February 10, 2023 • 62 mins
Episode Description:
In this episode we speak with LaTasha Bracks a survivor of polyvictimizations, we discuss her healing journey and the ways she has grappled with loss. We also speak with Cheryl Branch, Executive Director of LAM (LA Metropolitan Churches) as she shares her experiences in the survivor support field.
About Oya:
Oya L Sherrills is a survivor, a lived experience leader in her field, an advocate, and an organizer. Author of "Musings of a Rascal", she works to create a culture where healing practices are centered and valued. Oya likes to pave paths that connect past and future ancestors in efforts to prioritize peace and community-driven solutions that break cycles of violence and address trauma. She's creative, she's a mama, and she's for the trees.
Links:
LA Times: She lost one son to violence. Now she’s fighting to keep her other two alive
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Content morning. This episode will discuss a lot of heavy
topics such as homicide, sexual assault, and violence. Chickens. Children,
Please be kind to yourself, prepare yourself with before and
or after care, and remember if your loved one is
(00:21):
going through it, you can dial for the Crisis Lifeline
or you can call the National Mental Health Hotline at
one eight six six zero three three seven eight. Join
(00:43):
us to explore the stories, policies, practices, and idea. Do
survive is not? This is Survivors held with your host.
Oh yah yah, Welcome, Welcome, welcome, good people. In today's episode,
(01:04):
we will be joined by a survivor who has had
to overcome sexual assault and overcome addiction, only to be
faced with further loss to overcome. In this new survivor's movement,
we often refer to this experience as poly victimization, meaning
this person has survived many traumas, which is unfortunately too
(01:27):
often the case in black and brown will income communities,
which is why faith based organizations like the one ran
by our second guests, advocate for a shift in the
way we do things both economically, educationally and spiritually. Check
it out, all right, So welcome, welcome, welcome, good people. Hello, Hello, Hello,
(01:52):
So you guys are here with the Survivor's Hill Podcast.
My name is Oyash Rals. I'm your host today and
you guys can hear we have some amazing, good energy,
good vibes folks in the space. Today. We have um
Latasha Breck hello, and Miss Cheryl Branch Hi, and these
(02:17):
two amazing individuals have a journey to share with you
all today. Miss Latasha Bracks her story was actually chronicled
by The l A Times earlier this year in April.
They interviewed her and followed her around the community, her community,
just to see and talk about, you know, the ways
(02:41):
that she has started to give back to the community
after overcoming so much. And so we're going to hear
from her today. And then one of our partners in
a good fight, we have Miss Cheryl Branch. Who I mean,
you guys, you guys are doing any kind of work
(03:04):
on the ground that has to do with social justice,
that has to do with moving the people, you know,
towards um more hope, more healing, more resources, and you
know who Cheryl Branches. Okay, thank you, thank you. That
was nice to say. Most people call me a bully
in some level. You know, hey, we gotta have it all,
(03:28):
you know, you gotta have all the levels to be balanced, right, yes,
and by yes, And it's I feel that way because
of the subject matter, the families, you know, the pain,
the confusion, and how you have to fight for your
(03:48):
own healing, you know. Yeah, so I get it. Yeah.
So can we start with you, miss Latasha, if you
want to just share a little bit about your journey
and what are the things that you know help you
keep going from day to day. Well, my journey started
(04:10):
when I was fourteen when I was getting molested by
my mother's husband and his brother. So I came along
ways from that and it messed me up in my
life a lot, you know. So I got on drugs
and everything. So now I have twenty six years clean
(04:31):
from PCP and I'm going to have fifteen years clean
February second from crack cocaine. So God has brought me
a long ways and I got sober and I've been
living right. I'm still in my same house that I'm in.
I moved there when I got clean, so I'm almost
gonna be there fifteen years almost, So God is good.
I'm at the same church helping the community out. So
(04:55):
I lost my oldest son. I lost him in twenty
nineteen to gun violence. Um he got killed in Las Vegas.
So I'm going through it. It's a lot. It's a
whole lot to just miss your son. Every day I
wake up think about him. Every time I go to bed,
(05:15):
I think about him, you know. So it's kind of hard.
So I'm just trying to be out here and be
a survivors survivor speak, you know, speaking to the ones
that lost their loved ones and people that haven't lost
their loved one, just to let them know what it
feel like, you know, to lose someone and they haven't
lost someone. So everybody needs to know these things, you know.
(05:35):
So it was hard for me. It was hard for me.
They gunned my baby down. And what it was, I
had this feeling. I was in church that morning and
there was some type of feeling that I guess it
was that mother's instinct because I kept feeling something and
some said get up, get up and leave, but I
wanted to hear the pastor's words. But something kept telling
(05:57):
me get up and leave. So I I got up,
walked around the corner, went to the house. Like fifteen
twenty minutes later, they called me and told me my
son got killed. But I have felt it. I have
felt it. So it was so hard just going through that.
And he left me with a grandson I'm not able
(06:18):
to see, you know, so that's kind of hard too.
But God brought me a long ways, you know. So
I started helping the community out doing things, start feeding
the homeless, start feeding the homeless, whatever I can do.
You know. I'm on the committee at church and at
my son's school, some always giving gifts out and doing
something on the council. You know. So God han brought
(06:39):
me a long ways and I'm just so happy to
be here and I'm happy to share my story with
you guys. But it's hard. It's hard because I wouldn't
have never thought I would have lost my child. Your
kids supposed to bury you. You're not supposed to bury
your kids, you know. And we don't want to bury nobody,
you know. So it's kind of hard. It's kind of
hard just living with it. You know, he's in my
(07:02):
living room, you know, I keep him in up my arm,
in the arm, you know. So I just thank God
for Oiya, you know, in the community around so I'm
always out there trying to do something to help somebody,
because you never know when you're gonna need somebody. So
that's my thing, doing things around a neighborhood and working
with oil. Yes, she's so beautiful. I love her so much.
(07:25):
Just thank you guys for listening to me. I'm a
reflection of you. You're so beautiful and just so much. Um.
Tasha's out here um supporting young mothers. Every time you
turn around, she's supporting a young mother out here, making
sure they got diapers, clothes, whatever. Can you know? I
wanted to note to that one of the things that
(07:47):
you have done in your healing journey is to commission
a piece of art for your son too, Sean. Oh,
have him paint it on my garage. Looks just like me.
So it's so beautiful. So every time I walk outside,
I see him. He's on my garage looking so handsome.
That's beautiful. Yeah. And so art has played a major
(08:09):
role in your healing. Yes, and also as well, that's
coming to your garden doing things. Uh. And I put
some plants down in his name, you know. So I
buried him and I said, Okay, we're gonna no way yet.
When we come up in here. Yeah, you know, and
I appreciate all your for that, so yes, no, we
appreciate you too. Thank you so much for sharing with
(08:31):
us your journey. And we're going to come back in
a second, but I wanted to also open up the
air waves right now so that we can hear from Ms.
Cheryl Branch and you know, always hearing the like the
really hard things that our community is going through. I
(08:54):
think that's the thing that drives our hearts to be
in this work. So can you tell us a little
bit about your journey to doing this work, to being
a healing worker, because you know, I don't have the
credibility of I've lost a child or a spouse, you know,
(09:16):
but I am a part of that survivor community, like
the siblings, the aunts, I'm still a family member. So
my personal story started um in mid two thousand, my sister,
my younger sister, her fiancee was murdered and shot in
(09:37):
the home in front of my thirteen year old brother
because they weren't technically married at that time. I inherited
a whole family and myself at that time, I was
only about twenty nine years old. So here I am.
I get a whole three people completely broken by a
(09:58):
gun violence. You know. So that truth, you know, helped
me first to you know, connect empathize with the survivor community,
right not knowing that years later in twenty sixteen, I
was gonna be reconnected with O's father, who was my friend,
(10:19):
and we both grew up in the Nation of Islam,
So we were bonding around our faith. You know, That's
where he knew there were certain things and things he
could say that I would connect to. So he was
coming back to the work and he said, I need
you to do some things, and so he was telling
me the story about the survivor community had lost his
son we all knew, but had grown into this movement.
(10:44):
He was determined to lift up the voice of black people.
So that's a tradition I come from. You know, I'm
fortunate to be what Tupac would say, we're a dying breed.
We're dying breed. That from the time I can remember,
my parents were activists. You know, I've been going to
(11:05):
marches and sit ins and peace parlors. You know, it's
I was two years old because it was just our
home upbringing. You would see these people, but it didn't
mean anything unto me until I became an adult. And
so some of the things that I try to bring
to the work when I'm working with the survivor their
(11:26):
family is first just to connect because grief and loss
has no time clock, there's no exact formula. It's not
something that I could take my professional degrees and my
training and say, Okay, we're gonna start the grief class
like this. The survivor session goes like this. It's it
(11:49):
can't be organized like that. So it was a little
difficult to figure out where do I fit in, you know,
And so I used to talk to your father a
lot about that to help someone like me, where do
we add value? And there's traditions in the black culture,
so we were able to explore that, like how do
(12:09):
we bring those real traditions and culture because today you
can talk about name it racism, it's institutional racism. And
this survivor movement is to represent those from a racial class,
of economic class, of political class that have been marginalized.
So when they faced gun violence or crime or assault abuse,
(12:33):
it just was not a part of the culture to
report to seek formal help, like in the form of
mental health or other holistic healing. That's a recent phenomena
from the family members and loved ones that I would
say around posts the crack cocaine era. I think that's
(12:55):
what really woke everybody up to say, oh, this is
not normal. Okay, this is and we got to do
something about this because we were the ones picking up
the pieces. It was so awkward. I often felt so
awkward and ill prepared, you know, what do I say
to my family members? So you know, I was part
(13:18):
of that social work generation because South l A. And
Watts is the epicenter. Everybody knows that now there's lots
of movies and documentaries out and so as a young
social worker, I remember going to Nickerson Gardens and finding
a two year old in the oven. Jesus, a two
year old, you know, so it just kind of welcome
me up. I remember being in Martin Luther King Hospital
(13:39):
when it used to be called Killer King and used
to yeah, when it used to be yeah, that's the yeah.
So that kind of helped me. You know, That's been
my journey. So I've had to practice stand in my
lane being an ally, you know, more so than trying
(14:02):
to beat that testimony and supporting people wherever they are
in that journey there's no right answer, and fighting for
that so that people like can have the space to
do your calling. It's a purpose. We're fortunate we found
our purpose. I feel like I'm living in my purpose
in life, you know, and that's what the human experience
(14:23):
is all about. That's right. UM. I appreciate you so
much for sharing that, and especially like the nuances of
talking about how because what I call this is the
new survivor's movement because there definitely was a history, right
of survivors of crime asking and going to the government
(14:43):
and directing the government to provide services. And you know
that was prior to even the sixties, right, but that
first wave of survivors looked a very certain way. Um.
And really not until you know, two thousand and maybe
two thousand and twelve, maybe two thousand and twelve, two
(15:04):
thousand and eleven, two thousand and ten did survivors of
color start standing in those places and saying, you know, what,
some of these resources need to come our way. And
but it was an effort that was multicultural, you know,
of folks from every level, you know, not only black folks,
but um, yeah, everybody, everybody came to the table. Yeah,
(15:29):
so that victims of crime were the only ones getting
public support and medical and health support absolutely, even though
of course there were always some black and brown folks
who slipped in the cracks and was able to access,
you know, some of those resources. The overwhelming majority. And
(15:51):
actually one of the reports that was recently put out
by a s j UM, I think they noted that
it was less than eight percent of any like public
victims of crime funds was going towards black folks and
people of color. Yeah. I believe that's because the victims
(16:11):
of crime funding in particular, not the services so much,
but the funding really was in collusion, if you will,
with the justice system, which we were busy dismantling the
criminal injustice system. Right. We realized in the nine nineties
that you know, seventy seven percent of African American males
(16:32):
were under the supervision of the court system. We didn't
have that data. This was way before Michelle Alexander's thesis
and crime, so all that hadn't even happened yet. Just
a group of clergy out of l a UM they
found this study and it was four It was sparked
after the ninety two riots, and it said seven seven
(16:55):
percent of African American males were under supervisional criminal justice system.
So that's to what kind of got all of this scoring.
Victims of crime then became attached to this profit system
because they privatized prisons then, and so you had to
have all these things driving it, and the victims of
(17:16):
crime funds. I think we're part of that. So it
was reserved only for those in the suburban and could
do prevention, and urban communities at that time we're in
the throes of a lot of ills like what we
see today, right, so here we are. That's what happened,
and then the community started speaking up, like somebody's got
(17:37):
to speak up. Well, um, for my son when he
got brutally murdered. They didn't give me nothing from victim
of crime. They didn't give me not nothing, not a
rear penny, you know, And I'm like, what did they say? Why?
They told me because I had life insurance on him. Yeah,
because the victims of crime they call themselves the pair
(17:58):
of last resort. So I just tried, and you know,
the lawyers told me, try to go for victim of crime.
They sent me an application and I did the application,
but so they penalize you because you had smart planning
for your family and life insurance. It is supposed to
be an economic wealth building tool. So I mean, you're
(18:20):
you're doing everything right, you know what? What is that
when I was happy, I mean, I hated it that
I had to use that that life insurance. You know,
I just got it because once he started saying he
wanted and acting like he wanted the game bang at
at a young age fifteen, it was so I said,
it's okay, you want to call yourself game Banga, but
(18:41):
not at my house. And I told to put him
in job corps and everything. It didn't work, you know,
so he started doing you know, acting out whatever. But
it's just hard, you know, it was really hard. And
I hated to have to spend that money that that
type of way. I said, Lord, I wish I would
have got want a lottery or something, not to get
(19:02):
this money for my son. That's what I didn't want
it for, you know. But I thank God that he
let me get life insurance, that I didn't have to
be on the corner wash go find me all of
this type of stuff. And so God still fell in
place for me. He still did it. He still worked
it out. He still worked it out. And you know,
(19:25):
I just thank God that I'm doing better and that
I didn't relapse, because it hurt me so much about
my son. It hurt me so much. So I just
thank God I didn't relapse and I was strong. God
took it away from me. He took it away from me,
said no more. I don't care how mad somebody makes
you or you lost somebody. I would never go back.
(19:45):
And I thank God for that, for me being strong,
because it was hard. It's still hard for me. Something
I have some days, but thinking about my son. Some
days I have good days. Some days my bad days.
I just sit in my chairs time and I just cry,
or sometimes I just think about them and tears and
star falling and I can't stop them, and I just
(20:07):
keep wiping my face and its Getty coming, Getty coming
at that before where the tears won't stop coming, and
then and like my son coming and be hugged me,
like mind you okay, just thinking about to shine. You know.
I miss them, you know, and I cry, and they
seemed like them tears would not stop coming, they would
not stop coming, and that's just more I wipe them,
(20:29):
the more I just keep crying and keep crying, and
I just cleans myself out. Yeah, it's inspiring because you again,
you're representing the voiceless. You're representing the voiceless, and it's
so hard sometimes at the big picture level to keep
(20:51):
that distance from trying to monetize those kinds of things
that happen to people. Like what you're saying, the source
of last resort for the listeners, you know, this is
um the call to action. She had life insurance, even
though it was painful what I hear her describing as
her process, I stayed sober, I had to dig deep,
(21:15):
I had to be strong. You know. She's that voice
that we need that can appeal to someone that's on
the edge, who really doesn't have that because the numbers
became so disproportionate in these past ten or fifteen years.
That's why we needed this movement because it was more
people that didn't have it and we're facing gun violent
(21:38):
death and other crimes and had nowhere to go and
then the need to have to have services for someone
like to help her get through that. What a choice,
That's what she's talking about. Folks. It's like, you have
to make this choice. Who wants to do that? It
was hard, It was hard, but we've signed them home good.
(22:00):
We had a good gospel of concert and a blues concert.
We did the blues, we did the gospel. We turned
it out. When I say we had a concert, I
had all of my family and we did it. We
we we really sung and did everything, and it was
(22:20):
it was nice, but it was hard to see to
see my son in that casket. I was like Jesus.
Jesus helped me, you know. And I think that the
celebration of life in those times, it's so difficult to
not like turn back to the things side we thought
were sustaining us before, but really it was the thing
(22:43):
that was putting us in a situation where you know,
it was gonna hurt us more. You know, we're gonna
take a short break to hear from our sponsors. So
(23:13):
I feel like you were talking a lot about, you know,
how you came out, how you got through, and how
your faith was a big part of that, you know.
And so I think that sometimes when we think about
healing and we think about traditional healing versus non traditional healing,
I know, for the black community, traditional healing looks like
(23:36):
going to the church, you know. But like you said, um,
we also brought that blues in it, you know, because
one we're not a monolith. We we have the church,
we have the mosque, we have a wide spectrum of things,
you know, the spiritual, spiritual spirit, black girl magic. They
(24:00):
all know the secret. I'm not telling her. You're not
telling okay that I had to get up. They made
us go to church where when I was born and
raised in church, we had to get up. We had
to go to Sunday school. I was in the sunshine
mand I was thinking, we had to go to chod rehearsal.
(24:25):
Oh my god. The Christmas programs where we're all coming
in with our love candles and stuff, you know them,
they just take me back. Yeah, it was a foundation,
and I'm sad that we've lost that. For our young
people between twelve and thirty, it's on the decline, if
not totally absent, because there's so many other things influencing them.
(24:47):
You need an anchor, You need something to be anchored by.
So it doesn't have to be the church that we knew.
It's time to say that because I'm come from the
old school. I'm over fifty, right, are young people can't
relate to that? But I think we've let it go
too far where there's not much else anchor guiding them.
(25:08):
We don't tell those stories. So many of them their
families have fallen apart or fragile, that they're guiding themselves.
And we have to reckon with that. My generation. That's
why I said we are a dying breed. Our generation
we didn't do our jobs. That's that Baby Boomers and
those Generation X, we were so selfish. I think as
(25:32):
adults we were just irresponsible. When I think about when
I raised my children. I have my son, I have
five step children, so six kids I'm raising in the house.
I'm thirty years oh with six kids. I'm going cool, cool,
And I'm thinking all the stuff that I recall my
parents didn't do this, didn't do that, didn't do this,
didn't do that. I can't even imagine not doing that.
(25:54):
I can't imagine not doing some of it. And we
gave him a past as a collective community, you know,
And that's where I have to relate to some of
these young people too. You know. Well, let me as
a millennial, like I'm a late I'm I'm a late
term millennial though, okay, I'm a late term millennial. Um,
(26:17):
and you know still a little better. I know your
daddy well, I will say that, Um. I do hear
that often. I hear people, you know, from the exers
and the boomers saying like, you know, oh, we didn't
do our job. But I do have to say that
I feel like you guys held things up as much
(26:40):
as you could, and you guys actually provided a beautiful
path for us to follow. I mean, I feel like,
you know, some of it with Brett Crumbs, you know,
we had to go find on our own. We had
as like a scavenger hunt. But there is, you know,
but there has been, you know, a lot that you
guys had to go through. You guys, you know, had
(27:00):
the crack epidemic, which was, in my view of it, it
it was like chemical warfare. It was like it was
not something that most families did not most black families
in particular, did not leave that era unscathed. Oh my god.
It was horrible. The pain of people that we knew
and loved just were not themselves. And it hadn't been
(27:22):
introduced to us yet. So when you saw someone that's sick,
and you couldn't even say sick. We couldn't say that.
They were criminalized, they were deemed. It was horrible. So
imagine me, I'm I'm one of those young people that
was sitting there. What do we do? We're we're taking
care of the kids and the family members left. It
(27:42):
was horrible. But I never wanted to give up. I
never because I felt the chemical warfare because it was
now we now, we weren't imagining things. It was the
government is complicit all up and down that food chain.
They had a little something to do all that. So
you did this to us. So that's why you owe.
(28:04):
You owe. White America owes us this. They owe just
to black people and these low income communities, especially in
Watts for example, as an epicenter poster child for the
rest of the world. I'm telling you I found kids
hiding in the oven that it wasn't but they were
hide He was hiding because the household was so chaotic.
(28:26):
Just a little baby trying to But that's also so
so I got to see light and dark at the
same time because he was smart enough to know. Instead
of just being out here in the general environment where
I could be harmed. I'm gonna open this thing. Come here,
(28:46):
a little baby. But that's a true story. That's that's
how sad it was. So people just were sick and
the body wanted to say they were six and we
couldn't care about our loved ones. And um some years ago.
(29:06):
But I know this lady. I'll still see her every
now and then. Plus when I was accost the rated,
I was accost the rated with her as well. She
was she was um from the projects over there and
watch and she um stabbed this little boy up and
cut his body open, stabbed him up and cut his body.
And she did a long time and the mental prison,
(29:27):
she did a long time in there, but she had
cut that little boy. If she killed that little baby,
she stabbed him up because her mind is not really
shouldn't have been allowed to have custody. There wasn't none
of her kids or anything. It was just a random boy. Yeah,
she stabbed him up and killed them and cut him
(29:48):
up real bad, killed the little boy. But she did
some time in prison, but you know, but she's back
out on the streets. And I feel like people that
that killed people and do things, I feel like they
like us to be took them to you know, you
go away and do some time in prison, do life.
You didn't took the life, Yeah, you got you. You
(30:08):
didn't took somebody's life. So now they're telling me the
boy that killed my son, they're starting them from fifteen
to forty five years. I'm not even saying forty five.
I want them to throw the book at him, Throw
the book at him, throw the book at him, give
him life. He took my son life, and he also
took mine as well, because after my son got killed,
(30:29):
I wasn't right, wasn't I still ain't right. I'm still
not right, you know what I'm saying. So I feel
like those ones out there that's killing people, taking their lives,
stop giving them twelve years, five years, and all it is,
throw the book at them. If they took somebody life,
take theirs. I don't believe in death. I don't believe
(30:49):
in the death penalty because you're not God, who want
you to kill somebody. I'm not thinking all of them
judges that kill folks then had them go. Yeah, y'all
got to deal with God because you're still not supposed
to kill nobody regardless to way. Let him stay in
jail until he died in there. That's the way I feel.
And you know what, in the in the New Survivor's movement,
(31:13):
we have survivors that um both ends of that spectrum, right.
We have those who feel just like you do, you know,
and would like to see the longest, harshest sentences possible.
And then you have those survivors who they believe in
something called restorative justice. They believe if we can rehabilitate
(31:36):
that person's mind and heart so that they would not
harm another another person, then we can let that person
rejoin society, re enter society, even if they murder someone.
I don't believe even when they murder someone, they're gonna
do it again. Some of them don't learn because they
already stick in the head. Because you didn't kill somebody,
(31:58):
you stick in the head, you know, Jeff don't whatever
his name is, killing the folk that's killed folks. You
know what I'm saying. For sure? What do they call
the life in prison around people? You get off by
killing somebody who does that? Who does that? You're taking
one of God's other kids, You're taking somebody else family,
(32:21):
you know. I just don't. I just don't agree with
letting them out on the streets. Again. I don't because
I feel like, if somebody that lost their life, why
are you gonna let this other person back out in society.
I have to see some examples. I agree with you.
I'd want to if I was talking to the restorative
justice crew, they would have to bring me some people
that I could observe what they observed. I'd want to
(32:43):
be influenced, Like what could you influence me with? Like
you need to show me somebody who's killed somebody and
now there's something else forty forty fifty years, Like I
want to really see what what are you talking about?
Because I with you, you know what I mean, Like,
I can't see it. I'm not going to shut you
down because we're supposed to be open mind, but you're
(33:03):
gonna have to show me what does that record look
like somebody's been rehabilitated and restored Like I want to Yeah,
I would. I would say I am a restorative justice person.
I would say. One of the things that we know
about human nature is that we do have the capacity
(33:26):
to change and transform our lives. We can change and
transform our behavior, you know, But then also we have
folks in our community who's definitely and I'm not going
to call out nobody's name. I'll actually I'm going to
ask you guys to listen to all the episodes of
Survivor's Hell, because you will meet some of these people
(33:47):
who you know what, I'm going to use one of
their I'm gonna use well, yeah, like with time downe right,
but I'm gonna use one of the quotes from one
of the gentlemen that i UM interviewed early on UM,
Dennis Mapp. He says, you know, unfortunately, sometimes we get
these role models, but we don't get these real models.
(34:08):
And so because of the role models that some of
these young men have had, they have been brainwashed to
believe that the only thing out here for their lives
is either sell drugs, do drugs, or gang bang right
and be out here playing with not only their lives
but other people's lives, right, And so until they are
(34:29):
shown a different way, you know, And unfortunately for some
of them, it takes them getting locked up, yeah to
see something new, you know, And isn't I just have
to say that if that is absolutely true, these are
(34:52):
the reasons why I pay my life assurance because I'm right,
I'm out. So the structural challenges for some and not
for all, being poverty, racism, economic isolation, neglect, poor educational opportunities,
poor health outcomes, poor food, bad environment, no housing, all
(35:15):
these things that are strut that you thus get fewer
role models. The drug epidemic dumped on us, right, you know,
So all that happens. And so now if only I
would let me, let me pull up my good social
work language, if only I would restructure my cognitive thoughts,
(35:36):
if only I would rebuild my social skills, if only
our problem solved better, and then have some emotional regulation.
That's what they teach them in the system, right, bullshit,
I just don't see it. That's tough. I A. That's
really it's a hard one. That's hard. Well, let me
ask you this. So when it comes to military, right,
(36:00):
we know, we send our folks to different parts of
the world, They take lives, we pay them, right, some
of them come back and they come back up. Them
can't sit next to one, but we all some of them,
and some of them, some of them are able to,
(36:22):
you know, keep going right, And you said some of
them never heal. And that's what I'm Yeah, and I
wanted to get to that, the fact that it is
true that some wounds just do not hear. They don't
like my son, it's a big old woman. I'll feel
like I will never heal. I feel like I'm never
gonna heal. Yeah. And you know what they call that,
(36:42):
They call that chronic wound, Right, It's a wound that's
it's eternal from the moment that it happens. You take
it with you all the way, all the way to
to you're gone out of this world. Right. But what
we ask, right is that as you were going through
a wound that may never hell, that you still seek
(37:07):
killing that even if you know, I get that, I
get on both sides. We gotta do one on both sides,
on side, on both sides, right, And so even even yes, exactly,
even perpetrator, I'm I'm more of the perpetrator. And those
(37:30):
are the rules of engagement. Everybody else ain't gonna tell
you the truth, but I'm gonna tell you when you're
walking in the role of the perpetrator and you're hanging
out with that crew, there's a cost for that. And
we're just not honest with our family members. I loved
was you want to play with fire. Grandma's to say, yes, Mike,
let's set here what you want us to do? When
(37:50):
you I mean, you know, so I accept that that's
how I was raised. When you to me, that's critical thinking.
You just gotta know. And so that's where I think
it is fucked up because the social and political issues economic,
they compromise our ability to be that present. You can't
(38:12):
be present because you're so caught up in the trauma,
the anxiety and all that stuff. And what we know
once you start healing, the present is what the real
magic is. Can you be in right here, in this
room right forget about what happened when I leave here,
you know, And so we don't talk about that and
(38:36):
hold that thought. We'll be right back after a word
from our sponsors. Oh yeah, How do you think the
(39:02):
doctors feel, the ones that give abortions? How do you
think they feel like the person that that give you?
You know, how do you get you put you on
in the chair, the electric chair execution? Yeah? Okay, So
how do you think the other people how they think
they feel? The ones that's given abortions that and killed
the babies. How do you think they feel? Well, I
think that the doctors who are doing that signed up
(39:22):
for that, yet I know signed up for Yeah, but
that's I'm acting like do they have anything in the
back of the head, like when they get home, Like, Lord,
I killed this, gotta kill five babies today, You know, Lord,
what I'm you know, I'm just you know, well, you
know what when it comes to So I grew up.
I did grow up in Kaa, in the Church of
Gotten Christ, right, and so so I am very much
(39:46):
I was very much steeped in that faith. I did
get other examples though, of faithful spiritual people because my grandparents,
on the other side, you know, practice Islam, and so
I got a nice well rounded view of you know,
different faiths. In my dad was always spiritual, right. And
I say this, I prefaced that to make this point
(40:07):
because growing up in the Church of God in Christ,
so what I learned about was forgiveness and repentness and
in your relationship with your higher power, not the relationship
with the people out here, right, but the relationship with
your higher power. You know, the most high can handle
all of that, can handle every burden that you lay on,
(40:29):
you know. So with saying that, I would say that
for doctors, who are you know, having to perform those procedures,
or or if it's a person who has taken someone's life,
you know, their relationship. Yeah, it's very different, right, but
their relationship with their higher power is significant and important.
(40:50):
And that's actually why I wanted to bring here that
I wanted to regal both here because I know that
you are both very spiritual people. And Sheryl Branch is
actually the executive director of LAMB, which is the l
(41:12):
A Metropolitan Churches and she organizes. How many churches do
you organize? And we have UM sixty eight in our database,
but I would say maybe nineteen are active, you know
what I mean? How you have your database mark, but
we have about nineteen. Yeah, and so you're right, I'm
faced with that dilemma. There's no easy answer when it's
(41:36):
faith based, you know, because it's hard to measure someone's faith.
You start getting into some areas that's just not you're
not gonna win. It's not winnable, you know. So yeah,
so I just kind of get I get like I
need to stay in my lane and I don't want
to go against the people, you know, because like I said,
I don't feel like I'm fully qualified, it would be
(41:59):
probably pretty pimping, if you know what I mean. Like
it's easy to spot, you know, like you better stand
your lane, Cheryl. So it's like I told my story.
So what you're saying when you're saying it would be
poverty pimping, what are you saying it's poverty pimping? Because
I feel like there's certain terms that get thrown around,
(42:19):
but it's just they're not really well defined. You know.
What I'm saying is so so when you you're chasing
the survivor money there's in America and in California, it's hip.
It is chic. We are the originators of the recovery
community for having saying it started in California, you know,
(42:40):
the hippies and all that, this whole recovery. We we
go back with cannabis, you know. Yeah, we're the self
help movement here, you know, So poverty pimping to me,
what I've seen is some people and institutions, you know,
they use the sexy thing to direct the resources. So
(43:00):
the hardest part for me where my role comes in
is connecting the people that really need it with the resources.
Because the people that could really tell a story that
matters to some kind of change here. Either it's keeping
people behind bars that have committed murder and the family
says no, they get a right to say that and
(43:22):
not be shamed to death for shutdown tight. You know.
Now the process is gonna do what to do. So
that's what I mean. I see a lot of people
that are poverty pimping, don't want to give the equal
voice at the table with the survivors and the raw
form that they show up because it's started like church
(43:43):
on day when you come to Jesus on Sunday at
the altar call, and then Monday morning you still the
same center. So that's why we enroll you in new
member class so we can start showing you where here's
the scriptition page seven like passive right, you know. And
(44:03):
so that's what we're fighting for our survivors, that we
need a system that's going to meet them where they are.
Just come in the door. We're not gonna even judge you.
I hate those stupid assessments because what are you assessing
for whatever comes back in the form what if you'll
what if you don't have that? So then you're just
gonna give them what you got That's what I mean
(44:25):
by poverty pamper give people what they need. We have
to listen to understand, not listen to be understood. We
have to listen to understand what do you need? Okay,
if we don't do it, so I see those departs
of the system to meet that are so broken, we
waste people's time, We set them back, you know, because
(44:48):
our system is so broken from poverty, pimping. And so
now that's why we don't do direct services. We really
work to educate those impacted, the survivors and their family least,
so that they know how to use that voice. If
you're not so broken, and if you are, we still
got a place for you. You know, if you are,
(45:09):
we we gonna still make it bad for you because
you get to just be over here and do that.
We got nurses for that too. But if you can
hold it together and be strong and say I'm gonna
be a voice for someone else, then that's where we
can push you forward and give you what you need.
That's that's what it should be. And so there's levels
for wherever people are entering and looking for service, but
(45:34):
also sometimes just looking for community, just community, someone who
gets me it feels good. Sometimes I've had people tell
me that that just having someone that I perceive is
just really listening. Because if you have to show up
at any public resource in Los Angeles and it's freaking humiliating.
(45:56):
You can't go to the welfare office, to the court,
to a d m V. What else is compulsory? So
resource of last Result, to the homeless shelter, to the whatever.
It's humiliating. They asked too many damn invasionary questions. You
have to bring too much paperwork. What if I lost
my I D I've had to go back to the
(46:19):
d n V. I got six kids. I've been at
least six times a year because somebody lost their paperwork,
and so what if you don't have that right? And
for survivors, a lot of the times due to the
thing that happened to them, they've lost all of that stuff,
you know, so they have to start by going back
and forth with these people, like for real, it's poverty
(46:39):
pimping and like another thing like dealing with social security.
If you want social security, you cannot have life insurance.
They're only gonna give you two hundred and fifty dollars
when you die you're gonna get buried in the box
and how much Since then, that doesn't make you can't
have life insurance. You have to have to get rid
of me and my kids life. They would have never
(46:59):
known if I wouldn't have raped my mouth. But I
was trying to be honest, trying to live with, trying
to be because you got right to try to be honest.
I let them know when they told me they cut
the check off for two months, and they gave me
a letter stating that they closed my life insurance. When
I closed that life insurance, I had it for years.
(47:20):
They didn't give me number three three the policy that
they need to work on this. It needs to be tooking.
It needs to be that. It needs to be took
him to the capitol. We did the march for this.
Did let people get life insurance? If you speak twincurity,
(47:42):
if you don't to the security, you're supposed to have
a knife funeral to exactly why y'all gonna talk about
you ain't get nuber two hundred and fifty dollars, but
y'all talking about that's what's your poverty. That's foolish. I
don't like it. That needs to be Surrier speak twenty.
I feel like we should go take that to the
(48:05):
what's the National Tame Safety Group that you SSJ that
is a call to action. There were a presidential campaign
that we want that rule change. We really need to
look at this because that's not fair that this side
you earned your sside. Yeah, that's you earn. It's a
(48:28):
it's one of the few benefits we have left. And
so this is the financial literacy of survivor healing right
because we're looking at these resources. This is the organizer training,
it's part of that. So we you're entitled to your
s s I. That's a different benefit and then you
shouldn't be prevented if you can find a way to
(48:49):
pay for it. That had to be and let it
be because anybody want to be very get one of
us shot because you can't be talking about economic freedom
and I'm as a nappy head, dreaded out black woman,
Come on, you can't do that. That kill King for
that Remember long as he was, he was good, as
(49:12):
he said, guaranteed income guaranteed. Six months later, again it's
the timeline. These are found that he was dead in
less than six months after he wrote the guaranteed income,
guaranteed income. But you know that there's actually been some
pilot programs in l A County on some guaranteed income
(49:36):
of that I have had. It's a step in the
right direction, but we still got more to do. We
still have more. It's a step in the right direction,
but I'd like to see our schools working. I'd like
to see more attention to the credit recovery for these
um young minority students from during COVID. I'm an employer,
(49:58):
I won't have a pool of urban community youth to
pull from because so many of them will not be prepared,
because they won't be graduating high school in the next
five years. So I could pick them up and put
them to work. Because of the pandemic, because of the
pandemic setbacks, and just what a good public education should be,
(50:19):
what should be available to our young people, the type
of support parents need if you've got school aged kids,
it's pittiful. Yeah, there's a lot that needs to be done,
and I just come from the school that you know,
there's actually a lot of survivors out here who do
have the answers, and that's exactly why we're going to
be doing that policy push where to change the insurance
(50:44):
for Oh my god, that's a winnable. That's win We're
gonna have to march. We're gonna march. We're gonna go
down there and we're gonna mark. I tell you this much.
If you if you get mutual life, pay too many
policies because we ain't doing go fund mese and car washes.
You got to pay that life insurance. They're gonna change
(51:05):
them gun laws guarantee they're start seeing some money going
into the hood because all the hood mom has been
put up on game or sweetie's life is your life,
is your life. But everybody you gotta have at Lisa
Hunt of Cheese, these are the life insurance ages. They'll
sign you up between five dollars a month. That's you
can get that. That's what they'll handle that. They'll change that.
(51:26):
They need to, they change that because that's economic. Okay.
So then what you're saying is first we do an
organizing effort to get everybody signed up on insurance, and
then we go into and then you change the policy
for those where it gets in the way because that
money is essential. You can you know, this is what
they deny poor people and what racism does when you
(51:49):
lose someone. If you can deal with a whole lot
better in Bahama with your big glasses on, you're not
worried about what you And I'm on my tenth massage
because that's what I needed. I'm talking to my fifteenth
counselor because that's what I need, right, and I could
afford I could just get home and go get it.
It's called access, that's right. That's what insurance money does
(52:13):
for these families that are at risk. If you live
in the zip code, we know how to name it. Now.
If you live in a zip code, if you are
over here, if you have any friends over here, family,
you're gonna need this. Put that up because it's a
financial instrument. It's nothing to be afraid of. They don't
want us to know that. Yeah, but we're gonna have
to go down there march about that. But we're really
you're gonna have to go down there march on that.
(52:35):
And then they tell you how much money you're supposed
to have and this and that you gotta spend it up.
If you leave over two thousand on your car, they're
gonna cut your ship off. It's just too much. We
got stress that to drinks, hit, somebody sick, somebody up,
my whole, my whole two and a half hours and
ain't management class went out the window because I gotta
(52:58):
log back to this. And then she just did come
by here and stepped on my top with me. So
now I just you know's what poverty, that's the action,
That's what poverty would do to you. We've been fighting
for some economics here. We need access, we absolutely and
(53:21):
so when we make that march and we're on the
Capitol steps, what's the song You're gonna give him amazing
grace Like I like, you know, stopping alight. We're on
(53:42):
the move. So we're gonna be doing that because it
is some amazing grace grace. We're gonna be on the move.
And Tasha, you you really do got some pipes over
there though, and you have sung for some well known
people in the past. Tell us about them. I just
(54:05):
met a lot of stars back in the days when
I was singing doing things. Um, I had a contract,
but I didn't go out through it, you know, doing
other things. So just enjoy singing for people and going
places because people wanted to hear me. You know, people
some other people like, oh, she sing, she saved that.
You know. So that's how I started out and singing
(54:26):
for different stars and everything. I loved it. And you
sing back up for people to write, Um, I have
did back up. I have son in the gospel rout
the gospel warreads. We traveled around the world. We didn't
go a lot of states, but we went to different states. Uh.
And we traveled and we sing. Do you still sing? Well?
I still sing, but I'm not in the gospel group
(54:46):
no more, my cousins. And then they want to get
the gospel group back going, and I said, We're gonna
have to add some rehearsals. Well, can you give us
a little taste today? Let me see, I give you
a little something loosening water. You guys are hearing it
here first the Ribber's project on the come up right
(55:07):
every with ma'am. Yes, yes, it's my little baby right here.
Just watch her girl up. It's like I feel like
my bo I feel that if we're in good hand. Okay, Uh,
I need the needy read a word. I need homeless
(55:50):
me now my field. I come to to thee. My
soul love Jesus, my soul love Jesus, Hether wonder and
(56:19):
my soul blame hear the name. Yes, yes, yes, yes yeah,
Lord to your wiens, to your ween in, your wie,
(56:49):
to your ween tee, your wheel hollelu y'ah hollewen who
I was beautiful, very beautiful. Well there you have it, folks,
Thank you so much for joining us. Where can people
(57:12):
find you if they want to show you some love? Latasha,
you can find me. You're get in touch with Oila.
Are you can? I'm in Watts. Anybody want to see
me or you need my number and call Oila as well.
She can get in touch with me. No social media, No,
don't do that stuff. Okay, got you, I got you? Yeah,
(57:33):
but they can. They can come by TRP though and
absolutely that yeah, just thinking it. But they still can
always get in touch with me through you. There we go,
same for me. Reach out to the Reverence Project. They
are Yeah, is the lead for our Victims of Crime
Project and she's just doing some amazing work. Um they've
(57:56):
grown and doubled and tripled. So that's where we'll send
you to. We're at l A Metro Churches. Dot org
is our the Facebook page, so you could reach us
there but if you want services, you you know how
to reach us. We're here for this movement. I'm going
to be in line changing insurance and helping neighborhood moms
have some cash flow. This is gonna be some cash flogs.
(58:18):
You get ahold of thousands that will help. So I'm
with you on that. Thank you, Thank you, appreciating Yeah,
thanks talking to you ladies. It was good. Keep up
to good work, all right, get get day story get
(58:43):
thanks to you all for listening in. I have a
couple of thoughts before we get out of here. One,
As an advocate in the New Survivors Movement, we strive
to meet people where they are. We seek to focus
on our personal and communal healing practices that bring us
(59:04):
out of fear, out of shame, and out of guilt
to move us towards truth, forgiveness, and compassion. There is
no timeline for this process. Secondly, systems are changing in California.
We are moving away from over alliance on mass incarceration
(59:27):
as it has been proven ineffective to reducing prime rates
and recidivism. These shifts are happening quickly, and for families
that are going through a court process, it can be
difficult to navigate what's happening. One way to stay up
to date about your criminal case is to utilize the
(59:47):
Vine system. It's the nation's leading victim of crime notification
system and allows for timely and reliable information about offenders
or criminal cases in US jails and prisons. You can
visit them at www dot fine link dot com. That's www.
(01:00:10):
Dot v i n e l i n k dot com,
where they provide seven help. They cover forty eight states
and incarceration facilities. And finally, we briefly discussed the role
of veterans in our society. Veterans that have participated in
(01:00:33):
war are one of the recents that we have the
understanding that we do regarding PTSD or post traumatic stress disorder,
and those of us who have lived through urban street
wars can make the correlation between the after effects of
gun violence and how it affects the people of our communities.
Amongst both groups, we have those who survive and thrive
(01:00:57):
and those who are just barely hanging off. And if
that's you out there struggling, just know that you're not alone.
See killing anyway, And one place you might start is
with calling one hundred to seven three talk and for
veterans the number is hundred to seven three eight to
(01:01:21):
five five. Disclaimer. My views, beliefs, and opinions are my
own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my
guest resource organizations or sources shared last thing. Every day
(01:01:54):
we survive is a new chance to see killing piece
to your only good people. As shareh
Content morning. This episode will discuss a lot of heavy
topics such as homicide, sexual assault, and violence. Chickens. Children,
Please be kind to yourself, prepare yourself with before and
or after care, and remember if your loved one is
(00:21):
going through it, you can dial for the Crisis Lifeline
or you can call the National Mental Health Hotline at
one eight six six zero three three seven eight. Join
(00:43):
us to explore the stories, policies, practices, and idea. Do
survive is not? This is Survivors held with your host.
Oh yah yah, Welcome, Welcome, welcome, good people. In today's episode,
(01:04):
we will be joined by a survivor who has had
to overcome sexual assault and overcome addiction, only to be
faced with further loss to overcome. In this new survivor's movement,
we often refer to this experience as poly victimization, meaning
this person has survived many traumas, which is unfortunately too
(01:27):
often the case in black and brown will income communities,
which is why faith based organizations like the one ran
by our second guests, advocate for a shift in the
way we do things both economically, educationally and spiritually. Check
it out, all right, So welcome, welcome, welcome, good people. Hello, Hello, Hello,
(01:52):
So you guys are here with the Survivor's Hill Podcast.
My name is Oyash Rals. I'm your host today and
you guys can hear we have some amazing, good energy,
good vibes folks in the space. Today. We have um
Latasha Breck hello, and Miss Cheryl Branch Hi, and these
(02:17):
two amazing individuals have a journey to share with you
all today. Miss Latasha Bracks her story was actually chronicled
by The l A Times earlier this year in April.
They interviewed her and followed her around the community, her community,
just to see and talk about, you know, the ways
(02:41):
that she has started to give back to the community
after overcoming so much. And so we're going to hear
from her today. And then one of our partners in
a good fight, we have Miss Cheryl Branch. Who I mean,
you guys, you guys are doing any kind of work
(03:04):
on the ground that has to do with social justice,
that has to do with moving the people, you know,
towards um more hope, more healing, more resources, and you
know who Cheryl Branches. Okay, thank you, thank you. That
was nice to say. Most people call me a bully
in some level. You know, hey, we gotta have it all,
(03:28):
you know, you gotta have all the levels to be balanced, right, yes,
and by yes, And it's I feel that way because
of the subject matter, the families, you know, the pain,
the confusion, and how you have to fight for your
(03:48):
own healing, you know. Yeah, so I get it. Yeah.
So can we start with you, miss Latasha, if you
want to just share a little bit about your journey
and what are the things that you know help you
keep going from day to day. Well, my journey started
(04:10):
when I was fourteen when I was getting molested by
my mother's husband and his brother. So I came along
ways from that and it messed me up in my
life a lot, you know. So I got on drugs
and everything. So now I have twenty six years clean
(04:31):
from PCP and I'm going to have fifteen years clean
February second from crack cocaine. So God has brought me
a long ways and I got sober and I've been
living right. I'm still in my same house that I'm in.
I moved there when I got clean, so I'm almost
gonna be there fifteen years almost, So God is good.
I'm at the same church helping the community out. So
(04:55):
I lost my oldest son. I lost him in twenty
nineteen to gun violence. Um he got killed in Las Vegas.
So I'm going through it. It's a lot. It's a
whole lot to just miss your son. Every day I
wake up think about him. Every time I go to bed,
(05:15):
I think about him, you know. So it's kind of hard.
So I'm just trying to be out here and be
a survivors survivor speak, you know, speaking to the ones
that lost their loved ones and people that haven't lost
their loved one, just to let them know what it
feel like, you know, to lose someone and they haven't
lost someone. So everybody needs to know these things, you know.
(05:35):
So it was hard for me. It was hard for me.
They gunned my baby down. And what it was, I
had this feeling. I was in church that morning and
there was some type of feeling that I guess it
was that mother's instinct because I kept feeling something and
some said get up, get up and leave, but I
wanted to hear the pastor's words. But something kept telling
(05:57):
me get up and leave. So I I got up,
walked around the corner, went to the house. Like fifteen
twenty minutes later, they called me and told me my
son got killed. But I have felt it. I have
felt it. So it was so hard just going through that.
And he left me with a grandson I'm not able
(06:18):
to see, you know, so that's kind of hard too.
But God brought me a long ways, you know. So
I started helping the community out doing things, start feeding
the homeless, start feeding the homeless, whatever I can do.
You know. I'm on the committee at church and at
my son's school, some always giving gifts out and doing
something on the council. You know. So God han brought
(06:39):
me a long ways and I'm just so happy to
be here and I'm happy to share my story with
you guys. But it's hard. It's hard because I wouldn't
have never thought I would have lost my child. Your
kids supposed to bury you. You're not supposed to bury
your kids, you know. And we don't want to bury nobody,
you know. So it's kind of hard. It's kind of
hard just living with it. You know, he's in my
(07:02):
living room, you know, I keep him in up my arm,
in the arm, you know. So I just thank God
for Oiya, you know, in the community around so I'm
always out there trying to do something to help somebody,
because you never know when you're gonna need somebody. So
that's my thing, doing things around a neighborhood and working
with oil. Yes, she's so beautiful. I love her so much.
(07:25):
Just thank you guys for listening to me. I'm a
reflection of you. You're so beautiful and just so much. Um.
Tasha's out here um supporting young mothers. Every time you
turn around, she's supporting a young mother out here, making
sure they got diapers, clothes, whatever. Can you know? I
wanted to note to that one of the things that
(07:47):
you have done in your healing journey is to commission
a piece of art for your son too, Sean. Oh,
have him paint it on my garage. Looks just like me.
So it's so beautiful. So every time I walk outside,
I see him. He's on my garage looking so handsome.
That's beautiful. Yeah. And so art has played a major
(08:09):
role in your healing. Yes, and also as well, that's
coming to your garden doing things. Uh. And I put
some plants down in his name, you know. So I
buried him and I said, Okay, we're gonna no way yet.
When we come up in here. Yeah, you know, and
I appreciate all your for that, so yes, no, we
appreciate you too. Thank you so much for sharing with
(08:31):
us your journey. And we're going to come back in
a second, but I wanted to also open up the
air waves right now so that we can hear from Ms.
Cheryl Branch and you know, always hearing the like the
really hard things that our community is going through. I
(08:54):
think that's the thing that drives our hearts to be
in this work. So can you tell us a little
bit about your journey to doing this work, to being
a healing worker, because you know, I don't have the
credibility of I've lost a child or a spouse, you know,
(09:16):
but I am a part of that survivor community, like
the siblings, the aunts, I'm still a family member. So
my personal story started um in mid two thousand, my sister,
my younger sister, her fiancee was murdered and shot in
(09:37):
the home in front of my thirteen year old brother
because they weren't technically married at that time. I inherited
a whole family and myself at that time, I was
only about twenty nine years old. So here I am.
I get a whole three people completely broken by a
(09:58):
gun violence. You know. So that truth, you know, helped
me first to you know, connect empathize with the survivor community,
right not knowing that years later in twenty sixteen, I
was gonna be reconnected with O's father, who was my friend,
(10:19):
and we both grew up in the Nation of Islam,
So we were bonding around our faith. You know, That's
where he knew there were certain things and things he
could say that I would connect to. So he was
coming back to the work and he said, I need
you to do some things, and so he was telling
me the story about the survivor community had lost his
son we all knew, but had grown into this movement.
(10:44):
He was determined to lift up the voice of black people.
So that's a tradition I come from. You know, I'm
fortunate to be what Tupac would say, we're a dying breed.
We're dying breed. That from the time I can remember,
my parents were activists. You know, I've been going to
(11:05):
marches and sit ins and peace parlors. You know, it's
I was two years old because it was just our
home upbringing. You would see these people, but it didn't
mean anything unto me until I became an adult. And
so some of the things that I try to bring
to the work when I'm working with the survivor their
(11:26):
family is first just to connect because grief and loss
has no time clock, there's no exact formula. It's not
something that I could take my professional degrees and my
training and say, Okay, we're gonna start the grief class
like this. The survivor session goes like this. It's it
(11:49):
can't be organized like that. So it was a little
difficult to figure out where do I fit in, you know,
And so I used to talk to your father a
lot about that to help someone like me, where do
we add value? And there's traditions in the black culture,
so we were able to explore that, like how do
(12:09):
we bring those real traditions and culture because today you
can talk about name it racism, it's institutional racism. And
this survivor movement is to represent those from a racial class,
of economic class, of political class that have been marginalized.
So when they faced gun violence or crime or assault abuse,
(12:33):
it just was not a part of the culture to
report to seek formal help, like in the form of
mental health or other holistic healing. That's a recent phenomena
from the family members and loved ones that I would
say around posts the crack cocaine era. I think that's
(12:55):
what really woke everybody up to say, oh, this is
not normal. Okay, this is and we got to do
something about this because we were the ones picking up
the pieces. It was so awkward. I often felt so
awkward and ill prepared, you know, what do I say
to my family members? So you know, I was part
(13:18):
of that social work generation because South l A. And
Watts is the epicenter. Everybody knows that now there's lots
of movies and documentaries out and so as a young
social worker, I remember going to Nickerson Gardens and finding
a two year old in the oven. Jesus, a two
year old, you know, so it just kind of welcome
me up. I remember being in Martin Luther King Hospital
(13:39):
when it used to be called Killer King and used
to yeah, when it used to be yeah, that's the yeah.
So that kind of helped me. You know, That's been
my journey. So I've had to practice stand in my
lane being an ally, you know, more so than trying
(14:02):
to beat that testimony and supporting people wherever they are
in that journey there's no right answer, and fighting for
that so that people like can have the space to
do your calling. It's a purpose. We're fortunate we found
our purpose. I feel like I'm living in my purpose
in life, you know, and that's what the human experience
(14:23):
is all about. That's right. UM. I appreciate you so
much for sharing that, and especially like the nuances of
talking about how because what I call this is the
new survivor's movement because there definitely was a history, right
of survivors of crime asking and going to the government
(14:43):
and directing the government to provide services. And you know
that was prior to even the sixties, right, but that
first wave of survivors looked a very certain way. Um.
And really not until you know, two thousand and maybe
two thousand and twelve, maybe two thousand and twelve, two
(15:04):
thousand and eleven, two thousand and ten did survivors of
color start standing in those places and saying, you know, what,
some of these resources need to come our way. And
but it was an effort that was multicultural, you know,
of folks from every level, you know, not only black folks,
but um, yeah, everybody, everybody came to the table. Yeah,
(15:29):
so that victims of crime were the only ones getting
public support and medical and health support absolutely, even though
of course there were always some black and brown folks
who slipped in the cracks and was able to access,
you know, some of those resources. The overwhelming majority. And
(15:51):
actually one of the reports that was recently put out
by a s j UM, I think they noted that
it was less than eight percent of any like public
victims of crime funds was going towards black folks and
people of color. Yeah. I believe that's because the victims
(16:11):
of crime funding in particular, not the services so much,
but the funding really was in collusion, if you will,
with the justice system, which we were busy dismantling the
criminal injustice system. Right. We realized in the nine nineties
that you know, seventy seven percent of African American males
(16:32):
were under the supervision of the court system. We didn't
have that data. This was way before Michelle Alexander's thesis
and crime, so all that hadn't even happened yet. Just
a group of clergy out of l a UM they
found this study and it was four It was sparked
after the ninety two riots, and it said seven seven
(16:55):
percent of African American males were under supervisional criminal justice system.
So that's to what kind of got all of this scoring.
Victims of crime then became attached to this profit system
because they privatized prisons then, and so you had to
have all these things driving it, and the victims of
(17:16):
crime funds. I think we're part of that. So it
was reserved only for those in the suburban and could
do prevention, and urban communities at that time we're in
the throes of a lot of ills like what we
see today, right, so here we are. That's what happened,
and then the community started speaking up, like somebody's got
(17:37):
to speak up. Well, um, for my son when he
got brutally murdered. They didn't give me nothing from victim
of crime. They didn't give me not nothing, not a
rear penny, you know, And I'm like, what did they say? Why?
They told me because I had life insurance on him. Yeah,
because the victims of crime they call themselves the pair
(17:58):
of last resort. So I just tried, and you know,
the lawyers told me, try to go for victim of crime.
They sent me an application and I did the application,
but so they penalize you because you had smart planning
for your family and life insurance. It is supposed to
be an economic wealth building tool. So I mean, you're
(18:20):
you're doing everything right, you know what? What is that
when I was happy, I mean, I hated it that
I had to use that that life insurance. You know,
I just got it because once he started saying he
wanted and acting like he wanted the game bang at
at a young age fifteen, it was so I said,
it's okay, you want to call yourself game Banga, but
(18:41):
not at my house. And I told to put him
in job corps and everything. It didn't work, you know,
so he started doing you know, acting out whatever. But
it's just hard, you know, it was really hard. And
I hated to have to spend that money that that
type of way. I said, Lord, I wish I would
have got want a lottery or something, not to get
(19:02):
this money for my son. That's what I didn't want
it for, you know. But I thank God that he
let me get life insurance, that I didn't have to
be on the corner wash go find me all of
this type of stuff. And so God still fell in
place for me. He still did it. He still worked
it out. He still worked it out. And you know,
(19:25):
I just thank God that I'm doing better and that
I didn't relapse, because it hurt me so much about
my son. It hurt me so much. So I just
thank God I didn't relapse and I was strong. God
took it away from me. He took it away from me,
said no more. I don't care how mad somebody makes
you or you lost somebody. I would never go back.
(19:45):
And I thank God for that, for me being strong,
because it was hard. It's still hard for me. Something
I have some days, but thinking about my son. Some
days I have good days. Some days my bad days.
I just sit in my chairs time and I just cry,
or sometimes I just think about them and tears and
star falling and I can't stop them, and I just
(20:07):
keep wiping my face and its Getty coming, Getty coming
at that before where the tears won't stop coming, and
then and like my son coming and be hugged me,
like mind you okay, just thinking about to shine. You know.
I miss them, you know, and I cry, and they
seemed like them tears would not stop coming, they would
not stop coming, and that's just more I wipe them,
(20:29):
the more I just keep crying and keep crying, and
I just cleans myself out. Yeah, it's inspiring because you again,
you're representing the voiceless. You're representing the voiceless, and it's
so hard sometimes at the big picture level to keep
(20:51):
that distance from trying to monetize those kinds of things
that happen to people. Like what you're saying, the source
of last resort for the listeners, you know, this is
um the call to action. She had life insurance, even
though it was painful what I hear her describing as
her process, I stayed sober, I had to dig deep,
(21:15):
I had to be strong. You know. She's that voice
that we need that can appeal to someone that's on
the edge, who really doesn't have that because the numbers
became so disproportionate in these past ten or fifteen years.
That's why we needed this movement because it was more
people that didn't have it and we're facing gun violent
(21:38):
death and other crimes and had nowhere to go and
then the need to have to have services for someone
like to help her get through that. What a choice,
That's what she's talking about. Folks. It's like, you have
to make this choice. Who wants to do that? It
was hard, It was hard, but we've signed them home good.
(22:00):
We had a good gospel of concert and a blues concert.
We did the blues, we did the gospel. We turned
it out. When I say we had a concert, I
had all of my family and we did it. We
we we really sung and did everything, and it was
(22:20):
it was nice, but it was hard to see to
see my son in that casket. I was like Jesus.
Jesus helped me, you know. And I think that the
celebration of life in those times, it's so difficult to
not like turn back to the things side we thought
were sustaining us before, but really it was the thing
(22:43):
that was putting us in a situation where you know,
it was gonna hurt us more. You know, we're gonna
take a short break to hear from our sponsors. So
(23:13):
I feel like you were talking a lot about, you know,
how you came out, how you got through, and how
your faith was a big part of that, you know.
And so I think that sometimes when we think about
healing and we think about traditional healing versus non traditional healing,
I know, for the black community, traditional healing looks like
(23:36):
going to the church, you know. But like you said, um,
we also brought that blues in it, you know, because
one we're not a monolith. We we have the church,
we have the mosque, we have a wide spectrum of things,
you know, the spiritual, spiritual spirit, black girl magic. They
(24:00):
all know the secret. I'm not telling her. You're not
telling okay that I had to get up. They made
us go to church where when I was born and
raised in church, we had to get up. We had
to go to Sunday school. I was in the sunshine
mand I was thinking, we had to go to chod rehearsal.
(24:25):
Oh my god. The Christmas programs where we're all coming
in with our love candles and stuff, you know them,
they just take me back. Yeah, it was a foundation,
and I'm sad that we've lost that. For our young
people between twelve and thirty, it's on the decline, if
not totally absent, because there's so many other things influencing them.
(24:47):
You need an anchor, You need something to be anchored by.
So it doesn't have to be the church that we knew.
It's time to say that because I'm come from the
old school. I'm over fifty, right, are young people can't
relate to that? But I think we've let it go
too far where there's not much else anchor guiding them.
(25:08):
We don't tell those stories. So many of them their
families have fallen apart or fragile, that they're guiding themselves.
And we have to reckon with that. My generation. That's
why I said we are a dying breed. Our generation
we didn't do our jobs. That's that Baby Boomers and
those Generation X, we were so selfish. I think as
(25:32):
adults we were just irresponsible. When I think about when
I raised my children. I have my son, I have
five step children, so six kids I'm raising in the house.
I'm thirty years oh with six kids. I'm going cool, cool,
And I'm thinking all the stuff that I recall my
parents didn't do this, didn't do that, didn't do this,
didn't do that. I can't even imagine not doing that.
(25:54):
I can't imagine not doing some of it. And we
gave him a past as a collective community, you know,
And that's where I have to relate to some of
these young people too. You know. Well, let me as
a millennial, like I'm a late I'm I'm a late
term millennial though, okay, I'm a late term millennial. Um,
(26:17):
and you know still a little better. I know your
daddy well, I will say that, Um. I do hear
that often. I hear people, you know, from the exers
and the boomers saying like, you know, oh, we didn't
do our job. But I do have to say that
I feel like you guys held things up as much
(26:40):
as you could, and you guys actually provided a beautiful
path for us to follow. I mean, I feel like,
you know, some of it with Brett Crumbs, you know,
we had to go find on our own. We had
as like a scavenger hunt. But there is, you know,
but there has been, you know, a lot that you
guys had to go through. You guys, you know, had
(27:00):
the crack epidemic, which was, in my view of it, it
it was like chemical warfare. It was like it was
not something that most families did not most black families
in particular, did not leave that era unscathed. Oh my god.
It was horrible. The pain of people that we knew
and loved just were not themselves. And it hadn't been
(27:22):
introduced to us yet. So when you saw someone that's sick,
and you couldn't even say sick. We couldn't say that.
They were criminalized, they were deemed. It was horrible. So
imagine me, I'm I'm one of those young people that
was sitting there. What do we do? We're we're taking
care of the kids and the family members left. It
(27:42):
was horrible. But I never wanted to give up. I
never because I felt the chemical warfare because it was
now we now, we weren't imagining things. It was the
government is complicit all up and down that food chain.
They had a little something to do all that. So
you did this to us. So that's why you owe.
(28:04):
You owe. White America owes us this. They owe just
to black people and these low income communities, especially in
Watts for example, as an epicenter poster child for the
rest of the world. I'm telling you I found kids
hiding in the oven that it wasn't but they were
hide He was hiding because the household was so chaotic.
(28:26):
Just a little baby trying to But that's also so
so I got to see light and dark at the
same time because he was smart enough to know. Instead
of just being out here in the general environment where
I could be harmed. I'm gonna open this thing. Come here,
(28:46):
a little baby. But that's a true story. That's that's
how sad it was. So people just were sick and
the body wanted to say they were six and we
couldn't care about our loved ones. And um some years ago.
(29:06):
But I know this lady. I'll still see her every
now and then. Plus when I was accost the rated,
I was accost the rated with her as well. She
was she was um from the projects over there and
watch and she um stabbed this little boy up and
cut his body open, stabbed him up and cut his body.
And she did a long time and the mental prison,
(29:27):
she did a long time in there, but she had
cut that little boy. If she killed that little baby,
she stabbed him up because her mind is not really
shouldn't have been allowed to have custody. There wasn't none
of her kids or anything. It was just a random boy. Yeah,
she stabbed him up and killed them and cut him
(29:48):
up real bad, killed the little boy. But she did
some time in prison, but you know, but she's back
out on the streets. And I feel like people that
that killed people and do things, I feel like they
like us to be took them to you know, you
go away and do some time in prison, do life.
You didn't took the life, Yeah, you got you. You
(30:08):
didn't took somebody's life. So now they're telling me the
boy that killed my son, they're starting them from fifteen
to forty five years. I'm not even saying forty five.
I want them to throw the book at him, Throw
the book at him, throw the book at him, give
him life. He took my son life, and he also
took mine as well, because after my son got killed,
(30:29):
I wasn't right, wasn't I still ain't right. I'm still
not right, you know what I'm saying. So I feel
like those ones out there that's killing people, taking their lives,
stop giving them twelve years, five years, and all it is,
throw the book at them. If they took somebody life,
take theirs. I don't believe in death. I don't believe
(30:49):
in the death penalty because you're not God, who want
you to kill somebody. I'm not thinking all of them
judges that kill folks then had them go. Yeah, y'all
got to deal with God because you're still not supposed
to kill nobody regardless to way. Let him stay in
jail until he died in there. That's the way I feel.
And you know what, in the in the New Survivor's movement,
(31:13):
we have survivors that um both ends of that spectrum, right.
We have those who feel just like you do, you know,
and would like to see the longest, harshest sentences possible.
And then you have those survivors who they believe in
something called restorative justice. They believe if we can rehabilitate
(31:36):
that person's mind and heart so that they would not
harm another another person, then we can let that person
rejoin society, re enter society, even if they murder someone.
I don't believe even when they murder someone, they're gonna
do it again. Some of them don't learn because they
already stick in the head. Because you didn't kill somebody,
(31:58):
you stick in the head, you know, Jeff don't whatever
his name is, killing the folk that's killed folks. You
know what I'm saying. For sure? What do they call
the life in prison around people? You get off by
killing somebody who does that? Who does that? You're taking
one of God's other kids, You're taking somebody else family,
(32:21):
you know. I just don't. I just don't agree with
letting them out on the streets. Again. I don't because
I feel like, if somebody that lost their life, why
are you gonna let this other person back out in society.
I have to see some examples. I agree with you.
I'd want to if I was talking to the restorative
justice crew, they would have to bring me some people
that I could observe what they observed. I'd want to
(32:43):
be influenced, Like what could you influence me with? Like
you need to show me somebody who's killed somebody and
now there's something else forty forty fifty years, Like I
want to really see what what are you talking about?
Because I with you, you know what I mean, Like,
I can't see it. I'm not going to shut you
down because we're supposed to be open mind, but you're
(33:03):
gonna have to show me what does that record look
like somebody's been rehabilitated and restored Like I want to Yeah,
I would. I would say I am a restorative justice person.
I would say. One of the things that we know
about human nature is that we do have the capacity
(33:26):
to change and transform our lives. We can change and
transform our behavior, you know, But then also we have
folks in our community who's definitely and I'm not going
to call out nobody's name. I'll actually I'm going to
ask you guys to listen to all the episodes of
Survivor's Hell, because you will meet some of these people
(33:47):
who you know what, I'm going to use one of
their I'm gonna use well, yeah, like with time downe right,
but I'm gonna use one of the quotes from one
of the gentlemen that i UM interviewed early on UM,
Dennis Mapp. He says, you know, unfortunately, sometimes we get
these role models, but we don't get these real models.
(34:08):
And so because of the role models that some of
these young men have had, they have been brainwashed to
believe that the only thing out here for their lives
is either sell drugs, do drugs, or gang bang right
and be out here playing with not only their lives
but other people's lives, right, And so until they are
(34:29):
shown a different way, you know, And unfortunately for some
of them, it takes them getting locked up, yeah to
see something new, you know, And isn't I just have
to say that if that is absolutely true, these are
(34:52):
the reasons why I pay my life assurance because I'm right,
I'm out. So the structural challenges for some and not
for all, being poverty, racism, economic isolation, neglect, poor educational opportunities,
poor health outcomes, poor food, bad environment, no housing, all
(35:15):
these things that are strut that you thus get fewer
role models. The drug epidemic dumped on us, right, you know,
So all that happens. And so now if only I
would let me, let me pull up my good social
work language, if only I would restructure my cognitive thoughts,
(35:36):
if only I would rebuild my social skills, if only
our problem solved better, and then have some emotional regulation.
That's what they teach them in the system, right, bullshit,
I just don't see it. That's tough. I A. That's
really it's a hard one. That's hard. Well, let me
ask you this. So when it comes to military, right,
(36:00):
we know, we send our folks to different parts of
the world, They take lives, we pay them, right, some
of them come back and they come back up. Them
can't sit next to one, but we all some of them,
and some of them, some of them are able to,
(36:22):
you know, keep going right, And you said some of
them never heal. And that's what I'm Yeah, and I
wanted to get to that, the fact that it is
true that some wounds just do not hear. They don't
like my son, it's a big old woman. I'll feel
like I will never heal. I feel like I'm never
gonna heal. Yeah. And you know what they call that,
(36:42):
They call that chronic wound, Right, It's a wound that's
it's eternal from the moment that it happens. You take
it with you all the way, all the way to
to you're gone out of this world. Right. But what
we ask, right is that as you were going through
a wound that may never hell, that you still seek
(37:07):
killing that even if you know, I get that, I
get on both sides. We gotta do one on both sides,
on side, on both sides, right, And so even even yes, exactly,
even perpetrator, I'm I'm more of the perpetrator. And those
(37:30):
are the rules of engagement. Everybody else ain't gonna tell
you the truth, but I'm gonna tell you when you're
walking in the role of the perpetrator and you're hanging
out with that crew, there's a cost for that. And
we're just not honest with our family members. I loved
was you want to play with fire. Grandma's to say, yes, Mike,
let's set here what you want us to do? When
(37:50):
you I mean, you know, so I accept that that's
how I was raised. When you to me, that's critical thinking.
You just gotta know. And so that's where I think
it is fucked up because the social and political issues economic,
they compromise our ability to be that present. You can't
(38:12):
be present because you're so caught up in the trauma,
the anxiety and all that stuff. And what we know
once you start healing, the present is what the real
magic is. Can you be in right here, in this
room right forget about what happened when I leave here,
you know, And so we don't talk about that and
(38:36):
hold that thought. We'll be right back after a word
from our sponsors. Oh yeah, How do you think the
(39:02):
doctors feel, the ones that give abortions? How do you
think they feel like the person that that give you?
You know, how do you get you put you on
in the chair, the electric chair execution? Yeah? Okay, So
how do you think the other people how they think
they feel? The ones that's given abortions that and killed
the babies. How do you think they feel? Well, I
think that the doctors who are doing that signed up
(39:22):
for that, yet I know signed up for Yeah, but
that's I'm acting like do they have anything in the
back of the head, like when they get home, Like, Lord,
I killed this, gotta kill five babies today, You know, Lord,
what I'm you know, I'm just you know, well, you
know what when it comes to So I grew up.
I did grow up in Kaa, in the Church of
Gotten Christ, right, and so so I am very much
(39:46):
I was very much steeped in that faith. I did
get other examples though, of faithful spiritual people because my grandparents,
on the other side, you know, practice Islam, and so
I got a nice well rounded view of you know,
different faiths. In my dad was always spiritual, right. And
I say this, I prefaced that to make this point
(40:07):
because growing up in the Church of God in Christ,
so what I learned about was forgiveness and repentness and
in your relationship with your higher power, not the relationship
with the people out here, right, but the relationship with
your higher power. You know, the most high can handle
all of that, can handle every burden that you lay on,
(40:29):
you know. So with saying that, I would say that
for doctors, who are you know, having to perform those procedures,
or or if it's a person who has taken someone's life,
you know, their relationship. Yeah, it's very different, right, but
their relationship with their higher power is significant and important.
(40:50):
And that's actually why I wanted to bring here that
I wanted to regal both here because I know that
you are both very spiritual people. And Sheryl Branch is
actually the executive director of LAMB, which is the l
(41:12):
A Metropolitan Churches and she organizes. How many churches do
you organize? And we have UM sixty eight in our database,
but I would say maybe nineteen are active, you know
what I mean? How you have your database mark, but
we have about nineteen. Yeah, and so you're right, I'm
faced with that dilemma. There's no easy answer when it's
(41:36):
faith based, you know, because it's hard to measure someone's faith.
You start getting into some areas that's just not you're
not gonna win. It's not winnable, you know. So yeah,
so I just kind of get I get like I
need to stay in my lane and I don't want
to go against the people, you know, because like I said,
I don't feel like I'm fully qualified, it would be
(41:59):
probably pretty pimping, if you know what I mean. Like
it's easy to spot, you know, like you better stand
your lane, Cheryl. So it's like I told my story.
So what you're saying when you're saying it would be
poverty pimping, what are you saying it's poverty pimping? Because
I feel like there's certain terms that get thrown around,
(42:19):
but it's just they're not really well defined. You know.
What I'm saying is so so when you you're chasing
the survivor money there's in America and in California, it's hip.
It is chic. We are the originators of the recovery
community for having saying it started in California, you know,
(42:40):
the hippies and all that, this whole recovery. We we
go back with cannabis, you know. Yeah, we're the self
help movement here, you know, So poverty pimping to me,
what I've seen is some people and institutions, you know,
they use the sexy thing to direct the resources. So
(43:00):
the hardest part for me where my role comes in
is connecting the people that really need it with the resources.
Because the people that could really tell a story that
matters to some kind of change here. Either it's keeping
people behind bars that have committed murder and the family
says no, they get a right to say that and
(43:22):
not be shamed to death for shutdown tight. You know.
Now the process is gonna do what to do. So
that's what I mean. I see a lot of people
that are poverty pimping, don't want to give the equal
voice at the table with the survivors and the raw
form that they show up because it's started like church
(43:43):
on day when you come to Jesus on Sunday at
the altar call, and then Monday morning you still the
same center. So that's why we enroll you in new
member class so we can start showing you where here's
the scriptition page seven like passive right, you know. And
(44:03):
so that's what we're fighting for our survivors, that we
need a system that's going to meet them where they are.
Just come in the door. We're not gonna even judge you.
I hate those stupid assessments because what are you assessing
for whatever comes back in the form what if you'll
what if you don't have that? So then you're just
gonna give them what you got That's what I mean
(44:25):
by poverty pamper give people what they need. We have
to listen to understand, not listen to be understood. We
have to listen to understand what do you need? Okay,
if we don't do it, so I see those departs
of the system to meet that are so broken, we
waste people's time, We set them back, you know, because
(44:48):
our system is so broken from poverty, pimping. And so
now that's why we don't do direct services. We really
work to educate those impacted, the survivors and their family least,
so that they know how to use that voice. If
you're not so broken, and if you are, we still
got a place for you. You know, if you are,
(45:09):
we we gonna still make it bad for you because
you get to just be over here and do that.
We got nurses for that too. But if you can
hold it together and be strong and say I'm gonna
be a voice for someone else, then that's where we
can push you forward and give you what you need.
That's that's what it should be. And so there's levels
for wherever people are entering and looking for service, but
(45:34):
also sometimes just looking for community, just community, someone who
gets me it feels good. Sometimes I've had people tell
me that that just having someone that I perceive is
just really listening. Because if you have to show up
at any public resource in Los Angeles and it's freaking humiliating.
(45:56):
You can't go to the welfare office, to the court,
to a d m V. What else is compulsory? So
resource of last Result, to the homeless shelter, to the whatever.
It's humiliating. They asked too many damn invasionary questions. You
have to bring too much paperwork. What if I lost
my I D I've had to go back to the
(46:19):
d n V. I got six kids. I've been at
least six times a year because somebody lost their paperwork,
and so what if you don't have that right? And
for survivors, a lot of the times due to the
thing that happened to them, they've lost all of that stuff,
you know, so they have to start by going back
and forth with these people, like for real, it's poverty
(46:39):
pimping and like another thing like dealing with social security.
If you want social security, you cannot have life insurance.
They're only gonna give you two hundred and fifty dollars
when you die you're gonna get buried in the box
and how much Since then, that doesn't make you can't
have life insurance. You have to have to get rid
of me and my kids life. They would have never
(46:59):
known if I wouldn't have raped my mouth. But I
was trying to be honest, trying to live with, trying
to be because you got right to try to be honest.
I let them know when they told me they cut
the check off for two months, and they gave me
a letter stating that they closed my life insurance. When
I closed that life insurance, I had it for years.
(47:20):
They didn't give me number three three the policy that
they need to work on this. It needs to be tooking.
It needs to be that. It needs to be took
him to the capitol. We did the march for this.
Did let people get life insurance? If you speak twincurity,
(47:42):
if you don't to the security, you're supposed to have
a knife funeral to exactly why y'all gonna talk about
you ain't get nuber two hundred and fifty dollars, but
y'all talking about that's what's your poverty. That's foolish. I
don't like it. That needs to be Surrier speak twenty.
I feel like we should go take that to the
(48:05):
what's the National Tame Safety Group that you SSJ that
is a call to action. There were a presidential campaign
that we want that rule change. We really need to
look at this because that's not fair that this side
you earned your sside. Yeah, that's you earn. It's a
(48:28):
it's one of the few benefits we have left. And
so this is the financial literacy of survivor healing right
because we're looking at these resources. This is the organizer training,
it's part of that. So we you're entitled to your
s s I. That's a different benefit and then you
shouldn't be prevented if you can find a way to
(48:49):
pay for it. That had to be and let it
be because anybody want to be very get one of
us shot because you can't be talking about economic freedom
and I'm as a nappy head, dreaded out black woman,
Come on, you can't do that. That kill King for
that Remember long as he was, he was good, as
(49:12):
he said, guaranteed income guaranteed. Six months later, again it's
the timeline. These are found that he was dead in
less than six months after he wrote the guaranteed income,
guaranteed income. But you know that there's actually been some
pilot programs in l A County on some guaranteed income
(49:36):
of that I have had. It's a step in the
right direction, but we still got more to do. We
still have more. It's a step in the right direction,
but I'd like to see our schools working. I'd like
to see more attention to the credit recovery for these
um young minority students from during COVID. I'm an employer,
(49:58):
I won't have a pool of urban community youth to
pull from because so many of them will not be prepared,
because they won't be graduating high school in the next
five years. So I could pick them up and put
them to work. Because of the pandemic, because of the
pandemic setbacks, and just what a good public education should be,
(50:19):
what should be available to our young people, the type
of support parents need if you've got school aged kids,
it's pittiful. Yeah, there's a lot that needs to be done,
and I just come from the school that you know,
there's actually a lot of survivors out here who do
have the answers, and that's exactly why we're going to
be doing that policy push where to change the insurance
(50:44):
for Oh my god, that's a winnable. That's win We're
gonna have to march. We're gonna march. We're gonna go
down there and we're gonna mark. I tell you this much.
If you if you get mutual life, pay too many
policies because we ain't doing go fund mese and car washes.
You got to pay that life insurance. They're gonna change
(51:05):
them gun laws guarantee they're start seeing some money going
into the hood because all the hood mom has been
put up on game or sweetie's life is your life,
is your life. But everybody you gotta have at Lisa
Hunt of Cheese, these are the life insurance ages. They'll
sign you up between five dollars a month. That's you
can get that. That's what they'll handle that. They'll change that.
(51:26):
They need to, they change that because that's economic. Okay.
So then what you're saying is first we do an
organizing effort to get everybody signed up on insurance, and
then we go into and then you change the policy
for those where it gets in the way because that
money is essential. You can you know, this is what
they deny poor people and what racism does when you
(51:49):
lose someone. If you can deal with a whole lot
better in Bahama with your big glasses on, you're not
worried about what you And I'm on my tenth massage
because that's what I needed. I'm talking to my fifteenth
counselor because that's what I need, right, and I could
afford I could just get home and go get it.
It's called access, that's right. That's what insurance money does
(52:13):
for these families that are at risk. If you live
in the zip code, we know how to name it. Now.
If you live in a zip code, if you are
over here, if you have any friends over here, family,
you're gonna need this. Put that up because it's a
financial instrument. It's nothing to be afraid of. They don't
want us to know that. Yeah, but we're gonna have
to go down there march about that. But we're really
you're gonna have to go down there march on that.
(52:35):
And then they tell you how much money you're supposed
to have and this and that you gotta spend it up.
If you leave over two thousand on your car, they're
gonna cut your ship off. It's just too much. We
got stress that to drinks, hit, somebody sick, somebody up,
my whole, my whole two and a half hours and
ain't management class went out the window because I gotta
(52:58):
log back to this. And then she just did come
by here and stepped on my top with me. So
now I just you know's what poverty, that's the action,
That's what poverty would do to you. We've been fighting
for some economics here. We need access, we absolutely and
(53:21):
so when we make that march and we're on the
Capitol steps, what's the song You're gonna give him amazing
grace Like I like, you know, stopping alight. We're on
(53:42):
the move. So we're gonna be doing that because it
is some amazing grace grace. We're gonna be on the move.
And Tasha, you you really do got some pipes over
there though, and you have sung for some well known
people in the past. Tell us about them. I just
(54:05):
met a lot of stars back in the days when
I was singing doing things. Um, I had a contract,
but I didn't go out through it, you know, doing
other things. So just enjoy singing for people and going
places because people wanted to hear me. You know, people
some other people like, oh, she sing, she saved that.
You know. So that's how I started out and singing
(54:26):
for different stars and everything. I loved it. And you
sing back up for people to write, Um, I have
did back up. I have son in the gospel rout
the gospel warreads. We traveled around the world. We didn't
go a lot of states, but we went to different states. Uh.
And we traveled and we sing. Do you still sing? Well?
I still sing, but I'm not in the gospel group
(54:46):
no more, my cousins. And then they want to get
the gospel group back going, and I said, We're gonna
have to add some rehearsals. Well, can you give us
a little taste today? Let me see, I give you
a little something loosening water. You guys are hearing it
here first the Ribber's project on the come up right
(55:07):
every with ma'am. Yes, yes, it's my little baby right here.
Just watch her girl up. It's like I feel like
my bo I feel that if we're in good hand. Okay, Uh,
I need the needy read a word. I need homeless
(55:50):
me now my field. I come to to thee. My
soul love Jesus, my soul love Jesus, Hether wonder and
(56:19):
my soul blame hear the name. Yes, yes, yes, yes yeah,
Lord to your wiens, to your ween in, your wie,
(56:49):
to your ween tee, your wheel hollelu y'ah hollewen who
I was beautiful, very beautiful. Well there you have it, folks,
Thank you so much for joining us. Where can people
(57:12):
find you if they want to show you some love? Latasha,
you can find me. You're get in touch with Oila.
Are you can? I'm in Watts. Anybody want to see
me or you need my number and call Oila as well.
She can get in touch with me. No social media, No,
don't do that stuff. Okay, got you, I got you? Yeah,
(57:33):
but they can. They can come by TRP though and
absolutely that yeah, just thinking it. But they still can
always get in touch with me through you. There we go,
same for me. Reach out to the Reverence Project. They
are Yeah, is the lead for our Victims of Crime
Project and she's just doing some amazing work. Um they've
(57:56):
grown and doubled and tripled. So that's where we'll send
you to. We're at l A Metro Churches. Dot org
is our the Facebook page, so you could reach us
there but if you want services, you you know how
to reach us. We're here for this movement. I'm going
to be in line changing insurance and helping neighborhood moms
have some cash flow. This is gonna be some cash flogs.
(58:18):
You get ahold of thousands that will help. So I'm
with you on that. Thank you, Thank you, appreciating Yeah,
thanks talking to you ladies. It was good. Keep up
to good work, all right, get get day story get
(58:43):
thanks to you all for listening in. I have a
couple of thoughts before we get out of here. One,
As an advocate in the New Survivors Movement, we strive
to meet people where they are. We seek to focus
on our personal and communal healing practices that bring us
(59:04):
out of fear, out of shame, and out of guilt
to move us towards truth, forgiveness, and compassion. There is
no timeline for this process. Secondly, systems are changing in California.
We are moving away from over alliance on mass incarceration
(59:27):
as it has been proven ineffective to reducing prime rates
and recidivism. These shifts are happening quickly, and for families
that are going through a court process, it can be
difficult to navigate what's happening. One way to stay up
to date about your criminal case is to utilize the
(59:47):
Vine system. It's the nation's leading victim of crime notification
system and allows for timely and reliable information about offenders
or criminal cases in US jails and prisons. You can
visit them at www dot fine link dot com. That's www.
(01:00:10):
Dot v i n e l i n k dot com,
where they provide seven help. They cover forty eight states
and incarceration facilities. And finally, we briefly discussed the role
of veterans in our society. Veterans that have participated in
(01:00:33):
war are one of the recents that we have the
understanding that we do regarding PTSD or post traumatic stress disorder,
and those of us who have lived through urban street
wars can make the correlation between the after effects of
gun violence and how it affects the people of our communities.
Amongst both groups, we have those who survive and thrive
(01:00:57):
and those who are just barely hanging off. And if
that's you out there struggling, just know that you're not alone.
See killing anyway, And one place you might start is
with calling one hundred to seven three talk and for
veterans the number is hundred to seven three eight to
(01:01:21):
five five. Disclaimer. My views, beliefs, and opinions are my
own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my
guest resource organizations or sources shared last thing. Every day
(01:01:54):
we survive is a new chance to see killing piece
to your only good people. As shareh
Host
Oya L. Sherrills
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