September 6, 2021 • 45 mins
On this episode of Vitamin D with Dawn Dai, actress, singer and producer Jasmine Burke is back to talk with Dawn about her latest role in the movie, Karen. Dive in to hear them talk about the public backlash the film received in being dubbed "Black trauma porn," Jasmine's process for how she chose to portray her character, “Imani,” without upholding racial stereotypes, advice on Black people who move into areas where they are the minority and much more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. You are tuned into
the Vitamin D with Dawn Day podcast and I am
your host, Dawn Day, here to get you excited about
your life so that you can live life on purpose
and for a purpose. And this is your first time
tuning in and and welcome Vitamin D. It's upon of my name.
My name is Dawn and you get Vitamin D from
the sun. So I'm here to shed light into your life.
(00:22):
And I do this with inspirational insights and conversations with
celebrities and everyday people like you and me, Because if
you want to be better and you want to do better,
then you're going to have to be able to see better.
So join me on this journey of living our best
lives and understanding and realizing how you are your greatest
dass at. I said it before and I'll say it again.
(00:46):
You got to decide what you want for your life.
You have to make a decision. What do you want?
What does it look like, what does it feel like?
You know what's so interesting? Um, we get so caught
up on what's being seen, and yes, sight is important,
but we have to realize that the focus should be
(01:07):
on the vision I was thinking about it because I
put up this post. Do you remember Mr be Remember
the guy from way back in a day. He didn't
say any he didn't use any words, he didn't say anything.
Everything was mimed out and he would find himself and
just insane predicaments. Well, a recent post when viral, or
(01:28):
I'm gonna call it viral because it called my attention.
I had to repost it of Mr Bean and he
has this video camera and uh, let me go on
my phone right now because I want to make sure
that I say everything um as opposed to saying and
it says on the mean part, it says, this is
how the universe conspires to help you when you know
what you want. So here's Mr Bean. He's crossing over signs,
(01:53):
going over buses, cars, looking in his cam quarter. And
what we find out at the end that meanwhile, the
entire time he was going towards the ocean. See if
he had got caught up in the site, he would
have saw that he was walking off of the roof
of a building. Oh my gosh, there's a bus going.
(02:15):
Oh I can't do that because it's moving. And then
wait a minute. Then now there's a car Now I
have to pass by these people. But I feel like
in life, we have to make sure that our I
stays on the vision. And that's gonna require you to
speak some things into existence. Now another thing I may
have told you, you you may have forgot it. You may
not know. I have life tattered in my mouth. Yeah,
(02:39):
you know, like the Wakanda where mine says life because
I speak life. And I was listening to the card Sisters.
Shout out to the Cark Sisters from Detroit. What up though?
They'll be on the Vitamin D de with Dante podcast. Um,
they have this song victory and how you have to
speak victory over your life. How you have to declare
it over your life. How you can't get caught up
what you do see or or caught up with your
(03:02):
site is not showing you or reflecting the vision. We
declare victory victory over our life. What you want? Huh?
Said of the shirt on this says the Groundlings. I
love the Groundlings. Probably everything that you see right now
(03:25):
is because of the Groundlings, in addition to the work
I put forth, because the Groundlings has sort of underlined
and put an exclamation point on the yes end in
life and getting to this point, I decided to say
yes to Dawn. I said yes to Dawn in the dreams,
and I put the hand on it because I started
(03:45):
to put the movement. See, we can caught up on
who we be, who we be right now, but it's
all about who weren't becoming. And that's where the end,
that's where the addition and the life happens. And I
have to go back to ask you, what do you
want for your life? What is the vision you have
for your life? M hmm. Without the vision people with para. See,
(04:09):
when you know what you go on, when you know
what you're doing, When you know what you want, there's
no reason why you can't have it. So whenever you're
feeling in dismay and you're not sure, I have to
ask you one simple question, what do you want? That's it?
(04:30):
Catch it, get your right in many right with me,
and get excited about Hello there, new hair? Who this?
How you doing girl? I am wonderful. How are you
new hair? I don't know how to act. I'm telling
you acting real good out here and looking good by
(04:51):
the way, Thank you, thank you. Um, I have another
congratulations and happy belated birthday. Yes, I am a Leo.
It's Leo season, all season. You know. Leo's ALIGHTO. We dominated, y'all. Yeah,
so we we think it's always our time. So yeah,
(05:11):
but I just alterbrated birthday not so long. Thank you. Yes,
And you know I'm an Arie, so we're like we're
kiing because we got the fire sign and all that jazz.
Oh yeah, my fire sister. My mom is an Arie.
So I I I know we talked about because we
talked about how mama was coming through with your journey.
Was acting um Also the last time we spoke as well,
(05:35):
you were um engaged. Are you still engaged? It's there
any new news? Well you know that's um okay transition,
you know. Um wow. I was so unprepared for this question.
I'll just tell the truth that you know, there's nothing
(05:56):
better than the truth. I am no longer engaged, but
I wish him all the best and I am so
happy and I am dating. Okay, So tell us if
you about that keen life, if you're a king king mentality,
(06:17):
then you know when you see me say something. Um.
I was sitting here and I was just thinking to myself,
I appreciate the fact that the transparency, because that's what
vitamin D. But DAWNTE is all about. You know. Sometimes
we walk into situation trying to put this little shade
on what it could be, what it ain't, and it's like,
it is what it is, that it is, that it
(06:38):
is nothing more, nothing less. So thank you for jumping
in and starting it on the right foot. Okay, yeah,
you know, I don't know. It's like you want to
find this like politically correct answer, but I was just like,
it's this, let me just tell you the truth. There
you go, there it is and now we're speaking truth.
(06:59):
You just exper louse. The film Karen's Right Now ar
Karen is about a delusionally entitled Caucasian woman who thinks
that she owns the neighborhood. And myself and my husband
(07:21):
played by the brilliant Corey Hardrick, move into the neighborhood
next door to her, and she is determined to chase
us out of her neighborhood. Now, how she owns the
whole neighborhood, I don't know. That's something that she made
up in her mind, but she doesn't want us there,
and she goes on a mission to terrorize our lives
(07:41):
to get us out of there. It really is our
um imitating real life things that we see all the
time happening on social media. So it was it's a
very clever, very clever film. The way it's written, it's
not a satire. It is the writer director put a
(08:03):
lot of thought into how he conveyed how someone could
be a Karen and what that looks like up close
and personal for a young black couple every day. Not
just a little clip on social media, but imagine if
this was your neighbor, this is your life you're living.
(08:24):
But so he wrote it in such a clever way
that is really entertaining, but it's also conscious at the
same time. And you know, here's the thing. Let me
just keep it real with you. You know, I'm from Detroit.
We keep it real. Weehinded. I am extremely excited to
check out the film. But a lot of people have
been given a side out, like is this pushing black
trauma for meeting? What's the purpose of it? Are we
(08:46):
put in trauma in somebody's face? Like what are we
trying to get from this film? Okay, how are we
the actors? An actor, the actors, the writer, director, producer
putting this trauma in your face. It is in your
face every day. If we never made this movie, it
(09:07):
would be in your face every day. This is the reality.
We're not putting it in your face. We're just taking
our art and creating an entertaining way to imitate real
life for your entertainment. That's it. That's the art is
imitates life. Right, Yeah, that's it. That's it. That's all.
This movie is not a protest. It's entertainment. So if
(09:30):
you can look at the clips on social media and laugh,
why not be able to come sit and watch your
movie and and and enjoy that entertainment And then also, um,
it's not I just want people to enjoy the entertainment
and not get so up in arms and think that
(09:51):
we're we're doing something. Why do we even have this
subject matter to make a movie about in the first place?
Did we do that? Catch it? It's beautiful because it's
it's just a thing of a reflection, just the very
moment of you coming on the podcast and I'm like, girl,
what's the new, the latest, greatest, and you said, hey,
doing it's a transition. It's not something that's rainbows and butterflies.
(10:13):
It is what it is. So I guess for somebody
out there that may feel conflicted as if there's some
black trauma point, it's like, well, that's life, and it
should make you uncomfortable because somebody is actually living that
line absolutely. And I would just would hope that people would,
um use the frustration they feel about our movie that's
(10:37):
just meant to entertain you, and put that to good
use in our very practical way that could actually help
somebody who is an actual victim of this type of
behavior in our society. And we can get up here
by voting. We could vote, we could um, we could
(10:58):
speak up when we say something. We can um, we
can get together, and we can create uh patrols like
community patrols, like if you see something, say something, UM,
that's what we can do. Yeah. I see a lot
as mind as people will go and find the charing
(11:20):
on Instagram, Like somebody puts up a video. I'm seeing
the comments people and say, find this person, who is
this person? Where do they work? You know, get active,
use your energy for creating real change in the world
and not just poking at a movie. Mm hmm. And
and just like you said, like if we can share
(11:40):
all the instances that happen on social media sometimes I
think people um aren't really connected to the various versions
of what it looks like, and like we can see
somebody hold another phone, but what happens to what that
person feels like every day? And I felt like what
you were saying when your character Imani is doing the film,
so talk to me about her and just you know
(12:02):
what made you a transition or fall into that role. Well,
when I read the script, I immediately I thought it
was so clever. Um. It did not come off like
a gimmick at all. It read like a real emotional
storyline that I followed through the end and I was
(12:22):
I was like, what's gonna happen next? Um, I didn't
feel like I was reading a parody. It's a real
heartfelt story. And my character, Imani is young Black queen excellence.
She's representing that. Every aspect of this character was really
thought out, from the hair wardrobe, her job, how she
(12:46):
speaks to her husband, because this is a young black
couple buying their first home. So we're representing young Black excellence.
We're representing the people of the now, the people that
are of the situation that are becoming the vice presidents
who are buying the homes, who are heading in, the
entrepreneurs who are actually what do I say, the forefront
(13:08):
of this transition of creating this life that expands to
different areas and so forth. Exactly. So the movie has
more than just about this Karen character. It's about a
young black couple. What that looks like in our society today.
They're married, they want to have children, they're having infertility problems. Um,
(13:31):
they're having issues because my character Emani is the brad
winner in the house. But what that reflects our culture?
Young Black women are going to college more on their
earning degrees at a higher rate. They're earning more money
than ever. Young Black women, young women of color, m
having to step up into these roles in life. And
that's what Emani is. And her husband doesn't earn as
(13:54):
much as she does, but she loves him anyway. She
loves him anyway, but that creates an insecurity in him.
And now they're trying to get pregnant, and you know,
she's scared to get pregnant because she's like, how are
we really gonna take care of this baby? Like it's
it's not just all roses and butterflies, like we have
to earn money to take care of the child, pay
a mortgage. This is our life, and and like how
(14:17):
are we really going to do this? So it's about
way more and then throwing this young black couple into
a racist neighborhood. So on top of the things that
they already have to deal with in their own household,
now they're having to deal with the projections of society.
So the movie is and and it sounds very deep,
(14:39):
but you're gonna laugh quite a bit. It's not meant
to be a comedy. But I don't call Daniels the
writer director. He has a history of writing comedies, so
he couldn't help, but sneak that in there. So she
started improv over at the ground links. And you will
(15:02):
be surprised at how similar when you look at comedy
and horror or thriller, because they come in these different
beats and in many ways. While we don't have to
call it a black porn trauma, it is a trauma
for some people. Like even as you're talking about the
money right now, then let's keep it real. All eyes
on you, Jasmine, Like you're representing all the females out
(15:24):
there that about that career. I look at me about
my business, maybe a liable situation where my partner may
not make the funds aside. You know, so did you
feel low key? I want you to be real with me. Okay,
did you feel an extra sense of pressure as if
you could come off cooning in this movie? Like you
(15:46):
wanted to be sure not to say certain things and
not to highlight So somebody and say, oh, I knew
black people did this, and it's like hold up, says yes, yes,
a thousand person. I was very calm on how I
approached the Monty character because there's nothing stereotypical about women
(16:08):
of color in the first place. Where a rainbow of personalities,
we're a rainbow. So I was very conscious because we
decided she would have dreadlocks. We decided she appreciates her
African heritage, so in her dress, she wears African prints
and African designers and you know, African handmade jewelry from
(16:32):
villages and everything is very intentional with her. She's very
proud of her African heritage. And so the stereotype is
we have to be one this one thing, but you
can celebrate. We can celebrate our African heritage, be proud
of it and our beauty and our esthetic, and then
(16:53):
we can also go out and earn money. The entrepreneurs,
we can tell you how it is if we feel
in a certain way, and we can also speak to
you about a business deal that we want to happen.
So there's no one way to be and I was
very conscious of that and my approach on how I
(17:15):
displayed her. I displayed a rainbow of the of emotions
and um, just how we're so many beautiful components and
not just one. And looking at the trailer of myself
like I mean, I even saw the color of that,
just the emotions. You're being happy you're here, then when
(17:36):
you're like, well, who is this neighbor way? And then
you're talking to the little girl and she's like, my
mom doesn't like black people. Then you're at the count
and you're crying. You're like, babe, I think it's tithing
to leave. And then my panties gotten a bunch. That's
why I have to ask you the question about did
you feel that pot of cooney? Taren, because you know
I love tearing Tarr Manning, she's the one that plays
Karen the film When she came up in there. I
(17:57):
don't know where y'alling. She said, Oh, she's slaving in
the kitchen. You tried it, and you know the thing
that I'm like, like that was kind of like an
quote unquote obvious, kind of a little pun. But it's
like you're go on society in life often some times
so many times you don't realize the local slide jabs
(18:18):
that people are saying, Um, I was just sat someone else.
I don't think there was any malicious intent because as
I want to go on next to how it starts
off probably from parent But I remember I'm over in
high school, Catholic school, um, predominantly white, and if I
love my girls, so it's no shame. Yeah, but I
remember I was gonna have a graduation party and one
(18:40):
of the girls were like, oh my gosh, are you
gonna have fried chicken? Are? I probably was gonna have
fried chicken? But still you don't say that. See we
can laugh about that, but that was the move. It
was a little man, You've got some kind away in
that moment, like, yeah, that was a fighting moment. That
was total improv And Darren is brilliant in this role.
(19:03):
She is nothing like a Karen. She's the furthest thing
from it. Like I mean, it's so brilliant, it's so amazing.
People who have um an incredible gift of acting, they
can really transform. She can really do that. She grew
up with black people as her cousins because she married
(19:24):
someone in her family married somebody black, and so from
a very young age, she her best friends, her cousins
was she identified as family were black people. So she
not a racist bone in her body. But she's a
brilliant actress and she transformed for this role. And uh,
she did a lot of improv moments like that, and
(19:45):
all I can do is just look like, okay, okay, okay,
we acted all right, you got that girl. It was
so it was fun. It was fun playing with her
lot of funk. And you know, I gotta give it
to her too, because you know, I'm up here asking
the plight that you must have felt or could have
(20:05):
felt with having to carry the weight on your shoulder
of just being this woman in this situation. But how
many figures and pointed on her because you know, there
are some people that will act their ass off in
a film, and you started getting twisted, like I don't
even like you. I don't know if you remember back
in the day, Um, did you watch The Family on me? Yeah?
(20:26):
I could not stand that lady. She was like Clark,
that's Clark. She and it was like she was such
in that character that I looked at her with a
side eye. I'm sure Ti Taren, no one's looking at
you like that. But I commend her, Um definitely for
jumping in that role. Oh yes, yes, I mean she's
an artist. Like she's an artist through and through. You
(20:47):
can see that in her body of work, the types
of characters that she has taken on her entire career.
She's a true artist. She transforms, she gives the project,
the character what it needs, and then she walks away
and goes on with her life. I just wish people
when they see the movie they can just appreciate it.
(21:08):
If you get mad at her, she's done her job. Hello,
somebody catching the man behind the current? Hey, what's happening?
Beautiful people? You more major and you're thrown into viting
and d with Don Dave. So let me ask you.
This is something that I think you know. I want
to shed light on this two things or a fold
(21:31):
of it. You're in a situation where you guys are
moving into this community, right, Why do you feel for Imani?
Why was it important for her to make the decision
to move into a predominantly white area? Question? Good? Question One.
She didn't see it as a white neighborhood when she
(21:54):
did the research. She researched prime rate school ratings, not
with the ratio black to white. She looked at things
that were going to influence the quality of the environment
that she lived in and her soon to be children
would be raised in. I think everybody doesn't have a color.
(22:17):
You want to live in a safe area, You want
to live in an area where the school rating is excellent.
You want to have amenities to shopping and stores and restaurants.
So she didn't look at um, she didn't look at
it that way. Okay. So then once once she got
into the neighborhood, Okay, so she up there riding around
(22:39):
again and not really but established her family and home.
Once she found out that this care and lady was
a racist, why didn't she get the hell up out
of Dodge? What was she trying to prove to stay there?
And is there a need that you feel that oftentimes
I don't want to just say black people, do you
feel there's a need to try to enter a greater
(23:00):
moment to whether it be up level? Like why was
it a sense of a need to stay? Well, there's
this thing in life called the bigger person? And are
you gonna run from all your problems? Are you gonna
face them? So? Right, So when you buy a house,
just oh my god, up and selling it first of all,
is not that easy as people think it is. It's
(23:21):
not like if it's hard for people to get out
of rental contracts, imagine how hard it is to get
out of a mortgage contract that you signed with a
whole bank and money that you've invested. So it's not
that easy. Once you plant your feet somewhere, you buy
a home, you realize, oh my gosh, my neighbors are
this okay? So the first thought is, okay, maybe they
(23:45):
don't understand us. Maybe let me go show them who
we are, you know, maybe we're trying to show up.
Let me just go introduce myself, create some harmony and
see if it will be received. And the all is
always it will be received, but in this case it wasn't.
(24:07):
Sometimes don't matter how nice you are you can you,
First of all, you can't control other people, what they do,
how they react. You can just can't control that period
in life. But maybe sometimes you think you can add
some harmony to the sauce. And that's what Imani tried
to do at first. So then after she got win
(24:29):
like oh it's time to go, you know, or anybody
like does that come to a point when you ask yourself, well,
what am I fighting for? Like why am I putting
myself through this to prove what to whom? And what for?
Like why why not just leave for the sake of
(24:51):
your peace of mind? Well, okay, I'll answer for Emani, right,
I'll answer for Emand Emany wasn't trying to prove anything
to Karen. She just wanted to stake her ground, like
she's a proud woman. She feels I deserve to be here.
(25:15):
I deserve to be here. Why am I going to run?
I just I have just as much right to be
in a decent area and neighborhood as you do. Your attitude,
your racism is not going to make me go run.
My ancestors paid that price. I ain't going to stay.
(25:35):
You deal, You know what you remind me of I
tell Jeremiah this all the time. I said, how do
you do anything? That's how you'll do everything. So if
you get into this whole habit of flexingness muscle, that
something arises that you don't look like and you want
to run, aware you want to stop, it's gonna show
up in every aspect of your life. And like you said, you'
(25:56):
the one got the problem with me. I'm signing up
to live my life. And I guess that's what I
like to talk about in the Vitamin Deep with Dante podcast.
It's about living your best life because you are your
greatest assets. So you have to take in a point
where you stand in your own truth. And like you said,
you money is. She's a proud African American we can
say black woman of color, who stands in her truth,
(26:18):
who's holding her ground. And it's like, why should I
fall because you're blowing some wind at me. Yeah, that's
not how, that's not how we're gonna do this now.
And then in her mind, she never thought it would escalate. Two.
You know, the lady been trying to murder her and
her family. You spoiler alert, what why you gotta see
(26:45):
how that story unfold. Oh my god. Okay, okay, so
then let's let's talk this here. You know, we look
at these kind of films, right, yeah, and always I'm
always able to really see an adult, like say, if
someone's home was on the street, I'm always looking at them.
I'm like, oh my gosh, that was somebody's baby. Right.
But see when you see these big people that may
(27:07):
not be so nice, at some point they were somebody's baby.
And looking at the trailer and seeing you talking what's
the young girl's name, the daughter? The little girls a
really great job childer actors are. They're amazing, she she said.
I thought it was so interesting that when she said
(27:29):
she was like, my mother, you know, doesn't like black people.
And there was an image that I saw on Instagram.
And in the image, there's just two kids and they're
looking at each other and they're spewing hateful words or
you can see one kid is hurt and other one
was like and behind as a parent, And how they
depicted the parents was a mother. She has her arms folded,
(27:51):
but what happens is that you can see the tongue
coming out of her mouth and going into the back
of the head, out of the little kid, because you
know they've gotten it from somewhere and it's like, oh,
you know, even shedding light when you see how these
somebody's baby that grew up to this person, of just
how this stuff like transforms and passes down to people. Oh. Absolutely,
(28:11):
children are born into this world innocent. We're all born
into this world innocent. It's ours learned behaviors that make
people form their identities, and unfortunately sometimes we're unwre around
unhealthy environments that helps shape our identity. But you know,
(28:33):
children are very intelligent as well. They can feel if
it's not right because their natural inclination is to just
love everybody. So if you're saying, don't love Bobby because
he's brown, it's like, but that's my friend, and and
whoever knows. They may actually feel like they're identical twins,
(28:54):
you know, because they're not living up whatever you see.
They may feel one and the same. They're just that
innocent and so in which we all are. So h
it's unfortunate, it's unfortunate. So have you, um pull any
real life experience into this film, Like have you run
into a cara before? And what happened? Definitely UM encounter
(29:21):
racism before it's very in the moment. You know, you
read people's reactions online and they're like, Oh, if that
was me, I would have done this, I would have
done that. When you're in the moment, sometimes it's shocking,
like did I just everybody heard? Or did that person
(29:42):
just say? Did I just experience what I just experienced?
It feels like an out of body experience. And for
me in those times, I've really frozen in the moment,
like shot, not knowing what to do with the emotions
that I feel. I know it's not right, as hurtful,
as painful, I don't deserve that. Mm hmm. It's like
(30:02):
the ugliness of people sometimes just it's a dark shadow
because you can't see through. Yeah yeah, and it's like
it's not clear. It doesn't make you feel safe, it
doesn't make you feel good. It's just so you know,
I guess looking at this film or actually you're portraying it,
anyone watching it, what kind of advice would you have
(30:23):
somebody that's going into a space that made where they
are the minority, just like how you were with your family?
Is there something should you be on guard? Like that's
a shame that you have to move on defense, like
stepping into a situation like, first of all, don't be
on defense. That's what I would say, Like, don't go
into it on defense. Just show up as your best
(30:44):
self and do your best and that's all you can control.
If you encounter someone who is just hateful and spewing ugliness,
don't meet that, don't match that energy, because now you're
no better than that person. You're no better you know.
(31:05):
Of course, the self defense is a whole other thing.
But do you feel harm somebody is threatening your life?
You're safety. But when it just comes to encountering ugly
energy and hateful words, just don't touch me, right, I say, Jeremiah, No,
I'm real quick, grab being the salt bath, so quick,
(31:27):
my candle and my incense. Cool, stop playing cleansing myself. Um.
But I'm wondering too, like do you feel like there's
a need to enter spaces where you're the minority or
do you walk into a space and create it yourself?
And what I mean by that is safe, free money.
You guys are looking for an area that you can
raise your fan with the low crimry rather than okay,
(31:48):
let's find an area that maybe let's just stay closer
to the community and infiltrate the money there. Because you know,
there was a point, and I'm just saying just to
talk race, because that's what this film is about. There
was a point we were not allowed to integrate into
other communities, whether it be a bank, whether it be
a school, and we were prosperous because just like other communities,
and you may hear with the Jewish community in the
(32:10):
Asian community, they circle their money within, but for some
in and I think that's just the deepness I guess
what comes with racial inequality and justice and all that.
The psychological part of it is that we feel like
we're at a better position or a better moment by
going somewhere else to spend money, whether than just keeping
money in house and then stacking up from there. Well,
(32:33):
you know, I thought about that too, and I really
think is it's about wanting to be around light minded people.
Not necessarily people that have your saying skin color, but
light minded people like people who want to take care
of their community. They take pride in where they live.
They um, they care about cleaning up the streets, even
(32:54):
if it's not their streets, Like, oh, let's get together
and let's you know, clean up everything, or you know,
let's get together as a community and let's do things together.
You know, let's look out for each other. That that's
not I don't think it's a color thing. I think
it is more prevalent in other neighborhoods because we to
(33:15):
worry about what you're talking about other and sweep. I
don't know if my baby' gonna make it home. Okay,
I'm trying to get to the bus to get off
this job, and there's food doesn't so I don't even
have a grocery store. I can get something to eat
that to do what I need to do hypothetically. Yeah, yeah,
But here's the thing, Like, if everyone is on that
wave link in the community, watch the changes that happen
(33:35):
in that community. But how do we get on that
wavelenk when my trauma is trying to figure out how
I'm going to provide food? See what happened was with
your family, not your family, but this other partner. Both
of your parents were educated, they had a job, right, say,
they went to school, right, so that job, like you're
bringing in a different income. And I'm not saying you
can't up level, but it's just different things that are state.
(33:56):
So what we're talking about sweeping outside? I just got
off a twelve hour shift. I'm trying to figure out
how about to catch the bus, and you're asking me,
do I want to sweep outside? I think it's just
to me it seems like different from the table or
the weight, but doesn't yet. And and different things are
top of mind for survival based on what you gotta
look at. Yeah, I mean people of color, black people
(34:20):
specifically in our communities have been in survival mode for
so long. Yeah. Hello, it's your girl, super model. His
lyrics cross representing all my curvey girls out there? Hey,
what's up to be ja? And you are tuned into
vitamin D with don days. We have to turn that tide.
(34:43):
And I don't have all the answers. I don't have
all the answers, but I do know that I don't
know why other communities when you because I remember when
I was buying my first house and I was driving
around looking for somewhere. I wanted to buy any gentile
find area because I saw how the community was turning.
(35:07):
You could literally drive down a street in a gentrifying
area and see the progression. You could see. Oh they
haven't hasn't started down on this side yet. Oh it
has started on this side. Okay, it's gonna work its
way down and then eventually into the next block and
the next life. I don't know why when other people
(35:27):
move in a neighborhood they give a damn about how
it looks mm hmm. I don't know. I don't know
why and our why people have to come in and
gentrify our communities. Why aren't we making sure our communities
look clean, decent. All the yards are cut, there's no mattresses,
(35:53):
and I don't know whatever. And I grew up in
these neighborhoods. So I'm talking about my own cousins, I'm
talking about my own uncles. I'm gonna talking about nobody
but the people I grew up. Okay, first of all,
so but I grew up seeing this, and then I
would go to my friends houses in the neighborhoods around
the corner, and it wasn't like that. Nobody is making
(36:16):
us live like that. Nobody is making us live like that.
Nobody is saying, Okay, you have to put that mattress
out there in the front. You have to put that
mattress there. You have to stack the TV on top.
You gotta have the car broken down that's been broken
down for twenty years sitting there, rusted and just decrepit
and just bring it down your property value. You have
(36:39):
to do that. Nobody's doing that. We have to improve
for our own selves. We have to take pride in
where we live, not because anybody's making us do it,
because that's that's where I live. This is my house
when I drive up every day. I want to see
a beautiful on I get out there every Saturday and
put the mold down, or water the plant or you know,
(37:03):
I sweep. I sweep everything like I do that for
me because I care. I don't know. I don't have
to answer. I know. I'm just trying to do because
I think it comes down to um and and ay
vitamin D. How you are your greatest asset and loving
on yourself and how much do you love yourself and
if you look at it and anything that you do,
(37:24):
how you do anything is how you everything. So you
take a pride in sense of yourself. But here's the thing, Jasmine,
if we were to look at I'm only gonna speak
for black people or African American people. Um, the very
thing that we had tried of of our identity and
when you know who you are, you know who you are. Um,
that was stripped away. So perhaps that is a prople
(37:44):
nown effect, because why would I care like I can't
even find who I am in a sense that has
been ripped down psychologically in ways that I think that
I may know but I don't, and not really understanding
the value of just keeping yourself look good. You know
what I'm talking to a girlfriend of mine. Just transparency.
You know, you can get comfortable with being single too
(38:05):
long if I'm just gonna run to the store. No,
you gotta take care of yourself. Put a little arpto yourself.
Because now when you see how people how you address yourself,
people who address you like bones, people gonna want to
go on that neighborhood. People are gonna want to send
their children there. But if you're not caring watching anybody else,
why should anybody else? It becomes a personal responsibility, it
(38:27):
really does. It becomes a personal responsibility. And we know
our history, we know the struggles that we live in,
we know the poverty we grow up, and we know
the disadvantages we have. But then there comes a time
where we have to say for our own selves, for
our own lineage line with Okay, I'm gonna do something different.
(38:48):
It just you don't have to change the whole neighborhood.
Everybody is not your responsibility. Your your responsibility. You have children,
they're your responsibility to us. And that's even to a
certain extent, honestly, But that's another conversation. But because you
can you can't control. You can't necessarily control how your
kids turn out at life. And this is something I've
been examined with me and my mom. Is interesting through
(39:12):
some some family therapy sessions. But it gets to a
certain point where I can examine my childhood trauma to
source the pain and and see the pattern. But then
there comes a personal responsibility for me where I have
to say, Okay, I have to do something different now. Okay,
(39:33):
I know I went through that. It was painful, it
affected me. I see how it has affected me in
these ways in my life now, But I gotta do
something different. My mom make a decision. It's either you're
gonna do it or you're not. It's really no great
it's no gray area in life. It really is. It
is that you ain't and my mom. I can look
(39:55):
at some things that I can say, Okay, I wish
my mom would have been a little bit more nurtured.
My mom was in survival mode. She didn't have the
luxury nurturing your children's emotional Uh. Nurturing your children's emotional
health is a luxury, and if you're in survival mode,
(40:15):
you don't. You simply do not have that luxury. So
now it's like, well, I can't blame my mom on that.
Now I'm aware I have to make a conscious decision
to do something different. So that's why I say, even
your parents, even for your children, you're only responsible to
a certain extent because as a parent, you're a human
being too. You have your own life track. Your children
(40:38):
are part of it, but they're not all of it.
And that is the truth. You have your own development
and if and if you weren't able to finish developing
for whatever reasons, traumas in your life that you never
got a chance to address, it is gonna stay with
you and affect you and spill over in different ways.
And so then your children get to a point in
their life where they have to say, okay, but what
(41:00):
am I gonna do different now. I don't know how
I got off that. No, that was beautiful. I'm sitting here.
I was like, first, I'm up here looking. I'm like,
did you study psychology or something like that. I'm looking
at the car and I'm like, it says theater and business.
But I'm smiling because it's always a joy. Even from
the last time I talked to you, It's like, I
would love to do like every like maybe a couple
of months of quarterly special of just having a conversation
(41:23):
because I really appreciate your thought process and approaching things
and and even talking about the fact of I was
just talking to someone about how they met a different
mother than the mother that their siblings that and it
was based on the dynamic of the upbringing and mom
had to to to provide. So unfortunately we lost Jasmine,
(41:45):
But I do hope that you guys check out the filmcaren.
It is something that a lot of people were sitting
on the fence of whether or not it's going to
be a lot of black trauma porn. But I think
more importantly it's all about Sudeline. What's going on. I
love me some Jazzmine, So check out the film Karen.
It's starring Karen Manning as Uh, the character Karen, and
(42:06):
then Corey Hardrick that's still Morey's husband. And then we
also have our very own Jasmine Burke, who is Amani,
the wife of Corey Hardrick who plays Malik in the film.
I'm dying to check it out. Not really, I'm living
to check it out because I want to be here
them all. But I also want to encourage you to
make sure that you live on purpose and for a purpose,
because when we talk about, you know, infiltrating these areas
(42:29):
and these neighborhoods, oftentimes people are quick to flee away
because not knowing to value your word. And I feel
like Jasmine made a great point about that, like understanding
the importance of when you're looking into a neighborhood and
being there one you want to look at it for opportunity.
You want to be there for like minded people, and
that's the case, you don't let anyone push you out.
And it's a great depiction of what it looks like
(42:50):
to try to balance life and the circumstances that come
with life. So it shall be interesting how this unfolds.
Having checked it out and yet but if you have
hit me up and let me know what you feel
about it, tell me how you felt Jasmine did. And
you even have Jasmine. But hey, when you find me
on there, check me out on social media at Dawn
(43:13):
Day Speaks okay, and then let me see I have
Jasmine's social media as well. You can check her out
at the Jasmine Burk. I wanted to tell you guys
what's coming up next, But follow her and you'll keep
up with that. Also, you know it's time to do
some housekeeping. I want to remind you that if you
would like to be a guest on the show, make
(43:34):
sure you send an email Vitamin D at Dawn Day Speaks. Okay. Also,
you know we have our advice letters and now we
have infiltrated the quicker is the condensed version of the
advice letters. Well, you can also email those two Vitamin
D at Dawn Day Speaks dot com. Okay. Hey, you
know you can even slide in my d M because
you know it goes down in the d L. Let
(43:57):
me stop, all right, cool, check off to a D
on the YouTube page Dawn Day Speaks. Also, if you
enjoyed this episode, if you're listening to me right now.
I take it you did, because you're still here. And
if you've enjoyed me or the brand before that, tell
somebody to tell somebody to tell somebody else to check
out the Vitamin Deep with Dawn Day podcast and it's
(44:18):
available wherever you get your favorite podcast, I mean literally
on every podcast platform. We're built in. We're growing and
I want to thank you for being a part of
my dreams. Ah. You know I told you I'm in
the business of making dreams come true and I damn
sure I ain't gonna forget about mind. So until next time,
(44:39):
I want you to always remember that's you are, your
greatest assid. Coming up next on the Vitamin D with
Dawn Day podcast, I talked to Arturo Prieto, a man
who has died four times. Told me to hear about
what he saw when he died, and answer some of
your questions right with me and get excited about h
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. You are tuned into
the Vitamin D with Dawn Day podcast and I am
your host, Dawn Day, here to get you excited about
your life so that you can live life on purpose
and for a purpose. And this is your first time
tuning in and and welcome Vitamin D. It's upon of my name.
My name is Dawn and you get Vitamin D from
the sun. So I'm here to shed light into your life.
(00:22):
And I do this with inspirational insights and conversations with
celebrities and everyday people like you and me, Because if
you want to be better and you want to do better,
then you're going to have to be able to see better.
So join me on this journey of living our best
lives and understanding and realizing how you are your greatest
dass at. I said it before and I'll say it again.
(00:46):
You got to decide what you want for your life.
You have to make a decision. What do you want?
What does it look like, what does it feel like?
You know what's so interesting? Um, we get so caught
up on what's being seen, and yes, sight is important,
but we have to realize that the focus should be
(01:07):
on the vision I was thinking about it because I
put up this post. Do you remember Mr be Remember
the guy from way back in a day. He didn't
say any he didn't use any words, he didn't say anything.
Everything was mimed out and he would find himself and
just insane predicaments. Well, a recent post when viral, or
(01:28):
I'm gonna call it viral because it called my attention.
I had to repost it of Mr Bean and he
has this video camera and uh, let me go on
my phone right now because I want to make sure
that I say everything um as opposed to saying and
it says on the mean part, it says, this is
how the universe conspires to help you when you know
what you want. So here's Mr Bean. He's crossing over signs,
(01:53):
going over buses, cars, looking in his cam quarter. And
what we find out at the end that meanwhile, the
entire time he was going towards the ocean. See if
he had got caught up in the site, he would
have saw that he was walking off of the roof
of a building. Oh my gosh, there's a bus going.
(02:15):
Oh I can't do that because it's moving. And then
wait a minute. Then now there's a car Now I
have to pass by these people. But I feel like
in life, we have to make sure that our I
stays on the vision. And that's gonna require you to
speak some things into existence. Now another thing I may
have told you, you you may have forgot it. You may
not know. I have life tattered in my mouth. Yeah,
(02:39):
you know, like the Wakanda where mine says life because
I speak life. And I was listening to the card Sisters.
Shout out to the Cark Sisters from Detroit. What up though?
They'll be on the Vitamin D de with Dante podcast. Um,
they have this song victory and how you have to
speak victory over your life. How you have to declare
it over your life. How you can't get caught up
what you do see or or caught up with your
(03:02):
site is not showing you or reflecting the vision. We
declare victory victory over our life. What you want? Huh?
Said of the shirt on this says the Groundlings. I
love the Groundlings. Probably everything that you see right now
(03:25):
is because of the Groundlings, in addition to the work
I put forth, because the Groundlings has sort of underlined
and put an exclamation point on the yes end in
life and getting to this point, I decided to say
yes to Dawn. I said yes to Dawn in the dreams,
and I put the hand on it because I started
(03:45):
to put the movement. See, we can caught up on
who we be, who we be right now, but it's
all about who weren't becoming. And that's where the end,
that's where the addition and the life happens. And I
have to go back to ask you, what do you
want for your life? What is the vision you have
for your life? M hmm. Without the vision people with para. See,
(04:09):
when you know what you go on, when you know
what you're doing, When you know what you want, there's
no reason why you can't have it. So whenever you're
feeling in dismay and you're not sure, I have to
ask you one simple question, what do you want? That's it?
(04:30):
Catch it, get your right in many right with me,
and get excited about Hello there, new hair? Who this?
How you doing girl? I am wonderful. How are you
new hair? I don't know how to act. I'm telling
you acting real good out here and looking good by
(04:51):
the way, Thank you, thank you. Um, I have another
congratulations and happy belated birthday. Yes, I am a Leo.
It's Leo season, all season. You know. Leo's ALIGHTO. We dominated, y'all. Yeah,
so we we think it's always our time. So yeah,
(05:11):
but I just alterbrated birthday not so long. Thank you. Yes,
And you know I'm an Arie, so we're like we're
kiing because we got the fire sign and all that jazz.
Oh yeah, my fire sister. My mom is an Arie.
So I I I know we talked about because we
talked about how mama was coming through with your journey.
Was acting um Also the last time we spoke as well,
(05:35):
you were um engaged. Are you still engaged? It's there
any new news? Well you know that's um okay transition,
you know. Um wow. I was so unprepared for this question.
I'll just tell the truth that you know, there's nothing
(05:56):
better than the truth. I am no longer engaged, but
I wish him all the best and I am so
happy and I am dating. Okay, So tell us if
you about that keen life, if you're a king king mentality,
(06:17):
then you know when you see me say something. Um.
I was sitting here and I was just thinking to myself,
I appreciate the fact that the transparency, because that's what
vitamin D. But DAWNTE is all about. You know. Sometimes
we walk into situation trying to put this little shade
on what it could be, what it ain't, and it's like,
it is what it is, that it is, that it
(06:38):
is nothing more, nothing less. So thank you for jumping
in and starting it on the right foot. Okay, yeah,
you know, I don't know. It's like you want to
find this like politically correct answer, but I was just like,
it's this, let me just tell you the truth. There
you go, there it is and now we're speaking truth.
(06:59):
You just exper louse. The film Karen's Right Now ar
Karen is about a delusionally entitled Caucasian woman who thinks
that she owns the neighborhood. And myself and my husband
(07:21):
played by the brilliant Corey Hardrick, move into the neighborhood
next door to her, and she is determined to chase
us out of her neighborhood. Now, how she owns the
whole neighborhood, I don't know. That's something that she made
up in her mind, but she doesn't want us there,
and she goes on a mission to terrorize our lives
(07:41):
to get us out of there. It really is our
um imitating real life things that we see all the
time happening on social media. So it was it's a
very clever, very clever film. The way it's written, it's
not a satire. It is the writer director put a
(08:03):
lot of thought into how he conveyed how someone could
be a Karen and what that looks like up close
and personal for a young black couple every day. Not
just a little clip on social media, but imagine if
this was your neighbor, this is your life you're living.
(08:24):
But so he wrote it in such a clever way
that is really entertaining, but it's also conscious at the
same time. And you know, here's the thing. Let me
just keep it real with you. You know, I'm from Detroit.
We keep it real. Weehinded. I am extremely excited to
check out the film. But a lot of people have
been given a side out, like is this pushing black
trauma for meeting? What's the purpose of it? Are we
(08:46):
put in trauma in somebody's face? Like what are we
trying to get from this film? Okay, how are we
the actors? An actor, the actors, the writer, director, producer
putting this trauma in your face. It is in your
face every day. If we never made this movie, it
(09:07):
would be in your face every day. This is the reality.
We're not putting it in your face. We're just taking
our art and creating an entertaining way to imitate real
life for your entertainment. That's it. That's the art is
imitates life. Right, Yeah, that's it. That's it. That's all.
This movie is not a protest. It's entertainment. So if
(09:30):
you can look at the clips on social media and laugh,
why not be able to come sit and watch your
movie and and and enjoy that entertainment And then also, um,
it's not I just want people to enjoy the entertainment
and not get so up in arms and think that
(09:51):
we're we're doing something. Why do we even have this
subject matter to make a movie about in the first place?
Did we do that? Catch it? It's beautiful because it's
it's just a thing of a reflection, just the very
moment of you coming on the podcast and I'm like, girl,
what's the new, the latest, greatest, and you said, hey,
doing it's a transition. It's not something that's rainbows and butterflies.
(10:13):
It is what it is. So I guess for somebody
out there that may feel conflicted as if there's some
black trauma point, it's like, well, that's life, and it
should make you uncomfortable because somebody is actually living that
line absolutely. And I would just would hope that people would,
um use the frustration they feel about our movie that's
(10:37):
just meant to entertain you, and put that to good
use in our very practical way that could actually help
somebody who is an actual victim of this type of
behavior in our society. And we can get up here
by voting. We could vote, we could um, we could
(10:58):
speak up when we say something. We can um, we
can get together, and we can create uh patrols like
community patrols, like if you see something, say something, UM,
that's what we can do. Yeah. I see a lot
as mind as people will go and find the charing
(11:20):
on Instagram, Like somebody puts up a video. I'm seeing
the comments people and say, find this person, who is
this person? Where do they work? You know, get active,
use your energy for creating real change in the world
and not just poking at a movie. Mm hmm. And
and just like you said, like if we can share
(11:40):
all the instances that happen on social media sometimes I
think people um aren't really connected to the various versions
of what it looks like, and like we can see
somebody hold another phone, but what happens to what that
person feels like every day? And I felt like what
you were saying when your character Imani is doing the film,
so talk to me about her and just you know
(12:02):
what made you a transition or fall into that role. Well,
when I read the script, I immediately I thought it
was so clever. Um. It did not come off like
a gimmick at all. It read like a real emotional
storyline that I followed through the end and I was
(12:22):
I was like, what's gonna happen next? Um, I didn't
feel like I was reading a parody. It's a real
heartfelt story. And my character, Imani is young Black queen excellence.
She's representing that. Every aspect of this character was really
thought out, from the hair wardrobe, her job, how she
(12:46):
speaks to her husband, because this is a young black
couple buying their first home. So we're representing young Black excellence.
We're representing the people of the now, the people that
are of the situation that are becoming the vice presidents
who are buying the homes, who are heading in, the
entrepreneurs who are actually what do I say, the forefront
(13:08):
of this transition of creating this life that expands to
different areas and so forth. Exactly. So the movie has
more than just about this Karen character. It's about a
young black couple. What that looks like in our society today.
They're married, they want to have children, they're having infertility problems. Um,
(13:31):
they're having issues because my character Emani is the brad
winner in the house. But what that reflects our culture?
Young Black women are going to college more on their
earning degrees at a higher rate. They're earning more money
than ever. Young Black women, young women of color, m
having to step up into these roles in life. And
that's what Emani is. And her husband doesn't earn as
(13:54):
much as she does, but she loves him anyway. She
loves him anyway, but that creates an insecurity in him.
And now they're trying to get pregnant, and you know,
she's scared to get pregnant because she's like, how are
we really gonna take care of this baby? Like it's
it's not just all roses and butterflies, like we have
to earn money to take care of the child, pay
a mortgage. This is our life, and and like how
(14:17):
are we really going to do this? So it's about
way more and then throwing this young black couple into
a racist neighborhood. So on top of the things that
they already have to deal with in their own household,
now they're having to deal with the projections of society.
So the movie is and and it sounds very deep,
(14:39):
but you're gonna laugh quite a bit. It's not meant
to be a comedy. But I don't call Daniels the
writer director. He has a history of writing comedies, so
he couldn't help, but sneak that in there. So she
started improv over at the ground links. And you will
(15:02):
be surprised at how similar when you look at comedy
and horror or thriller, because they come in these different
beats and in many ways. While we don't have to
call it a black porn trauma, it is a trauma
for some people. Like even as you're talking about the
money right now, then let's keep it real. All eyes
on you, Jasmine, Like you're representing all the females out
(15:24):
there that about that career. I look at me about
my business, maybe a liable situation where my partner may
not make the funds aside. You know, so did you
feel low key? I want you to be real with me. Okay,
did you feel an extra sense of pressure as if
you could come off cooning in this movie? Like you
(15:46):
wanted to be sure not to say certain things and
not to highlight So somebody and say, oh, I knew
black people did this, and it's like hold up, says yes, yes,
a thousand person. I was very calm on how I
approached the Monty character because there's nothing stereotypical about women
(16:08):
of color in the first place. Where a rainbow of personalities,
we're a rainbow. So I was very conscious because we
decided she would have dreadlocks. We decided she appreciates her
African heritage, so in her dress, she wears African prints
and African designers and you know, African handmade jewelry from
(16:32):
villages and everything is very intentional with her. She's very
proud of her African heritage. And so the stereotype is
we have to be one this one thing, but you
can celebrate. We can celebrate our African heritage, be proud
of it and our beauty and our esthetic, and then
(16:53):
we can also go out and earn money. The entrepreneurs,
we can tell you how it is if we feel
in a certain way, and we can also speak to
you about a business deal that we want to happen.
So there's no one way to be and I was
very conscious of that and my approach on how I
(17:15):
displayed her. I displayed a rainbow of the of emotions
and um, just how we're so many beautiful components and
not just one. And looking at the trailer of myself
like I mean, I even saw the color of that,
just the emotions. You're being happy you're here, then when
(17:36):
you're like, well, who is this neighbor way? And then
you're talking to the little girl and she's like, my
mom doesn't like black people. Then you're at the count
and you're crying. You're like, babe, I think it's tithing
to leave. And then my panties gotten a bunch. That's
why I have to ask you the question about did
you feel that pot of cooney? Taren, because you know
I love tearing Tarr Manning, she's the one that plays
Karen the film When she came up in there. I
(17:57):
don't know where y'alling. She said, Oh, she's slaving in
the kitchen. You tried it, and you know the thing
that I'm like, like that was kind of like an
quote unquote obvious, kind of a little pun. But it's
like you're go on society in life often some times
so many times you don't realize the local slide jabs
(18:18):
that people are saying, Um, I was just sat someone else.
I don't think there was any malicious intent because as
I want to go on next to how it starts
off probably from parent But I remember I'm over in
high school, Catholic school, um, predominantly white, and if I
love my girls, so it's no shame. Yeah, but I
remember I was gonna have a graduation party and one
(18:40):
of the girls were like, oh my gosh, are you
gonna have fried chicken? Are? I probably was gonna have
fried chicken? But still you don't say that. See we
can laugh about that, but that was the move. It
was a little man, You've got some kind away in
that moment, like, yeah, that was a fighting moment. That
was total improv And Darren is brilliant in this role.
(19:03):
She is nothing like a Karen. She's the furthest thing
from it. Like I mean, it's so brilliant, it's so amazing.
People who have um an incredible gift of acting, they
can really transform. She can really do that. She grew
up with black people as her cousins because she married
(19:24):
someone in her family married somebody black, and so from
a very young age, she her best friends, her cousins
was she identified as family were black people. So she
not a racist bone in her body. But she's a
brilliant actress and she transformed for this role. And uh,
she did a lot of improv moments like that, and
(19:45):
all I can do is just look like, okay, okay, okay,
we acted all right, you got that girl. It was
so it was fun. It was fun playing with her
lot of funk. And you know, I gotta give it
to her too, because you know, I'm up here asking
the plight that you must have felt or could have
(20:05):
felt with having to carry the weight on your shoulder
of just being this woman in this situation. But how
many figures and pointed on her because you know, there
are some people that will act their ass off in
a film, and you started getting twisted, like I don't
even like you. I don't know if you remember back
in the day, Um, did you watch The Family on me? Yeah?
(20:26):
I could not stand that lady. She was like Clark,
that's Clark. She and it was like she was such
in that character that I looked at her with a
side eye. I'm sure Ti Taren, no one's looking at
you like that. But I commend her, Um definitely for
jumping in that role. Oh yes, yes, I mean she's
an artist. Like she's an artist through and through. You
(20:47):
can see that in her body of work, the types
of characters that she has taken on her entire career.
She's a true artist. She transforms, she gives the project,
the character what it needs, and then she walks away
and goes on with her life. I just wish people
when they see the movie they can just appreciate it.
(21:08):
If you get mad at her, she's done her job. Hello,
somebody catching the man behind the current? Hey, what's happening?
Beautiful people? You more major and you're thrown into viting
and d with Don Dave. So let me ask you.
This is something that I think you know. I want
to shed light on this two things or a fold
(21:31):
of it. You're in a situation where you guys are
moving into this community, right, Why do you feel for Imani?
Why was it important for her to make the decision
to move into a predominantly white area? Question? Good? Question One.
She didn't see it as a white neighborhood when she
(21:54):
did the research. She researched prime rate school ratings, not
with the ratio black to white. She looked at things
that were going to influence the quality of the environment
that she lived in and her soon to be children
would be raised in. I think everybody doesn't have a color.
(22:17):
You want to live in a safe area, You want
to live in an area where the school rating is excellent.
You want to have amenities to shopping and stores and restaurants.
So she didn't look at um, she didn't look at
it that way. Okay. So then once once she got
into the neighborhood, Okay, so she up there riding around
(22:39):
again and not really but established her family and home.
Once she found out that this care and lady was
a racist, why didn't she get the hell up out
of Dodge? What was she trying to prove to stay there?
And is there a need that you feel that oftentimes
I don't want to just say black people, do you
feel there's a need to try to enter a greater
(23:00):
moment to whether it be up level? Like why was
it a sense of a need to stay? Well, there's
this thing in life called the bigger person? And are
you gonna run from all your problems? Are you gonna
face them? So? Right, So when you buy a house,
just oh my god, up and selling it first of all,
is not that easy as people think it is. It's
(23:21):
not like if it's hard for people to get out
of rental contracts, imagine how hard it is to get
out of a mortgage contract that you signed with a
whole bank and money that you've invested. So it's not
that easy. Once you plant your feet somewhere, you buy
a home, you realize, oh my gosh, my neighbors are
this okay? So the first thought is, okay, maybe they
(23:45):
don't understand us. Maybe let me go show them who
we are, you know, maybe we're trying to show up.
Let me just go introduce myself, create some harmony and
see if it will be received. And the all is
always it will be received, but in this case it wasn't.
(24:07):
Sometimes don't matter how nice you are you can you,
First of all, you can't control other people, what they do,
how they react. You can just can't control that period
in life. But maybe sometimes you think you can add
some harmony to the sauce. And that's what Imani tried
to do at first. So then after she got win
(24:29):
like oh it's time to go, you know, or anybody
like does that come to a point when you ask yourself, well,
what am I fighting for? Like why am I putting
myself through this to prove what to whom? And what for?
Like why why not just leave for the sake of
(24:51):
your peace of mind? Well, okay, I'll answer for Emani, right,
I'll answer for Emand Emany wasn't trying to prove anything
to Karen. She just wanted to stake her ground, like
she's a proud woman. She feels I deserve to be here.
(25:15):
I deserve to be here. Why am I going to run?
I just I have just as much right to be
in a decent area and neighborhood as you do. Your attitude,
your racism is not going to make me go run.
My ancestors paid that price. I ain't going to stay.
(25:35):
You deal, You know what you remind me of I
tell Jeremiah this all the time. I said, how do
you do anything? That's how you'll do everything. So if
you get into this whole habit of flexingness muscle, that
something arises that you don't look like and you want
to run, aware you want to stop, it's gonna show
up in every aspect of your life. And like you said, you'
(25:56):
the one got the problem with me. I'm signing up
to live my life. And I guess that's what I
like to talk about in the Vitamin Deep with Dante podcast.
It's about living your best life because you are your
greatest assets. So you have to take in a point
where you stand in your own truth. And like you said,
you money is. She's a proud African American we can
say black woman of color, who stands in her truth,
(26:18):
who's holding her ground. And it's like, why should I
fall because you're blowing some wind at me. Yeah, that's
not how, that's not how we're gonna do this now.
And then in her mind, she never thought it would escalate. Two.
You know, the lady been trying to murder her and
her family. You spoiler alert, what why you gotta see
(26:45):
how that story unfold. Oh my god. Okay, okay, so
then let's let's talk this here. You know, we look
at these kind of films, right, yeah, and always I'm
always able to really see an adult, like say, if
someone's home was on the street, I'm always looking at them.
I'm like, oh my gosh, that was somebody's baby. Right.
But see when you see these big people that may
(27:07):
not be so nice, at some point they were somebody's baby.
And looking at the trailer and seeing you talking what's
the young girl's name, the daughter? The little girls a
really great job childer actors are. They're amazing, she she said.
I thought it was so interesting that when she said
(27:29):
she was like, my mother, you know, doesn't like black people.
And there was an image that I saw on Instagram.
And in the image, there's just two kids and they're
looking at each other and they're spewing hateful words or
you can see one kid is hurt and other one
was like and behind as a parent, And how they
depicted the parents was a mother. She has her arms folded,
(27:51):
but what happens is that you can see the tongue
coming out of her mouth and going into the back
of the head, out of the little kid, because you
know they've gotten it from somewhere and it's like, oh,
you know, even shedding light when you see how these
somebody's baby that grew up to this person, of just
how this stuff like transforms and passes down to people. Oh. Absolutely,
(28:11):
children are born into this world innocent. We're all born
into this world innocent. It's ours learned behaviors that make
people form their identities, and unfortunately sometimes we're unwre around
unhealthy environments that helps shape our identity. But you know,
(28:33):
children are very intelligent as well. They can feel if
it's not right because their natural inclination is to just
love everybody. So if you're saying, don't love Bobby because
he's brown, it's like, but that's my friend, and and
whoever knows. They may actually feel like they're identical twins,
(28:54):
you know, because they're not living up whatever you see.
They may feel one and the same. They're just that
innocent and so in which we all are. So h
it's unfortunate, it's unfortunate. So have you, um pull any
real life experience into this film, Like have you run
into a cara before? And what happened? Definitely UM encounter
(29:21):
racism before it's very in the moment. You know, you
read people's reactions online and they're like, Oh, if that
was me, I would have done this, I would have
done that. When you're in the moment, sometimes it's shocking,
like did I just everybody heard? Or did that person
(29:42):
just say? Did I just experience what I just experienced?
It feels like an out of body experience. And for
me in those times, I've really frozen in the moment,
like shot, not knowing what to do with the emotions
that I feel. I know it's not right, as hurtful,
as painful, I don't deserve that. Mm hmm. It's like
(30:02):
the ugliness of people sometimes just it's a dark shadow
because you can't see through. Yeah yeah, and it's like
it's not clear. It doesn't make you feel safe, it
doesn't make you feel good. It's just so you know,
I guess looking at this film or actually you're portraying it,
anyone watching it, what kind of advice would you have
(30:23):
somebody that's going into a space that made where they
are the minority, just like how you were with your family?
Is there something should you be on guard? Like that's
a shame that you have to move on defense, like
stepping into a situation like, first of all, don't be
on defense. That's what I would say, Like, don't go
into it on defense. Just show up as your best
(30:44):
self and do your best and that's all you can control.
If you encounter someone who is just hateful and spewing ugliness,
don't meet that, don't match that energy, because now you're
no better than that person. You're no better you know.
(31:05):
Of course, the self defense is a whole other thing.
But do you feel harm somebody is threatening your life?
You're safety. But when it just comes to encountering ugly
energy and hateful words, just don't touch me, right, I say, Jeremiah, No,
I'm real quick, grab being the salt bath, so quick,
(31:27):
my candle and my incense. Cool, stop playing cleansing myself. Um.
But I'm wondering too, like do you feel like there's
a need to enter spaces where you're the minority or
do you walk into a space and create it yourself?
And what I mean by that is safe, free money.
You guys are looking for an area that you can
raise your fan with the low crimry rather than okay,
(31:48):
let's find an area that maybe let's just stay closer
to the community and infiltrate the money there. Because you know,
there was a point, and I'm just saying just to
talk race, because that's what this film is about. There
was a point we were not allowed to integrate into
other communities, whether it be a bank, whether it be
a school, and we were prosperous because just like other communities,
and you may hear with the Jewish community in the
(32:10):
Asian community, they circle their money within, but for some
in and I think that's just the deepness I guess
what comes with racial inequality and justice and all that.
The psychological part of it is that we feel like
we're at a better position or a better moment by
going somewhere else to spend money, whether than just keeping
money in house and then stacking up from there. Well,
(32:33):
you know, I thought about that too, and I really
think is it's about wanting to be around light minded people.
Not necessarily people that have your saying skin color, but
light minded people like people who want to take care
of their community. They take pride in where they live.
They um, they care about cleaning up the streets, even
(32:54):
if it's not their streets, Like, oh, let's get together
and let's you know, clean up everything, or you know,
let's get together as a community and let's do things together.
You know, let's look out for each other. That that's
not I don't think it's a color thing. I think
it is more prevalent in other neighborhoods because we to
(33:15):
worry about what you're talking about other and sweep. I
don't know if my baby' gonna make it home. Okay,
I'm trying to get to the bus to get off
this job, and there's food doesn't so I don't even
have a grocery store. I can get something to eat
that to do what I need to do hypothetically. Yeah, yeah,
But here's the thing, Like, if everyone is on that
wave link in the community, watch the changes that happen
(33:35):
in that community. But how do we get on that
wavelenk when my trauma is trying to figure out how
I'm going to provide food? See what happened was with
your family, not your family, but this other partner. Both
of your parents were educated, they had a job, right, say,
they went to school, right, so that job, like you're
bringing in a different income. And I'm not saying you
can't up level, but it's just different things that are state.
(33:56):
So what we're talking about sweeping outside? I just got
off a twelve hour shift. I'm trying to figure out
how about to catch the bus, and you're asking me,
do I want to sweep outside? I think it's just
to me it seems like different from the table or
the weight, but doesn't yet. And and different things are
top of mind for survival based on what you gotta
look at. Yeah, I mean people of color, black people
(34:20):
specifically in our communities have been in survival mode for
so long. Yeah. Hello, it's your girl, super model. His
lyrics cross representing all my curvey girls out there? Hey,
what's up to be ja? And you are tuned into
vitamin D with don days. We have to turn that tide.
(34:43):
And I don't have all the answers. I don't have
all the answers, but I do know that I don't
know why other communities when you because I remember when
I was buying my first house and I was driving
around looking for somewhere. I wanted to buy any gentile
find area because I saw how the community was turning.
(35:07):
You could literally drive down a street in a gentrifying
area and see the progression. You could see. Oh they
haven't hasn't started down on this side yet. Oh it
has started on this side. Okay, it's gonna work its
way down and then eventually into the next block and
the next life. I don't know why when other people
(35:27):
move in a neighborhood they give a damn about how
it looks mm hmm. I don't know. I don't know
why and our why people have to come in and
gentrify our communities. Why aren't we making sure our communities
look clean, decent. All the yards are cut, there's no mattresses,
(35:53):
and I don't know whatever. And I grew up in
these neighborhoods. So I'm talking about my own cousins, I'm
talking about my own uncles. I'm gonna talking about nobody
but the people I grew up. Okay, first of all,
so but I grew up seeing this, and then I
would go to my friends houses in the neighborhoods around
the corner, and it wasn't like that. Nobody is making
(36:16):
us live like that. Nobody is making us live like that.
Nobody is saying, Okay, you have to put that mattress
out there in the front. You have to put that
mattress there. You have to stack the TV on top.
You gotta have the car broken down that's been broken
down for twenty years sitting there, rusted and just decrepit
and just bring it down your property value. You have
(36:39):
to do that. Nobody's doing that. We have to improve
for our own selves. We have to take pride in
where we live, not because anybody's making us do it,
because that's that's where I live. This is my house
when I drive up every day. I want to see
a beautiful on I get out there every Saturday and
put the mold down, or water the plant or you know,
(37:03):
I sweep. I sweep everything like I do that for
me because I care. I don't know. I don't have
to answer. I know. I'm just trying to do because
I think it comes down to um and and ay
vitamin D. How you are your greatest asset and loving
on yourself and how much do you love yourself and
if you look at it and anything that you do,
(37:24):
how you do anything is how you everything. So you
take a pride in sense of yourself. But here's the thing, Jasmine,
if we were to look at I'm only gonna speak
for black people or African American people. Um, the very
thing that we had tried of of our identity and
when you know who you are, you know who you are. Um,
that was stripped away. So perhaps that is a prople
(37:44):
nown effect, because why would I care like I can't
even find who I am in a sense that has
been ripped down psychologically in ways that I think that
I may know but I don't, and not really understanding
the value of just keeping yourself look good. You know
what I'm talking to a girlfriend of mine. Just transparency.
You know, you can get comfortable with being single too
(38:05):
long if I'm just gonna run to the store. No,
you gotta take care of yourself. Put a little arpto yourself.
Because now when you see how people how you address yourself,
people who address you like bones, people gonna want to
go on that neighborhood. People are gonna want to send
their children there. But if you're not caring watching anybody else,
why should anybody else? It becomes a personal responsibility, it
(38:27):
really does. It becomes a personal responsibility. And we know
our history, we know the struggles that we live in,
we know the poverty we grow up, and we know
the disadvantages we have. But then there comes a time
where we have to say for our own selves, for
our own lineage line with Okay, I'm gonna do something different.
(38:48):
It just you don't have to change the whole neighborhood.
Everybody is not your responsibility. Your your responsibility. You have children,
they're your responsibility to us. And that's even to a
certain extent, honestly, But that's another conversation. But because you
can you can't control. You can't necessarily control how your
kids turn out at life. And this is something I've
been examined with me and my mom. Is interesting through
(39:12):
some some family therapy sessions. But it gets to a
certain point where I can examine my childhood trauma to
source the pain and and see the pattern. But then
there comes a personal responsibility for me where I have
to say, Okay, I have to do something different now. Okay,
(39:33):
I know I went through that. It was painful, it
affected me. I see how it has affected me in
these ways in my life now, But I gotta do
something different. My mom make a decision. It's either you're
gonna do it or you're not. It's really no great
it's no gray area in life. It really is. It
is that you ain't and my mom. I can look
(39:55):
at some things that I can say, Okay, I wish
my mom would have been a little bit more nurtured.
My mom was in survival mode. She didn't have the
luxury nurturing your children's emotional Uh. Nurturing your children's emotional
health is a luxury, and if you're in survival mode,
(40:15):
you don't. You simply do not have that luxury. So
now it's like, well, I can't blame my mom on that.
Now I'm aware I have to make a conscious decision
to do something different. So that's why I say, even
your parents, even for your children, you're only responsible to
a certain extent because as a parent, you're a human
being too. You have your own life track. Your children
(40:38):
are part of it, but they're not all of it.
And that is the truth. You have your own development
and if and if you weren't able to finish developing
for whatever reasons, traumas in your life that you never
got a chance to address, it is gonna stay with
you and affect you and spill over in different ways.
And so then your children get to a point in
their life where they have to say, okay, but what
(41:00):
am I gonna do different now. I don't know how
I got off that. No, that was beautiful. I'm sitting here.
I was like, first, I'm up here looking. I'm like,
did you study psychology or something like that. I'm looking
at the car and I'm like, it says theater and business.
But I'm smiling because it's always a joy. Even from
the last time I talked to you, It's like, I
would love to do like every like maybe a couple
of months of quarterly special of just having a conversation
(41:23):
because I really appreciate your thought process and approaching things
and and even talking about the fact of I was
just talking to someone about how they met a different
mother than the mother that their siblings that and it
was based on the dynamic of the upbringing and mom
had to to to provide. So unfortunately we lost Jasmine,
(41:45):
But I do hope that you guys check out the filmcaren.
It is something that a lot of people were sitting
on the fence of whether or not it's going to
be a lot of black trauma porn. But I think
more importantly it's all about Sudeline. What's going on. I
love me some Jazzmine, So check out the film Karen.
It's starring Karen Manning as Uh, the character Karen, and
(42:06):
then Corey Hardrick that's still Morey's husband. And then we
also have our very own Jasmine Burke, who is Amani,
the wife of Corey Hardrick who plays Malik in the film.
I'm dying to check it out. Not really, I'm living
to check it out because I want to be here
them all. But I also want to encourage you to
make sure that you live on purpose and for a purpose,
because when we talk about, you know, infiltrating these areas
(42:29):
and these neighborhoods, oftentimes people are quick to flee away
because not knowing to value your word. And I feel
like Jasmine made a great point about that, like understanding
the importance of when you're looking into a neighborhood and
being there one you want to look at it for opportunity.
You want to be there for like minded people, and
that's the case, you don't let anyone push you out.
And it's a great depiction of what it looks like
(42:50):
to try to balance life and the circumstances that come
with life. So it shall be interesting how this unfolds.
Having checked it out and yet but if you have
hit me up and let me know what you feel
about it, tell me how you felt Jasmine did. And
you even have Jasmine. But hey, when you find me
on there, check me out on social media at Dawn
(43:13):
Day Speaks okay, and then let me see I have
Jasmine's social media as well. You can check her out
at the Jasmine Burk. I wanted to tell you guys
what's coming up next, But follow her and you'll keep
up with that. Also, you know it's time to do
some housekeeping. I want to remind you that if you
would like to be a guest on the show, make
(43:34):
sure you send an email Vitamin D at Dawn Day Speaks. Okay. Also,
you know we have our advice letters and now we
have infiltrated the quicker is the condensed version of the
advice letters. Well, you can also email those two Vitamin
D at Dawn Day Speaks dot com. Okay. Hey, you
know you can even slide in my d M because
you know it goes down in the d L. Let
(43:57):
me stop, all right, cool, check off to a D
on the YouTube page Dawn Day Speaks. Also, if you
enjoyed this episode, if you're listening to me right now.
I take it you did, because you're still here. And
if you've enjoyed me or the brand before that, tell
somebody to tell somebody to tell somebody else to check
out the Vitamin Deep with Dawn Day podcast and it's
(44:18):
available wherever you get your favorite podcast, I mean literally
on every podcast platform. We're built in. We're growing and
I want to thank you for being a part of
my dreams. Ah. You know I told you I'm in
the business of making dreams come true and I damn
sure I ain't gonna forget about mind. So until next time,
(44:39):
I want you to always remember that's you are, your
greatest assid. Coming up next on the Vitamin D with
Dawn Day podcast, I talked to Arturo Prieto, a man
who has died four times. Told me to hear about
what he saw when he died, and answer some of
your questions right with me and get excited about h
Host
Dawn Dai
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