08. The Family Pattern Behind Your Struggles | J. Phillip Tavernier

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J. Phillip Tavernier is a seasoned communicator with over 25 years of experience in media and community organizing, education, business development, and politics. Holding a BA in Philosophy from the University of Florida, Tavernier has demonstrated expertise in public relations through his work in municipal operations, grassroots community organizing, and multimedia presentations. His accomplishments include designing campaigns for artists, scholars, and business leaders, and serving as the Public Affairs Manager for the City of North Miami Beach. Currently, Tavernier is driven by his role as the Wellness Activities Coordinator for the Circle of Brotherhood. Notably, he is a founding father of The Fatherhood Taskforce of South Florida, which advocated to establish Fathers in Education Day, now in its 10th year. Fluent in French, Creole, and conversational Spanish, Tavernier has been married for 24 years and is the proud father of 6 children.

Find more from J. Phillip:
Circle of Brotherhood: https://www.circleofbrotherhoodmiami.org/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcGh1aV3nqg
Circle of Brotherhood Hunger: https://www.circleofbrotherhoodmiami.org/hunger9

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Zulu One Podcast.
Today, I'm honored to introducemy good friend, Philip Tavenier
, Communication Community Leaderand Wellness Activities
Coordinator for the Circle ofBrotherhood.
From his Haitian roots tofounding the Fatherhood Task
Force of South Florida, Phil'slife is a powerful story of
connection, healing and service.
Let's dive into his journey andthe impact he's making.

(00:21):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
What's going on, brother?
I'm good.
Jonah, how are you feelingtoday?

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Good man, it's really great to hear from you, man,
and great, great to connect withyou again, and I know we've
been talking about getting youon the podcast for a little
while, so I'm just uh, I'mreally happy we were able to get
this, get this to happen.
So thank you for coming, man.
Yeah, man, I'm looking forwardto the conversation.
Yeah, yeah.
So you know Phil, tell me, youknow I.
I obviously know who you are.
We've been, we've been workingclosely together for for a

(01:08):
little while now.
But for the audience on thepodcast, can you tell me a
little bit about who you are andhow you came to this incredible
organization for the Circle ofBrotherhood?

Speaker 2 (01:14):
So my name is.
I was born Jose PhilipTavernier to parents that were
immigrants here to the UnitedStates from the tiny island
nation of Haiti and originallyborn in New York City and then
moved to Miami when I was reallyyoung like so young that you

(01:42):
know pretty much to the core andgrowing up here in Miami in
what's known what was at thattime known as Carroll City Now

(02:03):
it's known as Miami Gardens andwent away to school for a few
years, went to University ofFlorida, got a degree in
philosophy from there and cameback to Miami in 1999 after
leaving in 89, and started.
You know, of course we all havea journey that precedes our
birth, even some would argueright, and we'll probably get
into some of that later on.
And we'll probably get intosome of that later on.

(02:26):
But by the time I reached hereto Miami, came back, I had my
first child.
My wife and I got married in2000.
We're coming up on our 25thanniversary this year.
I have six children.
I've spent a great deal of mylife in search of truth and I'm

(02:54):
a Muslim.
I'm a student of the HonorableLouis Farrakhan, and I mention
that because he had a great rolein playing in my life.
I grew up in a household with afather who was considered like
a compa Haitian music legend,josé Tavernier that's my birth

(03:17):
name, josé Tavernier and my mom,who was a soldier herself but
who lost her father when she was14 to political unrest in Haiti
.
And so I grew up around a veryintimate relationship with

(03:39):
culture and music and artthrough my father and then a
great sense of justice with mymom, with her going through what
she went through and thenalways being reminded of that.
So I got connected with theCircle of Brotherhood really in
its inception.

(04:00):
Brother Lyle and I were friends.
We both attended the localmosque here and I met him when,

(04:24):
when they started the Circle ofBrotherhood, which started out
as really an organization ofblack men that were doing
exercise in what is consideredthe pork and bean projects here
in Miami, which is like anotorious projects here in Miami

(04:47):
, that was featured our first 48quite a bit, and and so it
started out like that.
You know our relationship, youknow through the mosque and
through our community activism,and then the circle of
brotherhood just kind of grewfrom that movement and momentum

(05:12):
and then it's like a child isconceived right Sperm and egg
and then you got a head that'sformed, and then the rest of the
body just starts to grow fromthere, and then the rest of the
body just starts to grow fromthere.
So the brotherhood I first gotintroduced in its infancy stages
, like probably even embryonicstages, right, and then from

(05:34):
there just continued to beengaged with the membership
until ultimately, fast forwardto January 2024, well, or go
back a little bit in 2019, wehad an exhibition, or rather an

(06:00):
expression of love for ourcommunity and sacrifice in what
was known what we call theHunger Nine and what the world
knows as the Hunger Nine, whichwas a group of nine of the
members of the Circle ofBrotherhood.
By the way, our motto is blackmen solving their own community
problems, and also another mottois one brother, one hood.

(06:23):
So when I speak of the circleof brotherhood and the things
that I do in the name of thecircle of brother, violence, the
gun violence in our communitythat had just become accepted as

(06:50):
normal, and so that was in 2019.
The Circle of Brotherhood hadalready been forming as an
organization at that point, butme being one of the Hunger Nine
along with eight other brothers,it really raised the awareness

(07:15):
of the Circle of Brotherhood'slove and commitment for the
community.
That led to another resurgenceand growth in the Circle of
Brotherhood for me, whichhappened in January 2024 when I
became a wellness coach for theCircle of Brotherhood, when our

(07:40):
staff just increased that muchmore.
So Circle of Brotherhood has amembership side and we have a
staff administrativeorganizational side and I serve
as one of the wellness activitycoordinators in the wellness
department and so in a nutshell,that's kind of my relationship

(08:01):
with the Circle of Brotherhoodhow it came about.
From the very beginning I knewbrother Lyle, who is our
executive director, prior to theforming of the circle of
brotherhood, and I knew our Lord, our lead organizer, brother
Leroy Jones, from his communitywork and activism.
And you know when Miami'sMiami's not that big, but

(08:23):
there's a lot going on here.
And when you're involved incertain circles here, you know
when Miami's Miami's not thatbig but there's a lot going on
here.
And when you're involved incertain circles here, you know
you run into people.
So I knew our lead organizerprior to the Circle of
Brotherhood and it's and it's,it's, it's, it's growth.
And when you know people likethat and you meet along the ways

(08:44):
and then you come togetherright here, it really confirms
that there's something greaterthan us at play, bringing us
together, that there's a force.
You know, in the Holy Quran,the Muslim book of scripture, it
says call on Allah or call onthe beneficent, by whatever name
you call them, those are thebest of names.

(09:04):
So, whatever name you call Godby, whatever you recognize the
divine force by.
You know, this is what we know,is really, you know, pulling
this thing together.
And then, of course, here comesthis guy named John Acosta,
with Zulu One right Startscoming to these meetings, and

(09:25):
then, through the mission of thewellness department, right Now,
john, who came to thebrotherhood meetings.
There was no wellnessdepartment, so now the wellness
department comes about.
So, oh, so now we can connectthe membership, the
administrative side along withthis, this idea that John and

(09:46):
Zulu one has about bringingconstellations into the work
that we're doing, we got awellness department and actually
to facilitate that.
So here we are.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
Yeah, man, I'm just.
You know, I've been just in aweof the of.
You know the blessings thatcome come to cob right, and you
know you wouldn't you wouldn'tif you weren't in the circle and
you weren't there witnessingwhat was happening.
It's like it would be almost.
You know you couldn't write astory about this, right.
It's like if you started sayingto people like this is what

(10:19):
happens and everything that youneed is in the circle and you
know, for for the listeners thatdon't know, there's every
Tuesday night a group of mencome together right, and now a
group of women right in anotherroom a group of women come
together.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
It's a wellness circle now.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
Right, and sometimes there's speakers, sometimes
there's ice-breaking activitiesor collaboration activities, and
sometimes you have an eventright that comes apart.
But you know, as sometimes youhave an event right, that that
comes apart.
But you know, as, as I know yousay this, I know brother Lyle
says this, I know uh pop says isthat everything that you need

(10:55):
is in that circle, right, andand I've seen it live right as
somebody says I want to learnmortuary affairs, and then he's
like, well, we got somebodyexactly.
I'm going to put you in contactwith somebody.
The kid's doing, you know, akid's doing an internship.
You know two weeks later he'sdoing an internship at a
mortuary.
You know, like who would havethought that?
And that's just.
You know the most obscureexample that I can give, because

(11:15):
I've seen just every needfilled on a regular basis in
that circle and it's just sopowerful.
And I think I've told you thisright, We've said this before
that this couldn't happen if youplanned it right, if you said,
hey, we're going to have anorganization in 10 years that is
going to have a national impact, is going to be recognized by
the White House, is going to bepart of dealing with real

(11:40):
practical solutions nationwideand you say we're going to start
and we're going to found thatorganization.
Today I don't think you could beable to do this, other than the
miracle of what the Circle ofBrotherhood is, man.
So you know, I want to,personally and on the record,
just say you know how much Iadmire the Circle of Brotherhood
and the work that you guys aredoing, and you know it's it's so
needed, even with and you know,know you're on the right track

(12:03):
when the enemies are coming outof the, you know, out of the
woodwork, right, that people aretrying to derail the
organization and people aretrying to do everything that
they can to make sure thatthey're right and that this
thing doesn't happen.
But you guys persevere in theface of that.
So you know, I know theorganization is secular and it's
not, you know, politicallyaffiliated and everybody comes

(12:25):
from different backgrounds anddifferent walks of life, and
from the street to the suites.
And you know what's the, what'sthe kind of unifying force that
, that that binds everybodytogether.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
Love.
In fact, that is what that'sour greeting, or whenever we
depart, like you know, it's love, comma, brotherhood, love,
brotherhood.
Like you know, people say peace, people say goodbye, see you
later.
It's common for us to to greeteach other and to say hello and

(12:59):
goodbye by saying love, and it'snot the love that typically
people associate with, that isjust an emotion.
You know, love for us is notonly a noun, it's a verb.
So, you know, we have, of course, the principle of sweat equity

(13:20):
and, like you know, in theexample that you gave just so
that people that are listeningthat they know, that's an actual
example that you witnessed,where somebody said they wanted
to go into mortuary science.
Like you say, you can't makethat stuff up, right.
But in the same respect, john,there is something that is very

(13:43):
divine about the way that theCircle of Brotherhood has come
together, that we believe it isby a divine plan, because all
the time, in fact, brother Leroyhas been saying it lately he
said most of us will not reallyeven understand what we're doing

(14:04):
until 20 years from now.
You know, and then, even beforethat, he told us he would.
Even before that, oh, look atthis guy, he walks.
Look who just walked in.
We're doing the podcast rightnow, 20.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
You better realize how great you is now.
Don't wait 20 years from nowand then wake up.
You got to enjoy the momentright now.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
Yeah, that's Leroy Jones, our lead organizer.
We're literally talking andthen superstars just be walking
in.
Look at this man.
We got Desmond Meade man.
No, no, desmond, come on now.
Listen, man.
This brother right here hasbeen you know, you hear about,
yeah, you got to.
He's shot for no reason.

(14:52):
This brother right here man isthe brother that is responsible
for the Florida restorationrights, the Amendment 4 in
Florida that has become the talkof the world.
This is him.
He just be floating around inthe talk of the world.
This is him.
He'll just be floating aroundin the circle of Brother.
Real World, the real Amendment4.
That's incredible.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
That's incredible.

Speaker 2 (15:14):
So when we say that this is by divine, you know to
that point we're talking aboutthat this is by divine order.
Like you can't make this stuffup, man.
You can't Right.
Listen, man, you can't Right.
All right, man, thank you,desmond.
Thank you, brother.
Yo love you too, sir.
Yeah, so you know to that pointwe can't make this stuff up,

(15:40):
man that what we're doing, howthey say build it and they will
come, and we believe that.
And we're building a refuge man, that what we're doing how they
say build it and they will come, and we believe that.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
And we're building a refuge man for folks to come in
and be able to, you know, serveour community better.
Yeah, yeah, and you know, Iknow you.
This is this is an importanttopic to highlight, and about
the generational dynamics ofincarceration in the community
and how.
You know how much that affectsthe.
You know the ability to createthese, to perpetuate these

(16:14):
patterns of pain.
Can you talk a little bit aboutwhat you've seen with the
combination of constellationsand breaking these cycles?

Speaker 2 (16:22):
I'm tripping because you know, because Desmond was
one of Time Magazine's Men ofthe Year, bro, wow, yeah, he's
on the cover of Time Magazine,it's amazing.
It's hilarious man.
But as far as constellations go, I've seen various responses to

(16:43):
constellations, which has beenfeeding my curiosity about the
how do I say.
It's been feeding my curiosity,john, about, first off, how
different we all are asindividuals and how we process
information and how we processour experiences.

(17:07):
Right, because I've seen folksgo through Constellation, where
it was it was it was, it was soimpactful that they're like I
don't really want to deal withit right now.
I don't, I can't, I like it's,it's too much for me to to to

(17:33):
deal with right now, so we'renot going to go too much further
in it.
And then I've seen even mypersonal experience with
constellations, right.
So I've been through, I think,maybe three experiences right
Sessions.
And there was one session whereI was a part of it and I told

(17:56):
and I gave myself permission tojust try to feel whatever it is
I can feel from it.
Right, you know, they pull mefrom out of the circle.
You come stand right here, allright, and as I'm standing there
I'm telling myself who are you?
What does this mean?
Open yourself up.

(18:17):
And I'm talking to myself andI'm just like, ok, just be
whoever, just be whatever you'resupposed to be in this
situation.
And then I began to feel angry,I began to feel, um, uh,
outcasted.
I began to feel like, um, like,literally, I don't care if you

(18:45):
all don't care about me, youknow these things.
So I'm like, okay, I'm, youknow, I'm going to go ahead and
just and let this go where itgoes, so, and and I'm getting
these things.
And then, and then later on inthe, the, when it's revealed who
I am to me and to the group, inthe thing I was the perpetrator
, I was like, hmm, that'sinteresting, right?

(19:10):
So my experiences withconstellations and with healing
and the process of healing,right, because sometimes, in
order to heal, you have to hurtfirst.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
Yeah, you have to acknowledge what is.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
You have to acknowledge what is, and
acknowledging what is can behurtful, yeah, you know,
especially if you're the one whowas the one who hurt the person
Right.
And then it's also hurtfulaccepting the fact that you were

(19:53):
not volatile it was what's theword I'm looking for.
You were young, you couldn'tprotect yourself.
Yeah, you wanted, were young,you.
You couldn't protect yourself.
Yeah, you wanted to, and youcouldn't protect yourself.
Yeah, and it hurts the fact that, man, I wanted to do something
about this but I couldn't.

(20:14):
And then sometimes it justhurts because you were numb at
the time.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
So anyhow, no, and that that's such a, that's such
a uh, like that's such anaccurate representation of it
right, is because, you know, andthat's such an accurate
representation of it right, andthat's the kindness of this
thing is that we can understandhow we've all been victims and
perpetrators in some point,right, yes, and I think that

(20:40):
that's the beauty of some ofthese constellations is that
it's a profound acceptance ofresponsibility, or assumption of
responsibility, yes, sir, andyou can say now that I, that I'm
aware I can do it differently,and I think that that's like,
you know, one of the things thatthat you know, we, we short
shorthand for cervicalbrotherhood is COB, right, is

(21:01):
one of the things that I see inCOB is just an assumption of
responsibility.
It's like, hey, we're going,this is our fight and this is
our mission, this is our, youknow, cross the bear, for lack
of a better term, right, this isthe thing that we're going to
do and it's just, it createssuch deep admiration.
You know, and I, and I knowthat, that there's many
modalities because, you know,brother Lyle and I were talking

(21:23):
about the.
What would the 777, the 20, youknow, like, what happened when
you were seven?
What happened when you were 14?
What happened when 21?
You're like that came from fromhis religious teachings and I
was like man, the exercises,they all resonate, they all come
to the same place to understandwhat happened in those, in
those places.
And you know, as they say, asthey say, and there's a japanese

(21:46):
samurai guy that says, when youknow the way broadly, you see
it in all things right and yousay like that's why this
resonates so much with me, islike you're, this is all ancient
generational knowledge that wehave.
It's just different packagingsor different delivery methods
for it yeah, it's uh, you gotthe 21st century.

Speaker 2 (22:04):
um woman philosopher known as El Boogie, a Lauren
Hill Everything is everything,everything is everything.

Speaker 1 (22:13):
Yeah Right, so.
So, phil, I know you've been astaple in the Miami community
man.
I know you've you come from,you know kind of the
entertainment background a bitand you've been, you know,
involved with you know the cityof North Miami.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
You know tell me a little bit of how those
connections and and and thatexperience has brought you, you
know brought you, to connectmore with the community, with,
with CLB in every way, becausewe, we have quite a few
different outreach events thatgo on and and we, you know, at

(22:53):
the end of the day, man, we, we,you gotta have some kind of way
to measure your impact and andyou got to be able to you
measure your impact by the, thenumber of engagements that you
have.
And so, just in my sojourn herein Miami, as well as prior to
being here, I've worked in theworld of politics, right, I've

(23:18):
worked in the world ofentertainment and I've done a
lot of work with non-profitorganizations, and from that
work and building relationshipswith people in those different
environments, it's allowed me tomove around and negotiate in a
lot of different rooms and I'mable to bring all of that back

(23:39):
to the circle of brotherhood.
The best example of that wouldbe the bee Bees.
What they do is they go aroundto different flowers and not
only do they pollinate flowers,but they extract from the
flowers and in the process ofthe bee doing that, they're able

(24:00):
to come back to the hive andmake honey and honey, which a
lot of people don't really knowand understand the medicinal
properties of honey.
Honey is one of the bestmedicines on the planet, you

(24:20):
know, and that's what thoseexperiences have led me to be
able to bring back and make somehoney over here at the Circle
of Brotherhood, you know, withall of those experiences, yeah,
and speaking about that, so,speaking about honey, right, and

(24:41):
, and you know the the sweetpart of life, um, what was?

Speaker 1 (24:48):
and I would imagine that there's some deep insight
into this process, but what waswhat was doing a 21 and a half
day hunger strike, like you know?
I bet there wasn't a lot ofhoney in that process, right in
that process, right, what was?
What was that like?
What, what made you decide todo it?
And and what was it likethrough throughout the process?

Speaker 2 (25:06):
So, if you can, just from the beginning, paint the
scenario, paint the stage ofwhat, how, how it came about.
So so legend has itno-transcript.

(25:43):
And so this one particularevent, that annual event that
was taking place, theBrotherhood was participating.
There was a group of brothersthat were there, and Brother
Leroy was one of the ones thatwas there, and at that event
there was like 40 women, man, 40, 40 to 50 women that were there

(26:09):
that were wailing and cryingabout the loss of their children
who had died to gun violence,to violence, man, and, and at
that event there was one brotherthat was there, ok, and his son

(26:30):
is named King Carter.
King Carter is a was was astory that made national news
Little, six year old boy whocaught a stray bullet and was
killed by that stray bullet.
And his father was there and StTarvis King was there and he

(26:55):
spoke.
When he spoke, he spoke androared, the way that you see
movies and the Lion King, andwhen you hear a lion roar and

(27:16):
all in the jungle they scatterand they run for cover and they
fear for their lives, they runfor cover and they fear for
their lives.
His pain was so profound whenhe spoke that day that the
brothers in the circle ofbrotherhood heard his words and,

(27:41):
as they were leaving the event,they said we got to do
something about this man.
So Brother Leroy, chickenGeorge, brother Albert and a few
of those are the ones that cometo my mind right now that were
there that day.
Who these, all of thesebrothers, are?
Og hood legends?
Okay, brother Albert is theproducer of one of my favorite

(28:06):
songs ever, a Miami classiccalled Pick it Up.
Pick it Up by the home team,but he also has a book that's
out right now.
Right, and he is a legend.
He's a legendary pharmaceuticaldistributor here.
Those are that y'all dope dealAll right here in Miami.

(28:30):
And Chicken George put it likethis and Leroy as well Leroy is
Leroy.
You know, the first time he wasarrested, I think he was eight
years old or something like that, and Leroy and was arrested
subsequently and did he waseight years old or something
like that, and Leroy wasarrested subsequently and did
three prison terms, et cetera.
These are brothers that wereknown nemesis to their community

(28:52):
and that are now turning theirlives around, that have
experienced this event, hearingthese women crying and hearing
King Carter's father speak andsay to themselves we have to do
something.
And then he came back and hesaid listen, man, we're going to
do a hunger strike in the samevein as some of the great ones

(29:15):
did hunger strikes.
Gandhi did a hunger strikeright In the same vein as that.
We're gonna come together andand we have to do something to
raise the consciousness in ourcommunity that this is not
normal.
Now, for me personally, at thatparticular time in my life, I

(29:36):
was looking for something that Ican, that I could put myself
through to raise.
It's like you have to put goldthrough a furnace in order to
clean the dross off.
And I was looking for somethingat that time and, ironically

(29:56):
enough, I was.
I wanted to do a 21 day fastmyself, but I could hardly get
past 12 noon.
You know much less 21 days.
And so Brother Leroy contactedparticular individuals in the
circle of brotherhood to talk tothem about hey, man, we're
going to do this thing and it'snot going to be, it's not going

(30:18):
to just be a normal hungerstrike that we're doing.
We could get into it a littlebit more, but the Hunger 9 was
an encampment that we created.
In the words of Dick Gregory,he said you don't do a hunger
strike in order to turn badpeople.
Good, we never had theintention to do a no hunger
strike, thinking that we'regoing to end gun violence from

(30:39):
that.
But what you do is that youcreate a hunger strike so that
you can create an energy, sothat like-minded people can come
together around that and toraise the awareness.
So you know, in brief, that'skind of how that came together
for me.
But each brother has adifferent, particular kind of

(31:01):
journey that brought them tothat space.
But there was one thing thatBrother Leroy would say when we
were in there.
He would say hey, man, thelonger we stay in here, the more
we raise our stock in whatwe're doing.
Right, so we have to stay.
We can't.
We have people come in.

(31:23):
What are y'all doing?
You need to stop.
And we were right across thestreet from a Dunkin' Donut,
john, like, yeah, we like this.
We'm literally looking atDunkin' Donut every day watching
people come in and out.
Some people they had it got toa point that we had to stop
people from coming in theencampment because they would
come with their food, they wouldcome with their lunch.
It was like to some people itwas like, oh yeah, I'm going to

(31:45):
go do my lunch over there at theHunga Nine, so I'd go talk to
them and see what was going onand we had to kind of stop that.
So for me that's kind of whatbrought me to that place.
I've always been in search ofmy calling and my purpose and
I've been blessed man.
God Almighty has blessed methat.

(32:05):
You know, whenever I reallythink about something and I'm
looking for it, it appears to mekind of clear.
You know, it's one of mysuperpowers that I really, you
know, everybody needs aProfessor X in their life, man
to help them understand anddevelop and grow their
superpowers.
And I don't.

(32:26):
I have, I don't really have aProfessor X in the sense that's
right there molding me andshaping me.
But I've had a few in my lifeand but that particular time
that was one of thoseexperiences, man, that brought
me to better understand mypurpose.
And then, you know, goingthrough the Hunger 9, there's a

(32:47):
few lessons that I learned fromthat right, one of them which I
tell my wife and you know mywife, who I'm so grateful for
her and I'm so blessed man.
I have six beautiful childrenand just yesterday I was talking
to my wife about, you know,everybody's starting to go in a
different direction.
You know we still have an 11year old that's at the house and

(33:10):
a 14 year old and an 18 yearold.
That's there.
My 24 year old.
We're blessed because we havesome land and so he's got a tiny
house on the property.
So he's there, but he's notthere.
But I'm saying that to say thatmy two daughters on top of that
right, we're talking and I'mlike everybody's growing and
developing.
And one thing I realized, john,I lost my father.

(33:33):
He passed away last year andone of the things that I
realized actually passed away in2023.
And one of the things Irealized when my father passed
away was that my mother and myfather, they were just two young
people trying to figure it out.
It's really, at the end of theday, what they were.
And so I realize right now intalking with my wife that you

(33:57):
know, we're two young peopletrying to figure it out, but I'm
looking at our beautifulchildren, man, who's starting to
grow and they're blossoming.
And you know everybody gotissues and whatnot, but you know
, I'm grateful because that'sthe big hat that I wear.
The big hat that I wear isfather, you know, and I don't

(34:17):
get it right all the time, man,but all of these experiences
that we go through, we need tolearn how to use those
experiences in the present tenseso that we can become better.
As we are and I think that'sone of the things that
constellations do too is that byfacing and dealing with your
trauma, you can better put intoperspective who you are, so that

(34:40):
you can benefit from the trauma, as opposed to the trauma being
a blood sucker of your yourphysical, spiritual and mental
being you know that's, that's,uh, that's such a good point
because you know it can be apain, can be a catalyst for
growth, right, it's like whenyou go to the gym, right, no

(35:02):
pain, no pain, no gain, as theysay.

Speaker 1 (35:04):
Yeah, exactly, it's like people's lifting weights
and you know they go in, youknow that you've lifted weights
when you, when you're sore, whenyou're like you're in pain, and
all this stuff.
And I think the the same thinghappens when you do hard things
and you know I was, I was just abystander and and when, with
the hunger nine and I saw it onthe news and it made national
news that these guys are doingthis, you know, 21 and a half

(35:26):
day hunger strike to bringawareness to gun violence, and
I'm like man, that is something,that really is something.
And so tell me, tell me alittle bit about you know the,
the role of of men in thecommunity and why this is.
This is so different than thaneverything else that's tried out
there before.
There's something special aboutthis and, from your perspective

(35:49):
, what do you think is a littlebit different about this group?

Speaker 2 (35:55):
What I would say to that, john, is that one you have
.
There's a scripture that saysit's in Proverbs, I believe it
says men sharpen men like steelsharpens steel.
So the idea and the concept ofmen coming together for the
benefit of securing theircommunity is nothing new, right,

(36:16):
there's nothing different aboutthat.
But what is different is thatin the black community, we have
had some very deliberate effortsto destroy our unity.
Right, you can go, you canresearch for yourself those that
are listening.
You can go and research thecounterintelligence program you

(36:37):
can of the United States thatcame from out of the CIA.
Right, to destroy the rise of ablack messiah that can
galvanize and unify.
You know the differentfractions in the community.
You had the.
What we're finding out right nowis that the United States
government was hands-on involvedwith the assassination of

(37:00):
Malcolm X, like his family.
There's literally they're suingthe US government right now for
$100 million I think that iswhat.
That's the number that'sattached to it.
Right, you have the effort ofthe government to destroy the
nation of Islam.
So there's always been thiseffort to destroy the coming

(37:22):
together of black men inparticular.
You know Allah, the way Pharaohsaid when he saw the children
of Israel multiplying.
He said let us, let us dealwisely with them lest they join
on to an enemy and come againstus.
So kill the male bull, the malechild and spare the female.

(37:44):
And this has been the patternin America, particularly as it
relates to the unification ofblack men, so that coming
together and striving to buildsomething for the benefit of our
community is nothing different.
Right At the backbone of BlackWall Street, tulsa, oklahoma,

(38:07):
and numerous other Blackcommunities that developed that
were able to create a nationwithin a nation, there's always
been Black men that have been atthe root of that right.
I was just looking the otherday.
Do you know that ambulanceshere in the United States?
It was the Freedmen's, I thinkthey were called the Freedmen's,

(38:27):
not the Freedmen's Bureau,going back that far.
But the first ambulances in theUnited States were created by
black men in the black communitythat were rejected, outcasted
and despised, that had to find away to take care of our ill
Right, and so ambulances grew.

(38:48):
The ambulance served Policewere the ones that used to bring
people to the hospital back inthe day.
So I think what makes the circleof brotherhood a little
different Is our motto one fromthe streets to the suites.
Number two is that ourpresident, pastor Mack, is a

(39:10):
Christian pastor.
Our executive director, brotherLaum Mohamed, is a Muslim.
Our lead organizer, brotherLeroy Jones, is a spiritual
brother who navigates throughall of those environments freely
, openly.
But Brother Leroy is amastermind strategist who is a

(39:34):
very spiritual brother, right.
So we strive to not allow theseparticular denominations and
these particular socioeconomicbackgrounds right.
It doesn't matter if you have amillion dollars or no money in
your bank account, or you don'thave a bank account, if you've
been, if you serve 32 years inprison, like our brother Jay

(39:58):
right, jay Innocent.
Shout out to Jay Innocent.
Right, who did 32 years inprison, man who was wrong, who
was held in prison, wrongfullyconvicted, right.
Or if your brother Albert, whodid 23 years in prison for
whatever he did, or if you neverseen the back of a police car,

(40:21):
you are welcome here to thecircle of brotherhood, because
our job is our motto black mensolving their own community
problems.
And I think that's what makesus a little bit different is the
seasoning of the men that havecome to this to make this
particular meal for all to comeand feed off of.

Speaker 1 (40:46):
That makes all the sense in the world and you know,
I've witnessed it firsthand.
Right, and be able to say that.
You know, all these men fromdifferent backgrounds come in
and look at it.
Right, and even me, right, thatI just came down as like it was
I'm always in awe and it alwaysmakes me emotional of like how
welcoming it was it was.
I'm always in awe and it alwaysmakes me emotional of like how
welcoming it was, you know, andlike the courage because I I

(41:07):
look like a cop, right, andthat's because it's a reality.
I look like a cop, my background, like I grew up in Venezuela, I
look like the way that I look,and it was just like open arms,
man, it's like, come on, in,everybody's welcome, and I just
stayed around.
You know, just like, as thisperson just stayed around, I was
so curious about what washappening and also the curiosity

(41:28):
the curiosity of capitalizingon the tools as well, to say
that this kid's coming in withthis weird ass that's going to,
you know, go in deep and and andwork on people's souls, that
through family constellations,and be like, yeah, let's do it
All, all tools are welcome here.

(41:49):
It's just like that.
I think that's just such amagical thing that's happening
organizationally.

Speaker 2 (41:56):
You know, one of the biggest differences with the
Circle of Brotherhood and otherorganizations that have tried to
come together to do this, thatare, quote unquote, secular
right, is our training.
We put a very, very, verystrong emphasis on training.
You don't just come and sign anapplication, fill it out, pay

(42:20):
some dues and get a brown shirt.
You have to go through thetraining.
It doesn't matter.
Right now we have a newlyelected judge, you know, from
Broward County, who is in thetraining with you know, a
20-year-old young man whodoesn't even have a high school
diploma doesn't even have a highschool diploma.

(42:48):
It's because we our trainingand the emphasis on training is
what also separates us, apart,man, our one of you know.
There's a couple of key termsthat the circle of brotherhood
has right.
You come into the room we saybrotherhood, you're going to
hear a massive amount of peoplesay brotherhood.
Do we serve our community?
One brother, one hood.

(43:08):
When does training stop?
Never.
So that's another thing thatmakes us very different, man,
and it goes back to again.
You know, scripture is one ofthe foundations of my life, so
it's a reference point I go backto, not to make you not to be
religious, and I'm not sayingthat as a, I'm just saying that

(43:29):
because we, you know, we got totell people that because
religion has been run throughthe mud man.
So when you even bring up Bibleand you bring up Quran and you
start, oh man, here go one ofthem.
Guys.
Right, but I say that's why Isay that.
But the reason I'm saying thatis because to lift up that
scripture man that says train achild in the way they should go

(43:50):
and when they get older theywill not depart from it.
That's the principle of thecircle of brotherhood.
If you get the proper trainingwhen you come into an
organization or into a job or atyour house, right Home training
, once you go out you won'tdepart too far away from that

(44:12):
training man.
You'll be able to do the thingsin your community that bring
honor and respect to theorganization or the family or
the group or the government thatyou represent.
And so our training is very,very, very, very significant to
who we are.

Speaker 1 (44:25):
Hi, I'm John, host of Zulu One.
When you become a supporter onBuzzsprout, you're investing in
the future and mission of thispodcast.
Click the link in thedescription to get started.
We're very grateful for yoursupport and thank you for being
part of our journey.
You know, one of the biggestthings that my takeaways you
know always from the meetings is, like you know they're saying

(44:46):
is like you know, grown is aprohibited word.
Right, I'm a grown A man.
Right, I'm a grown A man.
No, no, no, it's like no manwe're growing.
We're growing, man, we're in aconstant state of growth, and
that's just such a powerfulmindset to say nobody's arrived.

Speaker 2 (45:05):
Once you're grown, what happens?
If you're grown, then you'rewhat.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
Then you die, you're done it's over.
You're done, you're dead.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
Yeah, because there's always room to grow.
Once you're grown which is thepast tense of to grow then that
means you stopped growing.
Grow, then that means youstopped growing, which means
that's the end to your abilityto become better, and you don't
come to the circle ofbrotherhood to stop getting
better.
You come to the circle ofbrotherhood to continue to grow

(45:33):
and be better.

Speaker 1 (45:35):
Yeah, no, that's, that's so powerful man.
And, and you know I, I thinkyou know I was I was listening
to a podcast a couple a coupleof weeks ago and it's like, if
you surround yourself by highperformers, your performance
goes up by 15%.
That's right.
If you surround yourself by lowperformers, your performance

(45:56):
goes down by 35.
Wow, it's not even equal.
It's not even equal, it's ait's.
It's double, right.
The effect is double in someright that if you're, if you're
around slouches, right.
So you know I, I like to, youknow I, I, you know I take my
son to the meetings and I'm like, listen, man, this is
inspiration, this is, this iswhat being a man really looks

(46:18):
like.
You know, assumingresponsibility, grabbing the
bull by the horns, solvingproblems, taking, you know,
taking life and doing somethingwith it, setting direction,
growing as a human being, beingheld accountable, holding other
people accountable, creatingclarity, creating momentum
towards solving, you know, thedeep rooted issues in a

(46:40):
community.
Then I'm like this is the mostevery, every community in the
country can learn and sit downand take this as a case study
for for becoming the bestversions of themselves.
It's just, you know, and I've,and I've drank the K've drank
the Kool-Aid man, you know, I'm,I'm in, I'm all in, and I and
like, and you know, so much sothat that I've challenged some
things and I'm like, hey man,you know, I'm, I'm going to, I'm

(47:01):
going to create anotherperspective here and I'll and
I'll, you know, just with allwith, because I'm invested, you
know, and I and I've never beenlike, hey man, you can't say
stuff is like, it's always beenwelcome.
And you can't imagine howgrateful I am for, for the
opportunity for, for the lessons, for you know the care and love

(47:24):
that you guys show my, myfamily, my son.
You know I brought my dad tothe, to the, to COB, and, like
you know, it's three of us,right, all three generations.
They are man supporting andjust such a blessing man and and
and and it's been, it's been soincredible.

Speaker 2 (47:43):
And and I applaud you for that, man, because I watch
your son when he's at themeetings and I would say, if I
counted the number of meetingsthat your son's been to, he's
probably been to at least 15meetings.
Oh yeah, At least.
At least 15 meetings Right, andmeetings right.
And your son is what?
10, 11?
, 11.

Speaker 1 (47:57):
He's 11.

Speaker 2 (47:58):
And I watch his engagement at the meeting.
It's not like the engagement ofa typical 10 or 11-year-old
comes to me, because we have alot of those too.
We've had 11-year-olds that wehad to put in the middle of the
circle.
You've experienced that as well, and I watch your son engage.

(48:18):
And it goes back to trainingTrain a child in the way they
should go when they get olderthey won't depart from it.
So the circle of brotherhood,the purpose of it, is so
multifold, multifaceted, that itit just bears witness to what
brother Leroy says.
Most of us really don'tunderstand what we're doing.

(48:40):
And we know he says we won'tunderstand what we're doing
until 20 years from now.
And what I think about that.
I'm thinking about little John,your son, and we don't even
know what we're doing.
Imagine little John 20 yearsfrom now when he's citing the
things and his experiences andhe's got a foundation then that

(49:00):
he's standing on One.
Just his relationship to blackmen.
Right, I know he's not going tosee himself different from
being a black man.
He's going to be like yo, I'mone of you, you know, just by
virtue of his presence, you knowwhat I mean.
And he is because black is notjust color man.
Black is color, it's culture,it's consciousness and it's a

(49:23):
corresponding cosmic connection,man, which is how you perceive
the divine.
If you could get past thoselayers, man, then that's when
you get to the core of whatmakes us, you know, divine
creations of a most high God.

Speaker 1 (49:39):
Yeah, and you know, that's what I love so much about
constellations is you can noteven speak the same language and
deeply resonate with theemotions of another person, race
, creed, background, whetheryou're plaid, polka dot, striped
, you know, purple rainbow,whatever you are, it doesn't
matter.
We all have, we all that's andthat's what zulu the one in zulu
one stands for is that we comefrom one unity, one connection

(50:03):
that, regardless of race, creed,background, whatever, I can
represent the exact internaldynamics that's happening in you
because we resonate as we havesoul resonance, and that's what
you know.
If that's happening in youbecause we resonate as we have
soul resonance, and that's whyyou know, if that's why I want
everybody in the world to do aconsolation right now, that's
why the the, my mission is tosay, is to educate people on how

(50:24):
to recognize yourself and thedivine in others.
We can do that.
We can break down every singlebarrier in the world that you
know just and you, you, youpresent that you had that.
You know that experience whenwe did the constellations is
like this is everywhere, man,every single time, regardless of
whatever happens.
So I think it really is thatgame changer that you can set

(50:55):
this thing that's like the lightswitch every single time we get
into a room, and I think theTuesday meeting is a version of
that.
It's like that miracle happenswhen you get people together
that deeply resonate, that aredoing the call and response,
that care about each other, thatare holding space for each
other in love and only in thatplace is where those miracles

(51:18):
can happen and the power ofbrotherhood and connection
brings out the best in eachother.

Speaker 2 (51:24):
Yeah, yeah, I agree with you, man, and for me,
constellations, because I'vebeen giving it a lot of thought
and I was a philosophy major inschool Like that's what my
degree is in and I don't give alot of that stuff a lot of
credence.
You know what I mean, or atleast I didn't as much in the

(51:47):
past and now that I'm startingto delve a little more into you
know Nietzsche andexistentialism and Kierkegaard,
and I'm looking at those guysrelative to you know the
teachings of the most honorableElijah Muhammad, to the struggle
of the history of black folkshere in America, and then my

(52:12):
background coming from Haiti andvoodoo, and then Islam, and now
I'm trying to make sense whenis the one God in all of these
different things?
You know what I mean andconstellations being like.
You mentioned a tool from mypersonal toolbox.
You mentioned a tool from mypersonal toolbox right to help

(52:34):
me better understand myself andmy relationship to this world
that I'm in so I can live myhighest purpose and vibrate on
the highest level.
Going through constellations forme has kind of it is awakened a
child's side of me too, becauseI used to love the X-Men man

(52:55):
and I still do, you know, and Ilove the concept and the idea of
superheroes and being able, andeven the Matrix.
Right, neo being able?
Like when the little boy isbending the spoon and he says
you know?
And he's like wow, that'sawesome.
Right, neo's talking to thelittle boy and the little boy
says you know?

(53:15):
In so many words the real trickis to realize the spoon doesn't
even exist.

Speaker 1 (53:20):
Exactly, exactly.

Speaker 2 (53:22):
The goal is to see that these barriers that we have
, that they don't even reallyexist, right.
Going back to you knoweverything is everything and how
you quoted the samurai, rightTo see everything in, in, in the
smallest thing.
Right To see the whole world ina drop of water.
That's the goal.
And so, going through familyconstellation sessions myself,

(53:45):
you know one of the things thatI share with you.
It kind of it opened up thatpart of me.
I used to play Dungeons andDragons when I was young, right,
which is a what it's arole-playing game, right, and
one of the best ways to dotraining is when you bring
people up and you go throughrole-playing right To deal with
you know how would you deal witha certain issue, et cetera.
So, between Dungeons andDragons and role-playing right,

(54:11):
and then also being into thecomic books and Dr Strange and
how he would open these portals,right, yeah.
And then also knowing somethingabout the pyramids in Egypt,
where many argue that these areactually time travel portals for
beings to come in and out of,I'm saying, okay, dr Strange,

(54:35):
right, you go through portals,right, the pyramids, which are
really there.
These are, you know thatvibrate on a higher frequency
and some say that they'reportals right, or antennas to
give information out to higher.
And then I'm like, okay, soconstellations, you create this
circle and people are willinglyopen to giving themselves to be

(54:58):
representatives for anotherperson's issues, traumas and
experiences.
Oh, so that that maybe that'swhere it's at.
So, you know, I just give thatto you, man, because that's what
kind of is helping me to betterunderstand, um, family,
constellations and and how theywork, so that I can be, you know

(55:20):
, the proper uh, you know likeuh, the cog, or if I'm, if I'm
just a little bolt in it, let mebe the best little bolt in the
process.
Right, or the body.
You have nine systems right, oryou, or or you have cells make
tissue, tissue makes organs,organs make systems, systems
make the body.

(55:42):
I'm just a little cell in thebig body, but cancer starts with
a cell.
Yeah, exactly One cell cancerstarts with.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
The most beneficial things and the most detrimental
things start with one littlecell.
Yeah, exactly One cell gets tostarts with.
The most beneficial things andthe most detrimental things
start with one little cell startwith one little cell.

Speaker 2 (55:59):
So it's like, okay, how do I figure out how to be
the, my, be the best cell,whether it's the circle of
brotherhood, in, in my, in myMuslim community, in the, the,
the, in the, the, the communityat large that I serve in my
household as my father, andthat's to me, that's what
Constellation has opened up forme a different way to look at

(56:25):
all of those things that Imentioned, and I think that's
the value, you know, to thequestion about, that's the value
to me that I think that otherscan get from.

Speaker 1 (56:35):
You're, you're, you're absolutely on track.
Because if we look at it likewe are cogs in a cell in a
system, right, you know, we're,I'm, you know, all the way from
our, from the cells that we havein our body, the atoms that
make up our body, right, thoseare all resonating inside of us
and then those make up our youknow blood vessels and those

(56:55):
make up our organs and that'sall a system, right.
Your reproductive system, your,you know respiratory system,
your circulatory system, your,your neurological system is all
system that make us right.
And then we are also a systeminside of I'm a father and I'm,
I'm the son of somebody, of twopeople, and then, and then
they're the kids of two people,and they're the kids of two

(57:15):
people and they're the kids oftwo people, yeah, and then I
have children, and then I'm partof my community and I'm part of
my neighborhood, I'm part of,you know, in some way, cob and
I'm a part of Florida, I'm partof Broward County, I'm part of
my job, I'm part of supercomplex superposition systems

(57:38):
that all work in unison.
But my theory is that the moreyou can heal yourself through
methodologies likeconstellations or COB, or prayer
, or Kung Fu or yoga or breathwork or fasting, or all the
things that make you heal andrelease the trauma.
You can become a better cog,you can become a better
influence on that larger systemand I think that you know the
road to 5,000, that poster thatyou have behind you is how do we

(58:01):
get to that tipping point thatwill change a community over
that next 20 years, that 20years in the future, we can say
we did all these things and allof all these things.
We don't know exactly whatworked, but the combination of
all of it changed the trajectoryfor millions of lives.
That's right, that's right.

Speaker 2 (58:19):
And just like the cancer starts from one cell, the
healing also starts from onecell.
So, mr Farrakhan, he says itlike this in a series of study
guides.
They're called self-improvementis the basis for community
development.
So if you can focus in firstand foremost on yourself, right,

(58:45):
know thyself.
It's been written in like Knowthyself yeah, know thyself, man,
then you can begin to affectthe outside environment.
But when you're on an airplane,man, what do they, we do, and
what prevents us from doing thethings that we want to get done?
Doing the things that we wantto get done and you cannot?

(59:37):
I was.
I'm reading a book right now byTim Grover, relentless.
And he says in there he throwspassion to the wind.
He says he says what he says.
I get tired of people sayingfollow your passion, because
it's not.
It's not your passion that'sgoing to get you to where you
need to be, it's you doing thework.
You got to work on your passion.

(59:59):
If you don't work on yourpassion, it'll just be a feeling
and an emotion that's inside ofyou.
You can't follow a feeling andan emotion.
You can't follow that.
You have to work on yourfeeling and your emotion right
Now.
Mind you, you can get intosemantics.
You know what I mean, becauseto some people, follow means

(01:00:20):
continue to do.
But the point that I'm tryingto get at is the work, man, and
work got to be defined too.
You can't say, oh man, I'mworking hard, but your economic
condition ain't changing, yourrelationships ain't changing,
but all you doing is reallybeing busy.
You're not really doing work.
Work is force times.
Distance equals work.

(01:00:40):
So everybody that's listeningand I'm talking to myself more
than anyone we have to digdeeper into ourselves, man, and
really do the work.
That's where the constellationsand meditations and the
internal work the way out.
A good friend of mine Societyonce told me he said going in is

(01:01:03):
the way out.

Speaker 1 (01:01:05):
Yes, exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:01:06):
You got to go in to get out.

Speaker 1 (01:01:08):
Yeah, you know, and one of my favorite Bible verses
and I talk about this in almostevery single podcast, but Romans
12, 2 says do not conform tothe patterns of this world, but
be renewed by the transformingof your mind.
There, it is Right, you hearthis stuff everywhere.
Everybody has these universaltruths that we talk about and
they deeply resonate with who weare, and I think that, you know

(01:01:30):
, the biggest act of servicethat you can do is to do that to
yourself.
Right, it's like love thyneighbor as thyself.
That's the part that everybody,where you know, doesn't think
about, is you have to loveyourself first to understand, to
be able to be able to be a goodservant to others, and that's,
it's all starts with self-love.
Man, like love brother, right,you gotta, you gotta love

(01:01:52):
yourself as well.
And you're in and you're partof that, uh, of that dynamic,
and you know so.
So let me, you know, let's go,let's go into a deep cut.
And you know, one of the one ofthe, the things that came up and
, uh, when, when I was in in thecircle, is is the Willie Lynch
letter.
And for those that don't know,and, and there's, there's a,

(01:02:14):
there's a consolation context tothis, to this letter, and you
know it was.
It was written, you know, quitea while back and you know four,
four hundred years ago, rightto say how do you keep black men
down right in some capacity, orslaves?
Really capacity is slaves right, slaves down.

(01:02:34):
And you know I, when I wasreading I would never come
across the document and you knowI did some research of it and
some people say it's whateverright, it's like, whatever the
criticism is of it.
Criticism is that it's not realright correct, correct.
The principles are real but theprinciples are absolutely 100
real.

Speaker 2 (01:02:53):
Yeah, and what I was, what I was thinking is like
making of Willie Lynch, themaking of Correct.

Speaker 1 (01:02:59):
Yeah, and that letter could be changed to the the the
making of unresolved trauma asa weapon to keep people
separating, to keep them, youknow, to keep them activated in
their trauma.
And so if we start looking at itlike now, we understand how the
mechanisms of social systemswork.
The anti-consolation is theWillie Lynch letter, right, just

(01:03:22):
like to separate it, to usetrauma as a weapon.
You know, one of the thingsthat I've, that I, that you and
I, you and I've had thisconversation is like one of the
most effective things that youcan do is when you heal yourself
, you become immune to thesocial and, you know, to the
social and communal traumaactivations and you escape, you

(01:03:45):
create almost escape velocity toget out of that.
You know pattern vortex andit's like that's the, it almost
seems like that will be the way,like, like your, your buddy was
saying that through this painand through healing this
generational trauma is how we'regoing to be able to escape this
, this internal dynamic of whatWillie Lynch did was that he

(01:04:17):
says I have outlined a number ofdifferences among the slaves
and I take these differences andI make them bigger.

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
I use fear, distrust and envy for control purposes.

Speaker 1 (01:04:26):
Does that sound like anything that's happening today?

Speaker 2 (01:04:28):
Oh man, it's even when you go through now and
you're talking about, you know,and I don't want to go off on it
you know into, into, you knowconspiracy, quote, unquote,
conspiracy theories.
But even when you're talkingabout in Hollywood, right, and
they take these child actors,right, or even the situation
with with the rap mogul who'snow in jail, and that they use

(01:04:52):
shame, right, they use envy anddistrust and shame and those
things for control purposes, andthat they even take little
children and if you want toreally produce a child star man,
you subject them to violenceand you subject them to, you

(01:05:18):
know, just shame and just badsituations.
But then you put them, you usetheir talent and their gift and
you make the talent and the giftthem right.
They get riches from it, theyget attention from it, they get
all those things from it, butthen you always linger behind

(01:05:38):
their shame on it and thenthat's how you can control them,
right.
You know even, I think, what'shis name's birthday was this
week, elvis's birthday was thisweek.
And when you go back and youlook at the history of Elvis and
who they call the colonel,right, who is his handler and
how there's always been thismysterious relationship between

(01:05:59):
Elvis and the handler.
And then you know my point insaying all of that is going back
to trauma, man, and how thosewho really know the human mind,
they know that you can controlhuman beings by traumatizing
them.
In fact, the slave master onmany of the plantations they
would take some of the pregnantslaves that were on the that

(01:06:23):
they would take.
They would pick a pregnantslave from out of the groups,
that of the slaves, and they'dline all the slaves up and they
would take the pregnant woman,man, and they would cut her
belly and they would in front ofthe other slaves, particularly
the women that were there right,the other pregnant women, and

(01:06:44):
they would make them watch thisand they would kill the child.
Some say that the taskmasterwould crush the skull of the
baby once they snatched them outof the womb of the woman and
the aim and the objective ofthat was to pour trauma into the
unborn children of the womenthat were watching what was
going on.
That's how deep you know wickedscientists man that know and

(01:07:09):
understand the power of traumain order to manipulate and move
people.
And I'll close it out with thepoint that Henry Kissinger, he
said in the past it was easierto fool a million people than it
was to kill a million people,but today it's easier to kill a
million people than it is tofool a million people.

(01:07:32):
Why am I bringing that up now?
Now, in this age of informationand technology and
constellations and new agethinking and meditation, and now
it's not as easy to fool amillion people today as it is to
kill a million people.
But now what they do is thatnow they give you these cell
phones, man, and misinformation.

(01:07:53):
Or, as you and I were in thebrotherhood meeting this week,
man, little did I know, man, howdetrimental, damaging and toxic
and poisoning toilet paper is?
Man, how it's killing us?
Now it's easy.
So, anyhow, man, I digress, man.

Speaker 1 (01:08:09):
You know, I think it's a it's, it's such a good
point, and the same mechanismscan be used for healing Right,
it's like let's and that's.
You know, that will create.
We can.
We're in the process of doing.
It's going to be slow, arduouswork, but as we're doing it, we,
I think we can.
The territory is ripe to beable to.
Now that we understand themechanisms of trauma control and

(01:08:32):
the weaponization of trauma, wecan use the same towards
healing and connection, becausethat's what makes everybody
great, that's what creates themost potential from everybody,
that's what creates the mostconnection.
We can create momentum towardsabundance and synergy, rather

(01:08:57):
than being held down by thetraumas of the past.
And you know, are you familiarwith Pogo?
Have you ever heard of the?
Pogo has a great saying, and Ilove this saying is that we
found the enemy and they is us.
If we truly believe that we'reone consciousness, you're a
representation of me, man, andwe all connected to God.

(01:09:17):
That you are, I am, you are therepresentation of me and I'm
the representation of you, andwe all sit in the, this reality
that is that is held together bythe creator, by the creator of
all things right, that that usdoing this is the highest
purpose that we've been, we canbe called to, is to heal to heal
not only for me, but to healfor you and to heal for

(01:09:38):
everybody around us, to heal forour children.
And it's, it's a it's that thatprofound calling of
responsibility that I have, thatit says that I'm going to
dedicate my whole life and I'mI'm never going to stop until
this mission is fulfilled andthis will take generations to do
, to be able to, to, to spreadthis word and spread this
message with, with incrediblepeople like you, man.

Speaker 2 (01:09:59):
You know, to that point there is.
You know there are many who saythat the best way to learn how
to do something is to teach it,and so the best way to learn how
to heal yourself, man, is toactively engage in helping
others to heal themselves, likethat's part of your healing man

(01:10:20):
is for you to help others do it.

Speaker 1 (01:10:22):
you know you know and we're talking about the
previous point is like I think alot of the today's dysfunctions
in our society come from.
You know, people even beingunaware of the depth of how
horrific some of our socialwounds are, you know, like, how
horrific and how generationallydestructive they were, and I

(01:10:44):
don't think many people know andeven realize how that echoes
through our, our society todayand that malicious actors have
learned how to grab onto thosethings and weaponize them for
their own personal benefit.
But if you heal, you're nolonger triggered, you can no

(01:11:05):
longer be manipulated, you canno longer be subject to those
external forces.

Speaker 2 (01:11:11):
Yeah, in fact, we see it happening a lot in politics
in the world today.
There's a word for it, I thinkit's called a populist candidate
.
A populist candidate, right.
A populist candidate issomebody who uses you know what

(01:11:32):
is popular epithets, right?
A person, a politician, whostrives to appeal to ordinary
people, who feel that theirconcerns are disregarded by
established elite groups, right.
So populists, they'll get outthere, and and they have no
concern about the poor, butthey'll just get out there, and

(01:11:54):
those you know I won't talkabout anybody in particular,
because it's effective, right,and it's math and it's science?

Speaker 1 (01:12:01):
Yeah, it's math and it's science.
Yeah, it's math and it'sscience.
If you have a lever and youunderstand the lever, the
logical thing is to pull itright To win.
If you're willing to win at allcosts, you would do the same
thing.
So there's something that so.
Are you familiar with Carl Jung?
Yeah, for sure.
So Carl Jung talked about youknow Hitler, and he said Hitler

(01:12:23):
was the voice of thesubconscious of 78 million
Germans, that Hitler had thecrowd as much as the crowd had
Hitler.
And so that's why I'm alwaysvery concerned about a base
level of trauma, the dangers ofa base level of trauma, because
that trauma can be catalyzed forabsolute, catastrophic
destruction, and it's a lessonthat we should all learn.

(01:12:45):
To say you know the more.
That.
That's why I'm I'm sopassionate about like doing.
This mission is like the.
We have an opportunity.
This is an experiment, and thisexperiment has had some really
good things and really badthings, but it's led to at least
what we have now.
Right, the fact that we'rearound is a miracle.
The fact that you and I arehaving this conversation over

(01:13:06):
the technology that we're havingis is nothing short of a
miracle, that we haven't torneach other apart.
You know that traffic happens,that you know that the
structures of society have some,with all of its warts and bumps
, and all the things have insome way maintained, to sending
people to the moon, to creating,you know, beautiful music,
creating beautiful art, creatinga place that we have at least

(01:13:27):
to live.
And, you know, find someprosperity Right, and that the
people that that that want us todestroy our country and to
destroy the place that we'refrom are are counting on our
inability to heal, so you cancontinue to tear apart the
country.
That's right.
What if we, instead of doingthat, we do this and we teach

(01:13:48):
everybody else how to do this aswell, to come together and to
create a prosperous futurethat's going to be beneficial
for all.

Speaker 2 (01:13:54):
Yeah, that is that being the goal, right, it's very
important that we understand,like Sun Tzu in the Art of War,
you have to understand the layof the land and you have to
understand the enemy that you'reup against.
You have to understand yourself, you have to understand the lay

(01:14:15):
of the land and the enemy thatyou're up against.
And I think he says he whoknows, he who does not know
himself and does not know hisenemy, will lose in every battle
.
He who knows himself but doesnot know his enemy will win one
and lose.
One who knows himself and hisenemy will be victorious.

(01:14:38):
Right.
So we got to understand thesethings, man and the environment
that we're in, like a conceptand an idea that you and I in
developing.
You know, coming to where weare now with constellations,
which is in systemic resistance,right, that's a very

(01:14:59):
significant part of the lay ofthe land.
And if you don't understandthat, it'll be like in the
public enemy with Chuck D whenhe says in that song, brothers
gonna work it out.
He says brothers that try towork it out, they get mad, um,
and don't realize they're superbad.
Right, because brothers thattry to work it out, they, they

(01:15:23):
get mad, p-funk, real, super bad.
The bottom line is that whenyou don't know the lay of the
land and you're working in itand you're getting all of this
rejection right Like Jesus hassaid, he came unto his own and
his own received them not youdon't understand it.
Before you know it, you'll belike the hell with this.
You'll be like that joke thatsays man, what happened to all
the revolutionaries in the 60s?

(01:15:44):
Oh, man, they got governmentjobs in the 70s.
And that's what happens.
Because this thing is aprotracted war and you got to
understand how to take care ofyourself in the war, how to heal
yourself in it, because we'rebattling not against you know
flesh and blood, but againstprincipalities and spiritual

(01:16:07):
wickedness in high places,people that have learned over
time, man, how to manipulatemind frames.
So it's no longer aboutcontrolling a person, man, it's
about controlling the water.
It's about controlling theeducational system, the
financial institutions that getpeople in a state of deprivation

(01:16:30):
and constant survival mode thatthere's no room to create and
work on yourself.
So all we're going to do iscontinue to pour into your
community things that cause youto traumatize your own self and
your own kind, so that now wecome up in there and we're the
saviors, we're going to help youfigure your thing out.
That's what you see happen inHaiti, man, right now.

(01:16:53):
This week was the 15thanniversary something you
celebrate, really the 15thmemoriam of the earthquake.
But there was these billions ofdollars, man, that were given
away to Haiti and toorganizations and NGOs, which

(01:17:14):
are non-governmentalorganizations, and it found that
, like the Red Cross, who gotbillions of dollars, they built
like a handful of houses, man,85% of the money that they got
in most of those organizationswent just towards paying the
salary and covering the overhead.
Crazy stuff.
Like that, man, these arepeople that have long learned to

(01:17:36):
be.
They're the Willie Lynches oftoday.
They systematize Willie Lynch,they systematize populism, you
know, and whatnot.

Speaker 1 (01:17:48):
And and I think that in in as above, so below, right,
yeah, and we get it they'rejust reflections of both of our
internal systems, is what'sreflected, and I think over the
years we've gotten a little bitbetter, but we got a long way to
go.
Man and I'm I'll tell you thisI'm glad I'm shoulder to
shoulder with a guy like you,man.

Speaker 2 (01:18:06):
Raise me to God.

Speaker 1 (01:18:08):
I have so much to learn and you know it's really
inspiring man and today's beensuch a cool conversation to have
.
So, Brother Phil, if peoplewant to get a hold of you or
want to get a hold of COP, howdo people do that?

Speaker 2 (01:18:24):
Well, with Circle of Brotherhood, you can definitely
go to all of our social mediascircleofbrotherhoodcom or Miami.
Circleofbrotherhoodmiamiorg isour website, right?
We're at Circle of Brotherhoodon all the socials.
Right, At Circle of Brotherhoodon Facebook, on Instagram, on

(01:18:45):
all of those.
You can give us a phone call atour headquarters.
I got to pull up that number.
Shame on me, right?
I don't know the number.
Pop, who is our director ofcommunications?

(01:19:05):
You can call us Circle ofBrotherhood at 786-615-4475.
786-615-4475.
That's the Circle ofBrotherhood phone number you can
go to again,circleofbrotherhoodmiamiorg.
We also opened up our firstchapter in Broward, which is the

(01:19:28):
Pompano Circle of Brotherhood.
If you just Google Circle ofBrotherhood, you will.
Or if you search Circle ofBrotherhood I got to get out of
the habit, man Like sayingGoogle, google is not the only
search engine out there, right?
I'm synonymous with.
Now, you want to look forsomething, google it, right?
Which?
I ain't mad at those guys, butI'm like again changing the mind

(01:19:53):
frame, right?
But you just search on theinternet for Circle of
Brotherhood and you'll find agreat deal of information.
Myself, in fact, I think I sentit to you.
I don't know if you had achance to watch it.
I just launched.
Really, I've been documentinghip hop and and and movements I
really culture right over thepast 35 years of my life, and I

(01:20:14):
just launched a new televisionprogram.
It's online Right.
It's online right.
I like the word podcast, butit's so.
It's becoming so generic now,like for everything, right, and
I don't want to be throwing thatthing.
But anyhow, my point is it'scalled the Urban Globe and we've
been doing it for quite sometime.

(01:20:35):
We've been doing it for a lotof years, man, and so we just
released episode one, take Uno,of the Urban Globe, and you can
see, you know, you can also goon.
It's on YouTube.
We got you know some classicclips with Queen Latifah.
We're going into the lastelection that just took place.
We're actually striving to getNick Quested, who is a longtime

(01:21:00):
hip hop video director, whoproduced a documentary that is
called 60 Days, and it was.
It was the 60 days from theelection of of Donald Trump, the
first time, to the insurrectionthat took place on January 6th,
and those 60 days in between,and contrary, I shouldn't say

(01:21:20):
contrary and those 60 days inbetween, and contrary, I
shouldn't say contrary.
A lot of people really don'tknow that the Proud Boys who
were at the at the.
At the root of that they.
They were formed and foundedright here in Miami.
You know what I mean.
So, god willing, we'll haveNick Queston on the video, you
know, sometime soon.
He doesn't know it yet, but wejust putting it out there right

(01:21:40):
now Nice.
So, anyhow, that's the urbanglobe.
You can find me at T H E U N O UN O, faisal F A I S A L on
Instagram, faisal X T or FaisalX Tavernier my last name, t A V
E R N I E R on Facebook andwe're just figuring this thing
out, man, cause I got tons andtons of interviews and

(01:22:02):
information and people andexperiences that I've gone
through, that I've documented,and now it's just that time to
really share it, john, becausepeople can really benefit from
the stories of our lives, likemy children, shouldn't have to
start from scratch, like everyother generation, because men
don't share with their sons andtheir children their experiences

(01:22:25):
.
So that's who I am and that'sthe circle of brotherhood, and
I'm so grateful for you, man,and the work that you're doing,
and for and for seeing itthrough and sticking through,
man, with um zulu, one with thecircle of brotherhood, because I
know it came a time it was likeyo, it's a wrap, man, I'm done,
yeah, but you know all things.

(01:22:46):
All things you know come at theright time and at the right
season and we, as farmers of, of, of souls and spirits and
experiences, man, you know wegot to keep working.
Man, the people got to eat, bro.
We stopped farming.
Man, the people?
People are going to starve.

Speaker 1 (01:23:06):
Yeah, yeah, no.
Thank you so much, man.
And and if anybody wants to getinvolved, witness this
firsthand, the miracle that'shappening in Miami, you know.
Encourage people to come by,take a look and and donate,
collaborate, post, amplify thesevoices.
These voices are the things Ineed amplified.
You can criticize and throwrocks all you want, but in Miami

(01:23:29):
, on Tuesday nights every week,in and out, it's real works
happening.

Speaker 2 (01:23:35):
The address is 5120 Northwest 24th Avenue at the Dr
Dorothy Bendross MendingallSocial and Economic Institute.
Please come and see us, man.
Come and hang out, not hang out.
We don't use hang out, no more.
I got one of my elders man onthe last note.
He told me one day he saysbrother, his name is Minister BI
Muhammad and he survived thelynching.

(01:23:56):
You know, and back in Louisianait's a legendary story.
And one day he said, brother,how are you?
And I was feeling a littleweird.
That day I said, oh, brotherMenestai, you know I'm hanging
in there and he looked at me.
He says you know, brother, youshouldn't use that language.
And he starts rubbing his neck.

(01:24:17):
He says you shouldn't use thatlanguage.
I could still feel the ropeburn.
So on that note, man, no morehanging out, man, it's time to
pull up.

Speaker 1 (01:24:27):
Yes, sir, yes sir, Brother Phil, thank you so much,
man, it's been a pleasure.

Speaker 2 (01:24:32):
You got it, john Love man.

Speaker 1 (01:24:34):
Love.
Thanks for tuning in to theZulu One podcast.
If you found value in today'spodcast, please don't forget to
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Your support means everythingto us and thank you for being
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