January 20, 2021 • 60 mins
On this episode of Street Politicians, Tamika and Mysonne speak on the spread of Covid 19 and discuss the importance of coming together as a community and making historical change especially when it came to voting their interest in the recent election. They also highlight that black and brown people are in a State of Emergency, and for the many ways to get involved there is no excuse to help progress in the movement.
They had special guest and partner in the movement Porsha Williams join in on the discussion where she spoke about marching for justice, understanding the importance in politics and much more. Moreover, they also spoke with rapper and activist Trae tha Truth where they spoke about him building with the community and giving back.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
What's the family. I'm Tamika D. Mallory and I might
son in general. Welcome to Street Politicians, the place where
the streets and politics meet. It's a new year, but
a lot of the same things happening. I saw a
meme that had me like crying the other day that
said that went home and put away on and came
(00:26):
back as one like a little different. We look a
little different, but ain't much. In fact, it's like a
turn up. It's like winning home and worked out. Got
a little because because you if you think about it,
didn't start off like like you know what I'm saying,
like midway through and she was like, oh this this
(00:48):
is different quarter through quarter through it like yo, And
I mean the sad part about the continuation of the
craziness that we went through and twenty twenty is that
this pandemic continues to take lives, to claim people. Um.
I think that now we're seeing that each day something
(01:09):
like four thousand people are dying, and that's you know,
very significant, and we know, first of all, we don't
want to see anyone die, especially from UM a virus
that has hit our communities and just hit the world
in the way in which it has, but we know
for sure that black and brown people are in those numbers,
and that many people within our communities are impact. And
(01:30):
the thing I think that is so troubling about how
the coronavirus or COVID nineteen operates is that even though yeah,
you know, they close restaurants and try to close the
cities and in certain ways, whenever a person does get
the virus and they are around family members and particularly
(01:53):
elderly people, or if you are someone who works in
the healthcare industry, works at nursing homes, in hospital at all,
and you get it and give it to other people.
When folks die, they die two and three people in
a family, even more at times um. And so it's
just really it's sad that there there's no I don't
(02:13):
see an end in sight. And I know that the
vaccine should be or is for some people, a solution
to that, but then we're just looking at how slow
it's moving in terms of people getting vaccinated. You have
people like us who are very very challenged with the
idea of taking a vaccine. UM. So there's so much
even with that, so I'm not sure exactly how we
(02:35):
will get to a point where we have heard immunity.
Maybe that is the next step um or that we
even just feel comfortable enough to go back to some
form of normalcy. I don't know what the new norm is. Yeah,
I understand. I think for me man, just looking at
the pandemic, looking at COVID nineteen and just seeing how
(02:55):
it's affect in the way it's spreading, it is it's
something like we've never seem like I don't even understand it,
Like every time you try to understand it and they
give you know, And I don't think nobody other than
is And I think that's the problem for me. I
think that the government is trying to make mandates and
trying to shut this down and shut this down, or
we shouldn't go here, and we should And every time
(03:16):
it seems like they decided they're shutting something down, it
seems like it's getting worse. So it seems like they
they're not really making the proper decisions. They said, put
you in the hospital, or first we need to put
you in respirators. No, we don't need to put you
in restiate. We don't need to do that. We need
to change this. They don't know what they're doing it,
and it's it's like, unfortunately is at the expense of
people's lives, you know. So we're dealing we're dealing with
(03:38):
something that we don't know where it came from. We
don't know if it's man made, we don't know if
it's a virus, we don't know what it is because
it doesn't have any form. Like one person can have
a coal next person is dying in two days, like well,
And I think that's what makes it so crazy and,
like you said, so hard to understand. And even with
the respirators and the amount of lives that have been
(04:00):
taken based upon incompetence lack of knowledge, A lot of
that has to do with the fact that like people
didn't know, even in the health care industry, they didn't know,
and so they try things, um that we're not that's
not good for our communities they sent. That's what I
mean by incompetence. They sent a lot of people who
needed help home. Um. And even in my own personal
(04:24):
life right now, I have an uncle who already deals
with respiratory issues and he's elderly, and because of the
fact that he is, you know, looked upon as someone
who is not young and healthy. Um there, he has
COVID right now, and he's like on a guarney in
the hallway in a hospital in Alabama and not really
(04:44):
receiving the type of care that he deserves because the
hospitals are so crowded that they are unable to give
every single person the type of attention that they need.
And I'm not trying to make excuses because first of all,
it's my uncle, so I really would like for them
to do everything that they can. But at the same time,
I understand that once the system is stretched in the
(05:05):
way that it is, it's very difficult, especially in America,
where our health care system is already trashed without a pandemic.
It's just a really, really bad situation. And it makes
me so sad when I travel to places like Atlanta,
um like Miami, and just other cities that I've been
(05:26):
in over the last several months, and I see how
many young black people, particularly are not wearing masks, are
out partying and having such a good time. And to
your point, it's almost like, well, when they start shutting
down and not being able to go out and party
and do these things, it seems like the death rate
(05:46):
goes up. But the argument that I'm constantly making is
that they already know that these people are sick by
the time they shut it down, So when these folks
start dying, they would have been dying anyway in mind
and mind. I think I'm trying to say, in my opinion,
it's just like when you look at it every time
they say when New York was on the shop there
before New York was on the shut now it was couple,
(06:11):
then it turned into as soon as they shut it
down was thousands a day. Yeah, but I don't think.
I think that that's when when we look at l A,
now we look at thousands a day before they shut
it down, like l A is probably wanted the major
big cities. Anyway, We're not doctors and we don't know. No,
we're not doctors and we don't know. But I do
think that the problem is that people were already sick
(06:34):
by the time the state realized it's time to shut
it down. And so I don't know, we don't know
the solution, we don't know how to deal with it.
But what I do know is that young black people
and people just in general across this nation need to
realize that it's no longer about individualism. It's not about
me and whether or not if I get sick, it's
(06:56):
not as bad. I had coronavirus. I had COVID nineteen
and I was sick for about a week. And I
always tell people, if I look at it from a
scale of one to six, I was probably around the three.
But I know that if I had been a five,
if I had been anywhere close to that, I don't
know if I could make it, because there were definitely
days when I wasn't sure if it was getting worse
and whether or not I have to go to the hospital.
(07:17):
So when I think about that, I would never want
to inflict something like that on another person, whether I
know them or not. I don't want to go into
a restaurant, a store, or anywhere else knowing that I
have exposed myself or that I'm even infected, and go
out and give it to other people. Because not everyone
is gonna be a three or two, or you know,
or be able to get rid of it in a
(07:38):
couple of days, or get rid of the symptoms in
a couple of days. So you know, we just gotta
start living as if we're living for a community. And
not just for a few Yeah, speaking of Georgia, speaking
the elections going off, and yes, well it really is.
(07:59):
Shout out to black women men organized. No. No, let
me add people black women who organized because black women. No.
But in terms of the major voices of those who
put the resources on the ground, the LaTosha Browns. Even
though you know you gotta give Cliff Albright her partners
some love too, but he would tell you that Latasha
(08:20):
Brown of Black Voters Matter was major in terms of organizing.
Stacy Abrams, do Wanna Thompson, Helen Butler, who we've had
on the show. These individuals are people who, um, as
black women, understood the importance of stopping everything else that's
going on in life and focusing on organizing in Georgia.
(08:41):
Then of course black women and men voted and made
it happen. Absolutely so certainly shout out to the blacks,
the black blacker black and blacks many black man. We did.
We did. Our thing was on the ground. We're not
doing doors. We to people to the polls, we fed people,
(09:02):
We did all things. And man, I think all eyes
was on Georgia and it showed when we collectively put
our minds to something when we want to accomplish something
that we definitely get it done. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, So
I was thinking because you know, I think my thought
of the day I think probably too much, But my
thought of the day is that so many people are
(09:25):
saying they still don't know what to do or what
the movement is. And I have to ask, with everything
that we see happening, if you haven't found a place, now,
what is it going to take? That's a good question,
that's a good thought to have. What is it going
to take if at this point the folks are running
up in the capital, climbing on the walls. The election
(09:49):
shows our power and how when we come together we
can actually change politics in this country. And now it's
time for us to change policy. So if you did
it for the politics, then you could do it for
the policy, right. Um. The pandemic has showed again that
we collectively as a community have so much to do
(10:11):
from a health perspective, um taken care of our elderly. Like,
there's so much happening and people are still saying, I
don't know. I think, man, I think you know what
it is a lot of people have been jaded by
the movement I get that a lot, you know, coming
from marginalized communities and projects and communities with poverty stricken.
(10:32):
They don't. They don't believe, you know what I'm saying.
They've been like, oh, we've been watching and we've been
doing this, and all we've been doing that. I don't
want to vote. I don't. They don't want to do
anything because in their mind, prior to this exact moment,
they didn't see where they vote count They didn't see
where their march county, didn't see where their protests counting.
I think in this moment right now, we're starting to
see levels of change. We're starting to see when we
(10:54):
collectively come together as a community with one goal, how
it changes. Like we we actually as a community, as
a people, as a culture, voted in the presidents. We
actually we change the trajectory, Like when we look at Georgia,
we change a traditionally red state into blue. And it's
not about you know what, It's not partisan for me,
(11:17):
but it's just understanding that we had an objective and
we understood that we needed this to get what we wanted.
We needed to be able to put a Senate in
place that was gonna be able to give the president
that we gave an opportunity, you know, the opportunity to
actually in enact laws and legislation that we need as
black people. So I think a lot of people was like, wow,
(11:39):
you know what I'm saying. So I think that prior
to that moment, a lot of people was. But I
think right now. I had an interview yesterday actually literally,
and I told him I'm like, you just have to
find out what it is that you can contribute. Like
everybody doesn't do the thing You're not gonna do. Be
on the front lines with me. You know, you might
not be able to contribute five or ten thousand now
you might have five college that you contribute to one
(12:01):
organization that does the work every month. You know what
I'm saying. You might know how to do social media too,
where you tweet out something that's going on that we're
dealing with, or notify us about things. You might be
able to find information to notify the leaders who have
platforms and have the ears of the people to give
them information. Hey, this is going on because I go
on my d MS daily and there's certain people that
(12:23):
find information for me. Like I don't automatically just know
what's going on, Oh what's going on? And they find
him like did you know about this? And they send
us dms all times, So that might be your entry
point into the movement, you know what I'm saying. Some
people have Some people work every day so they can't
come out and be on the front lines, but they
utilize they informed somebody else about what's going on. Then
(12:44):
there are people who are able to come out in
protests and utilize their bodies and sacrifice. So there's just
so many different ways into this movement, and we don't
just we need you to understand that. There's definitely a
way for you if you really want to. So many
ways to get involved, and they're really just as no excuse.
And I think a lot of people use excuses because
you know, there's fear um and there's complacency, and it's
(13:09):
just good old laziness, right Like, let's not try to
uh go around it. It's good old laziness. Sometimes we
see what other folks are doing and say it's too hard,
and you know what, it is difficult to get up
every day, to be committed to a struggle, to have
to um, you know, really think about and monitor the
(13:31):
things you say the things you do, the way you
operate in the world, because you don't want to be
a hypocrite to what it is that you're working on.
Um And none of us are perfect right because we
still constantly find ourselves having to reshape, reform, come back,
think about our choices. You know, it's it's a it
is a lot of work, but it's also a lot
(13:52):
of work to watch people are people dying every day.
It's also a lot of work living in communities where
you're you know, living in in public housing and you
walking stepping over urine and having to walk up steps,
and you know, not having the proper heat and having
rodents running through your apartments. It's also a lot of work.
You know, they have to boil that water because there's
(14:13):
no hot water in the building. It's a lot of
work to have to go to a further hospital. Um,
you know, not be able to go to the one
in your community, because it's you know, if you go
there with certain problems, you will probably have three more
when you leave, So now you've got to travel across town.
I mean, it's a lot of work to have to
live every day being black and brown in America and
(14:34):
so we might as well figure out how to make
most of our efforts be about our progress rather than
just sort of accepting things as they are. So that's
my thought of the day. Find something. If you can't,
if you if you if you can't find anything yet
and you don't see that there is a state of
emergency emergency, then I don't know when you ever go
(14:55):
listen and find something. You know, my model, we don't
have the right to do nothing to make sure you
find out. So you know, the streets is talking. They're
still talking after about a thousand times and a thousand
lawsuits being overturned, and no, they finally times again certified
that Biden won the election, that we have a new president.
(15:18):
After a thousand times Trump had pulled Trump and Stein
pulled out every stop once again. In my life now,
I've been paying attention to politics for at least twenty
five years, and never in my life have I seen
elections take this type of like time. And like I said,
I asked somebody that they I think it might have
(15:40):
been you and Angelo. I'm like when you in the past,
when people we went out and we voted for president
or anything else that night, they told you so and
so is the winner. That's what I remember that this
is a whole new game. This is the thing. In
two weeks, three weeks, three months, This vote I keep
trying to tell people is running the White House like
(16:01):
the Mafield. And it's not. It's not even it's not
even a joke. At this point we realized the seriousness
of it, you know. And he was actually on because
and when you listen to the phone call that he
was on with Rasburger anyway, and he was telling them
find me some votes. The Secretary of State of Georgia,
that's the person in charge of secretary. He said, listen,
(16:24):
find me some votes. It's only about eleven thousand. I
need you to find me the vote. Imagine if Barack
Obama would have been on the phone with the Secretary
of States and cups the next about eleven thousand. But
you see, the thing about Trump Mice is that Trump
(16:48):
is operating out He's operating is the most funniest yet scary.
It's not even He is operating in pure white nous.
His whiteness says that I have authority, entitlement, privilege. It
(17:08):
is what white supremacy is all about. And people get
really upset with me when I say that, because they're like,
are you saying that all white people know? We're not
saying all white people behave a certain way. We're saying that. Yeah.
What we're saying is that the idea of whiteness in America,
(17:29):
the concept, the social constructs of whiteness in America, it
is ingrained in the idea of supremacy. Right, And he
operates as if he is running or doing a deal
for a new apartment building or a new casino. So
(17:49):
when he calls the bank right and speaks to his homies,
other white people who are bank officers, and they need
to find money for building, you know, money for construction,
for development, that's what he says, I need another eleven
million dollars. Help find me some money, look through my
portfolio and see where we can move things around. That
(18:11):
is how he is used to operation, and we just
having this conversation. Is he is adamant that he won
by landslode, like a landslas won by landslide. So if
you want by landslide, why the hell would somebody have
to find you some vote? We should have to try
(18:34):
to find the other persons of votes, because you won
by so much. It just doesn't make sense, none of it.
It's not supposed to make sense though, because it's not right.
And at least the Secretary of State while on this call,
although let me just tell you, we're not about to
uplift any of these individuals, right because they you know,
because they have their own history of suppressing the black vote.
(18:58):
And there's more that can be done in the state
of Georgia and in other places across this nation to
protect black people, to protect these elections, and moreover, to
challenge this crazy person that is finally out of the
White House or on his way out right. So there's
much more that could have been done. And that's why
I am not um. I don't care about the lullabys
(19:20):
that Lindsay Graham is singing. I don't care about Mitch mcconne.
All these people all of a sudden have found their morality.
Facebook and Twitter have all of a sudden decided they
have aided and abetted for four years, matter of fact,
five years, even when this man was running for office.
They aided and abetted what we saw happening at the
(19:43):
Capitol and where people have died as a result of them.
Not checking this man in the first place. Politicians, what's
so crazy is that you know that what he's saying
has to be far fit right, because they want to
cheat anyway they've been cheating. This is so far fast.
(20:06):
We can't even help you with this, Like we said, please,
we have to go leave you out, one of our
best sister friends. But what I want you to know
is that it's not that they that is because he's
saying something so far fast. It's because they know he's
out and they need to save face at this point
because they think people are stupid and don't remember trying
(20:30):
to act not someone I hear you saying. They But
the thing is, if they can make sure he stayed in,
they would, they would they know he's out because they
can't do This is a debate. This is a debate
that we can't have, but I would love to have it.
I don't think they want him to stay in because
the way that Joe Biden acts is if he is
(20:51):
more so their friends, then he should be. He's over
here talking about these people are not our enemies because
to pay trying to play a game of chess, right
that he thinks he's playing chess, But back the end
of the day, it never really wins because you can't
really negotiate with terrorists. So his his thing is like,
I think I'm gonna need them, and I have some
(21:12):
relationships with them, and I probably ain't gonna do shift
for us anyway. But at the end of what, I
don't know, maybe he is, I don't know, but whatever
it is, he's trying to he's trying to tread this
little in the middle thing. He don't work side. Pick
a side, Joe Biden, pick a side, and Kamala Harris
if you don't pick the right side, I said, I
(21:36):
said this on my Instagram. We don't did everything. We
got you all elected, you don't got you all to senate.
Black people are gonna need something. We are on your ass, Jesus.
Before we go to the next segment and have our
special guests joint, we're gonna take a quick break for
our sponsors. So we are being joined right now by
(21:59):
our homie, our jail mate, myself mate. She was one
of the Louisville eighty seven, which is when I was arrested.
Eighty seven of us who sat on the lawn um
at Daniel Cameron's house to demand justice for Brianna Taylor.
But then she's also in the sixty five, which I
didn't know, and we call it the eight seven sixty five.
(22:24):
A group of incredible people who have continued for the
most far to work together UM and continue to organize
on behalf of Brianna Taylor. UM. It's a group of
individuals that I'm proud to be a part of because
a lot of them were folks who had never ever
participated in civil disobedience before. And Porsche was actually one
(22:45):
of those individuals. And so I'm so happy that my sister,
she has now become my sister. And I tell everybody
so that people understand how Porsche got involved that I
called her because we have a mut mutual friend in
Jennifer Williams. UM. I called and I said, you know,
would you be willing to come to participate in civil
(23:08):
disobedience with us? I said, you don't have to, but
if you can, at least come and use your platform
to help us get the message out and bring awareness
to Brianna Taylor to us as organizes on the ground.
You know, would you do that? And she flew in,
spent her own money, bought a family, UM, and came
out and stood with us and decided at some point
(23:29):
throughout the day that you know what, I'm gonna go ahead,
um and and break the law um in order to
really really make people pay attention to Brianna. And so
Porscha Williams is our sister, our sister, girl out friend
UM and partner partner in the movement. Hey, portion portion,
(23:51):
what's up y'all. I'm so glad to be here with y'all.
Thank you for that introduction, Well, thank you, Thank you
for being, you know, one of those celebrities. You know,
you're not a celebrity me because you like my sister,
but to the world, you are a celebrity that is
willing to make the sacrifice. Man. There's a lot of people,
you know, there's a lot of people that are from
the sidelines say what they would have done or what
(24:13):
you should be doing. You're not one of those people, man.
And I've grown to know how authentic you are. You know,
you came down to Littleville and you was with us,
and you was like, what were we doing? You know,
and you was there every step of the way, man,
And we just want to say thank you for continuing
to be authentic. That's that's that's me all all all
(24:35):
the way. And you know, I appreciate it for sure.
I don't even I feel like I deserve any thanks
or whatever, because to me, it's so crazy when I
think about it, it's just a matter of doing what
I feel I'm supposed to be doing, Like why else?
You know, it's a lot of times you have your
here in certain places in your life and you wonder,
you know, why am I giving this opportunity? Or like
(24:56):
even for me, it's like, wow, I got six million
people who follow me on Instagram? What am I? What
have I've been talking about? What is all of this for?
What is all of this amounted to? And what was
it building up to? And for me it hit me
in that moment it was for a time like this.
It was for me to come in contact with Tamika.
It was gonna find out what she was doing and
(25:16):
until freedom was being a part of you all had
your entire organization to Kentucky. Um. He had brought so
much attention and awareness to into detail into Brianna Taylor's
story that it made me say, oh my gosh, that
is so inspiring. Let me lend this platform that I've
been blessed with. You know this, I've been on here
saying so many other things. Why not say Brianna Taylor's name?
(25:40):
If it could even bring UM one other official UM
and and bring attention to what's happening to her, if
it could help even a little bit, it just felt
like a natural duty that I needed to do. You know,
it just wasn't even a question. So for me, when
I think about it, it's like when I think about celebrities,
just like, why not think about it? We post everything
(26:01):
on Instagram, right, I mean, I mean everything you post
with your eight, you post your child's birthday, you post
your friends, bitch you posted if you have a platform
and people are listening to you, and it's a time
like this where we need to reach people and get
all hands on deck and get people involving. If people
are formed, then that's exactly what I need to be
talking about when the camera is on me. That's exactly
(26:23):
what I need to be showing when the eyes are
watching me. And so UM I felt very blessed to
be even in contact with you all, and specially to
connect with Tunika the way that I did at that time,
because you never know a lot of times some celebrities,
to be honest, the reason why they some of them
probably don't really get their hands in and their feet
(26:45):
grounded in um with activists because you don't really know
if you're welcome or not. You don't really know if
someone's gonna question it or whatever. But for me, I
did not care. I was like, listen, real recogniz is
real in this situation. And if this young lady has
been doing this much work and she sees that I
(27:06):
can be effective in any way possible, I'm gonna do
whatever she says. She's my leader from today forward, you know.
And so I truly trusted the process and I truly
have been blessed just by being a part of it
and making that step and making that sacrifice. So that's
like when I say, like people say, you know, well,
thank you for that, It's like, no, I am humble,
(27:29):
and I am thankful to even be near what my
grandfather and other right activists have had done in the past.
So stop right there, because we got to talk about that,
because it's not that you just felt it was the
right thing to do. That sounds good, right. I love
(27:50):
hearing you'd be so humble and I just felt it
was the right thing to do. You know, there's a lineage.
First of all, I've seen you out in Atlanta involved
in before Brianna Taylor, involved in protests, evolved and involved
in organizing and community work. So this is not new,
maybe on the scale of Brianna Taylor and how international
(28:11):
the movement for justice is. UM. However, you have been
doing the work locally for a long time. And there's
a reason there's lineage. Your family has been rooted in
social justice and civil rights, and we want to hear
about that. Yes, that's true. UM, I definitely had been
active in Atlanta. My grandfather, Reverend Josia William who was
(28:34):
an activist also with a thig philanthropist, and so our
family's charities UM for Josea has been changed for Josea,
but it was Josea Fitha hunger and homeless, and I
took part in in that part of my family giving
back to community. So that just kind of over the years,
of course, gave me a heart for the people period,
Like any time anything that's going on, I just want
(28:56):
to be their period. Um. You know, when I talk
about how inspired I was to do something, now it's
with this particular platform and in this particular way. But
you know, growing up and having a grandfather like referenose
and Williams who was so profound in the movement, and
the way he was used in the movement is very
similar to some of the things that I see that
(29:18):
I feel being led to do. He was one of
the people who would rouse everybody up together and get
them just fired up about the cause and organize and
get them out there and and encourage people to be
on the front line and what that purpose and what
that meant. Um. He also was on Edmonds Tennis Bridge, Um,
you know, on bloody Sunday. And you know, I remember,
(29:41):
I remember you calling out when we were actually on
the bridge in Kentucky. You said, this is our bloody Sunday,
and this is that moment. And I really did feel
his spirit, Um really just come and center me and
comfort me and just make me feel like what I
was doing was right for people who don't no bloody Sunday,
(30:02):
Uh was directly connected to the right to vote. That
the civil rights leaders of that time, we're fighting for
the right to vote. So your grandfather was a part
of that, and it was actually a full circle because
we actually voted on his birthday, on my grandfather's birthday,
So it was it was so crazy that they came
full circle like that. Um. But yes, and it was
(30:23):
the sacrifice of them. Again, why were we doing it?
Because we wanted America to see the its ugliness. We
wanted to see what had been done to this beautiful
young queen Brianna Taylor and see them arrest us while
we were being peaceful. And that's the same thing they
had done then, to show its ugliness, to see what
we were what was happening to African American people. So
it had been in me and I had definitely marched
(30:45):
with my grandfather before, um, you know, when I was
much much younger, So I have felt the hatred from
white supremacy before. And that's just it's so crazy, right
when you look at that type of work because my
by myself, you know, doing this work, it comes from
a place of authents and it comes from one to
do what's right and understand that we have a platform,
that we have a voice, that we can utilize that.
(31:07):
And I constantly go to social media and hear people like, oh,
you're a fake activists, and this is this is a joke.
You're just trying to get people to pay attention, and
you just want people views, and this is not real,
and and and and it used to insult me, you know,
like I used to feel like, yo, you know how
authentic this is for me? You know how much I sacrifice,
you know how much things that you don't even know
(31:28):
that I do for this work that I actually do.
So how does that? How do you feel do you
get those type of attacks and when you do get that,
people questioning the authenticity of what it is you do, Like,
how do you feel? What do you what do you
think at that moment? Well, when I really had gotten
a lot of that just because of my money. It's
just because of the legacy within my family, my all
(31:51):
of my aunt's marks with my grandfather. Um, you know,
my father marched with my grandfather. So I never had
been questions because of who my family is. That I
did get some of that, and it was coming from
just the reality the world that I am a television personality,
and a part of it did hurt my feelings. But
then I thought to myself, at the end of the day,
even Martin Luther King was questioned and comparing myself. But
(32:13):
he was also questioned by the clergy, you know, what
are you doing? When he was taking apart in direct action,
it was like, oh, you put yourself in a position
to be arrested. Let me tell you, there is nothing
on this earth with me having a daughter, with me
having career that when you walk to those police officers,
you both of you guys know and you know you
(32:33):
risk the same people who have already proven that they
can shoot a man in the back seven times. And
I get convicted when they camprove that they have killed
a woman in her home while she was while she
was in her private spectuary. Okay, they've I've improven to
do that. They've improven to kill plenty of us, kill
Sandra Bland while she's in their custody. So we are
walking towards actual known murderers and killers. There's nothing on
(32:58):
this earth there would make me sacrifices for at all.
It's the most realist moment that you will ever come
into when you were facing that type of danger and
you make the decision that it is worth doing it
for someone else's life. Anything that I have ever done, um,
it was absolutely so that the cameras would see the
splin the world. It was absolutely so that people would
(33:21):
call call Brianna Taylor's name on all platform, absolutely so
that what I'm doing, my name would be synonymous with it,
so that she can gain some attention and get some justice. Um.
But it was all for the fact that I know
what her mother had gone through. I looked at my
mother before I left the house and I cried thinking
(33:42):
about if something could happen to me, And you know
what she told me, this is something you have to do.
This is your purpose. You ain't ask nobody, this is
something that you feel you were being protected by your ancestors,
Go and get it done. When you talk about you
know your mom looking at you. I remember your mom,
I'm calling like, okay, now you're arrested. So because you
(34:04):
didn't know right that that was gonna be the end result,
and your mom was like, so, now what exactly are
we doing? Like break all of this down for me
because people want to know that you're okay, and you know,
and I appreciate you being there as my sister. But
then we watched and you know, when my son asked
the question, how does it feel when you know when
(34:25):
people attack you, and they tried their naysayers over our work.
If it was just Brianna Taylor, maybe they can make
the case that well, you're just trying to get on TV,
you know, get to get a new storyline. But you
went right out of that into the election for one
knocking ass off. So you have continued to show over
(34:45):
and over again that you get the connection between protests politics,
and of course now we have to fight to get
policy done. That's something we're gonna be talking about on
Street Politicians a lot. The three p's going from the streets,
getting in those ballots and the polls going to you know,
(35:06):
make sure that we cast our ballots, and then of
course continuing to fight to ensure that policy is actually
enacted that helps our communities. What was it like being
in Atlanta helping to being in Georgia in general, helping
to get two people elected to the Senate? Like, just
how did you feel when it actually happened and you
(35:28):
knew that you had such a major role doing lives
with O Saw standing with Reverend Warnock. Um, you know
all the videos that you put together, you were actually
like out there on the ground. Yes, absolutely, Um, you
know for me when when we as the numbers were
coming in, I got you know, I was stressed, you know, like,
oh my god, you know, and but then I said,
(35:49):
you know what, I gotta let go. Let God, you
know what I'm saying. And I went on the bed
and I woke up and I saw that we had won.
And I knew that that that faith that I had,
that hope in people period. And so for me, you know,
when you when people stay activists, they like to put
people in a box, and um, I don't. I don't
mind being put in that box whatsoever. But I have
a love for people generally, I want all of us
(36:11):
to have a better quality of life. And for me
being in the in this position, I always try to
think about how I could be most effective. So I
felt like I was effective in helping Brianna Taylor or
even bringing attention to it by saying her name on
my platform. Then I thought about, all right, well what's
the next step. You know, you gotta deal with politics,
(36:32):
you gotta deal with these policies. So even before that,
you know, we had to fight to get the d
A here in at last, so involved in that going
to different um for um. But when it came to warnicking. Also,
I realized that there was such a gray area there
that people did not even really know much about these
(36:52):
two men. I said, oh wow, okay, well here's where
I can be most effective running out. Listen, they paid
me to do it, and listen, I'll do it for
free as well if they can help us. And so
I decided to put together at p s A and
I really Samika actually was supposed to be a part
of it, but her flight came in and then we
(37:13):
had we I got asked at the last minute to
do a rally of Therey, so we weren't able to
have Tamica in this one, but we did it for
UM the presidential raise, and then I did another one
for the in it and it was just so great
to be able to look at all their policies when
it came to healthcare, when it came to the gun laws,
(37:35):
when it came to all of these different things that
directly affect African Americans that we complain about. Why are
we dying? Why is this? Why is that? Why don't
I have health care? Why are all these black mothers
being you know, dying in the hospital and they're not
being careful properly. Well, there's a reason for that, you know,
and that is because we need to have doctors who
are educating, who have social skills to deal with African
(37:58):
American women. Um, we need to pimport the issue. We
need to have someone like a John Also whose wife
is an OBG Bright and who can help show Hampy,
these are the issues that are happening. Listen, let me
tell you that you're doing. You do the word. Listen
to me. You are a historian, you know all stuff
like I'm sitting here you like mar Luther King the
(38:20):
clergy said, I'm like most people don't even know none
of this stuff. Man, you are proving yourself to be
so authentic and needed in this work. And your energy,
like I can tell you, I can vouch that this
is porscheous energy all day. She has an energy that
lights up a room, don't matter what. We was getting
arrested and she was standing next to me smiling like
(38:41):
like she knew, whatever it is, this is God's plan.
She put like she said, let go and let God.
She kept us all she kept with smiling. We was
inside the priests and locked up, chained together, and she
started a chance like this woman right here. Is she
is really serious about this moment. That's right, Spiritual war Fair.
We have flesh that we are having to deal with
(39:02):
when we get weak and we are in these positions
to do these dangerous things or even put our jobs
on the line of careers. So wait, wait, wait, wait
before you finish this, because I want you to end
this with this, because this is exactly what I want
to know. I want you to give advice to those
that don't know what to do, because because she will
(39:26):
definitely prey. I want you to end this by giving
advice tell us. Tell people who might feel helpless, who
don't see what's going to happen, and don't know what's
gonna be the next move. We're looking at what's going
on with the capital, all these things. I want you
to give advice to those people who might feel helpless
and don't know what to do. And then well, first
I want to say that you take one step. God
(39:46):
is going to lead you the whole way. He there anyway,
he got his hand on us. He already knew that
this was our destiny, that I'd be sitting here talking
to you all, that you all would have been doing
what you're doing in the community and in politics. Um,
all of this is predestined. It was all. Every single
gift that I have, every single gift that anyone watching
the show has, It's already in you. You just need
(40:07):
to access it activated and be a part of what's happening. Okay,
because everything is laid out, there is a plan for
all of our lives. There's no way that Biden and
Kamala was gonna be president. Vice President John Alsoft was
gonna win. God already knew that the devil and these
white supremes are gonna act the fool over there at
the Capitol, right and all of us stayed at home.
(40:27):
We say we did because we did we were supposed
to do. When out we voted, and the devil is mad.
It is what it is, the warfare. Okay, there's no
time in this life that you're gonna have change of
this magnitude and not have some pain involved, confusion involved, etcetera.
But all we have to do is Christians is to
be focused. That's it. Be focused. We are not of confusion.
(40:50):
We have a very direct plan of what we are doing.
We have educated ourselves what happened with Osoft, and we're
not it's not by mistake. That is from educating people
who had sat at home and they had had enough
and they had prayed, and they got out and they
activated what was in them to make a better future
for their children. So, whoever you are, whatever your gift is,
(41:12):
whether it is you, I don't know. Maybe you may
be a word smith and you can write a great
letter and do something online to do that. Whether you can.
If you're in a church and you're in a pool page,
you need to speak about poor politics in the bullpage.
That's where that's where I used to come from back
in the day with black people. So for me, if
anybody out there, whatever gift you have, you need to
use it for the movement we need. We need a
(41:34):
whole show. Past the portion. We we got past the
portions with past portion. We know what we want to say.
Thank you, We love you. Continue to be great, continue
to have that energy, continue to feel empowered because God
got us. Like you said, God got his hand and everything.
(41:54):
And keep letting them use you. We appreciate you, use you.
And listen, my son said that in the all day
on you got the same energy, and that's true. But
at night we twork because that's what we like. I
love with us, all right, I love you guys. Before
(42:17):
we go to the next segment and have our special
guests joint, we're gonna take a quick break for our sponsors.
That's my girl though. Porscha has you know, really turned
out to be a good friend, especially to Yandy and me,
and we just we vibe and I listen. I don't.
(42:37):
I don't really watch the show. It's been a while
since I was really into the shows. I don't really
watch Love and Hip Hop and Yandy's on it, you know,
that's one of my best friends, my sister. I don't
really watch the house wise because we move around so much,
I can never keep up with the schedule. So it's
one of those things where I have to catch it
on us on Sunday when I'm just binging. But in
terms of the relationship that we had have I have seen,
(43:01):
I have learned and felt nothing but authenticity from Porsche,
from Yandy in terms of the movement and their sisterhood
to me and also um, you know, they're just cool.
We just have a good time loving up on one
of them. Speaking speaking the sisterhood, I I felt brotherhood
from the brother that were. I just want to introduce
(43:22):
none other my brother Traded Truth, Traded Truth. He's also
my Mason Police. I have to call him when you
get on my nerves. And how many people that can
call me? Bro Bro Bro Bro. I need you, I
need you to calm down right now. But Trade is
good to see you, brother. We love you so. Yes, sir,
so I don't even feel upposed to be on this show.
We're family, but hey, yeah, that's what the thing is.
(43:46):
This is the opportunity just to give flowers. Like you know,
you said you don't believe you need to be here.
We have our platform and we just want to make
sure that we give your flowers and say, man that
you are a phenomenal human being and a brother and
we we truly appreciate you. Man, appreciate it. But back
at you, because you know the thing is, man, we
all feed off each other. So just as well as
(44:08):
times I may want to spass, give up for the
public to know y'all do the same thing with me.
And for the record, I tell everybody on the loan
with I'll steps until you know they know what you
think of them, you're gonna think of me. But we
just feed off each other man, and that's how that's
how we've be learned that we built. Before knowing you
(44:28):
as a family member, I knew your work and I
used to admire on social media those galoshes and and
just your efforts really being like because some of us
say were on the front line, but it's a different
type of front line when you're out there in the
water with the snakes moving around and the alligators. Like
I've seen you out there with some crazy things literally
(44:51):
moving cars physically with other men, uh and women who
are out there with you. What made you start the
relief gang? How long has it been in existence? And
what's the what's the goal of your organization? Um? So
the actual organization is Angeled by Nature, which is another
(45:12):
meaning for a being, because you know, the real mean
a being is on the street side. So everybody wanted
to be part of So I had to find a
chapter and that that people could be m part of us.
So I started the nonprofit angel by Nature. Relief game
really started heavily during Harvey. But the crazy thing about yeah,
(45:33):
Hurricane Harvey. So everybody who in Texas already knew me,
knew me for doing this work. Period. It's just what
happened is during Harvey. You know, social media is the
easiest way to spread the word across the world. So
it was just a different type of magnifying glass because
I've been doing this. If you look back at Hurricane
(45:53):
Ikes and and the hurricanes have been eight to ten
years ago, you'll see pictures of me still out there
on the exact same thing. I think. Now it's just
the way that the world can see it up close
and feel like more personal with it. So during Harvey
is when it really started just explode this dope man
watching you work, you know, being a hip hop artist
(46:15):
myself and making a transition. And the first question a
lot of people asked me like what what made you
transition from hip hop to doing this this kind of work?
Like what what was the moment? What was the thought
process that made you just transition. I don't think I
fully transitioned it, but I argue people all the time.
The they'd be like, this is your call, and I
(46:36):
get pissed because it's like, hey, don't because we still
wrap our ass off. Yeah, we still we got a
whole project. Like me and Trade got a whole project
that's about the drop that we did literally in two
days and we was wrapping, listened to me, we said, look,
we need to do a project. Were all here on
this front of we need to report some of the
(46:57):
stuff the motions were dealing with literally coming from marching
from Brianna Tailer on the front line, in the community,
in the square, with the people to write to the studio.
The album is it's historical for a number of reasons. One,
we're living in Kentucky in the midst of what we're
going through and we did that album right on that turf,
on that land, in that atmosphere everything that we was
(47:20):
going through. And then like another thing, I gotta commend,
So I gotta commend our sisters, you know, me and
my song we meant. But even with Tamika and Linda,
just the fact that they be willing to to jump
on the front line and much they do, it's just like,
you know, as a brother, I'd just be proud man,
because they're prepared to go to war at any time,
(47:40):
just like us. You know. Definitely, that's what makes that's
what makes us as a whole. Uh. Even with Angelo
and every time I'll be honest with you, I'll be
wanting to kick my son, and I don't even because
because I'll be like, look, bro, we gotta go to Jim,
but I'm not gonna leave him. So it's like if
he go, we are. Yeah. It is what it is.
(48:02):
It's it's all part of sacrificing for what you believe
in and love. How can people support support YEA will
support a bien? UM? Well, I always tell them they
can always go to angel by nature dot com. It's
a um that's the website for the nonprofit, and they can,
don't they tell Sometimes I'll just be doing stuff on
(48:23):
the fleeing, so I may post my cash shop my
cash apport. I am trade a BN, I am a
M dollars sign I A M t R A A
b N. Yeah, and you can go to angels say
it again, Angels by Nature dot com. That's right to
support Angels dot com or I am trade a bien
(48:47):
on cash app send a brother five dollars, ten dollars,
five hundred dollars, five thousand dollars five to the dollars
to get it direct. Definitely gonna go to Mama sus
We love you. Trade the album drops soon. When we
said we were so if you're scared, stay inside me
and my son it. It's definitely fourteen tracks. Y'all love
it of course to me going there and others. You're
(49:10):
gonna do what I'll do. Man, love you man. So
that's our brother, Trey Lin. When when you when you
look at how authentic this this brother is and then
we talk about portion like it's so many ways we
could and it's our brother. And that's what I think
(49:30):
we started the show for. I think that's why we
started Until Freedom is because we understood that there's a
way that we have to connect with our people and
give space to like we know for sure that trade
is doing work that most people. I'm telling you right now,
I'm not going to the water, but I'm not going
in the water with snakes. I'm not getting ready to
(49:52):
be helping move cars off for folks. I can't do it.
That's just not what I do. And there's people that
will say, I'm not gonna get arrested um and go
inside of dirty jail that's COVID infected. I'm not. You know,
people just ain't gonna do certain things. But then there
are some of us who have been called to do
it and trades. One of those people who have been
called to do what he does and thank God for
him and he's got the most. We didn't get a
(50:14):
chance to talk about everything, like you said, daughter, beautiful.
He's such an amazing dad, definitely and just an amazing
He's my big teddy bear. I always say that, but
you know, you know he don't. He doesn't like when
we say that. He don't like the Sultan. But that's
(50:35):
sweet because he's still You don't want to hear it
on the show to the world, like if you send
it to him, he's anyway that brings me to I
don't get you know, you don't get no. I don't
get that. That could be a whole thing because that
ready don't get what you come on TV and quote
that man, tough man. You don't want you don't want
(50:57):
to mean no, man, what is wrong with dame that
to be to be acknowledged for being sensitive and loving
and caring. You're still a big dude, You're still a man. Man. Yeah,
we just didn't want it to be to them. It's
(51:17):
cool for you to call soft and all that. You
know what I'm saying, soft, teddy bear, sensitive and whatever.
The stuff you call, you can say that your man
off the camera to yourself in the room. Women's cool,
just don't say it on camera anyway. Well, I don't
get right. Is when you can see people like people
like even us, you know, people like Trade, and say
(51:41):
that when you do this type of work, this frontline work,
this community work that is in any way cloud chasing,
like in any way that you're doing it for anything
other than actually helping people. When you're actually helping people
like you see the results when you look and you
see the work that we doing on the front lines,
and you see the amount of resources we've you know,
(52:04):
we've given to people, the amount of attention that we
bring to certain cases, you know, the amount of time
that we take away from our families, the things that
we sacrifice. When you look and you see brothers like Trade,
and then you go to social media and people are
all you cloud chasing when you see Posha willing to
sacrifice her freedom and not know what's gonna happen when
(52:25):
you get in that jail cell and I know if
she's gonna make it outside of the police car. Because
a lot of people don't even make Freddy Gray didn't
even make it outside the police. So when you when
you make a conscious decision that you're willing to make
sacrifices that you know that most people wouldn't and people
have the nerve, the unmitigated goal to call it cloud
(52:47):
chasing or to say that you're doing something so people
could Yeah, I want people to pay attention. We're definitely
doing it so people can pay attention. But the cloud
chasing ship to me is just like it's it's insult.
It's an insult to you. It ain't to me, because
what happens is for you to think that I'm cloud chasing.
You don't even know what cloud chasing is. You don't
(53:07):
even know what this work entails. You don't even know
what brother. You know, our forefathers, like mom is the King,
what they they decided that they were going to civilly disobedient,
be civilly disobedient, and when they made those decisions and
what it was called for. So when we moved in
the tradition of our ancestors, when we move in the
(53:29):
rhythm of our hearts to actually do something that is
authentic that we feel like it's going to help people,
and you call a cloud chasing is just disdispectful. Man,
it's so disrespectful to me. And it's confused. It is
because what is it? I think that's smart if that's
what you say, cloud chaser, but it just bring on
the cloud and you know it, because you know what,
(53:51):
we're trying to fight ignorance and argue about everything that
people say. Whatever, call me a cloud chaser? It's what?
What am I? What's my things? I'm a cloud chaser?
I'm paid for about the Democrats? Um? What else I
think that I'm I'm I think I'm in fashion? Um
uh what is it? I want attention? I mean there's
(54:15):
so much thing, so you know what, how about this?
Take it all? Yes, that's who I am now and
now well you get out there in front of me,
because because guess what if I'm all of these things,
but yet and still in the spaces that require somebody
to stand up and speak out, I'm standing in you
are not? What are you? I don't know that's a word.
(54:38):
So if I'm a cloud chaser and we know we
had one, you don't understand, and that's you know what
we can actually hear when we were saying like we
was in the other side. So in the Louisville Jail.
It sales is right next to each other, so events
(54:58):
you can actually literally here what's going on in the
next cell. And we heard Johnny singing and clapping, and
we was in there dance into yourself. We heard y'all
sing it to you know what you guys got me
through specifically, you know, I have cause to phobia, um,
and every time I get in the police van, it's
a real tough situation. And I'm not gonna lie because
(55:19):
we don't hate law enforcement and we need to be honest.
Whenever I say to an officer, especially, they know when
they're arresting us most times that we haven't committed any
heinous crime or you know, it's not like there is
this level of of of tension between us at that moment.
Most of the time, the officers that may have been
there as the first responders, who are definitely much more volatile,
(55:44):
they're usually replaced with officers who will arrest us with
a little bit more compassion. They try to deal with
us a little differently, and so when I say to
them I'm couse to phobic, they they almost always will
allow me to at least get in a spot whick
could get some air. Almost always do that. And I
have to say it because I wouldn't be being honest
if I did not acknowledge that that does happen. Nonetheless,
(56:07):
I have no business being in the back of a van.
Anybody having to fight from Brianna Taylor with clausophobia is
just something that we should never have to sacrifice. Um.
But when we were in this last van, the Loville, Kentucky,
is a whole different ball game. Being in this last
van with the the the divider between. I've been in
(56:28):
those before, but this is much smaller. New York's van
that has the divider, it has a little more space,
and this van, the wall is on your knees period.
There is nowhere to move. The wall is on your knee.
The wall is on your knees in between, and there
are people on one side and people on the other
(56:50):
and they stack everyone in and they closed not one door,
but two. They closed the first door and then they
closed the outsort outside gates, which is like van door.
So there's two layers to how they have you box
in to this vehicle. It is hot in Louisville, Kentucky.
When we were arrested, it was probably a hundred and
(57:14):
fifty degrees. I don't know how y'all made it on
y'all side, because men, big men, you listen to me,
we barely made it. No, finish your story, because that's
how we made it. No. So then Reverend Stephen Green
and others who are pastors. It's Reverend Stephen Green is
is a pastor um. And there were others in there
(57:35):
who know the good songs, the good old go down,
tell Moses, let my people go songs. Y'all started singing,
and Porsha and Yandy think they can sing too, and
so the whole van erupted in song um you know,
and and in in spiritual songs. I was about to
(57:56):
fall out, like I was on. I was in the moment.
And Angelo talks about that to our partnered until Freedom
Attorney Angelo pinto that he was on. He was in
the moment when the sweat began to pour, the tears
started rolling. He was we were about to have a
panic attack and fall out. And that music, that music,
(58:17):
those songs, those words that our grandparents and I will
ancest the song and when they were in the worst
of conditions, when they were in the field and they
knew that today masses in a bad mood, that he
might come and kill us. I believe that those songs
might have helped to keep masters sometime from harming people.
(58:40):
It literally came over me and my spirit change and
I began. I began to cry. Oh, I could cry
right now. I began to cry, saying, Lord, I know
I'm supposed to be where I am, Lord, please carry
me like I know you got me. And I was.
(59:02):
I was. I was preaching to myself in that moment
because I didn't know and I and the worst thing
I did was I looked at the side and I
saw that in the front of the van there's a
barrier and there's two seats inside of a little hole,
and there were two women in there, and I could
see the young lady in their crying, and I was like,
we're not gonna make it. By the time we got
(59:23):
to the next location, I was completely drenched with tears
and sweat, But my heart was so full that we
found a way, like our people have been doing for
so many years, to get through the worst experience of
my life. And on that note, I think we should
go into end this show. Man. You you close that
(59:43):
out beautifully man, those moments right there or would defined you.
All of those people who are fighting, and people don't
believe what you fight for, people who questioned the authenticity.
Despite all of that, you continue to move on, continue
to do what you're supposed to do. So my motto is,
(01:00:05):
we don't have the right to do nothing. So we
may not always be right, Jamika, might not always be wrong,
but I promise you we will always be authentic. That's
how we own it. M
What's the family. I'm Tamika D. Mallory and I might
son in general. Welcome to Street Politicians, the place where
the streets and politics meet. It's a new year, but
a lot of the same things happening. I saw a
meme that had me like crying the other day that
said that went home and put away on and came
(00:26):
back as one like a little different. We look a
little different, but ain't much. In fact, it's like a
turn up. It's like winning home and worked out. Got
a little because because you if you think about it,
didn't start off like like you know what I'm saying,
like midway through and she was like, oh this this
(00:48):
is different quarter through quarter through it like yo, And
I mean the sad part about the continuation of the
craziness that we went through and twenty twenty is that
this pandemic continues to take lives, to claim people. Um.
I think that now we're seeing that each day something
(01:09):
like four thousand people are dying, and that's you know,
very significant, and we know, first of all, we don't
want to see anyone die, especially from UM a virus
that has hit our communities and just hit the world
in the way in which it has, but we know
for sure that black and brown people are in those numbers,
and that many people within our communities are impact. And
(01:30):
the thing I think that is so troubling about how
the coronavirus or COVID nineteen operates is that even though yeah,
you know, they close restaurants and try to close the
cities and in certain ways, whenever a person does get
the virus and they are around family members and particularly
(01:53):
elderly people, or if you are someone who works in
the healthcare industry, works at nursing homes, in hospital at all,
and you get it and give it to other people.
When folks die, they die two and three people in
a family, even more at times um. And so it's
just really it's sad that there there's no I don't
(02:13):
see an end in sight. And I know that the
vaccine should be or is for some people, a solution
to that, but then we're just looking at how slow
it's moving in terms of people getting vaccinated. You have
people like us who are very very challenged with the
idea of taking a vaccine. UM. So there's so much
even with that, so I'm not sure exactly how we
(02:35):
will get to a point where we have heard immunity.
Maybe that is the next step um or that we
even just feel comfortable enough to go back to some
form of normalcy. I don't know what the new norm is. Yeah,
I understand. I think for me man, just looking at
the pandemic, looking at COVID nineteen and just seeing how
(02:55):
it's affect in the way it's spreading, it is it's
something like we've never seem like I don't even understand it,
Like every time you try to understand it and they
give you know, And I don't think nobody other than
is And I think that's the problem for me. I
think that the government is trying to make mandates and
trying to shut this down and shut this down, or
we shouldn't go here, and we should And every time
(03:16):
it seems like they decided they're shutting something down, it
seems like it's getting worse. So it seems like they
they're not really making the proper decisions. They said, put
you in the hospital, or first we need to put
you in respirators. No, we don't need to put you
in restiate. We don't need to do that. We need
to change this. They don't know what they're doing it,
and it's it's like, unfortunately is at the expense of
people's lives, you know. So we're dealing we're dealing with
(03:38):
something that we don't know where it came from. We
don't know if it's man made, we don't know if
it's a virus, we don't know what it is because
it doesn't have any form. Like one person can have
a coal next person is dying in two days, like well,
And I think that's what makes it so crazy and,
like you said, so hard to understand. And even with
the respirators and the amount of lives that have been
(04:00):
taken based upon incompetence lack of knowledge, A lot of
that has to do with the fact that like people
didn't know, even in the health care industry, they didn't know,
and so they try things, um that we're not that's
not good for our communities they sent. That's what I
mean by incompetence. They sent a lot of people who
needed help home. Um. And even in my own personal
(04:24):
life right now, I have an uncle who already deals
with respiratory issues and he's elderly, and because of the
fact that he is, you know, looked upon as someone
who is not young and healthy. Um there, he has
COVID right now, and he's like on a guarney in
the hallway in a hospital in Alabama and not really
(04:44):
receiving the type of care that he deserves because the
hospitals are so crowded that they are unable to give
every single person the type of attention that they need.
And I'm not trying to make excuses because first of all,
it's my uncle, so I really would like for them
to do everything that they can. But at the same time,
I understand that once the system is stretched in the
(05:05):
way that it is, it's very difficult, especially in America,
where our health care system is already trashed without a pandemic.
It's just a really, really bad situation. And it makes
me so sad when I travel to places like Atlanta,
um like Miami, and just other cities that I've been
(05:26):
in over the last several months, and I see how
many young black people, particularly are not wearing masks, are
out partying and having such a good time. And to
your point, it's almost like, well, when they start shutting
down and not being able to go out and party
and do these things, it seems like the death rate
(05:46):
goes up. But the argument that I'm constantly making is
that they already know that these people are sick by
the time they shut it down, So when these folks
start dying, they would have been dying anyway in mind
and mind. I think I'm trying to say, in my opinion,
it's just like when you look at it every time
they say when New York was on the shop there
before New York was on the shut now it was couple,
(06:11):
then it turned into as soon as they shut it
down was thousands a day. Yeah, but I don't think.
I think that that's when when we look at l A,
now we look at thousands a day before they shut
it down, like l A is probably wanted the major
big cities. Anyway, We're not doctors and we don't know. No,
we're not doctors and we don't know. But I do
think that the problem is that people were already sick
(06:34):
by the time the state realized it's time to shut
it down. And so I don't know, we don't know
the solution, we don't know how to deal with it.
But what I do know is that young black people
and people just in general across this nation need to
realize that it's no longer about individualism. It's not about
me and whether or not if I get sick, it's
(06:56):
not as bad. I had coronavirus. I had COVID nineteen
and I was sick for about a week. And I
always tell people, if I look at it from a
scale of one to six, I was probably around the three.
But I know that if I had been a five,
if I had been anywhere close to that, I don't
know if I could make it, because there were definitely
days when I wasn't sure if it was getting worse
and whether or not I have to go to the hospital.
(07:17):
So when I think about that, I would never want
to inflict something like that on another person, whether I
know them or not. I don't want to go into
a restaurant, a store, or anywhere else knowing that I
have exposed myself or that I'm even infected, and go
out and give it to other people. Because not everyone
is gonna be a three or two, or you know,
or be able to get rid of it in a
(07:38):
couple of days, or get rid of the symptoms in
a couple of days. So you know, we just gotta
start living as if we're living for a community. And
not just for a few Yeah, speaking of Georgia, speaking
the elections going off, and yes, well it really is.
(07:59):
Shout out to black women men organized. No. No, let
me add people black women who organized because black women. No.
But in terms of the major voices of those who
put the resources on the ground, the LaTosha Browns. Even
though you know you gotta give Cliff Albright her partners
some love too, but he would tell you that Latasha
(08:20):
Brown of Black Voters Matter was major in terms of organizing.
Stacy Abrams, do Wanna Thompson, Helen Butler, who we've had
on the show. These individuals are people who, um, as
black women, understood the importance of stopping everything else that's
going on in life and focusing on organizing in Georgia.
(08:41):
Then of course black women and men voted and made
it happen. Absolutely so certainly shout out to the blacks,
the black blacker black and blacks many black man. We did.
We did. Our thing was on the ground. We're not
doing doors. We to people to the polls, we fed people,
(09:02):
We did all things. And man, I think all eyes
was on Georgia and it showed when we collectively put
our minds to something when we want to accomplish something
that we definitely get it done. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, So
I was thinking because you know, I think my thought
of the day I think probably too much, But my
thought of the day is that so many people are
(09:25):
saying they still don't know what to do or what
the movement is. And I have to ask, with everything
that we see happening, if you haven't found a place, now,
what is it going to take? That's a good question,
that's a good thought to have. What is it going
to take if at this point the folks are running
up in the capital, climbing on the walls. The election
(09:49):
shows our power and how when we come together we
can actually change politics in this country. And now it's
time for us to change policy. So if you did
it for the politics, then you could do it for
the policy, right. Um. The pandemic has showed again that
we collectively as a community have so much to do
(10:11):
from a health perspective, um taken care of our elderly. Like,
there's so much happening and people are still saying, I
don't know. I think, man, I think you know what
it is a lot of people have been jaded by
the movement I get that a lot, you know, coming
from marginalized communities and projects and communities with poverty stricken.
(10:32):
They don't. They don't believe, you know what I'm saying.
They've been like, oh, we've been watching and we've been
doing this, and all we've been doing that. I don't
want to vote. I don't. They don't want to do
anything because in their mind, prior to this exact moment,
they didn't see where they vote count They didn't see
where their march county, didn't see where their protests counting.
I think in this moment right now, we're starting to
see levels of change. We're starting to see when we
(10:54):
collectively come together as a community with one goal, how
it changes. Like we we actually as a community, as
a people, as a culture, voted in the presidents. We
actually we change the trajectory, Like when we look at Georgia,
we change a traditionally red state into blue. And it's
not about you know what, It's not partisan for me,
(11:17):
but it's just understanding that we had an objective and
we understood that we needed this to get what we wanted.
We needed to be able to put a Senate in
place that was gonna be able to give the president
that we gave an opportunity, you know, the opportunity to
actually in enact laws and legislation that we need as
black people. So I think a lot of people was like, wow,
(11:39):
you know what I'm saying. So I think that prior
to that moment, a lot of people was. But I
think right now. I had an interview yesterday actually literally,
and I told him I'm like, you just have to
find out what it is that you can contribute. Like
everybody doesn't do the thing You're not gonna do. Be
on the front lines with me. You know, you might
not be able to contribute five or ten thousand now
you might have five college that you contribute to one
(12:01):
organization that does the work every month. You know what
I'm saying. You might know how to do social media too,
where you tweet out something that's going on that we're
dealing with, or notify us about things. You might be
able to find information to notify the leaders who have
platforms and have the ears of the people to give
them information. Hey, this is going on because I go
on my d MS daily and there's certain people that
(12:23):
find information for me. Like I don't automatically just know
what's going on, Oh what's going on? And they find
him like did you know about this? And they send
us dms all times, So that might be your entry
point into the movement, you know what I'm saying. Some
people have Some people work every day so they can't
come out and be on the front lines, but they
utilize they informed somebody else about what's going on. Then
(12:44):
there are people who are able to come out in
protests and utilize their bodies and sacrifice. So there's just
so many different ways into this movement, and we don't
just we need you to understand that. There's definitely a
way for you if you really want to. So many
ways to get involved, and they're really just as no excuse.
And I think a lot of people use excuses because
you know, there's fear um and there's complacency, and it's
(13:09):
just good old laziness, right Like, let's not try to
uh go around it. It's good old laziness. Sometimes we
see what other folks are doing and say it's too hard,
and you know what, it is difficult to get up
every day, to be committed to a struggle, to have
to um, you know, really think about and monitor the
(13:31):
things you say the things you do, the way you
operate in the world, because you don't want to be
a hypocrite to what it is that you're working on.
Um And none of us are perfect right because we
still constantly find ourselves having to reshape, reform, come back,
think about our choices. You know, it's it's a it
is a lot of work, but it's also a lot
(13:52):
of work to watch people are people dying every day.
It's also a lot of work living in communities where
you're you know, living in in public housing and you
walking stepping over urine and having to walk up steps,
and you know, not having the proper heat and having
rodents running through your apartments. It's also a lot of work.
You know, they have to boil that water because there's
(14:13):
no hot water in the building. It's a lot of
work to have to go to a further hospital. Um,
you know, not be able to go to the one
in your community, because it's you know, if you go
there with certain problems, you will probably have three more
when you leave, So now you've got to travel across town.
I mean, it's a lot of work to have to
live every day being black and brown in America and
(14:34):
so we might as well figure out how to make
most of our efforts be about our progress rather than
just sort of accepting things as they are. So that's
my thought of the day. Find something. If you can't,
if you if you if you can't find anything yet
and you don't see that there is a state of
emergency emergency, then I don't know when you ever go
(14:55):
listen and find something. You know, my model, we don't
have the right to do nothing to make sure you
find out. So you know, the streets is talking. They're
still talking after about a thousand times and a thousand
lawsuits being overturned, and no, they finally times again certified
that Biden won the election, that we have a new president.
(15:18):
After a thousand times Trump had pulled Trump and Stein
pulled out every stop once again. In my life now,
I've been paying attention to politics for at least twenty
five years, and never in my life have I seen
elections take this type of like time. And like I said,
I asked somebody that they I think it might have
(15:40):
been you and Angelo. I'm like when you in the past,
when people we went out and we voted for president
or anything else that night, they told you so and
so is the winner. That's what I remember that this
is a whole new game. This is the thing. In
two weeks, three weeks, three months, This vote I keep
trying to tell people is running the White House like
(16:01):
the Mafield. And it's not. It's not even it's not
even a joke. At this point we realized the seriousness
of it, you know. And he was actually on because
and when you listen to the phone call that he
was on with Rasburger anyway, and he was telling them
find me some votes. The Secretary of State of Georgia,
that's the person in charge of secretary. He said, listen,
(16:24):
find me some votes. It's only about eleven thousand. I
need you to find me the vote. Imagine if Barack
Obama would have been on the phone with the Secretary
of States and cups the next about eleven thousand. But
you see, the thing about Trump Mice is that Trump
(16:48):
is operating out He's operating is the most funniest yet scary.
It's not even He is operating in pure white nous.
His whiteness says that I have authority, entitlement, privilege. It
(17:08):
is what white supremacy is all about. And people get
really upset with me when I say that, because they're like,
are you saying that all white people know? We're not
saying all white people behave a certain way. We're saying that. Yeah.
What we're saying is that the idea of whiteness in America,
(17:29):
the concept, the social constructs of whiteness in America, it
is ingrained in the idea of supremacy. Right, And he
operates as if he is running or doing a deal
for a new apartment building or a new casino. So
(17:49):
when he calls the bank right and speaks to his homies,
other white people who are bank officers, and they need
to find money for building, you know, money for construction,
for development, that's what he says, I need another eleven
million dollars. Help find me some money, look through my
portfolio and see where we can move things around. That
(18:11):
is how he is used to operation, and we just
having this conversation. Is he is adamant that he won
by landslode, like a landslas won by landslide. So if
you want by landslide, why the hell would somebody have
to find you some vote? We should have to try
(18:34):
to find the other persons of votes, because you won
by so much. It just doesn't make sense, none of it.
It's not supposed to make sense though, because it's not right.
And at least the Secretary of State while on this call,
although let me just tell you, we're not about to
uplift any of these individuals, right because they you know,
because they have their own history of suppressing the black vote.
(18:58):
And there's more that can be done in the state
of Georgia and in other places across this nation to
protect black people, to protect these elections, and moreover, to
challenge this crazy person that is finally out of the
White House or on his way out right. So there's
much more that could have been done. And that's why
I am not um. I don't care about the lullabys
(19:20):
that Lindsay Graham is singing. I don't care about Mitch mcconne.
All these people all of a sudden have found their morality.
Facebook and Twitter have all of a sudden decided they
have aided and abetted for four years, matter of fact,
five years, even when this man was running for office.
They aided and abetted what we saw happening at the
(19:43):
Capitol and where people have died as a result of them.
Not checking this man in the first place. Politicians, what's
so crazy is that you know that what he's saying
has to be far fit right, because they want to
cheat anyway they've been cheating. This is so far fast.
(20:06):
We can't even help you with this, Like we said, please,
we have to go leave you out, one of our
best sister friends. But what I want you to know
is that it's not that they that is because he's
saying something so far fast. It's because they know he's
out and they need to save face at this point
because they think people are stupid and don't remember trying
(20:30):
to act not someone I hear you saying. They But
the thing is, if they can make sure he stayed in,
they would, they would they know he's out because they
can't do This is a debate. This is a debate
that we can't have, but I would love to have it.
I don't think they want him to stay in because
the way that Joe Biden acts is if he is
(20:51):
more so their friends, then he should be. He's over
here talking about these people are not our enemies because
to pay trying to play a game of chess, right
that he thinks he's playing chess, But back the end
of the day, it never really wins because you can't
really negotiate with terrorists. So his his thing is like,
I think I'm gonna need them, and I have some
(21:12):
relationships with them, and I probably ain't gonna do shift
for us anyway. But at the end of what, I
don't know, maybe he is, I don't know, but whatever
it is, he's trying to he's trying to tread this
little in the middle thing. He don't work side. Pick
a side, Joe Biden, pick a side, and Kamala Harris
if you don't pick the right side, I said, I
(21:36):
said this on my Instagram. We don't did everything. We
got you all elected, you don't got you all to senate.
Black people are gonna need something. We are on your ass, Jesus.
Before we go to the next segment and have our
special guests joint, we're gonna take a quick break for
our sponsors. So we are being joined right now by
(21:59):
our homie, our jail mate, myself mate. She was one
of the Louisville eighty seven, which is when I was arrested.
Eighty seven of us who sat on the lawn um
at Daniel Cameron's house to demand justice for Brianna Taylor.
But then she's also in the sixty five, which I
didn't know, and we call it the eight seven sixty five.
(22:24):
A group of incredible people who have continued for the
most far to work together UM and continue to organize
on behalf of Brianna Taylor. UM. It's a group of
individuals that I'm proud to be a part of because
a lot of them were folks who had never ever
participated in civil disobedience before. And Porsche was actually one
(22:45):
of those individuals. And so I'm so happy that my sister,
she has now become my sister. And I tell everybody
so that people understand how Porsche got involved that I
called her because we have a mut mutual friend in
Jennifer Williams. UM. I called and I said, you know,
would you be willing to come to participate in civil
(23:08):
disobedience with us? I said, you don't have to, but
if you can, at least come and use your platform
to help us get the message out and bring awareness
to Brianna Taylor to us as organizes on the ground.
You know, would you do that? And she flew in,
spent her own money, bought a family, UM, and came
out and stood with us and decided at some point
(23:29):
throughout the day that you know what, I'm gonna go ahead,
um and and break the law um in order to
really really make people pay attention to Brianna. And so
Porscha Williams is our sister, our sister, girl out friend
UM and partner partner in the movement. Hey, portion portion,
(23:51):
what's up y'all. I'm so glad to be here with y'all.
Thank you for that introduction, Well, thank you, Thank you
for being, you know, one of those celebrities. You know,
you're not a celebrity me because you like my sister,
but to the world, you are a celebrity that is
willing to make the sacrifice. Man. There's a lot of people,
you know, there's a lot of people that are from
the sidelines say what they would have done or what
(24:13):
you should be doing. You're not one of those people, man.
And I've grown to know how authentic you are. You know,
you came down to Littleville and you was with us,
and you was like, what were we doing? You know,
and you was there every step of the way, man,
And we just want to say thank you for continuing
to be authentic. That's that's that's me all all all
(24:35):
the way. And you know, I appreciate it for sure.
I don't even I feel like I deserve any thanks
or whatever, because to me, it's so crazy when I
think about it, it's just a matter of doing what
I feel I'm supposed to be doing, Like why else?
You know, it's a lot of times you have your
here in certain places in your life and you wonder,
you know, why am I giving this opportunity? Or like
(24:56):
even for me, it's like, wow, I got six million
people who follow me on Instagram? What am I? What
have I've been talking about? What is all of this for?
What is all of this amounted to? And what was
it building up to? And for me it hit me
in that moment it was for a time like this.
It was for me to come in contact with Tamika.
It was gonna find out what she was doing and
(25:16):
until freedom was being a part of you all had
your entire organization to Kentucky. Um. He had brought so
much attention and awareness to into detail into Brianna Taylor's
story that it made me say, oh my gosh, that
is so inspiring. Let me lend this platform that I've
been blessed with. You know this, I've been on here
saying so many other things. Why not say Brianna Taylor's name?
(25:40):
If it could even bring UM one other official UM
and and bring attention to what's happening to her, if
it could help even a little bit, it just felt
like a natural duty that I needed to do. You know,
it just wasn't even a question. So for me, when
I think about it, it's like when I think about celebrities,
just like, why not think about it? We post everything
(26:01):
on Instagram, right, I mean, I mean everything you post
with your eight, you post your child's birthday, you post
your friends, bitch you posted if you have a platform
and people are listening to you, and it's a time
like this where we need to reach people and get
all hands on deck and get people involving. If people
are formed, then that's exactly what I need to be
talking about when the camera is on me. That's exactly
(26:23):
what I need to be showing when the eyes are
watching me. And so UM I felt very blessed to
be even in contact with you all, and specially to
connect with Tunika the way that I did at that time,
because you never know a lot of times some celebrities,
to be honest, the reason why they some of them
probably don't really get their hands in and their feet
(26:45):
grounded in um with activists because you don't really know
if you're welcome or not. You don't really know if
someone's gonna question it or whatever. But for me, I
did not care. I was like, listen, real recogniz is
real in this situation. And if this young lady has
been doing this much work and she sees that I
(27:06):
can be effective in any way possible, I'm gonna do
whatever she says. She's my leader from today forward, you know.
And so I truly trusted the process and I truly
have been blessed just by being a part of it
and making that step and making that sacrifice. So that's
like when I say, like people say, you know, well,
thank you for that, It's like, no, I am humble,
(27:29):
and I am thankful to even be near what my
grandfather and other right activists have had done in the past.
So stop right there, because we got to talk about that,
because it's not that you just felt it was the
right thing to do. That sounds good, right. I love
(27:50):
hearing you'd be so humble and I just felt it
was the right thing to do. You know, there's a lineage.
First of all, I've seen you out in Atlanta involved
in before Brianna Taylor, involved in protests, evolved and involved
in organizing and community work. So this is not new,
maybe on the scale of Brianna Taylor and how international
(28:11):
the movement for justice is. UM. However, you have been
doing the work locally for a long time. And there's
a reason there's lineage. Your family has been rooted in
social justice and civil rights, and we want to hear
about that. Yes, that's true. UM, I definitely had been
active in Atlanta. My grandfather, Reverend Josia William who was
(28:34):
an activist also with a thig philanthropist, and so our
family's charities UM for Josea has been changed for Josea,
but it was Josea Fitha hunger and homeless, and I
took part in in that part of my family giving
back to community. So that just kind of over the years,
of course, gave me a heart for the people period,
Like any time anything that's going on, I just want
(28:56):
to be their period. Um. You know, when I talk
about how inspired I was to do something, now it's
with this particular platform and in this particular way. But
you know, growing up and having a grandfather like referenose
and Williams who was so profound in the movement, and
the way he was used in the movement is very
similar to some of the things that I see that
(29:18):
I feel being led to do. He was one of
the people who would rouse everybody up together and get
them just fired up about the cause and organize and
get them out there and and encourage people to be
on the front line and what that purpose and what
that meant. Um. He also was on Edmonds Tennis Bridge, Um,
you know, on bloody Sunday. And you know, I remember,
(29:41):
I remember you calling out when we were actually on
the bridge in Kentucky. You said, this is our bloody Sunday,
and this is that moment. And I really did feel
his spirit, Um really just come and center me and
comfort me and just make me feel like what I
was doing was right for people who don't no bloody Sunday,
(30:02):
Uh was directly connected to the right to vote. That
the civil rights leaders of that time, we're fighting for
the right to vote. So your grandfather was a part
of that, and it was actually a full circle because
we actually voted on his birthday, on my grandfather's birthday,
So it was it was so crazy that they came
full circle like that. Um. But yes, and it was
(30:23):
the sacrifice of them. Again, why were we doing it?
Because we wanted America to see the its ugliness. We
wanted to see what had been done to this beautiful
young queen Brianna Taylor and see them arrest us while
we were being peaceful. And that's the same thing they
had done then, to show its ugliness, to see what
we were what was happening to African American people. So
it had been in me and I had definitely marched
(30:45):
with my grandfather before, um, you know, when I was
much much younger, So I have felt the hatred from
white supremacy before. And that's just it's so crazy, right
when you look at that type of work because my
by myself, you know, doing this work, it comes from
a place of authents and it comes from one to
do what's right and understand that we have a platform,
that we have a voice, that we can utilize that.
(31:07):
And I constantly go to social media and hear people like, oh,
you're a fake activists, and this is this is a joke.
You're just trying to get people to pay attention, and
you just want people views, and this is not real,
and and and and it used to insult me, you know,
like I used to feel like, yo, you know how
authentic this is for me? You know how much I sacrifice,
you know how much things that you don't even know
(31:28):
that I do for this work that I actually do.
So how does that? How do you feel do you
get those type of attacks and when you do get that,
people questioning the authenticity of what it is you do, Like,
how do you feel? What do you what do you
think at that moment? Well, when I really had gotten
a lot of that just because of my money. It's
just because of the legacy within my family, my all
(31:51):
of my aunt's marks with my grandfather. Um, you know,
my father marched with my grandfather. So I never had
been questions because of who my family is. That I
did get some of that, and it was coming from
just the reality the world that I am a television personality,
and a part of it did hurt my feelings. But
then I thought to myself, at the end of the day,
even Martin Luther King was questioned and comparing myself. But
(32:13):
he was also questioned by the clergy, you know, what
are you doing? When he was taking apart in direct action,
it was like, oh, you put yourself in a position
to be arrested. Let me tell you, there is nothing
on this earth with me having a daughter, with me
having career that when you walk to those police officers,
you both of you guys know and you know you
(32:33):
risk the same people who have already proven that they
can shoot a man in the back seven times. And
I get convicted when they camprove that they have killed
a woman in her home while she was while she
was in her private spectuary. Okay, they've I've improven to
do that. They've improven to kill plenty of us, kill
Sandra Bland while she's in their custody. So we are
walking towards actual known murderers and killers. There's nothing on
(32:58):
this earth there would make me sacrifices for at all.
It's the most realist moment that you will ever come
into when you were facing that type of danger and
you make the decision that it is worth doing it
for someone else's life. Anything that I have ever done, um,
it was absolutely so that the cameras would see the
splin the world. It was absolutely so that people would
(33:21):
call call Brianna Taylor's name on all platform, absolutely so
that what I'm doing, my name would be synonymous with it,
so that she can gain some attention and get some justice. Um.
But it was all for the fact that I know
what her mother had gone through. I looked at my
mother before I left the house and I cried thinking
(33:42):
about if something could happen to me, And you know
what she told me, this is something you have to do.
This is your purpose. You ain't ask nobody, this is
something that you feel you were being protected by your ancestors,
Go and get it done. When you talk about you
know your mom looking at you. I remember your mom,
I'm calling like, okay, now you're arrested. So because you
(34:04):
didn't know right that that was gonna be the end result,
and your mom was like, so, now what exactly are
we doing? Like break all of this down for me
because people want to know that you're okay, and you know,
and I appreciate you being there as my sister. But
then we watched and you know, when my son asked
the question, how does it feel when you know when
(34:25):
people attack you, and they tried their naysayers over our work.
If it was just Brianna Taylor, maybe they can make
the case that well, you're just trying to get on TV,
you know, get to get a new storyline. But you
went right out of that into the election for one
knocking ass off. So you have continued to show over
(34:45):
and over again that you get the connection between protests politics,
and of course now we have to fight to get
policy done. That's something we're gonna be talking about on
Street Politicians a lot. The three p's going from the streets,
getting in those ballots and the polls going to you know,
(35:06):
make sure that we cast our ballots, and then of
course continuing to fight to ensure that policy is actually
enacted that helps our communities. What was it like being
in Atlanta helping to being in Georgia in general, helping
to get two people elected to the Senate? Like, just
how did you feel when it actually happened and you
(35:28):
knew that you had such a major role doing lives
with O Saw standing with Reverend Warnock. Um, you know
all the videos that you put together, you were actually
like out there on the ground. Yes, absolutely, Um, you
know for me when when we as the numbers were
coming in, I got you know, I was stressed, you know, like,
oh my god, you know, and but then I said,
(35:49):
you know what, I gotta let go. Let God, you
know what I'm saying. And I went on the bed
and I woke up and I saw that we had won.
And I knew that that that faith that I had,
that hope in people period. And so for me, you know,
when you when people stay activists, they like to put
people in a box, and um, I don't. I don't
mind being put in that box whatsoever. But I have
a love for people generally, I want all of us
(36:11):
to have a better quality of life. And for me
being in the in this position, I always try to
think about how I could be most effective. So I
felt like I was effective in helping Brianna Taylor or
even bringing attention to it by saying her name on
my platform. Then I thought about, all right, well what's
the next step. You know, you gotta deal with politics,
(36:32):
you gotta deal with these policies. So even before that,
you know, we had to fight to get the d
A here in at last, so involved in that going
to different um for um. But when it came to warnicking. Also,
I realized that there was such a gray area there
that people did not even really know much about these
(36:52):
two men. I said, oh wow, okay, well here's where
I can be most effective running out. Listen, they paid
me to do it, and listen, I'll do it for
free as well if they can help us. And so
I decided to put together at p s A and
I really Samika actually was supposed to be a part
of it, but her flight came in and then we
(37:13):
had we I got asked at the last minute to
do a rally of Therey, so we weren't able to
have Tamica in this one, but we did it for
UM the presidential raise, and then I did another one
for the in it and it was just so great
to be able to look at all their policies when
it came to healthcare, when it came to the gun laws,
(37:35):
when it came to all of these different things that
directly affect African Americans that we complain about. Why are
we dying? Why is this? Why is that? Why don't
I have health care? Why are all these black mothers
being you know, dying in the hospital and they're not
being careful properly. Well, there's a reason for that, you know,
and that is because we need to have doctors who
are educating, who have social skills to deal with African
(37:58):
American women. Um, we need to pimport the issue. We
need to have someone like a John Also whose wife
is an OBG Bright and who can help show Hampy,
these are the issues that are happening. Listen, let me
tell you that you're doing. You do the word. Listen
to me. You are a historian, you know all stuff
like I'm sitting here you like mar Luther King the
(38:20):
clergy said, I'm like most people don't even know none
of this stuff. Man, you are proving yourself to be
so authentic and needed in this work. And your energy,
like I can tell you, I can vouch that this
is porscheous energy all day. She has an energy that
lights up a room, don't matter what. We was getting
arrested and she was standing next to me smiling like
(38:41):
like she knew, whatever it is, this is God's plan.
She put like she said, let go and let God.
She kept us all she kept with smiling. We was
inside the priests and locked up, chained together, and she
started a chance like this woman right here. Is she
is really serious about this moment. That's right, Spiritual war Fair.
We have flesh that we are having to deal with
(39:02):
when we get weak and we are in these positions
to do these dangerous things or even put our jobs
on the line of careers. So wait, wait, wait, wait
before you finish this, because I want you to end
this with this, because this is exactly what I want
to know. I want you to give advice to those
that don't know what to do, because because she will
(39:26):
definitely prey. I want you to end this by giving
advice tell us. Tell people who might feel helpless, who
don't see what's going to happen, and don't know what's
gonna be the next move. We're looking at what's going
on with the capital, all these things. I want you
to give advice to those people who might feel helpless
and don't know what to do. And then well, first
I want to say that you take one step. God
(39:46):
is going to lead you the whole way. He there anyway,
he got his hand on us. He already knew that
this was our destiny, that I'd be sitting here talking
to you all, that you all would have been doing
what you're doing in the community and in politics. Um,
all of this is predestined. It was all. Every single
gift that I have, every single gift that anyone watching
the show has, It's already in you. You just need
(40:07):
to access it activated and be a part of what's happening. Okay,
because everything is laid out, there is a plan for
all of our lives. There's no way that Biden and
Kamala was gonna be president. Vice President John Alsoft was
gonna win. God already knew that the devil and these
white supremes are gonna act the fool over there at
the Capitol, right and all of us stayed at home.
(40:27):
We say we did because we did we were supposed
to do. When out we voted, and the devil is mad.
It is what it is, the warfare. Okay, there's no
time in this life that you're gonna have change of
this magnitude and not have some pain involved, confusion involved, etcetera.
But all we have to do is Christians is to
be focused. That's it. Be focused. We are not of confusion.
(40:50):
We have a very direct plan of what we are doing.
We have educated ourselves what happened with Osoft, and we're
not it's not by mistake. That is from educating people
who had sat at home and they had had enough
and they had prayed, and they got out and they
activated what was in them to make a better future
for their children. So, whoever you are, whatever your gift is,
(41:12):
whether it is you, I don't know. Maybe you may
be a word smith and you can write a great
letter and do something online to do that. Whether you can.
If you're in a church and you're in a pool page,
you need to speak about poor politics in the bullpage.
That's where that's where I used to come from back
in the day with black people. So for me, if
anybody out there, whatever gift you have, you need to
use it for the movement we need. We need a
(41:34):
whole show. Past the portion. We we got past the
portions with past portion. We know what we want to say.
Thank you, We love you. Continue to be great, continue
to have that energy, continue to feel empowered because God
got us. Like you said, God got his hand and everything.
(41:54):
And keep letting them use you. We appreciate you, use you.
And listen, my son said that in the all day
on you got the same energy, and that's true. But
at night we twork because that's what we like. I
love with us, all right, I love you guys. Before
(42:17):
we go to the next segment and have our special
guests joint, we're gonna take a quick break for our sponsors.
That's my girl though. Porscha has you know, really turned
out to be a good friend, especially to Yandy and me,
and we just we vibe and I listen. I don't.
(42:37):
I don't really watch the show. It's been a while
since I was really into the shows. I don't really
watch Love and Hip Hop and Yandy's on it, you know,
that's one of my best friends, my sister. I don't
really watch the house wise because we move around so much,
I can never keep up with the schedule. So it's
one of those things where I have to catch it
on us on Sunday when I'm just binging. But in
terms of the relationship that we had have I have seen,
(43:01):
I have learned and felt nothing but authenticity from Porsche,
from Yandy in terms of the movement and their sisterhood
to me and also um, you know, they're just cool.
We just have a good time loving up on one
of them. Speaking speaking the sisterhood, I I felt brotherhood
from the brother that were. I just want to introduce
(43:22):
none other my brother Traded Truth, Traded Truth. He's also
my Mason Police. I have to call him when you
get on my nerves. And how many people that can
call me? Bro Bro Bro Bro. I need you, I
need you to calm down right now. But Trade is
good to see you, brother. We love you so. Yes, sir,
so I don't even feel upposed to be on this show.
We're family, but hey, yeah, that's what the thing is.
(43:46):
This is the opportunity just to give flowers. Like you know,
you said you don't believe you need to be here.
We have our platform and we just want to make
sure that we give your flowers and say, man that
you are a phenomenal human being and a brother and
we we truly appreciate you. Man, appreciate it. But back
at you, because you know the thing is, man, we
all feed off each other. So just as well as
(44:08):
times I may want to spass, give up for the
public to know y'all do the same thing with me.
And for the record, I tell everybody on the loan
with I'll steps until you know they know what you
think of them, you're gonna think of me. But we
just feed off each other man, and that's how that's
how we've be learned that we built. Before knowing you
(44:28):
as a family member, I knew your work and I
used to admire on social media those galoshes and and
just your efforts really being like because some of us
say were on the front line, but it's a different
type of front line when you're out there in the
water with the snakes moving around and the alligators. Like
I've seen you out there with some crazy things literally
(44:51):
moving cars physically with other men, uh and women who
are out there with you. What made you start the
relief gang? How long has it been in existence? And
what's the what's the goal of your organization? Um? So
the actual organization is Angeled by Nature, which is another
(45:12):
meaning for a being, because you know, the real mean
a being is on the street side. So everybody wanted
to be part of So I had to find a
chapter and that that people could be m part of us.
So I started the nonprofit angel by Nature. Relief game
really started heavily during Harvey. But the crazy thing about yeah,
(45:33):
Hurricane Harvey. So everybody who in Texas already knew me,
knew me for doing this work. Period. It's just what
happened is during Harvey. You know, social media is the
easiest way to spread the word across the world. So
it was just a different type of magnifying glass because
I've been doing this. If you look back at Hurricane
(45:53):
Ikes and and the hurricanes have been eight to ten
years ago, you'll see pictures of me still out there
on the exact same thing. I think. Now it's just
the way that the world can see it up close
and feel like more personal with it. So during Harvey
is when it really started just explode this dope man
watching you work, you know, being a hip hop artist
(46:15):
myself and making a transition. And the first question a
lot of people asked me like what what made you
transition from hip hop to doing this this kind of work?
Like what what was the moment? What was the thought
process that made you just transition. I don't think I
fully transitioned it, but I argue people all the time.
The they'd be like, this is your call, and I
(46:36):
get pissed because it's like, hey, don't because we still
wrap our ass off. Yeah, we still we got a
whole project. Like me and Trade got a whole project
that's about the drop that we did literally in two
days and we was wrapping, listened to me, we said, look,
we need to do a project. Were all here on
this front of we need to report some of the
(46:57):
stuff the motions were dealing with literally coming from marching
from Brianna Tailer on the front line, in the community,
in the square, with the people to write to the studio.
The album is it's historical for a number of reasons. One,
we're living in Kentucky in the midst of what we're
going through and we did that album right on that turf,
on that land, in that atmosphere everything that we was
(47:20):
going through. And then like another thing, I gotta commend,
So I gotta commend our sisters, you know, me and
my song we meant. But even with Tamika and Linda,
just the fact that they be willing to to jump
on the front line and much they do, it's just like,
you know, as a brother, I'd just be proud man,
because they're prepared to go to war at any time,
(47:40):
just like us. You know. Definitely, that's what makes that's
what makes us as a whole. Uh. Even with Angelo
and every time I'll be honest with you, I'll be
wanting to kick my son, and I don't even because
because I'll be like, look, bro, we gotta go to Jim,
but I'm not gonna leave him. So it's like if
he go, we are. Yeah. It is what it is.
(48:02):
It's it's all part of sacrificing for what you believe
in and love. How can people support support YEA will
support a bien? UM? Well, I always tell them they
can always go to angel by nature dot com. It's
a um that's the website for the nonprofit, and they can,
don't they tell Sometimes I'll just be doing stuff on
(48:23):
the fleeing, so I may post my cash shop my
cash apport. I am trade a BN, I am a
M dollars sign I A M t R A A
b N. Yeah, and you can go to angels say
it again, Angels by Nature dot com. That's right to
support Angels dot com or I am trade a bien
(48:47):
on cash app send a brother five dollars, ten dollars,
five hundred dollars, five thousand dollars five to the dollars
to get it direct. Definitely gonna go to Mama sus
We love you. Trade the album drops soon. When we
said we were so if you're scared, stay inside me
and my son it. It's definitely fourteen tracks. Y'all love
it of course to me going there and others. You're
(49:10):
gonna do what I'll do. Man, love you man. So
that's our brother, Trey Lin. When when you when you
look at how authentic this this brother is and then
we talk about portion like it's so many ways we
could and it's our brother. And that's what I think
(49:30):
we started the show for. I think that's why we
started Until Freedom is because we understood that there's a
way that we have to connect with our people and
give space to like we know for sure that trade
is doing work that most people. I'm telling you right now,
I'm not going to the water, but I'm not going
in the water with snakes. I'm not getting ready to
(49:52):
be helping move cars off for folks. I can't do it.
That's just not what I do. And there's people that
will say, I'm not gonna get arrested um and go
inside of dirty jail that's COVID infected. I'm not. You know,
people just ain't gonna do certain things. But then there
are some of us who have been called to do
it and trades. One of those people who have been
called to do what he does and thank God for
him and he's got the most. We didn't get a
(50:14):
chance to talk about everything, like you said, daughter, beautiful.
He's such an amazing dad, definitely and just an amazing
He's my big teddy bear. I always say that, but
you know, you know he don't. He doesn't like when
we say that. He don't like the Sultan. But that's
(50:35):
sweet because he's still You don't want to hear it
on the show to the world, like if you send
it to him, he's anyway that brings me to I
don't get you know, you don't get no. I don't
get that. That could be a whole thing because that
ready don't get what you come on TV and quote
that man, tough man. You don't want you don't want
(50:57):
to mean no, man, what is wrong with dame that
to be to be acknowledged for being sensitive and loving
and caring. You're still a big dude, You're still a man. Man. Yeah,
we just didn't want it to be to them. It's
(51:17):
cool for you to call soft and all that. You
know what I'm saying, soft, teddy bear, sensitive and whatever.
The stuff you call, you can say that your man
off the camera to yourself in the room. Women's cool,
just don't say it on camera anyway. Well, I don't
get right. Is when you can see people like people
like even us, you know, people like Trade, and say
(51:41):
that when you do this type of work, this frontline work,
this community work that is in any way cloud chasing,
like in any way that you're doing it for anything
other than actually helping people. When you're actually helping people
like you see the results when you look and you
see the work that we doing on the front lines,
and you see the amount of resources we've you know,
(52:04):
we've given to people, the amount of attention that we
bring to certain cases, you know, the amount of time
that we take away from our families, the things that
we sacrifice. When you look and you see brothers like Trade,
and then you go to social media and people are
all you cloud chasing when you see Posha willing to
sacrifice her freedom and not know what's gonna happen when
(52:25):
you get in that jail cell and I know if
she's gonna make it outside of the police car. Because
a lot of people don't even make Freddy Gray didn't
even make it outside the police. So when you when
you make a conscious decision that you're willing to make
sacrifices that you know that most people wouldn't and people
have the nerve, the unmitigated goal to call it cloud
(52:47):
chasing or to say that you're doing something so people
could Yeah, I want people to pay attention. We're definitely
doing it so people can pay attention. But the cloud
chasing ship to me is just like it's it's insult.
It's an insult to you. It ain't to me, because
what happens is for you to think that I'm cloud chasing.
You don't even know what cloud chasing is. You don't
(53:07):
even know what this work entails. You don't even know
what brother. You know, our forefathers, like mom is the King,
what they they decided that they were going to civilly disobedient,
be civilly disobedient, and when they made those decisions and
what it was called for. So when we moved in
the tradition of our ancestors, when we move in the
(53:29):
rhythm of our hearts to actually do something that is
authentic that we feel like it's going to help people,
and you call a cloud chasing is just disdispectful. Man,
it's so disrespectful to me. And it's confused. It is
because what is it? I think that's smart if that's
what you say, cloud chaser, but it just bring on
the cloud and you know it, because you know what,
(53:51):
we're trying to fight ignorance and argue about everything that
people say. Whatever, call me a cloud chaser? It's what?
What am I? What's my things? I'm a cloud chaser?
I'm paid for about the Democrats? Um? What else I
think that I'm I'm I think I'm in fashion? Um
uh what is it? I want attention? I mean there's
(54:15):
so much thing, so you know what, how about this?
Take it all? Yes, that's who I am now and
now well you get out there in front of me,
because because guess what if I'm all of these things,
but yet and still in the spaces that require somebody
to stand up and speak out, I'm standing in you
are not? What are you? I don't know that's a word.
(54:38):
So if I'm a cloud chaser and we know we
had one, you don't understand, and that's you know what
we can actually hear when we were saying like we
was in the other side. So in the Louisville Jail.
It sales is right next to each other, so events
(54:58):
you can actually literally here what's going on in the
next cell. And we heard Johnny singing and clapping, and
we was in there dance into yourself. We heard y'all
sing it to you know what you guys got me
through specifically, you know, I have cause to phobia, um,
and every time I get in the police van, it's
a real tough situation. And I'm not gonna lie because
(55:19):
we don't hate law enforcement and we need to be honest.
Whenever I say to an officer, especially, they know when
they're arresting us most times that we haven't committed any
heinous crime or you know, it's not like there is
this level of of of tension between us at that moment.
Most of the time, the officers that may have been
there as the first responders, who are definitely much more volatile,
(55:44):
they're usually replaced with officers who will arrest us with
a little bit more compassion. They try to deal with
us a little differently, and so when I say to
them I'm couse to phobic, they they almost always will
allow me to at least get in a spot whick
could get some air. Almost always do that. And I
have to say it because I wouldn't be being honest
if I did not acknowledge that that does happen. Nonetheless,
(56:07):
I have no business being in the back of a van.
Anybody having to fight from Brianna Taylor with clausophobia is
just something that we should never have to sacrifice. Um.
But when we were in this last van, the Loville, Kentucky,
is a whole different ball game. Being in this last
van with the the the divider between. I've been in
(56:28):
those before, but this is much smaller. New York's van
that has the divider, it has a little more space,
and this van, the wall is on your knees period.
There is nowhere to move. The wall is on your knee.
The wall is on your knees in between, and there
are people on one side and people on the other
(56:50):
and they stack everyone in and they closed not one door,
but two. They closed the first door and then they
closed the outsort outside gates, which is like van door.
So there's two layers to how they have you box
in to this vehicle. It is hot in Louisville, Kentucky.
When we were arrested, it was probably a hundred and
(57:14):
fifty degrees. I don't know how y'all made it on
y'all side, because men, big men, you listen to me,
we barely made it. No, finish your story, because that's
how we made it. No. So then Reverend Stephen Green
and others who are pastors. It's Reverend Stephen Green is
is a pastor um. And there were others in there
(57:35):
who know the good songs, the good old go down,
tell Moses, let my people go songs. Y'all started singing,
and Porsha and Yandy think they can sing too, and
so the whole van erupted in song um you know,
and and in in spiritual songs. I was about to
(57:56):
fall out, like I was on. I was in the moment.
And Angelo talks about that to our partnered until Freedom
Attorney Angelo pinto that he was on. He was in
the moment when the sweat began to pour, the tears
started rolling. He was we were about to have a
panic attack and fall out. And that music, that music,
(58:17):
those songs, those words that our grandparents and I will
ancest the song and when they were in the worst
of conditions, when they were in the field and they
knew that today masses in a bad mood, that he
might come and kill us. I believe that those songs
might have helped to keep masters sometime from harming people.
(58:40):
It literally came over me and my spirit change and
I began. I began to cry. Oh, I could cry
right now. I began to cry, saying, Lord, I know
I'm supposed to be where I am, Lord, please carry
me like I know you got me. And I was.
(59:02):
I was. I was preaching to myself in that moment
because I didn't know and I and the worst thing
I did was I looked at the side and I
saw that in the front of the van there's a
barrier and there's two seats inside of a little hole,
and there were two women in there, and I could
see the young lady in their crying, and I was like,
we're not gonna make it. By the time we got
(59:23):
to the next location, I was completely drenched with tears
and sweat, But my heart was so full that we
found a way, like our people have been doing for
so many years, to get through the worst experience of
my life. And on that note, I think we should
go into end this show. Man. You you close that
(59:43):
out beautifully man, those moments right there or would defined you.
All of those people who are fighting, and people don't
believe what you fight for, people who questioned the authenticity.
Despite all of that, you continue to move on, continue
to do what you're supposed to do. So my motto is,
(01:00:05):
we don't have the right to do nothing. So we
may not always be right, Jamika, might not always be wrong,
but I promise you we will always be authentic. That's
how we own it. M
Hosts And Creators
Mysonne
Tamika Mallory
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