February 24, 2025 • 46 mins
Wendell Pierce joins Cari Champion to discuss the intersection of sports, politics, and culture, focusing on the importance of family, community activism, and the power of art. The conversation also delves into Kendrick Lamar's impactful halftime performance and the significance of guarding one's joy amidst societal challenges. Wendell shares insights on rebuilding communities after disasters, emphasizing the need for self-determination and collective action.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Naked Sports, the podcast where we live at
the intersection of sports, politics, and culture. Our purpose reveal
the common threads that bind them all. So what's happening
in women's basketball right now is what we've been trying to.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Get to for almost thirty years.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
From the stadiums where athletes break barriers and set records.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Kamen Quark broke the all time single game assists record.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
This is crazy for rookies to be doing.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Our discussions will uncover the vital connections between these realms
and the community we create. In each episode, we'll sit
down with athletes, political analysts, and culture critics, because at
the core of it all, how we see one issue
shines the light on all others. Welcome to Naked Sports.
I'm your host, Carrie Champion.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
My name is Wendell Pearce. You first know me as
an actor. I am also a pretty I'd like to direct,
but I don't consider my self a director just yet.
At the same time, I am a citizen of New Orleans.
I'd point that out because the New Orleans not only
made me, but made me refocus my energy into community
(01:18):
activism and advocacy.
Speaker 5 (01:20):
Twenty years ago, when we are at the height of disaster, and.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
So I am a community advocate and an actor and
a producer.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
You may know Wendel Peers from some of our favorite shows.
His presence and performance on any screener stage signals this
show will be excellent. Or as one of my best
friends and one of his biggest fans would like to say,
all of his programs are excellent. There's a gravitas in
confidence that exues from this actor. I would like to
believe it's because he knows his origin story. I ask
(01:52):
if his roots begin in New Orleans.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
We go back at several generations. I'm kind of doing
a genealogy now. My mother was born and raised just
outside of New Orleans, about seventy miles and Assumption Parish, Plattonville, Louisiana.
We call our counties parishes, as you know. So yeah,
So this country girl goes to Southern University and baton
(02:19):
Rouge that she meets this city boy who literally had
just come back from World War Two and they met
on the yard.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Trained at Juilliard Window, has appeared on Broadway, Death of
the Salesman, The Boys of Winter, and he also plays
very compelling characters on television. Detective William Bunk on the wire.
Speaker 6 (02:39):
Someone saw me at a barber shop and said, you know,
Bunk is retiring, you better be there. I'm like, oh,
my goodness, So I'm terrified. I go and I see
him across the room looking at me the same way.
And so I walked there ready for my come up,
and he looks at me.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
And goes, hey, come here, you made me a star.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
It was like the prodigal son coming on God.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Or you may remember him as Robert Zane in suits.
There's a long list of credits, but Wendel Pierce is
so much more. But for this renaissance man, he says,
it always begins with family.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
Travel.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
It's more important, you know. And also it reminds me
that that is the affinity we have for place. Also
it's because of family. It's really interesting. I asked my
brother who. I had three brothers. My oldest was Stacy Pierce,
and my middle brother, Ron Pierce went to West Point
and he was a military officer who had the codes.
(03:39):
He was a luclear yet nuclear war a Persian ju
misso on a black bed truck going through the Black
Forest of Germany with the power of tenor Roschman's wow.
And he's the first lieutenant. And I said, could you
turn the key and push the button? And he said absolutely?
And I said, wow, I mean you know, I mean
(04:01):
you had no second thoughts. He said, no second thoughts.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
I said why.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
He said, because I always knew someone had just attacked
my family.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Oh wow.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
And that's why he had a real pushback on the war.
And when the policy of US policy changed and said
we're a first strike nation with Iraq. Oh that my
brother is so vehemently against that, can't I tell you?
He said, that is the only thing that kept the
offices in the nuclear weapons core together.
Speaker 6 (04:32):
Wow, he said, after that choice, that starts to have
a mental impact on it.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
He's out of the military now.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
But I say that because it reminded me of how
much family means to us as a black man from
the South.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
That goes even further. You know, there's a story of
my family.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
My great grandfather, Ara Steel was fourteen at emancipation and
his mother would always.
Speaker 5 (04:58):
Say he was enslaved. And they said that prayers that night.
I'm sure the first one was I hope one day
we free.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
The first he said, you ever be free, You're not
a Harris, You're a Christoph. Go back and find your
father and your brothers and sisters. You have brothers and
sisters and a father. He was sold with his mother
as a year and a half. Like to use the
(05:28):
word in that context where people know.
Speaker 6 (05:31):
And it was important because that story was actually in
the piano lesson the recent movie Oh Wow, and his
play how that was struggling to stay together.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
I wonder if it lasted in the movie. I just
realized that I know it from the play.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Okay, I didn't see I haven't seen the movie yet,
but yeah, I'm glad.
Speaker 5 (05:53):
I'm rambling on. I apologize.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
But family is very important to us here, very very
important to meet.
Speaker 5 (06:00):
It also defies place for me.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
I want to focus on that. We're family in a
lot of different ways. Obviously the family you're born with,
and then the friends who are your family. And right now,
more than ever, I think that in our society it
is his family. It's those connections that are needed more
than ever. We need those connections because it's so easy
to be a soldier on your own. And when I
was in New Orleans, I found myself during Super Bowl
(06:26):
weekend driving around and I was and of course it's
obviously a different venue, a different vibe, but I could
say I could see myself living here. There was something
very comforting way the people treat you like family, how
kind they were from the moment you get off there,
you know, get off the plane. Obviously, again it's a
special situation, right, But I'm really curious what you thought
(06:51):
about halftime performance. I felt it felt like family. It
felt like a family meeting. It felt like a a
message for family. It felt very powerful, disruptive, welcoming all
of the all of the emotions that I had a
bevy of emotions. And I and and you tell me
(07:14):
your thoughts.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
First of all, I knew that would be the impact
on you because because you being from California. Yes, but
but I mean and in the best way meaning it was.
It was so uniquely That's the one thing I know
about Kendrick Lamar I'm very bad with I'm a big
jazz head. Okay, so I'm real bad in the rap
game and stuff. So I always have to be educated
(07:37):
about it. Kendrick Lamar, Man, it's so connected to you know,
California conflident.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
You see everything.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
I'm like, okay, yeah, And and and raps will always
have to be interpreted.
Speaker 5 (07:47):
For me, I'm like, at that a again, all of us, and.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
I'm like, I love that song. I know, I know,
I know crip walking, I know that, Uh they're not
like us. And it's like, you know, I have to
I'm sorry about that in the business reading this morning,
like you know, what did that mean?
Speaker 5 (08:05):
What did that mean?
Speaker 1 (08:06):
You know?
Speaker 4 (08:07):
And so what was great about it was I knew
that he was sending messages out there, and this is
where I feel those little the media drops the ball.
The message is out there about the dualogy of being
here in America.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
Right.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Dan Olofsky actually said on first tick, was that intentional?
Speaker 3 (08:29):
That the red, white and blue and it looked like
the flag.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
I'm like, yes, yes, yessed.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
And it was televised And the.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
Thing that the greatest moment for me was when Sam
Jackson said this big black man said, I I am
Uncle Sam, and man, I was like, yeah, where we're going?
Speaker 3 (08:58):
And you can tell people.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Who duck, people who don't know rap, people who didn't
know Kendrick Lamar right.
Speaker 5 (09:08):
When they saw that, Yeah, they knew something was up.
A big black.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Man is uncle Sam, right, And I'm sure this morning
as we tape this, you know, we have an American
president saying that we're going to just go and take
Gaza and all your Palestinians are not coming back. That's
what you were making.
Speaker 6 (09:35):
That's what you were saying when you were saying, I.
Speaker 5 (09:38):
Am Uncle Sam.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Uncle Sam made me this big black man in American
aw and there's others, you know, So we'll spend the
week try to interpret it all.
Speaker 5 (09:49):
So I'd love that. The one disappointment that I had was.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Me not knowing anything about rap and I could care
about the distract going back.
Speaker 5 (09:59):
And forth and breaking all the stuff. You know, you
Datumn that she was dancing.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
You aren't making me laugh an right.
Speaker 5 (10:08):
Show, I'm not.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Oh yeah, boy up in Canada dated Serrina.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Oh you saying, oh I see that, you know not.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
I know one thing.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
I know a lot of white folks that'd like to
see Uncle Sam being that big black buck.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
And the revolution was televised.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
It was televised.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
It was a big stage in the world.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Everybody saw that, right, So one disappointment was I know,
for a fact, don't know the words, but nothing. I'm
the worst, but I know we gonna be all right.
Oh yeah, we gonna be all right.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
I know where you're going. I know where you're going,
the Black.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Lives matter of movement, and I wanted that to be
in there. I don't think it was. I didn't it was,
And that's that's the only disappointment. Yeah, because we need
to hear that right now more than ever.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
I loved it.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
I think to love it for that reason. That reason.
But you had it.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
You had a question about the set list, and by
the way, you're not the only one this morning, you know,
the Monday morning quarterback is you know, I'm really curious
about why he chose that set list, why he opened
with a new freestyle that most of us have never
heard before. Why didn't he use some of his other songs,
Because inside of the stadium there was a there was
(11:33):
a disconnect because to your point, some people aren't that familiar.
He's not commercial. But that was the beauty and what
the family meeting was. The family meeting wasn't for everybody.
It was just for those who were supposed to know.
So that's why I loved what he did. Okay, So
case in point.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Also go on also with that disconnection, it was it
had a strange impact on me because I knew the people.
Speaker 5 (11:55):
Around me is that very much of a sponsored.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Same, same, same, You know, they got their tickets from
the people that make the hat, all the NFL teams.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
You know, I'm with this company, I'm with that company.
How are you doing, mister Pierce? You know? And what
I thought?
Speaker 4 (12:16):
It became participatory for me because when we gonna be
all right came on, I, being very aware of my surroundings, said.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
I have to get up and try to crip walk.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
No, my head no.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
And I got up and everyone around me was like
and I was praying. I said, this is the time
I want to get some camera.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Okay, can we talk about that for a second. Yes,
understand what you were just saying. I too, was sitting
in a suite where everyone around me was like, well,
what is this and tell me more about who he
is and explaining what this was and why he was
and why he was mad at Drake or what the
songs meant.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
And you could and you could feel it.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
But I intentionally wanted to have that moment because I
wanted to because I well, one, I felt it, and
then Serena. When Serena started crib walking, I lost my mind.
It just took me back to obviously Wimbledon, and I
just lost my mind and I had and I'm going
to tell you. Serena with her smart self. I was
with her the night before at a dinner and she
kept it so low it was such a secret. But
(13:34):
I had interviewed her at Essence last year and I
asked her about the song because it's been the song,
and I says, so, how do we feel about the song,
knowing all the storylines behind it, and she goes, it's oh,
it's my jam, It's my favorite song.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
I love it. She's like, it's the best song ever.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
And so I knew there were so many different meanings
to that song for her as well, but which is
obviously they not like us. But I feel like gave
us a message. It gave us a really clear message,
and we're going to unpack it for days and days
and days. But it was don't play it safe. Still
be ten toes down, Still be who you are, Still
(14:13):
remember what the message is. Still remember the fight. We
did not get here by pretending that everything is okay.
Please continue on. And I felt like that was important,
especially as we watched Dei under attack other certain civil
rights that are guaranteed under attack.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
And I don't even know when he.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
Wrote watching this crutocracy being created.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Correct for our very eye correct billionaires who were rating
the treasury of the government, cutting anything that will help
the people, but that would give.
Speaker 5 (14:50):
Them the benefit.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
I mean, I cannot It's clear as day, yes, And
you are right about that Kendrick's message.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
The fact that I used to I was a little upset.
Speaker 5 (15:01):
I'll be honest, I'm.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Sort of upset about the sort of poetree and the
clandestine nature of the messaging by Sometimes I used to
be like, listen, if I have to ask someone to
decode something.
Speaker 5 (15:16):
For me so I can get there, so then I
can see what.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
The hidden message is, I don't want it to be
that hidden, right. But then I said, and as I
discussed it today, it's okay to be clandestine because those
who understand and need to get there are the ones
who need to be clandestine to get that message and
(15:42):
have it hit you writ in your heart and what
it was for me. Let's see the mantra that has
been the part of this new year for me, exercise
our right of self determination and practice radical self care
(16:05):
in the process.
Speaker 5 (16:08):
That is the key.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Exercise your right and know that it's a time that
you have to protect your own sanity.
Speaker 5 (16:17):
This anger.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Your mental and physical health because it can have an
impact on you in that way. What's happening now a daily,
daily attack on who we are that will enrage you,
but you have to get to a point that don't
let that rage destroy you.
Speaker 5 (16:42):
That rage should fuel you, and you should.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
Exercise your right of self determination and practice radical self care.
Speaker 5 (16:51):
Like you said in the Hippous Way ten to's we.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Know time for a full stop heading to a commercial
break will be back in just a few moments. From
family to the fight. Wendell Pierce is protecting his joy.
When I hear you say that, and I've heard others
(17:16):
say that. David John sent a text out to go
he maybe even said it to you to different people,
and he said, guard your joy, sibling, guard your joy,
and I and I feel like more than ever those
who understand understand what that means. And there is a
calling for the family to do exactly what you said,
stay determined, but also protect our joy. I wonder how
(17:40):
you go about doing that. You have you have lived
a life that requires you to really truly understand both sides.
You have this gift, this talent that God has given
you has really opened doors for you. You've been able
to live in different worlds. You've been able to move
in different rooms, rooms that so many of us probably
(18:02):
will never get the opportunity to do. And that is
not to say that you are better, to say that
you have a talent, but you still remain true to
what is true. How do you protect your joy?
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Especially now?
Speaker 5 (18:17):
Especially now? For me, that's the great thing.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
Now I put on my artists hatay, because art art
What thoughts are to the individual? When you lie awake
at night and you toss and turn, you think about
who you want to be, where you've come from, where
you hope to go? Are your fears, your joys, your triumphs,
your failures? What those thoughts are to the individual? Art
(18:47):
is to the community as a whole, the place where
we collectively think of who we are, where do we want,
Who do we want to be, where are we going?
Where we've been? What are our fears with our triumphs?
What of our joys with our failures? And then, in
the form of art like case, film, television, acting, theater,
(19:11):
in that forum we collectively turn out the lights look
at a story so we can be connected to the
story in a way where there bye, by the grace
of God, go ah.
Speaker 5 (19:22):
That's a human connection.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
And we consider all those things and develop a value
system that we then go out into the world and
act on.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
That's the power of art. That's the power of a song.
We go beyond right, beyond right.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
It is Lewis Armstrong twenty years ago his version of
do you know what it means to missd or Leans
and miss East night and day while we saw our
city flooded and destroyed and fifteen hundred people die. Right,
(20:04):
it is what you are going through now as we
see the heartache that has happened, and now It'sadina and
Pacific Palisades. When you hear I love La, you love
it from the east side to the west side to
the I love La.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
And when you hear you know they like they ate,
like us, like us.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
That's the power of art, even with people I don't
particularly agree with. You know, Ronald Reagan said you know
it's morning in America. Well, that was a powerful message
of poetry. It's morning in America, right, A sense of
optimism and all of that that's what drew people to him,
you know, even though his policies would you know, fight there.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
The poor folk.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Yeah, yeah, right, But you're right.
Speaker 5 (20:58):
So it's so.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
Knowing that I'm an artist, that's the thing that protects
my joy because then I know that I can touch people.
I've had people. I did Death of a Salesman in
London and this woman, young woman came to me in
tears at the end and she said, I lost my father.
I lost my father. I kept repeating that, actually I
(21:24):
lost my father.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
Can I hold you?
Speaker 4 (21:31):
He said, I need to hold someone who was like
my father, basically is what she was asking, thinking, I
have a hug, and I did, and I hugged it
and I felt this comfort go through her body.
Speaker 5 (21:43):
She had just seen me perform this play, this tragic Death.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
Of a Salesman, and after the hug, she just walked
away from the theater and that was it. And I
think of her to this day because I know that
my art brought her some comfort in a tragic moment,
and that gave me joy. And so my contribution to
(22:09):
humanity is my contusion to change the paradigm is the
thing that gives me joy, and art as.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
The saying goes, Arthur Miller said it.
Speaker 6 (22:20):
You know, there's a certain immortality in the theater that
an actor takes with them until.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
Their dying day.
Speaker 4 (22:27):
That on a certain afternoon in a dusty theater, he cast.
Speaker 5 (22:31):
The shadow of a person who was not himself, but the.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
Distillation of everything he has ever seen, Every unsung heart
song that the common man feels but never utters, he
gives voice to and in doing that he.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
Joins the ages.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
That's right.
Speaker 5 (22:52):
So that's my joy. That's right.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
That's what Kindrick gave us. That's what you do.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
That's what whatever we do, whatever this talent that we is,
that should give us joy. I listen to you say
that and how you talk about that interaction with that woman,
and I hope who is listen, whoever is listening to
this podcast, understands that that's how you guard your joy,
that gift that you have, what you give the world,
that's where you find your joy, because there's nothing better
than giving and and and feeling your impact and seeing
(23:18):
your impact and understanding why you have it.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
You mentioned since this is a.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
Sports show, also, that's the thing I love about sports
because you have the ability to immediately impact your condition
right now. Exercise you right, a self determination you have
right away, right away, and there's going to.
Speaker 5 (23:39):
Be triumph and there's going to be failure. There's going
to be obstacles and challenges along the way, and you
have to.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
You know this is and figure it out. You got
to make your adjustments. You gotta call it, call it audible.
You gotta go in the second half. If you don't,
and then you lose.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
I was, okay, are you listening. Oh?
Speaker 1 (24:01):
You wanted to see history, And here is my thought.
You wanted to see There were so many people, in fact,
a lot of people that I was with yesterday wanted
to see Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City chiefs go
for history.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
They wanted to see a dynasty. Serena included. She said it.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
She goes, I want to see a dynasty. There's something
wrong with a dynasty. But she's thinking about herself. I'm like, okay, wait,
this is different.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
For me, though.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
What I love about sports was this exact story. And
I don't know how much you know about Jalen hurtson
his college career, but that to me, yeah, right, So
that to me was what I was rooting for. I
was rooting for the person who they thought couldn't do it.
I was rooting for the person who wasn't even loved
when he first got to the city of Philadelphia. I'm
(24:44):
rooting for the guy who had all the way to
the super Bowl and was injured and he couldn't pull
it off and he was heartbroken.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
And more, I would say.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
More people were rooting for Philadelphia. You think, so that's that?
Speaker 2 (24:55):
You think?
Speaker 1 (24:56):
So?
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Really?
Speaker 5 (24:57):
Oh yeah yeah? Not in the seas we were sitting there.
You weren't a sweet I was, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
You know, listen, man, you know, listen. You know that
whole Midwestern value system and everything.
Speaker 5 (25:16):
You know, we try to avoid illusion of Philadelphia.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
You know, blue collar, blue collar.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
City, urban, and you know we're the Midwest, you know,
you know, and the Midwest fans didn't know Kendrick.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
It's just like fans.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Let me tell you something.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
When I saw that black quarterback kiss his black fiance,
and I saw that, and I saw that that beautiful
performance from straight from New Orleans, everyone there was so
amazing halftime performance, amazing.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
I was like, I'll take this win today. I will
take this win today. You it was too many winds, right, yeah,
it was.
Speaker 5 (26:04):
It was it was black excellence was on display.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Yes, yes, black excellence.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
Was on display, Black love was on display, and black
intelligence was on display.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Everything everything, everything.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
Everything that has been attacked in the past year by
this criminal enterprise that's happening. We we cannot sit silent
as we allow a message of hate and division to
be normalized and criminality to be normalized. And Donald Trump
(26:44):
is the easiest depiction of that. But I was more
interested in the people that roared at the approval of
seeing him there.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
What did it?
Speaker 2 (26:56):
What did it give me?
Speaker 1 (26:57):
The percentage for you when they showed him, you know,
in the in his suite at the game. Tell me
the sixty forty of people applauding and booing seventy thirty
what in your mind?
Speaker 2 (27:10):
What was it? How'd you receive that?
Speaker 5 (27:12):
It was interesting?
Speaker 4 (27:14):
I felt as though it was it was like, you know,
sixty just seventy percent cheering. I felt it was about
and I would say thirty nine percent that they're seething
ha one percent booed a ha.
Speaker 5 (27:35):
That thirty nine percent. Now, I would say, I'm gonna
go take it back.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
I would say it was about fifty five percent people
cheering forty four percent of people seething.
Speaker 5 (27:51):
And one percent of googles.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
Right, and because people want to see and enjoying a
game that they spent tens of thousands of dollars just
to come to New Orleans to see and buy tickets,
and all about their average people. They're not the sponsors
people like us, you benefit of tickets. They're like, Man,
if I get into this right now, you know, I'm
(28:20):
gonna have to fight this dude next to me.
Speaker 5 (28:24):
For four hours.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
And I would actually rather talk trash and talk shit.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
To him about football than.
Speaker 5 (28:35):
Really about where we are.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
In this country because we might go to blows or something.
You know, That's how I felt, right, I felt like,
let me just sit here quietly, and but I can't
just let him go without a boom boom.
Speaker 5 (28:55):
You know, some people looked at me and everything.
Speaker 4 (28:58):
I was like, y'all know, you know it is you
know that's what percentage was around.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
Well great, what a great? What was great about the
moment I was talking about? That silence? That silence was
really miss Anne is working war, mister Joe, who is
you know?
Speaker 4 (29:20):
True guest services When they went and someone said, hey,
you're the President's here right, and they just have to
look at me and go.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
Huh, there's a lot of that. That's what the silence was.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Huh, it's a conversation.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
Yes, it was just like hmm, right, and what's what's happening?
Speaker 5 (29:45):
Is That kind of emboldened me.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
And because it realized that people are not sitting back right,
I thought, man, are we so depressed?
Speaker 5 (29:55):
We just lost an election. We didn't lose.
Speaker 4 (29:58):
Our principle, right, But you said, I'm like, oh, people
are like, huh, it's sitting back and they're doing what
Andy Reid did not doft time.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
He made zero adjustments, zero aggressments.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
You know, I'm like, have you heard he's a running
back on your team for Cheko?
Speaker 5 (30:23):
Also they're running backs. Have you heard of them?
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Have you? I was, I was so surprised because they
are they have been a third quarter team, a second
half team. They haven't been you know, I get it,
I get it, but I was really surprised.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Andy surprised me. He I thought he had it.
Speaker 5 (30:42):
They got pressed. What I mean.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
They were dumb.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
They didn't even have when I say, the defense when
they were fly Ego fly, they were all over them.
They could not do anything. I was how many times
did Mahomes get sacked. I was shocked at what I saw.
Speaker 5 (30:58):
I was shocked.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
Oh boy, this and man, I here someone this morning
talk about it. They should have given nothing to take
away from Jalen Hurt. Sure, he obviously the m v
P the game, and but my god, that front four
took them out.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
You're onto something. They I said the same thing. I
was like, the defense deserve the D line deserves the
entire MVP award.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
They really did well.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
Going back and looking at the game, they literally did
not blitz.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
I'm like, just like, man, they.
Speaker 5 (31:41):
Did not have to blitz at all.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
And that's the thing they where. Boy, that's where you
know Specnolo Spec.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
The their offensive coordinator.
Speaker 5 (31:53):
The defensive coordinator.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
For the Kansas City That's what he has been an
all He's been everywhere his nickname.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Is, but he's been yeah, yeah, I you're right.
Speaker 4 (32:07):
Bags has this wonderful career of going to all these
Super Bowls with Kansas City Chiefs and winning and with
New York and winning with the Giants.
Speaker 5 (32:18):
But there was a time he came.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
To New Orleans and did what and we were.
Speaker 4 (32:23):
The worst defense in the history of the league.
Speaker 5 (32:27):
It felt like he.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
Was awful here, and he was awful here, awful, and
then he went to Kansas City and and.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
I was just like, they don't talk about those, they don't.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
He's a genius.
Speaker 5 (32:47):
He's a genius. That's what it was.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
It was like, Oh, he came back to New Orleans
and he reverted back to He didn't know this is
the wrong player for him to come and play a
Super Bowl because he obviously reverting back to the defensive coordinator.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
We knew we'll be right back in just a few moments.
Welcome back to Naked Sports. As we continue our conversation
with Wendell Pearce, we meet at the intersection of politics
and culture.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
So I can tell this story.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Okay, I played Clarence Thomas, Yes you did.
Speaker 5 (33:26):
Against Anita Carrie Washington play Anita Hill. Yep, and Rush.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Limbaugh confirmation going off, going off on.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
You know, all these liberals are going to ruin this
great judge and you know, I just come out and
sail this nasty Sam portray. But that actor, I really
like that actor playing him.
Speaker 5 (33:49):
I liked him.
Speaker 4 (33:50):
Wonder why I really like him? But oh, it's gonna
be an awful movie. I heard that, so I reached out,
you know, I reached out to.
Speaker 5 (33:59):
Him and I said, listen, I don't want to go
on the show I had. I never got to talk
to him. I said, I don't want to go on
the show.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
I actually want to meet you, because I'm always curious
about people that I am, you know, one eighty the opposite. No,
I couldn't meet Trump though, not yet, but see Steven Miller.
I would like to sit down.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Sure, sure, right, and they're probably all fans.
Speaker 7 (34:24):
And so, and Rush Limbaugh responded back like, no, I
can't be seen with him, mmm, right, because it messes
up my brand.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Right, Oh wow?
Speaker 5 (34:38):
If he on a casual thing like sitting and having lunch.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
With me, wow, it messes up my brand. Now, the
other flip side of it is there. You know, sometimes
people want me to come and kind of soften the
way people perceive them. I have a dear friend who's
a big conservative writer, Ron Dreer, who did my book
(35:07):
together with me. Right, and Rodreer called me and said,
Wendell Tucker Carlson is here. I was working in Budapest
on Jack Ryant. Tucker Carlson is here. Would you like
to have dinner with him.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
I was like, absolutely not, I said, Rod, absolutely not.
Speaker 4 (35:32):
You know I don't want to and it's not someone
and I know he only wants to have dinner with
me because that would be kind of give him some cachet.
Speaker 5 (35:42):
And I was like.
Speaker 4 (35:43):
No, he goes no, no, wendo is not like I said, Rod,
You and I are political opposites. You know, I tell
you when I hate what you say and what you write.
But the reason we get along is because we found
some commonalogy.
Speaker 5 (35:58):
We found our humanity.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
I came home after Katrina to help rebuild my community.
Speaker 5 (36:04):
You came home back.
Speaker 4 (36:06):
To Louisiana when your sister was at deathbed and hospice,
family and Louisiana and home is important to us.
Speaker 5 (36:14):
That's what we found in common.
Speaker 4 (36:16):
And when we found that in common, you realize you
knew so little about your black neighbor as you were
doing the book with me, and you reached out and
learned about the lynchings that happened just in your vicinity
of bad neuge and stuff.
Speaker 5 (36:31):
He said, I said, do you remember that, you know?
Speaker 4 (36:34):
And I said, yeah, Tucker's not interested in.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
That interesting, and that's why I don't.
Speaker 5 (36:40):
Want to meet with him. And it's yeah, that's I
don't know how I got them, but I guess yeah, Okay.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
You mentioned and I will tell you as you will
know Katrina. I was a local news reporter in West
Palm when Hurricane Katrina happened. And to me, there were
only two times in where in my lifetime where I
maybe three, where I felt like the I felt like
the entire world was rooting for us. And I also
(37:08):
felt like the country, the country in which we live
in that felt more like family and unity, which has
been the theme. Katrina was one of those times. Heartbreaking, heartbreaking, heartbreaking, heartbreaking,
and I remember thinking, you know, will the city ever recover?
And I know that you were very instrumental in helping
rebuild that city. What would be your advice for those
(37:32):
in Altadena? Because not that they're sister cities, but there
is this community elderly black people who live have been
in Altadena for so long, so many people I know
who've lost their homes, people who have paid off their
homes some twenty years ago, no insurance, eighty years old
and you don't have anything. You find yourself at eighty
(37:52):
years old and you don't have a home. A senior
Citizen's sixty five and above whatever you want to say.
They don't have anywhere to go, and they are relying
on the kindness of strangers and perhaps the morality of
this country to build them back up. What were your
and we've talked about this, what were the steps in
rebuilding in Katrina.
Speaker 4 (38:10):
First of all, Altadena is a mirror of the community
I grew up and helped to rebuild. And that's parts
of Train Park created out of the Civil rights movement,
when folks coming back from World War two could not
even purchase a home anywhere they wanted to because of covenants.
They couldn't even go into the park because in the
(38:33):
park you could only go if you're a black person,
one day a week. To fight that, we created punch
Train Park. Altadena was like that as well. People thought
put them up against the hills. Going into the hills
was a place that people didn't want to go to.
So that this thriving black community comes from there. We
(38:54):
as a Joshua generation, owed it to that Moses generation
that went through that to build that community. We owe
it to them to rebuild it. And this is how
we do it. Exercise that right of self determination. There
was great legislation in the nineties called community development legislation
(39:16):
where banks are given and cities are given large sums
of money from the federal government and if you put
it out on the street in a certain way, it
is graded high. They call them CRA points, and we
get large points. More money is given to you the
following year, and the budget is increased, you get more,
(39:40):
so you always it is in the best interest of
the city and banks themselves to get high CRA points
so that they can get more money the next year.
That's when banking in the nineties went from just retail
checking in SI like we know of ye to business
(40:02):
accounts and it added community banking. That's where you saw
the proliferation of credit Union, and that's every bank has
a community banking division. When they get to put their
percentage on top in the loan. But they're getting all
the money without free from the federal government. It is
(40:25):
in their best interests and they they are incentivized. The
best way to access that money out to dina is
to create a Community Development Court, which is a nonprofit
that becomes a place where those banks can put that
money into for development get those high grades, so.
Speaker 5 (40:48):
They could get more money than next year.
Speaker 4 (40:50):
They are incentivized to find a community that organizes their
right a self determination and create a model to get
money funding for the redevelopment of a beautiful part of
Los Angeles. Yeah, and is deserving And that is how.
Speaker 5 (41:11):
We did it.
Speaker 4 (41:12):
We did that in punch of trained part. We built
forty homes. The Community Development Corporation found people who we
wanted to have access to, people who went through credit counseling.
They got soft second loans they were giving. It also
(41:32):
gives the community and corporations and other entities that want
to contribute and know that it's going somewhere and make
get the benefit of contributing to a nonprofit.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
But how do you how do you stop vultures? How
do you stop people from trying?
Speaker 4 (41:51):
The other side of that is you have the other
side of that is I think of the Dickens novel.
That's what I was trying to think of the best
of times. It was the worst of timesh Tale of
Two Cities. It is always like that. Around a disaster,
you will see the best in people and then you
will also see the worst. And what you want to
(42:13):
do is this is when you lean on the very
people you put in office, and you want to make
sure that a database is put together of contractors, so
you go to we we had the Urban League put
together a database of contractors, one who they were going
(42:36):
to have to be accountable, and two giving opportunities, especially
now to black and diverse companies who never get the
shot right. So you can find someone who's going to
be held accountable by the National Urban League, and also
give opportunities to small black businesses that are now being
(43:00):
eliminated from consideration in federal projects because the federal government
now is cutting all the DEI projects. So we have
to create that ourselves and the local chapter of the
Negro the National Earthly League for us, that's a great
way to protect yourself from vultures. The other thing is
go to your insurance the state insurance Commissioner, and really
(43:24):
that's demand that they make all of the insurance companies
accountable who are doing in California what they did in Louisiana,
which is not honor claims. And by not honoring their claims,
they're going to send you to all the American Red Cross.
Speaker 8 (43:41):
Organizations and all the philanthropic groups that are giving money
and that's great to try to be the smoke screen
for the fact that they pulled out insurance companies from
you and redlined Alta Dina saying that they're not going
to And that's when you hold them accountable with the
commissioner and sue go after them and demand that your
(44:06):
commissioner puts together a class action shoot against them.
Speaker 5 (44:10):
And I also believe that the electric.
Speaker 4 (44:12):
Company, we have proof of it, started that fire. Yes,
and so I lived for decades in Pasadena, so I
love that community.
Speaker 5 (44:22):
You see my hairs jacked up right now because my barber.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
Is in Pasadena on Lincoln Yes, no, no, no, on
Lake on Lake, I'm Lake Okay.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
Just in time Okay, shout out to just in time
on Lake Avenue. Well to Pierce, thank you so much
for being here. I can talk to you for two hours,
but I know you have a you have many jobs
and many things to do. I appreciate the encouragement and
the inspiration and obviously the instruction.
Speaker 4 (44:49):
Thank you you have been Your voice is so important
to be out there, and it was an honor for
me to be on the show.
Speaker 5 (44:57):
I hope I made sense.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
You do perfect.
Speaker 5 (45:00):
I hope I did ramble.
Speaker 4 (45:01):
Nope, I hope you had a good time in New Orleans.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
I did.
Speaker 5 (45:05):
I look forward to seeing you in New York.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
Yes, in Los Angeles.
Speaker 5 (45:09):
I am Tri Coastal people, I'm in New Orleans. Right here.
This is my office.
Speaker 4 (45:16):
This is my business partner's office. I always take the
big office. And so I am Gulf Coast, East Coast,
and West Coast. Okay, I am tri Coastal. I love
the communities that I live, and I love being an
active because that's what it's all about, that humanity. And
you do that with your vision of community and your
(45:40):
knowledge of.
Speaker 5 (45:40):
Sports and connecting it to sports.
Speaker 4 (45:43):
Humanity you bring to your work is demonstrated in your
media and journalistic acumen, and it was demonstrated in your
talents as an athlete.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
I appreciate I receive all those flowers. I receive all
those awkward to do, hard to do, but I receive it.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
Thank you so much for taking the time.
Speaker 5 (46:05):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
Naked Sports written and executive produced by me Kerry Champion,
produced by Jocqueeses Thomas, sound design and mastered by Dwayne Crawford.
Naked Sports is a part of the Black Effect Podcast Network,
in iHeartMedia,
Welcome to Naked Sports, the podcast where we live at
the intersection of sports, politics, and culture. Our purpose reveal
the common threads that bind them all. So what's happening
in women's basketball right now is what we've been trying to.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Get to for almost thirty years.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
From the stadiums where athletes break barriers and set records.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Kamen Quark broke the all time single game assists record.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
This is crazy for rookies to be doing.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Our discussions will uncover the vital connections between these realms
and the community we create. In each episode, we'll sit
down with athletes, political analysts, and culture critics, because at
the core of it all, how we see one issue
shines the light on all others. Welcome to Naked Sports.
I'm your host, Carrie Champion.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
My name is Wendell Pearce. You first know me as
an actor. I am also a pretty I'd like to direct,
but I don't consider my self a director just yet.
At the same time, I am a citizen of New Orleans.
I'd point that out because the New Orleans not only
made me, but made me refocus my energy into community
(01:18):
activism and advocacy.
Speaker 5 (01:20):
Twenty years ago, when we are at the height of disaster, and.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
So I am a community advocate and an actor and
a producer.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
You may know Wendel Peers from some of our favorite shows.
His presence and performance on any screener stage signals this
show will be excellent. Or as one of my best
friends and one of his biggest fans would like to say,
all of his programs are excellent. There's a gravitas in
confidence that exues from this actor. I would like to
believe it's because he knows his origin story. I ask
(01:52):
if his roots begin in New Orleans.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
We go back at several generations. I'm kind of doing
a genealogy now. My mother was born and raised just
outside of New Orleans, about seventy miles and Assumption Parish, Plattonville, Louisiana.
We call our counties parishes, as you know. So yeah,
So this country girl goes to Southern University and baton
(02:19):
Rouge that she meets this city boy who literally had
just come back from World War Two and they met
on the yard.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Trained at Juilliard Window, has appeared on Broadway, Death of
the Salesman, The Boys of Winter, and he also plays
very compelling characters on television. Detective William Bunk on the wire.
Speaker 6 (02:39):
Someone saw me at a barber shop and said, you know,
Bunk is retiring, you better be there. I'm like, oh,
my goodness, So I'm terrified. I go and I see
him across the room looking at me the same way.
And so I walked there ready for my come up,
and he looks at me.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
And goes, hey, come here, you made me a star.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
It was like the prodigal son coming on God.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Or you may remember him as Robert Zane in suits.
There's a long list of credits, but Wendel Pierce is
so much more. But for this renaissance man, he says,
it always begins with family.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
Travel.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
It's more important, you know. And also it reminds me
that that is the affinity we have for place. Also
it's because of family. It's really interesting. I asked my
brother who. I had three brothers. My oldest was Stacy Pierce,
and my middle brother, Ron Pierce went to West Point
and he was a military officer who had the codes.
(03:39):
He was a luclear yet nuclear war a Persian ju
misso on a black bed truck going through the Black
Forest of Germany with the power of tenor Roschman's wow.
And he's the first lieutenant. And I said, could you
turn the key and push the button? And he said absolutely?
And I said, wow, I mean you know, I mean
(04:01):
you had no second thoughts. He said, no second thoughts.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
I said why.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
He said, because I always knew someone had just attacked
my family.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Oh wow.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
And that's why he had a real pushback on the war.
And when the policy of US policy changed and said
we're a first strike nation with Iraq. Oh that my
brother is so vehemently against that, can't I tell you?
He said, that is the only thing that kept the
offices in the nuclear weapons core together.
Speaker 6 (04:32):
Wow, he said, after that choice, that starts to have
a mental impact on it.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
He's out of the military now.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
But I say that because it reminded me of how
much family means to us as a black man from
the South.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
That goes even further. You know, there's a story of
my family.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
My great grandfather, Ara Steel was fourteen at emancipation and
his mother would always.
Speaker 5 (04:58):
Say he was enslaved. And they said that prayers that night.
I'm sure the first one was I hope one day
we free.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
The first he said, you ever be free, You're not
a Harris, You're a Christoph. Go back and find your
father and your brothers and sisters. You have brothers and
sisters and a father. He was sold with his mother
as a year and a half. Like to use the
(05:28):
word in that context where people know.
Speaker 6 (05:31):
And it was important because that story was actually in
the piano lesson the recent movie Oh Wow, and his
play how that was struggling to stay together.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
I wonder if it lasted in the movie. I just
realized that I know it from the play.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Okay, I didn't see I haven't seen the movie yet,
but yeah, I'm glad.
Speaker 5 (05:53):
I'm rambling on. I apologize.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
But family is very important to us here, very very
important to meet.
Speaker 5 (06:00):
It also defies place for me.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
I want to focus on that. We're family in a
lot of different ways. Obviously the family you're born with,
and then the friends who are your family. And right now,
more than ever, I think that in our society it
is his family. It's those connections that are needed more
than ever. We need those connections because it's so easy
to be a soldier on your own. And when I
was in New Orleans, I found myself during Super Bowl
(06:26):
weekend driving around and I was and of course it's
obviously a different venue, a different vibe, but I could
say I could see myself living here. There was something
very comforting way the people treat you like family, how
kind they were from the moment you get off there,
you know, get off the plane. Obviously, again it's a
special situation, right, But I'm really curious what you thought
(06:51):
about halftime performance. I felt it felt like family. It
felt like a family meeting. It felt like a a
message for family. It felt very powerful, disruptive, welcoming all
of the all of the emotions that I had a
bevy of emotions. And I and and you tell me
(07:14):
your thoughts.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
First of all, I knew that would be the impact
on you because because you being from California. Yes, but
but I mean and in the best way meaning it was.
It was so uniquely That's the one thing I know
about Kendrick Lamar I'm very bad with I'm a big
jazz head. Okay, so I'm real bad in the rap
game and stuff. So I always have to be educated
(07:37):
about it. Kendrick Lamar, Man, it's so connected to you know,
California conflident.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
You see everything.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
I'm like, okay, yeah, And and and raps will always
have to be interpreted.
Speaker 5 (07:47):
For me, I'm like, at that a again, all of us, and.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
I'm like, I love that song. I know, I know,
I know crip walking, I know that, Uh they're not
like us. And it's like, you know, I have to
I'm sorry about that in the business reading this morning,
like you know, what did that mean?
Speaker 5 (08:05):
What did that mean?
Speaker 1 (08:06):
You know?
Speaker 4 (08:07):
And so what was great about it was I knew
that he was sending messages out there, and this is
where I feel those little the media drops the ball.
The message is out there about the dualogy of being
here in America.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
Right.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Dan Olofsky actually said on first tick, was that intentional?
Speaker 3 (08:29):
That the red, white and blue and it looked like
the flag.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
I'm like, yes, yes, yessed.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
And it was televised And the.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
Thing that the greatest moment for me was when Sam
Jackson said this big black man said, I I am
Uncle Sam, and man, I was like, yeah, where we're going?
Speaker 3 (08:58):
And you can tell people.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Who duck, people who don't know rap, people who didn't
know Kendrick Lamar right.
Speaker 5 (09:08):
When they saw that, Yeah, they knew something was up.
A big black.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Man is uncle Sam, right, And I'm sure this morning
as we tape this, you know, we have an American
president saying that we're going to just go and take
Gaza and all your Palestinians are not coming back. That's
what you were making.
Speaker 6 (09:35):
That's what you were saying when you were saying, I.
Speaker 5 (09:38):
Am Uncle Sam.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Uncle Sam made me this big black man in American
aw and there's others, you know, So we'll spend the
week try to interpret it all.
Speaker 5 (09:49):
So I'd love that. The one disappointment that I had was.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Me not knowing anything about rap and I could care
about the distract going back.
Speaker 5 (09:59):
And forth and breaking all the stuff. You know, you
Datumn that she was dancing.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
You aren't making me laugh an right.
Speaker 5 (10:08):
Show, I'm not.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Oh yeah, boy up in Canada dated Serrina.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Oh you saying, oh I see that, you know not.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
I know one thing.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
I know a lot of white folks that'd like to
see Uncle Sam being that big black buck.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
And the revolution was televised.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
It was televised.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
It was a big stage in the world.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Everybody saw that, right, So one disappointment was I know,
for a fact, don't know the words, but nothing. I'm
the worst, but I know we gonna be all right.
Oh yeah, we gonna be all right.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
I know where you're going. I know where you're going,
the Black.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Lives matter of movement, and I wanted that to be
in there. I don't think it was. I didn't it was,
And that's that's the only disappointment. Yeah, because we need
to hear that right now more than ever.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
I loved it.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
I think to love it for that reason. That reason.
But you had it.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
You had a question about the set list, and by
the way, you're not the only one this morning, you know,
the Monday morning quarterback is you know, I'm really curious
about why he chose that set list, why he opened
with a new freestyle that most of us have never
heard before. Why didn't he use some of his other songs,
Because inside of the stadium there was a there was
(11:33):
a disconnect because to your point, some people aren't that familiar.
He's not commercial. But that was the beauty and what
the family meeting was. The family meeting wasn't for everybody.
It was just for those who were supposed to know.
So that's why I loved what he did. Okay, So
case in point.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Also go on also with that disconnection, it was it
had a strange impact on me because I knew the people.
Speaker 5 (11:55):
Around me is that very much of a sponsored.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Same, same, same, You know, they got their tickets from
the people that make the hat, all the NFL teams.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
You know, I'm with this company, I'm with that company.
How are you doing, mister Pierce? You know? And what
I thought?
Speaker 4 (12:16):
It became participatory for me because when we gonna be
all right came on, I, being very aware of my surroundings, said.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
I have to get up and try to crip walk.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
No, my head no.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
And I got up and everyone around me was like
and I was praying. I said, this is the time
I want to get some camera.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Okay, can we talk about that for a second. Yes,
understand what you were just saying. I too, was sitting
in a suite where everyone around me was like, well,
what is this and tell me more about who he
is and explaining what this was and why he was
and why he was mad at Drake or what the
songs meant.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
And you could and you could feel it.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
But I intentionally wanted to have that moment because I
wanted to because I well, one, I felt it, and
then Serena. When Serena started crib walking, I lost my mind.
It just took me back to obviously Wimbledon, and I
just lost my mind and I had and I'm going
to tell you. Serena with her smart self. I was
with her the night before at a dinner and she
kept it so low it was such a secret. But
(13:34):
I had interviewed her at Essence last year and I
asked her about the song because it's been the song,
and I says, so, how do we feel about the song,
knowing all the storylines behind it, and she goes, it's oh,
it's my jam, It's my favorite song.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
I love it. She's like, it's the best song ever.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
And so I knew there were so many different meanings
to that song for her as well, but which is
obviously they not like us. But I feel like gave
us a message. It gave us a really clear message,
and we're going to unpack it for days and days
and days. But it was don't play it safe. Still
be ten toes down, Still be who you are, Still
(14:13):
remember what the message is. Still remember the fight. We
did not get here by pretending that everything is okay.
Please continue on. And I felt like that was important,
especially as we watched Dei under attack other certain civil
rights that are guaranteed under attack.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
And I don't even know when he.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
Wrote watching this crutocracy being created.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Correct for our very eye correct billionaires who were rating
the treasury of the government, cutting anything that will help
the people, but that would give.
Speaker 5 (14:50):
Them the benefit.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
I mean, I cannot It's clear as day, yes, And
you are right about that Kendrick's message.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
The fact that I used to I was a little upset.
Speaker 5 (15:01):
I'll be honest, I'm.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Sort of upset about the sort of poetree and the
clandestine nature of the messaging by Sometimes I used to
be like, listen, if I have to ask someone to
decode something.
Speaker 5 (15:16):
For me so I can get there, so then I
can see what.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
The hidden message is, I don't want it to be
that hidden, right. But then I said, and as I
discussed it today, it's okay to be clandestine because those
who understand and need to get there are the ones
who need to be clandestine to get that message and
(15:42):
have it hit you writ in your heart and what
it was for me. Let's see the mantra that has
been the part of this new year for me, exercise
our right of self determination and practice radical self care
(16:05):
in the process.
Speaker 5 (16:08):
That is the key.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Exercise your right and know that it's a time that
you have to protect your own sanity.
Speaker 5 (16:17):
This anger.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Your mental and physical health because it can have an
impact on you in that way. What's happening now a daily,
daily attack on who we are that will enrage you,
but you have to get to a point that don't
let that rage destroy you.
Speaker 5 (16:42):
That rage should fuel you, and you should.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
Exercise your right of self determination and practice radical self care.
Speaker 5 (16:51):
Like you said in the Hippous Way ten to's we.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Know time for a full stop heading to a commercial
break will be back in just a few moments. From
family to the fight. Wendell Pierce is protecting his joy.
When I hear you say that, and I've heard others
(17:16):
say that. David John sent a text out to go
he maybe even said it to you to different people,
and he said, guard your joy, sibling, guard your joy,
and I and I feel like more than ever those
who understand understand what that means. And there is a
calling for the family to do exactly what you said,
stay determined, but also protect our joy. I wonder how
(17:40):
you go about doing that. You have you have lived
a life that requires you to really truly understand both sides.
You have this gift, this talent that God has given
you has really opened doors for you. You've been able
to live in different worlds. You've been able to move
in different rooms, rooms that so many of us probably
(18:02):
will never get the opportunity to do. And that is
not to say that you are better, to say that
you have a talent, but you still remain true to
what is true. How do you protect your joy?
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Especially now?
Speaker 5 (18:17):
Especially now? For me, that's the great thing.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
Now I put on my artists hatay, because art art
What thoughts are to the individual? When you lie awake
at night and you toss and turn, you think about
who you want to be, where you've come from, where
you hope to go? Are your fears, your joys, your triumphs,
your failures? What those thoughts are to the individual? Art
(18:47):
is to the community as a whole, the place where
we collectively think of who we are, where do we want,
Who do we want to be, where are we going?
Where we've been? What are our fears with our triumphs?
What of our joys with our failures? And then, in
the form of art like case, film, television, acting, theater,
(19:11):
in that forum we collectively turn out the lights look
at a story so we can be connected to the
story in a way where there bye, by the grace
of God, go ah.
Speaker 5 (19:22):
That's a human connection.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
And we consider all those things and develop a value
system that we then go out into the world and
act on.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
That's the power of art. That's the power of a song.
We go beyond right, beyond right.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
It is Lewis Armstrong twenty years ago his version of
do you know what it means to missd or Leans
and miss East night and day while we saw our
city flooded and destroyed and fifteen hundred people die. Right,
(20:04):
it is what you are going through now as we
see the heartache that has happened, and now It'sadina and
Pacific Palisades. When you hear I love La, you love
it from the east side to the west side to
the I love La.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
And when you hear you know they like they ate,
like us, like us.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
That's the power of art, even with people I don't
particularly agree with. You know, Ronald Reagan said you know
it's morning in America. Well, that was a powerful message
of poetry. It's morning in America, right, A sense of
optimism and all of that that's what drew people to him,
you know, even though his policies would you know, fight there.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
The poor folk.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Yeah, yeah, right, But you're right.
Speaker 5 (20:58):
So it's so.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
Knowing that I'm an artist, that's the thing that protects
my joy because then I know that I can touch people.
I've had people. I did Death of a Salesman in
London and this woman, young woman came to me in
tears at the end and she said, I lost my father.
I lost my father. I kept repeating that, actually I
(21:24):
lost my father.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
Can I hold you?
Speaker 4 (21:31):
He said, I need to hold someone who was like
my father, basically is what she was asking, thinking, I
have a hug, and I did, and I hugged it
and I felt this comfort go through her body.
Speaker 5 (21:43):
She had just seen me perform this play, this tragic Death.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
Of a Salesman, and after the hug, she just walked
away from the theater and that was it. And I
think of her to this day because I know that
my art brought her some comfort in a tragic moment,
and that gave me joy. And so my contribution to
(22:09):
humanity is my contusion to change the paradigm is the
thing that gives me joy, and art as.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
The saying goes, Arthur Miller said it.
Speaker 6 (22:20):
You know, there's a certain immortality in the theater that
an actor takes with them until.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
Their dying day.
Speaker 4 (22:27):
That on a certain afternoon in a dusty theater, he cast.
Speaker 5 (22:31):
The shadow of a person who was not himself, but the.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
Distillation of everything he has ever seen, Every unsung heart
song that the common man feels but never utters, he
gives voice to and in doing that he.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
Joins the ages.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
That's right.
Speaker 5 (22:52):
So that's my joy. That's right.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
That's what Kindrick gave us. That's what you do.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
That's what whatever we do, whatever this talent that we is,
that should give us joy. I listen to you say
that and how you talk about that interaction with that woman,
and I hope who is listen, whoever is listening to
this podcast, understands that that's how you guard your joy,
that gift that you have, what you give the world,
that's where you find your joy, because there's nothing better
than giving and and and feeling your impact and seeing
(23:18):
your impact and understanding why you have it.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
You mentioned since this is a.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
Sports show, also, that's the thing I love about sports
because you have the ability to immediately impact your condition
right now. Exercise you right, a self determination you have
right away, right away, and there's going to.
Speaker 5 (23:39):
Be triumph and there's going to be failure. There's going
to be obstacles and challenges along the way, and you
have to.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
You know this is and figure it out. You got
to make your adjustments. You gotta call it, call it audible.
You gotta go in the second half. If you don't,
and then you lose.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
I was, okay, are you listening. Oh?
Speaker 1 (24:01):
You wanted to see history, And here is my thought.
You wanted to see There were so many people, in fact,
a lot of people that I was with yesterday wanted
to see Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City chiefs go
for history.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
They wanted to see a dynasty. Serena included. She said it.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
She goes, I want to see a dynasty. There's something
wrong with a dynasty. But she's thinking about herself. I'm like, okay, wait,
this is different.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
For me, though.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
What I love about sports was this exact story. And
I don't know how much you know about Jalen hurtson
his college career, but that to me, yeah, right, So
that to me was what I was rooting for. I
was rooting for the person who they thought couldn't do it.
I was rooting for the person who wasn't even loved
when he first got to the city of Philadelphia. I'm
(24:44):
rooting for the guy who had all the way to
the super Bowl and was injured and he couldn't pull
it off and he was heartbroken.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
And more, I would say.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
More people were rooting for Philadelphia. You think, so that's that?
Speaker 2 (24:55):
You think?
Speaker 1 (24:56):
So?
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Really?
Speaker 5 (24:57):
Oh yeah yeah? Not in the seas we were sitting there.
You weren't a sweet I was, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
You know, listen, man, you know, listen. You know that
whole Midwestern value system and everything.
Speaker 5 (25:16):
You know, we try to avoid illusion of Philadelphia.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
You know, blue collar, blue collar.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
City, urban, and you know we're the Midwest, you know,
you know, and the Midwest fans didn't know Kendrick.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
It's just like fans.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Let me tell you something.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
When I saw that black quarterback kiss his black fiance,
and I saw that, and I saw that that beautiful
performance from straight from New Orleans, everyone there was so
amazing halftime performance, amazing.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
I was like, I'll take this win today. I will
take this win today. You it was too many winds, right, yeah,
it was.
Speaker 5 (26:04):
It was it was black excellence was on display.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Yes, yes, black excellence.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
Was on display, Black love was on display, and black
intelligence was on display.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Everything everything, everything.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
Everything that has been attacked in the past year by
this criminal enterprise that's happening. We we cannot sit silent
as we allow a message of hate and division to
be normalized and criminality to be normalized. And Donald Trump
(26:44):
is the easiest depiction of that. But I was more
interested in the people that roared at the approval of
seeing him there.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
What did it?
Speaker 2 (26:56):
What did it give me?
Speaker 1 (26:57):
The percentage for you when they showed him, you know,
in the in his suite at the game. Tell me
the sixty forty of people applauding and booing seventy thirty
what in your mind?
Speaker 2 (27:10):
What was it? How'd you receive that?
Speaker 5 (27:12):
It was interesting?
Speaker 4 (27:14):
I felt as though it was it was like, you know,
sixty just seventy percent cheering. I felt it was about
and I would say thirty nine percent that they're seething
ha one percent booed a ha.
Speaker 5 (27:35):
That thirty nine percent. Now, I would say, I'm gonna
go take it back.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
I would say it was about fifty five percent people
cheering forty four percent of people seething.
Speaker 5 (27:51):
And one percent of googles.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
Right, and because people want to see and enjoying a
game that they spent tens of thousands of dollars just
to come to New Orleans to see and buy tickets,
and all about their average people. They're not the sponsors
people like us, you benefit of tickets. They're like, Man,
if I get into this right now, you know, I'm
(28:20):
gonna have to fight this dude next to me.
Speaker 5 (28:24):
For four hours.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
And I would actually rather talk trash and talk shit.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
To him about football than.
Speaker 5 (28:35):
Really about where we are.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
In this country because we might go to blows or something.
You know, That's how I felt, right, I felt like,
let me just sit here quietly, and but I can't
just let him go without a boom boom.
Speaker 5 (28:55):
You know, some people looked at me and everything.
Speaker 4 (28:58):
I was like, y'all know, you know it is you
know that's what percentage was around.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
Well great, what a great? What was great about the
moment I was talking about? That silence? That silence was
really miss Anne is working war, mister Joe, who is
you know?
Speaker 4 (29:20):
True guest services When they went and someone said, hey,
you're the President's here right, and they just have to
look at me and go.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
Huh, there's a lot of that. That's what the silence was.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Huh, it's a conversation.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
Yes, it was just like hmm, right, and what's what's happening?
Speaker 5 (29:45):
Is That kind of emboldened me.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
And because it realized that people are not sitting back right,
I thought, man, are we so depressed?
Speaker 5 (29:55):
We just lost an election. We didn't lose.
Speaker 4 (29:58):
Our principle, right, But you said, I'm like, oh, people
are like, huh, it's sitting back and they're doing what
Andy Reid did not doft time.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
He made zero adjustments, zero aggressments.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
You know, I'm like, have you heard he's a running
back on your team for Cheko?
Speaker 5 (30:23):
Also they're running backs. Have you heard of them?
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Have you? I was, I was so surprised because they
are they have been a third quarter team, a second
half team. They haven't been you know, I get it,
I get it, but I was really surprised.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Andy surprised me. He I thought he had it.
Speaker 5 (30:42):
They got pressed. What I mean.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
They were dumb.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
They didn't even have when I say, the defense when
they were fly Ego fly, they were all over them.
They could not do anything. I was how many times
did Mahomes get sacked. I was shocked at what I saw.
Speaker 5 (30:58):
I was shocked.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
Oh boy, this and man, I here someone this morning
talk about it. They should have given nothing to take
away from Jalen Hurt. Sure, he obviously the m v
P the game, and but my god, that front four
took them out.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
You're onto something. They I said the same thing. I
was like, the defense deserve the D line deserves the
entire MVP award.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
They really did well.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
Going back and looking at the game, they literally did
not blitz.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
I'm like, just like, man, they.
Speaker 5 (31:41):
Did not have to blitz at all.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
And that's the thing they where. Boy, that's where you
know Specnolo Spec.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
The their offensive coordinator.
Speaker 5 (31:53):
The defensive coordinator.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
For the Kansas City That's what he has been an
all He's been everywhere his nickname.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Is, but he's been yeah, yeah, I you're right.
Speaker 4 (32:07):
Bags has this wonderful career of going to all these
Super Bowls with Kansas City Chiefs and winning and with
New York and winning with the Giants.
Speaker 5 (32:18):
But there was a time he came.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
To New Orleans and did what and we were.
Speaker 4 (32:23):
The worst defense in the history of the league.
Speaker 5 (32:27):
It felt like he.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
Was awful here, and he was awful here, awful, and
then he went to Kansas City and and.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
I was just like, they don't talk about those, they don't.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
He's a genius.
Speaker 5 (32:47):
He's a genius. That's what it was.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
It was like, Oh, he came back to New Orleans
and he reverted back to He didn't know this is
the wrong player for him to come and play a
Super Bowl because he obviously reverting back to the defensive coordinator.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
We knew we'll be right back in just a few moments.
Welcome back to Naked Sports. As we continue our conversation
with Wendell Pearce, we meet at the intersection of politics
and culture.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
So I can tell this story.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Okay, I played Clarence Thomas, Yes you did.
Speaker 5 (33:26):
Against Anita Carrie Washington play Anita Hill. Yep, and Rush.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Limbaugh confirmation going off, going off on.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
You know, all these liberals are going to ruin this
great judge and you know, I just come out and
sail this nasty Sam portray. But that actor, I really
like that actor playing him.
Speaker 5 (33:49):
I liked him.
Speaker 4 (33:50):
Wonder why I really like him? But oh, it's gonna
be an awful movie. I heard that, so I reached out,
you know, I reached out to.
Speaker 5 (33:59):
Him and I said, listen, I don't want to go
on the show I had. I never got to talk
to him. I said, I don't want to go on
the show.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
I actually want to meet you, because I'm always curious
about people that I am, you know, one eighty the opposite. No,
I couldn't meet Trump though, not yet, but see Steven Miller.
I would like to sit down.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Sure, sure, right, and they're probably all fans.
Speaker 7 (34:24):
And so, and Rush Limbaugh responded back like, no, I
can't be seen with him, mmm, right, because it messes
up my brand.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Right, Oh wow?
Speaker 5 (34:38):
If he on a casual thing like sitting and having lunch.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
With me, wow, it messes up my brand. Now, the
other flip side of it is there. You know, sometimes
people want me to come and kind of soften the
way people perceive them. I have a dear friend who's
a big conservative writer, Ron Dreer, who did my book
(35:07):
together with me. Right, and Rodreer called me and said,
Wendell Tucker Carlson is here. I was working in Budapest
on Jack Ryant. Tucker Carlson is here. Would you like
to have dinner with him.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
I was like, absolutely not, I said, Rod, absolutely not.
Speaker 4 (35:32):
You know I don't want to and it's not someone
and I know he only wants to have dinner with
me because that would be kind of give him some cachet.
Speaker 5 (35:42):
And I was like.
Speaker 4 (35:43):
No, he goes no, no, wendo is not like I said, Rod,
You and I are political opposites. You know, I tell
you when I hate what you say and what you write.
But the reason we get along is because we found
some commonalogy.
Speaker 5 (35:58):
We found our humanity.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
I came home after Katrina to help rebuild my community.
Speaker 5 (36:04):
You came home back.
Speaker 4 (36:06):
To Louisiana when your sister was at deathbed and hospice,
family and Louisiana and home is important to us.
Speaker 5 (36:14):
That's what we found in common.
Speaker 4 (36:16):
And when we found that in common, you realize you
knew so little about your black neighbor as you were
doing the book with me, and you reached out and
learned about the lynchings that happened just in your vicinity
of bad neuge and stuff.
Speaker 5 (36:31):
He said, I said, do you remember that, you know?
Speaker 4 (36:34):
And I said, yeah, Tucker's not interested in.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
That interesting, and that's why I don't.
Speaker 5 (36:40):
Want to meet with him. And it's yeah, that's I
don't know how I got them, but I guess yeah, Okay.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
You mentioned and I will tell you as you will
know Katrina. I was a local news reporter in West
Palm when Hurricane Katrina happened. And to me, there were
only two times in where in my lifetime where I
maybe three, where I felt like the I felt like
the entire world was rooting for us. And I also
(37:08):
felt like the country, the country in which we live
in that felt more like family and unity, which has
been the theme. Katrina was one of those times. Heartbreaking, heartbreaking, heartbreaking, heartbreaking,
and I remember thinking, you know, will the city ever recover?
And I know that you were very instrumental in helping
rebuild that city. What would be your advice for those
(37:32):
in Altadena? Because not that they're sister cities, but there
is this community elderly black people who live have been
in Altadena for so long, so many people I know
who've lost their homes, people who have paid off their
homes some twenty years ago, no insurance, eighty years old
and you don't have anything. You find yourself at eighty
(37:52):
years old and you don't have a home. A senior
Citizen's sixty five and above whatever you want to say.
They don't have anywhere to go, and they are relying
on the kindness of strangers and perhaps the morality of
this country to build them back up. What were your
and we've talked about this, what were the steps in
rebuilding in Katrina.
Speaker 4 (38:10):
First of all, Altadena is a mirror of the community
I grew up and helped to rebuild. And that's parts
of Train Park created out of the Civil rights movement,
when folks coming back from World War two could not
even purchase a home anywhere they wanted to because of covenants.
They couldn't even go into the park because in the
(38:33):
park you could only go if you're a black person,
one day a week. To fight that, we created punch
Train Park. Altadena was like that as well. People thought
put them up against the hills. Going into the hills
was a place that people didn't want to go to.
So that this thriving black community comes from there. We
(38:54):
as a Joshua generation, owed it to that Moses generation
that went through that to build that community. We owe
it to them to rebuild it. And this is how
we do it. Exercise that right of self determination. There
was great legislation in the nineties called community development legislation
(39:16):
where banks are given and cities are given large sums
of money from the federal government and if you put
it out on the street in a certain way, it
is graded high. They call them CRA points, and we
get large points. More money is given to you the
following year, and the budget is increased, you get more,
(39:40):
so you always it is in the best interest of
the city and banks themselves to get high CRA points
so that they can get more money the next year.
That's when banking in the nineties went from just retail
checking in SI like we know of ye to business
(40:02):
accounts and it added community banking. That's where you saw
the proliferation of credit Union, and that's every bank has
a community banking division. When they get to put their
percentage on top in the loan. But they're getting all
the money without free from the federal government. It is
(40:25):
in their best interests and they they are incentivized. The
best way to access that money out to dina is
to create a Community Development Court, which is a nonprofit
that becomes a place where those banks can put that
money into for development get those high grades, so.
Speaker 5 (40:48):
They could get more money than next year.
Speaker 4 (40:50):
They are incentivized to find a community that organizes their
right a self determination and create a model to get
money funding for the redevelopment of a beautiful part of
Los Angeles. Yeah, and is deserving And that is how.
Speaker 5 (41:11):
We did it.
Speaker 4 (41:12):
We did that in punch of trained part. We built
forty homes. The Community Development Corporation found people who we
wanted to have access to, people who went through credit counseling.
They got soft second loans they were giving. It also
(41:32):
gives the community and corporations and other entities that want
to contribute and know that it's going somewhere and make
get the benefit of contributing to a nonprofit.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
But how do you how do you stop vultures? How
do you stop people from trying?
Speaker 4 (41:51):
The other side of that is you have the other
side of that is I think of the Dickens novel.
That's what I was trying to think of the best
of times. It was the worst of timesh Tale of
Two Cities. It is always like that. Around a disaster,
you will see the best in people and then you
will also see the worst. And what you want to
(42:13):
do is this is when you lean on the very
people you put in office, and you want to make
sure that a database is put together of contractors, so
you go to we we had the Urban League put
together a database of contractors, one who they were going
(42:36):
to have to be accountable, and two giving opportunities, especially
now to black and diverse companies who never get the
shot right. So you can find someone who's going to
be held accountable by the National Urban League, and also
give opportunities to small black businesses that are now being
(43:00):
eliminated from consideration in federal projects because the federal government
now is cutting all the DEI projects. So we have
to create that ourselves and the local chapter of the
Negro the National Earthly League for us, that's a great
way to protect yourself from vultures. The other thing is
go to your insurance the state insurance Commissioner, and really
(43:24):
that's demand that they make all of the insurance companies
accountable who are doing in California what they did in Louisiana,
which is not honor claims. And by not honoring their claims,
they're going to send you to all the American Red Cross.
Speaker 8 (43:41):
Organizations and all the philanthropic groups that are giving money
and that's great to try to be the smoke screen
for the fact that they pulled out insurance companies from
you and redlined Alta Dina saying that they're not going
to And that's when you hold them accountable with the
commissioner and sue go after them and demand that your
(44:06):
commissioner puts together a class action shoot against them.
Speaker 5 (44:10):
And I also believe that the electric.
Speaker 4 (44:12):
Company, we have proof of it, started that fire. Yes,
and so I lived for decades in Pasadena, so I
love that community.
Speaker 5 (44:22):
You see my hairs jacked up right now because my barber.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
Is in Pasadena on Lincoln Yes, no, no, no, on
Lake on Lake, I'm Lake Okay.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
Just in time Okay, shout out to just in time
on Lake Avenue. Well to Pierce, thank you so much
for being here. I can talk to you for two hours,
but I know you have a you have many jobs
and many things to do. I appreciate the encouragement and
the inspiration and obviously the instruction.
Speaker 4 (44:49):
Thank you you have been Your voice is so important
to be out there, and it was an honor for
me to be on the show.
Speaker 5 (44:57):
I hope I made sense.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
You do perfect.
Speaker 5 (45:00):
I hope I did ramble.
Speaker 4 (45:01):
Nope, I hope you had a good time in New Orleans.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
I did.
Speaker 5 (45:05):
I look forward to seeing you in New York.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
Yes, in Los Angeles.
Speaker 5 (45:09):
I am Tri Coastal people, I'm in New Orleans. Right here.
This is my office.
Speaker 4 (45:16):
This is my business partner's office. I always take the
big office. And so I am Gulf Coast, East Coast,
and West Coast. Okay, I am tri Coastal. I love
the communities that I live, and I love being an
active because that's what it's all about, that humanity. And
you do that with your vision of community and your
(45:40):
knowledge of.
Speaker 5 (45:40):
Sports and connecting it to sports.
Speaker 4 (45:43):
Humanity you bring to your work is demonstrated in your
media and journalistic acumen, and it was demonstrated in your
talents as an athlete.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
I appreciate I receive all those flowers. I receive all
those awkward to do, hard to do, but I receive it.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
Thank you so much for taking the time.
Speaker 5 (46:05):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
Naked Sports written and executive produced by me Kerry Champion,
produced by Jocqueeses Thomas, sound design and mastered by Dwayne Crawford.
Naked Sports is a part of the Black Effect Podcast Network,
in iHeartMedia,
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