Episode 13 Featuring Tuffy Questell, Blahzay Martell, Brandon Lomax & Keyonn Wright-Sheppard

Featuring Tuffy Questell, Blahzay Martell, Brandon Lomax & Keyonn Wright-Sheppard

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Dear America, where your voice matters and every
vote counts. Join us as we explore the power of
black and brown communities in shaping our future. It's time
to make your.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Mark and be heard.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
This is Dear America with Chanelle Barnes and I am
so excited to be interviewing real people and capturing rod stories.

Speaker 4 (00:25):
We're trying something new America.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
We actually brought in four special guests in order to
talk about this very important topic, which is black men
and the vote. I want to welcome Blase, a Brooklyn
born rapper who rose to fame with the East Coast
hip hop group Out Loud and djp F Cutton, best
known for their hit single Danger. We also have Brandon Lomex,

(00:52):
a devoted father of nine and a military member serving
on a counter terrorism task force. We have Toughy who
joining us, Joining us again. I want to know that
I told you all would bring him back, and I
brought him back within what two weeks. I'm a woman
of my word, hailing from a rich musical heritage with
his mother a renowned do wop and contemporary artist from

(01:15):
the sixties and eighties. And last but not least, we
have Keyon Wright Shepherd, who's here as the co executive
director of City Kids, empowering young people to become voices
for social change, and I think that that's going to
be enough of my voice. I'm just excited to get
into this conversation. Thanks for having right, Yes, of course,

(01:36):
Well I I'm going to kick off with you.

Speaker 5 (01:38):
Let's go.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
How is your background as a rapper influenced your political
views today?

Speaker 6 (01:43):
I think it helped me too, just like how I
was talking about earlier words the strength of words, So
I'm really into that. I'm really you know how words
can be almost like a witchcraft, So I'm really into that.
What words you use in I know, when we greeted
each other, I was like grand rising. I didn't really
use the morning because the connection of mourning to people mourning.

(02:05):
So that's what really helped me, and I really appreciate
that in this time right now, real connection intention to words.

Speaker 4 (02:12):
Yes, absolutely, Brandon.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
How does your experience in the military shape your perspective
on voting in civic duty?

Speaker 7 (02:20):
Military is a you're a civil servant. You are the
servant of the American people. So at the end of
the day, the way you vote decide can decide where
my life goes if you vote, the person you put
in power and the people you put into congress decide
whether I go to war or I stay home. So
it shaped my day every day.

Speaker 4 (02:40):
Thank you for that, Brandon Suffie.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Growing up in a musical family, how were politics discussed?

Speaker 8 (02:48):
Wow, politics weren't discussed. That's the honesty of it. Back
in the days, the three things you didn't talk about
was church, You didn't discuss politics, and you tried not
to discuss racism because as as young black people, as musicians,
as a family, we didn't want to talk about anything
that was gonna get us a riled up. Because family

(03:08):
has no filter. Family will always say exactly what they're thinking.
They don't care about your feelings. So there's certain things
you don't talk about, Like you don't get over Sunday
dinner or Thanksgiving and say, by the way, I can't
believe y'all didn't vote, because Auntie're gonna come for you,
or your uncles will come for you, or some food's
gonna come across the table. So respectfully, there were certain

(03:29):
things we just did not talk about, and that's one
of them. We will talk about unemployment though one of
our cousins is not doing their part in the house
making that money. So there were certain things we just
did not We knew where everyone stood, but if we
brought it up, it became a conversation that might have
a bad ending.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
Well, I'm excited to open up some safe space for
us to be able to have this conversation with each other.
And Key, I noticed you were you were reacting to
that you were small only what was making you smile
about what Tuffy was saying?

Speaker 9 (04:02):
Yeah, Well, just the fact that there are certain conversations
that really need to be at the dining room table
that we kind of avoid at the dining room table.
Just like, wow, it is so almost contradictory that the
place where it is that we are all actually gathered
and could have this conversation, We're like, yeah, discuss anything

(04:24):
but that right now.

Speaker 8 (04:25):
I'm just like, wow, that's just let's just make it
to the mac and chief, right.

Speaker 9 (04:30):
We don't want to ruin nobody's appetite with whatever it
is that you know might rub somebody the wrong way.
But why is us having an intelligent conversation about something
that affects us all going to rub us the wrong way.

Speaker 4 (04:42):
Yes, that's right.

Speaker 8 (04:43):
Well, the good thing about that is times have changed, yes,
because we didn't do that as kids per se, because
we didn't even understand sometimes who we were voting for.
We knew the congressman because he came to the neighborhood
or the countsman who came to the neighborhood once or
twice a year. We got to know them. But I
also had an uncle was one of those people who said,
I don't like I don't even like white toilet paper,
I don't like nothing.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
Everything to.

Speaker 8 (05:06):
The conversations we tried to avoid because Rodney, who had
his time under the prison, when he came home, he
was mad at everybody. Now do y'all visited, y'all didn't
put it under my comments, sar. He was mad at everybody,
but he also still wanted love and he wanted food.
So we had our time together. You know, my family,
I grew up around women. I have six sisters, so

(05:26):
bless you women. They was always like they didn't want
to debate. They did not want to argue. No argue,
no debate.

Speaker 6 (05:33):
It's like if it ain't fun, if it ain't a
sexy conversation, if it ain't about something that's you know,
going on that they could, they're not going to do it.

Speaker 5 (05:41):
They didn't want to argue. You do not like arguing.

Speaker 4 (05:44):
Okay, love that.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
Well, everything's on the table for your America. But but Brandon,
I'm wondering, what's your experience growing up with your family.

Speaker 7 (05:52):
I think it was deeper than just voting, that you
have family secrets that we didn't talk about. It was
always the older crowd never talked. They didn't talk about therapy.
They didn't talk about things that we needed as a community,
things that we needed as a family. They just kind
of skated over everything, which wound up leaving I would
say my generation to wonder what is going on. We

(06:14):
didn't talk about mental health, we didn't talk about voting,
We didn't talk about racism as such as a tough
he set. So a lot of conversations you wind up
growing up to be eighteen and you're like, wow, we
never talked about any of this. But unfortunately, in the
black community and minorities a lot they don't talk about it,
but they do talk about it in suburban communities. They

(06:34):
do talk about it in suburban households. So that puts
us at a disadvantage socially and economically because we don't
talk about those things same way we don't talk about money.

Speaker 8 (06:43):
You go up asking hey, how much did this course?

Speaker 7 (06:46):
It's like, don't worry about get your hands out of
my pocket, don't worry about it. By at the end
of the day, now I don't know. I don't have
no financial literacy growing.

Speaker 3 (06:53):
Up, right, that's right, and keon, it's interesting because we're
talking about what it was like for one generation. You're
very in touch with the next generation. And so I'm
wondering in your work empowering young voices, what role does
voting play.

Speaker 9 (07:11):
It is interesting because they are very passionate, but they
question the process.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
They are motivated for change, they.

Speaker 9 (07:21):
Just sometimes question whether or not voting is the process
to bring about the change.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
So then it's a matter of you know, really, I
can't make.

Speaker 4 (07:32):
You feel when they say.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
That I'm a little older than some folks.

Speaker 4 (07:38):
By the way, he doesn't look it.

Speaker 9 (07:39):
So listen, this is gonna sound absolutely crazy, y'all. Right,
but my son is born in twenty and twelve, right, Okay,
So until the twenty sixteen election, he didn't know the
president could be white.

Speaker 8 (07:57):
Wow, that's that's actually complete.

Speaker 9 (08:01):
So we're being born in twenty twelve. The president had
been black his entire life. He had never seen the
president be anything other than Barack Obama until Donald Trump
was elected.

Speaker 5 (08:11):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
And so I'm just saying this, that paradigm shift.

Speaker 5 (08:15):
Right.

Speaker 9 (08:15):
So that's one of the things that I share with
my young people. Oh, No, I've seen things change, right.
Things have not stayed the same the entire time in
my lifetime. So I've seen voting change some things. I've
seen where it is there us in actual action has
brought about a change. And so I've not given up
hope on the fact that us being about our business
where voting is concerned, has the ability to bring about

(08:37):
change because at least in my lifetime, I've seen something happen.

Speaker 3 (08:39):
Wow, that's the incredible perspective that I never even thought
about before.

Speaker 4 (08:44):
But I love that. Let's get into it.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
How does and this is open to whomever, how does
the experience of being a black man.

Speaker 4 (08:52):
In America shape your political beliefs?

Speaker 3 (08:55):
Maybe even taking it a step further, what does it
mean to be a black man in America?

Speaker 8 (09:00):
The answer has so many levels to it. As a
black man in America. We are an endangered species, and
in the workfront, in the street fronts, we are always
challenged by the obvious things, first being one another. You know,
it's sad that we have to confront our own brothers

(09:20):
who are trying to take from us because they consider
us easy marks. It's sad that women don't believe in
us because of television, the idiot box, or whatever the
case may be, or because of their own brokeness with
their own fathers and uncles and the men in their worlds.
It's hard for me, specifically going through family court fighting

(09:41):
for my daughter during divorce, when lives were spoken about
me and when the judge was against black men. I
had to have her disbarred because found out she had
when she was a social worker, ninety seven percent black
men always were the ones who were the problem. And
when they found that out that she had, she was

(10:03):
really disrespectful to me and my attorney, but always gave
love to my ex wife's attorney because she believed the
women were always right. So to find that out. For
six years in court, I was getting berated and beat up.
I had to do. I had to do my research
because I saw enough of the degradation in her spirit
towards me. Even though my ex wife had the alcohol problem,

(10:27):
my ex wife had the hands on problem, my ex
wife had the punishment problem. But I'm the man, so
I must be the problem. And I had to I
had to deal with that that berating attitude and and
and disadvantage for five and a half six years before
I did my research and found out who she was
prior to, so then I was able to fight. And

(10:47):
I still didn't win my case, but I got my daughter,
so I won overall.

Speaker 4 (10:53):
Congrat k you.

Speaker 3 (10:58):
You know you have a mention nine children, now all
of them are biological. I'm wondering how you're resonating with
what Tuffie said in the spirit of what it means
to be a black man in America.

Speaker 7 (11:10):
With what Toughie said, I sympathize and empathize with it
because it's something that I'm gonna have to go through
shortly soon. Being that I am no longer with my
ex wife, I also am gonna go try to fight
for my daughters because regardless of how you may how
she may feel, I firmly believe I am the better parent.

Speaker 9 (11:33):
My eldest is thirty, my middle daughter is twenty two,
my son is twelve. So my oldest child is old
enough to be the parent of my youngest.

Speaker 5 (11:49):
Right.

Speaker 8 (11:50):
By the way, ladies, yes, that voice is Banana's good.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
Boy.

Speaker 9 (11:57):
I'm gonna start there, and then I'm gonna say that
they are three read different relationships. So I have a wife,
an ex wife, and a baby mama. So you can't
have a relationship that I don't have, right, you would
have to make.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
That up someplace else.

Speaker 9 (12:11):
So what I'm just saying is I have been through
this myriad of experience here. What I At some point
in time, I was going back and forth to fight
the court where my younger daughter is concerned, and they
were making her go see an additional therapist on top
of her therapist, and she was starting to have nervous breakdowns, right,

(12:33):
And she came to me and she said, listen, I
love you. I don't want to keep doing this.

Speaker 8 (12:38):
We talk.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
So then as a father, I had to make a decision.

Speaker 9 (12:43):
Right, if your child's mother is not a bad mother,
you're not going to get them kids.

Speaker 5 (12:49):
Right.

Speaker 9 (12:49):
That's part of what it means to be a black
man in America. Right, you cannot if you cannot prove
up standing up and down. That's a bad mother. You're
not going to get them kids, that's just the right.
So they might work out visitation for you, they might
work out some sort of right joint custody agreement, but
she is going to be the custodial parent and you're
gonna have to work unfortunately.

Speaker 2 (13:08):
Right, And it is.

Speaker 9 (13:09):
But but I'm saying, hear me, I go back to
what tough set which is in terms of it being relational.

Speaker 5 (13:15):
Right.

Speaker 9 (13:16):
So at this point my daughter and I have what
is a magnificent relationship, right, And it's because I dropped
it and never went back to court, right. And then
when I dropped it and never went back to court,
I have that as something. Hey, listen, you are not
more important. Winning is not more important than you are, right, right,
So listen, If me fighting with your mother in this

(13:39):
court situation is wearing to the point where it's doing
bad on you, listen, you are my priority, let me ask,
so let me go ahead, right.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
And And based.

Speaker 9 (13:49):
Upon that, when it was that she had the ability
to make decisions of her own relition, she spent all
her time.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
Hanging out with her.

Speaker 6 (13:57):
What I'm saying, I feel that and what's important to me.
My kids is older now, so what's important.

Speaker 8 (14:04):
Let's get these ages.

Speaker 4 (14:07):
Older than.

Speaker 8 (14:10):
Thirteen.

Speaker 6 (14:12):
The oldest is twenty five and my next to him
is sixteen, seventeen.

Speaker 5 (14:17):
Okay, I have two.

Speaker 6 (14:19):
But the thing I'm telling you is you got to
remember play the long ball.

Speaker 5 (14:23):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 6 (14:23):
Don't worry about that emotional energy that's going on now,
because the kids are going to be the one that's
going to make the decision when they get older. You know,
I believe that who you could if she's not doing
anything that's like hurting or damaging the kids, you know,
and for you to pull them away and pull them
out of that arrangement, you know, they're going to make
come the judgment and judge you later.

Speaker 5 (14:45):
That's what's going to be important.

Speaker 4 (14:46):
So you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
So I want to.

Speaker 3 (14:48):
Take that to your question and then yes, let's get
that's a question, and I want to take this a
step deeper.

Speaker 4 (14:54):
If that's okay, we'll go ahead.

Speaker 9 (14:55):
So just in terms of what does it mean to
be a black man in it man, because we've got.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
One thing is pretty painful, right.

Speaker 5 (15:08):
It's very painful. Right.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
It comes with a lot of misrepresentation.

Speaker 5 (15:13):
Right.

Speaker 9 (15:13):
I can never be passionate in public about anything. Right,
I'm trying to tell you, if you bump into my
child and I criticize you, right, I still have got
to be calm because when the cops get here, they
still gonna come get me.

Speaker 5 (15:30):
Right.

Speaker 9 (15:31):
I am absolutely in the right, and what you did
was offend my child.

Speaker 2 (15:35):
But the fact that I stood up for.

Speaker 9 (15:36):
It vehemently and passionately at six foot two and eighty
five pounds, means that they gonna put me in handcuffs
and ask me questions and then figure it out later.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
That's just not fair.

Speaker 9 (15:46):
It's equally not fair when my sister decides that it's
late at night so she's gonna cross the street like
I'm somebody that's getting ready to chase her down on
the block.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
Now, I know it's individuals that do that, but it's
not everybody.

Speaker 9 (15:59):
Sometimes you hurt my feelings when you grab your person
that elevators sometimes, Right, I don't want to have to
stand and defend my character every single day, all day
just for the fact that being so first, you're gonna
make me look like a predator on this side, Right,
And I always am am the attacker, and this, that
and the third. I can never be a beautiful person
that just love flowers and want peace, and it's trying

(16:20):
to bring harmony in life. I got to be the
super predator. But if not that, then I'm the absentee father.
I'm the deadbeat dad, I'm the right Why do I
always have to be the bad picture? Why can't I
ever be taken for granted to be an upstanding gentleman.
Why can't I be taken as the husband and father
at face value? And then you look in and find

(16:42):
out that I might not be that? Why do I
have to be the bad guy?

Speaker 2 (16:45):
First?

Speaker 5 (16:46):
Who says you can't?

Speaker 2 (16:47):
Oh listen what I'm saying society, and that is I
can't walk that way, but they don't respond that way.

Speaker 3 (16:52):
I want to get into this because it sounds like, well,
first of all, you say you like flowers?

Speaker 4 (16:57):
What kind of flower? We're gonna see you? Some flowers?
Let me look at this, flowers like some flowers? Because oh,
is that right?

Speaker 3 (17:10):
Taking it a level deeper, you all are sharing similar experiences,
it sounds and you all don't really know each other.

Speaker 4 (17:16):
I mean, some of you don't.

Speaker 3 (17:18):
What role does racism play and how we've gotten to
this point where you all would share these same experiences,
the pain of what it means to be a black
man in America.

Speaker 8 (17:30):
Can I jump in real quick?

Speaker 4 (17:31):
Absolutely?

Speaker 7 (17:32):
I wouldn't even call it fully racism because racism is
a is a hateful connotation. The reason why we all
share the same thing is because we're all at phase value,
just black men. So it's more of a prejudice theory
and prejudice view on it. When we all for walking
down the street at separate times, they look at us
all the same. That's why we all feel the same thing.

(17:52):
We all get seen the same way. They don't know Toughie,
they don't know Blase, they don't know Kan, they don't
know Brandon. They just see black men walking down the street. Now,
none of us America. You can't see us, But none
of us are small guys. We're all decently sized. When
we walk down the street. If it's cold outside and
I have a hoodie on because it's fifty five degrees,

(18:12):
everybody's walking.

Speaker 8 (18:13):
On the other side. That's the problem. It's not the racism.

Speaker 7 (18:17):
Prejudice leads of racism, but they're judging us before they
can even know us to hate us.

Speaker 8 (18:22):
That's the issue.

Speaker 4 (18:23):
Who does anyone disagree with that?

Speaker 6 (18:25):
I don't know if I disagree, but I just think
that I'm really where I'm at. I think everything is internal,
and if we pay more attention to our internal instead
of the external, we can kind of see things differently.
You know, I am dominant as a black man. You
know what I'm saying. If you was in the zoo

(18:45):
and you were buy the bear's cage, You're gonna use
precaution because the beer is dominant, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (18:51):
So I embrace it. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 6 (18:54):
I embrace the dominance, and I love it, and I understand.
I look from that angle, can put those lenses on
and see the world. I see a totally different picture
than I'm being Puka.

Speaker 8 (19:09):
That's that's perspective. I like that. It's how you carry
yourself and listen, you can carry yourself as a gentleman
at all times and still get harassed by the police
or harassed by a Karen or whatever the case may be.
Systemic racism is real. The systems racism, and the systems

(19:29):
placement of us in the system is real. The scary
part is we were raised watching our uncles and our
fathers and men in our in our in our communities
go through it. The challenge has always been there. That's
the sad part. The hope is that there are changes,
just as as Keon led to. And I love that

(19:51):
that perspective of his son was born with the only
president was black, and that's my daughter's the same thing.
She was born four years earlier. So I told that
perspective and I never thought about it, although I do
have pictures of her as a baby with all kinds
of Obama stuff because I was a beautiful feeling and
I think we're going to have that feeling again in November.
But regardless of the fact, I think that the world

(20:14):
just needs to stop being angry and stop being hurt. Yes,
racism happens, slavery continues to happen. Slavery continues to happen,
and the first part of slavery is in the mind
of the beholder. And if we could learn to just
love more and hate less, maybe we can get along.
And maybe that's really simple, but I'm still hopeful.

Speaker 9 (20:36):
So another of my roles is as education coordinator for
the Institute of Transformative Mentoring at the New School, I
teach restorative practices in trauma informed care to formally incarcerated
citizens who work as credible messengers throughout different communities in
the city. Right, So, dealing with individuals who are coming

(20:58):
home and trying to heal from the trauma of incarceration,
the trauma of life that may have caused them to
be incarcerated to begin with, is a significant part of
my occupation. So if you look at statistics where mass
incarceration is concerned, you will see a color difference. If

(21:20):
you look where you know housing and representation is concerned,
you will see where it is that there are significant differences.
So I'm with Blase bro I'm with you one thousand percent.
I overstand where it is that you're coming from. And
I walk like that, right, And I tell my son
all the time, listen, if it's a bear, then it
looked like a bear. And I don't got to tell

(21:41):
you not the poke it straight out right, that's what
it is.

Speaker 5 (21:45):
Right.

Speaker 9 (21:45):
But I'm saying, but at the same time, there is
a system like redlining that is literally stacked up against
people that look like me. Where it is that you
go into the bank and try and get a loan
in order to make your next move, in order to
open up your business, order to move into your house,
in order to get your family going.

Speaker 2 (22:03):
And somebody is like, yeah, not not your folks.

Speaker 9 (22:06):
And then you look around your neighborhood and go, hey,
all of the stores is owned by somebody who does
not look like me.

Speaker 2 (22:11):
See we not even trying it.

Speaker 9 (22:13):
No, somebody at the bank is preventing you from opening
businesses in your neighborhood. And that's bigger than you. It's
bigger than you not trying. It's bigger than how it
is that you see yourself. That's a real thing.

Speaker 6 (22:23):
I'm saying. It's not a wall. It's not a wall.
So that's what I'm.

Speaker 3 (22:26):
Saying, is is racism in your mind or in your opinion?
Is it in your mind or is this something that No.

Speaker 5 (22:33):
It's a real thing.

Speaker 6 (22:34):
You know, there's a system that active, that's actively working
against us. But what I'm saying is that's just one
aspect of the game. At one time, New York was
all black businesses. You know, I come from that era.
You know, I come from a family that owned the business.
I've seen the taxi cab that you jump in was
black owned black pearl. It was owned all the business.

(22:55):
Everything you've seen was black in New York City. So
you know, things happen. The game changes. We just changed
with the game change and move around with the game.
Be flexible, don't be solid hard, not flexible, because then
the game change and you get left behind. So I
think that it's more that is the problem than racism.
Because even when the Jim Crow era and after slavery,

(23:18):
black couples was together and families was together after something
that's biggest Jim Crow and slavery, we was a family.

Speaker 5 (23:26):
Now we're not a family. We're getting left behind.

Speaker 7 (23:28):
So I agree with you. I understand what you're saying.
Like my man can't say I overstand. But you talk
about black prominence in New York. I'm gonna stick with
New York because I know it. So like, for instance,
you have your Seneca Villagers, you have your Adamsley Parks,
you have your Brownsville, you have all these places that were.

Speaker 8 (23:47):
Black owned, black prominence.

Speaker 7 (23:48):
I remember South Jamaica was my grandfather and my grandparents
grew up in South Jamaica and they built it up
when it was black people and it was they were
loving it. Now you go to South Jamaica and all
people know about off Jamaica is the crack apandemic because
it was systematically done to us, not by us.

Speaker 5 (24:06):
Right, No, I agree with that.

Speaker 6 (24:08):
And like I was saying, is I have I have
a business in Browns Veil and it was auto parts
business and car dealership. And I seen the community leave
because I was employing people that was in the business,
my friends, people of the community. So I seen those
people that was working in the business. Their homes left first,

(24:29):
there's homes left. So as gentrification came in, it was
I had nobody to support the business. And black business
need black home people, I mean residents to the suburbs. Yeah,
to support the business. You know, that's the exchange. Black
businesses need black people.

Speaker 7 (24:47):
But so I agree with you. I was about to
ask me mo I was gonna say. It brought a
lyric to my mom. It's so good now we out
the hood now, right, So actually we should just be building.

Speaker 8 (24:58):
Up the hood, right.

Speaker 5 (24:59):
I know, I I know what it is. I know
what you're saying.

Speaker 6 (25:01):
But it was about me to changing the business as
the community change me changing the business and moving and
being flexible. That's gonna give more life. That's everybody. That's
not just a black thing. Every community has the new era,
the new technology that's coming in. They have to be
flexible and move around. You know what I'm saying. It's
not just something isolated to black people.

Speaker 4 (25:23):
Give it everything. We're saying.

Speaker 3 (25:25):
Does democracy and your opinion still exist?

Speaker 8 (25:29):
You are full of loads of guss I love it.

Speaker 4 (25:33):
This is my favorite part of today. I said, wait,
we're gonna have who in the room? Let me come
with it?

Speaker 8 (25:38):
And I love you for that. So now I think
democracy still exists. But I think that democratic thinking is
part of the problem. I think our community is jaded
and angry, and we don't see enough love and support
not only from our own community for us, but from
the outside world. We keep getting these little contributions and

(26:00):
people get That's why the stimmy is such a conversation,
because any opportunity to get some support from someone that
doesn't look like you, you thrive on that. You want
more of that, and it's ugly when people coming into
our neighborhood and throw money. People get excited. I think
back to when I was shooting and get rich of
I trying and fifty cent through money out the car

(26:22):
and them kids were losing their minds. But he wasn't
throwing hundreds. He was throwing dollar bills and five dollar
bills and people got hurt. Try that's not brilliant. You
want to help the community, help the community, don't help
five people buy your car. Real talk. We need to
really do bigger things. And I love what Blase said
about black businesses need black support. They really do. And

(26:46):
it's not just black support, it's support in general. My
sister has an organization somewhat like Keihan does called Healing
Vine Harbor, helping women who have been lost in the
system thirteen years in Charlotte. I love her. I do
everything I can for I'm doing. I'm in charge of
social media right now, trying to help get more support.
Everything requires work, it requires and I don't want to

(27:09):
use the word reparations, but it requires some kind of
assistance from the world, and we can't just keep begging
the same ten people who follow us or ten thousand
people who follow us.

Speaker 2 (27:21):
So I was going to turn a couple of things.

Speaker 9 (27:24):
First, I would have to say that democracy still works
because people are working too hard to steal people's votes
for it not to be significant, right, the level of
work that people are going into.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
Think about this, that.

Speaker 9 (27:38):
People who have felonies are now disenfranchised and a lot
of them don't have the right to vote. Why did
somebody go through both the system to mass incarcerate one
group of people and then disenfranchise them to vote. I'm
just saying, come on, right, So one of the things
that's most dangerous in the system is your belief that

(27:58):
you can beat it by yourself.

Speaker 5 (28:01):
Right.

Speaker 9 (28:01):
So, if it's a system, right, and we're talking about
the education system, and we're talking about the food right,
food justice in certain neighborhoods, that the produce in certain
neighborhoods is better than it is in other neighborhoods.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
So now those.

Speaker 9 (28:18):
Individuals are going to school with less nutrition, a malnutrition
child that ate this morning because the nutrition wasn't of
good value. We're not even taking those things into consideration.
And then we're going back to check test scores. We
layer these things on top of each other. If it's
a system, how are you gonna beat it by yourself?
So what I'm saying is we, like Blase said, we
got to have our own internal system as a community, right,

(28:41):
And where it is that we are relying on each
other as a system, where it is that we all
going to go shop at Blase because we know that
that dollar is going to recirculate back into the community.
And by the same token, when Blase get ready to
buy whatever I'm selling, He's going to come and pick
that up for me. We create what is an internal
system because their system is in place. Yeah, right, And

(29:03):
I'm saying whether you and so democracy, Yeah, we don't
know enough about civics for democracy to really exist in
our community.

Speaker 6 (29:09):
See that's why it's so hard too, because like I said,
we got to be flexible. Like I was going into
the neighborhoods in Brooklyn telling like a fish owner, I
was selling fish, Yo, you got to get on the internet.
You got to use the internet as a way to
build your network.

Speaker 5 (29:25):
And it was like, that's kids stuff. I'm not doing that.

Speaker 6 (29:28):
And he would not be he would not flex and
he would not change his business based on the Internet.
And they suffered so a lot of times. And what
I'm saying, we get caught up and get late, and
we don't evolve to the new thing, you know what
I mean. And that's really important to like you know, evolve.
We have to evolve and keep businesses evolving.

Speaker 3 (29:50):
Speaking of the internet, yesterday, I was involved in a
conversation with another black man and I was asking him about,
you know, is he going to vote?

Speaker 4 (30:00):
And you know, we had we're very close.

Speaker 3 (30:02):
We were able to talk actually about who we were,
who he's going to vote for.

Speaker 4 (30:07):
We won't talk about it.

Speaker 3 (30:09):
We won't talk about who you're going to vote for here,
but we did get into it. And I said, well,
where are you getting your information from? And he said,
I get all my information from YouTube? Where do you
all get your information from in order to make informed
decisions like for example, who?

Speaker 4 (30:27):
Well, first off, are you all good? Are you all voters?

Speaker 5 (30:29):
Yes?

Speaker 4 (30:30):
Yes, that's okay.

Speaker 9 (30:30):
Good.

Speaker 4 (30:31):
So that's what we'll start the air.

Speaker 3 (30:33):
So we're excited to Tuppy with us, Blase Brandon with
us and Keion and we're having a very important conversation
about black men in America and the state of voting.

Speaker 4 (30:44):
Now back to you, Blase, tell.

Speaker 5 (30:46):
Us, I don't think nothing's wrong with the Internet, don't.

Speaker 4 (30:48):
But are you getting your information from?

Speaker 6 (30:50):
It's a combination? Is your source? This is going to
be on the internet. You know what I'm saying that
does just because it's on the Internet. That don't discribe
dit it, you know what I'm saying. So you have
good stuff that's on the Internet from good sources, from
people that's quality, and then you have bad sources. I
don't think the Internet per se is the problem because

(31:12):
that's just the platform.

Speaker 8 (31:13):
It's how you use it.

Speaker 5 (31:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (31:15):
So the thing about it is now is you're going
to Internet no matter what your view is. You're just
trying to get clicks. You're just trying to get liked,
you just trying to get bought. You're trying to get
some money in your pocket, whether that's sponsored somebody sponsoring
you to put some information out or whether that's just
by clickbait and having you to pay you. So you
just say whatever, And it's a dangerous aspect, I believe me.

Speaker 8 (31:36):
And tell people out there.

Speaker 7 (31:37):
Talking about leaders, no doubt, you can be a great
leader and have bad ideals. People can be a great
entertainer and just promoting bad stuff because they just feel
like this is what's going to get them money. So
people on the Internet just producing content just to get

(31:58):
content out there and to get money. Meanwhile, there's some
person watching that content that's taking it for the gospel,
and meanwhile, you're not spitting gospel and you're actually spewing
illegitimate facts. So now somebody is taking your word for
the gospel and moving with it.

Speaker 8 (32:18):
And that's the problem with the Internet.

Speaker 4 (32:20):
Nothing.

Speaker 7 (32:21):
Most things in this world are not bad. Pit bulls
are not bad dogs. But if you train them the bite,
he's gonna bite. If you use them wrong, he's gonna
treat people wrong. The Internet, if you use it wrong,
it'll be taken wrong. And that's the problem with the
Internet because everybody has a platform to just produce whatever

(32:42):
they want, and some people can't tell the difference between
night and day.

Speaker 9 (32:52):
Right now, you cannot think the problem away, right If
you want something to happen, you actually have to do something.
So that means figure out when your city council meeting is,
When is the district council meeting for you? Are you
connected to the school board in your district? Do you
even know what district you live in? I'm saying these

(33:13):
are important questions to ask. And so at the point
in time that you're actually outside doing the work with
the public in these spaces, you know which politicians are
full of stuff, and which ones are actually stepping up
to the plate. You know, who actually shows up in
places and who just gives you the lip service. Where
it is that somebody is going to tell you one
thing and then when it is that you ask them

(33:35):
to follow up, they're not going.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
To do that.

Speaker 9 (33:37):
That's part of how it is that you make the determination.
You make the determination for because I'm not going to
get it from a commercial right. Everybody is going to
show me the worst of their opponent and the best
of themselves. I'm not going to necessarily get it from
the internet because, like you said, there are so many
voices and there is no vetting.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
For the voices that we have.

Speaker 9 (33:56):
Just the fact that you have this many followers now right,
And I'm saying, but if.

Speaker 8 (34:02):
You're educated enough to vet, then how can you vet?

Speaker 7 (34:04):
Right?

Speaker 4 (34:05):
You're saying you're the vetting.

Speaker 3 (34:06):
And I wanted to turn the conversation to you and toughly,
because some people say that a lot of our youth
are getting a lot of their direction from people in
the industry, and what I'm also hearing is that people
feel like the industry is very much under attack, specifically
black men.

Speaker 4 (34:24):
What do you say to that?

Speaker 3 (34:26):
How is the industry able to reposition itself in order
to support youth and make anyse decisions.

Speaker 5 (34:33):
I mean, everything is frequency, Everything is where you at.
You know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (34:37):
What I meant by you're the vetting is you're going
to attract what you are. That's you can't get past that.
That's the law of the universe. If you're in that
frequency and you're in that vibe, that's what you want
to track. You're going to go to things that agree
with you. And that's what it is. We are our vetting.
We have to do the work of getting to the people,

(34:57):
getting to the kids. We did this Cops Versus Kids
thing in the community, which was educating the kids, putting
something in their mind that they can have to go
Compare it to when they go on the internet, so
they can see police in a different kind of way.

Speaker 5 (35:10):
That's what the work is.

Speaker 6 (35:12):
It's not stopping the kids from seeing things on internet,
but it's really giving them something instructional, really give them
that experience and then they can vibrate different and attract it.

Speaker 8 (35:23):
I love that. I think that we have a lot
of work presently and ahead of us. I think young
people they're waiting on something and if it doesn't appease
them immediately, they're walking away. I went to two events
over the weekend, Friday and Saturday, and senators were out there,
counselmen were out there, and the only thing the kids
want is a bag of chips and a soda or

(35:45):
a bottle of water. They were they thought it was
Thanksgiving or Halloween. They wanted candy and their bucket. The
adults are not paying attention or even asking the right
questions of these senators, of these councilmen. They just want
what's available at the table free. And it scares me
that the conversation is not being had at home in

(36:06):
order for the children, whatever age they are, to want
to know more, to want to know who their city
councilman is, to want to know who their district leader is.
You know, there are not enough of us for and
you and the people in this room fighting the good
fight to be seen by the internet and by the
kids and by the young people who will lead us

(36:27):
one day. You know what we saw in twenty twenty
the protest was beautiful, the fighting of a certain demographic.
But then one of the things I also learned was,
and this is I still find it's hard to even
talk about. There was a disturbance going on around the country.
There were fireworks being sent all the warehouses they were

(36:48):
cleaning out of fireworks that they collected for decades where
they were imprisoning all the immigrants that Trump and so
forth made available. Those fireworks were being sent to black
and brown areas and being blown up at all times
of the night. So we couldn't sleep while we were
in our homes because we were stuck because of the pandemic.

(37:10):
I mean, if you really think about twenty twenty, there
were fireworks all year round. We were our peace of
mind was being disturbed, so we weren't sleeping properly, we
weren't eating properly. All we were hearing with these fireworks,
and then at eight o'clock at night, we were hearing
bang into the pots. It was just a really weird
time in our mental capacity. I love a lot of

(37:34):
the camaraderie that was built, but I hate to think.
You know, my friends who were cops retired because they
could not feasibly be a part of what the government
was doing intentionally to cause problems in our neighborhoods. So
we got a constantly, and then of course twenty twenty
out the children who were born in twenty twenty a
whole different branded child. There's a lot of there's a

(37:56):
lot of work to be done in our communities for
these young people. I saw a three year old drinking
a mountain dew. That broke my heart. I wanted to
grab his mother and his father or whoever was with
him and ring their neck. What are you doing with
a mountain doing You're three years old. You're killing yourself.
And don't tell me, well he drinks red bull? What
what is going on in the world? These kids are broken,
not a red bull. The question is you're saying they're

(38:19):
broken and he's drinking a mountain dew. Maybe that's all
he had. That's still not a good thing. It's not
a good thing.

Speaker 7 (38:24):
But if if that's all you have as a resort resource,
then I think that's the problem.

Speaker 8 (38:29):
Like I agree with you.

Speaker 7 (38:31):
I think the issue, like you said, with the senators
and the kids are just coming out there for chips.

Speaker 8 (38:35):
That's because some of those kids, I.

Speaker 5 (38:37):
Say, that's the thing.

Speaker 6 (38:38):
I'm saying, that's the mindset that could never be all
you have because you have water, Why aren't you getting water?

Speaker 5 (38:46):
Water is in abundance.

Speaker 8 (38:48):
Would you say the same thing to the kids in Flint, Michigan.

Speaker 6 (38:51):
Yeah, definitely. I mean that's a unique situation. I mean,
which is different. I wouldn't saying.

Speaker 7 (38:59):
Because it so right now. Part of the infrastructure bill
that they pushed out is replacing all the lead pipes
in all these cities, which traditionally, which I've found out
as I do the research on it, are traditionally black
and brown neighborhoods. So while some neighborhoods have gotten their
pipes changed out, the black and brown neighborhoods that still

(39:19):
have lead pipes are being replaced now, not back in
when they had lead poisoning back then. So now you
have things like Flint, Michigan because of this fact. Now
that's a standout, but that's across America.

Speaker 6 (39:33):
Yeah, But like I said, I just don't believe that.
I think that can be and this can be a
problem with the Internet, the fear mongering and people being
brought to fear. Whereas now I'm gonna feel my glass
of water because of the story of Flint, Michigan.

Speaker 9 (39:50):
In the work that I do with young people and
the work that I do with old people, right, real recognized, real,
and the authentic stands up right. Young people can tell
you fake it and they're not listening to you, dog right.
So what I do is help to train what are
known as credible messenger mentors. There are individuals who are
formally incarcerated, people who are now going back into the

(40:11):
neighborhoods that they come from in order to mentor young
people who are court involved so that they don't make
the same mistakes that we have made in our history.

Speaker 5 (40:20):
Right.

Speaker 9 (40:20):
It's almost the concept of somebody doing what somebody does
that scared straight and love and in a restorative practice
as a big brother to young brothers in the community,
especially ones that may be on the way in a
difficult direction. They don't got time to listen to you,
dog right. Like if I'm outside getting money, I'm outside

(40:42):
getting money. If you don't have something to say that
is substantive, if you are not saying something that I
really think is going to be life changing, this conversation
is over, bro.

Speaker 2 (40:51):
I got things to do.

Speaker 9 (40:52):
So I'm saying, like, there's a level of authenticity that
I have to have just in order to keep my job,
just in order for me to be able to continue
to go to work the following day. I gotta be
real with y'all in a certain sort of fashion, and
I think that that's just what our young people want
and need. They gravitate to it. They respond, well, I
get more and more young people. My program is for

(41:13):
court involved young people. I've had young people ask me
if they should go commit a crime so that they
could be in my program. Okay, listen everything that you're doing.
But I don't got nothing on my record, So listen,
if I do something small, then they probably gonna throw
that out. But that'll make me eligible for your program,
right yo, Bro, We're not doing that.

Speaker 6 (41:34):
We get that program out to people that's not committing crime,
to kids that's not coming crime.

Speaker 9 (41:40):
Bro.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
I'm working on it right now.

Speaker 3 (41:44):
On the topic of getting real, I just watched a
video of President or former President Obama going to Pennsylvania
and he specifically went to talk to black boys about
the importance of voting. Blamed that there are people out
there that are saying black men and boys will not vote.

Speaker 7 (42:07):
Why is that because they feel like they don't have
a voice, that it means nothing to them?

Speaker 4 (42:12):
Is it true to you? Based on your experience.

Speaker 6 (42:14):
I think this is an era that we have right
now that's unlike any other era. You go anywhere in Brooklyn,
any corner you go to, somebody could be, you know,
a weed dealer, you can get into a political conversation
with him. I think the youth is engaged. I think
everybody's engaged. I think all aspects of life, everybody's engaged
to this political process at this time.

Speaker 8 (42:34):
I'm gonna just speak from personal experience. I have. My
oldest son is twenty up.

Speaker 7 (42:39):
Until a conversation, and thankfully I had this conversation with him.

Speaker 8 (42:42):
He wasn't gonna vote.

Speaker 7 (42:44):
He was like, for what he did, looked me right
in my face and said for what I said, What
do you mean?

Speaker 8 (42:49):
For what I said? I don't care who you vote for.

Speaker 7 (42:52):
Obviously I do, but I'm just trying to make it
to him, like, why wouldn't you vote? He was like,
it doesn't affect me, how is it going to change
my life? And I said, and so we sat down
and had a real talk. Now, thankfully, and this is
my mind. This is my stepson. He's not my biological
But imagine if I didn't have that conversation with him,

(43:14):
imagine how many young boys are out there that are
not having that conversation because their fathers or parents or
community people are not talking to them, so they're not
having But in.

Speaker 6 (43:25):
No disrespect, I'm saying, if you walk your son to
the voting booth and he's seen that before he came
a teenager, that's not going to be a question. He's
gonna usually follow.

Speaker 8 (43:36):
I've actually taken him.

Speaker 7 (43:37):
So I lived in Nasau County and I voted all
the time, and I would take my kids with me
to vote because one I didn't want to leave them home.
You know, now you gotta come. We're going to go
do something afterwards. But also see what I'm doing. So
just because they having a conversation doesn't mean they're involved
and engaged and that everybody vote?

Speaker 5 (44:01):
Is it really like? Isn't that the person in everybody?

Speaker 6 (44:04):
Yes, the people that let me say that in the
know or that kind of like in that consciousness of
like knowing what they want. If you don't know what
you want, right, why is you even voting?

Speaker 4 (44:19):
This is an interesting place.

Speaker 8 (44:23):
That's a heavy heavy I'm not and I think the
difficult part of convincing everyone to vote is you're right.
Some people just don't know any better. They they see, Uh,
let's let's talk about the candidates. They see the male
candidate as someone who's helped them along the way somehow,
some way, I don't know how they see that, but

(44:44):
they But they're also entertained by his silliness. So they're like,
I think I can do four more years of that silliness.
And that's said, and and they might have a problem.
Let's say, for instance, they have a problem with their
mother or the women in their life. So when they
look at the female representative, they're like, yeah, she looks
just like my aunt. My aunt hated me as a child.

(45:07):
So do we want her to cast to vote him
to cast his vote. Yes, we still do, and we
know more than likely where that voter is going to go.
But I think everyone, I think children should be voting
in their schools to make them feel like they're a
part of it. I think it's so important to teach
the it's not civic because they don't have that anymore,

(45:28):
Like they don't have typing anymore. There are certain things
they just don't have because world has changed.

Speaker 6 (45:32):
I think it's got to be transactional, so it's like,
if I'm going to the store and I don't know
what I want to get at the store, I don't
need to be in this store. Okay, I can't make
a transaction, So I need to have people that can
know what the transaction is because we got to get something.
It's like, it's got to be in a change going on.

Speaker 9 (45:50):
There is the point and where it is that I
think the disconnectors come in with men of color. Right,
we live in a capitalist country. Everybody wants to know
what do I get out of it? And if you
cannot explain to me what it is that I get
out of it, then I don't have the time for it.
And that's anybody on anything.

Speaker 5 (46:10):
Right.

Speaker 9 (46:10):
We're not talking about just black men and voting. We're
talking about a sister that don't want to be bothered
with you hollering at her, bru if you don't say
something that is interesting, I have other things to do.
So I'm saying right now, men of color are going,
I'm not really understanding what I get out of voting
for this candidate or that candidate. Explain to me my

(46:32):
motivation in the midst of the situation. So even with
the young people that I'm serving I'm taking thirty young
people of lunch in order to take them to vote, right,
Like they need a motivation, right, And so even if
it's just a free lunch, right, I don't care.

Speaker 2 (46:46):
Like like Shell said, I don't care who you vote for.
I'm just we're all going together and then after that
we're gonna go sit down.

Speaker 8 (46:53):
Right.

Speaker 2 (46:54):
I'm just saying, like being part of the process.

Speaker 5 (46:56):
Right.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
But I agree with Blase.

Speaker 9 (46:58):
If I don't feel like this is anything that's gonna
benefit me, if I don't know what I want and
what I expect to get out of it, then you
can't motivate me to get up and do it.

Speaker 6 (47:07):
I know, when you have kids, you gotta do that.
You know what I'm saying, Like I pick up my
son's college, you know what I'm saying, I have to
act like I'm really not making him pick a college.
I have to act like I'm not really care. You know,
do what you want to influence him another way, because
if you know I'm on top of him. The opposite question.

Speaker 3 (47:28):
I got to ask this question before we rep because
I have you all here, and by the way, I
think a part two is coming here, maybe even a
part three, if you all would be be so gracious
to give us that. But uh tuughy you touched on this,
and Blase you did as well. The concept of a
black woman being in a leadership role, what does that

(47:50):
mean to you? And the reason why I bring that
up is there have been conversation about the idea that
a black woman is not ready to actually step into
a leadership role such as being a president of the
United States, And quite frankly, the list goes on, where
do you stand on this question?

Speaker 8 (48:10):
Black women have run this world since the beginning of time.
My mother is a beautiful black woman from Reedsville, Georgia,
and at eighty two years old, she will rumble with
the best of us. My only problem with her she's
a Mets fan. But other than that, she's a great woman.

(48:36):
Black women have held us down, not held us back.

Speaker 6 (48:41):
Yeah, I think it's not a one trick pony. I
think that you know, like I told you, come from
a household for the woman, and my moms and sisters
ran the household and my father ran outside of the house.
So I think you have that kind of element too.
It takes a certain kind of woman to run out
side of the house, not any kind of woman. It's

(49:02):
like you, you might can't even work for another woman
unless she's a certain kind of woman. Just any other
woman can't tell you what to do, because it's just
the nature of the situation, you know what I'm saying.
Not that they can't do it, but it takes a
certain type of woman to run outside of the house.
And right now, when we have the military industrial complex
and all these wars and all these things going on,

(49:25):
we have to really seriously think of what kind of
person we put in the leadership.

Speaker 7 (49:30):
I respect that, but I also don't agree because and
here's why, black women are seen as aggressive, nasty, and
whatever kind of negative connotation they want to put place
on them, and it's all wrong. I was raised by
black women. I didn't have my father. I was raised

(49:52):
by black women and black men that didn't have their fathers.

Speaker 5 (49:54):
Would you have your baby mom's running.

Speaker 8 (49:56):
Not mine?

Speaker 7 (49:57):
You know what I'm saying, I would not have my
baby mom about have my girlfriend running?

Speaker 6 (50:01):
Okay, that's what we're talking about.

Speaker 7 (50:12):
And where you say and when you say when you
go to war and things of that nature with having
a black woman lead it, I'm gonna be honest with you.
I'm in the military, and not everybody feels the same
way I do. But I wholeheartedly believe I would rather
go to war for her than be a pit bull

(50:33):
for him, because at the end of the day, all
he wanted to do with the military was, oh I
have a disagreement, I'm gonna send my military. I'm not
your guard dog, I'm not your pit bull. I'm not
your mercenary.

Speaker 5 (50:45):
Even though there was no war declared, there.

Speaker 7 (50:48):
Was no war declared, but there was no war ended either.
We were already at We're already at war. We've been at.

Speaker 6 (50:53):
War, right, but I mean, like here now we have
wars starting like they're starting.

Speaker 7 (50:58):
That war has been so and to give you context,
that war has been going on for some time. You're
talking about with Russia.

Speaker 5 (51:05):
Now I'm not talking about disagreements.

Speaker 6 (51:06):
I'm talking about you have military Oh yeah, action that's
been taken during this administration. I couldn't be avoid like
you can argue and debate. Nobody was as leadership. But
when y'all at war, now y'all fighting, people are losing lives.

Speaker 8 (51:20):
You know what, you know what stopped there before?

Speaker 5 (51:23):
No?

Speaker 6 (51:23):
Right, But I'm saying We're gonna have interpretations. But I'm saying,
when you have that amount of space and time that
there was no war being declared, I think some credit
needs to be given because that's that's pretty different.

Speaker 8 (51:34):
There's no wars or declared during Obama's administration either.

Speaker 9 (51:37):
In terms of black female leader, first and foremost, black
women are the most resilient and innovative human beings on earth.
I don't know brothers that have grown up in the
single black mom household, no that she figures that thing out, Doug.

(51:58):
And I'm saying, like a bunch of different ones in
a bunch of different neighborhoods, whether you grew up in
Detroit or Oakland or Brooklyn, you got a black mama
somewhere helping you figure it out. It wasn't enough ends
to go around, and everything still came together. And so
I'm saying, in terms of leadership, sometimes your leadership needs
to have some compassion and not just passion, and so

(52:27):
a balance that I think that sometimes a system will
bring and and will not Oh that's me, sorry.

Speaker 4 (52:36):
But you got you got.

Speaker 1 (52:40):
No.

Speaker 9 (52:40):
I'm saying that the sisters will actually take the time
to think some things through and not always go with
what is the most immediate reaction, and sometimes I think
in business that that is prudent.

Speaker 3 (52:53):
Right, all right, we we gotta wrap, but I have
to wrap on this last question. I only need one word, uh,
Dear America, black men need toughy go.

Speaker 8 (53:02):
One word hope, strength, respect, love.

Speaker 3 (53:07):
Oh. This has been an incredible episode of Dear America
with Chanell Barnes.

Speaker 4 (53:14):
Don't worry, America.

Speaker 3 (53:15):
We're gonna have all of these guys back in short
order so that we can continue this conversation.

Speaker 4 (53:20):
Bye.

Speaker 2 (53:23):
This has been a Project Ready production.

Speaker 1 (53:26):
To learn more and effect change, log onto Project readyenjay
dot org or listen anytime on all major podcast carriers.