Bridging Politics and Community with the Hood Caucus (Ft. Althea Stevens (D-16), Nantasha Williams (D-27), and Kevin Riley(D-12))

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Tamika D. Mallory and it's.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Your boy my son in general.

Speaker 1 (00:03):
We are your host of t M I.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Tamika and my Son's Information, Truth, Motivation and.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Inspiration, New Energy. What's up, my son, Lennon.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Are you doing today? Tamika D.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Mallory doing very well.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Drinking my just water, yes, minding my business, working on
my edges and I'm doing all right.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Okay, you got did you still got the wonder woman
here doing?

Speaker 4 (00:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
I'm getting ready to see how I can change it
up a little bit. But it's actually been working. It's
it's easier to maintain than.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Some of the other styles that I wear.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
However, see these things men don't know about this pointy
tail right here, that I can make your hair thin
right there and then flicking it down there's another thing.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
So you gotta be careful.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
So every style that women wear from natural only style
that women can wear that works, it's just us. Walk
out the door, walk out the moisturiz.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
That's it. Here's that, walk out.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
The moisturize and walk out the dough in.

Speaker 5 (01:07):
It's hot outside, man, it's been so hot out matter fact.
Shout out to my Boydennim who's hat? This is bread Breakers?
You know, as I was thinking about the heat, I
seen him the other day. I seen him posted online
that we met at Kingdom and he gave me his hat.
So I'm gonna shot him out, you know. Always yeah, man,
the logos fire man, bread Breakers.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Make sure you go some bread breaker, bread Breakers.

Speaker 5 (01:29):
You know what I'm saying, We break bread together. You
know what I'm saying. One of high Bridge Finance. You
know what I'm saying. Support, Support the home team. Man.
You know, it's been it's been a good weekend. Hallam
was a little lit this weekend. They had to the
block party. Shout out to Fat Joe.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
He was out there outside of Melbourne's.

Speaker 5 (01:48):
Outside of Melbourne to block party. Be like if you
if you missed the block party. Jim Jones was out there.
Should I see? Ayron was out there? Who else was
out there?

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Everybody was out It was just you was out there.
I just drove by. It just happened to be.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
There's no way to drive.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
I mean.

Speaker 5 (02:06):
Yeah, when they block you, you be like, oh okay, it's
a little sup outside. I was actually coming from working out.
I was in the park working out and then who
was it somebody was like, it's something going on on.
On sixteenth, they got the block party, and I drove by,
coming from my workout and just not by and seeing

(02:27):
man people ain't seen in a long time. But it
was it was a dope event. Literally, I mean that's
literally how it happened. I was really literally in the however,
you know the way you said it like you made
it seem like like sounds like a little sketchy.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Then no, I was by myself.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
No you and Fat Joe.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Oh yeah, Joe and my man crack him yo. I
love Fat Joe. Watching him and Jadaki's show is hilarious.
They show they do got a good show.

Speaker 5 (02:58):
And he said his name is I came my Law
and he wrote he wrote something about the Black Party,
and then I dm doing like I just missed you
crack him out a lot. They said, you just drove
off when I got there. And then he said, listen, man,
I'm from I'm from Godsville. And then he said that's
what that's what they called his projects in the Bronx.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
They call it Godsville.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
So he go outside.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Crack him on Law. You got to know the Joe.
You don't know that I don't don't worry about it.
Cracked him one in the world.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
Okay, So sounds like you had a good weekend.

Speaker 5 (03:29):
It was cool when I have my boys outside, you know,
running around with me. They want to stay in the
house and just be on phones and games.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
All kids, all kids.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yo. I never was like that. What happened to this era.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
That didn't just start now? Because what happened was outside
became less safe. And at the point that outside became
less safe, and they gave us Sega Genesis.

Speaker 5 (03:54):
When I have Sega Genesis, I would play on it
for aball a few hours and then I want to
go outside.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yeah, but I'm just when I came in the house
when things became less safe, people stopped because you used
to go out the door at eight and nine.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
Every game I grew out of, I was never just
like the biggest game person.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
I wasn't a Marrio.

Speaker 4 (04:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (04:13):
I love Mario, had I had Second Genesis, my sister
had Nintendo, and I used to play Super Mario all
the time.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
So y'all like to sit there and tell people them
lies about how poor y'all was, and how it broke
y'all was, and how your family was struggling was Sega
Genesis and Intendo. That's for rich people. I know real
poor people that did. They had to go to somebody
else's house to play on the game.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
Well, I'm gonna tell you this the reality situation.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
Let me I say, poor really disadvantage.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Somebody sold my Sega Genesis.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
Okay, regardless, I.

Speaker 5 (04:49):
Had it for about a month, came home to TV
and the second Genesis was going, this.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Is reality that they still got you one.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
No they didn't. They ain't never seen it back. It
was gone.

Speaker 5 (05:02):
That's just the reality situation. So you told I ain't
never lied about that, my grid.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
I ain't gonna lie.

Speaker 5 (05:07):
My grandmother made sure that we the little things like
a game or maybe that feels like that thing. No,
this is it was expensive, but I was Christmas. She
made sure on our birthday and our Christmas she got
us one thing that we wanted, like every year. So listen,
Mama made sure we was good.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
That's good.

Speaker 3 (05:28):
I mean, I'm just saying a lot of y'all people
don't know what being poor really was like.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
I don't know being disadvantaged.

Speaker 5 (05:36):
No, it was disadvantage. He could only have one. You
only can get that during holidays, ding Christmas, and birthday,
so the rest of you. If you got to pay
sneakers for your birthday.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
That was it.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
They lasted for a long time.

Speaker 3 (05:49):
But my family had a little bit more something something,
and that was it for us too.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
They didn't have that.

Speaker 5 (05:54):
My mother one game, you're trying to get more games,
ain't no more. That's why I got tired of it,
because we ain't getting on no more class.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
I used to walk with my feet crunched over like
this in the front of my fifty four elevens to
try to keep them straight because I didn't know nothing
about stuffing them with the tissue. So when I walked,
I would walk with my feet crunched like this so
that it could stay a little straight. Like come on,
and they could have bought another business because if they

(06:21):
wanted to do, they had the resources. It was against
some kind of black people's rule to give children multiple
business in them. Yeah right, yeah, we didn't now my
dad if he was like I had a hole in
my sneaking.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
People love to tell them a book. But anyway, let's
get to the show topic today. So you know, there is.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
A very serious conversation that I have watched not just online,
but I've also seen I've been on a couple of
text threads where this is being discussed, and it is
a sense that people feel if you have not been
speaking out on what is happening to the people of
Gaza and to Palestinians in general, then if you start now,

(07:11):
there are folks who want to shame you. They want
to say, oh, now you want to be you know,
now you want to talk about something you haven't been
talking about, as shame on you, And I really wanted to.
I was just sitting with it, and I think there
is some shame that we should all have if we
know that we're not speaking on that issue, particularly because
we're worried about how it will impact us, like you know, oh, well,

(07:34):
my friends are going to feel away, or you know,
in my social circle it may be frowned upon. I
don't of course, you know, I don't agree with that
and I don't support it. And guess what, many times
that I have been vocal about issues, I have dealt
with and experienced the wrath of being outspoken, and so

(07:58):
I know it's not easy.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
Thing to have to deal with.

Speaker 3 (08:03):
But what I was thinking about is how people come
to our movements, right, like, everybody does not arrive at
the same time with the same knowledge, with the same vigor,
with the same ability to sacrifice.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
And I think we do ourselves a disservice.

Speaker 3 (08:21):
When we, instead of opening the tent and doing all
that we can to bring people along, we just start this.
And I see a couple of people in my comments
that have been saying it, but I know that they
are trolls because if anyone who comes to my page
and says, oh, now, all of a sudden, you want
to speak up on Gaza there, it's full of shit,

(08:43):
because I've been on the Palestinian People's liberation since when
we went to Israel Palestine, and that was in twenty
seventeen exactly.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
So anybody that tries that with me, I don't even
miss me.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
Yeah, I don't even fall into it because I know,
and I always tell people who are my followers getting
arguments back and forth, I'm like, uh uh, don't argue
at all with these people, because we know that it's
a disingenuous conversation. If they thought that I wasn't, they
would ask a question. But the fact that they're trying
to insert this lets me know they're doing it for
a reason. I'm almost sure that there's actually like an

(09:19):
underground campaign out there to attack people who are starting
to come into questioning what is happening to the people
of Gaza and genocide.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
Some people are using that word.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
We use it, but other people might say the starvation
of the Palestinian people. And I see it happening so
much with these attacks are oh, now you want to
come and say something. Oh if you weren't, if you
wasn't speaking on this issue before, then how dad you
come and think you're going to jump into it now?

Speaker 1 (09:50):
And I think that that is.

Speaker 3 (09:52):
Actually a campaign, a very divisive campaign that is being
designed by people who are now entering the space as provocateurs.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
I truly do think.

Speaker 4 (10:07):
So.

Speaker 3 (10:08):
I'm not saying that some of us don't have like
real passion where we feel a way, And I'm not
saying that some people are not ignorant and will turn
folks off versus adding voices and opening again the space
and making it big enough for everybody to fit, because
you not everybody is not gonna come in the door

(10:28):
saying genocide. Calling out is real, being willing to talk,
you know about bebingt in Yahoo, and also calling out
the American government for the complicity. Everybody's not gonna come there.
Some people just gonna come in on children and families
deserve to eat, right, And yeah, you want to force

(10:49):
folks to say, to tell the full story, but that's
what the rest of us are here to do. And
then there are people who know more and are deeper
into this the.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
Narratives and in their conversations.

Speaker 3 (11:03):
Then even we are not because we're afraid to do it,
but because we may not know right.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
And so there are levels to any fight.

Speaker 3 (11:11):
And I do think that for those of us who
are in the movement to free the Palestinian people, we
need to be very mindful of how we make people
feel as they become bold enough to say something. I
saw on Boris Kojo's page the other day that he
said children starvation, it's not okay, right, and there were

(11:33):
people who really was supporting, and then I saw like
some of that same you know, oh well, why you
just you just speaking up now? And I tried to
go in and say something positive because I know all
too well that people like Boris Kojoin and I'm not
saying this is his situation specifically, So let me get
this right.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
I'm just saying.

Speaker 3 (11:55):
People like him, the hurdles that they jump over to
be able to even post something on.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
Their social media, our big ass hurts.

Speaker 3 (12:05):
Like that could send their entire team into a frenzy.
People start calling them their children is being threatened in
the school that they're in. This is happening career issues.
It's a lot of stuff that takes place when you
decide to speak on certain issues, and it has been
made a third rail issue to say anything on behalf

(12:30):
of the Palestinian people. And so yes, I think people
need to be more courageous. Of course, look at us,
we all the way out there and we're not turning back.
We're not going to mince our words. But I do
feel that we have to be mindful of the trick
of let's be divisive, even within our own movement, because
once we do that, then it makes people say, well, shit,

(12:51):
if I don't say anything, I'm.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
A coward, which you are. If I do.

Speaker 3 (12:56):
Say something, I didn't get here quick enough and I'm
in author intakes on and so forth, and it's like
which thing do we want?

Speaker 2 (13:05):
No, you're a hundred percent correct, man.

Speaker 5 (13:06):
You know, We've been like you said, we've been vocal
on this whole issue impact science since we actually visited
and understood, you know, shout out to telling that he coats.
He said when he went there, he realized people were
saying it's complicated, and he realized it really wasn't complicated,
not at all. So you know, we've we've been very
vocal about that. We've took our bruises and bumps, and

(13:28):
to this day we still say what we feel. You know,
we we stand by the humanity. You know, just the
stripping of humanity and genocide to me is just is
a nonstarter. I hate that the Blacks is pitted against
this situation saying, well, what about the congo and all

(13:49):
of these things need to be talked about. We need
to be able to talk about the Congo. We need
to be able to talk about what's going on and
to then we also need to be able to talk
about what's going on in Pound sign and we and
they they shouldn't be set. They shouldn't be well, you
ain't saying this no week. If you're a human being
and you look at humanity, you should be able to
say all those things in the same breath. And I
feel like I have to leave one out in order

(14:11):
for it to be relevant or for me to be
socially correct or politically or culturally correct.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
Because I'm black.

Speaker 5 (14:18):
I just as a black man, I'm always going to
stand with my people, but as a man and a
human being and a man of conscious and have a
moral compass, I'm going to speak out against what I
see is wrong all the time, no matter who's happening too.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
Yeah, that's what we are.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:32):
And I think that this issue of you know when
and how people speak out, and I am saying that
it's cowardly to be silent, especially after holest time that
you know what it is and if you're not using
your platform and I know why, I know why. Yes,
I will say it's cowardly. But I would also say

(14:56):
that there are times when there's issues that people will
come to me with and I'm like, yo, I don't
I feel like getting yourself in this because soon as
I on this, broh, I gotta get beat up and
this and that and the third and guess what, I
have to accept the fact that I'm being a punk,
like that's just the truth, right And sometimes and no,
some people will say, well, maybe it's strategy. You being strategic. Nah,

(15:18):
it's not only strategy. Sometimes you might be getting ready
to say it, but most times it has nothing to
do with being strategic.

Speaker 1 (15:26):
It's all about the fact that we are afraid.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
But guess what if somebody tell you to go out
there and say something positive about Israel, or to say
something positive, you know, in reference to like I feel
sorry for them for what they experience on October seventh,
which we all agree that the horrific attack of October
seventh is unacceptable, and that's it, right, we all agree

(15:49):
with that right. And when we when you feel like
it's okay for you to say that but not this,
you have to ask yourself why. And there's a very
specific reason why there is that. But I do want
people to know that those of us who are in
this movement and in a lot of movements, not just
the movement to for the Palestinian liberation, but even in

(16:14):
black liberation spaces, even in the reparation space, we have
to be mindful that we are not so passionate that
people exploit that passion as a way for them to
turn people off from joining.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
So there's that now that brings me to my thought
of the day. Now. I have to tell y'all.

Speaker 3 (16:35):
When I first heard the little voice coming out of
my son's room when they first had my grandbaby, I
heard this little voice of this little lady.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
And I was like, what is that? Who is it?
And I went to the TV.

Speaker 3 (16:55):
I could tell off the back that it was not
a black person, and I was like, what is this?
And I watched. There was one episode to something weird happened.
I didn't really like it. So I was just like, bruh,
I don't like this. Why are y'all having her watch
Miss Rachel?

Speaker 1 (17:13):
Okay? I was so adamant with them.

Speaker 3 (17:16):
That to have a show where this white woman is
basically in our homes. And I guess you know, months later,
when my granddaughter finally start to sit up, that's when
they would like, turn a little show on for every
now and then.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
They don't believe in allowing.

Speaker 3 (17:31):
Her to watch TV for long periods of time, but
when they did, they wanted her to hear the ABC's
and all of that. And this lady Miss Rachel, has
Blair captivated, like from months. She'd be sitting there and
she get the smiling and you could turn other things
off because I tried it. I was like, let me
try this other show, cause I didn't want a white

(17:55):
woman to be the person that she kind of grew
up like as her learning experience on TV, I'm like,
why don't she listen to this or that? And the
third she would listen to some of the other shows
for a minute. She became one years old, one and
a half. She would listen every now and then you
give a little bit of TV.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
Times.

Speaker 3 (18:14):
She would be excited about it, because again she's not
really watching TV, so that little stimulation, but.

Speaker 1 (18:19):
She would quickly, you know, after a little while, she
would go off to something else.

Speaker 3 (18:23):
Miss Rachel, that girl could sit there to right now
and watch a whole show, the same show three times
and she loves it. And I had a serious problem
with it. And I remember her mom Naa is saying
to me, you know, Miss Rachel is good. Like I
watch it with her. I've watched the reviews, I read everything.

(18:45):
You know, I don't get a sense that she is
improperly like teaching our kids or doing things that are passive, aggressive,
little racist things. She's like, I don't see that. I
don't sense that. So cool time goes on. Miss Rachel becomes.
If you want Blair to be still while you do whatever,

(19:05):
you better find Miss Rachel a little bit of Elmo.
And then I found tab Time, so she was watching that.
Once she kind of got into a couple of other things,
I felt better. But I always noticed that Miss Rachel
had a real serious place in her attention span. And
over the last several weeks, I have been watching Miss

(19:28):
Rachel be a true advocate for the children of Gaza right.
I saw that she also connected with Bernie's King, Doctor
Bernie's King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Junior.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
And I was like wow.

Speaker 3 (19:41):
And I've been watching the things that she has said
in the last couple of weeks. I'm sure people are
putting serious pressure on her. She may have lost followers,
but she's already too far out the gate, like she's
too big for anybody to try to back her down. Now.
Her Netflix special went super super well when it was announced.
She's got millions of followers, she's got millions of views

(20:04):
on YouTube. Mss Rachel is already straight. But she made
a statement the other day that I don't even want
to do business with you if you haven't spoke up
on Gaza and if you don't like it, it's okay.
But I will lose everything before I sit here and
watch children starve. And I'm supposed to be about children.
And it gave me my thought of the day today

(20:27):
that we cannot always judge a book by its cover,
the same way that people look at a black man
who's walking down the street, who might have on a
hoodie on his head, or he might be looking a
little rough and rugged, and people will believe that he's
just likely to rob and kill me. And you know,
let me i'm scared, let me clutch my purse, and

(20:49):
that kid or that person might actually help you with
your bags and make sure you're good and make sure
you're safe. It's the same thing with some with other communities,
and how our trauma gives us like we are informed
by our trauma. So this white woman, I still want
my granddaughter to have other examples of like educational experiences.

(21:10):
But I also respect the fact that my granddaughter's mother
had done her research enough that maybe it wasn't Gaza,
but she believed that Miss Rachel was a safe choice
for Blair. And I now am so proud that we
are a part of Miss Rachel's little community because to
watch her be so bold and to know that she

(21:32):
could have said, I'm not involved.

Speaker 1 (21:34):
I can't speak up on those things.

Speaker 3 (21:35):
Because all children because all well, if it's all then
the children of Gaza should be a part of that
as well.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
And that's how I feel about Maclamore. Shout out to Maclamore.

Speaker 5 (21:44):
There's so many people silent that I won't name because
I don't want to, you know, do all of that.
But there's so many people that have been silent in
this moment, and he took He was one of the
first artists to really say every song I'm donating proceeds,
I'm singing songs about it, I'm calling out everybody. And
this was like last year, and he's been consistent at it.

Speaker 2 (22:04):
Man.

Speaker 5 (22:04):
So you know, when you see people have that level
of bravery, you know we always say that. You know,
it's it's easy to do the right thing when everybody's
doing that's right, you know what I'm saying, But it's
hard when when you know that you're on the other
side of it, and you know, we say it all
the time, your history is going to record this moment.

Speaker 2 (22:21):
And we we always knew that we knew that when
we look.

Speaker 5 (22:24):
At history, you know, the people who who had who
actually stood for liberation, we were called out with disrespect
that they were violated, you know, and then history recorded
it and they've been celebrated. So so I know we're
on the right side of history. I know my moral
compass when I look and I see babies starving, I
see babies dying, and I see.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
People, you know, just people.

Speaker 3 (22:45):
I love that people have been challenging us with the
baby not to lean on babies because mother's grandmother's, fathers, men, children, boys, everybody.

Speaker 5 (22:54):
Shout out to the civilians that that went on that ship,
you know that that have been.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
Killed freedom and make sure they get home safe. Man.

Speaker 5 (23:02):
So shout out to Miss Rachel, Shout out to everybody
who is not scared to speak truth to power, to
not stand up for what's right, even when it might
be detrimental.

Speaker 2 (23:12):
Not that you're not scared. They said.

Speaker 5 (23:14):
Bravery is not the absence of fear. It's the willingness
to move despite fear.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
That's right. That's Doctor King. Listen.

Speaker 3 (23:24):
You know during Doctor King the season when we celebrate
Doctor King, I often talk about one of his speeches
where he spoke on the mastery of fear, and he
says precisely what you just stated, that it's not that
I don't have fear, it's not that you won't have fear.

Speaker 1 (23:43):
It's that despite that fear, we have.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
To still move and we have to use our fear
as fuel to go out.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
And conquer injustice.

Speaker 3 (23:53):
And so that's what this is about, you know, free
the people of Palestine. Free the people of Palestine. We're
gonna continue to say it, and I would say today,
and I've said it already on my social media that
I'm proud to be among.

Speaker 1 (24:09):
Those who will later in.

Speaker 3 (24:12):
The years, and it's already happening. It's already happening. People
are starting to shift. The tide is turning. The ship
is a good example of that. The people are already
out at sea. They have moved away from these lies
that we've been fed and these stories that we've been told.
When net Y'ahoo stood on TV and said that there
is no starvation in Gaza, at that moment, it was

(24:36):
like he had already lost any type of ground that
he had with certain people. When he said that. He
lied so bad that even his line partner, Donald Trump,
couldn't hold it up and had to say the starvation
is real and it can't be fake. And so there's
going to come a point where we will be acknowledged,
right and it's not that we do it for acknowledgment,
but there will be a time when the world will

(24:58):
acknowledge that we just decided it was more advantageous to
be on God's side than to be on the side
of lying ass men and a crazy ass woman. I
wish I knew that woman's name so I could talk
about her. I'm gonna bring her name up next week.
This lady who's in the government in Israel, who is
out of her mind, and they just let her go

(25:20):
on TV and say anything. They asked her, would you
sit here and say that you feel bad about the children?
And she was unwilling and unable to say anything about
those children, because you know why they want the land,
and that is the thirst, the thirst, the thirst of

(25:41):
wealth and capitalism has been land. They want to steal
them people's land, and yes it is their land.

Speaker 1 (25:52):
All right.

Speaker 3 (25:52):
Now, let's get into our guests. We gotta change set.
Bring the guests in. We're excited to have three politicians
elected officials but they will say their public service.

Speaker 1 (26:03):
Let's learn more about it right now. Well, today we.

Speaker 3 (26:06):
Have real a big show, the big, big, big show,
big big show. We're excited to have our friends to
come and join us. Y'all know we love our friends.
So today we have three friends with us. But they're
three pretty powerful friends who, if you ask me, the
world doesn't know enough about what they do.

Speaker 1 (26:25):
In the City of New.

Speaker 3 (26:26):
York, the biggest, the riches, they say, the most powerful
city in the country, at least some people say the world,
but I beg to differ about that. Nonetheless, to run
New York City is not an easy challenge or an
easy feat. It is quite complicated because you have so

(26:48):
many different levels of power, so many different people who
are not even elected who have power, and it's a
lot of work to be able to navigate in the
city but also to keep a very focused on the
needs of black, brown, and generally vulnerable populations. And so
we're joined by three city council members in the City

(27:12):
of New York. One is my dear sister, my son
and I our dear sister. That we are we're in
charge of her life. Yes, in some ways, you know
she's so sweet and kind, but then sometimes she's not
h And as you all know, you've seen Natasha Williams
with me for a long, long, long, long time, and

(27:32):
she was my baby that kind of grew up with us.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
And now she is a.

Speaker 3 (27:37):
Full blown councilwoman in Queens, New York, in the district
District twenty seven. That's right, I got it right, See,
I was getting ready to mess it up. But District
twenty seven also a new sister to me, but sister
for a long time to.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
Angelo and my son.

Speaker 3 (27:53):
And they always come back and be like, well, you
need to ask Authia now our sister Althea Stevens, who
is a council women also in the Bronx, the sixteenth district.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
All right, god, my section, my section.

Speaker 1 (28:06):
That's right, that's right.

Speaker 3 (28:07):
And then longtime bro Kevin Riley, who's city councilmen in
the Bronx as well, the twelfth district, which is the
district of my parents and a bunch of other people
that I you know, obviously I grew up there, so
that's a real, real important place for me.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
So I'm excited that y'all are here.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
You gotta collected, right.

Speaker 5 (28:33):
Right, you just you can introduce them individually, but collectively
they are known as the Hood Caucus.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
That's right, the Hood Caucus.

Speaker 3 (28:43):
So does the Hood Caucus focus on black people or
is it like more than you or because our audience
they like, we want black and we have to tell
them that black folks. You know, sometimes we also have
to be mindful of the needs of others. So what's
the Hood Caucus's focus in terms of demographics?

Speaker 6 (29:02):
You always look at me for this, right, No, But well,
thank y'all for having us.

Speaker 7 (29:08):
We really do appreciate, you know, important platforms like this,
especially to speak about what we're doing, because we think
it's very important.

Speaker 6 (29:15):
You have three individuals who are public servants.

Speaker 7 (29:18):
We come from three different worlds, whether it's nonprofit advocacy
or just being someone who worked in government for a
few years. And when we got this position to represent
our communities, we realized how powerful organization is, and we
realized that we had to organize amongst each other. And
a lot of people gave us flack when we decided
to call each other the Hood Caucus.

Speaker 6 (29:37):
But I remember the first time we all clicked up.

Speaker 7 (29:40):
They had like a special dinner for new electives, new
council members, and we all were there and we were
like the loudest at the table like you thought we
would at a family reunion, and we literally.

Speaker 6 (29:51):
Just met each other.

Speaker 7 (29:52):
But the synergy there, the way we connected there, and
then we utilized that to build policy amongst each other,
you know, by people to be more civically engaged, because
we know that's what's missing from our neighborhood. So when
we call ourselves the Hood Caucus, we just want to
represent people who felt like they never had a platform
before to be represented.

Speaker 6 (30:10):
So that's pretty much what we do.

Speaker 8 (30:13):
Natasha, do you want to add because I think we
don't give you enough credit for really honestly being like
the orchestrator of us all coming together and was the
first person saying, Oh, we the Hood Caucus and really.

Speaker 2 (30:24):
Want to I can see that definitely that could.

Speaker 8 (30:27):
Because I think even with all that, I think, for me,
it meant so much to me because I know who
and what I represent, and they call it hoods, but
it's nothing but no different than the neighborhood. And so
for me, all the people that encompassed in the neighborhood
who did not seeing heard, felt or felt like government
was listening to them. That's who I always try to
make sure that I'm bringing the spaces because my story

(30:50):
is young people told me wrong for office because they
didn't feel like they were part of the process. And
so for me, being a part of the Hood Caucus
is bringing that back to this group of young people
who said that they didn't and feel seen, felt or
heard from us. And so you know, when we say that,
when we pull up, young people are like, what's you
talking about the hood?

Speaker 1 (31:07):
And I'm like, nah, I'm really hood though, but you
know you're viral, But okay, is it?

Speaker 3 (31:16):
Yeah, even though they joke and say that I shouldn't
be in the hoodcocks because of my district, but.

Speaker 1 (31:23):
Yeah, he went to private school. At least I went
to public school.

Speaker 3 (31:26):
So for me, when I think about like a hood,
I think about everything that is cool mostly came from
the hood, and government is often seen as uncool. It's corny,
it's black people either they're old. And what Kevin said
was absolutely true, like we all were just clicked up
heavy out the gate. And one of the things that

(31:48):
I feel we all shares that we're just real people
and we don't try to shy away from like who
we are, where we come from, and so yeah, I
thought the Hood Caucus was a catchy name, and I
was like, we should be called.

Speaker 1 (31:59):
The Hood Caucus. It's late, We're gonna be the Hood Cauks.
So that's how it came out.

Speaker 7 (32:02):
But to answer your question, we represent anybody who lives
in the hood. So if you if you think you
live in the neighborhood, if you think you feel like
you're being unheard.

Speaker 6 (32:09):
That's what we represent mostly. But starting with most of
prior times with black people.

Speaker 3 (32:14):
Yes, but what what What are some of the issues
that you all have tackled already together.

Speaker 1 (32:20):
As a group.

Speaker 7 (32:22):
I think a lot of the issues that we've tackled together,
we've we realized that believed.

Speaker 1 (32:26):
Did you guys become the Hood Caucus?

Speaker 6 (32:29):
I was saying twenty twenty one? No, yeah, when we?
When we? When we?

Speaker 7 (32:33):
That was the year that I was so I was
already in office already because I came in with a
special election and we had that event, I believe at
the end of the year, and that's when we all
kind of clicked up together.

Speaker 6 (32:46):
At the end of the year local progress.

Speaker 7 (32:48):
It was the end of twenty twenty one, so I
say we became the hook cau Becuse at the end
of twenty twenty one going into twenty twenty two when
we all started representing our communities together in the council.
But I say issues that we tackle, it's a variety
of different issues. I think something very impactful that we've
done together is we're also part of the BLAC K,
which is the Black subcommittee under the BLAC THEA is

(33:11):
actually the chair of and we put out the black
Print where we actually put out policies in ways we
could pretty much provide opportunities for black people within New
York City in New York State. And we've worked with
all levels of government, whether it's the federal government, but
more importantly the state government. And that's something that's typically
hasn't happened before, where you see, outside of leadership, you

(33:31):
have council members typically working with the state government. So
I make out THEA talk about the black Print a
little bit more. But something else that we've been prioritizing
is also investing in our young people. And when we
talk about entrepreneurship, we've been able to support programs that
support entrepreneurship within our communities because we realize that's where
you know the economy is going. So I think that's

(33:53):
something that's I'm really proud of personally. I know out
THEA and Natasha we really care about young people, really
proud of as well. So I'll say those things, and
there's just a whole bunch of different other things because
as the Hook Caucus, when one of us is doing something,
we're really supportive of each other. So we typically like
to say when outthas win in we're all winning. When
that's one we all win.

Speaker 5 (34:13):
So so I want to ask you a question. Did
you all always want to be in politics and would
be elected official?

Speaker 2 (34:20):
But what made you say that? I want I want
to each of y'all to say, what made you say
I want to be a part of this or I
need to be a part of this.

Speaker 3 (34:28):
So I'm so comfortable behind the scenes, Like I still
feel that way. Once a staffer, are always a staffer.
But when I was working for elected officials, you know,
you start feeling like, well, if I had the opportunity
to make that decision, maybe I would make a different decision.
So you start thinking like if I was in that position,
how would I leverage my role to do more than
what I see is being done. And so that's what

(34:49):
propelled me to run. But I never thought I would
run for office. Pretty comfortable as a staffer, but just
seeing a lot of the decisions that were being made
and not really agreeing with them, but not being in
the power, well, not having the power of being in
the position to change those decisions is really what said
maybe I should round myself.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
My stories. I worked with young people for over twenty years.

Speaker 8 (35:09):
I ran program, I did advocacy, and honestly, I was
having you forum one year and this was like after
Trump run the first election, and I was telling young
people that they should get registered to vote and that
it was important for them to be involved and be
civically engaged. And literally I had these young people look
at my face and being like, why no one's ever
asked me to vote?

Speaker 1 (35:27):
What are you talking about. I'm like, well, I'm asking
you to vote, and they was like, well, it won't
you run.

Speaker 8 (35:32):
And so my life for the last twenty years is
around like getting kids civically engaged. So then for me
it felt like if young people are asking me to
do something, I have to show up. And so, honestly,
like I ran because young people were the ones that
was like, we need someone like you in this role
so that we could feel hurt and seen, which is
why I'm so adamant about bringing young people in all

(35:52):
the spaces that I'm in, making sure that they voices
is being heard, Like I have a youth advisory board
with just young people.

Speaker 1 (35:59):
And because I be the divisory wort.

Speaker 8 (36:00):
A number of different people throughout the city are now
having divisory words and having people come to different things
and events and being a part of the conversation and
not just talking at them and having them talk with them.
So you know, for me, it's always being led by
like how do we make sure that people who typically
aren't being heard are being part of.

Speaker 1 (36:20):
The conversations.

Speaker 7 (36:23):
Solely by accident. So my entire time growing up, I
thought I was going to jail. And I'll tell you why.
I used to visit my pops a lot. My pops
got locked up throughout the duration of my early childhood.
Both my parents migrated from Jamaica, so I used to
visit him a lot, and I used to see none
of the black men in this I'm like, all right,
this is where me and my brother are going so
throughout that time, I used to gain a lot of

(36:45):
trouble in high school, even though I went to private school.
I got a lot of trouble in high school. But
then when I got to college, I during the Fright
in college campover Socigranity in corporated. And when I did that,
I was at Nationals. I remember being at Nationals. You
know my lbi's they want to party, and I was
in the corner with Jonathan Hicks. He used to be
a journalist for the New York Times, Late great Johnathan Hicks.

Speaker 6 (37:06):
I love him.

Speaker 7 (37:07):
I would not be the man here today without John.
So John took me to a lunch with him, and
that was a lunch that Reuben Dias Junior was running
for Boro president and Carl Hasty was running for the
Bronx Democratic Party, and during that time, a black man's
never had control over.

Speaker 6 (37:21):
The party at that time.

Speaker 7 (37:22):
So I'm at the lunch chilling, hearing them just talking.
I'm like, yo, I can relate to these guys. I
started an internship and Calls office, and I remember leaving
while I was graduating. I was working at Calls office
for a little bit and I wanted to leave because
you know, you don't make a lot of money in
government and calls like I think you could represent you know,
the community.

Speaker 6 (37:40):
And when he said that, that changed my life. It
like be juven it.

Speaker 7 (37:44):
I feel like a little kid and like you know,
somebody was speaking to me like, oh, you could be
so much more than what you grew up and saw.
So I think that really changed the trajectory. And then
I just I'm always I'm a public servant. That's why
I tell people we're not politicians with public servants. We
just like helping people. So I think just that notion
and getting the position and the opportunity to represent the
community that help raise me. Then that's what got mean

(38:05):
to see right.

Speaker 2 (38:06):
Now, Wow, that's amazing. Is your father still in culture?

Speaker 7 (38:10):
Now?

Speaker 6 (38:10):
They deport it.

Speaker 7 (38:11):
So my father was a part of the three strikes,
the body and Clear bill. So when people say have
you ever go up in politics, I say, yeah, you
know what I mean. I was a part of the
other side. So with mass incarcerations. So they deported my father.
So he can't come back here. So you go there
to visit him, not as frequently as I should. I
think last time I was there was a right before COVID,

(38:33):
but I talked to him every single week.

Speaker 1 (38:35):
Great, great, well, God bless your father.

Speaker 6 (38:37):
Oh thank you. I appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (38:39):
So what would you.

Speaker 3 (38:41):
Say to a young person that's watching this right now,
who or listening who is thinking about running for office?
Because I think some people feel like, you know, it's
a cake walk, like just get some people to vote
for you, and that's it until they get in it,
and then they get discouraged quickly because it seems it's
a attractive when you see a person standing in front

(39:03):
of a microphone or you know, going.

Speaker 1 (39:05):
Viral for saying some powerful stuff at a hearing.

Speaker 3 (39:09):
That seems very attractive until you actually are trying to
run for office to get to that position. And what
I would also like for y'all to talk about is
then once you actually win, the compromise of it, because
I think we all go into our positions being like,
that's it. I said what I said and I'm not
backing down, and then you get in a space and
realize in order to get things done, you have to

(39:31):
be really good at compromising and working across lines and
with people who even look like you, who share different views.

Speaker 1 (39:38):
So why don't y'all talk a little bit about that.

Speaker 8 (39:40):
I'll start just because like when I meet young people,
I'm always telling them to be civically engaged, when I
think is very different.

Speaker 1 (39:48):
And also thinking about everyone's like, oh, I want to
be the elected.

Speaker 8 (39:51):
I want to be the elected, And I'm always explaining, so, well,
what is it that you want to do, because sometimes
the start of being elected, like you said, is nice
because they're like, oh, you get to talk all these things,
but like, are you really trying to move policy, because
maybe you should be a legislative director. Are you really
do care about like who represents you, then maybe you
should be on the campaign side. And I think a
lot of times, especially with young people, it's about how

(40:13):
do we make sure that we're giving them all the
options so they can make the best decision for what
makes sense for them, because honestly, being elected isn't necessarily
the most powerful position when you're here, right.

Speaker 1 (40:23):
I tell people all the time, my chief of staff,
they are a lot more profitful with me because a lot.

Speaker 8 (40:26):
Of times they're implementing the things that I'm making the
decisions about. And and let you know, what's a commission, right,
And even on the campaign side, I remember when I
was running for office, right, I'm a newbie.

Speaker 1 (40:39):
I come from nonprofit, I don't come from this world.

Speaker 8 (40:41):
But there was things that I wanted, Like I was
looking for people of colors to be on a campaign,
but that just did not exist, right, So my field
director never did feel before. Now he's running field for
citywide elected all the folks throughout the Bronx.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
But for me, it was like, I'm going to take
a chance on him because this is work that they
need to do and they need to be in these.

Speaker 8 (41:00):
Because it's so powerful, like they are people who are
like a field director is literally the person that is
looking at the landscape of your community and saying you
need to go here, you need to be here, and
really designing that. And so I wanted a woman, and
I wanted a woman of color. That was like non existent, right,
and so there's so many few of it. So for me,
when young people are saying that they want to be

(41:21):
an elected office, and always like, well, what are you
trying to accomplish? And then let's talk about that so
we can figure out what role makes the most sense
for you, because sometimes it's not being elected, because honestly,
sometimes I feelt crippled because I'm in the seat and
not able to do some of the things that I
was able to do when I was actually running program
because I was in more direct service and community and
worked more in the community, whereas like sometimes I'm like

(41:43):
more of just a figure. So it's a lot of
times explaining to young people the landscape and then having
them understand it so they can make the best decisions
for themselves.

Speaker 7 (41:52):
I say, I was really good, really good, Be bold,
and be intentional. I think specifically with today, when you
look at politics, everything is really theatical, like everything everyone's online,
everyone's kind of like putting out stuff.

Speaker 6 (42:07):
Everyone's kind of just saying things when there's like a
hot topic.

Speaker 7 (42:10):
But usually when people are saying these things and they're
going to do this, like I hate when elective officials
go into office and say, hey, I'm going to do this,
this and this, you know for a specific community, when
I understand how government works. So when I say be bold,
you still have to have those bold tactics when you're saying, hey,
I think these things need to be changed, but be
intentional when you're kind of going to figure out how

(42:31):
you strategically do it. You have to organize amongst yourself
with your colleagues. You have to understand how government works.
You have to have a good relationship amongst government to
even make sure that some of these things are actually
able to happen. So I say, be bold and intentional
to the young people. But as Althea said, be cifically engaged.
Get involved, like start the community board, like you can

(42:52):
join your community boar sixteen years old.

Speaker 6 (42:54):
And the community board has a lot of power.

Speaker 7 (42:55):
When projects are coming into your neighborhood, when the education
liquor license, when businesses are coming to you enighble, economic
opportunities are coming to your neighborhood, residential opportunities, housing, all
those issues that we're talking about at the city, state,
federal level, these are going.

Speaker 6 (43:11):
Into the community board, and young people could be involved.

Speaker 7 (43:14):
Push your council member to do participatory budgeting when they're
able to state how you're spending money within your community
each and every single year.

Speaker 6 (43:22):
We have budgets where we're invested in our community.

Speaker 7 (43:24):
And the young person who might utilize the slides or
we were talking about earlier and may say like, hey,
this park is not doing it for me anymore. You
can see how you can invest in those parks, and
I feel like if you're a young person, you'd be like, hey,
well I said to my legislator that actually happened. I'll
be more invested in politics. And I think that's why
we're so intentional with the Hook Caucus, because we want

(43:45):
people to see us for who we are and we
want people to be involved. Because when you look at
these races each and every single year, the amounth turnout
that are coming out are not a lot when it's
coming from our communities. When you look at theis district
and you look at my district and toss the district apposts,
when you look at the Upper West Side, these are
the communities when they make a phone call, things are
happening because they bring out the numbers, and we're trying

(44:05):
to show people like they are strength and numbers. I
know it's a cliche thing to say, but when you
have numbers behind you, you can be really really powerful.

Speaker 3 (44:12):
But people say that it's you know, votes don't matter
and none of this stuff counts. And then yet we're
on the other side trying to say, trying to inform
folks that the more votes and donations that are made
from a particular community, it actually gives you leverage, especially locally.

(44:33):
And I think there's still some confusion because folks don't
necessarily see a direct line between when they vote and
the thing they want happening.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
Well, because I.

Speaker 5 (44:43):
Think a lot of them are not like she said,
they're not civically engaged. So if you make a vote
and then you don't go and actually council people to
do anything or say I have a request, or say Okay,
what do I need to do to get this done?
These things are going on in the community. How do
we change this? What do I need to do to
forget some help to get funding for things? If you
don't utilize that, you know, your vote, then of course
it's gonna look like it's doing nothing. Because if you

(45:05):
just vote and then you disappear, and then you don't
see this stuff happening that you want but you haven't
advocated for it to change, then it seems like, you know,
it's a waste of time. And I tell people that
all the time, and these people are such an example
of what it is that I'm talking about.

Speaker 7 (45:20):
But I think people think it stops. Sorry, I think
people think it stops at the volle and booth. I
think when they go out and say, hey, I voted
for you, that's it. There's so much different things that happen.
We create platforms to get feedback from the community on
specific projects like the out there and NTASS came from
hearing today when they were talking about probation. So it's like,

(45:42):
there are so many platforms out there where you can
voice your opinion, where you could be a part of
the process, and you can't just leave at the vote
booth and say, hey, job is done. You guys have
to do everything. It's not a dictatorship. We're leaders, so
you have to make sure that you're informing us so
we can lead correctly.

Speaker 8 (45:57):
I just wanted to add to the conversation of I
tell people all the time, like stop in my office right.
A lot of times folks do not come to electeds
until they are at their wits end, so by the
time they get to us, they are cussing like.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
I couldn't get this done. It didn't happen, And I
voted for you.

Speaker 8 (46:13):
And I talk people all the time even if you
didn't vote for me, I'm going to help you, so
you don't even have to start there like it does
not matter.

Speaker 1 (46:19):
You need help. My job is to help you, right.

Speaker 8 (46:22):
And so I need people to understand make my office
your first stop, like, don't make us your last stop.
If we can't help you, we will direct you in
the place that you need to get help, because so
often people don't think of it, and like I've had
conversations with people like did you visit my office and
they're like, oh, I didn't even think of that. And
so for me, some people don't even realize what we're
here to do and what the services we provide. And

(46:44):
so I think that that And one thing I will
say about our council class in general, not just the
Hook Caucus. They have been doing a lot of social
media so people can understand how to get in contact
and have their elected to be more accessible.

Speaker 1 (46:59):
Talking about the.

Speaker 3 (46:59):
Comment remis peace, Dan Gosha. The two things I wanted
to say that compromises not Nanta, but two things I.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
Wanted to say. I know she's doing it good now.
So two things.

Speaker 3 (47:12):
One, I always live by the statement don't vote and
go back to sleep. People vote and they go back
to sleep, and I tell people, don't go back to sleep.
Still hold this accountable. Still stay engaged. The other thing
that I thought you were gonna say. This is the
problem when we talk to each other all the time,
is we need people to help us. So a good
reason for people to get involved is because we can't

(47:35):
do it ourselves. ALTHEA has a stay where she's like,
y'all just gonna leave me to get jumped by myself,
Like get into this fight with me. And I love
when she says that I thought she was gonna say
that's I'll say it for her, but it's real, like,
there are not that many people that think and look
like us, and so we want people to get more
engaged because we need more people to be in this
fight with us.

Speaker 1 (47:53):
In terms of compromise, I would say I A would say,
you're better. You're better. I've gotten better, but I do
have really good at it.

Speaker 3 (48:03):
I do have a moral compass and are there are
certain things that I will not move from, and so
I think that's what has made me better because it's like, Okay,
on certain things, maybe I don't feel as strongly and
so maybe I'll compromise on this thing. But if you
want me to compromise on this thing, I'm not. And
then we just have a stand still. And so when
it comes to humanitarian things, very very very very hardline like,

(48:25):
there's not that many compromises with me because what's right
and morally just is what is right and morally just,
and if it's not morally just, like, there's no compromise.
And so I think people see me as a person
that is compromising on things that I will compromise on.
But I think people have grown to respect me because
they know that I'm always honest and they always accept

(48:46):
and appreciate that on things that you know, maybe don't
hit my moral compass, then I'm able to engage in
a conversation and meet somewhere with And even when I
don't agree with someone, I am always willing to listen
and genuinely try, genuinely try to understand their perspective in
a way that isn't shutting them out. I believe everyone
has opinions and perspectives, and one thing I try to

(49:09):
do is that the very least listen very intently to
what their opinions or concerns are when we have to
make certain compromises.

Speaker 1 (49:17):
So how do y'all deal with public outrage and the haters? Good?

Speaker 3 (49:22):
Sometimes outrage is necessary and some is just heye, my
first time, and I know Counselor Stevens has like ongoing
stuff right now. My first time, I've been passed them
like to her real quickly. My first time was after
a hearing, and at the hearing, a person who was
testifying kind of says some things that were anti Asian.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
But he was upset. He was frustrated. This was a
man who was wrongfully convicted.

Speaker 3 (49:48):
It was a hearing about their housing, meaning that people
are not allowed to look up people's criminal records when
they are going to see howsing like we need people
coming from home to be able to get an apartment.
And so he was pissed because there was a lot
of racist rhetoric the entire time.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
It was a long hearing.

Speaker 3 (50:03):
He was one of the last people to speak, and
he made a comment again that a lot of folks
felt were anti Asian.

Speaker 1 (50:09):
I was on the front page of the post. Almost died.

Speaker 3 (50:11):
I was like, oh my god, cause they were saying
that I was being anti Asian because I didn't check
him in real time. And I had to tell my
colleagues that had a lot of conversation with my Asian friends,
like some of the people outside of the hood car
because some of my.

Speaker 1 (50:24):
Closest friends in the council are.

Speaker 3 (50:27):
Of Asian descent, and I had a lot of conversations
and I had to tell them when he was speaking,
it reminded me of like an uncle. Like an uncle
that just they don't say things politically correct. Not that
he had hate in his heart, he just didn't articulate
himself correctly. So it's not that I supported his comments.
I just didn't feel like it was necessary to chastise
him in that moment because lots of people were saying yeah,

(50:48):
and lots of people were dealing saying a lot of
nasty things that entire hearing, And again I almost died.
I think I might have called you, And I said
this to Tamika recently. I said that I feel like
God issue in my life, so I could see how
you've navigated very troubling times, and because I've been with
you through a lot. Honestly, I just kept drawing on

(51:10):
my own like observations of how you manage things that
were way more difficult than the silly thing close.

Speaker 1 (51:18):
It was a little stressful. It was that's not really
that simple.

Speaker 3 (51:22):
I don't stress hit hit, But I had to remind
myself that I know who I am, and I have
people that know who I am, and despite the haters
or people who just want clickbait again, I know who
I am, and I was able to make those connections
and reconcile with people who just wanted to make sure
that you know, I wasn't what the post was saying.

Speaker 1 (51:43):
I was, well said man man.

Speaker 5 (51:46):
So this, yeah, this is the first person I ever
knocked on the door and gave out flyers and stood
out there and said go vote.

Speaker 2 (51:54):
For it, and just to watch you.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
So yeah, I've been having a time.

Speaker 8 (52:05):
It's been a time, and I've I will think, out
of this three I've probably had the most common at me.
I've had bomb threats, I had someone kicking my office door,
and I've been called everything but the child of God
by folks because of a bill that I've been carrying,
which is the Gang Database, which would eliminate the gang database,
which is ninety nine percent black men and black and

(52:29):
brown men, and it to me, it is not to me,
it is racially motivated, and I don't stand for it.
And so I've been getting so much outpour about how
I'm stupid and this is not real. And most of
the shootings that take place in New York are done
by black and brown people, so those are people should
be into surveillance. And so the way I deal with that,

(52:50):
I mean, honestly, Natasha just said it. I have a
moral compass. I know what I'm here to do and
what God sent me here to do, and so nobody's
gonna move me from that. But it's not easy, Like
it does wear and tear on your mental health because
you carry that around, right, like getting a bomb threat,
It wasn't just about me in that moment. It was
about my staff, Like they didn't feel safe, they didn't

(53:12):
feel like protected, and that was scary as hell, Like
I'm putting people at danger when they kicked in my door.

Speaker 1 (53:17):
It's like again, my staff.

Speaker 8 (53:19):
And so it's always a balance of like me thinking
about my people first and making sure people aren't getting
hurt or getting retaliated because the choices that I'm making.

Speaker 1 (53:28):
But I stand on everything that I believe in.

Speaker 8 (53:30):
And that's why when you were saying, like, oh, Nan,
it's doing bad at compromising, I feel like she's always
been better over it because like for me, it is
black and white. Either I'm in or out. Like if
I don't care, it's like, all right, we could figure
it out. But if I believe in something and I
believe that this is what it needs to be done,
it's no moving me. And it doesn't matter what you say.
I'm not gonna be moved because that is your belief.

(53:51):
I'm always here to have dialogue and hear other people's
opinion and talk. But like, at the end of the day,
I know that the work that I'm doing is going
to help my people and that's all that matters. And
so you know, I keep taking the hate and I'm
sure I'm gonna have some Instagram posts telling me that
I'm stupid today because.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
They kicking up the game database.

Speaker 5 (54:13):
I said, well, listen, I heard the last time they
kicked it the door somebody grabbed him up and kicking
this do.

Speaker 1 (54:19):
Let me tell you something, my stoff, don't play. Listen.
My staff is hood.

Speaker 2 (54:23):
I don't I don't punch it this. I'm gonna do
a little and.

Speaker 1 (54:27):
I'm also hood, So don't think that I don't know
how I can handle myself. So don't you better come
correct Lord.

Speaker 3 (54:34):
Counselman Riley, how do you know, how do you handle
the public outcries.

Speaker 6 (54:42):
Scrutiny, boxing, weightlifting, swing the steam room. He's actually I
am yeah, I take care. I take care. I think
I have been subjected to so much things growing up,
like not in this is nothing.

Speaker 7 (55:02):
It's like people just talking like you know, I've been
I couldn't walked down the block, you know what I mean,
Like I couldn't leave my house without getting to altercations
like for years. So this is just people just having
voice in their opinion. But I think it also comes
from where people West said. Sometimes people are just upset.
They don't really understand. We hold positions where people feel
people need to voice their you know, concerns to us.

(55:24):
So a lot of times that's why I want to
believe where it's coming from. Not saying that I have
had some situations where I had to speak to people,
but outside.

Speaker 3 (55:35):
Of that, you have had some situations like me, Like you,
you had a situation where you had to tell me
some stuff and my DMS that didn't you.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
Not like that?

Speaker 1 (55:48):
No, no, no, no, Kevin, but you gotta say something.

Speaker 3 (55:52):
I know you were talking about much more serious topics.
But that does bring me to one of the things
that I raised on the show. Obviously, you know, I've
lived in co Op City at my parents live in
co Op City now, and I've been in co Op
City for a long, long, long, long, long, long long time.
I mean I was fourteen years old, that's thirty years
ago when my parents moved me to co Op. I've

(56:13):
been through every you know, iteration of elected officials and
people who need the votes of co Op and all
of that. And you know one thing that has not
shifted much. It is the youth violence. That's a real
big problem in co Op. And the reason why this
conversation came up is because there was the new rules

(56:35):
at the mall where a child under the age of
eighteen can't go into the mall because they were doing
a flat run around whatever what's that call.

Speaker 1 (56:44):
They weren't robbing anybody, flash just run I.

Speaker 6 (56:48):
Think that's what they were doing. I don't know what
they call it now.

Speaker 3 (56:50):
But yeah, but they well I think for our age
it was flashbab, but they might call it. Oh yeah, no,
they don't even dance, so that's not they. But they
were running through the mall and people were saying their
parents need to be with them. And what I said
was that while I agree that something has to be done,

(57:11):
still I do not feel there are the substantial programs
in that area for those young people. And I said
that the center, the underneath the centers, Bartow Dryser and
all of that, that they need to be open for
youth activities because otherwise this is what you get, right.

(57:32):
And then you wrote me and said there are programs, right,
and so I want to give you opportunity to talk
about some of those programs. However, I would like to
say that I went and did some more research, and
I talked to a lot of the ogs that are
in co Op still right, and many of them said,

(57:52):
if there are programs around here, we sure don't get
invited to be able to participate and support those pro
to help these young people. So even if there are
programs that maybe some people don't know about, there seems
to be a disconnect between the types of like Mison's
and at Mitchell's, and you know the names k Bain

(58:15):
and others, the credible messengers working within those programs specifically
in co OP.

Speaker 7 (58:22):
So please, well, thank you for that very dense answer
I have for you here. So yes, first and foremost
what happened at the mall.

Speaker 6 (58:30):
I don't think.

Speaker 7 (58:33):
It got blown out of proportion because I do believe
that the young people were there, but they were just
kind of dancing, running through the mall, making a lot
of noise.

Speaker 6 (58:41):
I don't think no one.

Speaker 1 (58:42):
Robbed the store, Oh reported everything.

Speaker 7 (58:45):
I don't think anyone vangelized anything inside the mall. I
did hear how some cars outside must have got evangelized
because some people must have been standing on it and dancing.

Speaker 6 (58:55):
That's near here and there.

Speaker 7 (58:57):
Yeah, but that all comes from what you were speaking,
that the young people need a space to go to.
And on top of that, those young people weren't even
from co Op City. Bay Plaza is the mall. Like
if you're from the Bronx, if you're in Southeast Queens,
you might go to Baby Plaza, if you're in Westchester,
you might go to be a Plaza. So we typically
that those young people probably never even came from, you.

Speaker 6 (59:18):
Know, co Op City.

Speaker 7 (59:19):
But to address the programs, co Op City is about
fifty thousand people. It's a city within itself. It used
to be an amusement park. That's why I asked the
man for fifteen minutes. I hope he sees this. That's
what I want to talk to you about. But that's
me here right, Yeah, that's not even here there, But
this is exactly why I want to talk to him.
But Corp City needs their own youth center, so our

(59:39):
ustor could call Hasty and we were able to bring
to Northeast Bronx YMCA there. The whole point of the
Northeast Bronx YMCA was to bring each different neighborhoods in
the Northeast Bronx together in one place where they feel
safe because growing up, if you were from Edenwood, you
couldn't go to the co Op City if you're from
Section five. Still, if you're from Section five, I'll tell

(01:00:00):
you what happened the other day. I'm in I'm in
Driser and I was I was the kids seeing my face,
but I was dressed like this.

Speaker 6 (01:00:06):
He's like, Yo, that's you.

Speaker 7 (01:00:08):
I said, yeah, yeah, you should come to my office man.
He said, yo, I want to talk to you. Man,
I want to connect with you. I like what you're doing. Man,
I saw you on YouTube and all that. He said,
I want to come to your other I said, yeah,
I got one on gun here and I got one
in five. He's like, yeah, I can't come to five.
I said, where you live at He said, I live
in Cops.

Speaker 6 (01:00:21):
I live in two. I'm like, yo, you live in
section two and you feel like you can't go to
section five.

Speaker 4 (01:00:25):
And that has.

Speaker 6 (01:00:27):
Always been there from when we were young to now.

Speaker 7 (01:00:31):
So yeah, So the whole purpose of the community center
was to have people from Eton Wall ecg Gunhill be
able to come to the community center at right there
in the northeast Bronx. But still within that people in
Corp City don't want to come there, and you understand
because they're a whole community and they need their own location.

(01:00:51):
So we've been advocating for a community center to be
built in Corp City where the Yellow the Yellow houses
school houses in co Op City.

Speaker 6 (01:01:00):
But co Op City has a Beacon program that I
have to give them some credit.

Speaker 7 (01:01:03):
My predecessor advocated for, which was a negotiation for the
animal shelter. And the Beacon program has several different programs,
whether it goes to swimming, tennis. Is a community center, Yeah,
it's pretty much a community center, but it's in school.
But at the same time, it's in the school that
people in the community don't feel welcoming Truman. So it's
so much different politics in what's going on in the community.

(01:01:27):
So that's why we're advocating right now for a community
center to be in co Op City. But we also
want to have a stadium, community center, community sators, to
have a podcast room, community sators to have a gaming room.
The community center should be able to have rooms that
are teaching young people about different career paths. We can't
just put a basketball, you know, court in there and

(01:01:48):
think kids are just gonna come and play all the time.
So you gotta kind of think.

Speaker 8 (01:01:51):
I come out between as a chair and youth services
because I think for me it's always there are so
much programs in the city.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
One of my issues currently is that are are.

Speaker 8 (01:02:03):
We creating programs and not evaluating them to see if
they're effective and doing the things that they're doing and
so that what are you about. I've been doing that
my entire time here and before. It's not just in
theme as all of the programs where I'm saying are
they doing the things that we are seeing the doing
and then how do we evaluate it? And right And
this is for me saying like coming in the city

(01:02:24):
council and saying how much money we are putting into
these programs and what are we getting out of it?
And so for me, even thinking about saying like, oh,
we're gonnadvocate for our community center, it's not what the
kids want, because I've been saying like there's a lot
of community centers throughout the city that are empty.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
And so for me, it's like, well are the kids
going there? Where are they?

Speaker 8 (01:02:40):
And that's where we need to go, even before we
are saying let's put more money into this, and so
we have to stop creating these programs, which is for
me is like how we bring these young people into
these spaces. We have to stop creating these spaces without
the input of young people because this is what we
think that they want, and that's not what they're saying
they want it. Because when I'm talking to kids, they saying, miss,
I need a job.

Speaker 7 (01:03:01):
So just to be clear, I'm just speaking about co
Op City, speaking about the city city.

Speaker 1 (01:03:08):
So people click.

Speaker 6 (01:03:12):
So within co Op City, yes that they are accent for.

Speaker 2 (01:03:16):
That, but should does the community centers provide jobs for them?
Like if we had a community center, That's what I
remember when I was young.

Speaker 5 (01:03:24):
We had in hybrid us to call the Mosaic, and
what happened was the people went there, we had all
of the leaders, and then they would hire us from
started a summer.

Speaker 1 (01:03:34):
Youth and then Yeah, that happens now currently.

Speaker 8 (01:03:37):
But I think that we also need to be one
reimagining what the workforce looks like for young people in
New York City. The only thing that we really provide
currently is SYP and Work Learn Grow. SYP is two
months out of the year and then there's a specific
criteria for work learne growth. Young people don't have any
other options. We should be thinking about how we're expanding
to Learn to Work program in these schools and all
these other things. Young people are really actioning for jobs.

Speaker 1 (01:03:58):
When we were younger, we.

Speaker 8 (01:03:59):
Could actually go to foot I can get a job.
We could go to the supermarket and go get a job.
That is not the case all these places. You have
to be eighteen or older.

Speaker 1 (01:04:08):
No one's hiring them.

Speaker 3 (01:04:09):
Well, and you have to apply online, which means that
no one even gets an opportunity to see and meet
and you know, have interaction engagement. But let me say
that it will I don't know when y'all's mayor is
going to get you the fifteen million dollars.

Speaker 6 (01:04:25):
No, no, I'm fifteen minutes.

Speaker 1 (01:04:27):
Just how much?

Speaker 6 (01:04:27):
Million? Fifty?

Speaker 7 (01:04:30):
That was a joke because me and the mayor had
got into it online because I asked him if he
could come and speak to me, because within that co
Op city has their own public safety.

Speaker 2 (01:04:41):
So man, you fill out.

Speaker 6 (01:04:45):
The phone, you feel out the phone.

Speaker 2 (01:04:46):
He told me, literally, I want to meet with you.
I said, let's meet with the proposal.

Speaker 3 (01:04:51):
You're gonna say, Tiffany gonna say all y'all bugging because
somebody could just call her and hatch up for the
meeting to happen.

Speaker 1 (01:05:00):
You know, Jashid, don't even go there.

Speaker 6 (01:05:02):
I ain't even want to go in there with y'all.
I love you, but let me see I love you
outside that office too.

Speaker 1 (01:05:10):
I know we all do.

Speaker 4 (01:05:11):
We all do.

Speaker 1 (01:05:11):
I'll tell you that all the time. But let me
say this though.

Speaker 3 (01:05:15):
Even though I recognize that there needs to be more
structural programming, and I agree with you that there should
actually be something like dropped in the middle or somewhere
that it is a safe passage right for everybody to
be able to come to. Still, there are a lot
of spaces that are open and doing nothing all day.

Speaker 7 (01:05:35):
So that's why I was going to get to So currently,
right now, I believe River Bay charges residents within co
Op City utilize those spaces, which I think they shouldn't.
And right now they're doing a board election there where
they're going to be choosing a new board of directors there,
and I think that's something that should be brought up
when they're speaking about that, because I don't think residents

(01:05:56):
should be charged to u lot of spaces, especially when
you're trying to put program for people in the community,
like you have residents there, Like this lady in Copse,
she was like, Hey, I'm teaching kids how to ride bikes,
like I have bikes. People donate bikes in me every Friday.
I'm just teaching people how to ride bikes. But sometimes
it's rainy, you could go into one of the halls
and teach them. Yeah, we got miss Lorraine that does
tennis still my parents. My mom is in the dance

(01:06:19):
Josh Josh Jossa Jossa. Yeah, she's a part of that.

Speaker 3 (01:06:23):
And so the seniors and my judgment are treated pretty
well right like they had been prioritized. They are prioritized
and Meanwhile, they're and this is a consistent thing, like
this is not new, this has been going on because
there was a point in time when Koop City did
have programs and I'm sure this same issue exists in

(01:06:45):
many other Mitchelama, you know, all the different housing around
the city, but there was a time when there were
programs in co Op because it was probably around like
my age group was the end of it, where we
did have some stuff we would go to and the
problem was that fights would breakout, shootings would happen, all
kinds of crazy things, which I acknowledge. And so what

(01:07:07):
they did was they cut the programs rather than again
what I've mentioned, making sure that in addition, in collaboration
with CMS and other groups, that people will work together
to facilitate those programs. And I believe that part of
that has to do because I think to your point,
people shouldn't have to pay, but if they did, they
would want to see that there are moneies that they're

(01:07:29):
paying is going towards gain intervention, prevention, you know, being
at youth events and things of that nature. And it
seems like there has been no creativity even or reimagining
to what you said about how it can be done.
It's just it's too violent, too dangerous, and it's been
shut down. So I am suggesting today that we can

(01:07:52):
give fifteen minutes of meeting with some of these guys.

Speaker 6 (01:07:56):
Are you talking about the CMS groups?

Speaker 3 (01:07:57):
No, they're not in CMS. They don't even we talked
told them about CMS. They be like, okay, but they
want to be helpful.

Speaker 6 (01:08:03):
Oh, I would love that.

Speaker 2 (01:08:04):
Man. Messages from the community been doing their own organized
and created their own nonprofits and even working with the youth.

Speaker 6 (01:08:13):
So that's something I've also been able to do since
I've been in office.

Speaker 7 (01:08:16):
I've been able to fund a lot of new nonprofits
and help people to create their own nonprofits.

Speaker 6 (01:08:21):
So I would love to sit down with these these
gentlemen or young women.

Speaker 2 (01:08:25):
I would love it outside.

Speaker 1 (01:08:27):
I would love to know that for you know, my
son's father was murdered.

Speaker 3 (01:08:30):
He was from co Op and so the relationships are
still there with all the guys who were his friends,
and they're still there. Some of them are getting older,
but some of them have like my son is twenty six,
so they got kids that age as well who can
be brought into the fold.

Speaker 1 (01:08:45):
And so I just would you know, that's it that
was out.

Speaker 6 (01:08:48):
Well, I commit I commit to you here that I
would love way more than no more.

Speaker 2 (01:08:57):
Once you tell us about the black.

Speaker 3 (01:08:58):
Yes, yes, I feel what made you say I'm gonna
sit here and do all this work that I already
know you had all the good intentions, You got people together,
y'all put it together. You was feeling good about this
right Like I was there with you, I know how
it is. You was like, this is great. We're saying
the things that probably stuff you didn't even agree with,

(01:09:19):
but you were like, you know what, we got to
include this because I know this is important.

Speaker 1 (01:09:22):
I know who's gonna need it. The black prints important.

Speaker 3 (01:09:25):
And then when you bring it to people and say, okay,
let's work on this, let's get behind and then folks
start acting crazy. So please talk about the black print
and what is the process for us, because everybody keep
saying this is no black agenda?

Speaker 8 (01:09:38):
Who keep saying everybody okay? Well, one I want to say,
like I'm the culchair of the Black and in Council,
And honestly, one of the reasons why when I first
got to council, I felt like every group of people
were fighting for their people and it seems very strange

(01:10:01):
when we fought for our people and it's a lot
of underlined blackness from everybody, from everybody, from everybody, and
I felt uncomfortable for a little bit, like because it
felt like anytime I said black, I had to say
black and brown. But in brown's they don't say black
and brown, they say latinos.

Speaker 1 (01:10:19):
Right, and we're okay with that. I'm okay with that, right,
And so you know, this was.

Speaker 8 (01:10:25):
A conversation that when we were coming in, all the
black councilors like, we need our own space. And so
for me, it was like, we need our own space
to have real conversations and real and dig into some
real issues because we might not all be aligned politically sometimes,
but we all still have a black experience. And so
that's really what has been the motivation for me to

(01:10:45):
kind of keep this group together because organizing people.

Speaker 1 (01:10:51):
Especially, we sucked that we've been tima.

Speaker 8 (01:10:55):
It shows, it shows up, and so like the Black
Friend is literally collectives of state elected and city electors
who really came together to say and honestly, it was
a reaction of what was going on during the mayoral election.
So we were literally like, how do we show up
in this moment, what type of leader do we look like?

(01:11:15):
So it's not only talking about policy, it also gives
a criteria of what leadership should look like. And so
in the black print, we say we think a leader
should be responsive. He needs to make sure that they're
hiring black people in their administrative administration.

Speaker 1 (01:11:32):
Like it's a response to some of the things that
we need.

Speaker 8 (01:11:35):
But then we also go into policy of like what
we think that, what we not think, what we know
we need in order to continue to uplift black people,
And so it like reparational reparations in there, but we
also talk about policy. We looked at these three buckets
where it's like health, wealth, and civic engagement. How do
we ensure that we are funding organizations and folks that

(01:11:57):
are doing that work to order to move the needle.
And then we have like deliverables, which is our legislation
to get that stuff done. And that's really what the
black print is. But I think even with the reparation stuff,
I will love Nancy even talk about that because that's
a part of the black print, but that's not all
of it. But I think it's so important because she
worked really hard to get a package of bills on

(01:12:18):
reparations passed through her committee and still holding the administrative
accountable because one budget equity that they the port that
they didn't do, and then also too they're not funding
it for them to be able to actually do the
work they need for this reparation study, which is a
huge part of the black print.

Speaker 1 (01:12:35):
I will love her to talk a little bit about that, sure, And.

Speaker 3 (01:12:38):
I think this goes back to what Kevin said as
something that the Hoodclocks was able to do, even though
with something that technically I was pushing.

Speaker 7 (01:12:45):
It.

Speaker 3 (01:12:45):
Really, anything that each one of us do, we all
take it on as if it's our personal project. And
so we did even when y'all don't agree. Even when
we don't agree, we might fight behind closed doors or
even in person, but we like but you still got
to support and or you still got to support out
THEA because we would do it for each other.

Speaker 4 (01:13:04):
We all.

Speaker 1 (01:13:05):
We actually joke about that there's some.

Speaker 3 (01:13:06):
Bills a build that I feel like I had that
out THEA didn't like, and then she.

Speaker 1 (01:13:11):
Had a build that I like. But we still on
all the g We still on all the bills.

Speaker 3 (01:13:16):
So do you make changes to it when a person
doesn't like it, Like, what's the process?

Speaker 1 (01:13:20):
Because people need to know.

Speaker 3 (01:13:22):
I'm serious, Like when folks so listics, we're going to
go out and tell people if you especially in New
York City, you need to know who is actually shaping
how the city looks outside of the mayor because everybody's
just like Eric Adams or whomever the mayor is. But
there's a whole council that does a lot. So what
do you guys do when you don't agree? So the
process is we have to submit for a bill to

(01:13:44):
be drafted. Once the bill is drafted, we can then
introduce the bill, and then we have to work with
the speakers office and a committee chair to actually hear
the bill. Once a bill is heard, we then have
to push for the bill to be passed. And then
that pushing processes typically where amendments might be made. So
for a lot of our bills, yeah, and a hearing,
so for a lot of our bills that there might

(01:14:06):
have been some disagreeances here and there when we get
to that phase of negotiation. That's what I might say
to Althia, well I don't really like this component of
your bill, can we Or she'll say the same thing
to me, and we do have those conversations where we
you know, it's if it's on that line.

Speaker 1 (01:14:23):
Because some stuff is just on that line. I gotta
respect it.

Speaker 3 (01:14:25):
Because one thing I feel like Althia has been really
good about is how can we stay united even we
have differences, and differences isn't a sign of weakness for
our collective. It's actually a shower strung And so even
when we have these disagreeances, out of respect and collective
unity amongst the group, it's like, I don't really bang
with that. But if there's something that I don't really

(01:14:48):
bang with my or something that I'm really passionate about
on my end, she's not gonna push me because she
knows I'm passionate about it.

Speaker 1 (01:14:53):
And I feel like we respect.

Speaker 3 (01:14:55):
Each other enough to be like, Okay, you feel really
strongly about this, I'm gonna just, you know, take one
for the team, because I then would expect her to
do something similar.

Speaker 2 (01:15:03):
Don't. For the most.

Speaker 5 (01:15:07):
K, even when you disagree, it's not something that goes
against your moral comfident right. So it might be some
certain things that you disagree with, you know standardly and
be like, now I don't really want to do this,
but I know if it doesn't go against your moral
comp but you're gonna ride with your person.

Speaker 1 (01:15:23):
But I also want to say I also trust their leadership.

Speaker 8 (01:15:26):
I think it's also important, like even if I don't agree,
I trust that you went through the process to really
look and why you came to this decision.

Speaker 1 (01:15:34):
I don't think that there's ever malice behind.

Speaker 8 (01:15:36):
Either of these two people. So if they're like, we're
going across this bridge, I'm trusting that you have made
the evaluation that this is what we're doing.

Speaker 1 (01:15:43):
Even if we get shot on the bridge, that shot
to get together. But I trust them in that way,
and that's a big part of it. Make me cry.

Speaker 2 (01:15:52):
That's deep.

Speaker 1 (01:15:54):
Going through it, y'all, Like I imagine that all the year.

Speaker 8 (01:15:58):
I don't have to always read with you. But at
the end of the day, I know that they're fighting
just as hard as me. And I'm never like I was,
like you said, I always say, don't let y'all here
to get my ask PEP by myself, And I know
these two they jumping in if it's nobody else, these
two are going to jump in this fight even if
they don't agree with it.

Speaker 1 (01:16:17):
Or it's gonna be like you know how your mom
would be like, you better fight when you come home.
You're getting beat up. You're not gonna jump in.

Speaker 2 (01:16:23):
I get back anytime you jump in, it'd be like that.

Speaker 1 (01:16:29):
Well, speaking of ass fighting, ass fighting like.

Speaker 4 (01:16:41):
Bomping but.

Speaker 3 (01:16:44):
Blood okay, but people fighting. There is a huge fight
in this city right now. But who's going to be there? Now?
Let me just preface this by saying, I'm not asking
y'all to say who you are individually endorsing. However, I'm

(01:17:07):
not asking y'all to say who you are individually endorsing. However,
one of the things that has really been upsetting me is,
you know, I realized that people which by the way,
I'm one hundred percent in support of Mondani and I've
heard Zorhan Mondani excuse me, and I have I have

(01:17:29):
been listening to the commentary of some of my friends. Now,
I enjoy a very unique space across the country, but
specifically in New York, which means that I'm a member
of the Linked Incorporated. I'm also a member of Afrikaalpa
Alpha Incorporated. I am a member of a church called

(01:17:56):
Grace Baptist Church, which is in Mount Vernon but still
a lot of our membership is you know, Bronx and
all over the city, and I have a five star life, right,
I spend a lot of times with the black bourgeoisie
as they say, right, and I'm okay with that. Is

(01:18:16):
I don't think there's anything wrong with that because in
most spaces that I'm in, especially in the Links and
the definitely in my church, while it is a five
star operation, our community work is clear, like that's what
we're into. We do a lot of community work, and
we're not safe community organizers. As you know, my pastor
is like he be doing Sometimes I have to be
like roll it back. But that's where where I am.

(01:18:39):
But I also am a part. I'm in the hood,
carkis right, not this sod caucus. But we in different
spaces and so sitting in that, I have friends that
come from every single perspective and I've been watching them
on Facebook in a meltdown over Mandani, a meltdown. And

(01:19:00):
what I keep challenging people is that regardless of whether
you support the brother or not, don't lie, right, And
where I'm where these lies are coming from is the
New York.

Speaker 1 (01:19:12):
Post says it, and then we post it. I can't believe.

Speaker 3 (01:19:16):
Wow, how is it that you were called x y
z or you watch New York Post call me every
name possible, and you see them, you know where they are.
But then when they say something that is negative about
someone that you don't like, you will pick those talking
points up and begin to spew this stuff that you
know is either not right or at best it has
not been investigating. You're not willing to talk about the

(01:19:39):
depth of the conversation. I won't even bring up the stuff,
but you're not willing to do that. And so what
I am challenged with in this moment is asking you guys, like,
how are you making decisions knowing that the very fabric
of the city is like all in shit because of
this election action while you have a mayor that you

(01:20:01):
still need to get things done with one you have
to cut through the noise, and.

Speaker 1 (01:20:09):
Yeah, this is what we do. Yeah that's my face,
old one.

Speaker 2 (01:20:13):
I don't lie.

Speaker 3 (01:20:14):
I think cutting through the noise because there's a lot
of rhetoric, as you said, just flat out lies about
who Zoron is and that's not cool, and so cutting
through the noise this administration and we all can attest
to this when Mayor Adams first got into office, we
were very clear that we wanted to establish open lines

(01:20:35):
of communication. We met with him at that Italian restaurant
that was in the news. I always talked about that
we met with him at that restaurant. We started regular
meetings with his first cheap of staff, Frank Carole. That's
the first time we met with his office. We set
up standing meetings with them. And one thing that we
have said publicly and internally is that we never felt

(01:20:55):
like true partners. And so we're in a situation where
we have tried to work with this man. You hear
Keaven talk about the fact that he hasn't been able
to get a meeting. We've tried to work with this
mayor on so many different things. As chair of the
Civil and Human Rights Committee, this came up. New York
City voted a few years ago to charter. Charter mandated
the city has to release racial equity plans by in

(01:21:18):
It's over four hundred days late, still not released.

Speaker 1 (01:21:21):
This is a black mayor.

Speaker 3 (01:21:22):
And it could keep going on and on and on
with the many different things that I would say. It
kind of like hurts us in it will I speak
for myself, but I think they would agree. It kind
of hurts us a bit because we really wanted to
figure out a way to have open lines of communication
when we're yeah, and we'll think exactly what we're pushing for,
these things that we feel with have the highest benefits

(01:21:42):
to our communities and not getting the support we feel
like we need.

Speaker 1 (01:21:46):
So one is just cutting through the noise. We live
this every day. We live this having to work with.

Speaker 3 (01:21:50):
This administration on the plethor of issues both largely that
affect the city but also locally in our districts, And
so as we look at this November election, it has
put all of us in a very interesting position. I
think one of the things that has been said is
Zoe run is the Democratic nominee. He won the Democratic primary,

(01:22:11):
and if we all claim to be Democrats, that is
something that we have to reconcile. People don't have to
endure certain people, but if you claim to be a Democrat,
you have to look at this person who won the
Democratic nomination. When Hillary won the Democratic nomination, there was
such heavy, heavy push to the Bernie Bros. You know
you need to you know, you need to unify the party.

(01:22:33):
You have to because Hillary and so like how like
you know, and to me, when I think of Bernie Brough,
I think of the progressive right. And so now we're
in a situation where the lefties seemingly are the people.

Speaker 1 (01:22:42):
Who are winning.

Speaker 3 (01:22:43):
So if if everybody went so hard to try to
get the left wing of the party to come to
the table so that we can operate as a party,
how is that not the same thing that people are pushing?
And so I just think we all need to really
think about what is being said and figure out what
I feel like, collective would be our best partner. One
thing I've heard you say a ton of times is

(01:23:04):
when we've done work. I remember when we did power
to the polls is Listen, we're not saying we love
these candidates, but we're trying to pick the best opponent
that we you know what I mean, Like, we're just
trying to pick the person that is like least likely
to do the most harm. Not that this person will
do no harm, because listen, Doron's talking points not really good.

(01:23:24):
That doesn't mean that I personally think he's gonna do
the best job ever. But when you look at all
of the candidates for us, it's about who would be
the best partner or the person least likely to create
the most harm. And I know it's something as a
carcass look to do a group endorsement. You guys get
jumped in on this, and I would say that, like

(01:23:46):
what you said about Zorhan is important that everything that
he says may or may not be able to be done.
But but putting that aside, we also have to talk
about the fact that the DSA has been very, very
problematic in some ways in the black community. That's a fact,
like there are black folks who have real issues with
the Democratic Socialists, and therefore it is something that we

(01:24:09):
need to not make like a quiet conversation. It should
just be boldly discussed so we could get to a
solution because he might be the mayor.

Speaker 1 (01:24:17):
Could I job it will be.

Speaker 8 (01:24:18):
I think that this is such a case of sore
losers and let's let's be real about it.

Speaker 1 (01:24:25):
No one thought that.

Speaker 8 (01:24:26):
Zoran was going to win, and they never made an
effort to have outreached to their campaign. So I feel
like a lot of the people that I see spewing
a lot of the negativity are people who feel like
they don't have access and that's what my issue lies.
Like just because you don't have access doesn't mean that
they're going to do a good job. And because you
have access, it's okay, right, And so for me, I'm

(01:24:47):
a big person, I'm like, stop being a sore loser
like y'all did not win and if and a lot
of these folks who are spewing this were supporting candidates
who you know, known as the sexual predator but have
done so much harm in our community, in black and
brown communities.

Speaker 1 (01:25:04):
I mean, for me, I'm from the Bronx.

Speaker 8 (01:25:05):
I don't remember one of those candidates doing any big
things in the Bronx that benefited us when they were
in other positions.

Speaker 1 (01:25:12):
So for me, it's it's what are you really fighting about?

Speaker 8 (01:25:16):
Because I want I want somebody who I'm going to
see as a partner and be able to work with.
And we cannot be sore losers. So at the end
of the day, your team didn't win, pack it up,
move on and let's go, like, let's stop with the
noise around it. And again I think Nantasha said it.
It said, who's going to be the best partner to
work with for us to move the needle on the
issues that we need to move on.

Speaker 1 (01:25:35):
And that's what I'm looking at. And so it's not
just going through the noise. Y'all need to pack it
up like it actually sounds black right now of you trying.

Speaker 8 (01:25:43):
To like attack someone who you have not even had
contact with. And and like you said, I think even
when we're thinking about the ds asparatus, the Democratic h
DSA and whatever, the establishment, the democratic establishment.

Speaker 3 (01:25:59):
Is just that it's just a problematic. Oh, we'll be
jamming up all day on this show. So I was
trying to give some he somebody.

Speaker 8 (01:26:05):
Else they're equally problematic ly, absolutely absolutely, and so for
me it's just like absolutely, well that's what they feel
though the devil.

Speaker 1 (01:26:18):
You know that the establishment feels like the devil. They
know the Cuomos. They've been comfortable with the Cuomos since.

Speaker 3 (01:26:25):
The Daddy was it was in office, right, Like this
is a legacy pass Now. I think about Hazel Dudes, right,
who is who is my beloved, beloved leader and godmother
and all the things. But she and I used to
have some serious debate over her political position or mine.
She would call me sometime and be like, I heard

(01:26:46):
what you said. Let me give you some perspective on
why this is problematic, and she wasn't always wrong, right,
but I know for a fact that she would have
been with Eric Adams, that's it, and we would have
been discussing this. She would have been with Eric one
because Ma was the type of person that when she's
with you, she's with you, and she'll check you in private,

(01:27:08):
because I got my ass skinned down on.

Speaker 1 (01:27:12):
Multiple occasions, so she will do that.

Speaker 3 (01:27:14):
But she's not going to abandon you in person unless
something that you know, of course, you rape a kid,
that's it.

Speaker 1 (01:27:21):
She's done, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:27:22):
And so I know she would have been with him,
and she of course loved the Clomos, but she still
wouldn't even been She would have been with Eric Adams
and we would have had tension there and that would
have been one of my positions is that. And by
the way, I don't hate Eric Adams right like I'm
not an Eric because I can call there right now
and say that a plethora of individuals, Hey, we have

(01:27:43):
in trouble with someplace. Eric and I don't often speak,
but someone we know got arrested and I called and
was like, hey, the person was resting. Eric literally got
on his phone and started to call to see what happened.
The person was kind of and wrong, so in the
end it was like, that's it, he's wrong, but that's okay.
The point was I had the ability to call and

(01:28:04):
I know other people that meet him on street corners
and sorry, in communities. So I'm not saying he's the
worst person, but I think there are a number of
us who are looking for some new energy in the
city of New York and I think we deserved that,
and now that that we voted and we won, somebody
that might bring it.

Speaker 1 (01:28:22):
What is the problem?

Speaker 3 (01:28:24):
Kmcilman Riley, Would you happen to have a perspective on
what's wrong with some of your people?

Speaker 1 (01:28:29):
Because I see you you hang out with some of
these people sometimes.

Speaker 6 (01:28:32):
So I started the.

Speaker 1 (01:28:36):
Girls that hermit over here.

Speaker 7 (01:28:39):
I started in government in two thousand and eight, and
I spoke about how I got involved in government. So
I think I come from that traditional, you know, Democrat
party that I'm pretty surprised that a lot of them
now because when I came up in government, it was
whoever the Democrat primary win, it was that's who were
importing if nds and butts.

Speaker 6 (01:28:57):
Nobody can run independent.

Speaker 7 (01:28:58):
That's pretty much how a rock and what I'm seeing now,
especially in my district, people are afraid of change, like
they think so much things are happening, and I think
there's so much context people have to pay attention to,
Like we just got a global pandemic, you know what
I mean, We got a global pandemic. And even though
me and he is down the pages right now, he's
still a black man that says that role. I have

(01:29:21):
never been vocal on anything against him. I'll have my
disagreements with him behind closed doors and we'll have a conversation.
But I still think as a black man, you know
what I mean, I want to be as supportive to
him as possible. But there has been a lot of
things that have taken place that has created so much
distrust in our community that you have two black sides

(01:29:44):
in our districts right now. You have the black side
when you have the young people or energized who are
getting involved in government right now, who have seen things
happening for so long the same way for decades and
none has really changed.

Speaker 6 (01:29:57):
And then you have the other side.

Speaker 7 (01:29:58):
Who's saying, hey, I am comfortable with this because this
is what I know when you look at my district.

Speaker 6 (01:30:03):
Cuomo killed my district, like.

Speaker 4 (01:30:05):
I think he had.

Speaker 7 (01:30:06):
Yeah, he killed the bronze, but I think my district,
my district was one or two. He won the most
and percentage wise co Op City, forget about it. That
iget about it.

Speaker 1 (01:30:16):
Listen.

Speaker 3 (01:30:16):
I had to catch my parents like yo, yo, what
you're going to do? Yeah, And then my mother's like, well,
what's the issue. My uncle came to lunch with me.
He said, what we said, your daddy told me. Cuomo's
telling me about they don't know.

Speaker 6 (01:30:31):
Yeah, tell me not to ring come and they don't know.
They don't know.

Speaker 7 (01:30:36):
And like I said, like, I don't want to say
they don't care, because they do care, because they care
about their health benefits, they care about housing, they care
about affordability. But I think there's just something that scares
them about having this new mayor and someone new And
you said something right, and I'll speak about this loudly.
DSA has not been supportive in black communities. Half the

(01:30:56):
times when they're organized in black communities, there's no black
people there, there's no black people organizing.

Speaker 1 (01:31:02):
What's they recognize.

Speaker 6 (01:31:03):
I think they're recognizing it now.

Speaker 7 (01:31:04):
I think within this election, I think a lot of
people call them out own it, and they've tried their
best to do better.

Speaker 1 (01:31:09):
But these are just.

Speaker 6 (01:31:13):
The thing about these parties.

Speaker 7 (01:31:14):
Like a lot of times I'll be feeling like, yo,
I just want to be independent, man, because.

Speaker 6 (01:31:19):
I don't want to be.

Speaker 7 (01:31:21):
Classified with a specific party, because my ideology could change
from specific issues.

Speaker 6 (01:31:28):
Right, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (01:31:29):
Black people, we cross we cross reference from conservatives to
liberal to all the things that we get classified.

Speaker 7 (01:31:36):
And once you once you run for office as a Democrat,
you get classified.

Speaker 3 (01:31:41):
Right, But now you could just change to being independent
and obviously people will support you all heard of.

Speaker 1 (01:31:47):
It's fine.

Speaker 3 (01:31:48):
And and Jim Clyburn is someone who I respect, you
know obviously, but I have had some serious political disagreements
and issues with some of his positions. And when I
saw that he endorsed Mondnnie, I said, Okay, at least
he is being consistent.

Speaker 1 (01:32:07):
Because he was a quo. He was all here trying
to get quint And I'm like, why are you sorry?
Why are you in this?

Speaker 3 (01:32:11):
Like, why are you in South Carolina, mister congressman trying
to make an endorsement up here for Cuomo?

Speaker 1 (01:32:19):
But then when when Cuomo did not win, he did,
Cliburne did.

Speaker 3 (01:32:24):
And I have to say this because I'm always on
the show talking about him, let me say he went
with the Democratic nominee because that's what y'all raised us,
telling us we're supposed to do.

Speaker 1 (01:32:35):
So it's very interesting.

Speaker 3 (01:32:37):
But you can't count Eric Adams out, you know, people,
he is still beloved in the city. And to your point, though,
like people like my mama, she is not gonna not
rank Eric Adams, That's not gonna happen. They're just not
gonna do that. They're going to you know, they were,
but he wasn't obviously being ranked at that time. But
the point I'm making is that he's still gonna be

(01:32:57):
top of mind to them when they are are making
their final decisions about who they are going to vote for.

Speaker 1 (01:33:04):
So you cannot count him out.

Speaker 3 (01:33:05):
And I've said this many times to people who are
organizing with and around Mandani.

Speaker 1 (01:33:09):
That you cannot believe that the energy of a primary
will carry over into a general election unless we make
sure that people who are feel distant, feel unreached, untouched,
are part of.

Speaker 8 (01:33:21):
The conversation, especially with a sitting mayor, like absolutely he's
a sitting man, black man. And this is not unpresident
because it's happened in Buffalo, right, Like I think it's
like we had someone who was won the primary and
the sitting mayor, one with the right in campaign.

Speaker 3 (01:33:37):
Right, facts that happened, Right, that happened, and the city
and a lot of people feel that while we have
issues in the city.

Speaker 1 (01:33:46):
I'm real passionate about this.

Speaker 3 (01:33:48):
But while we, you know, feel people feel we have
issues in the city, you cannot say that the city
is in shambles, right, Like, it's not.

Speaker 1 (01:33:55):
It's not the city of the eighties or the city.

Speaker 3 (01:33:58):
Of another time where people feel like they can't walk
from one spot to the next without being robbed, chain
snatched this, that, and you know whatever garbage is being
picked up. The rats are out of control. I don't
know what my city council is doing the focus.

Speaker 4 (01:34:14):
No, y'all are all the.

Speaker 1 (01:34:17):
City council for me because I got people district.

Speaker 7 (01:34:22):
But but I can't believe I'm defending this band right now.
But he has done a lot of good things, hasn't.
Eric has done a lot of good things. Like you
look at his leadership, like he has a lot of
black people in his leadership. Since he's got in office,
when you look at MWBE contracts like contracting with black
and minority businesses.

Speaker 6 (01:34:42):
He's increased that number. So he has done some good things.

Speaker 7 (01:34:48):
I think he gets highlighted for a lot of the
BS a lot of times, and he does a poor
job with our relationship building the cost of eye.

Speaker 1 (01:34:57):
I will say this like I'm the youth.

Speaker 8 (01:35:00):
I can say this as a person who worked on
the outside and other administrations. He's actually invested more in
young people than any other man that I, as an adult,
have been with, right and so he has expanded When
we first came in, we expanded SYEP to ninety thousand.
Never had happened before. We have been waiting for an

(01:35:20):
RFP for fifteen years for after school programs. They're releasing
an RFP. They're expanding the slots you know Holmes run
Away Youth. They expanded these best by one hundred. We've
been acting that I did. I've been fighting all of them.
I won't lie all say that I have been axing
for sincereatic for here and I thought to get it,
but we still got it. And I say this because

(01:35:42):
I was on the outside fighting and these things were
not moving, they were not listening to us, right, and
so on the same side, they they do listen, but
I'm not gonna say they're still my ideas and they
implement it.

Speaker 1 (01:35:54):
But I don't even care. I don't rid it. I
don't even writ it. It's a mixed thing. But you know,
I do think people are looking for new leadership. We
cannot leave the the the the.

Speaker 3 (01:36:04):
National impacts, the local and the flirting with Trump situation unacceptable.
It almost puts you in a category of saying, it's
no way that I can cast a vote for anybody
who is willing to even halfway try to deal with
these people. And I'm not saying you don't have to
meet with the president. Of course that you do that,

(01:36:27):
but there's something else going on, and we can all
see it with our own eyes.

Speaker 1 (01:36:31):
We also want to interview with that man said.

Speaker 4 (01:36:35):
We gotta go, not not you, not a man from right,
and we're both need to shut up.

Speaker 2 (01:36:48):
But you let that white man tell you're gonna be
up your butt. I couldn't believe it.

Speaker 3 (01:36:51):
Well, I do believe that some of Mandannie's ideas can
actually work. I don't think it's gonna be easy to
get them done. But I do think that some of
his ideas can work. And I think that the reason
why I support him is because, like I know for
a fact that the city became even more expensive since
Eric Adams has been mayor. I know that I feel
it myself, right, Like I know developers running wild in

(01:37:14):
the city of New York, and I do feel like
we have to figure out how to make sure that
our policies reach the most most impacted, like the people
who are really like unseen in the city, not even
the people you see our party and this and that
they haway seen.

Speaker 1 (01:37:31):
I'm telling about folks that do nothing but.

Speaker 3 (01:37:34):
Work two and three jobs and go home or share
apartments or are living in cars, living in basements or whatever,
living in.

Speaker 1 (01:37:41):
Their parents' house together. That's right.

Speaker 3 (01:37:44):
We have to figure that out. And so that's why
I support Zuhamandami and you know there's that's me. But
you know, we'll see what y'all say.

Speaker 7 (01:37:52):
Well, we're win to have a conversation with him, so
we're going to be sharing some of our ideas and
we'll see how that conversation goes.

Speaker 1 (01:37:59):
Awesome, We love you. That was great having y'all.

Speaker 2 (01:38:03):
We could have This could have been like a five
hour interview. Definitely, Okay, yes you can to me has
books that she didn't get. Oh, yes, yes, I give
a book my book too.

Speaker 1 (01:38:13):
I came out with people they have books. A dad
that shot us like, put me on.

Speaker 7 (01:38:19):
I've seen you had the two books that I just
you know, No, I definitely have to share. We're going
on second annual trip down to Atlanta this year. We're
taking some Bronx kids to invest Fest. We're speaking at it,
so I'm speaking to that, so I'll see you guys
down there. But definitely have to share. I'm really proud
of them. They're doing a curriculum right now, doing the

(01:38:42):
workshop Shot Road to Success. And my brother Sherman Brown
and A High and Jamal T. Davis too got Shot Miller.

Speaker 1 (01:38:49):
We love her.

Speaker 3 (01:38:51):
Thank y'all, Thank you so much for joining us. You
guys come back in jually or together.

Speaker 1 (01:39:00):
For New York City.

Speaker 5 (01:39:04):
Shout out to the Hood Caucus, Natasha Williams our Theis
Stevens and our brother Kevin Riley, the Council people from
the New York City that really hold it down. That's
why I tell people all the time, people, are you know,
I don't want to vote in all elected officials. This
is the power of our vote, Like, these are people
that we actually know that are in the communities, that

(01:39:24):
come from the communities, that we can actually have access to,
that give us the insight about what's going on, show
us how to get resources in the communities, that actually
care about the communities. Like why would I not vote
for people and put people in office that care about
the communities like that? That we have access and we
have literally have and it's not that we have access

(01:39:45):
as elite people. They are on the ground literally, Like
you can go to our Theist office any day of
the week. She's out there, she's in the street whenever
something's going on. She's in the community, she's at basketball games.
She really wants to be involved in the community. And
you know how Natasha is, She's so loving and on
the ground. And Kevin is the same way. He like
a dude from the hood, and he understands what has

(01:40:08):
going on in these communities and what we've lacked for
so many years, and they really want to provide what
we've lacked.

Speaker 2 (01:40:14):
So I'm just happy that we have the hood Cort.

Speaker 3 (01:40:17):
Yeah, No, I'm happy that we have them as well.
I mean they work hard, they work called. Those are
three individuals of many who work really hard. And when
I think about city council members, I've been through many
iterations of the council and I have a lot of
friends who were a city council members. Jimani was one
of them, which was a hard work and Jamani used
to be walking around with that book bag on in

(01:40:38):
his dreadlocks, hustling back and forth in the city, trying
to get things done and working in his district obviously,
and there have been many others that I have first
hand knowledge of how hard they work, how outspoken they were.
I think about Charles Baron and i Az Baron, both
of them have served in the city council. Again part

(01:40:59):
of at Mitchell's success out in Brooklyn having one of
the most relevant and effective violence prevention programs in the nation.
But of course, you know in the city, it comes
from the investment of Councilman Charles Barron and again you
know again councilwoman on Es Barren and so and you know,

(01:41:21):
and the list goes.

Speaker 1 (01:41:22):
On on and on.

Speaker 3 (01:41:24):
I could name so many people who I watched work
really hard, and I think people need to be mindful
that just because there's so much focus on Mayo, there's
so much focus on trauma, drama and you know whatever else.
I'ma we don't always know how much work is going

(01:41:45):
into the little things that we do enjoy, the things
that are actually functioning in our city. And when we
do see changes and things that we appreciate, and of
course sometimes it's things.

Speaker 1 (01:41:55):
We don't like.

Speaker 3 (01:41:56):
And so that means that to out Thea's point, we
have to be really really conscious about engaging city council members,
assembly members, state senators like we have to actually talk
to these people and make sure they know that we're
paying attention to what they're doing. But when they don't,
when they see certain people, what is the statement, the

(01:42:16):
squeaky will get the oil. And so you got some
people who are always going back and forth in their offices,
pushing for things, and they can't just ignore a person
that's sitting right in front of their faces.

Speaker 5 (01:42:28):
It's true, man, you know, just being in this space
for the last decade, just watching, and I know that
those who are intentional about building programs and getting resources
in the community actually get it done. You know, I
know that they come I've watched many people that just
had ideas that were credible messages and just working with
the kids in the community, or had ideas and wanted

(01:42:50):
to change certain things, and the next to you next
year I come back, They've built their own organization. You know,
they're working with kids, they're being funded by the city.
So it really can happen. We just have to have
the belief in the system, and I have to understand
what it takes and how we go about getting the
resources and making it work.

Speaker 1 (01:43:07):
So yeah, absolutely, So that's good.

Speaker 3 (01:43:09):
I'm glad they were on And I think anybody who
you know, really downloads and listens to that particular episode
is going to really appreciate all the things they talk about,
whether you know, the conflict, the cooperation, how they support
one another, how they started their caucus, you know. And
I think there are other elected officials across the country
who can actually learn from and take some tips.

Speaker 1 (01:43:31):
Yes, and vice versa.

Speaker 2 (01:43:32):
We got some black people that really care about black people.

Speaker 5 (01:43:34):
That brings me to my I don't get it right
as we talk about black people caring about black people.
You know, Cogan passed away last week and there was
a lot of online chatter. You know, his family was
angry that, you know, he was getting some negative feedback.
And then Michael Rappaport put this whole statement, nobody's going

(01:43:58):
to stand their Cogan.

Speaker 2 (01:44:00):
So now listen to me.

Speaker 5 (01:44:01):
I was one of the biggest Whole Cogan fan. I
was a whole a maniac. I watched WWF every night,
eating your vitamins, you know, a whole co Mania year.
You know, I was with all of those things. I
thought it was the dopest thing. But as I grew
older and I found out that Whole Cogan was a racist,
I didn't give a fuck about Whole Cogan no more.

(01:44:22):
And I don't mean, you know, for his family. Look,
I want him to rest in peace. You don't wish
anything ill on him? What I don't wish any ill will?

Speaker 1 (01:44:32):
But he's dead. So how's it gonna be ill will?

Speaker 5 (01:44:34):
Or you don't how people? Because no, they do that.
They smoke on the ops. They they talk crazy about it. No,
for real, they talk crazy about the dead. That's the
thing now, So I'm not talking crazy about the dead.
But I'm just trying to say, Hogan when he was
alive was a racist man.

Speaker 2 (01:44:50):
And when he was here.

Speaker 5 (01:44:51):
I didn't fuck with him, you know what I'm saying,
And I can say that I don't want, you know,
I want his family to be able to, you know,
bury their loved ones. And I waited day because they
said this is not the time. That was they said,
they said, this is not the time to bring up
those things. So I waited about four or five maybe
I don't even know exactly how many days, but I
waited some days, and that was the time to say, I.

Speaker 2 (01:45:11):
Don't give a fuck about what happened in whole Cocher.
I don't.

Speaker 5 (01:45:13):
I just really don't care. You understand, I'm saying that
man was a devout racist. His own daughter, who he
disowned for marrying a black man, said she don't even
want the money from him. She said, I don't even
want the money that he left. Yeah, she said, I
don't even want the money that he left. I don't
want nothing to do with him. He was just wasn't

(01:45:34):
a good person. So, you know, and y'all can live
in the legacy of the hooker man next, is cool
if that's what y'all want to do. But for me,
as a proud black man, I don't care about whole Coger.
You know, I don't wish death on any man, and
I hope his family could get the rest. And that's
why we gave him days.

Speaker 2 (01:45:50):
To say that he was just somebody I gave you.
I gave him days because I was sitting there. I
wanted to be like, yo, man, Ho Coker was a
racist man. Fuck all that, but shut out to my brother.

Speaker 5 (01:46:02):
Conscious leave Man contously said your gordiously is hilarious. Consciously
was like, you know, yeah, we can. We can acknowledge that,
you know, Ho Kogan has died and all that stuff
with y'all telling us that we shouldn't know.

Speaker 2 (01:46:15):
Use the racist man missed me with that bullshit. He said,
we could do both these get be true. Yeah, he said,
miss be with the bullshit.

Speaker 1 (01:46:22):
Let me just say, you know, I think about some
of the.

Speaker 3 (01:46:26):
Boycotts that we're involved in, right Nike, long time, Gucci
and now Lululemon. For me, I still wear a little
bit whatever I have left over from Lululemon. I wear
it because I'm not about to go buy all new
athletic clothes. But I'm not buying anything new. I just
actively black. You know that I just saw something they

(01:46:47):
was saying the other day, and I posted it in
this conversation around the Ralph Lauren piece in Martha's Vineyard,
and I support it. I actually sent it to several
of my friends who are Martha's Vineyards vineyard connoisseurs, and
we talked about it and they also support actively black.
So only one person kind of pushed back, but other

(01:47:08):
than that, everybody was like, no, we get it. And
some people said, I'm not buying a thousand dollars sweatshirt
from Ralph Lauren, just not going to happen. Other people
said I'm gonna get both things, you know, So the
balance conversation is there, so I support them. But nonetheless,
when I think about those boycotts, I realized that I
was one of those people who, you know, Nike was
a big thing for me from childhood, like a good

(01:47:31):
Nike anything, T.

Speaker 1 (01:47:33):
Shirt, sock, sweatpants, of course, you know all of that.

Speaker 3 (01:47:37):
And then one day when we realized that Nike's leadership
was doing some bullshit, we just cut it.

Speaker 1 (01:47:42):
Period.

Speaker 3 (01:47:43):
It wasn't hard. It felt like a little bit in
the beginning, like well, damn, what else am I gonna do?
And then in days I just was over it right.
And I'm never gonna sit here and be like, oh,
I remember the time when Nike was Okay, this is
different from my son is a guy that I just
love and you my guy, and we cool and then

(01:48:05):
you do something that I don't agree with, and I'm
that might make me upset. But when you pass away,
I can still acknowledge that you know what you are,
indeed a my friend or somebody you know, and that
that's a lot of wen say that for you know,
I'm saying we can say that for a lot of people.

Speaker 1 (01:48:24):
But for me, when you.

Speaker 3 (01:48:27):
Are aligned with racist bigots, I don't even know where
we go from there, Like, what do you to go
back and say positive thing?

Speaker 1 (01:48:38):
It's nothing.

Speaker 3 (01:48:39):
There are things that just canceled other stuff out and
just cancels stuff out.

Speaker 1 (01:48:44):
This ain't about who, you know, all he did this.

Speaker 3 (01:48:48):
He slept with John or he talked about so and
so or whatever, even even he robbed the bank. Even
he's still the man was out here with the racist
talk points that literally get our people murdered.

Speaker 1 (01:49:03):
He was with the hard oppression.

Speaker 2 (01:49:05):
Well, he was with the herd.

Speaker 3 (01:49:07):
You're talking about someone who aligned himself with a thought
process an ideology that has oppressed our people and one
that continues to today to be the reason why so
many of our people perish in many different ways, brutally
at times, and some of it is a slow death.

(01:49:28):
I tell people all the time that while we fight
against the genocides of the people in Sedan, the people
of Gaza, there is a slow drip genocide that happens
in America every single day, and black folks are the
ones who are impacted by it the absolute most. And
so if you are somebody who aligns with the people

(01:49:50):
who are creating the conditions of oppression that we suffer from,
there's nothing that I can find about you to try
to be like, oh, well, you know, I just can't.

Speaker 2 (01:50:01):
That's what I don't get it. I just don't get
why people act like we were supposed to like you
supposed to have no.

Speaker 3 (01:50:06):
I think people were more so saying, don't be mad
at them for their need to celebrate.

Speaker 2 (01:50:13):
No.

Speaker 5 (01:50:13):
People were saying, you know, this is not the time
for people to criticize, like what are you talking?

Speaker 3 (01:50:20):
But I tell you one thing, I looked at the
social media of a couple of people who were talking
about Ho Hogan. I'm telling you Facebook is very interesting.
That's where y'all miss Facebook. Instagram is one thing, but
it definitely feeds you on your algorithm, it feeds you.
But when you're on Facebook, your people, you get to

(01:50:42):
see all kinds of things. And the very people who
felt the need to celebrate Hulk Hogan, you know, to
say these positive things about him, and to get mad
at other people who wrote like, what the hell are
you talking about? These are some of the very people
who say that they're in social justice spaces and they

(01:51:02):
do do some work. I'm not saying they don't, but
they're the very people that will go along with the
establishment just to have access and will allow people by
large masses to die.

Speaker 1 (01:51:12):
Like that's just the truth. They're the same, one of them.

Speaker 3 (01:51:16):
And I appreciate that one guy who I know because
I didn't ask him to say his name, I thought
it was crazy that he was so emotionally destroyed about
the whole Cogan thing. But I would appreciate that when
he wrote what he wrote, he was very clear that listen,
when I was a child, this is how I felt.
But in the older years I learned these things, and

(01:51:36):
so it's triggering for us that we grew up with
this character.

Speaker 1 (01:51:40):
But to know the true man is to know that, Yeah,
I was over.

Speaker 5 (01:51:43):
I was over the character years ago because it's been
years since he's been racist. He's been you know what
I'm saying, He's been racist for about a decade now,
so everybody knows that he's he's Oh we've.

Speaker 1 (01:51:54):
Known about him being racist for a decade.

Speaker 4 (01:51:56):
Well, who know.

Speaker 5 (01:51:59):
He was, so what I'm saying, but we've known he's
been records for it. So I've got my reconciliation. For
the love of the Hoaxter years ago, you know what
I'm saying, that faded away. Now you was just this
racist man that was with Trump, that was just doing
all types of racist. So I'm resolved in it, you
know what I'm saying. But I did show respect, Like

(01:52:19):
I said, I waited a few days because I've seen
that the family said, oh you know, oh Coogan, and
I didn't.

Speaker 2 (01:52:25):
I didn't even posted it. So today you might see
a post of something come from me.

Speaker 1 (01:52:28):
But I mean, I just I don't know why, because
I don't even know why you need to because don't
know why we.

Speaker 2 (01:52:34):
Can't have Oh, because Michael. I want to respond to
Michael Rapperport because he is such like he gets on
my nerves.

Speaker 3 (01:52:41):
Because somebody Michael, well, I don't ever look at anything
that Michael. He just but like the shade room or
somebody reshared his statements and I saw someone ask why
did y'all ever invite Michael Rapper in the first place.

Speaker 1 (01:53:01):
This is the problem. Getting from a little spot.

Speaker 3 (01:53:04):
At the cookout and the next thing you know, they
think they belong they cause now now they want to
tell your kids what they can and cannot do and
start getting involved in family beef.

Speaker 1 (01:53:14):
Like shut up, Holgan. He they know his family knows.

Speaker 3 (01:53:20):
And by the way, the last thing I'll say on
this point is that when you die, people not gonna
make up no story for you. They just gonna tell
the truth about exactly and they gonna say some good things.
It's some bad things if that's who you are, so
stop it. Like you want you want a person to
go make up a storyline that's other than who the

(01:53:41):
man is.

Speaker 1 (01:53:42):
Stop it.

Speaker 2 (01:53:43):
Listen, he's a fun wrestler. And then turn the two races.

Speaker 3 (01:53:48):
He probably was the racist when he was the wrestled.
You should go check and see where's who is Mama
and daddy was. I bet you you're the root of
the problem.

Speaker 1 (01:53:56):
You don't know that. I don't say that.

Speaker 2 (01:53:57):
That's so he just gutted on his own. You don't
think he came from the home. You'll think. Listen, sometimes
people win do when do I never see racism come
from outside?

Speaker 3 (01:54:07):
No? No, I know some people who who just so, yeah,
I know some people I don't know them parents are
like I don't know. No, I know some people who
It's not many, but I do know some people who
their parents are like, I just don't know where this
came from. And what happens is that when people put
their children in certain schools or they allow them to
be around the uncle or the cousin or whatever, and

(01:54:30):
then people could go off into crazy stuff. That's like
these these these kids that go in and shoot up
schools and whatever in the families.

Speaker 1 (01:54:38):
Like, I don't even know where this came from.

Speaker 3 (01:54:40):
A lot of times people get on the internet now
they said that the ais the people most of the times,
most of.

Speaker 2 (01:54:46):
The times them racists, be they be growing up in
white supremacist homes.

Speaker 3 (01:54:50):
They don't You'll just get I said, most times, you're right,
But I'm saying there have been.

Speaker 1 (01:54:54):
There are scenarios or situations.

Speaker 2 (01:54:57):
I was God, I don't know who he is.

Speaker 5 (01:55:00):
He was talking to his mother and father on the end,
and he's a white guy and he was just talking
about you know, he was like, would you support I
don't know, I forgot what he was saying, but they
were just so racist that it was terrible.

Speaker 2 (01:55:12):
He's like, well, why are you like this?

Speaker 5 (01:55:14):
He was talking to them, and he's like, because you know,
she said, why you didn't support President Obama? Because we
we we we don't care about Obama. So why do
you support Trump? Because he's with God and if he's
the president, then God put him there. So he said, so,
why you didn't say that the president that God put Obama?

Speaker 2 (01:55:32):
Because he didn't. We didn't. We don't want to, and
we don't need a reason. We just don't. And I
was like, damn, this is terrible. It was just so terrible.
But I'm just saying this, a lot of that is grown,
homegrown racism.

Speaker 3 (01:55:45):
So maybe you know, I'm not saying most times it's not.
I'm just telling you that they're sometimes these kids shock you.
You'd be thinking you're doing one thing and turn out
to be a whole different.

Speaker 5 (01:55:57):
A whole different animal. Well that brings us to the
end of another episode. Shout out to the Hook Caucus
for coming through and sharing their political views and just
views on life. Man, just just seeing three black people
that care so much for their communities and black people
and really have the intentions to do right.

Speaker 2 (01:56:19):
Like, that's what it is for me.

Speaker 5 (01:56:20):
A lot of people like, oh, you vote Democrats, and
I say all the time, listen, I just don't see
the Republicans in the hood like that. I don't know
no Republican that got voted in from where I'm from.
I don't know the Republican that speaks like that about
my community. I don't know Republicans that want to do
the same things like that in the communities that I
come from, that have the same values and cultural values
that I have.

Speaker 2 (01:56:40):
So when I speak about what I'm voting for, this
is what I've seen.

Speaker 5 (01:56:44):
I'm able to touch this, I'm able to vote for that,
I'm able to watch this manifest into the things that
I wanted to do.

Speaker 2 (01:56:50):
So you know, that's what my vote, That's where my
vote comes from.

Speaker 5 (01:56:54):
Like watching Natasha, Like I said, the first person, I
will knock on doors and hands out flyers, and we
actually lost the first election and then came back and
won the second one. Just watching him mature into that.

Speaker 2 (01:57:05):
It's just what it is for me.

Speaker 3 (01:57:06):
So yeah, I appreciate what Natasha was running. And then
Angelo was like the field man the last couple of days.

Speaker 2 (01:57:15):
He was like, very seriously, very he knew the numbers,
he crunched the numbers up.

Speaker 3 (01:57:22):
He was serious about that was very interesting. But I'm
glad that she was able to rather than becoming better.
Oh I lost, that's it. She regrouped, came back, and
now she is in her second term.

Speaker 2 (01:57:34):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (01:57:35):
So there's that.

Speaker 5 (01:57:35):
There's that on that right that brings us to the
end of another episode of TIMA. We appreciate y'all. Continue
to support us. Let us know who you want us
to interview, let us know topics, tell us you love us,
tell us you hate us, tell us everything. We appreciate
y'all for making us the number one podcast in the world.
Make sure you follow us on Instagram, TMI Underscore show,

(01:57:58):
make sure you follow us on you to t my
show PC. I'm not gonna always be right Tamika the
marriage and I could always be wrong, but we will
both always and I mean always be authentic.

Speaker 4 (01:58:10):
That's how

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Bridging Politics and Community with the Hood Caucus (Ft. Althea Stevens (D-16), Nantasha Williams (D-27), and Kevin Riley(D-12))