looking at what happened in my situation and what continues to happen there and just our friends and others who are trying to

care for their parents. We have to be more educated. Nobody ever taught us that, you know, nobody told us what to do. We always was were the ones being taken care of. It's a lot, man, it's it's it's it's a heavy you know, it's a heavy um cross to bear, you know what I think. But you want to you know, I think we have children. I think they had us. They said, you take care or your children so eventually that they can take care of you.

And it was an honor for me, man, just to be able to be somebody that she needed to, you know, to feel that she needed me. And I had to come through for her all the time and be able to have a smile and and know that when she seen me there she felt safe. You know. Every time I would be with her doctor's appointments, anything, no matter what it was, she wanted me to be there because she felt that she was safe every time I was there. And I remember being a kid, and you know what,

you don't care what you're going through. You just want to hold your mommy's hand, you know, your daddy's hand, because it made you feel safe. She would do that to me, So I was just I was blessed to there and be there for Yeah, yeah, that's right. Well it is a blessing and you're right, you know when when my mom was in the hospital, we just picked up and just jumped into it. Even if nobody ever

taught you, which we do need those that information. What do you do about their finances and you know all of that. But at the same time, I think it is natural because you have learned from your parents. It's like a spirit that gets in you that you want to help them. You're gonna fight, You're gonna make sure

people take care of them properly. But I do think that there's so much more to uncover um and and break down in terms of what other steps that people need to know, like what documents need to be signed, power of attorneys, you know, paper and shoot, these are things people are like, what is the PO I didn't even know what that was. I had no idea that I needed a form so I could have the ability to speak on my mother's behalf. I had no idea.

You I thought, I'm my mother's child, that's it. This is my mother's husband, my sister, this is my mother's daughter. That's it. It doesn't actually work that way, It really not. It doesn't not that it doesn't actually working with it does not work that way. There are literal documents that people have to have so that they can have conversations

with doesn't otherwise on behalf of parents. So the elder care, we're gonna get into that and make sure that we cover and you know, in in memory of Patricia Lennon, we want to make sure we cover that and and help people to know what do they do when their parents is in distress. So again, R I p to your mom and we love and support you so much. So there's so many things that's happening in the midst

of you know, you dealing with your situation. There is um you know, the news, it doesn't and nothing stops. The cycle doesn't stop of craziness going on around us. Um. Just a couple of days ago, I saw a video of the young people or I don't even know if

they were young, but they had nask and whatnot. So I'm not gonna put this on young people, but some folks who look like our people because their skin look dark running into the Louis Vutton store, which is in the mall that I frequent and actually I've been in that Louis Vuitton store a million times. It's been there for years. And they were doing a smashing grab and I'm like, wow, this is still happening. Maybe the media is not covering it as much, but it's still happening.

I'm trying, you know, and I know that we all minds. We want to say, well, you know the system and it's the sign of the times and whatever. But I'm like, I'm trying to figure out, how do we make that stop before somebody gets killed? Because I saw the the people doing the smashing grab, but there was staff members, clerks or you know, salespeople excuse me, who chased the security guard stepped back. I watched this video. The security guard got out of the way, but the sales people

followed and chase these folks around them all. I just feel like, what if somebody would have fell down to escalated? Like what happens if somebody gets harm? And it makes me so scared every time. I could care less about the bags, the shoes, the clothes or whatever, but the like the life, whether it's the robber or the salesperson

or whatever. I just don't know where this ends. And and it's easy for us to say, well, you just gotta you know, they need to do better as inflation, because it is inflation, which is very serious, like people can't even afford groceries, clothes, anything. But is it enough that because there is the problem of inflation, that people are now going out just deciding they're going to take what they want. I don't think it's just inflation. I

think it's glamorization, right. I think when you go on Instagram, when you're going YouTube and everybody who is a status symbol, right, when everybody has on Louis Vuitton and they're saying this Louis course this much and I got the Louis Is and every song is talking about that, right, And you you're you're something. You're from a community and from a household where you can't afford that, right, So you you

feel like you need these things to validate you. You have these things, and you are in the end crowd. You you can be accepted. You can put it on Instagram, you can say look what I got. You know what I'm saying. And I say that about most of these brands. These brands are status symbols. They're not because most people don't buy these brands, be like, oh this just look so dope, right you I watched Loui some of the ugliest Louis Vuitton should I've ever seen, you know, some

of the ugliest goodies. Like it's some of the stuff that people wear. You know, those Blissia can sneakers, they look like orthopedic shoes. I just would never wear them. But people say, oh, they course a thousand dollars. And these they got jenes that be so ugly that they course a thousand dollars And they say, oh, these are your marries. You don't they don't care you're looking like, damn,

I just don't really look good. Like you look at those boots that shout out to fact Joe that he had a right and you look it said, I'm just not gonna wear those, right, But they but they kind and of course this amount of money. Now, you know, since people can go into these stores and they've seen it happen on YouTube, they've seen a little smashup rap. People are taking their trial. Man, so that it's so serious. It's not like funny like it's really serious. I don't know.

I mean, it scares the hell out of me. And I think you write Instagram and all of that, it does make it and I don't And listen, I'm not wanting to tell people that they shouldn't wear their their Pucci Tucci and Louis. That's fine with me. I support it because I wear some of it as well. But

like this right here was like twenty nine dollars. Like if you don't have to always have the highest brands, and you either have, you got a phenomenon of either people buying fake stuff trying to keep up, or people buying or people stealing in order to keep up. And I just you know, like I said, I hope nobody gets hurt. So listen. The last thing in our little news segments it because you know, we try to do

a little bit of news on on street. Politician. Mass mandates are being lifted in a lot of places, and there's certain people that are bugged out, um who are okay with that. And I say that I was really talking about you, But I'll give you opportunity to tell me how you think on your own, because I think

we should be wearing masks twenty four seven. Sometimes you catch me, I'll be having my mask on in my car, which is kind of crazy, but and I mean, I know that's a little bit extra, but I kind of find myself trying to wear my mask as much as possible. And I don't always do it when I should, but I try so. Now that the mandates are being lifted,

people are gonna get even more laxed. Hopefully we have passed the point of COVID being this big bad thing, and now we're getting to a point where we understand we gotta live with it. We need to be healthy, we need to eat right, take care of ourselves. You've got many people, especially but who are vulnerable, who are vaccinated um and and hopefully that's the direction we're traveling in.

But I can't lie and say that I don't feel a little concerned that you've got people out here, a lot of them nasty asses anyway, who won't have their masks on. I think for me, the word man that has always been the issue for me. Right, I think people such as yourself who don't like to be around Germans. Right, you can get you can get a in ninety five mass, you can wear two mans, right, you can protect yourself. They have things that actually protect any level anybody else's

breath from getting to you. And that's that's something that you shouldn't be able to do, right, and and and those things. Just like when you walk in a restaurant, if you don't want somebody next to you, you can move places. Right. There are people who have been traumatized so much by the pandemic that they never want to be around other people. Right, They're never going not wear their masks. It's just a reality that we deal with. You know. For me personally, I don't see. I don't think.

I think there are so many different you know, viruses and diseases that that are as contagious and have can have addive adverse effects that we've been living with without mass for a long time. Everybody doesn't agree with that, And I understand some people think that they wanted They feel that the mass is the most safest thing for them. And I think you can still wear masks. It's just that it's not mandated, right. You know, everybody doesn't want

to wear masks. Everyone doesn't feel that they were quietly wear masks. That's an individual's choice. I think when you start when we live in America and you start taking away individual's choice. You know, when the science and the numbers show you that COVID is just as effective as pretty much what do you mean? I mean, I don't know what that means. Well, it affects people in a manner that just about any other virus that we've ever had. It has the same It has the same, isn't I'm

just trying. I'm trying to explain something to you. At the same mortality rate, it actually has lower mortality rates than most viruses. What what are you talking about? Six hundred people died in months. But that's what I'm trying to tell you. And if you look at more the rate of mortality, right in the rate of something is the amount of people who have been affected by something in comparison to the amount of people who have recovered

and people who have actually died. Right, So, if you look throughout any historical any virus that we've had, the rate of mortality, the rate of recovery is pretty much even to all of the viruses we had. This is not so that I'm thinking, this is what the CDC says, This is what this the thing says you can challenge it. So what I'm trying to say is the reason, and that's the reason why the mandates are coming off, because the science shows that it's safe enough to do so.

And if you director said, she don't think we out of the woods. But you know what, I don't even know why I said that, because I don't even know why I said that, because what they say every two days. So the situation is nobody knows. And you gotta make yourself as safe as you you feel that you need to be. You need to wear three masks. With three masks, you feel like you need to stay home and don't

go to indoor dining, don't do it. You know, people just you make sure that you're comfortable in your safe anyway. So moving on, let me tell you about how we're about to be done. We have talked way too long already because our guests are ready to join, and we're gonna have to go to them. My little thought of the day was gonna be about Black Lives Matter donations, and I really wanted to talk about whether or not

all black people look the same. That was gonna be my thought of the day, Like do people really think that all of us are the same exact uh person right, because that's the ba all. Everybody looks the same. So I wanted to break that down, but we don't have time today because our guests are already waiting. I'm super excited. Let's go to this great conversation, um, and it's gonna be actually two different conversations today with people that we

love that are just super dope. So mine we've got friends as usual on on Street Politicians is a very friendly place because we have such great friends that do such incredible, incredible work and it's just super super super super dope in the two individuals that we have today

are our friends, our dear dear brother and brother and sister. Um. I think you know as we it seems like we try to do our one Valentine's Day show, and then it was just so much more that we talked about that needs to be covered about, not just people in relations and ships. From a love perspective. We've been talking about polyamorous relationship, We've been talking about traditional relationships, but there's so much to be said about folks just working

together and being in a relationship. How much is too much? How much time is too much? Time? To spend together. Uh, you know, how much is not enough? Like, you know, how do you really be a great helpmate? And I think one of the things that um, Derek grades excuse me, Derek Grace said in his interview was that his helpmate has helped to really change his reality and helped him

to grow his business and his potential. That's one of the things that you know, as I as I try to find my husband, my king, that is one of the things that I really want to make sure is that we have we're invested in one another's growth from a business perspective as well, because that's what I like to do. I like to get my hands in and I like to, you know, help to in any situation, make whoever I'm working with, whoever I'm even with, loving and or just good friends with help them to be better.

And you helped me to be better. And I don't know if enough people are invested in that. And so I think that our next our guest, that they exemplify what it is to support one another and to be helpmates but also still carrying on a very very successful relationship. So we are talking to Jay Morrison and Ernestine Johnson Morrison the great. Um, let me just tell y'all quickly about these two individuals separately, are really dynamic individuals. Um, Ernestine,

you are an actress, you are a filmmaker. You are an incredible poet, which is how I was introduced to your amazing talents. You're an entrepreneur, you're a mom, You're so many things. You are so many different titles, your fashionista. And then Ja, who I've known for a long time. J and I have sort of grown over these lasts I don't know, maybe ten years together, trying to find our space in this quest to make our communities better, to build, you know, a future for our children and

for generations to come. And so Jay is an educator. That's how I met Jay, teaching classes with a white boy. Give j a white boy, he could do anything. Um, a business mogul, a real estate expert. Uh, the founder of the Tulsa Real Estate Fund, of which I am also and you, my son, Um, we are invested in, we're partners of. Look, I always say it wrong and Jay gets me right every time. So he's gonna fix

it when it's time for him to speak. A dad of three beautiful beautiful women, their women and the baby girl because the big girls are women now from when we first met to now, these are you know, our our women. So you guys separately are amazing, but together y'all are the dynamic duo, the powerhouse couple. So listen, guys, y'all, these are our friends and we're ready to kick it

with y'all about the doing business as a couple. Yes, well, thank you for having us, Thank you for that grand introduction, Thank you sis, thank you street politicians. Man. We uh, we're happy to be here. Yeah, I'm happy. So what's the secrete? This is the secret to your success as a couple of success as business people? Like what what do you think is the core thing, like the major things that you have to look for to have that

level of success. In both theories, I start by saying, purpose alignment I think is really the secret and also what we found as we're now going without a third year, going our fourth year married, I think July four years already four years wow. So um, also knowing that we don't know everything, but we don't got it all figured out and understand accepting that it is a journey, right, and so we're constantly evolving as individuals, like spiritually and

business professionally. Um, obviously I'm a visionary, so I always got different ideas and I want to be the best CEO of our last name right, leader and visionary of the family. I think just understand that we don't got it all figured out, and that we're doing this thing called life together and we're UM, so it's important for me to make sure that I'm cleaving to her and

being patient as she's being patient with me. Is I'm figuring myself out, still still growing as a person, as a man, I don't even know fully what I'm supposed to be all the way right, So I'm still figuring that out. But she's still figuring herself out and momhood for the first time and all that which is being

patient with each other as we figured out together. To piggyback off what King Jay said, UM and my son, I don't think that there are any short set, So if anyone out there things that there is a short cut, there's not. Like I think that on top of what King j said, the shortcut is the secret really is work, Like it's really putting in the work, Like everything that you want to do whether it's business, whether it's relationship,

it all takes work. There are no shortcuts. There is no like secret mac magic potion that you can drink and it just your blossom and you arrive. I think everything takes work. And Jay and I are both very intentional about we're working on ourselves individually. We're very intentional about working on our marriage. We read books together, we

do marriage counseling together. Even when it's challenging, when it hurts, when it's icky and sticky, um, we face it and we've dissected and we do the work like we do the work necessary to be the best versions of ourselves, which in turns makes us the best version for each other. So I think the secret sauce, the short the shortcut

is just putting in the work, putting in the work. So, you know what, I want to go backwards because I remember when you talked about purpose alignment, Jay, that struck for me and just reminded me of how you guys started. Um where it seemed and I may be wrong, but it seemed that Jay was you know, he was out there like you know, the corner classes, the whole thing.

He was out traveling with his white board around with the vision, and you seem to be very supportive of that earnest scene, like as if you know, and and then I would watch as we would be, you know, out on the streets or watching you guys out around the country, and you would come and and do poetry during the middle of a street, you know, gathering of people learning about financial security and what and and really how we go from the block and the corner to

like sustainable communities, um and and you know, and you found your your messaging was into twined. So it's that kind of like what made y'all say, okay, this can work because you guys were able to mess so well in the very beginning when you were trying to like figure out how to expand yes, I would absolutely say that the connectivity in the beginning, that our purposes were so aligned, the vision, the messaging was so aligned that

it made it easier for us to work together. It made it easy for us to ligne because the vision was the same, The vision was the same, the purpose

was the same. And although Jake may have had um and his individual walk and I had my individual walk, it was like when God brought us together, it was like this is how you can take your individual vision and purpose and your individual vision and purpose and combined the two because they were almost like in the game, and they went, they went hand in hand with each other.

M yeah, yeah. And I would say, like, um, we often say and I grew up the same way you said, used the term help me, right, And I've always thought of it like that till a few years ago. Actually, Ernestine's grandfather rest in Peace, Uh explained to us that the Bible actually says help me. You read it, it says if I to help meet because she used to help you meet your vision and as I've been studying later, and help you achieve your goals. Right. So God created

me and right depending on this perspective. But this term helped me or helped me comes from the Bible really, and it's is God created man, and he created a woman, so the man was not alone, and God gave man a purpose and a woman was help help that man meet his purpose, right, and that man was to love

and sacrifice for that woman. And so I think like as I was out when the corner classes, um, you know, on your tail at protests and demonstrations all over the country and just trying to offer myself of service to our community. Um. You know, I was like in the dating game, it was all about like what looks pretty and what's fly and you know, all the physical attraction and those things. And when I'm at Earnesty and it

was like great energy, great vibes. Um. And when I did a corner class here in Atlanta, and I've seen her like perform a Black Love and Dear Black Man, and it was just something magical because it was like she was in her own element and space. She wasn't like trying to like be in my space, but with her own talents and give they just complimented the exact community repair that I want to try to you know, contribute to or achieve. Um. And so yeah, I think

we have the alignment of purpose. As she said, it just made it easier. I was like, look this so right here that can in a different way, helped me meet what I believe is my purpose and my goals. MS. You know, I've been along this road with you guys, you know, both of you my good friends. And you know I've watched you when you started this relationship, watched the evolution, was at your wedding, you know, seeing Yeah, bring forth a beautiful child together. Is there anything about

marriage that you thought before that has changed? Like how long have you been married? Now? It will be four years in July. Is there any ideologies of things or just visions about marriage that you thought prior to being married that have changed evolved? You were like, you know they evolved? Was just changed, like, well, I thought this was marriage? Was I thought this? So I thought that has has a change for you anyway? Yeah, absolutely, I

can definitely say marriage is ever changing. I think it's ever evolving. Um, I think I had an idea of marriage in my head as a woman, like a little bit of the fairy tale, not all the way, because I'm not a fairytale person. I'm very realistic, but I think there was a sector of the fairy tale marriage and married life. What it what it looked like in

a little piece of it in my heart. And then I think when you get into it, you realize these are two different people from two different walks of life, with different habits and kinks and corks and personality traits that have now combined into one. And you don't think about it that way. You're like, wow, like you have to learn to live with this person in their behavior and their traits in there and their their little habits, and like get to learn this person. It's like it's

like becoming family. It's almost like if you were a brother or sister who had a sibling and then a new sibling and at the home, it's like you have to get to know this this person in your atmosphere. So I think you don't really think about it like that when you when you think about marriage, But I think now that I'm in it, I'm like, Okay, well you have to learn this person. You have to grow with this person, you have to evolve with this person.

This person has to evolve with you. And you know, they say you change every seven years, but I feel like we're always ever changing. I think we're changing daily. So I think it's a it's a very serious commitment to say I want to be on this journey with you through the evolution, through the changes, through the personality changes, through the behavioral traits. I want to be on this

journey with you. Yeah. And I think when I heard Jane talking about, you know, because I was on the dating uh whatever, on that trail with Jay two, we watched a few no stuff happened, right, And you know you talked about being attracted to a certain thing. It was what the person looked like. But I'm sure that it helped that when you saw Ernest and it was like, she's dope, she's the poet, she got all this going on. But that thing also be thinging back there because you

can't if not see it. It didn't just it doesn't disappear things. So so Mike don't know because my brothers don't look right, man, I wouldn't. That's my sister. I've never seen. All I ever seen was ernestin is facing a smile to listen. Yeah, right. What y'all always say is nobody wants the person that no one else wants. Everybody want to look at their person and say, I know, y'all know, I got a bad woman. So I'm sure that was also a part of how you were like, Okay,

I found you. It seemed like at some point you kind of find everything, like if you get satisfied in so many different ways, it's almost like God's way of being like I can give you what you need if you would be open to receive it. Mhm, right, I do agree with that, and I think like the beauty part. I agree, Right, that's a foundational we all like you know, I mean you want Tobo you attracted to, right, So

that's a foundational thing. That this thing. There's so much of that out there, right, there's so much you know, like it's going through the gram. It's like it's a million girls that look good. But now we get the substance. It's like I'm a substance person, so I can't do shallow right. And then I come from the old school. I'm not like this new school thing of like we just passed them around and everybody got who everybody's been with.

That's the cool thing, Like I don't want somebody to everybody been like yo, that was that was a girl last week and that was my girl, but she got a bigger followers will be cool. Like I'm from, Like I want somebody that everybody can't talk about, you know what I'm saying. So a virtuous movement. So um, all those things did like compiled to like, Okay, what does like what do I need? What do I want? Like to your point, what do I want? And then what

do I need? We're really kind of combination like for for me, so it's like a lot of times as men, we just said of what we want. I'm like, I said, be thanking, and that's what I want and that's good enough, but did not get down to like what do you need though, so and and saying that right and correct me of go wrong. But I remember that y'all well on this abstaining from having sex with each other? Right?

And how long was this process? Because I remember he was like, well, we don't even that's you know, that's not what we're doing. And I was like yeah, really, Like I was really like, this is what I knew that he was in love because I'm like, what ain't No, this is spiritual. We love each other and we building So tell me about that question. A lot of people,

I'm not done that. Yeah. I think that we were both very adamant about you know, if you want something, you never had to gonna do something you haven't done, and I didn't. We both didn't want our relationship to the basis the foundation to be based on sex because like Jay said, you can get that anywhere and we can all have sex, um. But I think we were very intentional coming out of relationships. We wanted to find something of substance and we were said, hey, let's substain

for ninety days and we did ninety days. We were like like ninety days was a long day, long long time. It was allowed, like they still doing that that last like three days, like two more days were like. But it was times cool because it was like, Okay, I know you like if if sex fell off or you know, God forbidden one of us can have sex anymore, would we still have a connection And we do because the

spiritual connection to friendship connection. We got to know each other without you know, sex um influencing our our whole our whole relationships. I think it was a pretty cool thing. Uh. And I know, like four men like to me, that just seemed the whack of face value right like and probably most of us in the culture right now. But I don't think for me, like I don't want to

cut you up. You don't see what it just seems like wow, like you know what I'm saying, Like why because to come to that ideology, to come to that point in your mind, like, it has to be a lot of different factors, right, You gotta challenge yourself, You gotta look at this person, you gotta actually like this person. You gotta want to build, you gotta want to do something that's so outside the norm. So when you when

you said that, I was like, okay, none, this is serious. Yeah, maybe I think like it's easy to fall in lost mm hmm. You feel me and so a lot of times. And I know myself right, like I'm a scorpio, like I can falling less quick, you know what I'm saying. So it's easy to fall in us and thank you in love. And I just was at such a high

frequency in my life at that time. It was like I just I don't even want to risk that because you could have a lot of fun with somebody and they know that's just your lock then, because y'all just have so much fun, Like actually, actually it should cut buddy, But like I just wanted to bring some different to the table. It's like, so to your point, it was like a wild thing. It's like, Yo, can I like this person? And can I not get bored of this person?

If sex ain't will entertain us? M hm hm. But so let me just ask this question as we go to the business part. But bright reported, do you think y'all were ready ready for what to get married? Yeah, I do you were ready? Yeah, I think so. I think that I think that having been married now, um, I appreciate all accounts and that we did and like the pre marrit work that we did. Um, I think that we also could have dug deeper at the same time. So is it is marriage hard or is it easy?

Be honest, it is marriage easy or hard? Because understand is she got let me let me just see something. Because being married, I understand that the dynamics of it, and a lot of people will look at relationships right and and and and since we live in the social media error, right, they only see Jay and Ernestine when they're perfect and they're loving each other and they're kissing and they're hugging and they got the African golf and

then they're doing something like this is what the relationship is. Right, So when they can see that, and then you if you were able to tell them something that makes them realize, like, really, we've gotta work because if this person is saying that, then it gives me a different understanding of what I have to do, how you have to go through marriage and with the processes. So can you tell me what do you do you think marriage is hard. I think marriage is absolutely hard, but I think it's also like

any relationship I was talking about. I was talking with this with my girlfriends having a girlfriend. It's a regular batonic girlfriend. It's hard. So a marriage is definitely hard. I think any too, humans to designed to be connected. Any type of relationship is hard because it came you have two different people from two different walks of life aligning together and joining to build a ship, during to build a relationship. So I definitely think marriage is hard.

I do agree with jay Um. I still I still know that I was ready. I think we were ready, and I know we were ready. I do agree with Jay though we did a lot of work, like we read this book his needs, her needs before we got married. I read it together. We did it with our marriage coach, We did all the marriage coaching and all that. But I do agree that you could go deeper. But I

think you could always go deeper. Even if we went deeper, there was still another layer of paper we could have went from there, because again, you meet someone at thirty forty, that's thirty or forty years of layers that you have to break through. So I don't think the work is ever deep enough. I think you need to go deep. You need to ask each other the hard questions, the religious questions, of spiritual questions, of finance questions, all your

sexual desire questions, like all of those things. I think you have to dissect and break down when you were deciding you want to marry someone, because all these things come up. Stuff comes up, and you don't even think about you like, oh wow, I didn't I didn't even think to even ask about this. So I definitely think, I definitely know marriage is hard. It is. It is work. It is it's like a job. It's but it's a career. It's not a job, but you clock in and clock

out his career and it's like you're an entrepreneur. You know, entrepreneurs You never stopped. There is no clock out. So married is like entrepreneurship at the at the highest level.

That's real. That's I was saying that when I called you, I said, I want to specifically know what it's like when Jay decides that he's gonna do something and makes decisions and then all of a sudden, you have to become a part of trying to help deal with whatever has happened, because lifting it ain't just they're like, hey, we're going to the story. No, it's listen, we're about to start this and we're gonna be invested in this for the lext ten years, so let's get it gone gone.

Let me tell you guys something. This is how I know I meant to be Jay's wife. And j could be crazy all he wants to, but there is not many women who could stand here unwavering the way I stand here unwavering because my husband is one. He's a Scorpio two. He is a freaking large visionary. When I say the biggest efficient Jay has, and he knows that he can do it, he's like, yeah, we're gonna we're just gonna do this. It could be something astronomical. He's like, yeah,

we're just gonna go do it. We're gonna we're gonna do it tomorrow. And everyone will be like, wait, wait a minute, tomorrow, like we hold on, wait, we gotta we gotta grab stuff we needs to and he's like, no, we're doing it tomorrow. We're doing it next week. And I'm like, okay, but we all just said we've all been working diligently to go left. Now of a sudden out of the clear blue. You want to go right, but we've been working for the last eight months to

go left. I got all the preparation, the road map, everything, and then he'd like, mom my spirit, God just told me we're supposed to pull it right now. And I'm like, God, she I'll be telling you a lot because it's all got told him. But I think that I know that I'm equipped to stand with Ja because we have we have been through so much already, positive things, negative things. We have been so much to where he Ja is

ever changing, and I think that's what comes. Like I've been studying it late because I'm like, why is this my huskin and saying or see a genius? And I think if you study most geniuses and most visionaries, I mean, if you maybe look at the ditties with Tyler Perry's, I mean they're they're always getting broad ideas, big ideas, and it's up to the team around them to either to be on board with it or not. Because one thing about Jay and true visionaries and leaders are gonna

do it anyway, and it is hard. We have literally gotten to arguments and almost fights, Like, dude, you said we were going left now, it's not going right. I put my whole lot, I put my whole being and body and and ingenuity and resources and relationship to going left, and now you want to go right. And it's There's been times where I'm like, oh my god, am I cut out for this man in this big huge mind and his big huge brain. And I remind myself, like, yes, God put you here for a reason. There was a

very very specific assignment on this man's life. And there's a very specific assignment on your life. So you have to run the storm, baby girl. And it always, it always works out, but it's not always easy. Sometimes I wanted this come upside the dog. Sometimes I just want

to oh, you know so? And in marriage, right, like what I realized with people, it's hard, like being honest, Like is it do you do you find the times that you want to say things or you're thinking about things, either sexual, just the way you things that have changed, you don't like this anymore? Do you find it hard to like have those conversations with each other because you don't want to offend, you don't want to make them feel bad? Is that a hard space for you, you you

guys to do? I would honestly say, I would give

us a nine and a half on the scale. Often you know we've had we probably will discuss it year, but you've had some of the toughest conversations of honesty of like, yo, I'm here right now, I'm on this right now, I'm believing that right We've had some very very honest, tough, like real friend type conversations like y'all need you know I mean, like, I don't need you to be my cliche wife, I don't need the princess fairy tale group Cinderella like, no, I need you to

be my friend right now. And I want to be able to tell you what I would tell my homeboy, like the same that conversation I would tell my man's and then I want to be able to tell you and you accept it as my truth as opposed to me living in a lie and left vice versus for her. So I think we've done an excellent job. And it's challenging, right, you don't mean that work to come behind it and all that, But I think we've done a pretty good job out of all of our different components of marriage.

I think we like constantly bringing our truth and our honesty to the table. And this seems like from the conversation with Derek Grayson his beautiful woman Elsie Um, what we learned and what we keep hearing, at least me, is that that honesty component is what actually is keeping people going like it's the it is the work. It's deep digging enough to say, I have to be able to tell you your idea is crazy. I don't like it.

It doesn't feel like this is gonna work. It's gonna get us in this problem that we already were in before. I'm not trying to break you down or you know. And and that's difficult because when I think for us as women, I don't know if you shared this earnest scene, But for me in in in in my past relationship, I wanted to just be supportive all the time. I never wanted it to feel like I didn't believe in whatever idea or whatever it was that um he came

up with. But then there was some stuff that just felt like it was unrealistic. And one of the things that my mom told me one day is never wait to say it until you blurt it out in the moment of anger, sit down and have the conversation. But that's hard because you you you need the anger is your courage. You sometimes what I mean, so you can so you can say, but but doing it calm and when somebody isn't expecting it and feeling like, wow, you're

hitting me from left field, it's it's difficult. And I another thing I'll say is that I also have felt that my word wasn't value either because oh, I've done this before and you don't know what you're doing. You don't you know, I'm more experienced in this area. But yet I could see a disaster coming. And sometimes I feel like our men don't necessarily listen to us or or or value what it is that we feel, or the or the insight that we have. Do you think

the day that you do value what I mean? Know you value what earnest and says, But you have there been moments when you sat back and said, damn, I really should have listened to her. A ton of moments, right.

I think that's probably one of the one of the large argument the largest argument points of our relationship is has been that I and I still do what they understanding, like, um, as a man, the head of the household, UM, you know, my job is to uh, you know, protect and provide and to make sure that like I'm leaving the family forward and I'm responsible, accountable to God right for what

happens within the family. And so like I hear my my wife, um, and I've tried to remind her that and am most people have all made right now just because we don't do what y'all say does not mainly don't hear y'all or don't value your advice. We take the information, we assess the information, and then we do what we feel that is the best thing to do.

Sometimes it's a whole run. Sometimes do what you want to do, regard the day, what we feel is the best thing to do right, which is the thing that right we weren't doing that situation that we're guided to

do that situation. So we have to as family units and a couple of units is understand Like it's like, for instance, you can't put your best your best baseball batter up and celebrating when we hit the home run and a triple with a double, but then when you strike out or you know what I mean, when you say your curdball coming, current ball coming, but he don't think so he go with his gut and now he strike out, and I was like, oh, I told you so, right he I don't know han hand ray hand raid.

Well we let the woman speak, Let the woman speak, but yeah, but you know, just no, sorry, because here's the thing we're saying that we can see that didn't work before either, Like we know, we're like, listen, this is not the best swing for you. I have watched you. I've studied your games. I've watched your moves. Like I put it, I'm watching the tapes right so you you're playing the game, you're moving, but I'm studying what's happening. I'm watching out every time you go up to bed

and you get in that position. I'm the one that can see what the other team is saying and doing because they're preparing to create the same ship this time that was that happened last time. So this is okay, okay, okay, I want to pick you back off. Qing Toka. Yes, everything that she said, it is true. We either study the playbook, we know your moves. However, there's also something

else called discernment. Just like you know that you are blessed with certain Hanily powers, women, we are blessed with discernment, and I am blessed with triple discerpment and just passed out for my mother if I get so, I've jay those this and I've explained to him several times I have been less with the gift up the sermons. So sometimes I gives you the curveball coming, even if it's not in the playbook. Even if I didn't study the other team, I did, God or showed me that the

curveball was coming. So I think when you get to a level of trust what your partner and understand your partner's gift up the sermon, we should probably start following that gift, just like I followed your gifts. M At the end of the day, that is wonderful. I know you have the sermon, I know you started to playbook. I get all that, and I processed all that information. And you have to ask yourself, is is my man the the despite if he hits his head multiple times

or whatever, is he capable? Is he smart? Is he wise? Even if he screws up and he's hard headed or doesn't listen to me or my discernment or my gifts or whatever whatever whatever. At the end of the day he preserves the right. He's earned the right because the same man that will get up in the middle of the night if there's somebody coming to the house and sacrifice his life in the family, it's the same man that to get up and go outside and make sure

everything's okay. It's the same man that I stand up that he has earned the right to be able to make that call and make a decision on regardless of what the outcome is. Now, as men, we want to always become more wiser and pay attention and look at

that best counsel. We're always growing and evolving. But it doesn't mean that we get some kind of like uh, tarnish or some kind of blemish or some kind of months of I told you so because you're right about something to be decide to do opposite, Like you gotta be in a trust your leader. It's it's a it's a very slippery slope, you know, being in relationship, especially being in marriages, especially as men, we look for a level of belief from our wife, our wilds. Right, you

want your wife to believe in you. You want your wife to give you this energy that that you can't lose. Right, I remember when I used to watch Rocky and I always say I would have never married Adrian. Adrian would just never have been my wife. But every time Rocky is about to fight, she like, you can't win. You see you can't win you And that used to be like, what kind of wife is that? But I don't want that.

Right as man, we want to look at our wife and said, listen, I'm about to go climbing that hill, and you like you got it baby? What you need? You need me to get some water, what you need to do? You need to get on my shoulder, My my man, gonna do it. And it's because when you speak that energy into us, we can do anything. When we look in your face and we see that you believe in us, there's nothing in this world we're not

going to accomplish. So when when that, I think, when you when you give you a man that and one or two times you might come and say we'll be maybe we shouldn't. I don't you know, I believe in anything, you anything, but maybe we should try to not do this because something about this doesn't look right to me. It ain't about you but to me. So when you once you poured in him, to him that way he's able to receive that, or hold hold on. Wife must also hit some game for the queens, or say, Babe,

my discernment, my spirit I saw on the playbook. I don't think you should go with it, and we should go with it that way, but it's your choice however you rock. I'm rocking with you anyway, but I just don't think that we should go that way because of how I feel inside or whatever you do. Baby, don't rocking with you, because that's gonna make us feel like

you believe in me. But you've given me some just it don't make us feel like you just don't believe, right, And I gotta prove because the world don't believe in us. We've we've we've been told by everybody in the world that you're gonna lose. I came from jail. They said you ain't gonna be nothing, You're gonna do this, and

I had to prove them wrong every time. So when I start to sense a little bit of that in my own home, it makes me feel like I gotta prove to you too, like I gotta prove to everybody else. And we don't want that. We always want to feel like this is my favorite, my best seeming right. I always want to feel like you. It's like when Jordan was on the court, it wasn't nobody like you don't give one in the boat. That's why he was able

with every shots. Which when you see teams like watch your Westbrook right, it's his confidence right now and in his game, his confidence in media that made him feel like he can't hear the shot. His team is looking a little crazy when he does something wrong. Once that confidence goes from you, it's a lot harder. So we know that we can't let our confidence be taken. So have the have the ability and discernment to say this

message that I gotta give it to my husband. I just gotta give it to him in a way that I know he's gonna know that I still believe in him. But I just have a feeling in me, and then he's gonna want to trust me a little more. This is a little bit of game. It's a little bit I understand because that sounds it's it's a lot of work. That's as you said, it's a lot of work. And I'm not sure that our brothers always understand our King's always understand how much work it is because also were

out of time. Um, I next, because I what I wanted to also get into because I know you guys are so vulnerable and transparent and everything that you are, because it is what it is. If we can't learn from one another, and what are we doing? And I was gonna ask you to two questions, so maybe we'll wrap this up this way, y'all talk about these two things.

Number one is earnest and do you think that Jay is as supportive of your career and your goals as you are of his ideas, his goals and his things like or is he so busy he can't always focus? Because that's the thing too, write like it doesn't mean you're a bad person, but if you've got a lot going on, it's kind of hard. And often times I find that because I've been in relationship with a very busy man who was extremely supportive financially and everything else.

But when I was trying to explain the whole story, he was like, huh, like what happened? I lost you somewhere? So that's one. And then too, the public critique that we are all like we deal at you day with people attacking us, and this and that and the third and it hurts, you know, to walk into a situation anybody that gets in a relationship with my son Jay me.

Then the list goes on with all of us, right of those people who are out here, Shaun King, you know, you go on with the list, Ben crimp Lee, merit the partner, y'all's wives and husband, they are going to experience the pain of the brutal abuse that goes along with that. So what has that been like? And then I'm done? And then I got one more questions we gotta go. I feel like I feel like we're gonna need a part two for this, but I will start with the first question you asked, is Jay as support

of my career as I am his? And I would say this, So the answer is yes. But there's there, there's there's two parts. So in the love languages, in the Book of the Five Love of Laguatism, sure we're all familiar worth of our thread. You know, people have different love languages, and my love language is quality time and words for words of affirmation. I knew that before

the book. I've always this that I've always known that I'm attracted to so Jay is absolutely one percent supportive, um, financially supportive, making sure stuff is lined up for me. Like there have been times where I just want him to be there, Like the entertainment seeing the acting world is not really his world. So like he'll show up if he finds with that forever. I really want him to. But like there have been times Whe'm like, I just want you to be there, like, yeah, when you paid

for it, I when you sent the driver. I know we I'm straight, but like, I just want you to be there. So there have been times so I'm like, I just want you to present um in the moment with me, but in his love languages, acts of servers. So he's like, I'm gonna make sure I'm gonna serve and make sure the stuff has done. So Ja's one supportive of my career. Um, I just produced my own show, Petty Planes Court. He was there, he showed up, he

was an extra in the audience. I don't know, I don't know if you guys watched Petty Planes Court, but yes, he was there in the courtroom. He's totally there and showed up. So that made me really happy that he was there. And yeah, he's he's extremely supportive of what I of what I do. I think that I um, as a woman, I'm so career driven, and I think I wanted to add this to my answer earlier about

what changes in marriage. Um, I am a very career driven woman, and I didn't know how being married as a woman and you when you're married to a powerful man, it makes you getting your bad a little bit even more, like it makes you like, okay, like I definitely gotta go hard for my career because I worked so hard to build this, whereas you know, I probably should have been thinking, okay, let me, let me, let me focus on being married instead of just focusing on the career.

Like I'm not focused because I've always been focused but prioritizing, let me prioritize the family, let me prioritize my marriage. But career driven women, we were always constantly thinking about our our career and how to incorporate it into the

family and everything else. So that's that's a whole another part two, um, part of your second question in the scrutiny, the negativity, the comments, the and I know we all have gone through it, but I think that what Jay and I have been through was a level I I never really witnessed or seen and it was very hard for me. I'll let Jane answer for himself, and I think it was a little bit easier for him, but it was very hard for me because I've never been

through anything like that. I mean, we we had attack after attack after attack after and still do and I had to go through the run of it pregnant, which being pregnant already you feel like you're under atacked. Your whole body is under attacked. You're birthing something really big

um as you know your mother Tomita. But going through that pregnant, it made me fall into a very deep depression and made me fall into a very deep depression to where j and I purpose or what I thought was my purpose started to disalign because I was like, f this, F black people. I'm done with everybody. I don't even want to do it. They can do what

they want to do, leave me alone. Like that's the mentality that was growing into because I was just like the same people that we are fighting for are the people are the same people who were fighting us. I was like, I'm gonna admit myself from the equation f everybody, Like I'm out of here, I'm not dealing with this. I was in a very very dark, dark, dark place over all of the all the scrutiny that we went through it, and God, thank you God that I made it out of that and I burned my baby and

she was healthy. And because it was times during the brunt of all of it, the height of all of it, where I thought I wasn't gonna make it. I don't think my baby was gonna make it. I cried myself to sleep. I was depressed. I deleted my Instagram page and turned off my comments. I'm just like, yo, like these people are crazy, Like these are the same people that we are pulling love into and resources and education into, and the same people who will put you on damn

crucifi like crucify you. And so that was very hard. It's still very hard. And I think it also made me just get more into my career. I'm like, a, alright, col I'm gonna this acting thing and my my career, my poetry, my speaking. I'm gonna pour all of that I was pouring into y'all. I'm gonna pour it into my into me because I know that this is not going to fight me it's not gonna fight me back. This loves me over here. You guys are not loving me.

So I'm gonna go over here where there's love being served. Still and that Yeah, that was very hard. Go with the love is being served. Go with the love is being served. Yes, m hm ja. Yeah, I mean there's something honestly answered it. Well. I mean my my perspective, um,

is my new perspective. It's really simple as a sinct is when we go through these attacks abuse you called it right, Um, it's just confirmation at you in a good company like I mean, you could go back through history, every revolutionary person, every person that was a change agent and all that, um have been through it. There's not been you know, we could go down names right from from recent day to President Obama to Malcolm X m

okay r V right, you chunk everybody. So Moses, uh, you know what I'm saying, Joseph Jacob Aarond like Jesus call it so to me, it just means like you're just a good company like you just got to accept that. Um, you know, that's the calling got put on your life and had you not been walking that call and you took an easier route. You know, you wouldn't have been obedient, and you know you would be in different kind of companies. So I just I've learned and involved to to to

to embrace it. And where does it write to passage and a badger hunter? You said you have another question. Now I don't really have no other questions. Man, I think you have pretty much summed it up. It was amazing. You know, I've always be to your alone and we and we and we build all the time. And I love both of you. I love which you are, all of what you're grown into, I love what you represent, and we just appreciate you. Man. It's good to be able to talk talk to people who are all align

the same purpose that you are. Man, you know because we know that I've people with some people hard and fightful and they trying, they're trying to shoot you while you trying to take the knife of the back. So you know this is our calling, you know, Let's keep me keep on winning man. The Morrison's yeah, one of the couples do to the motto Morrison's thank you, thank

you guys for joining Street Politicians. Today's your first time on the show together that you guys have to come back separately because there's so much more that I think you can contribute to all of the conversations that we have on this show. We love y'all, appreciate you all, and kill babies the whole all of the children that for me, I love you for having us. So I think you know that was a really good interview. I knew that though, and I think we both know it.

And I think what happened was while we were talking to on Derek Grayson Elsie, in my mind, I was thinking, Wow, there's so much more to explore, but we didn't have two hours because we talked to them for a long time. We didn't have two hours to stay in that conversation, and it was really coming to me that, um, there are other couples that we know that that working together component is so important. I do think that this idea of love and relationships, like everything else in our society,

is evolving. That is also just the ideology and and the path forward for like sustainable relationships. I don't know if I want to say it's changing, because I do think the traditional ideas of marriage and love works for a lot of people, but there has to be something more, uh, that we can do, like to be more honest or whatever about where we are, so that we could keep more black families together. And I know there are people who probably say, why are they talking about this? But

you know, first of all, we stay current. It is the love see is in um Black Love Black History Month. But I see so many of my friends any as single women out here trying to sort of navigate and figure it out. And I think oftentimes it's because we have been told something is supposed to be a certain way, and when it's not that way, it throws off our ability to be able to see a broader picture. So I think you know understands saying Yo, it's hard, but

it's a career and it is work, you know. I think that for me was probably the most powerful point. I think, you know, just being married to understanding the dynamics, understanding the ups, the downs and everything. I think when you when you look at marriage, you have to view it as a business, right like love can be a foundation, can be one of the foundations that is built on It has to be built on communication, that has to

be built on respect. I think you have to have a friendship, right and I think when you see real friends do business properly, they're they're very they're able to build together. Right, you can build on your own right, and you can and you can meet business partners outside of your own that once you've already established your building out, your business model and your structure, that you're able to

be successful. But it's almost impossible to be in a marriage with someone where you're not equally yoked and you're not moving and you're not you're not building on a business model and structure, like everything that we do is going to build and give our foundation stronger. Right, it's

almost impossible to do that. Separate, you know, it's it's it's not so if you don't see that your marriage is a business and the mind state that your your spouse has, you know, you have to continue to encourage them. You've got to support them emotionally, physically, financially. They've got to be able to sleep good cause they've gotta be able to think. They gotta be able to eat so they can go to work so they can come back

in these bills. If you don't view your marriage as in that manner, then there's no way for it to actually prosper and so when you when you listen to both of those couples, even though one was polyamorous and one was traditional, it's it's basically just the same thing, right They both they both view understand how important it is for us to support each other, value each other, and to build Jayson's all time. You know, we we this is for our family's last name. Everything's gonna do

it for my family's last name. And if both people don't see that, then it's it's almost impossible to grow. Yeah, So that's that, Um, you know, until next year. I mean, I'm sure because now it seems that this is such a popular topic. We're gonna be talking to couples and people throughout the course of of you know, the year that come from different perspectives on how to keep maintaining all types of relations ships. So that's a good thing.

But we're gonna shift gears and invite a yet another friend. Tory actually has been with us before. Um My brother, our brother, Tory Russell for the International Black Freedom Alliance in Missouri and St. Louis where real black blackly black black black people fight and do business and organizing everyday.

Tor is a freedom fighter. Um. He is one of the leaders of the Ferguson movement that stood tall continues to stand tall for um our falling brother, falling soldier, Mike Brown Jr. And um And Also, you know, I think the thing that that for Tori, that that is most significant in my life is he is you, Tori, because you're already here being an incredible strategist um And And how so many in the movement don't give you credit for being the think tank and the brains behind

a lot of things that we see out there. Because if I say, oh, you know, I want to do this, I want to move to Kentucky for Brianna Taylor, I want to do these other things. It's really the conversations with you where we process how it's gonna work, what's the pros and cons that helps to advance us forward. So, Tori Russell, we want to say thank you for joining the Street Politicians for your second time. You are one of the only people, maybe you and maybe two other

people who've been on our show more than once. So there you go. Flavors. Yeah, feel feel privileged, King Black King. So Tory, we want to talk about this whole crack pipe pipe issue that we've been hearing about. And I was thinking, I was like, Mice, who do you think is the right person to come on to talk through? Because it's it's not funny. It's not funny at all. It's not funny, but it's hilarious. Like it's it's not funny, but it's hilarious. How like everything we've been fight we

say we want right were don't said. We want voting rights to be secured. We want reparations, we want marijuana legislation pass. We want people to free from prison. We want political prisoners freed. We want our abortion rights. We want George Floyd Justice Police and Act. We want all that in the racial justice context. But somehow what ends up coming to us is June Team holiday, and I don't know some stuff. I'm not gonna say nothing because

you know, somebody showed me the other day. The administration done a few things here and then, and whether you want to I know, but if whether you want to believe it or not, the Infrastructure Bill has some important things in it terms of people get back to work. And now you have the drug or the what is it harm reduction strategy, which is an important thing. But like my son said, what did you say, Mike, It

ain't what we asked for. Joe. When you go, come on, Joe, it's like Tory tell me, like you you're watching you to you on the internet. You're scrolling down, you know, and you see the Joe Boden approves the distribution of crack pipes and paraphernalia and drug paraphernalia for racial equity and any any say it in the interests of racial equity. Like what do you think at that moment he playing in our face, he keeps planing our face. Fam It's like,

you know, let my people go. You know how you're gonna give us the crack pipe without freeing the crack dealer.

You know what I'm saying. You know, my cousin, I'm still locked up behind some loss that you put in place where they at um if you can give out crack pipes or paraphernalia or horm reduction because you know, Neil Liberal's like to talk about horm reduction, why are you being horn you know, like less harm is okay, I want all the horn gone you So it's like you can have sent a big mama, uh, some free incident for that kind of budget there's a lot of

people come on out now if you're gonna give that out, And what about the incident? What about some things that I know in my community we need um. And even when we talk about like Junior Team, you know, before Junior Team they came kneeling with KNTE cloths. UM. So all we get a symbolism and not substance um. You know, And that's the problem. You know, what's the point of putting Harry telling on my engine or on some dollars

and they ain't gonna be in black people pockets? You know what's interesting if we you say, the insulin and other things like that, what immediately hit me is, first of all, I do believe in harm reduction. I do believe that. I understand that there are people who use drugs who are out here spreading disease, and there is a need to have safe housing where once you get them.

I guess the point of safe housing this if we can draw them here and letting them know that there's a safe place, we can keep them cleaned up and hopefully get them the help that they need and get them back into society. I'm with all of that, but yet and still that's a small segment of the population. I not walk in my family. There are not ten people on crack and you know in one one, one area or whatever. Right, it's not That's just not my

that's not our situation. So why do I need more focus on that than I do the fact that I know I have at least twenty people who have diabetes heart issues, and yeah, and I think for me, you know, just going through this situation that I just went through with my mother and just watching how resources are so scarce for people who are actually dying, like from diseases like cancer, Like you know, medication was CosIng like three hundred dollars and immediately when she was sick, they was

trying to take away her insurance, you know, so I had to physically by medication that she needed for three hundred dollars every time I was going to the doctor. Right. But you can give out crack pipes, but you can't give this medication to people who are eternally ill, this this, and all they need is certain things to just to

make them comfortable. You don't want to you you don't want to make people that you know eternally ill comfortable, But you want to give us crack pipes, and you want to give us safe havens place that you can go and and and put insulin and put them heroinness side veins and all these things. And it's just like what do you what are you actually trying to say

to us? Like what what what are we thinking that we don't see that when people are not outraged by this, when we're not sitting here saying yo, this has gotta stop. When when our voices are not loud at these times, what is it actually saying? What are we saying? Mhm? You know, as I look at I said, was like like I get harm reduction too, you know, but you know what more addictive um than crack sugar? Right? Food?

So harm reduction would look like putting some grocery stores in the hood, look like gardens and forms in the hood, look like some healthy food choices. I mean, if we're gonna talk about horm reduction UM and being healthier, then you know, the school launcher should look like something UM that I would actually buy on with my own money. And that's the problem. It's like they don't think about that.

I don't know who in the White House, you know, we might wanna Uh, you know, I don't know what Samone doing in the back that Simone might want to tap him on the shoulder and be like, yeah, Simon is no longer the white Okay. So you know that's the thing. Maybe it ain't enough connected to the struggle. Maybe maybe that's the biggest problem. I think it's that too. And I think a lot of them got in these rooms and realize, oh, these people ain't trying to change nothing,

you know what I'm saying me standing next to him. Eventually, I'm just I'm just a token black, you know. So I think our our approach to the system has to be different, right, I approached to it has to be very intentional. Like everything that we do have to be intentional.

We gotta say this is exactly what we want. We're not doing nothing else until we get this, and if we don't get this, we're willing to do this like this has it has to be very serious because I think, you know, watching playing this political game that they're playing, all the Damns want to do this, but the Republicans don't want to do it. Okay, the Republicans aren't gonna do it. One mom boom, then we get a republican thing, and then they give you one tempt for what you do.

And then they say, look we did we tried to help you. Look the damns they want to do nothing, but no, the damn's wanted to get this done. And you knew they wasn't. You wasn't trying to free us. So you said, we're gonna let three people go and we're still gonna keep the million people. And the three people gonna say, well, he let me go. You know what I'm saying, Look look what he did for me,

the three people. What I'm saying, But you ignore that Obama was trying to give retroactive laws that would have freed all the people. And then y'all said absolutely not. And then y'all let ten people go, and they said, look, Trump, let the people go. Oh why mayn't let nobody go? Because they play this game. It's a game that everybody's playing it, and we gotta be tired of playing the game.

I think ain't the only solutions. And this go back from Fergus and the Baltimore to us pulling up in Louisville, Kentucky kind of chopping it up, seeing um with Daniel Cameron and something, even the white so called Allied Democrats and people on the City Council. It's like for black people, we need three full steps and it ain't it ain't there this first and foremost, the activists, advocates organizes, the community leaders, and those people who are reluctant leaders. We

need to band together and get them to run. We need um, you know, we need less really and I'm just you know, I gotta call it like it is. We need less Corey Booker Democrats, and we need more Gary Chamber of Democrats. I mean, we need some centators that's gonna speak their mind. You did it wrong, you did it wrong. We need less Corey Book of Democrats. And listen, the thing is, the thing is and Corey

Corey my my, you know, see my congresswoman. So you know one is Gary going to he want to go to the Senate and Corey is in the in the House. So we need both. It's not good enough to have them just one and the other. Because you know, it's a thing about the Congressional Black Caucus for black people. We have to you know, not flip people and flip seats from Democratic Republican or its move people. We need to remove some of these House negros in the Congressional

Black Caucus. And so that's our first issue. Our second issue is a black agenda. And so what my sign is talking about is, yeah, you know, it's it's not enough to have you know, simone of Karen Pierre and other people going there and being one black person in the room talking to Kamala talking to Biden. We need some black people to say, look, this is what the

agenda is, and we have to shout it out. Shout out to ice Q for being more politically correct than most Apple political leaders and pundence on TV while everyone's shotting them down, he was saying, let's sit down with both sides and see who can get the best deal

from ice Q to kill a Mike. And then third, if if, if we can't get our people in, UM, if they want to kind of go against like they did Charles Booker at hand, the right white girl run against him in the primary, and now he can't get in and we can't get our black agenda, listen to the black people locally, UM in districts all across the country. We need our own political party. So I see the things that West talking about and see the things that

did he doing. But we need our own black political party, funded by everybody, on our one agenda and run this thing, not only not when it shiny. Now when we're talking about the president or the Senate of the Congress, we're talking about mayors, we're talking about governors, we're talking about attorney generals. But we also talking about city councils and school boards. And so we can debate about critical race theory is this and that, But if we run the

school board, we can teach the real history. And it ain't gonna be um that it started um in eighteen sixty or that black people didn't do this. We're gonna

see the whole history from Africa all the way to today. Yeah. No, I agree with you, and I think that there is a need for um an entire shift in focus that in terms of where our movement is in general, I think we've gotten so caught up in who got what, who looked like this, you know who, who's close to Biden, who can get a meeting, who can't, that we sort of have lost the point that all of us are in the same struggle, even if you got a little extra few dollars in your pocket. You still can be

a rich dead negro. Your child can be killed on the way to the basketball game at Harvard or wherever else. And guess what, what is even more likely and frequently happening is that while you may not be shot down by a bullet, there is a a destruction of our minds based upon the aggression that we have to deal with every day. Uh, the idea that you have to go to work and be something that you are not just so that you can make master happy, right, make

masters stay off your back. That is killing us, probably at a far more a far higher rate than just being shot and killed by a police officer or you know, or something so graphic. And so I agree that at this point there has to be a refocus, and I support a thousand percent what West and Um and uh Ditty and others are doing to try to put the pieces together of what our own party would look like. And I've been saying over and over it may not start with us having our own can' the dits and

and leaving the system. It may start with us, of course, having our own candice. But you know what I mean, We're not running totally on a separate political line right on one ticket like an independent situation. Right, we may have to grow to that, but when we start out with the basic agenda where again to your point about ice Cube, because I've been saying it over and over, I don't think that ice Cube was wrong at all, period, not at all. We all support and agree with what

he was saying and what needs to be done. What we said was the timing of this is off because we are now talking to Lucifer and his cousin. Right, We're in a situation here where this is a very it's a very difficult thing because no matter what you could say, Trump, I don't care, you know, we we want Trump, we want well, we'll take Trump. That's what somebody. People say. They don't say they want them. Most people they say, we'll take it. It all looks the same.

It actually doesn't of the same because the policies that are being presenting by this administration, whether it actually gets done, whether we which we don't with half the ship that

they do. But nonetheless it looks very different. What the Democrats are, their agenda is and what they're fighting for, then what they are doing on the conservative side, on the Republican side, if you look at what just happened in Alabama with the regis districting laws, where the Supreme Court has upheld their right to go and redraw the

districts in Alabama which will draw out black folds. Those are conservative strategies that will ultimately allow them to take over this nation and do and fascism become at its at its strongest right. So we know that. So my position with ice Cube was, my brother, let me help you first of all. And now when we got twenty nine eleven people running for Democratic nomination, this is the perfect time to slam them all and say what you got?

What's her name? Mary? And Williamson? Because that's who I like. But but I was, I was, I was, I was, you know obviously with um what's her name? Elizabeth Warren? A little bit, Burnie a little bit. You know, we was up and there, but we were, we was courting. We need it. We need to just not nothing's wrong with ice Cube, anybody happen. We have to up our strategy. We gotta up our strategic game. Yes, we know now what we want to demand, we know how to make

the demand. We know our power. But now we gotta get focused, like they are so we can get on a real timeline of when to strike, and the time to strike is when we can actually scare even the Republican side because now they know we got options and our people are focused on the fact that we're gonna choose not just Joe Biden who thinks he's our friend. Fuck Joe Biden. Fuck Clyburne telling us that we gotta go with Joe Biden. Were the people decided we were

Boom boom boom, boom boom. So I'm just saying all of that. I know I'm talking long, but it's so much too undressed in order to get us to where we're going. And I personally think we're actually getting there because people are now sitting back saying, wait, what the hell happens? Yeah, how do we get here? How we how we get to Biden and Climb Brown talking about uh, well, reparations, who need that? Like you know, like what you black, sir, You ain't gonna answer. You're in the deep south of

you in South Carolina. You're in a corridor, shame family. So it's it's it's pragmatic, but at the same time, you know me, I'm for I'm for black people are coming together when gotta breathe. We gotta have different tactics and strategies, but we gotta come together and have some unification on what we're gonna do and how we're gonna operate with one enough if some people, I'm probably more you know, wrap and then I like it that, but other people might not take it that way. But we

do have agreement on that. Big Mama should have our instant. We have agreement on it. Everybody should have mass. We do have agreement on the the curriculum in my school be an early childhood K through twelve or the HPCU should be fully funded and they should be teaching us the truth right. And we have some unified ways that

we can connect. But this secular thing or like you said, if ice you would have you know, when we was trying to hit him up, if you would have hit us up and say, hey, look, I said, bro, you about five or six months off, okay, but love it you're a little off, sir. I don't know if he was in the back on the yard or making another

you know, movie or something out. Yeah, and then us and so this the thing is, like you said, I'm not really a classes person in that way, I understand that any Negro from any class can sell you out. I didn't poor negro sell you out. I've seen rich Niggas sell you out. But I've seen Richard Niggas get me out of jail, and I've seen Richard Niggas come

down to the ground. So we just need to unify effort between the rappers, the actors, um, the techies, the educators, the activists and advocates, and the lobbyists to come together, have one conference, bang this out, spread the money around so people can get everybody in our community. Because we're

building black agymnas and I get it. But unless we have the resources and the platform shure to take it to the people in the projects and and you know, in the public housing and why they're working at the at the at the job, then we are never gonna get it to the masters of people to even get a voting block to do what we did in Georgia.

Just imagine what Georgia could be if we was moving that block for Stacy Aprims or for candidate they say, look, my number one thing I'm running for is reparations for black people. All My number one thing is I'm not gonna go for tip, you know, tip for tattle, go for symbolism. I need some concrete we get done. It's some districts that's doing some of that, but I think the connections are not doing So I think that's our job is moving leaders, and we're not to do that.

The phone for well, I know, I know we're doing this. The National black On Political Convention in Newark. This cream coming up. So it's it's it's geared towards that. It's um gonna be Chokeway is gonna be one of the sponsors of it, him and maybe Rock So it's it's Baca, I apologize, Ma Brocka. So well, I'm gonna I wanna complain a committee for that now. So I think that's

gonna be something that everybody. I think that's one of the major discussions, like how do we move forward, how do we unify, how do we get one agenda, how do we get one motion, how do we get like this like the ocean, move like the ocean to get where we need to go. Man, So these conversations are needed. Man, we definitely not think I feel like these conversations in public and many black On from BNC, from Revoked TV to to everybody from breakfast club, everybody having these conversations.

If we have the conversations in the back room when we come out in public, then that's the only thing that we can talk about is what we're talking about in our agenda. And I cele bring anybody to try to hold the Democrats or Republicans responsible because both of them, you know, they're just two different brands and white supremacy. Most of them are not Corey Bush. They ain't gonna

be Ayana Presley, They're not gonna be Gary Chamber. And so until we get the majority of the Congressional Black Caucus to do with uh, you know, mansion and cinema doing for for white supremacists, When the Congressional Black Caucus want to set down the country for reparations for health care, for education and h C for the so and so forth,

then we have something strong. And until the end, we're gonna use our platforms, we're gonna use our social media, and we're gonna door knock and get to the people. Well that's all there is to be said. So I am. I just want to say I appreciate your perspective. I think you definitely. As you said, you're much more radical, um and you you you have helped to even sort of stretch the bounds of what we as leaders are capable of, just because we're able to see sort of

outside of the framework. So you know, we can all sometimes get the playing inside of a box and it's time to move outside of it. And I appreciate the reason. One of the things that I think makes me a greater leader is being around people like my son and yourself who and a lot of people they probably look at me and they're like, you know, why are you doing that? Like why don't you go and be around some of our other brothers that are super polished, you know,

super dope educated, they got all the things. You guys have the exact same attribute, but the additional component is actually experiencing the issues, like really experiencing it, but living it every day, and also working very closely with those people who are still experiencing these issues. So that's what I'm attracted to. And I just want to say to both of y'all, love y'all, and you guys really do make me better. Okay, Okay, I got my flowers and

there you hear that. Mine a little bit your little flower of that little flower. We got our flowers and appreciate you know, that was nice. I would say the same back to you to make it because what happens is is we before the movement or in the beginning, people would say things like, would have Malcolm and more than could work together? What if the Black Panthers could work with nig and the s c l C. And what I see more times than not is that's what

we do. So you know, from you know, from the boulevard to the Borough Um to Capitol Hill back to the Hood to the college campus, if you can have all these people from us, from me to Tamika and Linda with my sign to Tina, Tiffany befaul like, we can go get people that's not traditionally ever gonna be in the room, come out in the room, slug it out, debate because go all up, no, no, Nigga, this ain't Glenna not And then we come out unified and we

still get things done from Brianna Taylor to Mike Brown and Song and so forth, and we're doing our job. And I think we just have to kind of figure out how we can duplicate this, how we can find our younger sales, older sales, and and and the people in the grassroots and kind of you know, solidify this process so people can know in history that in our real time and our generation, we're doing things like they did, but we're doing something different because we expect something different,

because it's our time. We need some different. We appreciate you. Can't keep doing the work. You know, we're gonna call you when we need you. A good Trump. Good Trump always caused love rugge and hit me up on them on the Black Political Convention. I can plug you into some people and some things that people working on. UM can't wait till y'all come back up. If not, I'll probably pull up on y'all. Yeah, you know, drinks on y'all. Right.

Thank you, Thank you for joining street politicians today, Tori Russell, our brother, Thank you for being with us. Appreciate you. Peace to and shout out to your brother. Tory Man always giving us a perspective from you know, people don't know that Tory is an educator. He's not just a strategy. He's actually a teacher, you know, and I didn't know that. So when he was he always has historic facts that I never even knew though he will be talking about something.

But you know, in sixteen fifty two, out of nowhere, he was like, we'll be talking about walking down to black You know what this building right here, it was built in and it was about these people. He breaks it way down and you know, he's very very astute in that manner. So his perspective, in his perspective on politics, it's coupled with his knowledge of history and understanding where we are in this time and him just being from the hood you can buy and all of that. Man,

you got you got real education. So I always like to hear tories perspectives, and you know, he always gives me more of some fuel to continue to do what I'm doing because I know I'm on the right road. Man. So appreciate Tory and I And we didn't even get a chance to talk about how you know, I've also had the challenge story like, it doesn't mean that any

one of us has it all figured out. You know, we all are if every day we're trying to be sort of like where you say, dog dodging and weaving, and sometimes we have to pull one another's coattails and say, hey, how you're approaching this thing. Let me give you all the ways in which this is going through impact our people and impact our community. So anyway, it's good to

have Torrey on today. I think it's been uh an insightful conversation in general, and that kind of brings me to my I don't get it, you know, as I know it's a topic that's a little old. You know, I've been a little back off of social media for a few days, you know, in light of what's going on my mom. But this whole Joe Rogan situation, you know, and in comparison to Woopy situation, and it's just crazy

to me, you know. I hear how Indie Iria Um originally wanted to pull her mood her music from Spotify based on, you know, the comments that Joe Rogan made, you know, with the nigger comments and also the monkeys and plane of the Apes comments they made. And and did I hear recent the league that she accepts his apology and and no longer wants to do that. And it's just like, I don't understand that, you know, I

don't understand how people don't see the difference. I've heard a lot of different people speaking up and saying that Joe Joe Rogan is not racist. You know what I'm saying, He's not racist. I don't understand why people are calling racist this and that, and he's spoken up, But I haven't heard those same people who spoken and said those things about Joe Rogan say that, Well, what he said, there's nowhere near racist. It's actually just somebody who has

has a different perspective or understanding itself. Even if she was wrong or right of what she thought race meant to her and how she expressed it, there was no ill intentions, There was no intentional harm. There was nobody making fun of anybody. There was no one trying to make light of something that happened to somebody. There was no one using the right thetory names that historically have been you know, derogatory and used to harm someone. Nobody

did that. You know, Joe Rogan used the word nigga that historically has been used to harm black people by white people. That every time it's been said by white people has been said that it's not to be said by white people called black people monkeys. Plan of the apes, he he said that, you know, they laughed about it. They thought it was a joke. You know what I'm saying. And we we know that the reference from black white people to black people call them apes and monkeys is

a racist comment. There's no nothing to say about it. You like Joe Rogan, you like a lot of things you do there. They are right, racist white people that you would like. Right there are racist white people who they don't they don't do something to harm you, but they just see you as a monkey. They just see you as a nigger because that's what they've been taught, that's what they've learned. They don't see you as the

same level value in statue that they have. And you might actually like that person because everything else they do outside of that, it's cool with you. They say a bunch of other good ship that you like, and you go to anybody, Oh this person is dope. But they say some racist ship and you might have your racist friend. That's okay with you. But if you but you can't say that it ain't racist. Don't say that it ain't racist.

Don't say that what that the sky ain't blue where we can see the skies, say that you don't mind that the skies blue? You would rather be purple or something else, but acknowledge that is blue. Right. So when we look at Whoopie situation, black people say, she ain't said nothing wrong, Say she ain't intentionally say something to harm somebody, Say that even if she was missing from or she wasn't educated properly, or you don't agree with she said, you know that there was no intent to

harm someone, right? Do she You know that she didn't think that when she said that, that someone would feel like they were harmed, and that she intensely tried to disrespect somebody. Right, When we know when the world is nigger as used every time it is used by a black white person, black people are disrespected. We know when you refer to black people as monkeys and apes, they

are disrespected. I don't get, however, anyone because see something wrong with one and not seeing them something wrong with the other. Right, and and and not had the same figor to utilize their platforms or their voices to say, hey, this ship that's happening. We don't even make sense to me. I don't understand how we're doing this. But you could say something about Joe Rogan and I'm saying that about

black people. I'm saying black people who know the historic context of apes and monkeys used by black used by white people, and nigga used by black people, I mean by white people. So I just don't get how we constantly, you know, we get on our our horse and we we cat for white people, but we don't utilize to save the same energy to save and speak up on behalf of our black people. And I don't think I'm

never gonna get it. I know that it happens, I see it happened every day, But I don't think I'm never gonna get it, and I'm never gonna be okay with it. If we don't think nothing should happen to Joe Rogan and we think that it's okay, then we should have made sure that there's no way that will be got no suspension for two weeks for saying something about race in a perspective that she thought not something that was negative, not something that was harmful. She didn't

say what happened to the Jewish community was right. She didn't say oh, she didn't use derogatory terms to talk about Jews. She said it wasn't racist. She didn't think that she thought color blacks and white schools race like most people do. Most people are not aware. Most people see, oh, we thought that Jewish was a religion. We didn't know that it was a race, right, so it's not. It's

not it's not a race. And I think that what we learned together, the educational component, was that the what happened to the Jewish people was based upon other individuals who want to be, or wanted to be, the more dominant, powerful race. So therefore you understand why racism plays a role because the social construct struct and the mental um, the dominance of one group over another is what we see happen with white supremacy all the time. So we learned the issue, and I think with Whoop we also

learned the issue. Nonetheless, the way in which she was chastised for her comments, which I agree with you were not there was no in intent. I don't think there. I don't think anybody really has said there was ill intent, however, and there was an immediate apology, right, and there was an apology. Well, one thing I will say that I've also heard many people, not just Jewish people, but black folks and others say, is that what you may not

mean to be harmful can still hurt other people. Right, So that's why an apology is necessary, and that's why she did what she did to apologize immediately, because whoa, I didn't know, I was educated. I apologize. I'm sorry, that wasn't it wasn't my intention to harm her whatever, Okay,

cool to me? To me, right? That was very sincere because she immediately corrected herself for making a statement and then being educated that actually the way you're seeing it is from a very narrow perspective and less broadened your understanding so you could see it from a different perspective.

I think that was very important. But I do see the disparity in the way in which a corporation can listen to a man using language that, as you said, has been identified one to be offensive, to be disrespectful, to be all the harmful everything else intentionally right, How they could see that behavior and not find reason to, at least, if nothing else, suspend him for two weeks. You know what I think is it is interesting and

I'll really leave this here. It's interesting to me that even even though this happens in the same exact time period as whoopee, this is just days of heart. If if it were the other way around, just because Joe Rogan was um um, excuse me, just because Joe Rogan would have been like suspended if it was the other way around, same scenario the other way around. Just because he was suspended, that would have set the tone for

Whoopie coming behind him. She would have had to be suspended just because it already happened as Spotify with a white man. But it did not go that way, based upon the fact that a black woman at ABC was just chastised and reprimanded for what she did, and then a couple of days later something that was way more blatant. I'm not trying to be clear, because you know they'll

go and say and recreate what we're saying. I'm not saying that they are not folks that hold heard what be speaking and said, oh my god, like she doesn't get it. Just hurt me. She raised my experience or my understanding. We're not saying that. We're saying that in these two situations, you had someone who was clearly ignorant to what we have now learned to be different right

from what some people knew or what Whoopie understood. Now you go to a situation where We know that Joe Rogan was not ignorant because he said when he made the statement about the planet of the eggs, that's real. He said that, so he knew what he was saying was wrong, but he did it anywhere, and you can't tell me he didn't think. He even challenged whoever his co host store, the other person to guess that was on the show with him. He challenged that person, I

bet you won't say nigga. You don't want to say it. You don't want to say it, Say nigga, say nigga. He did that, He challenged him. So he was there playing a game. And even though Whoopee was reprimanded, he has not been He's his apology. The white man's apology was accepted with no further concert. Black people came with the kid just like this, Yeah, rescued, he ain't that's my ain't so what he said nigga and called his monkey.

He ain't racist. He works with black people. Black people don't ever could you listen, he can call us monkeys and plans the apes. It's not racist. Moving right along and with that said, another Dope episode. Shout out to King Jay and King Queen. Understand on their Dope interview. UM, I just want to say to my angel, to my queen, to my mom, I love you. You know you thought one of the biggest fights I've ever seen. And I know why I am the King because you are a Queen.

And I will continue to live on this earth and make you proud. A ipy to the Great Patricia Lennon. Listen to Street Politicians on the Black Effect Network on I Heart Radio, and catch us every single Wednesday for the video version of Street Politicians on I Women Dot Tv.