FUBU Ain’t Free! The Cost of Black Ownership

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Native Land Pod is the production of iHeartRadio and partnership
with Recent Choice Media.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Home, everybody. It's episode ninety of Native Land Pod. I'm
Tiffany Cross here with Angela Riot Andrew Gillam, and this
is your home where we gave it to you straight,
no chaser, all things politics and culture. And before we
even get into the show, I just want to ask
you all, if you like what you hear today, please
tell a friend, subscribe, like, do all the things, because

(00:29):
the more we hear from you, the more we can broadcast,
the more we can incorporate you into the show. And
so we love making this an interactive conversation with our
viewers and audience. So Andrew, Angela, Yes, welcome home.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Y'all was going on up, I'm going to disturb real quick.

Speaker 4 (00:45):
Thank you, Thank you me your phone ring A D
and D.

Speaker 5 (00:50):
There was someone who celebrated a birthday over the weekend.
Are very oh. Andrew Gillim was cowboy cartering it up
and he was on D and D. He didn't respond
to naryid birthday message until he was through the weekend.
Andrew talk about it.

Speaker 6 (01:05):
That's true.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
First of all, thanks everybody for the love, Tiffany, Angela,
the crew. I appreciate it. I generally disappeared during my birthday, don't.
I don't have cell phones. It causes me to be
a maintenance to them rather than enjoin the you know,
wherever I am. And this time I was with the
fam and my mother in law, my mother in love

(01:28):
was here, made some delicious food, got a little massage,
and you know, it's good. It was good.

Speaker 6 (01:34):
Thank you all.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Though I am realizing I'm closer to fifty than I
am to forty.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Can we spend a minute on that, because that's such
a mind in a way, you know, yes, wild Yeah,
because like forty five is like your last big birthday.
I'm forty six, and when you start to look at
the next birthday, it's like oh, and you start saying
things like oh, I'm girl, please, I'm pushing fifty or
I'm looking at fifty and you're not quite there yet,

(02:01):
but just that you have lived more of your life. Yeah,
you know, you're on the other side.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
You're middle aged, middle aged, lord a mercy, you're almost
half a century old.

Speaker 5 (02:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
Really, they say it gets better Tiffany, I believe.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
It does, your friend, I'm claiming it Bebby Smith always
says it gets greater later, and I think that's true.
For the most part. I think you settle into yourself.
I don't know what it is for men, Andrew, so
I'd love for you to speak to that as women.

Speaker 4 (02:33):
I think it's something different.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
I am hoping and I'm already feeling this way now,
and it didn't take a birthday to get here. Is
the need for validation outside myself is almost non existent.

Speaker 4 (02:47):
That's a great place to be and now I can't.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
And now, of course it exists in some ways, and
I find it showing up at really probably you know,
unexpected but really rare moments, and I appreciate when I
I can call it to my attention, but mostly it's like, okay,
you know, live how you live. I'm a lot less
concerned with what folks are going on as relates to

(03:10):
gossip and what people say in that the street. I
miss me all the way with every piece of that
because it in my business. And I'm also more comfortable
that the people who I love and I care for
know it, and they are a lot more accepting of
the way in which I am and how I show up,

(03:30):
And I think the same is true in reverse, Angela,
what about you? I know you're not you know I'm
a pushing I'm pushing.

Speaker 5 (03:38):
No I am. You know you're only a few minutes
older than me. I'm pushing forty six in October. It's
all good. I feel like black don't crack. And speaking
of I'm at the National Bar Association conventional.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
Shout out to the National Bar blacking.

Speaker 5 (03:51):
One hundred years. So shout out to everybody miss making
sure that we are upholding what the laws should be
and not what the law just is is, because this
maniac over there is doing something crazy.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
I was about to say, to talk about what we're
talking about, Yes, and your birthday was first on the list,
but also, what else are we talking about?

Speaker 4 (04:16):
Angela?

Speaker 5 (04:19):
So we are in the midst of a little bit
of a culture war online. Uh, there is some stuff
going down with Ralph Laurin. You know, in the midst
of all the things that brands are doing to dial
back on their commitments to us. What they haven't dialed
back on is taken from the culture. So the culture
vulture conversation, UH today will be really powerful, especially because

(04:42):
the founder of Actively Black, Lanny Smith, will be joining
us and I cannot wait to hear what he has
to say about this latest collection from Ralph Lauren, which
y'all got.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
Mmm, I'm interested. Did you first of all, did you
coin that phrase culture culture?

Speaker 5 (04:55):
Come on now, No, I'm not that kind of culture
vulture to.

Speaker 3 (04:59):
C that's great, that's great, good, good work, good work,
team Gaza. I want to, you know, just put a
little bit of attension on the humanitarian crisis that's underweight.
It's been there, but we've never seen anything like this
that's been so willful, and I think we should just
talk a moment about it and and continue to put

(05:21):
as much attention on this issue as possible.

Speaker 4 (05:23):
Yeah, I echoed that.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
You know, I always like to have an interactive conversations
with our viewers, and so I yield my time most
weeks to hear what our viewers have to say. So
I'm always excited to talk about that. But you know,
something that we didn't plan on talking about was this
whole middle aged conversation. And I actually enjoyed hearing y'all's
perspective on being middle aged and how to navigate that

(05:49):
do we want to spend time on that or do
we want to talk.

Speaker 3 (05:51):
About that more at some point. I don't know if
it's today, but I'm I wanted to actually your trepidations,
your trepidations, and if we all had them at some point,
maybe we could just talk about what our trepidations might
be nervousness, you know, as we reflect back and look forward.
But maybe not today, yeah, future.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
Since we're not talking about it today, we should invite
our viewers into that conversation. And I would love to
hear from folks who are middle aged or on the
other side, young folks. We want you all to listen,
but this might not be a conversation for you to
contribute to, but listen.

Speaker 4 (06:24):
So I would say, if.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
You're on the other side of forty five, however old,
that is like Gammy. I love Gammy, y'all know, I
love Gammy Jada's mom, but like she lives such a
great life and looks amazing. So if you're on the
other side of forty five, you could be fifty five
sixty five, We would love to hear from you about
what we have to look forward to. Any advice you've
navigated in your life peestfully women like what our bodies

(06:49):
are going through and frozen shoulder and getting hot all
the time and perrymnopause and menopause and all the things.

Speaker 4 (06:55):
So yeah, we should get those.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
If you all send in your clips, your comments or questions, testimonials,
we can definitely have that conversation.

Speaker 3 (07:02):
I love that invitation.

Speaker 7 (07:06):
What's something Nigga, lamb Pie, Andrew Angela and miscros?

Speaker 6 (07:12):
Nah? I do that, dude?

Speaker 3 (07:13):
He was over I don't.

Speaker 6 (07:15):
I have a quick question though social media. I joke
if you guys have then then I don't know. I
just haven't seen it. But why don't you guys like
talk about fan base or or on fan based.

Speaker 7 (07:27):
Maybe are I haven't seen it.

Speaker 6 (07:29):
I haven't really.

Speaker 5 (07:29):
Looked for you.

Speaker 6 (07:30):
But I'm just curious because, like Isaac Hays is right now, he's.

Speaker 7 (07:33):
Allowing the black people were not just black people with
people to like have equity into fan base like and
the and they're a public they're private right now. And
you know, if this is not that we were able
to have equity into TikTok or Instagram or something like
that before it became for it with public like that
would have changed so many people's lives. But I'm just
curious because like, obviously, if you own social media, if

(07:53):
you can't be kicked off certain things and all of
that nonsense. Plus it's just a space for us to
go and to talk about something we want to talk about.
And again, I on this ship, So why don't you
guys like kind of not really promote but like beyond
social on fan based like like Instagram to taxes.

Speaker 6 (08:10):
Sob I'm just curious.

Speaker 7 (08:11):
I mean, I know it's not as big as the
other ones yet, but I was just wondering because it's
black owned and black run all of that stuff.

Speaker 6 (08:18):
So I was just curious.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
So I love that question. And we had a question
from this gentleman before. I believe he lives outside the
country I think he like as a store in Africa.
I remember Roland and it's West Africa. I believe I
can't remember the country. So thank you for sending in
another question. Is great to see you again, Welcome home
to him. You know, I find the question really interesting.

(08:40):
To be honest with you, I am not one hundred
percent familiar with the functions of fan base. Obviously, I
know about it. We know Isaac Hayes, the third, it's
his business, and Angela correct me if I'm wrong. You
may not even know actually, but I feel like ro
Roland Martin is like is he a funder?

Speaker 4 (08:56):
Is he on the board?

Speaker 6 (08:57):
Like?

Speaker 4 (08:58):
What is his role? I know he has something to
do with it.

Speaker 5 (09:00):
I know that he's invested in it, but I don't
know if he's on the board. I will also confess
to not knowing enough about this and probably at the
risk of confessing too much, didn't really care for Isaac
Cay's during Stacy's election. He was supporting the white woman
also named Stacy. I was very irritated about that. But

(09:22):
you know, nope, but you know, I just I think
for me where I'm at now, and you all should
hold me to this as a sibling, Please help me
to this. We are in crisis, so none of that
shit matters. So I'm committed to right now. I see
I pulled it up. Tip to your point, get your

(09:43):
fan base equity now, invest today minimum of three ninety nine.
I'm committing to do that today to just show how
much the stuff that I was caring about and was
holding grudgus about really doesn't matter. And I also ask
our social team to start us an account.

Speaker 4 (09:57):
Sorry, oh wonderful.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
Okay, I just this is a quick parenthesis just to
say that Angela has has been on one when it
comes to that, like just driving the point home, like
I was mad about this, but it don't matter. We
in crisis and like really forcing us to let some
shit go and come together around things. So I appreciate
that perspective. I will commit I don't know exactly what

(10:20):
Angela did, but whatever she did, I will commit to
doing that.

Speaker 5 (10:25):
We each other blindly. It is my favorite thing about
this girl.

Speaker 3 (10:29):
I will commit to, Yeah, learn to learning what it is.
I was like, is this is this about our fan base?
Or you were like Tiffany was like I wish you
would have saved that for or somebody.

Speaker 4 (10:42):
Yeah, you terribly on social media a lot these days.
To be honest.

Speaker 5 (10:46):
You know, I'm gonna start tiffing and Andrew's account has
somebody manager, just so.

Speaker 3 (10:51):
I'm just gonna commit to learning right now.

Speaker 1 (10:53):
Yeah, yeah, but I will start an account on fan base.

Speaker 5 (10:57):
Okay, so Tip said don't do that. She got that. Okay,
I'm figured it out right now.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
You know, if you if somebody gonna start an account for me,
then go for it or I can do it, because
if y'all wait for me, it might be forever. I
you know, I've never met Isaac hayes Uh, but I
know Rowe has been promoting. I do like the idea
of like crowdfunding, and there is something to be said
about our challenges at times with supporting our own brands,

(11:24):
our own business, and it's not just even around brands.

Speaker 4 (11:27):
I remember for years I.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
Ran the bureau at BT and their DC bureau and
what I discovered because at the time that BT was
a thing that people were like, you know, tuning into
and it was it wasn't competing with streaming, you know,
it was something that people really dependent on. We had
to be all things to black people. We had to
be serious in news, we had to be funny and entertaining.

Speaker 4 (11:52):
We had to be.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
Movies and events, and you know, the BT Awards has
encompassed it all. What I found, particularly around the news
is black people liked the black viewers. A good portion
liked their news and information validated by white folks.

Speaker 4 (12:10):
It was fine.

Speaker 1 (12:11):
We did some amazing coverage at BET, but they would
have tuned in if it was on CNN. They didn't
tune in on Bet on the flip side.

Speaker 4 (12:20):
Black already to.

Speaker 5 (12:22):
Be a mini pod. That is good, that needs to
be a whole mini pod.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
Okay, let's check whoever keeping track of the eighteen mini pos.

Speaker 4 (12:34):
Can you please keep a track of that.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
But also, I was at BT at the time when
the Real Housewives franchise launched, and I thought, if BET
had ever dared launch something like this, the black community
would have been outraged, but they will tune into it
on Bravo.

Speaker 4 (12:50):
So there's something about.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
That psychology of how we treat black owned brands, which
kind of gets into a conversation we're having later. We
talked about, you know, Angel brought up that you want
to talk about the Ralph Lauren issue, and Lanny Smith
is going to be joining us, So don't go anywhere.

Speaker 4 (13:10):
Keep in tune.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
We have a few more topics to get to, but
just make sure you stick around for that interview because
we're going to deep dive into that topic. Andrew, because
I feel like you and I you have a very
philosophical point of view around things at times, and I
just wonder what you make of the whole concept of
buying black supportive.

Speaker 3 (13:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Well, first of all, I just
want to double stamp your point around this. It's not
a cultural phenomenon. It is one of the longest living
vestiges of white supremacy, slavery, racism, and that is that
this idea creeps in constantly, that white is right, and

(13:50):
this idea of validation. When Obama took off right, there
was a lot of hesitancy in the black community until
we saw that white folks were willing to get him
in Iowa right, and he was, he was commanding there
and then ran away with us when it came to it.

Speaker 6 (14:03):
But up to that.

Speaker 3 (14:04):
Point, including a number of our leaders who we can
all name, were not on that train at the time.
And I think that was probably a mix of both
white is right and also is this a suicide mission
or is there really a path forward so this whole
believability can we do it thing? I think it was
probably a mix of the two of those. I don't

(14:25):
want to indalidate that Cartegie Woodson rights in the Miseducation
of the Negro and I won't get the quote completely right,
but he basically says, if the man tells you to
go to the back door, and you reach the back
and there is no door. You will carve one out

(14:45):
for this special purpose because your education makes it necessary.
And he's talking about the miseducated Negro right, and he says,
you don't even have to send us to the back.
We will go without being told because our education makes
it necessary. And I think that's the kind of thing
that we've got to vociferously and aggressively disrupt in our community,

(15:09):
which is, we don't have to have the validation, nor
is it necessary to have the validation outside of ourselves.
We got fact checkers over here, We've got griots over here,
people who know history. We've got folks who understand the
ins and outs of politics better than the household names
that you associate with knowing the ins and outs of
politics because we've been there and we've done it, and

(15:30):
so far as I can tell, we're about the only
race of people who have had to consider what white
people and what the majority community will do in an
election cycle as a way of determining how we might
act or counter act what they may do. So this
idea of having to have almost, you know, claravoyance, if

(15:52):
not claravoyance, at least having a real strong feeling about
something because as we know, in our community, you one
false move can get you clipped. Uh, so we we
we can't. We don't have the luxury of moving with
such ease. So I say that all to say we
should trust ourselves, trust our community, trust that we have
everything we need within our selves to be as self

(16:16):
sufficient and as thriving as we need to be. But
in this country, there's some layers we got to get over.
And those are those structural layers that we've got to disrupt.
And I think this podcast and part is in some
way contributing to that disruption.

Speaker 4 (16:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:30):
I kind of remember this happening too a title when
jay Z launched title like it was yeah, but they
had trouble, like he was trying to, you know, counter
other brands like a yeah, and people didn't really buy
into it. And I always wonder, you know, I wonder
why it's too much?

Speaker 3 (16:49):
Is this something like it's less than all the other
stuff you're comparing it to?

Speaker 5 (16:52):
Can I tell you too? They also were paying the artists,
Like that's the part that I really either. It's like
if you're paying the artists for ever, like, what is
the actual issue? I still am a title subscriber, even
though they sold half to share.

Speaker 4 (17:06):
Well.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
Again, I think it goes back to the psychology of it,
and I think sometimes we can have harsher judgment on
black businesses. You know, we can either have you know,
incredibly high standards for black things are incredibly low standards.
And so you know, I noticed some of that Atlanta.
You guys don't watch Atlanta, but it's such a great episode.
But they did an episode around that. But also Insecure

(17:31):
Easter Ratio, when Molly went to work at a black
law firm. She left the white law firm and went
to a black law firm, and like she kept making
these little comments about the black law firm, like I know,
these meeting they're about to start on time. We sold
black up in here. We can't even start a meeting
on time. And she got checked a little bit.

Speaker 3 (17:50):
Yeah profession yes, yeah, like who.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
You think you although you think you greater because and
we dealt with that at BT as well, Like people
would come I came to BT from CNN, people would
come from elsewhere, and you know, people will talk like, well,
this is how it works in a newsroom, and it's like,
you gotta tell me how I works in the news.
I know how it works in the newsroom.

Speaker 3 (18:07):
Yeah, And I'll tell you similar to that Tiffany and politics,
it would be I'd be with colleagues and the questioners
from the audience would ask me sort of heart and
soul and feeling questions, and would ask my colleagues technical questions.
What's the level depth of da da dada da. So
I almost made it my pattern of behavior to lead
with what the what the technical side of things are

(18:30):
before I would ever get to heart and mind and spirit,
because they didn't think I, you know, for whatever reason,
didn't trust either what I had to say on those things,
or didn't think I had anything at all to say
or those matters, but thought I was a good persuasive speaker,
And so they throw me those kinds of things and

(18:51):
not the sort of you know, brass tacks of a matter.

Speaker 5 (18:55):
Yeah, can I have, well, have a technical matter, you
guys have Okay, I got no, no, No, it's a
technical matter that can still go on the show. You
can leave all this in there. I've set up your accounts.
You need to verify them by checking your emails and
the OKA being accountable.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
Paul's right there, guys, we got to pay some bills.
But on the other side of this break, we're going
to pick back up. I think in terms of black businesses,

(19:36):
this will be a good topic to pick up in
a bit, because I definitely have some questions for uh
Lanny about his thoughts and even this concept around the
Ralph Lauren brand in terms of being like celebrating black elitism,
and because like we say that like it's a bad thing,
you know, like black people don't they shouldn't have money,

(20:00):
Like black people shouldn't have nice Like like why is
that when we say black elitism? Like what is it
that we're attacking? You know, like what is our issue
with that?

Speaker 4 (20:08):
Now?

Speaker 1 (20:08):
If we're talking about elitism as it relates to like
white supremacy and classism and you know, a skin complexion
and all that, then yes, like we have to erode
those systems, those systems. But a part of me feels
like when I look at like the the the Flappers
and like you know, Josephine Baker and like the glorified

(20:29):
beautiful people of the Harlem Renaissance, you know, you know
they call the founding of the naacp elitism and you know,
the wars that kind of took place between Marcus Garvey
and W. E. B. Du Bois, And I just think
there's a conversation that we had around that too, like
what are we calling black elitism and why are we
mad about it?

Speaker 4 (20:49):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
If it's like you shouldn't be aspirational to participate in
the white man system of capitalism, which is fair, then
let's have that conversation. But sometimes I feel like we're
saying because you have you don't know where people came from.
You may have come from the gutter, but you have
built up this thing, and now you're automatically considered black elite,
which means you are no longer a part of the community.

(21:11):
I recognize you can't advocate for me. You don't understand,
you know, the struggle, and so there's a disconnect. And
I don't want to demonize anybody who has that thought,
but I'm just.

Speaker 4 (21:21):
I find it curious. So anyway we can get into that.

Speaker 3 (21:24):
I don't you know, I don't know that people draw
down all of those inferences from elitism. I think we
can refer to the black elite without attaching to it
derogatory or sort of sentiment. I don't think the word
elite in it of itself is a negative, is a pejorative.
I think elite means set out and set apart. And

(21:47):
I don't know what websters would say about that, but
that's sort of how I view it now. If I
were saying someone was acting stuck up, that would be
something different than what I would associate with elite. I
don't know if either of you all are watching The
Gilded Age.

Speaker 4 (22:04):
Don't say anything about it. I'm about this.

Speaker 3 (22:06):
All I'll say so. Felicia Rashad has entered this season.

Speaker 4 (22:09):
I feel like, no, no, no, I'm not.

Speaker 3 (22:12):
I'm not. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not. All I'm
gonna say about it is with her entry into the show,
this idea of the really dynastic dynamism that exists within
the black community, that we are not all one thing.
You're gonna see if you watch that show, you'll see
that beautifully. I think uh demonstrated in this show the

(22:38):
fact that even post emancipation and not long after, you
had black folks who for generations already we're in you know,
parts of this country vacationing and owning second homes and
spending seasons there and we would never be associated with
having had that in our lineage. But I think that

(23:00):
show will help to put it on full display. And
it was, honestly, I got to tell you, probably my
first time ever seeing a period piece like the Gilded
Age that did such a dynamic job with showing the
range of blackness, even though the show seems to be
centered around whiteness. If you have that impression, I would

(23:21):
ask you the challenge it and take another look.

Speaker 4 (23:23):
People, wasn't it been talking about it a lot.

Speaker 5 (23:26):
I think that the elite conversation is very nuanced. I
think there are some people that see the word elite
and feel excluded. I just talked earlier about being at
the National Bar Convention and my first National Bar conventions
I went to as a law school student. I'm the
only lawyer in my family. My family's pretty well educated,
mostly college educated, but we didn't own a lot. My

(23:50):
grandmother and this gets back to our conversation that we
were having a couple of weeks ago. My grandparents worked
really hard. Grandmother was in a union at Boeing, grandfather
was is a pome importer. They worked very very hard
to buy the house they had and then when my
grandmother was older, she did a reverse mortgage. So that's
a property in our family that we didn't keep. I

(24:11):
had other members of my dad's family who owned their
homes and sold them. My mom's siblings owned their homes
and sold them. When I was a baby, my parents
owned a home in a prestigious area in Sea, i'll
call it Madison Park. My dad fell upon hard times
and sold that. So we're not a family where there's
generational wealth that has been passed down. When my mom's
mom passed, she left some money, but it wasn't a lot.

(24:36):
So coming to this conference, this convention, when I was
in law school and I saw people who brought their
children and their children are raised together, judges, kids playing together,
They have spouses, events and things, you know, joining the
links that I now have quit, but you know they
had a link spouses and you're an era link and
all of these things. That is a part of black

(24:58):
elitism that is exclusionary. And I don't think it's by design.
It's they're trying to create spaces where they're saying this
is okay. But for those of us who were not
born into it, it feels very isolating. It feels very like,
where do I belong? Where do I fit? And is
there a space for me to on ramp my family
into this And I don't want to do that at
the exclusion of other black folks. So I just wish

(25:20):
that in those conversations, especially when you bring up W. E.
B where he talks about the talented tent, the talented
tenth was a reality, but it's not the vision, right,
And so I just would like for us to hold
true multiple things. One is that we need to figure
out a way to on ramp more black people and
it's something they so desperately and righteously deserve. But also

(25:41):
be aware of the fact that that we do create
these clicks for lack of a better term, or silos.
I'll say that feel like there's no that everybody doesn't belong.
So I just wish that we could knock out.

Speaker 3 (25:54):
Some of that.

Speaker 1 (25:55):
It's gonna be controversial, Yeah, okay, so how was you? No, No,
it's not a disagreement me. Andrew might be about to
say the same thing, So you go for it, Andrew.

Speaker 3 (26:05):
No, So I'll just say my wife is was of
that right. So her daddy was a university president and
the Boulet. Her mother a LINK member, and she grew
up in Jack and Jill and all those groups that
I had no appreciation for whatsoever growing up because I
wasn't a part of any of that, and my family,
my parents very specifically didn't come from that kind of

(26:28):
upbringing a good home, but certainly not that you mentioned
that those groups then themselves go to become exclusionary. And yeah,
there is some exclusion to the sense that there are
certain qualifications that you have to meet in order to
qualify for membership, as similar to sororities and fraternities. Right,
you can't be a Delta or an Aka or any
of the Divine Nine if you hadn't gone to college.

(26:48):
Otherwise you'd have to be honorary, right, You'd have to
be made an honorary member. So that even has criteria
to it. But I actually think these organizations serve a
really important and vital role at helping to keep those
who have ascended into certain levels of wealth and entry
into into certain echelons of society, who felt quite frankly,

(27:13):
that they didn't look around and see their peers, they
were surrounded by all white faces and places that they
found themselves either having to assimilate to you know, sort
of rich whiteness in order to be included, or you
found yourself really shying away from it, separating yourself, which
also has the effect of sort of stunt stunting your

(27:35):
your further evolution in those spaces, And what I think
some of these organizations do is they say, you're not
by yourself, brother, You're not by your self sister. Like together,
we may not be in the same company, we may
not own the same company, we may have be invested
in the same places, but we understand almost without speaking,
what the culture is that all of us have to

(27:56):
sort of deal with an encounter the same thing. For instance,
what do you call it? The the Masons, the Masonic organization,
which I have to tell you, I got to give
a hat off to the Masons and the Masonic lodges
in Florida because I wasn't a member when I ran
for governor, but when I was invited into their halls
and to talk to their members, you you hit every

(28:19):
rung of society in those spaces. I have cousins who,
having dreamt of going to college, didn't go, don't want
to go, but are so high up within those organizations.
My grandfather was a member, my mother, my grandmother was
an Eastern Star, and they were working people. And you know,
my granddaddy cut yards and my grandmother made house and

(28:40):
raised you know, eighteen headed children, yes, by the same man, right,
And and they held those organizations, the Eastern Stars and
the and and my grandfather's Masonic Association like they were.
They were family. They were family, and they had they
learned about organization and Robber's use of order, and they ascended.

(29:02):
And so I'll just say, yes, does it have its exclusion, Yes,
But I think back to a time where we were
in places where we just didn't have many camrades with us,
and that the only place you could go to find
it was probably church on Sunday. And short of that,
there were no professional organizations and otherwise that bought you

(29:23):
in and held you in your toughest of moments, you know,
stealed your body so you didn't feel like you had
to quit. And I think those organizations kind of serve
that really vital function.

Speaker 1 (29:35):
Well, I I might be controversial still, I thought we
were going to say the same thing, but I appreciate
both your points. I think you know this isn't a
conversation necessarily with disagreement, though I imagine our viewers might
have some disagreement with us, and we welcomed that. Of course,
I'll drop us a video, and again, if you like
the conversation, please share it with a friend, because we'd

(29:55):
love to make this more interactive. But I think, you know,
I grew up not elite at all, whatever the opposite
of elite is, Like, that's how I grew up. No
one in my family went to college, even like a
few people dropped out of high school.

Speaker 4 (30:10):
I mean, it was just not we didn't have money.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
You know, a lot of my family's on public assistance
and so, but we were you know, it's not like
we were out there panhandling. We just didn't come from
a lot. I when my life began to change, because
I made it change, there were times so I didn't
want to be around that. And I think this is
kind of a part of the conversation we'll have today
because the vineyard, for example, I have not enjoyed the

(30:37):
vineyard as much the past couple of years because I
think the crowd has changed.

Speaker 4 (30:43):
Now.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
The vineyard was a you know, a black beach where
black families could go and have safety and it still
exists like that. I think that's one of the beautiful things.
Like you when you are a black parent on the
vineyard and your twelve year old comes over and says, Mommy,
I just met Johnny. I'm going to his house moms
and dad. He's like, okay, bye, Like I don't have
to meet them, I don't have to know them. It's
impolite to lock your doors. Like it's just a community.

(31:07):
It's turned into like a Hollywood gathering now. And what
I loved about it is you just go get out
the beach hair. My hair would look like I licked
my finger and stuck it in a socket and I'm
walking down the street and it's all good and it's great,
and it was fine. Now like you see and weave
and lashes on the vineyard, you seeing heels to the
beach party. It's just a different environment and it's not

(31:30):
as down. People thought it was elite, but now it's
more like aspirationally elite, like because you saw the Obamas
went there, so now you want to go. But really
it was regular ass black folks who could afford a
second home or rent it a second home. For this summer,
and it was just a great safe time to relax
into who you were. All you do is pork chop
and sit on people's and it's just changed so much.

(31:51):
So there are spaces that I want to go that
are that everybody's not invited, and I don't think that's
a bad thing. There are places I can't go. I'm
not invited, there are rooms I can't get in. I
don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. I think what's
bad is when you're in these spaces and you're looking
down on another space, when you feel like I'm in
this space and I am better than I am, you know,

(32:14):
subconsciously aspiring for white approval or white ness. I want
to live like white folks when really we're in these
spaces sometimes amongst ourselves, having a good time. But it
ain't no difference between me being here, you know, at
the ink well than it is between you at Edgewater
Beach in Cleveland or on the beach in Alabama. Like

(32:35):
wherever you are, you are my family and I am yours.
So that's my thought on black leaders. Yeah, I just
the only.

Speaker 5 (32:43):
Other thing I'll say is, you know, the conflict week
in Martha's Vineyard, and I don't enjoy Martha's Vineyard at all.
Not because I do enjoy it once I get there,
but the process to get there is hell for me.
It's just and then the phone don't work and it
ain't got Uberla cars, which I know sounds very elitist.
But bear with me for two seconds, like I am

(33:04):
over it, y'all, as she asked, super rude situation. I
don't want to do it. So but what I do enjoy,
because my expectations are completely managed by it is alert.
I'm on the CBC Institute Board. Are Tunica Policy Conference
is the same week where most of the stuff is
popping off of Martha's Vineyard. That is like a big
black family reunion for me. That's where I'm gonna be
next week, and I cannot wait because it is not

(33:27):
no pretentious. The only thing I don't like is everything's fried.
I'm surprised to let us ain't fried. But it is
the time where, like I know, we can completely let
our hair down and it is chill. So that's the
black elitis in my life.

Speaker 1 (33:37):
But you say Tunica is not elitists, and there are
people who would show up in Tunica and feel like
that's elitist.

Speaker 4 (33:43):
I used to do the Tunica conference for years.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
I enjoy it, but it just shows like, then what
what's elite to you? Might not even be elitian to
somebody like Oprah looking at our broke ass is.

Speaker 4 (33:53):
On the vineyard like, oh, y'all enjoy we and maman.

Speaker 5 (33:58):
We we have the south of Front, we have space exactly.

Speaker 4 (34:05):
Have you been in space? Exactly?

Speaker 1 (34:09):
But I could definitely see somebody going to Tunica feeling
like this bougie you know when I would love.

Speaker 5 (34:14):
To meet them. I can't wait to go.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
I got some people in my family who would feel
out of place at Tunica.

Speaker 4 (34:21):
They would feel yeah, because I mean like.

Speaker 5 (34:24):
To me to juice and space, no doubt about it.

Speaker 3 (34:31):
Yes, So that the reason why certain because certain people
you can feel like you can let your hair down.
Congress Woman, this space because you understand the price of admission. Now,
if the price of admission was everybody and then some one,
those folks aren't coming anymore because the space that they
need in order to you know, lick everything off that

(34:54):
chicken bone, the space that they need for that to
happen has to be one of peers.

Speaker 5 (34:59):
Remind me because the Negros looking everything off the chicken.

Speaker 1 (35:04):
I'm telling you, but they do that because it's a
safe space. Like everybody is not invited. You're not you
have to be invited to the Tunica Institute. It's like
there's a cost, like you're a sponsor, you're there is something,
there's a reason why you're there.

Speaker 5 (35:17):
The locals is different. So that's why I.

Speaker 3 (35:19):
Will also suggest that there are spaces that may not
cost what it costs to be in Tunica or hilton
Head Island for the week. That's where you know, our
Jay's family would go, and the presidents of universities Black
hbc US with vacation hilton Head Island together, if not

(35:40):
out of the country. But there are spaces that you
and I might not you know, necessarily choose or want
to be that you know where I grew up, where
you couldn't go into that particular establishment. You would not
feel at home, you would not feel comfortable. They may
not let you in, right, but one of my brothers

(36:01):
could probably be at home if he's not checking folks
at the door, and you know, or weekends, certain events
that that would be organized that way. So the I
guess what I'm saying exclusion I would like to look
at it not just from top down, but from bottom
up and center out and everything in between. Because there
are spaces in places, you know, regardless of who we know,

(36:24):
regardless of who we've brush shoulders with, that we are
not invited into, are not welcome into. And I'm not
talking about space and owning an island in Hawaii. I'm
talking to you know, other other parts of our society.
And so are they exclusionary, Yeah, they are exclusionary. But
these spaces are creating. I believe that they are created

(36:45):
largely for fellowship, but to serve a purpose, to create
an at home feeling, or to create some atmosphere where
the people who are in that room feel completely at home,
feel completely at ease, and feel protected by those who
are around them. My dad used to tell me growing up,
and again, he was a construction worker, my mother drove
school buses. Son, never hang out with anybody who's got

(37:09):
less to lose than you might, because his point was
they'll take They don't calculate risks the same way you do.
They don't see, you know, the trouble the same way
you might see it, and it'll drag drag everybody down,
and so you know, and he wasn't talking about class
and how much money you make. He simply meant, if

(37:30):
you didn't value what you did and bring to it
the same ethic that that that I do, in the
same protection I do, then we're not gonna roll smooth
together because you're gonna put me in some situations or
I may put you in some situations that you otherwise
would never have been in had you had you stayed
at your speed.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
Well, I wanted to get to to Gaza, but we're
gonna save that because Lanny's gonna join us. Yeah, but
this has been a good conversation I think to be
really interesting to hear from Lanny Smith, who was, of course,
as Angela said, the founder of Actively Black, and he's
going to share his thoughts on Ralph Lauren and what

(38:12):
we're talking about when we say Ralph Lauren is Ralph Lauren.
Some months ago or some years ago actually launched a
line with more House Spelman emblems on them, so you know,
again at the very elite HBCUs And this year they
have launched an Oak Bluffs line. Oak Bluff's is the
blackest neighborhood of Martha's Vineyard historically black beach, like I said,

(38:35):
where families would go and congregate and stay really for
a sense of safety and belonging at a time where
they were not welcome elsewhere. Their dollars were not welcome,
their bodies were not welcome. And so Ralph Lauren is
obviously not a black owned company. But in their effort
to quote unquote be inclusive and DEI, they have launched

(38:55):
this line and their beautiful black models modeling the clothes.
But at issue a lot of you have raised, is
is this cultural appropriation or is it cultural appreciation? And
how do we feel when brands take our culture and
profit off of them? Even if Angela made a point
on our car earlier? But what if the creative director
is black? What if you know the vps are black?

(39:17):
How many black people work for this company? Or should
we be supporting our own and can both of these
concepts exist in commerce and in the marketplace?

Speaker 5 (39:27):
Oh yes, I know, before we get actively Black with
Lanny Smith, We're gonna take a quick break. All right,
good brothers, so good to have you on. Thank you
for all the history you're making with actively Black, breaking

(39:47):
the Internet, and you have managed to do that again
getting Roberrand together. So I want to hear from you.
You know, from your perspective, they do have this black
creative director more house, Brad. I always see you celebrating everything,
But I want to hear from you why this rubbed
you particularly wrong, this line they're launching.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
Yeah, to be honest with you, it wasn't that the
line rubbed me wrong, you know.

Speaker 6 (40:11):
And I've actually been surprised at the.

Speaker 2 (40:14):
Feedback because I said very similar things all the time
and the last time that they dropped the line. My
message is really to our people that I want us
to value us. I want us to value black owned
in the way that we value everybody else's stuff.

Speaker 6 (40:28):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
Shout out to you know, the black creative director over
there at Ralph Lauren. Like I said, I committed them.
I think it's a beautiful collection and very well done.
But there's something to be said about how we view
ourselves and how we treat our black on brands, and
to me, what I feel like is part of an

(40:51):
inferiority complex where we value European designer and white designer
in a way that we don't value ourselves and with
what I'm building with Actively Black, you know, the tagline
is there's greatness in our DNA, And that's very intentional
because I want our people to understand that the centuries

(41:12):
and centuries of oppression have subconsciously seeped into some of
our minds where we actually believe some of the lies
we've been told that we're less than, that we're not
as smart as and so sometimes we look to these things.

Speaker 6 (41:26):
Of what we buy and what we wear to.

Speaker 2 (41:28):
Validate ourselves as if, you know, being invited to a
seat at the table makes us feel better about ourselves.
And I'm just trying to say, let's stop stop being
so happy about being invited to the seat at the table.
Let's build our own table, you know what I mean.
Like we are the source, we are the sauce. We
are the seasoning that everybody else takes, repackages and then

(41:52):
sells back to us. And so it really was nothing
against Ralph, Lauren or Polo or what they're doing. I'm
not anti anybody. I'm just for us. More So, I
wanted to make sure I clarify that because I got
a lot of people coming at me sideways, you know,
and I'm like, yo, I didn't say anything bad about them.
I didn't say anything against them. What I did present

(42:13):
were facts, and the facts were that Ralph Lauren said himself,
this is a quote by him, this is on their website,
that he was unaware of these issues facing black America
until the events of twenty twenty. And he actually sat
down in a company meeting with who the judge chator

(42:34):
names post George Floyd Breonna Taylor, and he sat down
in a teen meeting about the racial awakening, and James
showed him a yearbook of a Morehouse yearbook, and he
was impressed with, you know, the fashion that.

Speaker 6 (42:50):
He saw there.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
And then he decided, Hey, we need to revisit how
we are expressing the American dream. My only thing with
that is, bro we started in nineteen sixty six or
sixty seven. How were you unaware of our contributions to fashion,
to culture, to the world until twenty twenty.

Speaker 6 (43:10):
So that makes me feel like there's a lack of.

Speaker 2 (43:16):
Authenticity behind the scenes of what's actually going on with this.
When I look at the amount that they have committed
to giving to HBCUs, it's two million dollars to twelve
different schools over five years. Due to math, it comes
out to thirty three thousand dollars per school per year.
Ralph Lauren does seven billion dollars in revenue every single year.

(43:41):
What they giving back to these schools is really what
y'all buying this apparel for. They're not actually sacrificing anything
to give back to the community. That's all that I
was saying. I don't have anything against the collection. It's
beautifully done. I watched the video that accompanied out. It
was beautiful and how it told us story of you know,
Martha's vineyard and Oak Bluffs and the history of that.

(44:04):
I think that's commendable. I just think our people need
to understand who we are.

Speaker 6 (44:10):
And why.

Speaker 2 (44:13):
We should aspire to us These aspirational brands that sell
this lifestyle and this image that is not us. I
think we just we get caught up and chasing that.
And so I'm not anti Ralph Lauren and not anti
anybody else. I'm just pro us well speaking.

Speaker 3 (44:33):
The most coaching argument you've heard. I'm sorry you said
go ahead.

Speaker 5 (44:37):
Speaking, yeah, speaking of as a mentality landing, And I'm sorry, Andrew,
will let you follow up here because I think one
of the things that's really important is a lot of
brands get our culture enough to package and to sell
to us. We always are talked about in the in
the frame of our collective buying power. We're never talked

(45:00):
about in terms of our ownership. And the one stat
that does come up when we talk about the dollar
recycling in the black community is that maybe that happens
one time over. So what I hear you saying is like,
I'm trying to shift us out of the mentality of
supporting a brand that throws a bone to us that
really is about taking something back from our community, which
is keeping us in the consumer mentality. Can you talk

(45:23):
about how actively Black is trying to shift out of
that because you're building an ecosystem around black owners beyond
the actively black family one thousand percent.

Speaker 2 (45:35):
Mackenzie released a report I think it was last year
that showed that Black Americans spend thirty billion dollars a
year on apparel and shoes. So we know that the
larger number of our collective buying power, but specifically on
apparel and shoes, it's thirty billion a year and they're
projecting by twenty thirty that number is going to double.

(45:56):
We don't have a single black owned apparel brand that's
doing a billion. So if we our people are spending
thirty billion a year on apparel and we don't have
a single black owned apparel brand that is worth a
billion dollars, that's something wrong internally. That's something that we
need to be facing and talking about ourselves.

Speaker 6 (46:17):
And so part of what we're doing actively black.

Speaker 2 (46:20):
We just launched one cotton line that all of the
product is made from cotton grown by black farmers. And
I wanted to take this a step further with not
just the end product, but a black owned supply chain, right,
And so you know, I've got a couple of the
pieces here, you know the hoodie, you know the back

(46:40):
of it, it says made.

Speaker 6 (46:43):
From cotton grown by black farmers. You know what I mean?
Like this?

Speaker 2 (46:46):
And so when you think about the history that our
people have with cotton in this country, you have to
understand that there were trillions of dollars in today's value
that were generating off the backs of our labor for
cotton during slavery, that we didn't get a chance to
have any of the ownership of the value that we created.

(47:09):
And so I look at this as you know, we
ain't waiting all reparations. This is this is reclamation, you
know what I mean, Like, that's that's really, that's what
this that's what this hoodie that's part of that collection,
that's what it's. It's it's symbolizing. Is if we're spending
thirty billion dollars a year on apparel, we imagine what
one percent shifting one percent of that spend to a

(47:30):
black on supply chain. Does you know Black farmers have
lost ninety percent of their land since nineteen twenty. We
used to own between eighteen to twenty million acres of land.
We only own three million acres of land today. And
with some of the anti DEI policies that this current
administration is implementing, black farmers are under attack again. Where

(47:52):
in the next ten years that might go down to zero.
That's a real possibility. And so what I'm saying is, Hey,
if we were already spending this money with everybody else
and generating wealth for everybody else, why not turn that inward,
generate that for us, And to your point, then that
dollar stays within the black community, because now there's a

(48:13):
black farmer that's getting paid for his cotton and his
labor in the fabric that we're making the product out of.
And then we're turning around and we're donating to HBCUs,
we are funding programs that pay for mental health access
for black men. We donate to Black Mama's Matter, where
we are fighting the abysmal maternal mortality rate, where black

(48:34):
women are dying at three times the rate of anybody
else in this country.

Speaker 6 (48:38):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (48:39):
So when you're buying actively black, it's also going back
to the black community. When we're buying from everybody else,
none of that money is coming back to us. And
so that's that's what I'm trying to get our people
to see and to understand that's real.

Speaker 3 (48:57):
I was initially going to ask you, letting, what is
the most cogent argument you've heard opposite your view? And
if if there isn't one that carries water for you
that you've heard it's all nonsense, what are you hearing
most consistently from people who are pushing back on your position.

Speaker 6 (49:22):
I haven't heard one.

Speaker 2 (49:23):
I haven't heard one that makes sense that covers all
the bases that we're talking about. Right, So, if it's
somebody who says something about oh, whether donating back to
the HPCUS. We just broke down with these numbers. Who
they are so pennies that doesn't Yeah, and I said
this yesterday on my social media. I said, if you're

(49:43):
happy about getting an invite to sit at the table,
then you're willing to accept the crumbs that they give you.
I'm trying to build us a table that we own,
where we can feast on what we have created, which
is the most influential and valuable culture.

Speaker 6 (49:59):
On the planet. You know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (50:01):
That everybody else sees our value, which is why they
do what they do. When are we going to see
our value? You know what I'm saying. And so you know,
I've heard that. I've heard people even say, you know, man,
Ralph has always been an ally to us, so why
are you saying? And I was like, where are you

(50:22):
getting that from? Show me somewhere where that ally ship
has been manifested. You know, Like I said, there's a
lot of brands that came out with their performative declarations
in twenty twenty, and from my perspective, they're just shifting
what they've always done with their marketing strategies, which is

(50:45):
get a piece of the culture here, repackage it, sell
it back to this culture, and continue to profit off of.

Speaker 6 (50:51):
Black people, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (50:53):
And there hasn't been a counter argument that has actually
made any sense to me, to be honest with you.

Speaker 3 (51:00):
What can I offer one It's not a counter argument,
but I would I would ask you this, and I
mean it necessarily is can can more than one thing
be true at a time? Which is to say, can
black folks be really proud of their being a creative director?
For instance, at Ralph Lauren Polo or what Pharrell has
done with Louis Vuitton. I'm sorry, I got that brand wrong. Yeah,

(51:25):
he's that's right, that's Libton and and black people feel
a sense of pride about the fact that we have
been able to if you will infiltrate big white, largely
white lead companies, organizations and infuse it with our cultural experience,

(51:46):
our heritage and what you know, frankly, the culture of
of of of of the black community of the day
and maybe of the past. Even so, I guess some
of some of what I would assess my be pushback
would be, we don't have to we don't have to
squat on what the brother from Morehouse is doing. You know,

(52:08):
there can't we have that and also build at the
same time. I'm offering that as just a thought that
I think some folks may have, and I'm curious how
you might respond to to what I think is probably
a pretty popular reason to pushback folks might have to
what they're hearing.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
And I'll tell you the reason why I don't understand
that pushback is because there was never anything that I
said that the means what James has done and what
he's building it is. Everything that I said was congratulatory.

Speaker 6 (52:40):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
I expressed how beautiful the collection is. I've expressed that
it's beautiful that he's able to tell this story with
the platform that he has. So to me that that pushback, honestly,
I feel like, is one misguided and two I almost
feel like it's an intentional I don't want to go
as far as say gaslight, but it's like, bro, I

(53:03):
didn't say nothing bad about James. I didn't say nothing
bad about the collection, so there is nothing against that.
What I'm saying is if you're willing to pay one
hundred and twenty eight dollars for a T shirt because
it's got Polo on it. But then you are complaining
that a black owned shirt that is helping black farmers

(53:27):
is sixty dollars that you can replace. Take Polo, Ralph
Lauren off it, but you can replace that brand with
anything else, Gucci, Louis Vataran, whatever you want to put
on it. The statement remains the same. If you're valuing
somebody else's stuff more than you value our stuff that's
actually giving back to us. There's an internal problem that
we got to look in the mirror and face. So again,

(53:50):
big up to James, big up to Pharrell, big up
to all of them. But I will also say this,
choose my words carefully, but I will also say this,
As you said, two things can remain true, right, So
we can be happy that James has ascended to being
the creative director there. We can be happy that Pharrell

(54:12):
is the head men's designer at Louis Vuitton and also
acknowledge that those brands are still utilizing them to profit
from the culture. Those two things can exist. And you know,
I've had this. I've had this argument in a different
context where I went to the University of Houston. That's

(54:34):
why I played my college basketball. So my dream was
a play in the NBA. Signed with the Sacramento Kings
in two thousand and nine, was blessed to achieve my
dream of making to the NBA. And I played my
basketball at the University of Houston. And I've had people
who are HBCU along like, well, you didn't go to
an HBCU. You went to a PWI, right, And so

(54:56):
what I always threw back to them is, but I
see you selling break going to HBCU, and then you
celebrate going to work for a white company. You're celebrating, Oh,
I went to Morehouse, but now I'm at Google. I
went to Morehouse, but now I'm at Rolf Lawren.

Speaker 6 (55:11):
So you are.

Speaker 2 (55:12):
Proud of the accomplishment of achieving this position at a
white company, but you're the The flawed logic is that
because I went to a publicly white school, that somehow
that diminishes my stance on these things for our people,
that that doesn't that doesn't make.

Speaker 6 (55:32):
Sense to me. So so.

Speaker 2 (55:36):
The the the history of colonization has showed us that
these entities will purposely elevate some of us so that
they continue to have an avenue to sell to the
rest of us. You know what I'm saying like that,
that's just the facts of what has been happening across history,

(56:00):
you know what I'm saying. So I'm proud of for real,
if that was his personal goal for him to achieve
that position. Of course, I'm happy for anybody to live
their dream, to chase their dream. But as you said,
two things can also remain true at the same time.
Don't think that Louis Vatan doesn't know that what the
culture has meant to their brand. Don't think that Ralph

(56:22):
Lauren doesn't know what the culture has meant to his
brand and how this helps continue to sell to our people.

Speaker 3 (56:27):
Yeah, yourn is then not giving you anything.

Speaker 1 (56:30):
Yeah, Lanny, I just want to hop in here.

Speaker 4 (56:35):
One.

Speaker 1 (56:35):
I just I really appreciate your thoughts and your perspective here,
and I want to apologize. You know, I tried to
tell my co hosts that you did play in the NBA.

Speaker 6 (56:43):
She gave us undown I didn't know lifetime ago. So
don't worry about that.

Speaker 1 (56:49):
I just I just I get tired of always having
to explain and tell them about sports things. But anyway,
one thing that happens in our sartorial legacy when it
comes to couature in fashion, I would you know, use
Ivy Park as an example. They you know, would give
these like beautifully packaged outfits and it would arrive on

(57:10):
like these influencers doorsteps are like you know, actresses and
journalists and writers and and and whatnot. I'm curious, is
actively black? Do you need our addresses? Do you like
personally deliver? How do we get our hands on this

(57:31):
product by.

Speaker 3 (57:36):
Infiltrating native he just.

Speaker 5 (57:43):
Go to actively drifting?

Speaker 2 (57:46):
Would I would appreciate you know what I'm saying that
the patronage of the business and buying the product, but
also I do understand the value of our cultural influencers
being able to utilize the platform and their and their
followings to help bring attention to, you know, a black
owned brand.

Speaker 6 (58:06):
I mean, honestly, what you just said is something that
I've also battled with.

Speaker 2 (58:10):
I've had several conversations with different Black celebrities and cultural influencers,
and I would actually offer, hey, let me send this
to you, you know, would love your opinion on it,
and if you feel led to. I'm not asking this,
I'm not saying sentence to you in exchange for a post.
But if you feel led to share this with your people.

Speaker 6 (58:31):
I would love that. And it's been.

Speaker 2 (58:34):
Heartbreaking because some of those responses have been, yeah, I
need a hundred K for this post. But I see
you posted wearing Nike, and.

Speaker 6 (58:44):
I see you posting Baton and you who I'm not
gonna get again. I'm gonna tell you, I'm not gonna
get to that game.

Speaker 5 (58:55):
It's because I want accountability in this moment.

Speaker 3 (58:58):
It's so pervasive though, That's what.

Speaker 5 (59:00):
Yeah, but y'all are like what he's saying. I saw
that on State of the People. We are literally trying
to give people relief. So I want Landy to drop names.
I'm ready to drop names.

Speaker 8 (59:11):
What we're doing, I mean what I PRESI let's let's
make sure we do another episode and we could do
a drop names because because one of the reasons is.

Speaker 6 (59:22):
I got a long list. You know what I'm saying,
it's a lot.

Speaker 2 (59:26):
And I say heartbreaking because there's some people that you know,
sometimes they'll tell you, man, don't ever meet your heroes.

Speaker 6 (59:33):
You know what I'm saying. They'll disappoint you.

Speaker 2 (59:35):
Because there are people that public facing you think, oh
they for the culture, they're for us, they for the people,
and then I talked to them and it's like, yeah, bro,
I love what you're doing, but yeah, it's gonna be
it's gonna be fifty K.

Speaker 6 (59:49):
It's gonna bee hundred K for me to post this.
And I'm like, bro, but.

Speaker 2 (59:52):
I see you wearing other brands that's not paying you,
and you're posting antagging them because you think that's giving
you some sort of.

Speaker 4 (01:00:01):
Like social validation.

Speaker 2 (01:00:04):
Yeah, but what's more validating than than who you are,
who your people are.

Speaker 6 (01:00:11):
You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 2 (01:00:12):
Like, that's the thing that I just it wrecks my brain.
It breaks my heart because I just I can't under
I can't understand it. I just I did a post
a few days ago Pharrell actually invited when we outfitted
Team Nigeria in the in the Paris Summer Olympics, Pharrell
invited us to an event. It was held at the
Louis Vuitton headquarters. And as part of getting an invite,

(01:00:37):
you know you could be outfitted in Louis Vuitton, right,
And I respectfully rejected that and I hit up House
of Gray Black owned they make high end fashion and apparel,
and I was like, bro, I need you to make
the outfit for me and my girl. We going to
this Louis Vuitton event in Paris for the Olympics, and

(01:01:00):
and you could check the post right now, I tagged
all the black brands I was wearing. I had a
black on watch, my everything I got on that everything
I got on this black owned And I was like,
if I'm gonna be on that platform and Getty gonna
be there taking these pictures and I'm there with Pharrell
and Lebron and the rest of them, I'm gonna make
sure people see these black on brands that I'm wearing

(01:01:21):
because and I didn't charge nobody for that, because what
does that cost.

Speaker 6 (01:01:25):
Me to do? You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (01:01:26):
And the crazy part about that is when I posted
it originally, there were people that went to that black
on watch brand and bought watches because they found out
about it because I shared it, you know what I'm saying, Like,
to me, there's nothing more valuable than that I was
able to put some money in the pockets of another
black man that's an entrepreneur that's trying to build his business.

(01:01:49):
And I don't need no payment for that, you know
what I'm saying. So I'm walking this. I'm not just
talking this, I'm walking this. If you're not, I'm wearing
another black on brand and I'm shouting them out.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
Well, what we can commit, what we can commit to, Lanny,
I definitely will commit to buying something actively black, but
not just actively black. But there are other, you know,
black owned brands, high end, ath leisure, all kinds. Yeah,
a lot of people are like into like, oh, I'm
lacking lubatons and red bottoms. There's a wonderful black woman's
shoe designer, Saloon Monet, who has like comfortable and they're

(01:02:22):
comfortable shoes. So I'm thinking of all the black owned
brands I know, and I can definitely commit to patrioting
your brand, but also other black owned brands. And you
do have to come back because we're coming up on
time unfortunately, but we would love to have you back.
When you come back, I would invite you.

Speaker 4 (01:02:38):
To name names.

Speaker 1 (01:02:39):
But also just in this moment, initiate a challenge, uh
to the marketplace. I got to invest in our Okay,
go for it.

Speaker 4 (01:02:47):
We're entering our calls to action. So this is perfect.
What's your call to actually, Lanny?

Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
So this year will be the thirty year anniversary of
a millionaire march, right, And when I think about what
it took for a million black people to go to
DC in that moment, you know, you had to buy
a plane ticket, bus ticket, gas money, pay for food,
get your hotel. You paid more than sixty dollars in
order to do that, and you had to get up

(01:03:12):
and physically leave and go do something. I want to
sell a million of these shirts that are grown from
cotton from black farmers because for multiple reasons, but one
as a social experiment to show us what we can
do with group economics when we turn our influence and
all the things that we do for everybody else when we.

Speaker 6 (01:03:33):
Turn that inward. I would.

Speaker 2 (01:03:35):
And so with that, with that million shirts sold, what
that's gonna do. It's gonna generate over twenty million dollars
that we're gonna actually give back to the black community.
So I'm not only am I telling you what. I'm
gonna tell you what we're committing to from actively black
standpoint is sixteen million of that is going to black farmers.
We're gonna take two million dollars to donate to HBCU schools.

(01:03:59):
We're gonna take another two million and I'm going to
create some business grants for black business owners because people
don't know black founders received less than one percent of
all venture capital money. All venture capital money, black founders
received less than one percent. So when we get on
these platforms like why don't we have a black on this?
So why don't we have a black on this? I'm

(01:04:19):
actually trying to build something for our people. So that's
my action hedel that I'm saying, thank you, so maya
cotton shirt that's made from cotton grown by black farmers.

Speaker 6 (01:04:30):
We are loving we can build for us.

Speaker 1 (01:04:32):
Thank you so much, Land, We so appreciate you. Thank
you for joining Native Land. We are on it. We
love that call to action and please definitely come back
once you meet that that that goal. We would love
to maybe co brand NLP sweatshirts and we'll all be
wearing actively black NLP sweatshirts. But thank you so much again,
brother for joining us. We appreciate you, We love you, Senny,

(01:04:55):
you must love and hopefully we invite our audience to
meet the challenge.

Speaker 4 (01:04:58):
So that's our first GON actively. Thank you, n.

Speaker 3 (01:05:07):
We promise you a conversation on guys. It's a little heavy,
but it's one worth having. Stay tuned.

Speaker 1 (01:05:22):
It's time to shift the calls. The accent I really
love I mean, he set up a good call to
accent like we was awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:05:29):
I can't match it. I actually want to double down
on it, because what is unfortunate is a lot of
these black entrepreneurs can't just sell a great product. They
can't just create a great design and put it out there.
They're also tasked with the huge challenge of changing minds,
changing mindsets, shifting culture shifting I mean basically taking on

(01:05:51):
the vestiges of of of racism and white supremacy.

Speaker 4 (01:05:57):
Yeah, before you can get to the you.

Speaker 3 (01:05:59):
Know what they've been established for. I know in the
opening of the show, we talked about wanting to dive
a little bit more into Gaza on fear that it
won't be you know, this will be a crisis that
we're going to have to continue to address over the
coming weeks and months. I wish that we could turn

(01:06:21):
this thing around. We may not be able to, but
I know who can. Who can turn this thing around immediately?
And in the suffering of children and women and families
who have not picked up a weapon and are not
at war with anybody. They're in the survival fight of
their lives due to malnutrition and the inability for aid

(01:06:43):
organizations who are lined up at the gate ready to
deliver food, badly needed food to people. And the one
person who can change this is Benjamin nettan Yahoo of Israel,
who at one point allowed food to flow into Gaza

(01:07:04):
and to meet the needs of the people there even
in wartime, who has basically shut the borders, created only
four sights for distribution to serve a starving people. And
it's heart wrenching the watch. It's worse over that as
a country, we're aiding and a betting and the senseless

(01:07:27):
deaths we're funding. We're funding, aiding a betting and providing
cover yea to this heartless no doubt about it, genocide
that is underway in this region of the world, and.

Speaker 6 (01:07:47):
No one deserves it.

Speaker 3 (01:07:48):
And I'm appreciative of the European Union, France, Great Britain
who have all said that if this situation does not change,
that they will recognize the Palestine in state as a
free state and a member of the diplomatic community. It
should have already been done, but in the absence of

(01:08:09):
a two state solution. They are forging ahead with a
two state solution through diplomatic acknowledgment of Palestine as a
free state. And I wish that we had the courage
here in America to get back to some moral leadership
if we can muster it and help to end this
these senseless deaths and starvation happening aided and abtted by

(01:08:33):
the American tax ban dollar.

Speaker 1 (01:08:35):
I'm going to yield my call to action just to
echo your points, Andrew, because I think it's important for
people to understand where we are right now. As of
this week, sixty one, seven hundred and nine people have
been killed, that include seventeen thousand, four hundred and ninety
two children. Over one hundred and ten thousand people have

(01:08:57):
been injured, over fifty nearly fifteen thousand are missing or
presumed dead. The force displacement since the Israeli military has
issued more than sixty five evacuation orders since October seventh,
when the Hamas attack happened, left about eighty percent of
the Gaza Strip under evacuation orders. I'm going to disagree

(01:09:17):
with you a bit you gave, you know, kind of
like a good on the EU, and I have to
say I think these we are so beyond symbolic gestures
at this point. The UK, France like, well, I'll start.

Speaker 3 (01:09:31):
With the UK.

Speaker 1 (01:09:32):
The UK is the world's sixth largest economy. They in
this protest to Israel, have reduced the funding that they're
sending to Israel. America continues to fund this genocide, this
ethnic cleansing. I think if you really give a shit

(01:09:53):
about starving children, then you cut the funding off. That
is the only way to stop it. We are funding
children dying. I'm not impressed because you reduced your funding.
I'm not impressed. And I think Lanny just made a
good point about let's not settle for crumbs and pardon
the pun using this while we're talking about literally the

(01:10:14):
world standing by watching us fund the killing, the murder
of all these people Benjamin and Yahoo. Israel needs to
be an isolated state at this point. They are an
a moral, fanatical, far right white supremacist regime being funded
by the United States. And this is not specific to Trump.

(01:10:37):
This is over multiple administrations. They've controlled the airspace since
two thousand and seven, and it's just a disgusting thing
to see. We'll dive deep into this as we continue
to watch this. But I know this is something that
you wanted to talk about, Andrew, and so I'm yielding
my call to action just so we can get that
little bit of information out there. I know this is heavy,
and people, you know, we have a lot of heaviness
happening in our own lives and certainly right here in

(01:10:59):
our own country.

Speaker 4 (01:11:00):
But this is dire. This is dire.

Speaker 1 (01:11:02):
While we have the privilege in this country to turn
and look away and check out because we don't want
to feel uncomfortable, we cannot closing our eyes. Pretending it's
not happening doesn't mean it's not happening. And we always
say never forget, and again and again and again we forget,
and we stand by and let the atrocities of the
world happen.

Speaker 4 (01:11:18):
My call to action is to not do that anymore. Angela.
I know that you have a call to action.

Speaker 5 (01:11:23):
It's actually going to be a little different if I'm
given the time we are now and how serious it
was to be able to mention and lift up Gaza.
I just want to shout out we have an amazing
sister who has been a part of our social media team,
Angela White. Again, I have on my national Bar Association

(01:11:44):
celebrating one hundred years shirt and in this centennial, Angela
will be leaving us to go to law school. She'll
begin at Southern University Law School, and I'm just shouting
her out and encouraging her along the way. And for
every other young black attorney, I know right now you're
entering into a phase. You're like, Okay, we're interpreting the
line class and what does this mean in a lawless land?

(01:12:07):
I know that we will be better because of young,
sharp legal minds like Angela's and so many others. So
I am encouraged by you all, and my call to
action to every one of you is to stay encouraged
and be with courage and know you're not alone in
this moment.

Speaker 4 (01:12:23):
Who is going to come up with the dope titles
of the now? Who is?

Speaker 5 (01:12:28):
I know that you're gonna have to be You're gonna
have to be on call. Honey. She had one for today.
I'm gonna tell y'all what her recommendations were today because
people don't normally get to hear this part.

Speaker 4 (01:12:37):
Yeah, tell us.

Speaker 5 (01:12:38):
I'm gonna give you the two options that Ange put
in the in the thread. The first one was mind
the business that pays us or in parentheses or doesn't.
And then the second was fobo ain't free colon the
cost of black ownership.

Speaker 1 (01:12:52):
I love it.

Speaker 4 (01:12:53):
I love both choose.

Speaker 5 (01:12:57):
And by the time they tune in to see they'll
have a will.

Speaker 3 (01:13:01):
You But if you disagree you can.

Speaker 5 (01:13:04):
Say so you guys. But I hope it'll be like
y'all go back and retat on this is I guess
something hotter for y'all drop.

Speaker 4 (01:13:14):
Well we are at that time, guys.

Speaker 1 (01:13:17):
I just want to again, I feel like today's conversation
was you know, philosophical in a lot of ways, and
so if you enjoyed what you hear, I hope that
you will listen with your friends, family, colleagues and start
having these conversations among yourselves. If you happen to have
a really interesting conversation, please drop us a video tell
us about it. If you have a comment, if you

(01:13:37):
disagree with something that any of us said, we want
to hear from you, and of course we invite you
to please subscribe like share, especially if you heard something
that that struck you, you know, send this and drop
the link to this and in the group chat, say girl,
listen to this or like Native Land was on one
this week, like drop it, share it. That's what we
ask you to do and leave us a review. Y'all

(01:13:59):
know I read the comment, So if you have a
comment to make, my eyes will likely see it. Please
do tune in to other shows on Recent Choice Network.
And you all know that we had Noah on our show.
So thirteen year old Noah, who you all met a
couple of weeks ago. The first episode of his show,
now you know, just dropped, so you all can check

(01:14:20):
that out. He interviews Mia from Real Housewives with her
boyfriend incognito. I'll reserve my comments there.

Speaker 4 (01:14:26):
I don't know. I don't know anything about.

Speaker 1 (01:14:28):
Them, so I don't know I saw Real Housewives. Okay,
that's exactly. This is why you have to tune in
anyway that is available now. And our episode that we
did with Noah is going to air next week, so
please be sure to check that out as well.

Speaker 5 (01:14:44):
Wait a minute, this is actually another great call to action,
bonus call to action. We actually we already had a
bonus week because we had Landy's. But speaking of fubuo, y'all,
if you like this content and you feel really tired
of Tiff nagging you about as being a person. We
need some more money. So the way you can do
that is by watching the show, sharing it like cry like, uh,

(01:15:07):
you know, we got some people on the team now
they got.

Speaker 1 (01:15:09):
So it wasn't a bonus called action, just a re
agitation action.

Speaker 5 (01:15:15):
I'm sorry, it was a.

Speaker 1 (01:15:18):
It was an a man corner called action. Because that
they hear from me, y'all heard it from two other people.

Speaker 4 (01:15:23):
Tune in.

Speaker 1 (01:15:24):
We are your hosts, Angela Rae, Tiffany Cross, and Andrew Gillam.
I don't know why we bother still saying this, but
just fyi, there are four hundred and sixty days until started.

Speaker 3 (01:15:38):
Don't do it. Don't do it.

Speaker 4 (01:15:40):
We say it because we have to fight with everything.

Speaker 3 (01:15:43):
We have everything that's worse every.

Speaker 5 (01:15:47):
And we still haven't even talked about redistricting yet on
this show.

Speaker 4 (01:15:50):
Yeah, yeah, please tune in, Please tune in.

Speaker 1 (01:15:54):
We'll keep We have like eighteen mini pods that we've
we have so many topics and if there's a topic
we're not talking about, drop us a video and say so,
because this is your table to sit at too.

Speaker 4 (01:16:05):
So welcome home, y'all, Welcome home.

Speaker 9 (01:16:08):
Yeah, the last morning, see thank you for joining the
Natives attention of with the info and all of the
latest rock gulum and cross connected to the statements that
you leave on our socios. Thank you sincerely for the
patients reason for your choice is clear, so grateful it
took to execute road for serve, defend and protect the truth,

(01:16:28):
even in paint.

Speaker 6 (01:16:29):
We welcome home to all of the Natives. We thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:16:53):
Native Lampard is a production of iHeart Radio and partnership
with Reason Choice Media. For more podcast from I heart Radio,
visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.

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Episode Transcript

Hosts And Creators

Tiffany Cross

Andrew Gillum

Angela Rye

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}FUBU Ain’t Free! The Cost of Black Ownership