May 12, 2021 • 47 mins
State of Emergency! Tamika's book, which covers the state of the country featuring contributions from many artists and authors, has finally hit the stands. In celebration of her book release, Tamika and Mysonne bring on some of their friends to discuss all the contributing factors which have brought this country to its "State of Emergency." Tamika also gives listeners insight into her writing process and teasers for the featured artists who assisted in creating the book.
Community leaders Eddie Bocanegra, Erica Ford, Pastor Michael McBride, and Carmen Perez join our hosts for a conversation on violence prevention and the defunding of the police movement. The guest also discusses the recent deaths of three young people in America, Jaslyn Adams, Ma'Khia Bryant, and Adam Toledo, and how they could've been prevented.
Tamika and Mysonne get into it about Kevin Samuels, and if it's hypocritical to criticize people, you voted into office. All this and more on this episode of Street Politicians, the place where the streets and politics meet.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Family. What's happening. I'm to meet A D. Mallory and
we are your host of street politicians, the place where
the streets and politics meet. So exciting times. My book
State of Emergency is out. It's live my side. I
(00:27):
had a moment when folks started calling me yesterday saying
that they received their books, and I got really, really,
really emotional because it took a lot. This process really
humbled me. I'll talk a little bit later about what
it did and how it humbled me, but you know,
I um have always known that a book was in
(00:49):
me and there were people who told me to write
one a long time ago, but it wasn't the right time.
So State of Emergency is out. This book has been
dedicated to my child, so that's a whole another thing. Congratulations,
the book is dope. You know, I've got a little
sneak peek and you know it's it's a celebration man.
(01:10):
You know, State of emergency man, and what the state
of emergency? Whatever way to start our show off is
just like talk about things that are going on in
this world that that contribute to being the state of emergency.
You know, Um, I was looking in the news the
other day as young girl for the Cows daughter has
been missing. Wow, it's just crazy when we think about it. Man,
(01:34):
so many things, so much death is happening. We've student
in Buffalo just disappeared. You know, nobody has seen, you know,
for they Cow somebody I know from the hip hop industry,
you know, and it's it's I just can only imagine
what he must be going through. We just want to
if you see her, if you have any information, please
(01:56):
reach out, you know, and and I would regard and
our love and our prayers go out to the m
for sure. For sure. That's that. It's very touching. As
a young girl who used to be a runaway. Um.
You know, I now understand how traumatizing that was for
my parents. Um. And you know, I don't wish it
(02:19):
on anyone. And my mom would say my dad that
they don't wish it on anyone for their child to
just disappear, you know. And I did that several times
to them. I was a terrible kid. I just you know.
So I called my parents now and I just apologized
for everything. Every week I called him and I started
from a and go to ze saying I'm sorry, mom, Dad,
(02:41):
I'm so Sorry, I'm sorry I did this. Sorry I
did that because I put them through a lot before
we get into the rest of the show. I'm trying
to understand in my thought of the day, I don't
even know all what Kevin Samuels has said because I
(03:02):
don't listen to him. I think maybe one day I
actually listened to something that he said, and I felt, um,
the way in which he was speaking. Um. While there
may have been a truthful line here or there, it
really was very disrespectful and condescending, particularly to black women,
and so I just turned him off. I tuned him out.
(03:23):
And that's it. Why are people listening to, sharing content
of and critiquing Kevin Samuels. If we don't like him,
or if many women feel disgusted with the things that
he says, why not just turn him off? Because that's
what I've done. I've just I tuned it out. When
(03:46):
I see him on my timeline, I scroll fast. I
don't give him more attention than he actually deserves. I
gotta answer for you. It might not be one that
you like, right, It's like asking the same question, why
do women date men that treat him like ship? Why
do women could constantly date the same type of dude
(04:06):
that they say, Oh, he's disrespectful to me. He says
this to me. But you you constantly see a lot
of women, not all women, So this is not all women.
There are women who like unlike yourself. You say, you
he don't say things that make you feel, right, you
don't like what he says, so you tune them out.
The woman who are constantly watching him, although they say
(04:29):
they don't like what he's saying, they they actually have,
they actually have something that they're attracted to, and what
he's saying right, And when you listen to Kevin Samuels,
I don't like the delivery. You know, they are you know,
and and sometimes people laugh at it because he's condescending,
and you know he's um. He says things in the
manner and he's like he's um trying to scold the
(04:53):
woman or trying to do do things that degrade them.
And I agree with that, But when you listen to
what he's actually saying, there are a lot of facts
inside what he's saying. I just think he has to
change his delivery. So I think it's a multitude of things.
I think a lot of women, although they say they
don't like to be treated a certain way. A lot
(05:14):
of women do. And they can constantly date the same
man and they constantly seek the same information and the
same content that they say they don't like. And we've
seen that throughout history. And then there is the truthful
part of it, the parts of it that he says
that actually makes sense that they're actually trying to get
information from. Because women are still trying to figure men out.
(05:34):
They don't listen to their own man. A lot of women,
not all women. There are women who be in a
house with a man all day and he could be saying, hey,
I want you to do this, so I don't like
this and that, and they ignore what he says. But
Kevin Samuels is saying the exact same thing that the
man you've been living with for four for ten years,
and you were like, oh, I'm starting to get it now,
(05:55):
but you didn't listen to the man who said it.
So it's it's it's it's a combination of things. Well,
but my thing is now I'm I'm recalling the one time.
First of all, I don't even know where Kevin Samuels
came from, but I'm recalling the one time that I
did actually listen to him, and it was where he
(06:16):
was telling a woman that she like wasn't good enough
or it wasn't attractive enough to get the type of
man that she wanted. I'm trying to figure out from
you what is so truthful about that? Because when you
say not attractive enough, who gets to determine that only
the man who actually is either interested in the woman
(06:40):
or not, and the and and and and being attractive
means more than just how you look on the outside.
So maybe I didn't listen to it deeply enough because
as soon as I heard that, I turned it off.
But I'm just trying to understand where is it that
he's saying things that's truthful. We need our brother Angelo
and this conversation Asian because he got plenty to say
(07:05):
about this topic. But I'm just trying to understand what
is he saying that is so truthful. You know, in
those instances that you know, beauties in the eyes to beholder, right,
So he made his own personal decision based on what
he's seen as beauty, and that's and that's you know, subjective.
He's not if she's not trying to get with him,
then his opinion on how she looks physically doesn't even matter. Right,
(07:29):
he gave her an assessment based on his personal preference. Right.
But in totality, what happens is women have a criteria
for men. Right, we're women. There are not old women,
because we're not gonna look all women into anything. But
there are a particular category of women. Right. There is
the hot girl summer category. There is what we're hearing
(07:51):
the music. There's what Megan the stallion and talkers, what Cardi?
What they're talking about. They wanted a man broke. Niggers
don't deserve No, I don't, that's right, right, So there's
a concept that a man does not have a certain
amount of money, right, doesn't have a certain amount of possessions,
doesn't possess certain things, doesn't look a certain way or whatever.
Then they're not interested in that said man, and women
(08:13):
applaud that all the time. They repeat those same parts
of the song because that's what they feel. And a
man might say, well, who gives her the right to
say the amount of money I got is not good
enough for who? Is not good enough for that individual woman?
Just like the man is able to look at a
woman to say she's not physically attractive enough for me,
(08:33):
or if I'm saying, if I was a man who
had all those things, would I'd be interested in in
giving those things to this woman? So it's subjective. So
he's able to give his opinion based on if if
he is I don't know what his financial situation, I
don't know any of those things. But he's able to
give his assessment coming from a person that if I
(08:54):
was in that position, would you be someone that would
be a candidate to receive those things, just like women
are able to make those same assessments about a man
that they would deal with based on what he looks
like or what he has. M H, I mean, I
guess I hear what you're saying. I'm just I'm just
not sure that any of this is really that helpful.
(09:17):
That's just my opinion. I understand everything you said, and
I do think that there is going to like Like
I I spend most of my time debating politics and
talking about the political aspect and the social justice aspect
of the world, and so sometimes you kind of like
you miss out on the other conversations things Because now
(09:42):
him and Dr Umar Johnson right a beef and dr
Umar is saying that I call it a beef. But
they've been having back and forth, but they're having, you know,
a disagreement to where Umar is saying that Kevin Samuels
it's can money off, you know, diminishing, demeaning black women.
(10:08):
And there's definitely an argument for that, you know. And
what I what I say is this right. Everybody has
something a way that they communicate, right, some people don't
get a message certain ways. I don't. I don't need
Kevin Sanduels to deliver that. You don't need Kevin Samuels
(10:28):
to deliver a message. And man, if you probably having
a conversation with him, it probably went last two seconds
because the minute he says to you, like what mom,
won't he be donna cut you off? The women that
he is right, they actually are. If you go to
Kevin Samuels Instagram Live, it's like ten fifteen thousand people
on it at any given time because they're entertained. You know,
(10:52):
they're actually getting something from him. So maybe it's just entertainment.
The Internet, like I said, the Internet has become accesspool
as it is in out of these things are you know,
just a result of where we are in society. So,
you know, Kevin Samuels is entertainment to some people. Some
people don't enjoy his particular form of entertainment. Drumar Johnson
(11:14):
feels like it's demeaning woman, And I could definitely see
where that point of view come from. Like you said,
if it's somebody saying something that you don't agree with
just to now, Yeah, and I think it is. I
think it is definitely entertainment for too many people. But
there are also some women who have been unable to
(11:35):
find the love of their lives, um, the you know,
someone who's always had low self esteem, who's never really
truly believed in herself, um. And some men who are
who are inflated in a way by the things that
he's saying. And I think it seeps into the mentality
(11:55):
and it may have a negative impact. So you know,
I'm I'm to know for Kevin Samuels not saying again
that I don't believe there should be healthy sarcastic funny,
um whatever debate, But I do feel like the level
of the tone and some of the ways in which
he delivers his messaging is pretty damaging. So that's just
(12:20):
my opinion. I agree I can, you know, I can
definitely see that. But I just also want women to
understand that when we hear music, you know, we hear
a lot of artists and women talking about a man
has to have this, and if he ain't got that,
and he ain't doing this, and our women repeat those things.
They also heard a man self esteem right, and a
(12:41):
man man are trying to live up to a certain
caliber in which they think women want. You know, they
don't feel like they fit into a category because they
don't have all this jury and all this money, and
they don't look a certain way and in certain things.
So men are dealing with those same insecurities. I ain't rich,
what I wasn'tbody to love me for what I am.
You got to be able to get the hotel, honey,
(13:03):
you got to be able to you know what I mean,
take me out to dinner. At least you know what
I'm saying. But you know, it's all in the eyes
of the beholder, as you said. And with that said,
that brings us to one of my favorite segments. The
streets is talking this dope book that my sister has dropped.
(13:24):
It is out now, state of emergency. If you do
not have it. If you have not ordered it, make
sure you go get it right right now. Congratulations to
Meeka again on this dope book. You know, I know
what you put into this. You know, it is compelling.
So many different things in this book that's gonna keep
you in tune, It's gonna educate you, it's gonna bring
(13:46):
you do different emotions. I'm in there, you know, so
many different things. And I'm in there, you know, And
there's so many and I'm in there and I'm this plan.
But the book is dope. And to talk about the
state of emergency. We have a lot of our friends
here today, people who are on the front lines of
this movement, who've been doing this work for years. You know,
we always have friends, you know. Unfortunately, our friends are
(14:08):
the ones doing the work. So we're gonna get into
this panel, this esteemed panel we have today with the
front line, essential workers, the ones who are on the ground. Yes,
our friends, and I'm so excited to have this group
of individuals to celebrate with me that my book has
just been released. If anyone hasn't gotten your copy yet,
(14:32):
you can click links and bios and get all the
information right here for where you can get your copy
a State of Emergency. Today, we're being joined by UM,
a group of individuals who know so well that this
country is in trouble and have been doing a lot
of work to ensure that all of our people are held.
(14:56):
Let's introduced really quickly, because you know, street politicians are
Segments sometimes can be short, but we're gonna bring each
and every one of these individuals back to give them
their own segments to talk about the issues. UM. We
have Eddie Baccanegra who is with Heartland Alliance in Chicago.
Carmen Perez, our dear sister. Uh she's she is an
(15:19):
honorary co chair of Until Freedom, and we're honorary co
chairs of Justice League and the Gathering for Justice. Thank you, Carmen,
Erica Ford of Life Camp and pastor Mike of Live Free.
Let me just start by saying that in State of Emergency,
I did something that is controversial to some but well
(15:40):
understood to others, which is to have Cardi b and
Angela Davis right the forward of my book by being
in conversation with one another. There are a lot of
people who said they didn't understand that there are other
people who get it. Quickly that Cardi. First of all,
I am a mix between Cardi B and Angela Davis
(16:01):
on any given day. That's my reality, that's my truth,
right and I lived by that. I believe you can
work and work at the same time, and it's as
long as you do the work. Um. But the conversation
that happens is where Cardi is basically asking Angela Davis,
because I am not buttoned up, I don't have it
all together. Is there space at the table in this
(16:24):
fight for justice next to you, someone who we respect
so much? And Angela Davis replies to Cardi Um in
a way that is so powerful and intriguing, where she's
basically saying, not only are you welcome, but it is
your duty to be involved. Um, that it matters not
how we entertain. It matters though, what we do to
(16:48):
fight for the protection of our rights and for generations
to come. And she tells this powerful story about a
conversation that she had while sitting in a jail cell
with Nina's Simon. Now, I didn't know you could visit
people in their jail cell at one time, but clearly
Angela Davis could have visits in her jail cell and
(17:09):
Nina Simone was there. And I'm not gonna tell you much.
I'm not gonna tell you about the conversation because I
need you to get the book and read it. But
it's something that is so impactful, and I think this
group of individuals really um You all exemplify that we
bring the streets and the sweets together every single day.
Just recently passed the Mike, there was some real powerful
(17:31):
stuff that happened in Washington, d C. You and Erica
have been a part of the efforts to get this
administration to focus on gun violence and not to wait
until we have twenty thirty forty more incidents, whether they
be mass shootings or the shootings that we see happening
in our communities every day. Tell us about it and
(17:52):
what do we need to be doing as a community
to be involved in this new work that we are
really really celebrating because it is truly transformative and historic
what the administration has done. Well. First, it's great to
be with you both, uh y'all the comrades and homies, legends,
living legends, making sure we organize in the streets and
(18:13):
activating the streets the people closest to the pain and
so UM, all of us come from the communities that
we know, we love, and we care about, and ATEN,
that's not the conversation. UM. We have indeed embarked and
seeing a historic movement by this administration. Folks who have
understood that, UM, if we did indeed put all of
(18:36):
our reputations are hard work on the line to get
this administration in office. UM. This administration owes the streets,
they owe the hood that old black people, they owe
brown people, unequivocally, unapologetically, full stop. And we realized that
for many of the communities where we come from, gun violence,
intra communal violence, interpersonal violence that rises to the lethality
(19:00):
of using weapons that take lives, it's often only met
with one singular response, and that's policing. UM, that's incarceration,
that's more violence. UM. And we figured what would it
look like for us to make sure that the Biden
administration lived into the commitment that they made UM during
their own campaigning along with many others in the Democratic Party. UH,
(19:22):
in the early part of this year, UH, the team
had to sit down with Susan Rice and Cedric Richmond
and put on the table a five billion dollar apps
to invest community UM violence initiatives to invest community VIACE initiatives,
and over the course of a couple of months they
were able to not only say yes to that investment,
(19:43):
but also changed about twenty five programs inside five agencies
to open up about ten billion more dollars. So this
is a historic moment, it's historic movement. Um. We certainly
have to get the resources down to the streets and
to the communities on the front lines and make sure,
you know, big white groups or uh you know, uh
(20:03):
poverty pimps don't come and raid that money. Um. But
you know, the journey of a thousand miles started one step,
and it is one huge, big step, and it's a
testament to the power of the people organized and working together. Eddie,
listening to what passed the Mike just said, and you
were a part of this cohort, if you will fighting
to ensure that their resources getting to the ground, what
(20:26):
does this mean for the work that you're doing in
a place like Chicago. I think, first and foremost, we
have to understand right that for two, for too long,
rite the issue of gun violence has been plaguing in
our communities for way too long. So if you think
about the West Side of Chicago the South Side of Chicago,
two areas, right that are typically known for high increase
(20:47):
of violence. Um uh. And if I think about the
West Side as example, in the nineties sixties, when we
had the civil rights movement with Marthon the King marching
the streets, there was a lot of protesting, a lot
of rioting, a lot of looting. Those communities fifties six
years later are still um recovering from that. So that
to me demonstrates, right, fifties sixty years of this investment
(21:09):
in these communities, Like the reason why we see so
much high prevalence violence and specific areas across the country,
and we're not surprised our black and brown communities. It's
because of the same reasons, right, that we see systemic
oppressions that we're grappling with today, Like we are literally
reaping right the collaoribal consequences of bad policies from the
(21:29):
nineteen eighties and the nineteen nineties, whether it's war on
drugs or whether it's the child predator lass that under
Clinson administration also put out there. Right. So, so again
this is my my no coincidence. I think the fact
that we're able to encourage the Biden administration, the first
president to actually commit five billion dollars to gun violence.
(21:49):
Speaks to the testament, right, what a small group of individuals,
very grassroots individuals, are able to actually continue to advocate
and push forward for these communities. Those dollars benefit programs
like where to Chicago, benefit programs that are taking place
in Oakland, California, in Richmond, they are taking place in
East Louis, New York, and so on. And the bottom
(22:12):
line at the end of the day, right, is that
we have to continue to invest in these communities in
the way that makes since in terms of addressing the
trauma that many of the individuals that were serving actually need.
In terms of addressing the economic instability that exists in
our communities, it's also eradicating poverty. Thank you, so, one
(22:32):
more question for you, um so. Recently, a reality star
and artists named Safari tweeted when the seven year old
baby was killed there in Chicago just recently, young Lady
um He tweeted that he wanted to know why people
(22:52):
were not so upset about the death of a little
girl and and in comparison to how we protests against
police um, and I tweeted back at him and said,
there are a number of organizations in Chicago that actually
needs support and have been doing the work. And I
(23:14):
think that it is uh, it is it's a disingenuous narrative,
if you will, it could seem as though people are
not out there trying to decrease gun violence who also
understand that we have to stop the violence from police
in our communities as well. Um, I think it's false
narratives and I don't think that they should be put
(23:36):
in the same context because do we need people to
do both? So what are you seeing? Are you seeing
that you're getting the type of support you need from artists,
entertainers and others, or is there a call that you
need to make today that we can share to say,
if people want to help, there are ways that they
(23:56):
can get involved and work with folks on the ground there.
And you know, to macause the the incident of this
young little girl, seven year old, right, we have to
understand a couple of things. And I also have to
be very careful in my response with this because the
the incident happened in one of the communities of ris
chicag was in in fact we serviced that particular population,
(24:20):
and a lot of our partners in his communities have
also provided services in the past, or even the father
in this case. So here's what I'll say. The actually
is that many of the men and women in our communities, right,
isn't just doesn't happen overnight. The father in this case
of this young little girl, you know, the day before that,
he was at a cemetery desecrating, right, a plot in
(24:43):
which another young man was killed not long ago. And
his friends, right, this is posted on Facebook, and you know,
and so on, so his friends, you know, even though
he's deceased, they still have tremendous love for this individual.
And who am I to argue against that? So well,
I don't, Well, I don't agree that the actions that
(25:04):
that these people are young people are taking right to
avenge their loved ones. So on, it's the healthiest way.
But when you think about generations of trauma and generations
of lack of love or support, or the way they
you know, manifest this particular kind of love, um demonstrates
the impact and the needs right to continue to provide
healing spaces for our communities. And it is my understanding
(25:29):
that the people who were involved with this and not
realized there was a young girl in the car. So
that's first and foremost. Secondly, I seriously doubt the father
even realized, you know, to what extent his comments we're
gonna have, you know, the impact that we're gonna have
in his own personal life with his family. What good
does it do for a seven year old to be
buried at seven years old? What good does it do
for us to point the finger at people? Right? And
(25:51):
that's the problem when you think about what happened there
and you think about the young dirt ye old kid
that was also just killed a week before that, you know,
by police uh Adam Toledo. Right away, we want to
point the finger. We want to put a face to
where the problems at and what we do that we
don't reflect among ourselves and what are what are what
have been our short falls? You know why instead of
(26:13):
taking it taking a negative approach, why not ask yourself
what can I do to support this issue? What can
I do to move things forward? Right? And that's the
unfortunate part, because we're quickly willing to put the blame
on somebody else. You know, they'll say anywhere Adam was
outside two three in the morning. What was he doing?
And I'm like with ship that you know that he
(26:34):
ran away from home. You know, they want to blame
the mother, right, what happened? Right? And I asked myself,
do you even know the most situation you want to
we want to blame. Why isn't people lifting up the concern? Right? Well,
the truth is, I would invite anybody to come to
our neighborhoods every single time somebody is killed, because there
is community activism behind that. There is you know, clergy
(26:54):
coming together, that there is institutions coming together to lift
up the memory of the individual. You know that that
is very, very, very telling because I say that all
the time we have to change the realities of the
community before we can ask the community to change, you know.
And that brings me to my sister Carmen Perez, who
I've known for a number of years, and how she
(27:15):
does this work and listening to this story, I know
there's personal things that you've told me about yourself and
your sister, you know, her losing her life to violence
in the streets, you unidentifying with gang violence and growing
up in the game culture in in l a I
mean in in California, and and being able to identify
that then utilizing that knowledge of that to transform and
(27:38):
do the man ending massive conservation and shild and cans
of work. So I want you to speak to that,
and and and and this this narrative that when we
talk about defunding the police, there's a lot of people
who have an issue with that, and when we try
to explain to them that defunding the police meets refunding
the community and giving us the resources and things that
(27:58):
we need to change change the cultures in our communities
that will stop the violence. You know. So I want
you to speak just try to tie all those things
in because I know how you have don't have a
lot of time, but I know how brilliant you are,
and I know how passionate you are about all of
these things. So give us a little outlook on that.
How do we tie these things in and how do
we give people understanding of how these things affecting our community?
(28:21):
You know, I learned restorative justice from my father. When
they took my sister um and the police and the aide,
the district attorney asked my family if they wanted to
press charges and my father said, I cannot take another
mother's child away. I think you know, no family ever
imagines that happening to them. UM. But so for me
(28:43):
dedicating my life to working with people that are incarcerated
or formally incarcerated UM, working to stop violencing communities, not
just UM in California, UM, but also in the prisons
or when I traveled to it in Salvador to support
a peace process. I think it's all interconnected, right, But
the police are not creating safety when so many black
(29:07):
and brown people are being hurt and killed, and this
trauma is coming at a great expense. For example, here
in New York City, the NYPD budget has ballooned to
between six to ten billion dollars a year. What this
means is that essentially, we have invest billions of dollars
(29:27):
for a system to keep us safe, and instead it
over polices our communities and creates more harm. We can
shift our tax dollars into alternatives like community community violence
intervention and prevention, mental health and wellness services, substance use counseling,
after school programming, and many other types of supportive investments
(29:49):
in safety and wellness. Imagine if Makia Bryant's phone call
for help had been met with people who calmed and
de escalated the situation and got the teenagers to talk
to one another. That's the way we create safety by
meeting the needs of our communities, and then would cost
much less than the current system of policing does. Exactly.
(30:10):
And speaking about showing up, there's nobody that shows up
more my sister Erica Ford Man, she's been on the
front line for this movement so long, and you know
what she brings to it is exactly what Carmen was
speaking of. Those people who can get in front of
the violence, those people that interrupt the violence. That's why
this is important when we talk about defunding the police
(30:32):
and refunding the communities, is giving people like Erica Ford
who is one of the architects of the crisis management
system in New York City, the proper funds and resources
necessary to protect our communities. To make sure she's the
one of the people that's taken the guns out of
the hands of the children that's getting in front of See.
A lot of the police don't come to our communities
(30:53):
until after the violence has already acted to a time
to rest somebody it's a time to put somebody in jail.
We need people who get in front of it, and
Erica Ford is one of those people. And I want
you to speak to why it is important that we
give the resources to the communities to protect and and
govern our own and when you speak on on why
(31:14):
it is important because we don't have an alternative, right
when when I looked at that young girl who got shot,
my team we do that all the time, right, butcher
knife in one hand, bleaching the other, twenty girls going
at it right, um, And what we do is we
get in the middle, and we we intermed and we separate.
(31:36):
When those police came, one police had his hand on
the guns. The other one was standing there like they
know what was going on. If all of them would
have moved in and grabbed individuals and held them separately,
apart and mediated and talk through that's what we do, right.
We have to get to the heart of like Eddie
was talking about, we have generational trauma. And so you
(31:58):
can't deal with generational trauma putting more trauma on a community.
And that is what happens when you call a hammer
every time to deal with a heart. You're dealing with
heart pain with a hammer, you're trying to beat the
heart into something that can happen, right, The two don't mix.
And so we have to get healers. We have to
get credible messengers. We have to get credible clinicians interventionists
(32:20):
to come into the community and work with those who
don't know how to deal with their pain. Who's going
out in the community and looking at drugs and guns
and gangs as as the vehicle to which they can
heal and they can't, you know. And so what we
do is is work with folks too to not only
transition mindset, but to place them in opportunities that can
(32:42):
take their lives to another level. So we you want
to be a chef, we hook you up with the
top chefs. And that brings me to you know, either
one that you can shine in on this And and
there's this narrative, right and I don't know who painted
it where it comes from, is that this work that
we do, that the trauma that we take on is
somehow in hopes to profit off the death of our
(33:06):
own people, right. And it's the weirdest narrative in the world.
And it's like, how do we supposed to help our people, right,
if we don't have the resources to help, if we're
getting up, you know, we're going out there. We're willing
to risk our lives on the front line. We're willing
to take the backlash. You willing to risk our freedom.
We're willing to do all of these things. And there
(33:27):
are people saying, because we need resources to do those things,
that means that we're capitalizing off the death of our
own people. What do you think about that statement? Well,
and can I just add any other components so they
say that we're capitalizing. Um also because we use media
as a way to bring attention to these families and
(33:50):
to their situations. Someone said to me the other day,
why are we having a birthday celebration for my out
of our Brey. Why do we have an event for
Brianna con for Brianna Taylor? And you know my position is,
you could say you don't like the language. You can say, well,
the title is bad, and maybe you shouldn't use the
(34:12):
word bash as for a birthday, you should use celebration.
But first of all, we supported the families and things
that they want to do for their children. Um Ahmad
Arebrey's mother is the person who wanted to do a
birthday celebration for her son because she does not want
to be sad every single birthday that comes around. She
(34:34):
wants to change the narrative around her son and not
have him as just the guy who was killed, but
someone who had a life who like to celebrate, and
as we help her to do that. Um, you know,
we we have experienced those people who say, well, this
is cloud chasing, and that confuses me. So both of you,
if you could talk about that. We have this narrative
(34:56):
that we blame people for for their job right and
and this is our job, this is our life. But
this is our job right and our job and so
the the E M S worker right, because do they
what do we say about that? The more tician the
funeral home do we say, Okay, you are like, there's
(35:17):
a funeral home and you make money off of the
death of people. That's what they do. That's a whole
industry that makes money. The flowers, the obituaries, or people
want to bury their families in a nice way. So
it's part of death, you know. And it's unfortunate for
me because I really don't I don't get the concept
(35:39):
that people who actually are fighting to try to make
sure these things don't constantly happen, so that we we you,
we are we are you. We actually allow these families
and situations to utilize us and our platforms bring attention
to it as somehow we're doing something wrong and it's
the weirdest concept. And and people should celebrate their children, right,
they should not like they should they should feel the
(36:01):
greatness her her son's birthday is mother's day and birthday, right,
it's the same time. So who's gonna be with her
to sit with you know, like who's gonna help her
during that time? Right? And you know it is the
process of celebrating that, young men. When we went into
this area on past like that, seventeen people were shot
(36:22):
a year, four people were killed a year and dude,
nobody's talking about because of our work, we were able
to stop that narrative from happening. And you know, if
you're from our community, then you're growing up in the neighborhood.
People celebrate the life of their loved one whenever they die.
I mean, we put candles out, we have barbecues like
(36:45):
they still here. So I feel like some man, these
people speaking on this must not be from the neighborhood,
and they don't understand how many more we memorialize people's
memories and I'll use the most respectable family with our
communities Revere. I remember Dr Bernice King spoke at the
fifth anniversary of Dr kings Um killing in Memphis that
she said, UM, I think people don't appreciate that although
(37:08):
my dad died, many of us have never been able
to bury him. We understand critiques. Sometimes we have to
listen to different perspectives to be able to find tune
our work. But we also know what makes sense and
what doesn't. And what does not make sense is for
people who have been out here for the amount of
(37:29):
years that all of us collectively have been on the
ground to stop doing this work because other people are
just mad for whatever their reasons are. We're not gonna
do that. We have to keep on going forward. So
I appreciate y'all so much for spending today with me.
I appreciate you all supporting State of Emergency and Erica.
(37:50):
You and I are gonna do a street signing. We're
gonna be on the streets signing books, UM, and also
passed the mike. You'll be joining us on the tour
UM so they and you so very much for the love.
And it is truly a state of emergency. But there
are some people who are out here fighting, and I
do believe that change is going to be in our future,
(38:12):
whether we live to see it or not, but our
children and their children will experience it. Those are people
who I really respect. I particularly appreciate Eddie Um and
the work that he's doing in Chicago because I know
how difficult it is. And in fact, the crisis management
(38:33):
system that exists in New York City that I was
a part of helping Erica and A. T. Mitchell and
others to develop UM. There was a similar program called
Cure Violence that was in in Chicago, and eventually it
was defunded and the program is no longer functioning. There
(38:53):
are many groups, though, that have continued to do the
work and have sought out other ways of getting resources,
some city money, but mostly a lot of partnerships with
other institutions, other corporations and so on and so forth,
and they're continuing to do the work. And Eddie is
one of those individuals who works with many hats and
(39:16):
he's doing, you know, some real great things they're trying
to save lives, and it's it's a lot, you know,
especially when you're in a city where everybody focuses on
what's happening in Chicago, as if to say that there's
not gun violence in St. Louis or you know, gun
violence even in New York since the pandemic. I think
(39:36):
violence is up all over the nation. But it's good
to know that there are soldiers out there on the
front lines. And certainly we know Erica h. Erica Ford
passed to Mike um and Carmen Perez and of course
Eddie Bocanerra. He told me how to say his name properly.
(39:57):
That they are out there on the front line. So
it was good to have them. But I think we
have to have each one of them to come back
when we can give them a lot of time to
to really dissect and get into their issues in their areas.
And we want to track that five five billion dollars too,
like where is it going five billion dollars to allocate
(40:17):
funds to community based organizations that stop violence? You know,
That's that's a lot, you know, and that's something good
that the administration is doing. And we want to talk
about that, but that brings me to my I don't
get it the same way we're able to say in
(40:38):
good faith, hey, this was a good thing that President
binded Dady five billion dollars allocated in communities, because we
do we definitely need those things to give our children,
our community just a fighting chance at survival, not even
just men and survival. But there's also this narrative, you know,
(40:59):
because I, for one, was not going to let have
forty five stay in office. So I was going to
do whatever it took to get forty five out of office.
I didn't think he was presidential. I didn't think he
represented I thought every day that he was in office
that our nation was in imminent danger. So my whole
thing was, he has to go ethics at no expense,
(41:22):
There was no expense, gonna be barred. He was going
to get out. So whoever was running against him by
osmosis was gonna get my vote. So there are these
people who believe that since I voted for this administration,
that when they do something wrong, say something wrong, aren't
strong on issues that I need them to be strong on,
(41:42):
that I should not have the right to say something
about it. I really don't get that. And the reason
why you vote for somebody right because you feel like
you should be able to hold them accountable. Nobody's gonna
be perfect, nobody's gonna do everything you want. But as
someone who votes for somebody right, you really have the
right because this is a candidate that you wanted to
(42:02):
be office or whether you want it or not, you
utilize your vote so your voice matters with that person.
That person needs you. You understand that that person noticed
they need you, so you have every right to hold
that person accountable. So I really don't get where this
narrative comes from that because you voted for them, you
should be quiet now or you can't say nothing because
they did something that we might not agree with, or
(42:23):
say something we're not. We don't agree with a lot
of people. One don't know how the process works, and
to there are a lot of folks out there that
just want to have something negative to say, and that's
just the reality that we deal with. We absolutely have
the right to hold accountable, UH any president. First of all,
So if you are a president and you're in office, UM,
(42:45):
and you are collecting and operating with the taxpayer dollars,
we all have a responsibility to UM make sure that
you know that our voices are being heard. But your
voices most powerful when you can attach it to your
vote and your dollars, which means that you helped UM
(43:05):
to get a candidate elected, especially locally where you have
used your resources UM to donate UM and invest in campaigns.
That is one big way that people absolutely pay attention
to you and your voice, and they also want your
your vote. So those are the two things that elected
(43:27):
officials care about. You know. Some sometimes protests UH and
and our social media activism can help to amplify the message,
but it falls short if it's not attached to a
vote and or our dollars or lack thereof, meaning that
we take our resources from one particular candidate or from
(43:48):
one corporation or from one entity and move it shifted
to another one exactly. You know, I think, like you said,
the low propensity voters and those who don't vote, like
maybe you should be quiet, you know, because you you've
made a conscious decision that you're not even involved in
the process, so you just gotta take what you get.
But when we are involving ourselves in the process, you know,
(44:08):
and just even understanding the reality of what we're dealing
with in this system and in the structure we got.
We we have to give ourselves every possible opportunity to
be successful. We can't do one two things. We live
in America right now where you can't even have one job.
You gotta have a job, two jobs aside hustle a
skill or trade. You know what I'm saying. You might
(44:30):
have to bet on the weekends just to survive. So
that's exactly how we have to survive within this country.
We have to vote, we have to build our own economy,
we gotta raise our own children, we gotta learn, we
gotta do everything thing possible to actually get a level
of equity in this country. So I just want you
to understand when you question me about why I'm calling
(44:52):
out a candidate for telling me that racism, that the
America is not a racist country because I voted for
that president or that vice president of that administration. You're
the one that should be quiet, not me. And that
brings us to the end of our show, which was
a wonderful show. Once again, to Mega, congratulations on the
(45:13):
release of your book State of Emergency. If you do
not have that book, go get it right now. Order
it where can you order it that go to Amazon
or anywhere else that you courage his books, and especially
black bookstores. That would be one place that I was starting.
Your community is going to a small mom and pop
shop where they sell books. The audio version of my
(45:37):
book is also out, so for those people who are
exercising or just unable to read a book for whatever reason,
the audio version is out. My son is in the book.
He has a particular part that you know, as my
mom was reading the book a couple of days ago,
she said, you know, um, my son's part really impacted her.
(46:00):
My dad said that he thought Linda's part was very
impactful as well, where she talks about the Women's March
in the book and some of what we experienced there.
And then our brother Angelo, he also um is in
the book, and you know, my dad said, you know,
Angelo uses those big words, he's super smart, but he's
(46:20):
talking about policy and ways forward within our communities. UM.
From from a very very um you know, I want
to say high level, but it's not so much that
it's a high level. It's really just where we have
to go as a people in order to be able
to obtain power, and that's what Angelo speaks to in
(46:42):
the book. The audio version is being read by two
young people that are in this movement, young leaders. Um
one is at link from Atlanta, Mary Pat she's a young,
fiery sister. And then from New York, um My, my
young sister knew Paul all our young sister in New
Hall And I just hope other people feel good about it.
(47:04):
Dr Angela Davis spoke to me and said, listen, you
write it down, put it in the world, and let
it go. And so I finally let it go and
it's out here, and I hope that people, um you know,
are able to use it as a tool for transformation. Definitely, Man,
once again, congratulations, We're proud of you. And this time
we're gonna ended a little a little different. I will
(47:27):
not always be right, and this time Tamika is not
wrong at all, because State of Emergency is probably gonna
be the number one seller in the world. And we
will both always always be authentic. Yes, sir Peece, thanks
for joining the Street Politicians piece. That's how we own it.
Family. What's happening. I'm to meet A D. Mallory and
we are your host of street politicians, the place where
the streets and politics meet. So exciting times. My book
State of Emergency is out. It's live my side. I
(00:27):
had a moment when folks started calling me yesterday saying
that they received their books, and I got really, really,
really emotional because it took a lot. This process really
humbled me. I'll talk a little bit later about what
it did and how it humbled me, but you know,
I um have always known that a book was in
(00:49):
me and there were people who told me to write
one a long time ago, but it wasn't the right time.
So State of Emergency is out. This book has been
dedicated to my child, so that's a whole another thing. Congratulations,
the book is dope. You know, I've got a little
sneak peek and you know it's it's a celebration man.
(01:10):
You know, State of emergency man, and what the state
of emergency? Whatever way to start our show off is
just like talk about things that are going on in
this world that that contribute to being the state of emergency.
You know, Um, I was looking in the news the
other day as young girl for the Cows daughter has
been missing. Wow, it's just crazy when we think about it. Man,
(01:34):
so many things, so much death is happening. We've student
in Buffalo just disappeared. You know, nobody has seen, you know,
for they Cow somebody I know from the hip hop industry,
you know, and it's it's I just can only imagine
what he must be going through. We just want to
if you see her, if you have any information, please
(01:56):
reach out, you know, and and I would regard and
our love and our prayers go out to the m
for sure. For sure. That's that. It's very touching. As
a young girl who used to be a runaway. Um.
You know, I now understand how traumatizing that was for
my parents. Um. And you know, I don't wish it
(02:19):
on anyone. And my mom would say my dad that
they don't wish it on anyone for their child to
just disappear, you know. And I did that several times
to them. I was a terrible kid. I just you know.
So I called my parents now and I just apologized
for everything. Every week I called him and I started
from a and go to ze saying I'm sorry, mom, Dad,
(02:41):
I'm so Sorry, I'm sorry I did this. Sorry I
did that because I put them through a lot before
we get into the rest of the show. I'm trying
to understand in my thought of the day, I don't
even know all what Kevin Samuels has said because I
(03:02):
don't listen to him. I think maybe one day I
actually listened to something that he said, and I felt, um,
the way in which he was speaking. Um. While there
may have been a truthful line here or there, it
really was very disrespectful and condescending, particularly to black women,
and so I just turned him off. I tuned him out.
(03:23):
And that's it. Why are people listening to, sharing content
of and critiquing Kevin Samuels. If we don't like him,
or if many women feel disgusted with the things that
he says, why not just turn him off? Because that's
what I've done. I've just I tuned it out. When
(03:46):
I see him on my timeline, I scroll fast. I
don't give him more attention than he actually deserves. I
gotta answer for you. It might not be one that
you like, right, It's like asking the same question, why
do women date men that treat him like ship? Why
do women could constantly date the same type of dude
(04:06):
that they say, Oh, he's disrespectful to me. He says
this to me. But you you constantly see a lot
of women, not all women, So this is not all women.
There are women who like unlike yourself. You say, you
he don't say things that make you feel, right, you
don't like what he says, so you tune them out.
The woman who are constantly watching him, although they say
(04:29):
they don't like what he's saying, they they actually have,
they actually have something that they're attracted to, and what
he's saying right, And when you listen to Kevin Samuels,
I don't like the delivery. You know, they are you know,
and and sometimes people laugh at it because he's condescending,
and you know he's um. He says things in the
manner and he's like he's um trying to scold the
(04:53):
woman or trying to do do things that degrade them.
And I agree with that, But when you listen to
what he's actually saying, there are a lot of facts
inside what he's saying. I just think he has to
change his delivery. So I think it's a multitude of things.
I think a lot of women, although they say they
don't like to be treated a certain way. A lot
(05:14):
of women do. And they can constantly date the same
man and they constantly seek the same information and the
same content that they say they don't like. And we've
seen that throughout history. And then there is the truthful
part of it, the parts of it that he says
that actually makes sense that they're actually trying to get
information from. Because women are still trying to figure men out.
(05:34):
They don't listen to their own man. A lot of women,
not all women. There are women who be in a
house with a man all day and he could be saying, hey,
I want you to do this, so I don't like
this and that, and they ignore what he says. But
Kevin Samuels is saying the exact same thing that the
man you've been living with for four for ten years,
and you were like, oh, I'm starting to get it now,
(05:55):
but you didn't listen to the man who said it.
So it's it's it's it's a combination of things. Well,
but my thing is now I'm I'm recalling the one time.
First of all, I don't even know where Kevin Samuels
came from, but I'm recalling the one time that I
did actually listen to him, and it was where he
(06:16):
was telling a woman that she like wasn't good enough
or it wasn't attractive enough to get the type of
man that she wanted. I'm trying to figure out from
you what is so truthful about that? Because when you
say not attractive enough, who gets to determine that only
the man who actually is either interested in the woman
(06:40):
or not, and the and and and and being attractive
means more than just how you look on the outside.
So maybe I didn't listen to it deeply enough because
as soon as I heard that, I turned it off.
But I'm just trying to understand where is it that
he's saying things that's truthful. We need our brother Angelo
and this conversation Asian because he got plenty to say
(07:05):
about this topic. But I'm just trying to understand what
is he saying that is so truthful. You know, in
those instances that you know, beauties in the eyes to beholder, right,
So he made his own personal decision based on what
he's seen as beauty, and that's and that's you know, subjective.
He's not if she's not trying to get with him,
then his opinion on how she looks physically doesn't even matter. Right,
(07:29):
he gave her an assessment based on his personal preference. Right.
But in totality, what happens is women have a criteria
for men. Right, we're women. There are not old women,
because we're not gonna look all women into anything. But
there are a particular category of women. Right. There is
the hot girl summer category. There is what we're hearing
(07:51):
the music. There's what Megan the stallion and talkers, what Cardi?
What they're talking about. They wanted a man broke. Niggers
don't deserve No, I don't, that's right, right, So there's
a concept that a man does not have a certain
amount of money, right, doesn't have a certain amount of possessions,
doesn't possess certain things, doesn't look a certain way or whatever.
Then they're not interested in that said man, and women
(08:13):
applaud that all the time. They repeat those same parts
of the song because that's what they feel. And a
man might say, well, who gives her the right to
say the amount of money I got is not good
enough for who? Is not good enough for that individual woman?
Just like the man is able to look at a
woman to say she's not physically attractive enough for me,
(08:33):
or if I'm saying, if I was a man who
had all those things, would I'd be interested in in
giving those things to this woman? So it's subjective. So
he's able to give his opinion based on if if
he is I don't know what his financial situation, I
don't know any of those things. But he's able to
give his assessment coming from a person that if I
(08:54):
was in that position, would you be someone that would
be a candidate to receive those things, just like women
are able to make those same assessments about a man
that they would deal with based on what he looks
like or what he has. M H, I mean, I
guess I hear what you're saying. I'm just I'm just
not sure that any of this is really that helpful.
(09:17):
That's just my opinion. I understand everything you said, and
I do think that there is going to like Like
I I spend most of my time debating politics and
talking about the political aspect and the social justice aspect
of the world, and so sometimes you kind of like
you miss out on the other conversations things Because now
(09:42):
him and Dr Umar Johnson right a beef and dr
Umar is saying that I call it a beef. But
they've been having back and forth, but they're having, you know,
a disagreement to where Umar is saying that Kevin Samuels
it's can money off, you know, diminishing, demeaning black women.
(10:08):
And there's definitely an argument for that, you know. And
what I what I say is this right. Everybody has
something a way that they communicate, right, some people don't
get a message certain ways. I don't. I don't need
Kevin Sanduels to deliver that. You don't need Kevin Samuels
(10:28):
to deliver a message. And man, if you probably having
a conversation with him, it probably went last two seconds
because the minute he says to you, like what mom,
won't he be donna cut you off? The women that
he is right, they actually are. If you go to
Kevin Samuels Instagram Live, it's like ten fifteen thousand people
on it at any given time because they're entertained. You know,
(10:52):
they're actually getting something from him. So maybe it's just entertainment.
The Internet, like I said, the Internet has become accesspool
as it is in out of these things are you know,
just a result of where we are in society. So,
you know, Kevin Samuels is entertainment to some people. Some
people don't enjoy his particular form of entertainment. Drumar Johnson
(11:14):
feels like it's demeaning woman, And I could definitely see
where that point of view come from. Like you said,
if it's somebody saying something that you don't agree with
just to now, Yeah, and I think it is. I
think it is definitely entertainment for too many people. But
there are also some women who have been unable to
(11:35):
find the love of their lives, um, the you know,
someone who's always had low self esteem, who's never really
truly believed in herself, um. And some men who are
who are inflated in a way by the things that
he's saying. And I think it seeps into the mentality
(11:55):
and it may have a negative impact. So you know,
I'm I'm to know for Kevin Samuels not saying again
that I don't believe there should be healthy sarcastic funny,
um whatever debate, But I do feel like the level
of the tone and some of the ways in which
he delivers his messaging is pretty damaging. So that's just
(12:20):
my opinion. I agree I can, you know, I can
definitely see that. But I just also want women to
understand that when we hear music, you know, we hear
a lot of artists and women talking about a man
has to have this, and if he ain't got that,
and he ain't doing this, and our women repeat those things.
They also heard a man self esteem right, and a
(12:41):
man man are trying to live up to a certain
caliber in which they think women want. You know, they
don't feel like they fit into a category because they
don't have all this jury and all this money, and
they don't look a certain way and in certain things.
So men are dealing with those same insecurities. I ain't rich,
what I wasn'tbody to love me for what I am.
You got to be able to get the hotel, honey,
(13:03):
you got to be able to you know what I mean,
take me out to dinner. At least you know what
I'm saying. But you know, it's all in the eyes
of the beholder, as you said. And with that said,
that brings us to one of my favorite segments. The
streets is talking this dope book that my sister has dropped.
(13:24):
It is out now, state of emergency. If you do
not have it. If you have not ordered it, make
sure you go get it right right now. Congratulations to
Meeka again on this dope book. You know, I know
what you put into this. You know, it is compelling.
So many different things in this book that's gonna keep
you in tune, It's gonna educate you, it's gonna bring
(13:46):
you do different emotions. I'm in there, you know, so
many different things. And I'm in there, you know, And
there's so many and I'm in there and I'm this plan.
But the book is dope. And to talk about the
state of emergency. We have a lot of our friends
here today, people who are on the front lines of
this movement, who've been doing this work for years. You know,
we always have friends, you know. Unfortunately, our friends are
(14:08):
the ones doing the work. So we're gonna get into
this panel, this esteemed panel we have today with the
front line, essential workers, the ones who are on the ground. Yes,
our friends, and I'm so excited to have this group
of individuals to celebrate with me that my book has
just been released. If anyone hasn't gotten your copy yet,
(14:32):
you can click links and bios and get all the
information right here for where you can get your copy
a State of Emergency. Today, we're being joined by UM,
a group of individuals who know so well that this
country is in trouble and have been doing a lot
of work to ensure that all of our people are held.
(14:56):
Let's introduced really quickly, because you know, street politicians are
Segments sometimes can be short, but we're gonna bring each
and every one of these individuals back to give them
their own segments to talk about the issues. UM. We
have Eddie Baccanegra who is with Heartland Alliance in Chicago.
Carmen Perez, our dear sister. Uh she's she is an
(15:19):
honorary co chair of Until Freedom, and we're honorary co
chairs of Justice League and the Gathering for Justice. Thank you, Carmen,
Erica Ford of Life Camp and pastor Mike of Live Free.
Let me just start by saying that in State of Emergency,
I did something that is controversial to some but well
(15:40):
understood to others, which is to have Cardi b and
Angela Davis right the forward of my book by being
in conversation with one another. There are a lot of
people who said they didn't understand that there are other
people who get it. Quickly that Cardi. First of all,
I am a mix between Cardi B and Angela Davis
(16:01):
on any given day. That's my reality, that's my truth,
right and I lived by that. I believe you can
work and work at the same time, and it's as
long as you do the work. Um. But the conversation
that happens is where Cardi is basically asking Angela Davis,
because I am not buttoned up, I don't have it
all together. Is there space at the table in this
(16:24):
fight for justice next to you, someone who we respect
so much? And Angela Davis replies to Cardi Um in
a way that is so powerful and intriguing, where she's
basically saying, not only are you welcome, but it is
your duty to be involved. Um, that it matters not
how we entertain. It matters though, what we do to
(16:48):
fight for the protection of our rights and for generations
to come. And she tells this powerful story about a
conversation that she had while sitting in a jail cell
with Nina's Simon. Now, I didn't know you could visit
people in their jail cell at one time, but clearly
Angela Davis could have visits in her jail cell and
(17:09):
Nina Simone was there. And I'm not gonna tell you much.
I'm not gonna tell you about the conversation because I
need you to get the book and read it. But
it's something that is so impactful, and I think this
group of individuals really um You all exemplify that we
bring the streets and the sweets together every single day.
Just recently passed the Mike, there was some real powerful
(17:31):
stuff that happened in Washington, d C. You and Erica
have been a part of the efforts to get this
administration to focus on gun violence and not to wait
until we have twenty thirty forty more incidents, whether they
be mass shootings or the shootings that we see happening
in our communities every day. Tell us about it and
(17:52):
what do we need to be doing as a community
to be involved in this new work that we are
really really celebrating because it is truly transformative and historic
what the administration has done. Well. First, it's great to
be with you both, uh y'all the comrades and homies, legends,
living legends, making sure we organize in the streets and
(18:13):
activating the streets the people closest to the pain and
so UM, all of us come from the communities that
we know, we love, and we care about, and ATEN,
that's not the conversation. UM. We have indeed embarked and
seeing a historic movement by this administration. Folks who have
understood that, UM, if we did indeed put all of
(18:36):
our reputations are hard work on the line to get
this administration in office. UM. This administration owes the streets,
they owe the hood that old black people, they owe
brown people, unequivocally, unapologetically, full stop. And we realized that
for many of the communities where we come from, gun violence,
intra communal violence, interpersonal violence that rises to the lethality
(19:00):
of using weapons that take lives, it's often only met
with one singular response, and that's policing. UM, that's incarceration,
that's more violence. UM. And we figured what would it
look like for us to make sure that the Biden
administration lived into the commitment that they made UM during
their own campaigning along with many others in the Democratic Party. UH,
(19:22):
in the early part of this year, UH, the team
had to sit down with Susan Rice and Cedric Richmond
and put on the table a five billion dollar apps
to invest community UM violence initiatives to invest community VIACE initiatives,
and over the course of a couple of months they
were able to not only say yes to that investment,
(19:43):
but also changed about twenty five programs inside five agencies
to open up about ten billion more dollars. So this
is a historic moment, it's historic movement. Um. We certainly
have to get the resources down to the streets and
to the communities on the front lines and make sure,
you know, big white groups or uh you know, uh
(20:03):
poverty pimps don't come and raid that money. Um. But
you know, the journey of a thousand miles started one step,
and it is one huge, big step, and it's a
testament to the power of the people organized and working together. Eddie,
listening to what passed the Mike just said, and you
were a part of this cohort, if you will fighting
to ensure that their resources getting to the ground, what
(20:26):
does this mean for the work that you're doing in
a place like Chicago. I think, first and foremost, we
have to understand right that for two, for too long,
rite the issue of gun violence has been plaguing in
our communities for way too long. So if you think
about the West Side of Chicago the South Side of Chicago,
two areas, right that are typically known for high increase
(20:47):
of violence. Um uh. And if I think about the
West Side as example, in the nineties sixties, when we
had the civil rights movement with Marthon the King marching
the streets, there was a lot of protesting, a lot
of rioting, a lot of looting. Those communities fifties six
years later are still um recovering from that. So that
to me demonstrates, right, fifties sixty years of this investment
(21:09):
in these communities, Like the reason why we see so
much high prevalence violence and specific areas across the country,
and we're not surprised our black and brown communities. It's
because of the same reasons, right, that we see systemic
oppressions that we're grappling with today, Like we are literally
reaping right the collaoribal consequences of bad policies from the
(21:29):
nineteen eighties and the nineteen nineties, whether it's war on
drugs or whether it's the child predator lass that under
Clinson administration also put out there. Right. So, so again
this is my my no coincidence. I think the fact
that we're able to encourage the Biden administration, the first
president to actually commit five billion dollars to gun violence.
(21:49):
Speaks to the testament, right, what a small group of individuals,
very grassroots individuals, are able to actually continue to advocate
and push forward for these communities. Those dollars benefit programs
like where to Chicago, benefit programs that are taking place
in Oakland, California, in Richmond, they are taking place in
East Louis, New York, and so on. And the bottom
(22:12):
line at the end of the day, right, is that
we have to continue to invest in these communities in
the way that makes since in terms of addressing the
trauma that many of the individuals that were serving actually need.
In terms of addressing the economic instability that exists in
our communities, it's also eradicating poverty. Thank you, so, one
(22:32):
more question for you, um so. Recently, a reality star
and artists named Safari tweeted when the seven year old
baby was killed there in Chicago just recently, young Lady
um He tweeted that he wanted to know why people
(22:52):
were not so upset about the death of a little
girl and and in comparison to how we protests against
police um, and I tweeted back at him and said,
there are a number of organizations in Chicago that actually
needs support and have been doing the work. And I
(23:14):
think that it is uh, it is it's a disingenuous narrative,
if you will, it could seem as though people are
not out there trying to decrease gun violence who also
understand that we have to stop the violence from police
in our communities as well. Um, I think it's false
narratives and I don't think that they should be put
(23:36):
in the same context because do we need people to
do both? So what are you seeing? Are you seeing
that you're getting the type of support you need from artists,
entertainers and others, or is there a call that you
need to make today that we can share to say,
if people want to help, there are ways that they
(23:56):
can get involved and work with folks on the ground there.
And you know, to macause the the incident of this
young little girl, seven year old, right, we have to
understand a couple of things. And I also have to
be very careful in my response with this because the
the incident happened in one of the communities of ris
chicag was in in fact we serviced that particular population,
(24:20):
and a lot of our partners in his communities have
also provided services in the past, or even the father
in this case. So here's what I'll say. The actually
is that many of the men and women in our communities, right,
isn't just doesn't happen overnight. The father in this case
of this young little girl, you know, the day before that,
he was at a cemetery desecrating, right, a plot in
(24:43):
which another young man was killed not long ago. And
his friends, right, this is posted on Facebook, and you know,
and so on, so his friends, you know, even though
he's deceased, they still have tremendous love for this individual.
And who am I to argue against that? So well,
I don't, Well, I don't agree that the actions that
(25:04):
that these people are young people are taking right to
avenge their loved ones. So on, it's the healthiest way.
But when you think about generations of trauma and generations
of lack of love or support, or the way they
you know, manifest this particular kind of love, um demonstrates
the impact and the needs right to continue to provide
healing spaces for our communities. And it is my understanding
(25:29):
that the people who were involved with this and not
realized there was a young girl in the car. So
that's first and foremost. Secondly, I seriously doubt the father
even realized, you know, to what extent his comments we're
gonna have, you know, the impact that we're gonna have
in his own personal life with his family. What good
does it do for a seven year old to be
buried at seven years old? What good does it do
for us to point the finger at people? Right? And
(25:51):
that's the problem when you think about what happened there
and you think about the young dirt ye old kid
that was also just killed a week before that, you know,
by police uh Adam Toledo. Right away, we want to
point the finger. We want to put a face to
where the problems at and what we do that we
don't reflect among ourselves and what are what are what
have been our short falls? You know why instead of
(26:13):
taking it taking a negative approach, why not ask yourself
what can I do to support this issue? What can
I do to move things forward? Right? And that's the
unfortunate part, because we're quickly willing to put the blame
on somebody else. You know, they'll say anywhere Adam was
outside two three in the morning. What was he doing?
And I'm like with ship that you know that he
(26:34):
ran away from home. You know, they want to blame
the mother, right, what happened? Right? And I asked myself,
do you even know the most situation you want to
we want to blame. Why isn't people lifting up the concern? Right? Well,
the truth is, I would invite anybody to come to
our neighborhoods every single time somebody is killed, because there
is community activism behind that. There is you know, clergy
(26:54):
coming together, that there is institutions coming together to lift
up the memory of the individual. You know that that
is very, very, very telling because I say that all
the time we have to change the realities of the
community before we can ask the community to change, you know.
And that brings me to my sister Carmen Perez, who
I've known for a number of years, and how she
(27:15):
does this work and listening to this story, I know
there's personal things that you've told me about yourself and
your sister, you know, her losing her life to violence
in the streets, you unidentifying with gang violence and growing
up in the game culture in in l a I
mean in in California, and and being able to identify
that then utilizing that knowledge of that to transform and
(27:38):
do the man ending massive conservation and shild and cans
of work. So I want you to speak to that,
and and and and this this narrative that when we
talk about defunding the police, there's a lot of people
who have an issue with that, and when we try
to explain to them that defunding the police meets refunding
the community and giving us the resources and things that
(27:58):
we need to change change the cultures in our communities
that will stop the violence. You know. So I want
you to speak just try to tie all those things
in because I know how you have don't have a
lot of time, but I know how brilliant you are,
and I know how passionate you are about all of
these things. So give us a little outlook on that.
How do we tie these things in and how do
we give people understanding of how these things affecting our community?
(28:21):
You know, I learned restorative justice from my father. When
they took my sister um and the police and the aide,
the district attorney asked my family if they wanted to
press charges and my father said, I cannot take another
mother's child away. I think you know, no family ever
imagines that happening to them. UM. But so for me
(28:43):
dedicating my life to working with people that are incarcerated
or formally incarcerated UM, working to stop violencing communities, not
just UM in California, UM, but also in the prisons
or when I traveled to it in Salvador to support
a peace process. I think it's all interconnected, right, But
the police are not creating safety when so many black
(29:07):
and brown people are being hurt and killed, and this
trauma is coming at a great expense. For example, here
in New York City, the NYPD budget has ballooned to
between six to ten billion dollars a year. What this
means is that essentially, we have invest billions of dollars
(29:27):
for a system to keep us safe, and instead it
over polices our communities and creates more harm. We can
shift our tax dollars into alternatives like community community violence
intervention and prevention, mental health and wellness services, substance use counseling,
after school programming, and many other types of supportive investments
(29:49):
in safety and wellness. Imagine if Makia Bryant's phone call
for help had been met with people who calmed and
de escalated the situation and got the teenagers to talk
to one another. That's the way we create safety by
meeting the needs of our communities, and then would cost
much less than the current system of policing does. Exactly.
(30:10):
And speaking about showing up, there's nobody that shows up
more my sister Erica Ford Man, she's been on the
front line for this movement so long, and you know
what she brings to it is exactly what Carmen was
speaking of. Those people who can get in front of
the violence, those people that interrupt the violence. That's why
this is important when we talk about defunding the police
(30:32):
and refunding the communities, is giving people like Erica Ford
who is one of the architects of the crisis management
system in New York City, the proper funds and resources
necessary to protect our communities. To make sure she's the
one of the people that's taken the guns out of
the hands of the children that's getting in front of See.
A lot of the police don't come to our communities
(30:53):
until after the violence has already acted to a time
to rest somebody it's a time to put somebody in jail.
We need people who get in front of it, and
Erica Ford is one of those people. And I want
you to speak to why it is important that we
give the resources to the communities to protect and and
govern our own and when you speak on on why
(31:14):
it is important because we don't have an alternative, right
when when I looked at that young girl who got shot,
my team we do that all the time, right, butcher
knife in one hand, bleaching the other, twenty girls going
at it right, um, And what we do is we
get in the middle, and we we intermed and we separate.
(31:36):
When those police came, one police had his hand on
the guns. The other one was standing there like they
know what was going on. If all of them would
have moved in and grabbed individuals and held them separately,
apart and mediated and talk through that's what we do, right.
We have to get to the heart of like Eddie
was talking about, we have generational trauma. And so you
(31:58):
can't deal with generational trauma putting more trauma on a community.
And that is what happens when you call a hammer
every time to deal with a heart. You're dealing with
heart pain with a hammer, you're trying to beat the
heart into something that can happen, right, The two don't mix.
And so we have to get healers. We have to
get credible messengers. We have to get credible clinicians interventionists
(32:20):
to come into the community and work with those who
don't know how to deal with their pain. Who's going
out in the community and looking at drugs and guns
and gangs as as the vehicle to which they can
heal and they can't, you know. And so what we
do is is work with folks too to not only
transition mindset, but to place them in opportunities that can
(32:42):
take their lives to another level. So we you want
to be a chef, we hook you up with the
top chefs. And that brings me to you know, either
one that you can shine in on this And and
there's this narrative, right and I don't know who painted
it where it comes from, is that this work that
we do, that the trauma that we take on is
somehow in hopes to profit off the death of our
(33:06):
own people, right. And it's the weirdest narrative in the world.
And it's like, how do we supposed to help our people, right,
if we don't have the resources to help, if we're
getting up, you know, we're going out there. We're willing
to risk our lives on the front line. We're willing
to take the backlash. You willing to risk our freedom.
We're willing to do all of these things. And there
(33:27):
are people saying, because we need resources to do those things,
that means that we're capitalizing off the death of our
own people. What do you think about that statement? Well,
and can I just add any other components so they
say that we're capitalizing. Um also because we use media
as a way to bring attention to these families and
(33:50):
to their situations. Someone said to me the other day,
why are we having a birthday celebration for my out
of our Brey. Why do we have an event for
Brianna con for Brianna Taylor? And you know my position is,
you could say you don't like the language. You can say, well,
the title is bad, and maybe you shouldn't use the
(34:12):
word bash as for a birthday, you should use celebration.
But first of all, we supported the families and things
that they want to do for their children. Um Ahmad
Arebrey's mother is the person who wanted to do a
birthday celebration for her son because she does not want
to be sad every single birthday that comes around. She
(34:34):
wants to change the narrative around her son and not
have him as just the guy who was killed, but
someone who had a life who like to celebrate, and
as we help her to do that. Um, you know,
we we have experienced those people who say, well, this
is cloud chasing, and that confuses me. So both of you,
if you could talk about that. We have this narrative
(34:56):
that we blame people for for their job right and
and this is our job, this is our life. But
this is our job right and our job and so
the the E M S worker right, because do they
what do we say about that? The more tician the
funeral home do we say, Okay, you are like, there's
(35:17):
a funeral home and you make money off of the
death of people. That's what they do. That's a whole
industry that makes money. The flowers, the obituaries, or people
want to bury their families in a nice way. So
it's part of death, you know. And it's unfortunate for
me because I really don't I don't get the concept
(35:39):
that people who actually are fighting to try to make
sure these things don't constantly happen, so that we we you,
we are we are you. We actually allow these families
and situations to utilize us and our platforms bring attention
to it as somehow we're doing something wrong and it's
the weirdest concept. And and people should celebrate their children, right,
they should not like they should they should feel the
(36:01):
greatness her her son's birthday is mother's day and birthday, right,
it's the same time. So who's gonna be with her
to sit with you know, like who's gonna help her
during that time? Right? And you know it is the
process of celebrating that, young men. When we went into
this area on past like that, seventeen people were shot
(36:22):
a year, four people were killed a year and dude,
nobody's talking about because of our work, we were able
to stop that narrative from happening. And you know, if
you're from our community, then you're growing up in the neighborhood.
People celebrate the life of their loved one whenever they die.
I mean, we put candles out, we have barbecues like
(36:45):
they still here. So I feel like some man, these
people speaking on this must not be from the neighborhood,
and they don't understand how many more we memorialize people's
memories and I'll use the most respectable family with our
communities Revere. I remember Dr Bernice King spoke at the
fifth anniversary of Dr kings Um killing in Memphis that
she said, UM, I think people don't appreciate that although
(37:08):
my dad died, many of us have never been able
to bury him. We understand critiques. Sometimes we have to
listen to different perspectives to be able to find tune
our work. But we also know what makes sense and
what doesn't. And what does not make sense is for
people who have been out here for the amount of
(37:29):
years that all of us collectively have been on the
ground to stop doing this work because other people are
just mad for whatever their reasons are. We're not gonna
do that. We have to keep on going forward. So
I appreciate y'all so much for spending today with me.
I appreciate you all supporting State of Emergency and Erica.
(37:50):
You and I are gonna do a street signing. We're
gonna be on the streets signing books, UM, and also
passed the mike. You'll be joining us on the tour
UM so they and you so very much for the love.
And it is truly a state of emergency. But there
are some people who are out here fighting, and I
do believe that change is going to be in our future,
(38:12):
whether we live to see it or not, but our
children and their children will experience it. Those are people
who I really respect. I particularly appreciate Eddie Um and
the work that he's doing in Chicago because I know
how difficult it is. And in fact, the crisis management
(38:33):
system that exists in New York City that I was
a part of helping Erica and A. T. Mitchell and
others to develop UM. There was a similar program called
Cure Violence that was in in Chicago, and eventually it
was defunded and the program is no longer functioning. There
(38:53):
are many groups, though, that have continued to do the
work and have sought out other ways of getting resources,
some city money, but mostly a lot of partnerships with
other institutions, other corporations and so on and so forth,
and they're continuing to do the work. And Eddie is
one of those individuals who works with many hats and
(39:16):
he's doing, you know, some real great things they're trying
to save lives, and it's it's a lot, you know,
especially when you're in a city where everybody focuses on
what's happening in Chicago, as if to say that there's
not gun violence in St. Louis or you know, gun
violence even in New York since the pandemic. I think
(39:36):
violence is up all over the nation. But it's good
to know that there are soldiers out there on the
front lines. And certainly we know Erica h. Erica Ford
passed to Mike um and Carmen Perez and of course
Eddie Bocanerra. He told me how to say his name properly.
(39:57):
That they are out there on the front line. So
it was good to have them. But I think we
have to have each one of them to come back
when we can give them a lot of time to
to really dissect and get into their issues in their areas.
And we want to track that five five billion dollars too,
like where is it going five billion dollars to allocate
(40:17):
funds to community based organizations that stop violence? You know,
That's that's a lot, you know, and that's something good
that the administration is doing. And we want to talk
about that, but that brings me to my I don't
get it the same way we're able to say in
(40:38):
good faith, hey, this was a good thing that President
binded Dady five billion dollars allocated in communities, because we
do we definitely need those things to give our children,
our community just a fighting chance at survival, not even
just men and survival. But there's also this narrative, you know,
(40:59):
because I, for one, was not going to let have
forty five stay in office. So I was going to
do whatever it took to get forty five out of office.
I didn't think he was presidential. I didn't think he
represented I thought every day that he was in office
that our nation was in imminent danger. So my whole
thing was, he has to go ethics at no expense,
(41:22):
There was no expense, gonna be barred. He was going
to get out. So whoever was running against him by
osmosis was gonna get my vote. So there are these
people who believe that since I voted for this administration,
that when they do something wrong, say something wrong, aren't
strong on issues that I need them to be strong on,
(41:42):
that I should not have the right to say something
about it. I really don't get that. And the reason
why you vote for somebody right because you feel like
you should be able to hold them accountable. Nobody's gonna
be perfect, nobody's gonna do everything you want. But as
someone who votes for somebody right, you really have the
right because this is a candidate that you wanted to
(42:02):
be office or whether you want it or not, you
utilize your vote so your voice matters with that person.
That person needs you. You understand that that person noticed
they need you, so you have every right to hold
that person accountable. So I really don't get where this
narrative comes from that because you voted for them, you
should be quiet now or you can't say nothing because
they did something that we might not agree with, or
(42:23):
say something we're not. We don't agree with a lot
of people. One don't know how the process works, and
to there are a lot of folks out there that
just want to have something negative to say, and that's
just the reality that we deal with. We absolutely have
the right to hold accountable, UH any president. First of all,
So if you are a president and you're in office, UM,
(42:45):
and you are collecting and operating with the taxpayer dollars,
we all have a responsibility to UM make sure that
you know that our voices are being heard. But your
voices most powerful when you can attach it to your
vote and your dollars, which means that you helped UM
(43:05):
to get a candidate elected, especially locally where you have
used your resources UM to donate UM and invest in campaigns.
That is one big way that people absolutely pay attention
to you and your voice, and they also want your
your vote. So those are the two things that elected
(43:27):
officials care about. You know. Some sometimes protests UH and
and our social media activism can help to amplify the message,
but it falls short if it's not attached to a
vote and or our dollars or lack thereof, meaning that
we take our resources from one particular candidate or from
(43:48):
one corporation or from one entity and move it shifted
to another one exactly. You know, I think, like you said,
the low propensity voters and those who don't vote, like
maybe you should be quiet, you know, because you you've
made a conscious decision that you're not even involved in
the process, so you just gotta take what you get.
But when we are involving ourselves in the process, you know,
(44:08):
and just even understanding the reality of what we're dealing
with in this system and in the structure we got.
We we have to give ourselves every possible opportunity to
be successful. We can't do one two things. We live
in America right now where you can't even have one job.
You gotta have a job, two jobs aside hustle a
skill or trade. You know what I'm saying. You might
(44:30):
have to bet on the weekends just to survive. So
that's exactly how we have to survive within this country.
We have to vote, we have to build our own economy,
we gotta raise our own children, we gotta learn, we
gotta do everything thing possible to actually get a level
of equity in this country. So I just want you
to understand when you question me about why I'm calling
(44:52):
out a candidate for telling me that racism, that the
America is not a racist country because I voted for
that president or that vice president of that administration. You're
the one that should be quiet, not me. And that
brings us to the end of our show, which was
a wonderful show. Once again, to Mega, congratulations on the
(45:13):
release of your book State of Emergency. If you do
not have that book, go get it right now. Order
it where can you order it that go to Amazon
or anywhere else that you courage his books, and especially
black bookstores. That would be one place that I was starting.
Your community is going to a small mom and pop
shop where they sell books. The audio version of my
(45:37):
book is also out, so for those people who are
exercising or just unable to read a book for whatever reason,
the audio version is out. My son is in the book.
He has a particular part that you know, as my
mom was reading the book a couple of days ago,
she said, you know, um, my son's part really impacted her.
(46:00):
My dad said that he thought Linda's part was very
impactful as well, where she talks about the Women's March
in the book and some of what we experienced there.
And then our brother Angelo, he also um is in
the book, and you know, my dad said, you know,
Angelo uses those big words, he's super smart, but he's
(46:20):
talking about policy and ways forward within our communities. UM.
From from a very very um you know, I want
to say high level, but it's not so much that
it's a high level. It's really just where we have
to go as a people in order to be able
to obtain power, and that's what Angelo speaks to in
(46:42):
the book. The audio version is being read by two
young people that are in this movement, young leaders. Um
one is at link from Atlanta, Mary Pat she's a young,
fiery sister. And then from New York, um My, my
young sister knew Paul all our young sister in New
Hall And I just hope other people feel good about it.
(47:04):
Dr Angela Davis spoke to me and said, listen, you
write it down, put it in the world, and let
it go. And so I finally let it go and
it's out here, and I hope that people, um you know,
are able to use it as a tool for transformation. Definitely, Man,
once again, congratulations, We're proud of you. And this time
we're gonna ended a little a little different. I will
(47:27):
not always be right, and this time Tamika is not
wrong at all, because State of Emergency is probably gonna
be the number one seller in the world. And we
will both always always be authentic. Yes, sir Peece, thanks
for joining the Street Politicians piece. That's how we own it.
Hosts And Creators
Mysonne
Tamika Mallory
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