Deeply Rooted

This week Tamika D Mallory and Mysonne discuss topics including climate change, quality control, customer service, and the importance of preserving land ownership in the Black community. They share personal experiences with Airbnb rentals and highlight the need for better customer service and attention to detail. They also interview Brea Baker, author of the book 'Rooted: The American Legacy of Land Theft and the Modern Movement for Black Land Ownership,' who discusses the history of land theft from Black communities and the importance of preserving and passing down land within families. The conversation highlights the historical trauma and systemic barriers that have prevented Black families from acquiring and maintaining wealth. The discussion also touches on the issue of food apartheid and the loss of access to land for Black farmers, as well as the importance of political engagement and voting for creating change.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Tamika D.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Mallory and the ship Boy my Son in general.

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

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

Speaker 3 (00:14):
What's up, my Son Lennon, Greetings, Tamika D. Mallory. How
are you feeling today?

Speaker 1 (00:19):
I'm doing okay, okay.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
Until freedom down today a little until.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
On time, summertime.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
I love. It's way too hot outside.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
You say that every week every week.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
I went outside and I've seen the devil licking somebody's
face out of it.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
But it's better than it was last week. A little bit,
but it's better.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Yeah, the heat is still on hell man.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
I mean that's just a reality. I think. You know,
when you hear.

Speaker 4 (00:58):
Certain groups of peace people trying to deny that climate
change is real, I mean, it's actually playing out before
our eyes like we see it, so I can tell
me that's not real.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
AnyWho.

Speaker 4 (01:12):
You know, I'm really about to like change my profession.
I'm telling you because I would like to focus on
quality control.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
That's what I want to focus on. That's the thing
I want to focus on.

Speaker 4 (01:25):
I realized that I that in my third life because
I have one that is an organizer for social justice.
I have another one that is an event planner, and
then I have a third one that should be in
customer service and quality control. I had an experience during

(01:48):
my family reunion where you know, I checked into an
Airbnb and when I got there, beautiful space in a
town that does not have much my family's town in Moreauville, Alabama.

(02:10):
You know, it's there's a there's two different sides to
it with like like with many areas that's heavily populated
with black boats. You got downtown some kind of like
some would say uptown, you know, and there's some white money,

(02:30):
and there of course are black affluent people there as well.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
But it is a very very very country town, small town.
And so when you think of and there were there
used to be businesses that were like amazing, right, like
you know, factories and lots of businesses, and all of
that was purchased by big business and then they shut

(02:57):
production down and so for years and year in years,
those jobs have not returned. So there is the tale
of two cities. Again.

Speaker 4 (03:05):
There are people who are retired, people who moved there
for various reasons to teach college to you know, maybe
it's just they found a good town that they like
to spend the rest of their lives. You have that,
and then you have people who are absolutely struggling and

(03:26):
really suffering with a lot of desperation. So when you
see beautiful airbnbs popping up because people are starting to
invest in this area again, it's really cool. Shout out
to my cousin OLA's Garden, Kim Abney, who has opened
up a number of rentals and airbnb properties and they

(03:46):
are phenomenal beautiful. You walk in the details is just
like his mama, my auntie Ola May Abney taught him
this other airbnb very nice, walked in, loved beautiful. But
as soon as my and my brother Milton is with me,
so it's not just me because I know y'all gonna say, oh,

(04:07):
she always got something. Soon as we walk into the bedroom,
he's helping me put my suitcases up. You clearly see
a stain on the bed. Then he pulls the cover
back and there's another stain. Now, these two stains are
more than likely clean. They're more than likely clean, right,

(04:31):
And in fact, I'm just gonna make this my thought
of the day today because it's so it's just these
two stains are there. More than likely it's clean and
it's wear and tear. It looks like an old oil
stain or something. But the bed looks clean. It's just
it has these two stains on it. So immediately I

(04:52):
reach out to the management and say there's stains in
the bed, and their response and by the way, I
don't hear anything back.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
Is going on three hours before.

Speaker 4 (05:01):
I had to send an email going through all of
it to get the attention of the individual. And eventually
she calls me back and she's like, yeah, well, but
it's definitely clean. I understand what you're saying, and I
believe that it's clean. But I should not have to
sleep in a bed that has stains on it, regardless

(05:23):
of whether it is clean or not. Whether it's clean
or not is not the point here. The point is
there should not be stains in the bed.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
Now.

Speaker 4 (05:31):
Let me just say from the onset that it was corrected.
But it was corrected after having to go back and
forth with this woman several times, and then eventually she
said to me, oh, and she said, well, this one
is busy, which is the lady who is the cleaning person?

Speaker 1 (05:54):
She herself, This woman was with her.

Speaker 4 (05:57):
Family, and she's telling me all of these things and
continuing to say and then texting me that I know
for a fact.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
Those sheets were washed, that bed was clean, those it's clean.
Still not did it.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
She didn't get what was going on.

Speaker 4 (06:13):
She did not understand that when you check into a hotel,
you check into a rental property, you don't want to
see any type of stain.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
And by the way, that is called wear and tears.
So what you do when it.

Speaker 4 (06:24):
Has a stain on it, it's time to throw it
out and get new ones. This happens all the time
when you are running. Well, no one else has ever complained. Meanwhile,
my brother he's like you, he ain't trying to have you.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
Know, Milton, it is not that serious. It's fine. When
he looked at it, he was like, nah, this is
a stain.

Speaker 4 (06:44):
Like and you know, I'm the one and all of
the guys around me would be like, oh boy, here
she go to glass the four, this, that, that and the third.
But even he was like, no, no, that's a stain.
It's two stains, and it's one under the comforter. In
my thought of the day today is that, of course,
as a black woman, you know I want to I

(07:09):
should be able to say and defend my position as
black women, and I would imagine black people we are
constantly shrinking ourselves so that we don't upset, annoy, agitate others,
or bring further harm to ourselves. So all of the

(07:34):
hotels in this particular area, it's places that I personally
would do.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
I don't like to stay. This is my mother's hometown.

Speaker 4 (07:43):
I love it there, love it there, grew up there,
can't wait to go back. But I don't like staying
in the hotels. So the idea that there are Airbnb
properties that are very nice popping up is really really good.
And I don't want to put myself in a situation
where I have a bad rating or you know that,
where these people can write whatever they want. I've already

(08:04):
been down the road with Airbnb where somebody blatantly lied.
The management company blatantly lied. Airbnb knew it from reading
all of the messages back and forth between us, but
still told me that they cannot delete the comments on
the review that was left for me.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
Because it still is up to the will of.

Speaker 4 (08:29):
The property manager, even though they read screenshots and saw
that it was a lie and it's very basic. They
tried to say that I had an additional person in
the house above the people that were supposed to be there,
but then it was proven that that was the driver
who dropped off our bags and was only in the

(08:50):
house for maybe fifteen minutes, and it was proven in
the messages, but they still left on my comment thing,
you know, my review and Airbnb that I had an
additional person in the house and so I violated the
rules right and Airbnb could not and would not do
anything about it.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
So therefore, here I.

Speaker 4 (09:11):
Am dealing with this sheet situation. And instead of me
doing what I know how to do, which is to
write and be very clear about why this is problematic
and to make my point and also to demand of
this woman to stop telling me like I'm a child,
over and over again that the sheets are clean, I

(09:32):
am unable to do that because I need to try
to protect my name, my brand, myself physically. Who knows
like this is a white woman in a country town somewhere.
I don't know what the hell she might do. I
have no idea I know her husband is, I don't
know how children are. So I don't want to get
into a back and forth with this woman. So ultimately,

(09:53):
if you read my messages, I'm saying I'm my apologies,
I'm sorry, I'm the freaking customer, and I'm apologizing to
the lady and trying to be as nice as possible
to try to de escalate or whatever you want to
call it, diffuse any possibility that this situation was somehow

(10:13):
backfire on me. And I just feel like that is
the most uncomfortable for the rest of my trip. It
was in the back of my mind that this woman
had been extremely rude to me. I mean, it goes
on and on, and we don't have the time to
talk about it today, but it was nothing that I
could really do because I wanted to be in a
comfortable place where I could stay for my family reunion

(10:36):
and also not interrupt other people for feeling like they
needed to protect me. So, you know, that's a that's
a it's a very uncomfortable place that we as black
people are constantly trying to shrink ourselves so that we
don't upset other people even when they're doing us wrong.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
That's that's really a real thing. I go through it
all the time, you know. I try not to be
as aggressive when I'm communicating with certain people, understanding that
I speak with the level of passion that I've been
told is aggressive and scared people. You know, a lot
of times, in certain situations where I don't even think
I'm wrong, I apologize because, like you said, you fear

(11:18):
the backlash of what can come out the situation. You know,
we constantly have to do that, you know, and knowing
how picky you are, and it's nothing wrong with being
picky when you're paying your money for something. You know
what I'm saying, and that's customer service. Like you know,
you know, I play with you a lot and go,
oh gods, it's gonna go. But the reality situation is,

(11:39):
it's not like you're wrong. You don't want dirty civil
where you don't want dirty cheeks, you don't want dirty things.
You don't want to overlook that as a state on you,
and you don't really have to, because when you provide
a service, especially with people have to lay and their
heads and live living for us, it should be immaculate.

Speaker 3 (11:57):
Actually, it should be an immaculate space to.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
Where the sheets where people have to lay their body
or they don't know if this is a fucking comstain
or whatever stain that comes from somebody else, like nobody
should have to guess what kind of stain is on
the sheet in the blanket, you know what I'm saying.
And you and if you don't see that you're willing
to move past it, then you you shouldn't have to.
And when you bring it to someone who is providing

(12:21):
the services to you, when you bring it to their attention,
it shouldn't be any pushback. It should just be like,
oh my, I apologize, you know, even though they're clean,
I understand, I apologize.

Speaker 3 (12:32):
I'm gonna make sure I get you guys some fresh sheets.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
And that's it. It really shouldn't be much more than that.
But that's just not where we are, you know. And
unfortunately we live in a time where, you know, especially
as black people that we like you said, we have
to try not to say as much and try to
cause it's less problems because we always gonna be seen.

Speaker 3 (12:54):
And unless unless it's a videotape or something.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
Just like you said, you you had the whole screenshots
of text messages would showed that somebody lying on you
and you still had to deal with the backladgh. So
it's just like a lot of times you want it,
it's even worth it. You know, you got to weigh
your options. Do I even standing up for myself or
do I be quiet? Because I know standing up for

(13:17):
myself can give me ostracized and you know, in ridiculed.

Speaker 3 (13:22):
So it's a lot man.

Speaker 4 (13:24):
And meanwhile, this white woman got to walk away from
the situation. And by the way, the way Airbnb works
for people who don't know, you make a review first
and then she makes a review after, so they and.

Speaker 1 (13:38):
They don't get to see it until after they make
their review.

Speaker 4 (13:41):
But nonetheless, you make a review first and then they
make a review.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
So for me, I and you know, I'm just, I'm
just like.

Speaker 4 (13:50):
Systems and customer service and quality control needs a new focus.
It really does, because people are spending their money services
that they don't like.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
Products are coming.

Speaker 4 (14:03):
Listen the way in which people the clothes are being made.
Everything is just being thrown together and people are basically
being forced to to I don't know what you call it.
I got some moose from my hair and the top
of the moose bottle was cracked open, and they were
trying to tell me, oh, there's no way.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
To exchange it.

Speaker 4 (14:25):
And this this and that I had to go all
the way to the corporate office to get five dollars.
But if you mailed me something and it's broken, you're
supposed to replace it. Like, how dare you even think
you can have a policy that says that you don't
have to. So this is something that for me is
a real passion. I have no idea the process of
getting you know, scooting myself from one world to the net,

(14:50):
but I really I wish that and when I go
and come back that I would be in quality controlled
and customer service.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
Well, listen, man, I know if you and customer service,
the customer service is going to be immaculate because what
you demand from customer service, it's pretty much what we
all shit.

Speaker 5 (15:11):
You know.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
Like I said, I joke about it a lot. But
should we should have Queen Silp? Should have people, you
know what I'm saying. We should have people who want
to be actually like their job, Like their attitude shouldn't
be like you bother them because you're asking them to
do things to make you comfortable as a customer.

Speaker 1 (15:29):
You know, yeah, we shouldn't thank you very much. So
do we have a music spot?

Speaker 4 (15:35):
Like, listen, I don't want us to just be giving
the music spotlight to people that don't deserve it.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
So I don't have a music spotlight, but I do
want to highlight a clothing brand that has beautiful clothing
and it is my guy Smith is Smith, and it's
called Actively Black Actively Black.

Speaker 3 (15:56):
This is a shirt. Look see this.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
Let me say that a more confident Okay, yeah, this
is this is one of the church black and cocky.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
Yeah, Actively black man. So they sent me a bunch
of stuff. Shout out to him, Listen to me. It
is quality sportswear, quality sports. Where they sent you a
whole box of stuff.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
I'm getting ready to start going through it for my travels.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
Shout out to Landy Smith. Shout out to Actively Black.
If you do not have some of their clothing, then
you need to go on actively black dot com.

Speaker 3 (16:34):
Right now.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
They partner with Alan Everson. I've seen Obama and some
of their clothing. You know they're doing. They're doing amazing things.
It's one of my premium brands, top brands. He sent
me a box of stuff that I'm gonna work out
it and some it's fly stuff.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
It is work.

Speaker 3 (16:52):
It ain't just worker, it's quality sports.

Speaker 2 (16:54):
Were man it's real quality, high quality sports with Wow.
If you look at I've had a free shorts from
last year that I got that's still in tip top shape,
Like I work out in them all the time.

Speaker 3 (17:08):
My favorite work out you.

Speaker 4 (17:10):
That's what I was gonna say that well, a little
different from you. They also sent me a box, and
I'm so proud of Actively Black. First of all, I
remember when you first started promoting them, a lot of
people didn't know who they were, and this was like
at the very beginning of folks saying we need to
buy black, and you were immediately on Actively Black. So
shout out to you for that, especially after the Nike

(17:31):
situation when we decided to not wear night y'all don't
even miss Nike anymore.

Speaker 1 (17:35):
Like actually I told you, I.

Speaker 4 (17:37):
Don't even see it anymore as something like I don't
feel I don't I just don't.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
Feel attached to it. So that's that.

Speaker 4 (17:46):
But but they sent me things and the quality, like
you said, is so good. It's so it's such a
good brand. And so for people who are like you know,
I want to support some black owned business, but I
want myself to be because sometimes, let's be clear, try
to support our own and the stuff don't be that
good quality, like I'm just saying, And it's not just

(18:09):
our own. Sometimes we support other brands and the equality
is not there, you know what I'm saying. And then anyway,
it's not their customer service quality I got.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
I could go on.

Speaker 3 (18:20):
But I won't.

Speaker 4 (18:22):
Customer service Actively Black they definitely have good customer service
and they have a heart for the community and the people,
and a lot of folks are starting to get into it.
You know, people have been supporting them, So keep supporting
Actively Black.

Speaker 3 (18:37):
Because I am actively Black, all right.

Speaker 4 (18:41):
Family, So today you know, we always have our friends on,
but today we got our little sister, and I am
really really excited because this is a young woman who
is an example of what we tell our young people
they need to do. She's not waiting for anybody to
give her position. She's not waiting to be lifted and

(19:05):
we need to pass the torch and no, no, she
is blazing her own trails and carrying the torch all
at the same time. And we're just I don't know
my song, what's the word. It's not just excited, it's elated.
It's elated crowd to have this young woman as our sister,

(19:33):
our colleague, and the struggle and just so many things.
And I can actually cry because it's just that deep knowing,
you know, watching all of us grow over time, but
especially watching Bria Baker, our young sister, go from on
the streets, on the ground to putting it in a
book and now she has such an amazing project. Let

(19:56):
me tell you a little bit about Bria Bacon. Now,
y'all know I don't read bios on this show. It's
very limited, but in this situation, we want to make
sure that our sister is properly introduced.

Speaker 1 (20:08):
To all of you.

Speaker 4 (20:09):
So, Bria Baker is a freedom fighter and writer and
a national and global strategist. Come on, now, tell them
exactly who you are. She has contributed to dozens of
electoral and advocacy campaigns, including the twenty seventeen Women's March
on Washington, the twenty eighteen student walkouts against gun violence,

(20:29):
and Jamani Williams successful bid for New York City Public Advocate.
Ria has a BA in political science from Yale University,
where she served as president of Yale's NAACP chapter and
co director of the AIDS Walk New Haven, Okay. Now,
Ria has a book. It is called Rooted, the American

(20:53):
Legacy of land theft and the modern Movement for Black
land Ownership. It delves into one of the nation's first
and stealing and hoarding the land, and follows Ria and
her family on a personal journey to preserve her ancestors
land in North Carolina.

Speaker 1 (21:13):
Ria, thank you so much for joining us on Tami.

Speaker 6 (21:16):
Sah no is going to make me cry because they
are being too kind, like little sister. But like I
was just following around, happy to learn at y'all's feed
and Carmen and Linda and just learn so much from
the two of y'all though of course through gathering and
other spaces. But it is just so special to get

(21:38):
to talk to y'all about a book after having been
the little intern volunteer assistant who was taking notes all
those years ago.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:47):
Well, I just want to say, first of all, I'm
very proud of you, and this book is just pretty
much a testament of who you are. You know, like
you always found things that needed to be spoken on,
Like even when I go to your social media, you
speak on the things that we need to say talk about,
but nobody actually highlights.

Speaker 3 (22:08):
And you have a knack for that.

Speaker 2 (22:11):
You know in this book right here just pretty much
speaks to who you are, Like, what made you say
that I want to write this book and about what
you wrote about.

Speaker 5 (22:21):
Thank you for saying that.

Speaker 6 (22:22):
Yeah, I mean, you know, right before we got on
this call, you and I Mice were talking about grief
really quickly, and grief is definitely what pushed me to
write the book and family and love for what it
means to be black and happy. And I think I
had gotten to a place where I was in the
work because I was angry, and then my grandfather passed
away in twenty nineteen.

Speaker 5 (22:41):
And it kind of made me stop.

Speaker 6 (22:43):
It was right after Jimani was elected, and so it
was really just like stilled me and forced me to
really think about what legacy meant for my family, not
just for what I was doing for a theoretical community,
but what am I doing for the black people who
I'm related to? What's our story? What's the legacy that
I need to continue on for my grandfather now that

(23:04):
he's not here. And the last words that he said,
or some of the last words he said in his
hospital bed was don't sell the land. So it felt
so clear learn more about why he cares so much
about this land, make sure that the family stays together,
because grief can be a time when we.

Speaker 5 (23:20):
Are ununited.

Speaker 6 (23:22):
And I just wanted to make sure that we understood
that we have to be really locked in and laser
focused on what he saw is important. And the more
research I did, the more it was like, well, now
I'm not just doing it for him, I'm doing it
for me.

Speaker 5 (23:33):
I'm doing it for my little one.

Speaker 6 (23:35):
I just I want more of us to have access
to land as a vehicle for wealth, but also as
just a place where we can be ourselves. And it's
we don't you know, We're not under someone else's thumb
or being policed.

Speaker 5 (23:47):
We're in our own space.

Speaker 4 (23:50):
So you talked about America's first sin just stealing land,
which makes it not hard for us to understand why
they are so supportive of Israel as it steals land,
the land of the Palestinian people. Why don't you talk
a little bit about that, like in your research. I mean,

(24:10):
we know it theoretically.

Speaker 3 (24:12):
We talk about.

Speaker 4 (24:14):
The native people to this land. We talk about how
their land was stolen, it was encroached upon, how they
never have been properly acknowledged for the fact that they
were already here and then we came to this country.
We were, I always say, trafficked to America, and we
built the nation on our backs. And I would love

(24:36):
to hear you talk about your research because I can imagine,
again from one perspective, we all know it, but when
you started to do that research, you probably found some
pretty egregious stuff.

Speaker 6 (24:48):
Oh yeah, definitely, definitely, because I mean the things that
we know about are the Tulsa massacres, which are horrible, horrific, right,
but we think that they were few and far between.
And the Tulsa massacre happened inineteen twenty one. Two years
before that was the Red Summer of nineteen nineteen, but
even that is like a misnomer because it was all year,
just a massacre every other day across the country. And

(25:11):
then before then was the nineteen oh six Atlanta massacre,
and then before then was the Wilmington massacre. So number one,
seeing the scale of how often black people were being
forced out of the South. So, as you said, like
the word traffic, I think it's important that we use
this deeper language because yeah, we were trafficked here and
then we weren't just like moving and migrating north. We

(25:33):
were running for our lives and being forced out of
an expulsed out of, very similar to things that are
happening in Palestine and the Congo and other similar places.
And it actually made me, It made me feel even
stronger in my result that there has to be a
free Palestine, because if I know what happened to my
family in North Carolina, what happened to a lot of

(25:53):
black families across Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, et cetera, I
know intimately what a Palestinian family who is watching their
village be turned into an Israeli settlement, seeing olive groves
be transformed into like tourism spots for settlers, Like it's
you watch your dreams literally get ripped from under you.

(26:16):
In the case of Palaestinians, you're watching bulldozers literally crush
your homes. In the cases of the black people, they're
burning all black towns, lynching people, forcing you north, and
from a distance, you have to watch a new thing
get built on what was yours, like Lake Lanier, right,
like that was a black town that they said we're
going to put a lake over this and like you
have to watch now, like you know, generations later, decades later,

(26:38):
you have to watch white people get on jet skis
on a lake where there are cemeteries under there. There
were churches, there were schools, there were homes, And that
happens in a lot of places. And it's not always
the overt violence like the massacres. Sometimes it's the violence
of eminent domain. It could be a lot of different things,
but a lot of policy and outright violence has been

(26:59):
you use to take people like black people's life, savings, dreams,
everything we've worked towards. So when people say things like, well,
we got to work together, like insert community, and it's
like we have always worked together.

Speaker 5 (27:11):
It's just right at the time that we're succeeding.

Speaker 6 (27:14):
Jealousy makes white supremacy say, ooh that needs to be mine.
I deserve it more than you, and that's what needs
to be stopped.

Speaker 3 (27:22):
M that's amazing.

Speaker 2 (27:24):
So give us a little bit of your personal, you
know situation when you when your your grandfather said, don't
sell the land. So what was the process like for that,
and was there people trying to take the land from you, Like,
what was the process that happened with them.

Speaker 6 (27:40):
Yeah, well, thankfully, when my grandfather passed away, my grandmother
was still living, so it was still in her hands.
And then after that it was put into a trust
and a land trust for our family to kind of
hold on to. And that's important for us to know,
is that you need more than just a standard will
or more than just well I want it to be
this person, like you really got to get the paperwork

(28:01):
to really shore up these assets. Because black people, we
are resilient, we are innovative, so we can make some money,
but are we going to be able to pass on
in inheritance that the next generation can still get? So
I feel grateful that it is still in our family
since he's passed away, But the larger story of our
family absolutely has a lot of theft in it. So

(28:22):
our family still has about one hundred acres in North Carolina,
which is huge to me. But when I was doing
the research, we used to have a six hundred acre
farm in like the thirties, and it's like, so we
owned more and had more as a family, Like we
had more equity as a family almost one hundred years
ago than we do now in a post racial America.

Speaker 5 (28:42):
And that's the story of a lot of black families.

Speaker 6 (28:44):
And again, like families that were starting over in Chicago, Detroit,
New York, Oakland, Newark, they weren't selling their land and
starting over with the profits they you were running and
you didn't get to bring it with you. So there's
a lot of wealth that has been left behind in
the South or stolen and kept in the South, but

(29:04):
out of black people's hands. But I'm still grateful that
we do have a little bit or not. So a
little bit one hundred acres is something beautiful. We have
a substantive family plot still, which is really really beautiful.
But I know that in two generations it went from
six hundred to one hundred. So I'm trying to make
sure that it only grows from here and doesn't continue
to get smaller and smaller and smaller.

Speaker 4 (29:28):
So what would you say is the most important thing
that you have learned on this journey?

Speaker 6 (29:35):
I mean, I always knew this, but it's important to
realize how hard it is for black people to hold
on to our stuff, so that we understand and appreciate
what it means to keep it. And like there's a
lot of critique of oh, well, you know, grandma didn'
keep the brownstone, but who was helping her with the
property taxes? Who was being a part of and making
sure that she knew that you were interested in keeping

(29:57):
that going. And we can't let our elders re hire
with assets that feel like burdens to them but could
be equalizers for us. We have to have deeper intergenerational
conversations with our elders, know their stories, know what they have,
because a lot of us are like, oh, yeah, my
family used to kind of have some land, and we
don't even know the full story of it, whether anyone

(30:17):
in the family is still tied to it, and so
we kind of lose sight of acres that we do
have or homes that we do have, just because it
kind of goes to disrepair. So I think the biggest
thing is just how much how important it is to
talk about these things, especially as black people, and then
for white people to do the same, Like there are
white people who inherit things and they never critique where

(30:37):
it came from, why they are able to have certain
leisure and ease that other people don't. And even if
you don't think of yourself as someone who's super, super
wealthy if you inherited part of a business, a small family, home, stocks, whatever,
that's something that a lot of black families have not
and not because we don't deserve it or haven't worked

(30:58):
for it, but because it's been taken from us.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
Yes, well, you know what, just listening to what you're saying.

Speaker 4 (31:05):
When I think of black people that I know, older
black people, it was always like a big secret.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
Everything they had was a secret. Don't talk about it.

Speaker 4 (31:15):
You don't tell people how much it costs or how
it came into ownership of it. It's like, that's nobody
else's business. Hide the papers, you know, put it in
the in the floor in the house. But that's not
helpful to a second generation or a third generation that
is attempting to learn or that would like to mar

(31:36):
so that they could keep the legacy going. And I
think I hear you saying when you say talk about it,
we're not saying just sit around and be like, yeah,
buy home, holds up. We're saying, give the details of
all of what has taken place, and then and then
also be willing to show the family where things currently stand.

Speaker 6 (31:57):
Exactly that, exactly that, And like you said, it's a
I'm a response to want to not get too wide
with it, knowing that if too many people know, they.

Speaker 5 (32:06):
Want what's yours.

Speaker 6 (32:07):
I mean, that was even a conversation I have with
my aunt I'm thinking I'm being the family activist.

Speaker 5 (32:12):
I'm like, Auntie, I don't like that you have.

Speaker 6 (32:13):
Guns, you know, gun violence and all this stuff, And
she's like, Briya, we live in North Carolina. We are
a black family with a lot of acres that a
lot of people want. We have to protect ourselves and
what is ours. And it gave me a different understanding
and nuance that I still fight for gun safety and
gun regulation and gun protection and we can't leave black

(32:35):
families defenseless, and we can't force black families to put
themselves out in the open. But at the same time,
there's a difference between telling strangers on the internet your
business and telling the family.

Speaker 5 (32:45):
And what used to happen when I was young.

Speaker 6 (32:47):
Is at the family reunion, the elders would tell the
story of the family. There was a shirt that had
a family tree on the back and we would just
record this oral history and people knew what it was.
And I think that that is a missing recipe that
we got to get back to because other people don't
need to know, but we do need to have intra
conversations so that younger generations value it and don't settle

(33:11):
for a shoe box apartment that they rent forever when
they know that there's land that is their birthright, when
a home is their birth right, when kids running free
in a backyard is their birthright too.

Speaker 3 (33:26):
So there's been a lot of talk about deed death right.

Speaker 2 (33:31):
We had a black woman on here, actually it was
Queen of four and she was telling us a parent
I think she said it was her grandmother's home or
something that they literally she was still fighting for a
home that she grew up in and they just pretty
much told her that she didn't. So do you know
anything about that especially? And we were talking also talking

(33:51):
about the black farmers with what they've been dealing with
with their lane. So give us a little insight that
you have on those things.

Speaker 6 (33:58):
Yeah, that's a really that's a really important part too,
the food justice side of it, because isn't it interesting
that we go from black people are the forced laborers,
we're forced to work this land, so then just a
generation and a half later, we are in food apartheid
in communities where there are only bodegas and delis and

(34:22):
fast food, and we can't access the food that our
ancestors were forced to grow. And that's also something that
I say, is like we were forced to work the land,
and when they couldn't profit off of our free labor,
it was like, Okay, well now we want y'all to
have nothing to do with it. And so now we're
so detached from it. Where organic food and clean air
and clean water used to be a birthright for us

(34:42):
and normal for us. My grandmother used to say that,
like we used to grow our own cucumbers, grow our
own fruit, have our own pigs and chickens, and now
we're forced into these Flint and Newark sort of communities
where having a healthy lifestyle is really not even up
to you. It's up to the infrastructure you and whether
the powers that be will let you have clean air,

(35:05):
clean food, clean water.

Speaker 5 (35:07):
You know.

Speaker 6 (35:07):
And so to your point of those sorts of like
attacks and the deed theft and how that affects farmers,
I mean, deep theft in general is a big thing.
There's a documentary called Silver Dollar Road that kind of
digs into this and a black family that had grown
up on this land their whole life were told that
they were trespassing on land that they'd lived on their

(35:28):
whole lives. They were like middle aged at this point.
We're told they were trespassing in that if they didn't leave,
they would go to jail. They didn't leave, and they
actually incarcerated these like I think sixty year old black
men who had lived on this land their whole life.
That happens all the time. Sometimes it's they they're just
hoping you can't prove that you have the deed, and
if a paper gets lost or whatever and you can't

(35:51):
prove it, then they've shuffled some paperwork around and now
they can't prove it, and now you're just lost in paperwork.
And if your lawyer can't handle being tied up with
their lawyer, then you just can't afford the fight. Other
Times it's overt like in the Willington massacre, they literally
were burning deeds, so after the massacre was over, survivors
wouldn't be able to prove whether they owned anything in
the community.

Speaker 5 (36:11):
That also happened in Tulsa, So.

Speaker 6 (36:13):
There's a lot of shady, shifty, manipulative stuff, and that's
definitely something to be vigilant of. This idea that you
know it's easy to build a black wall street is look,
you can build it, but to protect it, to maintain it,
to keep it going is the hard part, because white
supremacy will do this all the time. I mean, the
move bombing in Philly was way more recent than some

(36:35):
of these massacres I'm talking about, and that was like
what the seventies, the mid seventies.

Speaker 5 (36:39):
So this government has.

Speaker 6 (36:40):
Shown that it will turn the other way or be
actively participating in dispossessing us. And I think that is
the challenging part, is how to keep people optimistic and
motivated to keep fighting for it.

Speaker 5 (36:54):
But I think we just have to because it is ours.
We deserve it. I mean, our ancestor.

Speaker 6 (36:59):
If they didn't fight, we wouldn't be here having a
conversation like we are. And I just feel so lucky
to have learned from people like you two, from people
like mister B, from people who just have been relentless
about speaking up about things that feel so like the
odds feel so sacked against us, but still we keep
sounding the alarmed. So we just got to keep fighting

(37:20):
and keep trying new things, but self protection is definitely
part of it, because they will try and convince us
we don't own what we own.

Speaker 4 (37:28):
Well, here's the last question that I have for you,
and I just want to thank you for giving us
your time and your brilliance, because you know what you this.
My son made a very good point at the top
of this interview, and that is that you are always
on a different vibe, like you're educating people. Your content

(37:49):
is different from what everybody else is talking about. So
while folks running around up and down about Trump this
and Trump that, you'll be on your page talking about
land ownership, of talking about women's rights, young people, you know,
and young people's power and so on and so forth.
So I appreciate the fact that you stay. You are

(38:12):
a person who dances to your own tumb and it's
not off beat. It's always I was watching my family
reunion the line dances, as you know, that's a big deal.
Everybody does a great line dance. They got about twenty
five of Fama and I have some cousins that are

(38:33):
so skilled at the line dances that they go in
the opposite direction in the midst of the crowds are
going one way and they're going in the opposite direction.
But it's never off key. It's always key and it
stands out. And I think that's you know, I think
of you that way. But I want you and I

(38:54):
want you to speak to this really quickly. There are
people who are advocates for land ownerships. They are advocates
for economic development and economic sustainability in our community.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
Is there.

Speaker 4 (39:11):
They are advocates for us being smarter about investments and
savings and all of that, and some of these saying
people believe that the political process is not that important,
that voting is not important. All of these candidates ain't
no good, and therefore I'm not voting for anybody. I'm

(39:33):
just gonna focus on getting money.

Speaker 1 (39:36):
And in a time where we see the Tulsa massacre.

Speaker 4 (39:43):
Proceedings being thrown out of the highest court, at a
time when we see the Fearless Fund under attack, which
is an effort to help fund black women's businesses by
black women, at a time when we see an effort,
and not just an f a very successful campaign to
dismantle DEI practices within corporate institutions, educational institutions, government institutions.

(40:11):
What do you say you're a younger person too, you
have your finger on the pulse of what is happening
with young people. Do you think that at this point
voting is pass and we should just be focusing on
getting money or do you see value in voting?

Speaker 5 (40:27):
I definitely see value in both.

Speaker 6 (40:29):
I'm not someone who thinks any one strategy can work
by itself, because again, you can be focused on getting money,
and if you're not building up protections and safety nets, then.

Speaker 5 (40:40):
That can just get snatched from you.

Speaker 6 (40:42):
And if you only focus on voting, which some people do,
and present that as like the thing that's going to
save democracy, when it doesn't save democracy, then you disappoint
people because it's like you just told me this was
the most consequential thing I could do in my lifetime.
I did it, and it doesn't feel consequential if things
feel the same. So I think think it's both in
I think those who are pushing people to vote have

(41:03):
to stop pretending as though it's going to be this
like one hundred and eighty degrees change. A lot of
things will be the same, but there's also a lot
we can change. Voting is not just for the president.
There's so many down ballot positions that we vote for
commissioners of agriculture, right, jobs that we're like we don't
even even really think about, but have so much say
over things like what you can do with your land. Like,

(41:25):
for example, you could buy a bunch of land and
someone could tell you, oh, that's zoned a certain way,
you can't build that business there. You can't do that
saying there. So now you have this whole plan for yourself.
But because you didn't know that, the person in office
doesn't once you building a marijuana business in his state.

Speaker 5 (41:39):
Now you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (41:40):
So there's an importance in addressing it from all areas.
And I think that young people who feel jaded just
have to remember you're not voting because you think that
that's going to be the one thing you can do
to save the world. You're voting because you need a
range of tools in your arsenal.

Speaker 5 (41:59):
And that's you know, that's important.

Speaker 6 (42:01):
So the last thing I'll say, Another example that I'll
give as the last thing is the Bruce's Beach example.
Everyone was really excited about this family in California that
gets their beachfront land back after cavan Ward and the organization.

Speaker 5 (42:14):
Where's my land.

Speaker 6 (42:15):
Fight for them to get this land, and they're given
this land back. But when the land was taken from them,
it was beachfront property with.

Speaker 5 (42:21):
A resort on it.

Speaker 6 (42:22):
When it's given back to them, it's just it's just
the property, no buildings on it, nothing they can move into,
nothing they can immediately profit off of. That's a tax
burden in the state of California. There's no way for
this working class family to make any money off of
this land. So when they had to sell it back
to the state, people were upset. But it's like what
you should have fought for or not. You know, this

(42:42):
hasn't actually come at the activists. But what we can
be fighting for on all ends is give the people
they land back, and they should get a property tax exemption.
And I'm fighting for a change to the property tax
code in general so that black families can get more relief.
And you know, like those are the sorts of things
that we need elect officials doing. Or like in New York,
if I didn't believe in voting, we wouldn't have someone

(43:04):
like Drewmini Williams, who we know is always in a
position to use his power for the people. So I
think that we just have to remember that there are
local offices that we can elect people to that can
make a huge difference, and at the least we can
mitigate harm and decide who do we want to be
working against as we fight for more. But if you
only focused on getting your money and not focused on

(43:25):
who's trying to take your money, then you're looking at
only one hand, and there's lots of hands moving.

Speaker 3 (43:32):
That's an excellent thing.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
I just want you to end this by just telling
the people what do you want them to get when
they read this book?

Speaker 3 (43:40):
What is your hopes that.

Speaker 2 (43:42):
Everyone who gets this book, because everyone needs to get it,
but what is your hopes that they give from them?

Speaker 5 (43:48):
Thank y'all for having me.

Speaker 6 (43:49):
My hope is that people will read this book and
see that reparations is inevitable. That we can't talk about
it as a we should have had it. It would
be nice to have no reparations are inevitable. You're not
an ally if you don't believe in reparations. You're not
for our community. If you do not believe in reparations,
because it is the only thing that can achieve bridging
racial wealth gaps and addressing some of the environmental injustice

(44:12):
that we're dealing with and getting to put black people
in a position to finally be autonomous, to be in
control of our own futures, our own businesses, our own families.
So I hope that people read it and excited to
work more towards reparations.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
A baker, that's a word.

Speaker 3 (44:28):
See listen.

Speaker 2 (44:29):
I just want to say one more thing before we go.
Her mama is bad. My mam apre dis sermon at
the book thing. And I know where you get it from,
because that's a bad woman. So shout out to Mama Baker.
We appreciate you, We love you.

Speaker 3 (44:43):
Bria. Continue to be great like you've always been.

Speaker 2 (44:45):
I always knew that this is who you were, and
I'm just proud to see you just butting like a butterfly.

Speaker 5 (44:52):
Thank you. I appreciate you. And I'm gonna have to
tell her you said that.

Speaker 1 (44:57):
Be a Baker. Root it, pick it up. Love you too, y'all.

Speaker 2 (45:04):
Shout out to Bria Man, Love her to death, man book,
gotta read the Love Her to Life. That's right, Love
Her to Life. You should all get that book. Read it.
It's touching, it's real, it's everything that's right and it's
every element of who she is. So now we get
to mind. I don't get it. I posted a meme

(45:29):
on my page last week and it was funny to me.
You know. It was a guy he was with a
girl and she started talking and he was like yeah, yeah,
and what else do you do? And then she just
gave him this look like she was confused, and it
was like huh, and then he was like, what else
do you do? And then she still was confused, and

(45:50):
then it was this slow motion boys, She's like, what
else do you do? And then she just still was
just stuff like she didn't get it, So you know that,
and the more of the story is like there are
some girls that all they can do is talk. They
don't have anything else to offer, and we know there's
some men that don't have anything to offer too. But
it was funny, you know, just and there was a
lot of different comments on there, and then it brought me,

(46:13):
you know, there was one of the comments where women
was like, well, y'all need to not you know, you
should stop liking pages like that as girls that's all
they do and all you do is like it.

Speaker 3 (46:22):
And then it was.

Speaker 2 (46:23):
Some girls like, well what else, what do we have
to offer for her to have to offer more than that.
So there was just different comments and different that, And
one of the things it brought me to was just
thinking about how we are portraying our women, right like.
And it's not to take anything away from women who

(46:44):
tork like I love to see a woman turk. There's
no man, you know, there's very few. I'm not gonna
say nobody. There are very few men who are heterosexual
males that don't like to see a woman who got
a nice body tworking and working our body. That's just
something in man. It's gonna like naturally, you know. But
but when you looking to date or you actually looking

(47:05):
to take something serious, you want to see more than that,
right And I think for me, there was this conversation
about BT awards, and I really didn't get involved.

Speaker 3 (47:15):
In it because I didn't, you know, I don't.

Speaker 2 (47:17):
I don't want to throw shade at anybody or any individual.
You know, a lot of these women are talented. They
just know how to work and work and be talented.
But there are women in this industry who don't work,
who are talented, who are skilled too, adult rappers who
can n who can do all those things, but they
just rather not work. It's just not something that they'll

(47:40):
come through with or something that they choose to do.

Speaker 3 (47:42):
You know.

Speaker 2 (47:43):
So when I looked at the BT Awards and then
people like, oh, that's all we got, and I said, damn,
you know, and and and then I compared it to
that meme and the reaction I started saying, you know,
we are we not doing ourselves a disservice?

Speaker 1 (47:59):
Are we doing ourselves? Yeah, we're doing it.

Speaker 2 (48:03):
We're actually doing ourselves with disservice when all we show
is one genre of female doing something right, because it
makes it seem like that's all we have. And when
you say black entertainment television, if that's the only entertainment
we got, you know, then is wrong. I mean, because
I know it's not the only entertainment we got. You

(48:26):
know what I'm saying. We have artists like Tink, We
have artists like on Rhapsody, We have artists like Lady London.
You know what I'm saying. We have artists that I
know that are dope that nobody and they're not talking
that's that's not what they do. They're not saying they can't.
But that's just not the way that they promote their music,
and when we're not highlighting them, we're not giving them
the same platforms and stages that we give those who

(48:49):
do do it. Then it is an imbalance, you know,
And I think that's what's happening in society all together.
For me, there's just too much of an imbalance one
way or the other. Like what happened to the balance,
What happened to where we had conscious music? You know,
we had street orientated music, we had just fun and music.

(49:11):
We had love song like it's either this or that, right,
it's it's all the.

Speaker 3 (49:16):
Way this, so all the way there.

Speaker 2 (49:17):
And it's like, I think that we need to start
highlighting more things because you know, like men are either
jaded with just seeing somebody talk all the time, or
that's all they want to see because that's all they've
been given. You know, you just start taking it as
that's all it really is. And I think it's so
much more, especially as black people and entertainment television. I

(49:40):
think it's so much more that we have to offer
that we actually aren't given, you know, and it's making
it's so lopsided the view of what black women is
and what black entertainment is it is just changing for
and I think it's a negative you know, connotation just
attached to it now. And I just wonder, I think
think we have to be a lot more intentional and

(50:05):
so I just don't get. What I don't get is
why aren't these platforms highlighting different styles of music, different
styles of entertainment for females. Why aren't Why isn't that
something that people are intentional about doing.

Speaker 1 (50:23):
Well, here's my thing. Yes, balance is key.

Speaker 4 (50:26):
I always talk about it because I am not, you know,
one to condemn, which I understand that you're also not condemning,
you know, any artists, right, I don't condemn them. You
know when people have come to me and they're like, oh,
you need to be saying something about sexy Red and

(50:46):
Sukiana and this one and that one because it's filth
and it's this and it's that. By the way, every
now and then, depending on what the song is, I
be bumping a little sexy Red. So I'm not I'm
not if.

Speaker 3 (51:01):
Everybody say, get it sexy.

Speaker 1 (51:03):
You know, I'm not gonna be a hypocrite there.

Speaker 4 (51:06):
I also know that there was a people like, well,
one person said to me no, it's different.

Speaker 1 (51:13):
It's much more raunchy. Well, I don't know how much
more raunchy.

Speaker 4 (51:16):
You could get the little Kim on the cover of
her album where she was kneeling down or squatting down
and you could literally see hair on the sides of
her vagina. That's a fact. So it's been raunchy. Adena
Howard was raunchy. Now perhaps the times were a little different.
So it's just like you and me right like or

(51:38):
and everybody else out here.

Speaker 1 (51:40):
We used to.

Speaker 4 (51:40):
Wear the afro and now it's the fade and whatever
the caesar and it time things the ball people change.
But the message was still popping Kuchie, sucking pp selling,
Kuchie getting money. There was the same exac message. The

(52:00):
words is just a little bit different. I am not
one of those people who's gonna sit here and say, oh,
you know, I want to condemn these particular individuals. What
I do think is true is that there has to
be a balance. Now, b Et will say, well, they
look a lot at album sales, right, they look at popularity,

(52:23):
album sales and numbers, social media impact all of that.
So if they find that a person you know, is
doing great numbers of course they are going to put
them on the show, and then those people whose numbers
may not be that good, those people don't make it.

(52:44):
And I'm not quoting pt, but I'm saying I know
the mindset because I've been in these media meetings and
i know how they think.

Speaker 1 (52:52):
Right. So, but the problem with that, and I.

Speaker 4 (52:57):
Watched some of the old time do something that was groundbreaking,
and that was that they would mix in the people
who you don't necessarily listen to or hear from all
the time. They would sandwich them between things, whether it
be at a rally. You know, it could be a

(53:18):
new person speaking. You know what I'm saying that nobody
really knows. But they got a powerful message. So they're
gonna put them on right after Tamika Mallory or whoever,
the big whoever, the other whatever, the better bigger speaker is,
whoever it is, the President of the United States, whoever

(53:39):
they'll have you introduce the President of the United States.

Speaker 3 (53:43):
It's like when you think about the girl who did
the poetry left.

Speaker 4 (53:46):
I never heard exactly Amanda, I forget her last name,
but absolutely Goldman a thing, absolutely same exact thing. And
I have something to say about her but I'm gonna
wait until another time for that on my list of
things thought of the day, because since she called for
a ceasefire, I don't see her as much as I

(54:08):
used to, and I'm gonna through some research to figure
out what happened. But I remember looking at her page
she was calling for a seaspire and her comment section, Baby,
these people got the nerve to talk about hate and division.
I can't even I'm at the point where i need
a trap on my mouth like a censor because I'm
ready to say things that will probably just get me

(54:30):
black ball for the rest of my life. And I'm
already hanging off the black ball list.

Speaker 1 (54:34):
So whatever. Anyway, So that's what they did.

Speaker 4 (54:39):
It was masterful how they give you a little bit
of what you like or what's being the shiny thing,
and also make sure you get other things in the
midst of that. Now, BT will say, well, we did
that with Taraji. We let her do her political you know,
her political component of her posting, and that made the

(55:00):
numbers for research around Project twenty twenty five go up.
You know, it increased obviously significantly overnight because of what
she said. So they will say they do that but
with the talent piece, that balance is important and they.

Speaker 1 (55:13):
Need to be intentional about that.

Speaker 4 (55:15):
To be quite honest with you, I looked at I
went back and looked at the artists, all of the women, right,
because I wanted to see where they extremely naked as
I had heard. They really kind of weren't. If you
really go back and look at their outfits, they were
not completely, you know, undressed. Even Meg, her outfit is sexy,

(55:40):
very sexy, and very suggestive, but if you look at it,
she has on tights, she has on tights, she has
on all types of things that's covering her actual skin. Glorilla, Yeah,
she went out there and shook her little booty, but
she just had a little broad top on in regular
big pants. Like I really looked. Some of it was sexy,
but it wasn't all. It wasn't all overly sexy. It's

(56:03):
the content though, of what they're saying, and it's content.

Speaker 2 (56:09):
It's the overall performance and everything, right, So yeah, with
the address, at some point there's working. There's sexually suggestive
inside the music, inside the performance. And I'm just trying
to say there are.

Speaker 1 (56:22):
Artists that just don't do that.

Speaker 3 (56:25):
Don't do that, I agree.

Speaker 4 (56:28):
I mean, I agree with you, and I think the standard,
the double standard, it spans across many different areas. That
which you're speaking of, is not just in music. It's
in politics, it's in everything. It's in everything, it's in
social justice, it's in every world where people. It can

(56:49):
go both ways. It's either the super conservative is the
most popular or the people who are most off the
chain radical just saying anything, even if they don't know
what they're talking about. That is what people get attracted
to because they're loud and they have the most impressions,

(57:09):
you know, And so people who actually think don't always
get the type of promotion and get to get the
awareness around them and their thoughts and ideas.

Speaker 1 (57:23):
So I see it.

Speaker 4 (57:23):
I see that the balance is definitely problematic, and it
just has to be one of the problems that we
have because again, everybody's looking for the one hit wonder,
looking to try to make the algorithm pop so that
their exploit of expression can actually make it to the mouth,

(57:44):
excuse me, can actually make it to the masses. So
I get that, But sometimes it's just a matter of
actually calling our people in right, like actually sitting down
and writing a letter to be et or making a
phone call to say, hey, this is what we see.
You know what I'm saying, versus us getting on social

(58:04):
media and being like F b et, F Meg, F Lotto,
F CARDI F this one and that one.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
That's really not it's.

Speaker 4 (58:13):
Actually because I at all. I know that, I know,
you know, I'm just speaking generally. There's so much right now.
There is so much divisiveness that is happening. Like, it's
so much. I can feel it in my skin. You
can see it coming up the whether. Whenever the politics
of a country is array ariy excuse me, awry the

(58:38):
people you can see it as well, right, So you
got that you have so many different division points, and
I don't know, I feel like we're in a place
in time right now where we we gotta do a
little bit more behind the scenes conversing so we can
try to bring our people along versus thinking that we

(58:58):
could just push them off a cliff because I don't
think that, you know, I just don't. I don't know
that that's going that's an effective strategy.

Speaker 3 (59:05):
I agree with it, you know.

Speaker 2 (59:07):
I want to hear from our viewers, like, what do
you think do you think that there needs to be
a balance or do you like the way it is?

Speaker 3 (59:14):
Is it? You know?

Speaker 2 (59:16):
I just want to know because maybe it's just me.
But I know there's so much talent and I love
once again. I love man.

Speaker 3 (59:23):
You know what I'm saying. I love a lot of
I think a lot of was dope. I think you
know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (59:28):
So, but I also love Rhapsody, I love Lady London
like I want to see those type of artists highlight.

Speaker 4 (59:35):
Yeah, I'm not exactly. I'm advocating for balance. I am
not advocating to diminish these women who, through their own
art and expression, are doing anything because nobody was out well,
not nobody, because there was some people out there. But

(59:55):
so I mixed a lot David selling, Yeah, Luke, what's
selling KOUCHI.

Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
Right, So don't tell me is different. Don't be different.

Speaker 3 (01:00:07):
Too what I'm saying. But we had ours, we had
rock Ken.

Speaker 4 (01:00:10):
Hey, that's what I'm saying. I'm advocating for a balance.
I'm not advocating because let me tell you something, I
love me. Lotto says she big mama.

Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
I love that.

Speaker 3 (01:00:20):
I'm big Mama.

Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
That brings us to the end of another t in
my show. Shout out to our guest Bria Baker, our sister.
Her book Rooted. Make sure that you go get it.
It is an amazing book. She's an amazing individual as
you see throughout the interview. We love her. Follow her
on social media. Make sure you follow us t in
my underscore show. Send us your requests. Who do you

(01:00:46):
want us to interview? What do you want us to say?
Tell us if you love us, tell us you hate us.
Let us know that we number one, because we know
we did number one podcast in the world and we
continue to be number one.

Speaker 3 (01:00:57):
I'm not gonna always be right, tamik Ma.

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
It's not gonna always be wrong, but we will both
always and I mean always be often.

Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
It that soon so.

Speaker 4 (01:01:09):
That that.

Speaker 3 (01:01:16):
Check out the video version of TMO.

Speaker 4 (01:01:18):
Every single Wednesday on Iwoman dot Tv.

Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
That's how we