May 15, 2024 • 51 mins
Dive deep with Alex and Justice in this insightful episode of "Can I Ask You Something?" as they explore the essence of legacy. How do we create lasting impacts that ripple through generations? 🌊 From generational wealth to profound personal milestones, they unravel the significance of a meaningful legacy.
Alex shares heartfelt stories of his grandparents' influence and his aspirations to empower his daughters, while Justice recounts an unexpected yet touching connection made during a plane journey. 🛫This conversation also tackles representation, the importance of diverse historical perspectives, and the necessity of credible research in shaping one’s legacy.
📚Tune in for a conversation that challenges us to live intentionally and impactfully. Remember to check out more episodes and support the community at SayWHA Radio by visiting our SayWHA Shop.
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Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/can-i-ask-you-something--6152063/support.
Alex shares heartfelt stories of his grandparents' influence and his aspirations to empower his daughters, while Justice recounts an unexpected yet touching connection made during a plane journey. 🛫This conversation also tackles representation, the importance of diverse historical perspectives, and the necessity of credible research in shaping one’s legacy.
📚Tune in for a conversation that challenges us to live intentionally and impactfully. Remember to check out more episodes and support the community at SayWHA Radio by visiting our SayWHA Shop.
Instagram | Twitter | TikTok
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/can-i-ask-you-something--6152063/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Should I ask you something? Sendit by Say What Radio? Here we
go go. I don't know aboutyou, but I never saw our conversations
as uncomfortable. I had the understandingof, well, if he's asking,
is he's wanting the truth, whetherit's uncomfortable or actually, don't hit him
upside the head. It is whatit is, he adds for it.
(00:30):
I don't know. I think theuncomfortableness comes from kind of the whole idea
behind this podcast is like, Idon't know if it's okay if I ask
this and not is my question okay? But is me asking the question going
to be perceived as okay? Saywhat? Hello? I'm Justice, one
of the hosts of this podcast andfounder of Say What Radio Network. I
(00:54):
wanted to kick this off by sayingthanks again for going on this journey.
You could be anywhere else, butyou're here with us. This episode was
recorded recorded earlier and talk about pastevents, but the discussion is show worth
listening to. Chiming in on socialmedia, sharing with friends and others,
and please forgive our my quality.As we were trying to get our set
(01:18):
up straight for this passion project,we wanted to bring into reality without further
ado here is Can I ask yousomething? All right? All right?
All right, hello people out thereand podcast lance, got your girl Justice
here? Thank you for tuning into Can I can I ask you?
Can? I? You know,I keep going back and forth the name
(01:40):
of the show. I keep looksetting myself up. Can I ask you
something? Or can I ask youthat? Keep? I keep messing myself
up either way, got your girlJustice here? And I still don't know.
We haven't named no not Yeah,I'm still just out for now.
Just ow ow ow big owl.I don't like that we're gonna need something
(02:04):
before next week. I had areally cool one and you shut it down.
You laughed so hard at me thatI lost all confidence in it and
I can't even remember what it wasnow. Need good. I have to
go back through the text messages becauseI definitely I have no idea what that
could be. Yeah, I needn'ttake it seriously. We'll just get to
think it'd be more creative one.We'll get marketing on the phone. Well,
(02:27):
yeah, I haven't spoked to themin a whole Please don't hate me
for not posting social media. Thingshave been crazy, so we'll get back
to it. I promise all rightfor tonight's topic question of the night,
you can start us off al andyou know what, you know, I
was just thinking would be really Alicestare, But that's taken two. Yeah
(02:50):
it is, Hm, we'll figureit out. Yeah. No, so
tonight's I think this is a superinteresting question. We'll get into some store
reason as we go, but reallyI want to kind of center it around
legacy and at our prime young agesthat we are right now, Like I
just want to know. I mean, let's start off by just saying,
(03:12):
like, how how much do youthink about legacy and what is that to
you? You know me, I'vebeen grinded to be able to create generational
wealth for my family forever. Thatis like my stickler, and not necessarily
just the generational wealth, but tobe remembered, to be heard about,
(03:34):
to touch people in a way thatis beneficial to the human race, the
world, friends, family, whatever. I don't want to be famous.
I want to be wealthy, butI also want to have that. I
guess it is legacy, but it'smainly to me more of like when people
like people actually remember you, theyyou know, revere the memory of you
(03:58):
specific specific even if they don't necessarilyremember the name, but they like remember
me, like I remember her,you know. Yeah, so, yeah,
there's that one girl that had thatpodcast. What's her name? Yeah,
yeah, yeah, Like she alwaysdid this like made me laugh or
she was always falling down because shecan't walk straight and heals and stuff.
You know, she's very very funnywoman. So and you mentioned like you've
(04:25):
been trying to do this or you'vebeen trying to take over the world for
a long time, so it's beena priority. But like, but why,
Like we're still pretty young and reallylike in the overall opinion, like
we're too young to be really activelythinking about legacy in the court of popular
opinion. Not necessarily, you don'tthink so huh yep, but don't not
(04:45):
in my mind, because you neverknow how you could touch someone. And
thinking that your legacy has a startand end date for the time that it
can be created, to me,isn't as isn't a thing? Yeah,
I guess. I just I hearpeople that are about to retire talk about
legacy more than any other group ofpeople that I've ever run into. It's
(05:08):
like the question come up, likeshould I retire? What am I going
to be known for? What amI going to be remembered for? And
so like for us though I haven'tsenior bank account, but I don't know
how close you are at a retirementI'm not. But okay, see you
mentioned the wealth part of it,right, and I think that's certainly a
(05:29):
piece of it, but it soundslike it's more like that family piece,
So I gotta ask you. Growingup, okay, let me back up,
getting into the d I space,one of the first things I heard
people talk about was representation, right, and so people of color have always
said, like, man, Ijust I can't see when growing up,
I never saw myself and other people. I never saw a black X,
(05:50):
Y or Z, and so Inever even considered that possibility. I had
the opposite experience where I never eventhought about representation like once in my childhood
because I never had to. Youknow, the the idea of you can
be whatever you want to be wassuper easy for me because I could look
anywhere and see a white man doingwhatever, and they're all like these desirable
(06:14):
positions or fun or positions of poweror whatever. So let's just start there.
What did like representation that piece ofit? Growing up? What did
that mean to you? And doesit tie to this legacy conversation? Like
does is that does you being soconscious of your legacy now at a young
age tie to that I did.I didn't have anybody to look up to
(06:36):
it, and not that you didn'thave anybody if you didn't have a ton
of options available to you to say, Okay, I could be this,
I could be this, I couldbe the app So I'm probably like a
bad person to ask for this becausebecause I did not see all of these
people, and it just maybe youknow, coping mechanism or hell, just
(06:58):
straight up narcissism. But because Ididn't see all of those people, I
just saw myself in that position thatI wanted to be in. So if
it was like I didn't see anybodydoing it, I saw myself doing it
in that TV show or in thatmovie, in that book. I've just
literally supplanted myself into it, whichis how I probably got to the place
(07:24):
that I am where I'm like,okay, I have to do this or
whatnot or even thinking about that.But that's just the way I always saw
it. It has affected me alittle bit more now to be able to
see other people to have more representationbecause I'm able to better visualize and not
necessarily put it onto me to whereit has to be me for everything,
(07:45):
which I don't even think that wassomething that occurred to you. It was
just like, let me just dosomething, whereas me and probably this is
the other difference between it. Forpeople of color, they're looking to make
an imprint, to make a differencein some way, shape or form because
they want to be remembered, whereasif you are not a person of color,
(08:09):
basically just living, you can beremembered. Yeah right, just for
existing. Yeah, yeah, itmakes a lot of sense. So I
think I've shared on this podcast beforethat I was adopted by my grandparents and
both both have actually passed, youknow. I think in twenty fourteen was
my grandpa and two years ago wasmy grandma, And so I've had I'm
(08:33):
going to use this word lately,but like the privilege of being able to
give both of their eulogies, andI still have copies of both of them,
and I noticed when I went backlater with a more clear head and
I read them. I never talkedabout legacy, but that's exactly what I
was talking about. The entire time, and in my grandpa's I remember saying,
(08:56):
you know, my opening line inthat was, you know, my
grandpa used to tell me that youcould tell a lot about a person by
the way people talked about their kids, and so he loved getting compliments on
me. That filled his cup up, right, And I think that's what
he was talking about, like thatthat's his literal legacy coming down, like
the lineage legacy, and that meanteverything in the world to him. And
(09:18):
it wasn't the titles that he had, it wasn't the money that he had
or didn't have. It was justus, right, And I think now
as a father, I'm looking atthat sort of through that lens with with
young kids. It's like, Okay, how am I going to be enough
to help lift your name up?It's strange though, because in that what
(09:41):
do you necessarily do? So forme, it's not necessarily a place or
a thing that I'm trying to getthrough, just a goal to reach and
who knows that if I ever reachit. But I'm just going through life
that to be able to be ofservice and to like I've always known that
(10:05):
I am good at helping people,and I want to help people and things
like that. So I've always triedto move in that direction of you know,
doing that. That's you know,when I initially went to school,
I was like, Oh, Iwant to be a doctor, and I
want to do this. I wantto do that because that's why I thought
that's the only way to help people. And as I've grown and experience life,
(10:30):
I realized that those are the smallestavenue to be able to do it.
There's so many different ways to beable to help people and be more
impactful than a doctor. Ever.Would I wonder now us having this conversation
with you wanting to do that,like, what would be that for you?
(10:52):
I mean to have that happen,especially for you know, like you
said, for your daughters, liketo have a legacy that I'm happy with.
Yeah, So I think it comeslike for me when I think about
it, it comes down a coupleof different fronts. So, So I
just got back from this work tripthat I had down in Tahas And so
(11:13):
when I was down there, sothis is over Halloween, I was upset
that I was missing it because Imean kind of for that same reason,
right, like I didn't want Ididn't want my kids to think of me
as somebody who wasn't there in themajor moments. Now in our house,
Halloween isn't that. But you know, for my kids and the way they
guilt tripped me, that was theperfect way to twist the knife and it
worked. But you know, wehad talked about like, hey, I
(11:33):
think this is a good career move. It's important. You got to go
and just just do it, don'tdon't worry about it. So I go
down and then we have this thismeeting, and I feel really good leaving
this meeting, Like I feel likeI've put a big impact on who I
am. I think everybody in thatroom could say something about me and like
say, wow, this this guyis doing good work no matter what.
(11:56):
Right, And so I felt,you know, and and I'll share this
too. I feel weird saying thison a recorded line, But I've always
had this premonition I guess that Iwas gonna go early in life, whatever
that meant. I don't know.Maybe it's fifty, maybe it's twenty.
I'm past the twenty mark, sowoo who. But I've always just kind
of had this thought that that wasgonna be it. So like every time
(12:18):
I go on like a road trip. Every time I get on a plane,
or like any scenario that could beseen this potentially dangerous. Right,
the thought goes through my mind,if this is it, what are people
going to say about me? Andso, you know, leaving that meeting,
I felt very good that professionally peoplewere gonna have the nicest things to
(12:39):
say. They're gonna be people showingup to my funeral that you wouldn't expect.
You'd see some titles and they'd beyou know, wearing black, shedding
real tears, the whole bit,right, And I would feel good about
where I left that. But butI also thought like I haven't had enough
time with my kids to be ableto leave the legacy i'd want for them
right there. There are so manythings like that. I am proud of
(13:01):
them, and I know I've personallybeen able to leave a mark on them
and it's going to carry them throughlife. But like with my grandparents too,
I was, you know, relativelyyoung when they passed, and just
you know, we're talking about awhole generation gap in that point, right,
I just think about so much moreI could have been if they had
been here. That's it's initial thoughts, right, because because I also know
(13:26):
and like reflecting on their passing andlike going through that morning process, like
so much of who I am isdirectly because of them, and I haven't
even seen what that's going to meandown the road yet. I still do
know what I want to be whenI grow up, but I do know
when I get to that point,it's going to be because of something that
they had taught me. Right,So it's a really hard thing to define,
(13:50):
but it's I don't know, it'sjust just been weighing on me a
lot lately. And I'll share thisstory too, coming back on that same
trip. All right, So Iam a you tell me if I'm off
base here. I'm a wide shoulderedman. Okay, wide shouldered, Okay,
wide shoulders, and at the endof the day, like airplanes,
(14:13):
and they're design great for aerodynamics,terrible for me, at least the airlines
I can afford. So I'm flying. I'm flying southwest, right, and
I paid extra so I could pickmy seats ahead of sixty percent of that
plane. So I know I eitherneed a window or an exit row or
(14:37):
an aisle because I know I'm notgoing to get the first row right where
you got all that extra extra room. But I can get one of those
three pretty easily. So I geton the plane and I just missed the
exit row. Like the person fromme took the last seat in the extras
row. I got fine, soI'll take the window in the next seat
behind. And still as I'm sittingthere, I'm looking at every like I'm
(14:58):
I in every body upcoming in theaisle behind me, because it's like I'm
saying, you can sit next tome or you can't, based on how
wide those shoulders are, how rightthis flight is gonna be. So the
first couple they come through there,they were a wide shoulder gentlemen like myself,
and you know, I just didn'tmake eye contact with him because I
didn't want him to think that theycould sit here. And this this father
(15:22):
I'm sorry, this mother son combocomes up and I was I was looking
at him, and they looked likethey were gonna sit by me. I'm
like, okay, this is gonnawork if the mom sits in the middle.
And so I'm just kind of likedied eyeing them this whole time to
see who what order they're gonna goin. And sure enough, they picked
correct, So the the sun wasmaybe a few years older than me,
and the mom was you know,like let's say grandma age. And there
(15:46):
was some little banter back and forth, but like I noticed them right when
they came in and sat down,and they they were both black, both
from Chicago on their way home,one on the north side, one on
the south side, right, andyou know, we talked a little bit,
just kind of like just friendly planechatter, but not too much,
you know, because that's also adeal breaker if you're too chatty. So
(16:06):
we needed to establish that early whilethere were still some seats left behind me.
I sound so high maintenance when Italk about this, but I think
everybody can relate. Everybody can relateto this. Anybody out size can relate
to this upsides size, no ofsize. So anyways, the point is,
like I notice them right, andI start to notice some things about
(16:30):
both of them and just kind ofthe way they're interacting their personalities and stuff.
And like we were laughing about likethere was this one like let's say
the average I don't know what thissize is, but like let's say the
average carry on luggage is twenty fourinches wide. There was about twenty two
inches of space, so enough whereeverybody thought they could get their bag there,
but nobody could. And it wasso funny, and we're just we're
(16:52):
cracking up the whole time on display, like as people are getting on the
plane, and it's because they don'tknow why we're laughing at them. So
like maybe it was really who knows, but it doesn't matter who knows.
Yeah, it was you guys.I'm pretty sure you guys are in somebody's
stories on Instagram. Yeah. I'vebeen scouring podcasts too to see if you
(17:15):
know, if we if they're talkingabout us. So here's my rebuttal to
them. Right, So, sowe started going and I realize exactly what's
going on here, and so weget like I'm trying to distract myself because
I'm starting to get emotional and I'malready coming down from like these great meetings
that we had, missing my kids. I'm trying to get back and I'm
just trying to keep it together atthis point, and I'm thinking about traffic
(17:37):
and how long it's going to takeme to get home. So I'm flipping
through on like the southwest half,and I'm trying to find movies and stuff
and just just to distract myself.And I'm gonna I'm gonna sidetrack from it.
I picked the wrong one. Ipicked A Star is Born the Lady
Gaga and look, I don't thatmovie is so loud in my life,
Like it's just so many emotional things. And like as soon as they singing
(18:03):
that that shallow song, like theytruth me told I don't even really know
what that song is about, butit hits me in the heart every time.
So I'm like I had to shutit off. As we were on
the planet, I'm just like,okay, I'm just gonna play Solitaire.
That's pretty pretty generic. So I'mplaying. I'm playing Solitaire, right,
And so anyways, we land andI'm thinking this whole time, like am
I gonna say something to these peopleor not? And so we finally land
(18:26):
and we taxi. We get tothe to the terminal and I finally stop
and I touched the old the womanon the leg and I say, hey,
I just got to tell you this. You really made my day today.
And he looks at me like whatwhat did I do? And I
said, from the second you satdown, I could smell your perfume,
(18:47):
and that perfume is the same waythat my grandma wore. And you know,
she had passed away two years agoand then went into the whole story
with them, like they adopted mewhen they were four, and so I
grew up and it's just been thiswhole like road to recovery, like in
little bits and pieces. And Iwas like, and you sat down,
and I smelled it, and it'sthe first time I've smelled it in two
years. And your mannerism is theway you talk to your son, your
(19:11):
laugh, like all of it wasjust so much my grandma that I felt
like she was sitting next to meon this flight, and I'm like tearing
up as I'm saying this to her, right, and they're both just kind
of looking at me, and Idon't know what the response is going to
be. And the son put hishand out and he, you know,
he shook my hand and he's like, hey, you didn't have to say
anything, but I'm so glad youdid. And and she grabbed my arm
(19:36):
and she looked at me and shejust like dead in the eyes, right,
and she's got her mask in herlittle hat on. There's only like
two inches of her face you cansee, but she's staring right through me,
and she just says, Man,God is good, isn't he?
And like, I'm just like,oh, man, lady, like you
don't even know what you did,but but it was so good, right,
(19:56):
And I just I felt so wholein this whole thing, right.
And I was thinking about it againbecause I'm on this legacy kick and I
was glad the plane didn't go downon all those things because I got stuff
to do. Good Lord, butI was thinking, like, isn't that
her legacy? And how beautiful thatis? Two years later that I get
(20:21):
to just kind of feel her presencefrom some complete stranger who looking at us.
I mean, we're clearly not related, right, we live in two
different parts of Chicago, Land.We will never see each other again.
But in those two and a halfhours, like that woman just being there
made everything worth it, right,And I'm still, you know, like
a week after this stroom, I'mstill just like cathartic about it, and
(20:45):
I'm like, oh, I'm blownaway by it, and I'm so thankful
for that experience. But if mygrandma wasn't who she was, I don't
pick up on that right, Andit's something so little as perfume to grab
your attention. And I think aboutthe other scenario, like if she was
in everything that she was, whatkind of emotions does that draw back in
a negative way? You know?So I think the fact that you notice
(21:08):
all these little things over time,but you never really put them together until
it's not it's not there, notin your face all the time. So
that's my legacy story. That wasbeautiful. That's very beautiful. And to
the mother's son, Combo and thepeople that we're probably recording, you guys
(21:30):
on plane, is it not youbeing rude or whatever, It's just it's
just amazing how those type of scenarioscan just like pop up no matter what.
And trend of mine recently lost herfather and she's still like going through
it over and she's just like whendoes it get better? I'm just like
I said, I was, like, it gets better, but it does
(21:52):
not go away. Yeah, becausethere are always is, all all ways
instances that like that that happened,and it can and you'll be fine one
day and you know, thinking everythingis just you know, honky dory or
whatever, and the next something likethat will happen and you will just be
under the covers for like a dayor so because you're like, I just
(22:15):
need to recover. And you're right, I do think those types of things
are their legacy. And I'm wondering, you know, because the generation before
us and the generation before us andthe generation before us had to go through
so much and deal with so much, if that's what they ask for when
you know, talking about their legacy, yeah, and if they achieved that
(22:38):
because that was the extent of whatthey could imagine. You know. Now
we have so many things that areout there and kind of like what you
said, we were always told her, you know, our generation millennials or
whatever. We're always told you cando and be anything, and that never
has gone away for me. Butthe next generation will that be the same?
(23:02):
I truth be told, And Iknow everybody says this. I really
do worry about like the generation afterus, because it's quite scary how they
have sensory overload for everything. Yeah, Like I mean, you're ready to
jump at any and everything and thenare anxious about stuff, and it's just
I'm like, wow, calm down. There's so much other things that are
(23:23):
about to happen in life. Butyou know what, the generation after that
is going to get it right,because I think they're going to find the
balance. I really hope, soI really really help. So but who
knows, or maybe they learned fromthe legacy that we leave, right.
I think that's kind of the point, right, Like, yeah, this
generation is a little lost right now, right, but if you think in
(23:45):
general, a lot of this generationthat we talk about and like these these
general characteristics we give them probably hasn'tlost the closest person to them, right,
and so maybe they haven't hit thatpoint where it's not fight or flight,
but it's like that, right,It's it's how are they going to
respond in like the real face ofadversity? And I think that it's one
(24:08):
of those areas that there are intricaciesfor sure, through different like you know,
races, culture, even hell,even like geographic regions. Right,
I think there are significant differences,but it all kind of hits you in
the same way. Right, Ithink responses are going to be a little
bit different, and I think legacyhas everything to do with that. And
(24:29):
so I love when we get intolike like you're famous for this, but
like during Black History Month, youwill pull up some facts and figures on
like some of the most interesting people. And I think the significance of that
is, you know, we talkedbefore about representation where we couldn't see it,
but now we're in this world oftechnology where we can go back in
time, like this is your DeLoreanduring that month, where you can say,
(24:53):
no, no, look what weas a people did anything is possible,
yeah, whereas before it was likeknown but not really discussed, right,
So yeah, but what I like, what was it known throughout?
Like let's even say, like useBlack History Month as example, like you
(25:15):
pull out some weird stuff like soand so invented Mario Kart in nineteen twenty
four before the television. I thinksome of those are probably still shocking to
people of color. Right, ifyou're especially at all time, like you,
I think are more in tune withyour roots than most people. I
(25:36):
would like to think so, Butyou'd be surprised how many people have always
kind of just been like, well, you know, you talk white,
or you act white, or youdon't act black enough and stuff like that.
So right, and I'm just like, well, okay, that's another
topic for another day. I lovethat age. Oh yeah, but it's
always been something that I just foundissues Like, I love history. I've
(26:00):
always just found it fascinating. Andit's probably because wanting to leave one wanting
to leave a legacy and understanding whatit means to be able to touch people
and be of use to people insome way, shape or form, but
also learn from history, one tonot repeat the same mistakes and two to
be better than we were before.So but Black history has always been just
(26:25):
extremely, extremely important and fascinating tome. And I'm starting to get that
way about Native American history as welltoo. Mm yeah, as we start
to hear more about the stuff weshould have been learning about, right,
No, not even that. AndI'm gonna be honest. So I was
already, like I said, alwaysbeen a big history buff, but I
(26:48):
was are knowing about, you know, some of the struggles and things that
Native Americans have gone through, andmy son being part Native American, so
I just wanted to know more aboutthat part of him, their history and
stuff like that. And then Iremember I did one of the video creations
for work for I forgot what itwas and seeing that chief talk about the
(27:14):
things that were going on in Canadato Native Americans for children and stuff.
They residential schools sixty scoop that wholething. Yeah, that sparked me wanting
to do or get even more intoit. And like the movie that just
came out for I think it wasMartin Scarsese. Yeah, I think it
is Hammer Spielberg. Take your pickright well, next one, it's because
(27:40):
it's the it's about the Osage tribeand things that they went through once they
found oil on their land after theyhad been kicked off of their native land
in the beginning, and they endup finding oil on their land and they
literally the people who are on thatland literally become like the richest people in
(28:00):
the world at that time. Andafter that, the government comes up and
starts making these cassinine rules. Ohthey need guardians because they're not confident enough
to be able to handle this typeof money. So once they put in
that stupid ass law, oh,these people just immediately start either disappearing or
(28:22):
just dying. And that I wasjust like this, Oh my god,
it's like the same thing all overagain, but for another you know,
group of people. And then beingable to see some of the other things
that they've been able to accomplish andsee and build you know, in that
(28:42):
you know, overcoming strife and stuff. It was just really really enlightening to
see. And I'm just continuing toget into that. But I remember when
I saw that this movie was comingout, I was like, oh,
I'd love to see it, andthen it was like, oh, three
and a half hours. Fuck that, all right, I've read the book.
I'm good, so and yeah,hold on, I want to hit
(29:04):
on an area here. So Ithink a lot of people use the term
history buff, and I think alot of people misinterpret that or maybe use
it a little bit too loosely.I'll verify here in front of our live
studio audience that you are, infact a history buff. You will hit
me with some facts and knowledge andlike just stories that I don't think anybody
(29:26):
knows, but you know, theprelog, the story and the aftermath of
it. So I will classify usethat history buff. But on that topic
though, like right now, Iwould really pick any point in history right.
And it all kind of comes downto where do you get your news
right? And so it sounds likeyou had to go out and seek very
(29:48):
specific information from various sources to kindof piece your story together. So and
I agree it's super important. I'mnot a history buff. I'm not good
at this stuff that can't name youknow, all these different events in history.
I I got to read up.But like, here's a good example.
You know, I grew up inthis this very white town in the
suburbs of Chicago. I didn't hearabout Juneteenth until I was like thirty.
(30:12):
And I know when I first toldyou that, you were like, you
don't celebrate up there. You don't. You don't know about this, You
have no idea. So how doyou, like, where do you look?
Like talk talk to the listeners fora minute about where where do you
go to like really dig into thisfrom anywhere between like current events to what
to the historical things that you're talkingabout. It. It's going to sound
(30:36):
very weird, but in this dayand age, that's why it sounds weird.
But I do a lot of researchat libraries. You can do you
can do some of it online andothers you may have to specifically go to
it if you're looking for certain things, because you have to actually use those
old schools. I forgot what shouldcall them, but that's the way that
they live. And not even thatlike some of them you have to go
(31:00):
to the old school like machines wherethey would have where you turn a dial
and you can see all of thenewspapers and things like that onlin film like
one of the like. Sometimes that'sthe only thing that they have because they
have not digitized their system. Othertimes it is people who have done the
work for you where you can findspecific information on this where they've done articles
(31:22):
or pieces things like that, andyou can find that. But I do
get a lot of that information fromlibraries, either local excuse me, local
or university libraries things like that,and some of them you can get for
free. Others you can buy accessto for a bit, and if you're
super hard up for money, becausesometimes that is how people are, there
(31:45):
are like free trials that they'll giveand I will use old gift cards because
most of those free trials don't reallycheck how much money you have on it.
They just want to see if youhave an open credit card or whatever.
And as long as you have liketwenty three dollars yeah on it,
you can use that. And onething about it is gift cards. Most
of the time they're like the expiration. They just take ten years out so
(32:08):
right, you can use it fora very long time. But yeah,
I tend to do it that wayand being specific in what you're looking for
and what I mean by that isa lot of time. If you use
like Google, it may be abit biased in some of the stuff that
it shows you. So if youput up in quotations, it will be
(32:29):
more directs. And I've used otherthings like Brave the browser or Duck duto
as the browser and they'll give medifferent hits and different information and stuff like
that. But yeah, that's usuallyhow I do a lot of the research
and things that I'm like, I'mlooking for. But like I said,
I am one of those people whoare more of a history buff, so
(32:52):
I will take the time to golook at it and do the work for
it and for our younger viewers.A library is this municipal building that is
located in almost every city. It'sasunder and I'm just kidding, but none.
That's another fun pat if you dogo to libraries, because I don't
know if some of these people youknow, remember if you're older, and
(33:15):
again if you're younger, this isa way to balling on a budget.
Because I have a lot of thosebasically, but you can read have free
audio books and free movies that youcan get from the library to the point
where you can either have it ona DVD. It's up to you.
(33:35):
And if they do not have theDVD most of the time, what they
will have is linked to a digitalcopy of it and send that to you
for free. Of course, youcan't like watch it forever. It's it's
in some way that they'll have itto where you can. It's quote unquote
like rented or whatnot. And alsoa lot of the audiobooks that come out,
or a lot of the new booksthat come out, and people are
(33:57):
like, oh, well, I'lldo it on audible or I'll do it
on blah blah. You go tolibrary, it's upscree mm hmm. You
log in on there and sometimes theyhave it to where oh you have to
have a library card to do it. The library card is like five dollars
for like ten years something like that. It's ridiculous. So and they're free
up here. It depends, yeah, it depends, but I mean five
(34:22):
dollars in years where you could possiblybe able to stream and watch movies and
stuff for free without ads and stufflike that versus Netflix, who just had
twenty five dollars just broke twenty fivedollars for streaming, Like, hey again,
balling on a budget type stuff?Yeah? Man, do you remember
there was a Nappy roots song calledBalling on a Budget. No, oh
(34:45):
yeah, yeah, let's get thatplayed in here for the for the editor.
Yeah, balling on a budget ifyou can find it, please please?
What fo? I'm just bowing.I'm never like, yeah, you
got you. So that's I didn'tthink we were getting into a research discussion
(35:06):
today, but this this really matters, right because I think so many people
stop if it's not in the firstpage of their Google search, and they
say, oh, I looked intoit, right, And I think that's
I mean, I think all thetime about this generation. I've got a
younger brother that like, has askedme so many stupid questions and I just
sent them the screenshot of what likethe first Google response because it's right there.
(35:29):
But they're not using the tools thatthey have, Like, could you
imagine we could have done with Googlemuch less AI back in school? Maybe
we would be doctors at this pointabout it. But let's let's fast forward
to like today, right, becausenow I think about like something like TikTok
that you've given me a hard timefor not being on for I think three
years at this point. But Isee so much of like like what's going
(35:52):
on in the Middle East right now. There's so many people that are relying
on TikTok to get their news becausethey don't try us what mainstream media or
even some of the other ones aresaying that they're getting live footage of what's
happening broadcast out. So like,how do you how do you navigate that
balance? Because you're also really goodat that real like we will send silly
(36:15):
stuff back and forth, but likethe serious things are always super credible based
on what you're finding, but Iknow there's a lot that's not. So
how do you weed through that.Let's let's talk to this generation about that
for a minute. So that isvery hard because, like I said before,
Google can be biased when it's thestuff that it's showing you for people
(36:35):
who have paid or whatnot, andyou deciphering between the different sources is basically
in the tone of what they're saying. If they get very defensive or kind
of judgy in that, then yousee that it's an opinion piece, and
it's not necessarily something that is beingportrayed as these are the facts. I
don't really rely on stuff that endsin like if it's if it's not on
(37:00):
dot com or whatever, and itcan't be like bumblebee trump dot com or
something like that. I'm not reallylooking for that stuff. Like I said,
that's one of the reasons why Ikind of go to the EDUS and
things like that, because again,this is something that's written more from a
perspective of research, and even ifI don't agree with the stuff, it's
(37:21):
still something that I'm like, Okay, well that was their opinion, and
this is a research that they cameup with because of the hy hypothesis that
they created at that time. Letme see what actually came about from somebody
else's research within it, Like Imean, taking the time to do that
unless you're gamefully trying your best tojust gain the system. Usually that stuff
(37:45):
doesn't come up like that when itcomes to research, so to speak,
especially when it comes to history.But nowadays people are just so wanting to
be famous and wanting to, youknow, get the clicks and stuff like
that, they're more inclined to showthe real raw stuff, whether it's good
or bad. So that's why they, you know, kids really want to
(38:07):
trust the stuff that they're saying onTikTok a little bit more rather than the
people on like CNN, Thoughts Newsall the rest that because there's always like
in a angle to it to theyounger generation rather than just showing it good
or bad with you know, yourown opinion. And I think that's one
(38:28):
reason why a lot of people justfeel like if I'm watching TikTok or if
I'm watching this, it's not througha filter or somebody else's bias, And
even if it is, it's it'susually reported as that right because you're you're
seeing live, this is not wordson the page. You are seeing what
(38:49):
their responses are, and you cankind of draw your own opinions of like,
Okay, do I align with thisperson or not? Are they crazy?
Or do I only believe them becausewe share this belief. Also another
thing is a lot of the timeswhen you see stuff on TikTok, there
is the comments that you're able tosee whether or not people feel like they
you know, agree with you orwhatnot, And there always be that one
(39:12):
person that is being thetrol and tryingto you stir up stuff, and they're
just like, oh, well thishappened because of blah blah blah blah.
Dah da da dah dah. Andpeople are able to jump in there and
feel like they're a part of thediscussion, Whereas again, if you were
watching like Fox News, CNN,MSNBC or whatever, it's just them talking.
(39:34):
You never really get to have,you know, discourse with them or
dialogue about this unless you're in aroom full of people watching this with them,
and even then it's probably nobody's talkingto each other. So they feel
more engaged that way, but it'sa falseness of engagement unfortunately, because it
also makes them feel like, oh, well I've done something right, right,
look what I did? Yeah,yeah, yeah, and the other
(40:00):
I'll tie this back to legacy too, So I don't know about union.
Correct me if you think I'm wrongin this. But like I can look
at somebody's page and see what they'veliked, what they've thought about, like
to get a real good idea ofwho they are. But almost to the
point where it's a little scary,Like I can look at someone's page if
you give me ten pages and yousaid, hey, you know, I
(40:21):
want you to tell me which waythey've voted. I could probably tell you
based on what TikTok they were promoting. So I say that to just be
conscious about no matter what age,what part of the world you're in right
now, like, think about yourlegacy and what you want that to be.
Right. I'm hearing stories about peoplethat are signing petitions about whatever right,
and they're being blackballed for their opinionsright now. And while the content
(40:46):
you may be subjecting yourself to andopting into may make it seem so real
and so whatever right, and speakso loud to you, the world might
think something different about that, orthey might agree to you. Yeah,
there might be a piece to it. But but I just encourage everyone that's
like involved in the space and likein is active and loud, be active,
(41:07):
be loud, get your voice outthere. But just understand you are.
You are writing your legacy every singleday, And so if you think
about your kids, your grandkids,whoever down the line, neighbors, doesn't
matter about how they're going to viewyou, right. I always I always
like to imagine, like this soundsso morbid again, but like I think
(41:28):
about like, I want a lotof people to show it to my funeral,
right, and I want to knowwho speaks. I want to have
an open mic there because I wanteverybody to be able to get their opinions
out right. And I feel soconfident in saying that because, like you,
I am a lover of people.I love to help. I love
to just be involved in the rightdegree, because there are wrong degrees to
(41:49):
it. But like I think whenI'm gone, years and years after I'm
gone, I think people are goingto be saying the things about me that
that I hope that they're going tobe saying. Now, I've got time,
right, I've got time to getrich and screw up and you know,
get on TMZ, get all that. But I think where it stands
right now, it's just something that'sbeen pressing in my mind. And I
appreciate you sharing what you did becauseyou've been thinking about this longer than I
(42:14):
have. So I have a questionnow. Yeah, in that sense,
like I said, this is mainlyfrom the perspective of a person of color
who's because you kind of feel likethat's the only way you'll be remembered.
You'll you'll have any type of legacyis by doing that or getting rich or
(42:35):
becoming something. But you have theseavenues that you feel like, these are
the ways that I'm going to doit, not being a person of color
being I heard this the other dayand I could not stop laughing at it,
and I'm sorry about it, butthis like this guy was like again,
(42:57):
TikTok, I just got to getup to TikTok. He was like
he liked black women. But Ineed to know if you get mad at
me, are you gonna call mea mayonnaise citizen? And I could not
stop laughing. I'm done a man, a mayonnaise citizen. I was like,
I'm done. I can't with this. But so my question to you
(43:21):
is being that that isn't something thatwas probably you know, thought, because
like you said, you had allthe avenues to be able to do it.
Do you have a sense or likea feeling of what the legacy necessarily
would be or not feeling like,oh, it's just like he was another
white man who just wanted to beyou know, virtue signaling or pretending to
(43:43):
be an ally or something like youknow what I mean. Yeah, yeah,
no, I mean I think aboutthis a lot, and you know,
we we've talked about it on theshow about you know how coming into
this space and like wanting to activelylike not just working DEI, but like
truly influence the way people of colorfeel at work, in life and everywhere,
(44:06):
right and not just in that professionalsetting. You know. I came
to the realization that not everybody isgonna love me because you told me that
and you forced that on me.But but I do think about, like,
I, Okay, so you didn'twant to talk about this, but
I'm going to a lot of peoplehave used this comment and I didn't really
understand it for a long time.I just thought it was like this colloquialism
(44:30):
where there you know, it's justsomething to say or you know, just
just a phrase. But it's hithome a lot for me. And it's
that idea of like, like,man, this this guy's a real one
and I and it's not a humblebrag or anything. But but I think
that's been my difference in where Iwork and why I get called into some
of the meetings I do. WhyI get to talk about some of the
(44:51):
things I talk about is because I'vealways led with exactly what I think right,
and and I've always come out withlike in the uncomfortable conversations, I've
let my feelings kind of lead thatand let people know where I'm coming from.
And so what it's done for mea lot is it's broken down a
lot of barriers that I not allof them, right, but it's it's
(45:14):
broken down a lot where people peopleof color specifically are very open to to
just talking with me, even thoughthey might still be skeptical, they're they're
at least gonna hear me out,and it might be five, six,
seven conversations sometimes before they even startto divulge what they're feeling. But like
that concept of being real has hasbeen more meaningful than I thought it was.
(45:37):
Like it's the highest compliment I canget front like in this space talking
in like these these DEI meetings.If someone says if personal color comes to
me and says, hey, thatwas real, man, thank you,
Like that means more to me thanany other flowers you can bring me.
But again, I think it's it'smulti layered, multifaceted, right, Like
(45:58):
I think again, I'll go backto my funeral. I want that to
look like the melting pot, LikeI think that that visual that people see
matters, right, And I think, you know, when I look at
my kids and like who their friendsare, Like I notice what they look
like, right, and I getexcited. So, like, my oldest
is going to a birthday party thisweekend and she might be the only white
(46:22):
girl there and I'm so excited forher to just be in that because she
doesn't see it, she doesn't getit. She's just trying to figure out
how she's not gonna like fall offher roller skates and embarrass herself in practice
for this all week. But Ithink then that carries on to her,
like who are their friend circles whenthey get older? And how much influence
(46:42):
did I have in that? Andit sounds silly, but like choosing where
I live, choosing where we enrollthem, and like the types of environments
we put them in, it carriesweight and it helps kind of shavee them.
So I think, at the endof the day, like my legacy
is going to be really are todetermine and it's gonna go It's going to
go on beyond me and beyond myexistence here, right is It's that's the
(47:07):
hope anyways, right there, havebeen people in my life that have passed
that like I don't. I don'tthink about it, And if you asked
me to talk about them, Icouldn't because I didn't. I didn't really
know them. I didn't know whattheir heart was, right. But but
the ones that I did know,I mean, I could talk all day
and I could paint you a pictureof like my grandparents, for example,
I could I could talk about themfrom the time they were born until or
(47:30):
I guess the time they remember isa more fair way to say it,
but from you know, when theywere young, all the way until the
end, and then what they've beenbeyond, like the story on the airplane
with my grandma. Then answer yourquestion, I was I was going on
circles. You give me a fullon tangent. Well, no, because
I mean, again, this endsup being one of those questions that you
(47:50):
can't really just ask, just rightstraight out, like I have to go
through this, like it's going tohave to be a full on spectacle other
than and the Nobel Peace Prize tofeel like you're gonna be remembered. But
that's not something that you have todeal with. So in that, what
does it feel like so yeah,that's it's funny, it's Alwad's going to
(48:15):
be a question like that, Likeyou bring up the Nobel Peace Prize,
and like I think I have likeif I'm not in the running or anything,
but if I if that was apart of my life that was like
a possibility or something that was goingto come to fruition, I think I
would genuinely care less about that becauseto me, that's that's what the world
as a whole says about me,but not about what my inner circle says.
(48:37):
Right in my inner circle, youknow, is getting wider and wider
as it goes, and that's bydesign, right I want it to be
able to. But but I caremore about what those that really knew me,
that that were around me, andlike my lowest points and my highest
points and even in like those middlepoints that can be kind of weird,
right, like those make or breakpoints. Like I care much more about
(48:57):
like what someone like you would saythan what you know, somebody has given
us a word to be like,oh he did some really good things here,
maybe, But tell me about thepeople that I impacted in that journey
towards that. Okay, that wasgood, who that felt good. I
hope it plays back really nice.There you go, not worrying about the
legacy. There I say, I'msaying, right, Okay, Well,
(49:22):
I think that's a good place toend it. I wanted to thank everybody
for coming on this journey with ustonight. Please, if you have not,
take time to go ahead and lookat the other shows on the Sable
Radio Network. We have some wonderfulthings on here and different vibes for different
things. But for the most part, the one thing that we care about
(49:43):
is that you love and care aboutpeople in your life and come back and
tell them some of this. Someof the shows on here are the funniest
things I've ever heard. You gotto you gotta listen to this and then
tell your other friends, tell yourother friends. We've been doing this well,
God, almost twelve years and we'restill independent. We're still not internationally
known. You may not care aboutwhat the resk of the world says,
(50:06):
but I want them to be ableto hear what we say at least all
right, I wanted to hear ittoo. Yet, Hey, can we
start another campaign here too? Canwe start the bring Back Cool Black Nerd
campaign? To name Okay, okay, we I don't even know what to
say, but like Jules, justbe Jewels, and and it be killing
(50:29):
me. I'm like Jewels. Let'sget a show, all right, all
right, Jewels, what you're doing, honestly listen as important as those likes
and follows. Let's blow that commentsection up, let's call it all that.
Let's get back on here. Weneed to hear it. We need
this entertainment. I have no ideawhat's going on in the world of gaming
(50:50):
or tech because he hasn't told meso much, live so much. So
yes, please TikTok Jewels. AsAlse said, blow it up, get
it going. Let's push Jewels intodoing this again because it's so much content,
so much stuff out there. Butthank you for tuning in tonight.
Catch us. I don't I can'tsay next. I can't. I can't
(51:12):
take it from say right radio.But catch us on the next episode,
and please think about your legacy.We are out
Should I ask you something? Sendit by Say What Radio? Here we
go go. I don't know aboutyou, but I never saw our conversations
as uncomfortable. I had the understandingof, well, if he's asking,
is he's wanting the truth, whetherit's uncomfortable or actually, don't hit him
upside the head. It is whatit is, he adds for it.
(00:30):
I don't know. I think theuncomfortableness comes from kind of the whole idea
behind this podcast is like, Idon't know if it's okay if I ask
this and not is my question okay? But is me asking the question going
to be perceived as okay? Saywhat? Hello? I'm Justice, one
of the hosts of this podcast andfounder of Say What Radio Network. I
(00:54):
wanted to kick this off by sayingthanks again for going on this journey.
You could be anywhere else, butyou're here with us. This episode was
recorded recorded earlier and talk about pastevents, but the discussion is show worth
listening to. Chiming in on socialmedia, sharing with friends and others,
and please forgive our my quality.As we were trying to get our set
(01:18):
up straight for this passion project,we wanted to bring into reality without further
ado here is Can I ask yousomething? All right? All right?
All right, hello people out thereand podcast lance, got your girl Justice
here? Thank you for tuning into Can I can I ask you?
Can? I? You know,I keep going back and forth the name
(01:40):
of the show. I keep looksetting myself up. Can I ask you
something? Or can I ask youthat? Keep? I keep messing myself
up either way, got your girlJustice here? And I still don't know.
We haven't named no not Yeah,I'm still just out for now.
Just ow ow ow big owl.I don't like that we're gonna need something
(02:04):
before next week. I had areally cool one and you shut it down.
You laughed so hard at me thatI lost all confidence in it and
I can't even remember what it wasnow. Need good. I have to
go back through the text messages becauseI definitely I have no idea what that
could be. Yeah, I needn'ttake it seriously. We'll just get to
think it'd be more creative one.We'll get marketing on the phone. Well,
(02:27):
yeah, I haven't spoked to themin a whole Please don't hate me
for not posting social media. Thingshave been crazy, so we'll get back
to it. I promise all rightfor tonight's topic question of the night,
you can start us off al andyou know what, you know, I
was just thinking would be really Alicestare, But that's taken two. Yeah
(02:50):
it is, Hm, we'll figureit out. Yeah. No, so
tonight's I think this is a superinteresting question. We'll get into some store
reason as we go, but reallyI want to kind of center it around
legacy and at our prime young agesthat we are right now, Like I
just want to know. I mean, let's start off by just saying,
(03:12):
like, how how much do youthink about legacy and what is that to
you? You know me, I'vebeen grinded to be able to create generational
wealth for my family forever. Thatis like my stickler, and not necessarily
just the generational wealth, but tobe remembered, to be heard about,
(03:34):
to touch people in a way thatis beneficial to the human race, the
world, friends, family, whatever. I don't want to be famous.
I want to be wealthy, butI also want to have that. I
guess it is legacy, but it'smainly to me more of like when people
like people actually remember you, theyyou know, revere the memory of you
(03:58):
specific specific even if they don't necessarilyremember the name, but they like remember
me, like I remember her,you know. Yeah, so, yeah,
there's that one girl that had thatpodcast. What's her name? Yeah,
yeah, yeah, Like she alwaysdid this like made me laugh or
she was always falling down because shecan't walk straight and heals and stuff.
You know, she's very very funnywoman. So and you mentioned like you've
(04:25):
been trying to do this or you'vebeen trying to take over the world for
a long time, so it's beena priority. But like, but why,
Like we're still pretty young and reallylike in the overall opinion, like
we're too young to be really activelythinking about legacy in the court of popular
opinion. Not necessarily, you don'tthink so huh yep, but don't not
(04:45):
in my mind, because you neverknow how you could touch someone. And
thinking that your legacy has a startand end date for the time that it
can be created, to me,isn't as isn't a thing? Yeah,
I guess. I just I hearpeople that are about to retire talk about
legacy more than any other group ofpeople that I've ever run into. It's
(05:08):
like the question come up, likeshould I retire? What am I going
to be known for? What amI going to be remembered for? And
so like for us though I haven'tsenior bank account, but I don't know
how close you are at a retirementI'm not. But okay, see you
mentioned the wealth part of it,right, and I think that's certainly a
(05:29):
piece of it, but it soundslike it's more like that family piece,
So I gotta ask you. Growingup, okay, let me back up,
getting into the d I space,one of the first things I heard
people talk about was representation, right, and so people of color have always
said, like, man, Ijust I can't see when growing up,
I never saw myself and other people. I never saw a black X,
(05:50):
Y or Z, and so Inever even considered that possibility. I had
the opposite experience where I never eventhought about representation like once in my childhood
because I never had to. Youknow, the the idea of you can
be whatever you want to be wassuper easy for me because I could look
anywhere and see a white man doingwhatever, and they're all like these desirable
(06:14):
positions or fun or positions of poweror whatever. So let's just start there.
What did like representation that piece ofit? Growing up? What did
that mean to you? And doesit tie to this legacy conversation? Like
does is that does you being soconscious of your legacy now at a young
age tie to that I did.I didn't have anybody to look up to
(06:36):
it, and not that you didn'thave anybody if you didn't have a ton
of options available to you to say, Okay, I could be this,
I could be this, I couldbe the app So I'm probably like a
bad person to ask for this becausebecause I did not see all of these
people, and it just maybe youknow, coping mechanism or hell, just
(06:58):
straight up narcissism. But because Ididn't see all of those people, I
just saw myself in that position thatI wanted to be in. So if
it was like I didn't see anybodydoing it, I saw myself doing it
in that TV show or in thatmovie, in that book. I've just
literally supplanted myself into it, whichis how I probably got to the place
(07:24):
that I am where I'm like,okay, I have to do this or
whatnot or even thinking about that.But that's just the way I always saw
it. It has affected me alittle bit more now to be able to
see other people to have more representationbecause I'm able to better visualize and not
necessarily put it onto me to whereit has to be me for everything,
(07:45):
which I don't even think that wassomething that occurred to you. It was
just like, let me just dosomething, whereas me and probably this is
the other difference between it. Forpeople of color, they're looking to make
an imprint, to make a differencein some way, shape or form because
they want to be remembered, whereasif you are not a person of color,
(08:09):
basically just living, you can beremembered. Yeah right, just for
existing. Yeah, yeah, itmakes a lot of sense. So I
think I've shared on this podcast beforethat I was adopted by my grandparents and
both both have actually passed, youknow. I think in twenty fourteen was
my grandpa and two years ago wasmy grandma, And so I've had I'm
(08:33):
going to use this word lately,but like the privilege of being able to
give both of their eulogies, andI still have copies of both of them,
and I noticed when I went backlater with a more clear head and
I read them. I never talkedabout legacy, but that's exactly what I
was talking about. The entire time, and in my grandpa's I remember saying,
(08:56):
you know, my opening line inthat was, you know, my
grandpa used to tell me that youcould tell a lot about a person by
the way people talked about their kids, and so he loved getting compliments on
me. That filled his cup up, right, And I think that's what
he was talking about, like thatthat's his literal legacy coming down, like
the lineage legacy, and that meanteverything in the world to him. And
(09:18):
it wasn't the titles that he had, it wasn't the money that he had
or didn't have. It was justus, right, And I think now
as a father, I'm looking atthat sort of through that lens with with
young kids. It's like, Okay, how am I going to be enough
to help lift your name up?It's strange though, because in that what
(09:41):
do you necessarily do? So forme, it's not necessarily a place or
a thing that I'm trying to getthrough, just a goal to reach and
who knows that if I ever reachit. But I'm just going through life
that to be able to be ofservice and to like I've always known that
(10:05):
I am good at helping people,and I want to help people and things
like that. So I've always triedto move in that direction of you know,
doing that. That's you know,when I initially went to school,
I was like, Oh, Iwant to be a doctor, and I
want to do this. I wantto do that because that's why I thought
that's the only way to help people. And as I've grown and experience life,
(10:30):
I realized that those are the smallestavenue to be able to do it.
There's so many different ways to beable to help people and be more
impactful than a doctor. Ever.Would I wonder now us having this conversation
with you wanting to do that,like, what would be that for you?
(10:52):
I mean to have that happen,especially for you know, like you
said, for your daughters, liketo have a legacy that I'm happy with.
Yeah, So I think it comeslike for me when I think about
it, it comes down a coupleof different fronts. So, So I
just got back from this work tripthat I had down in Tahas And so
(11:13):
when I was down there, sothis is over Halloween, I was upset
that I was missing it because Imean kind of for that same reason,
right, like I didn't want Ididn't want my kids to think of me
as somebody who wasn't there in themajor moments. Now in our house,
Halloween isn't that. But you know, for my kids and the way they
guilt tripped me, that was theperfect way to twist the knife and it
worked. But you know, wehad talked about like, hey, I
(11:33):
think this is a good career move. It's important. You got to go
and just just do it, don'tdon't worry about it. So I go
down and then we have this thismeeting, and I feel really good leaving
this meeting, Like I feel likeI've put a big impact on who I
am. I think everybody in thatroom could say something about me and like
say, wow, this this guyis doing good work no matter what.
(11:56):
Right, And so I felt,you know, and and I'll share this
too. I feel weird saying thison a recorded line, But I've always
had this premonition I guess that Iwas gonna go early in life, whatever
that meant. I don't know.Maybe it's fifty, maybe it's twenty.
I'm past the twenty mark, sowoo who. But I've always just kind
of had this thought that that wasgonna be it. So like every time
(12:18):
I go on like a road trip. Every time I get on a plane,
or like any scenario that could beseen this potentially dangerous. Right,
the thought goes through my mind,if this is it, what are people
going to say about me? Andso, you know, leaving that meeting,
I felt very good that professionally peoplewere gonna have the nicest things to
(12:39):
say. They're gonna be people showingup to my funeral that you wouldn't expect.
You'd see some titles and they'd beyou know, wearing black, shedding
real tears, the whole bit,right, And I would feel good about
where I left that. But butI also thought like I haven't had enough
time with my kids to be ableto leave the legacy i'd want for them
right there. There are so manythings like that. I am proud of
(13:01):
them, and I know I've personallybeen able to leave a mark on them
and it's going to carry them throughlife. But like with my grandparents too,
I was, you know, relativelyyoung when they passed, and just
you know, we're talking about awhole generation gap in that point, right,
I just think about so much moreI could have been if they had
been here. That's it's initial thoughts, right, because because I also know
(13:26):
and like reflecting on their passing andlike going through that morning process, like
so much of who I am isdirectly because of them, and I haven't
even seen what that's going to meandown the road yet. I still do
know what I want to be whenI grow up, but I do know
when I get to that point,it's going to be because of something that
they had taught me. Right,So it's a really hard thing to define,
(13:50):
but it's I don't know, it'sjust just been weighing on me a
lot lately. And I'll share thisstory too, coming back on that same
trip. All right, So Iam a you tell me if I'm off
base here. I'm a wide shoulderedman. Okay, wide shouldered, Okay,
wide shoulders, and at the endof the day, like airplanes,
(14:13):
and they're design great for aerodynamics,terrible for me, at least the airlines
I can afford. So I'm flying. I'm flying southwest, right, and
I paid extra so I could pickmy seats ahead of sixty percent of that
plane. So I know I eitherneed a window or an exit row or
(14:37):
an aisle because I know I'm notgoing to get the first row right where
you got all that extra extra room. But I can get one of those
three pretty easily. So I geton the plane and I just missed the
exit row. Like the person fromme took the last seat in the extras
row. I got fine, soI'll take the window in the next seat
behind. And still as I'm sittingthere, I'm looking at every like I'm
(14:58):
I in every body upcoming in theaisle behind me, because it's like I'm
saying, you can sit next tome or you can't, based on how
wide those shoulders are, how rightthis flight is gonna be. So the
first couple they come through there,they were a wide shoulder gentlemen like myself,
and you know, I just didn'tmake eye contact with him because I
didn't want him to think that theycould sit here. And this this father
(15:22):
I'm sorry, this mother son combocomes up and I was I was looking
at him, and they looked likethey were gonna sit by me. I'm
like, okay, this is gonnawork if the mom sits in the middle.
And so I'm just kind of likedied eyeing them this whole time to
see who what order they're gonna goin. And sure enough, they picked
correct, So the the sun wasmaybe a few years older than me,
and the mom was you know,like let's say grandma age. And there
(15:46):
was some little banter back and forth, but like I noticed them right when
they came in and sat down,and they they were both black, both
from Chicago on their way home,one on the north side, one on
the south side, right, andyou know, we talked a little bit,
just kind of like just friendly planechatter, but not too much,
you know, because that's also adeal breaker if you're too chatty. So
(16:06):
we needed to establish that early whilethere were still some seats left behind me.
I sound so high maintenance when Italk about this, but I think
everybody can relate. Everybody can relateto this. Anybody out size can relate
to this upsides size, no ofsize. So anyways, the point is,
like I notice them right, andI start to notice some things about
(16:30):
both of them and just kind ofthe way they're interacting their personalities and stuff.
And like we were laughing about likethere was this one like let's say
the average I don't know what thissize is, but like let's say the
average carry on luggage is twenty fourinches wide. There was about twenty two
inches of space, so enough whereeverybody thought they could get their bag there,
but nobody could. And it wasso funny, and we're just we're
(16:52):
cracking up the whole time on display, like as people are getting on the
plane, and it's because they don'tknow why we're laughing at them. So
like maybe it was really who knows, but it doesn't matter who knows.
Yeah, it was you guys.I'm pretty sure you guys are in somebody's
stories on Instagram. Yeah. I'vebeen scouring podcasts too to see if you
(17:15):
know, if we if they're talkingabout us. So here's my rebuttal to
them. Right, So, sowe started going and I realize exactly what's
going on here, and so weget like I'm trying to distract myself because
I'm starting to get emotional and I'malready coming down from like these great meetings
that we had, missing my kids. I'm trying to get back and I'm
just trying to keep it together atthis point, and I'm thinking about traffic
(17:37):
and how long it's going to takeme to get home. So I'm flipping
through on like the southwest half,and I'm trying to find movies and stuff
and just just to distract myself.And I'm gonna I'm gonna sidetrack from it.
I picked the wrong one. Ipicked A Star is Born the Lady
Gaga and look, I don't thatmovie is so loud in my life,
Like it's just so many emotional things. And like as soon as they singing
(18:03):
that that shallow song, like theytruth me told I don't even really know
what that song is about, butit hits me in the heart every time.
So I'm like I had to shutit off. As we were on
the planet, I'm just like,okay, I'm just gonna play Solitaire.
That's pretty pretty generic. So I'mplaying. I'm playing Solitaire, right,
And so anyways, we land andI'm thinking this whole time, like am
I gonna say something to these peopleor not? And so we finally land
(18:26):
and we taxi. We get tothe to the terminal and I finally stop
and I touched the old the womanon the leg and I say, hey,
I just got to tell you this. You really made my day today.
And he looks at me like whatwhat did I do? And I
said, from the second you satdown, I could smell your perfume,
(18:47):
and that perfume is the same waythat my grandma wore. And you know,
she had passed away two years agoand then went into the whole story
with them, like they adopted mewhen they were four, and so I
grew up and it's just been thiswhole like road to recovery, like in
little bits and pieces. And Iwas like, and you sat down,
and I smelled it, and it'sthe first time I've smelled it in two
years. And your mannerism is theway you talk to your son, your
(19:11):
laugh, like all of it wasjust so much my grandma that I felt
like she was sitting next to meon this flight, and I'm like tearing
up as I'm saying this to her, right, and they're both just kind
of looking at me, and Idon't know what the response is going to
be. And the son put hishand out and he, you know,
he shook my hand and he's like, hey, you didn't have to say
anything, but I'm so glad youdid. And and she grabbed my arm
(19:36):
and she looked at me and shejust like dead in the eyes, right,
and she's got her mask in herlittle hat on. There's only like
two inches of her face you cansee, but she's staring right through me,
and she just says, Man,God is good, isn't he?
And like, I'm just like,oh, man, lady, like you
don't even know what you did,but but it was so good, right,
(19:56):
And I just I felt so wholein this whole thing, right.
And I was thinking about it againbecause I'm on this legacy kick and I
was glad the plane didn't go downon all those things because I got stuff
to do. Good Lord, butI was thinking, like, isn't that
her legacy? And how beautiful thatis? Two years later that I get
(20:21):
to just kind of feel her presencefrom some complete stranger who looking at us.
I mean, we're clearly not related, right, we live in two
different parts of Chicago, Land.We will never see each other again.
But in those two and a halfhours, like that woman just being there
made everything worth it, right,And I'm still, you know, like
a week after this stroom, I'mstill just like cathartic about it, and
(20:45):
I'm like, oh, I'm blownaway by it, and I'm so thankful
for that experience. But if mygrandma wasn't who she was, I don't
pick up on that right, Andit's something so little as perfume to grab
your attention. And I think aboutthe other scenario, like if she was
in everything that she was, whatkind of emotions does that draw back in
a negative way? You know?So I think the fact that you notice
(21:08):
all these little things over time,but you never really put them together until
it's not it's not there, notin your face all the time. So
that's my legacy story. That wasbeautiful. That's very beautiful. And to
the mother's son, Combo and thepeople that we're probably recording, you guys
(21:30):
on plane, is it not youbeing rude or whatever, It's just it's
just amazing how those type of scenarioscan just like pop up no matter what.
And trend of mine recently lost herfather and she's still like going through
it over and she's just like whendoes it get better? I'm just like
I said, I was, like, it gets better, but it does
(21:52):
not go away. Yeah, becausethere are always is, all all ways
instances that like that that happened,and it can and you'll be fine one
day and you know, thinking everythingis just you know, honky dory or
whatever, and the next something likethat will happen and you will just be
under the covers for like a dayor so because you're like, I just
(22:15):
need to recover. And you're right, I do think those types of things
are their legacy. And I'm wondering, you know, because the generation before
us and the generation before us andthe generation before us had to go through
so much and deal with so much, if that's what they ask for when
you know, talking about their legacy, yeah, and if they achieved that
(22:38):
because that was the extent of whatthey could imagine. You know. Now
we have so many things that areout there and kind of like what you
said, we were always told her, you know, our generation millennials or
whatever. We're always told you cando and be anything, and that never
has gone away for me. Butthe next generation will that be the same?
(23:02):
I truth be told, And Iknow everybody says this. I really
do worry about like the generation afterus, because it's quite scary how they
have sensory overload for everything. Yeah, Like I mean, you're ready to
jump at any and everything and thenare anxious about stuff, and it's just
I'm like, wow, calm down. There's so much other things that are
(23:23):
about to happen in life. Butyou know what, the generation after that
is going to get it right,because I think they're going to find the
balance. I really hope, soI really really help. So but who
knows, or maybe they learned fromthe legacy that we leave, right.
I think that's kind of the point, right, Like, yeah, this
generation is a little lost right now, right, but if you think in
(23:45):
general, a lot of this generationthat we talk about and like these these
general characteristics we give them probably hasn'tlost the closest person to them, right,
and so maybe they haven't hit thatpoint where it's not fight or flight,
but it's like that, right,It's it's how are they going to
respond in like the real face ofadversity? And I think that it's one
(24:08):
of those areas that there are intricaciesfor sure, through different like you know,
races, culture, even hell,even like geographic regions. Right,
I think there are significant differences,but it all kind of hits you in
the same way. Right, Ithink responses are going to be a little
bit different, and I think legacyhas everything to do with that. And
(24:29):
so I love when we get intolike like you're famous for this, but
like during Black History Month, youwill pull up some facts and figures on
like some of the most interesting people. And I think the significance of that
is, you know, we talkedbefore about representation where we couldn't see it,
but now we're in this world oftechnology where we can go back in
time, like this is your DeLoreanduring that month, where you can say,
(24:53):
no, no, look what weas a people did anything is possible,
yeah, whereas before it was likeknown but not really discussed, right,
So yeah, but what I like, what was it known throughout?
Like let's even say, like useBlack History Month as example, like you
(25:15):
pull out some weird stuff like soand so invented Mario Kart in nineteen twenty
four before the television. I thinksome of those are probably still shocking to
people of color. Right, ifyou're especially at all time, like you,
I think are more in tune withyour roots than most people. I
(25:36):
would like to think so, Butyou'd be surprised how many people have always
kind of just been like, well, you know, you talk white,
or you act white, or youdon't act black enough and stuff like that.
So right, and I'm just like, well, okay, that's another
topic for another day. I lovethat age. Oh yeah, but it's
always been something that I just foundissues Like, I love history. I've
(26:00):
always just found it fascinating. Andit's probably because wanting to leave one wanting
to leave a legacy and understanding whatit means to be able to touch people
and be of use to people insome way, shape or form, but
also learn from history, one tonot repeat the same mistakes and two to
be better than we were before.So but Black history has always been just
(26:25):
extremely, extremely important and fascinating tome. And I'm starting to get that
way about Native American history as welltoo. Mm yeah, as we start
to hear more about the stuff weshould have been learning about, right,
No, not even that. AndI'm gonna be honest. So I was
already, like I said, alwaysbeen a big history buff, but I
(26:48):
was are knowing about, you know, some of the struggles and things that
Native Americans have gone through, andmy son being part Native American, so
I just wanted to know more aboutthat part of him, their history and
stuff like that. And then Iremember I did one of the video creations
for work for I forgot what itwas and seeing that chief talk about the
(27:14):
things that were going on in Canadato Native Americans for children and stuff.
They residential schools sixty scoop that wholething. Yeah, that sparked me wanting
to do or get even more intoit. And like the movie that just
came out for I think it wasMartin Scarsese. Yeah, I think it
is Hammer Spielberg. Take your pickright well, next one, it's because
(27:40):
it's the it's about the Osage tribeand things that they went through once they
found oil on their land after theyhad been kicked off of their native land
in the beginning, and they endup finding oil on their land and they
literally the people who are on thatland literally become like the richest people in
(28:00):
the world at that time. Andafter that, the government comes up and
starts making these cassinine rules. Ohthey need guardians because they're not confident enough
to be able to handle this typeof money. So once they put in
that stupid ass law, oh,these people just immediately start either disappearing or
(28:22):
just dying. And that I wasjust like this, Oh my god,
it's like the same thing all overagain, but for another you know,
group of people. And then beingable to see some of the other things
that they've been able to accomplish andsee and build you know, in that
(28:42):
you know, overcoming strife and stuff. It was just really really enlightening to
see. And I'm just continuing toget into that. But I remember when
I saw that this movie was comingout, I was like, oh,
I'd love to see it, andthen it was like, oh, three
and a half hours. Fuck that, all right, I've read the book.
I'm good, so and yeah,hold on, I want to hit
(29:04):
on an area here. So Ithink a lot of people use the term
history buff, and I think alot of people misinterpret that or maybe use
it a little bit too loosely.I'll verify here in front of our live
studio audience that you are, infact a history buff. You will hit
me with some facts and knowledge andlike just stories that I don't think anybody
(29:26):
knows, but you know, theprelog, the story and the aftermath of
it. So I will classify usethat history buff. But on that topic
though, like right now, Iwould really pick any point in history right.
And it all kind of comes downto where do you get your news
right? And so it sounds likeyou had to go out and seek very
(29:48):
specific information from various sources to kindof piece your story together. So and
I agree it's super important. I'mnot a history buff. I'm not good
at this stuff that can't name youknow, all these different events in history.
I I got to read up.But like, here's a good example.
You know, I grew up inthis this very white town in the
suburbs of Chicago. I didn't hearabout Juneteenth until I was like thirty.
(30:12):
And I know when I first toldyou that, you were like, you
don't celebrate up there. You don't. You don't know about this, You
have no idea. So how doyou, like, where do you look?
Like talk talk to the listeners fora minute about where where do you
go to like really dig into thisfrom anywhere between like current events to what
to the historical things that you're talkingabout. It. It's going to sound
(30:36):
very weird, but in this dayand age, that's why it sounds weird.
But I do a lot of researchat libraries. You can do you
can do some of it online andothers you may have to specifically go to
it if you're looking for certain things, because you have to actually use those
old schools. I forgot what shouldcall them, but that's the way that
they live. And not even thatlike some of them you have to go
(31:00):
to the old school like machines wherethey would have where you turn a dial
and you can see all of thenewspapers and things like that onlin film like
one of the like. Sometimes that'sthe only thing that they have because they
have not digitized their system. Othertimes it is people who have done the
work for you where you can findspecific information on this where they've done articles
(31:22):
or pieces things like that, andyou can find that. But I do
get a lot of that information fromlibraries, either local excuse me, local
or university libraries things like that,and some of them you can get for
free. Others you can buy accessto for a bit, and if you're
super hard up for money, becausesometimes that is how people are, there
(31:45):
are like free trials that they'll giveand I will use old gift cards because
most of those free trials don't reallycheck how much money you have on it.
They just want to see if youhave an open credit card or whatever.
And as long as you have liketwenty three dollars yeah on it,
you can use that. And onething about it is gift cards. Most
of the time they're like the expiration. They just take ten years out so
(32:08):
right, you can use it fora very long time. But yeah,
I tend to do it that wayand being specific in what you're looking for
and what I mean by that isa lot of time. If you use
like Google, it may be abit biased in some of the stuff that
it shows you. So if youput up in quotations, it will be
(32:29):
more directs. And I've used otherthings like Brave the browser or Duck duto
as the browser and they'll give medifferent hits and different information and stuff like
that. But yeah, that's usuallyhow I do a lot of the research
and things that I'm like, I'mlooking for. But like I said,
I am one of those people whoare more of a history buff, so
(32:52):
I will take the time to golook at it and do the work for
it and for our younger viewers.A library is this municipal building that is
located in almost every city. It'sasunder and I'm just kidding, but none.
That's another fun pat if you dogo to libraries, because I don't
know if some of these people youknow, remember if you're older, and
(33:15):
again if you're younger, this isa way to balling on a budget.
Because I have a lot of thosebasically, but you can read have free
audio books and free movies that youcan get from the library to the point
where you can either have it ona DVD. It's up to you.
(33:35):
And if they do not have theDVD most of the time, what they
will have is linked to a digitalcopy of it and send that to you
for free. Of course, youcan't like watch it forever. It's it's
in some way that they'll have itto where you can. It's quote unquote
like rented or whatnot. And alsoa lot of the audiobooks that come out,
or a lot of the new booksthat come out, and people are
(33:57):
like, oh, well, I'lldo it on audible or I'll do it
on blah blah. You go tolibrary, it's upscree mm hmm. You
log in on there and sometimes theyhave it to where oh you have to
have a library card to do it. The library card is like five dollars
for like ten years something like that. It's ridiculous. So and they're free
up here. It depends, yeah, it depends, but I mean five
(34:22):
dollars in years where you could possiblybe able to stream and watch movies and
stuff for free without ads and stufflike that versus Netflix, who just had
twenty five dollars just broke twenty fivedollars for streaming, Like, hey again,
balling on a budget type stuff?Yeah? Man, do you remember
there was a Nappy roots song calledBalling on a Budget. No, oh
(34:45):
yeah, yeah, let's get thatplayed in here for the for the editor.
Yeah, balling on a budget ifyou can find it, please please?
What fo? I'm just bowing.I'm never like, yeah, you
got you. So that's I didn'tthink we were getting into a research discussion
(35:06):
today, but this this really matters, right because I think so many people
stop if it's not in the firstpage of their Google search, and they
say, oh, I looked intoit, right, And I think that's
I mean, I think all thetime about this generation. I've got a
younger brother that like, has askedme so many stupid questions and I just
sent them the screenshot of what likethe first Google response because it's right there.
(35:29):
But they're not using the tools thatthey have, Like, could you
imagine we could have done with Googlemuch less AI back in school? Maybe
we would be doctors at this pointabout it. But let's let's fast forward
to like today, right, becausenow I think about like something like TikTok
that you've given me a hard timefor not being on for I think three
years at this point. But Isee so much of like like what's going
(35:52):
on in the Middle East right now. There's so many people that are relying
on TikTok to get their news becausethey don't try us what mainstream media or
even some of the other ones aresaying that they're getting live footage of what's
happening broadcast out. So like,how do you how do you navigate that
balance? Because you're also really goodat that real like we will send silly
(36:15):
stuff back and forth, but likethe serious things are always super credible based
on what you're finding, but Iknow there's a lot that's not. So
how do you weed through that.Let's let's talk to this generation about that
for a minute. So that isvery hard because, like I said before,
Google can be biased when it's thestuff that it's showing you for people
(36:35):
who have paid or whatnot, andyou deciphering between the different sources is basically
in the tone of what they're saying. If they get very defensive or kind
of judgy in that, then yousee that it's an opinion piece, and
it's not necessarily something that is beingportrayed as these are the facts. I
don't really rely on stuff that endsin like if it's if it's not on
(37:00):
dot com or whatever, and itcan't be like bumblebee trump dot com or
something like that. I'm not reallylooking for that stuff. Like I said,
that's one of the reasons why Ikind of go to the EDUS and
things like that, because again,this is something that's written more from a
perspective of research, and even ifI don't agree with the stuff, it's
(37:21):
still something that I'm like, Okay, well that was their opinion, and
this is a research that they cameup with because of the hy hypothesis that
they created at that time. Letme see what actually came about from somebody
else's research within it, Like Imean, taking the time to do that
unless you're gamefully trying your best tojust gain the system. Usually that stuff
(37:45):
doesn't come up like that when itcomes to research, so to speak,
especially when it comes to history.But nowadays people are just so wanting to
be famous and wanting to, youknow, get the clicks and stuff like
that, they're more inclined to showthe real raw stuff, whether it's good
or bad. So that's why they, you know, kids really want to
(38:07):
trust the stuff that they're saying onTikTok a little bit more rather than the
people on like CNN, Thoughts Newsall the rest that because there's always like
in a angle to it to theyounger generation rather than just showing it good
or bad with you know, yourown opinion. And I think that's one
(38:28):
reason why a lot of people justfeel like if I'm watching TikTok or if
I'm watching this, it's not througha filter or somebody else's bias, And
even if it is, it's it'susually reported as that right because you're you're
seeing live, this is not wordson the page. You are seeing what
(38:49):
their responses are, and you cankind of draw your own opinions of like,
Okay, do I align with thisperson or not? Are they crazy?
Or do I only believe them becausewe share this belief. Also another
thing is a lot of the timeswhen you see stuff on TikTok, there
is the comments that you're able tosee whether or not people feel like they
you know, agree with you orwhatnot, And there always be that one
(39:12):
person that is being thetrol and tryingto you stir up stuff, and they're
just like, oh, well thishappened because of blah blah blah blah.
Dah da da dah dah. Andpeople are able to jump in there and
feel like they're a part of thediscussion, Whereas again, if you were
watching like Fox News, CNN,MSNBC or whatever, it's just them talking.
(39:34):
You never really get to have,you know, discourse with them or
dialogue about this unless you're in aroom full of people watching this with them,
and even then it's probably nobody's talkingto each other. So they feel
more engaged that way, but it'sa falseness of engagement unfortunately, because it
also makes them feel like, oh, well I've done something right, right,
look what I did? Yeah,yeah, yeah, and the other
(40:00):
I'll tie this back to legacy too, So I don't know about union.
Correct me if you think I'm wrongin this. But like I can look
at somebody's page and see what they'veliked, what they've thought about, like
to get a real good idea ofwho they are. But almost to the
point where it's a little scary,Like I can look at someone's page if
you give me ten pages and yousaid, hey, you know, I
(40:21):
want you to tell me which waythey've voted. I could probably tell you
based on what TikTok they were promoting. So I say that to just be
conscious about no matter what age,what part of the world you're in right
now, like, think about yourlegacy and what you want that to be.
Right. I'm hearing stories about peoplethat are signing petitions about whatever right,
and they're being blackballed for their opinionsright now. And while the content
(40:46):
you may be subjecting yourself to andopting into may make it seem so real
and so whatever right, and speakso loud to you, the world might
think something different about that, orthey might agree to you. Yeah,
there might be a piece to it. But but I just encourage everyone that's
like involved in the space and likein is active and loud, be active,
(41:07):
be loud, get your voice outthere. But just understand you are.
You are writing your legacy every singleday, And so if you think
about your kids, your grandkids,whoever down the line, neighbors, doesn't
matter about how they're going to viewyou, right. I always I always
like to imagine, like this soundsso morbid again, but like I think
(41:28):
about like, I want a lotof people to show it to my funeral,
right, and I want to knowwho speaks. I want to have
an open mic there because I wanteverybody to be able to get their opinions
out right. And I feel soconfident in saying that because, like you,
I am a lover of people.I love to help. I love
to just be involved in the rightdegree, because there are wrong degrees to
(41:49):
it. But like I think whenI'm gone, years and years after I'm
gone, I think people are goingto be saying the things about me that
that I hope that they're going tobe saying. Now, I've got time,
right, I've got time to getrich and screw up and you know,
get on TMZ, get all that. But I think where it stands
right now, it's just something that'sbeen pressing in my mind. And I
appreciate you sharing what you did becauseyou've been thinking about this longer than I
(42:14):
have. So I have a questionnow. Yeah, in that sense,
like I said, this is mainlyfrom the perspective of a person of color
who's because you kind of feel likethat's the only way you'll be remembered.
You'll you'll have any type of legacyis by doing that or getting rich or
(42:35):
becoming something. But you have theseavenues that you feel like, these are
the ways that I'm going to doit, not being a person of color
being I heard this the other dayand I could not stop laughing at it,
and I'm sorry about it, butthis like this guy was like again,
(42:57):
TikTok, I just got to getup to TikTok. He was like
he liked black women. But Ineed to know if you get mad at
me, are you gonna call mea mayonnaise citizen? And I could not
stop laughing. I'm done a man, a mayonnaise citizen. I was like,
I'm done. I can't with this. But so my question to you
(43:21):
is being that that isn't something thatwas probably you know, thought, because
like you said, you had allthe avenues to be able to do it.
Do you have a sense or likea feeling of what the legacy necessarily
would be or not feeling like,oh, it's just like he was another
white man who just wanted to beyou know, virtue signaling or pretending to
(43:43):
be an ally or something like youknow what I mean. Yeah, yeah,
no, I mean I think aboutthis a lot, and you know,
we we've talked about it on theshow about you know how coming into
this space and like wanting to activelylike not just working DEI, but like
truly influence the way people of colorfeel at work, in life and everywhere,
(44:06):
right and not just in that professionalsetting. You know. I came
to the realization that not everybody isgonna love me because you told me that
and you forced that on me.But but I do think about, like,
I, Okay, so you didn'twant to talk about this, but
I'm going to a lot of peoplehave used this comment and I didn't really
understand it for a long time.I just thought it was like this colloquialism
(44:30):
where there you know, it's justsomething to say or you know, just
just a phrase. But it's hithome a lot for me. And it's
that idea of like, like,man, this this guy's a real one
and I and it's not a humblebrag or anything. But but I think
that's been my difference in where Iwork and why I get called into some
of the meetings I do. WhyI get to talk about some of the
(44:51):
things I talk about is because I'vealways led with exactly what I think right,
and and I've always come out withlike in the uncomfortable conversations, I've
let my feelings kind of lead thatand let people know where I'm coming from.
And so what it's done for mea lot is it's broken down a
lot of barriers that I not allof them, right, but it's it's
(45:14):
broken down a lot where people peopleof color specifically are very open to to
just talking with me, even thoughthey might still be skeptical, they're they're
at least gonna hear me out,and it might be five, six,
seven conversations sometimes before they even startto divulge what they're feeling. But like
that concept of being real has hasbeen more meaningful than I thought it was.
(45:37):
Like it's the highest compliment I canget front like in this space talking
in like these these DEI meetings.If someone says if personal color comes to
me and says, hey, thatwas real, man, thank you,
Like that means more to me thanany other flowers you can bring me.
But again, I think it's it'smulti layered, multifaceted, right, Like
(45:58):
I think again, I'll go backto my funeral. I want that to
look like the melting pot, LikeI think that that visual that people see
matters, right, And I think, you know, when I look at
my kids and like who their friendsare, Like I notice what they look
like, right, and I getexcited. So, like, my oldest
is going to a birthday party thisweekend and she might be the only white
(46:22):
girl there and I'm so excited forher to just be in that because she
doesn't see it, she doesn't getit. She's just trying to figure out
how she's not gonna like fall offher roller skates and embarrass herself in practice
for this all week. But Ithink then that carries on to her,
like who are their friend circles whenthey get older? And how much influence
(46:42):
did I have in that? Andit sounds silly, but like choosing where
I live, choosing where we enrollthem, and like the types of environments
we put them in, it carriesweight and it helps kind of shavee them.
So I think, at the endof the day, like my legacy
is going to be really are todetermine and it's gonna go It's going to
go on beyond me and beyond myexistence here, right is It's that's the
(47:07):
hope anyways, right there, havebeen people in my life that have passed
that like I don't. I don'tthink about it, And if you asked
me to talk about them, Icouldn't because I didn't. I didn't really
know them. I didn't know whattheir heart was, right. But but
the ones that I did know,I mean, I could talk all day
and I could paint you a pictureof like my grandparents, for example,
I could I could talk about themfrom the time they were born until or
(47:30):
I guess the time they remember isa more fair way to say it,
but from you know, when theywere young, all the way until the
end, and then what they've beenbeyond, like the story on the airplane
with my grandma. Then answer yourquestion, I was I was going on
circles. You give me a fullon tangent. Well, no, because
I mean, again, this endsup being one of those questions that you
(47:50):
can't really just ask, just rightstraight out, like I have to go
through this, like it's going tohave to be a full on spectacle other
than and the Nobel Peace Prize tofeel like you're gonna be remembered. But
that's not something that you have todeal with. So in that, what
does it feel like so yeah,that's it's funny, it's Alwad's going to
(48:15):
be a question like that, Likeyou bring up the Nobel Peace Prize,
and like I think I have likeif I'm not in the running or anything,
but if I if that was apart of my life that was like
a possibility or something that was goingto come to fruition, I think I
would genuinely care less about that becauseto me, that's that's what the world
as a whole says about me,but not about what my inner circle says.
(48:37):
Right in my inner circle, youknow, is getting wider and wider
as it goes, and that's bydesign, right I want it to be
able to. But but I caremore about what those that really knew me,
that that were around me, andlike my lowest points and my highest
points and even in like those middlepoints that can be kind of weird,
right, like those make or breakpoints. Like I care much more about
(48:57):
like what someone like you would saythan what you know, somebody has given
us a word to be like,oh he did some really good things here,
maybe, But tell me about thepeople that I impacted in that journey
towards that. Okay, that wasgood, who that felt good. I
hope it plays back really nice.There you go, not worrying about the
legacy. There I say, I'msaying, right, Okay, Well,
(49:22):
I think that's a good place toend it. I wanted to thank everybody
for coming on this journey with ustonight. Please, if you have not,
take time to go ahead and lookat the other shows on the Sable
Radio Network. We have some wonderfulthings on here and different vibes for different
things. But for the most part, the one thing that we care about
(49:43):
is that you love and care aboutpeople in your life and come back and
tell them some of this. Someof the shows on here are the funniest
things I've ever heard. You gotto you gotta listen to this and then
tell your other friends, tell yourother friends. We've been doing this well,
God, almost twelve years and we'restill independent. We're still not internationally
known. You may not care aboutwhat the resk of the world says,
(50:06):
but I want them to be ableto hear what we say at least all
right, I wanted to hear ittoo. Yet, Hey, can we
start another campaign here too? Canwe start the bring Back Cool Black Nerd
campaign? To name Okay, okay, we I don't even know what to
say, but like Jules, justbe Jewels, and and it be killing
(50:29):
me. I'm like Jewels. Let'sget a show, all right, all
right, Jewels, what you're doing, honestly listen as important as those likes
and follows. Let's blow that commentsection up, let's call it all that.
Let's get back on here. Weneed to hear it. We need
this entertainment. I have no ideawhat's going on in the world of gaming
(50:50):
or tech because he hasn't told meso much, live so much. So
yes, please TikTok Jewels. AsAlse said, blow it up, get
it going. Let's push Jewels intodoing this again because it's so much content,
so much stuff out there. Butthank you for tuning in tonight.
Catch us. I don't I can'tsay next. I can't. I can't
(51:12):
take it from say right radio.But catch us on the next episode,
and please think about your legacy.We are out
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