The Wave, the Wisdom, and the Work. Guest Dr. Wes Bellamy

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

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

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

Speaker 3 (00:05):
Tamika and my Son's Information, Truth, motivation and inspiration.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Name new Energy. What's going on with my son, Lennon.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
There's nothing going on today, Tomka for you good.

Speaker 4 (00:19):
I have been spending incredible moments with my granddaughter.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
She's three. She's special.

Speaker 4 (00:27):
She's growing, she's learning words, and where she can't necessarily
say the words, she's learning how to point and how
to grab you and guide you to what she wants.
And she, you know, is just learning how to communicate
and learning what she likes. And I've been watching her
and what what interests her like? What does she really

(00:50):
get completely engulfed in?

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Got?

Speaker 1 (00:53):
I love to see it. So we went to a
store the other day.

Speaker 4 (00:57):
She needed some tank tops and some other I'll tell
you what kids kit. How is it that when kids
go to your house right with all the stuff they had,
the things that they wore when they was at your
house last time, for some reason don't fit or don't
look the same.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
I don't understand it, Like I don't.

Speaker 4 (01:18):
Get how from time to time when the kid comes
back the same thing that was real cute.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Last time is not cute anymore. I just get it.

Speaker 4 (01:29):
So we had to get some t shirts and some
tights and the tights done done, just done, random down.
So we're picking those things up and in the store,
you know, they have the little toys for the kids.
These stores are so good at marketing and upselling.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
You you go in to get.

Speaker 4 (01:50):
One thing, and they know how to set it up
with this stuff right there by the register that when
you bring the kids to the register, you find to
get out and they pulling out her they want something,
and she found these little figurines.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
I was trying to show her.

Speaker 4 (02:08):
Big things, not big things, but like computerized things like
press this beep beep, you know.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Make the noises and whatnot. One little self or leap Frog.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
She liked it.

Speaker 4 (02:19):
So she was kind of like, Okay, I like this,
but she put it down and she went and found
figurines of Elmo and Big Bird and Cookie Monster and
whomever else is on there.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
And that she kept.

Speaker 4 (02:34):
She had those little figurines with her for the rest
of the day, playing with them, eating with them, and
it was just so special to watch. How you know,
the computerized the technology is cool. But she's still in
a phase and maybe she'll always be that way. That
this thing that doesn't talk, doesn't do anything was really

(02:56):
special to all. And it just took me back to
when I was a kid. I like stuff like that,
like little.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
You know, I didn't.

Speaker 4 (03:05):
I didn't always like pressing button. Like when they started that,
I was like, I like board games. So maybe she's
just gonna be, you know, super brilliant.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
That might be.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
I believe, I believe our children of the futures.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
You teach them world, show them all the beauty they
process inside.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
There's no there's no saying you get into grandmama old.
You know you're not a grandma. You ain't doing her stuff.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
You said you want to be the traditional grandma described
as traditional grandma ism.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
You did this stuff, You went shopping and you you
took the time.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
You've just been observing. You know that Observan observed and
they taken and he loved the grandmother. At first, you
she's I mean crazy as to that, and now you're like,
it's blad.

Speaker 4 (03:58):
She I always wanted her to be around, but I
hadn't had a child, and it's so long that I
was trying to figure out like how do why manage her?
And yeah, and she's very busy, but she also she's
not going to be quiet while I get on sixteen
conference schools. So now I've just learned to just say
I can't talk while I have a So it's just
made thing so much easier. She's amazing, Her father's amazing.

(04:22):
Mom is amazing, amazing. So that's what I've been doing.
That's what's been going on with me.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
So what I've been doing after you finished all the
plus of things that you actually went to celebrate my
brother Max B, who just came home after doing sixteen years.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
In prison, you know, years, ten years in prison.

Speaker 3 (04:43):
Last time I actually seen Max B was in Sin
City in the Bronx before it.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
Closed, and he was sixteen years ago.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
My son, yes, six literally sixteen years ago.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
I seen her in Sin City and we was chilling
talk and he was telling me that he was going
about to go in and gave him a hall. He's like, yo,
I love everything you're doing. We gotta get up and
he's supposed to do some music and work together. But
you know, fortunately he sat down for sixteen years and
he walked it down and he looked good. I gave
him an It was so crowded inside the party, like

(05:13):
shout out to everybody that came out. Man Max B
got a real foul and a lot of people show
love to Shout out to Fresh Martana for making sure
he kept his name and everything alive.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
So that came back into the streets. You know, people
were waiting for him.

Speaker 3 (05:28):
So you know, I'm I'm very very interested to see
him continue to grow because he has that energy. You know,
still has a young spirit even after sixteen years. He
still has that spirit that's going to attract the youth.
So I see him doing amazing things. Shout out to
Max B.

Speaker 4 (05:48):
I don't know exactly who he is, but I have
I know my algorithm was pushing any videos and things
and showing the love that he was receiving from some
sports game he intended to, you know, people meeting him
in the street in different places. And you know, sixteen
years a long time. I thought he did three or
four years. Sixteen years as wow, you know, and God

(06:10):
bless him.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
He was actually sentenced to seventy five years.

Speaker 4 (06:13):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
S thought for him.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
Got the more type of attorneys until you know, they
actually gave him the time reduction.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
He's home there.

Speaker 4 (06:23):
Well, God bless him, and I just you know, my
experience as of late with a number of people who
are returning home, who have a lot of love and
all the things, they also need support, right just we
just was in you know, talking about this. People need

(06:45):
support because I've watched people go from up here with
the energy.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
And the parties.

Speaker 4 (06:53):
And all the support, I mean, all the fan fare
and everybody's happy to see you come home, and then
all of a sudden, the things you're trying to do
that you thought was gonna be easy, or that things
would kind of flow differently, and it doesn't work, and
you really do have to have something special. You always
talk about this in order to like push yourself forward

(07:14):
despite finding out that some of the people you thought
was gonna just open the door now they may not
even be in position to open the door. So God
bless French Montana for holding them down. And it seems
that a lot of people are going to be there
to support them.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
Brother, yes they will.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
Let me get to my thought of today.

Speaker 4 (07:34):
You know, we've been talking a lot about government employees.
Of course, I've been on the diversity, equity and inclusion
fires and people who were fired and also folks who
were pushed out of the administration and other corporate jobs
under the guise of diversity, equity and inclusion, which they
meant black when they started letting people go. And I

(07:56):
have you know, we've been talking about that every week.
I've said something or try to share a thing or
to be involved in. Representative Bianna Presley, she has an
initiative to get a study from the FED chair to
really look at deeply, look at the study for how
so many black women could be fired and or pushed

(08:18):
out of the workplace in a certain just a few
months from the time that Donald Trump got was inaugurated
and took office all the way until I think the
first jobs report was in April. That's a short period
of time for three hundred plus thousand women. And we
know the number is even higher because we know when
a woman who might be the director in a particular division,

(08:44):
when she is terminated or has to leave now whatever
contract she may have with people who are working with her,
with people who are doing the events, people who are
doing the trainings, people who are just working with her
to get projects done, project management. Those people also lose

(09:05):
their income and so understanding that it's a ripple effect
that rolls down through many layers of many people. So
when you say three hundred thousand people have lost employment
on three hundred thousand black women have lost employment, that
means it's probably double and it could be triple because

(09:26):
again that one woman represents contracts, represents relationships, she represents
speaking engagements where she's paying people to come into her
business or her institution to talk about their expertise. It's
so much that goes into that Black women holds the
purse strings in a.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
Lot of ways.

Speaker 4 (09:46):
And that is one reason why we were targeted immediately
out the gate. They use diversity, equity and inclusion to
target us immediately.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
And we know that we know what happened.

Speaker 4 (09:57):
Because we saw that three hundred thousand plus white men
were hired in the same time period that so many
black women were fired.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
And so what I wanted to say for my thought
of the day.

Speaker 4 (10:09):
Is that in the last couple of weeks, people, I've
just been doing free things for me, right, Like I
was in a restaurant the other day and somebody bought
me some food.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
Then I was somewhere else and a person gave me
two hundred and fifty dollars.

Speaker 4 (10:30):
Some folks sent me a cash app, you know, just
to say, go get you some lunch. Other people like,
you don't gotta pay for this thing or that thing.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
I got it. I'm gonna take care of it.

Speaker 4 (10:41):
And what that has done for me is to really
lift my spirits that I'm not on the internet telling
people what I'm experiencing. What I know, and I'm still
a very blessed person, but I'm experiencing it. And I
know a lot of other people who do the work
that I organizing, people who are activists, people who are

(11:04):
out here dependent upon you and me, like everyday people
to support them because there is no pipeline for funding
that is secure. And it's not just corporate structures and institutions,
you know, educational institutions and otherwise.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
That have lost budgets and people.

Speaker 4 (11:25):
It's actually foundations, people closing their doors and unable to
continue programming.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
And in many.

Speaker 4 (11:32):
Ways, those of us who have organizations, small organizations, and
or people who make a living off of their intellectual property.
We are also a part of this moment that we're
in where we see a reduction in resources and an
increase in prices, and so I just want people to

(11:54):
know that, you know, over this time that we're trying.

Speaker 1 (11:57):
To think of who do we help, who do we
get mutual aid too?

Speaker 4 (12:02):
There are people who will be out there with you
passing a box onto somebody else, putting a box of
mutual aid items into the back of somebody's car, and
meanwhile they don't have food.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
When they get home, they might need a box as well.

Speaker 4 (12:17):
And so look out for the people who are looking
out for the people. I'm not talking about us, which,
of course you can donate to until freedom dot com.
You can go to until freedom dot com and you
can donate to us right now, and we appreciate it
because making payroll every two weeks it's not easy. It
has been a struggle. It's always a struggle, but it's

(12:38):
even harder now. But just remember to take care of
the people who are taking care of the people. There's
a lot of folks out here who are doing great
work or who are trying their best.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
They're out here fighting talking.

Speaker 4 (12:52):
I was watching a sister the other day who's a
content creator, and she said, I left the federal government
for what reason? And then she said, and my husband
was wrongfully terminated from his job.

Speaker 1 (13:06):
And you know, she said, and we're fighting that. But
that's two people in the.

Speaker 4 (13:09):
Household, one pushed out, the other one who has been terminated,
and they're in a household trying to take care of
their family. Now she's the content creator, She's gonna hustle,
but at the same time, people are struggling, and it's
a really, really, really tough moment. And so again I
just want to say, take care of the people who

(13:30):
are taking care of people to the extent that you can,
whether that be food, whether it be setting aside some
pigtowls and some soap and some other essentials and chlorox
wipes and whatever else you think people may need. When
you buy some just take two things out of your box,
and you know, give it to a person who you
know is out here trying to do good work.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
A pastor who doesn't have a big megachurch.

Speaker 4 (13:54):
You know, somebody who's working in the soup kitchen, somebody
who's out there donating their service. Isn't there time do
what you can to help people who are helping people
as well?

Speaker 2 (14:06):
You said it all. We're in a time where everyone
needs help.

Speaker 3 (14:10):
The helpers need help, you know, And I think a
lot of times people don't think that because a lot
of us don't speak about our you know, situations, and
but we just figure it out.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
You know.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
It's a lot of people that I see doing the
work that are out there donating and.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
Doing all this work good as they're at these suit.

Speaker 3 (14:31):
Kitchens and giving away food and they really don't have
it to get you know, it's a time like I
know the seriousness because I've been a person that does
community work and give back to the community and resources
have been low.

Speaker 2 (14:45):
It's just trying to figure out knowing that you want
to do it, knowing that you want.

Speaker 3 (14:48):
To be able to get back to the community, because
it's something that's a hard. You know, you you peace
off from the resources that you have a little bit
of resources that you have because you feel like that's
been your calling to continue to get back to your community.
But a lot of times you definitely need help. So
that's a they don't tell you that they need help,

(15:08):
Just do it because you can.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
If you can help the people that's helping other people,
that's right.

Speaker 4 (15:13):
So that brings us to I am I today and
I'm asking production to please put a screenshot of this
post in the show so people can see exactly what.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
I'm talking about it for those of you who are listening.

Speaker 4 (15:26):
I saw a post on Instagram that said Governor Kathy
Hogel has blocked.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
Mayor elect Zorhan.

Speaker 4 (15:36):
Mundani's plan to increase taxes in New York City. And
the comments section is full of people like, see, he
said he was gonna do this.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
And he can't get it done.

Speaker 4 (15:51):
Oh you know, oh my god, communism and this and
that and and oh oh, I can't believe Kathy Hogel,
how dare she? I mean, the comments section is full
of people who are making all types of conclusions based
upon a post that is misinformation. It is misinformation, and unfortunately,

(16:15):
there's thousands of people on that post who have now
seen it and they're talking about it. So let me
just break this down for people who need to understand
how politics work, because obviously folks don't have a clue.

Speaker 1 (16:30):
Number One, Zorhan Mandani is the mayor elect. He is
not the mayor.

Speaker 4 (16:35):
Yet, right, And Kathy Hopel, the governor of New York State,
made a statement that she still stands by her decision
not to increase taxes, which by the way, it is
an election year. Next year, it's an election year for her,
so we know that that's going to play a role in.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
What she will will not do.

Speaker 4 (17:00):
But nevertheless, she made a statement on news outlet during
an interview that there's still not going to be or
she still has not agreed to or will not agree
to any tax increases, and so that's where they're getting
it from that she made this statement in an interview.

(17:21):
But the problem is that as mayor elects, he is
not the mayor yet and so the title that is
on this particular post is incorrect because you can't block
something that has not been proposed properly through a policy format,
right and they gotta deal with the city council.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
There's a lot of things.

Speaker 4 (17:43):
I know that the government, the state governor has the
ultimate say on what happens, but you have to go
out and actually lobby for what you want and to
make the case.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
It's a lot of people who say no, we're.

Speaker 4 (17:55):
Not gonna do X, Y and Z thing until people
start putting fire up on that ass. So as the
governor is intending on running for re election right now,
she can stand one hundred and ten toes down on
what she's saying until groups get the organizer, that people
get out the ingdom streets and folks start saying, we're
gonna support somebody against her, and we're gonna run somebody

(18:19):
to beat her that agrees with the policy plan that
Mondani has put forward for New York City. You cannot
win an election in New York State unless you can
win in New York City.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
That a state wide election you cannot win. I mean,
it's just no way.

Speaker 4 (18:36):
It's like trying to win Kentucky without winning Louisville. It
is very difficult to be able to do that. You
would need every damn vote from upstate, every single vote
in order to be able to beat the largest city
in the damn state and, by the way, the most
influential city in the entire nation.

Speaker 1 (18:54):
Okay, let's just be clear now.

Speaker 4 (18:56):
One thing we know is that she's better on rich
people standing by her and supporting her and pouring money
into her campaign, and therefore she doesn't want to ruffle
their feathists. But we just watch the rich people's money
go down to dream. Those are the same people who
supported Andrew Cuomo.

Speaker 1 (19:18):
And meanwhile, Mom.

Speaker 4 (19:19):
Donny's plan that he has set forth is one that
people voted for that helped him to win.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
People damn sure want.

Speaker 4 (19:28):
To see the rich pay a little bit more of
their responsibility while we get some things that we deserve
that nobody's even saying we don't want to pay taxes.
We say, yeah, we're paying our taxes, that's fine, but
can we get.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
A little bit of relief on all.

Speaker 4 (19:46):
Of these items that he mentioned and some things that
he didn't even talk about. So when you saying that
his plan has been blocked, No, the governor has said
that she will not do it, but that does not
mean that it's blocked because you have not put the
activism coupled with the strategy of other elected officials while

(20:06):
working towards an election year as the fire underneath her feet.
So she can say anything she wants now, but she
don't know what the next year will turn into and
whether or not a viable candidate will run against her
who will have the same ideology or agree with some
of what Mamdonnie is proposing. So I forgot to say,

(20:30):
that's the TMI that the people need to stop spreading
this information on the internet. That is the probably one
of the biggest things and I bet you these people
think they got it right, but you actually had it wrong.
It's not been blocked, it is that she is saying
she won't do it. And there is a very big

(20:51):
difference between the two because you have not put advocacy
behind the fight yet.

Speaker 3 (20:57):
There's actually been no policy presented, so how can you
block it? And this hasn't been presented, it's just amelia idea.
So he would have to put together his policy presented
to her to show her how it actually benefits New
York City and then she would have the opportunity to
block it or saying she's just just on phace value,
like you said, understanding where her donors are gonna come from.

(21:19):
The rich whites inside of New York City don't want
to be taxed, so she's she's playing politics like they all.
She's pretty ponitic. And it's it's sad that we have
Internet is so intentional about just spreading misinformation that they
can't wait to say some shit to get clickbait.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
That's all. It's really just about clicks. If they can.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
Put something up the can galvanize some type of traffic
and can get them in the algorithm. They're just gonna
post it, you know, and it's it's up to us
to continue to do our due diligence to properly educate
inform people that that shit you just said ain't even true.
I love all the influencers that do it, you know,
Shout up to Jay Williams, you know, my boy.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
I'm consciously like they constantly going back and forth. You know.
I try to.

Speaker 3 (22:09):
Add my little piece here in there. But there's a
lot of us and we just got to highlight, you know.
I think that's what we have to be a test
to because we go to so many different sites and
blogs that are misinforming our people. We have to make
sure that we're showing the people where they can get
their accurate information.

Speaker 4 (22:26):
Absolutely, let's get into our guest today. It's a special
brother who's family to us, and you know he's going
to talk about the state of this nation right now.
So a regular friend joining us on the TMI Show today.

(22:47):
One of the jokes of TMI, but it's really not
a joke. It's actually very serious, is that we always
have great friends that do great things coming on to
the show to talk to us about the work they're doing.
And also they'rectives on many issues happening in the world today.
And the brother who's joining us right now is not
just our friend, he's our brother.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
He's our comrade and the struggle.

Speaker 4 (23:10):
And thankfully it's probably one of the comrades that we
think most likely like mostly aligned on many things, so
we don't have to fight and debate as much as
we do with some of our other cord step But
we're being enjoying today on the TMI Show with our brother,
doctor Wes Bellamy. And you know, this man has an

(23:32):
extensive bio. I asked him for three things that he
would like us to say about him today, and I
won't tell y'all what he said around real and but
the three things that we want to highlight is he
is currently the political science chairman at Virginia State University.
He is also the former vice mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia,

(23:56):
which is where I became aware of his work and
how much he's connected to the movement. And he also
has a new book out called Nobody's Coming to Save Us.
Nobody's Coming to Save us, don't we know that? So
doctor Bellabie, Wes, our brother, thank you so.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
Much for joining the team my show today.

Speaker 5 (24:15):
Thank you so much, my dear sister and dear brother.
I appreciate y'all. Glad y'all didn't tell all our family business.
So always good to be here with my family. Who
it seems like I'm following around the country everywhere y'all going,
I'm going.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
Always good to see y'all. Likewise, you know, we gotta
we always gonna be where the fighters at. So that's
why I see each other.

Speaker 3 (24:37):
So give us a little bit of background, you know,
so people can get a little with who you are
before we get into the meeting potatoes about how we
going to hell in basket in America right now?

Speaker 5 (24:47):
So we getting sure, sure man, So again, thanks for
having me. My name is Wes Bellamere, or doctor West
as some people call me. I am currently the Political
Science Department chairman at Virginia State University, Ah, Sir, I've
been serving in this position for seven years. I served
as the vice mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia for four years.

(25:07):
What a lot of people know me for During that
time period, I helped lead the effort to remove Confederate monuments,
specifically Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson and that kind
of kicked off this Confederate monument removal initiative.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
Across the country.

Speaker 5 (25:21):
In some regard, our city was the one in which
white supremacists actually came and they unalive someone rest in
power to have a hire. So we've been fighting in
our community for a very long time. In addition to that,
I serve as the chairman of our Charlottesville Redevelopment Housing
Authority Board, and I run a basketball league and Charlottesville
called the Tounsler League, which is kind of like the

(25:43):
largest pro and basketball league in the state.

Speaker 2 (25:46):
So we have folks come from all over Virginia, d C.

Speaker 5 (25:49):
North Carolina to come and play in our league for men, women,
and young folks. It's kind of like gershow Rutger and
shout out to my man Dpat Gershop in New York.
Lot of friends and family up there. So I just
try to do my part.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
In the community. I love my people.

Speaker 5 (26:06):
If I'm anything, I'm a proud black man, I'm a
proud dad, and again I'm willing to sacrifice with my people,
which is why I think that we all align so much.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
So really happy to be here with y'all.

Speaker 4 (26:18):
Absolutely, so tell us what you've been doing lately in
the movement. I mean, I think that the educational perspective
of your life as well as the movement, they sort
of collide because you're always like doing both, trying to
educate people within the work, but you also are really
boots on the ground, and I think, you know, sometimes

(26:41):
people see academia as being separate from being really deeply
in the movement for justice, and so I would love
for people to learn more about your community activity and
what you do to organize our people.

Speaker 5 (26:57):
Yeah, I mean, I think on the education side, it's
important for us to have practitioners in academia.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
We need to have people who are actually doing the work.

Speaker 5 (27:04):
And this is no slight or disrespect to to our
friends and colleagues who work in the higher education space.
And we know that there's room for folks who write books,
which you know we've done, and there's folks there's space
for folks to do research, which is necessary. But I
also think it's important for our young people to be
around people who actually are kind of doing this stuff
on the ground. I'm within my community in Charlottesville. My

(27:26):
role is more of a convener, if you will, like
right now, We're gearing up for our thirteenth annual turkey giveaway.
Every Thanksgiving we give away around three hundred turkeys. And
I'll just say like a quick side note for that,
just to show the space of where we are in
our community right now or in our country right now,
so people know that Sunday before Thanksgiving every year, Wes

(27:48):
is going to have you know, two fifty three hundred turkeys.
I've already had four hundred and fifty requests bite people
reaching out.

Speaker 2 (27:56):
We've already have and people are usually there.

Speaker 5 (28:00):
Hours before the turkey giveaway usually starts at one o'clock
at one of our community parks, and people are usually there,
you know, two three hours ahead of time in line.
And again we're two weeks out and I've already had
four hundred and fifty requests for turkey. So I think
it goes to show again we had a lot of
work to do in our community is and our people

(28:21):
need us.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
On the ground.

Speaker 5 (28:23):
In Charlottesville specifically, as I alluded to, I kind of
serve as a convener and a connector in that regard.
I work a lot with young men. I'm the former
president of the hundred Black Men of Central Virginia where
we work a great deal and convene young African American
males about how to make wise decisions, how to do violence,
intervention and interruption and things of that nature.

Speaker 2 (28:46):
So again, that's really a lot of my work.

Speaker 5 (28:49):
Everything that I do will let me not say everything,
but ninety percent of what I do is predicated around
helping our people. I'm very intentional with trying to be
there and show up for our people, and more than
anything else, I think that like kind of as the
book says, it's up to us, because there's nobody coming
to save us, Like we are the ones that the
ancestors prayed about, and we're the people that have to

(29:11):
go out and again do the work on the ground,
working with people, ensuring that assistance is there, making sure
they're mutual aid and folks have what they need, ensuring
that that we show up more than anything else, providing
words of encouragement because we have platforms or people may
view us in a particular light. And I think that
that those are the things that I pride myself on,

(29:32):
and I'm just happy that God has blessed me with
these talents and the ability and resources to be able
to do.

Speaker 3 (29:37):
So, So that's amazing, and we're definitely going to get
into the book because I love the title in itself because.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
That's definitely how I feel. But this current moment, you know,
I've seen you actually had comments. There was on a
new all.

Speaker 3 (29:54):
There was a new development, you know, release of snaps
prior to the rest of the stuff. But you know,
Katanji Brown was getting dragged all over there. It's like
she sold us out. And then I went to your
page and immediately so you gave the breakdown.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
I was like, Okay, my sister, she doing what she's
supposed to give. It's a little take on that, and
give me a little respect of what you think.

Speaker 3 (30:17):
Is going on right now as black folks are concerned
right now.

Speaker 4 (30:20):
But just before you guys get into that, I just
want to make sure for people who are listening who
don't necessarily know what you're speaking to.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
The Snap benefits.

Speaker 4 (30:31):
Had to go all the way through an appeal to
the Supreme Court after the lower courts told Donald Trump
that he had to release the resources. A Supreme Court justice,
which is Katanji Brown, did not vote affirmatively to force him.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
Right.

Speaker 4 (30:49):
Yeah, So I guess that you'll explain those the details
of that to force him to pay the SNAP benefits,
and that's the reason why people were dragging her so goad.

Speaker 5 (31:00):
So essentially how it works is that there's a series
of courts which some individuals may know, when some individuals
may not like when you're going through the process of
having funds released. So a lower level court, if you will,
mandated that the current administration in President Trump released the
monies in full to states so that SNAP benefits can

(31:22):
be paid. They want to make sure, just in plain terms,
those money goes from Snap to your EBT card to
make sure you can go and get groceries or whatever
you need to feed your families. Well, the administration sued
and said, now, hell no, we don't want to do that.
The procedure is that a certain Supreme Court justice will
be the one who gets to hear emergency cases, if

(31:44):
you will. That particular person in this instance is a
Supreme Court Justice Katanji bron Jackson.

Speaker 2 (31:51):
So because it fell in her lap, what she did
was something.

Speaker 5 (31:55):
That I believed to be brilliant, and I think that
before we go into like exactly what she did, I
think this is also a lesson in grace for black folk.

Speaker 2 (32:03):
Like in leadership, we.

Speaker 5 (32:04):
Can be extremely hard on each other, even when people
have shown time and time and time and time and
time again that they're for us. We don't always give
each other the benefit of the doubt. And I think
that it's incumbent, Like it's important for a lot of us,
y'all to take a second and think about what people
have done, like what they've shown you with their track record,

(32:26):
and then is what you think they're doing now actually
what they're doing? Because if they ain't never sold us
out before, why are they going to tell us out now?
And that doesn't make any sense. So what our Supreme
Court justice their sister did was she allowed for Trump
to be able to say, Okay, you don't want to
pay the money right now? All right, cool, But what

(32:46):
we're going to do is send this back down to
a lower court. She send it to the first Circuit,
which is full of essentially Biden and Obama appointees, and
she allowed them. She told them that you all need
to make a decision with haste, essentially saying, y'all need
to do this fast. What she knew was that if

(33:06):
she was to say, Okay, I'm gonna stay the order
or deny the order. It could then be heard before
the entire Supreme Court, which would have done two things. One,
it would have took a much longer time and the
funds would not have been released and an adequate amount
of time.

Speaker 2 (33:23):
Secondly, the Supreme Court could have.

Speaker 5 (33:25):
Also said, nah, we're going to rule inside with President Trump,
because we know he has the overwhelming majority of the
persons on the court. We know that the Supreme Court,
this current Supreme Court collectively is you know, in my opinion,
they just work for Trump.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
They do what he says.

Speaker 5 (33:40):
So she knew that, and what she also recognizes that
by sending it back to the first Court, who again
these appointees are Biden and Obama appointees, they're much more
favorable to rule in favor of having the funds released
immediately and the process would be much shorter. So by
her doing that, she knew that by the time it

(34:01):
comes back to the Supreme Court, if it has to
be argued again, the moneies will already.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
Be released, which was brilliant.

Speaker 5 (34:07):
And you know, she played a long game, which made
some folks upset in the immediate But again it just
goes back to saying like, yo, we gotta give folks
in some regard to benefit of the doubt. I know
it's hard because we've seen people time and time and
time again really mess us over. I don't know if
we can curse, but they, yeah, like people fuck us

(34:28):
over like over and over and over again. Especially sometimes
we think that it's our own people.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
You know.

Speaker 5 (34:34):
That's saying all your skin folks and kin folk. But
Justice Brown, she's shown that she isn't one of them.
And again, I think she made a brilliant move that
required us to read the understand the strategy. And once
we were able to do that, you know, I think
people were able to get it the tweet, I mean,
the thread. People I think didn't quite understand initially what

(34:57):
she was doing. And this also goes to politics.

Speaker 2 (35:00):
We got to be.

Speaker 5 (35:00):
Able to break things down in layman's terms our everyday
person can understand, and I don't think we always do
a good job of that, you know what I mean?
And that's what people like us are here for.

Speaker 4 (35:11):
Well, I didn't even realize that Katanji Brown was the
deciding factor in this. So when I heard that it
went to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme court has
sided with Donald Trump. I imagine all the members, and
it was really when you said, or whatever, we're on
nine hundred thousand threads together about everything you could think

(35:33):
of one of those threads, you said, no, well, let
me just break this down for you guys.

Speaker 1 (35:38):
You said it in a paragraph.

Speaker 4 (35:39):
It didn't take you three, you know, days and the
whole dossier to get help us understand.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
And it made perfect sense to me.

Speaker 4 (35:49):
And I do think, yes, we have to make sure
that we educate our people. We also have to understand that, folks,
social media has turned us into a two second it snatched,
like if it ain't there two seconds, we're not gonna know.
And by the way, unfortunately they don't follow us at

(36:10):
the rate that they follow the shape.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
Road that Hollywood and ball Alert and all these other places.

Speaker 4 (36:19):
And I shout out to ball Alert and even Hollywood
Unlocked because they do try their best to like give
you a little bit more information so that you're up
to speed on what's going on. But overall, the vast
majority of social media is so fast it's hard for
people to get the information.

Speaker 1 (36:37):
And they don't have people in their lives like us.

Speaker 2 (36:40):
And it's clickbait orientated, right, Yeah, right, they don't.

Speaker 3 (36:43):
They don't give you any of the actual facts that
they say this will happen, knowing people going and then
you don't really get most of the average person is
not going to go for the details. They're not going
to look into it. They're not gonna do the old reader.
They're gonna read that that little you know, clickbait. They're
gonna listen to two seconds of thing and the niggles
and I already sold us out is over.

Speaker 2 (37:02):
We got we got nothing, told y'all.

Speaker 1 (37:05):
Told y'all, and and she she's playing a long game.

Speaker 4 (37:09):
And by the way, there are times when you can't
We're not We're not gonna sit here and say that
she or anyone else, or you, or me or my
son will always make the decision that most people want
us to make, right, because when you are reading the law.
And this is what I was saying about a couple
of cases. I will not bring you into our regular

(37:32):
arguments that we have on this show, but I was
telling some people I went and sat in the court
with a sister who was shot by a man, and
I listened to what happened in court, not what your
grandmama and them said, not what Paula's so blogger role

(37:54):
in this influencer and that person or whatever. I listened
to what they were saying in and I read the
transcripts and I could tell you why the person was
found guilty.

Speaker 1 (38:05):
You know what I'm saying. But we oftentimes believe.

Speaker 4 (38:08):
That whatever somebody cooks up on the Internet is the
story and is actually not.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
Yeah, I mean, the internet is dangerous. Misinformation is dangerous.

Speaker 5 (38:17):
So we know our people are some of the most
targeted people in the world, which is even why it's
more important that we got credible messengers like ourselves out
there trying to combat that.

Speaker 2 (38:25):
And I think kind of in the work in which.

Speaker 5 (38:27):
We do it, we got to develop and build more
credible messengers, but we also got to have people who
are willing to come offline and then get in the
street and build relationships so that we can build trust.
Like that's the other part that's really important. It's kind
of easier for folks to trust us in some regard
because they see us, they believe us we outside, we
can touch them, they can touch us, and so forth.

(38:49):
But when like people don't really come outside and then
they only our online it's hard for them to sometimes
again build trust, or if you're platform is solely doing
sensationalized shit or just solely you know, like clickbait. As
my son alluded to, man negativity cells so fast, and

(39:12):
we got to do our due diligence at fighting it.
And like you said to me, come in with me,
and I have the followings of the Shade Room.

Speaker 2 (39:19):
And so forth.

Speaker 5 (39:20):
But we do have a trusted amount of people, or
we do have people who trust us, and we just
got to continue to do the work. I'm always trying
to fight in my science comments, you know, if that's.

Speaker 3 (39:31):
Award zone like this, and it's like, you know what,
we've done studies, and we've actually seen people who have
done studies and said that they have they have bat
forms that they send in tonetic and don't actually literally
admitted it. Yesterday he was on my page and he
said something to me, and I was like, he said, oh,
you're getting paid. I said, I'm not getting paid the
dominant thing to tell the truth with it.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
Why are you here? He said, I am getting paid
at least I'm telling the truth.

Speaker 3 (39:55):
And I'm like why And somebody literally it's literally a
comment on one page right now where he said this,
So it's a they actually getting paid and we know
people who've.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
Done the forensic science of it just said that they have.

Speaker 3 (40:06):
Farmed crazy Man second pages to discredit us, you know,
and so that that's that's a real thing. But it's
it's I'm very I'm not even angry with that because
my credibility outside of the Internet is what it is,
like you said, we really outside. So when I started
doing this work, that was the whole thing for me
to be the call doing from the streets and bring

(40:28):
it back to this is what's going on. So when
my friends come to me and kill this is going
and I'd be like, nah, I'm in the barbershop, I'm
in the lounge, I'm in a who can, I'm everywhere
the real conversations, and they're like, world, that's what happened.
So that is my job, you know. So I take
the I constantly go on a lot. I know they
gonna come at me every time, but I'm persistent and consistent.

(40:48):
Younger can't break me down because the truth don't change.
And as we talk about you know what's going on
right now, we also talked about the what Katji Jackson
had dated how you broke it down? We seen that
later the strategy with her that last night midnight, that

(41:11):
it came back and she decided that they decided to
side with her. The little actually decided to side and
said he had you know. But then we get some
more news. We get some news that the Dentons pretty
much came they got the votes you know that was
needed to.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
Open up, you know, the government again. What is your
take on that?

Speaker 5 (41:35):
Well, well, I'm gonna say I got I have mixed feelings.
I'm just being a hunted seven dims, one independent quote
unquote all come together to essentially, in my personal opinion,
betray the people.

Speaker 1 (41:52):
All white people, all white.

Speaker 2 (41:54):
And and two of them I know one of them.
I know really well, so you know I.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
Ain't gonna that's your die.

Speaker 2 (42:01):
Yeah, I mean, y'a.

Speaker 5 (42:03):
We had to have a conversation, like, bro, help me,
help me understand you know what I'm saying, Like why
would you make this decision? So again, like I have
mixed feelings on one end, I can understand somebody saying, yo,
I can't take it no more. Our people need resources.
Snap me. Like as it was said to me earlier,

(42:23):
someone said a senator, say, yo, population you work with
the most, they need their benefits. These individuals can't afford
to continue missing a paycheck. We have to be able
to do the right thing. But then it's like, yo,
you get you made people wait forty days and you
knew this was going to be the end result. So
there's there's righteous anger in that regard. And this is

(42:47):
where my disappointment comes with those individuals, those those seven
eight whatever who decide to make this decision. You can't
go and fight the devil and not be willing to
go to hell like we're gonna have to be willing
to go to the depths of where these groups are
in order for us to be able to get what
it is the people truly need, not necessarily just what
we want, but what we need. And the promise of

(43:09):
a vote, a promise a trade in forty days of
hell quote unquote for a promise of having an affordable
care vote later down the line, it's just not it.
And I think what's missing in this might sign into Mika, Well,
I think some of us may not be thinking about
and or considering not all of us, but some of us.
It's like, Yo, these people These Republicans are never going

(43:32):
to vote for the Affordable Care Act because they associate
that with Obamacare, and Obama to them is the equivalent
of the Antichrist. Obama, to them is the worst president
in the United States's history, and much of that is
predicated on race. Trump is himself infatuated and overly infatuated
with Obama. He has some inferiority complex, specifically when it

(43:54):
comes to the forty fourth president of the United States,
and he wants to undo everything in which Obama brought fourth.
Even has floated the idea of calling this trump Care,
getting rid of the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare, and
creating trump Care, and he was willing to go to
the depths of all depths.

Speaker 2 (44:12):
To get what he wants. That includes ending the filibuster.

Speaker 5 (44:15):
That includes lowing the threshold for those who aren't aware,
like right now you need sixty votes to be able
to get things through the Senate. They were going to
end the filibuster, make it where you only have to
have fifty votes, where the Republicans already have.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
That amount of number.

Speaker 5 (44:27):
They were going to continue to cut voting rights, They
were going to continue to push their efforts to get
rid of any early voting, so all voting had to
be same day because they know when more people vote,
Democrats usually win. So you know, there's this thought on
some of the persons who voted to reopen the government
quote unquote, that we aren't going to get anything anyway.

(44:50):
This is the best that we can get and let's
stop the suffering. But again, it really makes, in my opinion, collectively,
Democrats look weak, even though it was only eight of
them who decided to to take this stance.

Speaker 2 (45:01):
So we got work to do.

Speaker 5 (45:02):
Man and Tamika, you said something before we were recording,
and I'll shut up with this, but you said, Nah,
people deserve to be able to have the time.

Speaker 2 (45:10):
To grieve and be angry and be upset.

Speaker 5 (45:12):
We're gonna fight, we know that, but we can't just
pretend like people didn't feel portrayed, and they have every
right to feel portrayed, because in many ways that's exactly what.

Speaker 4 (45:22):
Yeah. Let me just say that my son and I
were talking about this earlier, that there is a.

Speaker 1 (45:30):
Place right and we read this on memes all the time.

Speaker 4 (45:34):
I know it comes up on my social media where
it says when it gets to that real hard place,
that's when you're about to have a breakthrough.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
You got to go straight through.

Speaker 4 (45:41):
And I was giving him the example of when my
son used to be in taekwon do and he was
a little thing, and they would say, punch these boards
and he would hit the boards.

Speaker 1 (45:55):
And anytimes he'd get it and pop his hand back
it hurt.

Speaker 4 (45:58):
He would say, you have to go all the way
through if you're going to break the board, right, And
I feel like this was one of those moments.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
The overall concern for me, or.

Speaker 4 (46:14):
The place where my heart bleeds, is that it's two things.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
First of all, I feel that people.

Speaker 4 (46:24):
Are not aware of the war we're actually fighting. And
I talked about this last week on our show, that
we have the foresight and we know it's like God
gave black people something different, and he certainly gave black
women a fire in our belly that tells us when

(46:46):
something is stirring.

Speaker 1 (46:47):
And my stomach.

Speaker 4 (46:49):
Tells me that we're in the part of the war
now where we're not going to be able to use
the old tools right, like we're gonna have the goal,
or or at least we're not going to be able
to use our most comfortable tools that we keep with
us all the time. We got the goal in the
shed and in the bat and you know, to the

(47:10):
army base and get the god thing on bazookas, and
people gonna they are there's going to be casualties of
in this war. It's already happening, right. And the second
thing I would say is that the people who voted
to side with the Republicans to open a government back

(47:34):
up and to pass this piece of the cr and
all the things that we know have happened, and they,
you know, they claim, well, we were able to get
the vote and some appropriations bills passed, and a pause
on firing of your federal workers, and yeah, right, a

(47:56):
couple of things, and they said that they got They
are very privileged individuals. So it is actually the opposite
of what they are saying. They're saying, we, the people
or the people they serve, need the SNAP benefits, need
to be back at work because these folks are already

(48:17):
struggling or just barely making it.

Speaker 1 (48:19):
Or making it, and not they don't need to struggle.

Speaker 4 (48:22):
We all agree with that, but it's actually an opposite
thing that they're so privileged they are concerned about helping
with SNAP benefits and a check for this month and
next month, when what is happening is going to be
a lifetime destruction for some of our people. We're headed

(48:43):
towards a place where our elders will suffer on their
way to their death. Our young kids will grow up
in a different type of society from the society that
we've grown up in. So it's a privilege to worry
about today's versus tomorrow's life and destruction. And it's scary

(49:06):
to me. It's scary to me that white folks, who
probably all of them have resources, came together and made
a decision, and then the rest of the people of
color was trying to hold the damn line.

Speaker 1 (49:21):
We got a serious problem here.

Speaker 5 (49:24):
In every shape, form and fashion. I think you hit
that right on the head. I mean, what privilege is
it for you to be able to say, I want
to do this for you, but you're not the one
that's hungry, and then your grandchildren aren't going to be
the one that's hungry later on, you're not going to
face the impact of the premiums, the health insurance premiums
going up one hundred and two hundred percent. To have
a conversation this morning, Like someone was telling me. You know,

(49:46):
they they're having to make a decision. They're a barber,
they work, they have their own private insurance, and they're
currently paying nine hundred dollars a month. They understand that
their premiums are not going to go up to seventeen
hundred dollars a month. So they're gonna have to make
a decision. You know what I'm saying, what they're gonna
do feed the kids or where's that extra eight hundred
dollars gonna come from. The sister, one of the sisters,

(50:06):
I know she's talking about. She's a full time stylist.
She's like, I'm gonna have to pick up a job
at Starbucks because at Starbucks at least you know, they
have health benefits. But now I'm the one that's responsible
for getting my daughter off the bus. We don't really
know who's gonna be able to do that. Like, there's
all of these different ramifications that are going to take
place because of this decision that was made. And I
think for many of the senators it was very short

(50:27):
sighted because they weren't willing to hold the line. And honestly,
Republicans knew that Democrats weren't gonna be able to hold
the line. It's like, Yo, we know y'all pussy, we
know y'all are so with yelp they you.

Speaker 2 (50:38):
Always pld that.

Speaker 4 (50:39):
But we do have to give some credit to those
who did hold the line.

Speaker 1 (50:44):
For BP still voted no.

Speaker 4 (50:46):
I would not give that to Chuck Schumer because I
am very politically astute. Okay, I may not be an
expert expert on articulating everything that.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
I see, but I have very good discernment.

Speaker 4 (51:00):
It's very clear that Chuck Schumer selected a group of
people who he knew had didn't have much to lose,
because I don't think your senator is running for re election,
is he?

Speaker 2 (51:12):
He just won re election?

Speaker 1 (51:13):
Yes, that's that.

Speaker 4 (51:17):
And so most of them do not have a political
battle ahead of them, and therefore they were able to
vote yes to side with the Republicans, while Schumer voted
no to seem as though he was with his caucus.
But if you are a leader and you don't have
your house in control, then you're not really a leader

(51:37):
at all. So if you voted no, the rest of
those eight people or seven yes, seven because the independent
we're supposed to vote with you and if you couldn't
with those votes, and if the conspiracy that I'm saying
is not real, which I believe it is.

Speaker 1 (51:54):
To say it's not.

Speaker 2 (51:55):
There's a lot of validity on what you're saying.

Speaker 1 (51:57):
I think we are, but let's just say.

Speaker 4 (52:00):
Let's just say it wasn't real and he really tried
and they just wouldn't follow his direction. That means that
he no longer is the leader we need in this
moment for this fight, because we have to have somebody
that can whip they people into shape.

Speaker 2 (52:17):
Yeah, there's no other way around it.

Speaker 5 (52:19):
He's not the leader that the Democratic Party needs anymore.
He needs to be primaried. I mean, quite frankly, that's
really what needs to happen, and he needs to be
challenged in terms of leadership.

Speaker 2 (52:29):
I agree with you.

Speaker 5 (52:30):
I'm super proud of specifically the four black senators who've
been holding it down.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
They all voted to know.

Speaker 5 (52:36):
And again there's forty senators who consistently for forty days
voted against making this kind of treacherous decision. And because
we had a few who decided to do otherwise, the
whole nation as a whole is going to have to suffer.
But there will be consequences. I think collectively the people
will not forget this.

Speaker 2 (52:56):
They definitely won't. I was having a conversation today have
in yesterday.

Speaker 3 (53:00):
That people are tired of just the status call. At
the same mode. You act like you fight and you
take a knee. We say we for a good fight,
and we never can't take aw on. Yeah, before the
camp we never, we never do nothing. We never actually
go to the last we don't even go to the decision.
We don't even We quit in the fifth and sixth

(53:23):
round all the time. And it's sad because the same
people that call them out will sit there and say
later on, well, you know they didn't fight, but they
did fight or they tried to fight. No, like what
we want to see y'all do the same thing. I
had this conversation the same way that the Republicans are.
They are aligned. They are completely aligned. Regardless of what's

(53:47):
going on, win loads of drawer, Trump.

Speaker 2 (53:49):
Say do this, that's what they do, and we don't
have to click. Yeah, they do not have that wewithald
to fight that way.

Speaker 3 (53:56):
We've never had it, even when we was in the
position we had the the majority in certain place. We
just don't do we always want this bipartisan ship and
they don't want bipartisan. They're they're here to have what
their will, any means necessary, and we keep having the
same kind of fight.

Speaker 2 (54:15):
The rules is gone.

Speaker 3 (54:16):
You gotta take the gloves off, bad nut boxing, Like
this ship is mmm, y'all here trying to box with gloves.

Speaker 2 (54:23):
No, this is not even gloves. Y'all trying to slap box. Yeah, yeah,
slap y'all slap boxing? How live? You're not health? Like
this is real? And it's like, I'm just so tired.
I'm so disappointed.

Speaker 3 (54:37):
Like I went to see last night, like, damn this
it looked like this is the person I actually looked
like we was actually fighting for a little while.

Speaker 2 (54:44):
So it's disappointment that you know, ends the same way
all the time. But you know what that says to me, though,
brother my son.

Speaker 5 (54:51):
I mean, honestly, I feel like that that says that
that some of us are going to have to run
for these offices.

Speaker 2 (54:56):
We're gonna have to have a new, a new level
of electoral care into this.

Speaker 5 (55:00):
We're gonna have to have different people who are willing
to hold the line, people who may be non traditional,
people who may have you know, some shit in their
past or they've said this or whatever.

Speaker 2 (55:11):
I don't think we need perfect politicians.

Speaker 5 (55:14):
We need real people who are willing to play this
game quote unquote the way in which it needs to
be played for the people, and people who honestly don't
give a fuck about how things were before we got
to figure out how things are going to move forward. Now,
us trying to use the playbook of yesteryear isn't getting
us anywhere. We're seeing that we're dealing with a group
of motherfuckers right now who are like, yo, we don't

(55:36):
give a fuck.

Speaker 2 (55:37):
If Trump says we're not doing this, we not doing this,
and you're not.

Speaker 1 (55:41):
Excuse me, they lie, and they lie.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
I will look you in your face and lie like this.

Speaker 4 (55:49):
When Mike Johnson got up on that TV and said
that the reason why Trump was involved with Epstein is
because he was an informant working for the government, I said.

Speaker 1 (56:02):
Oh, wait a minute. Then then wait a minute.

Speaker 4 (56:05):
That was bad, But that's not as bad as Steven
Miller's weird, weird self sitting on TV knowing that they're
talking to He's blinking his eyes and kind of swaying
and acting like he is no longer in his body
and he can't hear because he done slipped at the mouth.

(56:26):
It said something that means that Trump is basically the
ultimate dominant for the world. Right, So these people and
all of them lie, right, like a part of being
a politician, unfortunately is And because I watch I don't
know if you all have watched the series Diplomat, but

(56:48):
if you haven't, you should check it out. It gives
you an understanding of what's going on behind the scenes
like many.

Speaker 1 (56:54):
Of these presidential series.

Speaker 4 (56:59):
And I was watching the last episode or last two episodes,
and something happened which I won't be a spoiler, but
you watch how even the good people had to come
up with a story because if they did not tell
you this, people could have gone into pure like sheer

(57:19):
mayhem in the streets, right, It could have destroyed relationships
with other nations for a lifetime, probably would never be
able to fix whatever was happening with Russia and whatever.
So they had to come up with a story that
wasn't one hundred percent true, but they needed it to
be something that would contain the situation that is a

(57:42):
lot of times national security and international relations and all
of that. It requires these people to tell you because
you can't handle the truth. Really, you can't hand the
truth of knowing that somebody who was sitting in the
Oval office is an actual turn colde who has the

(58:02):
secrets to you know, some some other stuff and they
and they went out and leaked it someone you can't handle.

Speaker 1 (58:10):
All of these details.

Speaker 4 (58:13):
Would be in separate, because there is it should be
Actually tell us about your book, because I think that's
what it brings us to. Right as we get a
conversation today, we done talked about what they're doing, how
messed up things are. We'd have talked about you know,

(58:36):
your work and what you do to focus on serving people.
Obviously our audience and those people are listeners.

Speaker 1 (58:44):
They know what we do. We're in the community all
the time.

Speaker 4 (58:48):
We've talked about the current state of our nation and
the fact that elected officials bless their hearts, just blessed
their hearts.

Speaker 2 (58:57):
That's all.

Speaker 1 (58:58):
Like I said, yeah, so.

Speaker 4 (59:00):
What we have to continuously focus on is that there
is nobody, nobody that's going to say black oh body, nobody, nobody,
and I would love to hear about your book where
people can get it and all the things that helps
us to center ourselves on the idea that only we
can really take us to the next level.

Speaker 2 (59:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (59:23):
So again, the book is called Nobody's Coming to Save
Us The black Print for Leadership, and it's really in
many regards like a guide of sorts for future black leaders,
folks who are currently in leadership and those who may
have been doing so for a while. It's fourteen chapters
really of lessons that I've learned while serving in office,
while being in the community, who are working with our cousins.

(59:43):
You know, there's a lot of that can be challenging
sometimes with working with our Kim folks, and we know
how that goes. But then also lessons to each leader
about taking care of yourself. How do you ensure that
you have time to just release. Like one of the
things I talk a great deal about in the book
is me being selfish with my time. I have non
negotiables when it's time for me to go jog or
play basketball. Those are things that I like doing to

(01:00:05):
bring enjoyment for myself. And I'm not budgeting or negotiating
about my time because I'm going to ensure that I
have the time to reset and refill my cup.

Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
So lessons such as.

Speaker 5 (01:00:15):
That my brother and our brother Jez wrote the forward
for the book, which I was super happy about, and
there's a lot of lessons in there. Both of you
are mentioned in it in terms of just different ways
in which people can advocate for a wide variety of
different communities. How there's different ways in which we have
to communicate with different constituencies. You can't say the same

(01:00:36):
things everybody. At the same time, also understanding that a
lot of our people are hurting and that could be
from a history of trauma's substance abuse, as my dear
sister and our leader Joyce the Grew talks about post
traumatic slave syndrome and how postraumatic slaves stress rather excuse me,
and how it can be trapped generationally in our bones.

(01:00:57):
So we have to have grace for our people. But
more than anything else, we have to continue to work.
So I'm just really proud of the body of work
that we were able to put together. It can be
found The book is available on Amazon, Bars and Nobles
anywhere which you can go and get books, and the
book is only nine ninety nine. I got into a
lot of trouble for pricing the book so low, but

(01:01:18):
I really wanted it to be something which our people
can get their hands on. It's not necessarily about making
a bag, but it's more so about helping our people
and having an impact.

Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
So you know, I love us, I know y'all love us.

Speaker 5 (01:01:29):
So we're encouraging everybody to go and get the book
work where right now on a six city bookstore good
the rest of the year. Our dear sister Angela Rod
came down to my school last week and helped us
kick it off. We'll be in Charleston, South Carolina, we'll
be in Richmond, Virginia, will be in Atlanta, Georgia, and
our dear sister Joy Reid ll be joining us in
Charlottesville on the twenty third, kind of as a culmination.

Speaker 2 (01:01:53):
Of all things.

Speaker 5 (01:01:53):
So we're really excited about the book and we really
think that it's going to be able to help a
lot of us because again, nobody's coming save us, so
we need a black print.

Speaker 3 (01:02:02):
Well, I just want to say I appreciate you for
just being who you are. You know, it's it's very
people visions of masculinity, black masculinity that I respect, a
moving and man that I moved, that I could connect
with that the people that I come from, the communities
that I come from, that I can point to and say, look,
there's a brother that's like us, that understands, identifies, and

(01:02:25):
has the same movement, mind state ideologies that we have,
that's actually doing this work. So you can be yourself
after that. That's what I wanted to be. So I
see brothers like yourself who actually went to college. I
never had the opportunity to go to college and be
a professor, but I utilize, you know, I went to
the School of.

Speaker 2 (01:02:43):
Hard Knocks, and you know that's top of my you
got the ultimate doctorate exactly, I've got my own doctrine.

Speaker 3 (01:02:52):
But you know, I love the fact that we have
educated brothers like yourself who are able to maneuver through
all of these terrans within the streets and the suites
and constantly growing, you know. So I'm definitely going to
support that book and make sure that I get it
to the young brothers in our communities that actually comminter
themselves out there and do the things that you do.

Speaker 2 (01:03:13):
So I just want to say, I appreciate you man.

Speaker 3 (01:03:15):
We've been in so many spaces, We've shared so many spaces,
you know, and love and friendship were also and actually
working with our brothers. We did our men's meeting where
we had to sit there and there was some tense
moments and there black men will always be the saying.
We had to show some sternness. We had to show
to say. So we got together and that's that's the

(01:03:38):
energy that's needed for the youth, especially young black youth
that we have right now.

Speaker 2 (01:03:42):
They have to see this.

Speaker 3 (01:03:43):
That was stern as they have to respect you, right,
that was the respect they got to see. You sure
to be friends, but you're also willing to be mindful
and you care about them and you love on them
the same.

Speaker 2 (01:03:55):
So I just want to say, I appreciate what you're
doing man, and keep.

Speaker 5 (01:03:57):
It man, and you know it's love. You know, all
always give my sign into me because as well. But
I'm talking to my son right now, but I always
give my soign you know, his flowers. Brotherhood. You know,
I respect you to the utmost man, all the work
and what you put in. And I think that one
of the things that we all have to do, like
like brothers, like yourself and myself, we got to be

(01:04:18):
intentional with saying like it's okay to be where we're from,
but also just not do dumb shit all the time.
It's okay to do community work, bro And in fact,
if there wasn't someone who was doing community.

Speaker 2 (01:04:30):
Work, we might not be where we are right now.

Speaker 5 (01:04:32):
So some of us have to be willing to take
on the mantle that don't make you soft, that don't
make you lame, that don't make you a sucker. You know,
standing up for your people is honestly one of the
most noble and honorable things that you can do. So
we have to continue to encourage that. Man, and I
think the more that we continue to show that, the
better off things will be. And just I'll say this

(01:04:55):
last thing, like one thing that I personally appreciate about
all of us. To me, Steven Reverend Green like, I
feel like, just me personally, I feel like way more
of us get along than not. And because we all
get along and we find ways to support each other
and not be callous or mean to each other, it

(01:05:18):
only helps the movement in our age group and generation. Again,
I'm only speaking from my perspective. I think there's so
many of us who who get along and find ways
to work together opposed to doing harm towards each other.
And that's the true example that we can send you
to the folks coming behind us, y'all to always answer

(01:05:39):
the call. Whenever you know I asked y'all to do something,
or you all ask me to do something, or Reverend
Bryant asks us to do something, or Melanie Campbell asks
us to do something, we always try to do our
best to show up, be present and help each other.
And I think that's what's truly going to continue to
change the tide. So we just got to keep it going.
We're gonna get there because the ancestors told us that
we're gonna get there.

Speaker 1 (01:06:00):
Absolutely, we have such great examples. Thank you, Wes.

Speaker 4 (01:06:03):
We appreciate you for being a guest on our show today.
I was excited about you coming because I know you
such a brilliant brother, was so well capable of articulating.

Speaker 2 (01:06:14):
Well, do me a favorite in sorry to cut you off.

Speaker 5 (01:06:16):
Let's do me a favor because you know my aunt
adores to Meka my son. Let me just tell you,
Rosa Jackson, I love you, Auntie. My aunt will beat
me if I don't do what Tamika needs me to do.
If it ain't something to Meka.

Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
Want me to do it.

Speaker 4 (01:06:35):
What's Auntie Rose's last thing? Jackson Rose said, Jackson Hope,
aunt Rose, Jackson, I hope that you get a chance
to listen to this show. Your incredibly gifted nephew is
a gift.

Speaker 1 (01:06:50):
To Black people.

Speaker 4 (01:06:51):
And we are so grateful to your family for raising
such a wonderful, powerful young man. So God blessed. Thank you, Wes,
thank you so much for joining us. And we'll see
you on that other side.

Speaker 2 (01:07:01):
We'll see you soon. I'm sure. Let's get the work
all right.

Speaker 4 (01:07:03):
They love peace, I love Wes. I love being in
this work with Wes. He gets frustrated like us sometimes
when he sees the you know, the ones who's supposed
to be influencers, and they've got all these followers, and
they have all these events and these things, and they're
so important, and we loveden to see it, Like you

(01:07:28):
want to see other people do well and give people
encouragement and inspiration because we need that, especially black men.
Oh my god, you can't create enough spaces. But you
also feel encouraged and feel inspired. But he and I
always talk about like the misinformation that some of these

(01:07:50):
people spread, how hard they make it for us to
be able to do the work that we were doing.
You know, it's just it's an interesting space. And I
appreciate the fact that two of you and others Gary Chambers,
I mean, you know this long list.

Speaker 1 (01:08:06):
You guys keep on fighting a good fight.

Speaker 2 (01:08:09):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:08:09):
The earn Alesia Brothers. I've been watching this stuff recently.

Speaker 4 (01:08:12):
They just like, bruh, I don't know what y'all think,
but this is out of control, like completely out of control.

Speaker 3 (01:08:20):
I like the fact that they're an elite group of
us who are raw and get it and just say
the truth. You know, the Early Leisure Brothers. They wanted
they always wanted to be just paying attention, right, just
say okay, I'm not gonna go with either side, even
though you know, we come from a whole we more democratic,
but we want to give our people, you know, a

(01:08:43):
broad array of information.

Speaker 2 (01:08:46):
And when she started getting fucked up, they say, nah,
this shit ain't right, like she just fucked it up
about here, Like I don't know what y'all thought, but
this shit ain't right. Y'all.

Speaker 3 (01:08:54):
Love the fact that we just have brothers that are
you know, that are in tune what's going on in
our community. To actually give and true facts and real
life conditions that we're actually dealing with, you know, and
that pretty much brings me.

Speaker 2 (01:09:09):
To my I don't get it.

Speaker 1 (01:09:11):
What don't you get, mister Lander?

Speaker 3 (01:09:14):
I don't get how people are going to be able
to afford healthcare. We realize that at this moment, it
looks like there might be a deal to reopen the government,
you know, seven Like we just finished having this interview
and Wes spoke about there are seven Democrats and one
independent who looks like they're going to side with the

(01:09:35):
Republicans to reopen the government.

Speaker 2 (01:09:38):
And I don't think people really understood.

Speaker 3 (01:09:40):
I don't know if they do, but I just want
to give you some clarification actually why the government has
been shut down for the longest it has in history,
which is right now is forty days. I just want
to make sure that everyone knows what's going on. You know,
right now, you have a premium that you paid to
the insurance companies monthly. I don't know what your premium is,

(01:10:01):
and maybe three hundred four hundred five hundred is based
off maybe your employer is based off your income. And
when Dick get rid of these subsidies that are set
to expire, your insurance premium will raise anywhere between thirty

(01:10:22):
and seventy five percent. At this point, average person can
is barely able to pay the premium they have. Now
my own story, you know, my mother's been passed away
for three years, and when she was going to the hospital,
I had to go and get her medication, right, and

(01:10:44):
I would go in there with her Medicaid card or
whatever she had to get.

Speaker 1 (01:10:49):
It and sugar.

Speaker 2 (01:10:52):
Oh yeah, she had real insurance. I forgot. My mother
works with it for education, real assurre.

Speaker 3 (01:10:57):
And not to understand that I was paying four or
five hundred dollars every time I was getting medication, you know,
because she had cancer medication, so there was all types
of painkillers this and every time once a week or
every other week, there was a four hundred and five
hundred dollars bill that I had to pay out of
my pocket. It was unreal and I just couldn't just

(01:11:22):
why we were paying so much to keep someone alive, Like,
it's unreal with this health this health industry is doing.
But to bring you back to my point, you know,
the average person will not be able to afford health insurance.
What they're saying is that the healthy people are going
pretty much just say I don't need assurance because I

(01:11:43):
don't go to the doctor but maybe two or three
times a year, not even a year every other year.
I don't get sick anything. And what's going to happen
is the premiums are going to raise higher because who
actually own insurance. It makes the premium go higher. Just
like anything else. If you go to a store and
people aren't really buying, then they got to raise their

(01:12:03):
prices because they gotta figure out how to continue to
make the price point and pay the bills. So the
insurance is going to get People are going to lose insurance,
and people are gonna diathetick. People are gonna get sick,
and they're gonna pass away. So I really don't understand
what people think is gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (01:12:22):
I don't get how people are gonna pay for the insurance.

Speaker 3 (01:12:25):
And I don't even get how America is the richest
country in the world and we have countries who have less,
who have universal kid for everyone, but we are raising
our premiums and making sure that our people don't. Let
now understand that people want their snap benefits, and that
makes a lot of sense, especially a running holidays.

Speaker 2 (01:12:47):
People want to go and get the turkeys or whatever
they do.

Speaker 3 (01:12:50):
They're trying to do, but they're making us choose between
death or death right because you can't feed each other
and you can't eat.

Speaker 2 (01:12:59):
Then you go die.

Speaker 3 (01:13:01):
And if you can't go to the doctor with a
good premium and be able to afford the doctor, then
you're gonna die. So we really are caught between a
rock and a hard place. And it's really sad that
we in this moment, you know, once again, the Dems
seem like they're gonna cave.

Speaker 2 (01:13:16):
You know, we don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:13:17):
We still have a couple of days to figure out
because I believe that the vote is coming up soon.
But it's just sad that we never really want to
fight for any really wanted People don't understand. You you
can't go to heaven if you don't die. Man, it's
casualties in war that sacrifices the war. And you know,
we're not prepared to win a war because we're not
prepared to fight.

Speaker 1 (01:13:40):
Well, they would say they're fighting.

Speaker 4 (01:13:42):
I don't know, there's a lot of things that we've
already discussed about it. They would say they're fighting I
think that it's more than a fight. Now I think
it's you know, it's more than a fight. But I
do want to say a couple of things. You had
talked about the Affordable Care Act quote unquote Obamacare, and we.

Speaker 1 (01:14:02):
Were talking about how expensive that is.

Speaker 4 (01:14:05):
Like Obamacare is good and there's a lot of people
who have access to benefits, but it is not in
any way, shape or form just this like you know,
three two dollars cheap insurance. It's not that, buddy, it's not.
And part of the reason why is because when it

(01:14:26):
when President Obama and his administration, When President Obama and
his administration first announced that they were working on this
sort of you know, affordable care option for people's healthcare,
they went through so much hell with the Republicans, Oh
my god, block in fighting.

Speaker 1 (01:14:47):
I mean, it turned into a literal blood bath. And
I'm not lying.

Speaker 4 (01:14:52):
Like people, it was on for anybody who was paying attention,
This was a war for them to be able to
get Obamacare passed.

Speaker 1 (01:15:01):
You know what. It also stripped, of course.

Speaker 4 (01:15:04):
With any fight, when you got all of this pushing,
pulling back and forth, there's concessions being made. The you know,
the bill is getting watered down and changed to address
the concerns of the other side. And so part of
why the premiums are higher than what was originally the
plan is because the Republicans was doing they do, they

(01:15:29):
was doing ay thing, not wanting to provide subsidies for
the American people, and and right, and I feel like
exactly they whittled it down in many ways. And so
it's so many things that we don't pay attention to
or don't necessarily understanding the moment I'm talking about myself

(01:15:50):
included that you end up finding out later on how
this played into this, plays into this, plays into this.
It's a long game that these people are playing, and
we've got to be typically engaged all the way through.
This is not about who we like, it's not even
about who's gonna do all the right things. In many ways,

(01:16:12):
we are in a process of one harm reduction.

Speaker 1 (01:16:16):
And the second thing.

Speaker 4 (01:16:17):
That we're dealing with here is what is sensible in
the moment, because our children are going to have to
pay the price for the decisions that we make today.
And what is happening in this country with Donald Trump,
the MAGA and the Republicans and all these people's sad,
and here we are with some Democrats. That's too scary.

(01:16:38):
They never really had other than winning an election, maybe
a couple of things in their lives. Maybe somebody is
a veteran. I'm not gonna say they're not, because.

Speaker 1 (01:16:47):
I don't know. But they ain't fought in the street.

Speaker 4 (01:16:49):
They haven't had street fights growing up, like in the Project.
Street fights where you have to figure out how you
wanna e, how you wanna survive, and how you fight
your way through until you when your mama tell you either.

Speaker 1 (01:17:01):
You fight them or you fight me.

Speaker 4 (01:17:03):
That's when you're in a real street fight, like when
you're scared for your life walking down the street, knowing
you gotta go fight the bully. That's where dash the
type of fight and the muscle that we got to
put into this moment.

Speaker 1 (01:17:15):
So it is with him.

Speaker 3 (01:17:18):
Really, that's that's an excellent analogy, because my mother was
serious about that.

Speaker 2 (01:17:23):
You're gonna go out there and fighting and if you
don't whoop his ass, and I'm gonna whoop your ass.
Who my pass?

Speaker 3 (01:17:30):
So somebody gonna get with the gas whipped out here,
you know. And I think that's the moment we're in.
And if we don't get that we're gonna continue to
be behind the eight ball making concessions. You know, even
when you talk about Obamacare, they like you said, they
watered it down and they did everything to try to
be bipartisan, and we're just not in that time, noment.

(01:17:50):
We're not in a time where it's about compromise with
the other side because the other is fully invested in
making in America one way. Yeah, the people, you know so,
and if you're any concession that you make is going
to contribute to that.

Speaker 2 (01:18:08):
We were a whole different time.

Speaker 3 (01:18:10):
And with that being said, we've come to the end
of another episode. Shout out to our brother doctor west Bellamy.
Always good to hear from him with his insight, you know,
from the sweets to the streets. You need like him
to continue to do the work and to make it
the Mallory.

Speaker 4 (01:18:26):
We appreciate you, oh please, you appreciate me.

Speaker 2 (01:18:31):
You've done and you've done a hell of a job today.
You've got glasses studious.

Speaker 1 (01:18:36):
Yeah whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:18:38):
This covers.

Speaker 4 (01:18:38):
This covers the fact that I don't have any eyelashes.
But you know that's a little secret that I'll let
y'all in on. But nah, Actually, when I'm at home.

Speaker 1 (01:18:46):
I tried because I.

Speaker 4 (01:18:48):
Can't see'll think men you all said that, Well, we
don't care about it. I'm just saying when I'm at home,
I try to wear my glasses because I really need
to be wearing them every day. But you know, at
home fried so I could see when I'm watching the TV,
I need glasses.

Speaker 1 (01:19:06):
Things is changing.

Speaker 4 (01:19:07):
Put the picture of myself the other day, and while
you know, I am still blessed to look young and
fresh and thank God, I am not complaining, I could
see the wrinkling and the certain places in my face,
and I was like, wow, this is real, like forty five,
Like I'm really getting older. It's just interesting how, you know,

(01:19:29):
we begin to change. It's interesting. God, take care of yourself.
But even taking care of yourself, you will never be
able to beat like time.

Speaker 1 (01:19:39):
You know what I mean. You can't beat time.

Speaker 4 (01:19:41):
You can bowl, tox it, you can keep it stretched,
you can drink water, you can do all of that,
but time is still going to take its course.

Speaker 3 (01:19:51):
I'm never always be right. Tamika Demail is never always
be wrong. She's probably never gonna be wrong, but we're
gonna always both be authentic.

Speaker 2 (01:20:00):
That's that who yawned

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Mysonne

Tamika Mallory

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Ruthie's Table 4

Dateline NBC

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