Black Fly, Black Bird, Black Protest Guest: Tyneadrian Fleming

This week on TMI, Mysonne celebrates turning 50, Tamika D. Mallory shares a “thought of the day” about “All Roads Lead to the South,” warning that Supreme Court decisions weakening Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act aim to disenfranchise Black communities nationwide, and calls for renewed organizing, voter registration, education, and resistance during “Freedom Summer.” Guest Tyneadrian Fleming, founder and CEO of Blackbird Smart Innovations, recounts her journey from being a teen mother in the Bronx through hardship to building businesses, then creating Blackbird’s QR/NFC-enabled wearable safety devices designed to share protected medical and emergency information with community members and first responders for people with disabilities, seniors, and vulnerable travelers, and Mysonne responds with criticism of a George Floyd joke made during a Kevin Hart roast and calls to stop laughing at disrespectful trauma.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Tamika d. Mallory and it's.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Your boy my song.

Speaker 1 (00:02):
In general, we are your host of TMI.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Tamika and my song's information, truth, motivation and inspiration.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
New name, new energy, but same. What's going on with
my song?

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Lennon huh am black blessed in fifty years old and
old man? No, no, no, I'm fifty. It ain't nothing
old about me? Is the difference? You know what I'm saying.
It's a number. Age ain't number. And the shout out
to my brother Chili because age ain't nothing but a number.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
That song that he made. How long ago was that?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
That's almost almost forty years ago? No way, she was
thirteen years old, Oh thirty seven?

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah so yeah, so thirty seven years ago he made
a song. Age ain't nothing but a number, and now
it means so much more. It could be used to
help cover up the fact that y'all are old man.
I get it.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
It's no old man, you know, covering up because we
actually just genuine individuals.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Yeah, no, you all are. Y'all know young at heart absolutely,
and you guys are fit. You work out. Man.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
My little man over here, my little brother was over
here explaining to me how everybody else looked fifty and
I don't you know what that was gonna be my
I don't get it, but it's not mine. I don't
get it because I got another one. But I really
just don't understand how, you know, God did his thing
with this Melanie I got going on? Man, this is
like preserve preservation at his finest. Man, I can't I'm

(01:38):
not even mad at God. He just did his thing.
Sometimes you gotta look at God and say, like, I
walk into nature sometimes and I look at certain flowers
and animals and I be like, Wow, God is amazing,
And I'm one of the specimens that I'm able to
look at and say, God did his thing. Man got
to respect it.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Listen, there's nothing wrong. But I'm happy that you You're happy.
You all had a fantastic celebration, a lot of and
support and just a lot of people showing up to
let you know that you know, they they appreciate the authenticity.
And that's one thing I can say about you and
Chi is that you know, throughout all the time that

(02:19):
I've known both of you, you're very consistent, consistently who
you are. And that could be good, bad, or indifferent
sometimes right. You know, some days there's things about y'all
that I love and some things just so irritating. But
it's always consistent, you know what you're getting, y'all. Not
weirdos that change up, that tell people you're gonna do

(02:40):
stuff and then act funny and stop taking phone calls
and hide and all the weird old stuff that these
people do out here in this world slash industry eza
all of them.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
No, It's true, you know, it was. It was humbling
to see so many people come off of party.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
You know.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
It was people that I knew since the second and
third grade there from high school that I haven't seen
in over twenty years that pulled out. Was like, yo,
I wasn't gonna miss this for the world, Like friends
that I was on basketball teams that I played at
Gauchows and that I played it on high school with,
like they literally showed up, so you know. And then
there was some people that I thought were supposed to

(03:23):
be there wasn't. But everybody that was there was supposed
to be there, man, But you know, and it was
love man. Shout out to everybody, Shout out to our
host y and d shout out to Lennyes, also shout
out to Lendius because Lenny actually got he was inducted
into the Bronx Hall of Fame, he got a block
named after him everything, So shout out to him. He

(03:44):
came out and celebrated us, but he would not let
me speak about that. He's like, Nah, this is y'all day.
Don't even talk about that, you know what I'm saying.
But on my actual birthday, which was two days later,
I went out and celebrated him, you know, and it
was amazing for him. Shout out to Dress who performed
you know what I'm saying, one of my favorite songs.
You know, shout out to you for being at the

(04:06):
head of everything. You know, you always you know how
to plan, you put that together.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
There was a lot of people though, that put effort
and energy into making it happen. Of course, Decks, Dentam,
the fantastic event coordination Slash this of course company led
by Danielle and her team Shanaya Juliann Hoffenberg. That's my hitter.

(04:32):
I always have to have jewels with me with anything
that I do. She'll come to me with the best ideas.
In fact, this party, she had mentioned like, what are
we going to do for my son's fiftieth birthday party?
And somehow it all came together and she just fell
right into it, Goldie, you know. And of course Shatima,
thank God for her. I saw her sister. Shatima lost

(04:52):
her son, what is it five years ago now? He
was killed by somebody who was shooting around like a
mad person. Just I don't know. We these younger folks
and these guns, like it's almost it's so normal to
just have a gun shooting the air, shoot around at
people when it actually could take someone's life at the

(05:15):
end of the day, and young Steph was killed in
the process of a trial, the ending of the trial,
the jury's verdict, the judges sentenced, and all of that
stuff was happening, and every day she was still on
the phone with us trying to help make sure the
venue was right, all the things was done, that the
tables were properly attended to, you know. And she would

(05:38):
say to me, because I sometimes I'll say, I don't
want to call you with this right now while you're
going through so much. She was like, actually, this keeps
me going. It keeps me having something else to do
to keep my mind off of the anxiety of dealing
with this day, you know, coming to that the person
responsible for taking her son's life would actually be sentenced.
So all that people still in life. The world's still moving,

(06:02):
but we all stopped to come together to celebrate the
fiftieth birthdays of two men that we love and adore
and cherish. So happy birthday again. That's your last time
because after this I'm done with that guy.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
I'm still the birthday.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
All you are, absolutely the birthday. But to everybody, man
moving out because is coming on, and forget that season. Man,
it's still we still got about good two more weeks.
We're gonna ride out with this thing.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
But shout out to shout out to my brother, Fat
Joe and Rich Player who is there the whole night
man that came through and Fat Joke just kept telling me, man,
this is the party of the year, the party of
the year, man, and you know he had we performed.
We actually this is the first time I got to
perform all the way up. You know, we literally perform
all the way up, perform all the way as we

(07:01):
said on them couches, we stood on them couches that
we perform all the way up. It was a moment
that was just dope, man. So shout out to him,
Shout out to everybody that came out seen my og
tone was there, It was so many people like you
know what I'm saying. It just it made me feel good.
It makes people always say, you know you can you
never forget the way somebody makes you feel man. You know,

(07:21):
and I think it's a testament in my heart that
you know, I've done good by a lot of people.
You know. I have friends that who have been my
friends since elementary school and they say that I've you know,
I've always been the same person like you said, And
that's just that's just who I am, and that's how
I want to be remembered. So once again, shout out
to everybody who was there. Shout out to everybody who

(07:44):
had a part in it, who did anything. I appreciate
you for sure.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
For sure. Let's talk about my thoughts to day real quick.
We have a good guest coming up, and I want
to hear. I've learned so much about this woman, but
I want to hear even more. So I'm going to
move quickly today. My thought of the day is in
relation to this past weekend there were actions across the

(08:14):
country where under the banner all roads lead to the South.
It doesn't mean you have to be in the South.
It just means that you got to pay attention to
what's happening in the South, which is where the largest
concentration of black folks live. The largest concentration of black

(08:35):
folks is in the South, somewhere between fifty five to
sixty five percent of our people live there. And so
anytime you begin to see a trend of something happening,
is that negatively impacts our community. You know that if

(08:56):
it's happening in the South, the goal is to disenfranchise
us all over the nation. And what we saw over
the last two weeks with the Supreme Court gutting the
Voting Rights Act, specifically weakening dismantling Section two, which not
only and we talked about this on I think the

(09:17):
last show where Reverend Mark Thompson was with us and
talked about this not being the Voting Rights Act, not
being just about black folks. The Voting Rights Act also
helped disable people and women, the other groups who have
been marginalized in groups that these white men, because that's

(09:39):
mainly who's involved in trying to stop us as black
folks and as people again who are in marginalized groups
within this nation. They have always tried to stop take
away and suppress our voting rights. Because there's two things
that we know. The founders of this nation and all

(10:04):
their cousins and the children, as they would say, the
children of the Confederacy, the KKK some of them, and
those who want to maintain power over all of the
rest of us. Power and money. The two things they
care about are your vote and your pocket slash pocketbooks.

(10:29):
Those are two things that matter to in this country
more than anything. Why Because our pockets and pocketbooks is
the resources that they need that keeps them rich, it
keeps this country moving, It keeps them at the highest
level of power using or by way of capitalism. And

(10:51):
then our votes, our votes are hugely important because the
people who want the money also want to write the rule.
They want to be in charge and have the power
to control how the nation moves with money and with
political power. And so some of us say, well, our

(11:14):
votes don't count, it doesn't matter, or I can spend
my money at any store that I want, because how
is boycotting some company going to help us. That tells
me that you really don't understand how the system operates,
because when you know the system, then you understand that
it's all working in their benefit if we don't participate. Now,

(11:37):
let me say this as my thought of the day.
These actions that took place, all roles lead to the South,
were incredibly important because, as we know, after Kamala Harris
did not win the election, so they say, but after
Kamala Harris did not become President of the United States,

(12:00):
a lot of black people said, We're going home. Were tired.
And I understand, especially being a black woman who toils
within this movement, and I've been doing it for thirty
years of my life, I completely understand the exhaustion the
fact that black people are holding up the rest of
the world. We literally everywhere we are people are black folks,

(12:25):
no matter what our backgrounds may be. We are the
foundation of nations, and certainly here in the United States
of America. If it were not for black folks and
the way in which we uphold the economy, the ways
in which we participate in the systems, and the ways
in which we build we build nations, we have continuously

(12:47):
undergirded America in ways that this nation could never repay
us for. So when I think about what we have
been to this nation, when people said I'm exhausted, I'm tired,
I can't I completely respect and understand it. I don't
get to take that approach. Unfortunately. I think that that

(13:09):
approach is it is. It's important because we need the rest,
but it also can be dangerous when people get too complacent,
or when people start to withdraw so much that there
is a sense that we are not still in the
game fighting for our survival, that by the time we
circle back to fight back, to stand up, it may

(13:30):
in fact be too late. And I think we already
way past that. I think this nation as we once
knew it is so far gone that we will never
see that version. And in fact, most of us don't
want to rebuild what was already in place. We want
to rebuild a different type of world. But in order
to do that, in order to rebuild a different type

(13:53):
of world, we have to be actively engaged. And we definitely,
one hundred percent cannot at all concede our right to
control the political power within our communities and across this nation.
And so I believe that some of us are ready
to get back out there, to get back active, to

(14:14):
register voters, to show up in the streets, to organize,
and just to meet up again in a form of community.
That is a form of resistance. I believe that people
are in that space. We know that everyone never did anything.
And so if you're looking to the left and right
of you and the people around you are not getting

(14:36):
in the fight quick enough, or you don't feel that
they're participating in the right ways, don't worry about that.
Stay focused. This is freedom Summer, as it has been dubbed.
We are going to be out here. You may not
be one who wants to hit the streets, although we
will be doing so. You may be someone who is
going to be a part of the efforts to register

(14:57):
a million or more voters the country. You may be
one who wants to teach history. You may be one
that wants to whole sittings. You may be a pastor
who's going to use your church as a vessel. But
know that you are connected to a movement and we
are outside. We are not going back, and in order

(15:17):
to not go back, but to go forward and to
build something new, we must resist every effort to suppress
our votes, to take advantage of us, and to marginalize
our communities and try to push us to a place
that we have fought too hard and too many have
died to overcome. So I am ready to organize. I'm

(15:39):
actually excited about what it looks like to be back
out here in this movement, pushing forward in the ways
that we know only black folks can do.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
You ain't said nothing but the truth right there. I
don't think that people are even aware, like you know
what I'm saying. That's how I feel. I feel like
there's so many people who just have taken things as
par for the course. You know, people have downplayed what
Donald Trump is doing. There's so much misinformation and people

(16:12):
will intentionally misinforming people about lives and saying, oh, no,
you're rights, nobody taking your rights. That's a lie. Trump
is doing what he's supposed to do. And when you
actually just look at in simplicity of what's happening, they saying, actually,
right now, about nineteen to twenty, black people could lose
their seats in government, like literally lose that. When you

(16:32):
lose political power, then you lose power all around. When
you lose the representation from your community, the ability to
vote for people that come from your community, identify with
your community, people you respect and you trust to govern
your community. Then you lose power because if people don't
have an allegiance to you, if they don't have a
connection to you, if they cannot identify with the issues

(16:53):
that you're dealing with, then they can't really help you.
And so that's why it's so crazy to me. And
people are all, it don't matter that black people's in position,
and I'm like, why wouldn't matter? Why would you think
that people from another demographic care more about you than
the people from your community? Like who tricked you into
believing that we are electing people from our community that

(17:14):
come from the same trenches, struggles and everything that we've
come from, and they don't care about us, Like, how
have we been conditioned to do? But this is what
this this is what this system has always done. It's
always turned us against each other, make us have disbelief
mistrust about our people. But we don't see that, we
don't have those same conversations about the people who've been

(17:37):
disenfranchising us, disrespecting us and violating, violating us. We can
remember so it's just so confusing to me. Like you said,
we got to be out here on these front lines,
but as we mobilize, we got to continue to educate
our people because most of us pourish from a lack
of information.

Speaker 1 (17:55):
Absolutely, and I'll just say that, you know, there is
also the conversation of whether or not black elected officials
have been for our communities. What we need in order
to feel confident about having them as our leaders, but
what people need to understand. And by the way, there
are many black elected officials across this nation who do

(18:17):
incredible work. They struggle. They struggle to raise money from us.
They struggle to get people to help them phone bank
and help them to continue to be elected. They struggle
to find folks to stand with them when it's time
to fight against the powers that be that come up
against them. I think about Rasbaraka. He is one of
those people who has put his life on the line

(18:39):
as an elected official, who deals with all the hate,
all the struggle, all the things that know he's not perfect,
but nevertheless he absolutely is doing an incredible job on
behalf of our community. And when I think about the
struggle of elected officials, what I realize is one. We
all not. This moment may actually be good for us

(19:00):
because we get an opportunity to see what it looks
like when we are disenfranchised and you lose the type
of people in your community that you need to have
there that respect and understand the needs of your community.
But I also think that it is good because we
may need to look at how many people will run
for office. Now will you be able to run and

(19:23):
get elected if your black district that you know is
now put in a pool among all these other people
that get to make a decision about who leads your community.
A lot of our people, not a lot, but some
of our people think white folks ice is colder, that
we will somehow get the benefits if we let the
white people lead and we just be next to them

(19:44):
a little bit and think that that's going to somehow
benefit our communities. My thought of the day today is
to know that this freedom summer, we are organizing, mobilizing
and activating our people. We may not get all black folks,
We may not get all any kind of person or group,
but what we know that we will have is a committed,

(20:06):
dedicated group of people who are going to stand and
stand tall We're not gonna let them take our power
away without a fight.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
Amen. So, as we always say on our show, we
have our friends, and this is no different. This is
one of my friends. Amazing individual. Her name is tan
Adrian Fleming. She is CEO, a change agent and a
female tech pioneer and visionary. She is the founder of
Blackbird Smart Innovations, and she is just an amazing serial entrepreneur.

(20:39):
She has so many different companies and alls that I
can't even tell you all. She's gonna give us all
of that. Thank you for being here, Tona Adrian, thank you.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
For handing me Absolutely, we're excited to have you on today.
We know a lot about you, but it's really exciting
to have opportunity to hear directly from you about all
the things. So thank you for joining the TMI Show today.
Thank you, Timick. I appreciate it and you knowing all right,
So listen, let's go back all the way back. Because

(21:12):
I've read your bio, I've obviously come to know you
through my son, I'm getting to know so much about you,
know your go getter instincts and you know, we had
a conference call a few weeks back and when we
got off the call. There's another young woman who worked
closely with who is a hustler. Go get her just
a powerhouse. Uh. And when we got off of Linda

(21:36):
who's one of the co founders of Until Freedom, who
we now know as well, and I said, they are
so much alike, Like, these are people who are going
to get the job done. They're not going to stop
until whatever it is that you all set your minds
to until it happens. And I'm inspired by that really
because you know, I have the same type of personality,

(21:57):
so I know there's a lot that drives us. So
I love to hear more about your beginnings, like your upbringing,
where you're from, and you can even tell us how
did entrepreneurship become the path that you decided to take. Well,
I'm going to start it started. I'm a sixteen year

(22:18):
old mom. I want to go back to that because
that's when the development happens. Two kids by nineteen from
the Bronx. Every statistics there, but I always knew. I knew,
I knew one and more for my sons, right, And
so I moved from the Bronx up to Rockland with
nobody didn't know anything, No and I built a community

(22:41):
based on that, and I went back to school. I
went I mean, I had two jobs in school, got
from a ged to a master's degree. Two master's degrees,
and in a short period of time, mind you, it
was very I mean I experienced homelessness everything year I
experienced not having a job. I mean, everything you named,

(23:04):
I experienced it at the time. It's really hard to
tell my story because it's a long story, and everybody
always want me to tell my story because the people
that know me know that my story is real and
everything I experienced with my three sons, but for me,
I left corrections. And when I left corrections the time

(23:25):
I was married going through a divorce, life was hard.
Life was always life. But I never understood that that
is like your sweet spot in life for you to
become who you're supposed to be. So when I was
in school, I always know I wanted to be a
business owner. I wanted to be because I was say,
let me go back and get my PhD and psychology.

(23:48):
And I met this amazing man one time and he
was like, well, there's no real money in that, and
I'm saying, you know, what do you mean? But he
what the words that he said to me left an
impact on me. I decided to switch my degree in
public administration and learn about policy making. So if I'm
going to be a change agent, I want to be

(24:09):
a change agent from the top. And I realized that
that's where the effectiveness happened. So I went in back
and got a second master's in public administration and opened
a Medicaid proof which was also a big accomplishment home
care agency, which is not common for people that looked

(24:29):
like me. That was a lot and I had a
lot of obstacles. I mean, my peer group were white men, men,
not even females. And I did very well. I did
so well. I didn't even know how to handle it right.
I didn't know how to handle it. I went, I mean,
I made lots and lots of money, lots and lots
of mistakes. I didn't really understand the whole business. In tech,

(24:51):
they'll teach you all that in entrepreneurship school. The real deal.
I had over one hundred and fifty staff. All this
happened within a two three year period. I just knew
like I had this vision for myself, and I really
executed so effectively and we were able to be rewarded
of it. But I didn't understand the infrastructure and the
liabilities and all these things that came with it. So

(25:13):
it cost me, and it cost me aligning, cost me financially,
it cost me situationally, emotionally, and this is how I
developed the Blackbird. When I developed Blackbird, I was going
through what they call a transitional stage. I lost my business,
I was getting divorced, I was in a lot of debt.
I didn't know what I was going to do with

(25:33):
my life. But I had all these skills, I had
all this education. But I one of the things I
realized through that point, I had to bet on myself.
I built that company from the ground up. I was
able to get the ged I was a coundent out
of me and God. So I put that dinormous faith
around me. And that's how I said, you know, I'm
going to a place and a space where nobody's at

(25:55):
and that is technology. But I really didn't know how
to go into technology. And at the time it was COVID,
and around the COVID time is when I saw the
QR codes. QR codes blew up and I said, hmm,
how can I create this a technology wearable device with

(26:16):
the QR code system and connected to medical ID support.
Didn't really understand the connection, and it hit me one night.
I woke up and God gave me this vision and
the name Blackbird. I spoke, told my son, I'm going
to open this thing called Blackbird, and it's a smart
wearable device is and I didn't know the engineering part.

(26:37):
I didn't know, but I knew I had such defined
intellectual property that I wanted to put that inside of
a smart wearable solution to save lives, to protect individuals.
And that's how Blackbird was formed. But the major thing,
that major obstacle that I had was money. So the
time I didn't even even have. So I looked up

(26:58):
the Reach of Development and they told me I was
gonna cost you about thirty seven thousand dollars just to
be able to see if we can conceptualize your idea.
I didn't have thirty seven dollars literally, but at the
time I knew. I mean, I learned how to which
is another sweet spot. I learned how to buy and

(27:19):
sell businesses and what they call what they call acquisitions
and mergers. So I was a consultant. I would build
these homecare agencies all over. So I met this Jewish guy.
He's a very nice guy, and he wanted me to
build a company for him. So I convinced him to
buy one of my agencies that I was just I

(27:39):
just developed because I said, oh, it's no way I
can come up with the money. It's gonna take me
some time. But I felt compelled to move on this technology.
So if you look it up, it says blackbirds. I mean,
I'm Gided Steps, New Jersey. I sold that to the
Jewish guy, and that's how I was. I convinced him

(28:00):
strategically and confidently to now give me one hundred thousand
dollars to now buy a business with no profit. No, no,
no real. I want to say no profit because I
didn't have no revenue. I had my kids put a
hoodie on, go provide some services, and that's how I
was able to show him revenue. So I had anticipated revenue,

(28:22):
and I convinced him to now buy guided it Steps,
New Jersey. How's that doing? How's the business doing now?
But it's still it's still doing well. It's still doing
well for him, you know. It was It was funny
because they were very like cocky to me. They didn't.
They didn't think I thought they. I think they thought

(28:43):
that I was pill equipped or not knowledgeable to run
this business. No, I just needed to get this access
to this long summer money because I couldn't get a
loan and I was in dead. I couldn't do all
the things that traditional people would do, couldn't borrow it.
But I knew how to build companies. I knew I
had that special skill. So he bought it, and he

(29:05):
bought me. You could google it, says Guidance Steps New Jersey.
It's still kind of registers as me, but it's not.
And at the same time, I was building Guidance Steps
New York. So when Guided Steps New York officially became
certified through the state, I then quickly said okay. I
told him, yeah, this is what it is. I took

(29:25):
that lump some money and I reinvested it black into Blackbird,
and now I built Guidance Steps to fund Blackbirds, so
I don't have any debts, any loans, any SBA loans.
I wanted to make sure I self fund this technology,
which costs me right now almost almost a million dollars.
With this technology comp because it's very expensive, but I'm

(29:48):
at the end of it, and I keep adding on
to the wear of booths, which I want to talk
about that in a few minutes. But I'm now slowing
down on it because we're at the place of contract
design and and gets your interests and I'm glad we
are here now I can actually have leverage when it
comes to my company.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
So tell people exactly what Blackbird is and what is
the wear What is it?

Speaker 1 (30:12):
Oh, a Blackbird? Blackbird Smart Wearable Tech Smart Solutions is
a wearable technology company. We have four smart wearable devices
on the market. Here is our flagship device. Right. We
changed the band to blue and has a red bird.
This is the first ever qr co embedded inside of
the mobile application. This is where the sos feature the

(30:36):
medical medical ID. So my concept design is community based support.
I wanted to bring back community and the reason why
is that when in my pursuit and providing services to
individuals that I serve with traumatic brain injury, a lot
of my individuals are so severe and you can't see
traumatic brain injury that could be any one of us

(30:58):
at any time. So I have an individual that could
walk outside and he has no clothes on because he
wanted to go get his favorite beer from the store.
He forgot to put his clothes on, but he remember
to get his favorite beer. So imagine when the police
show up, because it happens all the time, when the
police show up. We can put systems in place in
his house, but thankfully, his community, the next door neighbor,

(31:22):
person down the street, even the police, but one of
the police at that particular time, don't know who that
person is. They show up, the first thing he's gonna
think is drugs and mental health, when in reality is
he didn't take his medication properly and he has traumatic
brain injury, so he forgot to put his clothes on.
They're gonna now take him from his natural environment and

(31:43):
his healthy environment, and now they're gonna do what put
him into the er. He's gonna now become disoriented, behavioral.
They're gonna think it's psychosist. They gonna think he's having
a psychiatric breakdown. They're gonna put more medication on him.
They got not gonna know who he is. So all
this trauma is happening in when all we have to
do was now use technology to communicate. So now the

(32:05):
community we train the community to now look at the
band tap the QR code. It goes into a face
sheet in which you can control You can communicate with
the with the with the same with the community called
my wife, they called my husband. This is who I am.
I have a phasia, I'm non verbal, I'm TBI. Whatever
you want the community to know. Now we have the

(32:26):
first ever first respond to coldes. That is when you're
able the first respond to PD Fire Department, Police department,
as well as the medical they can now punch in
their protective codes. They can go inside of the app
and see all your medical identifying information, which is crucial

(32:49):
and which separates us from what's on the market. Nobody
has that concept design. You could have an Apple Watch
and an Android watch. If you have a crisis, they
are not going to give you that data. Even with
a court order, you may not get that data or
it may take you years to get that data. We
want to be able to be a solution for that.
So think about it. Any event. Now they're in the hospital,

(33:12):
so either they don't have my device on or not,
that information is now still stored with they can have
access to it so they know how to specifically care
for you who I am, and how to properly care
for me any event at the crisis. So that's why
I said, this is why I developed black Bird. And
then I went further. I said, hmmm, my population is amazing,

(33:33):
but they're not carrying the Bluetooth device. So I created
the Blackbird bowl. And the reason why the Blackbird boat
is a pendant and a watch, so that way they
can wear it interchangeable. And that one we have a
contract with T Mobile, which is it's called Steed Talk,
which is under T Mobile, which is like the Obama phones,

(33:55):
the Obama tablets. Now they're gonna get Obama free smart watches.
I want to control the network because we are Medicaid proved,
we have managed to improved, so we wanted to make
sure we roll that in with this one. Everybody loves
the concept of the button, the you know dependent with
the button right, And the reason why is because if

(34:18):
I am falling out, I'm not grabbing my wrists, I
am going to grab my chest, so the likelihood of
me tapping the button is high. So that is why
we want to make sure. But with this one is
so magnificent. You can FaceTime, you can say call Tamkap
and you can now talk to the first responders and
effectively communicate what's going on with me, who I am,

(34:41):
and how to properly care for me if I'm unable to.
So we have empowered the community, we have empowered the
first responders. We create a communication connectivity system from the
first response from the community to the first responders to
the medical care team. But I said, what about the
individuals who have the Apple watches and they're not going

(35:01):
to want to carry it. They may love our watches
because we get a lot of feedback. So we create
the medical ID sleep. It slides right on your watch
and now you protected has a QR code, and now
you're saying, has the same access to the medical identifying
information that you need to any event the crisis. And
then we went further, which is now going to be

(35:23):
our last one for right now, Blackbird. We created a
smart button because when we do a lot of marketing
and presentations and I want to say conference events, we
speak to people. So I wanted real life understanding of
how smart weble technology can really add value to a
person with special needs, or a senior person with disabilities,

(35:47):
or even chronic illnesses. So one of the things is
they would always say, you know, my son has sensory overload,
or my grandmother is not wearing no watches or no pendants.
So I said, you know what, I don't want to
lose that popular I still my goal is to save lines.
So I created the smart button. So this button can

(36:07):
be sewn on and off. We also now have a
device that you can step it on and step it
right back off. This is the same thing. It has
an NFC chip in it, so now it's a It
becomes a GPS tracker to GPS tracker and a GPS locator.
The difference what ours is if anybody find them, they

(36:27):
can have the same identifying system. You tap the button,
it goes into a protective page for any phone, Android
or Apple. You stap it and you don't need to
have the mobile application to be able to do that.
Now you're back protecting that person. So any event, we
have the little ones that's autism. We notice that little

(36:49):
ones with autism and schools, they have a tendency as
soon as they get off the bus, they bothd they
run and most of the time y'll find them for
three or four hours later and anybody you explain this to,
they know this is actually happy. So now as a
family member, I can now program the GEO coordinates around

(37:09):
the school. I can see if they go three feet
outside of the school address, send me an alert. You now,
as a family member, we're getting an alert on your phone.
And then what you would do is now you'll be
able to call the school before they even know your
child is missing. You can inform that that my child
is missing, please locate them, and now they can be

(37:30):
pained to the Google tower. And now you're able to
see them in the vicinity because now they're being monitored.
So that's why everybody loves the button. In fact, we
are in different states Hawaii, specifically Alabama, Florida. It either
it ranges some some like the smart wearables and some

(37:52):
like the button. So that is kind of the range
we are with all of our smart wearable technology.

Speaker 2 (38:00):
So what made you want to start doing this? Like,
you know, you had a history. You said that you
know you had a history and corrections and you were
just building companies. But what was the what was the
motivation behind this exact invention?

Speaker 1 (38:16):
Because I when I came into a lady's house, they
had the same device. It was unplugged. It was it
was the device with the box. It was unplugged, it
had dust on it, so it was ineffective. But as
long as it was in her plan, she needed it.
Because anyone that's in home care is automatically eligible, eligible

(38:37):
for a smart device. They call it. In my industry,
they call it personal emergency response systems. It's called per devices.
So I said, hmm, I figured, if it's not effective,
why are they using it? Because they didn't have anything else.
They didn't have anything in the five G world. So

(38:58):
I now start the search the importance of smart wearables
fit bits that blew up, smart watches that blew up.
So I wanted to be able to be involved in
an industry that was evolving, that was the next generation.
So that's why I came up with this, the smart
wearable devices. But I wanted to have specific concentrations on

(39:21):
the industry that I'm familiar with. So for example, the
health management part, we are now about to be FDA approved,
so you can sell my watches in pharmacies. And you
know what they called DMMES Durable Medical equipment. We made
sure we got the contract with Medicaid and managed care.

(39:41):
We wanted to make sure before we roll out that
we put we're going to be a free device. It's
a life saving device, it's effective and anytime I learned
that if you sell any smart device, any smart technology
device in North America, you have to go through a
lot of certification of and we passed all of those.

(40:05):
So it's not like it's just an innovation and you
just put it out there and go forward. Because it's medical,
because it's putting, you know, a device on people that
has the ability to connect emergency services and family members
and all of that, you need actual certifications through the state. Absolutely.

(40:26):
That's talk about that because someone who's listening might be like, oh, okay,
so you got a device and you hopeing it works.
And I heard you say something one day that I love,
which is that you are not a startup company. The
company has already started. You know, this innovation has been
created and it is already moving, it is already building,

(40:47):
it's already developed, and so I wend, Yeah, I love that.
You know. I've had people say to me or they'll
call me an emerging leader, and I just laugh and
I said, Okay, I guess I'll take it, you know.
But I've emerged and then exactly, and so you're now

(41:08):
a stroduct. No. And the reason why I say that
is because I can't, like you said, I could have
started out with one product my direct competitors, because I
have all his business sense, I understand. The first thing
I look at is competition. My direct competitor owns this space.
There are a nine billion dollar company. They have one

(41:31):
device because what they did was they coined the market
with reimbursable solutions. They went right to the insurance companies.
That's the hard part. But because I have that understanding,
I made sure when I wrote the technology, I wrote
it and I'm talking about the smart were booths, not
the smart wear boots, but the mobile application. The mobile

(41:53):
application is now here for compliant And when I made
I made it a medical necessity. And I also looked
at the comments inside of the with the other my competitor,
and one of the main things I talked about was
a multi language. They only had one language, right, So
I said, okay, I now have ten languages and I'm

(42:16):
moving on to different languages now it's safe. For instance,
the police department now want to go inside, they can
switch it right back to English because in the event
of a crisis, language is a barrier to anybody. You
may think, I just may not did not know how
to communicate with you and understand what you're saying. And
you're trying to treat me a kid. I'm going to withdraw.

(42:36):
I'm going to become behavior. I'm going to now I'm
going to have these outward signs and all because communication
is the barrier. Additionally, we start to notice that we
got a lot of good reception. Like I said in Hawaii,
and I always tell the story, we got approached by
I have a partner out there, a mother whose son

(42:58):
is half Hawaiian, half Black, and he was going to work.
But he's autistic, but he's high functioning autistic, right whatever
that means high functioning. So he had a hoodie on.
You know, they made hoodies a lot, So he had
a hoodie on, and I guess the police was pulled
up on him and they asked him for his ID.
Of course he couldn't give them his ID. He moved

(43:19):
and again in a physical response. They looked at it
as aggression. They didn't understand he had a disabilities because
he couldn't tell you that, and they wind up hurting him.
The mother sued and she won, of course, and now
they had to put in an intervention. So they came
up with the ID card. You'll see them come up
with this ID card. But the advocacy group didn't like

(43:42):
the ID card because of the fact that if anybody
find the ID card, their information is exposed to everyone.
So they wanted a protective solution. So they when they
heard about Blackbird, and they I've done presentations out there,
they really loved Blackbird because now they wanted to make
sure that now it's protected behind this technology device and

(44:05):
in faciet and the first responders now can go inside
and see all the identifying information. So not only is inclusive,
it's protective and it's not open to the So that's
why they love us. So they wanted to rea same
thing with us. We are now like today a confection
today I had today with the police department in Aruba.

(44:28):
We're looking to bring our the day interesting in bringing
our devices out there for their mental health population, but
also more importantly for the medical identifying information. If I'm
a vulnerable traveler, whether I have product diseases and all
that that other country is not gonna know my medical
faciet any event of the crisis. But if I can

(44:49):
now have this smart wearable, I can now you know,
I want to say protectively expose them to my doctor,
my doctors, and my medical history with medication. I'm taking
all of this through this now protective medical ID support.
So it's like every day we are getting more and

(45:12):
more of interest in what we're doing because we're solving
not a small problem, but a big problem that people
probably don't even know they need it. So, no, we're
not a startup. No, very well, very very careful and
strategic of how I put it out right, I know

(45:35):
as a business person, I'm taking a risk because I'm
exposing myself to my competitives. Right, It's okay, Right, It's
okay because I'm ready for that. That's why a lot
of my devices stay in the beta stage. Right. You
have to understand what's in my mind because I created
and monetized my intellectual property in order for you to

(45:55):
do to replicate it. Yes, want the big people. Yes,
I want the Apple and the Amazon. I'm building my
company right now to sell it. Like right now, it's
everything I'm doing has an endgame. Solution right right now.
So even if somebody coming right now, my design right
now is sellable. And I learned that sellable concept from

(46:19):
me building a business able to sell. So I realized
I have to be a business to sell it. I
love what I'm doing, but I'm building this company to
sell it to the big people for lots of money
to secure my generational wealth and my future.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
It's really amazing just you know, the way we connected
was just through doing business. You know, I was I
was introduced to you by a friend of mine who
said that you wanted me to host an event, and
from that event, there was just synergy and I became
one of the brand ambassadors for Blackbird because you know,

(47:00):
it was the community based. You know when you talk
to me about how you really wanted it to be
effective in our community to protect our kids. You know,
you didn't want our kids harmed, and you didn't feel
like the other companies even understood the culture of our
community speak to that.

Speaker 1 (47:19):
So one of the things that I did was I
created Blackbird TV. You were part of that. And the
reason why is I went to an event and I said, Okay,
I wanted to hear from the people from the community.
I can say my device is amazing. I can say
my device is needed. So once I bought my hosts
and this Blackbird TV to hear from real, real life people.

(47:41):
People were crying. They were telling a story about how
their family members fell and you know, died in that situation,
and their child keep running from school. They don't know
what to do. It's just all these stories. And I'm
saying at first, they say, is this device could have helped,
this advice, could have had better income. We couldn't informed

(48:02):
the doctors. We couldn't informed the police department, the fire department,
the community. Because think about the first responders. Is everybody
with an iPhone? And if I fall out right now,
the first thing that everybody gonna do is get their
phones out. So I changed that. Before I become an
Instagram reel or a TikTok real Now the community can
help me. So when nine to one one come run

(48:23):
through the door and they get there, I can now
the community member can say, let me call her husband.
This is her husband, her family member. So that's why
when I thought about you, I thought about you are
a strong community advocate, and I wanted somebody who had
this strong heart connection to their community, because that's why

(48:44):
we look at the app. It says protective community. I
want to bring back community. I want to let the
community know you had you can now save lives the
effectively instead of just taking your phone out because they
think about it. If someone falls out, they're gonna get
tench ten calls, ten different messages, ten different locations, ten

(49:06):
different reasons, all of it just about what happened. It's
going to confuse the first responders. But if I take
a picture of the QR code, it's gonna now now
tell me if I'm falling. There's an SOS button. You
can kick the SOS button that is effective and now you,
as who's my protective community, will get an alert. So

(49:28):
now you're on alert. But let's just in case you're
not available at that time. The community now can tap
that QR code while the first responders are en route.
Now I can effectively. They have seizure disorders. This is
the medication they take they go to this hospital. So
now I'm communicating effective communication any event of the crisis.

(49:51):
I'm saving lives, I'm saving time. And what's more important
is I'm speaking your way the way you want me
to communicate. So that is why my son it was
like it was like for me, very very important to
be able to get it into the first responder's hands
because it's a lot of first responders. We met so

(50:12):
many people at this event I did in Jersey, so
many people in the police department looking for that. They're
looking for a solution because they're out all times of
the night looking for children, adults with disabilities or mental health,
and they want to know who they're approaching. They want
to have an understanding of who they're approaching and how

(50:32):
to approach that right. So those are the things. So
when we meet first responders, they really really are very
interested in our device and very interested in learning more
about our device. I haven't run into anyone that had
a problem with it, not one, and that's that's how
I know this is a God given intervention because I

(50:54):
haven't had no one that did not like my device.
That's everything you're saying is very interesting because as a
person who has been on sort of the other side
of organizing to bring accountability to law enforcement, even to
all first responders in the ways in which they treat
black folks and other communities that are vulnerable I know

(51:18):
that the questions that will immediately come to mind are like,
should we be trusting the police with this information? You know,
how does this now create a situation where we're in
a further what do you call it surveillance state? Right,
because we already kind of live in one. But to

(51:39):
that in as I'm listening to you talking, I'm thinking,
we all have an Apple Watch of cell phone. You know,
we have so many devices that we already use every day,
and so the idea that you're not being tracked when
we're very much so being tracked at all times, will

(51:59):
be from the cameras outside in your community. I googled
the address to my house the other day and it
was a lie. I could literally see people moving and
I was in the house and I was pulling it
for a reason, but I was in the house and
I could see what happened. It's a delay, so it

(52:22):
may have been like two minutes ago, but I know
what was going on, you know what I say, And
so very interesting and so but but I would love
to hear you talk about those questions that will come
up from people who are concerned that now now now
they're family members, Because people don't know who they can trust, right,

(52:46):
they don't know? It sounds good that I have a
young lady who's in Boston. She has a a brother
who has severe mental health issues. He's a grown man.
He goes off and sort of disappears. The family can't
find him. They deal with so much in terms of,

(53:08):
you know, his his mental health and the issues that
he's facing. And I'm sure that she would be one
to say a device like this could help us so much,
because every time he goes missing, she calls me and
she and you know others, and she says, he's want
a crisis. He's going again. It's been a week. We

(53:30):
don't know where he is. He might be in the system.
We're not sure if he's in, if he's in, where
he is, they have no idea. But she is also
one who organizes against police right against police abuse. So
I know that in her mind it would be a
real difficult choice to reconcile now people having data on

(53:55):
where her brother may be, and then also at the
same time trying to fight a system that does not
treat her brother properly in the first place. Well, okay,
so let me just expand on that. I'm gonna talk
about that scenario, which is which is which is very familiar,
which is the story that we constantly hear all the time.
So let's just say the grandmother. I have a lot

(54:18):
of clients, see senior clients that live at home. They
don't have no family. They may have a daughter. She
live in Florida. She we're now we have the full
detection feak. Our devices is full. This has a full
detection triggering system. She full boomed. The device triggered. So
now they get an alert. Anyone in help protect the

(54:38):
community get an alert. Her son in Florida will now
get a text messire then fall to do a wellness check.
She programmed. They programmed the police department to now come
in to do a wellness check. Because now it's been triggered.
They come in. They're now coming in. She's in the house.
How are they're able to come in? Right So, even

(55:00):
so we don't want the police to have information. Let's
just see this situation right here. The police now, which
were on the next phase creating security systems, how are
they able to come in? They know she's on the floor,
she could be unconscious, she can't make any phone calls.
She's living, and statistically, if she's on the floor more
than three hours of likelihood of her expiring is extremely high.

(55:25):
So that's why we've be taking those protective pods and
we're creating security systems. So any event, she now can
say I need that extra protection. I need a first
responder to have access because my next door neighbor I
may not be able to trust. But I now can
now say, punching the same protection codes, I can now

(55:45):
that police apartment not could come in and move a
little faster, versus waiting for fire department, versus waiting for
the next door neighbor, worry for landlord times you have
you seen some topics, they'd be out there for hours
trying to get in to that person's house. When we
create a solution for that, so even though I may
be concerned that they have access to my information or

(56:11):
access to be able to come into my house, the
benefit of that it outweighs. Now they're able to come
in house faster, move faster, know what medication, know what's
going on. They don't even have to act that programmed it.
They didn't have to have to act. They can go
inside and say, oh, miss Mabel fell out because she

(56:31):
didn't take her medication in three eighths. Because you has
a medication, you can see what medications she's tears he's taken.
And we're connecting our electronic health breakords to doctor's office,
so now they can see it as well. So that
is why the surveillance part. No, we created a human
center approach to that. Yes, like you said, we're being tracked.

(56:54):
So let's just say, your friend with her brother being able,
not being able to find him is emotionally stressful for
her every time because he You promote independence. They want
to be independent, but you want safety and protection and
you want the community because he's probably going to the
same places, right, They probably going to the same places.

(57:17):
So you want the police department to know call me,
this is who he is, this is how you care
for him, this is what he is.

Speaker 2 (57:25):
This is a.

Speaker 1 (57:25):
Diagnosis, this is his doctor, this is medication. So I'm
giving her that, I'm empowering her, giving her the power
to communicate with the first respond All they want to
do is locate them, because that's what happens now they locate.
You have stories of they wake up in the hospital
four days later and they look at social media, do

(57:46):
you know this person? This person is unknown, so imagine
for four days that could be him. They don't know
what he is until somebody in the hospital is now
looking because they want that bed, right, they want that bed.
And now they're saying, let's fine this person. And now
she able to now call him four days later when
we could say to him four days earlier. So you know, again,

(58:11):
as I'm listening to you, the benefits are clear, right.
And you've been saying your competitors. I don't know all
of your competitors because I don't know the sister industry,
but I know life alert exists out there in the
worst competitors, and I know that elderly people who I
know who have that. Basically, elderly people are the only

(58:35):
people that I know who have a life alert, and
most of them don't have that, especially black folks, Like
that's not a thing that my grandmother and aunts and
whomever they had a life alert. It's not a thing. Generally.
I have found that more elderly white folks have access
to it. And I'm not saying that life alert they

(58:55):
may be marketing to our community and people just don't know,
don't get it. You know whatever. So I'm it's not
an indictment on them. I'm just saying I see where
this is an opportunity for black people and other groups
and other I'm gonna tell you no, but let me
just on this, the black folks and other groups of

(59:17):
people to have the same type of protections and access
that other communities enjoy. I see it. I also see
that when I think about Devor Dana women in the
Bronx killed in her house had a mental health issue.
I think about Pam Turner from Texas mental health issue

(59:38):
and guess what the police officers knew that she had
a mental health issue. And the list goes on and on.
Elijah McLain, and the list goes on and on with
people who the police are very very aware that there
is a mental health issue. They know because it's in
the community that whatever the things, and yet still those

(01:00:02):
lives were taken, they were mistreated and killed, and so
it brings up a certain level of stress. Whenever medical
device present or not, but whenever law enforcement is engaging
with our communities, people feel uncomfortable about it. What I

(01:00:22):
find to be very attractive about this relationship that you
and my son has is his ability to help you,
which you're already doing the work, to communicate, to be
at the table with our elected officials, with the police department,
so that as we are in this transformational period when

(01:00:44):
you have a mayor Mom Donnie who wants to remove
so much of the responsibility and the stress on the
police department to respond and ensure that they are more
medical experts. That same work is being done in North
New Jersey through Ras Baraka, and so it makes sense
to me. I'm just saying what I see that Blackbird

(01:01:07):
would engage community leaders so that as these new systems
are being developed, you all have an opportunity to grow
it from the bottom up, that it becomes the part
of how the system functions. That you're not just a
person that's here to make money, but you're also someone
who says, how can we make the response for all

(01:01:28):
of our community better, especially with people dealing with autism.
As we see such a rise in the cases of
people with auto absolutely, and that's what I've noticed, that
the kids are going missing, afoults are going missing with
autism is now become a chronic proper It should not.
But letting me go back to the conversation that you

(01:01:49):
had about the white women. And let me tell you why.
It's because Life Alert make them pay, right, they pay.
I didn't know that they put them into a Threa contract,
so they pay for it. That's why I made sure
that it is free. Right. I made sure that it's
Medicaid managed care. I'm partner now with nonprofits so that

(01:02:12):
way you don't have to give Blackbird like I would say,
Blackbird the money you're gonna now, give it to the nonprofit.
So for a lot of donations, a lot of people
are interested give. Don't give it to Blackbird, give it
to nonprofit for a family who needs our devices, right,
Like I said, airports, we try to come into the
airports and in the transit systems. There's so much that

(01:02:34):
happens on there with mental health and seniors and kids
with autism, and they're vulnerable, they're not protected. You're worried.
But guess what instead of us, if they can't afford it,
we will donate our watches to the nonprofit and keep
the devices on. So yes, that's why I see in

(01:02:55):
other communities they are actually paying for it. I wanted
to make sure it's three so it can meet our community,
and most of my feedback, most of my my love
and my responses has come from, you know, the African
American community. They really really really love the device. They
understand that I met every particular lead that they needed

(01:03:20):
for their son, to keep for their daughter, to keep
them safe, whether they're adult with autism, whether they're child
with autism, whether it's a grandparent, as well as the
first responders right as well as the police department, and
all of that. The help because we fall into treat
three different categories. Like we're working with the medical community
now and it's called remote patient monitoring. So if you

(01:03:42):
look at JFK, he sparked it. He sparked my idea.
He put an article in July that he wanted everybody
to have a smart wearable device to monitor those with
those non emergency issues like going to the house, checking
the blood, going to the hospital checking a blood pressure.
All of that is courstly, but if he can have

(01:04:04):
a smart wearable device that they now can connect to
the electronic health record system, now you're monitoring their data,
their blood pressure, their heart rate, they sleep, monitoring in
real time. So that's why I took the extra step
of trust and accreditation with the FDA approval, which there's
no smart watches like Apple and they're not FDA approved.

(01:04:26):
So the reason why I do that because I wanted
to make sure that when you deal with medical community,
they they they are, they're hard right. They wanted to
make sure that my device meets a specific standard. So yes,
we got the public health and safety, the public part,
the safety management part. Now we have the health and
wellness and we blend them both together. So we wanted

(01:04:47):
to be a one whole ecosystem of protection and health
management of for our most vulnerable individuals.

Speaker 2 (01:04:54):
Well, what I want to say is that you're doing
an amazing job and you know that's why I'm passionate
about it and this partnership that we have. You know,
I really believe in it, believe in you, you know,
because I know that you really have a real feel
for our community. You know, people don't really the people

(01:05:15):
who don't know you don't know, but the people who
know that you love our people for real relating and
it's based off God. Like we always say, this is
God's work man, the connection that we have, it was
brought to us by God. So continue doing God's work
to Adrian, and you know we got your back. We're
going to continue to support you. Shout out to Tan Adrian.
Blackbird Innovations is going to take over the world.

Speaker 1 (01:05:40):
Absolutely, Thank you so much. Thank you guys, Thank you Tamika.
Thank you for highlighting the work that we do with
and we're definitely going to save lives one of the
rest of the time. Absolutely, I appreciate this conversation that
gives folks a real extensive Usually we're kind of going
back and forth with questions, but in this particular conversation,

(01:06:01):
I appreciate you being able to take your time and
really lay out this is so much and all the things,
and hopefully folks will really tune in and listen and understand,
and that we can repurpose this conversation for many reasons,
just to bring people closer to the info so that
they feel confident that this company is about our safety,

(01:06:24):
you know. So certainly, whatever we can do to be supportive,
we're here to do. So thank you, and I appreciate
it so much, and we love you guys, and I
appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:06:35):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:06:35):
I'm so happy. I want to cry because I really
I just want to touch so many people and really,
you know, this is a big, big, big responsibility for me,
and I've taken it on absolutely well.

Speaker 2 (01:06:46):
We appreciate you continue to do great.

Speaker 1 (01:06:50):
Thank you. Shout out to Tan Adrian Fleming from Blackbird
Smart Innovation. I really appreciate what she's working on, and
I think I appreciate even more the importance of your
role in helping her to navigate some of the conversations
that I know will come up from people who are
skeptical about anything, except that we're not skeptical about what

(01:07:14):
the white folks tell us. You got that all over
the house, the cable TV, the computer, the phone, the watch,
the everything. The mood ring that tells you how you're
doing throughout the day, how many steps, how did you sleep?
We have Alexa, We'll tell well, I don't have any
of that. But I don't have Alexa. But we have

(01:07:35):
a lot of innovative things in our homes and in
our lives, and I pray that we don't just become so,
you know, against technology when it comes to a black
woman that's building something that could actually help our communities.

Speaker 2 (01:07:52):
Yeah, I pray the same thing. And that's why, you know,
when she came to me, with the opportunity. You know,
I really listened because I don't like to touch my
name or my likeness or our brand, you know, as
an organization, as a company, as even as this podcast.
You know, I affect other people. So when she came
to me, it was something that I've really said, this

(01:08:12):
is going to be beneficial to our communities, so I
don't mind attaching myself to it. She's been genuine from
the beginning, and we didn't even get into the other
company that she has, as you know, Behavior Solutions. You know,
she didn't even get into that, and that's more towards
social care networks, where she helps to get social care

(01:08:34):
resources to people in our communities that they don't even
know these resources exist. You know, if you're on health
First and Medicaid and Medicare and those things, there are
resources that the government allots you that a lot of
people don't even know. So when I seen her doing
that work and then you know, employing so many different individuals,
you know, I was like, this is somebody that God said, Man,

(01:08:57):
this is something that God said. So shout out to
Tenay's in for being her, and I think Blackbird is
gonna be really big wonderful. Well, I hope so for sure,
but believe so that brings me to my I don't
get it now. Last week Kevin Hard had a roast.
You know, I'm I've never really watched any of these roasts.
I keep hearing about them. I see little clips of roast,

(01:09:19):
and it's a lot of intense jokes, you know, and
a lot of a lot of these people take them,
you know, they say the craziest thing, your mama jokes.
It's like the jokes in the hood, you know, and
a lot of and that's what it's built on. I've
had a lot of comedians say, hey, you know, a
roast is a rose. You gotta have real tough skin
to have a rose. They talk about your mama, your family,

(01:09:42):
your kids, they talk about all those things, and and
just like any other roast, these people said some crazy
things about Kevin Hart. So what I didn't get was
the one comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe, who is He's somebody I
don't really care for his brand of comedy. It always
has this racist tone. He's he's I remember him talking

(01:10:05):
about Puerto Rico being a floating garbage land of garbage,
Like it's just always some racial undertone with him, you know,
but nonetheless, this was Kevin Hart's roast, and they thought
it was appropriate for him to be there. But like
I've constantly been telling people, so he made this joke

(01:10:28):
about Kevin Hart, and he utilized George Floyd. He talked
about George Floyd actually reference to him being in hell
looking up, laughing so hard that he couldn't breathe. And
I thought it was tasteless. I didn't see. It wasn't
even funny to me, you know, So I don't get

(01:10:50):
why he thought it was funny. Why would you do
a roast about Kevin Hart and then talking about arguably
the most unsettling, life changing depths in this country that
happened to black murders in this country, that happened to
a black man, and utilize it in a joke. Now

(01:11:13):
you roasting Kevin Hart. What the hell did George Floyd
have to do it? I just don't understand. And then
what also bothers me is that there are numerous people
who seem to think that, you know, you should just
get over it, or it wasn't that bad, that's a rose,
you know, it's pretty harsh. But once again George Floyd

(01:11:36):
wasn't being roasted. Kevin Hart was so to utilize the pain,
the disrespect the family, the daughter, the cousins and family
members that we know people have been on the front
line fighting for justice for George Floyd. To utilize that
moment to disrespect all of those people. This whole world
was in an uprising over what happened to George Floyd.

(01:11:58):
So for you to think that it meant to make
a mockery of his death, I don't even understand it,
and I don't want and I would hope that people
stop trying to justify. You know, Kevin Hart's response was
even disheartened. I'm a Kevin Hart fan, but for him

(01:12:21):
to act as if that wasn't something that should have
been apologized for that Tony Henchcliff shouldn't have made that statement,
for him not to own him to say, Okay, I
can understand why people are angry about this. You know,
it's also disheartened, and it's sad to me because unfortunately,
our people either have their two situations. Either we become

(01:12:44):
so optuse and so detached from reality that we don't
even see what's wrong, or we find ourselves in situations
where in order to keep the status that we have
to keep the friends we have, get invited to the
awards and keep being accepted, that we have to just

(01:13:05):
take certain things. And both of those things to me
are unacceptable. And I think that's probably why I'm where
I'm at and I'm comfortable here. I love it. You know,
I probably will never be in in this level, in
that level, in this industry or any industry because I'm
not I'm not peacefully coexistent or going along to get along.
I'm not smiling when it ain't funny, I don't dance,

(01:13:26):
or it ain't no music, you know. And I just think,
you know that it was just it was very disrespectful
to the family. And I want to apologize to the
family because we actually know them in their our family,
you know. But George Floyd should have never been mentioned
in net Rooks.

Speaker 1 (01:13:42):
Well, you don't obviously agree with you one hundred percent.
And I think that this is actually bigger than a
roast and a joe, which, by the way, roast for
the most part, are done in the privacy of the
community that you're in, So that's your family roasting you,
or it's a sixth the birthday party or you know,
some type of function about you. Generally the rest of

(01:14:07):
the world doesn't get to see it because roasts are
pretty difficult and they bring up things that you know,
private stuff that may have happened in your life that
the rest of the world may not understand the context,
and it's not for them to hear. And this particular
roast probably should have stayed the same exact way. But

(01:14:27):
there is also something bigger here that needs to be
brought to the forefront, and that is the obsession, the
obsession that many people have with trying to discredit George Floyd,
the murder that happened to him, and the response from

(01:14:48):
people around the world, as you said, who are in
a full uprising about it, and George Floyd, his life
will be forever, forever mentioned in the the history books
of this nation, sins of what has happened to our
people in this country. That is in fact a sin,

(01:15:09):
and it is blood on the soil of this nation
based upon the murder not just of George Floyd, but
there are two other people that becomes synonymous with his name.
When you talk about George Floyd, you almost can never
forget about Ahmad Aubrey and Breonna Taylor, who were all

(01:15:30):
killed in the same time period, and that uprising of
the summer of twenty twenty, or really twenty twenty, because
it wasn't just the summer, but twenty twenty in general,
and for years after that has had so much to
do with those three different types of killings and how

(01:15:51):
it really tells the story of the attacks against our
community by this system them and by people who are
vigilantes who think that we deserve whatever punishment they decide
just because we're black. So there is an obsession that

(01:16:12):
people have with bringing up George Floyd when they are
attempting to throw us jab or shade at the black community.
And by the way, whatever his name is would not
be alone. It has happened by Candice Owns, it is
also happened by Kanye West, and there have been other

(01:16:33):
white folks specifically to engage in bringing George Floyd's name
up to somehow find a way to diminish what took
place and how he was murdered. And the family members
constantly having to feel disrespected, and they don't bother anybody,
They don't bother nobody. George Floyd had nothing to do

(01:16:55):
with that roast. It was completely People said to me, well,
they brought up Ryl Underwood's husband and you know other things.
He died by suicide. That's her husband. So if you're
in the process of roasting and you want to talk
about that, I don't think it's funny. But at the
same time, I understand that that's what people do in roast. Now,

(01:17:18):
let me give you an example, because there's some people
that said, well, you don't care about Charlie Kirk. No,
actually I do in this particular instance. Because overall do
I care about Charlie Kirk, not at all. But in
this particular instance, let me tell you what I would
say if in the joke someone said, yeah, you know,

(01:17:39):
because those white people are just as racist as Charlie Kirk.
I don't know if I would think it's hilarious, but
I might chuckle. Right at least I acknowledge that in
this roast they're trying to make some you know, as
they say, and every joke there's a little bit of truth, right,
So maybe I would go huh, okay, cool, right, But

(01:18:00):
what I would never think is funny is someone saying
and it'll go straight through you like the bullet through
Charlie Kirk's net. I don't think that's funny. There's talking
about that that's funny to me, regardless of whether I
agree with or light Charlie Kirk or not seeing the
man any man shot through the neck on tea on

(01:18:22):
your cell phone, where you know, our children and communities
people are seeing that. It is traumatizing. It is not
the world that we want to live in. And sure
we understand all of the context of who Charlie Kirk
was and all of that, but I still never one
time have I reveled or sat he and said, oh,

(01:18:43):
you know, hey, they shot him through the net. So
it is what it is. No, it's not acceptable, and
that would I'd have been a funny joke to talk
about how that man was killed. And so to even
bring George Floyd up is problematic. But it wasn't just
bringing him up. It was to go directly to the
heart of him not being able to breathe. He didn't

(01:19:04):
make a joke about Derek Chauvin being in jail and
spending however many teen years in prison for killing George Floyd.
He made a joke about the way in which George
Floyd died. I don't think it's funny at all. I
think anybody who sat up there and laughed, white black
people in the audience, people in my DMS, people in

(01:19:26):
the comments section, if you thought it was funny, you
a sucker for that. You're not my kind of person,
because it's nothing funny about it. And I appreciate what
Charlemagne said on to might make sure they tell Charlemagne
we over here appreciate and what he said on the show. No,
actually bringing up people's dead relatives, particularly when someone's murder

(01:19:50):
or when they died in such a traumatizing way, is
not funny at all. I don't think anything about that
joke was funny, and in fact, it was disrespectful and
shame on Shame on Kevin Hart for not being able
to acknowledge the pain that that has caused when people
like us were out there and we almost lost our

(01:20:11):
lives fighting on behalf of George Floyd. There's a real
disconnect between those of us who are on the ground,
who are on the front lines, and people who get
to live in the ivory towers of life, no matter
where you may come from. And guess what, sometimes I'm
in the ivory towers of life. But I'm always very
careful to check my consciousness that I never ever separate

(01:20:34):
myself so much from the people who are out here
fighting to even allow us to be able to enter
those rooms.

Speaker 2 (01:20:42):
Sounds about right to me. Man, Black people, stop laughing.
Stop laughing when it ain't funny. When you the butt
of the joke, When our people and the death and
the murder of our people is the butt of the joke,
it ain't funny. And they'll say, they say all the time. Man,
they'll kill you and then tell you that you like it.
If you say about your pain, they'll kill you and

(01:21:02):
say that you like So we've come to the end
of another episode of TMI. We want to thank our
guests to n Adrian Fleming, the CEO of Blackbird Smart Innovations.
We appreciate you. Make sure y'all follow her. Look up
Blackbird It's gonna be the company of the future. Continue
to support us. We love y'all. Let us know who
you want to see, who y'all want us to interview.

(01:21:24):
Because of y'all, were still the number one podcast in
the world, and we're gonna stay the number one podcast
in the world. Make sure you follow us on Instagram
tam My Underscore Show. Make sure you follow us on
YouTube TMI Show PC. I'm not gonna always be right,
tamik It D marriages not gonna always be wrong, but
we will both always and I mean always, be authentic.

Speaker 1 (01:21:46):
Hey listen to the TMI podcast on the Black Effect Network,
on iHeartRadio, or anywhere podcasts are available, or

Speaker 2 (01:21:55):
Catch the video version on YouTube at TMI Show PC
m